Steak and Salad with a hunk of whole grain bread on the side...

I've been reading through this cookbook, King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking, since I bought it from Amazon a few weeks ago and finally picked out a recipe to try. This book is filled with recipes calling for flours and ingredients I've yet to use, like barley flour, which is one ingredient feature in today's round of baking.

I went for the fairly basic recipe of Rosemary-Asiago Chop Bread. Because this bread uses mainly whole wheat and barley flour, don't be disappointed as it will not really bake into a high rising loaf. We found the bread to not be too "wheaty" as the barley flour seems to pacify the stronger taste. Once the dough has risen for the first time, it is easily flattened into a large oval to begin an interesting filling process. On one side of the dough, chunks of sharp Asiago cheese are placed on top and then covered with the other half. This is then formed into a circle and placed in a cake pan where you get to have a little creative fun! Using a bench scraper, you randomly chop all over into the dough to create a ragged top so the chunks of cheese are allow to peek through.

As this rises and goes through the baking process, the dough slowly "heals" the cuts you made and the cheese melts into gooey pockets of love. Rosemary was an excellent choice of herb as it is very distinct and matched well with the Asiago. I choose to cut the bread into chunky wedges, but you could slice this into thin pieces that would make for a fantastic piece of toast.

Dinner tonight, Garlic-Chile Flank Steak, was the topping for a quick salad I threw together. I marinated the steak for a couple hours in a mixture of fresh garlic, white vinegar, canola oil, ground ancho chile, oregano and cumin. This combination gave the steak a complex smoky flavor, without adding much heat. Ancho chilies are just dried poblanos, which are more mild and sweet than spicy. If you can't find them, you could use chili powder - but do add a small pinch of cayenne for a little kick. We prefer steak to be around medium to medium rare, so I cooked it until the center was still fairly pink. Under the steak was just a quick mix of crisp romaine, fresh baby spinach, carrots, bits of goat cheese and toasted walnuts. This recipe also gave us just enough extra steak to make a killer sandwich for lunch tomorrow!

Recipes
Rosemary-Asiago Chop Bread
Garlic-Chile Flank Steak