Random Thoughts

Processor Pizza

Hm. Mom gave me her food processor, so I figured I'd try using it for pizza dough. I also shredded a huge block of cheese and froze it in little bags for later use.

It's MUCH faster to make pizza dough with the food processor. About 5 minutes, all told. It makes a lot less mess, too. All the flour is contained, so it can't poof everywhere. Also, the dough doesn't seem to stick to the plastic container as much as it does with the metal bowl of the stand mixer - even though sticky, you can kinda jerk out out of the bowl.

The downside? without the long kneading with the dough hook in the stand mixer, the final pizza crust isn't as elastic and chewy. So... I'm not sure if I'll keep doing it with the processor.

Recipe: No Fail Pie Crust

This pie crust recipe originally came from Cooks Illustrated. It's similar to another recipe from Alton Brown in that it uses vodka (Alton uses applejack) to replace some of the water in the recipe. The dough is fairly wet and pliable, making it easy to roll out. However, the alcohol evaporates, reducing the moisture in the crust. Alcohol also doesn't promote gluten development (ie. the tough elasticity that's so desirable in pizza dough and bread), which yields a more tender crust.

Ensure that the shortening you buy has no trans-fats (ie. "soft" partially hydrogenated oils). New formulations of shortening are made by softening FULLY hydrogenated fats by blending them with liquid fats. Fully hydrogenated fats basically act as saturated fats. They're not great for you, but they won't kill you like trans-fats.

This recipe makes one of the following (it's pretty large):
2 double crust 9 inch pies
4 single crust 9 inch pies
3 double crust 7 1/2 inch pies (my favorite)

5 cups (25 oz) all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
4 tbs sugar

3 sticks (24 tsp or 3/4 lb) cold butter, sliced into 1/4" slices
1 C (1/2 lb) cold vegetable shortening, cubed

1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup cold vodka (cheap stuff, here)

Pulse/whisk together 3 cups of flour with the salt and sugar.

Add the butter and shortening. Blend for 10-15 seconds or cut in manually, till all flour is coated with fat

Add remaining 2 cups of flour and pulse to blend, or cut in. Turn out into a large bowl if using a food processor.

Sprinkle vodka and water over the mixture gradually, folding it in with a spatula and pressing it down. For bonus points, you can use a spray bottle to distribute the vodka and water evenly through the flour!

Gather together into a ball, divide into portions (see above for how many).
Shape the portions into discs, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, chill for at least 1 hour.

When rolling out the pastry feel free to liberally flour the board and the dough - it's pretty wet and resilient. If it's too hard, let it sit on the counter for a few minutes. If it starts to get too soft, transfer it back to the fridge for 10 minutes.

Convection

I'm gradually learning when oven convection is beneficial and detrimental. True convection ovens, like mine, blow heated air from a fan in the back of the oven. This results in more even, faster browning and faster cooking overall.

It works well when roasting meat, yielding a much more even roast and more all-over browning of chickens. It's good when doing cookies - the circulating air helps with the large pans that obstruct the movement of heat in the oven. And it seems to do well with bread, which bakes very quickly.

However, for most baked goods, it's better to leave it off. Most recipes are not designed for convection and results are unpredictable as convection is not the same in all convection ovens. Lowering the heat by 25F is only a starting point, and bake time often has to be adjusted as well. So for cakes and pastries, it's better to leave convection off.

Recently I made a blueberry pie with convection - the upper crust browned very rapidly - the sugar sprinkled on top started to burn. Meanwhile, the bottom crust didn't have time to brown and the filling didn't cook enough to dissolve the sugar, yielding a texture that was far from ideal.

The next day I took the same pastry and berries (in fact, from the same batch - I had done a double batch of each and just used one) and baked the same recipe without convection. The difference was drastic. The top and bottom of the crusts were golden and crunchy. The middle was thoroughly cooked. Much, much better.

Recipe: Strawberry Syrup

Dom asked for the recipe for the Strawberry Syrup that I made. Though, really, it's not much of a recipe... and I usually only make it when I'm out of maple syrup. The ingredient list is simple: sugar, water, jam, lemon, berries (optional), bourbon (optional).

Quick Strawberry Syrup

In a heavy small saucepan boil
1/2 cup of water
3/4 cup of sugar
until the sugar has dissolved completely and the mixture is bubbling merrily.

Stir in a few tablespoons of strawberry jam.
Optionally stir in a teaspoon or two of bourbon or rum. (I did this with Dom.)

Take off the heat and add some grated lemon zest and add lemon juice to taste. (Taste frequently as you add drops of lemon juice so that you get it the way you want it!)

Stir in some sliced strawberries (optional ... I forgot to do it, Dom, but it'll taste better!)

Serve warm (reheat in the microwave if refrigerated).

Substitution: seedless raspberry jam would work as well if you're looking for something that looks a bit more sophisticated

Recipe: Berry Cupcakes

This berry cupcake recipe was adapted from one on recipezaar. It's really full of berries and not too sweet (for a cupcake). Very, very yummy.

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tbs lemon zest (optional)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder

2 cups flour (I use 1/2 cake flour)
1/2 cup milk

2 to 2 1/2 cup berries, rinsed and drained
(I used blueberries and raspberries)

Preheat oven to 375F, prepare 12 muffin tins with large foil cupcake cups.

Beat the first group of ingredients (butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt, baking powder) together with the paddle attachment, adding one at a time and beating well after each addition.

Alternately fold in the flour and milk with a spatula, starting and ending with flour, about a third at a time.

Sprinkle about 1 tbs of flour over the well-drained, but slightly damp berries and toss to coat. Fold them into the batter.

Divide among muffin cups and bake for 25 min.

The Tenderest Steak

If you've got a really really thick cut steak, this is an awesome way of preparing it. It's slightly more trouble, but the results are worth it - a more tender steak that's perfectly done from edge to edge (with no bands of overcooked meat on the outside). I saw the method on America's Test Kitchen.

Preheat your oven to 275F.

Rub a thick (1.5" +) rib steak or strip loin with a generous sprinkling of salt and ground black pepper. The steak doesn't have to be at room temperature, it can be straight from the fridge.

Roast the steak in the oven until the internal temperature of the steak is at 95F. By this time (about 20 minutes, depending on thickness), the steak will still look pretty raw, but the fat and connective tissues will have relaxed.

Sear the steak for a few minutes per side on a really hot grill or cast iron pan, until the desired doneness is reached (120F for rare, 125 for medium rare, 130 for for medium).

Let the steak rest loosely covered with foil for about 5 minutes. Slice and serve.

Recipe: Prosciutto Wrapped Stuffed Chicken

Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of this. When the deli slices the prosciutto, insist that they put plastic wrap between each slice so that the slices stay whole. This recipe is actually fairly low in calories and fat - even though we're wrapping the chicken in ham and stuffing it with cheese! The prosciutto slices are about 40 calories each, and about 70 calories worth of cheese is going into the breasts, so it's not too bad! You can omit the cheese if you want. Note that the recipe doesn't have any salt - the cheese and ham are taking care of that. You can prepare the dish ahead of time and then bake when ready (be sure to adjust cooking time if the chicken is cold).

2 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
4 wedges of Laughing Cow cheese
5 thin slices of prosciutto
1/2 tablespoon black pepper, dried oregano, dried thyme
1 tablespoon garlic powder
mustard

Preheat the oven to 400F
Cut a slit into the chicken breast (if the tenders are still attached, you may not need to do this.
Sprinkle the seasoning all over the chicken
Brush lightly with mustard
Stuff with the cheese wedges (you can use less for small breasts)
Wrap with prosciutto, overlapping slightly. Secure with toothpicks if needed.
Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until internal temperature reads 160F.

Let stand loosely tented with foil for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Recipe: Apple Cake Redux

This recipe makes a lot of cake with very little effort - since the apples are chopped rather than sliced, once you peel them you can just cut the chunks off the core. 5 medium-small apples suffice for the 3 cups. I used McIntoshes. The cake is a bit homely, but it's moist and tasty. The topping makes a good caramel dipping sauce for raw apples too!

It was a hit at the office, at the parents' house and at Martin and Fiona's house with Jen and Dan. (well, as in, no leftovers, anyway).

The recipe comes courtesy of Recipezaar, where really good recipes are easily found - just look for recipes rated with 5 stars and lots of reviews! I got a moister texture the first time I made it. The differences may be (moister vs drier):
olive oil instead of veg oil (olive oil is a better emulsifier)
325F with convection instead of 350F without convection
apples chopped finer vs chopped more chunky (though I like chunks of apples)

Preheat oven to 350F, or 324F with convection, middle rack.
Line a 9x13" pan with parchment and spray lightly with cooking spray (or butter and flour the pan)

Whisk in large bowl:
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon (optional)

Whisk in medium bowl:
3 large eggs, beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups finely chopped apples
1/2 cup apple juice

Fold the liquid mix by hand into the dry mixture until no flour remains. Don't overmix.
Pour into the baking pan and bake for about 40 to 50 minutes.

Sauce:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup whipping cream

Put it all in a small sauce pan. Heat until bubbly then pour over the slightly cooled cake.
If you're serving it immediately, you can cut the cake and pour it over the pieces. Otherwise, pour it over the whole cake and it'll help keep the cake moist as it's being stored.

Caramel Pudding

I'm on a caramel streak. I made a caramel pudding, but I think I went waaaay too strong on the caramel, it's way too powerful! On the other hand, just a tiny bit is pretty satisfying. Thinking that I should probably use it as a sauce on other desserts - it tasted pretty good on blackberries.

Recipe: Bourbon Caramel Custard

So I took the Baked Custard recipe and the Croissant Pudding recipe and mashed them together and came up with this recipe, which I like better than either. The bad news? It's FULL of fat. Oh well! I've been using bourbon a lot lately, because I'm totally out of vanilla extract.

Yields 7, 7oz ramekins (reduce cream for 6... 7 fits in my pan!)

1/4 cup water
1 1/4 cup sugar

4+ cups cream (I used 10% half and half, might be better with some whipping cream)
3 tbs bourbon (optionally, substitute rum)
4 eggs, 4 yolks (next time, I'll try 3 eggs)

Put the water and then the sugar into a 5 cup sauce pan. Heat without stirring over medium heat until the sugar is bubbling and turned a dark amber color.

Turn off the heat and whisk in 2 cups of cream. The mixture will hiss and spurt. Keep whisking until any hardened caramel is dissolved.

Add bourbon and Let stand while doing the rest.

Put a large kettle/pot of water to boil (for a bain marie).
Preheat the oven to 300F.

Put all the eggs and yolks into an 8 cup measuring bowl that pours easily. Whisk in 1 cup of cream.

Once the oven is preheated and the water is boiling, gradually whisk the caramel cream mixture into the eggs.
Top up the custard mixture with cream till it's a total of about 5 cups (just over 4 cups if you have 6 ramekins).
Strain the mixture into the cool pan and then strain again back into the pouring bowl.
Fill the ramekins.

Line a pan that's capable of holding all the ramekins with a dish cloth.
Pour the boiling water into it.
Put the ramekins into the water and put into the oven. (you can ladle out water if there's too much as you put in the custards)

Bake for about 45 minutes or until barely set (a knife inserted will come out with solid bits of custard sticking to it, rather than liquid coating it).

Ideally, cool before serving - it'll taste much creamier. (I always eat 1 or 2 though...)

Recipe: Caramel Bourbon Pudding

Mom and Dad came over for dinner today, we shared a single T-bone steak, some rice, mushrooms and carrots. However, I tried Nigella's Caramel Croissant Pudding and it was really good. However, it's noteworthy that on the Food Network site and other American sites, they incorrectly translate her 100g of sugar to 1 cup! Which would be way too much - double, actually, as 200g of sugar = 1 cup. I doubled the recipe and cooked it in an 8x2 inch cake pan. I put in 1 cup of sugar, correcting the amount, and it was still plenty sweet and very enjoyable. I might cut back just a tad on the bourbon next time though - it's pretty strong.

(doubled, cuz that's how I'm likely to make it!)
4 stale croissants (I just put fresh ones in the oven for a little)

200g caster sugar (1 cup)

4 tbsp water

1 cup double cream

1 cup full-fat milk

(I substituted half and half cream for both milk and cream)

4 tbsp bourbon (will reduce to 3 next time)

4 eggs, beaten

Preheat the oven to 350F (I used 325 with convection).

Tear up the croissants into pieces and put them into a buttered pan.

Put the water, then sugar, into a sauce pan that holds at least 3 cups. Do not stir, and boil until it turns deep amber.

Add cream and whisk till dissolved (it'll sputter). Add the milk and bourbon and keep whisking.

Add the eggs while whisking.

Pour over the croissants, let steep for 10 min, then bake for 20 min.

Recipe: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Nothing beats this from a taste to trouble ratio - it's really, really easy and tastes really, really good. A combination of swiss and cheddar cheese gives a good balance of salt, flavour and texture. I made the bread yesterday and it was ideal for this - light and airy. A panini press or electric grill would probably do a good job too.

Ingredients:

Slices of bread
2 tbs butter, melted (add a tiny bit of salt if it's unsalted, till you can barely tasted it)
Swiss cheese sliced to cover
Cheddar cheese sliced to cover (use more swiss if you used salted butter)

Heat a grill pan over high heat until very hot, then turn down. (alternatively heat grill/press)

Brush melted butter lightly on the outside of the slices of bread.

Fill the inside (unbuttered side) with 3 layers of thinly sliced cheese. Sprinkle with black pepper (or chili flakes if you like hot stuff!).

Put it on the grill pan - it should sizzle lightly. Weight it down with a cake pan containing a can, to press it into the grill. Cook for about 4 minutes until there are good grill marks on the bread.

Flip with a spatula and replace the cake pan and weight. Grill until cheese is melted and grill marks are visible on the bread.

Lobster Flambee

This was the second lobster of the week - it was a big two pounder! Also, I killed it myself, and if you don't want pictures, don't click the link below! I cooked it according to a recipe on America's Test Kitchen (click the Flambeed Lobster link for video). Sadly, after a LOT of work and a 30 dollar bottle of bourbon, this lobster didn't taste all that good. I prefer it steamed from the store - which happily, is a lot easier too.

To the left is the lobster still alive, above the ingredients that it'll be cooked with!

Unlike the ATK recipe, I put my lobster in the freezer for about 15 minutes to knock it out before knifing it, so there weren't a lot of death throes as it was brutally knifed in half. This is actually supposed to be the most humane way to do it, unless you talk to PETA, who will be glad to recommend you go vegetarian. It was surprisingly difficult and exhilarating (I sorta pride myself on being rational) to kill the food that I was going to eat, and probably this was the most exciting part of the recipe - cuz it didn't taste that good.

And here's the finished dish, which looks pretty good (better than the one in the video at ATK, I think) but didn't taste all that great. I don't think I like the taste of bourbon. The flambee was impressive, though! Lotsa fire!

Crystallization

So I finally found out what sugar crystallization means - I made a batch of caramel popcorn to take to Jen and Dan's house the other night and the only nuts that I had handy were some honey roasted peanuts. So I used them and a crystallization reaction spread quickly throughout the caramel. Instead of being brittle and glassy, like it should, the whole thing turned into a mass of grainy sugar. The sugar crystals on the peanuts must've caused the reaction.

Best Hot Cocoa

This is a BIT more involved than just using Quik, but still can be done in a few minutes. Using a simple syrup means that you don't get nasty undissolved sugar.

2 cups water
6 TBS sugar
2 TBS cocoa (more to taste)
Cream to taste (half and half, table cream or whipping cream)
hazelnut liquor (optional)

Put the sugar and water in a pan and simmer/boil until the sugar is dissolved. This converts the sugar to 'invert sugar' which won't crystallize.

Taste the mixture. If it's too sweet for you, add more water and heat till hot (remember you want it a bit on the sweet side, because cocoa is slightly bitter).

Whisk in the cocoa. Don't add too much, because you don't want it gritty.
Then whisk in cream (about 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup, not less than a tablespoon) to taste.
Heat through (especially if you added a lot of cold cream) but keep it under a simmer.

Put liquor into 2 mugs (hey, as much as you like, but a tablespoon or 2 would do) and then pour the hot cocoa over it.

Recipe: Focaccia

This is the lunch that wasn't... the invited parties cancelled last minute. So that's why it's vegetarian. The focaccia, recipe adapted from RecipeZaar) was really, really good. So was the eggplant (grill marks courtesy of my grill pan) and roasted bell peppers. And of course, roasted garlic is ALWAYS good.

Edit: removed the garlic, adjusted temperature, corrected amt of olive oil in dough.

Recipe follows

1 3/4C water, at 135F (hot, but not burning, to the touch)
1tbs instant yeast
1tbs sugar
4-4 1/2C all-purpose flour (I used hard bread flour this time)
1tsp salt
olive oil
2tbs fresh rosemary, minced (half that if dried)
1 tsp sea salt or kosher salt

Mix the yeast, water, sugar, salt and 1 cup of flour in the mixing bowl.

Add the water and 3 tablespoons of olive oil and mix with a spatula.

While stirring/kneading (with the Kitchenaid), gradually add 3 cups of flour.

Add more flour gradually if required to make the dough wipe the sides of the bowl.

Let rest for 5 minutes.

Knead again for about 5-10 minutes, until smooth.

Turn the dough out into an oiled bowl and flip it so that all sides are oiled.

Let rise, covered for about 1/2 hour till doubled in size.

Knead down, let rest for 5-10 minutes.

Press out into a parchment lined half-sheet pan and brush with olive oil.

Let rise for about 20-31 minutes, till doubled in volume.

With greased fingers, deeply press dimples into the dough's surface (almost all of the way through)

Sprinkle the rosemary and garlic over the surface, drizzle with more olive oil (really, the more the better, within reason).

Sprinkle with kosher salt and bake in a 350F-375F oven for 30-40 minutes, till golden.
(I used 325F with convection for 35 min.)
Internal temperature of bread should read about 200 degrees F.

Cool on rack for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Recipe: Carrot Cake

I wanted cake and had some carrots getting old in the fridge. So I made carrot cake. This is a convenient cake because most times I have the ingredients on hand. I looked it up on the Fine Cooking website. I didn't have regular olive oil, so I used half extra virgin olive oil and half veg. Also, using the convection oven, I reduced the heat to 325F, which still baked the cake at the lower end of the time listed. (This explains why my cakes have been a bit dry lately...)

Preheat oven to 350F

Cake:
In the mixing bowl, mix:
1 cup sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup olive oil

In a bowl whisk:
9 oz. (2 cups) all-purpose flour, sifted
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. grated nutmeg, preferably freshly grated
2 Tbs. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

In a bowl whisk:
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Alternately add the flour and eggs to the mixer and mix.

Stir in
3 cups grated carrot
1 cup toasted pecans, chopped (optional, I don't like nuts in cake)
1/4 cup dark rum

Prepare two 9" round cake pans by oiling them and lining them with oiled round parchment paper.

Divide the cake among the pans and bake for 35-45 minutes, till a toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting:
Paddle in the mixer:
Two 8-oz. packages cream cheese, somewhat softened
1/2 cup honey
1 Tbs. grated orange zest
1/2 cup heavy cream

I didn't have honey, so I just used icing sugar. I also used regular cream and reduced the amount.

Steak Dinner

I didn't plan on taking a pic of this, but it was really yummy so... that's why it's messy. I lucked out and got a beautifully marbled ribeye steak from the grocery. I fried it and a whole bunch of veggies that I have to use out (peppers, green onions, avocado). I also bought a whole bunch of fruit - a case of mangos, a basket of peaches and a couple of packages of raspberries. There were some good sales on them, so even though I'm not much of a fruit person...

Found Noodles

This dish was made solely with ingredients that my mom dropped off:
Some rice noodles that my father bought by accident (they usually buy chow mein noodles)
Celery and Carrots (Mom split them with me)
Leftover roast pork
Mushrooms that were on sale
Herbs from the garden

It was pretty good. I still have 3 more packs of the noodles, though!

Solo Sushi-ya

Hmm, Jen says that Solo Sushi-ya in Newmarket is reputed to be one of the best sushi restaurants in the GTA! I go by there every day on the way to work - it looks like a little dive and I always wondered how well it was doing - though it's been there for a long time now. The online reviews seem to bear her out...

Chowhound.com
Toronto.com (search Solo)
Chefmoz.org
Restaurantica 1
Restaurantica 2 (search Solo)

Google turned up a lot of terse, but positive reviews. I'll have to try the omakase sometime!

Jen's going to go there with her family for her birthday - her father is Japanese so they have a translator in the family!

Recipe: New Lemon Bars

This recipe for Lemon Bars is better than the first one - I like the consistency of the lemon topping better. My second batch turned out better than my first batch (though both were fine). Thanks co-workers, for being my beta testers! :-) Baking the crust longer with convection resulted in a crisper bottom which can be used for other toppings too. I only decorated these three.

Lemon Bars

Crust:
7oz / 14 TBS / 0.9 cup melted unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
9.5oz / 2 cups + 2 tbs flour

Mix it all together and press it into a parchment lined 13x9" pan and prick with fork all over.
Freeze it for 10 minutes.
Bake in a 325F oven for at least 30 min until golden.

Topping:
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 tbs flour
pinch salt
3/4 cup lemon juice (4 lemons)
zest of 2 lemons, use rasp

Whisk all of the above together.
Pour it onto the hot crust.
Put it into the oven and raise the heat to 350F (no convection)
Bake for about 20 minutes or until the topping is pretty set in the centre (doesn't wiggle much).
Cool for at least 1 hour on a rack before lifting it out and cutting into squares.

Fine Cooking/Dec 2006/Nicole Rees

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Dinner tonight was pasta with fried chicken. The pasta had fresh herbs from the garden (basil, rosemary, parsley) and the chicken was marinated in buttermilk and double dredged in seasoned flour. It was very yummy (and very fattening, I imagine).

Chocolate

Last month, fully one quarter of my "Fun" budget went towards chocolate! Youch. There's a chocolate shop close to where I work and I've been passing in a couple times a week to try the high quality, high percentage chocolates. So far, my favorite is the Amadei Chuao - but at $10 for a 50g bar, it's very expensive. Unfortunately, the store seems to have run out. The other one that I currently like is Valrhona's Guajana (not pictured) and it's a bit more affordable. Still, if you're going to be splurging on something, what's an extra couple of bucks? Anyway, I can't afford to continue on like I have been, but once I've got my favorites I can concentrate on them!

Grilled Food

I wasn't up to cooking anything complicated today. So I just grilled a bunch of stuff on the stovetop with basically just salt and pepper (and some leftover rice) It was really good. However, I found out that if you eat a pound of grilled asparagus, your urine smells very strongly like water that you've boiled brocolli in!

Practising Pizza

I've been practising making pizza and think I've got it down pretty well now. I make everything from scratch except for the pizza sauce - that starts with a can of crushed tomatos. The dough is a pretty standard yeast dough. The hard part is getting the right texture for the crust. I've found that the best way of simulating a pizza stone oven is to heat up cast iron pots and grills over the stove and assemble the pizzas on them before putting them in the oven.

Another option that I saw on TV today was to use a splatter screen to bake on. Since the bottom is open, the heat can get straight to the underside and crisp it up. But I only have one splatter screen and it isn't oven proof.

Fried Rice

Fried rice has an alarming amount of oil in it. It's best made with day old rice (something about the way the starch sets and doesn't turn to mush, like fresh rice would). Anyway, this is rice fried up with bay scallops and veggies. It was yummy, and I ate it all.

Chow Mein

Mmm, noodles. They're nice and fast to make and easy. You simply pour hot water through the noodles and loosen them up. The extra firm tofu is marinated in a mix of soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil. Then, they're fried in a really, really hot wok to get a nice textured sear. I thought that I could do a tofu steak like this and made one for Dan, but tasting it afterward (sorry, Dan, should've tasted it before!) it was too salty to have that much at once.

Recipe: Chili Chicken Avocado Salad

After yesterday's really heavy meal, I'm eating lighter today. Plus I had some avocados that needed eating. The coolness of the avocados is perfect to moderate spicy chicken! Really, you can toss anything into this, it starts with a lemon vinaigrette that's not too acidic but very lemony. This doesn't take too long to make, maybe 15 minutes depending on how fast you chop!

Dressing:
1 lemon
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt/pepper
1/4 tsp mustard
1-2 tbs sugar

2 avocados, peel at last moment (see below)
3 medium tomatoes, chopped, seeds removed
1 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
1/2 can of chick peas, drained and rinsed
1 cup mozzerella cheese chopped or grated coarsely

4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
chili, salt, pepper

With a rasp, zest the lemon zest into a large glass bowl.
Then, slice of the top 1/3 of the lemon and squeeze the juice into the bowl. Remove any seeds!
Add the rest of the dressing ingredients and whisk until thickened slightly.
Use more sugar depending on how acidic the lemon was or if you're serving to kids.

Peel and chop the avocados. I like to chop into slices and then remove skin, but you can use the big spoon scoop method if you like. Toss the avocado immediately in the dressing so that they don't discolor. Then, toss the rest of the ingredients in. A silicone spatula is great for gently lifting the dressing from the bottom of the bowl - you want to avoid breaking up the avocado.

Set the salad aside.

Put a heavy non-stick skillet to preheat over a medium high flame.
Slice the chicken thighs into strips.
Salt and pepper well and sprinkle with a good amount of chili powder.
Put a little bit of oil into the pan and add the chicken strips.
Don't stir, let the chicken get all nicely browned (4-6 min), then stir/toss to cook the other side the same way.
The nice thing about the thighs is that they won't overcook and become dry.

Serves 4 as appetizer, 2 as a main.

Recipe: Oil Biscuits

Dom's mother made these hard, fennel flavored biscuits and they go wonderfully dunked in hot soup. I asked Dom to get the recipe for me and he went and watched while his mom made a batch of them and made notes (his mom doesn't use a recipe). Thanks for taking all that trouble Dom!

I've had the recipe for a long time, waiting to try it. These turned out really well. When using for soup dunking, they're best a couple of days old and then microwaved for about 15 seconds on high. Then they're satisfyingly chewy. I've really cut down the proportions of the mammoth batch that Dom's mom makes and quantified things a bit (Dom's instructions: Proof/Roll out/Proof). I don't usually put fat in my bread, but it does give the dough a beautiful smooth texture. These freeze well wrapped in foil.

2-3 cups flour
1 cup water
1 tsp fennel seeds/anise seeds (go lighter if you use anise)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tbs instant yeast
2 tbs olive oil

Whisk together 1 cup of flour, the salt, the sugar and the yeast.

Heat the water to 130F. Stir in the oil and then stir the liquid into the flour mixture.
Stirr in the fennel seeds (I gave them a bit of a pound with the mortar and pestle first.)

Knead with dough hook (or by hand) adding more flour until you have a smooth dough.

Let rise in an oiled bowl covered with saran and let rise until doubled in height (about 1/2 - 1 hour).

Punch down, knead and then shape into rings (cut into balls, poke a hole with a finger and then spin). You want the holes fairly large because they'll close a bit when they rise.

Put the rings on a parchment lined baking sheet. Let rise until almost doubled in size (about 1/2 hour).

Bake the biscuits in a preheated 350F oven for 20-30 minutes. If you'd like them to be a bit harder, you can turn the oven off and leave them in a bit longer (maybe take them off the tray and let them rest on the oven rack).

Baked Custard

Custard is really easy! Just 10 minutes to make and everything is very divisible so that you can easily adjust the recipe to make the amount you want. I didn't have any ramekins, so I just used coffee cups. I replaced about 1/2 cup of milk with whipping cream and put in an extra yolk for every egg. The thing is, the mix has to be thick enough to suspend the egg throughout and rich enough to not curdle.

For every 2 custards (usually I make 6):
1 egg (got extra yolks hanging around? toss em in too!)
2 TBS sugar (or more, if you'd like a sweeter custard, around 1/2 C per 3 eggs)
1 cup whole milk (higher fat, the better! mix some cream in, if you have any)
1/2 tsp vanilla

Revised for 6 custards:
4 eggs
1/4 + 1/8 C sugar
1.5 tbs vanilla extract
3 C milk/cream, warm (fill to just over 4 cups total volume)

Preheat oven to 300F
Simmer a large pot of water
Slowly whisk the ingredients together in the order they appear.
Strain the mixture into small heatproof bowls (ramekins)
Put a large dish that can fit all the custards in the oven.
Arrange the custards in the dish and pour the hot water around them.

Bake for about 1/2 hours or until a knife inserted comes out clean.
Alternatively, the internal temperature should be around 160-165F

Panfried Perogies

I got a new non-stick pan - it's from Paderno's Catering Line. It's thick cast aluminum with Dupont's Platinum Teflon coating (Dupont makes different grades of its nonstick coating). I got it at a factory sale for $25 - a good deal when it retails for almost $100. Aluminum is a great conductor, unlike stainless steel, so you get nice even heat - but it's reactive, so you don't really want to cook in it. With the non-stick coating, though, it's great - both light and even heat. It has a long stainless steel handle riveted to the pan with a removable silicone grip. It's great for jobs like this where the pan fried items would ordinarily stick to the pan - bacon and boiled perogies, along with green onions, garlic, onions and tomato.

Veal Braise

This is very easy, but takes a long time to cook. The veal, however, is fall-off-the-bone tender. It's a simplified version of osso buco (recipe), but I used veal short ribs instead of shanks. I served it up over some boiled perogies and it was very yummy.

15 Minute Meal: Shrimp Pasta Alfredo

This is an instant meal that's very fast to make! I don't have a pic, because I ate it all :( Use real parmesan here, it's the main flavoring. Expensive, but worth it. If you MUST use cheaper stuff, use more.

Cook pasta according to directions, but undercook it by 3 minutes.

While the pasta boils, make the sauce.
1 C half-and-half cream
1 C finely grated parmegianno reggiano (use a microplane rasp)
salt and pepper
optional but traditional: nutmeg, pinch
optional: 10 or so shrimp, peeled
optional: crushed garlic

If you have time, you can heat the shrimp shells in the cream and then strain them out for more flavor.
Heat the cream till very hot, but not boiling
Gradually stir in the grated cheese
Grate in some nutmeg (again with the rasp)
Add shrimp about 4 minutes before ready to cook
Salt and pepper to taste

Take the hot, drained, undercooked pasta and pour the sauce over it, stirring over low heat. The idea here is that the undercooked pasta will finish cooking in the sauce and suck up some flavor and thicken the sauce. So no need for thickeners! If you want it slightly thicker, you can let it stand off heat for a few more minutes.

It just doesn't get much easier than this!
You can keep leftover sauce and toss it with fresh pasta, reheating in the pasta pot.
Leftover pasta isn't very nice... just toss that.

Crumbling Resistance

Trev and Rucell gave me a bunch of apples that needed to be used fast. Dominion had a special on blueberries (still expensive, but they looked good). Mom dropped off some oatmeal she didn't want. Hence: apple-blueberry crumble. I don't know how this will taste... I didn't have a recipe and there are always so many variables - how sweet the fruit is, how juicy or dry it is, how much thickener (corn starch in this case) to use... It looks good, we'll see how it tastes.

Update: It tastes good! Yay! The fruit is perfect. The crumble could be a bit harder maybe - more butter next time.

Fried Wings w. Blue Cheese Sauce

So I wanted to test out the deep fryer... well, actually, I used it last night too to make shrimp chips with peanut sauce. Anyway, these were really good. Basically, the wings were marinated in a mix of soy sauce, chili powder, thyme, garlic, black pepper, oregano and a bit of oyster sauce. Then, they were tossed with cornstarch and fried in 350 degree vegetable oil. Below is the simple recipe for blue cheese sauce.

Blue Cheese Sauce

Danish Blue Cheese (size of a deck of cards)
1/2 cup mayo
1/4 cup cream or milk
Black Pepper
Cottage cheese (optional)

Blend all of the above together with an immersion blender.

If you want a salad dressing, just add more cream to thin it out.

Pancake Breakfast

I had a HUGE breakfast this morning. The bacon was done in the oven under the broiler which is a nice, no fuss way of doing it. I poached some fresh pear slices in maple syrup for the sauce. I ate ALL of these. I don't think I've put the pancake recipe here. The pancakes that this recipe makes are kind of a cross between crepes and pancakes - they're flexible enough to roll. This it's kind of inaccurate but very quick and easy..

Pancakes (serves 2)

Whisk together in order:
1 egg
2 TBS sugar (adjust to taste... I like them a bit sweet so I tend to use more)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 TBS salted butter, melted, not hot
1 1/2 cup milk

Mix of:
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup flour (approximately)

Gently whisk the flour mixture into the wet mixture.
Add more flour until the batter leaves a soft ribbon when you drizzle it from your whisk back into the bowl.
You can add flour or milk to get the consistency you want, even while cooking.

Thicker batter will yield thicker, cakier pancakes.
Thinner batter can be spread into a circle by tilting the pan, making a thinner, more flexible pancake.

Heat a heavy seasoned cast iron or non-stick skillet. Wipe the skillet with some melted butter or oil, using the paper towel to absorb any excess. When the pan is quite hot, pour batter into the pan. Tilting the pan by lifting by the handle, let the batter spread into a round shape.

Cook until there are a lot of bubbles coming up. Then flip and cook until done.
There's no need to re-oil the pan between pancakes.
Stack the finished pancakes on a plate in a warm oven.

It's not uncommon for the first pancake to not turn out nicely browned.
This is usually because either there is too much grease in the pan (the first pancake will mop it up) or the pan is not yet hot enough.

Lunch with Jen & Dan (Recipe: Top Sirloin with Pan Sauce)

Jen, Dan and little Naomi came over for lunch today. It tasted really good - I roasted potatoes, onions, garlic and spicy sausage in olive oil. Dan (cuz he's a picky meat eater!) had a very 'sanitized' cube of grilled chicken breast. Jen and I shared a large-ish steak. I liked the pan gravy, so I'm just going to jot down some notes on the recipe below.

The steak was also good, and it was a reasonably inexpensive cut - top sirloin. The thing with top sirloin is that it can be a bit chewy if it's not cooked to at least medium-rare. I prefer rare, but with this steak medium-rare to medium is where you want to be. (The pic of the steak came later, with another meal.)

Naomi had strawberries for the first time and seemed to really, really like them. She kept demanding more! She also found the beanbag chair and upholstered ottoman interesting. She also tried the piano. They also brought me some foaming hand soap that's really neat - I've been washing my hands more than strictly necessary to play with the pump.

Recipe follows..

Sirloin Steak with Pan Gravy

1 top sirloin steak, 1 1/4 inches thick, at room temperature
1 TBS butter
1 TBS mustard
1 shallot (can substitute 1/2 onion and a clove of garlic)
2 TBS wine (white or red, dry)
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup heavy cream
salt, pepper

Heat oil in a pan until it's smoking hot.
Season the steak liberally with salt and pepper.
Fry the steak on high for about 3-4 minutes, depending on thickness.
Don't move the steak around or lift it until you're ready to flip.
Flip the steak with tongs.
Lower the heat to medium.
Cook until the inside of the steak reads about 125-135 degrees F.

Put the steak on a warm plate, cover with aluminium foil.

Add the butter and the shallots to the pan (if using onion and garlic, don't add the garlic until just before the wine)
Saute the shallots and scrape up the brown bits in the pan.
Add the mustard.
Add the wine and scape up the brown bits with the liquid.
Add 1/2 the chicken broth and any juices that leaked out of the steak into the plate.
Reduce to evaporate water until the sauce is syrupy. Add chicken stock as needed.
Add cream.
Adjust salt and pepper.

Pour over the sliced steak.

Seasoning Cast Iron

Cast iron is one of the best surfaces to sear things on. I was doing without cast iron, but then I stole a pan from my parents and made the best steak ever. Then Superstore had cast iron pans on sale for just $7. However, cast iron needs seasoning before it can be used, to seal the surface with a tough, stick resistant coating. The longer you use the pan, the more seasoned it gets. Eventually it takes on a smooth black patina.

So here you can see the 3 stages. The ancient pan in the back is a perfectly age seasoned cast iron 10" pan that my parents got in a garage sale a long time ago. At the bottom right is a new, unseasoned pan that has a rough grey surface. To the right is the pan that I've seasoned in the oven. It's not as good as the old pan, but it suffices. For seasoning instructions, read below.

Seasoning instructions:

1) Wash down the pan with hot water, soap and a stiff brush. Then bake the pan in a 400 degree F oven for at least 1/2 an hour to make sure all moisture has been eliminated. This step is to remove any manufacturing chemicals that may still be on the pan.

2) Wipe a very thin layer of vegetable oil over the entire interior surface of the pan.
Bake the pan in a 400 degree F oven for at least an hour. The oil will darken and turn deep brown.

3) Repeat step 2 over and over... the more you do it, the better the seasoning. You can also season the exterior of the pan to inhibit rust.

Maintenance: Don't wash the pan with soap. Just use hot water and a scrubbing brush if there's stuff stuck to it. Heat it over the stove to evaporate any moisture and rub with a thin layer of oil to prevent rust.

Recipe: Simplifried Wings

This is the simplest frying method ever. Vary the spices for a more asian feel if you want (use 5 spice powder and dried ginger in the mix). Dredge chicken wings (about 12) in the following mixture and fry them in enough oil to cover them (do it in 2 batches if you want).

3 TBS corn starch
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
1 tsp black pepper

Salt them again as they come out of the hot oil.

Recipe: Roasted Garlic Cloves

These are an awesome addition to any roasted meal. (Recipe for Quick Cook: Everything Roasted) You can add these to any high heat roasted dish. This "Everything Roasted" meal was chicken, hot sausages, sweet sausages, onions, broccolli and carrots.

All you do is cut the stem end off of the unpeeled cloves of garlic. Toss with olive oil and salt and add to the roasting pan. (If there's oil and salt in the recipe, just toss them with the rest of the stuff.) The cloves will turn golden mushy brown inside their papery skins. While you're eating, just squeeze them out with your fork onto your plate. Or just squeeze them with your fingers into your mouth. The roasted garlic flavor will be buttery, mild and sweet! A rustic tasty touch.

Recipe: Carioka

Rucell showed me how to make carioka today. It's a deep fried Philippino sweet made out of coconut and rice flour, dunked in syrup. Yummy! :) The recipe is a bit vague on the proportions (we didn't measure anything). It makes a lot... halving this recipe might be a good thing.

Syrup:
Brown sugar (1 cup?)
Water (1/2 cup?)
Set it to boil until bubbling rapidly and slightly thickened

Carioka:
1 lb sweet rice flour (Mochiko brand)
1/2 lb glutinous rice flour (optionally, just use more Mochiko)

Stir in a small amount of liquid (milk, water, coconut milk)
Mixture should be pretty dry, not even a paste, you can add more liquid later.

Stir in:
2 bags(1 lb each) of frozen grated coconut (thawed and optionally replace one with a bag of young coconut)

Adjust consistency with rice flour/coconut milk to something shapeable with 2 spoons (like quinelles). Shape into ovals and fry in about 1 1/2 inches of oil until golden. Then dunk them in the hot boiling syrup for a pit and then into a colander.
Serve on skewers, hot or cooled.

Recipe: Artisan Style Bread

Tried making a more involved bread recipe that I saw on Good Eats. It turned out really well, though I didn't have a pizza stone/clay surface to bake it on. It did indeed have a more yeasty flavor and a nice chewy crust. It was also very nice looking. The recipe involves making a sponge and letting it sit in the fridge for flavors to develop. This bread takes a lot of time, but most of it is just waiting.

I'll post the recipe here when I get a chance.

Ingredients:
Flour (1 lb)
Water (10 oz)
Yeast (1 tsp)
Sugar (3 tsp)
Salt (2 tsp)
Corn Starch (1 TBS)

Mix:
All the water
All the sugar
1/4 tsp yeast
1 1/2 cups flour (5 oz)
Cover and let rest in the refridgerator for 8-12 hours, for flavor to develop.
This is the "sponge)

In the mixing bowl stir:
The rest of the flour (2 1/4 cups)
The rest of the yeast (3/4 tsp)
All the salt

Then, add the fermented sponge and, with the dough hook, stir until well blended.
Cover with a damp cloth and et it rest for 20 minutes.
Knead with the dough hook for 10-15 minutes on medium speed.
(Speed it up to high if the dough starts climbing.)

Place the smooth but sticky dough ball in a lightly oiled container and let rise in a humid oven for about 1 hour, or until doubled in volume. (Humidify the oven by having a dish of boiling water in it.)

Punch down the dough by turning it out onto a flat surface and flattening it with your knuckles
Fold it into 3, rotate 90 degrees and repeat.
Let rest for 10 minutes.

Gather the corners into a ball.
Let rise for 1 hour in the humid oven.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees (you can put in a pizza stone at this point, or an unglazed clay pot).
Glaze the bread with a mixture of 1 TBS starch in 1/3 cup of cold water.
Cut a decorative square on the top of the bread with a sharp knife (this lets it expand in the oven)
Add hot water to the oven in a dish at the bottom.

Bake 50 min or until the internal temperature of the bread is between 205 and 210 degrees.
Let the bread on a rack for 30 min before eating.

If you don't have a pizza stone or clay pot, you can bake the bread in a skillet that you've heated up on the stove.

Quick Cook: Trout Filet

I usually pass by the grocery on the way home every day to see if there's anything good/cheap (preferably both, right?) Today's trip yielded some ultra-fresh trout that was on sale. It was already 'dressed' so the freshness test consisted of poking it hard and watching to see if flesh would bounce back. It passed the test with flying colours and was only about $3.50. I took it home and filleted it (only easy to do with fresh fish), salt/pepper/floured it and shallow-fried it in olive oil. It was delicious. There was also some local corn to be had cheap, so I picked that up too and brushed it with a bit of olive oil. It was nice and sweet.

Leftover trout I put into some homemade bread the next day for a fish sandwich. That's not the smartest thing to do with fish that might have bones in it, but it was really good and I got all the bones when I filleted the trout.

Quick cook: Everything Roasted

This is just some cooked potato, cauliflower (from Pat, 2 kinds, the orange one is called "cheddar"), sliced carrots and rosemary sprigs (also from Pat!) tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper. The chicken was seasoned with salt, pepper, thyme and cayenne pepper. I just popped it on top of the veg and threw it in a hot (375 deg) oven until everything was roasted. Unfortunately, I ate all of it in one go.

Recipe: Strawberry Sauce

I made these brownies (recipe) for the guys on Thursday, but I put too much salt - I meant to use salted butter and leave out the salt. But then I forgot about it and put in the salt. They were still ok, but not as good as they should've been. I had some strawberries that weren't really that great in the fridge and made them into a simple, but very good sauce. Recipe (such as it is, 2 ingredients) follows.

For dinner, I did a small shrimp stir fry with leftover linguini noodles. It was seasoned primarily with ginger, garlic and a bit of plum sauce, soy, oyster and sesame. Surprisingly, it wasn't very sweet, which was nice - I don't really like sweet noodle dishes like pad thai. It was very, VERY spicy, though. I put in a few fingernail clipping sized pieces of pepper from Pat's garden and it was very, very hot!! Whew!

Strawberry sauce recipe follows

Strawberry Sauce

Strawberries
Sugar

Chop the strawberries coarsely.
Sprinkle liberally with sugar.
Let it sit for about 1/2 hour.

Blend with a hand blender. Add sugar to taste and keep blending.
That's it!

I made the leftovers into a milkshake by whisking it with cream and milk.

Eating "Light"

I'm feeling a bit under the weather. I had all the ingredients for soup: parsley, celery, carrots, tomatoes, chicken backs - even some leftover noodles. I've got enough soup to last a couple of days. Garlic bread goes well with soup, and I had some leftover bread and garlic butter. This bread didn't get too well toasted, though.

This bread was much better. This was a salad with tomatoes (from mom's garden), avocado and mozzarella cheese, dressed with parsley (gotta use it out!), olive oil and balsamic. I should've used lemon juice instead of balsamic, it would've been more attractive. But I was too lazy. This tasted really good piled on the garlic bread. And the garlic bread was nicely browned this time.

Stir Fry - 2 ways

For some reason, food always tastes better when not too much fuss is involved, and when just cooking for myself. Part of that might be that it's easier to maintain a proper heat when working with less ingredients in the pan. Anyway, I did a quick stirfry tonight for dinner (with leftover noodles) and lunch tomorrow (over leftover rice). It was very tasty. I really have cut down on my meat lately.

I got the table runner at Superstore. It was only $1.44, marked down from $15. It's actually on the shelf below the table, so you're seeing it through the glass.

Recipe: Quick Scallop Pasta

Jumbo scallops were on sale at Dominion. They were about 1/2 off and still very expensive! This sucker alone cost almost $2. They were really big, though, and I couldn't resist. I threw this together with some leftover pasta in the fridge and it was really good, so I thought I'd jot down the method. Cooking time: about 20 min, assuming the pasta is already cooked. Making sure the surface of the scallop is as dry as possible will ensure a nice sear on it.

Quick Scallop Pasta
(multiply for number of eaters)
Cooked fettucini
1 scallop
Salt
Pepper
1/4 onion/shallot/leeks, chopped
1 clove garlic, pressed
Milk/cream (I used skim milk)
Chicken stock
Butter

Dry the scallop thoroughly. Salt and pepper both sides.
Put the scallop in a very hot oiled, almost smoking (frying oil) skillet.
Do not move it around, just let it sear in place for 5 minutes, then flip.
Lower heat slightly

Remove the scallop from the pan when cooked as desired.
Scrub the pan with a stick of cold butter to release any stuck bits of scallop. (~1 TBS butter)
Fry the onions in the hot butter for about 5 minutes, until soft.
Add the garlic and fry for about 30 seconds, till it smells nice.
Toss in about 1 1/2 tsp flour (omit if using cream, this is a thickener) and stir for 1 min.
Slowly add in cream/milk/stock in whatever proportions you like, with the heat on high and stirring.
(If there's any scallop juices, toss that in too.)
Boil this mixture until it thickens enough to coat pasta.
Toss the pasta in the mixture.
Top with the scallop and serve.
Grated lemon zest and chopped parsley would be good on top (I didn't have any.)

NotSoGood: West Indian Dumplings

So my father is making dumpling soup, which means he's all stressed out in the kitchen.

West Indian dumplings are an experience for the uninitiated. They contain no leavening AT ALL. It's just flour, oil, and milk. The result, as Pat discovered with her Bajian boyfriend, is a dense chewy lump of dough that tastes uncooked. If they're small enough, they'll absorb some liquid and not be so bad. I usually try to shape them kind of like noodles for this reason. My father, however, likes to shape them into huge patties. So they're usually dry, dense and hard at the core. Yummy, huh?

Spaghetti Pie

Hm. Tried a leftover spaghetti pie - eggs, cheese, cooked spaghetti baked in cast iron with mushrooms, tuna and garlic. I didn't get quite the chewy crispy crust on it that I wanted, though - it was just nicely brown and held together when unmolded. Next time I'll use a higher heat (400F) and leave it on the lowest rack of the oven for the entire cooking period.

10 Minute Banana Anything Cake

Jen and Dan seemed to like this, my parents maybe not so much - there was a lot left when I got home. I kind of like it too, and it's not very much work. The idea of using the potato masher came from a cooking show. Basically, you just mash everything together. As long as the flour/rising ingredients are close, you should be fine

Recipe follows...

Banana Anything Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mash with a potato masher:
(2-) 3 bananas, very ripe

Mash in:
2 (-3) eggs
3/4 cups veg/canola/safflower oil (can be reduced to 1/2)
1 cup brown sugar (or demerara, or white)

Gently mash in a mixture of:
(you can just dump it on top of the mashed stuff, flour first, and mix the dry stuff on top before mixing it in)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Optionally mix in (1/2 cup to 1 cup total):
nutmeg (as much/little as you want)
cinnamon (few tsps)
raisins
walnuts
chocolate chips
orange/lemon zest

Line the bottom of a 9" round non-stick cake pan with parchment, pour in batter and bake for about 30 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes and then invert onto a plate.
Remove paper and invert again onto a rack to get the flat bottom of the cake downwards.
Cool for a bit, then serve.

Lemon Meringue Try

I don't have a great recipe for lemon meringue. It's always a bit of a hassle, because the filling has to be just right - just barely set enough to hold its shape. Too soft and it's a mess. To solid and it tastes pasty. The acidic lemon juice interferes with the gelling properties of the corn starch. As well, it's hard to gauge how thick the filling will be when fully cooled. Finally, getting the right balance of sweet and tart is also hard - high temperatures while cooking over-emphasize sweetness.

Getting a crisp crust under a liquid filling is almost impossible. Add a mostly uncooked meringue topping that's prone to weeping and collapse and you have a recipe that's really hard to get right. This picture was taken maybe a couple of hours after baking and it's already lost some of its loft. Perhaps an italian meringue beat with hot sugar syrup might solve that problem.

More research needed...

Recipe: Buttermilk Biscuits

These biscuits are really, really good. I didn't have chives or old cheddar for this batch, but I've made it since with both and it really is much better with the chives. The recipe comes from Fine Cooking magazine (Winter 2005) by Carolyn Weil and is only slightly modified.

Edit: I've added modifications to make them even better! Check here for the changes that are incorporated here and a picture of the higher, flakier results! The tri folding sounds hard, but is actually easier than kneading. The tri-fold mixing technique is something borrowed from puff pastry and makes the biscuits even higher and flakier.

Preheat oven to 415F

Whisk together:
9 oz (2 cups) flour (stir and spoon into measure, if not weighing)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt (reduced - more for swiss cheese)

Cut slices of very cold butter into the flour Then briskly press the slices even thinner in the butter with your fingertips:
1/4 lb (1/2 cup) cold butter cubed

Toss lightly in, in order:
1/3 cup grated sharp cheddar or swiss
1/2 cup finely chopped chives

Stir in:
2/3 cup buttermilk

The dough will be sticky and shaggy. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured parchment lined baking sheet.

Pat and shape the dough into a 2-3 cm thick rectangle (proportions a bit stubbier than a sheet of paper). Don't worry if there's a lot of unincorporated flour and wet spots.

Using the parchment to lift the dough, tri-fold the sheet into thirds like a letter that's going into an envelope (bottom edge to two thirds up, the top third over top of the 2 first layers).

Pat the dough back out into a rectangle (it'll be longer the other way now) and tri-fold again (left to 2/3 across, right third over the 2 first layers).

Pat the dough out one last time and tri fold one last time. This is creating exponential amounts of thin layers of butter - almost 250 layers! This doesn't take much time, but if your mixture starts getting oily or warm at any point on a really hot day, stick the whole tray into the fridge for 20 minutes, covered with plastic wrap.

Pat the packet of dough into a squarish kind of shape, about 2-3 cm thick.

Trim the edges of the square with a sharp knife and cut what's left into 9 squares. (Trimming all edges allows the biscuits to rise fully.) Take the trimmings and form into another biscuit, trimming the edges again. Take the new trimmings and just bake in a tiny ball.

Space the biscuits out on the parchment / baking sheet and put it into the preheated oven. Turn the heat immediately down to 390F.

and bake until firm and golden brown on top and golden brown on the bottom - 15-18 minutes.

Serve warm.

Chocolate Pain In The Butt Cake

This cake is very very moist and yummy. The ingredients are commonly stocked in my pantry and fridge. It can be made in just one mixing bowl. So why is this cake such a pain in the ass?

Well, quite simply, the measurements are crazy. I did everything by weight because you can either add 5 ounces of butter, or 10 tablespoons. How the heck are you going to measure solid butter with a tablespoon, much less 10 of them? It's the same with the flour and the cocoa: 1 1/2 cups + 2 TBS and 1/2 cup + 1/3 cup respectively.

Ordinarily, I'd abandon the recipe because of this, but it did taste good and I do have a kitchen scale... so...

Coffee-Cocoa Snack Cake
Nicole Rees, Fine Cooking Magazine

5 ounces very soft unsalted butter (more for pan)
1 1/2 c sugar
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
7.25 (!) ounces flour, more for pan
2.5 ounces unsweetened natural cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 c coffee, cooled to warm

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter a 9x9" baking pan. Line the bottom with parchment. Butter the whole thing and flour it.

Cream the butter and sugar together well.
Mix in the eggs, one at a time, until smooth.
Mix in the vanilla and salt.

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder onto the batter.
Pour in the coffee and gently whisk by hand until the mix is smooth and mostly free of lumps.
Pour the batter into the pan, spreading with spatula.

Bake for 40-43 minutes (mine was longer...) until a skewer in the center comes out with a few crumbs on it.
Cool for 20 minutes.
Knife the edges and invert/remove the cake onto a rack.
Invert again onto another rack.

Cool until just warm and serve or wrap in plastic.

Recipe: Caramel Popcorn

Ok, this tastes good, but not fantastically better than caramel corn that you can buy from a popcorn store (I can't remember the name of the franchise). If you don't have a heavy, well-seasoned cast iron pot to cook the popcorn in, you'll need to transfer it into a greased large bowl before pouring in the caramel. I didn't actually get too much of this, my sister and mother ate it pretty quickly.

Caramel Popcorn

Approx 8 cups of popped popcorn, still in warm cast iron pot they were cooked in.
(alternatively, transfer into oiled metal bowl, or a silicone bowl)

2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 tsp salt
1.25 tsp baking soda, premeasured in a bowl
2 tbs butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional, more to taste)

Grease (brush with oil) a tall pot that can hold about 5 cups right to the top.
Pour the water into the pot.
Pour the sugar and salt into the center of the pot in a mound (don't stir).
Add the butter.
Heat on medium high, without stirring.

This is the tricky part, be careful.
Watch the sugar bubbling.
Watch for it to turn just past a pale straw color OR when any part of it starts to darken past that to a brown or golden color.
Then, toss in all the baking soda (mixed with optional cayenne) and whisk with an oiled balloon whisk (again, brush with oil).
The mixture will darken and bubble, increasing in volume tremendously. This is why you need to use a large pot - it can more than quadruple in volume. Don't touch the mixture, it is VERY hot and sticky.

Pour the frothy mixture into the popcorn and toss gently to coat. (Still VERY hot!)
Do not scrape out the pan, if you oiled it properly, most should pour out easily. You risk crystalization of the entire batch of popcorn if you scrape the pan. (This has never happened to me so...)
I like to have a large oiled spoon at the bottom of the popcorn ready to stir up the bottom.
Pat the coated caramel popcorn into a single layer on parchment paper (or greased cookie sheets, if you don't have that).

The caramel recipe can be halved or tripled.

Recipe: Beef Tenderloin and Fried Rice

It's been a while since I"ve posted any of my current meals. I've been cooking, but I've just been too lazy to post. One of the quirks of my kitchen is that we're not really well-stocked with ingredients, but we tend to have some odd things on-hand - like homemade roast garlic and roasted red peppers, for instance. Beef filet is really worth cooking at home - sooo tender. Buying my parents some filet was the best thing I ever did - they're buying it themselves now and stocking the fridge with it. Like high quality sashimi grade tuna, it should be well seared on the outside and warm but very rare on the inside. Don't even bother if you're cooking past medium rare - this cut of meat has no fat and will toughen immediately. Wrapping with bacon will help a bit, but not enough... I prefer it without, as the flavor of this cut is pretty mild and shouldn't have to compete with bacon.

I love fried rice - this is a non-asian version, even though I cooked it up in the wok. The recipe below will be kind of generalized to take advantage of what you have on hand. It's pretty fattening, though. Restaurant fried rice has more fat than french fries. This has somewhat less, but it's still not low fat.

Seared Beef Tenderloin

Beef tenderloin steaks, about 1 to 1.5 inches in width
salt (kosher preferable), black pepper
high heat oil (canola, veg, but not peanut)
garlic (optional)
extra virgin olive oil (optional)

Leave the steaks out at room temperature for about a 1/2 hour.
Put a cast iron skillet to heat on medium heat while prepping the steaks.
Dry the steak surface with paper towels to encourage browning.
Cut a large clove of garlic in half and rub cut surface all over the steaks (optional)
Season well with salt and black pepper (if you're really picky - and I am - don't salt one side of the steak - that side will be place face up on the pan and we don't want to draw water out of the meat while the other side sears)

Put a tiny bit of canola oil in the pan.
It should be hot enough to start smoking (wait if it's not).
Place the steak(s), salted side down on the smoking pan.
Do not play with the steaks (don't lift them), that'll interfere with searing.
Cook for about 4 minutes, then salt the top and flip with tongs.
Drizzle the seared surface (now top) wtih good quality extra virgin olive oil. (sorta optional)
Cook for another 6 minutes, lowering the heat to medium low.
Let rest in a plate for 1 minute before serving.

Fried Rice
Day old long grain rice - 3 cups
Sliced Mushrooms
1 large diced onion
Garlic
Sliced roasted red pepper
1 package of spinach, washed and wilted in the microwave, then chopped coarsely
oil
salt, pepper, thyme

Fresh rice won't work in this recipe. The starch coating the rice has to harden a bit. You'll end up with burned rice sticking to the pan otherwise.

Heat about 1/4 cup of oil in a wok over high heat until very hot. (Olive oil for this, regular oil for chinese)
Toss in mushrooms (white for this, shitake for chinese)
Add sliced ginger for chinese fried rice and remove when it starts to brown (omit for this)
Cook the mushrooms until nicely golden and then add onions
(optional and for chinese: toss in sliced celery, finely chopped carrots, lightly steamed brocolli etc)
(for chinese/non vegetarian meat, you can add sliced raw meats, or roasted meats like bbq pork)
Cook until softened/browned and then add chopped garlic.
Cook for only 30 seconds (don't burn garlic!), then add rice, tossing briskly over high heat unil rice is hot.
Add red peppers and spinach and thyme.
(for chinese: add soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil)

Recipe: Pecan Pie Retry

Since dinner was already cooked when I got home, I tried the pecan pie recipe again. Since it turned out well this time, I've put the recipe below.

Pecan Pie (based on Christine Cushing)

Pastry
1 1/3 C flour
pinch of salt
1/4 C butter, chilled
1/3 C shortening, chilled
1/4 C cold water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Blend everything but the water together with a pastry cutter.
Toss with the water, form into a disk and refrigerate for 1/2 hour.
Roll out, line with parchment paper and weigh down with pie weights.
Bake for 20 minutes, remove weights and lining and bake for 15 minutes more.
Cool on rack.

Filling:
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 C corn syrup
1/3 C brown sugar
1/4 C melted butter, lightly browned
pinch salt

1 C pecan halves, lightly toasted

Whisk everything but the pecans together.
Lay the pecans out in the pie shell decoratively and pour the filling over it.
Bake in a 325 degree oven for 30-35 minutes.
Cool before serving.

Recipe: Osso Bucco

Made this today with a bread roll for dipping. It was really really good, but kind of a pain to make. Plus its main ingredients, veal shanks and white wine, aren't something I ofen have on hand. I used Yellow Tail chardonnay, an Australian dry white that's nice and cheap. My shanks were a bit on the thin side (they were discount meat), so after browning them, they took a while to soften up in the braising liquid. I did have a nice homemade chicken stock on hand - which is good, because it would've been overly salty with commercial broth. Omit all salt if you're using commercial broth.

I also didn't bother with the bouquet garni - I just threw in the herbs. Didn't bother twining the shanks either.

Unfortunately, I lost the link to the recipe...

1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 dry bay leaf
2 whole cloves
Cheesecloth
Kitchen twine, for bouquet garni and tying the veal shanks
3 whole veal shanks (about 1 pound per shank), trimmed
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
All purpose flour, for dredging
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 small onion, diced into 1/2-inch cubes
1 small carrot, diced into 1/2-inch cubes
1 stalk celery, diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup dry white wine
3 cups chicken stock
3 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf Italian parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon lemon zestPlace the rosemary, thyme, bay leaf and cloves into cheesecloth and secure with twine. This will be your bouquet garni.

For the veal shanks, pat dry with paper towels to remove any excess moisture. Veal shanks will brown better when they are dry. Secure the meat to the bone with the kitchen twine. Season each shank with salt and freshly ground pepper. Dredge the shanks in flour, shaking off excess.

In a large Dutch oven pot, heat vegetable oil until smoking. Add tied veal shanks to the hot pan and brown all sides, about 3 minutes per side. Remove browned shanks and reserve.

In the same pot, add the onion, carrot and celery. Season with salt at this point to help draw out the moisture from the vegetables. Saute until soft and translucent, about 8 minutes. Add the tomato paste and mix well. Return browned shanks to the pan and add the white wine and reduce liquid by half, about 5 minutes. Add the bouquet garni and 2 cups of the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover pan and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours or until the meat is falling off the bone. Check every 15 minutes, turning shanks and adding more chicken stock as necessary. The level of cooking liquid should always be about 3/4 the way up the shank.

Carefully remove the cooked shanks from the pot and place in decorative serving platter. Cut off the kitchen twine and discard.
Remove and discard bouquet garni from the pot.

Pour all the juices and sauce from the pot over the shanks. Garnish with chopped parsley and lemon zest.

Pizza

Well, I think I've got the yeast doughs down pat. This was a pizza dough that I made last night and left to slowly rise in the fridge overnight. I actually rolled it pretty thinly, but it has a thick edge on it. Sadly, I also made cinnamon buns and of course ate 4 of them. I feel slightly sick now. The parents are arriving back tomorrow afternoon so I'll cook something tomorrow (though there's leftover pizza) so that they can eat when they get home.

Shrimp Fried Rice

I've gotten into the bad habit of frying my rice. When I steamed this rice, I cooked it with onion and garlic, so I didn't bother to put any in the stirfry. Instead, there are mushrooms, frozen peas and corn. It was yummy but the curried chicken fried rice I had the day before was even better! I'm sure that my fried rice has less oil than restaurant fried rice, but it's still a substantial amount.

Cinnamon Buns Recipe

This pecan pie was kinda overbaked, so it wasn't nice and glossy.and runny. So I only ate that one piece and gave the rest to Lisa's friends who seemed to enjoy it. (Blech!) Even the pastry was kinda tough - I think I put too much water in it.

These, on the other hand, were delicious. I think I'll cut back juuuust a bit on the filling, they're just a bit too rich. But for a yeast bread, they were made pretty quickly. They probably have a TON of calories, though. Click on Read More for the recipe.

And this was my dinner today. The cheese sauce and gravy and rice were all leftovers. The huge chicken breast (topped with mozzarella) was $1.50 on sale ... yum! I just grilled it with salt and herbs. So yeah... waaay too much eating going on over here.

Cinnamon Buns

This recipe is sorta adapted from here I wanted to use quick-rise yeast so that I could get the whole thing done and baked in a couple hours.

Mix:
1 1/2 cups water at 130 degrees F
1/4 cups sugar
1 tbs melted butter
1 tsp salt

Stir in this mixture:
2 cups flour stirred with
1.5 tablespoons instant "quick" yeast

Add flour gradually and knead until you have a soft dough (10 min):
1 1/2 cups flour (approx)

Cover with a damp cloth and let rest for 10 minutes while you mix:
1 cup butter. soft
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 tbs cinnamon, or to taste

Roll the dough into a 16x10 rectangle, spread with the mixture and roll up along the long edge.
Cut the roll into 12 pieces and arrange in a 9x13 pan on top of parchment paper (butter the sides of the pan if it's not non-stick).
Cover with a damp cloth and let rise 1 hour in a warm damp place until almost doubled in size.

Bake for 35 minutes in a preheated 325 degree oven.

Fast Recipe: Steak and Italian Rice

This was soooo good and only took about 15 min total. I'm home alone today and feeling a bit under the weather, so I'm just sleeping and eating today (yay!) I medicate with food. This is actually just half the steak, but I ate the whole thing, it just wouldn't fit on the plate. It's cut up because I was reading while eating and didn't want to have to cut my meat. The rice isn't really italian. Recipes follow.

Grilled Steak

Rib eye steak, slightly less than 1 inch thick
salt and pepper

In a heavy (preferably cast iron) pan, spread and heat about 1 tsp of oil at very high heat.
Salt and pepper your