What's Fresh Friday: Spent Grain Bread

It takes me a little bit to motivate when it comes to brewing beer. I'm not sure why, it's incredibly easy. I guess it's the time commitment involved. We bought a bunch of brewing supplies in December and that sat, staring at me for weeks from the bench near the back door. I finally moved them downstairs so I wouldn't feel guilty, tucking them away in the root cellar where I was sure to forget about them for a few more weeks. Then Dan went down to Boston for the night last weekend and I decided it couldn't be put off anymore.

We had gotten ingredients to make a Fat Tire clone, though with a darker malt extract and a bit more hops. The original plan was to add some spices to it, but I just wanted to get it over with so I just brewed it. 

Although I always compost the spent grain, I knew from my homebrewer friend, Kat, that you can cook with it. I started at the bag, wondering if I could motivate to do something with it. After a quick Google search, I found this recipe from beer100.com. I adapted it slightly—and will continue to tweak it—but I do have to say it's one of the best breads I've ever made. Lucky for me, I can continue to make it. Kat clued me into a secret: that you can freeze the spent grain for later use. So I'll be making it again very soon!

Spent Grain Bread
Adapted from Joe Thompson's recipe on beer100.com

1 cup warm water
4 Tbsp sugar
1 pkg dry bakers yeast

2 cups spent grain
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Tbsp salt
4 cups bread flour

Whisk together water, sugar and yeast in a large bowl. Let stand until the yeast begins to bubble, about 5 minutes. Stir in salt, oil, spent grain and 1 cup  flour. 

Mix well. Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a stiff dough. 

Knead well, cover, and let rise until doubled. Punch down the dough and shape into a round loaf. Place on a greased baking sheet, cover, and let rise until doubled. 

Preheat oven to 425 with a pizza stone on the lowest rack for 30 minutes. 

The dough will have spread out a little on your baking sheet. Pull the ends under to form a tighter round loaf, make 3 slashes across the top with a serrated knife and transfer to the stone. Bake until an instant read-thermometer inserted in the middle reads 204-206 F, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

The crust was great and the texture was good (even though I underbaked it a tad). I thought it was a tad sweet so I'll cut or eliminate the sugar next time. 

Thai Red Curry Root Vegetable Soup

I'm back. Not that I have any real followers who care ;) We moved to Maine in October and I haven't been very inspired to type here. But I'm going to change that. 

I've struggled a bit with finding local foods here. There's no brick-and-mortar co-op in Portland proper. There's a Whole Foods, but at the moment they only have 4 or 5 local produce items. I'm unsure if that will change as it gets warmer. There is an old school buying club, but they only have a local produce order once a month. It's better than nothing though, and luckily the house we're renting has a root cellar for storage!

Last month was our first order. Here's what we got:

Yukon gold potatoes, rutabaga, yellow and red onions, celeriac, canola oil, frozen blueberries, goat cheese with kalamata olives, stew meat and ground beef.

Also once a month they partner with local business who don't necessarily sell to consumers. The first month we got whole-wheat and pumpkin-raisin bread, locally roasted coffee and mint chocolate cookie gelato. This month we're getting seaweed! Woo!

My plan is to try something called What's Fresh Fridays. My plan is to make something new and exciting on Friday and post about it here. It may be a recipe using something fresh and local, or it may be just a recipe using a new ingredient, or simply a recipe I haven't tried. I just want to keep my cooking fresh.

So this past Friday I made a spin on a soup I've made for years. The roots of the recipe are from culinary school. The chef that taught our PM Fine Dining class made it occasionally. It was a squash or carrot soup with Thai red curry flavors. I've made it over and over again at home. This time, I changed up what was in the soup a bit.

Thai Red Curry Root Vegetable Soup

2 rutabaga, peeled and diced

8 small carrots, peeled and thickly sliced

1 cup sliced celery

1 14-ounce can  "lite" coconut milk

2 cups chicken broth

Water if needed

2-4 T Thai red curry paste

2-3 T lime juice

1-2 T brown sugar

Fish sauce or salt to taste

Sliced scallions and sriracha for garnish

Put rutabaga, carrots and celery in a Dutch oven. Add coconut milk and broth. If the liquid doesn't just cover the veggies, add some water. Bring to a boil then reduce heat so the soup is simmering. Cook until the veggies are very tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Turn off the heat then puree with an immersion blender (or puree in batches--carefully!--in a blender). Add curry paste, lime juice, brown sugar and fish sauce or salt to taste. Serve with scallions and sriracha.