Roasted Cauliflower with Israeli Couscous

Oh please, you shouldn’t have. A round of applause for posting within two weeks of my last post? Oh stop! Call it a mid-year resolution or that I’ve seen the blogging light radiating out from my computer screen. Either way, my camera is firmly planted on A’s couch ready to document our cooking adventures. Maybe not the popcorn for dinner ones.

I have a slight announcement to make but, until plans are set in stone, I am going to keep things vague. There may or may not be a move in the future, most likely by the end of the summer. My internship with Edelman is coming to a close next week and I’m looking forward to enjoying my free time in the (theoretical) Seattle sunshine. Plans are being made for mountainous hikes, city bikes and a little fun in Canada.

Now that I will have a bit more time on my hands (or in the kitchen), look forward to seeing posts more than once every ice age (the glacial event, not the never ending sequels of children's movies). For the time being though, I present you with my flavor of previous week - roasted cauliflower with Israeli couscous!

You would never believe it, but this was the first time I ever made Israeli couscous. Usually I order it without hesitation at restaurants and find myself craving it every few months but for some reason I never thought to make it myself. If you're spying on me, you can see that I'm kicking myself right now. Not only is Israeli couscous a lot easier to make than rice or normal couscous, I think it has a certain bite that the former are lacking.

That combined with my gut wrenching love of roasted vegetables, I had a lunch made in heaven on my hands. I even pawned some off on "A" for lunch twice last week... he didn't complain. Nor should he.

Roasted Cauliflower with Israeli Couscous

Adapted from The Whinery 

Ingredients:

• 1 head of cauliflower (or other)
• 1 head of purple cauliflower (or other)
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 red onion
• 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped (divided)
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 tablespoons everyday seasoning (I use Trader Joe’s Everyday Seasoning)
• 1 cup cooked black-eye peas (optional)
• 2 tablespoons capers, rinsed (optional)
• 1 – 2 cups Israeli couscous, cooked (recipe below)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
2. Prep and cut cauliflower into florets
3. Cut onion and bell pepper into even bite-size chunks and dump into a large bowl
4. Add a tablespoon of parley
5. Drizzle with olive oil, and add salt, crushed pepper and seasoning
6. Toss and mix well to coat
7. Spread out in a single layer onto a baking dish or pan
8. Roast in the oven for about 15 – 25 minutes, until vegetables are tender and caramelized
9. Mix in black-eye peas and capers with the vegetables and roast for another minute or so
10. Remove from oven, mix in Israeli couscous, sprinkle another tablespoon of parsley on top and serve immediately

Israeli Couscous
Ingredients:

• 2 cup Israeli couscous, preferably whole-wheat
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 4 cups of water 
• Salt to taste

Directions:

1. Heat one tablespoon of the olive oil over medium-high heat in a medium saucepan and add the couscous.
2. Stir until the couscous begins to color and smell toasty, 4 to 5 minutes. 
3. Add water and salt to taste and bring to a boil. 
4. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer 15 minutes, or until the couscous is tender. Drain if any liquid remains in the pan.
5. When the couscous is done, fluff and set aside to be tossed with roasted cauliflower

Chickpeas Stew with Roasted Cumin and Tomatoes

So far, it's been a pretty spectacular April. It actually reached 70 degrees here in Seattle last weekend; last year the first time that happened was May 20th. I started lead climbing again, after taking a year-plus long hiatus. I'm loving my job and for the first time in as long as I can remember, I've brought lunch to work every single day.

I've been trying to cook something healthy, hearty and virile enough to last a week in tupperware. Last week it was a red quinoa & sweet potato pilaf (that sadly went un-photographed). This week I am thinking up some concoction with kale, caramelized onions, carrots, avocado and whole wheat pasta. But two weeks ago… two weeks ago I made this delicious Indian-inspired chickpea stew.

I would say the dish was easy to make, but it was slightly time consuming. I could probably attribute this to the fact I have two stove burners and a tiny oven (ah, the joys of living in a studio) but I would like to say all the ingredients were cooked with a coordination usually reserved for Thanksgiving dinner. There was some roasting, toasting and reducing going on and I just can't do that all by my lonesome that quickly. In reality though, there wasn't too much skill involved - a 19-year old dorm-dwelling collegiate guy could do it.

It was substantial enough that on it's own I could fill myself up at lunch. Usually though I tossed in some brown rice to avoid a serious case of the snack attacks at 3pm. I have a snack drawer full of almonds and trail mix at my desk for a reason, but I like to reserve those for desperate times. Like when I feel the urge to stress eat or am very actively trying to avoid the communal candy bowl.

Chickpeas with Roasted Cumin and Tomatoes

Adapted from eCurry

Ingredients:

• 2.5 cups cooked chickpeas
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons of grated fresh ginger
• 1 green cardamom
• 2 cloves
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• fresh cilantro/coriander leaves
• 2 hot green chile peppers, chopped – Optional
• salt to taste
• ½ teaspoons of turmeric
• 1.5 cups fresh or canned tomato puree
• 1.5  teaspoon roasted ground cumin

Directions:

1. Combine turmeric, salt, and the roasted cumin with the tomato puree and 1/2 – 1 cup water and stir it to mix.
2. Dry roast the cardamom, clove in the pan. You will know they're done when you start smelling the spices roasting.
3. Add the oil and the cumin seeds.
4. Add the chopped peppers if you want it spicy. Once the cumin seeds start turning dark add the ginger paste. Cook for about a minute.
5. Add the tomato puree mix, stir it in, and let it let it cook for about 4-5 minutes at medium heat.
6. Add the chickpeas, cover and simmer for for 7 – 10 minutes. Uncover and mash up a few chickpeas with the back of the spatula. This should be like a soup, not dry. So if the water dries up, add more water when you are boiling. Simmer for couple of more minutes. Switch off the heat and keep it covered until ready to serve.
7. Garnish with fresh cilantro/coriander leaves.

Moroccan-ish Carrot Salad

For the past few weeks months my CSA box has been overloaded with carrots.  We're not even talking your standard large orange carrots that cartoon bunnies nibble on, oh no. I have never seen, let alone cooked with, such colorful carrots in my entire life. White ones, purple speckled ones, rainbow bunches and tie-dye ones. I'm totally lying about the last one, but that would be pretty cool except I'm not so sure I'd want to know about the science that brought my hippie carrots.

I had thought I exhausted all the uses for the common carrot. Roasted? Check. Pureed into a variety of soups? Triple check. Gnawed up raw? Yep. In a carrot only salad? No… or at least not until a few weeks ago. I saw this recipe somewhere on the Internet a few weeks back and was excited to finally have a new use for my overflowing collection of carrots. Even better was I didn't have to turn on the oven and cause the heat to rise in my apartment to unbearable levels. That's the curse of having a 400 square foot studio and an incredibly powerful convection oven - the temperature of the oven is pretty representative of the temperature in my apartment. I guess worse things have happened in the world.

While I was pretty happy with this Moroccan-ish carrot salad, there are a few things I would have changed.  First off, I don't know if this was my or the recipes error, but I thought the carrots were a tad too firm. The smaller cuts were perfectly tender but some of the larger ones were nearly impossible to penetrate with a fork. As you might imagine, some carrots were leaping off the plate in my attempt to trap then within my tines. Second, I thought carrots alone were a little bland and there wan an excessing of dressing. My remedy was throwing it upon a bed of lettuce and calling it dinner. All in all, good & healthy salad.

Moroccan-ish Carrot Salad

Adapted from Crumb

Ingredients:

• 1 lb carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1 tsp each cumin and caraway seeds
• 1 tsp spicy paprika
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp honey
• Salt and pepper
• Handful mint leaves, chopped
• Handful crumbled goat cheese
• Romaine lettuce

Directions:

1. Blanch the carrots for 2 minutes (note: I would increase the blanching time) in a large pot of boiling water, then plunge into an ice-water bath to stop the cooking process. Once the carrots are completely cooled, drain and transfer to a pretty salad bowl.
2. Using a dry skillet, toast the cumin and caraway over high heat for about 1-2 minutes or until fragrant. Grind into a fine powder using a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder.
3. Combine the cumin and caraway mixture with the paprika and cinnamon in a small bowl. Add garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and honey. Whisk until blended, then pour over the carrots and toss to coat. Set aside to the flavors meld, about 20-30 minutes.
4. When ready, serve over romaine lettuce and sprinkle salad with handfuls of chopped mint and crumbled feta.

Chipotle Butternut Squash Soup

The soup has some serious heat and had the same magical powers as pho.  Remember how you feel the need to eat a whole bowl of pho every time you sense a sniffle or start covering coughs? I do. It's made even worse, or better(?), by the fact that there is a pho shop less than a mile away from me. And there isn't even that big of a hill to walk up on the way back. Too bad I don't think unemployment supports a pho-a-day habit so well. Good thing I know my way around a kitchen and can make things that are just as good, if not better, than what I was caving. Well, except Fro-Yo… if I knew how to make that you'd have to lift me out of my apartment window.

When the boy and I made this for dinner a few weeks ago, I can safely say it was the least sexy meal ever. We were both dealing with the consequences the sniffles a la jalapeño & chipotle. For anyone who has had pho, you know that this is the end goal. You want to be cleaned out and warmed up. These minor symptoms of hot soup shouldn't take away from the fact that this soup is delicious. Even more so, I was finally able to use up the butternut squash from my CSA's and fend off a winter cold. BONUS POINTS!

I would advise against eating this soup in the summer, that just might be considered torture.

Chipotle Butternut Squash Soup

Adapted from uTry

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 small leek, use white and pale-green parts only, thinly sliced and rinsed
• well
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 1 jalapeño, finely diced
• 1 Granny Smith (green) apple, cored, peeled, and cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
• 2 pounds Butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut
• into 1-inch cubes
• 1 pound red yam, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 6 cups chicken/vegetable stock
• 1 medium chipotle chili (canned in adobo sauce),
• can substitute with 1 tablespoon of chipotle spice
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 cup pepitas 

Directions:

1. In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Saute garlic, leek, carrots and onion until soft and translucent, about 4 minutes. Add apple, ginger and cook for 3 minutes.
2. Add butternut squash, yam and stock; simmer until squash and yam are tender, about 15 minutes. Add chipotle or chipotle spice.
3. Puree using an immersion blender (or a standard blender, in batches).
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dollop teaspoon of pepitas right before serving.

Quinoa Tabbouleh

Harry Potter is coming out next week.  So. Freaking. Excited.  I mean, I am reading, errrm listening to on tape, all the Harry Potter books in preparation.  I'd like to say I'm going to watch the movies too but seriously, I have a life people.  As I blog I'm on The Chamber of Secrets, somewhere around 11 minutes into chapter 15.  So if I randomly type an "alohamora!" or "but 'Arry!!!", please, don't be alarmed.

Even though I've been listening to HP non-stop, I've still been eating.  Can you think of anything better than listening to Stephen Fry while eating some tabbouleh?  I didn't think so.  I made this a week or so back soon after I received my first CSA box.  I had a bunch of new & fancy ingredients as well as a well stocked pantry.  Pouring through my surplus of cookbooks, I came about this recipe.

If you've ever gone to a hot bar with me at Metropolitan Market, Whole Foods, PCC…etc, you know I ALWAYS get tabbouleh. ALWAYS.  However, I had never made it at home before.  Nor have I ever bought Bulgar.  You'd think I would but no.  I don't always think ahead.  But when I saw that I had all the ingredients for a this recipe, I'm pretty sure I squealed with joy.

The ingredients are fairly adaptable, but I'd try and stick to the more traditional ingredients as much as possible.  I also increased the amount of parsley and lemon juice so if you aren't a fan of these, feel free to reduce the amount.

Roasted Vegetable Quinoa Salad

I can't believe I'm scything this, but before this recipe I never had cooked quinoa before.  Now, I had eaten plenty of quinoa, but cook it I had not.  What was wrong with me?  Not only is it delicious, but it is easy to make.  You can make your life so much easier by making it in a rice cooker, but I took the hard route and easily made it on the stove top.

I think what I like most about a quinoa salad is that it's so adaptable to what vegetables are in season… or like me, what you happen to have in your pantry.  Summer squashes?  Roast them up and throw them in.  If you're like me, use some peppers, broccoli and onion; essentially the only good produce Trader Joe's had that evening.

Also, I really think you guys deserve something good and healthy after the past few recipes.  Yes, the salted caramel peanut butter brownies are incredibly delicious but won't help you fit into those new skinny jeans hiding in the back of your closet.

Also, happy birthday to Julie McComish and Emily Arntson!!

Pita Pizza

I would be lying if I said I only had this every once in a while.  I eat a pita pizza about 5 times a week, usually for lunch.  It is inexpensive to make, doesn't take much time and is healthy.  The pitas I use are low carb and because I use pesto as a base, they are low sugar too.  Then to make them even healthier, I load it with veggies and sometimes use a little bit of shredded chicken lunch meat.  What's even better, is that this is filling.  I rarely am hungry for something else once I'm done eating.  Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to eat a pita pizza for dinner - with pesto, yellow/red/green pepper, diced onions, blue cheese & crushed red pepper.

Pita Pizza
Ingredients:

• 1 whole wheat pizza cut in half
• Sauce of choice (I use pesto)
• Choice of toppings, I used blue cheese, shredded lunch meat chicken, onions, crushed red pepper and spinach

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line baking sheet with tin foil.
2. Slice pita in half (so you have two circles).  Spread on sauce of choice, sprinkle on cheese of choice and finish off with some veggies.
3. Cook in oven for 8 minutes, or until the crust is crispy.
4. Let cool for one minute, cut and enjoy!

Whole Wheat Tortillas

Other than that one time you had a tortilla pressed in front of you at a Chiptole restaurant, have you ever really had a homemade tortilla?  Ok, maybe you have, but have you made them?  Seriously, they aren't that hard, and if you're afraid of working with yeast, these surely don't have yeast!  Pressed for time?  You can leave out the step for letting the dough rise for an hour after forming it into a large ball.  Have I convinced you enough to how easy these are to make?

Immediately after making these, I quickly assembled a standard lunch of the Outward Bound and Four-Trails trips of my past: a peanut butter and honey wrap roll up.  The best part of this was that because the tortillas were still warm from being hot off the griddle, the peanut butter melted, swirled in with the honey and made me one happy camper.  It also provided me with a nice flashback to eating these of the side of some road with our bikes in Wisconsin with Meg, Allie, Kat and Joan by my side or hurriedly eating while canoeing down a river in Canada, trying to avoid the mosquitos.

A few days later, these were used in bean & corn quesadillas that I made for my sister and I after we organized and cleaned our parents garage.  Seriously.  We're that good.  Now you go be good and make these!!

Whole Wheat Tortillas
Adapted from Rick Bayless

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour, plus a little extra for rolling the tortillas
• 1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 5 tablespoons shortening
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• about 3/4 cup very warm tap water 

Directions:

1. To make the dough, combine the flours and shortening in a large mixing bowl, working the two ingredients together with a pastry cutter (or your hands… doesn’t matter), until completely incorporated.  This should feel like wet sand.  Dissolve the salt in the water, pour about 2/3 cup of it over the dry ingredients and immediately work it in with a fork… or once again your hands (seriously, hands are the best kitchen gadget…ever).  The dough will be in large lumps at this point, not one big ball o’ dough.  If all the dry ingredients haven't been dampened, add the rest of the liquid (plus a little more, if necessary).  Scoop the dough onto your work surface and knead until smooth.  It should be medium-stiff consistency -- definitely not firm, but not quite as soft as most bread dough either.  Let this rest for about an hour.
2. Divide the dough into 12 portions and roll each into a ball.  Set them on a plate, cover with plastic wrap and let rest at least 30 minutes (to make the dough less springy, easier to roll).
3. Roll and griddle-bake the tortillas.  Heat an ungreased griddle or heavy skillet over medium to medium-high heat.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll out a portion of the dough into an even 7-inch circle.  Flatten a ball of dough, flour it, then roll forward and back across it; rotate a sixth of a turn and roll forward and back again; continue rotating and rolling until you reach a 7-inch circle… a very very thin 7-inch circle.
5. Lay the tortilla on the hot griddle (you should hear a faint sizzle and see an almost immediate bubbling across the surface).  After 30 to 45 seconds, when there are browned splotches underneath, flip it over.  Bake 30 to 45 seconds more, until brown spots appear; don't overbake the tortilla or it will become crisp.  Remove and wrap in a cloth napkin placed in a tortilla warmer.  Roll and griddle-bake the remaining tortillas in the same manner and stacking them one on top of the other.
6. Fill with something yummy or snack on it plain.

Whole Wheat Pizza

I'm back living at my parents house until I move out to Seattle in August.  I graduated a week ago, two of my housemates are in Greece/Dubai, the other is in New Mexico for the summer and I didn't want to be all by myself in Ann Arbor.  It's also really nice to be home, I'm spending some very nice quality time with my parents until I leave "forever."  I've been helping my mom around the house… and cooking dinner.  While their house may be a little bit messier when I come home (sorry Mom!), they can't complain because I cook dinner a fair amount.  Case in point, Whole Wheat Pizza.  My best friend, Katherine (Crutcher, she lives in Texas) sent me a similar recipe about a month back.  I added sugar (fun fact: yeast love sugar, it's their superfood.  The more they eat, the faster and better they grow), spices and decreased the all-purpose flour by a ½ cup.  I also adapted the cooking time.  The two pizzas I made were quite different but equally delicious.  The one pictured on top has a pesto base with sun dried tomatoes, basil chiffonade, pine nuts, onions (diced), mozzarella and parmesan.

This one has a tomato sauce base with onions (diced), red & yellow peppers (diced), broccoli, blue cheese, pine nuts, mozzarella and parmesan.

It's an easy and healthy dinner, and even if you haven't had much experience making bread, this is a fairly smooth dough so the kneading isn't hard at all!

Whole Wheat Pizza

Ingredients:

• 2/3 + 4 TBSP warm water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 packets of yeast
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ tsp italian seasoning
• ½ tsp oregano
• ½ tsp rosemary
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup wheat flour
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• Cornmeal for pan

Directions:

1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water.
2. Mix in spices, salt and olive oil.  Add in flour one cup at a time.  Depending on the weather and the humidity, you made need ½ cup more of all-purpose flour.  Knead for 5 minutes.
3. Form dough into a tight ball and let rise in an oiled bowl covered with a damp and clean dish towel for about an hour, or until doubled in size.
4. Preheat ove to 450 degrees.
5. When dough has doubled in size, punch down and divide into two equal sections.  With either your hands or a rolling pin, make into two thin 12-inch pizzas, dusting the pans with cornmeal.
6. Pre-bake crusts in oven for about 6 to 7 minutes.  Top pizza with desired toppings and cook for about 7 more minutes, or until all the cheese is melted.
7. Let cool for a minute (if you can!), cut and enjoy!

Black Bean Soup

Well, it's safe to say I was in a cookie and sugar induced coma for a majority of the holidays.  It's just so hard not to eat all the delicious cookies lying around - especially when I made most of them and had to taste the batter!  It's almost 2010 and this soup is perfect to, ahem, cleanse them system.  This soup is high in fiber and protein while being low in fat.  The main contributor to calories in this soup is the beans, which really isn't that much.  I also need to prove to you all that I do a lot more than just bake... I do cook a lot just most of the time I don't have time to take a picture.  Most of the time I just throw stuff in a pot and pan, throw some ingredients in, and produce something that I love... but have no idea what I actually used for ingredients. Make this for dinner tomorrow night and start the new year off right!

Black Bean Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 1 jalapeno, diced 
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1 stalk of celery, diced
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 5 cups of vegetable stock
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp chili powder
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 bay leaf
• 3-14 oz cans of black beans, rinsed & drained, (divided)
• Kosher salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a soup pot over medium heat.  
2. Add onion, both peppers, carrots, and celery.  Saute until slightly tender.  Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.  
3. Add stock, seasonings, and half of the beans.  Simmer uncovered for 1-2 hours.  Remove bay leaf and blend using an immersion blender (or blend in 2 additions in a blender).  
4. Add the reminder of the beans..  Bring to a boil to thicken the soup.  Taste and add salt and pepper, if necessary. 

Side Note:  This soup tastes really good, if not better, reheated in the microwave the next day.  It seemed to get much thicker. 

Spanakopita (Greek Spinach Pie)

Happy Halloween!  It would be more appropriate to post a recipe that had pumpkin as an ingredient or was somehow shaped to look like a ghost.  But this spanakopita recipe is good enough to make up for the lack of a holiday theme.  When I first started using this recipe (about 3 years ago), I compiled a few aspects of different spanakopita recipes for this one.

Spanakopita

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 2 (10 ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach - thawed, drained and squeezed dry
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 (4 ounce) packages feta cheese, crumbled
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 (16 ounce) packages phyllo dough
• Olive Oil
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Directions:

1. Heat vegetable oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Slowly cook and stir onions until softened. Mix in spinach, dill and flour. Cook approximately 10 minutes, or until most of the moisture has been absorbed. Remove from heat. Mix in feta cheese, eggs, salt and pepper.
2. Lay 1 sheet of phyllo dough in prepared baking pan, and brush lightly with olive oil. Lay another sheet of phyllo dough on top, brush with olive oil, and repeat process with 10 more sheets of phyllo. The sheets will overlap the pan. 
3. Spread spinach and cheese mixture into pan and fold overhanging dough over filling. Brush with oil, then layer remaining sheets of phyllo dough, brushing each with oil. Tuck overhanging dough into pan to seal filling.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until golden brown. Cut into squares and serve while hot.

Crusty No-Knead Bread

I have been baking bread for about 3 years.  Sometimes the bread comes out beautiful, crusty, flavorful, and just like I wanted.  Other times I knead bread for hours and hours praying that I will be rewarded with a bread that was worth the effort.  Usually the longer I work at getting a bread to be perfect, the worse it turns out (not ALWAYS though - sometimes my effort is graciously rewarded).  I was a little skeptical about trying this recipe - a bread the promised all the results with none of the effort?  Alas, it is true!  While I was studying for Ethnobotany and writing up some things for my journalism classes, the dough slowly rose in my kitchen and I don't think it could have been easier to cook.  I did use the "speedy" recipe for no-knead bread (about 4 and a half hours compared to 12 to 18 hours) from The New York Times, but I plan on trying the original no-knead bread sometime in the future.  Check back in the morning to see how the bread tastes (the housemates and I are using it for our sandwiches tomorrow).

Speedy No-Knead Bread
Adapted from the New York Times

Ingredients:

• 3 cups bread flour (I used Kind Arthur Bread Flour)
• 1 packet ( 1/4 ounce) instant yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt (I used Kosher Salt)
• Oil as needed (Pam cooking spray works fine)

Directions:

1. Combine flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups water and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest about 4 hours at warm room temperature.
2. Lightly oil a work surface and place dough on it; fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest 30 minutes more.
3. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6-to-8-quart heavy covered pot (I used a dutch oven) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under dough and put it into pot, seam side up. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.
4. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack for about 30 minutes before cutting into and enjoying!

Look at that texture!