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Corn Bacon and Lobster Chowder

I’ve been in Maine these last few days and decided to do a “from scratch” project: Corn Bacon and Lobster Chowder (recipe: ). By “from scratch”, I mean we bought the lobsters “off the boat” in Winter Harbor, then cooked the sea bugs ourselves and then made the lobster stock, then dealt with the corn and finally made the chowder. It was a bit of an “all day affair” but I have to say that the chowder was pretty spectacular. Perfectly seasoned, full of fresh corn, potatoes, bacon and lobster and super creamy. Normally I am not all that impressed with my own cooking, but this was great. Very pleased.

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16. July 2023
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Low Sugar Strawberry Vanilla Bean Jam

Before we end strawberry season for the year, I did attempt to “lengthen” the season by making jam. I am good at making jam; it’s usually quite delicious. This year, the berries were sweet, so I went with a low sugar jam variety, and added vanilla bean paste as an extra “bump” in flavor. Makes about 6 jars.

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15. July 2023
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Currant Quark Crumble Cake

Making the most of the very short currant season, I went PYO at Russell Orchards in Ipswich again. I am planning on making cassis (a flavored currant liqueur) again, so needed black currants for that, but the red currant bushes were overflowing with berries as well. This Currant Quark Crumble Cake is a combination of a coffee cake style (with lots of streusel / crumble), a cheese-cake layer with sweetened quark layer (you could also use cream cheese) and the fruit, which is a little like a muffin (like a blueberry muffin). Currants are very tart so you might have to adjust the sugar and honey to your liking. It is very yummy though; like summer sunshine.

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15. July 2023
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Kamut Wheat Cranberry
Walnut Breakfast Bread

As I mentioned recently, I have been experimenting with my new “stash” of Maine Grains. In addition, this is my standard Cranberry Walnut Breakfast Bread that I make almost every week. I swapped out the standard bread flour and a bit of whole wheat flour that I usually use to make it with the Maine Grains Kamut Ancient Grains wheat and it turned out fantastically. Moist, hearty and flavorful. I think it is a success. I will have to loop back with my “taste testers” to see what they think.

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13. July 2023
Breads, General Reference/Tutorial

Swedish Honey Wheat Sourdough Loaf (Öland Wheat)

I’ve been experimenting, using my sourdough (Alice in Wondoughland) and some new-to-me and interesting flours from Maine Grains in Skowhegan, Maine. I am calling this one Swedish Honey Wheat Sourdough Loaf because it uses Öland Wheat. Öland is an island in the Baltic Sea where the Swedish Monarchy has their summer home (there will be a pop quiz on the names of the Swedish Monarchy later today, go study up). It a slightly nutty, slightly golden in color wheat, and I added some local honey (well, local to Cambridge Massachusetts, not to Öland, nor to Skowhegan) and came up with this lovely loaf. It’s delicious. The one thing that I am beginning to learn though, is that it takes a bit of trial and error when experimenting with new flours, to get the hydration levels just right. The first dough I made was a gloppy mess and I kept on overcompensating, and then the sourdough ratio was totally off. This attempt is better, but still a little too dense, but definitely flavorful.

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7. July 2023