Half Baked Foodstuffs

Sugar, and Cream, and Chocolate...oh my!

2008-04-28T18:39:00.000-07:00

Dark Chocolate Toffees/Caramels, adapted from Milk Chocolate Caramels with Fleur de Sel from Chocolate Epiphany by F. Payard.

Ingredients & Equipment:
Parchment Paper
9 x 13-inch baking pan
large sauce pan, with deep sides
candy thermometer
cooking spray

1 cup heavy cream
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons salt
6 ounces dark chocolate, chopped and melted

Prepare the pan: Line your baking pan with either the parchment paper, leaving the parchment to overhang the edges of the tray. Spray the parchment with cooking spray.

Making the candy: Over medium-high heat, combine the cream, sugar and salt in your saucepan, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Once dissolved, attach your candy thermometer to the saucepan and cook the caramel to hard ball state (just past 250* F ... this may take a while, as you'll be reducing the cream down before the caramel can reach that temperature). As soon as the caramel hits the appropriate temperature, remove from the heat and stir in the melted chocolate.

Pour the candy into your baking tray, quickly spreading it out into an even layer. Allow it to cool to room temperature before cutting or breaking into bite sized pieces.

The finished candy is hard at first, then as you chew it or allow it to melt in your mouth, it becomes more caramel or taffee-like in consistency.

*for a softer more caramel-consistency of the finished candy, cook the caramel only to soft ball temperature before removing from the heat and stirring in the chocolate.

Mmm Pizza

2007-05-16T16:10:00.000-07:00

Baked v Grilled...that is the question. I was hoping for grilled, what with the temperatures well into the low 100's down here already - anything to save me from having to adding heat to the house is wonderful.

I really liked the flavor imparted to the pizza crust with the high temps on the grill, but I have to admit my technique leaves something to be desired as I had to move the pizza to the oven to finish as I was worried about burning the crust.

Technique inspired by Raquel, using the crust recipe at the bottom of her post. Incidentally, her pizza toppings are much more exotic compared to my rather mundane tastes of pepperoni, cheese, onions and peppers ;)

Anyhow, since the dough makes enough for 2 pizzas, I made the 2nd one in the oven - as you can see, I got a rather large thin crust pizza out of it as it's completely overflowing the pizza peel (though it fit perfectly on my perforated pizza "pan").

I heart Carbs.

2007-03-07T14:49:00.000-08:00

I love bread. And Pasta. And Cake. And Potatoes. And all kinds of other carbolicious foods.

I've been on a quest to learn how to reproduce (to the best of my ability with the lack of fully appropriate tools) various rustic hearth breads. I had acquired the book No Need to Knead: Handmade Italian Breads in 90 Minutes in my quest for such delicious bread, but have not had much time to experiment with the recipes inside.

Anyhow, a while back, I saw a recipe posted for a No Knead bread that is an adaptation from a recipe from the Sullivan Street Bakery.

This weekend, I had some time on my hand and decided to give it a try...

Recipe: No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1 1/2 hours plus 14 to 20 hours' rising

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

Method:
1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

The Results?

Well, the bread came out and made a most satisfying crackling noise as it was cooling - the crust is wonderfully chewy and very tasty. The middle bit, while tasty, still didn't develop the large holes I was looking for - though it did on one side.

The only think I can think is I may have played a bit too much trying to get the rather slack dough into an approximate ball shape. I suspect the dough was a bit too wet as even with a heavy dusting on the towel that it sat upon for the 2nd rise, it was stuck quite firmly when came time to transfer the dough to the pot for baking.

I'll definitely be trying this method again :)

Fresh Roasted!

2006-11-28T12:31:00.000-08:00

Storyville Coffee - date stamped on the day it's roasted and sent off in a special resealable bag with a one way valve (to let your beans exhale, as it were).

If you've a coffee connoisseur on your gift list this holiday season, a gift of Storyville beans may the perfect thing.

They have 2 versions of their rather tasty signature blend available - Prologue (caffeinated) and Epilogue (decaffeinated).

I rather liked the sample of coffee I received - not too dark, and very flavorful - if you don't have access to a fresh small-volume roaster, you'll want to taste it for yourself :) Me? I've been hooked on freshly roasted beans for a while and I'll never go back :P

I had to try it

2006-10-18T17:37:00.000-07:00

I love Matcha flavored things - so when I saw this cake mix while shopping at Trader Joe's, of course I had to buy some and give it a whirl...

The making is as easy as any other cake mix, and this one is a bit kinder on the waistline than the very tasty Trader Joes Brownie mix...which, by the way is fantastic and substitutes just fine for brownies baked from scratch - but we're supposed to be talking about Matcha Cake.

The batter doesn't look terribly enticing when mixed - it has an odd resemblance to guacamole...

See?

The cake, once baked has a definite flavor of green tea, and thankfully, the guacamole green color is much more subdued...though perhaps it's difficult to tell since the sun was on its way down for this photo. The only green colored cake that I welcome is Pandan cake.

The crumb was um...a bit tougher than anticipated, and only mixed til combined...and I checked the cake for done-ness 5 minutes before the earliest "done" time marked on the box (and it wasn't done yet at that point).

Ah well, I really can't complain - it is a cake mix after all.

hmm back to that Pandan cake - anyone know where I can get one short of flying to Malaysia? I've never seen one at my local asian markets...

Peanut Butter Goodness

2006-08-21T13:10:00.000-07:00

I love peanut butter. I am one of those people happy to sit and eat it straight out of a jar.

I love it paired with jam, jelly or honey...and if none of those are around, a little bit of crunchy sugar goes well too ;) PB and chocolate is always a favorite, and it's not bad with sliced apples...of course, on occasion, I have been known to eat it paired with Marshmallow Cream (I can't get Fluff out here).

This past weekend, I figured I'd try my hand at Peanut Butter Ice Cream - after all, Ben & Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup is one of my favorite flavors - and I had more than enough half and half in the fridge.

Adapted from Kitchen Chick as I don't keep whole milk or cream in the house (and I find both of those to create a too-rich ice cream for my tastes).

Peanut Butter Ice Cream
ingredients
1 cup peanut butter (I used Jif Extra Crunchy)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup milk (I used skim!)
1 1/3 cups half and half
2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
Combine the peanut butter and sugar until smooth. Add the milk. Blend on low speed until smooth and the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the half and half and the vanilla until well mixed.

Chill the mixture overnight

Pour into your prepared ice cream maker and enjoy!

Yield: approximately 1 quart

Comments: The Extra Crunchy Peanut butter gave great taste, but if you don't like the crunch of the peanuts or find them distracting, you might want to cut the amount with regular Creamy style peanut butter...The ice cream came out to soft serve consistency in my machine - so I scooped it into a separate container for "ripening" to get it to a normal ice cream consistency. The ice cream goes great with hot fudge or hot ganache ;)

Absorption Pasta?

2006-06-07T18:27:00.000-07:00

Why yes. Absorption Pasta. I had to try it when I saw Clotilde post about it here - well, actually I read it, thought it was an interesting technique and promptly forgot about it...until Raquel and I were discussing cooking plans for the evening. Desperate for something healthy, but quick and different, I decided to give it a try. Instead of cacao nibs and zucchini, I opted for Tuscan beans and carrots. Pasta used: mini penne - and I opted for the stock instead of water.

I don't know if it was the pasta or if the heat was too high or a combination thereof, but it sure seemed like I had to add a lot of stock to get the pasta to a "done" state - of course, I was hungry and impatient, nibbling on mini-penne at a somewhat fair frequency. The stock didn't have much salt, and a liberal hand was used with the Parmesan, kosher salt & pepper.

Sorry, no photos - my food styling wasn't doing so well, and honestly, I couldn't dream of turning out a photo more beautiful than the original. Definitely worth trying - and it beats bringing the large pot of water to a boil to cook the pasta ;)

Chocolate Marble Cake

2006-05-04T15:19:00.000-07:00

Mmmm cake! Who doesn't like a nice piece of cake? Thank goodness for rotating dessert duties at work, because it got me back into the kitchen to bake :) I saw this recipe a little while back over at Nic's BakingSheet and I had to give it a try - Sadly, my foodography skills still leave something to be desired - I probably ought to go spend some time paying attention to the IMBB food photography events to learn something...my excuse is I've already too many things on the burner (ha ha!) and don't have time to worry about food styling right now...I figure it's a good thing that I can still be coaxed into the kitchen to find things to cook to post to this woefully neglected blog of mine :)

Anyhow, back to the cake, moist, delicious, and really, quite easy. I'm not so good with the even dropping of batter, so some portions of the cake (like the above) were more chocolatey than others, but that worked out well so people could either go for pieces heavy on the chocolate or heavy on the vanilla...the only tweaks I made were to replace somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of the cake flour with whole wheat pastry flour and I used nonfat Vanilla yogurt rather than plain - the cake came out great and didn't affect the taste that I could tell.

Fetch the recipe from Nic and give it a whirl - as for the bowls, I think I only dirtied three - the big mixing bowl, the bowl with the flour, and the bowl for the chocolate mixture. Since I don't normally keep yogurt in the house (I still can't bring myself to eat yogurt on its own - at least none of the low/non-fat sugar free varieties and I don't want to spend the calories on sugared/full fat varieties) I made things a little easier on myself I bought an 8 ounce container of yogurt so I just scooped straight from the container (and saved myself a bowl in the process)!

Foray into Candy Making

2006-03-13T12:28:00.000-08:00

While the brittle (this time anyhow) came out a bit blonde and fiddle-faddle colored (and rather lumpy too - the candy was cooling much faster than I could spread it out)...it is plenty fine for eating.

I see I have plenty of room for improvement in my candymaking skills.

Recipe from Raquel, adapted to omit cinnamon and cayenne.

Yield: About 1 pound

Ingredients:
1/2 c water
2 c sugar
1/4 t cream of tartar
1 c light corn syrup
2 T unsalted butter
2 c dry roasted salted peanuts
1 t baking soda

Tools:
Candy Thermometer
Silicone Mat or vegetable oil for greasing the sheet pan & pot

Method:
Line a sided sheet pan with a silicone baking mat, or oil it well with vegetable oil.

In a small bowl combine peanuts and baking soda. Set aside. (The baking soda will help make the candy more light in texture.)

Brush the inside of a medium sized heavy saucepan with vegetable oil. Add the water, sugar, cream of tartar and corn syrup and bring to a boil over medium heat. Attach the candy thermometer making sure not to touch the pan bottom. After it boils, stir the mixture occasionally. Boil the mixture until it reaches 340 degrees F. The color should be deep golden brown. Remove from the heat and, working quickly, stir in the butter until melted, then the peanut mixture.

Pour the mixture onto the prepared cookie sheet and spread it out to about 1/4-inch thickness (it may not fill the whole pan). If necessary, in order to achieve single layer of peanuts, top with second sheet pan whose underside has been oiled.

Cool completely and then using your hands, and wearing cotton or plastic gloves if desired to keep off any fingerprints, break the brittle into pieces. Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

Comments:
I highly recommend either making sure you have a properly functioning candy thermometer (mine was not, so I had the pleasure of burnt caramel stinking up the entire house for the first run). Properly paranoid from that fiasco, the second batch was cooked just past hard crack stage, but should have gone one stage further in color development, I think - to a medium caramel color. I guess I'll be trying it again sometime...they say third time's the charm, right? :D

A little holiday baking

2005-12-19T14:59:00.000-08:00

I couldn't let the holidays roll by without a little bit of holiday baking. Too tired to do the cutout cookies (well, too tired to want to deal with decorating the cutout cookies is more like it) and amazingly not in the mood for chocolate - I opted instead for cinnamon as the flavor of choice. The spiraly ones are Cinnamon Maple shortbread swirls from Mrs. Fields Cookie Book which, sadly, I think is out of print. I've historically had issues with the cinnamon sugar filling falling out of these cookies as I try to assemble them, so this time I tweaked the recipe a little to get the filling to stay in place. (Just how did I do that, you ask? I made cinnamon-sugar paste - by adding butter :D )

In the back, you might spy some Snickerdoodles....mmm...snickerdoodles. I had thought of making eggnog snickerdoodles, but resisted the urge.

And finally, I have some Mexican Wedding Cakes or Russian Tea Cakes, or Snowballs - or whatever you like to call them - whatever they are called, they are delicious (and mine are nut free, though I did use almond extract).

Recipe for these tasty bite sized confections below, adapted from Penzey's Spices recipe for Mexican Wedding Cakes:

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup (or more) confectioners sugar, for finishing

Method:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cream together the butter, sugar and extracts on high speed until light and fluffy. Add flour and salt, mix until combined.

Roll the dough into small 1-inch balls and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Allow them to cool slightly on the sheet, then transfer them into a bowl with the remaining confectioners sugar to coat them. If the sugar melts, just re-roll them!

Yield: Approximately 4 dozen cookies

What to do with Egg Nog?

2005-12-15T12:37:00.000-08:00

Well, other than drink it, it can be used to make pastry cream and bake! Who woulda known?!

I couldn't resist the recipe recently posted by Chockylit - though mine are somewhat lacking in execution compared to her original masterpiece. I still can't figure out how the woman managed to get the frosting so gorgeously white when both brown sugar and butter are in the ingredient line up!

I had to tweak the recipe to account for things in the house (I was too lazy to go to the store) - so in the frosting, whipped cream cheese was used rather than regular, rum was used in place of bourbon and half and half was substituted for the heavy cream.

I confess to not reading instructions properly and I didn't make the caramel sauce properly (didn't cook it long enough), and that, along with the whipped cream cheese (what I had assumed to be equivalent weight to what was called for in the recipe, but I could be wrong) probably resulted in the more sloppy (but tasty none-the-less) frosting. Incidentally I have plenty of frosting left over, and it will be used to slather other cupcakes later on this week most likely.

Cake: Tasty, lightly spiced and an excellent use of Nog. Non-Nog fans still enjoyed the cakes without any mumbles or murmurs other than "mmmmmmmm - good." My cakes came out at 20 minutes, perhaps a little dark (and yes, I do have an oven thermometer in the oven).

Pastry Cream: I'm thinking an extra yolk (2 vs the 1 called for) may be in order - my pastry cream, even after chilling, was a bit on the runny side.

Frosting: The recipe calls for 1 1/2 packages of philadelphia cream cheese, but does not specify the size - I assumed it was 8 ounces, and happened to conveniently have a 12 ounce package of whipped cream cheese in the fridge. Rescued from mundane use on bagels, potatoes and/or scrambled eggs, it was happily combined with butter and other tasty things to make a wonderful frosting - more than enough to frost the cupcakes to my preferred level of frostiness.

Assembly: Easily completed, vacated the middles of the cakes, filled em with the pastry cream, added a little bit of my remaining (and probably undercooked) rum syrup, popped the cake middles back on, and went to town with my frosting spatula. Because the frosting was not very stiff, I didn't bother bringing out the piping tips and settled for an understated snowflake on each cupcake for accent (the plain tops just looked naked somehow).

It Slices, Juliennes, it Waffles and More!

2005-12-05T08:58:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm not so certain about the "and more" part, but the Matfer Professional Mandolin does slice, julienne and waffle-cut quite well.

I'm putting mine up for sale on ebay, for anyone interested in easing your holiday prepwork by obtaining a well made Mandolin, feel free to check out the listing here.

Holiday Baking

2005-12-03T15:04:00.000-08:00

Peppermint Spiral Cookies:
Shortbread spirals with delicate mint flavoring
Sadly, my holiday baking is not in quite as large volume as it usually is - though certainly not due to want (or lack of butter ;) )! Other things to conspire to limit my baking to this one batch of cookies - I'll call this the pre-holiday baking warmup, I guess.

All rolled up with sparklies and snowflakes for decoration

Recipe from the December 8th 2004 issue of the SanFransisco Chronicle - however, since I am somewhat paranoid about recipes disappearing, I will reproduce it here.

Peppermint Spiral Cookies
Yield: ~3 dozen cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups unsifted cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup unsifted powdered sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
6 ounces ( 3/4 cup) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
1/4 teaspoon bright red liquid gel or paste food coloring, or 9 drops red liquid food coloring*
1 tablespoon unsifted cake flour
1 1/2 cups multicolored nonpariels**

Method:
Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugars in a food processor. Process briefly to mix. Add the butter in pieces; process with on/off bursts until the mixture has the consistency of cornmeal. Add the vanilla and process until the mixture just forms a ball.***

Divide the dough into 2 equal portions. Return one of the portions to the food processor. Add the peppermint extract, food coloring and the additional tablespoon of flour to the processor and process until just incorporated.

Roll out each portion of dough between sheets of waxed paper. You want a rectangle about 11 x 8 1/2 inches by 1/8 inch thick. Leaving the dough between their sheets of waxed paper, stack on a baking sheet and refrigerate until firm, for at least 2 hours or up to 3 days.

Remove dough rectangles from refrigerator. Pour the nonpareil decors into a shallow rectangular dish (such as a 9 x 13-inch pan); set it nearby.

Peel off the top sheet of waxed paper from both doughs. Brush the vanilla dough very lightly with water. Using the waxed paper, lift the peppermint dough and invert it directly on top of the vanilla dough. Press with your fingertips to seal the two doughs together. Remove the top sheet of waxed paper and trim the edges even.

When the dough is just pliable (but still cold), roll up the dough rectangles (begin with the long side) like a jellyroll. As you begin to roll, gently curl the edge with your fingertips so no space appears in the center as you roll dough into a log. As you roll, lift the waxed paper to help you roll the dough neatly and tightly.

After forming the dough into a log, discard the waxed paper, and roll the dough back and forth on the work surface to slightly extend and evenly distribute the dough. Gently lift the log on top of the nonpareil decors in the dish and roll until the log is completely coated with decors. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm enough to slice (from 4 hours to a week, or freeze for up to 2 months; defrost in the refrigerator overnight before slicing).

Adjust rack to lower third of oven and preheat oven to 325Â°. To bake, slice the log into 1/8- to 1/4-inch-thick cookies and bake on parchment-lined baking sheets for 15 to 17 minutes, until the cookies are no longer shiny on top and the bottoms of the vanilla portion are golden.

*If you use regular food coloring, it is likely you will not get the brilliant red color observed as on my cookies - I used liquid gel food coloring. With regular liquid food coloring, the color will be more subdued.

**Obviously, I did not use multicolored nonpariels. The only nonpariels I have in the house right now are the silver dragee variety - so I replaced the outer decoration with coarse sparkling sugar and snowflakes.

***If your mixture refuses to come to a ball, you can add moisture to force the issue by adding ice water a teaspoon or so at a time - I think I had to add about a tablespoon or so of water to get my mixture to come together. That's living in an arid environment for you.

Comments: As observed above, I had a bit of difficulty ensuring there were no airgaps in the dough when I made my roll - during baking, the dough relaxed enough to fill the gaps quite nicely - perhaps a little bit more patience on my part would have prevented this.

These cookies came out beautifully - with a delicate shortbread crumble and what I think is subtle mint flavor (but my husband likens to toothpaste) - it could be that the peppermint extract did not get distributed evenly throughout the dough (I didn't want to overprocess). The coarse sugar made for a subtle sparkle on the outer edges of the cookies. I think I would have been better off sprinkling the snowflakes on top of the cookies, rather than pressing them onto the sides, as some of them fell off during slicing, and a fair number wound up getting cut during the slicing process.

Kitchen toys for Sale

2005-11-02T16:38:00.000-08:00

Alright, I realize this isn't a completed food item, but it's food related....

I'm in the process of cleaning house and have made a few things available for purchase. The three kitchen items up for sale on eBay include my Kyocera black ceramic knife, my Matfer Professional Mandolin and my Omega 4000 Pulp Ejection juicer.

Go look, and perhaps you can benefit from my house cleaning!

Yogurt Cake?

2005-10-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

It sounds so much nicer in French - GÃ¢teau au Yaourt - don't you think?

Sadly, I have no photo to share...mostly because the camera has gone walking with my husband today...and by the time he comes home with the camera, I'm sure all the little cakes will be eaten!

Very tasty and easy to prepare, provided you have whole milk yogurt on hand - I happened to have Creamline Yogurt from Trader Joe's (purchased for a curry recipe I was supposed to try last week...needless to say, the "was" is a slight indication of how last week's cooking went...that and the fact that I'm baking cakes should indicate my present mood ;) )

In any case, the recipe hails from Chocolate and Zucchini, and Clotilde has a lovely photo posted there. Instead of pouring the cake into the recommended circular cake pan, I divided the batter evenly amongst 12 greased and floured muffin tins for little cupcakes. I had one for breakfast, and delighted in the crisp top crust, and the fluffy and moist interior with just a little zing on the tongue from the yogurt. I plan to pair it later this evening with some chocolate ganache for frosting...and if there is any restraint in the house, I should have cupcakes to bring to work as a snack during the week!

Decadent Chocolate Goodness

2005-10-03T11:21:00.000-07:00

Having a mad craving for chocolate, and a Chocolate Pudding Cake Recipe from Nic over at the Baking Sheet on hand, I decided to give it a whirl.

Sadly, none of the photos I took did it justice. It was always difficult to make out the difference between the delicious cake and the gooey pudding sauce....

In any case, the cake was certainly yummy, swimming in a rich chocolate sauce - if anything, I found the sauce a bit too sweet, having been made up of a considerable amount of brown sugar and chocolate chips...I've taken to eating the cake with a tall glass of milk on hand. Being partial to dark bittersweet chocolate may have something to do with my concerns over the sweetness of the sauce....I'll probably have to tweak the recipe a bit to get it to my liking.

I do have another recipe on hand from King Arthur that I want to try...

Not yer Normal Chocolate Chip Cookie!

2005-09-19T15:34:00.000-07:00

I'd been having a craving for chocolate chip cookies ever since I saw the recipe for these over on Nic's Baking Sheet.

My husband, who is not a fan of oats in any way shape or form was a bit skeptical at first, but quickly pronounced these the best chocolate chip cookies he'd ever tasted...so I guess I've stumbled on a winner :) Incidentally the cookies seemed to disappear in record time when I brought the remainder of the batch to work.

Highly recommended. Not a fan of chocolate chip cookies? Go peruse Nic's blog - she's got plenty to choose from and gorgeous food photography too! (just make sure you pay that visit when you're not hungry :D)

Treats from the Goosefoot Plant!

2005-07-13T15:06:00.000-07:00

And what is a Goosefoot plant anyway? Its more formal name is Chenopodium - and its more common name is Quinoa. Still don't know what I'm talking about? Quinoa is a delicious grain that has been cultivated in the South American Andes for the longest of times. Regaining popularity with the movement towards whole grain foods, Quinoa is still not yet a mainstream ingredient. It has a sweet nutty flavor and a fluffy consistency when cooked. It can easily be served in place of rice, or turned into a salad - similarly to taboule (see recipe below)! Interestingly enough, Quinoa is considered a complete protein as it contains all eight essential amino acids. Give it a try, you might like it!

Quinoa Salad
ingredients:
1 1/2 cups Quinoa, uncooked
1 1/2 cups English Cucumber or zucchini!- cubed
1 stalk celery, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 Tablespoon Red Wine Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar
1 1/2 cups sweet corn kernels, cooked
4 ounces grape tomatoes, sliced in half
1/4 medium red onion, diced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped fine
juice of one large lime
1 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/3 cup olive oil
salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste
1/4 cup salsa autentica (from Trader Joes), optional
1 can heirloom beans, rinsed, optional

Method:
Prepare your quinoa according to package directions. Fluff your quinoa with a fork and transfer to a large bowl and allow to cool. While your quinoa is cooking, toss your cucumber (or zucchini) with vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.

To make dressing: Whisk together the lime juice and cumin (and salsa* if you choose to use it)- add oil in a stream while whisking to blend well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

To assemble, combine the cukes/zucchini, celery, carrots, corn, tomatoes, garlic, onion, cilantro, beans and cayenne pepper with the slightly warm quinoa. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss well - adjust seasoning as required.

*why the salsa? I dislike raw tomatoes - yet I like tomato flavor...so the salsa spices things up and provides some tomatoey goodness :)

Makes six to eight entree sized servings

Enjoy! Oh and sorry no photos - I was lacking proper lighting!

I'm a Cook Next Door!

2005-07-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

First, thanks to Stefoodie for tagging me with this meme. My poor food blog is generally kept as a sibling to my main blog which, for some reason, seems to be highly focused on fiber arts rather than miscellaneous musings on life, the universe, and everything...but that is neither here nor there. Second, thanks go to Nicky of Delicious Days for starting this meme.

And without further ado, here are my answers:

What is your first memory of baking/cooking on your own?
Honestly, I'm not certain....I have vague recollections of home ec class where I learned how to make pudding from scratch...and bake cookies and cook scrambled eggs (not in the same lesson as the pudding one ;) ) but I also have recollections of making simple pancakes and a glutinous rice cakes while being watched over by my grandmother.

Who had the most influence on your cooking?
I think I'd have to say my grandma and my father have had some influence on my cooking - though I don't typically prepare the same type of food for myself. Neither cooked from cookbooks and always cooked by taste - there was always a focus on using fresh produce and using *all* of the food - or as much of it as possible. I rarely ate "processed" food until I moved out and headed off to college. Once I moved out, one of my Dorm Mates got me obsessed with baking - one holiday season, after commandeering the use of three or four ovens, we pulled an all nighter and cranked out some obscene number of cookies - I think it was double batches of thirteen or fourteen *types* of cookies...we had ROASTING PANS full of cookies. And in case you were wondering, they were destined to be gifts :) And at some point I discovered a whole host of Celebrity Chefs and Food Scientists - it's good thing I don't get Food Network at home, or I'd never get *anything* done.

Do you have an old photo as evidence of an early exposure to the culinary world and would you like to share it?
Unfortunately I have few photos of myself as a child - I do have the obligatory first birthday cake photo - with my hand happily covered in frosting...

Mageiricophobia - do you suffer from any cooking phobia, a dish that makes your palms sweat?
Oooh! this must be the week for learning new foodie terms. Just earlier this week, I learned there is a special term for those of us entranced with cheese (the word is turophile, in case you were wondering). I don't believe I have any cooking phobias - I'm fairly adventurous in the kitchen and am up for trying most things. I have to say I can't get the hang of a propeartesianal loaf though - and I find thatrulyly annoying.

What would be your most valued or used kitchen gadgets and/or what was the biggest letdown?
I love my knives. I have a thing about knives...I happen to adore them. What do I use? I have a block of Messermeister San Moritz knives - I love them. They stay sharp, are lighter than other German knives, and have a nice balance. I've been eying Globals for quite some time, but can't find anyone local who can sharpen them. Biggest Letdown? Probably my (Matfer) Mandoline and my Kyocera Ceramic knife. The Mandoline doesn't hold the veggies very securely, and I can julienne as fast with my Messermeister blades. The Kyocera Ceramic knife is not shaper than my Messermeisters, and already needs to go back for a re-sharpening. No one local sharpens em, so it has to go all the way back to the factory. *sigh*

Name some funny or weird food combinations/dishes you really like - and probably no one else!
Sadly I can't think of any weird food combination. Though I'm sure I have plenty - I just suspect that plenty of others happen to share similar fascinations - According to my husband, I am oddly fond of ketchup - I like ketchup on fried eggs and on fried chicken...and on french fries, of course.

What are the three eatables or dishes you simply don't want to live without?
Three?! Just three?!? I find when I'm out backpacking, I always crave fresh fruits and veggies (can I count the whole mess as one item?? :) ) and then there is Chocolate (the darker the better) and probably a tie between bread and cheese.... *sigh* I can't just limit myself to three things!!

My favorite ice-cream:
Ice cream? Nearly any and all. A good vanilla can't be beat - for it forms the base of many another ice cream flavor.

I will probably never eat:
Insects or Balut. Though I have eaten earthworms. Don't ask.

My own signature dish:
Hot and sour soup and dumplings

tag 3 people:
I certainly hope they haven't already been tagged - and I hope they don't let the Meme die! I tag Raquel of Oh What a Tangled Web and the companion recipe blog: Oh What a Tangled Kitchen, Michael of Cooking for Engineers, and Mariko of Super Eggplant

I have been cooking. Really.

2005-07-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

While I continue to miss out on IMBB events due to travel or being out of town (and blogger's inability to auto-post drafts sometime in the future) I am continuing to play around in the kitchen. Sadly, much of it is mundane...and not blogworthy, if you know what I mean...

Most recently, I paid a visit to Raquel and we hit the strawberry fields...

Of course, with all those ripe strawberries on hand, we had to do *something* worthwhile with them :) Semi-inspired by a cake we spied at the Farmer's Market and the Barefoot Contessa Parties! we decided to make the Strawberry Country Cake...

Visit Raquel's Foodblog for the photo and recipes :D

mmm...mmm! Strawberries n Cream!

2005-05-04T16:03:00.000-07:00

Pastry cream that is!

Over the weekend, I was playing at being a Pâtissier again - this time turning out something a bit more sophisticated than bar cookies and brownies. Clearly I need to work on my crust shaping, and a proper tart pan would help. Ah well.

In any case, this is a lovely fresh fruit tart, featuring strawberries - I usually make up enough dough to do a full sized tart, though I split it into 4 small portions, fit them into disposable pie-pans and keep them in the freezer...all the better to make tarts on demand! I personally would like to play around with using whole vanilla beans to infuse their flavor into the pastry cream at some point, but I suspect the little black seeds would detract from the presentation...but then again, the pastry cream is covered with fruit...so perhaps it wouldn't matter....

In any case, for those who are interested, the recipe follows.

Fresh Fruit Tart with Pastry Cream
Ingredients:
Pastry Cream:
2 cups half-and-half
1/2 cup sugar (3.5 ounces)
1 Pinch salt
5 large egg yolks, chalazae removed
3 tablespoons cornstarch
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
5 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Sweet Tart Pastry (Pâte Sucrée) , cooled to room temperature:
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (6.25 ounces)
2/3 cup confectioners sugar (3 ounces)
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2-inch cubes
Fruit and Glaze:
Fruit, washed and dried thoroughly
1/2 cup red currant or apple jelly

Method:
Assemble the Crust:
Whisk together yolk, cream, and vanilla in small bowl; set aside. Pulse to combine flour, sugar, and salt in bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade. Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture; pulse to cut butter into flour until mixture resembles coarse meal, about fifteen 1-second pulses. With machine running, add egg mixture and process until dough just comes together, about 25 seconds. Turn dough onto sheet of plastic wrap and press into 6-inch disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 48 hours.

Remove dough from refrigerator (if refrigerated longer than 1 hour, let stand at room temperature until malleable). Unwrap and roll out between lightly floured large sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap to 13-inch round. (If dough is soft and sticky, slip onto baking sheet and refrigerate until workable, 20 to 30 minutes.) Transfer dough to tart pan by rolling dough loosely around rolling pin and unrolling over 9- to 9 1/2-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Working around circumference of pan, ease dough into pan corners by gently lifting dough with one hand while pressing dough into corners with other hand. Press dough into fluted sides of pan. (If some edges are too thin, reinforce sides by folding excess dough back on itself.) Run rolling pin over top of tart pan to remove excess dough. Set dough-lined tart pan on large plate and freeze 30 minutes. (The dough-lined tart pan can be sealed in a gallon-sized zipper-lock plastic bag and frozen up to 1 month.)

Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Set dough-lined tart pan on baking sheet, press 12-inch square of foil inside frozen tart shell and over edge, and fill with metal or ceramic pie weights. Bake for 30 minutes, rotating halfway through baking time. Remove from oven and carefully remove foil and weights by gathering edges of foil and pulling up and out. Continue to bake until deep golden brown, 5 to 8 minutes longer. Set baking sheet with tart shell on wire rack to cool.

Tips for Managing the Crust:
If the dough becomes soft and sticky while rolling, rechill it until it becomes easier to work with. Better to rechill than to add too much flour, which will damage the delicate, crisp texture of the dough.

Prepare the Pastry Cream:
Heat half-and-half, 6 tablespoons sugar, and salt in medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat until simmering, stirring occasionally to dissolve sugar.

Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks in medium bowl until thoroughly combined. Whisk in remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and whisk until sugar has begun to dissolve and mixture is creamy, about 15 seconds. Whisk in cornstarch until combined and mixture is pale yellow and thick, about 30 seconds.

When half-and-half mixture reaches full simmer, gradually whisk simmering half-and-half into yolk mixture to temper. Return mixture to saucepan, scraping bowl with rubber spatula; return to simmer over medium heat, whisking constantly, until 3 or 4 bubbles burst on surface and mixture is thickened and glossy, about 30 seconds. Off heat, whisk in butter and vanilla.

Transfer mixture to medium bowl, press plastic wrap directly on surface, and refrigerate until cold and set, at least 3 hours or up to 2 days.

Assemble and glaze the tart:
Spread cold pastry cream over bottom of tart shell, using offset spatula or large spoon. Arrange fruit (whole or sliced) on top of pastry cream.

Bring jelly to boil in small saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally to smooth out lumps. When boiling and completely melted, apply by dabbing and flicking onto fruit with pastry brush; add 1 teaspoon water and return jelly to boil if it becomes too thick to drizzle.

To serve: Remove outer metal ring of tart pan, slide thin metal spatula between bottom of crust and tart pan bottom to release, then slip tart onto cardboard round or serving platter.

Random comments from the peanut gallery (that's me!): If I am making a full sized tart or a tart that won't be eaten immediately, I usually coat the inside of the tart shell with some high quality chocolate. This prevents the shell from absorbing moisture from the pastry cream.

Dulce De Leche Brownies

2005-04-24T12:44:00.000-07:00

With my curiosity on Dulce De Leche piqued, I had to try making it in the microwave...I'm pleased to report that it *is* possible, but it smells funny (think scalding milk) and it is very important to make sure to use a deep steep sided bowl so that when the condensed milk is heating up and getting all frothy and bubbly, it doesn't overflow the bowl and get your microwave all messy.

Anyway, with the excess Duce De Leche around, I had to figure out what to do with it, so I used it to make Dulce De Leche filled Brownies. The recipe is adapted from Mrs. Fields Cookie Book.

Ingredients
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup salted butter, softened
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons instant coffee granules
2 teaspoons kahlua or other coffee liquor
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Dulce De Leche, made from 1 can of sweetened condensed milk, warmed to ensure it is spreadable.

Method:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8x8 inch baking pan (or line with foil and grease that for easier removal and cleanup post baking).

In a small saucepan, melt chocolate and 1/2 cup butter over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

Beat eggs in a large bowl on high speed until they thicken slightly. Add sugar slowly. Dissolve coffee granules in the vanilla and kahlua, then add to the egg mixture and mix well. Add the chocolate-butter mixture, and beat on medium until uniformly brown. Add the flour and blend at low speed until just combined. Do not overmix.

Pour half the brownie batter into the prepared pan. Smooth top. Bake fifteen to twenty minutes, or until the top is firm.

Spread warm Dulce De Leche evenly over the top of the baked brownie layer. Pour the remaining brownie mixture over the caramel, smoothing the top. Bake an additional twenty-five to thirty minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes cleanly out of the top brownie layer.

Cool the brownies in the pan, then cut into squares (or triangles - I found these are very very rich).

Serves 16 or 32, depending on whether you slice the squares into triangles or not.

Potato Chips in What?!

2005-04-24T12:31:00.000-07:00

Don't they look delicious? You'd never know they had potato chips in the ingredient list unless someone tells you...I've baked these cookies for cookie exchanges and have dubbed them "Mystery Ingredient* Cookies". The way it works is if ever you bake these to give away, don't tell what the Mystery Ingredient is - see if people can guess...I remember the first time I had them, I found them most delicious and quite addictive...and I had a heck of a time figuring out what the mystery ingredient was. These cookies are very tasty - light (in texture - not light in calories!), crispy and buttery good. They're something between a shortbread and a sugar cookie...

Some tips and comments before I post the recipe:

I use a food processor to make crumbs of the mystery ingredient
These cookies do suffer "spread" problems - I found rolling the dough into cylinders and storing in the freezer worked well - When ready to bake, I take a frozen roll out, slice it up and put the cookies in the oven with the dough still frozen. I also tend to bake for less time than called for in the recipe. The other way to get around the spread problems is to refrigerate the dough and then scoop and place on the cookie sheet as you go.
Almond Extract makes for a nice variation in place of the Vanilla.

Now then. The cookies are as follows:

Mystery Ingredient* Cookies
1 pound Butter, softened to room temperature(that's right folks, we start these out right with a full pound of sweet cream butter!)
1 cup Granulated Sugar
3 cups All-Purpose Flour
2 cups crushed mystery ingredient*(worry not, it will be revealed in good time)
1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
Powdered/Confectioner's Sugar for garnish

Method:
Cream together the butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and stir until combined. Add flour, then crushed mystery ingredient*, mix just until combined. Shape dough into small balls and place on cookie sheet. Flatten slightly (with a fork dipped in cold water, or your palm or other mushing device of your choice - I prefer to skip this step and I also recommend chilling the dough to set it up a bit). Bake in a preheated 325-degree oven for 20 minutes (I've gone as low as 10 minutes for bake time on these cookies - be sure to keep an eye on em!). You'll want to watch them closely in the oven, as they burn easily. The cookie should just start to turn golden around the edges and the top should still be light colored when theyre finished. Allow the cookies to cool on the pan until set, and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. When cooled, sift powdered sugar over cookies - if you want em really fancy, do your sifting over a stencil. Store in an airtight container, with layers of waxed paper or foil between layers of cookies.

Yield: Approximately 7-8 dozen small cookies

*Mystery Ingredient: give up yet? It's Potato Chips! Incidentally, to get 2 cups of crushed potato chips, it's a good portion of a large bag of chips from the store - I have been using Lay's Deli-style chips or Pringles Reduced Fat Potato Crisps for my cookies....just make sure you don't use any of the flavored varieties!

Sweet Sweet Milk!

2005-04-19T09:17:00.000-07:00

What have we here? Why Dulce de Leche, of course! a most tasty caramel treat and one of my experiments over the past weekend.

My first encounter with dulce de leche occurred years and years and years ago as a sophomore in high school when I did a homestay in Uruguay - it's a food that's eaten much like peanut butter, but is even better, in my opinion! It can be eaten slathered on warm toast, sandwiched between cookies (as in the case of alfajores- delicate buttery sandwich cookies with dulce de leche for the filling) or straight from the jar...and unlike peanut butter, it makes for a fantastic ice cream topping!

Previous experiments with dulce de leche left me standing over a stove stirring, stirring, stirring the pot - to ensure that the sugars didn't burn.

This particular batch was made in a much less labor intensive manner, but left me worrying that I would have caramel exploded all over my kitchen - for this time, I opted for the "simmer the can" method....in which a sealed can of sweetened condensed milk (sans label) is simmered in a deep pot (and submerged well in the water) for about three hours (topping off the water all the while)...while it does leave for easy cleanup (provided you were good in preparing your can and removing all glue from the external surface), it did leave me a bit concerned while it was cooking.

I've since done some research and discovered that dulce de leche can be made in a conventional oven - or even in the microwave...though it will result in some cleanup of whatever dish you make it in.

Regardless of your method, the ingredient list is simple: one can of sweetened condensed milk!

For the conventional oven method, you can opt for a bain marie, or you can do without, but I personally think the waterbath method leaves more room for error in cooking time. Simply stir your can of sweetened condensed milk, then pour the contents into a pie dish. Without the bain marie: pop the pie pan full of sweetened condensed milk into a 350 degree oven and bake until caramelized to your liking. If you opt to go with the waterbath, cover the pie pan with aluminum foil, and place in a large roasting pan. Add hot water to the roasting pan so the water level comes up somewhere between half and 3/4 of the way up the side of the pie pan. (When cooking with waterbaths, I also put a dishtowel in the bottom of the dish that holds the water, so that the item that is cooking doesn't slide around when I'm trying to transfer the dishes in and out of the oven) Bake in a 425 degree oven for about an hour, stirring occasionally, or until caramelized to your liking.

For the microwave, empty the can of sweetened condensed milk into a 2 quart deep dish - like a large measuring cup or microwave safe mixing bowl. Cook on 50% power for 20-25 minutes or until thick and caramel colored, stirring every 4 minutes for the first fifteen minutes, then about every one or two minutes during the remainder of the cooking time.

As for me, the first thing I did with mine (after tasting it, of course) was slather it on a graham cracker, topped it with chocolate chips and slices of banana, then popped it into the toaster oven for a few minutes to get everything all gooey....and boy, was it tasty!

Just Wafflin'

2005-04-11T12:49:00.000-07:00

There's something to be said for a nice warm toasty waffle in the morning, complete with fresh fruit and deep pockets waiting to be filled with pure maple syrup.

I usually use a different recipe for waffles that requires me to split my eggs in twain, beating the whites into a medium stiffness foam before folding them into the rest of the batter - I was in no mood for separating eggs, so I gave the Sour Cream Waffle Recipe from 101Cookbooks a try. Of course, I tweaked it - I figured it was plenty rich already - the recipe uses 3 whole eggs and 1/2 cup of sour cream - I only keep the full fat variety on hand. So I reduced the amount of butter down to 6 tablespoons (from 8) with no ill effect. The waffles were still extremely rich, very buttery in flavor and could probably stand to have the amount of butter further reduced. Incidentally, while I believe in full fat sour cream, I still prefer to drink and cook with skim milk. Go figure. Anyway, for those that are too lazy to click over, the tweaked recipe is below:

Sour Cream Waffles

ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (or less) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup milk (I used skim)
1/2 cup sour cream
3 large eggs
Maple syrup, fruit, whipped cream and/or jam, mix and match as you will, for serving

Method
Heat a waffle iron according to manufacturer's directions. Lightly oil the grids. Meanwhile whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl to combine and make a well in the center. Whisk the melted butter, milk, sour cream, and eggs in a medium bowl until well combined and pour into the well. Whisk just until smooth; do not over mix.
Spoon about 1/4 cup of the batter into the center of the waffle iron and close. Cook until the waffle is golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Serve the waffles hot, with the syrup passed on the side.

Makes twelve 4-inch waffles - or if you're like me, and you have a large Belgian waffle iron (I think it's 8" across), you'll get 4 to 6 waffles out of it...

Adapted from Back to the Table: The Reunion of Food and Family by Art Smith (Hyperion, 2001)