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...
Saturday, October 29, 2011
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...
Thursday, October 20, 2011
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.)
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.)
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
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.
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.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
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...
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...
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