Steam Injection and Crust

The breads I made are rustic and their crust is thick. I think it is due to the baking time.
The longer I baked, the thicker the crust became. However, if I paint the dough with water just before baking it, the water may form a coat of steam around the dough. The steam may help lower down the temperature, therefore the crust could be thin even though the baking time is the same.

I learned that professional ovens come with mist injection devices in order to make good quality crust. I think it is based on the same principle. Home-oven does not have the luxury of steam injection. I hope water painting skill I imagine could do the same effect. I will try it out next time I make breads.

Dullness and Quality

I am now re-reading Robert Pirsig's ZAMM without any specific order whenever I am in toilet. Here are some paragraphs I read this morning. ( Very strange, I read best when I am in toilet. This is a habit since my youth. )

"Or if he take whatever dull jobs he is stuck with--and they are all, sooner or later, dull--and, just to keep himself amused, starts to look for options of Quality, and secretly pursues these options, just for their own sake, thus making an art out of what he is doing, he is likely to discover that he becomes a much more interesting person and much less of an object to the people around him because his Quality decisions change him too. And not only the job and him, but others too because Quality tends to fan out like waves. The Quality job he did not think anyone was going to see is seen, and the person who sees it feels a little better because of it, and is likely to pass that feeling on to others, and in that way the Quality tends to keep on going."

Indeed, from my personal experience, Quality usually grows out from Dullness. Dullness frees up our minds, hence our brains could think of Quality when they are free from forms. That is why meditation is done in such a way. I particularly like the phrase ".. and they are all, sooner or later..", which is very true in this world. The question is that when it becomes dull, what can you do about it? The way you handle it determines your Quality.

What is good; what is bad? Hard to tell !

The title concludes my thoughts regarding the film, Quills. It also represents my attitude towards this world.

The movie, Quills, was inspired by the stories of Marquis de Sade, who was an atheist, an extreme freedom philosopher and a very controversial erotic writer. The English word, sadism, is derived from his name.

The brief plot of the movie goes on like this:

Marquis was prisoned in a madmen asylum overseen by a liberal Abbe. To cure Marquis, the Abbe encouraged him to write. With helps from a chambermaid, Madeleine, Marquis's stories leaked out and got published. His erotic stories became popular among people and the infamous popularity soon called for misfortunes. Emperor Napolean banned Marquis's stories and dispatched Dr. Royer Collard to tighten the administration of the asylum. That is where the movie begins its own story. With each of Marquis's fightings to write, the policy was further tightened and more misfortunes happened. The movie ends with the death of Madeleine, Simone's turn into a prostitute from an innocent angel, the Abbe's self-destruction into madness and Marquis's final relief.

In the story, there are several contrast characters -- Dr. Royer Collard and Marquis; Madeleine and Dr's young, superficially virginal wife, Simone. The Abbe himself also contrasts to Marquis, who does not believe in God.

Dr. Collad and Marquis stand on the two ends of spectrum in moral, at least, on the surface. Marquis never pretends to be a Saint. He is not shamed of being a libertine and an atheist. He is whom he claims to be. Dr. Collad, on the contrary, is a beast with a human-being's form, an evil with moral's outfit. He is a cruel old man who has no pity with other people. It was he that cruelly locked the cell's door while he knew that Madeleine was in danger inside. Marquis , in another cell, bursted in tears for being unable to save her. Who is moral in front of God, if there is one?

Madeleine assisted Marquis to spread his stories. She helped other patients in the asylum. She secretly loves the Abbe. She likes marquis's erotic stories. She said that "I imagined to play a part in those dirty stories so I could be a good girl in this real world". And, she died as a virgin. Madeleine is like a virginal lotus out from a dirty pond.

Unlike Madeleine, Simone was raised up in a church and received good education. She did not know of any earthly thing before marrying to Dr. Collad. She reads Marquis's stories, and before long, she seduced other man and indulged in lust.

Both Madeleine and Simone read same stories and why did they behave so differently? Who should be blamed, the reader Simone or the author Marquis? Why does looking-good thing turn bad and looking-bad thing good? After all, Marquis said that he only 'records' what truly happened. Why are people so weak in oppose to the truth? Otherwise, how can we explain the Abbe's final madness? Perhaps that is why Marquis chose to be an atheist since he has seen the hell.

Indeed, it is so difficult to tell what is good and what is bad in this world.

Example of Economic Hit Man

This is a contemporary example of Economic Hit Man.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9642196

--
--peter
http://lishihwei.googlepages.com/home

Slaughterhouse-Five

Kurt Vonnegut passed away last night. This was the news being broadcasted on NPR when the radio alarm waked me at 7:30 AM. I knew Vonnegut, but I thought he was dead long time ago. I did not realize he was a living icon until he now is surely dead.

To be precise, I don't know Vonnegut himself, but his masterpiece, Slaughterhouse-Five. To be more precise, I forget about the content of the novel, but keep all memories associated with it. They happened in that hot and humid summer in 1992; they happened when I liked one girl very much. In 1992, during the summer, I stayed at school and took Japanese 101 in the neighboring QingHua U. since that girl also took the class. To see her is my only motivation to take the course. I thought that I may have a chance to chat with her after the class on the way back to Chiao-Tung U.

Days in and days out. My Japanese and other things (I took other classes, too) improved a lot except my relationship with her. She was still like a dove which always kept a safe distance from me, and I was just too shy to say anything beyond "Hello. It is so hot today." A dumb conversation easily choked a budding love affair. I was troubled by this situation very much, but just did not know how to fix it.

To attend Japanese 101, I had to pass by a big white building in Qing-Hua U., and I was very curious about that building. One day, in order to expel my sorrow, I decided to visit it. It was the main library. Comparing to the one in Chiao-Tung, this library contains much more novels--the fine, contemporary but classical ones. Slaughterhouse-Five is among them. For the rest of the vacation, I constantly visited the library during weekends. I picked up a looking-good novel, took a table close to the window, dived into the novel and forgot about the girl.

I now can't fully recall what Slaughterhouse-Five is about, but all memories associated with the book in that hot summer in 1992 come back to me as vivid as they just happened yesterday.

秋游波城

秋游波城 2001文蕾作

深秋枫正红，携家波城游。
久闻哈佛名，直奔剑桥头。
红叶映新骄，旧舍叙史悠。
踊摸铜像足，愿得子孙优。
又行查理河，垂柳拂岸秀。
两校依水立，严谨数麻工。
漫步自由道，细述自由说。
兴尽披霞归，友人烧烤候。
美酒伴佳肴，喜极展歌喉。
畅谈陈年趣，不知夜已旧。
当即许好友，它日再来游。

Homemade Bread

Recently, I developed my own philosophy of craftsmanship and I decided to apply it. Artisan bread is one of things I can contribute to.

The result is quite successful. The bread tastes great under the cherry blossoms. Here is my secret for its quality:

• 3 1/3 cups of flour, 1 1/2+ cup of warm water, 2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of instant active yeast.
• Mix all of them together, roughly kneading into a shaggy ball.
• Rest the ball for 10-15 minutes.
• Kneading the ball for another 10-15 minutes until it becomes smooth.
• Pre-heat the oven to 'warm' level. Put the mass into a big mix bowl covered with a wet sheet of paper-tower. Put the bowl in the oven for rising.
  
• Leave it in the oven for 8 hours.
• On a well-floured surface, roll the flour mass and cut it into four balls. Each of balls can be stuffed with minced garlic.
  
• Pre-heat the oven for 420 F.
• Put the balls into the oven for 40 minutes.
  

The reason why resting the mass for 10-15 minutes is to let the fabric of flour reorganize themselves. This is what I learned from the book. It speeds up the whole process, then reduces the number of kneading, then reduces the exposed surface to oxygen, and therefore, increases the flavor of the bread. Raising in the oven is my idea. Oven is a perfect place for raising since it is a closed environment with controllable temperature setting. The ideal temperature is 70-80F and that is why I preheat the oven with 'warm' setting. Holes in bread is a key to a successful bread. The more holes the bread has; the softer the bread is. The number of holes depends on the degree of raising. That is why I chose to use instant yeast and 8-hour duration for raising. Moisture also directly contributes to the softness of bread. More water during the mixing stage makes softer bread. Bake the bread in high temperature first, and the hardened surface of the bread encapsulates water inside.