Chicago style CHICAGO HAS become a‘ second home for me. f have actually been adopted by the good citizens of the Windy City and I love it. deff Smith THE FRUGAL GOURMET The name for the city comes from an old Algonquin Indian word, ‘*Che-cau-gou,’’ as La Salle the explorer spelled the word, The original meaning is a bit obscure, but it was probably “*great,’’ although most Chicagoans think it also may have meant “‘skunk cabbage,’* ‘wild oaion,’* or “garlic."’ It seems that Chicago was actu- ally built upon an enormous onion bog and thus the name. The fizst convention held ia Chicago tock place in 1847, a year before the railroad reached the ci- ty. Everyone came by coach or boat, anc it started the Windy Ci- ty on its career as the best con- vention city in the country. In 1870 a great flood of im- migration occurred and gave the city the wonderful ethnic color it now enjoys. The Polish communi- ty, which is enormous, feeds me tegularly — unless 1 have already had dinner ir Greek Town. Chicago is a wonderful city and terribly middle-American. On behalf of the citizens who have adopted me I invite you to visit this wonderful place. coe HINT: Gn preparing prechopped garlic. Have garlic iezdy when you need it withuut the chemicals Precision incuisitive GARDINER WILSON that many packers put in the prechopped stuff in the produce section. Clean 40 cloves of garlic and put them in a medium-sized food processor all at once. Using quick shots of speed, cut the garlic 10 a very fine dice. You don’t want mud; be careful. Place in a two-cup glass jar with lid. Smooth down the garlic and place two tablespoons olive oil over the top. Seal and refrigerate. Makes one cup. Keeps two weeks in the refrigerator, Now you are ready for garlic at “a moment's notice. DEEP-DISH PIZZA Chicago has more pizza joints per capita than any other city in the world. There are 2,000 pizza parlors within the city limits of Chicago alone, and who knows how many lurk in the land beyond O’Hare. Chicagoans have been making deep-dish pizza for many, many years. The pizza crust This is easy because you do not have to roll it out. You just push it into place in the pan. No kid- ding! Please note that there is no Sugar or salt in this dough. 2 packages quick-rise dry yeast 2 cups tepid water (90°F) V2 cup saiad oil 4 tablespoons olive oil 2 cup cornmeal 5% cups flour In the bowl of your electric mixer dissolve the yeast in the water. Add tne oils, cornmeal and 3 cups of the fiour. Beat for 10 minutes with the mixer. Add the dough hook and mix in the additional 2% cups flour. Knead for several minutes with the machine. It is hard to do this by hand because the dough is very tich and moist. Pour out the dough on a plastic countertop and cover with a very large metal bowl. Allow to rise until double in bulk. Punch down and allow iso rise again. Punch down a second time and you are ready to make pizza. Oil round cake pans. Put a bit of dough in each and push it out to the edges using your fingers. Uf oil mine with olive oil.) Put in cnough dough so you can run the crust right up the side of the pan. Make it about ‘“4-inch thick throughout the pan. The filliag for a 9- or 10-inch pan See Spice page 51 Wednesday, February 5, BAS ge et 1992 — Narth Shore ee oad News — 49 2 we a NEWS Photo Paul McGrath THE CHICAGO hot dog: There are more hot-elog stands per capita in the windy city than any other city in the world! processes: no more half-baked bread JULIA CHILD slides a siender thermometer into the underside of her French bread, stating that temperature is the most ac- curate means of telling when bread has finished baking. And Julia's right. Using a therniometer to check for an in- ternal temperature of 200°F (00°C) is more precise than knocking to see if the bread *tsounds hollow.’’ And it saves the frustration of cutting into a loaf that’s still doughy. Let’s think abeut the invisible Processes that take place at each Stage of the journey as a soft, spongy dough becomes a prized baked loaf. Rising, setting, browging and flavor development all take place at precise temperatures throughout the bak- ing process. Plain bread is usually baked in a preheated oven at 425°F (200- 225°C), Initially, the sudden ex- posure of the dough to heat accel- erates yeast activity, speeding up the rate at which it produces car- bon dioxide. As the dough warms, it softens, becomes more pliable and rises readily as heat expands its internal network of gas bubbles. The quick ®expansion, called “oven spring,” may increase the volume of the dough by 50% or more within the first 10 minutes of baking. Gluten, the protein developed through kneading, plays a domi- nant role during this first segment of baking by giving the dough its ability to stretch. When the loaf reaches an inte- ior temperature of 140°F (60°C), however, the yeast dies. Fermen- tation stops, putting a quick end to further rising. Ideally, the dougii begins to set just as it stops expanding. At this poiat, the starch granules in flour begin to absorb moisture from gluten. Together gluten and starch form the skeleton that gives struc- ture to bread. As baking continues, moisture evaporates from the outside to form a crust. Browning occurs rapidly as the temperature of the crust rises above 212°F (100°C) and a complex forms between sugars and proteins in the flour. This reaction is also tinked to che development of flavor which begins in the crust and migrates inside the loaf. To judge doneness from a brown crust can be misleading since browning usually occurs be- fore the bread is cooked inside. Here's where Julia’s thermometer solves the doneness dilemma. Loaves may need to be loosely covered with foil to let the inside catch up with the crust as it browns. Or oven temperatures can be reduced slightly to prolong cooking. Sweet doughs are baked at 350-375°F (180-190°C) since the rich dough created by sugar, eggs and milk browns very quickly. A lower oven temperature allows the inside to cook before the exterior becomes excessively dark. The heady aroma of baking bread is due largely to evaporation of the alcohol produced during the fermentation of yeast. In ad- dition, more than 60 volatile components are finked to the aroma of bread as it bakes. Most are produced in the crust as it browns — issuing an_ irresistible invitation to indulge!