Bread with colour

In my last post I wrote about bread that was black as coal (charcoal added) and that got me thinking about other additives that could be used to colour bread. Three ingredients came to mind because they were already in my kitchen - spirulina (green), turmeric (yellow), and beet powder (red). The nice thing about these is that they are plants, not just colouring agents. Spirulina is an aquatic algae while turmeric and beets are roots. These three have claims of health benefits associated with them but suffice to say that they are food because they are plants. That's not a trivial statement these days with so many products in the centre aisles of supermarkets with unpronounceable ingredients.

This is what a tablespoon of spirulina, charcoal, turmeric, and beet power look like on 1 inch graph paper. The spirulina looks black in this photo but it is actually just a very dark green. The powdered charcoal is the messiest to deal with, creating little clouds of fine dust whenever it is handled.

Clockwise from upper left, charcoal, turmeric, powdered beet and spirulina

I made four loaves of a basic grainy bread (same recipe as my last post) with one tablespoon of additive in each. Here's what they looked like.

Loaves with charcoal, spirulina, turmeric and beet powder

So, how did they taste? Powdered charcoal seems to have virtually no affect on taste. Of the other three, I would say that powdered beet has the mildest flavour and spirulina is the strongest. If you want to try one, I would suggest powdered beet because it's mild and inexpensive at a health food store. You can also add it to virtually any recipe. If you like turmeric I would also recommend it in bread for the flavour as well as its antioxidant properties. Spirulina is available from a health food store and is the most expensive. However, I like to use it on popcorn (olive oil, engivita yeast, spirulina and salt). As far as I can tell, the only reasons for using powdered charcoal would be either for the health benefits (if you believe them) or for the novelty. I probably won't be using it in bread any more.

Happy experimenting!

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Michael Pollan

"Pane al carbone" (bread with charcoal)

Florence has a large and recently renovated "Mercato Centrale" where you can do all of your fresh food shopping, coffee drinking, and people watching under one roof. On our last day in Florence last month, Jane and I bought a small loaf of very black bread at a "panetteria" in that market - blacker than any bread I'd ever seen. It was very good bread with no burnt taste or any unusual flavour.

Pane carbone and panini being finished off at a departure gate

Back home, I found plenty of websites describing the use of powdered charcoal as a bread amendment. Some claim health benefits analogous to the use of activated charcoal for detoxifying air, water, and even digestive systems (after some kinds of accidental poisoning). Others talk about the pros and cons, pointing out that eating bread containing powdered charcoal could theoretically interfere with the absorption of some prescription drugs but that the amount of charcoal used in "pane al carbone" is probably too small to have much effect, either positive or negative. Regardless, I HAD to try it.

My local health food store only had activated charcoal in capsules so I picked some fir charcoal out of our wood stove, crushing and sieving it through a wire strainer. It was easy but messy, creating little clouds of fine black dust. Here's what four loaves of otherwise identical bread looked like with (clockwise from lower left) none, 1 teaspoon, 2 teaspoons, and 2 tablespoons.

Bread with cracked grain, sunflower seeds and 0 to 2 tablespoons of powdered charcoal

Conclusion

This bread is visually striking but as far as I can tell, charcoal adds virtually no flavour, health benefit, or hazard. That's not counting the fine black dust I inhaled while making my own! I'll probably make this bread only rarely. 

Without the charcoal, this bread is currently one of my favourite breads. It's grainy, healthy, and makes excellent toast.

Recipe for four large loaves of grainy fermented bread

6 c water
pinch yeast (about 1/8 t)
4 c mixed cracked grains, e.g. 7 grain cereal
2 c unbleached white flour
Cover and let stand at room temperature for up to 3 days. Less in warm weather, more in fridge.
The "biga" should be bubbly and have a distinctive fermented aroma on baking day.
Add up to 2 T powdered charcoal per loaf.
Add additional flour for kneading. I used 1 c whole wheat and 4 c unbleached white. Divide into four either before or after kneading. Allow to rise until volume increases by about 50%. This takes 1-4 hours depending on temperature. Gently shape into loaves and bake at 450F for 15 to 40 minutes depending on shape. e.g. One loaf teased out onto a full cookie sheet will be done in about 15 min. This is the easiest shape to bake just right because it's done when it looks done. In a round 9 inch cake pan, the above loaves baked for 25 minutes at 450 and then 15 minutes at 350. I use an instant read meat thermometer to help judge doneness.

Happy experimenting! 

Food tourism and kitchen fun

Part of the fun of travelling is the food. My very first trip out of the country was to Italy when I was 19 and I had octopus for the first time. It felt daring and tasted delicious.

Restaurants in Italy are a reliable way to have positive food adventures. I agree with my wife when she says "there is no bad food in Italy". However, Italian fresh markets, bakeries, and grocery stores can also be a feast for the eyes.

Pizza Margherita in Naples and 
"crescione", a sandwich made with flatbread in San Gimignano.

One of my favourite things to do in Italy is to walk into a new bar or bakery to look for new variations on bread, pizza, and focaccia. There's almost always something beautiful and delicious looking and there's often something new (to me). Recalling these food memories and experimenting in my kitchen when I'm home help me enjoy a trip long after it's over.

At a bar in Sicily, some ready-to-eat pizza caught my attention because it was folded over like a sandwich. Such a simple but different presentation gave it quite a different look. I filed that memory away and by the time I got home I had an idea for what I now call "stuffed pizza". It's really just a variation on pizza and calzone but it creates a very different finished product.

Pat's Stuffed Pizza

(This would never be called "pizza" in Italy!)

I place about twice the normal amount of filling on a pizza dough, top it with another pizza dough, crimp the edges and score the top so that it doesn't inflate. I bake it at 500 F on a pizza screen in my gas oven for about 10 minutes. This is a good way to make a big meal because each round is equivalent to two "pizze". It's also easy to reheat on a skillet or griddle because with crust on both sides, you can flip it over.

Making stuffed pizza has inspired me to experiment with toppings (actually fillings). This one has smoked mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes, Crimini mushrooms, and olives.

Filling before adding top dough

Stuffed Pizza out of the oven

The crust is crispier after reheating on a steel griddle or over coals

Now that I'm thinking about food tourism and kitchen experiments, I'll probably make some more posts on that theme.

A walk to Monteriggioni

On November 5th, we walked from our apartment in Colle Val d'Elsa to Monteriggioni and took a bus home. The round trip took 6.5 hours which included 2 hours in Monteriggioni.

6:30 - woke up to alarm. Made coffee in our stovetop espresso maker. Breakfast of toast, ricotta cheese, dried fruit and yogurt.

Packed sandwiches of ricotta cheese, prosciutto, lettuce, and Gran Cereale cookies. Transferred our route, which I'd created in Google Earth, to my GPS receiver.

9:00 to 9:40 - Walking south from Colle, we were on pleasant urban and suburban sidewalks with light traffic.

Starting at the northwest end of the green line, we had urban and suburban sidewalks from 9:00 to 9:40

9:40 to 11:00 - Our route along country roads with almost no traffic also happens to be the "via Francigena" (Franciscan Way), a pilgrimage route from Canterbury to Rome. When the sun broke through the clouds we were in short sleeves.

The via Francigena is quite well marked.

This guy rode by during our late morning sandwich break

11:30 - we came to a sign that describes a "Gran Fondo" bike race to be held on this route in the spring of 2016. The sign on the bottom is just a marker for the via Francigena. It was easy to stay on this route once we were on it but we got on an off it at various points.

Most of our route on this day was in open farmland but we passed through a small, dense stand of mixed deciduous trees.

The trail passed through a dense and dark little forest

Where we emerged from the forest  

12:00 - We came upon this little chapel that was built by a secular society dedicated to "Our Lady of the Snow". An August snowfall in Rome during the 4th century apparently created quite a stir. The building has pentagonal plan and was a private residence after it was a chapel.

"Oratorio della Madonna delle Nevi"

Our route took us through a group of buildings that was originally conceived as a family monastery in the year 1001, partly as a stopping place on the via Francigena.

Passing through Abbadia a Isola 

Monteriggioni was built on a small hill in the 13th century by the republic of Siena as a defence against Florence. Our final approach after 4 hours of walking and resting, was steep but short and beautiful.

Final approach to Monteriggioni

One of the rewards of an 18 km walk is enjoying a second lunch! We were comfortable sitting in the shade on this mild November day. The Piazza Roma was almost deserted.

Pizza at a pizzeria on the piazza 

You can go up to the top of the castle walls for a good view.

We already had bus tickets for our return to Colle but the hardest part of the whole day was finding the Monteriggioni bus stop. It was down the hill, outside the castle, a few hundred metres away. We caught our bus and were back in Colle in 20 minutes!

"Andiamo per Colle?",  "Si!"

Our customized walks in Tuscany

When we're on holiday, Jane and I like to walk and eat. Eating well in Italy is easy but how do you find the good walks?

We've tried using a few walking guidebooks but none have met our expectations. We've also considered supported walking tours and some of them sound good but they are pretty expensive. For this trip we selected two towns as "base camps" and planned our own walks. It has worked even better than we hoped!

The first thing was to pick towns big enough to be interesting and to have an apartment for rent but small enough to have country roads accessible without a long walk (we didn't rent a car). We knew Greve in Chianti was perfect because we'd been there before. Our second town, Colle Val d'Elsa seemed good based on how it looked in Google Earth. Another good indicator for Colle was that a search for "walking tours in Tuscany" brought up some commercial itineraries that included a walk from San Gimignano, through Colle, to Monteriggioni, both about 10 km away. The walking tour websites don't usually publish detailed maps but rough maps or verbal itineraries are sufficient to make educated guesses.

Here are Colle Val d'Elsa, Italy and Williams Lake, Canada in Google Earth at the same scale. It's interesting that Colle has 20,000 people versus Williams Lake's 10,000 and yet it's urban footprint appears much smaller. With thousands of little farms and country roads, it's much easier to plan a variety of walks around Colle than around Williams Lake!

If you pick an area (like Colle) where you want to walk, and zoom in with Google Earth, you can identify the minor roads and farm paths (good for walking). I did this on my laptop and transferred the tracks to a handheld GPS but you could also use a smartphone.  

Williams Lake, BC. Distance is about 10 km from left to right.

Colle Val d'Elsa (right of centre) at the same scale as above.
The yellow line is a 14.6 km walk that we did last Monday

 Here are a couple photos from that day.

Walking through the olive grove.

San Gimignano in the distance, between the olive trees

Another nice thing about Colle is that it just happens to be on the "Via Francigena" (Franciscan way) which is an old route that pilgrims travelled from Canterbury to Rome. It's now a well-used and marked route for walkers like the Camino De Santiago in Spain.

"Via Francigena" from Canterbury to Rome.
(Non-pilgrims are permitted ;-)

In Colle Val d'Elsa - walk to Poggibonsi on former rail grade

Our first impressions of Colle were very positive! Our little apartment is beautiful, we're right in the middle of the "centro storico", and the town is small enough that you can become familiar quickly.

At the tourist info office we learned of a bike and foot trail that connects this town with Poggibonsi, 8 km to the north, on the grade of a former railroad that operated from 1885 to 1987. We packed a lunch and set out on foot Sunday morning. The weather was beautiful and as soon as the sun hit us we were peeling layers off. We saw dozens of walkers and cyclists.

Percourso cicloturistico Colle - Poggibonsi

We relaxed for a while in Poggibonsi, eating sandwiches on a park bench followed by coffees in a bar before walking home. Our round trip was an "easy" 16.5 km, being a railroad grade.

Lunch in a piazza, Poggibonsi

Back in Colle, the late afternoon light on the old buildings was beautiful. We know we're lucky to be experiencing this weather, given how it is in the Cariboo this time of year.

Centro Storico, Colle Val d'Elsa

Centro Storico, Colle Val d'Elsa

In Colle Val d'Elsa (Fri, Sat, Sun)

This town is our second of two destinations where I had booked an apartment online for 11 nights. Why the long stay? It's a small town without famous sights, not written up in guidebooks. We had never been here but we knew the region had good country roads for walking. It was a bit of a gamble based on being in the middle of some recommended walking (more about that later) and the fact that I was able to find an apartment online in our price range and convenient without a rental car.

When we arrived on the train from Florence, I phoned the apartment manager (Gabrielle) from the Poggibonsi train station and he kindly came to pick us up, saving us 20 or 30 Euros for a taxi. We had a little mis-communication due to my Italian language skills but he was unfazed and happily drove us back to our apartment which is above his restaurant. We're in the centre of the oldest part of the "Centro Storico" of Colle Val d'Elsa. The name means Hill in the valley of the Elsa and the Historic Centre is on a small but sharply defined hill overlooking the larger and newer part of the city. This area was settled by the Etruscans around 4,000 B.C. and our part of the old town dates from 900 A.D. Our apartment overlooks the valley with beautiful views on two sides and we are less than a 10 minute walk from the main piazza.

The "centro storico" of Colle Val d'Elsa

One of the first things to do when you arrive in town and check into your apartment is go GROCERY shopping. Fortunately, that "chore" is more fun here than most places. We just missed the friday morning market but the Co-op Supermercato is FANTASTIC. It's easy to throw something together like this. The only thing we cooked was the porcini mushrooms fried in olive oil.

Salad of arugula, basil, cherry tomatoes, porcini mushrooms.
Plate of fava beans, olives, and grana padano cheese
Bruschetta given to us by our host. 

Walking and eating around Greve

For this trip, we picked two main destinations with long stays in each rather than going from town to town. The advantages are less time spent in train and bus stations, less time spend packing and unpacking, and lest time getting to know your way around. After 2 nights in Florence, our first destination was Greve in Chianti. We were here for a week in 2009 so we knew we would like it for its small size, great markets, and great walking in the countryside a few minutes from the main piazza.

A stone-paved country road between Greve and Panzano. We're not sure how old this type of road would have to be but there was an important route through here even in the third century B.C. 

Fresh funghi porcini at Greve's monthly Mercato Biologico (Organic Market)  

I found a Greve apartment on Booking.com that was cheaper than our typical hotel or B&B. The total for this one came to 310 Euros for 7 nights and we saved loads of money on restaurants. There's nothing more satisfying that buying and cooking fresh food in Tuscany! 

Wonderful market ingredients ... delicious, healthy, and cheap meals.

Our apartment for 7 nights in Greve, 5 minute walk from main piazza

 We had nice weather in Greve for all but one day. When you come home after walking with wet clothes it's really nice to have lots of space to spread things around. This place was well-lit, quiet and comfortable. Our host was also a really sweet man.

The downstairs of our Greve apartment

Our main activity around Greve was walking on country roads. We've used walking guidebooks in the past, without great success. This time I planned the routes in Google Earth the night before, transferred tracks to a little GPS unit and used it to navigate. It worked better than anything we've tried before but this is partly because the area west of Greve has beautiful country roads and farm tracks with almost no traffic in October.  

Montefioralle is a gorgeous little hill town a few km from Greve. Those are grape leaves turning colours.

Our longest walk was the day we took a bus to Radda and walked back to Greve. Our 7 day total was about 90 km.

Screen shot of our tracks around Greve 

Vancouver to Florence

Travel usually involves a lot of sitting and waiting but at least the Vancouver International Airport has one of the most beautiful public spaces of any terminal. Here, Jane is in the wake of Bill Reid's Legend of Sedna, one of my favourite sculptures in the world.  

At YVR Oct 20th 2015

We spent our first two nights in Florence giving us one full day to seek out our kinds of sights and activities, i.e., not the Uffizi or Academia.

Morning light on the Arno

Gypsum on sulphur from Italy, mineral collection of Adalberto Giazotti 

We bought three beautiful little water colours from Carlo Crolli on the street near the Piazza Pitti

Three weeks with a host near Noto, Sicily

My seven week trip to Italy is mainly a volunteer/host experience where I work for about 25 hours/week in return for room and board. I spent 2 weeks with a host in Ostuni, Puglia, then took a train down here to Noto, Sicily where I've been for a little over 3 weeks.

Noto is a city of 25,000 with a beautiful historic centre and some interesting sights. My host, Adriano, is a 27 year old Italian from Milan who, with his family, is developing a high-end B&B property and olive grove on a hillside a couple kilometres outside of town.

Main house at "Olive Alive", Noto in the distance

While I've been here Adriano has been busy coordinating contractors building a swimming pool. With summer temperatures up into the 40's Celsius (104 F) a swimming pool is essential for a place like this.  

Concrete being poured for swimming pool deck

Adriano needs a lot of volunteers in the fall during the olive harvest but I've been the only volunteer here for my 3 weeks. The olive trees were pruned in the winter and my job has been to turn big piles of branches into a firewood and tied bundles of kindling for next winter. It's been repetitive but simple and my workplace is beautiful and the daydreaming has been entertaining. It will be a sad day for volunteers (of a certain type) when this job is eliminated by a chipper!

This is about a week's work 

Adriano also asked if I could make some rustic benches out of big pieces of almond trees that had been cut last year. Oh, if I only had access to big olive branches and slabs of almond back home. It is so different from fir, pine and willow! But I like local materials and olive and almond are definitely not local at home.

Chain saw benches of almond wood. A rustic table and two more benches will be added. 

My stay with Adriano has been extremely interesting and worthwhile. His accomplishments and what he is doing now are amazing for a young guy. He's also a really nice person and a natural host. You can read about Olive Alive at http://www.olivealive.it/. If you are interested in this type of travel, check out www.workaway.info or www.helpx.net. Adriano's listing is at http://www.helpx.net/host.asp?hostid=32700

I'm leaving tomorrow for 10 days of "holiday" in Siracusa, Catania, and Naples before flying home.

Camera gear and gizmos

This is a blog about travel experiences, not photography but I'm more serious than some so I carry more equipment. Everyone packs differently and I like reading what other photographers take.

My priority is to be able to capture mostly landscape, architectural and street photos under a variety of conditions without being bogged down by equipment. One checked bag and a carry on is my limit because I want to be able to move around without a car or taxis.

Here's the camera gear and electronics that I brought on this trip.

From left, roughly counterclockwise: Macbook Air with homemade sleeve, external hard drive with homemade sleeve, Nikon D7000 with Nikkor 12-24mm lens and soft case, Fuji X100s and soft case, UltraPod mini-tripod, Feisol carbon fibre tripod, power supplies and battery chargers. The Nikon and Fuji battery chargers share the same little power plug and don't require a power cable. In the centre is a short extension cord with a European adapter taped to the plug end. Lastly, a Delorme inReach satellite communicator that can send and receive emails from anywhere with a view of the sky.

Comments

• I got the Delorme inReach for backcountry travel. It hasn't been essential on this trip, so far. 
• The little homemade extension cord in the middle of the photo is great for charging multiple devices. 
• The small and light Fuji camera has an excellent lens, is a joy to carry and is less conspicuous than my DSLR for street photography. 
• I took the above photo with my "new" refurbished iPhone 3 which I planned to use mainly for GPS. However, I also got a SIM card at a Vodaphone store in Naples for voice and text within Italy for 20 Euros/month and it has been worth it. 

More gear doesn't guarantee more good photos but it can help. The tripod allows capturing moody and unusual images when the harshness of daylight is gone. The mini tripod does the same thing but less well. I use it while walking in the evening when the full size tripod is inconvenient. I often use it sideways, braced against a wall.

I'll say more about bringing two cameras in another post.

The art and craft of pottery, 2,300 years ago

I'm catching up with posts after being on trains and off the internet for a couple days.

I know very little about pottery and less about art history but I was awed by the pottery collection at the provincial archaeological museum in Lecce, Italy three days ago. Two things impressed me about the two thousand year old ceramics - the large size of some of the pieces and the applied artwork. The ones I liked most had paintings inspired by nature and human form. Since my knowledge is so deficient, I'll just post some photos and dates.

Museo Provinciale, Lecce - Free admission

From the 4th or 3rd century B.C.
Looking closely at the brush strokes it's clear much of the colour has faded. See next photo.

You can see the old brush strokes.  That's some kind of bird in the middle surrounded by flowers perhaps.
Imagine what it looked like before the colours faded! 

More colour survives in these pieces from the 5th century B.C. 

This piece from the 4th century B.C. was at least 60 cm high! 

Detail on previous piece

That's enough before I get carried away! Maybe some of my potting friends can enlighten me later.