Olive You

The countdown until I move to Arkansas has begun.  In 2 weeks I'll be boxing, packing, taping, sweating, hauling, and cussing my way over the Mississippi River to Small Town, Arkansas.  This will be my fifth move in two years, so I'm hoping to stay in one place for awhile this time.

Since I'll be leaving Memphis, I've put together a list of "Memphis" things I want to do before moving.  Seeing a show at the Orpheum was close to the top.  Lucky for me, Rock of Ages was here last weekend.  Holt and I had a fantastic dinner at McEwens on Monroe, popped in for a cocktail at our favorite downtown haunt, and strolled down Main Street to arrive at the theater by showtime.

Date night on the town.

I was a little nervous Holt wouldn't find the show as entertaining as I would because like a friend put it, "he doesn't seem like the theater type."  My hesitations were forgotten as the lights came on for intermission and he turned to me and asked, quite honestly, if we could come back tomorrow night.  We laughed out loud, sang along, and danced in our seats (okay, I danced in my seat). With a great, big check on my Memphis to-do list, I spent the rest of the weekend preparing for the big move. Part of this process is consolidating and reducing accumulations from the past year spent in the commune.

I realized I have a big bag of bread flour in the pantry that needs to be used up.  As promised in a previous post, I made olive bread, aka best bread ever.

 

Olive Bread 
from Jim Lahey's My Bread

Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients:

3 cups Bread Flour

1 ½ cups pitted, drained, roughly chopped Kalamata olives

¾ teaspoon active dry yeast

1 ½ cups cool water

My fancy scale that all the serious bread bakers insist on using.

In a large bowl mix flour, yeast, and olives together.

I didn't have quite enough Kalamata olives so I threw in some
garlic-stuffed and jalapeno-marinated.  Yum!

Add your cool water and mix with a wooden spoon or your hands until combined.  You should have a moist ball of dough with a lot of olives in it.  The dough will expand and the amount of olives will be perfect.  Cover your dough and let sit at room temperature for at least 12, but preferably 18 hours.

The dough will have expanded quite a bit and be bubbly. 

Sprinkle a tea towel liberally with flour and corn meal, or just flour if you don’t have corn meal. 

Scrape your dough out onto a floured work surface.  Mold it into a ball with floured hands to avoid sticking. 

Turn your ball of dough onto your floured towel, seam side down.

Cover the loaf and let it rise another two hours.  Thirty minutes before the end of this rise, preheat your oven to 475 with your cast iron pot inside the oven. 

After 2 hours, poke the bread gently.  If the impression holds, the second rise is complete.  If the dough springs back, let it rise another 15 minutes. Use pot holders to remove the cast iron pot from the oven.  Carefully roll the dough into the pot so the seam side is up. 

Cook bread at 475 with the lid on for 1.5 hours.  Take the lid off the pot and cook another 30 minutes.

I haven't mastered the art of making a "pretty" loaf yet, but
it tastes divine!

When the crust is chestnut brown carefully place the bread on a cooling rack and let cool completely before slicing (about an hour).

Slice and enjoy.  This bread is perfect by itself, as a sandwich, or dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.