My friend Tina sent me a now long expired link to a story on AOL news about Rogue waves.
I found it very interesting. I'd always heard about rogue waves, and I'm surprised that the scientists are just now looking at them. Personally I've only seen 20-30 footers - Kinda scary in a 50' sailboat! That was during the "Christmas Winds" down island - all the way from Antigua to the Grenadines. Makes you wonder why that's also the beginning of charter season! My favorite trick as all the guests sat green-faced in the cockpit was to make bread. There was a gimbled stove to sit it on to rise and bake so it was still. By the time it was done, everyone had been sick and terrified all day, and they were starving! Made for some excellent tips! Of course I got a few bruises from flying across the galley and slamming into hard surfaces on the other side, but the punters were fascinated watching me sitting on the galley floor with a large bowl in my lap.
My recipe was really easy - my pal Karen still swears by it...
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 Tbsp Honey
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp dry yeast
4 cups flour
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
- Mix water, honey, salt and yeast in a bowl. Allow to rest till yeast starts to bubble. (5-10 min.)
- Add flour a little at a time until dough pulls away from side of bowl. (Not all flour will be needed.)
- Turn dough onto a well floured surface. Sprinkle flour onto the dough and cover hands in flour.
- Cut dough into 2 pieces and shape into long loaves by gently rolling and stretching it between hands.
- Place loaves on a well greased baking sheet, cover and allow to rise in a warm place for 20 min.
- Make shallow diagonal shashes in the top of each loaf and spray with salted water. Bake 20 min, and cool on wire rack. (Mine never had a chance to cool - just get the butter ready!)
- To freeze loaves, bake only 15 min, cool completely and wrap in plastic. To reheat, spray with salted water and cook at 450 for 10 min. (Keep this in mind when you're preparing to do a delivery...)