Busy Monday Evening

Tonight's dinner really wasn't a week night dinner, home-made bread, a shrimp stew of sorts and all of it from scratch after 6PM, I must really have lost my mind when I came up with this idea! It all started because I've been ogling the Shrimp and Fingerlings in Tomato Broth recipe from the February issue of Bon Appetit --it looks like San Francisco....what on earth does that mean, no I'm not on drugs, what it means is that when I see fresh seafood in a yummy broth served with crusty bread it reminds me of food I had back in November in San Francisco....man good stuff! So after a few days of reading the recipe I finally broke down and made it tonight, never mind that it's easily got forty minutes of cooking time (maybe a little more) and a bit of prep time too (peeling fresh shrimp...finely chopping two cups of onion!), it was well worth the time commitment.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups finely chopped onions
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon paprika
1 14.5-ounce can diced fire-roasted tomatoes in juice
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1 cup dry white wine
1 8-ounce bottle clam juice
3 cups water
8 oz fingerling potatoes or baby Yukon Gold potatoes, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
1 pound peeled deveined uncooked medium American shrimp

Preparation
Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add onions; sauté until very tender and beginning to brown, stirring often, about 18 minutes. Add garlic and paprika; stir 2 minutes. Stir in tomatoes with juice and cook until very thick, stirring frequently, about 30 minutes. Stir in rosemary and crushed red pepper. Add wine and cook until liquid evaporates completely, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Stir in clam juice, then 3 cups water. Broth can be made 1 day ahead. Cool, then cover and chill.
Bring broth to boil. Add potatoes; simmer until almost tender, about 5 minutes. Add shrimp; simmer until just cooked through, about 5 minutes longer. Season with salt and pepper.

So the second part of my meal was something else I've been dying to try, the infamous No-Knead Bread. Something I was quite skeptical of, I'm not much of a baker but this stuff is supposed to be easy, so I decided to test it out, what's the worst that could happen? Miracle of miracles, I didn't screw it up - it actually tasted quite good! Not sure it was supposed to be as flat as it turned out, but I'll absolutely try it again.

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting

¼ teaspoon instant yeast

1¼ teaspoons salt

Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

Preparation
1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.
2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.
3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. 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.