le creuset – Cook and Drink

No-Knead Bread – Easier Method

12 December 2022

Recently Le Creuset introduced a Cast Iron Bread Oven. A great way to make bread at home. The oven is well designed, making it easy to transfer the dough to the pan. It has a domed lid, ergonomic handles and looks amazing. Typical Le Creuset quality.

On their website you’ll find several recipes, including one for sesame bread. It is made with 600 grams of wheat flour, 14 grams of salt (wow!) and 400 grams of water. The recipe is based on slow-rise fermentation. With only 1 gram of yeast in combination with 19+3 hours of rest, the yeast does a wonderful job. And kneading, as you would expect, is not required.

Le Creuset’s approach is slightly different from Jim Lahey’s, owner of Sullivan Street Bakery, New York, promotor of no-knead bread since 2006 and author of the excellent book My Bread.
After the first rise, Jim Lahey folds the dough four times, dusts it with flour and bran, transfers it to a cloth for 3 hours before transferring it to a hot pan, a step that requires some practice and skills.
Le Creuset folds the dough twice and then transfers it to a cold pan. Wait for 3 hours and then transfer the cold pan to the oven. This approach is clearly quicker and easier.
And the result? A beautiful, tasty bread with a crispy crust.

What You Need

430 gram of Flour (we use 200 gram of Whole Grain Flour and 230 gram of All Purpose Flour)
25 grams Blue Poppy Seed
30 grams Brown Linseed
1 gram of Instant Yeast
4 grams of Salt
355 grams of Water
Additional Flower
Bran

What You Do

We use a 20cm Le Creuset Casserole with a heat resistant knob. Make sure the pan is well coated. If not, coat with oil and kitchen paper before using.
Mix flour, yeast, seeds and salt. Add water and create one mixture. Let rest in a covered bowl for 19 hours. Dust your kitchen worktop with flour, remove the dough from the bowl, fold 4 times, dust the pan with a touch of flour and bran, transfer the dough to the pan, sprinkle some bran on the top of the dough and close the lid. Let rest in the pan for 3 hours. Heat your oven to 235˚ Celsius or 450˚ Fahrenheit. Transfer the pan to the oven and bake for 35 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for 10 to 15 minutes until it is nicely browned. Remove the bread from the pan and let cool on a wire rack for at least an hour before slicing it.

Grilled Swordfish with a Spicy Tomato Sauce

31 January 2018

Red List

Before we start cooking, be aware that Swordfish is on the Greenpeace red list, so try to find the origin of your swordfish. Having done that assess the quality of the swordfish. No doubt it was frozen, so an extra reason to look carefully and smell. As always: if fish smells like fish, then don’t buy it.
If swordfish looks it has been pre-prepared (sometimes salt or smoke are used) or the flesh is not transparent: don’t buy it. For some reason you need to be extra critical when buying swordfish. But once you’ve found good, fresh swordfish, you have found yourself a great starter.
Also note that swordfish is a predator. Some organisations mention the risk of mercury when eating swordfish, so don’t eat it too often we would say.

If you scan the various recipes for swordfish, you will notice the massive use of marinades. We would not suggest using a marinade when preparing swordfish. The fish has a delicate, slightly sweet taste, which begs for a clever combination, not for a taste bomb like a marinade.
Often the fish is brushed with a mixture of oil and lemon. Sorry, wrong idea. Lemon is probably used to hide a fishy taste (in which case you shouldn’t have bought the fish). The lemon juice will burn when grilling because of the sugar in the juice, so your grilled stake will not just be grilled, it will also show traces of burned sugar. Not tasty, not healthy, not pleasant.
There are only three things you need to do pre grilling swordfish: prepare your tomato sauce, transfer the steak 30 minutes prior to grilling from the fridge to a plate and brush generously with a decent olive oil.

Wine Pairing

We enjoyed our grilled swordfish with a glass of Radacini from the Codru region in Moldova. The wine is made from chardonnay grapes and comes with a beautiful yellow colour. It made us think of apricots and maybe a touch of vanilla. It is not oaked, which is an exception for chardonnay. A wine with a round, velvety taste, but also fresh and fruity. The mouth feel is coating. The velvety aspect goes really well with the fish and the fruitiness is a great combination with the sweetness of the sauce. As an alternative go for an un-oaked, fruit-forward chardonnay.

What You Need

Steak of Swordfish
Olive Oil
Shallot
Chilli
Red Bell Pepper
2 Garlic gloves
2 Anchovies fillets
2 Tomatoes
Bouquet Garni (Sage, Thyme, Rosemary, Parsley)
Capers (in brine)

What You Do

Start by slicing the shallot and glaze it gently in olive oil. Cut half of the bell pepper and the chilli in smaller chunks and add to the pan. Stir and then add the garlic. Cut the tomatoes in quarters, add the tomato meat to the sauce and press the remainder through a sieve, making sure you get all the lovely juices. Add the juice to the sauce. Add the bouquet garni and the anchovies. Leave on small heat for two hours.
Remove the bouquet garni, blender the sauce very well and make sure it is a spicy combination of tomatoes and a touch of bell pepper.
Brush the steak generously with olive oil, heat your grill (we use a Le Creuset pan, see picture) and grill for maybe 8 minutes. The meat of swordfish is firm and needs longer than you would expect when grilling fish.
Serve the fish on a hot plate with the tomato sauce. The capers are crucial; they add a bit of acidity, which works really well with the spiciness of the sauce and the gentle sweetness of both the fish and the tomatoes.

PS In case your swordfish looks great but is from the wrong region according to Greenpeace, simply buy the fish, enjoy eating it and donate some money to Greenpeace.