Jim Lahey's No-Knead Bread

Though I’ve been baking my own bread on a semi-regular basis for the past year, I’ve only used Mark Bittman’s recipes in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. We got pretty good with the sourdough recipe and kept our starter going in the refrigerator. I followed Bittman’s advice and used garden stones and water in a cast iron pan under the bread to create steam in the oven to get a crispier crust. The addition of olives mades for a particularly tasty loaf. Since I read the New York Times daily online and check the Dining and Wine section obsessively for new articles and recipes, I know that Bittman is a big fan of Jim Lahey's No-Knead Bread. Having found relative success with Bittman’s sourdough and overnight French bread recipes from his book, I had little incentive to try the Lahey recipe, especially since because I actually enjoy the kneading part. Besides, Lahey’s recipe call for the dough to be baked in a heavy covered pot, which my kitchen was not equipped with. But that was back in old New York, where I was stuck in my ways and thought I needed nothing beyond my own sense of smell and taste, Bittman’s cookbook bible, Chinatown grocery trips last minute bodega runs and weekly supplies from the Farmer’s Market. All has changed now that I have uprooted myself indefinitely; It is now Jim Lahey’s time to shine in my new borrowed kitchen here in Quebec.

My boyfriend and I are into the second week of our six-week house-sitting gig in East Farnham, a tiny little village about an hour south east of Montreal. We are in the middle of nowhere with no means of transportation other than our own feet and hitchhiking thumbs (our feet have so far proven to be more useful than those lazy hitchhiking thumbs). No more access to fresh produce whenever we wanted and no more impulse buys from the corner bodega (there is a depanneur about 7 minutes away and we made the mistake of buying Nestle brand ice cream one desperate night. it tastes like marshmallow fluff on a sugar high). We are left with whatever is in the house (which is a lot but all of it either frozen or canned and probably at least a decade old) or whatever we can carry back from the supermarkets on our walks into town (one hour each way! through knee deep snow! uphills both ways!)

Since we’ve been here, I’ve baked Mark Bittman’s overnight French loaf twice, the first time it came out perfect, with a hard crust and chewy body; the second time, however, the body was dense and crumbly. The challenge of being in someone else’s kitchen is that it forces you to cook differently than in your own space. I had at least five wooden spoons of various sizes, this kitchen have none. I had three rubber spatulas of various sizes, this kitchen have none. I had three cast iron pans of various sizes that I used daily, this kitchen have two cast-iron-like pans. I had finally gotten myself a good cookie sheet around last Christmas, this kitchen have a misshapen one with burnt-on grease stains. However, this kitchen does have many heavy covered pots that can go into the oven; it was finally time I jumped on the Jim Lahey bandwagon that ‘s been sweeping the food blogosphere.

The bread came out wonderful! And it was super easy! The crust is shiny and browned to perfection and the body is deliciously chewy and airy. As much improved as this loaf is in texture from the Bittman recipes I've been using, I thought the Bittman breads were more flavorful. Could it be due to the dual mixing in the Bittman recipes as opposed to the single mixing in Lahey's? Next loaf I make, I will merge the two recipes together and see if I can get that perfect combination of texture and flavor right. More to follow!