cooking up a storm

Press for our upcoming opus. . .

2008-10-18T19:02:00.004-05:00

This actually even looks like us!!

We got a lovely little article about our upcoming book, Fresh Eggs Don't Float in today's Daily Mail!

CHECK IT OUT!

You can pre-order a copy here.

Baba Ganoush

2008-09-03T14:06:00.002-05:00

2 large aubergines, halved lengthways
2-3 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
4tbsp tahini
25g ground almonds
Juice of ½ lemon
1tsp ground cumin
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Large handful of fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped

Preheat to 200c/400f
Brush the cut sides of the aubergines with some of the oil and bake them for about 35 min or until soft. Meanwhile, heat the grill to it’s highest setting.
Place the aubergines under the grill, cut sides up, and leave until they are black and blistered. This will take about 5 min. Remove and set aside to cool.
Scoop out the flesh, discard the skins, and place the flesh in a food processor. Add the garlic, tahini, almonds, lemon juice, cumin, and season with salt and pepper. Process to a smooth paste and check the seasoning.
Spoon into a serving dish, drizzle with the remaining oil and scatter over the mint leaves.

Can be made up to two days in advance and refrigerated.

From New Flavours of the Jewish Table.

What can I say about this except that it is Baba Ganoush. You have to have a recipe for it, because it is a staple (like Hummus). It’s great stuff, and this is a great recipe for it.

The aubergines need to be cooked, but that’s not hard to do, and other then that the food processor does the work for you.

Funny enough, it was my four year old that went totally over the moon for this one (though we all loved it). The first time I made it he kept pulling the bowl across the table and saying that the baba ganoush was his dinner, and we could all have the rest of the stuff. That is incredibly high praise from a four year old.

Moroccan Carrot Salad

2008-08-31T06:24:00.002-05:00

This picture is awful, but this salad is so good! So Good!

75g flaked almonds
450g carrots
2 tsp clear honey
3tbsp olive oil
juice of ½ lemon
1tbsp rose water
50g raisins
1tsp ground cinnamon
salt and freshly ground black pepper

preheat to 200c/400f
place almonds on a baking sheet, and toast in the oven for 10 min, or until golden, set aside.

Grate the carrots in a food processor, or by hand, and place in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the honey, oil, lemon juice, rose water, raisins, and cinnamon. Season well with salt and pepper and mix well. Leave at room temperature for 1 hour for the flavours to infuse.
Stir in the toasted almonds just before serving.

I only recently discovered this recipe from New Flavours of the Jewish Table, but I’ve already made it three or four times (you’d think I could have gotten a better picture one of those times, but I’m always so excited to eat it that I forget).
I find it perfect because I always have carrots in the house, and I have a bottle of rosewater that I don’t use often enough, so it’s convenient in that respect. It’s also great because the prep is super quick, and although it has to sit for an hour (which could be a pain), it can also sit in the fridge for the day, or even overnight, making it the perfect make-in-advance accompaniment to whatever else you are having.

I have made this with the almonds toasted, with them un-toasted, with them added before serving, and with them added during the prep, and left in there while it infuses. The way it is done in the recipe gives the best results with the almonds giving it that subtle, almost but not quite - smoky flavour, but if you forget to toast them, or forget to hold them out, it’s no big deal, the salad will still be fabulous.

Easy, fast, delicious, exotic, and mostly made from ingredients that you could easily have to hand. This dish ROCKS!

Babotie

2008-08-28T16:55:00.002-05:00

2 slices white bread, crusts removed
600ml milk
1tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
450g lean minced beef or lamb
1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped
1-2 tbsp mild curry powder
50g flaked almonds
50g sultanas
zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
150ml beef stock
2tbsp apricot jam or mango chutney
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Topping:
40g butter
40g plain flower
1-2 bay leaves
2 large free range eggs, beaten
Good pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Soak the bread in half the milk for about 10 min, then squeeze out by hand, and keep both bread, and remaining milk to one side.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat, add the onion and cook for 2 min. Add the mince and fry for a few minutes, until nicely brown. Add the apple, curry powder, almonds and sultanas, mix well and continue to cook for another 5 min.
Preheat to 180c/350f
Stir the lemon zest and stock into the mince, then crumble and mix in the squeezed-out bread. Season and transfer to a pie dish, leveling the mixture with a spatula. Warm the jam or chutney in the microwave for 20 seconds to make it runnier, then brush it over the top of the pie to seal it, and bake in the oven for 10 min.
Now make the topping. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, add the flour and beat for a minute or so until you have a light sandy texture. Gradually add the reserved milk, and the bay leaves, beating all the time so the mixture remains smooth. (if it does go lumpy, use a wire.) Take off the heat, beat in the eggs and nutmeg, and season.
Remove the mince from the oven, pour the topping evenly over the top, then bake for a further 35-40 minutes, until nicely browned.

I know I have made Babotie before, but I recently tried this recipe from Ainsley Harriott's Feel-Good Cookbook , and I think I like it better.

The original one that I made had a super easy meatloaf-like preparation, whereas in this one you have to cook the filling separately, then bake it, then add the topping and bake again. It seems like that would be a lot more work, but it was not a big deal in the end. It was worth it too, because it gave it a much nicer consistency. It was less meat loaf-y and more cottage pie-ish.

The flavour was lovely, and the topping was too. The whole family approved of this new version.

Herring salad in soured cream sauce

2008-08-24T13:50:00.002-05:00

1x300g jar of pickled herrings
1 shallot or small onion, finely chopped
1 red apple, cored and coarsely chopped
2 dill pickles, rinsed and roughly chopped
150ml soured cream
1 tsp sugar or to taste
sprigs of fresh dill or fresh parsley, to garnish
pumpernickel or rye bread to serve

Drain and rinse the herrings, scrape off any skin or membrane, and cut into small pieces
In a medium bowl, combine the herrings, shallot or onion, apple, dill pickles, soured cream and sugar.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours
Garnish with dill or parsley and serve with pumpernickel or rye bread

From New Flavours of the Jewish Table.

I was really excited when I found this recipe. Back in the States it’s really easy to find jars of this herring salad at most supermarkets. My grandfather used to eat it all the time. Whenever I saw it in the store I would think of him, and although I didn’t buy it regularly, I liked to have some once in a while.

I’ve not ever seen it out here (except there is a version of it at IKEA), so it had been a really long time since I had come across it. This recipe for it was wonderful. It was easy to make, and it was delicious. My husband was pretty unsure about it, but agreed to try it. Although he found the mixture of fish, apples and pickles a little hard to get his head around, he actually liked it quite a bit, and had more then one serving.

I love this dish, and I love this recipe for it. It’s still not something I would keep in the house regularly, but when I do have the urge, I know how to make it myself now.

Vietnamese style crispy pork and little gem salad

2008-08-23T06:41:00.002-05:00

1tbsp sunflower oil
450g pork mince
2tsp freshly grated ginger
1 red chili, seeded and finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
4 spring onions, trimmed
2tbsp chopped fresh coriander
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
2tsp soy sauce
2tbsp fish sauce
2tbsp rice vinegar, or white wine vinegar
1tsp soft light brown sugar
3 limes
50g dry roasted peanuts, chopped
4 little gem lettuces
Fresh coriander sprigs, to serve

Heat half the oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Add half the pork and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned and crispy. Remove from the pan and put into a bowl or dish, then cook the remaining mince in the same way.
In another bowl, mix together the ginger, chili, and garlic. Finely slice the spring onions, and add to the bowl with the herbs. Add the soy sauce, fish sauce, vinegar, sugar and the juice of 1 lime. Give it a good mix, then pour the mixture over the crispy pork. Scatter the peanuts over the mince.
Cut the remaining limes into wedges, and separate the leaves of the lettuces.
Scoop some crispy mince onto each lettuce leaf, add a squeeze of lime and top with a sprig of coriander.

This type of salad became really popular a while ago. All of a sudden I was seeing them everywhere. They looked good, but I tended to avoid them, as I’ve never been a terribly fashionable person. Still, they looked so good that eventually I was worn down.

I decided to try this one from Ainsley Harriott's Feel-Good Cookbook , as his happened to be the one I was looking at when I made up my mind to take the plunge.

I’m really glad I did it. This was delicious! It was beautiful to look at, it was fast to make, and it was so tasty that I wanted to make it and eat again right away. The filling of the individual leaves was a bit fiddly, and I would think that if you were serving it casually, to the family, you could probably serve it in a bowl with the leaves on the side and let people do that part themselves. Either way, it will be a crowd pleaser.

Bread and Tomato Soup

2008-08-21T13:54:00.003-05:00

Everyone who is growing tomato plants needs to have this recipe!

from Jamie’s Italy
500g/1lb2oz ripe cherry tomatoes
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
a large bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked, stems chopped
olive oil
sea salt and fresh ground pepper
2x400g good quality tins of tomatoes
500g/1lb2oz good quality bread, stale

Prick the cherry tomatoes, and toss with one sliced clove of garlic, and a quarter of the basil leaves. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper, put in a roasting tray and bake at 180c/350f for 20 min.
In a large pot, heat the oil and add the remaining garlic, and the basil stalks. Stir for a minute till soft, add the tinned tomatoes, fill the tins with water and add that, break up the tomatoes with a spoon. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 min.
Tear the bread into thumb sized pieces, and add to the pot. Mix and season. Tear in the basil and sit over low heat for 10 min. Pour in the cherry tomatoes with all their liquid, and give it a good stir.

This is another recipe that I used to make all the time before the year long cooking challenge started. When I started making a new recipe every day, this one got left behind, so I thought I would revisit it, and see if it lived up to the memory after all the recipes that I have tried and all of the things that I have learned.

It did!

If you are growing your own tomatoes, then this has got to be the cheapest soup in the world to make, as all you’ll really need is some fresh basil, and some stale bread.

The texture of it is sort of thick and sticky like porridge, but also very silky and smooth at the same time. You could probably eat it with a fork it’s so thick, and the flavour is amazing. The fresh basil, and the fresh roasted tomatoes really make it taste summer-y, even though it is filling enough to be a winter dish (if you could get decent tomatoes in the winter).

The recipe is simple and fast too. One thing I noticed is that it may not need to go a full 10 minutes in that last step, you don’t want it to start burning on the bottom.
This one was as good if not better then I remembered. I am not going to lose sight of it again.

Chicken With Olives and Sage

2008-08-19T06:14:00.002-05:00

I was thinking about how before I started the year long cooking challenge, I had a few favorite recipes that I made all the time. I wondered if I would still like them as much, now that I have so much more cooking experience. I looked through my old notes and picked a few to make and review this week.

The first was a super easy chicken recipe that was my husbands all time favorite. It’s Chicken with olives and sage from a book called Twelve. Nice book. It’s all Tuscan recipes laid out in the twelve months of the year so that you can cook with the things that are in season that month. Jamie Oliver did the same type of thing in his last book.

5tbsp olive oil
1 chicken (1.5kg) cut into 8 portions
200g black olives in olive oil (drained)
4 garlic cloves, peeled and lightly crushed with the flat of a knife blade
about 20 fresh sage leaves
125ml (1/2 cup) white wine

preheat to 200c (400f)
Heat the oil in a wide saucepan or casserole dish suitable for oven use.
Add the chicken and brown on all sides (should take 10-15 min). Season with salt and pepper on all sides. Add the olives, garlic cloves, and sage leaves and cook for a couple of minutes to blend the flavours.
Pour in the wine and transfer the dish to the hot oven. Cook for 30 – 40 min.

If you would like more sauce, remove the chicken, sage, olives and garlic to a plate, add 60ml (1/4 cup) water to the pan and put on the stovetop. Scrape up the bits with a wooden spoon mixing them into the sauce, let it bubble for half a min or so.

This recipe has to be one of the easiest in the whole world. It is simple in the best of ways it’s just a few ingredients that really compliment each other, so that with the smallest amount of effort, you have an amazing chicken dish. We liked it just as much as we used to.

I have a sage bush growing in the back yard, so fresh sage is not a problem, but when I used to make it (in our old flat), I used to use dried sage and it worked just as well. Back then I also didn’t have a pan that could go from the stove top to the oven, so I would brown the chicken in a pan, then just transfer it to a casserole before pouring over the wine. It added a touch of hassle, but worked just fine.

This recipe still rocks, I’m glad I found it again.

Bambi Birthday Cake

2008-08-07T14:17:00.003-05:00

So I made another funny cake. After seeing my son’s Car
cake, a friend of mine mentioned that her daughter would really like a birthday cake shaped like Bambi (the Disney deer). I thought about it for a really long time, and this is what I came up with.

She loved it! I loved making it too. I used two batches of Victoria sponge batter, only instead of making four circle shaped cakes, I made three in loaf tins and one in a regular Victoria sponge tin.
The body is made out of two of the loaf cakes, and the head is made out of half of the third one. The circle was perfect for making the legs, and the other bits (ears, tail) were made from scraps from the third loaf, and the circle.

I find that it’s best to make the cakes the day before, and refrigerate them over night. It makes them a little less delicate, easier to cut and manipulate.

These cakes are my new favorite hobby, so hopefully there will be more of them in the future.

Prawn and Ginger Noodle Salad

2008-07-02T13:50:00.002-05:00

Fine rice noodles 250g pack
Large prawns 250g peeled and cooked
1 small mango peeled and sliced
Light soy sauce 4 tbsp
Root Ginger 2 inch piece, finely grated
1 lime, juiced
coriander leaves, a large bunch, roughly chopped

Soak the noodles in boiling water for 6-7 minutes, until tender. Rinse under cold running water then drain and put into a bowl with the prawns and mango.
Whisk the soy sauce with the ginger, lime juice, and some black pepper and pour over the noodles. Scatter the coriander over and toss together.

So over the weekend I found myself looking for something that could be made in no time at all, and mostly out of things that I already had in the house, as I was really short on both time and money.

I found this in 101 Quick Fix Dishes.

It was perfect. Shrimp (prawns) have been on sale recently, which led to the discovery that both of the boys totally love them. My little one refers to them as “those pink-y, white-y things” and asks for them every time we go shopping.

This was everything I was looking for. It was tasty, it was one of the fastest dishes I’ve ever put together, we had most of the stuff in the house already, and as a bonus, everybody loved it.

Good stuff.

Broccoli pesto

2008-06-29T05:35:00.002-05:00

2 heads of broccoli
50g pine nuts
1 clove garlic, chopped
a handful of fresh basil leaves
a handful of fresh coriander leaves
50g freshly grated parmesan cheese
4 tbp oil
a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper

Follow the packet instructions to cook the pasta of your choice
Remove the tough stalk from the broccoli and break the heads into florets. Place them in a pan of salted boiling water for about 3 minutes. Drain.
Put the broccoli in the bowl of a food processor, along with the pine nuts, garlic, basil, coriander and grated parmesan. Blend until smooth, drizzling in the olive oil, little by little. Season with a little salt and pepper if preferred.
Add the broccoli pesto to the cooked and drained pasta, while it is still hot from cooking. Stir until the pasta is well coated and serve.

There are so many great things about this recipe. It’s packed full of broccoli. It takes no time at all to make. It requires less oil then regular pesto. Best of all, it’s really tasty.

My food processor was too small to do it all in one batch, so I had to do it in two batches, then mix it together, but it still took less time then it took to make the pasta.

I used the same water for the broccoli as I did for the pasta, to save on water boiling time. I just scooped the veg out with a slotted spoon, and dumped the pasta into the slightly green water. It was fine.

I got this from Great Big Veg Challenge which started as a website Here.It’s designed to get fussy eaters to like broccoli, and I could see how it could work wonders.

This will be made again, as it got rave reviews from every family member.

Hameen

2008-06-25T15:34:00.002-05:00

2 Tbsp veg oil
2 onions, roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3tsp turmeric
1inch piece of fresh root ginger, finely chopped
2.3kg (5lb) roasting chicken, cut into portions
400g basmati rice
450g salad tomatoes, roughly chopped
2tbsp tomato puree
7 cardamoms
3 cinnamon sticks
2 litres (3.5 pints) chicken stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat to 120, or the lowest setting.
Heat the oil in a very large frying pan, add the onions, garlic, turmeric and ginger, and saute over a medium heat for 2 min, until the onion and garlic start to color. Add the chicken pieces and sauté for 4-7 minutes until they are brown all over. Add the rice, tomatoes, tomato puree, cardamoms, and cinnamon. Cook for a further 2 minutes, then pour in the stock. Make sure the stock completely covers the rice. Season with salt and pepper.

Mix well so that the cinnamon flavours infuse into the chicken. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 min. Transfer to a large oven proof dish, and cover with foil, and then the lid.
Place in the oven and cook overnight, or for a minimum of 3 hours.

This recipe is from the upcoming title New Flavours of the Jewish Table.

Right off the bat I would like to say that this was wonderful, and that you should only make half of the amount stated, maybe even less. I made a half recipe, and I had a hard time fitting it in my huge cast iron pot. I did not have any trouble eating it all, it was that tasty. The spices are all really warming flavours, and the texture is sort of heavy and sticky, but in a really good way.

The cooking method is brilliant. It cooks for 3 hours, to overnight, however long you want to leave it, and it doesn’t require any checking or prodding once you put it in the oven. I made it in the morning right after breakfast, and then we were able to go out for the day and do whatever we liked, knowing that there would be a great meal, whenever we felt like eating it. The leftovers on the following day were just as good too.

I loved this one!

Falafel

2008-06-13T13:40:00.002-05:00

250g dried chickpeas
3-4tbsp bulghar wheat
1 large onion
5 garlic cloves
5tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
5tbsp finely chopped fresh coriander leaves
3tbsp ground cumin
1tbsp ground coriander
2tsp baking powder
1tsp salt
pinch of cayenne
Freshly ground black pepper
1 egg
3-4 tbsp gram flour
vegetable oil for deep frying

Soak the chickpeas for at least 4 hours, or overnight. Drain and rinse.
Put the chickpeas in a medium size pan and cover with about 1 litre of water. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for 45 min, adding more water if required. Drain.
Grind the chickpeas in a food processor. Put the ground chickpeas into a bowl, and stir in the bulghar wheat.
Put the onion, garlic, parsley, fresh coriander, ground cumin, ground coriander, baking powder, salt and cayenne in the food processor and season with pepper. Process to form a spicy paste. Add this to the chick pea mixture in the bowl.
Add 100ml water and the egg to the bowl. Stir in the flour, adding a little more water if the mixture is too dry, or more flour if it is too wet. Using wet hands, shape the mixture into about 40 walnut sized patties.
Heat the oil in a deep fryer until it is hot enough to brown a cube of bread in 30 seconds. Add the falafel patties to the oil in batches and cook for 3-4 minutes until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.

These were so good! They were right up there with the best falafel that I have had. The outside was perfectly crispy, and the insides were full of flavor. They had a beautiful texture, not just mushy in the middle, and they were not too dry. They were also pretty easy to make, as long as you are comfortable with deep frying.

I did like the recipe said and used dried chickpeas, which I soaked overnight and then boiled, but after I drained them I weighed them. The 250g of dried had become about 600g of prepared chickpeas. Next time I make this, I am going to see if I can get the same results with tinned ones. I think 2 tins would be just about right.

When it comes to the frying, do be careful because they can fall apart easily, both when you are putting them in, and when you are turning them over. You have to be pretty gentle. It’s also a good idea to do many small batches so you don’t overcrowd the pan. That’s true whenever you are deep frying, because it will cause the temperature of the oil to drop just enough to make the food taste overly greasy. It’s also important in this case because you have to be able to see each individual one so that you can turn them and remove them gently. My last batch got a bit lost in the fog of overcrowding and I wound up with a bunch of really tasty, but broken falafel-y chunks.

I served these with pitta bread, hummus, baba ganoush, olives and peppers. It was beautiful. I have been meaning to learn to make these for a while, and this recipe, from New Flavours of the Jewish Table.
did not disappoint. I will definitely make these again.

Turnip pickles

2008-06-10T14:00:00.002-05:00

500g White-mauve turnips, unpeeled, both ends trimmed
20g beetroot, peeled and cut into 3 pieces
1-2 chilies (optional)
1 ½ tbsp sea salt
150ml organic cider vinegar
extra virgin olive oil, to cover the turnips (optional)

Make cuts along the length of turnips at 5mm (1/4 in) intervals bit leave them whole. Pack the turnips, beetroot and chilies if using into a sterilized glass jar. Bring 400ml water to the boil, add the salt and dissolve completely. Cool, stir in the vinegar, and pour over the vegetables in the jar to cover completely. If desired, add a thin film of olive oil to prevent them spoiling. Seal and keep in a dark kitchen cupboard. Eat after 10-14 days.
From New Flavours of the Lebanese Table .

I used to be able to get these when I lived in Brooklyn. They sold them in the Middle Eastern grocery shops out of huge plastic buckets. They would scoop them out by the spoonful into little plastic containers, much to my excitement, and my husband’s revulsion.

When I found a recipe to reproduce them, I was thrilled, and he promised to try them one more time.

I made one big mistake while I was preparing these. I cooled the liquid a bit too much, and used a hot freshly sterilized jar. The jar was still hot enough to crack instantly when it came in contact with the very cool liquid. Oops. More of a science issue then a recipe issue. For the next jar, I waited for the glass to cool down a bit, and it all went fine.

The turnips that I was able to get hold of were far too big to be pickled whole, they would not have fit in the jars, so I cut mine into large chunks, about the size of tiny little turnips.

The photo was taken the instant that I poured the liquid over the vegetables. It was really cool, the color immediately started to bleed from the beets, and within minutes it was purple all the way through.

Other then the broken glass (not the recipes fault), this worked beautifully. I love them, and will make them over and over again. My husband even warmed to them, a little.

I thought I would enter these into a blog challenge. It’s a celebration of Middle Eastern food, for more information on it check here:Announcement.
And also here: Dhivya's blog.

These are easy to make, they are traditional, they go with anything you are eating, and they are super tasty.

North African Pitta Bread Salad

2008-06-05T07:59:00.001-05:00

4 pitta breads
2tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
3tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
3 large salad tomatoes, deseeded and roughly chopped
1 green pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped
1 red pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped
4tbsp roughly chopped fresh mint
4 spring onions, trimmed and chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 cucumber, halved, deseeded and chopped
4tbsp olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat to 200c
Cut the bread into 1 inch squares. Grind the coriander and cumin seeds with a pestle and mortar and mix with the three tbsp Extra Virgin Olive oil. Place the pitta squares on a baking sheet, drizzle with the spiced oil mixture and toast in the oven for 10 min, or until crisp and light brown. Set aside.

In a large bowl combine the tomatoes, peppers, mint, spring onions, garlic, and cucumber.

In a separate bowl mix the olive oil and lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the salad ingredients and stir in the toasted pitta squares.

Mix well and serve immediately.

Beautiful summer salad from the forthcoming title, New Flavours of the Jewish Table. This is great because it is tasty, the bread makes it more filling, and the chunkiness of it makes it a great salad for little kids too. Even my kids, who eat most things, will turn up their noses at salad, but they ate this one! Score!

I tossed the pitta squares with the oil mixture in a bowl before pouring them onto the baking sheet, because I want to get them well and evenly coated. It did the trick, they were so crispy and tasty it was hard to keep them all for the salad.

The only other thing worth mentioning, is that you shouldn’t mix in the pitta till the very last minute, or it will start going soggy.

This salad is great for a side salad, or for a light lunch, even a summer-y dinner. Good stuff!

Spring Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce

2008-06-03T13:49:00.002-05:00

Peanut dipping sauce:
2 tbsp fish sauce
1-2 fresh red chillies, seeded and chopped
1tbsp finely chopped garlic
2tbsp lime or lemon juice
5tbsp water
1tbsp sugar
3tbsp roasted peanuts, crushed

Place all the ingredients into a food processor, and process thoroughly. Transfer to a bowl and let stand for at least 10 min (can be prepared hours in advance).
This sauce is from Ken Hom’s Simple Asian Cookery.

Spring rolls
Round rice paper wrappers
50g Bean thread (transparent) noodles
1 Carrot, peeled and grated
1 block of Tofu in long thin slices (shredded)
Handful of Basil leaves

The spring rolls that went with this dipping sauce had much more stuff in them. So much stuff in fact, that I was not able to make them. I think the wrappers that I got must have been smaller then the ones the recipe called for because I could not fit in all the fillings and still roll them up. They ripped, they popped open, they were an impossible mess. After making three of them, I had to just give up. The dipping sauce on the other hand took seconds to make, and was so good I could hardly believe it. The thought of having the sauce again gave me the push I needed to try the spring rolls again.

This time I just used the ingredients listed. The wrappers need to be soaked in warm water to soften them up (takes about 10 seconds or so), then you need to lay them on a clean kitchen towel, and blot them dry. Next take them off the towel, and put them on your cooking surface (countertop, plate, cutting board, whatever), and lay your fillings in the wrapper, fold the sides in and roll them up. Place them seem side down, and they will stick all by themselves. The wrapper package should have diagrams to help with this.

It takes a couple of tries to get the hang of it, but then once you do, it’s really easy.

These were fun, and with that dipping sauce, I will absolutely do this every time I come across those rice paper wrappers.

Yellow split pea and frankfurter soup

2008-05-31T04:53:00.002-05:00

1 onion
1 carrot
1 clove of garlic
1 stick of celery
2-3 tbsp vegetable oil
½ tsp ground mace
500g yellow split peas
1.25-1.5 litres chicken or veg stock
2 bay leaves
approx. 8 frankfurters

Peel the onion, carrot and garlic. Roughly cut up the onion, carrot and celery, and put them, with the garlic into a food processor and blitz till finely chopped.
Heat the oil in a heavy based wide saucepan on medium heat, add the chopped vegetables and cook for 5-10 min, until soft but not colored

Add the ground mace – this may be a small amount but it’s crucial to the taste – give it a good stir and then add the split peas, and stir again until the are glossily mixed with the oil slicked, cooked down vegetables. Pour over 1.25 liters of stock and add the bay leaves, then bring to the boil. Cover, turn down the heat and cook for about an hour until everything is tender and sludgy, adding more stock as needed. Taste for seasoning once everything is ready. Slice up the frankfurters and throw them into the soup to warm.

This soup was from the Nigella Lawson book Feast.

I bought a pack of hot dogs the other day on a whim, but never got around to making them. We were going to just have them for lunch over the weekend but then I remembered seeing this recipe, and wanting to try it.

There was some confusion about the split peas. The pack I bought said that they had to be soaked overnight. I thought I remembered that split peas don’t really need to be soaked, and the recipe didn’t say anything about it, so I figured I’d just give it a go with the dried un-soaked peas. It worked perfectly. So well in fact that I plan to keep a bag of split peas around for any day when I just don’t know what to make.

This soup is incredibly simple and could easily be made without the hot dogs, which means that it could be made totally vegetarian, and out of staples and store cupboard ingredients. That alone makes it great find. On top of that, it’s also really tasty and comforting and filling.

This one is an all around winner.

Spicy Chorizo and avocado salad

2008-05-27T12:00:00.001-05:00

4tbsp olive oil
1 small Ciabatta, torn into small bite sized pieces
2 x 80g packs of sliced chorizo
250g baby plum or cherry tomatoes, halved
2tbsp balsamic vinegar
pinch sugar
1 large ripe avocado, halved, stoned and sliced
150g bag of baby leaf and herb salad

Heat 2 tbsp of the oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Fry the ciabatta for 8-10 minutes, tossing occasionally until starting to crisp and brown, then tip into a large salad bowl.
Lay the chorizo in the pan and dry for 2 min until it gives out a red oil. Toss in the tomatoes and cook over a high heat for 1-2 minutes, until they start to soften. Drizzle over the vinegar, add the sugar and season.
Gently toss the avocado, salad and remaining olive oil with the croutons. Spoon over the chorizo and tomatoes and drizzle with any pan juices. Serve immediately.

This salad was so good! It’s not a dieter’s salad at all, but it makes a great summertime dinner. I got it from 101 Seasonal Salads.

I used a lot more balsamic vinegar then the recipe called for, partly because I like it, and partly because I slipped when I was pouring it in. I would actually recommend going a bit heavy on it, it means more dressing.
This was just gorgeous The hot chorizo and tomato contrasted well with the cool creamy avocado, and the croutons were the perfect finishing touch.

My husband has already requested a repeat performance of this dish, and I am only too happy to oblige.

Harira (lamb, chickpea and spinach soup)

2008-05-20T15:05:00.003-05:00

200g dried chickpeas
1tsp bicarb of soda
3tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, cut into 1cm dice
200g lamb neck fillet, cut into 1cm dice
2tbsp tomato puree
1tbsp caster sugar
1kg tinned chopped tomatoes
1.2 litres chicken stock or water
juice of 1 lemon
1tsp ground cumin
1tsp ground ginger
a pinch of saffron strands
100g baby spinach
4tbsp roughly chopped coriander
4-6 lemon wedges
salt and black pepper

Start preparing the soup the night before by putting the dried chickpeas in a large bowl with the bicarbonate of soda and covering them with plenty of cold water – it should cover the chickpeas by at least twice their height. Leave at room temperature to soak overnight.
The next day, drain the soaked chickpeas, place in a large saucepan and cover with plenty of fresh water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1-1 ½ hours, until the chickpeas are tender. Drain through a colander and leave to one side.

Place a large saucepan over medium heat and add the olive oil. Add the onion and fry until soft and translucent. Increase the heat, add the diced lamb and cook for 2-3 minutes, until the lamb is sealed on all sides and has taken on a bit of colour. Add the tomato puree and sugar and mix well. Cook for 2 min, then add the chopped tomatoes, drained chickpeas, stock or water, and some salt and pepper.
Bring the soup to the boil and reduce the heat to a simmer. Use a large spoon to skim off any scum that forms on the surface, then cook for about 35 min, until the meat is tender.
Squeeze the lemon juice into the soup. Season the soup with the ground cumin, ginger, and saffron. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper.
When ready to serve, bring the soup back to the boil. Wash and drain the spinach leaves, and chop them roughly. Add the spinach and coriander to the soup just before you bring it to the table.
Serve with a wedge of lemon.

One last one from Ottolenghi The Cookbook. This book is so great.

This is a lovely soup. It’s got that fresh clean taste that lemon and coriander always bring, but it is also quite hearty because of the chick peas and the lamb.

I liked that it didn’t use too much lamb. Enough that everyone had some, but not so much that it was overpowering.

The most amazing thing about this soup, was that the boys ate all of it. They loved it, even the spinach. They even asked for more.

I’d make this one again.

Couscous with dried apricots and butternut squash

2008-05-15T14:03:00.002-05:00

1 large onion thinly sliced
6tbsp olive oil
50g dried apricots
1 small butternut squash (about 450g), peeled, seeded, and cut into 2cm dice
250g couscous
400ml chicken, or vegetable stock
a pinch of saffron strands
3tbsp roughly chopped tarragon
3tbsp roughly chopped mint
3tbsp roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
grated zest of ½ lemon
coarse sea salt and black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180c. Place the onion in a large frying with 2 tbsp of the oil and a pinch of salt. Saute over a high heat, stirring frequently for about 10 min, until golden brown. Set aside.
Meanwhile, pour enough hot water from the tap over the apricots just to cover them. Soak for 5 min, then drain and cut into 5mm dice.
Mix the diced squash with 1tbsp of the olive oil, and some salt and pepper. Spread the squash out on a baking tray, place in the oven and bake for about 25 min, until lightly coloured and quite soft.
While waiting for the butternut squash, cook the couscous. Bring the stock to the boil with the saffron. Place the couscous in a large heatproof bowl, and pour the boiling stock over it, plus the remaining olive oil. Cover with cling film and leave for about 10 min; all the liquid should have been absorbed.
Use a fork to whisk, or fluff up the couscous, then add the onion, butternut squash, apricots, herbs, cinnamon, and lemon zest. Mix well with your hands trying not to mash the butternut squash. Taste and salt and pepper if necessary. Serve warmish or cold.

This is another from Ottolenghi The Cookbook.

I’m always looking for a new way to serve couscous. It’s easy and fast and the boys love it. This recipe was a really good one. The squash and apricots are always a nice combination, but it was the fresh herbs that really put it over the top. They make the dish taste really summer-y and light.

Cooking the squash takes a little time, but you could always do that part in advance, the rest of it is a breeze. I would make this again.

Car Cakes

2008-05-10T14:57:00.002-05:00

So it was my youngest son’s third birthday party today. They grow up so fast!

He requested a cake in the shape of a car, so I figured I’d give it a go. In the end I decided I’d better make two, just to make sure we had enough. I could have just made a bigger one, but then I couldn’t have used my all time most favorite cake recipe ever.

This is a cool trick. It’s an old fashioned way of making a Victoria sponge. Instead of using set measurements, weigh your four eggs, in their shells. Make a note of how much they weigh, and then weigh out that same amount of flour, butter, and sugar. Equal parts of each.

Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs one at a time. Make sure each egg is fully blended in before adding the next. Then add a tsp of vanilla, and blend in. Add the flour and a pinch of salt, and fold it in. If the batter is too thick, add some milk to loosen it up.

Pour into two 20cm tins and bake at 180c for 25-30 min.
Test with a toothpick to see if it’s done.

I especially like using this recipe because the cake is even better after sitting in the fridge overnight, so you have a little extra time to work with. You can bake them, cool them, wrap them and put them in the fridge the day before you need them. Then on the day of, just cut them up and stick the bits together with frosting till you get the right shape.

These came out pretty cute, and the birthday boy loved them, which is the most important thing.

Kosheri

2008-05-07T14:15:00.001-05:00

300g green lentils
200g basmati rice
40g unsalted butter
50g vermicelli noodles, broken into 4cm pieces
400ml chicken stock or water
½ tsp grated nutmeg
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 ½ tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
4tbsp olive oil
2 white onions, halved and thinly sliced

For the sauce
4tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 hot red chilies, seeded and finely diced
8 ripe tomatoes, chopped (tinned are fine)
370ml water
4tbsp cider vinegar
3tsp salt
2tsp ground cumin
20g coriander leaves, chopped

Start with the sauce. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan, add the garlic and chillies and fry for 2 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes, water, vinegar, salt and cumin. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 20 min, until slightly thickened. Remove the sauce from the heat, stir in the coriander and then taste. See if you want to add any salt, pepper or extra coriander. Keep hot, or leave to cool; both ways will work with the hot kosheri. Just remember to adjust the seasoning again when cold.

To make the kosheri, place the lentils in a large sieve and wash them under a cold running tap. Transfer to a large saucepan, cover with plenty of cold water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 25 min. The lentils should be tender, but far from mushy. Drain in a colander and leave to one side.
In a lagre bowl, cover the rice with cold water, wash and then drain well. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the raw vermicelli, stir and continue frying and stirring until the vermicelli turns golden brown. Add the drained rice and mix well until it is coated in the butter. Now add the stock or water, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and pepper Bring to the boil, cover and then reduce the heat to a minimum and simmer for 12 min. Turn off the heat, remove the lid, cover the pan with a clean tea towel and put the lid back on. Leave like that for about 5 min; this helps to make the rice light and fluffy.
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, add the onions and sauté over a medium heat for about 20 min, until dark brown. Transfer to kitchen paper to drain.

To serve, lightly break up the rice with a fork, and then add the lentils, and most of the onions, reserving a few for garnish. Taste for seasoning and adjust accordingly. Pile the rice high on a serving platter and top with the remaining onions. Serve hot, with the tomato sauce.

Hey,

Sorry I’ve been gone so long. I’ve still been cooking like mad, just took a quick break from the blogging. Since my year of a new recipe every day ended, I haven’t been making a point of making something new every day anymore, but I’d say I’m still averaging 4 or 5 new recipes a week. It’s just been so much fun, and I’ve been learning so much, there’s no way I can stop now.

This dish is an Egyptian dish from the book, Ottolenghi The Cookbook. This is a beautiful book, and the recipes are wonderful. It’s not a vegetarian book, by any stretch, but it has a stunning array of vegetable dishes.

This one sounds like It would be odd, but it’s total comfort food. Very healthy, very tasty.

I used brown rice and pasta instead of white, so I had to add a little more liquid during the cooking, and I also had to let it simmer for about twice as long, but it still came out beautifully.

The sauce was a little too spicy for the boys, but they just ate it without, and they cleaned their plates, they loved it.

It’s not quick and easy. There are many parts that have to be made separately, and then combined at the end, but it’s not that bad. I will make this again.

Paper Chef Challenge #28- The Few But Mighty Roud Up

2008-04-15T20:51:00.002-05:00

This one was kind of difficult with the offal. Not so readily available, palatable or easy to prepare, but the few but mighty took to it with zest.

In order of entry:

From Magnus Akesson an addmitted non-lover of the offal (and I apologize, Magnus for putting you through it) from Amsterdam, made a beautiful Toasted quinoa bread with chicken paté on a fennel salad.

I just today found wild fennel growing in the alley outside my house. I just wonder how much motor oil it soaked up in growing.

Hank Shaw of www.honest-food.net and fellow Californian hunted down his offal the old fashioned way -- and you can read the whole account here. He made a dish called Mountain, Marsh & Field, with not 1, but 2 kinds of offal. Great name to match the dish.

This entry from Ilva, the Grand Dame of the Paper Chef Challenge is an ORANGE SCENTED CHICKEN LIVER PATE' WITH MARSALA JELLY SERVED ON QUINOA PAN BREAD or PATE' DI FEGATINI AROMATIZZATO CON ARANCIA E MARSALA

All caps, because I don't dare re-type for fear of misspelling. An for those who can read Italian, the words actually do roll off your tongue.

Ilva, I thought it impossible to take an inviting picture of pate, but you did it. Equally impressive, she chose her seasonal ingredient from her trans-gender lemon/orange tree.

And mine, chicken gizzards, Indian Chinese Style.

I'm giving the helm for Paper Chef #29 and the 1st prize to Hank. You can't beat 2 offals, one being rabbit kidney, combined with a stunning presentation. And then there is the whole hunting it down himself thing. ...

Thanks everyone for taking part! It was great.
Cookbad

gobi manchurain gizzards with cilantro lemon quinoa

2008-04-10T16:34:00.003-05:00

By CookBad

Here is my entry for Paper Chef #28. The challenge was to make something with offal, quinoa, spring onions and whatever is in season in you area. I chose lemons, from the lemon tree in my front yard and cilantro, which I grow in a pot on my porch.

I loved this Gobi Manchurian recipe from the January 2008 issue of Saveur much I tried it with chicken gizzards instead of cauliflower and it was great. The recipe for the gobi is here and I just switched out the cauliflower for gizzards.

The quinoa was stright forward enough:
Cook quinoa in a 4- to 5-quart pot of boiling salted water, uncovered, until almost tender, about 10 minutes. Drain in sieve, then set sieve over same pot with 1 inch of simmering water (water should not touch bottom of sieve). Cover quinoa with a folded kitchen towel, then cover sieve with a lid (don't worry if lid doesn't fit tightly) and steam until quinoa is tender, fluffy, and dry, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand (still covered) 5 minutes.
Mix with chopped cilantro, lemon zest and spring onions.

Broiled Eel Liver aka EVIL

2008-04-08T14:57:00.005-05:00

oh hell no.

By now a little sick Cookbad

Please make the flavor leave my mouth. Please please. 2 diet cokes and some mouthwash and I still have a flavor reminiscent of bile in my mouth. It most likely is actually bile. Eel bile.

Nice.

So, this isn't going to be the offal I use for the Paper Chef Challenge.

WTF is that white pearly sac? I'd be willing to bet a cup of demi-glace it is a bile sac.

Mango, Raspberry and Whipped Cream Profiterole with Mint

2008-04-05T22:38:00.004-05:00

By Cookbad

I've had make your own pizza parties & decorate your own cupcakes but next time around, I'm going to do make your own profiterole aka cream puff event.

Because, really, what awesome dessert madness can't you build between two halves of choix.

Here is the line up for just the basics:
ice cream
chocolate sauce
whipped cream
various berries and diced fruit
chopped nuts
creme filling- fluffy and creamy
chocolate mouse
fruit coulis of many flavors
citrus curd
sprinkles
chiffonade some mint

And if you don't like the little puff, just turn in into a sunday.

I plan to build one a foot high someday.
Yeah, I know, I'm wickedly ambitious.

Here is the plain old one I made the other night:
All recipes from various sources:
Mango, Raspberry and Whipped Cream Profiterole with Mint
Pastry:
1 cup water
1 stick margarine or butter
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
4 eggs

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Heat water and margarine or butter to boiling point. Add flour and stir constantly until mixture is smooth and forms a ball when tested in cold water. Remove from heat and let cool. Beat in 4 eggs, one at a time. Drop dough from teaspoon to form small eclairs onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until light brown.

Berry Coulis:
500g fresh or frozen berries, cherries, peaches or apricots
3-5 tablespoons sugar, to taste
fresh lemon juice to taste
Purée the fruit in a food processor or blender add sugar, and lemon juice. Press the fruit through a sieve, tamis or chinois and discard remaining solids.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamis

http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=138858
Mango Curd:
1 or two ripe mangos, peeled, pitted, and diced. Perfect for over ripe mangos.
1/2 cup sugar
1.5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Pinch of salt
4 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Puree first 4 ingredients in processor, scraping down sides of work bowl occasionally. Add yolks; puree 15 seconds longer. Strain through sieve set over large metal bowl, pressing on solids with back of spatula to release as much puree as possible. Discard solids in sieve.

Set metal bowl over saucepan of simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch water); whisk puree until thickened and thermometer registers 170°F., about 10 minutes. Remove from over water. Whisk in butter 1 piece at a time. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Chiffonade up some mint.

Combine into a pile of good.

Any leftovers are fair game for eating with a spoon in front of the fridge at 3 in the morning before anyone else can get to them.

I good shot at making a Ballotine

2008-04-05T17:53:00.009-05:00

By Cookbad

This is the story of what happens when you read (really glance over) a technique, misplace the book you saw it in and then go ahead and make it anyway with out even consulting the internet.

A ballotine is a de-boned bird of any kind or fish that is stuffed, tied up and braised or poached.

Not quite a fail, but it could have been done with more finesse. Still a ballotine might always call for some extra grace in preparation until you become expert at doing it.

Mine came out boarder-line comical and looked like something my 5 year old would have done to her little brother if left alone with enough rope.

You can stuff a ballotine with meat or stuffing, and I went with stuffing.
Here is how it went down:

Ballotine with Fig and Pecan Stuffing
I made some stuffing by browning some mirepoix in olive oil then adding some:
shallot
bay
rosemary
parsley
sage
salt
pepper
garlic
Brown some more, deglaze with:
1/2 cup stock
Then I added:
fig
pecans
1/2 baguette day old or toasted, ripped into smallish chunks
& more stock
Then I let the stuffing chill.

My sister who ran the gambit and got her chefs degree in Paris gave me a nice little tip to chill your stuffing. Adding it hot possibly allows the interior stuffing to come to just the temperature that bad bacteria love and may or may not give you some sort of food poisoning.

Next, prepare a de-boned chicken (I had my butcher de-bone it and kept the bones for stock) by pounding the breast out some and removing the wings. Salt the inside.

Cut a large piece of kitchen twine. I really shouldn't tell you how to do it as mine was so funky, but here is it. . .
Lay the kitchen twine under the bird in such a way that it runs along where the spine used to be.

Then, add 1-1.5 cups of the stuffing on top if the center of the bird and press it down evenly.
adding a few asparagus spears it the center is optional, but it tastes good and looks pretty in the end. Now, fold the bird inward as tightly and evenly as possible. Bring the kitchen twine around it, so it meets close to the bottom of the bird, twist the strings together as you would wrapping ribbon around a package, then flip the bird and proceed to wrap the twine around it 3 or four times at evenly spaced increments.

Make sure the twine is tight evenly, then tie it off and cut off any extra twine or chicken bits.

Salt the exterior.

Now braise it in a heavy bottomed pan over med high heat until the exterior is evenly browned.

Pop in the oven at 400 and cook for 45 minutes.

Remove, let it rest 15 minutes to half and hour. Slice thru the twine and slice as you would a loaf of bread. Use the pan drippings for gravy or just spoon it over the meat.

Mine came out slightly underdone just at the point where it cooked against the asparagus. This is because I put them in while still partially frozen. Not so smart. I was trying to over compensate for the fact I hadn't let my stuffing cool very much. My bad. I just pulled that piece out and served myself that section just in case.

It was good. And sloppily elegant if that makes any sense. I also liked the fact that the bones are left out and uncooked to make a proper light stock with later.

So, not so much a fail, as I think about it.

Paper Chef Challenge #28: The ingredients are. . . .

2008-04-03T02:10:00.003-05:00

ROUND UP HERE

Here is it is:
The challenge is to come up with a dish and make it by April 8th from the following ingredients.

Any kind of offal (it's making a comeback!), quinoa, spring onions and something that is growing now & in season your area (meat included).

The last part is inspired by the woman behind the challenge, Lucullian delights amazing strawberry dish, which are certainly stating to pop up in some part of the world.

If you are still stuck under 3 feet of snow, then pick ingredient that you are most looking forward to having fresh in spring.

All entries must be in by midnight PST on April 8th.

Send the following to favolaus@gmail.com:
• A little picture of the dish, and what you call it.
• A link to your blog URL
• A link to the post that your dish is on
• You name
• Anything else you would like me to add

Looking forward to seeing them all!

Cookbad

Getting Ready for Paper Chef Challenge #28

2008-04-01T12:51:00.004-05:00

ROUND UP HERE

Be part of one of the longest running food blogging challenges -- Paper Chef #28!

It is on now:
Go here for the challenge list of ingredients. . .

I was thrilled to win last months Paper Chef hosted by Lucullian Delights with my Cilantro, Pistachio, Ancho Chile Rubbed Chicken with Stinking Rose Polenta, and as the winner, I get the honor of hosting it this month.

Owen of Tomatilla who started Paper Chef describes the challenge as:

"Food bloggers in the US and Japan and many other parts of the world will be familiar with "the Iron Chef" cooking show. Great chefs are put up against one of the iron chefs in a rather over-the-top and dramatic cooking competition to see who can make the most spectacular food from a host of regular ingredients and one special ingredient - say octopus. There is a somewhat similar TV show in Britain called "Ready, Steady, Cook!"

So, check back on Thursday April 3rd at noon EST. I'll announce the 4 ingredients -- The first 3 ingredients will be regular food stuff and the 4th will be something topical, seasonal or trendy.

Over the next 5 days submit your entry at any point. Tuesday, April 8th at noon the challenge will end and I'll do a round up a couple days after that.

Me and my co-blogger, AteThat will chose the winner, and will also be announcing a Readers Choice winner. The winner of this months challenge gets to host next months challenge.

Basted Egg and Fried Parsley Sandwich on Gougère

2008-03-31T16:52:00.003-05:00

By Cookbad

After my earlier gougère fail, I still had some of the dough left. . . or is it batter?

I decided to make large scale failing gougères, which turned out quite nicely, cheesey and between popover and brioche.

Then I basted some eggs, which is my new favorite way to make them.

You melt much more butter than is healthy to consume into a pan ocer med to low medium heat and let it melt.

Crack and egg into the pan and baste them by pouring the hot melted butter, spoonful by spoonful over the top of the egg until just as the very top of the yolk turns white, like in the below pict. Then it's done and can go on top of the sliced open gougère.

perfectly finished basted egg. Remove from heat when the top of the yolk shows white.

Then sautee up some chopped fresh parsley in the butter for 1-2 minutes, throw it on the egg, salt, eat.

Gougères

2008-03-31T15:28:00.003-05:00

Perfectly puffed up choux next to my gougères FAIL

By Cookbad

Gougères are profiteroles cheesy cousin.

You can stuff them the same way you would any choux pastry, but I cannot seem to get mine to puff up as they should.

I used to make these by just adding some grated cheddar or gruyère cheese to a simple choux recipe. They never puffed up and reminded me more of tiny little souffle that anything choux.

I've made this recipe that I am posting 4 times now and they have never ever puffed up the way cream puffs do, and they should. . .they are on the cover of the book they come from looking all golden, puffy and self satisfied. . . mocking me. . .

smug gougères

See what I mean?

They are from this terrific book called Bite Sized by François Payard that is about just one it sounds like. Great stuff, much of it pretty expensive to make.

Anyway. . . .

Why do I continue to make a recipe that fails? Because they taste really really good. They go so fast that I don't think I have ever actually tasted a cold one.

Here is the dubious recipe in question.
Gougères
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter
3 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, sifted
pinch of salt
pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
5 large eggs
5 ounces (1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons) heavy cream, slightly heated so it is warm to the touch
3 1/2 cups grated Gruyère cheese, plus more for garnish if desired

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Place 1 cup water and the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat to low and add the flour, salt, cayenne, and nutmeg. Cook the mixture fro 15 to 20 minutes, stirring constantly, until it turns into a thick paste and no longer sticks to the sides of the pan.

3. Transfer the batter to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix at low speed, incorporating the eggs one at a time. Do not add an egg until the previous one is completely incorporated.

4. Add the cream to the batter while the mixer is running. Then stop the mixer and gently stir in the grated Gruyère with a spatula, making sure not to deflate the dough.

5. Fit a pastry bag with a #5 or 1/2 inch star tip, and fill it with the dough. Pipe 1-inch rounds of the dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Wet your finger and smooth out the top of the gougères. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden brown.

6. Remove from the oven and sprinkle grated Gruyère on top if desired. Arrange on a platter and serve warm.

FIRST, I think using a paddle to mix is silly silly madness and maybe a translation error, but this guy speaks perfectly good english, so I don't know what he is thinking. And, I'm also no sure at one point during the paddling the dough turns into any condition in which you would have to worry about deflating it while adding cheese.

SECOND: 10-15 minutes doens't come close. I think half an hour is more like it

Last change for this one. I'm moving on.

Coconut & Lemongrass Shrimp Cakes with a Spicy Mango & Cucumber Salsa

2008-03-30T11:33:00.005-05:00

my crappy camera phone pictures strike again.

By Cookbad

Hooray! Royal Food Joust -- My first .

The challenge was to use seafood, lime and coconut. It got me thinking about a recipe I made last year for shrimp cakes, so I thought I would reprise, without peaking at the original version

I made coconut & lemon grass shrimp cakes with a spicy mango & cucumber salsa.

This recipe made me want to write about the easiest way to prepare a coconut. You don't have to smash it on the ground (most fun method!) of take the back of a cleaver to it (grrrr).

Find a coconut that you can hear a lot of milk sloshing around in. Poke out the eyes & drain it. Put in the the oven at 350 for 30 minutes. The heat causes it to split apart --for easy opening and also causes the meat to release from the shell.

Another way way to shred up fresh coconut it to get yourself a kudkuran, which is a bench coconut grater. Here is a picture of one in use:

Dude grating coconut using a bench grater.

And just an apology about photo quality. . . .
Also, damn the fact I keep coming up with new and interesting places to hide my camera from children that prevents me from finding it too. Anyone who can tell me where my camera is-- I promise to paypal you 50 bucks. No Joke. Camera phone does not cut taking pictures of food.

Bear with my recipes. They are just architecture- Flavor adjustment in expected.
And let me know if there is anything that's unclear. I love feedback.

Coconut & Lemongrass Shrimp Cakes with a Spicy Mango & Cucumber Salsa
Serves 2-4

SALSA:
2 mangos chopped. Over ripe works wonderfully
1/2 cucumber diced. Seed and peel if you feel like it
chile paste-- again to taste
handful of unsweetened shredded coconut
handful fresh mint
1 diced shallot
juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoons of sugar
1-2 tablespoons fish sauce

But everything BUT half the cucumber into a food processor. Pulse. Just to get it to mix, but not to a pulp. Combine with remaining cucumber.

Let this sit in the fridge for the flavors to marry while you make the shrimp cakes.

SHRIMP CAKES:
1 lb. raw shrimp
lemon grass. . I'd say 1/2 a stalk but I use this extremely convenient shredded frozen stuff I bough in Little Saigon.
1/2 chopped fresh coconut
a hand full of green beans
just a bit of lime zest
chile paste to taste
tablespoon fish sauce
1/4 - 1/2 can of coconut milk
handful fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt
panko, optional

Put everything but the panko into a food processor, and blend. Don't expect the coconut to fully blend, it adds a nice texture in the end. If they mixture looks thin, add some panko and stir.

oil to fry, plenty

Heat a heavy bottomed pan to med-high, add oil. Form shrimp mixture into cakes. Big ones for dinner, small ones make a snazzy appetizer.

Fry them until the are browned, flip, repeat. They don't take much time to cook thru, but it's nice to get them brown.

Serve with salsa on the side and a garnish of chopped mint, cilantro and maybe crushed pistachios, but I skipped that part.

These were good. I ate mine standing up in the kitchen while frying up the next batch I was so all over them.

Just one last little coconut nugget of information:

The milk from green coconuts is supposed to be great for a hangover, among other things. I bought some slightly fermented green coconut juice, called kefir at Whole Foods last week & it was really interesting.

Ratatouille

2008-03-29T22:20:00.000-05:00

By Cookbad

I'm a big advocate of cooking in season, so this dish makes me a big hypocrite, but might inspire some garden choices, which it IS the season for.

So, here is a recipe for how to make Ratatouille, just like in the movie!!!

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 shallots, diced
1 1/2 cups canned diced tomatoes (or fresh tomatoes, peeled)
3 tablespoons grated carrots
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1 bay leaf
2 roasted red peppers, diced. Rinsed and patted dry if jarred
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 Roma tomatoes
1 zucchini
1 Chinese eggplant
1 yellow squash
1 clove minced garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon of thyme
1/2 teaspoon oregano
salt and pepper

First you make a base sauce. In a skittle or cast iron pan add olive
oil, garlic and shallots over low-medium heat. Cook until soft, 7-9
minutes. Add tomatoes, carrots, marjoram, bay leaf. Simmer for 10
minutes. Lower heat and add peppers Cook just long enough to combine
the flavors. Remove from heat and discard bay leaf. In either the
skillet you cooked the sauce in, or a round/oval casserole dish (8-10
inches), evenly spread the sauce.

Using a mandolin or very sharp knife, slice tomatoes, squash, zucchini
and eggplant as thinly as possible. Less than 1/8 an inch if possible.

In you prepared sauce dish lay down a strip of overlapping or your
vegetables. Zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes then spring squash. Leaving
a bit of each layer exposed. This strip should start and end about an
inch from either end of the pan. Continue to layer in a spiral
formation around the center strip, slightly overlapping towards the
center. Keep going until either you have used all the vegetables, or
the pan is filled.

Cover with either the lid of the skillet, or a couple layers of foil
and bake at 300 for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Remove lid and return to
oven for another 10 minutes. This dish can be made a day ahead, so
either cover and store or broil for 10-15 minutes until it just starts
to brown. Serve from dish hot or cold.
Makes 4 servings.

Home, Land: cooking.

2008-03-29T20:46:00.003-05:00

Its lemon verbena growing right under my mailbox. Who knew? Caroline.

By Cookbad

My friend, also a Caroline -- and fellow alum from the fantastic graduate program at Tisch School of the Arts, Interactive Telecommunication Program at New York University (which means both of us spent 2 years bound up in code and circuits & making glorious works of art with them) has taken up the challenge of blogging every single kind of plan that grows on her place in Monrovia.

Yes. That was one sentence and I am keeping it.

I digress.

Many of the plants she is blogging you can eat, which interests me greatly. If you are anyplace in the Southern California area and have a plant question, I'll bet she can answer it.

Here is her site.

Scam Chocolate

2008-03-27T20:59:00.004-05:00

By Cookbad

This isn't a new story and it's made the rounds on the blogosphere last year. But I'm trying to finish up our chapter on desserts and focusing on chocolate right now and thought I'd bring it back.

It is the best piece of investigative food reportage I've read.

It's an account blow for blow about the most expensive chocolate per ounce is not only bullshit, but poorly prepared.

Here is the full scoop.

Peanut Buttter Truffles

2008-03-23T07:34:00.000-05:00

By Cookbad

Dessert or treat wise, I say truffles are the biggest bang for your buck.
They are more foolproof than almost any other dessert or sweet I can think of. Combined with the fact that people are tremendously impressed when you tell them that, yes, you were the one to make them, they are one of my favorite things to make. This is a version of the Thomas Keller, French Laundry recipe:

Peanut Butter Truffles
To make about 50 truffles:
6 oz. of dark chocolate
24 oz. of the best peanut butter you can find
1/2 cup of sugar
1.5 tablespoons of salt
9 ounces of unsalted room temp. butter.
24 oz. dark chocolate
1 cup of unsweetened cocoa for coating (that I consider optional)

Melt the chocolate & butter in a double boiler or microwave.

Put the peanut butter, sugar & salt into a food processor and blend. Add chocolate/ butter combo. Blend for couple of minutes.

Transfer mixture to the fridge until very solid.

Once it is solid, get a plate or baking sheet that will fit in your freezer and line it with parchment paper. Wax paper works to. Take a 1 teaspoon measurer and scoop out the mixture then roll into a uniform ball with the flat of your hands. repeat until mixture is done. Put them in the freezer.

If your hand get ridiculously sticky during rolling and the mixture becomes petulant, return it to the fridge (or freezer) to solid it up a bit.

Melt 24 oz. of chocolate over a double boiler, remove from heat and let it sit for 10-15 minutes.

Line another sheet with parchment, grab some tongs.

Take the peanut butter balls out of the freezer.

Using your tongs, dip the peanut butter balls into the mixture, swirl it around some to coat it in chocolate then put in on the parchment lined pan.
Repeat until finished. Put the truffles in the fridge.

When the truffles are cooled, re-melt chocolate and repeat for a second coat.

Remove from fridge, let them come to room temp. then roll them in cocoa powder.

These will keep in the freezer for months.

You can also make truffles with any sort of ganache. Ganache is very simple. It's 1 part chocolate and one part cream. Heat cream to just before boiling, pour over chocolate (chopped, chunked or in chips), wait 2 minutes for the cream to melt the chocolate a bit, then combine with a mixer. You can also any sort of flavor or liquor you like. Then proceed with the ganache just as you would the chocolate mixture.

How to make Sprouted Wheat Bread: Part 1

2008-03-20T21:59:00.006-05:00

The perfect sized sprout for bread

By Cookbad

I'm working on the right proportions to sub in sprouted wheat for wheat flour in bread. Once wheat goes from just a seed to a sprouted seed a whole bunch of it's properties change. They increase in digestive enzymes, proteins, good fats and fiber, overall making a healthier more complex carbohydrate bread.

With all those good things in mind, I'm not sure what replacing regular wheat flour with sprouted wheat will do to the dough. I'm curious to see how the gluten is effected.

BUT FIRST, I need to sprout some wheat, which is pretty much as easy as growing mold on bread.

I invested 8USD in a sprouting jar --it's just a large glass jar with a lid that is made of wire mesh. You can easily improvise one by replacing a large regular jar's lid with either cheese cloth held in place with a tight rubber band. Easier still, poke a bunch of holes in the lid of a jar. Don't use too small a jar. The seeds need room to breath.

Next, I put to use some wheat berries that have been sitting in the back of my pantry for 5 months. Wheat berries are wheat flour before it's ground down and processed.

What I did was:
Throw a handful or two in the jar with 3 cups of water and leave them to soak overnight, 8-16 hrs. Then, empty out the water, and rinse the berries by adding some more water to the jar, swishing it around some and then pouring it out. Do that twice.

Rinse them once or twice a day for the next 48-72 hrs.

In about 48 hours some will show tiny spouts. When most have 1/8-1/4 inch shoots -- like in the picture they are ready for bread making.

I'm going to try 2 different things with my sprouts. I put half in the freezer and the other half, I'm going to mill into flour.

To mill then into flour they need to be dehydrated, which is you can do in an oven at low heat. Spread them on a baking sheet and put them in your oven at 200 max. My oven is ancient and doesn't want to go below 300 no matter how low I set it, so I just left the door slightly open and checked them every 5 minutes, stirring them each check so the ones on the outside didn't get toasted. It took about an hour for them to dry. I checked by taking one berry out, letting it cool and then biting it. If ti was soft, they were still damp.

Eventually, one cracked under my teeth, so I turned off the oven and let them continue to dry. There they sit, waiting to take a turn in my soon to be very cleaned out coffee grinder/ flour mill.

Stay tuned.

Super Food Strata with roasted red pepper and tomato coulis

2008-03-20T18:54:00.008-05:00

Healthy, hearty, and as simple as popping in the oven in the morning.

By Cookbad

I thought up this one for the Weekend Breakfast Blogging Balanced Breakfast Challenge!

A strata is a kind of eggy bread puddinngish breakfast dish that you make the night before and let sit overnight so the bread becomes almost custardy. It can be sweet, savory or both. It is perfect breakfast if all you want to do is pop something in the oven and don't want to do any prep. in the morning.

I've been working hard at getting my strata recipe down and think I have it.
For any kind of strata you want to make, a good guideline is:

For every 3 eggs you want use 2 cups of shredded bread and 3/4 cups of milk.
For a 3 egg strata use about 1.5 -2 cups of filling, and all the herbs and spices you like.

A couple more strata tips:
Cook your strata in a deeper souffle of oven ready sauce pan, not a flat casserole dish.

If the egg doesn't cover the bread, add a bit more.

If you are going to use a vegetable, cook it down first so it doesn't drown your strata and make it end up soggy.

Stratas do not photograph well.

Here is the recipe:
Super Food Strata with roasted red pepper and tomato coulis
FOR THE STRATA
In a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat:
2 tablespoons olive oil
Cook until soft:
4 clove crushed garlic
1 diced onion
Add:
5 oz. cremini mushrooms quartered and browned
Then cook for 3 minutes:
6 oz. baby spinach
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Let it cook a bit then in a souffle dish or deep oven proof bowl mix the vegetables with:
4 cups shredded whole grain crusty bread
1/3 cup of your choice of cheese, grated of crumbled (optional)
Beat together:
6 eggs
1.5 cups of milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper cayenne pepper
ground black pepper to taste
Pour the eggs over the bread and vegetables mixture, cover and set in the fridge overnight.

THE ROASTED PEPPER AND TOMATO COULIS:
Put all of the following into a food processor and pulse to blend:
1 roasted red pepper
1 tomato that has been chargrilled and peeled. You do this by just setting the tomato over your gas flame until the skin pops and turns black.
1 clove of garlic
juice of 1 lemon
salt to taste
1/4 cup EVOO
1/3 toasted walnuts

Take the strata out of the fridge 30 minutes before you want to cook it. Take the coulis out to so it has time to get to room temperature before serving.
Preheat the oven to 350.
Bake 45 minutes covered.
It should be puffed up and starting to brown.
Serve with a dollop of coulis.

That lump of orange stuff is the coulis

I opted out of the cheese, but next time I make this I'm thinking fontina.

Also, the coulis is really good all on its own. I put it on a sandwich and turned it into a dip all while waiting for my strata to get down soaking.

Pizza + Beer = fun

2008-03-20T11:53:00.000-05:00

I'd had more than a few spicy & sweets before I got took these less than awesome pictures.

By Cookbad

I made a really good pizza the other night. Maple Chipotle Soaked Pineapple & Ham Pizza and I served it with a beer cocktail that I named the Spicy & Sweet Shannon. the pictures are pretty bad. I'd had a few drinks, I was quivering with hunger. . . .

The Pizza:
Slice up some fresh pineapple. About 1 quarter a pineapple is enough for 1 pizza.
Cut into 1/8s and then slice them about 1/4 inch thick. Put them in a bowl with 1/4 cup maple syrup, 1/4 cup water and a chunk or two of canned Chipotle peppers.
Marinde for 30 minute or more.
When they have marinaded, put the pineapple in one layer on a baking sheet, pour over some of he marinade and broil until the tops start to brown a bit.
Get some ham and slice it up into strips.
Dress you pizza

Next, go here for detailed directions on how to make grilled pizza or do it however you want. Top with sauce, cheese, the roasted pineapple and ham. We made this pizza on a particularly shitty grill so it took forever and I eventually just decided to finish it up in the oven.

The Spicy and Sweet Shannon:
All these flavors can be adjusted to your taste.
Pour all this into a pitcher:
1/2 cup of lemon juice
1/4 cup of maple syrup
a few shakes of cayanne pepper
Ice
4 light beers

Pour over more ice.
If you are thinking that it sounds an awful lot like the master cleanse with beer, you'd be right.
Sounds gross, but everyone that tried it really liked it.

The pizza, was terrific. I have been thinking about it for days.

WTF?

2008-03-19T22:06:00.003-05:00

suddenly a thing of the past.

By Cookbad

First the bees and now this.

Remember all those clips on public television you'd see with streams so thick with salmon heading to spawn it looked like rush hour in L.A.?

No more.

Yesterday the New York Times reported that Chinook aka King Salmon have all but vanished.

The Pacific Fisheries Management Council is calling this unexplained event unprecedented.

How to make Hollandaise Sauce & Eggs Benedict

2008-03-16T16:36:00.006-05:00

A superfast and easy version of eggs benedict

By Cookbad

Hollandaise is so easy, I could make it hungover - and I will, next time because Eggs Benedict is a potent hangover cure.

All it is is butter, egg yolk, salt, pepper and lemon. It is a lot like mayonnaise, but made with clarified butter instead of oil.

In theory, it could be pretty easy to fuck up because you are trying to get the hot butter and eggs to emulsify without cooking he egg yolks, which cook pretty damn easily.

Here is my pretty hard to fuck up method:

Makes about 1.5 cups

4 egg yolks
1 1/4 cup butter
salt, pepper to taste
the juice of 1/2 - 1 lemon

Beat the egg yolks until they are pale.
Heat the butter in a small sauce pan and skim the white foamy stuff off the top. Keep it pretty hot but do not let it bubble. Let the milk solids in the butter sink to the bottom.

Melted butter after most of the foam has been skimmed.

discarded butter foam

Keep beating the egg yolks and very slowly pour in a bit of hot butter. Let it emulsify, then add some more, then a bit more until the butter is gone. Add salt, pepper and lemon juice, and you're done. Serve immediately. If you can't and you want to keep it hot, put it over a very low double boiler and stir often.

the finished unbroken product

It didn't break? Did it.

Now to put it to good use:

Eggs Benedict:

Makes 1 serving

Toast up an English muffin. If you don't have one, a nice thick piece of toasted good bread will do. If you want to make some english muffins, go here.

Poach 2 eggs.

Fry up some canadian bacon, ham or rashers of bacon. If you are making rasher and have some asparagus laying around, toss it in the pan with the bacon, It takes them about the same amount of time to cook and the asparagus is nice side.

Make the hollandaise.

Place ham on bread or muffin, place poached egg on pork, slather with hollandaise.

Eat.

Atethat, who lives in the UK told me that there are no English muffins there (makes sense!) and also, she had only seen eggs benedict at restaurants that cater to tourists.

I think that is a crime.

How to make Mayonnaise

2008-03-16T16:35:00.005-05:00

Delicious homemade mayonnaise

By Cookbad

Just testing out the recipe we are using in the upcoming Fresh Eggs Don't Float book.

And hooray! It's good.

Makes about 2 cups:
4 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon of dijon mustard or 1/4 teaspoon of dry mustard
1.5 cups of virgin olive oil or canola oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar
salt, pepper

You can make it in a blender, with a hand mixer or a standing mixer. You can make it by hand if you think your arm will hold out.

It's good to have all these ingredients as well as the bowl and whisk at room temperature, but I didn't and it worked out just fine.

Whisk the egg yolks and mustard until they are pale yellow. Put your oil into something that will allow you to pour it very slowly. While the egg yolks are being beaten slowly pour 1/2 teaspoon on oil into the yolk. When if has emulsified add another 1/2 teaspoon and so on. Towards the end, you can start to pour in the oil a bit faster, but if you incorporate it too quickly, the mayonnaise will break. Add salt, pepper, the juice of 1 lemon and 1/2 -1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar.

All told it took me about 30 minutes to make. I wouldn't have had that sort of patience or stamina if I wasn't using the standing mixer.

From mayonnaise you can make all sorts of sauces and spreads:

Aioli
Andalouse
Bacon Mayonnaise
Blue Cheese Dressing
Cambridge Sauce
Chantilly Mayonnaise
Gloucester Sauce
Green Goddess Dressing
Gribiche
Curry Mayonnaise
Remoulade
Rouille
Sauce Vert
Tartare Sauce
Thousand Island Dressing
Sauce Vincent

If you want very quick recipes for each of these sauces, click onto the mayonnaise family tree chart, find you sauce and add on to mayonnaise whatever ingredients are called for. Here is the chart. Click on it to see a much LARGER version:

double click for a bigger verison

All the chart recipes are the ingredients listed + 1 cup of mayonnaise

Joy of Cooking says that you cannot make mayonnaise in a thunderstorm, because it will not bind. I am so looking forward to testing that theory out.

Let me know if that chart is weird or hard to understand or just plain wrong.

Who is making your organic food?

2008-03-16T13:01:00.001-05:00

I came across this on boingboing. It is a list of who makes which brands of popular organic brands of food. Heinz, as it turns out, makes a boat load of them. Click here for the full list.

Music to go along with this post from dan le sac & scroobius pip.

Tiny Timballos

2008-03-15T18:31:00.003-05:00

By Cookbad

Timballos, timpanos, whatever you want to call them . . . are upsidedown savory pies filled with pasta, sauces, vegetables, anything you want arranged in layers to create a dramatic effect when it is cut into. A couple of years ago I made a crustless one, but more commonly you build one by layering the bottom of a souffle dish or round bottomed pan with a thin dough, add the fillings layer by layer and then bake. Mostly when I try to get the pie out of the pan it has been sticking and falling apart, but it tastes good and the kids will eat it, so I keep trying.

Last night I tried to make tiny single sized versions for The Mini Pie Revolution mini pot pie event. I've made these mini pork pies in the past with great success, but this is the first time I made up a mini (or any) pie recipe.

So here goes:

Makes about 6 small pies in various sized ramekins:

CRUST:
2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon of ground black pepper
1/3 grated asiago cheese
12 tablespoons (1.5 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
4 tablespoons chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
6 tablespoons (or more) ice water

In a food processor, mix the first 4 ingredients, then pulse in the butter and shortening until it looks grainy. Then add the water. Continue to pulse a few more times. Form the dough into a ball and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.

PASTA:
2-4 oz. of penne cooked 2 minutes less than the preparation calls for.
enough sauce to cover pasta

BECHAMEL SAUCE:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons diced onion
2 tablespoons flour
1.5 cups milk
1/4 cup asiago cheese, grated
Sweat he onions in the butter over med heat then add flour and for 2 minutes stir constantly. Add milk, and whisk until fully combined. Set over medium-high heat and whisk till as it simmers. Add asiago and simmer for 8 minutes.
When it is done, add:
1/2 cup of frozen peas

6 hard boiled quail eggs

A bit of extra asiago cheese

TO ASSEMBLE:
Liberally flour your surface and roll out the dough to no less than 1/4 inch. Place the ramakin you are using onto the dough, then cut a circle around it that is 2 inches + bigger than the raminkins imprint. Then, cut a shape directly around the lid of the ramekin. Remove extra dough, then roll the larger circle out some more. The dough should be as thin as you can work with it. Grease, spray or butter your ramakin. Then, gently lift the larger round, place and work it into the ramakin. If there is gross excess in spots, cut it out and seal it.

Take your tomato covered penne and lay them in a row at the bottom of the pie. Fill in the edges with more penne. Then, make another layer.

Scoop about 2-3 table spoons of your peas and bechamel mixture over the pasta. Then very gently press the quail egg down thru the pea mixture. Ideally it will be standing perfectly upsidedown.

Layer some very thin slices of asiago then cover with another arranged layer of penne.

Place the smaller crust on top and seal with the lower crust.

Pop in to oven at 350 for 45 minutes. Check on it, and if the upper crust is burning, take it out.

When you take it out, place it upsidedown on a plate. It may or may not fall onto the plate. Ideally, they fall out of the ramekins after a bit of cooling. If they stick, I've tried chilling it got get it to fall, heating it on the plate to get it to fall, but sometimes it just won't. Then you have a classic pot pie, that will taste just as good.

Leftover bechamel and tomato sauce can be combined and poured over pies if you like.

I'm really sad about the grey circle around the egg yolk, but that comes from over cooking and I can't figure a way around it after 45 minutes in the oven.

flourless chocolate espresso torte

2008-03-15T00:12:00.000-05:00

by Cookbad

I've made this so many times, I know the recipe by heart, but I've never posted it. It's from the little known, by worth getting Cafe Pongo Cookbook.

It's my stand-by-slash-and-burn-everyone-loves-it-cake. It is my Brother-in-laws birthday tomorrow night, and as I'm short on time as of late and know this is always good, I'm happy to make it again.

So:
melt 4 oz. of very good dark chocolate with 1 cup of butter.
mix 1/2 cup hot water with 2 tablespoons of instant espresso
mix all that with:
4 eggs large and 1 cup of sugar.

The recipe suggests to line a 8-9 inch cake pan with cling wrap and then pour the mixture into the pan, place in bain-marie and bake in pre-heated oven at 350 for 45-55 minutes. Last time I made it I used target brand cling-wrap and it melted. That was the first time that happened, so I'm using only saran-wrap from now on, which has never melted.

Let it cool, then sprinkle with some cocoa powder, maybe but a coffee bean or two on and you're done.

It serves 8 full people. If you want to make it for more, make 2 cakes, whip 1 cup of heavy cream with 3 tablespoons of sugar into whipped cream, top one cake with the whipped cream and gingerly place the second cake on top. if it doesn't fall right on top, the whipped cream gives you some wiggle room for adjusting. If the surface cracks, gently rub the crack to hide it and then the cocoa powder should cover any remaining marks.

You can also make them in small individual portions in muffin tins. Shorten the cooking time to 20-30 minutes.

"Fuck off! I'm cooking" button for ALL!

2008-03-14T18:28:00.006-05:00

From Cookbad

Sometimes, don't you just want to say it?
Maybe you are in the thick of it, maybe you are cooking because it is 'me time', maybe it food to be on the table in 5 minutes because the kids/significant other/dinner guests are freaking out with hunger.

Maybe you say it all the time are are tired of repeating yourself.

If you want one, email me at favolaus@gmail.com and I'll get one to you.

four berry maple and mascarpone strata

2008-03-14T15:24:00.004-05:00

stratas do not photograph very well, but are delicious.

By Cookbad

I've been experimenting with stratas a lot lately to see if there is a ratio of egg to bread to milk to filling that would work for any kind of strata be it sweet, savory or in between.

I made this one using my strata ratio of bread:egg:milk being about 6:6:1.5 and if came out splendidly.

4 Berry Maple & Mascarpone Strata
6 eggs
6 cups of ripped up whole grain crusty bread
1.5 cups of milk
1.5 cups of maple syrup
2 teaspoons of vanilla
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
4 oz. mascarpone cheese (cream cheese would work too, the cheese it optional)
8 ounces of mixed blueberries, raspberries, cherries and blackberries, fresh or frozen

1 cup of heavy cream
1/4 cup of maple syrup

Beat together eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon and maple syrup.

In a casserole or souffle dish, mix together the bread, the berries and evenly place quarter sized dollops of the mascarpone. Pour the egg mixture over it.

Cover it and stick it in the fridge overnight.

Preheat your oven to 350. Put he strata (covered) and cook for 35 minutes. Take off the cover and cook for another 15 minutes.

During the last 15 minutes of cooking whip the heavy cream with maple syrup into a whipped cream.

Let the strata cook for a bit, then serve with whipped cream and more maple syrup if you like.

Pink Chocolate Fairy Cakes (with creme filling!)

2008-03-13T21:09:00.007-05:00

It's a lot of look for one little cake.

by Cookbad

I made these little numbers for a bake sale at my daughters preschool. My only thought was to make them as pink and irresistible to the princess loving, pink adoring, pre-barbi set as possible. So I did a pink cupcake, with pink frosting and toped with some sparkly pink, stuffed with creme.

I made them vegan, although I didn't advertise them as such. It was only implied in the ingredient list I was require to submit with said cupcakes.

And really, why not make them vegan if you can. They are just as delicious. There are a few vegans at the school and I would hate to exclude any pink loving wee vegan from one. BONUS: kids can lick the beaters at any point (if you worry about raw eggs).

Perfect timing to join in on the 2008 CUPCAKE SPECTACULAR!

These were a mash-up of a few different recipes. The cupcakes themselves were from my friend Lacy Sher's book, Down to Earth cookbook- The best vegan cookbook I have ever run across, and I've seen a lot. Anyway, I have sworn to her to keep her recipes in the book and off the internet. Still, there are plenty of vegan cake recipes out there. . . this is one that is similar, but as I haven't made them I ain't vouching for them.

Here is how it goes from there:
Bake them in little paper or silver muffin cups, but don't spray the inside with oil as I read to do someplace. It makes the cupcake slip away from paper and creates a hassle decorating and looks kind of lame.

I wanted mine pink, so out came the food coloring. Admittedly, I over did it in the batter. There is no way to take out color unless you want to double the recipe and incorporate another batch into the over dyed one - which I didn't so, I ran with it.

Actually, maybe you should make the ganache frosting first so it has a chance to cool while you're mixing, baking and creme filling:

Procure a bag of white chocolate chunks, they usually come in 12 oz. packets. Put them in a deep bowl. Next, heat up 1.5 cups of soy milk (this is 1;1 chocolate and soy milk if you want to make more or less). Just as the milk starts to boil take it off the heat and pour it over the chocolate. Wait a couple minutes them take the mixer to them. A high sided bowl comes in handy for the first few seconds, because you've got 2 ingredients with very different consistencies and until they start to incorporate, chocolate and milk will fling all over you and your kitchen if you are using a shallow bowl.

Add a bit of red food coloring.

Mix for 5 minutes.

Stick it in the fridge.

While everything cools, make the frosty creme inside:

1/4 cup non-hydrogenated margarine
1/2 cup non-hydrogenated shortening
3/4 cup superfine (or caster) sugar
¼ cup plain soymilk powder (don’t use low-fat, it has a “taste”)
pinch salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (get the highest quality you can, the kind that’s thick and syrupy tastes best)

Make sure everything is room temperature and whip like crazy with a hand or upright mixer for 10 minute.

This is directly lifted from the Isa Chandra Moskowitz fauxtess cupcakes in Vegan with a Vengeance. Another superior book.

In the UK cupcakes are called fairy cakes and why not exploit that for further 3-6 yo. girl appeal?

Now, you get the creme deliciousness into the cupcake. Get out your pasty or icing bag with whatever tip you can still find, fill it and simply stick the tip of the bag into the top center of the cupcake, press it in 1/4 to 1/2 and inch and squeeze in the creme. Squeeze just until you see the cake rise a bit. Squeeze too much and it will burst, but still taste goood.

Done?

Time to ice them. I did it by putting the cupcakes face down into the ganache, giving them a twirl and gently lifting them out, repairing any messy spot with a clean finger. Do it anyway that works bet for you.

Now sprinkle very liberally with hot pink colored sugar and pop a white chocolate chip on top. I tried to do a few with little pieces of silver gilding stuff, but they looked messy so I stuck to the chips.

And there you have it.

You can do this over 2 days. They will taste just as good.

music accompaniment: Miss Li.

How to make grilled pizza - the definitive answer.

2008-03-10T17:13:00.001-05:00

By Cookbad

I have perfected the grilled pizza technique, and I'm now convinced that unless you have an oven that will go up to 600 degrees, this is the way to do it. The high and dry heat of the grill is the perfect pizza environment.

So here is how I do it:
I cheat and buy my pizza dough at trader joe's, because I'm lazy and it's good dough. In my previous lazy East Coast days I would stop buy whatever pizza shop I was walking by and buy some dough off of them.

Fire up the grill to high and close the cover.

2 doughs looking at the ocean

Get out a rack big enough to put your pizza on.

Slather a some olive oil on your dough and hands then press it out onto a pan, as thinly and evenly as possible. Don't leave the edges that will be the crust thicker. If you end up with a minor hole or two than can't be repaired, it isn't a tragedy.

Go check and see if your grill is really really hot. 500 degrees where you want it. 400 at the lowest.

When the grill is hot, grab a metal spatula and some tongs.

Take the pan that has the dough stretched over it and hold it dough side down. The dough might start to fall to the grill on it's own, or it may need some gentle help with the spatula. This is the hardest part of the whole project and it took me a few times to get it down. If might fall unevenly and if it does, you can either try to reshape with the tongs (don't rip it) or just leave it.

the dough just before shutting the grill

Remove the pan, shut the grill. Count to 30, slowly.

the dough after 30 seconds

Open the grill. If the dough has huge bubbles and it looks like it is browning well, flip it. If you try to flip it and it rips, close the grill and count to 20. If it is lifting well but sticks to the grill, gently take the spatula to the sticking parts.

Once it is flipped, close the grill and count to 30.

It should be done. Take it off the grill and put it right onto the rack-- the most recently cooked side up.

Let the crust cool a bit and turn down your grill to 400.

to chiffonade basil, lie 5 or 6 leaves on top of one another

Then roll it into a cigar shape and thinnly slice.

Toppings:
If you are using sauce, be conservative but sauce all the way to the edges.

Any vegetables should be sauteed, grilled, cooked down so they don't swamp and dampen the dough. Cheese is easy, what you please with it. Same with meats.

Take the rack and pizza, open the grill and using the tongs, grab as far into the center of the pizza and pull it in one swift motion onto the grill.

Close the grill. After 5 minutes, check it. If you have nicely melted and slightly browning cheese, take it off. If not, leave it another 2-3 minutes.

Most likely the bottom will be charred in a few spots when it's done. But is it still completely edible and delicious.

Cilantro, Pistachio, Ancho Chile Rubbed Chicken with Stinking Rose Polenta

2008-03-03T20:36:00.005-05:00

By Cookbad

I'm throwing my hat in the ring for this round of The Paper Chef Challenge!

I was very pleased with the outcome of this dish. The final honey glaze is really nice. You could thicken it with pistachio flour or add crushed pistachio for color.

You can make this in under 45 minutes. Halves really well. I am really happy with it

STILL, it greatly pains me to only have terrible photos of this wonderful dish. My camera has gone missing and I had to take these with my laptop. No amount of adjusting in photoshop could improve them.

Cilantro, Pistachio, Ancho Chile Rubbed Chicken with Stinking Rose Polenta
Serves 4

For the chicken lotion:
1 cup roasted salted pistachios
2 cups cilantro leaves
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/3 cup olive oil

For the Chicken dry rub:
2 tablespoons ancho chile powder
1.5 tablespoons cumin seeds
1.5 tablespoons corriander seeds

4 organic chicken breast halves with skin and ribs attached

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup honey

For the Polenta:
1/2 clove of garlic rubbed with olive oil

6 cups of low salt chicken stock
1.5 cups course corn meal

Cilantro leaves for garnish
lime slices (optional)
ancho chile powder
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 400 f.

Throw the oil rubbed garlic in the oven and roast for 20 minutes.

Put the first 5 ingredents in a food processor and pulse into a paste or chicken lotion.

Toast cumin and corriander in a pan over med-high heat until fragrant (about 90 seconds)
Crush up and add ancho chile powder.

Rinse, pat dry and salt chicken. Stuff lotion under the skin of the chicken then massage both sides with the dry rub mixture.

Heat a cast iron pan over med high heat. Add some olive oil then brown both sides of chicken.

Put in the oven and cook for 20 minutes.

At this point you want to start the polenta.
Add 1.5 cups of stock to 1.5 cups of corn meal. Stir stir stir until the mixture boils. Reduce to a simmer and stir often. When garlic is roasted, squeeze each clove into the polenta. Keep stirring. It should be finished in about 25-30 minutes.

After the chicken has been cooking for 20 minutes remove from oven and rub the rest of the lotion over the chicken.

Cook for 5 more minutes. Remove from oven.

Remove chicken from pan. Scrape bits of the bottom of the pan, add honey and whisky until smoothish.

When serving, put a pinch of ancho chile pepper on the polenta and serve with a couple of lime slices if you so desire.

UPDATE!! I won!
So, I'll be hosting next months challenge!

Tepache

2008-03-02T17:18:00.005-05:00

Homemade hooch. About 5% alcohol.

By Cookbad

Tepache is a slightly boozy drink made from mashed up pineapple, skin and all that is left to ferment for 5 days and according to Wikipedia, Tepache is commonly made by inmates in Mexican prison.

This is my first foray into Mexican Prison cuisine, so I'm excited.

This is how I made mine, which is based on Diana Kennedy's version:

Tepache 1 very ripe pineapple (about a 2 pounder) a handful of cinnamon bark, crushed up about 2 inches of ginger, sliced to coins then slightly crushed 10 cups of cold water 1 cup sucanat or brown sugar 1 can of light beer Chop up and then crush up the pineapple into a container large enough to hold all the ingredients. Cover with 8 cups of water. Add cinnamon and ginger. Cover and set in a warm place for 3 days. On the 3rd or 4th day put 1.5 cups of water and the sugar into a saucepan and bring to a simmer until sugar is melted. Let this cool off then add to the fermented pineapple along with the beer. Stir, cover and leave for another day or 2. Strain, strain again and then finally, stain thru cheese cloth. Serve very cold.

You could make it just with the rinds of the pineapple. A nice thing to know if you hate to waste any part of whatever you are preparing.

With all my booze projects I like to take a picture of the lucky person who first gets to taste whatever I have left to ferment. This time the picture as pretty tame, as the tepache was, surprisingly not bad at all.

"It tastes like I'm drinking something I shouldn't" was his first reaction, but he went of to finish the mug.

I have to admit that we tried it only after the beer ran out, and we were slightly past the point of being able to go get more, so we were really wanting to like it.

We didn't drink that much of it, so I cannot report on hangover severity.

UPDATE: I drank all of it over a 4 hour period of time. Adding fresh lime juice made it taste really good. Adding rum to it makes it taste good and will get you drunk. Very mild if any hangover.

Vietnamese Table Salad

2008-03-01T14:56:00.000-05:00

Giant salad

By Cookbad

Ho. Ly. Cow. is this a good salad.
It is no secret that I am a big fan of all Vietnamese food, Cha Gio in particular. I love the whole process of rolling a delicious hot and crispy roll into cold and crisp lettuce with mint and then dipping it in a sweet, spicy, tangy sauce. If I had to make a list of my top 10 favorite food, they would be on it.

This salad is eaten in a similar way to Cha Gio. You wrap the pork, pineapple, noodles and anything else you like in the leaf lettuce and then dip. So, you get all the deliciousness of the Cha Gio without having to fry.

I'm also a big fan of anything I can eat with my hands.

My husband dug into this one before I got to the table so I didn't explain to him how one should manage this meal, so he ate it old school salad style.

salad sandwiched

Here is the recipe:

Vietnamese Table Salad
Dipping sauce
3/4 cup hot water
5 tablespoons fish sauce*
3 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 Thai bird chiles with seeds or 1/2 jalapeño chile with seeds, minced
1 garlic clove, minced

Pork
6 green onions (white and pale green parts only), chopped (about 1/2 cup)
3 tablespoons chopped lemongrass*
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon golden brown sugar
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
1 1/2 to 1 3/4 pounds boneless pork loin chops (each 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick)

Salad and noodles
1 small English hothouse cucumber, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced crosswise
1 baby pineapple, peeled, halved, thinly sliced or 1/2 small pineapple, peeled, cut into 2 wedges, cored, thinly sliced
2 cups bean sprouts
1 cup fresh Thai basil leaves
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1 cup fresh mint leaves
20 fresh green shiso leaves
1/2 cup finely shredded carrot
1 8- to 9-ounce package dried rice vermicelli noodles
3 heads of butter lettuce, cored, leaves separated
preparation
For dipping sauce:
Mix all ingredients in small bowl. Season sauce to taste with salt. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

For pork:
Mix first 6 ingredients and 2 tablespoons oil in 11x7-inch glass dish. Add pork chops to marinade, turn several times to coat evenly, then crowd together in single layer. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.

For salad and noodles:
Arrange cucumber, pineapple, bean sprouts, all herbs, and carrot around edge of large platter. (Can be prepared 2 hours ahead. Cover; chill.)

Cook noodles in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender and turning white, separating often with tongs, about 4 minutes. Drain. Arrange in center of platter. Mound lettuce leaves in large shallow bowl.

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Brush grill rack with remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Grill pork with marinade still clinging to meat until slightly charred and cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes per side, depending on thickness. Transfer pork to cutting board. Let rest 10 minutes.

Cut pork crosswise into 1/3-inch-wide strips. Place pork and any juices from board atop noodles. To serve, fill lettuce leaves with pork, noodles, herbs, and vegetables. Serve with sauce for dipping.

3 heads of butter lettuce, cored, leaves separated
preparation
For dipping sauce:
Mix all ingredients in small bowl. Season sauce to taste with salt. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

For pork:
Mix first 6 ingredients and 2 tablespoons oil in 11x7-inch glass dish. Add pork chops to marinade, turn several times to coat evenly, then crowd together in single layer. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.

For salad and noodles:
Arrange cucumber, pineapple, bean sprouts, all herbs, and carrot around edge of large platter. (Can be prepared 2 hours ahead. Cover; chill.)

Cook noodles in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender and turning white, separating often with tongs, about 4 minutes. Drain. Arrange in center of platter. Mound lettuce leaves in large shallow bowl.

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Brush grill rack with remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Grill pork with marinade still clinging to meat until slightly charred and cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes per side, depending on thickness. Transfer pork to cutting board. Let rest 10 minutes.

Cut pork crosswise into 1/3-inch-wide strips. Place pork and any juices from board atop noodles. To serve, fill lettuce leaves with pork, noodles, herbs, and vegetables. Serve with sauce for dipping.

I used cellophane noodles instead of vermicelli, regular pineapple instead of baby, regular basil instead of Thai and just plain skipped the shiso leaves. I'm not nuts about them anyway and there was already so much to work with.

I'm going to have the leftovers for breakfast tomorrow if they aren't consumed in the night.

P.S. Excuse the terrible photos. I lost my camera and am using my phone to take pictures until it turns back up.

Julia Child's Baguette aka Daring Bakers Challenge 2.2008!

2008-02-29T23:50:00.004-05:00

Good webbing is one of the biggest goals of a good baguette in my opinion.

By Cookbad

Good croissants are easier to bake than a good baguette. Of this I am convinced.
Since December I have been trying out recipes.

I started with one from The Cafe Pongo Cookbook. Fine, but with only one rise it isn't tasty pretty much as soon as it cools off.

The second one was from the Crust and the Crumb by Peter Reinhart, which was my first experience using an indirect method for building a dough with pâte fermentée. I was pleased with the results of this bread and would really recommend his book.

The third was this little number.

All told, I think I have made about 25 loaves over the past 2.5 months.

Here is what I have learned:
1. The wetter the dough the chewier inside and crispier outside.
2. The slower the rise the taster.
3. More than one rise will get you far better webbing results.
4. The hardest part is shaping them.
5. A standing mixer makes the process tolerable.
6. Never clean up with a sponge that has an abrasive side. One gluten gets a hold of that stuff it will never let go.

I have made this recipe 3 times now. I love making it. I love the process, checking on the dough and it's progress. Still, I cannot for the life of me shape them properly. No one seems to care though. A loaf of this stuff doesn't survive in this house for more than 3 hours my family loves it so much.

good baguettes ready for a closeup.

One the most rewarding recipes I have ever made:

Julia Child's Baguette recipe
Making French Bread:
Step 1: The Dough Mixture – le fraisage (or frasage)
1 cake (0.6 ounce) (20grams) fresh yeast or 1 package dry active yeast
1/3 cup (75ml) warm water, not over 100 degrees F/38C in a glass measure
3 1/2 cup (about 1 lb) (490 gr) all purpose flour, measured by scooping
dry measure cups into flour and sweeping off excess
2 1/4 tsp (12 gr) salt
1 1/4 cups (280 - 300ml) tepid water @ 70 – 74 degrees/21 - 23C

Both Methods: Stir the yeast in the 1/3 cup warm water and let liquefy completely while measuring flour into mixing bowl. When yeast has liquefied, pour it into the flour along with the salt and the rest of the water.

Hand Method: Stir and cut the liquids into the flour with a rubber spatula, pressing firmly to form a dough and making sure that all the bits of flour and unmassed pieces are gathered in. Turn dough out onto kneading surface, scraping bowl clean. Dough will be soft and sticky.

Both Methods: Turn dough out onto kneading surface, scraping bowl clean. Dough will be soft and sticky. Let the dough rest for 2 – 3 minutes while you wash and dry the bowl (and the dough hook if using a stand mixer).

Step 2: Kneading – petrissage
The flour will have absorbed the liquid during this short rest, and the dough will have a little more cohesion for the kneading that is about to begin. Use one hand only for kneading and keep the other clean to hold a pastry scrapper, to dip out extra flour, to answer the telephone, and so forth. Your object in kneading is to render the dough perfectly smooth and to work it sufficiently so that all the gluten molecules are moistened and joined together into an interlocking web. You cannot see this happen, of course, but you can feel it because the dough will become elastic and will retract into shape when you push it out.

Hand Method: Start kneading by lifting the near edge of the dough, using a pastry scraper or stiff wide spatula to help you if necessary, and flipping the dough over onto itself. Scrape dough off the surface and slap it down; lift edge and flip it over again, repeating the movement rapidly.

In 2 -3 minutes the dough should have enough body so that you can give it a quick forward push with the heel of your hand as you flip it over. Continue to knead rapidly and vigorously in this way. If the dough remains too sticky, knead in a sprinkling of flour. The whole kneading process will take 5 – 10 minutes, depending on how expert you become.

Shortly after this point, the dough should have developed enough elasticity so it draws back into shape when pushed, indicating the gluten molecules have united and are under tension like a thin web of rubber; the dough should also begin to clean itself off the kneading surface, although it will stick to your fingers if you hold a pinch of dough for more than a second or two.

Both Methods: Let dough rest for 3 – 4 minutes. Knead by hand for a minute. The surface should now look smooth; the dough will be less sticky but will still remain soft. It is now ready for its first rise.

Step 3: First Rising – pointage premier temps (3-5 hours at around 70 degrees)
You now have approximately 3 cups of dough that is to rise to 3 1/2 times its original volume, or to about 10 1/2 cups. Wash and fill the mixing bowl with 10 1/2 cups of tepid water (70 – 80 degrees) and make a mark to indicate that level on the outside of the bowl. Note, that the bowl should have fairly upright sides; if they are too outward slanting, the dough will have difficulty in rising. Pour out the water, dry the bowl, and place the dough in it (Mary and Sara Note: Very lightly grease the bowl with butter or kitchen spray as well to prevent the risen dough from sticking to the bowl).

Slip the bowl into a large plastic bag or cover with plastic, and top with a folded bath towel. Set on a wooden surface, marble or stone are too cold. Or on a folded towel or pillow, and let rise free from drafts anyplace where the temperature is around 70 degrees. If the room is too hot, set bowl in water and keep renewing water to maintain around 70 degrees. Dough should take at least 3 – 4 hours to rise to 10 1/2 cups. If temperature is lower than 70 degrees, it will simply take longer.

When fully risen, the dough will be humped into a slight dome, showing that the yeast is still active; it will be light and spongy when pressed. There will usually be some big bubbly blisters on the surface, and if you are using a glass bowl you will see bubbles through the glass.

Step 4: Deflating and Second Rising – rupture; pointage deuxieme temps (1 1/2 to 2 hours at around 70 degrees)
The dough is now ready to be deflated, which will release the yeast engendered gases and redistribute the yeast cells so that the dough will rise again and continue the fermentation process.

With a rubber spatula, dislodge dough from inside of bowl and turn out onto a lightly floured surface, scraping bowl clean. If dough seems damp and sweaty, sprinkle with a tablespoon of flour.

Lightly flour the palms of your hands and flatten the dough firmly but not too roughly into a circle, deflating any gas bubbles by pinching them.

Lift a corner of the near side and flip it down on the far side. Do the same with the left side, then the right side. Finally, lift the near side and tuck it just under the edge of the far side. The mass of dough will look like a rounded cushion.

Slip the sides of your hands under the dough and return it to the bowl. Cover and let rise again, this time to not quite triple, but again until it is dome shaped and light and spongy when touched.

Step 5: Cutting and resting dough before forming loaves
Loosen dough all around inside of bowl and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Because of its two long rises, the dough will have much more body. If it seems damp and sweaty, sprinkle lightly with flour.

Making clean, sure cuts with a large knife or a bench scraper, divide the dough into:
3 equal pieces for long loaves (baguettes or batards) or small round loaves (boules only)
5 – 6 equal pieces for long thin loaves (ficelles)
10 – 12 equal pieces for small oval rolls (petits pains, tire-bouchons) or small round rolls (petits pains, champignons)
2 equal pieces for medium round loaves (pain de menage or miche only)
If you making one large round loaf (pain de menage, miche, or pain boulot), you will not cut the dough at all and just need to follow the directions below.
After you have cut each piece, lift one end and flip it over onto the opposite end to fold the dough into two; place dough at far side of kneading surface. Cover loosely with a sheet of plastic and let rest for 5 minutes before forming. This relaxes the gluten enough for shaping but not long enough for dough to begin rising again.

While the dough is resting, prepare the rising surface; smooth the canvas or linen towelling on a large tray or baking sheet, and rub flour thoroughly into the entire surface of the cloth to prevent the dough from sticking

Step 6: Forming the loaves – la tourne; la mise en forme des patons

Because French bread stands free in the oven and is not baked in a pan, it has to be formed in such a way that the tension of the coagulated gluten cloak on the surface will hold the dough in shape.

For Long Loaves - The Batard: (Baguettes are typically much too long for home ovens but the shaping method is the same)

After the 3 pieces of dough have rested 5 minutes, form one piece at a time, keeping the remaining ones covered.

Working rapidly, turn the dough upside down on a lightly floured kneading surface and pat it firmly but not too roughly into an 8 to 10 inch oval with the lightly floured palms of your hands. Deflate any gas bubbles in the dough by pinching them.

Fold the dough in half lengthwise by bringing the far edge down over the near edge.

Being sure that the working surface is always lightly floured so the dough will not stick and tear, which would break the lightly coagulated gluten cloak that is being formed, seal the edges of the dough together, your hands extended, thumbs out at right angles and touching.

Roll the dough a quarter turn forward so the seal is on top.

Flatten the dough again into an oval with the palms of your hands.

Press a trench along the central length of the oval with the side of one hand.

Fold in half again lengthwise.

This time seal the edges together with the heel of one hand, and roll the dough a quarter of a turn toward you so the seal is on the bottom.

Now, by rolling the dough back and forth with the palms of your hands, you will lengthen it into a sausage shape. Start in the middle, placing your right palm on the dough, and your left palm on top of your right hand.

Roll the dough forward and backward rapidly, gradually sliding your hands towards the two ends as the dough lengthens.

Deflate any gas blisters on the surface by pinching them. Repeat the rolling movement rapidly several times until the dough is 16 inches long, or whatever length will fit on your baking sheet. During the extension rolls, keep circumference of dough as even as possible and try to start each roll with the sealed side of the dough down, twisting the rope of dough to straighten the line of seal as necessary. If seal disappears, as it sometimes does with all purpose flour, do not worry.

Place the shaped piece of dough, sealed side up, at one end of the flour rubbed canvas, leaving a free end of canvas 3 to 4 inches wide. The top will crust slightly as the dough rises; it is turned over for baking so the soft, smooth underside will be uppermost.

Pinch a ridge 2 1/2 to 3 inches high in the canvas to make a trough, and a place for the next piece. Cover dough with plastic while you are forming the rest of the loaves.

After all the pieces of dough are in place, brace the two sides of the canvas with long rolling pins, baking sheets or books, if the dough seems very soft and wants to spread out. Cover the dough loosely with flour rubbed dish towel or canvas, and a sheet of plastic. Proceed immediately to the final rising, next step.

Final rise is also called proofing.

Step 7: Final Rise – l’appret - 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours at around 70 degrees

The covered dough is now to rise until almost triple in volume; look carefully at its pre-risen size so that you will be able to judge correctly. It will be light and swollen when risen, but will still feel a little springy when pressed.

It is important that the final rise take place where it is dry; if your kitchen is damp, hot, and steamy, let the bread rise in another room or dough will stick to the canvas and you will have difficulty getting it off and onto another baking sheet. It will turn into bread in the oven whatever happens, but you will have an easier time and a better loaf if you aim for ideal conditions.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees about 30 minutes before estimated baking time.

Step 8: Unmolding risen dough onto baking sheet – le demoulage.

The 3 pieces of risen dough are now to be unmolded from the canvas and arranged upside down on the baking sheet. The reason for this reversal is that the present top of the dough has crusted over during its rise; the smooth, soft underside should be uppermost in the oven so that the dough can expand and allow the loaf its final puff of volume. For the unmolding you will need a non-sticking intermediate surface such as a stiff piece of cardboard or plywood sprinkled with cornmeal or pulverized pasta.

Remove rolling pins or braces. Place the long side of the board at one side of the dough; pull the edge of the canvas to flatten it; then raise and flip the dough softly upside down onto the board.

Dough is now lying along one edge of the unmolding board: rest this edge on the right side of a lightly buttered baking sheet. Gently dislodge dough onto baking sheet, keeping same side of the dough uppermost: this is the soft smooth side, which was underneath while dough rose on canvas. If necessary run sides of hands lightly down the length of the dough to straighten it. Unmold the next piece of dough the same way, placing it to the left of the first, leaving a 3 inch space. Unmold the final piece near the left side of the sheet.

Step 9: Slashing top of the dough – la coupe.
The top of each piece of dough is now to be slashed in several places. This opens the covering cloak of gluten and allows a bulge of dough underneath to swell up through the cuts during the first 10 minutes of baking, making decorative patterns in the crust. These are done with a blade that cuts almost horizontally into the dough to a depth of less than half an inch. Start the cut at the middle of the blade, drawing toward you in a swift clean sweep. This is not quite as easy as it sounds, and you will probably make ragged cuts at first; never mind, you will improve with practice. Use an ordinary razor blade and slide one side of it into a cork for safety; or buy a barbers straight razor at a cutlery store.

For a 16 to 18 inch loaf make 3 slashes. Note that those at the two ends go straight down the loaf but are slightly off centre, while the middle slash is at a slight angle between the two. Make the first cut at the far end, then the middle cut, and finally the third. Remember that the blade should lie almost parallel to the surface of the dough.

Step 10: Baking – about 25 minutes; oven preheated to 450 degrees (230 degrees C).

As soon as the dough has been slashed, moisten the surface either by painting with a soft brush dipped in cold water, or with a fine spray atomizer, and slide the baking sheet onto rack in upper third of preheated oven. Rapidly paint or spray dough with cold water after 3 minutes, again in 3 minutes, and a final time 3 minutes later. Moistening the dough at this point helps the crust to brown and allows the yeast action to continue in the dough a little longer. The bread should be done in about 25 minutes; the crust will be crisp, and the bread will make a hollow sound when thumped.

If you want the crust to shine, paint lightly with a brush dipped in cold water as soon as you slide the baking sheet out of oven.

Step 11: Cooling – 2 to 3 hours.
(Mary and Sara Note: We know this will be the hardest thing to do for this challenge. But, if you do not let the French bread cool, the bread will be doughy and the crust will be soft. If you want to have warm French bread, re-heat the bread after it has cooled in a 400 degree oven, uncovered and directly on the oven rack for 10 – 12 minutes if it is unfrozen. If it has been frozen see the directions below)

Cool the bread on a rack or set it upright in a basket or large bowl so that air can circulate freely around each piece. Although bread is always exciting to eat fresh from the oven, it will have a much better taste when the inside is thoroughly cool and has composed itself.

Step 12: Storing French bread
Because it contains no fats or preservatives of any kind, French bread is at its best when eaten the day it is baked. It will keep for a day or two longer, wrapped airtight and refrigerated, but it will keep best if you freeze it – let the loaves cool first, then wrap airtight. To thaw, unwrap and place on a baking sheet in a cold oven; heat the oven to 400 degrees. In about 20 minutes the crust will be hot and crisp, and the bread thawed. The French, of course, never heat French bread except possibly on Monday, the baker’s holiday, when the bread is a day old.

delicious gluten driven deliciousness.

Turmeric Ice Cream or Semifreddo

2008-02-27T14:05:00.000-05:00

Turmeric Ice Cream is florecent yellow and will stain anything in comes into contact with

By Cookbad

Happy belated Tết, everyone!

I've been planning on going to Little Saigon in Westminster, Ca for a year now. I unknowingly chose the day before Vietnamese New Year. I figured this out upon my arrival. It was like trying to navigate Fairway the day before Thanksgiving. The only difference is it was much more fun and much less a contact sport.

My sister was in town visiting and we did our favorite thing to do (besides drink and yell at the television) & went grocery shopping.

I skipped the buckets of pig blood (someday. . . .) but got some lovely things, one of which was a nicely decorated single serving hand coffee grinder--double as a spice grinder. Perfect for camping.

Tiny Vietnamese hand coffee grinder. Coffee goes in the top, comes out in the cute little drawer.

We also got some fresh Turmeric that my sister thought it would be fin to make ice cream. Dried Turmeric is the stuff that turns curry yellow. Fresh turmeric has a rooty, slightly ginger carrot flavor and will stain the hell out of anything that is comes in contact with.

Raw tumeric root.

It also recently occured to me that Semifreddo is the best thing to make if you don't have an ice cream maker. It is very simple, beautiful to serve and sounds fancy.

Here is how to make them both:

Turmeric Ice Cream:
Serves 6

1. Get together 5 or 6 oz. of fresh Turmeric root.
2. Change into all black clothing.
3. Peel Turmeric.
4. Place into a small food processor or blender with 1/2 c. of milk and puree.
5. Pour 2 cups of milk, 3/4 cups of sugar (more or less depending on how sweet you like your ice cream) and 2 scrambled eggs into a sauce pan.
6. Heat and stir over med. low. Do not allow the mixture to boil or you'll end up with milk sweet scambled eggs. Just stir more or less constantly for 10 minutes.
7. Put in the fridge or freezer to chill
8. Whip 2 cups of cream to peaks.
9. Once everything is cold, put it all into an ice cream maker for 20 minutes.

You can toss in some shelled pistachios. They add a nice texture and the green is ridiculously dramatic against the florecent yellow.

Turmeric Semifreddo:
Serves 6

1. Separate 3 eggs.
2. Beat the egg yolks with 1/2 c. of caster sugar until they turn pale yellow.
3. Beat the egg whites until they come to stiff peaks.
4. Whip 1.5 cups of heavy cream to peaks.
5. Put on all black clothing
6. Peel 5-6 oz. of fresh Turmeric root.
7. Puree with 1/2 cup of milk in a food processor or blender.
8. Line a loaf pan or any type of mold you would like with plastic wrap.
9. Gently add the Turmeric to the egg yolk mixture.
10. Gently fold the egg yolks into the whipped cream and egg whites.
11. When combined, pour into mold, cover with plastic wrap and freeze overnight.

Croissants

2008-02-21T18:35:00.001-05:00

perfect amazing croissants

By Cookbad

I have never been more proud of anything I have ever cooked.

I couldn't believe that I made them and how perfectly they came out.

A few months ago I bought Nancy Silverton's (Original owner of Campanile) Pastries from the La Brea Bakery.

It is pretty advanced baking and pastry making and many of the recipes call for very specialized tools or equipment that are not easy to procure and hard to find replacements that you would have around the house. I've made a few recipes from it, the rugelah was fine, but I found a better recipe here.

I also made the marshmallows, graham crackers, and a wonderful cookie called Nun's Breasts. I wish I had photos of these cookies. I made them for my xmas cookie baskets. They were keepers.

Anyway, I had been planning on making croissants for a while and either using Julia Child's recipe or Nancy Silverton's. I went with the Silverton one when I found a simplified version of her recipe in Epicurious. The comments and reviews were very encouraging.

The recipes can be found here and here:

BUTTER CROISSANTS
1 1/2 cups whole milk, heated to warm (105°F–110°F)
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast (from two 1/4-oz packages)
3 3/4 to 4 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon kosher salt
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) cold unsalted butter

Special equipment: a standing electric mixer with dough hook, 2 kitchen towels (not terry cloth), a ruler, a pastry brush
Preparation
Make dough: Stir together warm milk, brown sugar, and yeast in bowl of standing mixer and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If it doesn’t foam, discard and start over.) Add 3 3/4 cups flour and salt and mix with dough hook at low speed until dough is smooth and very soft, about 7 minutes.

Transfer dough to a work surface and knead by hand 2 minutes, adding more flour as necessary, a little at a time, to make a soft, slightly sticky dough. Form dough into a roughly 1 1/2-inch-thick rectangle and chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until cold, about 1 hour.

Prepare and shape butter: After dough has chilled, arrange sticks of butter horizontally, their sides touching, on a work surface. Pound butter with a rolling pin to soften slightly (butter should be malleable but still cold). Scrape butter into a block and put on a kitchen towel, then cover with other towel. Pound and roll out on both sides until butter forms a uniform 8- by 5-inch rectangle. Chill, wrapped in towels, while rolling out dough.

Roll out dough: Unwrap dough and roll out on a lightly floured surface, dusting with flour as necessary and lifting and stretching dough (especially in corners), into a 16- by 10-inch rectangle. Arrange dough with a short side nearest you. Put butter in center of dough so that long sides of butter are parallel to short sides of dough. Fold as you would a letter: bottom third of dough over butter, then top third down over dough. Brush off excess flour with pastry brush.

Roll out dough: Turn dough so a short side is nearest you, then flatten dough slightly by pressing down horizontally with rolling pin across dough at regular intervals, making uniform impressions. Roll out dough into a 15- by 10-inch rectangle, rolling just to but not over ends.

Brush off any excess flour. Fold in thirds like a letter, as above, stretching corners to square off dough, forming a 10- by 5-inch rectangle. (You have completed the first "fold.") Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, 1 hour.

Make remaining "folds": Make 3 more folds in same manner, chilling dough 1 hour after each fold, for a total of 4 folds. (If any butter oozes out while rolling, sprinkle with flour to prevent sticking.) Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and chill at least 8 hours but no more than 18 (after 18 hours, dough may not rise sufficiently when baked).

Roll out and cut dough: Cut dough in half and chill 1 half, wrapped in plastic wrap. Roll out other half on a lightly floured surface, dusting with flour as necessary and stretching corners to maintain shape, into a 16- by 12-inch rectangle. Brush off excess flour with pastry brush and trim edges with a pizza wheel or sharp knife.

Arrange dough with a short side nearest you. Cut in half horizontally and chill 1 half. Cut remaining half vertically into thirds, forming 3 rectangles. Cut each rectangle diagonally in half to make 2 triangles, for a total of 6 triangles.

Shape croissants: Holding short side (side opposite tip) of 1 triangle in one hand, stretch dough, tugging and sliding with other hand toward tip to elongate by about 50 percent.

Return to work surface with short side of triangle nearest you. Beginning with short side, roll up triangle toward tip. (Croissant should overlap 3 times, with tip sticking out from underneath; you may need to stretch dough while rolling.)

Put croissant, tip side down, on a parchment-lined large baking sheet. (Curve ends inward to make a crescent shape if desired.)

Make more croissants with remaining 5 triangles, then with remaining rolled-out dough, arranging them 2 inches apart on baking sheet. Repeat rolling, cutting, and shaping procedures with chilled piece of dough.

Let croissants rise: Slide each baking sheet into a garbage bag, propping up top of bag with inverted glasses to keep it from touching croissants, and tuck open end under baking sheet.

Let croissants rise until slightly puffy and spongy to the touch, 2 to 2‚ hours.

Bake croissants: Adjust oven racks to upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat to 425°F.

Remove baking sheets from bags. Spritz inside oven generously with spray bottle and close door. Put croissants in oven, then spritz again before closing door. Reduce temperature to 400°F and bake 10 minutes without opening door.

Switch position of sheets in oven and rotate sheets 180°, then reduce temperature to 375°F and bake until croissants are deep golden, about 10 minutes more.

Cooks' note:
• Baked and cooled croissants keep 1 month: First freeze them, uncovered, on baking sheets until firm, then wrap them snugly in foil before returning to freezer. When ready to serve, remove foil and bake (not thawed) on a baking sheet in a 325°F oven 5 to 10 minutes.

These took me 3 days to make and were so completely worth it I will make them for every special occasion breakfast that comes along.

The house smelled like perfect croissants as they were baking.

I only have one rather crappy picture of the croissants. I was holding off some ravenous family members.

The dough really does freeze very well. I used half of it to make pain au chocolate a week later. Also, excellent.

MEGA Sandwich Chart

2008-02-21T16:49:00.009-05:00

by Cookbad

As part of an ongoing effort to make our upcoming book, Fresh Eggs Don't Float (buy it now!) as awesome as it can be, I'm asking for a little input on a beta sandwich chart I'm been working on. The sandwiches included are:

Bánh mì, barros jappa, bacon lettuce & tomato, chip butty, cheesesteak, choripan, club sandwich, croque-monsieur, croque-madame, cubano, cucumber sandwich, dagwood, francesinha, french dip, gyros, hamburger, hero, submarine, hoagie, grinder, italian beef, hot dog, hot brown, lobster roll, loose meat, monte cristo, muffuletta, pan bagnat, panino, peanut butter & jelly, po' boy, primanti, ruben, sandwich de miga, smörgåstårta, sliders, sloppy joe, st. paul sandwich, tea sandwich, & torta.

The chart lays out what the sandwich is made of, entomology, variations, & origins.

I'm SURE there are spelling mistakes. Please ignore them.

The information is pretty solid, but sandwiches are very subjective. Any advice, opinions, ideas, blazing omissions, thoughts, design improvements, or fan mail would be greatly appreciated and might even land you a thank you in the book. Seriously.

CLICK ON THE CHART TO SEE THE ENTIRE THING

Thank you!!

Mango Gelée

2008-02-21T16:49:00.000-05:00

A wee Gelée before being devoured by toddlers.

By CookBad

This is a recipe from Cookie magazine. I in no way endorse Cookie. I found it on epicurious while looking for a gelée recipe that would work. I had tried Thomas Keller's Concord Grape gelée to go with his peanut butter truffles. Get it? Peanut butter and gelée? His were made with fruit pectin and even though I believe that I followed the recipe to the T, the gelée failed to gel. Sad. The truffles were ridiculously good tho.

These cute little things called for gelatin. I cannot abide standard store bought gelatin. So often it smells to much like what it is -- skin, bones, hoofs. I have gelatin sheets that I've been wanting to try, but these needed to be moulded. So, I went with agar agar.

Agar agar comes from red seaweed. In China, certain types of swallows eat this red seaweed, spit it up to make nests that hang on the sides of cliffs. These nests are then harvested (at great peril to the harvesters as they have to hang from clifts to get to them) and then sold for A LOT of money to make birds nest soup out of.

The agar agar I used come unchewed or spit up. I think I once read someplace that it has 4 times more gelling action that gelatin, so I went with that when subing it in. I'm going to double check this.

You can buy it at most asian markets in powdered form.

Cookie calls them, gummies, but they are not at all gummy, so I renamed them.
Here is the recipe:
Mango Gelée 1 cup fruit juice (pure juice-not a fruit-flavored drink) or nectar, such as Goya, Mott's, or Kern's, chilled or at room temperature 1 1/4-ounce package gelatin ( I used half as much agar agar, just to be safe) Preparation 1. Lightly coat 16 tartlet molds or mini-muffin tins with oil. 2. Place 1/4 cup of the juice in a medium bowl and sprinkle in the gelatin. Let sit for 1 minute. 3. Meanwhile, in a small pan, bring the remaining juice to a boil. Add it to the gelatin mixture, stirring until the gelatin is dissolved. 4. Spoon the mixture into the molds. Chill in the refrigerator until set, 2 hours. 5. Pop the tartlets out. Serve them cold or at room temperature within 2 hours, or store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Tip You can buy plastic or metal tartlet molds ($1.50 and up each, surlatable.com). An 8-by-8-inch baking dish also works-once the whole thing is set, just cut it into squares with a knife, or into shapes with a cookie cutter.

It was a bit tricky getting them out of the mold. It took a certain amount of slamming down.

These were nice. Cute. Kids ate half of them before they were even finished gelling. Sneaky evil kids. They reminded me of the little jelly candies that you can buy in china town in large tubs shaped like cats, or kids or teddy bears. Only healthier and without a huge amount of sugar.

I got the little tartlets from Surfas for $2.50. I think they will be great for making mini brioche someday.

Sweetbreads with artickokes

2008-02-21T15:39:00.003-05:00

A soaked, but un-demembraned sweetbread. Presumably, the pancreas.

By Cookbad

Jacques Pepin calls sweetbreads the choicest of offals. Offal is what Bourdain calls, the Nasty bits. Sweetbreads are, in some cases, the thymus gland but more desirable are the pancreas.

I've had sweetbreads before and thought that they were delicious and have been meaning to try to make them for a really long time. I also just recently finally found a butcher in Los Angeles that doesn't snicker and say, "We don't have that!" When I ask for Pork Butt. So, here's to you, Bob's Market. May your butchers always get excited when I order non-standard cuts of meat.

I over thought this one. I read and read and read about it while it languished in the fridge. I settled on a recipe for the exceedingly comprehensive The Silver Spoon, but used Jacques Pepin's method of preparation, which added 24 hours to the process.

This the the abridged version of his method of prep. :
1. Soak in cold water for a few hours.
2. Put in a pan, cover with cold water and bring to a boil for 2 minutes.
3. Shock it in ice water.
4. Pull of all rubbery or sinew pieces that adhere to the meat
5. Wrap sweetbread in a clean dry cotton cloth, place on a cookie sheet, place a cookie sheet on top of the sweetbread and then place 5-7 lb. of books or whatever on top of the cookie sheet to press the sweetbreads.
6. Press overnight.

Arg.
The goal here being to remove any and all trace of pink.

Later I told my sister (a classically trained chef) about this method and she said the pressing was a waste of time. Boo.

I'm taking her work over Pepin's because it is easier.

Still, the soaking and the pulling off of all rubbery stuff is most certainly not a waste of time if you want it not to be gross.

Here is the basic recipe from The Silver Spoon:
1 tbsp. butter
1 lb. 2 oz. sweetbreads soaked and drained.
3.5 oz. prosciutto (my spell check wanted to change this to prostitute), cut into strips
3.25 cups dry white wine
salt and pepper

Parboil sweetbreads for 5-6 minutes, drain, cool, remove membrane and chop. Heat butter and bacon in a skillet, add sweetbreads, season with salt and pepper and cook for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with white wine and cook until liquid is eveaporated.

Serve with quarted steamed globe artichokes.

The final product. Fair.

Next time, I'm trying it with madeira wine and skipping the pressing part.

Cheese Straws

2008-02-21T14:06:00.001-05:00

prebaked cheese straws

By Cookbad

I actually made the entire menu that went along with this, from Jan. 2008 Gourmet magazine, but these were the only part I got around to photographing.

The menu, which you can find here is ridiculously good and terrible for you. The fried chicken involves being fried in bacon fat (GENIUS!) and then is finished off with a bacon gravy and more just plain old bacon. I love a sentence that has bacon in it that many times.

I highly recommend the entire menu.

The cheese straws are wonderful because they take about 10 minutes to make and are very satisfying. If you skip or lower the amount of cayenne pepper kids love them.

They are also fun to make.

Here is the recipe:

CHEESE STRAWS
1/4 pound coarsely grated extra-sharp Cheddar (1 1/2 cups)
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons
1/2 teaspoon salt
Rounded 1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1 1/2 tablespoons milk
Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F with racks in upper and lower thirds.

Pulse cheese, flour, butter, salt, and cayenne in a food processor until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add milk and pulse until dough forms a ball.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 12- by 10-inch rectangle (1/8 inch thick). Cut dough with a lightly floured pizza wheel or lightly floured sharp knife into 1/3-inch-wide strips. Carefully transfer to 2 ungreased baking sheets, arranging strips 1/4 inch apart. (If strips tear, pinch back together.)

Bake, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until pale golden, 15 to 18 minutes. Cool completely on baking sheets on racks, about 15 minutes.

Pork Noodle Soup with Cinnamon and Anise

2008-02-20T15:30:00.001-05:00

very pretty, rich and hearty.

By Cookbad

I've been thinking about and making a lot of stock lately. We just finished the first major draft of the stock chapter in our book. We pretty much stuck to the classic French style stocks.

I decided to make this soup, because the stock was so much different than what I had been thinking about and making. simple, straight forwards and spiced in ways that I hadn't ever spiced a stock before.

I always like to do a little search about different ways of making what I am about to cook and I came across Master Stock in the process. It's a Chinese practice of poaching meat in the same broth over and over and over--sometimes using the same stock for years.

I'm both repulsed and intrigued.

Anyway, this recipe is from December 2007 Gourmet magazine.
You can also find it here:
Pork Noodle Soup with Cinnamon and Anise
2 1/2 pounds country-style pork ribs
6 cups water
2/3 cup soy sauce
2/3 cup Chinese Shaoxing wine or medium-dry Sherry
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 head garlic, halved crosswise
3 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks
1 whole star anise
5 1/2 ounces bean thread (cellophane) noodles

Garnish: chopped cilantro; sliced scallions
Preparation

Gently simmer all ingredients except noodles in a 6-quart heavy pot, covered, skimming as needed, until pork is very tender, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Transfer pork to a bowl. Discard bones, spices, and garlic. Coarsely shred meat. Skim fat from broth, then return meat and bring to a simmer. Rinse noodles, then stir into broth and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until noodles are translucent and tender, about 6 minutes.

Loved it. Inexpensive and hearty. Perfect winter one dish meal.

Monkfish Liver aka fish offal

2008-02-19T06:06:00.001-05:00

salted and posed in the early evening light

by Cookbad

I can already see from the look on your face that the idea of fish and liver don't make you think "me eat now!", like bacon does. I suppose for the most part, I would have skipped it too, but coming across this morsel was a 'perfect storm' kind of event.

1. I was in my local Japanese grocery store looking for something new. (I had bought insanely delicious pork belly there the week before).
2. My sister was in town and she knows how to cook anything very well.
3. I had just read that monkfish liver was in season.
4. At 4.50 USD it was cheap.

It looked very much like Foie gras, fatty, plump and light. I was also draw to the fact that some fish liver can kill you. Fugu - that fish that is reputed to kill those who have eaten it if prepared improperly - isn't the flesh that will do you ill, but the liver, ovaries and skin.

I also read The Serpent and the Rainbow by wonderful writer and ethnobotanist Wade Davis, who wrote in detail about the terrible things fish liver will do to you. One if which, is if not kill you, is turn you into a Zombie.

Anyway. . .
Ideally we should have cooked it the day we bought it, but. . . my sister and I had shared some questionable shrimp tempura for lunch and paid the price. We were off the fish, at least for the night.

My sister made it the next night as a little pre-dinner canape.
This is what she did:

1. Salted it.
2. Heated a cast iron pan and added a butter olive oil mixture (good for cooking pretty much anything) to almost a smoking point.
3. Seared the sucker on both sides.
4. Popped the pan and all in the oven at 350 to finish it up.

You finish it in the oven for a more even finish.
The hard part is telling when it is finished. My sister can tell by pressing on it. This is a trick that works with red meat as well. Basically, after it is seared (something you do to keep in all the natural juices), but before it has come to rare if you press on it it will be very springy, like pressing on a tight trampoline. When it is very rare, it will feel quite soft. Press all around the meat to feel that different spots have a different spring. This will be inevitable, as meats vary in thickness and density. If you were finishing your meat on a grill, you'd move it around more or less constantly for an even doneness.

As it cooks, it will become less soft signaling rare and so on, until it returns to it's original state of trampoline texture, signaling that it is well done. Depending on what you want for a finish, take it off the heat at any point in between.

beautifully and perfectly cooked.

My sister paid good money at a serious cooking school to get this skill down and refined it at more than one nice restaurant. Nonetheless, it is a great skill to practice and get down pat. And skillz (especially those related to meat + flame) make you look cool, so try it, a few times before just cutting into whatever you are cooking to check.

Back to the liver.

So it is done, rare, save for a couple of thin spots. We slice it up, slightly too thick and try it out.

cross section

Tasty, fishy, rich. A bit lobstery. Monkfish is sometimes called the poor man's lobster so this follows suit. My sister's 10 month old ate it. My Mother in law wasn't into it, my daughter wouldn't even look in it's direction.

The rest of us thought it was nice. We ate it standing up in the kitchen discussing it's pros and cons. Sadly, we had a crap baguette to eat it on, which was really the only bad part. I found my hunk of liver delicious on the so-so bread with a chunk of cold salted butter.

All around, something I would do again, but next time with better bread.

Ignore my slightly dirty thumbnail. I'm too lazy to photoshop it out.

Gobi Manchurian aka Indian-Chinese food!

2008-02-18T17:33:00.006-05:00

a wonderful combination of flavors

By Cookbad.

I've had Chinese-Cuban food before. It took me a while to figure out where these 2 cuisines would possibly meet and I'm not sure I can claim I figured this out on my own, but the answer is/was communism. Delicious Communism.

Then, in this months Saveur magazine I was hit with another Chinese hybrid revolation. Chinese-Indian. Makes more sense geographically and turns out, not surprisingly to be delicious.

Very simple to make (if frying is something you like to do) and quite possibly one of the most delicious vegan things I've ever put in my mouth is Gobi Manchurian. A lovely batter fried cauliflower in a spicy sweet sauce that hits every level. Saveur suggested that it be served with white rice, but I went with black for dramatic effect.

It is kind of like an Indian influenced NYC version of General Tso's Chicken ( a personal favorite hangover cure).

Here is the recipe:
Gobi Manchurian
SERVES 4
12 cloves garlic
4 2" pieces peeled fresh ginger
(3 cut into thin coins, 1 julienned)
1 head cauliflower, cut into large florets
Kosher salt
2⁄3 cup cornstarch
2⁄3 cup flour
1 tsp. red chile powder
Freshly ground white pepper
2 tsp. plus 3 tbsp. soy sauce
Peanut oil for frying
2 small onions, chopped
8–10 Thai chiles, thinly sliced
1⁄2 cup ketchup
1 1⁄2 tbsp. sesame oil
2 scallions, thinly sliced
Cilantro leaves

1. Purée garlic, ginger coins, and 1⁄3 cup water in blender; set aside. Boil cauliflower in a pot of salted water until tender, 6–7 minutes; drain.

2. Whisk together cornstarch, flour, chile powder, 1⁄2 tsp. salt, and 1⁄4 tsp. pepper in a bowl. Stir in half the garlic paste, 2 tsp. soy sauce, and 3⁄4 cup water to make a batter. Pour oil into a large deep skillet to a depth of 1"; heat over medium-high heat. Working in batches, dip cauliflower in batter; fry until golden, 5–6 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a paper towel–lined plate. Drain all but about 6 tbsp. of the oil. Add onions; cook for 3–4 minutes. Add chiles and remaining garlic paste; cook until paste is lightly browned, 3–4 minutes. Add ketchup, remaining soy sauce, sesame oil, and 1⁄3 cup water. Boil; lower heat to medium-low; simmer until thick, 1–2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste; toss cauliflower in sauce. Garnish with remaining ginger, scallions, and cilantro. Serve with white rice, if you like.

Cauliflower after being fried, but before the sauce

My only suggestion would be to cook the cauliflower for only 4 minutes and blot it dry afterwards. This will keep it crispier after it is fried.

Not bad left over either.

My One Year Cooking Anniversary

2008-02-18T14:52:00.003-05:00

This is a Devil Dog Cake, see the previous blog posting

Well, I did it. I have cooked a brand new recipe every day for the past year. It has been a really great experience. I’ve learned tons, and had a lot of fun. I didn’t manage to blog everything, but I tried to make sure all the best stuff made it on. There were a couple of days that I missed, due to illness or other extreme circumstances, but only a few, and I always made extra new things afterwards to make up for it.

I loved this experience and I recommend that everyone try it. If you feel like that’s too much of a commitment, try making three or four new things a week. You’ll still be learning a lot, but you won’t have to feel overwhelmed.

When I started this, I thought it would be tough to find 365 new recipes that I wanted to make, but I have found that just the opposite is true My year is up, and there are still so many things I never got around to.

That’s why I’m going to keep at it. From now on I’ll try to do four new recipes a week, and I’ll keep blogging the best ones. Don’t think we’re abandoning you. There will still be a few new posts a week. I also want to re-make some of my favorites from the year, to see if they hold up to my memory of them, I’ll be posting my re-reviews of those as well. We’ve also got a book coming out next Christmas, with all the great tips we’ve learned. We’ll keep you updated about that.

Devil Dog Cake

2008-02-18T14:50:00.001-05:00

To celebrate my one year cooking anniversary, I made this Devil Dog cake. It’s not made out of devil dogs, it’s just resembles one. It got a top score (four out of four forks) on Epicurious, and it used a technique that I haven’t tried yet, so I thought it would be fitting for my last recipe of the year.

For cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process) plus additional for dusting
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups water

For frosting
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Preparation

Make cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour an 8-inch square cake pan (2 inches deep).

Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.

Beat together butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well, then beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture and water alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing until just combined.

Pour batter into cake pan and smooth top, then bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 45 to 55 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 1 hour. Transfer cake to a cake plate.

Make frosting:
Combine frosting ingredients with a pinch of salt in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water and beat with a handheld electric mixer at high speed until frosting is thick and fluffy, 6 to 7 minutes. Remove bowl from heat and continue to beat until slightly cooled. Mound frosting on top of cake. Dust with additional cocoa powder.

Cooks' notes:
• Cake, without frosting, will improve in flavor if made 1 day ahead. Cool, then keep, wrapped in plastic wrap, at room temperature. Frost cake just before serving.
• The egg whites in the frosting are not fully cooked. You can substitute pasteurized or reconstituted dried egg whites if salmonella is a problem in your area.

The cake it’s self is pretty straightforward, creaming the butter and sugar, and adding in turns. My square cake tin doesn’t have a removable base, so I made sure to use baking paper for easy removal. The best way to do it is to let it cool for a couple of minutes, then put a dish over the top of the cake and flip the whole thing over. That way you can just lift off the pan, and peel off the paper. If you want to turn it back right side up, just put another dish over it and flip it again.

The frosting was new for me. It was an interesting method. Like making meringue, but in a double boiler. It sounded intimidating, but it was fine, once I got used to having an electric mixer in one hand and an oven glove on the other (the bowl kept slipping in the pot). It took the full 7 minutes, but it came out amazing. It was sticky and frosting-y and tasted just like marshmallows. I loved it.

The recipe mentions that the cake improves in flavor if you refrigerate it over night, and it’s no joke. This cake was good on the day it was made, but it was excellent the next day.

I would make this again, probably for a kids event more then a grown up event, thought it would be fine for either. I agree with the four forks rating, I will make it again.

Garlic and Rosemary Lamb Chops with a Balsamic Reduction

2008-02-18T14:47:00.001-05:00

For balsamic syrup
3/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
1/8 teaspoon black peppercorns

For chard
1 bunch Swiss chard (1 lb)
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon water

For lamb chops
8 rib lamb chops (1 1/4 lb total), trimmed of all fat
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Preparation
Make syrup:
Simmer syrup ingredients in a 1- to 1 1/2-quart nonreactive saucepan (see cooks' note, below) over moderate heat until just syrupy and reduced to about 1/4 cup, about 8 minutes. Pour through a sieve into a small bowl, discarding rosemary and peppercorns.

Sauté chard:
Cut stems and center ribs from chard, discarding any tough portions, then cut stems and ribs crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Stack chard leaves and roll into cylinders. Cut cylinders crosswise to make 1-inch-wide strips.

Cook onion and garlic in oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until onion begins to soften, about 4 minutes. Add chard stems and ribs, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until stems are just tender, about 6 minutes. Stir in chard leaves and water and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 8 minutes.

Broil chops while chard cooks:
Preheat broiler. Sprinkle chops with garlic, salt, rosemary, and pepper, then broil on a lightly oiled broiler pan, 4 to 5 inches from heat, turning over once, for medium-rare, 6 to 7 minutes total. Serve chops and chard drizzled with balsamic syrup.

Cooks' note:
Stainless steel and enameled cast iron are nonreactive, but avoid pure aluminum and uncoated iron.

I got this recipe from Epicurious. It’s a really great website for recipe ideas.

I chose this one for Valentine’s day because lamb chops are good and pretty festive, and also because this recipe looks and sounds really impressive, even though it’s super easy and fast.

It worked out great.

I couldn’t find any Chard, so I used some other greens instead. They came out really wonderfully. The balsamic reduction takes no time at all, but tastes really good like a fancy sauce.

This was a great dish. It was tasty and easy to make and it felt very special. Perfect Valentine’s day fare.

Double Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

2008-02-18T14:45:00.000-05:00

I thought I had a photo of these, but I guess I forgot to take one. You can see what they look like Here. I got them from the magazine, but they are also on Epicurious.

For dough
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For ganache
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup
3/4 pound fine-quality white chocolate, melted
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Equipment: a 1 3/4-inch fluted round cookie cutter
Garnish: decorative sugar (optional)
Preparation

Make dough:
Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.

Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, then beat in yolk and vanilla. At low speed, mix in flour mixture in 3 batches just until a dough forms. Divide dough in half and form each piece into a 6-inch square, then chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, 2 to 3 hours.

Make ganache while dough chills:
Bring cream and corn syrup just to a simmer in a small heavy saucepan, then stir into melted chocolate. Stir in butter and vanilla until smooth. Cover surface with parchment paper and chill, stirring occasionally, until very thick, about 30 minutes.

Cut and bake cookies:
Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Butter 2 large baking sheets.

Roll out 1 piece of dough between sheets of parchment paper into a 14- by 10-inch rectangle (1/8 inch thick). Slide dough in parchment onto a tray and freeze until dough is firm, about 10 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough.

Cut out as many rounds as possible from first chilled square with cutter, reserving and chilling scraps, then quickly transfer cookies to a buttered baking sheet, arranging them 1/2 inch apart. (If dough becomes too soft, return to freezer until firm.)

Sprinkle half of cookies with decorative sugar (if using), then bake cookies until baked through and slightly puffed, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on sheet on rack 5 minutes, then transfer to rack to cool completely (cookies will crisp as they cool).

Make more cookies with remaining dough and scraps (reroll only once).

Assemble sandwich cookies:
Beat ganache with an electric mixer at high speed just until light and fluffy. Transfer to a sealable plastic bag (snip off 1/8 to 1/4 inch from 1 corner with scissors). Pipe ganache onto flat sides of plain cookies, then top with sugared cookies to make sandwiches. Chill, layered between sheets of parchment, in an airtight container until filling is set, at least 1 hour.

Cook's notes:
• Dough can be chilled up to 2 days.
• Ganache can be made 1 day ahead and chilled, its surface covered with parchment. Bring to room temperature, then beat with mixer before using.
• Sandwiched cookies keep, chilled, 4 days.

These came from a copy of Gourmet magazine . that cookbad sent me from the States. What a great magazine! This was the Christmas cookie issue, and it had so many amazing looking cookies, I hardly knew where to start.

I chose these because of their double chocolate-ness. I couldn’t resist.

The recipe looks pretty complicated, and I’m not going to pretend that it’s a quick and simple one, but if you just get into the idea of doing it in phases, then it’s no big deal.

I left the dough to sit in the fridge for much longer then it said to because I made the dough before going out in the morning. It’s fine to do that, but you have to keep in mind that you’ll have to let it warm up a bit before it is soft enough to roll. That actually worked out even better for me because although it was really hard to roll, I was able to roll them out, cut them and transfer them to a baking sheet without having to re-chill the dough.

The cookies come out really beautifully crispy and light.

Then the filling… my advice to you is to use the best quality white chocolate you can find. I skimped a bit, and I felt like it made a difference to the quality. They were still really good cookies, but they could have been even better.

I don’t have a piping bag, so I used a freezer bag with the corner cut off. That worked really well. Using a spoon, did not. I only did that for one cookie.

I will definitely make these again, they were like fancy Oreo cookies.

Hoisin sauce, & some things you can make with it

2008-02-13T14:37:00.002-05:00

These are the tofu snacks..

They were pretty good.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the amazing, wonderful, fabulous lamb chops, but the recipe is here if you want to try them.

Hoisin Sauce
½ cup dried adzuki beans, rinsed
2tbsp toasted sesame oil
1tbsp minced garlic
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
¼ cup cider vinegar
¼ cup unseasoned rice vinegar
1/3 cup soy sauce
¼ tsp Asian chile garlic sauce, or ¼ tsp dried red pepper flakes, or more to taste

Place beans in a medium sized saucepan and add 5 cups of water. Bring the water to boil over a high heat, then reduce the heat to low. Let the beans simmer gently, uncovered, until they are very soft, 1.5 to 2 hours. Drain the beans in a colander and let them cool. Puree the beans in a food processor until smooth.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When it is hot, but not smoking, add the garlic. Cook the garlic, stirring occasionally, until it is soft but not browned, 2-3 min.
Add the bean puree and the brown sugar, cider vinegar, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and 2 tbsp of water to the skillet and stir to combine. Bring the sauce to a boil, then reduce the heat to low. Cook the sauce, stirring occasionally until it is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, 10 – 15 minutes.
Add the chili garlic sauce to the hoisin sauce and sir to combine. Taste for seasoning, adding more chili sauce as needed. Let the hoisin sauce cool to room temperature. It can be refrigerated, covered, for up to 10 days or frozen for up to 3 months. Let it thaw in the refrigerator over night.

I was always under the impression that Hoisin sauce had plums in it, and this recipe has none to be found, but I really wanted to try the Hoisin tofu snacks, and I happened to have some adzuki beans lying around, so I gave this a go.

It’s from Food To Live By, which is one of my all time favorite cookbooks. The two recipes that follow are from the same book.

This was easy to make, and it made enough to make two batches of tofu snacks, and a lamb chop dinner, so it’s worth making.

Hoisin Tofu Snacks
14 to 16 oz extra firm tofu
½ cup home made hoisin sauce
2tbsp tamari or soy sauce
1tbsp hulled sesame seeds (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350f/180c
Cut the tofu into rectangles, approx 1 inch wide by 2 inches long by 1/3 inch. Arrange the pieces in a baking pan just large enough to hold them in a single layer. To make sure the tofu get crispy all over, the slices should be slightly separated.
Combine the hoisin Sauce, tamari, and sesame seeds, if using, in a small bowl and pour this mixture over the tofu. Turn the tofu so that both sides are evenly coated.
Bake for 30 min. Remove the pan from the oven and use a spatula and a large spoon to flip the tofu pieces. Return the pan to the oven and bake for 20 minutes longer. Then turn the tofu over again, and bake until deep golden brown, 10 min more. Remove from the oven and allow the tofu to cool for at least 5 min. The longer it sits out the firmer the tofu will become. Serve warm. The tofu snacks will keep, covered in the refrigerator for up to three days (although they will lose their crispness).

These were incredibly easy to make. I pressed the tofu first so that it would have a better texture. It’s easy, just wrap it in a clean towel, and pile an absurd amount of books on it, then wait. I thought they were fun, my husband loved them. I made a second batch by request.

Just to let you know, About halfway through they start to smell a little like they are burning. They’re not, they just smell that way. It happened both times, and both times they came out fine.

Grilled Lamb Chops with Mongolian Sauce
2tbsp grated peeled fresh ginger
2tbsp minced garlic
2 medium shallots, thinly sliced
½ cup ginger vinegar, or balsamic vinegar
2tbsp firmly packed, light brown sugar
¼ cup toasted sesame oil
1/3 cup tamari or soy sauce
1/3 cup teriyaki sauce
¼ cup hoisin sauce
1tbsp Asian Chili Garlic sauce
8 loin or rib lamb chops

To make the marinade, place the ginger, garlic, shallots, vinegar, brown sugar, sesame oil, tamari, teriyaki sauce, hoisin sauce, and chili sauce in a medium sized bowl and whisk to combine.
Place the lamb chops in a large re-sealable plastic bag and add the marinade. Let the chops marinate in the fridge for at least 8 or up to 48 hours, turning the bag occasionally to distribute the marinade evenly.
Set up the barbecue grill and preheat it to medium.
Remove the chops from the marinade and transfer them to a platter. Strain the marinade through a fine mesh sieve into a small saucepan. Discard the solids. Bring the marinade to a boil over high heat and cook until it thickens to a sauce, 3-5 min.
Place the lamb chops on the hot grill and cook them for about 2 min on each side. Baste the chops with some of the boiled marinade. Cover the grill and cook the chops , turning once, until cooked to taste, about 6 min longer for medium rare. To test for doneness, insert an instant read thermometer through the side into the center of a chop without touching the bone. It will register 145f when the chop is done to medium rare.
Let the chops rest for 5 min, then serve them with the boiled marinade on the side.

These are amazing. I don’t make lamb chops very often, but I might start now. My advice to you is to make the hoisin sauce, portion it out and freeze it so that you can make these whenever you want to. Because once you make them once, you will want to make them again.

I used the grill in my oven because we don’t have a barbeque. It worked fine, though I had to cook them for 2 minutes longer then the recipe instructed. I think that the cooking time might vary slightly from one grill to another.

Try this recipe for yourself and find out.

Pad Thai

2008-02-03T12:33:00.001-05:00

225g wide dried rice noodles
450g raw prawns (I used tofu instead)
2tbsp ground nut oil
3tbsp coarsely chopped garlic
3tbsp finely sliced shallots
2 large fresh red or green Thai chilies, seeded and chopped
175g fresh beansprouts
2 eggs, beaten
1tbsp light soy sauce
1tbsp lime juice
2tbsp fish sauce
1tsp sugar
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
Garnish:
1 lime, cut into wedges
3tbsp coarsely chopped fresh coriander
3 spring onions, sliced on the diagonal
3tbsp coarsely chopped roasted peanuts
1tsp dried chili flakes

Soak the rice noodles in a bowl of warm water for 20 min. Drain them in a colander or sieve.
Peel the prawns and discard the shells. Using a small sharp knife, remove the fine digestive cord. Wash the prawns in cold water with 1tbsp of salt, then rinse well and pat dry with kitchen paper.
Heat a wok or large frying pan over high heat until it is hot. Add the oil, and when it is very hot and slightly smoking, add the prawns and stir fry for about 2 min. Remove the prawns with a slotted spoon and set aside. Reheat the wok, add the garlic, shallots, and chillies, and stir fry for 1 min, then add the noodles, and stir fry for another minute. Finally, add the bean sprouts, eggs, soy sauce, lime juice, fish sauce, sugar and pepper, and continue to stir fry for 3 min. Return the prawns to the wok, mix well and stir fry for 2 min.
Turn the mixture onto a warm platter. Garnish and serve at once.

This was from Ken Hom Cooks Thai. Ken Hom is a Thai cooking god. You should buy this book. I have made a ton of recipes from it, and the worst of them have been good, the best of them have been all time favorites that will blow your mind they are so good.

This one was fabulous. It was as good or better then what you would get at a Thai restaurant. I love this recipe.

I made a couple of changes. For one thing, I used the precooked noodles that are meant to go right into the wok. The only reason was because it was all I could find on short notice that had the right shape to it. You really do want flat noodles for this dish. I used more then the recipe said, because dried ones would have expanded, whereas mine were already cooked. I think I used almost twice the weight, and it made just enough to serve four.

The other change I made, was using Tofu instead of prawns. Partly because prawns are so expensive, partly because I was looking for a tofu recipe, and figured this one would convert well. It did.

I pressed the tofu first, which worked out really well. You just wrap it in a clean towel and put a baking sheet on top of it, and then weigh it down. I used four heavy cookbooks, and left it for a couple of hours (in the fridge). It gets rid of excess moisture, and gives the tofu a much nicer, more firm texture.

Because of the substitutions, I skipped the first couple of steps. I didn’t need to soak the noodles, or to precook the tofu, I just added it at the end, when you would have been adding the prawns back in.

I have to stress that this dish is all about the garnishes:

That is what makes it so super, crazy, unbelievable, over the top good. Also, it took about 10 min of chopping and measuring, and about 10 min of cooking. So if you make it this way, then in only 20 minutes time, you have a fabulous dinner, that is a little something different.

Beef and Broccoli noodles

2008-02-03T12:32:00.001-05:00

225g wide dried rice noodles
450g Chinese or ordinary broccoli
450g lean beef steak
2tsp, plus 1tbsp light soy sauce
1tsp Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry
1tsp sesame oil
1tsp cornflour
3tbsp groundnut oil
2 eggs, beaten
2tbsp fish sauce
1tsp sugar
1tsp chilli flakes or powder
3tbsp oyster sauce
Garnish:
1tbsp ground nut oil
3tbsp coarsely chopped garlic
3tbsp roasted peanuts, crushed
Soak the rice noodles in a bowl of warm water for 20 min. Drain them in a colander or sieve.
If you are using Chinese broccoli, cut into 1 inch pieces. If you are using ordinary broccoli, separate the florets and peel and thinly slice the stems on the diagonal. Blanch the broccoli in a large pot of boiling salted water for 3 min, then drain and plunge into cold water. Drain thoroughly.
Put the beef into the freezer compartment or the refrigerator for 20 min. This will allow the meat to harden a little for easy cutting. Then cut into thin slices 1.5 inches long. Put the beef slices into a bowl and add the 2 tsp soy sauce, the rice wine, sesame oil, and cornflour. Mix well and let marinate for 20 min.
Heat a wok or a large frying pan over high heat until it is hot. Add the groundnut oil, and when it is very hot and slightly smoking, add the beef and stir fry for about 2 min. Remove the meat and drain it in a stainless steel colander set inside a bowl, leaving about 1tbsp of oil in the wok.
Reheat the wok, add the noodles and the broccoli and stir fry for 2 min. Then add the eggs, the remaining soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, and chili flakes, and continue to stir fry for 3 min. Then add the beef and oyster sauce, mix well and stir fry for 2 min more. Turn the mixture onto a warm platter, wipe the wok clean and reheat until hot. Add 1tbsp of oil and stir fry the garlic until golden brown. Remove and drain on kitchen paper. Sprinkle the garlic on top of the noodles together with the peanuts. Serve at once.

This is a Thai take on a classic Chinese dish from Ken Hom Cooks Thai.

I liked the trick about putting the meat in the freezer for 20 min. It worked like a charm, it was really easy to cut.

The marinade doesn’t have to work long, but it really does make a difference to the flavor of the meat. We don’t eat beef too terribly often, and all through dinner my youngest kept saying “I love the brown chicken, can I have more brown chicken please”. Needless to say, this was a big winner, clean plates all around.

All that and quick and easy to make. Thanks again Ken Hom!

Apricot Glazed Chicken

2008-02-03T12:31:00.000-05:00

½ cup finely chopped shallots
¼ cup finely chopped, peeled ginger
2tbsp vegetable oil
½ cup red wine vinegar
2/3 cup soy sauce
1 cup apricot preserves (12oz)
16 chicken drumsticks

cook shallots and ginger in oil in a small heavy pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened and golden, about 5 min. Stir in vinegar and boil until reduced by about half, about 2 min. Add soy sauce, preserves and ¼ tsp each of salt and pepper and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally for 15 min.
Puree sauce in a blender until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids), then cool to room temperature.
Divide chicken into two large sealable bags and pour marinade over chicken. Seal bags, pressing out excess air, and marinate, chilled, turning bag over occasionally, at least 8 hours.
Preheat oven to 425f with rack in the middle
Line a shallow heavy baking pan with 2 slightly overlapping sheets of foil, then lightly oil the foil. Arrange chicken with marinade in 1 layer in the pan. Roast, turning once, until deep brown, cooked through and glazed, about 40 min total.
Can be marinated up to 24 hours.

I got this recipe from an issue of Gourmet Magazine that a friend sent to me. It’s a shame we can’t get this one out here. It’s beautiful, and the recipes all look amazing.

I tried this one right away because it looked so child friendly, and because it doesn’t require any real work on the day you are going to eat it. The sauce was easy enough to make while I was doing other things the day before. I only made half the amount, because the original recipe makes quite a bit.

Just a note, they are not kidding about being careful when you blend hot liquid. I used a stick blender, and a bit splattered onto my arm. The burn mark lasted all night.

The next day it was just pour and bake. Easy as pie, and it came out wonderfully. Both boys loved it, and so did we. It’s sweet and sticky and all the things you want drumsticks to be. I will use this recipe anytime I am cooking for kids. I also think it would make great summertime barbeque or picnic food.

Thai Grilled Salmon

2008-02-03T12:30:00.002-05:00

4 salmon fillets
1 red chili, seeded and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
handful of coriander leaves, roughly chopped
1tbsp fish sauce
1tbsp sesame oil
2tbsp runny honey
¼ cucumber, diced
½ red onion, diced
4tbsp Sweet chili sauce, mixed with a squeeze of lime juice

Put the salmon in a bowl with the chili, garlic, coriander, fish sauce, sesame oil, and honey. Season with pepper and refrigerate for at least 20 min, or overnight.
Grill the salmon until it is crisp at the edges. If you like it cooked all the way through rather then rare in the idle, then keep cooking till the fish feels firm to the touch. Serve with the cucumber and onion sprinkled over and the sweet chili dipping sauce.

This was part of the Thai kick that I was on last week, but it was from 101 Global Dishes.

These books are really fun, and though once in a while you get a stinker, many of the recipes are really, really good.

This was one of the really, really good ones. Simple to make, super quick. I set mine marinating at lunch time, and then cooked it for dinner, but you could do it the night before too, if you are out all day. The cooking it’s self took about 10 min.

I have to say that this recipe was so good, that even thought I totally forgot to serve it with the garnishes or the dipping sauce, it was still loved by all (even my more fussy older son).

This is sweet and flavorful, and an all around great thing to do with salmon.

Chicken with Chorizo, Beans and Spinach

2008-02-03T12:30:00.001-05:00

1tbsp olive oil
8 chicken pieces (4 drumsticks, 4 thighs)
175g fresh Spanish chorizo, cubed
1 onion, finely diced
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
1tsp mild chili powder
3 red Romano peppers, halved, seeded and cut into chunks
400g passata
2tbsp tomato puree
150ml chicken stock
1X400g and 1X200g can of butterbeans, drained
a small bunch of fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
200g bag of baby spinach leaves
3tbsp roughly chopped fresh coriander or parsley

Preheat to 190. Heat the olive oil in a heavy flame proof casserole, and brown the chicken pieces all over. Lift them out onto a plate and add the chorizo to the casserole. Cook the chorizo for 2-3 min, until the red oil starts to run, and then add the onion, garlic, and mild chili powder. Cook over a low heat for about 5 min till soft.
Now add the peppers and cook for another 2-3 min to soften them. Stir in the passata, tomato puree, stock, beans, thyme, and bay leaf. Cover and simmer for 10 min. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Return the chicken pieces and any juices to the casserole and bring to a simmer. Then cover and bake in the oven for about 25min. Remove from the oven and uncover. If the sauce looks too watery, place the casserole over a medium heat, and boil to reduce until nice and thick. Stir in the spinach and coriander or parsley. Allow the spinach to wilt into the stew. Remove the thyme and bay leaf from the casserole and serve.

This is the first recipe I’ve tried from Nick Nairn’s top 100 Chicken Recipes. The book looks promising, the recipes are quite varied, and many of them looked intriguing.

I started with this one because I was feeling uninspired, and I asked my husband to make a suggestion about what I should make for dinner. His suggestion was something with Chirizo in it. Good suggestion, not terribly specific, but it gave me something to go on, and it led me to this.

This was delicious. It had all of the deep flavor that you expect from a chorizo recipe, and it had beans and greens al in the same pot with the chicken and chorizo, so it was really a complete meal all by it’s self.

Do be careful of the passata that you choose though. There are a lot of them out there these days, and I accidentally got one that had basil mixed into it. It worked out ok, and my husband was totally over the moon for it, but I’m sure it would have been even a little better if I had paid more attention to the passata that I bought.

Serve it with crusty bread, and it will be a big winner.

Goat Cheese and Squash Pie

2008-01-31T17:13:00.000-05:00

500g shortcrust pastry
1 small butternut squash
1 red onion, chopped into bite sized wedges
4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
1tbsp fresh thyme
1 pack soft goat’s cheese
1tbsp chopped fresh sage
1 pack goat’s cheese with rind

heat oven to 190c. Roll the pastry out to the thickness of a 1 pound coin. Use to line a 23cm round tart tin. Blind bake for 15 min
Cut the squash into chunks and remove skin and seeds. Drizzle with olive oil, season and put in a roasting tray with onion, garlic and thyme. Roast for 20 min until the squash is cooked
Spread the soft goat’s cheese on the bottom of the flan case. Squeeze the garlic from it’s skin. Mash with ½ of the squash and the sage. Spread over base. Season, then scatter over the onion and remaining squash.
Slice the goat’s cheese with rind into rounds and place on top.
Bake for 20 – 30 min

I usually make my own pie pastry. It’s quick and easy, and I like doing it. Still, for this one I decided to try the store bought kind. I got the kind that comes in a block and you roll it out yourself. Sadly, I loved it. It was really tasty, great texture. I think I’ll still make my own most of the time, because I still like doing it, but it’s good to know that if I’m in a rush, the store bought is there as a reliable back up.
As for the rest of the recipe, from Good Food Magazine, it was not as good as I had hoped.

It could have been great, but it was a bit fussy to make, even with the pre-made dough, and the squash should have been cooked much longer. When I went to mash up the squash and garlic, I kind of guessed at that, but I thought maybe the cooking time of the assembled pie would solve that problem. If it had a really creamy texture, it would have been a beautiful dish, but it wound up with a bit of a grainy/undercooked texture. Not inedible, but not good either.

I’d be willing to guess that if you increased the original squash cooking time (or chopped it much more finely), it would make a really good pie.

Bean Cakes

2008-01-28T16:18:00.000-05:00

2X300g cans of cannelloni beans, drained and rinsed
100g Edam cheese cut into very small cubes
50g pine nuts, lightly toasted
5 spring onions, chopped
2tbsp sun dried tomato paste
75g fresh bread crumbs
1 medium egg, beaten
1tbsp sunflower oil

For the tomato relish:
4 ripe tomatoes, diced
1 red pepper, de-seeded and diced
1 garlic clove, crushed
3tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped
1tbsp olive oil
Juice of ½ lemon

Put the beans in a large bowl and mash with a potato masher or fork. Add the Edam, pinenuts, onion, tomato paste and a third of the breadcrumbs. Season and stir to combine the ingredients.
Using your hands, shape the mixture into eight burgers. Coat each one with beaten egg and remaining breadcrumbs. Transfer to a plate, cover and chill for about 20 min.
Mix together the ingredients for the tomato relish in a small bowl and season.
Heat the sunflower oil in a large non-stick frying pan and add the burgers. Fry for 3-4 min on each side until golden and heated through. Drain on kitchen paper.

This comes from Good Housekeeping Magazine
. I was unsure about trying these because I love bean burgers when they are good, but so many of them wind up tasting bland and having a pasty texture. Still, I have had some good experiences with Good Housekeeping recipes in the past, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

I’m glad I tried it. These were really good. They were just what you want from a bean burger. They had a good depth of flavor, I think that’s due to the sun dried tomato paste, and the edam (I love edam). They also had a great texture because the breadcrumb coating gave the outside a good crunch, while the inside had the melted cheese to keep it from being too uniform. Then there was the bonus of the tomato relish, which was sooo good.

I decided to use a food processor to mash the beans because I was in a hurry. I think that if you do it by hand it would have an even better texture, but I liked it just fine coming from the processor. I will probably use one again next time I make them (I’ll make them again). I also used sun dried tomatoes instead of sun dried tomato paste. I just ran them through the processor first to make them into a paste.

I had the left over one the next day for lunch, and it was just as good. This is a nice bean burger recipe. I recommend it.

One Sauce base, and three sauces

2008-01-28T16:11:00.000-05:00

Sauce Chasseur

Sauce Piquant

Madeira Sauce

Sauce Espagnole is what is commonly known as a “mother sauce”. Almost all of the thousands of French sauces are based on one of five “mother sauces”. This was a very easy version of the Sauce Espagnole. Really I should have started by making the stock myself and all that, but still, this gave me a very good base.

It takes hours to make, but it’s a great thing to try. If you are going to be home one day, make a big batch of this, and when it is done and cooled off, divide it into portions (about 1 cup each), and freeze them. That way when you want a quick mid-week meal, you can defrost the base, add a few things to it, and you’ll have an amazing and fancy sauce that has the benefits of being cooked for hours and hours, but you’ll have it in minutes.

I was so pleased with how well this worked out, that I have vowed to always have some in the freezer. Next time I will even make the stock myself too.

The sauce variations that I tried were:

Sauce Piquant
I loved this one. It’s made with capers and pickles, so it’s very unique. It was easy to make and it tasted fabulous. We used this sauce for cold leftover pork roast, and I think that it works particularly well with cold meat. I will use this sauce again and again. What a great way to dress up leftovers.

Sauce Chasseur
This one had a lot of good stuff in it. It had tomatoes and mushrooms and onions, and all kinds of good flavorings. It was also easy to do, and it was also fabulous. This one goes best with pork or chicken I would think. It is flavorful and lovely and makes a really refreshing change from plain old gravy.

And Madeira Sauce
This one was a bit of a disappointment. There was nothing wrong with it, but it wasn’t outstanding like the other two were. It’s a classic sauce, so there’s a good chance that I just need to find a better recipe for it. Someday I will try this again from another book.

And here are the recipes (they are all from Joy of cooking
…

Sauce Espagnole
Melt, in a large sauce pan over medium high heat:
8tbsp butter, or ½ cup beef drippings
Add and cook, stirring until the vegetables are caramelized and browned
½ cup finely chopped onions
½ cup finely chopped carrots
½ cup finely chopped celery
Reduce the heat to medium and add, stirring:
½ cup all purpose flour
Cook, stirring constantly, to make a brown roux, about 10 min. Gradually stir in:
8 cups cold brown beef stock
2 cups drained canned peeled tomatoes
½ cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley, including stems
1 bouquet garni
Bring just to a simmer. Immediately reduce the heat to low and cook, uncovered, at a bare simmer, stirring occasionally and skimming the fat and any skin that forms on the surface, until the sauce is reduced by half, 2 to 2.5 hours. It should be the consistency of heavy cream, no thicker. Strain through a fine mesh sieve. Stir the sauce occasionally as it cools to prevent a skin forming. Refrigerate, make into another sauce, or season to taste and use on it’s own.

Sauce Piquant
Melt in a medium saucepan over medium heat:
1tbsp butter, preferably unsalted
Add and cook, stirring till lightly browned:
2tbsp minced shallots
stir in and cook over medium-high heat until the liquid is almost evaporated:
2tbsp dry white wine
2tbsp white wine vinegar
stir in and simmer uncovered for 10 min:
1 cup Espagnole sauce
Just before serving, stir in:
1tbsp chopped fresh parsley or a mixture of fresh parsley, tarragon, and chervil
1tbsp minced cornichons or sour gherkins
1tbsp chopped drained capers (optional)
salt and ground pepper to taste

Sauce Chasseur
Melt in a medium saucepan over medium heat:
2tbsp butter, preferably unsalted
Add and cook, stirring until softened:
2tbp minced shallots or onions
Add and cook, stirring until lightly browned, about 5 min:
1 cup sliced mushrooms
add and simmer uncovered, until cooked down by half:
¼ cup dry white wine
2tbsp brandy
Add and cook, stirring occasionally for 5 min:
1 cup sauce espagnole
½ cup tomato puree (not the same as British Tomato puree, closer to chopped tomatoes)
Salt and ground Black pepper to taste
Just before serving, stir in:
1tbsp minced fresh parsley
1tbsp minced fresh chervil or tarragon (optional)
1 to 2 tbsp butter, softened (optional)

Madeira Sauce
Combine in a medium saucepan, over medium high heat, and simmer uncovered, until cooked down to 1 cup:
1 cup sauce Espagnole
¼ cup Madeira
1tsp meat glaze (optional)
Strain through a fine mesh sieve and stir in:
1/3 cup Madeira, dry sherry, or port
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
Just befor serving, whisk in:
1tbsp butter, preferably unsalted, softened (optional)

Pan Cooked Savoy Cabbage

2008-01-28T16:05:00.000-05:00

50g butter
3 potatoes, thinly sliced
½ Savoy cabbage, cored and cut into thin strips
1tbsp parmesan cheese, freshly grated
2 eggs
100ml milk
salt and pepper

Melt half the butter in a large frying pan an make a layer of half of the potato slices on the base, then top with the cabbage, and sprinkle with the parmesan. Beat the eggs with the milk and a pinch of salt and pour into the pan. Make a layer of the remaining potato slices on top, season with salt and pepper, and dot with the remaining butter.
Cover the pan with a tight fitting lid and cook over a low heat for 1 hour.

This comes from The The Silver Spoon. Everyone should own this book. Everyone should try this cabbage too.

It takes a while to cook, but once you’ve got it set up, you just leave it there while you get on with whatever else you are cooking to go with it. It’s really easy. I would recommend using a non stick pan for this, because it is a long cooking time, and you can’t stir it or anything while it’s cooking, so if you don’t have a non-stick, then at least be sure to use a good one with a strong heavy base so that it conducts the heat well, otherwise you’ll wind up with burned spots.

This goes with so many things, and it is a potato and a green all in one so you don’t need to worry about making anything else. The flavor is really good because it just emphasizes the flavor of the cabbage itself instead of drowning it with other things.

I loved this so much that I have actually made it a few times (don’t worry, I always make something new to go with it).

Try this one!

Spinach sauce

2008-01-27T15:17:00.000-05:00

800g spinach
40g butter
250ml milk
1tbsp plain flour (optional)
Salt and white pepper

Put the spinach in a large saucepan with just the water clinging to it’s leaves after washing and cook for 5 min. Drain, squeeze out as much liquid as possible, then puree in a food processor.
Melt the butter in another saucepan, and pour in the milk and the spinach puree. Season with salt. Cook over a medium heat, stirring the mixture occasionally, until thickened. If the sauce remains runny, stir in the flour and cook for 10 minutes.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and add more salt, if necessary, and white pepper to taste. If this sauce is served with pasta, hand around plenty of parmesan cheese.

Serve with short pasta, or with poached eggs.

hint: don’t use frozen spinach, the texture won’t be right.
also, if you are going to use the flour, be sure to cook for the whole 10 min. so you don’t get a floury taste

This was really good, and really fun too. It was shockingly bright green, which the boys loved. It turned out to be an excellent way to get them to eat massive amounts of spinach without complaining.

I got the recipe from The The Silver Spoon. One of the most wonderful cook books to have.

This was fast and easy and well received by all. I’d make it again.

Lamb dumplings cooked in yogurt

2008-01-27T15:14:00.000-05:00

Makes 70 pieces
2tbsp extra virgin olive oil
200g lamb mince
½ medium sized onion
good pinch of ground cinnamon
pinch of allspice
pinch of freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp salt
1kg cow’s or sheep’s yogurt
1 egg white
1tsp corn flour diluted with ½ tbsp water
1tbsp fresh cream (optional)
2-3 garlic cloves, pounded until creamy
1 small bunch coriander, leaves and tender stems only, finely chopped

For the dough:
200g unbleached all purpose white flour
½ tsp salt, or to taste
½ tsp organic cider vinegar

Make the dough. Combine the flour, salt and vinegar, gradually add about 150ml water, and mix and knead for about 3-4 min to form a pliable dough. Over with a clean cloth and leave to rest for 30 min.
Meanwhile, heat ½ tbsp of the oil in a non-stick frying pan, add the mince and grate the onion over it. Cook until the meat changes color, about 4 min. If a liquid appears wait until it has nearly evaporated, then stir in the cinnamon, allspice, pepper, and slat. Turn the heat off.
Divide the dough into 2 portions. Roll one portion thinly over a lightly floured surface and, with a biscuit cutter, cut it into 2.5cm/1inch rounds. Place about 1tsp of the meat mixture in the center of each. Bring the opposite sides together to make a half moon shape, pinch to secure, then bring the two pointed ends together and pinch to seal, leaving a hole in the middle. Place on waxed paper to prevent them from sticking.
Thoroughly mix the yogurt with the egg white and corn flour paste and sieve into a pan. Place over medium heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon in one direction till boiling. Stir in the cream if using. Add the dough parcels and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 5-8 min, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile heat the remaining oil in a nonstick frying pan. Add the garlic and coriander and sauté for a few seconds only. Pour this over the yogurt in the pan and leave for 1 min.

These were probably the most unusual thing that I made from New Flavours of the Lebanese Table . I have a hard time trying to think of anything to compare it to in western coking. Sure on one level, it’s just dumplings, and they are nothing new, but the cooking in yogurt was so new and different for me. My husband said that the yogurt sauce was reminiscent of the sweeter Indian curries, and I can totally see that, mostly because of the texture, not the flavor.

The filling is already cooked, so there is no worry about undercooked meat, the yogurt is just for cooking the dough, which is so thin that it doesn’t require to much cooking anyway.

The tiny little dumplings take a long time to make. Each one is quick, but this recipe makes 70 of them. That seems like a lot but they are so small that 70 dumplings will feed about 4 people.

Definitely not a quick recipe, but it was good, and it was unusual enough that I feel it is worth trying (if you have some free time for cooking).

Shawarma

2008-01-27T15:12:00.000-05:00

675g meat, preferably from a leg of lamb or beef fillet, cut into 5mm (1/4 inch) strips
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp allspice
¼ tsp white pepper
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cardomoms or 4-5 whole cardomoms
pinch of ground cloves, or 2-3 whole cloves
2-3 pieces of miskee, gently crushed to a powder with a little salt
4tbsp lemon juice
5tbsp organic cider vinegar
2tbsp extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp salt or to taste
¼ - ½ tsp grated orange zest
1 small tomato, peeled and very finely chopped, or shredded
1 small onion, finely grated
1 large Lebanese bread

For the tahini sauce:
5-6 tbsp lemon juice
120ml tahini
¼ tsp salt or to taste

Place the meat in a glass bowl. Season with the cinnamon, black pepper, allspice, white pepper, nutmeg, cardamoms and cloves. Add the miskee and toss with the lemon juice, vinegar, oil and salt. Add the orange zest, tomato and onion, mix thoroughly and leave to marinate, covered, in the fridge for 12-18 hours, tossing 2-3 times.
Preheat oven to 180c. Remove the meat from the fridge and allow it a little time to reach room temperature. Arrange the meat mixture in one layer on the base of a baking dish bake for about 30-40 min or until cooked through.
Meanwhile, prepare the tahini sauce. In a bowl gradually whisk the lemon juice into the tahini. Before the liquid thickens and while you are whisking add up to 5-6 tbsp of water (or you can use orange juice if liked) and the salt, the sauce should look like cream, neither too thin or too thick. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
Preheat the grill. Remove the meat from the oven, place it 10cm/4inch away from the heat and grill for about 2-3 min or until nicely browned, turning the strips to brown both sides. Split a large Lebanese bread and place the meat inside the pocket.
Serve immediately with the tahini sauce or hummous, home made pickles, and with thinly sliced red onions sprinkled with 1 tbsp of sumac and topped with a handful or coarsely chopped parsley leaves

Another from New Flavours of the Lebanese Table .

I wanted to try this because my husband and both really love shawarma. There was a place where we used to get it in Brooklyn, and we found a good place to get it in London too, so I thought it would be great if I could just make it at home.

It didn’t come out quite as well as I had hoped, but that was really down to me and not the recipe. You are supposed to use strips of meat, not chunks. It makes a big difference in the way it takes the marinade, and in the way it cooks too. I knew this, but went ahead making it incorrectly anyway. I’m not sure why. I also covered it while it was cooking, even though it didn’t say to do so. I did that because I was worried that mine would dry out because I was using the wrongly cut meat. Unfortunately, that made a very overly soupy outcome.

Still once I did the last step (the grilling), the extra liquid problem was taken care of, and they were still pretty tasty. Tasty enough that I feel I need to try this again. Next time, I will follow it more faithfully, and also, I will use lamb. I used beef this time, and it made me realize that although it says you can use either, lamb would definitely fit the recipe better.

I’m convinced that this is a good recipe, even though mine was just ok. I will try to update this when I try it again.

Potato kibbeh patties

2008-01-27T15:07:00.000-05:00

500g potatoes, unpeeled and halved
1 small onion
½ bunch coriander, leaves and tender stems only
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground coriander
1 tsp salt or to taste
150g fine wheat burghol (bulgar wheat), do not rinse
1tbsp unbleached white flour (optional)
olive oil for brushing

Place the potatoes in a steaming basket and set into a pan over 1inch of boiling water. Cover and steam for about 20 min or until soft. Leave the potatoes to cool a little.
Meanwhile, place the onion, fresh coriander, pepper, cinnamon, ground coriander and salt in a blender and blend until smooth.
Peel the potatoes and mash till smooth. Add to the coriander and onion mixture, and add the burghol and flour If using. Mix thoroughly to form a medium soft dough. Then make the potato patties. Take small portions at a time and, with oil moistened hands, shape each portion into 4cm/1.5inch patties. Preheat the grill. Heat a baking sheet, brush it with olive oil, arrange the patties on it and cook them 4 inches from the heat for 5-7 minutes, or until lightly browned on both sides

More Kibbah from New Flavours of the Lebanese Table .

I’ve decided that I really like Kibbeh. I had heard of it before, but I didn’t realize that there were so many varieties of it. The pumpkin is still my favorite, but these potato kibbeh patties were nice too.

It’s not too much work, about the same effort level as making fish cakes or croquettes. They’re actually pretty fun to make, my younger son thought so too…

Green Pasta and more

2008-01-26T14:23:00.000-05:00

I know I've been awful about posting this last week, but I assure you, I have been cooking non-stop.

Here are some hi-lites of the things I've been making

Green pasta

I've been experimenting with sauces, I have many to share

This cabbage and potato dish is so good, I've actually made it a few times

Also, really good bean burgers, chicken dishes, and many more.

I will try to start posting it all in full next week. Sorry about the lag in typing.

Green Beans in oil

2008-01-18T14:59:00.000-05:00

2-3tbsp extra virgin olive oil
200g onions, thinly sliced into half moon shapes
7 garlic cloves, cut into thick slivers
450g green beans, topped, tailed, and strings removed, and cut at an angle
1 ¼ tsp salt, or to taste
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of allspice
450g ripe tomatoes, peeled (optional), and thickly sliced
1-2 slices of green pepper (optional)
Heat the oil in a pan. When it is hot, but not smoking, add the onions and garlic, and cook over moderately high heat for about 2-3 minutes, or until golden in color. Add the beans and sprinkle with the salt, pepper, cinnamon, and allspice. Reduce the heat to moderately low. Cover and let the beans sweat for about 10 – 15 min. Stir them once or twice without disturbing the onions, or shake the pan. Gently stir in the tomatoes and pepper (if using). Cover and simmer over moderately low heat for about 20-25 min, allowing the beans to cook in the juice of the tomatoes.

I got this from New Flavours of the Lebanese Table .

This is a great way to make green beans. I don’t normally approve of cooking green beans for that long, but in this case it worked really well. In the end it’s really more like a green bean stew or something. With some bread it could be a good lite meal on it’s own.

Also, it’s the first time I’ve used cinnamon in a green bean recipe. That was pretty cool.

This was a really wonderful dish, and I highly recommend it.

Pumpkin dip

2008-01-18T14:57:00.000-05:00

675g pumpkin, peeled deseeded and cut into 2.5cm/1inch pieces
1 garlic clove
1tsp salt or to taste
3tbsp tahini
3tbsp lemon juice
handful of finely chopped parsley or watercress leaves to garnish

place the pumpkin pieces in a steaming basket and set into a pan over 1 inch of boiling water, cover and cook over moderate heat for 10 min, or until tender. Meanwhile, in a serving bowl pound the garlic and the salt with a pestle until creamy.
Remove the pumpkin pieces, drain, squeeze out some of their excess water and puree them in a blender, or use a vegetable mill. Add to the garlic in the bowl. Add the tahini and lemon juice, mix well, taste and adjust the seasoning.
Serve with cos lettuce, endive, or a mixture of orange, red and yellow pepper slices

One more from New Flavours of the Lebanese Table .

This was my son’s favorite thing ever. He loved it so much that we ate it for two days in a row, and when it ran out, he made me take him to the supermarket to buy more squash so we could make more and eat it for two more days. He never got tired of it, kept asking if he could have it for breakfast.

It’s basically Hummus, but with pumpkin (I used butternut squash instead). What a fabulous idea!

Next time you are thinking about having hummus, try this instead. It’s easy and quick to make, and it’s a really nice change from the usual.

Herb butter

2008-01-18T14:56:00.000-05:00

7 anchovies
handful of fresh rosemary
3 cloves of garlic
pack of butter (250g)

All into the food processor and blended till it is totally smooth.

Scoop out onto some cling film, in a long tube shape, roll up, and freeze. Use as and when you need it.

This was from a Jamie Oliver tv show. It’s really handy to do, because it only takes a few minutes, and then you can keep it around for any time you want to add more flavor to something you are cooking. I used it (as he suggested), to cook some greens the other day. I tend to fall back on the same way to cook greens again and again. I sauté a little garlic, throw in the greens till wilted, add a touch of lemon juice. Now don’t get me wrong. I love greens made this way, but it’s nice to vary it a bit now and then. Jamie’s tips were to use this flavored butter, and also that you can use balsamic vinegar in place of the lemon juice.

I tried it and it was wonderful, and with the butter made up in advance, it took no time at all and was so full of flavor. I think it will come in handy for a lot of things, but even if I only use it for this, it would be worth having.

Broccoli Fantasia aka Fabulous Broccoli

2008-01-17T15:13:00.002-05:00

1kg broccoli, cut into florets
2tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves
2 leeks, trimmed and sliced
1tbsp plain flour
100ml double cream
200ml white wine
25g butter, plus extra for greasing
6tbsp parmesan cheese, freshly grated
salt and pepper

Parboil the broccoli in salted boiling water for a few minutes, then drain and leave to cool slightly. Meanwhile heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, add the garlic and leeks and cook over a low heat stirring occasionally until softened. Remove and discard the garlic. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly for 2 min until lightly browned. Stir in the cream, season with salt and pepper and mix well. Add the broccoli, pour in the wine and simmer for about 10 min. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200c. Grease an ovenproof dish with butter. Remove the pan from the heat, and transfer the mixture to the prepared dish. Sprinkle with the parmesan, dot with the butter and bake until golden and bubbling.

I got this recipe from The Silver Spoon, and with a name like that, I had to try it.

I’m making more of an effort to find new and exciting ways to prepare vegetables, it’s so easy to just serve them the same way over and over again, and even though that way may be a good way, it’s a shame when there is so much more out there. Hence, the Fabulous Broccoli.

It was, as the name said, fabulous. It’s a really high fat way to eat your greens, but it was so creamy, and tasty. As a matter of fact, my older son asked if he could have the sauce over everything on his plate, and then he ate his whole dinner (didn’t even leave room for dessert). Good stuff.

It was not hard to make, though it used a few dishes. One for blanching, one for simmering, and a third for baking. Still, it was totally worth it. It really dresses up a fairly plain dinner too, if you are just having a roast or chops or something.

It didn’t say in the recipe how long to bake it for, it just said, “until golden and bubbling”. Mine took about 15-20 min.

There is no doubt in my mind that I will be making this again.

Stuffed cabbage rolls

2008-01-17T15:13:00.001-05:00

900g head of green cabbage
120g long grain brown rice
275g mince, preferably from a leg or shoulder of lamb
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp allspice
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 ¼ tsp salt or to taste
4tbsp hot water
½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil
12 garlic cloves
15g butter
1-1 ½ tsp dried mint
6tbsp lemon juice or 300ml Seville Orange juice
Cut out and discard the core of the cabbage, then gently remove the leaves one at a time. Put them in a pan with just enough boiling water to cover and leave to stand for a few minutes until limp and easily pliable. Drain.
In a bowl, combine the rice, mince, cinnamon, allspice, pepper, half the salt, and the hot water. Set aside.

Place several cabbage leaves on a clean surface, thick vein sides up. Trim the middle thick vein of each leaf, or flatten it with your thumb. Put about 1tbsp of the meat mixture on the stem end of each leaf. Roll once, fold in both sides of the leaf and continue to roll the leaf around the meat mixture. Repeat with all the leaves. Set aside.
Heat the oil in a pan over medium high heat until hot but not smoking. Add 8 of the garlic cloves and stir until golden brown, about 1 min. remove from the heat and arrange the cabbage rolls, seam side down in the pan. Place the garlic at intervals between the rolls. Pour in anough water to cover just the cabbage, season with the remaining salt and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to medium low, cover and simmer for 30-40 min.
Meanwhile, crush the remaining garlic until smooth, heat the butter in a small frying pan and lightly sautee the garlic for a few seconds. Turn off the heat and quickly stir in the mint. Add to the cabbage rolls along with the lemon juice. Cover the pan and continue to simmer for another 30 min.
Serve hot with plain yogurt and Lebanese bread.

These cabbage rolls from New Flavours of the Lebanese Table were really good. I had some left over Lamb mince, and I like to use it up right away, so I looked around and found this. There are many different ways to do cabbage rolls, I was always most familiar with the Italian, and the Eastern European ways to make them, so this was a bit new and different. I’d say the biggest change was the lamb and mint combo. It was really good.

They take a long time to make, I won’t kid you about that. They are very small, and you have to make a lot of them. Still, it’s not hard work, so if you are looking for a soothing meditative time cooking, trying this one out would be good.

The flavor combinations are really nice. My biggest tip to you is don’t skip the yogurt. It makes a huge difference between these being ok, and these being really good. Try to use the thickest yogurt that you can get hold of, we use the Greek style (so good).

Pasta with balsamic vinegar sauce

2008-01-15T15:44:00.000-05:00

25g capers, drained and rinsed
½ bunch of flat leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
1 potato, boiled and coarsely chopped
about 150ml olive oil
1tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt

put the capers, parsley, boiled potato, and a pinch of salt in a food processor and process to a puree. Scrape into a bowl and gradually beat in the olive oil to make a thick sauce. Stir in the balsamic vinegar.
For short pasta or spaghetti

This was from The Silver Spoon. I got this book recently, and I love it so much. It’s overwhelming, and educational, and fabulous, and exciting. If you love cooking, this is one of those books that is absolutely required.

I tried this because I was fascinated by the idea of a pasta sauce made of potato. Definitely not Atkins friendly.

I give this a place in the category of the easiest fastest sauces ever (if you already have a cooked potato), and it was really good. The taste was really interesting, different from most of the pasta sauces that I make regularly. I wound up adding a little extra vinegar, I think that how much you need probably has to do with how good your vinegar is. The texture of the overall dish was not exactly sticky, but definitely thick and coated. Very high on comfort factor, and with a real balsamic kick to it.

We all loved this one, there were no leftovers.

Red wine and sour cherry pan sauce

2008-01-15T15:36:00.000-05:00

1/3 cup finely diced red onion
¼ cup dry red wine
¼ cup chicken stock or water
1/3 cup dried sour cherries
one 2-inch strip of lemon zest
1 tsp packed light brown sugar
½ tsp balsamic vinegar
½ tsp fresh thyme leaves
Salt and pepper
1tbsp butter, preferably unsalted, softened (optional)

After cooking steak, pork chops or chicken breasts, remove them to a platter and keep warm. Pour off all but 1tsp fat and heat over medium high heat. Add the onions and cook until just starting to soften and brown.
Add the wine, bring to a boil, stirring with a wooden spoon to loosen and dissolve any browned bits, and cook for 2-3 min.
Add stock, cherries, lemon zest, brown sugar, vinegar, and thyme. Cook stirring often over high heat until reduced by half and thickened, about 3 minutes. Discard the zest.
Season with salt and pepper, and swirl in the butter (if using).

This is just from plain old Joy of cooking. An underappreciated work horse of a book. I’d say that just about everybody that cooks in America has a copy of this book. I like to dip back into it from time to time.

I thought I’d try this one, because I made a balsamic and cherry dish before, and I wanted to know if a quick pan sauce would come out as well.

It was a really good sauce, and very easy. Just minutes from start to finish and you have a great way to make a boring old pork chop into a super fancy meal. It definitely gets points for that, and also for tasting so good.

It still didn’t move me the way the Chicken dish did, but it was a really wonderful sauce to have in you repetoire.

Broad beans in oil

2008-01-15T15:34:00.000-05:00

I thought I had a photo of these, but I don't. Sorry.

They were green, and broad bean looking.

3-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1kg frozen broad beans
a good pinch of sugar (optional)
3-4 tbsp hot water
½-1 bunch coriander, leaves and tender stems only, finely chopped
juice of 1 lemon, or to taste

Warm the oil in a large frying pan, add the onions and saute them, stirring them occasionally, until they are transparent and yellowish in color. At this point stir in the beans, sprinkle with the sugar, if using, and cook for 3-4 minutes. From time to time give them a stir. Then add 3-4 tbsp hot water, stir and simmer covered for a further 2-4 minutes. Uncover, add the coriander and simmer for a further few minutes or until the beans are soft. Stir in the lemon juice and serve.

This is really handy because it uses frozen broad beans. It’s nothing earth shattering, but it’s a really tasty way to make a super quick green vegetable for the side. Let’s face it, as much as we want to focus on each part of the overall meal, sometimes, the side vegetable gets left as an afterthought. If it does, this is not a bad solution at all. It would also be really good for picnics.

I liked them, and I’m going to replace my stash of frozen broad beans so that I can make it again in the future.

It was fromNew Flavours of the Lebanese Table .

Brown bean salad with Chickpea salad

2008-01-15T15:31:00.000-05:00

Brown bean salad
200g brown beans, soaked overnight, drained, rinsed and drained again
1tsp salt
5tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove
3-4 tbsp lemon juice
Juice o 1 small orange, or 2-3 Seville oranges (in season)
3tbsp chopped parsley, or coriander
½ tsp paprika (optional)
Place the beans in a pan with 1 pint of water. Add ¾ tsp salt and ½ tbsp oil and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, civer and simmer for about 40-45 min or until the beans are very tender.
Meanwhile, in a bowl pound the garlic and the remaining salt with a pestle until smooth. Add the beans, with the reduced liquid, and stir well, mashing some of the beans lightly to coat them with the garlic. Add the lemon and orange juices, stir and top with the remaining oil. Sprinkle with the parsley or coriander, and the paprika if using.

Prepare half of the amount of chickpea salad, and place on top of the brown bean salad

Chickpea salad
225g chick-peas, soaked overnight, drained and rinsed
1 garlic clove, crushed
1tsp salt or to taste
½ tbsp tahini (optional)
½-1 tbsp lemon juice
3-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, or to taste
1tsp ground cumin
Place chick peas in a medium pan and cover with 1 inch of water. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, skimming the foam from the surface of the water. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer until the chickpeas are very soft, about 2 hours. Check the water level at intervals, taste a chickpea, and if necessary add hot water. Drain the chickpeas, reserving a few tbsp of the cooking liquid
Meanwhile, in a serving bowl pound the garlic and salt with a pestle till creamy. Add the tahini if using, and the lemon juice. Stir in the reduced cooking liquidand the chickpeas, crushing some of them lightly. Drizzle the oil over and toss. Season with cumin.

Serve with Lebanese bread, spring onions, and watercress

These two bean dishes go really well together. On their own, each one was very nice, but together they are even better. One of those cases of the whole being greater then the sum of it’s parts. The flavors work well together, but the textures do too. The chickpeas have less liquid then the more soup-y brown beans (by the way, I couldn’t find brown beans, so I used Pinto beans instead), together they are really hearty.

The beans take a long time to cook, but I cooked them in advance, and then just heated them up when it came time to make the dish. That worked really well. It turns this into a dish that can be made in minutes.

This was another from New Flavours of the Lebanese Table , and it was a wonderful thing to do with beans.