Sunday, February 24, 2013

Stolen French Bread/Les Miserables

I was really proud of myself for this pairing.

My original intention was to make some fancy French recipe like a bouillabaisse or a galette for this movie. Seeing as how I'm a wee bit behind on the Oscar countdown, it was a double whammy when I came up with this easy but relevant idea.

I'm making Jean Valjean's stolen french bread. Duh.

Before we get to that, though, I will give you an update for my Oscar picks. Once again I remind you that these are not the movies that I think are going to win; they are simply what the Academy of Kim picks (although the nominees are not what she would have picked in the first place, but we won't get into that right now.

Kim's picks:
1. Beasts of the Southern Wild
2. Amour
3. Silver Linings Playbook
4. Les Miserables
5. Django Unchained

And the Kimmy goes to...


Recipe: Jean Valjean's Stolen French Bread


Adapted from the book Ratio, by Michael Ruhlman

Ingredients:

20 ounces bread flour
12 ounces water
1/2 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
cooking spray

Follow the instructions on how to get your yeast ready to be mixed in with the flour. Sometimes You have to dissolve it in warm water before adding to everything. If that is the case, make sure you adjust the amount of water you add so that you don't have dough that is too moist.

In a standing mixer, combine the top four ingredients with the paddle attachment. Change to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for about ten minutes. A good way to tell you have the right dough consistency and that it has been mixed for long enough is to take a piece out and stretch it. It should stretch the point of being almost transparent before tearing. If it tears too easily, more water may be needed. If it is too sticky, it may need more flour.

After the ten minutes, Spray the dough with cooking spray and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside and allow to rise until it has at least doubled in size, which should be about an hour. Depending on the season, this may take longer or shorter. It is cold and dry here during the MA winter, so it took about double the time to rise to the right height.

Now is the fun part. I don't understand why people are so head over heels about the whole no-knead bread idea. The kneading is the best part! Basically all you do is generously flour a clean surface, put the dough on the surface, and punch the crap out of it. Keep turning it over and over until there are no cracks or air bubbles in the dough. 

The best thing this book has taught me to do with bread is to bake it in a dutch oven. To get a good crust on the bread, typically bakers use a stone and throw water on it to get steam going. If you allow your bread to proof in a dutch oven, you can eliminate the need for a baking stone and steam. Once you have kneaded your dough, shape it how you want it to bake, and place it in a dutch oven sprayed with cooking spray. I like to sprinkle a little coarse salt on top at this point, but that's optional.

Place the lid on the dutch oven. Preheat your oven to 450. Because it's cold here, I place my oven on top of my preheating oven so that the warmth helps the bread rise. The bread should rise again in about 45 minutes (once again, more or less depending on climate conditions). 

Bake the bread for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and continue to bake for another 15-20. Take it out and allow it to cool. Watch behind your back for bread thieves like Jean Valjean. Maybe if he would have just asked nicely for a piece...

Step-By-Step Instructions

Dissolve the yeast! If it needs to be dissolved.
Combine the ingredients with the paddle attachment.

Then use the bread hook. Mix for about 10 minutes.

Cover with plastic rack and allow it to rise until at least doubled in size
Beat the crap out of it! Knead it!


Shape it and place it in a greased dutch oven.
Put the lid on and allow it to proof for about 45 minutes. You probably shouldn't take the lid off but I needed to show you how it works.

Bread!


I took a big bite.


Review: Les Miserables


As a kid when I spent time at my grandparents' house, sometimes there was a limited number of activities for young me to engage myself with. They owned a copy of the Les Mis soundtrack and for some reason I would listen to that over and over again without a clue as to how the plot actually went (I listened to a lot of Enya over there too but we won't touch on that tonight). I was able to follow the story for about the first half, but then got lost once Fantine dies. I guess that's not really halfway, but I digress.

I don't really want to explain the plot because most people know how the story goes. There are a lot of ways that you can get the plot summary (read the book, watch the movie, listen to the soundtrack and pretend you're 10-year-old Kim trying to figure out why these men are singing about the colors of angry men). I more just kind of want to groan about the casting choices. Anne Hathaway was great; let's just get that out of the way. If you don't feel anything during her performance of "I Dreamed a Dream", you probably should get something checked out.

However, that being said. I have some problems with the rest of the cast. I understand that Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, and Amanda Seyfried are famous and will sell tickets. In most films you can get away with that strategy. This is a musical though. Most of the time, people are singing. Jean Valjean  and Javert need to have amazingly strong and assertive voices. I think it's great that Jackman and Crowe tried. Good for them. I wish that we could have gotten some no-name actor not as well recognized that could have showed us a better performance. This is what they should have sounded like:



 Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter were annoying, but they made sense for their characters, and while they both are pretty musically inclined anyways, they didn't have to be. I guess a lot of people were all about Hugh Jackman's performance, but I think for Jean Valjean it fell short of my expectations. Enjolras, played by no-name actor  the leader of the rebel cause, had the strongest musical performance of anyone in the second half of the movie. Eponine was also strong. We don't really need to get into that.

The point is that the movie itself was very well shot, and I think the actual feel of bringing the story from the stage to the big screen was done as well as it could be. Let that be the selling point of the movie. Cast people who can wow me with their performances as well. I'd still recommend giving it a watch, even if it's your first Les Mis experience. But then I'd say go and listen to the soundtrack from the musical so you can see just how great the movie could have been.




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