Wolf's Den

It's that time of year again...

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:54:11 GMT

Time for me to start that maniacal holiday baking that I swear to myself I won't go overboard on, every year, and yet, still manage to.

I was going to do 3 different cookies and one candy this year. That's it.

Then the SiL saw a bread in the latest Food Network magazine and it looked nearly the same as Povitica, which I KNOW I made her a mini loaf of last year, but apparently she doesn't remember it. So I said I'd make her one with just chocolate filling in it. Except the recipe makes THREE full sized loaves, which means, she gets one, we get one and I guess I can send one to my parents...

And thus it begins.

That spiral down into overboardness.

So what's on the list, you ask?

Well...

My mom's Capt Crunch Candy, of course, that's a yearly MUST.

Gingerbread cookies- another yearly MUST, for both my dad and the FiL.

Pizzelles- ANOTHER yearly MUST for my mom and the MiL. And only them. Sorry peeps. They take way too long, especially since they get made two at a time.

Hamantaschen cookies- I made 3 flavors last year for the first time. They went over very well, 4 flavors planned this year.

Sugar cookies.

And THAT was it, I swear.

But then I came across these two cookie recipes in weekly King Arthur Flour emails, and well, yeah... now I'm up to 5 cookies and one candy.

Linzer cookies- I actually have cookie cutters for these too! Thinking doing just a chocolate filling though. In my defense, I have wanted to make these for awhile now. So there.

Double-Shot Mocha Chunk cookies- they just SOUND delicious.

So...

5 different cookies with 5 different fillings between them, 1 candy and a bread that makes 3 loaves. Is it any wonder I get started early?

Did I mention that there's 30 people/families on my list that are getting boxes this year? Yeah. Luckily, half won't need mailing.}:P

Daring Cooks Oct Challenge- Pho Ga

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:27:00 GMT

Yeah, so I'm late. Between stressing over Max and accidentally leaving a few ingrediants off my grocery list, as well as running out of time, well, I didn't get it made by the Reveal date.

I did, however, make it yesterday. And man is it good. Besides, it gave me a chance to look over my bowls and realise that I needed to work on my bowl collection now, since I have well over 2 dozen various plates, after all. Heh. I added 6 bowls to my plating collection, with at least 4 more that I want to get. *headdesk*

The October 2009 Daring Cooks’ challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the blog Steamy Kitchen. The recipes are from her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.

Ok, so this is a quick, bare bones type of post. Sorry.

This is the basics. The spices, the broth (unless, of course, you choose to make homemade. Again, time constraints and dealing with a sick cat kinda made it so I didn't have that time.), I used bean thread noodles cause that's what I had on hand, the fish sauce that I forgot the first time around, same with the Hoisin sauce. I also did not use bean sprouts, as neither of us like them. I was going to use mushrooms, but... I forgot.}:/

Not pictured are the condiments I suppose they're called- the carrot shreds, the sliced onion, the snow pea pods, the sugar snap peas, the lime wedges, the chili pepper slices, the fresh cilantro and the spring onions. Oh, and the chicken.

First, you toast the spices- whole star anise, whole cloves and whole coriander. I know a few Daring Cooks added pieces of cinnamon and whole black peppercorns to theirs as well. Let me just say, as these toasted, they smelled wonderful. Made me want to put some in a pan of water to simmer on the stove for hours at a time.

Be careful as you toast your spices, as they can go from nicely toasted to burned in mere seconds. So stay with them and stir them often. Trust me.

This is the broth I used. In hindsight, I think I'll take a day and make up LOTS of homemade stock. While this was good broth, it simply did not clear out as much as I had hoped it would.}:/ Now, I'm not saying MY homemade would clear out any better, cause knowing my luck? It wouldn't. LOL.

So, put the broth in a large pan, and add your toasted spices.

Then I took a good sized chunk of fresh ginger, quartered it, and smashed it with my knife. Into the pan it went. I also peeled, and quartered a small red onion, for added flavor. It also went into the pan.

Since it was just the two of us, I used chicken tenderloin pieces. Basically, just boneless strips of white chicken. After bringing the broth/spices mix up to a slow boil, I added the chicken, a piece at a time and stirred carefully. Then brought it all up to a nice steady boil for a bit. Then, as I salivated over the sheer delicious SMELL, reduced the heat and let simmer for 20 minutes. Give or take.

After 20 or so minutes, I removed the chicken pieces, cooled them and broke them into pieces. Set it aside in the fridge. I may or may not have sampled several pieces. *looks askance*

I strained the broth through my fine mesh gold strainer. The same one I use when I make homemade liqueors. Yes, ALCOHOL. You know, Blackberry Cordial, Raspberry Cordial, Blueberry Cordial, that sort of thing. Somewhere in here is a post with lots of recipes. Go look for them. *nods sagely*

Then I set it in the fridge in the hopes it would clear out/separate more, by the time Mark got home from work. Well, it DIDN'T. Hmph.

A few minutes before Mark got home, I boiled some water, and poured it over the bean threads. This is what they look like when softened/cooked. I originally used them back when I made Summer Rolls (again, there's a recipe here somewhere) this past spring. They're good, although rather plain.}:P

The verdict? Very good. The broth, despite not being clear, was very flavorful. The Sriracha chili sauce (which we keep in the house) and the Hooisin sauce (which will now be kept on hand) definitely added extra layers of flavor to the dish as a whole.

Mark says though, next time, just make soup. LOL. This would be great for a lunch party, honestly, with a dining room table to set the condiments in the center so everyone can help themselves.

Overall, we did enjoy it. And I have enough broth left for a second time.}:P

Thanks, Jaden!

THE RECIPE(S)
Variations – Pho:

1. You like: chicken, beef, pork, seafood or vegetarian/vegan.

2. There is no variation allowed with regard to seasoning. You must use the spices listed in the recipe and they must be toasted. (Only leeway here is if you cannot use the spices for health/dietary reasons.) *Note: Use same spices as listed in the chicken Pho recipe for pork, seafood and vegetarian/vegan variations. The beef variation lists it’s unique spices in the recipe.

Equipment:

• Frying pan
• Large stockpot
• Tongs
• Strainer, sieve or colander
• Bowls for serving

Preparation Time: 45 cooking time + 15 minutes to cook noodles based on package directions

Servings: Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

For the Chicken Pho Broth:
2 tbsp. whole coriander seeds
4 whole cloves
2 whole star anise
2 quarts (2 liters/8 cups/64 fluid ounces) store-bought or homemade chicken stock
1 whole chicken breast (bone in or boneless)
½ onion
1 3-inch (7.5 cm) chunk of ginger, sliced and smashed with side of knife
1 to 2 tbsps. sugar
1 to 2 tbsps. fish sauce

1 lb. (500 grams/16 ounces) dried rice noodles (about ¼ inch/6 mm wide)

Accompaniments:

2 cups (200 grams/7 ounces) bean sprouts, washed and tails pinched off
Fresh cilantro (coriander) tops (leaves and tender stems)
½ cup (50 grams/approx. 2 ounces) shaved red onions
½ lime, cut into 4 wedges
Sriracha chili sauce
Hoisin sauce
Sliced fresh chili peppers of your choice

Directions:

1.To make the Chicken Pho Broth: heat a frying pan over medium heat. Add the coriander seeds, cloves and star anise and toast until fragrant, about 3-4 minutes. Immediately spoon out the spices to avoid burning.
2.In a large pot, add all the ingredients (including the toasted spices) and bring to a boil.
3.Reduce the heat to medium-low and let simmer for 20 minutes, skimming the surface frequently.
4.Use tongs to remove the chicken breasts and shred the meat with your fingers, discarding the bone if you have used bone-in breasts.
5.Taste the broth and add more fish sauce or sugar, if needed. Strain the broth and discard the solids.
6.Prepare the noodles as per directions on the package.
7.Ladle the broth into bowls. Then divide the shredded chicken breast and the soft noodles evenly into each bowl.
8.Have the accompaniments spread out on the table. Each person can customize their own bowl with these ingredients.

Challenge #2: Chocolate Wontons Note- I did NOT do this one, it was not required, and well, my creativity was severely lacking at the time.
Recipe Source: Jaden of Steamy Kitchen from her new book The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.

Variations – Chocolate Wontons:

1. Can be shaped any way you want, not just triangles as pictured. Can even be layered like napoleons.

2. Can be filled with your choice of filling, doesn’t have to be chocolate. But the fillings and final wonton must be SWEET - these are DESSERT wontons - to be eligible for a chance to win a book.

Equipment:

• Small bowl
• Pastry brush
• Plastic wrap and/or damp paper towels
• Wok or medium-sized pot
• Frying thermometer (if you don’t have a thermometer, you can test the oil temperature by dropping in a cube of bread … if it browns quickly, the oil is ready)

Preparation time: 15 minutes + 15 minutes cooking time (for 12 wontons)

Servings: Makes 12 wontons.

Ingredients:

1 large egg
1 tbsp. water
12 wonton wrappers, defrosted (keep wrappers covered with damp towel)
12 pieces or nuggets of chocolate (use any type of chocolate you like)
High-heat oil for frying (i.e., vegetable oil, corn oil)
Confectioners’ sugar (icing sugar) for sprinkling

Directions:

1.In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and water to make an egg wash.
2.On a clean, dry surface lay 1 wonton wrapper down with a point toward you, like a diamond.
3.Place 1 piece of chocolate near the top end of the wrapper.
4.Brush a very thin layer of the egg wash on the edges of the wrapper.
5.Fold the bottom corner of the wrapper up to create a triangle and gently press to remove all air from the middle. Press the edges to adhere the sides. Make sure the wrapper is sealed completely.
6.Repeat with the remaining wrappers and chocolate pieces.
7.Keep the folded chocolate wontons covered under plastic wrap or a damp paper towel to prevent them from drying.
8.In a wok or medium pot, pour in 2 inches (5 cm.) of high-heat oil.
9.Heat the oil to 350º F (180º C) and gently slide a few of the chocolate wontons into the hot oil. Make sure you don’t crowd the chocolate wontons.
10.Fry the wontons for 1 ½ minutes, then flip over and fry another minute until both sides are golden brown and crisp.

Daring Bakers Sept Challenge- Vols-Au-Vent

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:13:46 GMT

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

I've never even considered making my own puff pastry. I'm one of those people who buys the Pepperidge Farms puff pastry sheets and calls it good. In fact, I have a package of THAT in my freezer now, right next to the homemade.

Then of course, time got away from me, Max had a vet appointment where we found that his liver is STILL out of whack, so back onto 3 more weeks of antibiotics via force feeding he went. Yeah, that's fun.

I was, however, determined not to miss out on this Challenge, even if it meant my puff pastry didn't puff and I failed miserably.

As per usual, I gathered all the stuff I thought I'd need, and then some. I don't have cake flour- I never remember to buy any to have on hand, just in case. One of these days, I will. So I ended up making a sub- corn starch and regular flour.

While we were in Michigan back in August, my mom gave me one of her marble rolling pins. So if ever there was a perfect time to use one, this would be it. After all, the dough is supposed to be well chilled throughout, so marble is good at keeping cool.}:P Works for me.

Sifted together the proper ratios of corn starch to flour - don't ask, I don't remember and don't feel like looking it up again right now- and dumped it and the rest of the flour into the food processor.

That's a lot of sea salt... Added the salt and pulsed the flour mix a few times to combine. Ok, so maybe it was more than a few times.

The recipe calls for ice water and I just happen to keep water in my fridge. For drinking, generally. But hey, it works for this too, I guess. Added it to the flour stuffs and turned the processor on. Then I waited.

It took a bit, but once the dough formed a sort of ball around the blade, I turned off the processor and dumped it out onto my table. Formed it into a ball and scored the top in a criss cross pattern.

THEN I realized, well, crap, I need a damp towel, and went looking for one...

Well, I couldn't find a stupid towel, my house seems to have eaten all my dish towels. *grumble grumble* So I had to make do with well flouring the dough and wrapping it in plastic wrap. Then into the fridge it went.

Next up was making the butter layer. I used Land o' Lakes Unsalted butter. From what I understand, you shouldn't use generic butter. Use a name brand. Something about the fat ratio to water content. Audax would know for sure.}:P Oh and it has to be very cold butter too.

Laid the butter out on a layer of plastic wrap, then covered with another layer. Then I proceeded to beat the daylights out of it. Here's when the hubby came home. And good thing he did too, cause otherwise, there'd no more photos as my camera almost FELL ON THE FLOOR. Yikes. Yeah, the pounding made the camera edge towards the edge of the table and almost off. Whoops. That would have been bad. Real bad.

So the butter gets beat into a rough square. It says to make it about an inch thick. Well, that's hard to do when it starts out at an inch thick as is. Mine I think I got to about a half inch thick instead. Wrapped it back up and into the fridge it went.

I will admit, I did the rest of the steps the next day. *nods sagely*

So yesterday, I took the dough back out of the fridge. Floured it well again and rolled it somewhat flat. Then I rolled the sides out so it was way thick in the center. Only, mine didn't really form a square. Hrm.

Took the butter out of the fridge, played havoc with getting the plastic wrap off, and laid it in the center of the dough.

Then I took the 'sides' and carefully pulled them, stretching as evenly as possible, up over the butter. Rather like I was making a homemade envelope. Had to make sure the edges overlapped a bit. Then took my marble rolling pin and tamped everything down to make sure it'd all stay put. Which it sort of did, I guess.

Rolling the dough while making sure the butter spread evenly too was actually a bit trickier than it looks. however, if you look closely, you can see faint lines where the actual butter is. This amused me for some reason. But hey, I know the butter definitely spread well. I also learned that I tend to get flour Every. Where. And that rolling the length of the table instead of the width would be easier.

Folded the dough into thirds, like a business letter. And rolled out again. This was turn one. This was repeated 5 more times over the course of the next 3 hours. It actually did start lining up and evening out along the edges after the first 2 turns. Amazing. Then I cut about a third off and folded the rest up, wrapped it very well in plastic wrap and tinfoil, then stuck it in the freezer. There's only 2 of us, so no reason to make a whole lot.

I like cookie cutters. So any excuse to buy more, hey, I'll take it! I got these neat sets at A.C. Moore, which is a hobby/craft store like Micheal's or Hobby Lobby. The square ones? Are actually fondant cutters. Hee.

And these are the two I used.

Rolled out the dough I was going to use, and I'll admit- I did a seventh fold/turn on this bit of dough. I also think I rolled it out too thin. Hrm. Had enough to do 5 Vols-au-Vent, which worked for me.

'Docked' or 'pricked' the bottoms and the center pieces, then brushed them with an egg wash. Then I carefully laid the sides on, and used my finger to brush egg wash on them too, so I wouldn't get any down the sides. Stuck it in the fridge while Mark fired up the grill and I preheated the oven.

I grilled out some Black Cherry Mead, Olive Oil and dried Tarragon marinated chicken breasts and Olive Oil And Sicilian Sea Salt coated Asparagus for the side. While they grilled, I sauteed a mix of mushrooms in butter, sea salt, pepper and dried basil, then added heavy cream to make a nice sauce.

The center pieces were done first, so they were removed. I had achieved puff! I was happy. Yayness abounded! Of course, then I almost burned the Asparagus. Whoops.

The rest were pulled out a few minutes before the chicken was done. So not bad on my timing if I do say so myself. I had to push the centers down a few times, it wouldn't stay put. Hee.
Not bad on the puff factor either, if I do say so myself.

Sliced the grilled chicken, arranged it in a base, topped with mushroom sauce and plated with Asparagus on the side. It was delicious. And it all was gone relatively quick too.

I cut one of the small pieces in half, so as to show the layers and puff. Crispy deliciousness. Better than store bought, honestly.

Thanks, Steph , for a very interesting Challenge! And yes, I'm feeling it in my shoulders today.}:P

THE RECIPE-

Equipment:
-food processor (will make mixing dough easy, but I imagine this can be done by hand as well)
-rolling pin
-pastry brush
-metal bench scraper (optional, but recommended)
-plastic wrap
-baking sheet
-parchment paper
-silicone baking mat (optional, but recommended)
-set of round cutters (optional, but recommended)
-sharp chef’s knife
-fork
-oven
-cooling rack

Prep Times:
-about 4-5 hours to prepare the puff pastry dough (much of this time is inactive, while you wait for the dough to chill between turns…it can be stretched out over an even longer period of time if that better suits your schedule)
-about 1.5 hours to shape, chill and bake the vols-au-vent after your puff pastry dough is complete

Michel Richard’s Puff Pastry Dough
From: Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan
Yield: 2-1/2 pounds dough

Steph’s note: This recipe makes more than you will need for the quantity of vols-au-vent stated above. While I encourage you to make the full recipe of puff pastry, as extra dough freezes well, you can halve it successfully if you’d rather not have much leftover.

There is a wonderful on-line video from the PBS show “Baking with Julia” that accompanies the book. In it, Michel Richard and Julia Child demonstrate making puff pastry dough (although they go on to use it in other applications). They do seem to give slightly different ingredient measurements verbally than the ones in the book…I listed the recipe as it appears printed in the book. http://video.pbs.org/video/1174110297/search/Pastry (**** Definitely WATCH THE VIDEO***)

Ingredients:
2-1/2 cups (12.2 oz/ 354 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1-1/4 cups (5.0 oz/ 142 g) cake flour
1 tbsp. salt (you can cut this by half for a less salty dough or for sweet preparations)
1-1/4 cups (10 fl oz/ 300 ml) ice water
1 pound (16 oz/ 454 g) very cold unsalted butter
plus extra flour for dusting work surface

Mixing the Dough:

Check the capacity of your food processor before you start. If it cannot hold the full quantity of ingredients, make the dough into two batches and combine them.

Put the all-purpose flour, cake flour, and salt in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade and pulse a couple of times just to mix. Add the water all at once, pulsing until the dough forms a ball on the blade. The dough will be very moist and pliable and will hold together when squeezed between your fingers. (Actually, it will feel like Play-Doh.)

Remove the dough from the machine, form it into a ball, with a small sharp knife, slash the top in a tic-tac-toe pattern. Wrap the dough in a damp towel and refrigerate for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the butter between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and beat it with a rolling pin until it flattens into a square that's about 1" thick. Take care that the butter remains cool and firm: if it has softened or become oily, chill it before continuing.

Incorporating the Butter:

Unwrap the dough and place it on a work surface dusted with all-purpose flour (A cool piece of marble is the ideal surface for puff pastry) with your rolling pin (preferably a French rolling pin without handles), press on the dough to flatten it and then roll it into a 10" square. Keep the top and bottom of the dough well floured to prevent sticking and lift the dough and move it around frequently. Starting from the center of the square, roll out over each corner to create a thick center pad with "ears," or flaps.

Place the cold butter in the middle of the dough and fold the ears over the butter, stretching them as needed so that they overlap slightly and encase the butter completely. (If you have to stretch the dough, stretch it from all over; don't just pull the ends) you should now have a package that is 8" square.

To make great puff pastry, it is important to keep the dough cold at all times. There are specified times for chilling the dough, but if your room is warm, or you work slowly, or you find that for no particular reason the butter starts to ooze out of the pastry, cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate it . You can stop at any point in the process and continue at your convenience or when the dough is properly chilled.

Making the Turns:

Gently but firmly press the rolling pin against the top and bottom edges of the square (this will help keep it square). Then, keeping the work surface and the top of the dough well floured to prevent sticking, roll the dough into a rectangle that is three times as long as the square you started with, about 24" (don't worry about the width of the rectangle: if you get the 24", everything else will work itself out.) With this first roll, it is particularly important that the butter be rolled evenly along the length and width of the rectangle; check when you start rolling that the butter is moving along well, and roll a bit harder or more evenly, if necessary, to get a smooth, even dough-butter sandwich (use your arm-strength!).

With a pastry brush, brush off the excess flour from the top of the dough, and fold the rectangle up from the bottom and down from the top in thirds, like a business letter, brushing off the excess flour. You have completed one turn.

Rotate the dough so that the closed fold is to your left, like the spine of a book. Repeat the rolling and folding process, rolling the dough to a length of 24" and then folding it in thirds. This is the second turn.

Chilling the Dough:

If the dough is still cool and no butter is oozing out, you can give the dough another two turns now. If the condition of the dough is iffy, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes. Each time you refrigerate the dough, mark the number of turns you've completed by indenting the dough with your fingertips. It is best to refrigerate the dough for 30 to 60 minutes between each set of two turns.

The total number of turns needed is six. If you prefer, you can give the dough just four turns now, chill it overnight, and do the last two turns the next day. Puff pastry is extremely flexible in this regard. However, no matter how you arrange your schedule, you should plan to chill the dough for at least an hour before cutting or shaping it.

Steph’s extra tips:
-While this is not included in the original recipe we are using (and I did not do this in my own trials), many puff pastry recipes use a teaspoon or two of white vinegar or lemon juice, added to the ice water, in the détrempe dough. This adds acidity, which relaxes the gluten in the dough by breaking down the proteins, making rolling easier. You are welcome to try this if you wish.

-Keep things cool by using the refrigerator as your friend! If you see any butter starting to leak through the dough during the turning process, rub a little flour on the exposed dough and chill straight away. Although you should certainly chill the dough for 30 to 60 minutes between each set of two turns, if you feel the dough getting to soft or hard to work with at any point, pop in the fridge for a rest.

-Not to sound contradictory, but if you chill your paton longer than the recommended time between turns, the butter can firm up too much. If this seems to be the case, I advise letting it sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes to give it a chance to soften before proceeding to roll. You don't want the hard butter to separate into chunks or break through the dough...you want it to roll evenly, in a continuous layer.

-Roll the puff pastry gently but firmly, and don’t roll your pin over the edges, which will prevent them from rising properly. Don't roll your puff thinner than about about 1/8 to 1/4-inch (3-6 mm) thick, or you will not get the rise you are looking for.

-Try to keep “neat” edges and corners during the rolling and turning process, so the layers are properly aligned. Give the edges of the paton a scooch with your rolling pin or a bench scraper to keep straight edges and 90-degree corners.

-Brush off excess flour before turning dough and after rolling.

-Make clean cuts. Don’t drag your knife through the puff or twist your cutters too much, which can inhibit rise.

-When egg washing puff pastry, try not to let extra egg wash drip down the cut edges, which can also inhibit rise.

-Extra puff pastry dough freezes beautifully. It’s best to roll it into a sheet about 1/8 to 1/4-inch thick (similar to store-bought puff) and freeze firm on a lined baking sheet. Then you can easily wrap the sheet in plastic, then foil (and if you have a sealable plastic bag big enough, place the wrapped dough inside) and return to the freezer for up to a few months. Defrost in the refrigerator when ready to use.

-You can also freeze well-wrapped, unbaked cut and shaped puff pastry (i.e., unbaked vols-au-vent shells). Bake from frozen, without thawing first.

-Homemade puff pastry is precious stuff, so save any clean scraps. Stack or overlap them, rather than balling them up, to help keep the integrity of the layers. Then give them a singe “turn” and gently re-roll. Scrap puff can be used for applications where a super-high rise is not necessary (such as palmiers, cheese straws, napoleons, or even the bottom bases for your vols-au-vent).

Forming and Baking the Vols-au-Vent
Yield: 1/3 of the puff pastry recipe below will yield about 8-10 1.5” vols-au-vent or 4 4” vols-au-vent

In addition to the equipment listed above, you will need:
-well-chilled puff pastry dough (recipe below)
-egg wash (1 egg or yolk beaten with a small amount of water)
-your filling of choice

Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.

Using a knife or metal bench scraper, divided your chilled puff pastry dough into three equal pieces. Work with one piece of the dough, and leave the rest wrapped and chilled. (If you are looking to make more vols-au-vent than the yield stated above, you can roll and cut the remaining two pieces of dough as well…if not, then leave refrigerated for the time being or prepare it for longer-term freezer storage. See the “Tips” section below for more storage info.)

On a lightly floured surface, roll the piece of dough into a rectangle about 1/8 to 1/4-inch (3-6 mm) thick. Transfer it to the baking sheet and refrigerate for about 10 minutes before proceeding with the cutting.

(This assumes you will be using round cutters, but if you do not have them, it is possible to cut square vols-au-vents using a sharp chef’s knife.) For smaller, hors d'oeuvre sized vols-au-vent, use a 1.5” round cutter to cut out 8-10 circles. For larger sized vols-au-vent, fit for a main course or dessert, use a 4” cutter to cut out about 4 circles. Make clean, sharp cuts and try not to twist your cutters back and forth or drag your knife through the dough. Half of these rounds will be for the bases, and the other half will be for the sides. (Save any scrap by stacking—not wadding up—the pieces…they can be re-rolled and used if you need extra dough. If you do need to re-roll scrap to get enough disks, be sure to use any rounds cut from it for the bases, not the ring-shaped sides.)

Using a ¾-inch cutter for small vols-au-vent, or a 2- to 2.5-inch round cutter for large, cut centers from half of the rounds to make rings. These rings will become the sides of the vols-au-vent, while the solid disks will be the bottoms. You can either save the center cut-outs to bake off as little “caps” for you vols-au-vent, or put them in the scrap pile.

Dock the solid bottom rounds with a fork (prick them lightly, making sure not to go all the way through the pastry) and lightly brush them with egg wash. Place the rings directly on top of the bottom rounds and very lightly press them to adhere. Brush the top rings lightly with egg wash, trying not to drip any down the sides (which may inhibit rise). If you are using the little “caps,” dock and egg wash them as well.

Refrigerate the assembled vols-au-vent on the lined baking sheet while you pre-heat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC). (You could also cover and refrigerate them for a few hours at this point.)

Once the oven is heated, remove the sheet from the refrigerator and place a silicon baking mat (preferred because of its weight) or another sheet of parchment over top of the shells. This will help them rise evenly. Bake the shells until they have risen and begin to brown, about 10-15 minutes depending on their size. Reduce the oven temperature to 350ºF (180ºC), and remove the silicon mat or parchment sheet from the top of the vols-au-vent. If the centers have risen up inside the vols-au-vent, you can gently press them down. Continue baking (with no sheet on top) until the layers are golden, about 15-20 minutes more. (If you are baking the center “caps” they will likely be finished well ahead of the shells, so keep an eye on them and remove them from the oven when browned.)

Remove to a rack to cool. Cool to room temperature for cold fillings or to warm for hot fillings.

Fill and serve.

*For additional rise on the larger-sized vols-au-vents, you can stack one or two additional ring layers on top of each other (using egg wash to "glue"). This will give higher sides to larger vols-au-vents, but is not advisable for the smaller ones, whose bases may not be large enough to support the extra weight.

*Although they are at their best filled and eaten soon after baking, baked vols-au-vent shells can be stored airtight for a day.

*Shaped, unbaked vols-au-vent can be wrapped and frozen for up to a month (bake from frozen, egg-washing them first).

Daring Cooks September Challenge- Indian Dosas, Vegan Style

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:10:42 GMT

This month's Challenge was chosen by Debyi, of The Healthy Vegan Kitchen.

I've made Dosas before. But the ones I've made used regular wheat based flour.And they most certainly weren't vegetarian/vegan.}:P In fact, this was honestly the first time I've actively tried to cook a vegetarian/vegan meal.

I will freely admit that I did not make the filling in this recipe. However, I DID stay true to the vegetarian requirements. To appease the hubby, I also baked a few herbed chicken breasts and served them along side- otherwise, he'd never even of tried them.}:P

It's a quick post, not near as long as my usual ones, nor does it really have as much acerbic humor as usual. It's been a rough 1.5 months. Next Daring Bakers or Daring Cooks post will be back to normal. I promise.

So for my filling, I used red skin potatoes, homegrown heirloom tomatoes, red onions, a mix of mushrooms- including some of my hoarded Hen of the Woods wild mushrooms, dried Tarragon, sea salt, Curry, Garam Masala, pepper. And a splash of unsweetened almond milk.

Everything that needed to be, was chopped up into small pieces and dumped in a large pan. I also added a finely chopped clove of garlic. This was then set on the stove, stirred until everything was thoroughly mixed, then allowed to cook down.

While the filling cooked, and smelled divine by the way, I made a quick sauce. About a cup of the almond milk, Garam Masala and Ginger to taste, with a touch of Tumeric at the end for color, and Xantham Gum powder as a thickener. For something made 'on the fly', so to speak, it was actually quite good. We even dipped the baked chicken in it}:P

I added more chopped heirloom tomatoes and redskin potatoes to the filling mix about 3/4s of the way through cooking, to give it a bit more body as well as juice.

The Dosas themselves are really easy to make. It's spelt flour, water, almond (or soy or rice) milk, Curry, Sea salt, baking powder and really, that's it.

After putting all the dry ingredients in the bowl and thoroughly mixing them until combined, I added the water. Mixed that in well and added the almond milk. Stirred that in and made sure there were no lumps. Well, as few lumps as possible.

Lightly sprayed my frying pan with olive oil cooking spray and set it on a medium heat burner to heat up.

They say that when making crepes, the first one is either for the Chef or the dog. Well, it's pretty much the same with Dosas. This one? Was my third try.}:/

Mine came out thicker than they should be, but, well, I made them and that's what mattered. While I made up the rest, I kept sticking them in a barely warm oven, to keep them hot until they were to be served. I'd already baked the chicken by this time, so the oven had residue heat that was put to use. I also cooked up some Jasmine Rice as a side too.

The verdict? I enjoyed them. But then, I like eating a lot of veggies and salads. Mark? First words out of his mouth were 'Needs Meat.' BUT he liked them. He ate them willingly, although he thought the filling would be better with ground beef added to it.

The filling was really good served over the jasmine rice. Would I make this again? Of course! As a vegetarian/vegan dish? As a side, yes, as a main course, probably not.}:P

Thanks, Debyi for an interesting and challenging Challenge!

THE ORIGINAL RECIPES!

Indian Dosas

This recipe comes in 3 parts, the dosas, the filling and the sauce. It does take awhile to make, but the filling and sauce can be made ahead and frozen if need be. You can serve them as a main course with rice and veggies, or as an appetizer. This does take a little planning ahead, so make sure you read the recipe through before starting (I forgot & didn't start making the rice until everything was ready, oops).

Serves 4

Equipment needed:
large bowl
whisk
griddle or skillet
ladle (or large spoon)
spatula
vegetable peeler &/or knife
large saucepan
food processor or bean masher

Dosa Pancakes
1 cup (120gm/8oz) spelt flour (or all-purpose, gluten free flour)
½ tsp (2½ gm) salt
½ tsp (2½ gm) baking powder
½ tsp (2½ gm) curry powder
½ cup (125ml/4oz) almond milk (or soy, or rice, etc.)
¾ cup (175ml/6oz) water
cooking spray, if needed

Dosa Filling
1 batch Curried Garbanzo Filling (see below), heated

Dosa Toppings
1 batch Coconut Curry Sauce (see below), heated
¼ cup (125gm) grated coconut
¼ cucumber, sliced

Dosa Pancakes
1.Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, slowly adding the almond milk and water, whisking until smooth.
2.Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray your pan with a thin layer of cooking spray, if needed.
3.Ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the center of your pan in a circular motion until it is a thin, round pancake. When bubbles appear on the surface and it no longer looks wet, flip it over and cook for a few seconds. Remove from heat and repeat with remaining batter. Makes 8 pancakes.

Curried Garbanzo Filling
This filling works great as a rice bowl topping or as a wrap too, so don't be afraid to make a full batch.

5 cloves garlic
1 onion, peeled and finely diced
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 green pepper, finely diced (red, yellow or orange are fine too)
2 medium hot banana chilies, minced
2 TBSP (16gm) cumin, ground
1 TBSP (8gm) oregano
1 TBSP (8gm) sea salt (coarse)
1 TBSP (8gm) turmeric
4 cups (850gm/30oz) cooked or canned chick peas (about 2 cans)
½ cup (125gm/4oz) tomato paste

1.Heat a large saucepan over medium to low heat. Add the garlic, veggies, and spices, cooking until soft, stirring occasionally.
2.Mash the chickpeas by hand, or in a food processor. Add the chickpeas and tomato paste to the saucepan, stirring until heated through.

Coconut Curry Sauce
This makes a great sauce to just pour over rice as well. This does freeze well, but the texture will be a little different. The flavor is still the same though. My picture of this sauce is one that I had made, had to freeze, then thaw to use. It tastes great, but the texture is a little runnier, not quite as thick as it was before freezing.

1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic
½ (2½ gm) tsp cumin, ground
¾ (3¾ gm) tsp sea salt (coarse)
3 TBSP (30gm) curry powder
3 TBSP (30gm) spelt flour (or all-purpose GF flour)
3 cups (750ml/24oz) vegetable broth
2 cups (500ml/24oz) coconut milk
3 large tomatoes, diced

1.Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add the onion and garlic, cooking for 5 minutes, or until soft.
2.Add the spices, cooking for 1 minutes more. Add the flour and cook for 1 additional minute.
3.Gradually stir in the vegetable broth to prevent lumps. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the coconut milk and tomatoes, stirring occasionally.
4.Let it simmer for half an hour.
Happy eating!

Daring Bakers August Challenge- Dobos Torte

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 04:02:00 GMT

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite
Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

Oh boy.

When I first heard of the Daring Bakers, I came across this Torte. Well maybe not this particular recipe, but something similar. And I've wanted to make one ever since.

As with every Challenge, first I gathered everything I thought I might need. Wait.. what's that? There, on the right....

Why, it's parchment paper! Looky! I actually remembered to get some! And not only that, but I remembered to get plastic wrap too! Oh joy!

Any way...

First I had to separate 6 large eggs. I did really well until that last one. That one insisted on breaking as I dropped the yolk in the bowl. Hmph. Stupid yolk.

Then, because I couldn't find actual cake flour readily, I had to sift together regular flour and cornstarch. Except... I needed that bowl to beat the egg yolks in, cause it's my mixer bowl. D'oh!
So I had to dump that stuffs into another bowl. Yeah, I went through a lot of dishes on this Challenge.}:/

After wiping the bowl out, I added the egg yolks and powdered sugar. Then I started it beating.

While the yolks and sugar were beating, I sprayed 2 cookie sheets with cooking spray (Pam Olive Oil Cooking Spray to be exact.) and lined them with the parchment paper. The quick spray of oil was to help keep the parchment from sliding around when I was ready to put the batter on them. Doing a traditional round Dobos Torte? Pffft. Puh-lease. Not me, nope, nu-uh. Ok, ok, I didn't have the time or the funds to go buy 4 more round cake pans and didn't feel like bothering with just the two I had. Satisfied? Sheesh.

So, beat the egg yolks and sugar until they were a nice pale yellow and created ribbons when the beaters were lifted. Purty.

While the eggs yolks were beating and after I lined the cookie sheets, I got to work hand beating the egg whites and the rest of the powdered sugar. And beating. And beating. And beating. We see where this is going, right? Yeah. I think it's time to invest in a back up hand mixer.

After what seemed like an eternity of hand beating, finally I achieved soft peaks and was able to gently fold 1/4 of the whites into the yolks. Then the rest was folded in. Gently mind you. I had to keep reminding myself to fold, not stir.

Then I had to do the same thing with the sifted flour, half at a time. Fold, not stir. Heh. It took a bit of doing, but I got it all mixed in. And it was still fluffy! Yay!

Then I took one of the parchment paper lined cookie sheets, and spread about half of the sponge cake batter on it. I repeated this with the other cookie sheet as well. I tried really hard to get them as evenly distributed as I could. I was moderately successful.

Each layer baked for roughly 6 minutes. Then, after they mostly cooled, I placed a sheet of parchment on them , and put them on top of each other, then weighted them down with a third cookie sheet and several plates to flatten them a bit more. It sort of worked.

Once they were cooled completely, I then removed the sheets of sponge cake from the cookie sheets. I carefully measured them out and cut them more or less equally into 6 sections, 5" wide by 8" long, with 2" pieces left for whatever decorations I planned. And I had plans for them pieces too. I placed each piece in a ziploc container with a piece of parchment between each, then stuck it in the fridge.

Next up was making the chocolate buttercream frosting.

Now, buttercream and I... we don't have a good track record. Failcakes, anyone? Yeah. So I didn't have high hopes for this particular buttercream either.

Beat the eggs and powdered sugar together and I cheated a bit.. and used Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa instead of grating chocolate to use in this. Dumped in roughly 1/4 cup at the start.

Then I, still dubious, put it over a pan of simmering water to thicken and slightly cook the eggs. I also added another 1/4 cup of cocoa at this point, as well as 1/2 teaspoon of Cardamom. Being skeptical, it didn't appear to be thickening to me. But I let it cook for the 2-3 minutes the recipe said and removed the bowl.

Set it on the table and walked away. It had to cool to room temp. That took awhile. Every so often I'd give it a good whip and a stir. It didn't look thick to me. I actually went to the store and BOUGHT, using mostly change no less, chocolate frosting, cause I just knew this was going to fail. I knew it.

Once the chocolate mixture was cooled, I poured it into the mixing bowl and turned the mixer on medium-high speed. Then I slowly added the unsalted butter, a piece at a time. I kept giving the hubby odd looks, which he totally missed, cause...

Umm... it worked. I actually made chocolate buttercream. O.O My mind, it is still boggled. So, I scooped it all into a bowl and quickly stuck it in the fridge until the next day.

The next day, I had to make the caramel layer. Well, those 2" wide pieces I had left? I cut 1" stars out of them and laid them on a piece of wax paper. Then, instead of lemon juice, I used vanilla extract in my caramel. And I added Cardamom. I like Cardamom, what can I say.

Pulled the sponge cake layers and the buttercream out of the fridge. Look! It's still buttercream frosting! Whee! The buttercream in particular needed to come back up to room temp so I could spread it easily.

Made the FIRST batch of caramel. Note I said FIRST. Poured it over the stars. Then tried to spread it around a bit to coat the stars more evenly and well, that didn't work very well. So I stuck the pan in the freezer and set about putting the Torte together.

I took a small metal pan, flipped it over, put a sheet of parchment on it, tucked the ends under. That was my base for building my Torte. I put a small dab of buttercream on the parchment to hold the first layer in place so it wouldn't slide around as I spread a thin layer of buttercream on it. That worked beautifully.

Rinse and repeat for all 6 layers, building the Torte as evenly as possible and creating a crumb coat on the outside to hide where one layer wasn't quite as wide as the one below, etc. Not that that was a huge issue, but one layer was a bit narrower. There weren't many crumbs either, luckily. Unfortunately, there was apparently some unmixed bits butter in my buttercream, but you know what?? I. Don't. Care. I made buttercream. That's all I cared about.}:P

Finally, all layers were on and I did a final coating of buttercream to even it all out and make it as smooth as possible.

For some strange reason, one corner dipped. Hrm. No idea why. Oh well. The Torte then was stuck in the fridge to set up firm and I checked on the stars in the freezer.

Umm... yeah. I couldn't get them off the stupid wax paper. So, they were tossed. I was now frustrated. I had to figure some sort of caramel layer decoration and all I had left was scraps. Well, I took the outline sections of the stars, trimmed them into rough squares and made a second batch of caramel. This time, I used lime juice and Cardamom. I also sprayed a cookie sheet AND a wire rack with oil and laid the squares on it, hoping THAT would work.

#$%%^&#@$@#* squares didn't get fully covered, so I made a THIRD batch of caramel. Then I flipped the wire rack over, cause, you KNOW the stupid squares were stuck to it, despite being sprayed with oil first.

At that point, I gave up. I waited until the caramel hardened and broke it up into pieces. THAT was what I ended up using.

I managed to get the Torte off the parchment paper and onto the plate. Then I decorated it with shards of caramel and a few pecan halves- I hate hazelnuts. The bottom edge was lined with pecans.

Other than the caramel layer/decoration, it was worth it. It was very good. Mark gave it 2 thumbs up approval. HOWEVER, I don't think I'll be making another anytime soon.}:P

Thanks Angela and Lorraine, for a definitely challenging Challenge!

THE CHALLENGE RECIPES-

So, what is the Dobos Torta (or Torte)?

The Dobos Torta is a five-layer sponge cake, filled with a rich chocolate buttercream and topped with thin wedges of caramel. (You may come across recipes which have anywhere between six and 12 layers of cake; there are numerous family variations!) It was invented in 1885 by József C. Dobos, a Hungarian baker, and it rapidly became famous throughout Europe for both its extraordinary taste and its keeping properties. The recipe was a secret until Dobos retired in 1906 and gave the recipe to the Budapest Confectioners' and Gingerbread Makers' Chamber of Industry, providing that every member of the chamber can use it freely.

Lorraine and I would like you to make this famous cake which we chose in the spirit of being Daring and Challenging us. Variations are discussed at the end of this post and as always, if you have to make substitutions for dietary or financial reasons, that is fine.

Equipment

•2 baking sheets
•9” (23cm) springform tin and 8” cake tin, for templates
•mixing bowls (1 medium, 1 large)
•a sieve
•a double boiler (a large saucepan plus a large heat-proof mixing bowl which fits snugly over the top of the pan)
•a small saucepan
•a whisk (you could use a balloon whisk for the entire cake, but an electric hand whisk or stand mixer will make life much easier)
•metal offset spatula
•sharp knife
•a 7 1/2” cardboard cake round, or just build cake on the base of a sprinfrom tin.
•piping bag and tip, optional
Prep times

•Sponge layers: 20 mins prep, 40 mins cooking total if baking each layer individually.
•Buttercream: 20 mins cooking. Cooling time for buttercream: about 1 hour plus 10 minutes after this to beat and divide.
•Caramel layer: 10-15 minutes.
•Assembly of whole cake: 20 minutes

Sponge cake layers

•6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
•1 1/3 cups (162g) confectioner's (icing) sugar, divided
•1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract
•1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (112g) sifted cake flour (SUBSTITUTE 95g plain flour + 17g cornflour (cornstarch) sifted together)
•pinch of salt

Chocolate Buttercream

•4 large eggs, at room temperature
•1 cup (200g) caster (ultrafine or superfine white) sugar
•4oz (110g) bakers chocolate or your favourite dark chocolate, finely chopped
•2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons (250g) unsalted butter, at room temperature.

Caramel topping

•1 cup (200g) caster (superfine or ultrafine white) sugar
•12 tablespoons (180 ml) water
•8 teaspoons (40 ml) lemon juice
•1 tablespoon neutral oil (e.g. grapeseed, rice bran, sunflower)

Finishing touches

•a 7” cardboard round
•12 whole hazelnuts, peeled and toasted
•½ cup (50g) peeled and finely chopped hazelnuts
Directions for the sponge layers:

NB. The sponge layers can be prepared in advance and stored interleaved with parchment and well-wrapped in the fridge overnight.

1.Position the racks in the top and centre thirds of the oven and heat to 400F (200C).

2.Cut six pieces of parchment paper to fit the baking sheets. Using the bottom of a 9" (23cm) springform tin as a template and a dark pencil or a pen, trace a circle on each of the papers, and turn them over (the circle should be visible from the other side, so that the graphite or ink doesn't touch the cake batter.)

3.Beat the egg yolks, 2/3 cup (81g) of the confectioner's (icing) sugar, and the vanilla in a medium bowl with a mixer on high speed until the mixture is thick, pale yellow and forms a thick ribbon when the beaters are lifted a few inches above the batter, about 3 minutes. (You can do this step with a balloon whisk if you don't have a mixer.)

4.In another bowl, using clean beaters, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 2/3 cup (81g) of confectioner's (icing)sugar until the whites form stiff, shiny peaks. Using a large rubber spatula, stir about 1/4 of the beaten whites into the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the remainder, leaving a few wisps of white visible. Combine the flour and salt. Sift half the flour over the eggs, and fold in; repeat with the remaining flour.

5.Line one of the baking sheets with a circle-marked paper. Using a small offset spatula, spread about 3/4cup of the batter in an even layer, filling in the traced circle on one baking sheet.

Bake on the top rack for 5 minutes, until the cake springs back when pressed gently in the centre and the edges are lightly browned. While this cake bakes, repeat the process on the other baking sheet, placing it on the centre rack. When the first cake is done, move the second cake to the top rack. Invert the first cake onto a flat surface and carefully peel off the paper. Slide the cake layer back onto the paper and let stand until cool. Rinse the baking sheet under cold running water to cool, and dry it before lining with another parchment. Continue with the remaining papers and batter to make a total of six layers. Completely cool the layers. Using an 8" springform pan bottom or plate as a template, trim each cake layer into a neat round. (A small serrated knife is best for this task.)

Directions for the chocolate buttercream:

NB. This can be prepared in advance and kept chilled until required.

1.Prepare a double-boiler: quarter-fill a large saucepan with water and bring it to a boil.

2.Meanwhile, whisk the eggs with the sugar until pale and thickened, about five minutes. You can use a balloon whisk or electric hand mixer for this.

3.Fit bowl over the boiling water in the saucepan (water should not touch bowl) and lower the heat to a brisk simmer. Cook the egg mixture, whisking constantly, for 2-3 minutes until you see it starting to thicken a bit. Whisk in the finely chopped chocolate and cook, stirring, for a further 2-3 minutes.

4.Scrape the chocolate mixture into a medium bowl and leave to cool to room temperature. It should be quite thick and sticky in consistency.

5.When cool, beat in the soft butter, a small piece (about 2 tablespoons/30g) at a time. An electric hand mixer is great here, but it is possible to beat the butter in with a spatula if it is soft enough. You should end up with a thick, velvety chocolate buttercream. Chill while you make the caramel topping.

Lorraine's note: If you're in Winter just now your butter might not soften enough at room temperature, which leads to lumps forming in the buttercream. Male sure the butter is of a very soft texture I.e. running a knife through it will provide little resistance, before you try to beat it into the chocolate mixture. Also, if you beat the butter in while the chocolate mixture is hot you'll end up with more of a ganache than a buttercream!

Directions for the caramel topping:

1.Choose the best-looking cake layer for the caramel top. To make the caramel topping: Line a jellyroll pan with parchment paper and butter the paper. Place the reserved cake layer on the paper. Score the cake into 12 equal wedges. Lightly oil a thin, sharp knife and an offset metal spatula.

2.Stir the sugar, water and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over a medium heat, stirring often to dissolve the sugar. Once dissolved into a smooth syrup, turn the heat up to high and boil without stirring, swirling the pan by the handle occasionally and washing down any sugar crystals on the sides of the pan with a wet brush until the syrup has turned into an amber-coloured caramel.

3.The top layer is perhaps the hardest part of the whole cake so make sure you have a oiled, hot offset spatula ready. I also find it helps if the cake layer hasn't just been taken out of the refrigerator. I made mine ahead of time and the cake layer was cold and the toffee set very, very quickly—too quickly for me to spread it. Immediately pour all of the hot caramel over the cake layer. You will have some leftover most probably but more is better than less and you can always make nice toffee pattern using the extra to decorate. Using the offset spatula, quickly spread the caramel evenly to the edge of the cake layer. Let cool until beginning to set, about 30 seconds. Using the tip of the hot oiled knife (keep re-oiling this with a pastry brush between cutting), cut through the scored marks to divide the caramel layer into 12 equal wedges. Cool another minute or so, then use the edge of the knife to completely cut and separate the wedges using one firm slice movement (rather than rocking back and forth which may produce toffee strands). Cool completely.

Angela's note: I recommend cutting, rather than scoring, the cake layer into wedges before covering in caramel (reform them into a round). If you have an 8” silicon round form, then I highly recommend placing the wedges in that for easy removal later and it also ensures that the caramel stays on the cake layer. Once set, use a very sharp knife to separate the wedges.

Assembling the Dobos

1.Divide the buttercream into six equal parts.

2.Place a dab of chocolate buttercream on the middle of a 7 1/2” cardboard round and top with one cake layer. Spread the layer with one part of the chocolate icing. Repeat with 4 more cake layers. Spread the remaining icing on the sides of the cake.

3.Optional: press the finely chopped hazelnuts onto the sides of the cake.

4.Propping a hazelnut under each wedge so that it sits at an angle, arrange the wedges on top of the cake in a spoke pattern. If you have any leftover buttercream, you can pipe rosettes under each hazelnut or a large rosette in the centre of the cake. Refrigerate the cake under a cake dome until the icing is set, about 2 hours. Let slices come to room temperature for the best possible flavour.

Storage

I (Angela) am quite happy to store this cake at room temperature under a glass dome, but your mileage may vary. If you do decide to chill it, then I would advise also using a glass dome if you have done. I should also note that the cake will cut more cleanly when chilled.

Variations

Shape: The traditional shape of a Dobos Torta is a circular cake, but you can vary the shape and size if you want. Sherry Yard in Desserts By The Yard makes a skyscraper Dobos by cutting a full-size cake into four wedges and stacking them to create a tall, sail-shaped cake. Mini Dobos would be very cute, and you could perch a little disc of caramel on top.

Flavour: While we both love the dark chocolate buttercream and this is traditional, we think it would be fun to see what fun buttercreams you all come up with! So, go wild! Or, you could brush each layer with a flavoured syrup if you just want a hint of a second flavour. Cointreau syrup would be divine!

Nuts: These are optional for decoration, so no worries if you're allergic to them. If you don't like hazelnuts, then substitute for another variety that you like.

Egg concerns

The cooking process for the buttercream will produce lightly cooked eggs. If you fall into a vulnerable health group then you may wish to use an egg-less buttercream.

Resources
http://cafechocolada.blogspot.com/2008/04/dobos-torte.html
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=4VHMjIfxfYcC&pg=PA240&lpg=PA240&dq=%22dobos+torte%22&source=bl&ots=tcE2j8dTLl&sig=QoPANOL_MJnfi_vmHm5rW2ncC60&hl=en&ei=jidySrbpKeG2jAec58mODA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7
http://paulaerbay2.wordpress.com/2007/07/24/dobos-torte-recipe/

Pictures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zaykivi/1461855790/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/moemegan/91029833/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kisima/331016996/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_cupcake_store/2500169495/

Daring Cooks August Challenge- Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish & artichokes- with substitutes.

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:41:07 GMT

Better late than never, yes? Due to vacation, then issues with Max kitty- who's STILL refusing to eat on his own, I didn't get to make this before the reveal date, let alone the week of the reveal. BUT, I did make it, I made it last night and I do not regret it.

The Challenge for August was hosted by Olga of Las Cosas de Olga and Olga’s Recipes She chose a delicious Spanish recipe, Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes by José Andrés, one of the most important Spanish Chefs at the moment. Well, so she says.}:P

I hate artichokes.

From what I understand, Cuttlefish is like squid, in taste, and guess what? I detest squid.

So. Yeah.

I had to make acceptable substitutes. In my dish, I used shrimp, sea scallops and asparagus instead. I also used Turmeric, as Saffron is gods awful expensive and after all those vet bills? Yeah, can't afford it. Also used was Arborio rice, as that was the closest I could find to the suggested rices.

First, I gathered all my ingredients. The InLaws were coming over for dinner, and I was planning to make this dish for us all. So it wouldn't do to find, just as everyone was arriving, that I was missing a key ingredient.

With the help of Mark, we peeled and de-tailed a bag of shrimp, and I rinsed, then halved a bag of sea scallops. Then set them in the fridge until I needed them.

See these tomatoes? These are homegrown Heirloom Tomatoes. I grew them. *puffs chest* What better recipe to use them in, eh? Eh? Eh? Fine, be that way. They were yummy raw, according to everyone else. Me, I don't eat raw tomatoes. Yuck. Blech. But in the Sofregit? Delicious.

Anyway...

First up was making the Allioli. That entailed peeling 4 cloves of garlic, a bit of sea salt, what turns out was supposed to be LOTS more olive oil than I used, and a few drops of fresh lemon juice. Oh, and I also learned that it works better when doing the traditional method of making Alliolli, if you have a stone or stoneware mortar and pestle instead of wood like I have and used. *nods sagely*

After I peeled the garlic cloves, I chopped them in half. I figured it'd make the mashing of them go a bit quicker. Apparently the sea salt is supposed to keep the garlic from sliding around while you pound it. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.. ahem. Sorry. I started pounding at the garlic and umm... had to catch a few. Heh. So, the garlic gets mashed into a paste of sorts. Takes a bit of doing, but I got it there. Again, a stone mortar/pestle would probably been better to use. Hrm.

Once the garlic was crushed, I took a fresh lemon, stabbed am 'X' into it, and squeezed out a few drops into the garlic. Then, I mashed it around a bit more to blend it all together well.

Now came the fun part.

Because the mortar was rather light, I had to have Mark hold it while I added the olive oil, drop by lonely drop. It took awhile to even get it to this point. It turns out, the amount of olive oil to have been used was roughly 1 cup. Mine? So does not have 1 cup in it. It barely had 1/4 cup. Hence, it does not look remotely like this. Or here. Or anything like this one. Yeah.

Anyway, I set it aside and carried on blissfully.

Next up was the Sofregit. This used those yummy homegrown tomatoes. Yup, yup. And cute little petite button mushrooms.

It also called for a Bay leaf. I happen to have my very own Bay plant growing right outside the front door. Nothing better than fresh herbs that you've grown yourself, you know?

First I chopped everything up. Well, most everything.

Then I tossed it all in a pan, with the mushrooms, olive oil, some Cumin and dried Oregano. And I added a touch of salt and pepper. Added the Bay leaf and mixed it up really well.

While I waited for the Sofregit to come to a slow boil, I chopped the asparagus into 1" pieces and set it aside with the other Bay leaf.

Let me just say- this smelled AMAZING. Even Mark said he could smell it from the living room and it made him hungry. Well, hungrier than he already was. Lowered the heat to a slow simmer and let it cook away.

In another pan, I tossed the scallops, asparagus and shrimp, with the 2nd Bay leaf. In hind sight, I should have held the shrimp back until the last few minutes of overall cooking. It wasn't TOO chewy, but it was starting to get there and would have been if I'd cooked them any longer.

Once everything started to get a bit of color, I added the white wine. I used Sutter Home Moscato white wine. It comes in those small single serving 4pks that are perfect for cooking with when you don't drink wine. Yes, I don't drink wine. Don't drink beer either. Rum and vodka on the other hand...

Anyway, moving right along. I also added about 4 tablespoons of the Sofregit, and stirred everything well.

After the temp came back up to a slow boil, I added 2 cups of Arborio rice. Yes, it's not a Spanish rice, but it was the closest I could find and worked very well. This is yummy rice.
I also used Turmeric instead of Saffron. Made everything a wonderful, bright yellow color.

I then added a couple cups of water (1 per 1/2 cup of rice) and let come back up to a boil. Then it boiled for roughly 5 minutes. I stirred it twice, maybe 3 times, to keep everything well mixed and not stuck to the bottom. Sorry, I don't like crunchy rice.}:P After it boiled for roughly 5 minutes, it was then removed from the heat and let stand for approximately 10 minutes while we set up for the plating and serving.

This was so worth it. Now, by itself, the Allioli can be a bit much. But when eaten with everything else, the flavors just sing. Nice, rich colors, lovely flavors that come through on everything. And the fresh, homegrown tomatoes made the Sofregit all that much better.

We decided that this is another of those special occasion dishes that'll get made often.*nods sagely*

Even though I made the Challenge late, I'm glad I did take the time to make it nonetheless.

THE CHALLENGE RECIPES-

Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Equipment:

•1 Chopping Board
•1 knife
•1 medium saucepan
•1 Paella pan (30 cm/11” is enough for 4 people. If not available, you may use a simple pan that size)
•1 Saucepan
Ingredients (serves 4):

•4 Artichokes (you can use jarred or frozen if fresh are not available)
•12 Mushrooms (button or Portobello)
•1 or 2 Bay leaves (optional but highly recommended)
•1 glass of white wine
•2 Cuttlefish (you can use frozen cuttlefish or squid if you don’t find it fresh)
•“Sofregit” (see recipe below)
•300 gr (2 cups) Short grain rice (Spanish types Calasparra or Montsant are preferred, but you can choose any other short grain. This kind of rice absorbs flavor very well) – about 75 gr per person ( ½ cup per person) Please read this for more info on suitable rices.
•Water or Fish Stock (use 1 ½ cup of liquid per ½ cup of rice)
•Saffron threads (if you can’t find it or afford to buy it, you can substitute it for turmeric or yellow coloring powder)
•Allioli (olive oil and garlic sauce, similar to mayonnaise sauce) - optional

Directions:

1.Cut the cuttlefish in little strips.
2.Add 1 or 2 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and put the cuttlefish in the pan.
3.If you use fresh artichokes, clean them as shown in the video in tip #7. Cut artichokes in eights.
4.Clean the mushrooms and cut them in fourths.
5.Add a bay leaf to the cuttlefish and add also the artichokes and the mushrooms.
6.Sauté until we get a golden color in the artichokes.
7.Put a touch of white wine so all the solids in the bottom of the get mixed, getting a more flavorful dish.
8.Add a couple or three tablespoons of sofregit and mix to make sure everything gets impregnated with the sofregit.
9.Add all the liquid and bring it to boil.
10.Add all the rice. Let boil for about 5 minutes in heavy heat.
11.Add some saffron thread to enrich the dish with its flavor and color. Stir a little bit so the rice and the other ingredients get the entire flavor. If you’re using turmeric or yellow coloring, use only 1/4 teaspoon.
12.Turn to low heat and boil for another 8 minutes (or until rice is a little softer than “al dente”)
13.Put the pan away from heat and let the rice stand a couple of minutes.

Sofregit (a well cooked and fragrant sauce made of olive oil, tomatoes, garlic and onions, and may at times
different vegetables such as peppers or mushrooms)-

Cooking time: aprox. 1 hour
Ingredients:

•2 tablespoons of olive oil
•5 big red ripe tomatoes, chopped
•2 small onions, chopped
•1 green pepper, chopped (optional)
•4 or 5 garlic cloves, chopped
•1 cup of button or Portobello mushrooms, chopped (optional)
•1 Bay leaf
•Salt
•Touch of ground cumin
•Touch of dried oregano
Directions:

1.Put all the ingredients together in a frying pan and sauté slowly until all vegetables are soft.
2.Taste and salt if necessary (maybe it’s not!)
Allioli is the optional part of the recipe. You must choose one of the two recipes given, even though I highly recommend you to try traditional one. Allioli is served together with the rice and it gives a very nice taste

Allioli (Traditional recipe)
Cooking time: 20 min aprox.
Ingredients:

•4 garlic cloves, peeled
•Pinch of salt
•Fresh lemon juice (some drops)
•Extra-virgin olive oil (Spanish preferred but not essential)
Directions:

1.Place the garlic in a mortar along with the salt.
2.Using a pestle, smash the garlic cloves to a smooth paste. (The salt stops the garlic from slipping at the bottom of the mortar as you pound it down.)
3.Add the lemon juice to the garlic.
4.Drop by drop; pour the olive oil into the mortar slowly as you continue to crush the paste with your pestle.
5.Keep turning your pestle in a slow, continuous circular motion in the mortar. The drip needs to be slow and steady. Make sure the paste soaks up the olive oil as you go.
6.Keep adding the oil, drop by drop, until you have the consistency of a very thick mayonnaise. If your allioli gets too dense, add water to thin it out. This takes time—around 20 minutes of slow motion around the mortar—to create a dense, rich sauce.
José's tips for traditional recipe: It's hard to think that, when you start crushing the garlic, it will ever turn into something as dense and smooth as allioli. But don't give up. It's worth the extra time and effort to see the oil and garlic come together before your eyes. Just make sure you're adding the olive oil slowly, drop by drop. Keep moving the pestle around the mortar in a circular motion and keep dreaming of the thick, creamy sauce at the end of it all.

Allioli a la moderna (Modern recipe)
Cooking time: 3-4 minutes
Ingredients:

•1 small egg
•1 cup extra-virgin olive oil (as above, Spanish oil is highly recommended)
•1 garlic clove, peeled
•1 Tbs. Spanish Sherry vinegar or lemon juice (if Sherry vinegar is not available, use can use cider or white vinegar)
•Salt to taste
Directions:

1.Break the egg into a mixing bowl.
2.Add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and the garlic cloves, along with the vinegar or lemon juice.
3.Using a hand blender, start mixing at high speed until the garlic is fully pureed into a loose paste.
4.Little by little, add what's left of the olive oil as you continue blending.
5.If the mixture appears too thick as you begin pouring the oil, add 1 teaspoon of water to loosen the sauce.
6.Continue adding the oil and blending until you have a rich, creamy allioli.
7.The sauce will be a lovely yellow color.
8.Add salt to taste.
José's tips for modern recipe:
(1) If you do not have access to a hand blender, you can use a hand mixer (the kind with the two beaters) or a food processor. If you use a food processor, you must double the recipe or the amount will be too little for the blades to catch and emulsify.
(2) What happens if the oil and egg separate? Don't throw it out. You can do two things. One is to whisk it and use it as a side sauce for a fish or vegetable. But if you want to rescue the allioli, take 1 tablespoon of lukewarm water in another beaker and start adding to the mix little by little. Blend it again until you create the creamy sauce you wanted.

Olga’s Tips:
(1) In Spain, rice is not stired as often as it is when cooking Italian risotto. You must stir it once or twice maximum. This tip is valid for all Spanish rice dishes like paella, arròs negre, arròs a banda…
(2) When cooking the alternative style you can change the cuttlefish or squid for diced potato.
(3) If you can’t find cuttlefish or squid, or you’re not able to eat them because of allergies, you can try to substitute them for chicken or vegetables at your choice.
(4) Sofregit can be done in advance. You can keep it in the fridge or even freeze it.
(5) For more information on how to clean and remove the heart of artichokes, please watch this video
(6) To watch how Jose Andres cooks this dish click here.
(7) For more information on how to clean and remove the heart of artichokes, please watch this video
(8) To tone down the taste when you do it by hand in a mortar, then add an egg yolk. If you want to tone it down in the alternative way use milk or soy milk. Anyway, the best alternative way is the original oil and garlic alone.
(9) Allioli must be consumed during the preparation day and preserved in the fridge before using it.

Daring Bakers July Challenge- Mallow and Milan Cookies

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:03:06 GMT

**** Remember- FireFox does not like my posts. So if you can, try using IE8, or viewing this post in ‘compatibility mode’. Thanks!****

The July 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole of Sweet Tooth.
She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

I really wanted to like this Challenge. Really, I did. After all, Milanos are one of my absolute favorite cookies.

But... I don't like Mallow cookies. Sure, I like marshmallows, I like cookies, I love dark chocolate. But... unless it's a s'more, I can't stand eating them together.

So I procrastinated doing this Challenge. Then I thought I'd just do the Milan recipe of it. Then I went ahead, and about 1.5 weeks out from posting/reveal day, I bit the bullet, tracked down Xathan Gum powder, and resolved to make the Mallows as well.

Mind you, I've never made marshmallows before. I've seen homemade marshmallows, I've read many blog entries on them, I even have recipes to make them. I just never have. Just in case, I went ahead and bought store bought marshmallows in strawberry and vanilla as well.

First you start out with making the cookie base. In this case, you put all your dry ingredients in a mixing bowl- sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder...

And Cinnamon. I love this particular brand of Cinnamon. It seems stronger, more fragrant than other Organic Cinnamons I've bought before. Naturally, I added a dash more than was called for. *nods sagely*

Next you thoroughly mix the dry ingredients, then add chunks of room temp, unsalted butter. Then you mix, or attempt to, as you have to repeatedly stop and get the butter out of the whisk, mix until the ingredients resemble course sand... I think.

Then you add your eggs. No, not like that, silly! Sheesh.

That's better. After you lightly (there's that word again...) whisk the eggs together...

You carefully add them, slowly, to the butter stuffs. Then you let it mix until well blended, and as you stand there watching it, you realize...

...that maybe, just MAYBE, you should have swapped out that whisk attachment for the actual mixing attachment. Maybe? Ya think? Hmm?

Ok. After you manage to scrap all the dough out of the whisk attachment, place it on... well, it's supposed to be plastic wrap. Yes, it's tin foil. I've been distracted lately, what with going to Michigan this Friday, with a 14 month old Akita, DRIVING, might I add. So, YES, I still haven't gotten plastic wrap. Parchment paper either. Anyway, form it into a flattened disk, wrap it up, and stick it in the fridge for at least an hour, overnight would be better.

Which was what I did. Overnight, I mean.

However long you decide to refrigerate your cookie base, plan on taking it out at least 25-30 minutes before you actually intend to use it. This let's it warm up and soften a bit, making it a lot easier to roll out to roughly 1/4" thick. And when the directions say 'lightly' floured, laugh and toss a little more flour on that work surface. Trust me.

Now, the recipe says to use a 1.5" round cookie cutter. Numerous Daring Bakers reported getting WAY more than the recipe says you'll get, which was why I rolled the dough out to 1/4" instead of the 1/8" in calls for, as well as used a 2" round cookie cutter that actually started out as an easter egg shape. See, I needed a round cookie cutter for another cookie recipe months and months ago, and well, it was 29 cents, so I couldn't pass it up and besides, it reshaped nicely.}:P

So, umm... I got 6 dozen cookies out of this recipe. Yeah. SIX DOZEN. *headdesk* Good thing I bought some store marshmallows. There was no way I was making that many homemade, not when I've never done it before.}:/ I will say, they are delicious plain. Just not in such a large amount. Sheesh.

Since my cookies were made, and the husband had told his boss he'd be bringing them in on Monday and it was SUNDAY NIGHT already, I went ahead and did several dozen in the store marshmallows. I chopped them in half...

... and topped the cookies with a half. Then they go in the oven to warm the marshmallows up, so they stick to the cookies. I might have eaten a few marshmallows plain. *looks askance* Maybe.

Ok, confession time. I cheated on the coating. But I had a good reason! I've NEVER, EVER been able to successfully melt chocolate for a coating. NEVER. I either 'break' it, or it never solidifies afterwards. Or takes 48 hours to even start to set. Yeah. So I went with a candy coating that was already properly tempered and ready to use. Funny thing is, my mom can successfully make candy coating from chocolate chips and vegetable shortening. Me, nope, can't do it. And believe me, I've tried. Oh how I've tried.

So I melted the candy coating down, kept it over warm water while I coated each mallow, and set them aside to re harden. This was the easy part, though tedious, I thought.

After I did all the strawberry, I realized that if I didn't mark the vanilla somehow, I'd not be able to tell which was which. So as I dipped the vanilla and set them on the rack, I sprinkled the wet chocolate with Cinnamon. And it worked.

This is a Mallow cookie, with a vanilla store bought marshmallow. Yup, still don't like them. The hubby either. And when I called my mom to see if dad would eat them, you know what she said? He only eats the marshmallow part, not the cookie. Yeah. My family is strange.

So now it's Monday and I have the time to make , or attempt to make, homemade marshmallows.

First I gathered up what I'd need and then some. I used almond extract instead of vanilla in my homemade marshmallows and in hindsight, should have used a lot MORE, as I couldn't taste it at all.

I took a few ideas from Audax, whom is rapidly becoming my 'Go To' guy for all things good question related.}:P I filled a 13x9” glass dish with powdered sugar and flattened it out, so I could use it for making molded, sort of, marshmallows.

Only one problem. I had no idea what I could use as a mold impression. Then it hit me, hey! an egg would be perfect! So that’s what I used.}:P And it worked beautifully, rinsed off nicely and got stuck back in the fridge.

Now the marshmallows...

Ok, I admit, I cheated again. I used dried egg white powder instead of using actual eggs. I hear several made ice cream with the yolks of their eggs. Heh. Maybe next time when I’m not so rushed or stressed.

Ok, I measured out the equivalent of 2 egg whites, added the requisite water, and proceeded to whisk...

...and whisk...

...this is gonna take awhile...

... and whisked until FINALLY, they formed soft peaks. Then I set it aside and collapsed. Ok, not really.

Now, I was using a recipe that was mentioned in the DB forum thread (I’ll have to look it up and link to it later), that called for Xathan Gum. So that’s what U used, as it was easier to find that than unflavored gelatin.}:/ Mixed the requisite amount with sugar and set aside.

The recipe also called for a ‘pinch’ of Cream of Tarter. So I literally used a pinch. This went into the water and sugar, then onto the stove for the sugar syrup mixture.

I love this little set. It has , in case you can’t really see, a ‘Pinch’, a ‘Dash’ and a ‘Smidgen’ measurements. If you ever find a set similar, grab them. They come in very handy!

Meanwhile, on the stove, I’ve making my sugar syrup mixture. Actually, I was waiting for it to reach ‘soft ball’ stage. Except, I think it went a little past and into borderline ‘hard ball’ stage.}:/

In between, I’ve put the egg whites in a mixing bowl. and stupid me tried to jump ahead and started to sprinkle the Xathan Gum/sugar mix on the egg whites. Yikes.

Anyway, I added the sugar syrup, slowly, waited until it was thoroughly mixed, then sprinkled what was left of the Xathan Gum/sugar mix over the resulting ‘goo’.

Then I turned the speed up a bit and whipped the crap out of the stuff. It rather reminds me of marshmallow fluff at this point. Another way I knew that the sugar syrup was a little past soft ball stage was when there were crystals in my marshmallow stuffs. Yeah.}:/

I also found that it was rather thick, and most certainly was not pipe-able. So I used a spatula and a finger to shove marshmallow into the molds and stuck a cookie on the bottom, then let them set up. They only took maybe 10 minutes. Hmm.

Needless to say, my marshmallows annoyed the crap out of me.

And I only got roughly 16 out of that batch of marshmallows. *grumbles more* so the rest of the cookies, of course, got store bought.

I dipped them, and set them on a wire rack, just like the previous ones. They looked rather interesting, I must say.

Nope, still don’t like them. Ah well.

Now for the Milan cookies...

They start out with lots of butter and powdered sugar in a mixer. Note- DO NOT double the recipe. I learned my lesson.

You mix the powdered sugar and butter until it’s nicely creamed and fluffy.

Pretend there’s pics of me reconstituting egg white powder and whisking and whisking and... well, you get the point.

Then you slowly add your egg whites to your sugar/butter mix. Let it blend thoroughly. My batter was a bit runny at this point. But I went with it.

You have to add BOTH lemon extract and vanilla extract. A LOT of both. It seemed rather odd, the amount of lemon used, but I went with it.

Then you gradually add your flour, pausing every now and then to scrap down the sides, so it all gets mixed in. Yes, I made a flour mess, as per usual.

After adding the flour, my batter was really, I mean really, fluffy. It tasted good too. I’ll be honest, I couldn’t even taste the lemon extract. Huh.

Now, you’re supposed to pipe it out on parchment lined cookie sheets. Well, I used the only round, plain tip I have (shocking) and my baking stones instead, as I’ve said earlier- I still have no parchment paper. Yeah, yeah.

Well, I piped it out in two lines as per the directions, keeping in mind others’ saying theirs spread like whoa! so I left plenty of room between them.

Well, mine didn’t spread near as much as I thought they would. It might have been the baking stones, it might have been because I doubled the recipe, I have no idea. Needless to say, the rest were piped THREE wide and that was perfect.

I did half of my batter in the plain/vanilla flavour. The other half, I mixed in Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa powder and made chocolate ones. Yummy.

Doubling the recipe made A LOT of cookies. And I’m not kidding.

I mean A LOT of cookies. NEVER, EVER double this recipe. I’m STILL eating plain cookies. Yeah.

Now I needed to make the ganache filling for the Milan cookies. But not just ANY old ganache filling. Nosirree. Not for me. Nope.

I made FOUR ganache fillings. Yup. FOUR. Orange Flower Water, Rosewater, Lavender, and Cocoa Chile. My kitchen smelled like a flower garden.

I heated up heavy whipping cream, added the flavorings and let them steep a bit. The Lavender I then strained. The Cocoa Chile is in powder form, so it was dumped on top of the Ghiradelli chocolate I used as the base.

I mixed each ganache one at a time until thoroughly blended. Then I needed to figure out how exactly I was going to fill the cookies- what cookie/ganache combinations, that is.

Once the ganache had cooled and set enough to be spreadable, but not runny, I filled about a dozen of each flavour. We’ll pretend there’s lots of photos showing me doing this, but it was getting late, I was tired and well, I didn’t take any more photos at this point cause I plain forgot. Whoops.

But here they are, in all their glory...

Full plating of all four flavors.

Cocoa Chile Ganache filled Dark Chocolate Milan cookies, dipped in dark chocolate and toffee pieces. This was proclaimed the favorite.

Lavender Ganache filled vanilla Milan cookies, dipped in dark chocolate. You could really smell, as well as taste, the Lavender in these. Very nice.

Orange Flower Water Ganache filled Dark Chocolate Milan cookies. Rather disappointing, honestly. The Orange Flower Water flavor doesn’t come through.}:/

Rosewater Ganache filled Vanilla Milan cookies. This... this was a surprise. You tasted a SCENT, rather than a TASTE, with these. The after taste was the scent of roses in your mouth, nose and throat. Quite delightful.

Will I make either recipe again? Probably not, honestly. I most likely will never make homemade marshmallows again, I so did not enjoy that part. If I don’t enjoy baking or cooking something, chances are, I’ll never do it again. So, yeah, at least I can say I HAVE made homemade marshmallows now. So there’s that, at least.

The Milan cookies, well, I might make them again. Just... not doubling the recipe next time.}:P

Thanks for an interesting Challenge, Nicole!

THE RECIPES-

Mallows (Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies)
Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website

Prep Time: 15 min (cookies only)
Inactive Prep Time: 1 hours or up to 3 days (cookies only)
Cook Time: 10 min (cookies only)
Serves: About 4 dozen cookies at 1 - 1.5 inch

• 3 cups (375grams/13.23oz) all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (112.5grams/3.97oz) white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter
• 3 eggs, whisked together
• Homemade marshmallows, recipe follows
• Chocolate glaze, recipe follows

1.In a mixer with the paddle attachment, blend the dry ingredients.
2.On low speed, add the butter and mix until sandy.
3.Add the eggs and mix until combine.
4.Form the dough into a disk, wrap with cling film or parchment and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.
5.When ready to bake, grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper or a silicon mat.
6.Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
7.Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness, on a lightly floured surface. Use a 1 to 1 1/2 inches cookie cutter to cut out small rounds of dough.
8.Transfer to the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cool to room temperature.
9.Pipe a “kiss” of marshmallow onto each cookie. Let set at room temperature for 2 hours.
10.Line a cookie sheet with parchment or silicon mat.
11.One at a time, gently drop the marshmallow-topped cookies into the hot chocolate glaze.
12.Lift out with a fork and let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl.
13.Place on the prepared pan and let set at room temperature until the coating is firm, about 1 to 2 hours.
Note: if you don’t want to make your own marshmallows, you can cut a large marshmallow in half and place on the cookie base. Heat in a preheated 350-degree oven to slump the marshmallow slightly, it will expand and brown a little. Let cool, then proceed with the chocolate dipping.

Prep Time: 5 min (marshmallows only)
Inactive Prep Time: 2 hours (marshmallows only)
Cook Time: 10-20 min (marshmallows only, includes cooking sugar & whipping marshmallow)
Serves: About 4 dozen cookies at 1 - 1.5 inch

Homemade marshmallows: (NOT the recipe I used)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 3/4 cup (168.76 grams/5.95oz) sugar
• 1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 2 egg whites , room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1.In a saucepan, combine the water, corn syrup, and sugar, bring to a boil until “soft-ball” stage, or 235 degrees on a candy thermometer.
2.Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let dissolve.
3.Remove the syrup from the heat, add the gelatin, and mix.
4.Whip the whites until soft peaks form and pour the syrup into the whites.
5.Add the vanilla and continue whipping until stiff.
6.Transfer to a pastry bag.
Prep Time: 5 min (glaze only)
Inactive Prep Time: N/A
Cook Time: 5-7 min (glaze only)
Serves: Enough to dip about 4 doz. cookies at 1 - 1.5 inch

Chocolate glaze:
• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 2 ounces cocoa butter or vegetable oil

1. Melt the 2 ingredients together in the top of a double boiler or a bowl set over barely simmering water.

Milan Cookies
Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website

Prep Time: 1 hour or more (shaping cookies and filling cookies)
Inactive Prep Time: 10 min.
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Serves: About 5 doz. cookies at 1 inch by 3 inch

• 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/2 cups (312.5 grams/ 11.02 oz) powdered sugar
• 7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons lemon extract
• 1 1/2 cups (187.5grams/ 6.61 oz) all purpose flour
• Cookie filling, recipe follows

Cookie filling:
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 orange, zested

1.In a mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter and the sugar.
2.Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts.
3.Add the flour and mix until just well mixed.
4.With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread.
5.Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.
6.While waiting for the cookies to cool, in a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream.
7.Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools).
8.Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top.
9.Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.

SimplePleasure
Recipes from The Food Network Website
Gale Gand

BLT Lunch, minus the T, add egg and cheese...

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:03:57 GMT

When Pinch My Salt mentioned this on Facebook and Twitter, I thought it was a great idea.

I had just one issue with the whole BLT sandwich though. I hate raw tomato. I know, what's wrong with me?

I LOVE bacon, egg, cheese and lettuce sandwiches though. So how could I pass this up?

I even used leaf lettuce from my own garden in this delicous sandwich. Sharp Chedder cheese, eggs, LOTS of brown sugar cured bacon...

All on toasted whole wheat bread with a slight spread of Miracle Whip. (I know, I know, but I HATE Mayo too.)

Let's just say, this was the best lunch I've had all week. I'm thinking we should do this weekly. Ok, maybe not weekly, maybe monthly.}:P Yeah, monthly sounds good.}:P

Daring Cooks July Challenge- Skate, Traditional Flavors Powdered - with changes

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:51:54 GMT

**** Firefox HATES my long posts. So if you use FF, it will apparently cut off on you. IE seems to work otherwise. Thanks Audax for the heads up.****

This month's Challenge was hosted by Sketchy, of Sketchy's Kitchen. And it's a doozy.

In fact, when I first read what the Challenge was, my reaction was holy shit. It took a few weeks to get around to doing this Challenge. It was actually about 2 weeks before the reveal date that I even started on aspects of this one. Unusual for me, to say the least.

The main issue was trying to find actual Skate. That turned out to be impossible here. So I went with 'Previous Frozen fresh Cod, wild caught'- an oxymoron if you ask me. How can it be fresh if it was previously frozen? Hmmm.. Anyway...

As with any Challenge or baking/cooking excursion, I gather everything I think I'm going to need... and then some. And it took 2 days.

Day One.

First I needed to make all the powdered flavors I wanted to use. And here, I deviated from the suggested flavors in the recipe (of course, I did, would you expect any less???). This actually took some thinking and consulting via email with Audax, to decide what particular flavors would work well, and discard ones that neither of us thought would -Juniper berries, for example, Audux says would be too overpowering, and to save for a red meat instead, which I heeded and am doing... eventually.

This one was easy, as it was already in powder form. And let me tell you, THIS is freaking delicious. Yum. I need to get more, so I can try it in chili (I usually add a tablespoon of Hershey's Special Dark, but this, this will add an extra hint of 'kick').

This one was easy too- It's Curry and Smoked Paprika powders, then mixed. I thought at first that I'd added too much Paprika, but once I tasted it, no, it was just enough. The Curry had a nice spice to it, and was toned down nicely by the Paprika with it's slightly smoky flavor.

And this was the last of the really easy powders to make. Garlic and Chinese Ginger. Yum. Just yum. Can't say much more than that.

Now we get to the slightly harder and the 'what was I thinking' powders...

I love this mortar and pestle. It was handmade out of Apricot wood and I got it at a Greek Festival in North Carolina a good number of years ago. It really got a workout the day I made the powders. And performed beautifully. Well, mostly.

First up was the dried Parsley and dried Tarragon. YES I CHEATED. I used already dried stuffs. Note to self- when we go home on vacation, ask my mom if she still has her dehydrator and if so, if I can have it.

Anyway. Parsley and Tarragon powder beautifully. They make such a brilliant green too. It was just gorgeous. Of course, now I'm out of dried Tarragon and need to go pick some from my garden to dry, as that's one herb I use a lot of.

This actually only took maybe 15 minutes.

Now, I don't have a chinois. I'm not sophisticated enough.}:P BUT! I do have this handy Tea strainer. I think it came from a Teapot I no longer have. I can't remember.

So I dumped the ground Tarragon/Parsley blend into the strainer in a small bowl. Then I used a spoon to sift out the larger pieces from the powder. After that, I ground it all down again. And repeated until I had what I figured was enough for at least 2 servings (it was actually enough for 6 servings and then some).

Pffft. Who needs a fancy schmancy chinois when a handy Tea strainer works perfectly.}:P I know, I know, shaddup.

Next up was the dried Rosemary and Lemon Zest. I should have known better.

This was after an hour. Yeah. Mark even helped. I kid you not. It just did not want to break down for me.

After 2 hours, we gave up and got what we could. Which was just enough, actually. Heh. Couldn't have planned that if we tried. However, we learned our lesson. *nods sagely* You'll see.

Ain't that purty? All those bright, yummy smelling powders, ready to go. Well, almost. I still had one more powder to make.

There was a time when I thought I'd never need a food processor. Then I got Caena. Now, Caena's raw fed mostly. When we started her out on raw food, this mini processor was big enough. Soon enough, I ended up getting a full sized one. Yeah. Hind sight and all that.

The banana chips are, unfortunately, the regular honey coated ones, as until AFTER this Challenge, I couldn't find freeze dried ones. Grr. Yeah, I found not only freeze dried bananas, but apples, pears, strawberries and even pineapple! All at Fresh Market. I swear they didn't have them when I went looking for skate. *grumbles*

The mini processor doesn't do too badly at grinding the chips down, I suppose. It took awhile though and lots of shaking as they'd bind up under the blades. That was annoying.

Hmm... I don't think the Tea strainer is going to work this time...

This might work...

Maybe. Heh.

It was about this time that Mark, having watched me from his desk in the living room, came into the kitchen and picked up the flour sifter. See? This is why I married him and keep him around even nearly 15 years later.

I told him I was going to include him in this Challenge post, because, hey, well, he did help a bit.}:P He took over the sifting of the banana chips completely, dumping the chopped chips into the sifter that he'd placed over the small container...

And then tried to turn the handle. See the pieces of banana chips on the table? Yeah. He made a mess. I busted out laughing. Hence the blurriness of this photo as he turns to go get a lid, laughing at himself as well.

Good thing he's cute.

With a lid in place, back he goes to sifting. It worked much better when chips weren't flying everywhere, believe me. It was still funny though.

*sigh* This is gonna take awhile. And it did actually. Not as long as the Rosemary/Lemon Zest did, no. But it did take awhile. And this was only step one of the 'Brown Butter topping'. Yeah.

I couldn't find spray dried milk powder. Truth be told, I wouldn't even know WHERE to look. But we were in the Asian Market a block away awhile ago and I saw this yummy Coconut Cream Powder at the counter and knew that was what I had to use instead.

So, you take a cookie sheet and cover it with parchment paper... What? Of course I didn't have any parchment paper! That'd be too easy, you know. So I had to use tin foil instead. And I still haven't picked up any plastic wrap either. Yeah.

Anyway.. you spread the powder out in a thin layer. It smells and tasted divine. I love coconut. OmNomNom. Then you're supposed to bake it in the oven at 350 degrees until lightly toasted. LIGHTLY. toasted.

This?
Is. Not. Lightly. Toasted.

This is burned. In fact, I opened the oven and smoke came out. Yeah. Mark took the tin foil off and directly to the trash. Burned coconut powder doesn't smell good.}:( Good thing I still had more.

Try number 2. THIS is lightly toasted. This smelled delicious. This begged to be eaten as is. But yes, I refrained. And waited until it cooled before tasting it.

Once the toasted coconut powder had cooled, I scraped it all together. Then dumped it, by spoonfuls, into the ground banana chips. Mixed it all together and set it aside with the other powders.

Day Two.

I wasn't kidding when I said it took two days. I made the powders and planned the dinner for the next night. It worked better that way.

First up was the green beans. 2mm? Yeah, right. I got them , more or less, the same width, all sliced up. Well, enough for the 2 of us. I ended up slicing up the rest for dinner with the Bro in law and Sis in law 2 nights later though.

Next up was the FULL POUND of butter. Yeah. I used unsalted butter for this. After I took it out of the freezer and let it sit to soften so I could cut it up, I chopped it into pieces and stuck it back in the fridge until I was ready for it.

This was the Cod I used. I told you it was previously frozen fresh. Still an oxymoron if you ask me. No idea what exactly a 'J-cut' fillet means. But they worked. So that's all that matters.

They turned out to be longer than I thought, so I ended up cutting both fillets in half, getting 4 pieces from them. Then I stuck them in a bowl and back in the fridge.

Next up was the 'beurre monte' sauce. That is, a little bit of water, and the FULL POUND of butter, quickly whisked in and kept warm. This... took awhile.

This was halfway through the butter. Ugh. I had to have Mark come help, my wrist was so tired. I was wrong about that Rosemary/Lemon Zest being the hardest part of this dish, by the way.
It was neat how it didn't break, but made a nice, foamy sauce as it was whisked. but I will say, whatever French cook came up with this particular method of sauce making, was a sadist. This was torture on a wrist that's not used to that much whisking.

And finally finished. FINALLY. It made a nice, silky looking sauce. Which was then split, 2/3 or so into a separate pan with a bit of water, whisked to combine, of course. And the other 1/3 or so, whisked with more water in this pan.

In the one pan went the Cod, the green beans into the other. The green beans were then quickly simmered/boiled until much of the liquid was gone, then drained and lightly salted- hence the use of unsalted butter. The Cod was gently 'poached', 2 minutes, give or take, to a side. Given how it behaved as I tried to plate it, I wonder if genuine fresh Cod would stay together better. Hmm..

Meanwhile, while the beans and fish cooked, I set up the plates with the powders. This was harder than it looks, really. And LESS is definitely MORE, in this case. The Cod started to fall apart on me as I plated it. Grr. But you slice the bananas, arrange them on the plate with the powders, that you've 'artistically' arranged, top them with green beans, then the fish. The whole then gets topped with the Banana-Coconut Cream Powder and served.

Voila!

Now, this was the first time I made it. I remade it again, 2 days later, using FLOUNDER.

I also used Red Bananas this time. Supposedly, they have a hint of raspberry flavor to them, along with the usual banana flavor. None of us could taste it, however.

I used less powders this time, having learned my lesson the first time. I also used a very pointed 'baby spoon' to draw the Chrysanthemum-esque design, mimicking the InLaws' plates.

The Flounder, which we think might actually have been 'previously frozen' fresh, as well, also fell apart as I was poaching it. This time, it fell apart IN the poaching liquid, rather than as it was being plated. Hmph. While it was good, Mark and I prefer the Cod.

The entire table. Minus dessert, which will be AFTER the recipe.

* * * * * * *

Skate, Traditional Flavors Powdered - with changes
•4 skate wings
•* Beurre monte
•* 300g fresh green beans
•sea salt/kosher salt
•1 banana
•454g butter - 4 sticks
•300g lemons
•5g citric acid/vitamin c tablet
•150g cilantro
•150g parsley
•100g dried banana chips
•300g spray dried cream powder (or powdered milk)
•100g cup minced red onion
•200g capers (brined, not oil)
* For green beans, slice each beans into very thin rounds (2 mm)
* Beurre Monte - 454g butter (4 sticks, 1 pound) cubed and cold, 60g water. In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil, remove from heat and whisk in the butter 1 cube at a time. This should from an emulsion. Keep this heated, but under 195 degrees. The emulsion will not break - this is your poaching liquid.

Powders - prepare ahead of time
caper / onion
lemon powder
cilantro/parsley powder
'brown butter' powder

Powders
once dried, all powders should be pulsed in a coffee grinder/spice mill/morter and pestle then passed through a chinois or fine mesh strainer.

citrus powder
300g lemons
1000g simple syrup
5g citric acid/vitamin c tablet

zest 300g of lemons (10.6 oz), remove the pith from the zest and poach in the simple syrup three times. dry with paper towels and move to a dehydrating tray. 130 for 12 hours. pulse the zest in a coffee grinder, pass through chinois, and mix with citric acid/vitamin C powder.

If you do not have a dehydrator, place in microwave for 8 to 10 minutes at medium powder. Once dried, follow the other instructions.

cilantro/parsley powder
150g cilantro
150g parsley

blanch the parsley in boiling saltwater for 1 second, submerge the leaves in ice water for 3 minutes. Dry on paper towels and place on dehydrator tray. 130 for 12 hours. grind and pass through chinois.

If you do not have a dehydrator, place in microwave for 30 seconds, turn over leaves and microwave for another thirty seconds. They should be dry by now, pulse in coffee grinder, pass through chinois and reserve.

onion powder
100g cup minced red onions

dehydrator - 130 for 12 hours
microwave at medium power for 20 minutes.

pulse in grinder, pass through chinois

Caper powder
200g capers (get the ones packed in brine/vinegar)

run the capers under cold water for two minutes to remove some of the brine.
dry on paper towels and dehydrate for 12 hours at 130 degrees.
microwave instructions are unclear. Dry them as much a possible with paper towels, the microwave on medium for 1 minute. Check the moisture content and stir them. repeat for 30 second intervals until they are dry. If you use this method, pleas post the time needed to dry the capers.

Once dry, pulse and sift the powder. Mix it with the onion powder.

Brown Butter powder

100g Dried banana chips (unsweetened if possible - many are coated in honey - the freeze dried ones would be brilliant)
300g spray dried cream powder

If you cannot find the cream powder, you can substitute Bob's red mill non fat dry milk powder, or even carnation instant milk powder. The substitutions will alter the flavor a little, but you will still get the general idea.

preheat the oven to 350 degrees, sift the cream powder into a fine layer on a silpat or on parchment. bake for 4 minutes, then remove for heat. If it bakes for too long, it will burn. Be very cautious with all powders in the oven. They all go from browned to burnt in a few seconds.

grind the banana chips in a coffee grinder and mix with the toasted cream powder. Pass this through a chinois and reserve.

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

* For green beans, slice each beans into very thin rounds (2 mm)
* Beurre Monte - 454g butter (4 sticks, 1 pound) cubed and cold, 60g water. In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil, remove from heat and whisk in the butter 1 cube at a time. This should from an emulsion. Keep this heated, but under 195 degrees. The emulsion will not break - this is your poaching liquid.

Skate
Prepare the skate - 50G v shaped cuts are recommended
Bring 100g water, 100g beurre monte, and green bean rounds to a boil over high heat. Cook until the water has evaporated (about 3 minutes), when the pan is almost dry, remove it from heat and season with 3g salt

bring 300g water and 300g beurre monte to simmer over medium heat, add skate wings and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from heat and flip the wing over and let rest in pan for two more minutes. Transfer to warming tray lined with parchment and season with 5 grams of fine sea salt.

Plating

Take the tip of a small spoon and make a small mound of the citrus powder, the onion-caper powder, and the cilantro parsley-powder. Swirl these around in a hurricane type pattern. I found that it is easier, and you get finer lines if you lightly shake the plate to flatten out the mounds, then swirl the spoon through it to get the pattern.

peel the remaining banana into very think slices (3mm) fan three slices on the plate, place green beans on top and place skate wing portion on top. On the tall edge, sprinkle the brown butter powder.

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

Substitutions
The Skate can be replaced with flounder or cod.
If you can get skate that is not 'prepared' IE - Skinned- get the fish monger to prepare it for you.

The powdered cream can be omitted completely, just replace it with more banana powder, or pineapple powder. Possibly non dairy creamer, but I have NO idea what would happen if you tried to brown it.

The poaching liquid is pretty much butter - it could be replaced with other poaching methods. Water, wine, bay leaf, garlic clove, pepper, etc. Try to go easy on the salt in the liquid if you use a replacement.

Disclaimer - the sample dish was made with cod because Skate was not available at the time in Richmond. Whole Foods usually carries it. Check your fish markets before you head out to buy some.

sketchy
Alinea Cookbook
Grant Achatz

* * * * * * *

DESSERT- which... hasn't got a name.}:/

Couple bananas (one per person)
2-3 tsp Brown sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 Tbsp butter

Vanilla ice cream
Brown Butter topping leftover from main dish, or fresh made

Peel and slice bananas. Melt butter in medium -hot pan and add bananas. Toss to coat. Add brown sugar and vanilla. Again, toss to thoroughly coat.

On dessert plates, place 1-2 scoops of ice cream in center of plate. Spoon bananas and glaze around the ice cream. Top with 'Brown Butter' topping. Serve.

Things I learned...

Abscond with the coffee grinder that Mark never uses anyway, SOONER. This was the Rosemary/Lemon Zest that I need more of for the second go round. This was in less that FIVE MINUTES. Yeah.

And THIS was the banana chips , which took maybe 15 minutes total to get more than enough needed. Now, the ones I used, did cake up and bind the grinder blades, but darn if it didn't work beautifully.

We loved it. We were skeptical of the bananas, beans and fish pairing, at first, but wow, was it ever delicious. Also, because it took so long to actually make, we decided it's definitely a special occasion meal. I'd definitely make it again. In fact, I stored the excess powders in the freezer for next time.}:P

I need to go get some of those freeze dried bananas, strawberries and pineapple, as well as more apples and pears. We want to experiment with fruit powders in desserts now.}:P

Well done, Sketchy! This turned out to be a great Challenge!

Private Swap- Hong Kong to Me.

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 22:10:53 GMT

This is what procrastination looks like. *nods sagely* I meant to post this, what?, 3 weeks ago. Whoops.

My private swap partner was annamosscity, who lives in Hong Kong. She really did an awesome job on filling the box too!

Despite having gotten the box several weeks ago, we honestly haven't tried much out of it yet.}:/

This was not the original packing of the box. I took everything out, then packed it all back in so you could see just how FULL she made it. Yes, I'm a touch insane.

This is a shot of everything. And there was-IS- alot.

I'd wondered what exactly Tim Tams were, having heard numerous mentions of them before. And now, I know. The hubby was estatic to see the coffee drinks, and they didn't last very long either.

I asked for Pocky, and boy did annamosscity deliver! In flavors we'd never heard of too! We love Pocky. It was one of the few foods we really missed when we left Okinawa. The YanYans appear to be Pocky type sticks that have their own dipping sauce too. I've heard of Hello Pandas too, but again, never had any.

I haven't seen Chupa Chups in YEARS. I can definitely say that the blackberry flavored ones are delicious. Same with the Frutips in black currant flavor. When they were gone, I was sad. The Hi-Chew candy is muscat flavor and I've never had muscat before, so wasn't sure, exactly, what to expect. They're good tho.

Jelly type candy seems to be the big thing overseas these days, as there are quite a few different types. Haven't tried any yet though. Surprisingly, we haven't eaten the chips yet either. Or the caramel corn. Hmm. Might be something wrong with us.

Another bag of jelly type candy, and interesting takes on Extra gum. I didn't know it came packaged like that.}:P

These appear to be small pound cake like snack cakes. And I'm a little leery of the 'Baby Star Noodles'.}:P

I'd ask if possible for a rock from Hong Kong. But it being monsoon season and everything drenched there, it wasn't possible. So instead, I got this really gorgeous card, that feels like it was printed on vellum paper. Definitely a keeper!

Thanks for a great swap, annamosscity and thanks to the mods of we_swap_snacks!

Hot German Potato Salad

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:26:43 GMT

There are about as many different variations of Potato Salad as there are, well, trees. No two are ever really alike, and no one person generally ever agrees on exactly what goes into it.
Hot German Potato Salad is, in many ways, no different.

I first tried it at Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, Va a number of years ago, and was hooked. Mark mentioned that his paternal grandmother used to make it when he was young, but he had no idea if she ever wrote her recipe down. His mom I don't think made it, as she didn't have a recipe either. Nor did my mom.

So I went scouring the Internet. There I found quite the variety of different recipes, all claiming to be 'authentic' Hot German Potato Salad. It was staggering to say the least, as many were near carbon copies of each other.

I took 2 of the most likely recipes, that looked like they were closest to what I'd had and Mark remembered, and combined them, tweaking here and there, changing the type of ingrediant to suit more our taste and came up with something that Mark swears is near exactly like his Grandmom used to make.

Is it authentic? Of course not. Nor will I be silly enough to make that claim. But here's my version of Hot German Potato Salad. I will make the claim that it is yummy and won't last long in your house if you like this sort of potato salad, though.}:P

I always use redskin potatoes. We just like the taste of them more than the yellow(wax) skinned ones or white (mashing). Take a good number of medium to large ones, and slice them up, into approximately 1/4" thick slices. You can opt to peel them first if you don't care for skins, or not, as we do. We like the skins on.

Put the potato slices in a pot of salted boiling water and move on to the rest...

Take a medium/large onion, peel and rough chop it. Now, normally I use red onions, but at the time of this photo series (which was NOT taken this weekend, though I DID make this potato salad this weekend, as the last photos will show), the grocery store was out of red onions, so I had to settle for white. The red onions are sweeter to me. Again, it's all up to personal taste.

Take several stalks of celery, remove the leafy tips and the very ends. Then rough chop them. I generally use celery hearts in anything I make that calls for celery. They're smaller and less gets wasted as I don't use it very often, and I'm the only one here who likes raw celery with peanut butter or cream cheese besides.}:/ The rabbits get the leafy parts and the ends.}:P

One of the recipes I took aspects of, called for specifically 'Oscar Meyer Bacon', but really, use your favorite bacon. You want half a package and I really doubt it matters much whether it's a namebrand or not.

By now your potatoes should be cooked. Drain them and set them aside in a bowl large enough to carefully turn them over in when you add the rest of the ingrediants.

Take your half package of bacon of your choice and chop it into approximately 1/2"- 1" pieces, give or take. If you cut them smaller, in say, 1/2" pieces, you'll get more. And everyone loves more bacon, yes? }:P

Break the pieces apart and toss them in a cold frying pan. Why cold? I have no real idea, but it always seems to give me crispy bacon, so that's how I do it. Try not to eat any as you fry it until it's nice and crispy brown.

Once your bacon is crispy and yummy, remove it and place it on paper towels to drain the excess bacon fat off. Reserve at least 2 Tablespoons of bacon fat in the pan, if you get that much. If you don't, oh well. Don't add anything, it'll be fine, really. Again, try not to eat the bacon.

Toss your chopped celery and onion in the bacon pan. Carefully stirring, fry them until the onions start to turn brown on the edges and translucent, the celery starts to soften slightly. Yes, the house will start to smell good. Stay away from the bacon!

Once the celery and onions are cooked to the right consistancy, sprinkle them with the flour. Then, stir it in really well, trying to get any lumps out. After the flour is well mixed in, add the water, sugar and vinegar.

Now, I usually use apple cider vinegar, but I also use white vinegar as well, when I'm out of apple cider. Just as with everything else, use whatever vinegar you like best. It really doesn't matter, I suppose, unless it's like a red wine vinegar. I don't think red wine vinegar would go well in this. Hrm.

Then reduce the heat to a slow roiling simmer and reduce until the mixture starts to thicken. Liberally season with sea salt and pepper. Make sure you stir occasionally.

When the mixture starts to thicken, add that bacon you stayed away from. Mix it in well, and continue to reduce. You want a slightly thick sauce.

When the sauce has thickened up nicely, remove it from the heat-turning the stove off, of course- and pour it over the potatoes. Scrap the pan to get all that yummy goodness. Stop eating the bacon out of it.

Carefully mix the sauce into the potatoes, trying not to break the slices up too badly. Yes, the potatoes will break up abit, but not too badly. Either cover and let set to meld the flavors, or serve immediately. It's even better reheated the next day, after all the juices have been absorbed into the potatoes.

Enjoy.

Now this. This was what I made for 4th of July dinner.

Grilled T-bone steak, with sauteed onions, red, orange and yellow bell peppers and Hen of the Woods wild mushrooms, Hot German Potato Salad, and steamed corn.

Sorry. There's none left. Maybe next year?

THE RECIPE-

Wolf's Hot German Potato Salad

6-8 medium-large potatoes- I use redskin, use your fav, sliced into 1/4" thick pieces
1/2lb of your choice bacon, chopped into 1/2"-1" pieces
1 medium-large onion, your choice, I use red onions, roughly chopped
2-4 stalks celery, roughly chopped
1Tbsp flour
1/3 cup water
3/4 cup white or cider vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
Sea salt and pepper to taste

Boil potatoes, drain and set aside in mixing bowl.

Cook bacon until crisp, drain, reserving 2 Tbsp of fat, and set aside. To reserved bacon fat, add celery and onions. Cook, stirring regularly, until oinions start to brown and turn translucent, and celery starts to soften.

Add flour and stir until well mixed in. Then add water, vinegar, and sugar. Reduce heat to medium, and allow mixture to simmer steadily until slightly thickened. Add bacon and stir in. Continue cooking until mixture thickens more.

Remove from heat and immediately pour over potatoes. Quickly mix potatoes and dressing/sauce to incorporate. Serve immediately, or cover and let rest to better meld the flavors.

Better when served reheated the next day.}:P Serves... who knows. I can eat the whole thing on my own. Heh.

Ground.

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:51:03 GMT

Dried Tarragon and Parsley in my handcarved apricot wood mortar. I loved the brilliant green the dried herbs created.

Daring Bakers June Challenge- Bakewell Tart Pudding thingamajig.(Mark loves my technical terms. Heh)

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:46:24 GMT

**** If you get cut off on viewing the post here, it's possible that IJ is having server issues, as they were moving to new servers this weekend. In which case- try here-
http://dantesspirit.dreamwidth.org/604864.html

Otherwise, I have no idea why it's cutting off at a certain point. I'm using IE8, and it works fine for me.}:( ****

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Be forewarned- this is my longest Daring Bakers Challenge post yet. I lost count at 75 photos. Yeah.

Gathering of the cast of charactors. You see, I had several jars of local made jams and jelly in the cupboard. So I figured, what better way to try them! And I love almonds. Perfect match, I should think, almonds and cranberries, or wild black raspberries, or blackberries, or cherries, or homemade apple butter, or lemon curd or lime curd, or...

Yeah.

I got abit carried away. As you'll see.

And after the actual Challenge recipe, I included a Bakewell Tart Pudding made with almond paste instead of almond meal/flour.}:P It was the first one I really made, you see. But paste wasn't what the Challenge called for, so...

First up in my initial run of making a Bakewell Tart Pudding was the cherry one. ~~Shh, don't tell Mark it was LITE Cherry pie filling.~~ Really easy, I took cherry pie filling...

Spooned roughly half of it into my mini food processor. (Ok, so I ate some of it too. Sue me. You won't get much.) That thing has come in handy more times than I can count. Then...

Pulverized the crap out of it. After that, the bowl portion of the processor was stuck in the fridge while I made the shortbread crust and the frangipane.

The crust was a pain in my butt, I will say. I looked at everyone else's photos of THEIR crust in progress and MINE looks nothing like it. Hmph.

You start out by sifting the flour, sugar and salt together. Look! I got a real sifter! Just like my mom has! Whee! There's an actual kitchen gadgets store downtown, and I swear, I need to win the Lotto, as there's so much stuff there I want! Seriously, I walk in and it's, 'I want this! I want that! Oh hey look! They have this!' Yeah. It's bad.

Next you take a stick of FROZEN unsalted butter and you GRATE IT. Yes, seriously. The directions said to grate the butter. I learned real quick that the shredding blade on my full size food processor does a much faster job than me and it's best to have the butter grated BEFORE you actually need it. Yeah. This was a pain in the rear.

After you grate the butter, you work it into the sifted flour mix, supposedly using just your finger tips. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. You see my hand? Yeah, ok, fingertips. Right. You want a mix that resembles bread crumbs. Well, I got that. But that's where the resemblence ends, trust me.

Next you take your eggs and almond extract, lightly (there's that word again. I swear, they're going to drive me batty with the 'lightly beat' in every recipe) beat them together. I still haven't quite figured out what exactly entails lightly beaten.

Then you dump-er, pour the egg mix into the butter bread crumb mix. I don't know if it'd have made a difference if I made a well or not, honestly. This was the last time I made the crust by hand. The rest? I used the food processor. YES I CHEATED. HA.

Now, you're supposed to quickly mix the eggs into the flour mix. With your hand. I tried. Really, I did. My hand was covered with dough. I ended up scraping it off and using a spatula instead. Supposedly, you dribble in water at this point. Strangely, even though I've followed the directions exactly, which is odd for me, I didn't need to use water. As you can see, it was plenty sticky and cohesive on it's own.

After it's mixed, you turn it out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Well, stupid me forgot to get plastic wrap. (I still haven't remembered to get any. D'oh.) So I floured up a sheet of tin foil instead. Hey, it worked. Then it got tossed in the fridge for an hour or so to stiffen back up. It needed it. Seriously. And I needed a break. Heh. The grating of the butter did me in.

Anyway. Moving right along. We're moving, we're moving. Come along now, we have lots more to see...

The frangipane was up next. Unfortunately, I couldn't find actual almond meal/flour right away. So I bought whole roasted almonds and ground them up myself. Lots of us went this route, and after I DID find some almond meal/flour, and seeing the price- I can see why.

Creamed together the butter and sugar. Apparently it was supposed to be a 'primrose' color. I dunno... it looked abit more like a canary color to me.

Then I added the eggs, one at a time, waiting until they were blended in, scraping down the sides between each. Then came the almond extract. Yum. My kitchen smelled good for quite awhile.

After that, you add in the almonds. And the all purpose flour. Musn't forget that. I almost did.

I dunno... it looks abit runny to me. And it most certainly isn't primrose in color anymore, that's for sure. Tasted good though! }:P

Now, this was really the second batch I made. The first was with the almond paste, and that'll be at the end of this post. So, I made 'mini' Bakewell Tart Puddings, in a disposable muffin tin, in cherry, homemade apple butter (made by yours truly and no, there is no written recipe, sorry) and local made Wild Black Raspberry Jam that was divine.

And here also, begins the first of the Fail Tarts. Yeah.

After smooshing crust into each tin, and freezing it, I put about 1-1/2 tablespoons of jam/butter/filling in each, 2 per flavor. Spread it out to cover the bottom as best I could. Licked the spoon with the Wild Black Raspberry Jam on it clean as a whistle. Om Nom Nom.

Then I topped each with the frangipane, smoothing it over to completely cover each tart crust. It looked pretty at least.

Baked as per directions, plus a little longer as they seemed... too wiggly for my tastes. And it turned out that they needed it. Then I fought with the fool things to get them OUT of the tin. Never using a stupid disposable tin again. Hmph.

They plated beautifully, of course. And powdered sugar covers a multitude of sins. *nods sagely* Such as the crack in the top of one that promptly oozed jam. Yeah.

But then I had a problem. See, when I put them ON the plate, I knew where each flavor was. But then.. I turned the plate. And not just once, which would have been fine. I turned it three times. *headdesk* I now had no idea which was which. Whoops.

So I cut them all in half. And found out that they... don't look like they were supposed to. Argh. Mark took them to work, well, most of them. I ate a Wild Black Raspberry one, he ate an Apple Butter one. They tasted yummy even if they didn't look right. His boss loved them too. Her fav was the Wild Black Raspberry as well.

Fail Tarts numbers 1, 2 and 3. (I went by flavors in these.)

I put the rest of the frangipane in the fridge until the next day. When I used my food processor to grate butter and make more crust. Then I made 2 more Bakewell Tart Puddings. ALSO Fail Tarts.

First up was a lemon and lime curd one. I spread lemon curd over half the crust, and lime curd over the other half. Then I smoothed them together at the center to blend, and baked it as per directions. Yeah. Fail Tart number 4.

Now, thinking that the frangipane was abit runny, I added about 2 -3 more ounces of all purpose flour. This was the result. And it was the last of the cherry filling too. I created a monster with this one.

LOOK AT THAT! What the devil is that????? Yeah. We couldn't eat it. }:/ It was... too much of the top and not enough of anything else. Most of this got tossed out. Fail Tart number 5.

So, I was determined to make a Bakewell Tart Pudding as per the directions WITH actual almond meal/flour. Found some at the Roanoke Natural Foods Co-Op, at $16.55 a pound. Yikes!!!

Then, I found it at the Kroger right down the street, at $11.19 a pound. MUCH BETTER. Still YIKES, but not as bad.

Ok, creamed the butter and sugar. Added the eggs one at a time. Added the almond meal/flour, the almond extract, the all purpose flour...

Got the curdled looking, primrose color. Neat. Tastes great too.

Made more crust earlier, and froze it. Then I took the remaining Wild Black Raspberry Jam and covered the bottom with it. A nice, yummy layer.

Spent way too much time scraping out the jar, trying to get every last delicious bit of jam. Now it's gone, and I have to wait until October and the Blue Ridge Folklife Festival to get more. *sobs*

Spread the frangipane over the jam, which I'd stuck in the freezer until nearly solid as well. It's easier to spread the frangipane if the jam is rather solid. So definitely freeze first. You'll see what happens if you don't later. Just trust me- it's better if you freeze between adding the layers.

All baked! And it didn't leak! Yay! It even came out of the tart dish nicely too!!

Looks good, right? Mark thought so too. He's easily impressed though.

Me? Not so much. I wasn't happy with it. It didn't LOOK right to me. It looked too... custardy, for lack of better.

And the taste was ... off. Which was sad, as like I said, it was the last of the Wild Black Raspberry jam. *sobs* Mark ended up eating all but one piece. Yeah.

So, Fail Tart number 6.

Now, it's the night before the Reveal Date. I was DETERMINED to make a stupid Bakewell Tart Pudding that was SUCCESSFUL. So I made Bakewell Tart Pudding number 7 last night.

This one I used the Blackberry Jam.

Made the crust, made the frangipane, spread the jam. Looks yummy. I have high hopes for this one. I cooled it overnight and cut it this morning after coming back from breakfast with the InLaws.

I think I have achieved success.

So purty. It looks right.

THIS is how I imagined a Bakewell Tart Pudding to look. THIS is what took me 7 tries to achieve. *pats self on back* How's it taste? No idea. We're saving it for breakfast tomorrow. Mark's parents are coming her for breakfast, so THEY get to be my guinea pigs! Bwahahahahahahaha!

The Challenge: Bakewell Tart…er…pudding

Makes one 23cm (9” tart)
Prep time: less than 10 minutes (plus time for the individual elements)
Resting time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 30 minutes
Equipment needed: 23cm (9”) tart pan or pie tin (preferably with ridged edges), rolling pin

One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe follows)
Bench flour
250ml (1cup (8 US fl. oz)) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability
One quantity frangipane (recipe follows)
One handful blanched, flaked almonds

Assembling the tart
Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Jasmine’s notes:
• If you cannot have nuts, you can try substituting Victoria sponge for the frangipane. It's a pretty popular popular cake, so you shouldn't have any troubles finding one in one of your cookbooks or through a Google search. That said, our dear Natalie at Gluten a Go Go has sourced some recipes and linked to them in the related alt.db thread.
• You can use whichever jam you wish, but if you choose something with a lot of seeds, such as raspberry or blackberry, you should sieve them out.
• The jam quantity can be anywhere from 60ml (1/4 cup) to 250ml (1cup), depending upon how “damp” and strongly flavoured your preserves are. I made it with the lesser quantity of home made strawberry jam, while Annemarie made it with the greater quantity of cherry jam; we both had fabulous results. If in doubt, just split the difference and spread 150ml (2/3cup) on the crust.
Annemarie’s notes:
• The excess shortcrust can be rolled out and cut into cookie-shapes (heck, it’s pretty darned close to a shortbread dough).

Sweet shortcrust pastry
Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)
Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film

225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 (2) egg yolks
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional)
15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Jasmine’s notes:
• I make this using vanilla salt and vanilla sugar.
• If you wish, you can substitute the seeds of one vanilla bean, one teaspoon of vanilla paste or one teaspoon of vanilla extract for the almond extract

Frangipane
Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula

125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
3 (3) eggs
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Annemarie’s notes:
• Add another five minutes or more if you're grinding your own almonds or if you're mixing by hand (Heaven help you).

And now... a Bakewell Tart Pudding made with almond paste-

Everything EXCEPT the frangipane is the same.

This is the almond paste frangipane recipe, courtesy of Audax Artifex-

• 7 to 8 oz almond paste (not marzipan or almond filling)
• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 large eggs
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Make filling:
Beat together almond paste, butter, sugar, and almond extract in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until creamy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then mix in flour and salt.

Spread frangipane filling evenly in tart shell. Bake tart until frangipane is puffed and golden, about 1 1/4 hours.

This is what happens when you DON'T let the jam layer freeze or at least solidify abit before trying to add the frangipane. Yeah. See? Freeze between the layers!

I used the cherry pie filling on this one. Other than abit of burning on the crust, and the center pulling away from the sides, it was perfect. The burning was a result of getting distracted. *glares at Caena* Yeah.

But this...

THIS...

WAS DIVINE. Yum. OmNomNom. I nearly ate this entire one by myself.

I really like how they turn out with the almond paste, so honestly? I think I'll stick to THAT recipe. Heh.

It was fun though. Quite the learning experience and definitely something I'll make repeatedly.

Lunch.

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:21:43 GMT

Yesterday we went by the Asian Market that's roughly a block away from the house. They carry this delicious bread that I honestly have no idea what it's called.

This is how it comes, in a bag with five 'sticks'. The bag says 'Maria's' and has the address of the company that makes it, but other than that, nothing.

Well, it does say 'Bread' and list the ingrediants. However, it says there's raisins in it. Umm, no, no there's not. There ARE , however, cranberries.

The tasty bits of nuts, cranberries, etc, are nicely balanced in the twisty sticks of bread. Every bite you get a walnut, or a cranberry or several.

The crumb is dense, moist and nicely sweetened. It's perfect as a morning breakfast or a quick snack. But I have no idea WHAT it's called besides 'bread'. Heh.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a bag of 'bread' to devour. Ok, maybe just these 2 sticks.

Daring Cooks June Challenge- Chinese Dumplings/Potstickers/Japanese Gyoza

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:31:16 GMT

This month, Jen from Use Real Butter, hosted the Daring Cooks Challenge.
She chose a doozy, let me tell ya, in Chinese dumplings/potstickers (aka gyoza in Japanese).

So... while I have enjoyed Chinese dumplings in soups before, I've never actually made Chinese dumplings. How hard could it be, though?

Turns out, if you're me and you're irritated at the world the day you decide to make this recipe, well, it's pretty damn hard. And asking the husband to help? Yeah, no. Just don't. Trust me on that.

So you gather up all your ingredients before you start. I was doing variations on 2 of the suggested fillings, cause, it's me, and naturally I have to tweak a recipe. Heh. Very rarely do I ever leave anything along. Well, unless it's my mom's recipe, then I make it as is.}:P

So you start out by putting your ground pork in a bowl, then you proceed to finely chop/mince or otherwise decimate the rest of the ingredients.}:P It's a great stress reliever, believe me. You can picture whatever you're mad at is the red cabbage that I used...

And you chop the crude out of it. I mean, really chop it up. When you think it's small enough, keep chopping.}:P Something to note- if you're making 2 fillings and using some of the same ingredients in both, be smart and chop enough for both as you go, then split it between 2 bowls for mixing. This is the smart thing to do. I are smart sometimes. Just sometimes, as you'll find out later.

Then you do the same with the scallions, aka green onions aka spring onions. The name really depends on where you live, I suppose. I grew with them being called green onions, myself. My dad ate them by the dozen, tops and all, dipped in salt before each bite. I blame my dad for my love of onions now.}:P

Now, the original recipe calls for Shitake mushrooms. I, obviously, used a mushroom blend that included oyster and baby bella mushrooms as well. AS much as I love Shitake mushrooms, they can be expensive here. I would suggest using whatever mushroom YOU prefer best.

Chop those mushrooms up finely as well. Chop until you can't chop anymore. Then chop a few more times for good measure. If you're annoyed, you'll be chopping for awhile. Heh. I was.}:P

Ok, this is called 'cheating'. I freely admit to it. Honestly? I cannot tell the difference between this chopped ginger and actual freshly chopped ginger. Maybe my palate sucks, who knows. But after all the chopping I did, I was getting tired.}:P So here we go. I used roughly a tablespoon or so of this. And what you can't see, is the minced garlic I also used.

Put all your chopped ingredients in the bowl with the ground pork. Then mix the crap out of it. I used a bamboo spoon, but if you're feeling squirelly, you can use your hands. Whatever makes you feel better. Me, I didn't really care at that point. Also, add in some sesame oil and rice vinegar as well.

After you get the pork filling mixed, cover it and stick it in the fridge. If you're only making the one filling, well, skip right on down to the dough making part and beyond. Otherwise, carry on to the pork/shrimp filling.

There are only a few differences between this filling and the other. One is the use of water chestnuts, again, chopped from here to kingdom come.

Then they get tossed in the bowl with ground pork, chopped red cabbage, chopped mushrooms, chopped homegrown organic garlic chives and minced lemongrass. Again, add in some rice vinegar and sesame oil. Mix this filling together very well, then stick it in the fridge with the pork filling while you make the dough.

Meanwhile, after ranting at the hubby because you had asked him to help you out with the making of the dumplings and well, he sat on his butt on the computer instead before finally being guilt tripped into peeling the raw shrimp for you while you chopped everything else up, you then get to chop said shrimp up into small pieces. Did I mention I was irritated that day I made these? Yeah.

So now we get to make the dough. This was the EASY part, let me just say.

Put your flour in your mixing bowl and turn it on. Gradually add the water until it incoporates into the flour and makes a sticky mess. Do it slow cause if you do it fast, well, flour flies everywhere and this is not cool, really. Trust me on this. Cleaning off the Zune, the Altec Lansing speaker, the Aerogarden, the Wusthof knife block... yeah, not fun.

When the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl as well as the bowl looks relatively clean, it's ready to be turned out onto a well floured surface.

Knead the crap out of the dough until it looks smooth and is nicely elastic. Shape it into a flattened ball, then slice it into four sections. Keep all dough you aren't working with under a damp cloth, this keeps it from drying out and becoming very hard to work with.

Now, this is the way you're SUPPOSED to do it. This did so not work for me. The little pieces? Annoyed me to no end. But you're supposed to take one section and stretch/roll it out, then cut it into 3/4"-1" pieces. Yeah. What DID work for me was keeping the dough as one piece and just pulling small pieces off, rolling them into a ball, then flattening them for rolling out thin.

You're supposed to roll the dough pieces out into 3"-4" wide circles. This was as close as I ever got to an actual circle. they need to be roughly 1/4"-1/8" thick too, thicker towards the center where the filling sits. Too thin and they'll fall apart while steaming or boiling or frying or whatever. I cannot seem to get a circle no matter how hard I try. But flattening then starting to shape the flat skin in my hands before rolling works better than simply flattening then rolling.

Jen's post HERE has perfect photos of HOW to pleat these fool things. And yes, they look absolutely nothing like my first attempt. Which annoyed me even MORE. So anyway, pleat one side, then add filling, or do it Jen's way and add filling THEN pleat them. Whichever works best for you. As I got going on them, I did get better at the pleating, but it took awhile.

Note- Do NOT ask the hubby to fill the dumplings as you pleat them. Just don't. It's a control thing, and I swear, I didn't mean to get so mad at him when I thought he was putting too much filling in them. I did not order him out of the kitchen. You have no proof. Nope.

If I'd thought about it, I'd have walked down to the Asian Market a block away and looked for actual Napa Cabbage. But instead, I used the red cabbage I used in the fillings to steam the dumplings on. I also do not have one of those really cool, niftyneatokeen bamboo steamers. But I will have one eventually, yessirree I will...

Instead I used the steamer insert that came with my pan set. It worked beautifully. sort of.

A word of warning. See how many dumplings are in my steamer? See how they touch just a wee bit? Yeah. This is not a good thing, believe me. Cause when they're done and you're attempting to remove them, the areas were they touch will invariably rip holes in them. Yup. This is not cool, really it's not.

So lesson is, fewer in a small steamer is better. *nods sagely*

That night, because of my mood, I only made 16 dumplings. The rest got shoved in the fridge and made up the next day. I will admit, I did , nicely even!, ask the hubby to make up the suggested dipping sauce. I enjoyed it, he didn't and used his sweet chili sauce instead.

The next day, I made up the rest of the dumplings and froze them. They freeze beautifully. You just set them out on a cookie sheet, not touching, stick them in the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour, then toss them in a Ziploc bag to cook up whenever you want. I had some for lunch the day after.

Steamed, with the dipping sauce.

Boiled up in a clear broth with fresh veggies. They were very filling, needless to say. And despite everything, I'd definitely make them again. Mark agreed.

THE RECIPE-

Chinese dumplings/potstickers (aka gyoza in Japanese)

pork filling:
1 lb (450g) ground pork
4 large napa cabbage leaves, minced
3 stalks green onions, minced
7 shitake mushrooms, minced (if dried - rehydrated and rinsed carefully)
1/2 cup (75g) bamboo shoots, minced
1/4 (55g) cup ginger root, minced
3 tbsp (40g) soy sauce
2 tbsp (28g) sesame oil
2 tbsp (16g) corn starch

OR

shrimp filling:
1/2 lb (225g) raw shrimp, peeled, deveined, and coarsely chopped
1/2 lb (225g) ground pork
3 stalks green onions, minced
1/4 cup (55g) ginger root, minced
1 cup (142g) water chestnuts, minced
1 tsp (5g) salt
3 tbsp (40g) sesame oil
2 tbsp (16g) corn starch

dough: (double this for the amount of filling, but easier to make it in 2 batches - or just halve the filling recipe)
2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (113g) warm water *** you may need to add more water***
flour for work surface

dipping sauce:
2 parts soy sauce
1 part vinegar (red wine or black)
a few drops of sesame oil
chili garlic paste (optional)
minced ginger (optional)
minced garlic (optional)
minced green onion (optional)
sugar (optional)

Combine all filling ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly (I mix by clean hand). Cover and refrigerate until ready to use (up to a day, but preferably within an hour or two).

Make the dough, Method 1: Place the flour in the work bowl of a food processor with the dough blade. Run the processor and pour the warm water in until incorporated. Pour the contents into a sturdy bowl or onto a work surface and knead until uniform and smooth. The dough should be firm and silky to the touch and not sticky.[Note: it’s better to have a moist dough and have to incorporate more flour than to have a dry and pilling dough and have to incorporate more water).

Make the dough, Method 2 (my mom’s instructions): In a large bowl mix flour with 1/4 cup of water and stir until water is absorbed. Continue adding water one teaspoon at a time and mixing thoroughly until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. We want a firm dough that is barely sticky to the touch.

[EDIT: 5/26/09] There have been two complaints posted about a dry dough and I realize that this rests in the problem of measuring flour which has a different density and hence weight for 2 cups depending on how you scoop it. That is why I also list the weight: 250g. Flour tends to settle over time, so when I scoop it out, I shake several cups' worth back into the container before taking a final scoop of soft, fluffy, flour and I get 250g for 2 cups. When you knead the dough, if it feels hard and dry, then you can add more water. [Warning: it will NOT be a soft bread dough, so don't expect it to be, but it shouldn't be a brick either.] It is perfectly fine to use more than the 1/2 cup listed in the recipe as everyone's climate and flours vary. Use your judgment - this is what being a Daring Cook is about. We are trying to cultivate a sense of intuition so that recipes are general guidelines from which you can expand your own style.

Both dough methods: Knead the dough about twenty strokes then cover with a damp towel for 15 minutes. Take the dough and form a flattened dome. Cut into strips about 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide. Shape the strips into rounded long cylinders. On a floured surface, cut the strips into 3/4 inch pieces. Press palm down on each piece to form a flat circle (you can shape the corners in with your fingers). With a rolling pin, roll out a circular wrapper from each flat disc. Take care not to roll out too thin or the dumplings will break during cooking - about 1/16th inch. Leave the centers slightly thicker than the edges. Place a tablespoon of filling in the center of each wrapper and fold the dough in half, pleating the edges along one side (see images in post for how to fold pleats). Keep all unused dough under damp cloth.

To boil: Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add dumplings to pot. Boil the dumplings until they float.

To steam: Place dumplings on a single layer of napa cabbage leaves or on a well-greased surface in a steamer basket with lid. Steam covered for about 6 minutes.

Thirft Store find...

Fri, 29 May 2009 15:06:26 GMT

So yesterday, I went down the street to the Goodwill store to take a look at the plates that might be there, so I could start a nice collection of plates for photographing food.

Well, I found a couple good condition plates, and then, I spotted something I'd been looking for for years...

This would be an old fashion Trifle dessert bowl. I say old fashioned because this style is rather hard to find, in my experience, and even then, they aren't over half an inch thick and extremely heavy. I've wanted one for years. Years, I say. YEARS.

The kid who rang me up said there was a chip on the bottom, did i still want it? Of course i still wanted it! I asked him if he realised how difficult it was to find one exactly like this, and that I'd been looking for years for one. Who cares about a small chip in the foot, the bowl is intact and that's what matters. Besides, you can't even SEE the chip unless you pick the thing up and look.

It was an absolute steal at $2.50 too! The most expensive thing i bought there yesterday. The plates ran from 25 cents to 50 cents each. I've no idea how much a Trifle bowl would be brand new, honestly, but most certainly not $2.50!

And now.. to make a Trifle!}:P

The Daring Bakers May Challenge- Strudel

Wed, 27 May 2009 15:52:43 GMT

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of ‘make life sweeter!’ and Courtney of ‘Coco Cooks’. They have chosen Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafes of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

I’ve never made Strudel before. And this is really, really long, with lots of photos, so settle in. Got your Tea? Good…

No, really, I haven’t. I swear. So this was truly a fun first time recipe for me. Heck, even my mom has never made strudel before. Of course, now, she says when we come to Michigan in August, I have to make it for her. Heh.

After gathering everything I needed to make the strudel dough- the REAL challenge here, I then read and reread the directions, yet again. Heck, I’ve never made this before, so I wanted to make sure I didn’t mess up too badly. You know, like messing up on the measurement of lemon juice for the ricotta. Once was enough, thank you very much.

After mixing the flour and salt in my KitchenAid mixer- which has gotten more use in the last few months than it ever did the first few years I’ve had it, and I’ve had it a good 3-4 years now, and mixing the water, vinegar and oil in a measuring cup, I then added the liquids to the dry, mixed for a minute or two with the paddle attachment, then switched to the dough hook.
You know, I’ve been considering getting rid of my bread machine lately. After all, I only use it to mix the dough in, and haven’t used it to actually BAKE bread in years, and since the KitchenAid has a dough hook, so really, what’s the point? Heh.

Anyway…

As I said, mixed the dough for a bit. Then I turned it out on my work table. Best thing we’ve built by hand in quite sometime, I must say. There, I kneaded and beat the crap out of the dough for at least 2 minutes. The directions say to literally throw the dough down hard, several times. Let me just say- making strudel dough is a great stress reliever. So is making fun of Land of the Lost episodes on the SciFi marathon as I type this entry up on Mark’s computer, 2 days before I actually post it.}:P

After kneading, beating and generally mistreating the defenseless dough, place it on a plate and lightly oil it. I actually used up all my olive oil IN the dough, so had just a few drops to oil it with. Having just the right amount of olive oil for the dough? Yeah, couldn’t have planned that better. Oh, wait… it wasn’t planned. Hee. Anyway, cover the dough and let rest for 30=90 minutes. Audax Artifex said it was better to let it rest overnight, as that’s what he did, and let me just say- he makes me sick}:P I lost count of how many Strudels he made for this challenge, each just as nice and delicious looking as the last. Hmph.

So, while I let the dough rest for 2 hours, I made the filling…

The filling for this first strudel was chicken & apple sausage, redskin potatoes, and red onions. Simple, but yummy.

I chopped everything up into bite sized pieces. Yes, I munched on the sausage as I cut it up. It’s good, what can I say, and I was hungry. Note- don’t make this particular filling while hungry. Bad idea.

I melted half a stick of Kerrygold Garlic & Herb Irish Butter (YUM), then sauteed the red onions until just starting to sweat, added the sausage, and sauteed until thoroughly mixed and hot. Man was my kitchen smelling good by now. Meanwhile, the potatoes were boiled up until mostly cooked, then drained.

I’ve mentioned that I love these recycled melamine bowls my mom in law gave me, haven’t I? They come in handy so much. Hee. Drained the cooked potatoes, then dumped the sausage and onions over the top. I scraped the pan very well, musn’t waste any of that yummy irish butter, after all. Then it all got mixed up thoroughly. Ok, I’ll admit, that I also ate some of the filling for lunch too. Hey, had to make sure it tasted good after all. And I had no guinea pigs- I mean taste testers handy.}:P

After I made the filling, then I got the toasted bread crumb fixings together. I like using panko breadcrumbs. They’re lighter, bigger and just taste nicer to me. Melt the butter in a pan. Keep an eye on it, especially if you use unsalted butter like I did. Maybe it’s just my luck, but, umm, I burned the first bit of butter. So, umm.. yeah.

Melted second batch of butter, kept a closer eye on it. Then dumped in the breadcrumbs. They seem to need to be stirred almost constantly, as they will burn. Luckily, that didn’t happen . Hee. Then, I put them in a bowl and set them aside to wait on the dough to finish its nap… er, finish resting.

Now comes the fun part. I spent way too much time on this piece of PFD Kona Cotton (Prepared For Dyeing), getting every last bit of lint off of both sides. I did all that even before I made the dough or the filling. This was the hardest and longest part of the process. Well, that and rubbing it really well with flour.}:P

So. You place the thoroughly rested dough on the well floured cloth, and you flatten the devil out of it. Seriously. You roll it out as thin as you possibly can with a rolling pin before you even attempt to stretch it. The thinner you can roll it out, the better it’ll stretch in my experience.

After you roll the dough out, then you get to stretch it. Reaching underneath and starting in the center, I gradually pulled the dough towards all four sides, stretching it as much as possible. I was proud of myself in that I managed to get it tissue thin on the first try. And it really wasn’t that hard. The Kona was great for stretching and holding the dough in place. It’s now been designated as nothing but a strudel dough stretching cloth.

Oh, yeah, after stretching to 2 ft wide by 3ft long, trim the thicker edges off.

I melted some more unsalted butter and used my silicon brush to completely coat the dough with the butter. The directions say to use your fingers or a feather pastry brush. I’ve never heard of a feather pastry brush, honestly. Huh. Then, you take the breadcrumbs, which have hopefully thoroughly cooled by now, and sprinkle them over the entire dough. The directions were a bit ambiguous on that part, but yes, it is over the entire dough.

Yes, I spent way too much time making sure the breadcrumbs were spread mostly evenly. I admit it.

After the breadcrumbs, comes the yummy, yummy filling. It gets placed along one end of the dough, roughly 3 inches in from the end, almost all the way across. Th filling, of course, has cooled quite a bit, but that’s ok! You don’t want it really hot, it’d cook the dough as it’s placed on it, before you even roll it up, after all. And yup, still tastes good cooled too.}:P

Then I got to roll it all up. And roll, and roll… I think I got about 3 layers/rolls out of that one piece of stretched dough. Which, from what I understand, is about how many you want.

Then, I very carefully, took the end of the cloth, and rather than even attempting to pick the strudel up to move it, I rolled it over and onto my rectangular baking stone, curved it into a somewhat horseshoe shape, well, I guess that’s a horseshoe shape, heh. After tucking the ends under and thoroughly coating the entire thing in melted butter, I sprinkled the breadcrumbs that fell out of the ends as I rolled the strudel over the entire thing.

And into the oven it went, for roughly 30 minutes.

Dinner is served. We decided that next time, I’m adding feta cheese and serving each slice with a dollop of sour cream on the side. Which, incidentally, we had leftovers the next night and served it with sour cream and yes, it was even better. OmNomNom.

But wait! That’s not all!

The very next day, I made not one, but TWO more strudels…

For one, I used Granny Smith apples, cranberries, raisins and pecans. The other I used a locally made rhubarb pie filling. I love rhubarb. Grew up on it back home. Mark? He’d never had rhubarb. Strange, strange man.

I used my little used apple peeler/corer/slicer thingy for the apples. It took a bit of doing to remember how to use it exactly. Heh. In the end, I had apple juice up both arms AND on the floor.}:P Caena enjoyed it, at least.

I mixed the cranberries and raisins together with good ol’ Capt Morgan’s Spiced Rum and let them sit nearly as long as I let the dough for these strudels rest- just over 2 hours. The cranberries and raisins plumped up nicely, leaving little liquid behind. This might not have been a good thing, incidentally. }:/

To the cinnamon/sugar mix, I added a dash of ginger as well. I also added a splash of lime juice to the apples.

I used pecan because, well... I forgot to get walmuts, as I thought I had some. Whoops. Oh well.

After the apples and cranberries/raisins were mixed together, I set them aside while I took care of the dough. Pretty much the exact same steps as the first strudel, with the exception of the filling.

This time I got a pic of exactly how I moved the strudel to the baking stone. Hee. After buttering the outside well, especially the ends where the edges are tucked under, I sprinkled the whole thing with unrefined Demerara Sugar. Then into the oven for 30 minutes while I made the rhubarb strudel.

The Harrisonburg Shenandoah Heritage Market is a wonderful Farmer’s Market, roughly 2 hrs from me. There’s a ‘store’ in it called ‘Grandma’s Pantry’, run by local Mennonites. Every spice, herb, seasoning, condiment, flour, sugar, baking supply, meats, cheeses, even candy you could think of. Quite a bit homemade, like the rhubarb pie filling. Needless to say, whenever we go, I spend way too much money there. Heh.

Having only one rectangle stone, I had to use my round stone for this strudel. It worked fine too, as this one was thinner than the apple. I also thoroughly buttered this one and sprinkled it with Unrefined Demerara Sugar. Meanwhile, the apple strudel came out of the oven while I was making this one. Then into the oven this one went, for 30 minutes as well.

Both strudels turned out nicely, although, the rhubarb one did managed to spring not one, but 2 leaks. Hmph.

And now… apple strudel and rhubarb strudel photo spam…

I thoroughly enjoyed both sweet strudels. Mark… not so much. I figured he’d not like the rhubarb, having never had it before, but the apple?? That surprised both of us, really. He couldn’t say exactly why he didn’t like it either. I’m thinking it was because it wasn’t an apple pie type of filling.}:/ Oh well, can’t win them all, I guess. Besides, it left more for me to enjoy!

THE RECIPE-

Preparation time
Total: 2 hours 15 minutes – 3 hours 30 minutes

15-20 min to make dough
30-90 min to let dough rest/to prepare the filling
20-30 min to roll out and stretch dough
10 min to fill and roll dough
30 min to bake
30 min to cool

Apple strudel
from “Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague” by Rick Rodgers

2 tablespoons (30 ml) golden rum
3 tablespoons (45 ml) raisins
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (80 g) sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick / 115 g) unsalted butter, melted, divided
1 1/2 cups (350 ml) fresh bread crumbs
strudel dough (recipe below)
1/2 cup (120 ml, about 60 g) coarsely chopped walnuts
2 pounds (900 g) tart cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut into ¼ inch-thick slices (use apples that hold their shape during baking)

1. Mix the rum and raisins in a bowl. Mix the cinnamon and sugar in another bowl.

2. Heat 3 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the breadcrumbs and cook whilst stirring until golden and toasted. This will take about 3 minutes. Let it cool completely.

3. Put the rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a large baking sheet with baking paper (parchment paper). Make the strudel dough as described below. Spread about 3 tablespoons of the remaining melted butter over the dough using your hands (a bristle brush could tear the dough, you could use a special feather pastry brush instead of your hands). Sprinkle the buttered dough with the bread crumbs. Spread the walnuts about 3 inches (8 cm) from the short edge of the dough in a 6-inch-(15cm)-wide strip. Mix the apples with the raisins (including the rum), and the cinnamon sugar. Spread the mixture over the walnuts.

4. Fold the short end of the dough onto the filling. Lift the tablecloth at the short end of the dough so that the strudel rolls onto itself. Transfer the strudel to the prepared baking sheet by lifting it. Curve it into a horseshoe to fit. Tuck the ends under the strudel. Brush the top with the remaining melted butter.

5. Bake the strudel for about 30 minutes or until it is deep golden brown. Cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing. Use a serrated knife and serve either warm or at room temperature. It is best on the day it is baked.

Strudel dough
from “Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague” by Rick Rodgers

1 1/3 cups (200 g) unbleached flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons (105 ml) water, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar

1. Combine the flour and salt in a stand-mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix the water, oil and vinegar in a measuring cup. Add the water/oil mixture to the flour with the mixer on low speed. You will get a soft dough. Make sure it is not too dry, add a little more water if necessary.
Take the dough out of the mixer. Change to the dough hook. Put the dough ball back in the mixer. Let the dough knead on medium until you get a soft dough ball with a somewhat rough surface.

2. Take the dough out of the mixer and continue kneading by hand on an unfloured work surface. Knead for about 2 minutes. Pick up the dough and throw it down hard onto your working surface occasionally.
Shape the dough into a ball and transfer it to a plate. Oil the top of the dough ball lightly. Cover the ball tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to stand for 30-90 minutes (longer is better).

3. It would be best if you have a work area that you can walk around on all sides like a 36 inch (90 cm) round table or a work surface of 23 x 38 inches (60 x 100 cm). Cover your working area with table cloth, dust it with flour and rub it into the fabric. Put your dough ball in the middle and roll it out as much as you can.
Pick the dough up by holding it by an edge. This way the weight of the dough and gravity can help stretching it as it hangs. Using the back of your hands to gently stretch and pull the dough. You can use your forearms to support it.

4. The dough will become too large to hold. Put it on your work surface. Leave the thicker edge of the dough to hang over the edge of the table. Place your hands underneath the dough and stretch and pull the dough thinner using the backs of your hands. Stretch and pull the dough until it's about 2 feet (60 cm) wide and 3 feet (90 cm) long, it will be tissue-thin by this time. Cut away the thick dough around the edges with scissors. The dough is now ready to be filled.

Tips
- Ingredients are cheap so we would recommend making a double batch of the dough, that way you can practice the pulling and stretching of the dough with the first batch and if it doesn't come out like it should you can use the second batch to give it another try;
- The tablecloth can be cotton or polyester;
- Before pulling and stretching the dough, remove your jewelry from hands and wrists, and wear short-sleeves;
- To make it easier to pull the dough, you can use your hip to secure the dough against the edge of the table;
- Few small holes in the dough is not a problem as the dough will be rolled, making (most of) the holes invisible.

Both Courtney and I did a trial run on making the strudel. Below are our notes:

Courtney's notes
- She couldn't get it to stretch to 2 feet by 3 feet, it turned out more like 2 feet by 2 feet. But the dough was tissue thin nevertheless;
- She got some serious holes, but after rolling it wasn't noticeable;
- She used a large cheese cloth which helped manipulate and stretch the dough more than a heavier cloth would have.

My notes
- I made the dough by hand, just mixed the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon. Kneaded it for about 5 min like you would bread dough. This worked as well. Haven't tried using a stand mixer so I don't know how it compares.
- Instead of cider vinegar I used red wine vinegar;
- I used bread flour;
- Picking up the dough to let it stretch didn't work well for me, holes appeared pretty much instantly. Instead I stretched the dough while it was lying on the tablecloth by putting my hands underneath and stretching it out further and further

Lunch...

Tue, 26 May 2009 18:49:13 GMT

Drunken Goat Cheese, Genoa Salami, and Ritz crackers.

Expect a post about this weekend coming soon, more food posts, and a current work in progress beadwork post...

And Caena pics, and a video. That one up next, I do believe.

Dinner Tonight...

Fri, 22 May 2009 18:47:29 GMT

Boneless chicken breasts marinating in Blue Moon Belgian White Ale, tarragon, parsley, lemon peel, orange peel, garlic, sea salt and cracked black pepper.

To be grilled later tonight with white asparagus.

Don't you wish you were at my house tonight? }:P

Pancetta/Cream Cheese/Garlic Beef Tenderloin

Tue, 19 May 2009 01:57:20 GMT

Mark's boss sent home a recipe with him a few weeks ago, no name, just the recipe. She claimed it was excellent.

Well, I finally got around to making it this weekend.

Contains, technically, 3 ingrediants. But me being me, I put the garlic on the INSIDE, rather than the outside. So that makes it four ingrediants.}:P

You start out by setting the package of cream cheese out so it comes to room temp. Then you open the beef tenderloin package. Hopefully you'll have better luck than I did and will find one that's considerably nicer looking.}:/

Butterfly cut the tenderloin. Let me just say right now, for the record- I have never, ever butterflied anything before. So, yeah, it looked like I butchered it. And yes, I know that's a Wusthof tomato knife. I don't have an actual fillet knife... yet. I think I did a reasonably good job... for a butcher. Hee.

Take your meat tenderizer and pound the crap out of the now mutilated-I mean, butterflied tenderloin. Get it as thin as you can, or a reasonable facsimile thereof. Caena really did not like me beating the crap out of the meat. She tried to hide under Mark's desk. Poor puppers. Anyway, beat it thin.

Cover it with Pancetta slices. Good stuff, Pancetta. Only, it can be a pain to work with cause it's so stinkin' thin. I have some left over too, so I think I'll fry it up and eat it on a salad harvested from my garden. Yum.

Place the block of room temp cream cheese on the Pancetta covered beaten thin tenderloin. Yes, I know the Pancetta looks different in this picture. I tried to center the fool thing on the board better, and well, you see how well THAT worked out. Heh.

Smear it all over the tenderloin. For the record- I think it'd be easier if it was warmer than just room temp, honestly. It might have spread a bit easier. Note to self for next time.

Now the recipe says to rub garlic and black pepper all over the outside. I like garlic. I really like garlic. So I had a garlic 'paste' stuffs that I used and I smeared it liberally all over the cream cheese instead. I think next time, I'll throw in some basil or thyme too. I think that'd be good as well.

Roll up the tenderloin as snugly as you possibly can. It's messy, and splippery, so just do your best. Then, you can either use toothpicks to secure it closed, or as I attempted to do, tie it shut with kitchen string. Yeah, I've never really tied up a meat roll before either. But hey, it worked.

I then wrapped the whole thing in tin foil and stuck it in the fridge for about 20 minutes to firm up the cream cheese a bit.

Meanwhile, you're preheating the oven to 400 degrees F. In a frying pan, melt 1/4 stick of butter and some olive oil. I used unsalted butter. Take your tenderloin out of the fridge if that's where you stuck it and unwrap it.

Put it in the pan with the melted butter and olive oil, liberally sprinkling it with black pepper on all sides before you do. Then, you want to carefully sear the outside, all the way around, just browning it nicely. Takes maybe 3-4 minutes.

Put it on a cookie sheet and stick that bad boy in the oven. I also poured the butter/olive oil mixture over the top for added flavor. You want to roast it at 400 degrees for 20 minutes per pound. so, since I used a 1.57lb tenderloin, I did mine for 30 minutes. Which, really wasn't enough in my opinion.}:/ My guinea pigs- I mean taste testers didn't care though. Heh.

When finished, remove from oven to cutting surface and let rest. We had a great laugh over how this looked. Rather suggestive, don't you think? I was highly amused. Yes, yes, it's the little things. Erm. Um. Anyway... moving right along...

Slice that sucker up. After you remove the strings of course. It's rather difficult to slice up with the string still on. Believe me, I know. I don't know why, but I tried to slice it with the string still on. Huh. Anyway, slice it into about 1/4-1/2 inch thick slices. YES, IT'S MESSY. But oh was the finger licking good. Not. A.Word. *glares*

See what I mean about maybe an extra 5 minutes or so? The guys (Mark and Charlie) like their meat medium-rare, I prefer medium-well. So needless to say, my portion was microwaved for a minute or so.}:P While the tenderloin was resting, I deglazed the pans and made a nice sauce with the drippings and such.

Served simply with steamed sweet corn and roasted garlic artisan bread. Sadly, there were no leftovers.}:(

No name beef tenderloin
aka
Pancetta/Cream Cheese/Garlic Beef Tenderloin

1 1.5-2lb beef tenderloin
1/4lb Pancetta, sliced thin
1 8ounce package of cream cheese, room temp or warmer
Garlic (I used paste)
Black pepper

Start by butterflying the tenderloin. Pound as flat as possible with tenderizer. Once butterflied and flattened, apply slices of pancetta over the entire tenderloin.

Spread the cream cheese over the pancetta. Here is where I also smeared the garlic paste over the cream cheese.

Roll tenderloin up and secure with either toothpicks or kitchen string/twine.

Melt 1/4 stick of butter and Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a pan. Brown all sides of tenderloin for 3-4 minutes in pan. Place on baking sheet and place in 400 degree F oven.

Bake for 20 minutes per pound. Let rest about 5-10 minutes, then slice thinly (about 1/4-1/2 inch thick). Serve warm.

Zuni Ricotta Gnocchi Warning! LONG!}:P

Thu, 14 May 2009 17:24:36 GMT

So, last month, I posted about joining The Daring Bakers, with my Dark Chocolate-Green tea Cheesecake.

Well, with this post, I announce that I've also joined The Daring Cooks!

The Daring Cooks is a new group, affiliated with the Daring Bakers, and also resides at The Daring Kitchen. This is the very first Daring Cooks Monthly Challenge, EVER. WooHoo! Party time!

So for this Challenge, CreamPuffs in Venice and La Mia Cucina, the Founders of The Daring Kitchen, chose a recipe from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, Zuni Ricotta Gnocchi.

Well, what a way to inagurate the Daring Cooks, let me tell ya. I'd never made Gnocchi, let alone even eaten it. Yes, yes, I know, where the devil have I been, in a cave?

I've always wanted to make homemade ricotta though, and guess what this recipe calls for? Go on, guess! }:P

Yes, I got to make ricotta for this recipe! Whee! I've mentioned I'm a tad insane, yes?

Anyway, there were several links to good recipes and howtos for making your own ricotta, one of which, I actually had already stashed in my Favorites folder and that was the one I used.
Eggs on Sunday has a very simple, easy to double recipe. Unless of course, you're me and misread something.

First, I gathered everything I thought I needed to make not only the ricotta, but the actual gnocchi the next day. I like to be prepared, most of the time. First, I got the beef in their marinades.

What? Oh. I forgot to mention that I also smoked out 6lbs of beef the day I made the gnocchi, didn't I? Well, I did. That'll be a separate post.}:P

First, you pour your milk and heavy cream in a large heavy bottom pan. Mine are stainless steel, and I lurves them, yes, yes we do. Although, I wish I had more. But then, I'd need a pot rack to hang from the ceiling and Mark would run into it all the time cause I'm short, he's tall... oh, right, sorry.

To your cream mix, add your salt. Simple, so far, yes? Yeah, you keep telling yourself that. Then when you get to the lemon juice, you'll mess up too! Unless you're not me, of course. Heh. Then you most likely won't mess up.}:P

Put that pan on your stove and gradually bring it up to just below a boil, to a nice steady simmer. You don't want to scald your cream/milk. And let me just say, I'm very glad someone elaborated exactly how to scald milk... somewhere, when I read it... cause I didn't know. And the funny thing, my mom didn't know either. Ack! But now I do, and when I go home in August, I can make this for her and she'll know too!

This is the lemon juice. I figured it'd be easier to have it already premeasured. Then all I have to do is have Mark carefully pour it in the hot cream/milk stuffs so I can get a photograph...

HOWEVER. That lemon juice? Was not enough, as per the recipe. Yeah. I screwed up and read TABLESPOONS as TEASPOONS. Whoops. So I had to hurry up and measure it out AGAIn, so it'd be right. Won't make that mistake again, once was enough.

So, like I was saying, pour your lemon juice into the simmering cream/milk stuffs, stirring to thoroughly mix it in. If you're like me, you get your S.O or a teenager to do the pouring so you can photograph it with your niftyneatokeen camera. Have i mentioned that I love my new camera in this post yet? No? well, there ya go.}:P

Let the mix sit for a minute or so, and watch the magic of chemistry (I think? Yes?) in action as the curds separate from the whey. I had giggle fits as this happened, seriously. It was that cool to me. I know, I know, easily amused. Mark thinks so too.

Meanwhile, take your cheesecloth and line a strainer over a bowl with it. I used a double layer.

If you don't take photographs, then carefully pour the mix into the cheesecloth covered strainer. Otherwise, have the hubby do it, so you can get cool action shots! Whee!

Pat it all into the cheesecloth, resist the urge to taste the hot ricotta. No, I did not taste it at this point. that's my story and I'm sticking to it. *attempts to look innocent* Ok, yes, I tasted it. Then I went in the living room and shared a bit with Mark who announced it was delicious and definitely tasted like ricotta go you.

After it cools for a few hours, then tie up the cheesecloth and hang the cheese suspended over a bowl in the fridge for at least 24 hours. You want it as dry as you possibly can get it for the gnocchi. Do whatever you want with the whey. Apparently, some bake with it, and I'll have to keep that in mind for the next time, instead of dumping it down the sink, cause I didn't know. Stupidstupidstupid.

(Recipe doubles EASILY, and you'll need 2 cups for the gnocchi)
Fresh, Homemade Ricotta
From Gourmet, April 2006

The ingredients listed below will make about 1 cup’s worth of ricotta, which is half the original recipe. It doubles easily.

Ingredients
1 quart whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp coarse salt (kosher or sea salt)
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions
Combine the milk, cream, and salt in a heavy saucepan. Separately, line a colander with cheesecloth and set it in a large bowl. Measure out the lemon juice and set it aside.

Bring the milk mixture to a simmer over medium high heat, stirring occasionally with a spatula to prevent scalding. Once the mixture has reached a steady simmer, add the lemon juice and stir gently with the spatula — quickly, just to blend. Let the mixture sit for about 1 minute, turning down the heat slightly so it stays at a simmer but doesn’t reach a hard, rolling boil. Stir with the spatula after about 1 minute, then let it sit another minute until it looks like most of the liquid has separated into curds and whey.

Drain the mixture into the cheesecloth-lined colander set over a bowl, and let it drain at room temperature for 1 hour. Transfer the ricotta to an airtight container and refrigerate.

Makes about 1 cup.

THE NEXT DAY, WE MAKE GNOCCHI!

Now, the original recipe calls for butter and sage. Well, I used Genovese Basil instead. Hey, I had plenty, it was fresh and well, it'd go to waste otherwise. And man is it good.
So chop whatever herb you use rather well.

Melt your butter in a microwave safe bowl. Then add your chopped herbs. Mix together very well, inhale the lovely scents it produces, restrain yourself from tasting it and set it aside.}:P I did not taste it this time, I swear. But boy did it smell good!

Take out your fresh ricotta and place it in a stainer. I used a plastic spoon to push it through, but you can use whatever works for you. You need to mash all the ricotta through the stainer to break up the large curds. This took a while for me, as it was definitely dry. I think this was the hardest part of the entire thing, honestly. by no means the longest part, but definitely the hardest.

Lightly beat 2 eggs. Now, lightly apparently varies wildly. Hrm. I love those melamine recycled bowls. My mom in law got them for me. Marks hates them, says they're too bright. Oh well, that's why I also have a stainless steel set and a glass set. Hee.

Add the lightly beaten eggs, mix, then add the herbs and melted butter. Mix thoroughly, BUT gently. You want the mixture to stay somewhat fluffy. Man, it smells so good at this point. I also added a bit of garlic powder here too. Yummy.

Add your grated parm-reggiano cheese and mix well again. Resist the urge to taste. No! Don't do it! Bad Wolf! Shame on me!}:P

Doesn't that look... interesting? Hee. It smelled great though, so I had high hopes. Meanwhile, Charlie came over and he and Mark were beating each other up on Killzone 2?3?, and I was running back and forth between the smoker grill and the kitchen, adding applewood chips, yadda, yadda. But that's another, shorter by far post...

In a shallow dish, make a bed of flour. I use KAF's organic artisan flour(usually, but not this time apparently), and I think that may have helped with the overall flavor and texture of my finished gnocchi.

Take roughly a teaspoon full of gnocchi batter?dough? mixture on a tablespoon. Now, here's where I varied from the directions as to forming the gnocchi. Instead of dropping it directly into the flour, coating it, THEN forming it in my hand, I cheated a bit. I used the spoon to form the plump oval, by rolling the bit of mixture back and forth rapidly on the bowl of the spoon. Then, I tipped it off into the flour, and used a fork to gently flip it around and coat it in flour. After that, they got placed on a wax paper covered cookie sheet, while I waited for the small pan of salted water to come to a gentle boil on the stove behind me.

Once the water in the small pan is gently boiling, take 2 'test' gnocchi and carefully plop them in. They'll sink to the bottom and bob back up again. When they do, you wait 2-3 minutes for them to fully cook. When I did these, and the guys taste tested them with me, the general concensus was go 3-4 minutes. But your time will vary, that's why you do test one first! Smart, eh? Kudos to whoever thought of that.}:P

After the test gnocchi are done, use a slotted spoon to remove them and let them cool a moment before cutting them open, tasting, etc. Meanwhile, start your large pan of heavily salted water for the rest. I got roughly 43 gnocchi out of my batch, as you can see. I'm thinking, if I'd been a bit more precise (hahahahahahahahaha! I crack myself up sometimes, really, I do), I'd have gotten more.

Carefully add the rest to the gently boiling by now water, and watch the time. I ended up using a strainer to hold them as I removed them with the slotted spoon prior to plating. It's amazing how quickly 3-4 minutes go by, really it is. In a separate pan, I had (jarred, gasp!) spaghetti sauce (Bertoli Olive Oil and Roasted Garlic, yum) heating up to serve over the gnocchi, and by this time, had pulled the beef off the smoker and it was resting under a tinfoil blanket.

By the time I got to plating, there was rumbles of mutiny from the living room. But isn't that a pretty picture of fresh cooked ricotta gnocchi? I thought so too. The guys could care less, they just wanted to eat.

Zuni Ricotta Gnocchi with olive oil & roasted garlic tomato sauce, served with strawberry mead marinated, applewood smoked beef, and roasted garlic artisan bread.

I thoroughly enjoyed these gnocchi. It was fun to make, and now I want to make more! Some expressed a dislike, saying there was too much of an 'eggy' taste to them, but we didn't notice that. They were very light, yet filling. Delicately flavored with the Genovese Basil and cheeses, and that's what we tasted.

Make again? Most definitely!

Zuni Ricotta Gnocchi

For the gnocchi:

1 pound (454 grams/16 ounces) fresh ricotta (2 cups)
2 large cold eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon (1/2 ounce) unsalted butter
2 or 3 fresh sage leaves, or a few pinches of freshly grated nutmeg, or a few pinches of chopped lemon zest (all optional)
½ ounce Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated (about ¼ cup very lightly packed)
about ¼ teaspoon salt (a little more if using kosher salt)
all-purpose flour for forming the gnocchi

For the gnocchi sauce:

8 tablespoons (227 grams/1/4 pound/4 ounces) butter, sliced
2 teaspoons water

To make great gnocchi, the ricotta has to be fairly smooth. Place the drained ricotta in a large bowl and mash it as best as you can with a rubber spatula or a large spoon (it’s best to use a utensil with some flexibility here). As you mash the ricotta, if you noticed that you can still see curds, then press the ricotta through a strainer to smooth it out as much as possible.

Add the lightly beaten eggs to the mashed ricotta.

Melt the tablespoon of butter. As it melts, add in the sage if you’re using it. If not, just melt the butter and add it to the ricotta mixture. Add in any flavouring that you’re using (i.e., nutmeg, lemon zest, etc.). If you’re not using any particular flavouring, that’s fine. Add the Parmigiano-Reggiano and the salt.

Beat all the ingredients together very well. You should end up with a soft and fluffy batter with no streaks (everything should be mixed in very well).

Fill a small pot with water and bring to a boil. When it boils, salt the water generously and keep it at a simmer. You will use this water to test the first gnocchi that you make to ensure that it holds together and that your gnocchi batter isn’t too damp.

In a large, shallow baking dish or on a sheet pan, make a bed of all-purpose flour that’s ½ an inch deep. With a spatula, scrape the ricotta mixture away from the sides of the bowl and form a large mass in the center of your bowl. Using a tablespoon, scoop up about 2 to 3 teaspoons of batter and then holding the spoon at an angle, use your finger tip to gently push the ball of dough from the spoon into the bed of flour.

At this point you can either shake the dish or pan gently to ensure that the flour covers the gnocchi or use your fingers to very gently dust the gnocchi with flour. Gently pick up the gnocchi and cradle it in your hand rolling it to form it in an oval as best as you can, at no point should you squeeze it. What you’re looking for is an oval lump of sorts that’s dusted in flour and plump.

Gently place your gnocchi in the simmering water. It will sink and then bob to the top. From the time that it bobs to the surface, you want to cook the gnocchi until it’s just firm. This could take 3 to 5 minutes. If your gnocchi begins to fall apart, this means that the ricotta cheese was probably still too wet. You can remedy this by beating a teaspoon of egg white into your gnocchi batter. If your gnocchi batter was fluffy but the sample comes out heavy, add a teaspoon of beaten egg to the batter and beat that in. Test a second gnocchi to ensure success.

Form the rest of your gnocchi. You can put 4 to 6 gnocchi in the bed of flour at a time. But don’t overcrowd your bed of flour or you may damage your gnocchi as you coat them.

Have a sheet pan ready to rest the formed gnocchi on. Line the sheet pan with wax or parchment paper and dust it with flour. You can cook the gnocchi right away, however, Judy Rodgers recommends storing them in the refrigerator for an hour prior to cooking to allow them to firm up.

Have a large skillet ready to go. Place the butter and water for the sauce in the skillet and set aside.

In the largest pan or pot that you have (make sure it’s wide), bring at least 2 quarts of water to a boil (you can use as much as 3 quarts of water if your pot permits). You need a wide pot or pan so that your gnocchi won’t bump into each other and damage each other. Once the water is boiling, salt it generously.

Drop the gnocchi into the water one by one. Once they float to the top, cook them for 3 to 5 minutes (as in the case with the test gnocchi). With a slotted spoon, remove the gnocchi from the boiling water and gently drop into the butter sauce. Carefully roll in the sauce until coated. Serve immediately.

Variations: For the gnocchi, you can flavour them however you wish. If you want to experiment by adding something to your gnocchi (i.e., caramelized onion, sundried tomato), feel free to do so. However, be forewarned, ricotta gnocchi are delicate and may not take well to elaborate additions. For the sauce, this is your chance to go nuts. Enjoy yourselves. Surprise us!!!

Freezing the gnocchi: If you don’t want to cook your gnocchi right away or if you don’t want to cook all of them, you can make them and freeze them. Once they are formed and resting on the flour-dusted, lined tray, place them uncovered in the freezer. Leave them for several hours to freeze. Once frozen, place them in a plastic bag. Remove the air and seal the bag. Return to the freezer. To cook frozen gnocchi, remove them from the bag and place individually on a plate or on a tray. Place in the refrigerator to thaw completely. Cook as directed for fresh gnocchi.

The Daring Bakers - Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 04:00:19 GMT

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Mmm, Cheesecake....

I love cheesecake. So when I finally joined the Daring Bakers and was eligible for the April Challenge, imagine my delight to find that the challenge recipe was cheesecake. I haven't made cheesecake in quite sometime. This would be fun!

Of course, first I had to come up with a flavor for the cheesecake, or as it turned out, cheesecakeS. Yes, I never do things the easy way. I made not one, not two, but THREE cheesecakes(8", 9" and a 10"). Well, we all know I'm insane, so honestly, would you really expect any less?

Now, everyone does a white chocolate and green tea pairing. It's a rare recipe that does a dark chocolate and green tea pairing. At least in my experience it is.}:P I had always wanted to do a green tea cheesecake and thought this would be absolutely perfect for that.

So that's what I did. Yuppers, and then some. Hee. See, I couldn't do a plain green tea cheesecake. Mark would never taste test it for me. And the only way he'd taste test a dark chocolate- green tea cheesecake is if I promised to do a plain dark chocolate cheesecake as well. So you see, that's why I had to do at least 2 cheesecakes. How'd I end up with three? Well, read on and you'll find out...

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:

crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs (I used half honey graham and half chocolate for the 2 of the cheesecakes)
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake (I used Creme de Cacao for the Dark Chocolate batter and Jameson's Irish Whiskey for the Green Tea batter)

I also used 1/2 cup of Hershey's Special Dark cocoa for the Dark Chocolate batter and if I remember correctly, SpecialTea's Matcha powder for the Green Tea batter, approx. 2 teaspoons .

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.

Obviously I went halfway up the sides of the pans. Only on the 8" did I do just the bottom. With the 9" and 10" cheesecakes, I mixed 1 cup of honey graham cracker crumbs and 1 cup of chocolate graham cracker crumbs. The 8" had just honey graham cracker crumbs.

Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. It helps to start with softened cream cheese. This way, you don't get lumps and won't run the risk of over beating the cream cheese mixture, especially as you add your eggs. This would be a bad thing to do, I hear. Over beating your eggs, I mean. Not that I've ever done that, mind you, nope, not me. *looks innocent*

Have I mentioned that I love my new camera yet? No? Well, there you go then. I love my new camera. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Definitely scrap between eggs, otherwise you get unsightly yellow smears on the sides of the bowl, and that just won't do. Nope, not at all.

After I incorporated all the eggs, I then added the cocoa powder. As it was mixing in, I added the rest of the ingredients...

Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy. We'll pretend I have shots of the heavy cream being added as well as the vanilla. Yup, that's what we'll do. I did not drink any of the liqueur while making the cheesecakes, I swear. Besides, Mark and Charlie were drinking enough for the three of us, trust me.

When it says smooth and creamy, it means smooth and creamy. Look at that, isn't that yummy looking? And if you're insane like me...

...then after you pour the batter into the pan, you'll make another batch of dark chocolate batter! Why a whole other batch? Because I'm lazy and didn't feel like splitting a plain batch to mix half with the cocoa and half with the Matcha powder. That's why.

Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

Now, I cheated. I put my glass 13x9 baking dish on the rack UNDER the middle rack, and filled it with boiling water from the tea kettle. We'll pretend that I did not try to set my hand on fire by touching the top of the oven Glove to the heating element on the top of the oven. Nope, we'll just ignore that mishap. My poor Oven Glove. Now I need my MiL to buy me a new one.}:(

Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil "casserole" shaped pans from the grocery store. They're 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.

Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!

I used Wilton Springform pans. As I said, I put the water on the rack below my pans, so I didn't get a soggy crust. Yay me!

Now, while the 9" Dark Chocolate Cheesecake is baking, I made more Dark Chocolate batter, as I said above, put it in a separate bowl and then went on to make the Green Tea batter...

I repeated all steps, right up to the point I added the cocoa powder, whereupon, I added Matcha powder instead.

Oh look! An adding the heavy cream photo! Hee. I did say I loved my new camera, yes?

This time, instead of the Creme De Cacao, I used Jameson's Irish Whiskey. I had a brief thought of using Midori melon Liqueur, but quickly rethought that. Yuck. Chocolate and Melon? Umm, I don't think so, not in cheesecake.

Isn't that a pretty pale green? If you want it brighter/darker, you could of course add green food coloring. I didn't, obviously. Why? I dunno, just didn't feel like it, I guess. Maybe next time.

In the 10" pan, I obviously spooned quite a bit of the chocolate batter, then the green tea batter, then a bit more of the chocolate batter.Just over half of the chocolate batter went into this pan, and half of the green tea batter as well.

Then I took a butter knife, and pulled it, carefully!, through the batters, marbleing it. I say carefully because there's a tendency to hit the crust on the sides, and well, that wouldn't be good, really. Cause then you'd have crumbs in your batter and it just wouldn't look good, you know? I won't say how many times I knicked the sides of the crust. And you can't make me.

I then took the 8" pan, with the plain honey graham cracker crumb crust, poured the rest of the green tea batter in the bottom, and topped it with the rest of the dark chocolate batter. Then, I tapped both pans to remove any bubble and level the layers.

The 10" pan was then baked for 1hr 25 minutes, about 30 minutes longer than the 9" and 8". All three were let sit in a turned off oven for the requisite hour of cool down time. Then let cool completely on the counter before refrigerating overnight.

This is the ONLY photo of the 9" Dark Chocolate Cheesecake you get. Enjoy it. It was lucky I wasn't at home, otherwise, I might have thrown it across the room, followed by the knife. Ok, not the knife, I won't do that to my beautiful Wusthof knives. *pets knives*

The 8in baked up beautifully. The 10in I baked 30 minutes longer than the time listed as it was so much bigger. The 9in, which is generally a standard cheesecake size from what I understand, I followed the directions exact on times and the center did not bake all the way through.}:/

All 3 were perfect in looks, no cracks, nothing. This was a first for me. WooHoo! Go me! Go me! Go me!

With the 9in, I went to cut it and it coated the knife, no matter how I tried to keep the knife warm, rinsed off between cuts, nothing worked. Then I couldn't get the crust to release from the pan.}:( I was so aggravated at it, that if we'd have been at home instead of the InLaws', I'd have thrown the knife down and left the kitchen in tears of frustration. This was even after 24+ hours in the fridge, after completely cooling to room temp.

The 9in, I will not show cut photos, as I refused to take any of that Failcake. To me, it was a bit much on the chocolate, although everyone else loved it.

The 8in, however, cut beautifully. Had a few issues with releasing of the crust from the pan, but other than that, I managed to get a gorgeous piece for photographing. And it tasted divine. The fresh Mint from my Aerogarden looked quite pretty on the slices too.}:P And did you know, semi frozen Cool Whip makes really nice scoops with an ice cream scoop? Yessirree, all in the name of plating, mind you.}:P

The 10in, I took out of the freezer, let set on the table for about an hour, then set about cutting it. First I sharpened my knife, ran it under hot water and proceeded to cut that baby up, rinsing and rewarming between cuts. It also had a slight releasing issue, but I managed to get a gorgeous slice from it too.

I vastly preferred the Dark Chocolate-Green Tea ones better. The Green Tea balanced out the richness of the Dark Chocolate without overwhelming it. I was slightly miffed that the bottom of the 10" didn't marble very well.}:( Oh well, this is why you remake a recipe and try different things, yes? Besides, it gives me an excuse to make more cheesecakes in the near future!

Overall, this was a great experience for a first Daring Bakers Monthly Challenge! I look forward to many more.}:P

Thank you, Jennybakes, for a great recipe!

Slow Smoked Beef...

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 23:42:13 GMT

Today's dinner...

About an hour from being finished. Needed to add more liquid (mead )to the pan below the meat. Rather than soak the smoking chips, I generally place a pan with liquid in it beneath the meat to be smoked. This results in flavorful stock at the end of the smoking. Sometimes I use plain water with dried herbs (tarragon, basil, thyme or oregano), or sake. In this instance, I used mead.

Slow smoked with hickory and mesquite chips. Simply prepared with sea salt, fresh cracked pepper and garlic powder. Dumped half a bottle of mead in the pan to catch drippings. About an hour out from finishing, dumped in the other half the bottle. I got roughly 1 cup of extremely rich, smokey stock juice from the pan after deglazing. Due to the heat, nearly all the alcohol is cooked out.

After I took it off the grill, I covered it with tin foil and let it rest. Each roast was just shy of 3lbs. Took 4.5 hours. covering it with tin foil and allowing it to 'rest' lets the internal juices come up through the meat and makes the entire thing that much more juicy.

Just look at that gorgeous smoke line. Nice and juicy too! The thicker the smoke line, the deeper the smoke went, in my experience. This was the thickest line I've achieved thus far. Having a great grill for smoking works wonders.

All sliced. I'm not a pro at slicing meat, can you tell? Heh. (Please to be ignoring the bitten piece in the lower right corner. I took a bite of an end piece and literally squirted juice everywhere. Even had to wipe the camera off. LOL)

Plated, with noodles boiled in beef stock, sweet corn with butter sauce and crusty french rolls. Oh my...

This was the best damned $200.00 we ever spent on a grill with a smoker box. One roast fed 4 people.}:P And I have the second for sandwiches.

Now I want to go get a turkey breast and smoke it. I outdid myself with this. Yum.

Pertinant details-

Chuck Roasts, from Sam's Club no less. No extremely expensive cuts of meat needed here!

http://www.grillsdirect.com/charcoal-grills/grills-with-carts/chargrillersmokinprocharcoalsmokergrill.cfm

That's the grill we have. Got it at Lowe's for $160.00 for the grill, and another $40.00 for the side smoker box.

The instructions say you'll need a drill, a screwdriver and a hammer. You'll need tinsnips and pliers too. If you use a hammer on it, you bend the side in.}:/ Not to mention, it doesn't work. And you need a lot of patience.}:P

Of course, you COULD have Lowe's put it together if you aren't impatient like we were, lol.

I used REAL wood chips in hickory and mesquite, as well as Kingford's Hickory charcoal briquets in the actual smoking.

A good smoke needs to be monitored, so you can regularly add more chips as needed and keep an eye on the temp. I never let it get above 225 degrees, and it routinely stayed around 200 degrees.

The results speak for themselves, I think.

We Swap Snacks, Swap #4- Washington to Virginia

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:11:51 GMT

We Swap Snacks comm on LJ has these mass snack swap exchanges every few months. I managed to get in on #4.}:P
By the way, they need more INTERNATIONAL swappers. So if you're interested, and have an LJ, head on over and check it out!

I think that's right, at least.}:P I sent my box to karizma23 in Washington, and received one from him, here in Virginia.}:P

BOX! whee! Pardon the hockey catalog, was using it to cover addresses.}:P It arrived on Weds, which surprised both of us, as we really thought it'd take longer, coming across the US and all.

Well, LOTS of goodies! Including one very specific request from me.}:P

Contents upon opening, with a very thoughtful letter, explaining the where the specific request was picked up.}:P

and under the letter... oh my... I think I started squeeing about this time. LOL

karizma23 packed this box with tons of stuff! And I thought I sent him a lot of things! Wow! I was amazed at how many different things were in this box.

Top row, we have EVIL! EVIL! Almond Roca, that is nearly gone already. A few Starbucks goodies I have yet to see anywhere on this side of the States, honestly(maybe I'm just not lucky enough}:P)- Caramel Macchiato Biscotti, Coffee Coated Almonds, Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Almonds- which are delicious!, and the new Via coffee singles, that he says haven't been released nationwide as of yet, the hubby claimed those, as he's the coffee drinker here.}:P Also, a dark chocolate Starbucks bar. Yum.

Center we have Haiwaiian potatoe chips- in 2 flavors- Sweet Maui Onion and Luau BBQ, 2 flavors of Tim's Potatoe Chips, another local brand to the Seattle area- in sea Salt & Vinegar and Sour Cream & Onion, Daelman's Caramel Bites (that I'm resisting opening so as to make them last all that much longer}:P), Blue Diamond Bold Sea Salt & Vinegar Almonds- I haven't seen that flavor here, neat!. Corner of the Chex Mix in chedder flavor.

On the left you can see the other part of the Hawaiian Chips in Sweet Maui BBQ. We don't have a Trader Joe's in SW Virginia, much to our disappointment.}:( karizma23 sent me several items from there- 'Tom Yum' Cashew clusters- we've never even heard of this, so we're looking forward to trying them. Dark chocolate cranberries, also from Trader Joe's.}:P And I have no idea what a Mountain candy is, but he sent three flavors- Cherry, Original, and Peanut Butter, and they sound yummy.

Right side- We have Gardetto's! I love Gardetto's, I don't buy them often enough, lol. And TURTLE Chex Mix, omnomNom. A better shot of the Tom's Chips too. I think the bags of the local chips are fun too.}:P

And now, the specific request...

I collect ROCKS! Whenever we go some place 'new', I bring back a rock. Customers at the store I worked at would bring me rocks from places. The hubby's boss brings me rocks from places she goes on vacation. My NIECE brings me back rocks when she visits her grandparents over the summer.

So naturally, I requested a rock from Washington State, and karizma23 delivered.}:P

front/top

bottom

He went to one of Seattle's most famous areas, Alki Beach and picked up this beauty. Not only that, but he also told me a bit about the location itself in his letter. Even the hubby was duly impressed by the gorgeousness of this rock.}:P And yes, karizma23, it is a wonderful addition to my collection!

Final shoot of the entire score-

This was a great swap, especially for my very first one! Many, MANY thanks to the Mods who set up this comm and these swaps. You guys are amazing and I look forward to more!

Hey, karizma23, how about a private swap in May sometime? }:P

Semi Homemade Turtle Brownies

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:22:13 GMT

Winner of the March Monthly Theme Contest for the BakeBakeBake Community on LiveJournal.

Doesn't that look yummy?

So, in the Bake3 comm on LJ, as I said earlier, when I posted my Pineapple Carrot Cake Cupcakes, the monthly theme is 'Doctored Up Box Mixes'.

I wanted Brownies one day last week. I wanted caramel as well. I had a Dark Chocolate Brownie mix in the cupboard. I had pecan pieces. I had the fixings to make salted caramel. I had to make Turtle Brownies.

No ifs, ands, or buts.

So, you take any ol' brownie mix you want. I used the Betty Crocker Dark Chocolate one myself. But hey, homemade brownie mix would work just as easily. Follow the directions on the box, if you use one. I sub'ed the vegetable oil for olive oil, as I've said before, I prefer olive oil. But you use whatever you want, really. Make your brownie batter.

Pour your batter into a 13x9 baking dish, glass, metal, whatever floats your boat.}:P Just make sure it's well greased and floured. Or, if you're me, use that Pam Baking spray with flour stuffs. Yeah, time saver indeed.

Now, this particular batter was rather thick. I was surprised as to how thick it was. I don't remember brownie batter being so thick. Hmm. Interesting. anyway, spread it out nice and even.

Take your pecan pieces, or if you prefer, walnut pieces, or any other nuts you like instead. NO, not your SO's. Trust me, they wouldn't work well here and you'd be in so much trouble.}:P spread the nuts over the brownie batter. Don't be OCD like me and try to make sure each. and. every. brownie. to. be. has. some. on. it., ok? Yes, it took me a full 5 minutes because of that. *sigh*

Of course, if you're really smart, before you even started your brownie batter, you made your salted caramel. (Recipe at the end). So it's had a chance to cool a bit while you made the brownie batter. Now, take that yummy, yummy caramel, and drizzle/glop/spoon/whateveryoulike it over the brownie batter and nuts. Again, don't be OCD and try to cover every bit. Just... don't. Trust me.

Doesn't that look scrumptious? I seriously wanted to start eating it right then. OmNomNom. I didn't. I managed to restrain myself. *pats self on back*

Moving right along... On top of all that yumminess, sprinkle some semi-chocolate chips. Or heck, even dark chocolate chips if you want. Just remember, ENOUGH WITH THE OCDness. *ahem* Sorry.

You knew this close up was coming. Yes, you did. Heh.

Ok, pop that baby in the oven. I ended up having to bake it an extra 7 minutes in order for it to completely setup in the center, so you have to do the same, or you may not. I guess it depends on the oven. Meanwhile, scrape out the last remaining bits of caramel from your pan and consume them. Believe me, it's worth it. Now I want caramel.

When your brownies are done, pull them out and marvel at how.. odd they look. Think about how maybe you should have listened to yourself and not put so much caramel on them. Or maybe you should have swirled the caramel in a bit. Maybe. Just maybe. Ok, Self, shut up now. I'm just sayin'. SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!

*ahem* Sorry.

Well, no matter WHAT your turtle brownies look like, wait 10 minutes, then cut them. Once they're fully cooled, store in an airtight container. That is, if you don't eat all of them in one sitting. Cause, let me just say- chewy, chocolatey, caramely, crunchy nut goodness abounds. Yum.

Now I want more.

Salted Caramel Sauce

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup water
2 Tblsp butter (I used unsalted)
1/8 tsp salt
3 Tblsp heavy cream

In a medium saucepan, bring the water and sugar to a low boil. When it starts to just turn a light amber, add your butter and salt. Continue cooking until a medium amber color, mixture is thickened slightly and bubbly.

Remove from heat and slowly add in heavy cream, as you stir. Careful, as it will bubble up furiously. Stir until completely combined and set aside.