Babka saga finale

Don't ask why I dragged this out into three installments, when it was an easy one-afternoon project. As I've observed with other eastern European delicacies, the dough itself is only slightly sweet (it's hard to taste any sweetness in it at all with a sugar-loaded American palate like mine). But contrasted with the chocolate it's wonderful. Peter doesn't give very specific instructions for baking for each way that you can shape the bread (loaf, coffee-cake style in a tube pan, or braided like this), so FWIW, my kranz-style loaf took 40 minutes (rotated once halfway through) to reach the desired 185 degree internal temp. Some of the edges burned just slightly, but nothing too bad. I am so glad I finally made this bread. Half of it did indeed go to the neighbors, so we'll see what the verdict is on authenticity/overall deliciousness from an objective third party. :) Next up (after moving!): Polish poppyseed roll. I still have to decide on a recipe for that one...

Babka saga part II

While the first rise was finishing I made the filling:

Herr Reinhart says to grind the chocolate in a food processor, or if you don't have one, chop it as small as possible. This was my best effort. (The lighter stuff is the cinnamon). We'll see how it works.

This is the chocolate I used. The price is right, and the flavor is oh so wrong. In the right way.

This is the filling once the butter has been added to the chopped chocolate and cinnamon. Do you know how much restraint it took me not to eat this as is?

And this is the soft pillowy dough rolled out to the size of a small car, ready to be rolled up jellyroll style and rocked gently to about 18" in length. Since my loaf pans are packed away I opted to make my bread kranz-cake (Israeli) style, which means braided. I think it's prettier this way too, even though my braid is a little too loose, so I'm hoping the chocolate doesn't start falling out of the bread and melting everywhere when it bakes.

I am now waiting on the second rise to finish, at which point I will bake the bread...

Just kidding!

Today, some nine days before moving, against the common sense which would dictate focusing my energies on things like packing, or even just sitting down and thinking through logistics, I was overcome with the need to make, at long last, Peter Reinhart's chocolate cinnamon babka. Why I have waited so long, having owned this magnificent book for two years, I cannot tell. If it comes out well it might make a proper goodbye gift to our Polish neighbors who have been the best neighbors anyone could ask for; if it comes out poorly, well, it will be preparation for when I move into a house with a gas oven. *mournful sigh* I seriously am not sure what effect that will have on my baking mojo (what mojo I have), because all I hear is that electric ovens are so much more reliable, so much better for bread baking (because the heat is less dry, which makes for better crusts), etc., etc. I have never had gas appliances of any kind and frankly gas scares me. I think of it as "the silent killer." No offense to heart disease which I think is what rightfully claims that title. I will probably have five carbon monoxide detectors in our 2000 sq ft house. I exaggerate, but the uncertainty of how things will go with this new oven makes me want to especially cherish this my last (for real---I am packing away the mixer this weekend!) baking project in the apartment.

And as a special last-baking-project-ever-for-now feature, I am going to take pictures at each step of the way like any self-respecting food blogger normally does.

Cream the butter and the sugar just til mixed.

Mixing in action. (I never promised the photos would be any good.)

Once the four egg yolks are added the dough becomes a lovely golden yellow.

And that is where we find ourselves: I kneaded the dough (what a dream to knead--soft as a pillow) for a couple of minutes after adding the flour, milk, and yeast to the butter-egg yolk mixture, and now I await the end of the first 2 1/2 hour rise. As an aside, the recipe calls for 2 Tablespoons of yeast, which is a huge amount for one (albeit large) loaf. I was a little worried about it being a typo and having the dough explode while it sits out for two hours at room temp, so we'll see. 

move in progress

Dinner is going to look a little more like this for a while, so after a baking marathon today, I don't know how much cooking I'll be doing for a couple of weeks...

Chicken pocket pies

I was hooked on cream cheese pastry the first time I encountered it in a Cook's Country quiche Lorraine recipe. I have a very poor track record when it comes to successfully making "regular" pie crusts, whether all-butter, a mixture of butter and shortening, or (my most successful combination) butter and lard. I hate rolling out dough and I either add too much water or not enough--you would think this would be easy enough to recognize and rectify, but apparently I am missing some brain cells that help normal people deal with such things. So often I've ended up smushing the dough into the pie plate, which at best makes it shrink and at worst makes it tough. Sometimes it turns out passably, but it always tries my patience to the limit.

It is a much happier story when I use a combination of butter and cream cheese (and in this case, a little heavy cream), because the dough comes out uniformly moist, soft, and extremely forgiving of novice handling. How forgiving? Well, when I last made these pocket pies, I left out 1/2 cup of flour and didn't realize it until I had the two disks neatly wrapped and ready to chill in the fridge. I had to unwrap them, mix in the remaining flour, and rewrap them. Guess what? They were still perfect. Not a hint of toughness.

This recipe is adapted from Lucinda Scala Quinn's Mad Hungry. The last time I made them I tried using fennel leftover from the stuffed squash. It made the kitchen smell positively glorious and tasted terrific. I've also subbed blue cheese for the Parmesan, keeping the original carrot/onion/celery trio (just do about 1/3 cup of each, chopped). This is about as make-ahead as a recipe can get, designed to be kept on hand in the freezer, and it's a pretty quick process all told. They make the perfect fall lunch with a nice seasonal salad.

Chicken pocket pies with fennel and Parmesan
Yield: 10 mini-pies
adapted from Mad Hungry, by Lucinda Scala Quinn

For the filling:
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast (about 5 oz)
2 tsp. vegetable oil
1/3 c. water
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 c. onion, minced
1/2 c. fennel, diced small
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. fresh thyme, minced, or a pinch dried
2 Tbsp. flour
1 1/4 c. low-sodium chicken broth (if not low-sodium, reduce sea salt to 1/4 tsp)
1/4 c. fresh grated Parmesan
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice

1. In a small skillet, heat the oil over med-high until shimmering. Pat the chicken breast dry, season with salt and pepper, and place in the hot skillet. Cook til lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Flip chicken, add the water, cover, and reduce heat to low. Cook until chicken registers 160 on a thermometer, about 7-10 mins. Remove to a plate to cool, then shred into bite-size pieces with two forks and/or your hands. You should have 1 heaping cup of chicken.

2. Meanwhile, in a 10" skillet melt the butter. Add the onion and fennel and saute til softened and lightly browned, 4-5 mins. Stir in the salt, thyme, and flour and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Slowly stir or whisk in the broth. Bring to a simmer and cook til thickened, about 2 mins. Off heat, stir in the chicken, Parmesan, and lemon juice. Transfer to a bowl and chill in the refrigerator at least til at room temperature.

For the pastry:
8 Tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 c. heavy cream
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups + 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
(for egg wash)
1 egg
1 Tbsp. water

1. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese in a large bowl til combined. Add the cream and (this is why you want a large bowl, because it splatters) beat til combined. Add the flour and salt and beat on low until a ball of dough forms.

2. Divide the dough into two pieces and wrap in plastic, forming into disks as you do so. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight (if you have it in the fridge more than a few hours, let it sit on the counter for 15 minutes before trying to roll it out).

To assemble:
1. Lightly flour a work surface and a rolling pin. Working with one disk of dough at a time, roll out the disks to about 12" in diameter. Using an overturned bowl that measures about 5-6" across, cut out 3 circles per disk. Gather the scraps and re-roll once more, cutting out more circles.

2. Place a scant 1/4 cup of chicken filling off-center on a dough circle. Wet edges of dough and fold to form a half-moon shape, pinching the edges to seal and then crimping sealed edge with a fork. Repeat with remaining dough circles and filling.

3. If freezing for later use, place pocket pies in a single layer on a large plate or baking sheet, then transfer to freezer for several hours, until frozen solid. At this point you can dump them all into one freezer bag and keep them in the freezer up to a month or so. If serving immediately, place pocket pies on a large plate and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes. Preheat your oven to 375. Brush the tops of the pocket pies with the egg wash and prick twice with the tines of a fork. Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Let rest 5 minutes before serving. If baking from the freezer, do not thaw; brush with egg wash and bake 25-30 minutes or til golden brown. (It's probably a good idea to prick them with a fork halfway through baking.)

Spicy sweet potato coconut soup

Last winter I was flipping through Parade for the only reason I ever flip through Parade: the inspiring celebrity interviews. Not. I look through it in case of coupons (once I got one for a free McDonald's coffee drink that wasn't half bad) and throw it out, disdainfully passing over any other content---especially the awful recipes "developed" by the latest celebrity with a cookbook. Not even celebrity chefs, just celebrities who used their image to "write" useless cookbooks that might make them some much-needed extra cash... Anyway, once last year there was a column with recipes from Bobby Flay, who is legit enough for me, and since this soup was based on my favorite fall vegetable, I made it. I recall my husband enthusiastically approving it, while I was more mild in my praise, only noting beside the recipe that it "had potential." So last week I found myself with sweet potatoes and cool-ish weather, and thought I'd try and develop that potential.

Probably the biggest mistake I made the first time around was substituting light coconut milk. This time I thought I'd just try adding less full-fat coconut milk, which I could always increase if needed, and I found that 2/3 the original amount did the trick.

Spicy Sweet Potato-Coconut Soup
Yield: about 6 first-course servings
adapted from Bobby Flay

2 1/2 Tbsp. vegetable oil, divided
1 small onion, diced small
1 (2") piece fresh ginger, grated
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
3 cups chicken stock or low-sodium canned chicken broth
1/2 c. water
1 to 1 1/2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into large dice, plus 1/2 of a small sweet potato, peeled and diced small, divided
1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes
2 Tbsp. finely chopped cilantro
1 c. coconut milk (do not substitute light; Chaokoh and Thai Kitchen are my favorite brands)
1 Tbsp. honey
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp. butter

1. Heat 1 1/2 Tbsp. of the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute the onion and ginger paste until onions are soft, about 5 minutes. Add the 1/4 tsp. pepper flakes and cook just til fragrant, then stir in stock and water. Bring to a boil, then add the diced sweet potatoes. Simmer until potatoes are soft, about 20-30 mins depending on how large you cut them. (I hate cutting sweet potatoes so my cubes tend to be big and take at least 25 mins.)

2. Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 Tbsp. of oil with the butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Saute the 1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes til fragrant, then add the small diced sweet potato. Cook, covered, stirring occasionally until softened, about 15 minutes. Uncover and increase heat to medium-high. Stirring often, brown potatoes on all sides, about 5-7 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl, season with salt and pepper, and stir in the cilantro.

3. After letting the hot potato/stock mixture cool for 5 minutes, transfer to a blender in batches and puree. Return to the empty saucepan and add the coconut milk, honey, and cinnamon; simmer on low til slightly thickened and warmed through. Season to taste, adding more pepper flakes or salt if needed. Serve with the diced potato relish.

my ground veal education

I bought ground veal for the first time yesterday. As often happens with impulse buys, in the moment I felt sure of having seen a hundred intriguing recipes calling for veal, which I had never bought due to the difficulty of finding it. Now Publix carries Strauss "free-raised" ground veal and perhaps as an introductory promotion had it on sale at half price this week. After bringing it home I engaged in another consequence of impulse buys: an  inordinate amount of time surfing Epicurious and leafing through my cookbooks. It turns out you can use ground veal in bolognese or meatballs, meatloaf of course, or some Indian dish that looked sort of interesting (keema). That's about it. I've already made pasta twice this week, we don't love meatloaf, and for keema I would have had to buy more ingredients. So I opened the package to divide it up into portions for the freezer, and to my squeamish surprise I found several grayish-blue spots distributed throughout the meat. Since I immediately thought "mold?!" I turned to the internet for guidance. The internet didn't have an answer to the eloquent query, "blue gray spots ground veal mold?" but now I do, thanks to a brief phone conversation with Jim at Strauss Inc., and I will pass it along so all the world may know: it's just ink---food grade ink that the USDA uses to label the veal before it is ground. Sometimes the marked parts get mixed in with the trimmings that end up as ground meat in a package that you buy and open up and freak out over because it looks like mold. But it's not! Jim sounded very confident on this point. And there you have it.

Tomorrow I'm planning to make at least a batch of bagels and something dessert-y, because I haven't baked a thing except Jiffy corn muffins (!) since my pumpkin spree and I'm feeling some baking withdrawal coming on. I saw Lisa Yockelson's new baking book (how could I not---it was hot pink) at Barnes & Noble tonight and flipped longingly through it for about 10 seconds. I have a guilt complex about browsing in stores where I never buy anything because of Amazon + cheapness. But I digress. Saturday I made chocolate sorbet. Sounds pretty underwhelming, right? Wrong. So very, very wrong. I needed an influential food blogger's prodding to  try this out of A Perfect Scoop, and I'm so glad I did. The only thing is that like many sorbets, this stuff freezes hard. That just means you burn approximately half of the calories you are about to consume while scooping it out. Perfect.

I am almost sick of pumpkin.

I truly never thought I would say those words, but after a five-day period in which I made pumpkin bread, pumpkin scones, pumpkin oatmeal cookies, pumpkin ice cream, and pumpkin granola bars, I'm almost there. The tried-and-true pumpkin bread was as good as I hoped, though I made them into muffins and they did this weird collapsing thing that I think happens when I add batter from the bottom of the mixing bowl that didn't get mixed in so well with the leavener. The cookies were initially promising: when I tried the first batch, which I baked til almost crisp, I thought they were quite good. But they softened considerably over the course of the next day and I was no longer crazy about them, to say the least. The softness just made them taste too fatty and the pumpkin flavor was anemic. Maybe I should have baked them longer. The pumpkin ice cream I adapted from David Lebovitz. And I did adapt (used 1/2 c. evaporated milk instead of the whole milk, and half-and-half for the rest; didn't have brown sugar and subbed about 2 Tbsp molasses to the custard mixture), so don't let my review necessarily dissuade you from making the recipe; however, if you do not like pumpkin pie, you will not like this ice cream. You might say "duh," but I was surprised at how much it resembles the polarizing pie, from the texture to the spice mixture. I love pumpkin pie but think this iced incarnation is just a little too odd for me to want to make again. Then there were the pumpkin granola bars: in short, a failure. I took note of her warning about the bars being soggy if underbaked, so I took them well into "golden-brown" territory, but to no avail. Still soggy, weird flavor, and then I spent some time crumbling them onto a cookie sheet and trying to salvage the mess by making granola. That didn't work either. The cranberries were burning before the moisture from the pumpkin evaporated, and I have to work up the nerve to throw it all out because I really don't like it. Anyway, to end this pumpkin saga on a happy note, the scones were most delicious, though the dough was a bit more difficult to work with than other plain scone recipes I've tried. I managed, and though my scones look quite a bit smaller and more "rustic" than hers, they're the perfect mid-day snack with coffee. I could eat the spiced glaze with a spoon. Not that I did. Oh no, I have restraint.

So I have a strange kitchen science-related problem/question for those inclined. This was so weird to me. I made a big batch of chicken stock last week. For once none of my recipes for the week called for even a little bit of stock, so I packed it all up into freezer bags and put it in the freezer. In case of spills, I put a large ceramic plate on the bottom of the freezer, then lay two quart-size bags of stock on top of it. (The rest of the bags were laid in various places around the freezer with a distinct lack of similar care, but that is not relevant to our problem.) The next day, I was shocked when I opened the freezer to stack the frozen bags of broth and remove the plate, because after picking up the first of the two bags on top of the plate, I went to grab the one underneath it and found it completely unfrozen! Cold, but not even a chunk of ice in it. If someone could explain to me the mechanics/chemistry by which a ceramic plate going into the freezer with two bags of broth stacked on top will keep the bag on the bottom from freezing at all, I would be very impressed. Obviously there was little air circulation around the bag sandwiched between the plate and the other bag; but it is beyond my unscientific self how this could prevent it from freezing at all, after 24 hours. So. I will award a food-related prize to the person with the most plausible answer. Not really. Well, maybe. Depends how busy I am with this moving thing, and how far away you live...

Stuffed acorn squash with barley; skillet cherry cobbler

I made a couple of new recipes from my new but well-used Cooking for Two books last weekend that I want to review. First, from CF2 2011, the stuffed squash. Here is a vegetarian entree to try on the most protein-demanding male (or female) you cook for. I was enthralled with this recipe, enough to want to type it out (in my own words, of course) and post here. For one thing it has gotten me hooked on fennel, which I thought I did not like. These were very filling portion sizes to me, and there is enough texture variation between the barley, pine nuts, and fennel that it's not just a mushy blend of squash with cheese on top. I would call this a restaurant-quality meal. The next time we have temperatures, say, below 80, I am making it again. I don't know when that will be. :(

Stuffed Acorn Squash with Barley

Cooking for Two 2011

1 (1 1/2 lb) acorn squash, halved and seeded

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1/4 c. pearl barley (not hulled)

1/2 fennel bulb, trimmed of stalks, cored, and chopped fine

1 shallot, minced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp. ground coriander

1/4 tsp. minced fresh thyme 

1 1/2 oz (3/4 c.) grated Parmesan cheese (I used grana padano)

2 Tbsp. minced fresh parsley 

2 Tbsp. pine nuts, toasted and chopped

1 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Balsamic vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and spray with Pam. Brush the cut sides of the squash with about 1 Tbsp of the oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and place cut side down on the baking sheet. Roast in lower-middle section of oven for 45-55 mins., or until a knife can slip into the flesh with no resistance. Remove from oven and increase oven temp to 450.

2. Meanwhile, bring 2 cups water to boil in a saucepan. Stir in the barley and 1/4 tsp. salt and cook over medium heat until the barley is just tender, about 20 minutes. Drain and set aside.

3. In the now-empty saucepan, heat the remaining Tbsp. olive oil over medium heat til shimmering. Stir in the fennel and shallot and cook about 5 minutes, til softened and lightly brown. Stir in the garlic, thyme, and coriander and cook just til fragrant. Off heat, stir in the barley, 1/2 c. of the Parmesan, parsley, pine nuts, and butter. Taste and season with more salt or pepper if needed.

4. Scoop out the roasted squash flesh, leaving 1/8" thickness in each shell so it can support the filling. Fold squash into the barley mixture, then mound the filing into the squash shells. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 c. Parmesan and bake on the upper-middle oven rack til cheese is melted, about 5-10 minutes. (You could probably also try the broiler for 5 mins, so you get some browning--I would do that next time.) Drizzle balsamic vinegar over each portion and serve.

For dessert that night I made the skillet cherry cobbler (CF2 2010) with David Lebovitz's Philly-style vanilla ice cream (still my favorite), and while it was good and typically ingenious in its technique (the number of interesting dishes that CI has you use ovenproof skillets for has me committed to buying only ovenproof skillets for the rest of my life), I'm not that motivated to type it out. It is a great use for those huge jars of Morello cherries in syrup that I always buy at Trader Joe's without having a specific purpose for them. This jar had been languishing in my pantry since last fall...

Macaroni & cheese, and my favorite chocolate cookie

Update on the lighter mac-and-cheese referenced in a previous post: I made it, it did in fact yield 5 servings as promised ("3/8 lb. macaroni" for some reason didn't sound like nearly enough, but it was), and we loved it. Cabot 50% cheddar was about as good as reduced-fat cheddar can be, I think. So I'd give it a 7/10, though on occasions I will still make my "full-fat" stovetop recipe, especially when using it as a side. Leftovers were okay: they held up better than the full-fat recipe. My resistance to buying Best Light Recipe (from which the mac-and-cheese came) is weakening, rapidly.

I am planning to bake something that uses coffee today, as I've had a sudden change of opinion about the cheap Trader Joe's dark roast coffee I've been buying on and off for three years. Maybe TJ's changed distributors, or maybe I've gradually been spoiled by the Peet's and Starbucks that I buy at the regular grocery stores when on sale, because now the TJ's stuff just tastes, well, tasteless. I couldn't bring myself to finish the tin, so I've been reserving it for a baking project or maybe ice cream.  Here's one of my favorite chocolate cookie recipes. For a while I didn't use nuts, but now I think the walnuts are just about necessary.

Chocolate espresso chews
1/2 c. + 2 Tbsp. flour
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips, divided
1.5 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 ounces (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. finely ground dark-roast coffee beans
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 c. chopped walnuts

1. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Melt 1 cup of the chocolate chips, the unsweetened chocolate and butter in a double boiler, stirring til smooth. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer on high speed, beat the eggs, sugar, ground coffee and vanilla extract until thick ribbons form and the mixture has doubled in volume (about 5 mins). By hand, stir in the melted chocolate mixture until thoroughly combined, then add the dry ingredients, chopped walnuts and the remaining chocolate chips. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Have ready some large baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Make golf ball-size scoops of dough, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Bake, in batches, 10 to 12 minutes; the tops will crack, but the cookies should be gooey inside. Cool on the baking sheets at least 1 minute before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for 2 to 3 days, or freeze individual cookies wrapped in foil and placed in a large plastic bag.

a quick and easy breakfast for two

Or breakfast-dinner, as we often have. I threw this together this last night and it hit the spot.

2 small-ish russet potatoes, peeled, grated on the large holes of a box grater, and squeezed dry in a dishtowel (grate the potatoes directly onto the towel, then roll it up and squeeze over the sink)
Salt and pepper
Pinch of garlic powder (optional)
2 large eggs
2 thin slices pancetta
3 Tbsp. butter, divided
Dill to taste
Hot sauce

1. In a 10" nonstick skillet, melt 1 Tbsp. of the butter over medium-high heat. With a fork, lightly toss the grated potato, about 1/4 tsp. salt, pepper, and garlic powder (if using) in a medium bowl. Dump into the hot skillet, using a large spatula to press the potatoes evenly over the surface. Cook about 5-6 minutes or until underside is golden brown, reducing heat if potatoes begin to scorch.
2. Slide the potatoes onto a large plate and add another Tbsp. butter to the empty skillet. Swirl to coat, and once melted, quickly invert the plate over the skillet so that the brown side lands up, preferably still in one piece. Cook another 4-5 minutes, occasionally shaking the skillet, then place the pancetta slices slightly off center and overlapping. Use the spatula to fold the other half of the potatoes over the side with the pancetta, and cook like this for another 1-2 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, fry the two eggs in another skillet with the remaining Tbsp butter until whites are just set. Sprinkle with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Cut the hash brown "half moon" into 2 pieces, then top each with a fried egg. Sprinkle with dill and serve with your choice of hot sauce (we love Frank's original with eggs).

second try at Indian

Last night I made tandoori chicken from BIR, and aside from the necessary tweaks that one must make when the smallest split chicken breasts you can find are at least half a pound heavier than the ones specified in the recipe (somewhere near America's Test Kitchen they apparently have them as small as 10 oz?), it was a success. I was surprised at how moist and juicy the meat was even after the extra 500 degree oven time.  The flavor from the marinade was nice, but the chutney was really a pleasant surprise: I liked it without even trying. Fruit and spices and salt and vinegar is a bit of a stretch for me, but I'm glad I made it. It paired very well indeed with the chicken, which was by no means spicy (neither was the chutney, really).

the one photo I bothered to take---mango chutney

The green beans (made before and loved) were disappointing: as I was trimming them I realized they weren't as fresh and "snappy" as usual, and I tried one last time, unsuccessfully, to find a good use for light coconut milk. I'm realizing that cooked applications simply are not going to work. The milk breaks and the resulting sauce is awful. So I have some leftover for smoothies and I am not going to sweat using a bit of full fat coconut milk in a side dish of all things, because there's just no replacing it.

Tonight I'm planning to try another new CI recipe that I've seen people rave about online: lighter mac & cheese with ham and peas. Recipe here. I am looking for other recipes just to use up the evaporated milk stockpile I have unwittingly built up over the past couple years, so any recommendations are welcome...

miscellanies

Well, lacking reliable access to a home computer lately has challenged my rigorous goal of writing something, every now and then, about what I've been doing in the kitchen. I've forgotten how to write with paragraphs and such, so I resort to bullet points.

* Most recently, I tackled pierogis again (Best International Recipe). Armed with relaxing (and appropriately Polish) Chopin in the background and a few deep breaths, I managed to push through frustrating dough problems without losing my cool. I still couldn't get the dough wet enough to make a smooth ball, even after adding more water than was called for---and I use a scale to measure flour to 1/8 of an ounce. I don't have a food processor as the recipe called for, but I don't think that should have materially varied from mixing with a pastry blender and my hands. It was far from "soft and malleable." The final yield was about half what it should have been, and the rolled-out dough a bit thicker than I would have liked it, but not anywhere near as bad as the first time. I also made sure and tasted the filling, seasoning it a bit more than I thought necessary, so blandness wasn't an issue there. I am still on a search for a lighter, easier-to-work-with dough recipe than CI provides (perhaps the problem is with me), and until then, I'll continue to cheat with wonton wrappers. Your babcia would disapprove, but boy, do those work in a pinch.

* I tried a new cookie recipe this weekend courtesy of David Lebovitz: gingersnaps (which are not snappy but soft) that happen to be fat-free. I thought they were not bad. Since I'm not a fan of candied ginger I simply left that out; the spice mixture was spot-on, and they didn't taste like they were dying for butter to help the flavor. The recipe is here.

* I decided it was time to try another chocolate cake recipe (someone has to test all the variations out there, for quality control), so I made CI's sour cream-fudge layer cake into cupcakes. They were quite tasty, but I'm spoiled by their "ultimate" recipe with the ganache in the center and the super light and fluffy texture. I think I would enjoy this recipe more as a layer cake, and I will definitely be making it again.

* I've had an old used bookstore copy of Marcella Hazan's Essentials for over a year now, and tonight I made my third recipe from it. Third. Pathetic. Anyway, it was good, if simple and restrained, and nowhere near as rich as the tomato-butter-onion sauce. It used up some pancetta I had and was quick and easy.

* Tomorrow is going to be Indian adventure day: I'm trying tandoori chicken (a CI recipe I've heard people rave about), with rice pilaf and a mango chutney, somewhat against my better judgment. I've never been tempted by descriptions of chutney. Oddly I remember my sister and I coming across the word "chutney" when we were younger and finding it hilarious for some reason.

* Never mind that it's going to get back into the 80s this weekend: I have my heart set on some kind of applesauce/spice cake. A recipe in Joy of Cooking looked intriguing when I was leafing through that the other night. This cookbook has its fair share of entertainment value as well, particularly in the variety meats section. E.g., a recipe for those who like to indulge in homemade head cheese. They subtitle it, "a well-liked old-fashioned dish." Simply: "Quarter a calf head. Clean teeth with a stiff brush, remove ears, brains, eyes, snout, and most of the fat. Soak the quarters about 6 hours in cold water to extract the blood. wash them. Cover with cold water." Etc. I cannot bring myself to type more. It is a dramatic thing to say, but I would almost certainly rather starve than bring myself to cook a calf's head, after brushing its teeth.

baking anticipation

While I'm at it, here's my list of desserts/baked goods that I will be making as soon as cool weather sets in:
1. Makowiec, per this Fresh Loaf recipe. It calls for the whipping of egg whites (my most dreaded baking-related task) but it seems it's just to lighten the filling, so I won't sweat it if (yet again) I fail to achieve stiff peaks. My husband has fond memories of his Hungarian grandmother making this bread for holidays. I've had bakery versions and am anxious to see if I can make a decent one at home.

2. Chocolate-dipped almond biscotti (recipe below). Besides the extensive oven time, they feel like such a fall/winter snack to me. These were one of the first successful things I ever baked. The recipe comes from a much-referenced copy of Gourmet's Casual Entertaining, Random House: New York, 2001. (Unlike many Gourmet recipes it is not on Epicurious so far as I can tell.)
1 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. grated orange zest
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 whole egg + 1 egg white
1/2 tsp. vanilla
3/4 c. whole almonds, toasted then coarsely chopped
6 oz. bitter- or semi-sweet chocolate, for dipping

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees and adjust a rack to the middle level. In a medium bowl combine the flour, sugar, orange zest, salt, and baking soda. In a large bowl, beat together the egg, egg white, and vanilla to combine. Add the flour mixture and beat just til combined. Stir in chopped almonds.
2. Use floured hands to form the dough into a 12x2" log and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until pale golden, about 45 mins. (Do not turn off oven at this point.) Cool the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then transfer the log, peeling off the parchment carefully if it sticks, to a cutting board. Use a sharp serrated knife to cut diagonally into 1/2" thick slices. Place slices back on the baking sheet and return to the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn slices and bake another 10 minutes, until crisp. Transfer biscotti to a rack to cool.
3. Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler, then dip the top (curved) edge of each cookie in the melted chocolate. Transfer them to a sheet of wax paper set on a large plate or baking sheet, then chill in fridge til chocolate is set, about 5 mins.
Yield: 18 cookies. If you don't dip them, you can keep them at room temperature for about a week. Once dipped, they can be held in the fridge for up to a day.

3. Gingerbread. I haven't yet found a perfectly moist, perfectly spiced cake, but I'm sure it's out there. This chocolate-chip variation is certainly a winner in its own right. I've been making it for several years. David Lebovitz's fresh ginger cake is also supposed to be fantastic.

4. Pumpkin "bread" (it's cake, let's be honest). Also a great Williams-Sonoma recipe I found years ago. I like making it into muffins, or just using a regular loaf pan (not their $30 specialty one) and watching the oven time accordingly. Pairing it with rich vanilla bean ice cream (this year I can make my own!) makes for an insanely good fall dessert.

5. Butter Rum Cake (from Lisa Yockelson's Baking by Flavor). I only make the cake and half the amount of glaze, never the rum custard sauce (as tempting as that sounds), and it's still a beautiful dessert with the most amazing texture. It's not greasy like pound cakes can be.

6. Dark chocolate & cherry bread pudding. This is a Pam Anderson recipe I actually have scribbled on a napkin stuffed into my recipe binder, though I'm sure it's online somewhere. I think I was waiting at the doctor's office and reading one of those women's magazines when I found this recipe and, knowing Pam's reputation, thought I should find some way to copy it. That was a while ago and I still haven't made it, but it is a priority this year.

7. Maple-Walnut Pear Cake. Another untried recipe, from David Lebovitz (Ready for Dessert). The flavors sound pretty amazing, so no explanation needed. It's also a smaller cake (one 9" pan), which is how I adjust most recipes for us, so that's a plus.

8. Sea salt caramels, recipe here: lacking true fleur de sel I used 3/4 tsp. coarse ground sea salt, and it worked. You just don't make caramels in the summer. After November they feel right.

9. Big apple pancake. We had this for Sunday "breakfast" (what we do for lunch after church) all the time last winter. It requires the same amount of oven time as a pan of bacon, so you put both in the oven and you have an easy, delicious breakfast 15 minutes later. It doesn't always puff up uniformly, so don't count on it being perfectly picturesque.

10. Biscuits. Cream, buttermilk, herbed, drop--it doesn't matter. To me nothing says a hearty winter meal like a fresh pan of biscuits, and I miss them.

come quickly, September...

Well, it looks like I've managed to survive (most of) another Southern summer without melting and/or complaining incessantly. I think I was better than ever about resisting the urge to use the oven, dishwasher, and any other heat sources in the kitchen as freely as I do when temperatures are more moderate. That and a list of summer meal ideas (which I didn't actually consult much; merely making it was some sort of psychological boost) helped a lot. But having had a taste of cool mornings lately, I am more restless than ever to start using my oven for middle-of-the-day baking projects and slow-cooked meats; I have always intensely looked forward to fall for many reasons, and as I cook more the anticipation grows each year. Spring and summer certainly have their culinary delights, but for me, primarily a baker, the prospect of cooler weather leading up to the best of all holidays (Thanksgiving, closely followed of course by Christmas) is more tantalizing than anything.

I started making a top ten list in my head of the dishes I will be making as soon as it cools down. They are:

1. Pork vindaloo (from Best International Recipe; review here). My Indian repertoire currently consists of this stew and a delicious recipe for coconut milk-braised green beans, so I can't speak to authenticity or anything, but just as a stew it is fantastic.

2. Spiced carrot soup (adapted from Cafe Bouloud, as printed in CI's Restaurant Favorites at Home). I've rarely made a soup with such complex flavors--the finish with fresh carrot juice is brilliant--and the smell of the carrots braising in coconut milk and curry powder is out of this world. The original recipe calls for shrimp, and it does work well, but I often just make it plain and serve with a hearty, interesting salad and bread.

3. Spanish-style pork loin with sherry-raisin vinaigrette. This was a seriously good pork roast and I wrote about it here.

4. Chicken in a pot (much more elegantly known by its French name, poulet en cocotte). I tried this once last year out of BIR, and it was quite good, though it took much longer to finish than indicated and that always gets me flustered. It was still, as promised, a very low-fuss way of evenly cooking a whole chicken while keeping it moist, and it tasted very French and refined. And wintry.

5. Any big old cheesy pasta casserole that takes two hours to bake--any at all. Pastitsio in particular. (Another nice thing about cooler weather is that my motivation to exercise is ten times what it is in the summer, which is good because pastitsio will make even me feel compelled to schedule an extra few minutes into my next workout. And I am not a calorie-counter.)

6. Thai chicken soup (tom kha gai), also from BIR. The lemongrass, the coconut milk, the sweat-inducing spice from the chiles and curry paste...I could eat this stuff every day.

7. Sweet potatoes: baked, in soups, in pies, anything. There's a mashed sweet potatoes with vanilla recipe in Restaurant Favorites that I also need to try. Cream, vanilla, butter, and the best vegetable ever. How could that go wrong?

8. Chowder. Specifically corn (with generous amounts of bacon) and clam. I was fairly addicted to this clam chowder last year.

9. Simple, one-dish meat and potato meals you stick in the oven and forget about, like this one. That was a good recipe. Also, braised beef with polenta and crusty bread. Lucky you, the beef recipe is on Google Books here.

10. A hundred variations on grilled cheese and only one (the best) cream of tomato soup. CI's 30-minute tomato soup, to be exact. I've tried their standard (more time-consuming) soup, too, and I think it has nothing on the quick one. I must have made this soup 100 times last year and never got the slightest bit sick of it. Below is my adaptation of the recipe.


Cream of Tomato Soup
adapted from Cook's Illustrated, Best 30-Minute Recipe
3 (14.5 oz) cans diced tomatoes
3 c. Swanson low-sodium or homemade chicken broth, plus maybe a little more
2 bay leaves
2 Tbsp. butter
1 onion, minced
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. tomato paste
2 Tbsp. flour
1/3 c. heavy cream
2 tsp. dry sherry

1. Put the tomatoes one can at a time into a strainer set over a large bowl. Squeeze out as much juice as you can: ideally you'll get 2 cups after all the cans are strained. Add broth to equal 5 cups of liquid. Bring the broth /juice mixture with the bay leaves to a boil in a medium saucepan, then cover and keep warm.
2. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large pot or Dutch oven over high heat. Add the drained tomatoes, onion, brown sugar, tomato paste, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Cook, stirring frequently, until the tomatoes look dry and are beginning to brown, 10-12 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.
3. Slowly whisk or stir in the hot broth mixture. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes to blend flavors.
4. Remove the bay leaves, then puree the soup in batches in a blender. (With hot liquids it's best to remove the little plastic cap inside the lid, and cover the hole with a thickly folded dish towel under your hand.) Return pureed soup to the pot and stir in the cream and sherry. Bring it just to a simmer, then remove from heat, season with salt and cayenne pepper to taste, and serve. (Yield: 6 servings. If you want to make this a day or two ahead, don't add the cream and sherry until you reheat it before serving.)

Black-eyed pea cakes: a belated review

A couple weeks ago I finally got around to making this delicious vegetarian take on black-eyed pea cakes from Restaurant Favorites at Home. This book is one installment in the Cook's Illustrated Best Recipe "series," if a line of cookbooks can be called such. Since I gather from fruitless Google searches that it is not widely reviewed online (probably because it was published in 2003, right around when blogs were gaining ground as a high school "fad," and further because it seems to have gone out of print since then), I want to try to review everything I make from it on this blog.

Since it was just two of us for lunch, I halved both components of this recipe (said to serve 6). I had tons of sauce leftover, and especially for lunch portions, 3 cakes each (which comes out to be the serving size) was a bit too much. I wouldn't call these dainty little things. Especially relevant for entertaining, you have the option of making the cakes ahead, up to the frying---ironically an overnight rest was deleted from the original restaurant recipe because of the challenges that planning ahead could pose for the home cook. I made the cakes the night before (which means you have to soak the black-eyed peas the night before that) and brought them most of the way to room temperature before frying, just to be safe. I wouldn't make the sauce ahead, as I thought the texture suffered quite a bit the next day(s). (Did I mention I had a lot left over?!)

My one major problem with the outcome was that while dipping them in the panko before frying, several of the cakes "crumbled" a bit, and a couple completely fell apart, making them un-fryable. But that was almost certainly due to the fact that I could not properly puree part of the beans (lacking a food processor), as the recipe tells you to do presumably to help them bind better. So I don't think that's a recipe problem: just be sure not to skip the puree.

Sauce in the making: looks like Christmas!

The sauce was very quick and easy, and pretty tasty. There's something so restaurant-esque to me about making a sauce that begins with a bunch of chopped stuff on the stovetop and ends in a smooth puree in the blender... Anyway, for me this sauce wouldn't be spicy unless you added a good deal more Tabasco. (I would want to try it now with the chipotle Tabasco I opened up the other night, which I found fairly addictive.)

The only pictures I took of the leftover cakes (which I put back in the fridge until frying the next day) were terribly out of focus and not worth posting. Overall I'd give this recipe a 6/10. Perfectly decent flavor, not too fussy, and a nice option for a Southern vegetarian (rare combination!) lunch or main course.

Orzo salad with serrano ham and roasted peppers

We tried serrano ham for the first time in this dish a couple nights ago, which I made based on an intriguing Epicurious recipe. Apart from M's reasonable point that it seemed like more of a side salad than a main dish, we both enjoyed it a lot, and I found it plenty for a light supper. I didn't take a picture because the end result looked kind of like a mess after I mixed it all up; it would be much prettier as a layered salad perhaps. I was surprised at how creamy and flavorful the dressing was: I've never made one that started out with equal parts almonds and water, but it definitely works.

Spanish orzo salad
Yield: 2 main-dish or about 4 side servings
(You will have a fair amount of leftover dressing; you may have to puree it again with a little water to return it to the proper consistency after a couple days in the fridge, as I've just discovered.)

1 small, or 1/2 a large, shallot, chopped fine
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 c. plus 2 Tbsp. blanched slivered almonds, toasted and cooled
1/2 c. water
1 Tbsp. sherry vinegar
3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 generous pinch piment d'espelette, or 1/4 tsp. hot sauce (like Tabasco)
1/8 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
4 oz. dry orzo, cooked al dente, then drained and tossed with a tsp. olive oil and spread out over a baking sheet to cool to room temp.
about half a 12 oz jar of piquillo, or regular red/yellow roasted peppers, rinsed and patted dry, then sliced thin
1 large slice serrano ham, sliced into ribbons
2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced into eighths

To make the dressing, combine the shallot, salt, 1/2 c. almonds, water, vinegar, oil, hot sauce or piment, and pepper in a blender; puree til completely smooth. Taste and season if necessary.

Scrape the cooled orzo into a bowl and combine with a couple spoonfuls of dressing. At this point you could assemble the salad in layers, or just mix the orzo with the ham, peppers, and reserved 2 Tbsp. almonds, then arrange the sliced eggs on top of each serving with another sprinkle of the piment d'espelette and/or drizzle of dressing.

Lemongrass-lime leaf soda

I love the idea of making "custom" sodas like this (which has 8 grams of sugar per serving as opposed to about 35-40 in a canned drink), because I feel like I should at least avoid sodas loaded with sugar on top of my regular dessert habit...This drink doesn't taste like a compromise at all. It's extremely flavorful and perfectly sweet, and if you can't find lime leaves, just double the amount of lime zest.

Lemongrass-lime leaf soda
Makes 12
from Bon Appetit, May 2011

Lemongrass-infused mixture:
1/4 c. lemon zest (from about 6 lemons)
1/4 c. lime zest (from about 8 limes)
20 kaffir lime leaves
2 stalks lemongrass, roughly chopped (you usually have to peel off the tough outer layers to be able to chop it easily)
2 cups water

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer about 5 minutes. Strain into a jar and let cool, then chill.

Simple syrup:
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. water

Heat in a saucepan over medium heat til sugar is dissolved, stirring occasionally. Pour into a jar and let cool, then cover and store in the fridge up to 1 month.

To assemble the drinks:
Fill a 12-oz glass with ice; add 2 Tbsp of the lemongrass mixture and 1 Tbsp of the simple syrup, then top off with about 1/2 cup of seltzer/soda water. Stir to combine and enjoy.

*sigh*

Naturally, right after I mention my love-hate relationship with food blogs, I discover this. And within that, this. Hostess cupcakes were my #1 junk food obsession as a child. Twinkies and Moon Pies I never understood: the thought of them still makes me gag. And I'd probably gag upon tasting a Hostess cupcake today, but in my memory they are immaculately sweet and gooey. I will be making this recipe as soon as... I can convince myself to buy marshmallow creme. Hm, I forgot there was marshmallow in the middle. Blech. Anyway, might as well go enjoy this newest expansion of Cook's Illustrated before they start charging $29.95 for it. ;)

"Focaccia? She's not here right now."

Today I came across this old (1987) NYT article in which the author recounts responses she got, like the one in this post's title, when phoning restaurants across the city in search of focaccia, which had just started to "make a dent" at the time. Funny to see her accurate prophecy about an increase in popularity. It reminded me I haven't yet made a single focaccia all summer, which should change this weekend.

This was bagel day, though, and thanks to a new baking sheet (actually old, just new to this purpose) that all but burned the bottoms of one batch meant to be given away, tomorrow will probably also be bagel day. Oh well. One of my experiments for this round was determining how many pans of bagel dough I can fit into my refrigerator on a normal day. Not really, but I did find that with some finagling I can do three batches at a time instead of just two.

The pan at the top is filled with egg bagels, which M had requested a while ago and I finally researched and made. Brown Eyed Baker, which is quickly moving to the top of my least obnoxious food blogs list*, has several posts on bagels, and the author actually had private correspondence with Peter Reinhart (I am starstruck) to find out what changes to make to his basic recipe in order to get egg bagels. Unlike BEB I used the Artisan Breads Everyday recipe I always do, but followed the same instructions for adding egg yolks and decreasing water. I had half of one while I was slicing and packaging the whole lot, mostly because I discovered too late that these were much softer and more fragile than regular bagels and so tore the first one apart while slicing. It didn't rock my world, but we'll see what the egg bagel connoisseur here thinks. That was really the only experiment; the other two batches are the same kind I've been making.


In other news, I think I found my heirloom tomato supplier for the rest of the summer at the Suwanee Farmers Market yesterday. I've never seen so many varieties of beautiful tomatoes. I only brought home a couple different kinds: the yellow brandywine I had in a salad was very nice, and I think Cherokee chocolate is the kind I found last summer and loved, so I also have a pound of those for tonight's dinner. Fresh tomatoes may just be worth suffering through a GA summer for. And that may be the most awkward sentence I have ever crafted.

* About food blogs and why I find them obnoxious: it's mostly because I can't simply handle them in their ubiquity and variety. Being as ADD as I am, if I read food blogs whenever I wanted I would a) never use the cookbooks I own, b) never use the cookbooks I check out from the library, c) never use the food I already bought for my "meal plan" (loosely so-called) that I meticulously map out with all sorts of frugal intentions at the beginning of the week, etc., etc. In short they are distracting and counterproductive for me because of my weakness. And I find that obnoxious. :)

of beef and other things

Well, despite meticulous preparations, my little steak dinner Saturday night did not go off without a hitch. I (probably irrationally) blame Publix for the rotten potato, and my own sorry self for the slightly overcooked filets...at least they were still delicious and tender, and overall the meal went acceptably according to plan. I ended up using almost all Manchego for the gougères, which turned out delicious. I took a cue at the last minute from my little Julia Child compendium and made a riff on her baked tomatoes provençal, filling them with smoked trout and topping them with garlicky bread crumbs.

first course

The baked potato fans could have used a little practice first, and I have extra gorgonzola topping still in the fridge waiting to be used on a non-rotten potato...one of those between the two of us turned out to be more than enough, though. They were tasty. I also turned to Julia Child for a new spinach preparation: you sauté the spinach just til wilted and then let it "braise" for 5 minutes or so in a little cream, which never binds to it as in (what I know as) creamed spinach. So it turns out lighter but still tastes like cream, which is never a bad thing!

High on the list of the meals that tempt me away from my resolution not to use the oven on ~95 degree days are red enchiladas. I use the beef variation of the recipe in Best International Recipe and few things taste better to me with a dollop of sour cream and a squeeze of lime juice. Unable to help myself, I made a batch for lunch today---yes, in the middle of the day, using a 400 degree oven for half an hour. But the smell of the beef cooking in the sauce alone makes it worthwhile. I love that these, unlike other enchiladas I've tried, do not totally fall apart upon reheating, and leftovers actually taste at least as good as fresh. As you can see in the picture, they also lack that greasy sheen characteristic of many Mexican restaurant enchiladas... as far as enchiladas go, I consider these quite healthy: tomato sauce, lean steak, calcium-rich cheese, and whole grain corn tortillas!

R.I.P. Sourdough seed culture #2: 7/5/2011-7/12/2011

Well, I spoke too soon. I'm going to do some serious web-scouring research before undertaking this again, because sourdough is maybe not as straightforward as I thought. I was dissuaded from moving to phase 3 on Thursday night after realizing that the description it had to match was "active and bubbling" (whereas I only really had bubbly starter), and by means of Youtube I confirmed that active starter actually bubbles up and moves continually like a little swamp in a bowl. Alas, that was the last I saw of any bubbly action, because for the past four days I've been nursing a very flat and bubble-less mess, pinching my nose through the awful smell (it went from pleasantly acidic to filling much of the house with a sewage-like odor), to no avail. Once I can get that smell out of my memory (and fully out of the kitchen), perhaps I will try again, with the pineapple juice this time and a very clear idea of what kind of "activity" I need to be looking for.

On a happier note, M's birthday is this weekend, and I gave him a choice of "menus" for a nice meal. He chose the least adventurous (i.e. no cuts of meat I've never even purchased before), perhaps wisely. :P I guess the unifying theme would be French-inspired? For apps, gougères (Michael Ruhlman's ratio); first course, a summer tomato salad probably with green goddess dressing; filet mignon with a red wine pan sauce, sides of blue cheese baked potato fans (they sound a little kitschy but it's an ATK recipe and looks worth trying) and braised leeks (ATK). For dessert he just wanted a classic yellow birthday cake (Smitten Kitchen's, I've used this for cupcakes before and it was excellent) with CI's foolproof chocolate frosting and perhaps also vanilla ice cream. Since cupcakes apparently aren't manly enough, I will halve the cake recipe and slice one layer horizontally so it's still a layer cake, but more reasonable for two people. It remains to be seen whether I can pull all this off at once: I have at least made the pâte à choux, steak, and leeks before. I've also made a few cakes in my day, so no problems there as long as we don't have any unreasonable expectations as to the appearance... Should be fun.

Chocolate-coconut sherbert

I've never been entirely sure what sherbe(r)t* is, and David Lebovitz can't even put his finger on it, but I don't care: I can't believe how good this stuff turned out. It's the first ice cream-type thing I've made that has a flawless texture. It's like frozen mousse. I used my stand-by, Trader Joe's 72% dark chocolate, and I might be afraid if I used semi-sweet that the ice cream would be too sweet. But the only real downside with this dessert is the danger of having it within easy reach in my freezer. And lucky you, this recipe is available online.

* I just discovered that sherbe(r)t is usually spelled without the second 'r.' I've always pronounced it as I spell it, sherbert. But "sherbet" is how DL spells it throughout his book. Weird.

Chicken stock: or, how to fool yourself into thinking summer is over

On this horrifically hot and humid day I am inside enjoying the evocative, cool-weather smell of chicken stock. I finally gathered enough chicken bones in the freezer to make some, and just in time. I really hate buying those little boxes of broth (except during holiday sales when I have coupons), knowing that it costs pennies and part of an afternoon to make a few perfectly serviceable quarts to keep in the freezer. Here is my usual recipe, adapted from Gourmet.

NOTES: I hardly ever have celery or thyme on hand, so take it from me that this stock is still very good without those things. I mostly gather the bones and rib sections from bone-in split chicken breasts, which are so cheap and easy to carve, and keep them in a bag in the freezer til I have enough. The biggest rookie mistake with stock, I think, is one I actually committed today (while I was drafting this post and doing laundry and making sherbert, which see below): letting it simmer too quickly, or worse, boil. You don't have to be super attentive with stock, but you do want to check now and then, especially at the beginning (when you have to be around to skim the foam anyway), that the liquid is just barely at a simmer (180 degrees is ideal). Otherwise, it will boil down too quickly, becoming concentrated and not yielding the amount you were trying to get. Probably it affects the flavor is some way too, but I don't know, I'm no connoisseur. Obviously. Due to this mistake it looks like I only got about two quarts today, quite a bit less than usual. Oh well.

Rich Chicken Stock
adapted from Gourmet magazine

3-3 1/2 lbs. raw chicken bones and/or wings
2 celery ribs, halved
2 carrots, halved
2 onions, unpeeled and halved
4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
6 parsley sprigs
2 thyme sprigs
12 black peppercorns
2 cloves
1 bay leaf
3-3 1/2 quarts (12-14 cups) water
1 tsp. salt

1. Combine all ingredients in a large (at least 8 quart) stockpot and bring to a simmer. Skim foam off the top as it rises, then let cook for 3 hours, maintaining a very gentle simmer and skimming occasionally.
2. Remove large solids with a spider or slotted spoon, then pour stock through a fine-mesh strainer into a large bowl or pot. Cool in an ice bath, then move to refrigerator.
3. If using immediately, skim off fat from surface first. After chilling for several hours, the fat will be much easier to remove off the surface of the broth; do this before returning to the fridge for up to 5 days or storing in the freezer for months. (I like making a couple ice cube trays full of broth for pan sauces and other small-amount uses: once frozen I dump the cubes into a bag, and then I can readily see how many tablespoons I have. The rest goes into various 1, 2, and 3-cup portioned bags.)

-------------

Alas, I still know it's summer because while the stock was simmering I mixed up David Lebovitz's chocolate-coconut sherbert, reputed to taste like a Mounds bar. Last time I jumped on an endorsement like that it didn't quite live up, but any combination of chocolate and coconut (and rum) is a hard thing to regret no matter how it turns out. The perpetual appropriateness of ice cream is definitely one of the few advantages to summer.

Oh, and speaking of DL, his ice cream sandwiches---let's say they are recommended with reservations. My first complaint is, who in their right mind in 2011 is going to eat two 3" cookies with ice cream sandwiched in between? I mean how do you justify that, even if you are physiologically able to eat it all in one sitting? And my second complaint is not really DL's fault, but as with all dark colored cookies (I've had this problem making "Oreos" before), it's very difficult to tell when they're done to the degree you want: here I wanted something fudgy and chewy, but they came out quite crisp. Easy solution: I will shorten the baking time when I next make these. Complicating that is my plan to seriously downsize the cookies as well. So we'll see. I have to say the flavor is absolutely spot-on, and I wouldn't change anything about the recipe formula itself.

miscellaneous goings-on

1) Sourdough bread is finally within reach after years of lazily wishing I could make it: I've captured wild yeast! This is my second go at Peter Reinhart's seed culture --> mother starter method for creating a sourdough starter, and unlike last time, it's going very well. I can't remember what happened with my attempt a year ago, except that nothing did: I didn't see much bubbling/activity at all, and so gave up after a few days. This time, however, things are looking bubbly and smelling pretty acidic, so I'll probably be moving to phase 3 of the seed culture tonight. I can't wait to try a rye loaf first.

2) Having grown up partly in Texas, I regard Mexican food with much fondness and would never turn it down, but I don't actually cook it much. Apart from a couple of good red and green enchilada recipes and the ability to make a decent salsa cruda, I don't actually know much about what goes into more complex Mexican dishes. I am very sorry that I did not "meet" Rick Bayless sooner. Several weeks ago I checked out one of his older cookbooks (RB's Mexican Kitchen), a very thorough treatment of all sorts of traditional Mexican everyday and "fiesta" food, and I still have it (renewed twice). Most recently I made the essential roasted tomatillo salsa with chipotle chiles (except I subbed arbol chiles per one of the variation ideas), and we liked it alright; it was sweeter than I expected, though I only added a pinch of sugar. For green salsas I prefer something more like the one in CI's enchiladas verdes, which roasts poblano peppers along with the tomatillos, and adds a fair bit of cilantro, too. But the smoky shredded pork tacos (tacos de picadillo oaxaqueño, on page 150) were out of this world. Exactly what I hoped for and then some. They were a "process" as far as taco fillings go, to be sure, but this was so much more than something to dump in a tortilla and slather with cheese and mediocre salsa. In fact, the meat with the picadillo (raisins and almonds) was so flavorful that all I served it with was a little cilantro. I'm very impressed and inspired by a lot of other recipes and techniques in this book.

3) In our household we have a special occasion coming up, and for it I'm considering flambéeing (steak Diane)... On the one hand, it could be really cool and help me overcome my pyrophobia, but on the other, it could, like, destroy M's birthday and our entire apartment building. :) Hm. Might be sticking with lamb chops instead.


4) On a whim I just baked some chocolate ice cream sandwiches (well, the sandwich part) from The Perfect Scoop, and they're cooling and making the house smell nice and waiting to be completed with the chocolate-peanut butter ice cream I made from the same book last week. I'll report on the outcome of those. Well, we already know the ice cream is good.

Traditional Andalusian gazpacho

I made the trek this morning to the awe-inspiring Dunwoody Farmers' Market, where I got some lovely, sweet cucumbers and a couple kinds of tomatoes from two different vendors. The tiny multi-colored heirlooms will go into pasta caprese later in the week, and the "regular" (I guess plum?) ones, which were very ripe, made me switch my meal plan around so that I could make gazpacho today.

Contrary to appearances, I don't actually love Spanish food; for one thing, I haven't cooked or eaten enough of it to judge, and for another, olives are one of the few foods I simply cannot eat in any form (except the oil), and they seem to show up in a lot of Spanish dishes. A couple summers ago, I tried making gazpacho, a Cook's Illustrated recipe (as with many popular dishes they have several versions, and I can't recall which I tried), and it was disappointing. I just didn't like the flavor or texture. I wanted to try again, knowing that there can be a wide range of gazpacho styles, so this time I turned to the Andalusian recipe in the first chapter of CI's Restaurant Favorites (it is adapted from Jaleo in D.C., where the famous José Andrés is chef).

The soup is nothing more than a slice of bread for thickener, garlic (which I just realized I forgot!), tomatoes, bell peppers (it called for green, I used yellow), cucumbers, sherry vinegar, and olive oil, pureed with enough water to make it the right consistency, then strained. I do not have a medium-mesh strainer as called for, so I tried to approximate what that would produce by using my fine-mesh strainer and adding back into the soup about half of the solids. The "garnish," which is much more substantial than I am accustomed to associating with the term, simply reprised the vegetables in small dice along with fresh garlic croutons. It was a great soup, and I'd make it again exactly as I did tonight, but I'm glad I cut back the yield to 2 servings so there were no leftovers. It's the sort of thing we wouldn't really crave, but once it's on the table, it seems right and tastes delicious. I served it with our old friend the "Spanish" tortilla, fully Americanized with Frank's sauce because I didn't feel like making Romesco, and ciabatta toasts with Manchego cheese. Which is one Spanish food I really am starting to like.

Southern-Spanish fusion

So I'm pretty sure Spaniards don't eat grits in any form, but I didn't care when I cooked these---much less when I ate them. I took the method and liquid to grits ratio from Cooking for Two 2010 but subbed and added ingredients to make them answer a craving for Spanish flavors, or what I know of them. These came out light and fluffy, and while M still isn't gung-ho about grits, he at least ate them without grumbling about how over-rated they are. Good enough.

Creamy baked grits "al estilo español"
Adapted from Cooking for Two 2010
(serves 2)

1 Tbsp. butter
1/4 c. minced onion
3/4 c. water
1/4 c. half-and-half (low fat or whole milk will work too)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. quick-cooking grits (not instant, not old-fashioned)
1/2 c. grated Manchego cheese
1/3 c. jarred roasted red peppers, rinsed, dried, and chopped
1 lg. egg, lightly beaten
1 scallion, sliced thin on the bias
generous pinch piment d'espelette, or hot paprika (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375. Melt butter in a 7" or 8" ovensafe nonstick skillet over medium heat; add minced onion and cook, stirring occasionally, til softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the water, half-and-half, and salt. Once at a boil, slowly whisk in the grits. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring frequently, til grits are thick and creamy, about 5 minutes.

2. Off heat, stir in all but 2 Tbsp. of the cheese, the chopped peppers, and the egg. Smooth grits into an even layer and sprinkle with remaining 2 Tbsp. cheese. Transfer to the oven and bake til cheese is melted and golden, about 15 minutes.

3. Remove skillet from oven and let stand on a trivet or rack for 10 minutes. (Be sure to keep a potholder over the handle as it will be extremely hot for quite some time.) Sprinkle grits with the scallions and piment or paprika if desired, and serve.

As usual, bacon is a fine accompaniment. And it can cook in the oven for about the same amount of time as the grits, on a lower rack.

a worthwhile slow cooker chicken recipe---can it be?!

Oh yes it can. Tonight we had this pulled jerk chicken, and it was outstanding. I have really no prior experience either eating or cooking Jamaican/Caribbean food---I doubt it was real authentic to serve the meat on hamburger buns---but looking at the ingredient list I thought the flavors sounded like they were worth a try. Besides that it was a very convenient and inexpensive recipe: I already had almost all of the marinade (the bulk of the recipe) ingredients in my pantry and fridge. The spiciness level was about a 5/10 to me; if you don't like heat you'll want to at least take the seeds out of the chile (I used habanero) before slicing into rounds, to avoid biting into one later. I also counted how many rounds I made before putting them in, so I could be sure to pull them out at the end.

Further notes: I halved the recipe but otherwise stuck to it pretty closely. My chicken was falling off the bone within 5 hours, and was possibly done a good while before that. I only turned the pieces once, but I think if you're making the full recipe with 4 lbs. of chicken that step is more important. For once I had no fresh cilantro on hand, and I never have fresh thyme, so I omitted both without trying to substitute. Oh, and "freshly squeezed orange juice"---give me a break. I don't think my dish suffered too much from the stale old Tropicana I used.

Didn't take a final result photo, but at least here's the view from the top of the slow cooker after putting everything in:

With the sandwiches I made yuca fries based off a couple of internet recipes, which did not turn out as well as I hoped. I might have crowded the pot because the oil temperature dropped way low for way too long after I added the fries, and I think it had an adverse effect on their texture. Kind of sad, and of course ketchup was no match for that mysterious spicy green sauce they serve with these at Papi's. Oh well, frozen yuca is cheap, so I'll have to try again with a little more research someday soon.

Skillet pasta primavera

Dishes like these are why I love Cook's Illustrated. Creative (at least I wouldn't think of cooking pasta in a skillet), carefully thought out, balanced, delicious. I made this for lunch out of Cooking for Two 2010; M's only complaint was, "where's the meat?," which was a) expected and b) irrelevant. Protein is overrated. :) I think this dish was conceived as a vegetarian one, judging by the rare appearance of vegetable broth instead of CI's much-beloved low-sodium chicken broth (which I used instead). Some prosciutto or diced deli ham thrown in at the end would certainly work, but needless to say I loved this dish just as it was. I recently read that if I put a recipe's instructions in my own words, there aren't copyright problems, so I think it's safe to post it here. I did make some practical modifications as well (e.g. the original recipe has asparagus; I just upped the quantities of mushrooms and zucchini).

Skillet Pasta Primavera
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen's Cooking for Two 2010
Serves 2 generously

2 Tbsp. butter
1 zucchini (8-9 oz.), quartered lengthwise and cut into 1/2" dice
2 1/4 cups water
4 oz. white mushrooms, wiped clean and sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/3 lb. bowtie or campanelle pasta (shape doesn't matter so much, just make sure it has a cooking time not much less than 14-15 minutes)
2 Tbsp. heavy cream
1/2 cup frozen peas (do not thaw)
1/4 cup fresh grated Parmiggiano
2 Tbsp. fresh basil, chopped
1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice

1. Melt 1 Tbsp of the butter over medium heat in a 12" nonstick skillet. Add the zucchini and 1/4 cup of the water with a pinch of salt, cover, and cook til zucchini is crisp-tender, 3-4 minutes. Uncover and cook just til tender and liquid is almost evaporated, 1-2 minutes more. Transfer zucchini to a medium bowl and cover with foil to keep warm.
2. Melt remaining Tbsp. butter in the empty skillet and add mushrooms with a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, til they've released their moisture and are golden brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer the mushrooms to the bowl with the zucchini and cover again.
3. Add the garlic to the empty pan and stir til just fragrant, about 30 seconds. Pour in the 2 cups water, broth, and 1/4 tsp. salt, then add the pasta. Increase heat to high and cook, stirring frequently, til pasta is tender and sauce has thickened, about 15-18 minutes. (You may need to decrease the heat toward the end if the liquid is evaporating too fast for the pasta to cook, but it needs to be at a rolling boil.)
4. Stir in the mushrooms and zucchini, cream, and frozen peas, and cook til veggies are heated through, about 1 minute. Off heat, add the Parmesan, basil, and lemon juice, and check seasonings. Serve immediately.

Cinnamon dolce iced coffee

I think I've finally perfected an iced coffee, at least to M's and my taste. With my Aeropress, which I love for many reasons, it is especially easy to make something approximating espresso in individual servings, without having to use nasty leftover cold coffee. I'm sure a strong-brewed French press cup would work extremely well here too. Here's how I made mine:

Cinnamon syrup:
1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
Combine sugar, water, and cinnamon in small saucepan and bring to a boil. Let reduce for about 5 minutes, then remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Kept covered in the fridge, this should last a good while.

Coffee:
1/2 cup hot strong-brewed coffee or espresso (I used Starbucks Italian roast and made "espresso" with my Aeropress)
2 tsp. heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon syrup (see above)
4-5 large ice cubes

Into the fresh brewed coffee stir the cream and syrup. Add ice cubes all at once and stir for a few seconds to cool quickly. Enjoy.

Burgers.

Last Christmas my grandparents bought me a food grinder attachment for my stand mixer, and this week I finally made plans to use it. I decided I wanted one after reading so much about the benefits of grinding your own meat, where you actually know what kind of meat is being ground up and ingested. Also "they" say the flavor difference is enormous.

So for the first try I used as a base this In-N-Out style recipe from Kenji Lopez-Alt, a former Cook's Illustrated cook. I think I may have erred in the fundamental matter of choosing a cut (or cuts) of meat to grind: he simply recommends a beef chuck cut with "lots of fat." Not knowing what exactly that meant, I chose a beef chuck (shoulder) roast that was reasonably well-marbled. The end result was a little bit too lean. Next time I'll try grinding in short ribs for about 1/3 of the meat. The flavor of the meat was fine, though when you're loading it with ketchup, mustard, pickles, lettuce, and cheese, it's a little hard to pick out the nuances of fresh ground meat to compare it with storebought. Hey, at least our chances of getting E. coli are lower.

As for the whole grinding ordeal, it was a bit messy, but I expected that. I've got a couple issues to work out with the grinder---maybe I didn't freeze the meat long enough, because by the time I finished there was a fair amount of very slick meat stuck in the "chamber" or whatever the part before the die is called. That was a bit tedious to clean out.

Here is my Pulitzer Prize-winning cheeseburger photo. I like how it looks like I caught the mushroom in mid-air. Not the case.

Ah, a note about the buns: these were from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Everyday, the soft sandwich bread recipe made into about a dozen 3 oz. buns. I loved the flavor and texture: not quite as fluffy as storebought buns, but not dense like recipes I've tried before, either. As usual, shaping will take some work; I guess I should have squashed the rolls a bit with my hand before baking them.

Humdrum.

It's been an outstandingly mediocre couple of weeks in my kitchen. I tried three more recipes out of Best International Recipe, and I would have to say all three were a bit of a let-down. Let me detail the disappointments for you.

The tomato-mushroom tart (I fused the original, tomato-based recipe with a variation also listed) was fine in all its components except the crust. A fairly important component. I loved the (inexplicably surprising) notion of making a crust with olive oil instead of butter. It was very easy to work with and press in the pan. But. One thing that makes my stomach turn is sweetness where it doesn't belong. Such as in a savory tart crust. After reading that 1 Tbsp of sugar was to be added to the crust, which is the same quantity as in most (dessert) pie crust recipes I've come across, I scanned the informative pre-recipe "abstract" (one more thing I love about Cook's Illustrated & co.) and found that tasters apparently liked a touch of sweetness in the crust, playing off the tomato taste. To me nothing is more revolting than tomatoes + overt sweetness. I should have adjusted the recipe accordingly, but CI has me well-trained to trust them blindly. Unfortunately that weird taste combination ruined this tart for me. I'd be glad to try it again with maybe 1/2 tsp instead of 1 Tbsp of sugar, though sometime down the road, because my stomach still turns when I think of what it tasted like.

It looked halfway decent for something I made, though.

Tonight I finally made the Swedish-inspired cold-poached salmon I've been wanting to try, along with the creamy dill-cucumber salad, both in the central Europe section of BIR. This morning I swung by Fresh Market and got my Atlantic salmon fillets, which lay pale and sad beside their bright pink $20/lb Copper River counterpart. It's not as though my frugal (cheap?) self would really be tempted, but the visual difference was marked. I think it was almost certainly better salmon than I could have gotten at Kroger or Publix, or maybe Fresh Marketing is just working on me as intended...it's the classical music and the soothing forest green everywhere. Anyway, the salmon and sour cream sauce weren't bad, but it turns out that M doesn't go for cold fish, or really anything creamy (e.g., the sauce---what a freak). I was just so curious about this method, and it was tasty salmon, so I don't regret trying it once.

The crisp cucumber salad elicited that strange phenomenon where, during the first two bites, something tastes perfect; but after the third you suddenly don't want anymore---you want it off your plate entirely. I can't identify the problem here. Too much pungency, or potency, or something. Sad. The picture I took of this little ensemble was so horrendous I won't post it. I will post the picture I took when I got so excited about the beautiful onion slices my sharp little mandolin was churning out. Between the cucumbers and onions, I used it for like 10 minutes and didn't slice off so much as a fingernail! A pleasant surprise.

Hopefully better things are to come with homemade burgers tomorrow (finally breaking out the KitchenAid grinder attachment I got for Christmas), and an auténtico Rick Bayless recipe later in the week. I finally checked out a cookbook of his and it looks legit. I want to make everything immediately.