No-Knead Bread, 10 Years Later.

I was sitting at my desk at the Times 10 years ago when Jim Lahey – whom I knew only by reputation – emailed me: “I have a new method of making bread that requires no kneading and can give you professional results at home.”

I started baking bread in 1970, and, when my friend Charlie Van Over developed what I still believe is the best food processor method there is, I adopted that and never looked back. But Lahey’s invitation was intriguing.

It was a period during which the Times was experimenting with video, and I was one of the lucky guinea pigs. So on a bright November day (Jim insists it was election day 2006; I have no recollection), I walked over with two video people, we watched Jim do his thing, I wrote it up, the video people edited, and ….
It became one of the most popular stories in the history of the Times.

That level of popularity was a peculiar confluence of events, but that bread recipe (which I used yesterday, and will tomorrow, barely unchanged from the original), has legs. That original description by Jim remains true, and literally millions of people now make bread according to Jim’s instructions.

A few weeks ago, just before election day 2016, I met two video people from Food & Wine at Sullivan Street (which hasn’t changed much) and we taped a reunion, with Jim commenting on and critiquing my technique (which evidently isn’t bad).
You can watch (the extremely abridged version) here.
As you can tell – we had fun.









So new recipe (published at 12-06-2016) - are pictured:

2 2/3 Cup white flour
1 1/3 Cup whole wheat flour (Whole-wheat flour - in the US or wholemeal flour in the UK)
2 teasp salt
1/2 teasp yeast
2 Cup water

12 hour first rise
fold three times on floured surface
for 2-hour second rise

Bake 30 min at 500F/260C in covered dutch oven
Bake 15 minutes uncovered

AND old recipe (2015):
3 cups - 400 grams all-purpose or bread flour
1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) instant yeast
1+1/4 teaspoons (8 grams) salt
1 5/8 cups (1+1/3 - 300 grams in book) water.

Mark Bittman's Customizable Soups.

Mark Bittman's Customizable Soups - The New York Times

I’m not anti-recipe (obviously), but some things just don’t need them — and most vegetable soups fall into that category.
Here are easy-to-follow instructions for making vegetable (vegetarian and, for the most part, vegan) soups with common ingredients, a variety of choices and terrific flavor.
Print the following page, stick it on your refrigerator and work your way through it.
By the time you’re done — 12 days or 12 weeks later — you’ll never again need a recipe for vegetable soup.
Promise.

And you’ll need no special techniques, no advance preparation and, for the most part, not much time.
You can use just about any vegetable (or bean) you have on hand.
These are not stone soups, but they’re close.

I’ve created four essential categories:
- creamy (vegetables puréed with dairy);
- brothy (a strained vegetable stock, with quick-cooking ingredients added);
- earthy (with beans); and
- hearty (the vegetables sautéed first, to deepen their flavor).

A few practical notes:
All of these recipes serve four, and you’ll want about a 2.5-to-4-quart (medium or large) pot.
Most can be cooked for a while — but not so long that the freshness is gone.
Most will taste as good or better the next day, so consider making a double batch and refrigerating (or freezing) the leftovers.
But never boil a soup after you’ve added dairy to it; instead, reheat gently.

If you want a supersmooth soup (and just about any of these soups can be puréed if you like), use a standing blender — let the soup cool a bit first — which creates a finer purée than an immersion blender does; you might even strain the soup after puréeing it.

Garnishes are all optional, though herbs add a dimension that will be lacking otherwise.
If you taste as you’re cooking, you’ll be fine, because there is really nothing to go wrong here.