In Scott’s Kitchen Copyright 2013

Weeknight Gumbo for Two

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:51:22 -0700

I made a batch of Andouille Sausage a few months ago that wasn’t quite right. I think I smoked them too long and they dried out. So, they’re not really great to eat alone. So, I’ve been slowly using them up making this recipe. Not sure what a true Cajun or Creole would think of this recipe, but I suspect they wouldn’t disapprove too much. It’s a quick and easy one that is pretty satisfying even without the longer simmering. I usually have everything in the house or freezer for this. One of my variations that I also do when I make étouffée is to use double the amount of vegetables than the usual.

1 Andouille Sausage, sliced, or any sausage you like
8 Shrimp (21-25 per pound)
1/2 medium onion chopped
1/2 large green pepper chopped
2 stalks celery chopped
3 cups stock, seafood or chicken (see note)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons Dry Roux or all purpose flour (see note)
1/2 tsp Cajun spice, I like Tony Chachere’s More Spice, more or less to your spice tolerance
two sprigs of fresh thyme
salt and pepper to taste
chopped parsley for garnish
cooked rice, still hot

Thaw shrimp & sausage if you have time. If not just cook them longer at the end.

Heat the olive oil in the pan. Optionally brown the sausage in the pan and reserve on the side. Add the vegetables and Cajun spice and sauté until the vegetables are soft and the onions brown a little. Add the dry roux or flour and stir around for a minute or so. If you’re using flour go a little longer to brown the flour a bit.
 Add the stock and thyme and simmer covered for at least 30 minutes, an hour is better. The stock should reduce to about two cups. Check for seasoning. Usually the Cajun spice adds enough salt and pepper, but you can add a bit more if needed. Remove the thyme stems.

Add in the shrimp and sliced sausage and simmer until the shrimp are done, about 5 minutes. Serve over hot rice, sprinkled with the parsley.

Stock Note: You can use many different things for the stock. I keep bonito flakes, from the Japanese section of the grocery store, on had to make a quick seafood stock with. Just pour boiling water over them and let them steep for a few minutes and strain out the fish flakes. They also sell it in powdered form, which I sometimes use. Water plus a bottle of clam juice, totaling 3 cups works. Or just use chicken stock.

Dry Roux Note: Look for dry roux with the other Cajun/Creole items at the grocery store. Here in the Bay Area they now carry it. It’s basically browned flour, but some brands also include some Onion Powder and Garlic Powder. It’s great to have on hand and a wonderful substitute any time you need to thicken. It adds great depth of flavor and umami. I prefer Kary’s brand, but Tony Chachere’s is fine too.

Share our Strength Bakesale

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 10:31:42 -0700

Once again this year I’ll be participating, donating a couple of loaves of bread. 100% of the proceeds will go to Share Our Strength and help feed hungry children.

When: Saturday May 4th, from 10AM-4PM.

Where: Omnivore Books on Food, 3885 Cesar Chavez St, San Francisco. The day of the sale Fabio Viviana from Top Chef will be there with a book signing from 3-4pm!

A Place at the Table

Mon, 8 Apr 2013 14:55:55 -0700

There’s a new documentary around that food bloggers are rallying around today. It was made by Lori Silverbush (aka Mrs. Tom Colicchio). So to my six readers I say, look out for it or seek it out on iTunes/Amazon or on Demand. Click on the poster above to see a preview, find more information and see if it’s showing near you.

Twenty percent of children in America are in homes that are ‘food insecure’. Meaning they’re unsure where the next meal is coming from. One in six people in America don’t always have enough to eat. These are staggering numbers of people.

Follow this link to tell Congress to get off their butts about this issue: link.

Could you live on $4 a day for food?

Baking Day!

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 16:41:45 -0800

I went a little crazy today and baked up a storm. Most of it was done by 1:00 pm too. I was killing three birds with one stone, so to speak. We need bread for the week in the house, I need bread for a dinner tomorrow night and cookies for both tomorrow night and an Oscar party on Sunday. All three cookies required the dough to be refrigerated so I made the doughs yesterday. That left baking three kinds of bread today: a miso-rye boule, a rosemary epi for tomorrow and a wheat sandwich loaf. Sorry Howard, none of them are plain white.

The cookies were Lemon Sandwich, Oatmeal Crispies & Carob Crinkle.

Miso Rye Bread

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 16:20:43 -0800

The mere mention of Miso Rye bread in David Lebovitz’s February 2012 blog entry, Pear-Fennel Soup, got me excited. David linked to Gontran Cherrier’s website, which was where the bread was purchased. Even switching into English on the site didn’t give me much of a clue about what’s in this bread other than the obvious.

A Google search didn’t give me much either, except a miso rye seaweed recipe using only rye sourdough starter. I tried the recipe twice, leaving the seaweed out, but the dough was really wet and hard to handle. The flavors were great, but I wasn’t happy with the texture or how long it took to get a decent rise. If I remember right, the second time I even added yeast and it didn’t rise nicely.
 In the end I kind of had to invent my own recipe, taking a little from here and there and settling on a recipe that uses the sourdough starter and yeast. The miso-rye combination is delicious, especially as toast. The bread browns nicely and if you like a dark brown loaf with that little bit of bitterness that comes with it, you’ll be able to easily get that with this recipe.

You’ll need some starter for this, so you’ll need to start at least a few days ahead. I’m a fan of rye starter as it seems to be easier to keep going and handle. The recipe is below.

This is not a good recipe for a beginner bread baker.

Miso-Rye Bread

For the sponge:
1/2 cup warm water (111g)
1/2 cup starter (125g) Recipe follows
2 teaspoons sugar (11g)
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (164g)
1/2 c organic rye flour (60g)

For the final bread:
2 teaspoons instant yeast (9g)
1/4 cup warm water (58g)
1/4 cup white or red miso (65g) (lower sodium if possible)
1 teaspoon kosher salt (4g)
the sponge
1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (188g-148g)
2 - 3 Tablespoons Malted Milk Powder or Barley Malt Powder (optional)
1 tablespoon caraway seeds (optional)

water bottle for misting the oven(optional)

The night before or several hours before combine the sponge ingredients together in a bowl and stir with wooden spoon until everything is combined. Feel free to add a tablespoon or two more water if the dough isn’t a bit soft and sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature until doubled in bulk. I turn my gas oven on for a minute and then back off and pop it in there. This makes about 85°F environment and speeds things along. It takes 3 hours or so at 85°F. You can test if it’s ready by seeing if a small pinch of it will float in water. If it does, it’s ready. Bring miso to room temperature.

Combine miso & water, whisk until smooth. Put 1 1/4 cups flour in the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl if you’re kneading by hand. Add yeast & malt powder, stir to distribute. Add the miso water mixture and the sponge. Add caraway seeds if using. Put the bowl onto the mixer outfitted with the dough hook. Start the machine kneading. Keep adding flour as needed and keep kneading until you get a smooth and elastic dough. The dough should be a little sticky, but balling up and moving away from the sides of the bowl. I usually knead for a couple of minutes by hand on a floured board at this point.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl, turn it over once, cover an let rise until doubled in bulk. This takes about 45 minutes to an hour.

Punch down the dough. Optionally, you can repeat the rising. I usually form the dough into a round boule at this point and place it in a rising basket. Mine is a brotform that leaves a nice spiral on the top if flour it with a mixture of 1/2 rice flour 1/2 wheat flour before placing the dough in it. If you don’t have one you can use any bowl lined with a clean lint free kitchen towel (the flour sack kind) that has been dusted with flour. Or you can use the Abby Dodge method: put it into an oiled 8”- 9” cake pan.

Preheat the oven to 425°F with a pizza stone on the lowest rack.

Let the dough rise again until almost double in bulk, 30-45 minutes depending on how warm you kitchen is. It should bounce back lightly when poked. When ready, mist the oven with your water bottle. Dust a baker’s peel with cornmeal and turn the loaf out onto the cornmeal. Make some decorative slashes in the loaf and slide the loaf onto the pizza stone. Bake 5 minutes and mist the oven again. Try not to mist the loaf directly. Another method is to put a shallow pan of boiling water on the floor of the oven for the first 15 minutes of baking, removing it for the remainder.

Lower the temperature to 375°F and bake for 40 - 60 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. It should have a internal temperature of at least 200°F, you can test this with an instant read thermometer inserted in the bottom. It will get quite dark if you cook it longer, but you certainly can if you like it that way. I find darkly cooked bread a little bitter.

Scott’s notes: They do make low sodium miso, try to use that because salt can inhibit yeast. If you’re using regular miso cut down the salt by half. I’m not super fond of the caraway seeds, but some might like. Today when I made this recipe it required quite a bit more flour to get the right bread consistency. When done mixing it should be only slightly sticky.

Update: Recently I remembered that another rye bread recipe I have calls for malted milk powder. I started using it because it adds another flavor dimension which I love.

Rye Starter

3 Tablespoons organic rye flour
3 Tablespoons bottled or distilled water
a jar

I’ve found rye starter easier to get going and easier to maintain. After you get it going you can convert it slowly to a white starter by feeding it unbleached white flour. Always use water that isn’t chlorinated. I use distilled.

• Day 1: mix the flour and water in a jar. Loosely cover.
• Day 2: feed the starter with 2 Tablespoons of rye flour & 2 Tablespoons of water. Stir it all up. Loosely cover. It should start smelling yeasty at this point.
• Day 3: throw out roughly 1/3 of the mixture and feed again. Loosely cover.
• Day 4: repeat
• Day 5: it should be fairly active at this point and ready to use. Keep it going by throwing out roughly 1/3 and feeding. It improves with age.

After your starter is active you can keep in the fridge and only feed it once a week or so.

If at any point the mixtures smells bad, start over. It should smell yeasty and bit sour, but not like ammonia.
 You don’t always have to discard part of the starter. If I’m baking the next day I usually don’t. If you’re worried about the waste, it’s probably only a penny’s worth.

If you’d like more detailed explanations and instructions on the starter: click here.

Very Vanilla, Lemongrass Pots de Crème

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:04:00 -0800

I cannot deny that our friends hold my cooking skills in high esteem. I am a very good cook. But I do have my days where things don’t go exactly as planned. The resulting food may be fine, but I’m my harshest critic and feel disappointed when things don’t turn out right.

Yesterday was one of those days, on several fronts. My 100% sourdough bread turned out flat and dense. The rolls from the dough were a bit more successful. The dinner I made was Lobster Fra Diavolo with homemade pasta. It was fine, but maybe not the best use of lobster. The spicy flavorful sauce muted the lobster flavor. It was good, but not special dinner good. The pasta was perfect though, so something did go right.

Then there was these pots de crème. I turned my back on the custard on the stove and I came close to having scrambled eggs. I strained and whirled in the Blendtec blender to get back to a smooth custard. The end product was OK, but once again far from perfect. I should have started over. The other disappointment was that the lemongrass flavor was very subtle. Served with lots of sauce and all troubles were effectively covered up. I might try these again with a second stalk of lemongrass or just some lemon extract instead. They do have a really strong vanilla flavor. Abby’s original recipe is here.

Very Vanilla, Lemongrass Pots de Crème

Makes 4 servings and 1 1/3 cup sauce
For the pots of heaven: 1 vanilla bean split or 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or paste 1 cup half & half 3/4 cup whole milk 2 stalks of lemongrass, chopped OR 1/2 tsp lemon extract 5 large egg yolks 1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces) granulated sugar 1/8 teaspoon table salt
For the blueberry strawberry sauce: 10 ounces frozen blueberries, thawed 1/4 cup strawberry jam (I use seedless) 1/4 – 1/2 cups (1 to 2 ounces) confectioners’ sugar Pinch of table salt
To make the pots:
1. Measure the half & half and milk in separate microwaveable containers.
2. Position the vanilla bean on a cutting board and, using the tip of a sharp knife, split the bean lengthwise down the middle. Slide the edge of the knife down the cut side of each piece of the bean to release the seeds. Add the seeds and vanilla bean pieces to the half & half. Put the chopped lemongrass into the milk. Heat the mixtures in the microwave until very hot, 2 to 3 minutes. Cover and let the mixtures steep 30 or up to 2 hours. The longer the half & half and the vanilla bean and seeds steep, the more pronounced the vanilla flavor. Strain the lemongrass stalks out of the milk and combine with the half & half.
3. Position the oven rack on the middle rung. Heat the oven to 325°F. Arrange four 6-ounce ramekins in a baking pan with 2-inch high sides. I use my 8-inch square baking pan.
4. In a small saucepan, whisk the yolks, sugar and salt until well blended.(Don’t let them sit or the eggs will begin to break down.) Uncover the half & half and, whisking, slowly pour the half and half (with the vanilla bean pieces) into the yolk mixture. Whisk until well blended. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a spoon or heat-proof spatula, until thickened and coats the back of a spoon or spatula (170-172°F on an instant read or candy thermometer), about 4 to 5 minutes. DO NOT LEAVE UNATTENDED FOR EVEN 5 SECONDS!
5. Slide the pan from the heat and fish out the vanilla bean and scrape any custard from the pod back into the custard. Stir in vanilla extract or paste, if using. Pour the custard into the ramekins (for a super-clean pot filling, I like to pour the custard back into the 2-cup measure and then pour it from there into the ramekins – the pour spout makes it so easy.) Carefully fill the baking pan with hot tap water to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins and cover the pan loosely with foil.
6. Bake until the pot de crèmes wiggle like jello when nudged, 35 to 45 minutes depending on thickness of the ramekin walls. Transfer the baking pan to a rack let cool completely. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or up to 2 days before serving.
To make the blueberry strawberry sauce: 1. Combine the thawed blueberries, jam, 1/4 cup (1 ounce) confectioners’ sugar and the salt in a food processor or blender. Whiz until pureed and well blended. Taste and add a touch more sugar if needed. Press through a fine-meshed sieve if you want a seedless sauce.
To serve:
1. Spoon a little of the custard out of the center -don’t go for perfect – and pour a little sauce into the cavity. Serve the remaining sauce on the side.

Lavender & Crystalized Ginger Whoopie Pies

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 10:40:01 -0800

This month’s not official #Baketogether is Whoopie Pies. The grand nieces were visiting so I enlisted their “help”. I didn’t have any buttermilk in the house and I needed to steep the lavender flowers in hot milk to extract their flavor. From what I’ve read heating buttermilk isn’t a good idea. So, I used regular milk and buttermilk powder. The lavender flavor is mild in this version, so feel free to up the quantity of flowers for a more intense flavor. The ginger was also a bit subdued, so I might try adding some ginger powder to the filling if I made these again.

Lavender & Cyrstlaized Ginger Whoopie Pies Makes 14 filled whoopie pies

For the whoopies 2 cups (9 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons buttermilk powder (optional) 6 tablespoons (3 ounces) unsalted butter, softened 1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar 2 large eggs, at room temperature 1 teaspoon pure vanilla bean paste or extract 1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon lavender flowers, or more to your taste
purple food coloring (optional)

For the filling 4 oz cream cheese at room temperature
4 oz butter at room temperature
3 - 4 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup crystalized/candied ginger cut into small pieces
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder (optional)

Make the whoopies
1. heat the milk and lavender flowers together just until small bubbles form around the edge of the pan. Steep for at least 15 minutes. Strain out the flowers
2. Position an oven rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350°F. Line three cookie sheets with parchment or nonstick baking liners.
3. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, buttermilk powder and salt in a medium bowl until well blended and no lumps remain. Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed until well blended and smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until just blended between additions. Add the vanilla with the last egg. Add food coloring. Do a better job than I did. I ended up with a purplish gray. Stop to scrape down the bowl and the beater as needed. Add half of the flour mixture and mix on low speed until just blended. Add the milk and mix until just blended. Add the remaining flour mixture and mix on low speed until just blended.
4. Using a small mini scoop, shape the dough into balls and arrange about 1 1/2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Bake, one sheet at a time, until a pick inserted in the center of one whoopie comes out clean, 9 to 11 minutes. Move the sheet to a cooling rack, let the whoopies sit for 10 minutes, and then transfer them to a rack to cool completely.

Make the filling Beat the cream cheese and butter together. Add powdered sugar and ginger powder. Add enough so that you have a fairly stiff filling. Fold in the ginger.

Fill the whoopies by spreading a generous amount of filling on one half and topping with another half.

Cavatelli with Duck Ragu

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:02:20 -0800

For Xmas Howard got me an item from my much neglected Amazon.com wishlist, a cavatelli maker. It’s made by CucinaPro and works like a charm once you get the dough the right consistency, which is stiff, but not dry. I’ve made three batches of 100% semolina cavatelli since Christmas. They have a nice firm “bite” as they say. The cavatelli maker came with a sheet of recipes, all of which use all purpose(AP) flour. For this recipe I decided to try one of them. They turned out lighter, and really lovely with the Duck Ragu.

The ragu is adapted from Mario Batali. I only employ a couple of small changes, but both are meant to increase the umami flavor. I add in some dried, reconstituted porcini mushrooms and a couple of dashes of Worcestershire sauce. Mushrooms and anchovies both add to umami and depth of flavor. I also cook this sauce a bit longer than Mario, melding the flavors more.

AP Flour Cavatelli (serves 4)
3 cups sifted all purpose flour
4 1/2 teaspoons shortening
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup hot water
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Knead everything together until you get a smooth dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes or more.

Roll the dough out to about 3/8 inch in thickness. Cut into 1/2 - 3/4 inch strips. Feed through your Cavatelli Maker. Or do a Google search on how to hand roll them. Put them on a well floured sheet pan to dry out a little before using.

Duck Ragu (serves 4)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 large or 4 small skinned duck legs
salt & pepper
1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 rib of celery, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, thinly slice
4 fresh sage leaves
2 cups red wine
2 cups duck (or chicken) stock
one 6 oz can of tomato paste
Worcestershire Sauce
parmesan

Heat one cup of the stock to at least very hot and add the dried mushrooms. Soak for 10 minutes or so. Remove the mushrooms and chop. Let soaking liquid settle.

Salt and pepper the duck. Heat the oil in a dutch oven until hot and brown the duck legs on all sides. Transfer to a plate and set aside.

Add the onion, carrot, garlic, celery and sage to the pot. Reduce the heat to low and cook until the vegetables are soft. Add chopped mushrooms, wine, stock, tomato paste and the reserved mushroom soaking liquid, avoiding the last bit of mushroom liquid that is most likely sandy. Add a couple of dashes of Worcestershire Sauce.
 Add the duck back in and simmer for an hour.

Remove the duck to a plate. When cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones and add back into the sauce. Simmer for another hour or longer, adding more stock if it gets too dry. You want the sauce to end up thick. Taste to check the seasoning and adjust. I added a couple of dashes of Worcestershire sauce at this point to add a little tang.

Cook the cavatelli in abundant salted water until they float for a minute or two. Taste along the way to your preferred doneness. Drain and add them to the sauce, letting them soak up the sauce for a minute or two. Serve, topped with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Crispy, Carob Crinkle Cookies

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 15:06:34 -0800

I’m allergic to chocolate. Yeah, it sucks. But I’m not epi-pen allergic, it just causes upper respiratory problems, sinus headaches, etc. So, I eat some here and there, but I seem to be gradually more allergic to it. So, after a 40 year absence I’m checking out carob again. Carob is made from the seed pod of the carob tree and somewhat good foil for chocolate. As a kid I made a terrific carob cake only to have it spectacularly fail the next time I tried. Today I made some pretty tasty and chocolate craving satisfying cookies. Here’s the recipe:

Crispy, Carob Crinkle Cookies

1 cup + 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon carob powder
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
(optional)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons butter at room temp
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
sugar for rolling, coarse sanding sugar preferred

Sift the dry ingredients together.

In the bowl of a mixer cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla. Beat to combine.

With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients. Form the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold, about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Shape pieces of dough into 1” - 1 1/4” balls. Roll each ball in sugar. (I place them on a parchment lined sheet and freeze at this point so I can take out a few at a time.)

Place balls a couple of inches apart on a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. Bake 10 - 12 minutes until set. They fall immediately as you take them out of the oven. Cool on baking sheet for five minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Makes about 30 cookies.

Hint: if you forget to take out the butter ahead, cut it into small cubes and put it into the bowl of the mixer. Wait 15-20 minutes and then proceed

Miso-Rye English Muffins #Baketogether

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 13:16:23 -0800

Yeah, yeah, another Miso-Rye recipe. Get over it.

Miso-Rye English Muffins (adapted from Abby Dodge’s Whole Wheat Honey EM)
Makes 8 big muffins

For the English muffins 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour + extra for dusting 3/4 cup rye flour 1 package instant yeast (a scant tablespoon for those you who buy in bulk) 2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon malted milk powder (optional) 1 teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon caraway seed (optional) 1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon water (see note)
1/4 miso (red or white, low sodium if possible) 2/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons honey Cornmeal for dusting 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) unsalted butter, at room temperature

Make the dough 1.   In a large bowl of electric stand mixer, combine the all purpose flour, rye flour, yeast, baking powder, caraway if using and salt and whisk until well blended. Clip the bowl into the mixer stand and fit the mixer with the dough hook.

2.   Heat the water and milk until very hot but not boiling. (I do this in a Pyrex measure in the microwave but a small pan on the stovetop will also work). Stir in the honey and miso. Mix until thoroughly combined. Check the temperature using an instant-read thermometer. For the yeast to activate, the liquids need be between 120°F and 130°F degrees (I shoot for 125°F).

3. With mixer on medium speed, slowly pour the liquid into the flour mixture. Mix until the flour is completely incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the bottom and sides of the bowl, about 10 minutes. Stay close while it’s mixing as the mixer might dance around on the counter. 
4.   Scoop up the dough and shape it into a ball, lightly flouring your hands. The dough will be sticky but resist the urge to add too much flour. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of the mixing bowl and pop the dough, rounded side up, back into the bowl. Cover the top securely with plastic wrap or a plate. Let the covered dough rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 45 to 60 minutes. 
5.   Sprinkle an even layer of cornmeal over a cookie sheet or half sheet pan. Turn the dough out onto a very lightly floured work surface (the dough is sticky but use the least amount of flour as possible) and gently press to deflate. Using a bench scraper or knife, divide the dough into 8 even pieces (4 1/2 ounces each). Shape the dough into a round balls (about the size of a blood orange) making sure the top is smooth and there is one seam on the bottom. Again, use very little flour. Arrange about 2-inches apart on the cornmeal-lined baking sheet and gently press down on each, lightly flouring your hands as needed, until they are about 3-4 inches in diameter and about 1/2 inch thick. Lightly spray the tops of the dough with oil (I used olive), cover loosely and let the dough rise, in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 25 to 40 minutes. I covered mine with a kitchen towel. 
Cook the muffins 6.   Heat a griddle to medium heat. Brush or spread the butter evenly over the griddle (it will sizzle). Carefully lift the muffins, one at a time, and gently place, cornmeal side down, on the hot griddle, about 2-inches apart, so as not to deflate the dough. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until the bottom is well browned (reduce the heat if they are browning too quickly) and the sides look dull and a bit dry, about 10-15 minutes. Using a spatula, carefully turn the muffins over, reduce the heat to low, and continue to cook until the bottom is browned and the muffins sound hollow when gently tapped, about 10 to 15 minutes. Mine took a good 30 minutes total, maybe a little longer. They will deflate a little when you turn them.

 
7.   Remove the muffins from the griddle and set them on a wire rack and let cool until warm or cool completely before stowing in an air tight container for up to 3 days (they also freeze nicely). The muffins are best when served toasted. Using a fork (you can use a serrated knife but your muffin will lose is crumble-topped texture), split the muffins in half, toast and serve immediately with butter, honey or nut butter. Some people don’t like this flavor combinations with jam, some do.
 Scott’s Notes: Although thoroughly cooked I found them a little on the gummy side when I toasted them. Next time I’ll cut down on the water a little. Fork split they did have nice “nooks and crannies” as they say. I forgot the malt powder, but I think it would be a good addition. It adds depth of flavor in the miso-rye bread I make. Abby makes 6 out of this recipe. She calls them big, I’d say enormous. I made 8 and they were still pretty big. Abby also had flour weights. Sorry I didn’t weigh the ingredients. I didn’t use caraway, but it would be a good addition as Abby pointed out.

Ricotta Squash Gnocchi

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 11:24:57 -0800

These gnocchi turn out very light and fluffy, but are a bit delicate. It took my inspiration from two different recipes to come up with a very light gnocchi. They are a teeny bit hard to handle, but that keeps them fluffy.

For the gnocchi: 1 pound butternut squash pulp squeezed dry 1 large egg + 1 egg white, lightly beaten 15 oz whole-milk ricotta (or 16 if your container is that size) 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese 2 teaspoons coarse salt 1 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

For the sauce: 3 to 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 10 fresh sage leaves, torn Coarse salt 1/3 to 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, plus more for serving

1. Preheat oven to 375°. Cut squash lengthwise in half. Place on baking sheet, cut side down. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake until tender, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Let cool slightly; remove and discard the seeds, and scrape the pulp from the skin. Place the pulp in a large kitchen towel (not terrycloth), wrap it around the squash, and squeeze out most of the juices. Measure out one pound of this pulp for the recipe saving the remainder for snacking.  2. In a large bowl, combine the squash pulp, egg, ricotta, Parmigiano, salt, and 1 1/3 cups of the flour. Mix with a wooden spoon or your hands until thoroughly blended together. Transfer the mixture to a lightly floured wooden board, and, with your hands, work gently into a dough, gradually adding a little more flour if the dough sticks too much to your hands and to the board. Dust the dough lightly with flour, and place in a bowl. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel, and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.   3. To form the gnocchi, cut off a piece of dough about the size of an orange. Flour your hands lightly. Using both hands, roll out the piece of dough with a light back-and-forth motion into a rope about the thickness of your index finger. Cut the rope into 1-inch pieces. Roll lightly in flour. Use as much flour as necessary to keep them from being sticky. Transfer gnocchi to a lightly floured platter or baking sheet. The gnocchi can be cooked immediately or refrigerated, uncovered, overnight.   4. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add a tablespoon salt and gnocchi, cooking them in batches to avoid crowding. Cook until the gnocchi rise to the surface, 1 to 2 minutes. Let cook for just a minute or so more.   5. As the gnocchi are cooking, make the sauce: Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. When it begins to foam, add the sage, and stir a few times. Remove the gnocchi from the pot with a slotted spoon or a skimmer, draining the excess water back into the pot, and place in the skillet. Season lightly with salt, and add a small handful of the Parmigiano. Stir over medium heat until the gnocchi are well coated with butter. Taste, adjust for seasoning, and serve immediately with a sprinkling of Parmigiano.

Stew Hen Soup

Wed, 7 Nov 2012 18:27:47 -0800

This post is part of Food Bloggers Support For Sandy, organized by Barbara over at Creative Culinary. If you click on the graphic to the right you can donate to the Red Cross. There are several other worthy organizations raising money and Irvin at Eat the Love has a great roundup of them with links. Onto the recipe, well, more of a process document.

You’re not likely to encounter a stew hen much anymore. It’s a shame because they make the best stock and subsequently soup. Last month our CSA included an “expired” laying stew hen in our share. These birds are typically a couple of years old, lean and tough. Extracting all the flavor is a long process, but that can be speeded up in the pressure cooker. But if you don’t have one a bubbling pot on the back of the stove or a big crock pot will do.

One of the great benefits of these hens is their fat. It’s bright yellow on these retired laying hens. If you’ve ever cooked a recipe that called for schmaltz, this is what you want. It’s neon yellow from all the corn these hens ate. When you’re getting your stew hen cut up you can pull off these yellow fat deposits and render them in a pan under a very low flame. You can also save the fat you skim off the stock.

The best way to insure a flavorful soup is to make a flavorful stock. There are many techniques to achieve this, my favorite being browning. So, cut up your stew hen into several pieces however you like. I usually cut out the back with a pair of scissors first and go from there.

As you know if you’ve read my blog before I’m not much one for hand holding and describing every little thing. I assume you’ve got a good handle on cooking already. If you don’t there are lots of blogs and sites that will help you out more.

For this recent stew hen I didn’t feel like waiting 24 hours for the stock, so I used the pressure cooker to make my stock. You can use the stovetop or crock pot method if you like, but be forewarned that if this is a retired laying hen it takes a very long time to achieve falling off the bone tender.

Start out heating a tablespoon or so of oil in the bottom of your pressure cooker. Brown the chicken pieces and parts in the oil in batches. It will take several minutes for each batch. If you have extra backs or other pieces in your freezer they make a great addition. I always keep the extra pieces for stock.

While the chicken is browning cut up a large onion, a few carrots and some celery. Use whatever amount makes sense. I’ve never found that too many vegetables ruined a stock. After all the chicken pieces are nicely browned, remove them all from the pot and add the vegetables. Swirl them around in the oil and cook until at least the onions are soft. You can continue until they’re brown also.

Throw the pieces back in and cover with water. Don’t fill above your pressure cooker’s mark that show’s it’s maximum capacity for liquid. Add a bay leaf, some whole black peppercorns, some dried thyme and sprigs of parsley. If you are missing an item don’t worry it’ll be fine. Secure the lid on the pressure cooker and bring to high pressure. Lower the heat, but maintain pressure and cook for 90 minutes. I know that’s a long time, but these old hens are tough. I cooked mine in the pressure canner, so I was able to put in enough water that I wasn’t worried about cooking away all the liquid. If you’re using a smaller pressure cooker you will want to check it half way through to make sure you still got enough liquid. To do that remove it from the stove and quick release. Add more water if necessary, lock the lid again and bring back to pressure.

When the stock is done, skim the fat. I use a fat separator, which is one gadget I really love. Strain the stock through a fine sieve. I then strain it again through one of those gold coffee filters. Pick the meat off the bones, being careful not to get any of those little teeny bones. I kind of failed at this and we were spitting little bones out as we at the chicken in the soup. Reserve the meat for the soup.

Once again you’re going to need the basic three vegetable combination to make your soup. Feel free to add others that you like, but add them at the appropriate time. For example, frozen peas or corn would go in just before serving, potatoes at the beginning. I use lots of vegetables again so that the meat/vegetable to broth ratio is high. Sauté the vegetables in some oil and add any herbs or seasonings you like. For me it’s pretty plain, just salt and pepper. Add the meat and enough stock to cover and simmer away until the vegetables are soft. This only takes 30 minutes or so, depending on how small you cut your vegetables.

And you have soup.

Notes: If you’re using the stovetop or crock pot method, you will want to cook the stock for a very long time, up to 24 hours. A true stew hen needs that amount of time to release all the flavor.

Nick’s Birthday Dinner

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 16:47:52 -0700

We have fallen off the entertaining wagon and wanted to get back on. I don’t know why this year we’ve been so reluctant to entertain. When I queried the dinner guests for a date the first one available for all of us turned out to be Nick’s birthday. Good reason to celebrate.

I wanted to go all out to get back in the groove of things. This involved several days of cooking ahead so that when the evening came around I wasn’t stuck in the kitchen for the whole time. I set up the camera in the kitchen with the intention of taking a bunch of pictures to post, but in the end only came away with a few. Getting the hot food out of the kitchen ended up being more important than getting a photo of it.Le Menu

House made Charcuterie & cheese

Cream of Cauliflower Soup
from Ad Hoc at Home

Peas & Carrots
from The French Laundry Cookbook

Rabbit Two Ways
from Under Pressure & Lydia’s Italy

Lemon-Almond Meringue Tarts
from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

I’ve made Peas & Carrots several times before, but never has it come out so well. It’s pictured above. It’s a chive crepe filled with lobster, mascarpone cheese, chives and lobster glace´, served on a pool of carrot sauce and topped with a pea shoot salad. People were shy about using their bread to get all the sauce off the plate until I mentioned that I had no problem with that.

I didn’t get a picture of Rabbit Two Ways and it’s just as well, it was kind of a bland looking plate. I totally forgot to have chopped parsley ready for garnish. The left side had the rabbit saddles that had been wrapped together in bacon, cooked sous-vide and then seared off in a pan before serving. The sauce was made from hours of reduction of a stock made with the rabbit bones. This was a Keller “quick” sauce. It took three hours! I have to admit this left side blew me away.

The right side of the rabbit plate had Lydia Bastianich’s Pappardelle with Rabbit Sugo made from the legs. It was tasty and delicious, but kind of got out shined by the saddle. The leftovers were really tasty and served alone would have impressed most anyone.

We finished the meal with the tarts. They were really good, but the meringue was outstanding. Soft and moist, but cooked, with the browned exterior and oh so yummy.

#FestaDiSalumi

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 11:22:26 -0700

I’ve joined up to help my friend Sean at Punk Domestics with his #FestaDiSalumi challenge. It’s not as rigorous as last year’s #CharcutePalooza, thank goodness. There aren’t any prizes, and only four challenges. Please consider joining in.   A couple of weeks ago we go together to make Salami. Two kinds. It only took about 4-5 hours with plenty of time for gossip and catching up. We made two kinds, Finocchiona and Porcini. We each choose a favorite from Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn’s new book Salumi. The next day after siting inoculating in my oven I sprayed them with beneficial mold spores and hung them in the curing fridge.

It’s been hanging for a little over two weeks and has lost about 20% of weight. That’s pretty much on schedule to loose 30% in three weeks. Whenever I open the curing fridge, the entire downstairs smells like a curing room. It’s a meaty, somewhat sour smell. At first I found it nice, but now it’s getting to be a bit much. I open the windows wide to air out the smell, but it even comes through closed doors. My car gets the full effect too.

Here it is hanging today, covered in good penicillin mold.  

#Baketogether Very Berry Bite Sized Pies

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:04:32 -0700

Today was an unusual day. The kitchen is my domain and I rarely give it up or share it. I don’t often ask for help in there. It’s kind of my personal retreat, my temple of contemplation where I clear my mind and think of nothing but the task at hand. So, today I took #Baketogether to a whole new level.

I ended up watching the grand nieces today for several hours as their mom was off teaching a class. After breakfast and a game of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus it was time to come up with another activity. Since our blueberry bush is actually producing and we had other fruit in the house these pies came to mind.

For emergency purposes I had some prepared pie dough in the freezer and thawed it out. This probably wasn’t the wisest choice, but I was going for easy. Easy is necessary when kids are involved. I followed Abby’s recipe, making just a couple of changes. I changed the raspberries for strawberries and pecans for the almonds. Abby’s recipe is here. I won’t reprint it since I made so few changes. I also made them bite sized.

Lilian and Stella helped my mix everything up, cut out the dough, put it in the mini tart pans, fill with filling and top with the streusel topping. As you can see in the picture at the top they bubbled up into a terrible mess. They stuck badly and the crusts weren’t that great, but they’re good. A bit too sweet for my taste, but the girls gobbled theirs!

Potato, Leek & Spinach Soup

Tue, 5 Jun 2012 09:13:38 -0700

Yesterday we got a box of produce from a new service in the Bay Area, Full Circle. It’s all organic, delivered to your door. It arrived just in time for a Meatless Monday, which we don’t do often enough. In the box were, among other things, leeks, potatoes and spinach. I made this soup, which turned out nicely. It’s a bit subtle in flavor and you can certainly up the spices to your liking. Sorry for the crappy photo, but it’s all I took. Lazy me.

Potato, Leek & Spinach Soup with Indian Spices

1 pound leeks (about 2)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup water
1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes diced (optionally peeled)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 pound spinach, well washed and roots trimmed, keep smaller stems
1 lemon
2 tablespoons of cream, half and half or whole milk (Optional)

Optional step: Slice the green tops off the leeks, wash them throughly and combine in a pot with the stock and water. Simmer for 10 - 20 minutes to flavor the stock. Strain and set aside. Discard leek tops.

Slice the leeks crosswise and wash very throughly. Using a big bowl of water changed at least a couple of times works well. Heat butter & olive oil in a large saucepan. Add leeks and sauté over medium low until they’re very soft, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for an additional minute.
 Add the broth, potatoes and remaining spices. Bring to a boil and simmer covered until the potatoes are very tender, about 10 - 15 minutes. Add the spinach and cook an additional 3 or so minutes, until the spinach is completely wilted and the stems are very soft.

Puree in a blender in batches. As you do you can optionally strain the pureed soup through a fine sieve. I like a really smooth sauce and I usually do this, especially if I didn’t peel the potatoes. Reheat on medium heat. Stir in cream if using. You may also chill the soup at this point and serve it cold. I had it that way on day 2 and it was possibly even better.

Serve with a small drizzle of lemon juice to brighten the flavors.

Optional garnish: a dollop of sour cream or crème fraîche, croutons, fried cubes of paneer might be nice too.

Rainbow Cupcakes

Wed, 23 May 2012 10:03:49 -0700

These little gems came out beautifully, but I have to admit they were a bit of a pain to make. They’re easy, but time consuming.

Take your favorite cupcake recipe and when the batter is ready, divide it equally into six bowls. Add food coloring to each bowl, use a good amount to make brightly colored cupcakes. I used: red, orange, yellow, green, blue & purple.

After that you spoon equal amounts of each color into the cupcake liners. For me that was about a tablespoon of each batter color. Bake them at the recipe’s prescribed temperature and frost with your favorite frosting.

Miso-Rye Caraway Sables, #Baketogether

Sat, 3 Mar 2012 12:13:19 -0800

OK, I’m on a Miso-Rye tear. It’s my new thing. It will pass, but I’ll certainly make these delicious crackers again! They’re really terrific. Thanks to Abby Dodge again for another good recipe we can mess with. I used a pumpernickel flour, because my local bulk food co-op place was out of rye flour. The help told me pumpernickel is just coarse rye flour. It worked well.

Miso-Rye Caraway Sables (adapted from Abby Dodge’s Spicy Parmesan Sables)

1/2 all purpose flour
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon Rye or Pumpernickel flour
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1-2 tablespoons white miso (red miso would be fine too)
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
8 tablespoons (4 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 8 slices, well chilled
3 tablespoons very cold water, maybe a little more
Kosher salt for sprinkling (optional)

To make the dough: 1. Put the flour, cheese, and salt in a food processor and pulse briefly to combine. Add the butter and miso and pulse until the butter pieces are slightly larger than pea size, about 10 to 12 pulses depending on your machine. Add the caraway seeds. Drizzle the water evenly over the flour mixture. Pulse until the dough begins to form moist crumbs that are just beginning to clump together, about 8 or 9 more pulses depending on your machine.

2. Dump the moist crumbs onto the un-floured counter and gather into a pile. With the heel of you hand, push and gently smear the crumbs away from you until they start to come together in a cohesive dough. (This is called fraisage. See Abby’s original recipe for pictures) Two or three ‘smears’ should do the trick. Using a bench scraper, gather the dough together and turn it about 45 degrees and give it one or two more smears. Gather the dough together and shape the dough into a log, fatter for bigger crackers. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until very firm, about 3 hours, or up to 2 days. (I threw mine in the freezer for 30 minutes)

3. Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 375°F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment or silpat. Using a thin, sharp knife, cut the logs into 1/4-inch slices and arrange about 1 inch apart (they don’t spread much at all) on the prepared sheets. Bake, one sheet at a time, until nutty brown around the edges, 16 to 18 minutes. If you like, sprinkle the crackers with a little kosher salt just as the baking sheets come out of the oven. Serve slightly warm or room temperature. 
4. The dough can be shaped and frozen for up to a month and then thawed for about an hour on the counter or in the refrigerator overnight. Likewise, tuck the baked and cooled sables in a heavy duty zip top bag and stash them in the freezer. Thaw at room temperature and warm them for a few minutes at 325°F to refresh the flavors.

Scott’s Notes: The miso makes these brown very nicely, but be careful they go quickly to burnt. I lost track of how much water I used at 3 tablespoons. It wasn’t a whole tablespoon more though. The rye flour is pretty dry. My parmesan was fairly dry and I grated it on the large size of a box grater, so chunks of it survived the mixing process. That turned out to be a good thing. I have no idea what made the white dots that show in the photo. Let me know if you have ideas/theories about that.

Pistachio Cheesecake for #BakeTogether

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 09:59:54 -0800

This month’s challenge for #BakeTogether was cheesecake. I love pistachios and have some pistachio oil on hand thanks to our trip to Paris. It was a good time to use some.

The first one I made was a bit of a disaster. My cookie crumbs were “gone over” as they say, but I didn’t notice until the whole thing was baked. I also think I used too much pistachio oil in the first one, the taste was kind of overpowering. But then fully chilled it might have been fine. I threw it out and started over.

We had the second one last night for dessert during the Academy Awards party we attended. I won the Oscar statue for getting 18 of 24 awards right! Everyone was very complimentary about the cheesecake. I thought it good, but I must admit my favorite is still the one my mom made growing up: Luscious Lemon Cheesecake, from Suburbia Today magazine November 1964.

Pistachio Cheesecake (Adapted from Abby Dodge)

For the crust: •   2 cups (9 ounces) finely crushed crisp chocolate cookies •   3 tablespoons granulated sugar •   6 tablespoons (3 ounces) salted butter, melted or unsalted butter & a pinch of salt

For the filling: ▪   3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, at room temperature ▪   3 tablespoons all purpose flour ▪   Good pinch of table salt ▪   1 1/3 cups (9 3/8 ounces) granulated sugar
▪   1 cup of hulled pistachios ▪   1 cup sour cream, at room temperature ▪   2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or paste ▪   1 tablespoon pure pistachio oil ▪   4 large eggs, at room temperature

To make the crust: 1. Heat the oven to 375°F. Wrap the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with a piece of aluminum foil and clasp the outer ring over the foil so the edges hang outside the ring. In a medium bowl, stir together the cookie crumbs, & sugar until well blended. Drizzle with the melted butter and mix until well blended.

2. Dump the crumbs into the springform pan and cover with large piece of plastic wrap. Place your hands on the plastic wrap and press the crumbs about 2 1/2 inches up the sides of the pan.(The plastic wrap will keep the crumbs from sticking to your hands.) With the plastic wrap still in place, redistribute the remaining crumbs evenly over the bottom of the pan and firmly press down to make a compact layer. I like to use a metal measuring cup with straight sides and a flat bottom for this task.. Bake until the crumbs are fragrant, about 12 minutes and set on a rack to cool. Reduce the oven temperature to 300°F.

To make the filling: 1. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, flour and salt until very smooth and no lumps remain. It’s very important for the cream cheese to be lump free at this point so stop and scrape the beater and sides of the bowl frequently.

Put the pistachios and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind together until fine.

Add the sugar and nut mixture, sour cream and vanilla extract and beat until well blended and smooth, stopping to scrape beater and bowl several times.

Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until just blended, stopping to scrape beater and bowl before each addition. (Don’t over beat the filling once the eggs have been added or the cheesecake will puff too much.) Tap the bowl several times on the counter to release some of the air bubbles. Pour the filling into the cooled crust. Using the tip of a small knife or a toothpick, pop any air bubbles on the surface.

2. Bake at 300°F until the center jiggles like jello when nudged, 60-75 minutes. The cake will be slightly puffed around the edges and the center will still look moist. Set on a rack and cool completely. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 8 hours or overnight or up to 3 days. The cake can also be frozen up to 1 month. I served mine at cool room temperature, but would probably prefer it right from the fridge.

To serve: Have a flat serving plate ready and close by. Unclasp the pan’s ring, remove it, and using the excess foil, gently nudge and lift the cake to be sure it’s released. Using the foil, carefully lift the cheesecake and slide it onto the serving plate and center it.. Tear off one side of the foil close to the cheese cake. On the opposite side of the cake, gently pull the remaining foil out from the cheesecake. (If you are topping the cake with something yummy, do so now.) Run a thin knife under hot water, wipe it dry, and cut the cake into slices, heating and wiping the knife after every slice.

Macarons

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:59:48 -0800

French Macarons are all the rage here in the Bay Area. I actually never tasted one until we were in Paris and then I only had one or two. There were so many yummy things to get around to eating there. In retrospect we should have gone in Laudrée, the bakery known for macarons, when we walked past it. I just never imagined they were as glorious as they are. I guess mainly because I’ve never found meringues that interesting.

I set about learning to make these delectable cookies when we got back from Paris. I’ve tried three different recipes and finally have one that works for me. I’ve read dozens of them to get to this point. I’ve kind of gleaned a little here and there.

I’ll point you to One Vanilla Bean’s blog post for details on how to make good macarons. I must say I vary on a couple of minor points: fresh eggs work fine for me, right from the fridge. I have backyard hens, and used their eggs both times I’ve made the recipe. I always run my almond meal-powdered sugar through a sieve. I swear not doing so messed up one of my earlier test runs.
 Getting everything folded together is the most challenging part for me. I tended to under mix. That’s better than over mixing, but getting it just right gives you nice feet, but not running feet. Cecilia’s picture of the mix falling off the spatula is particularly helpful.

I also have a cheat. I bought this silpat like item from Fantes.com, the Mastrad Small Macarons Baking Sheet. It sure helps me make all the shells the same size. I’m not that good with a piping bag. I spray it with a little canola oil to make doubly sure no sticking.

For the filling I took inspiration from Mardi of EatLiveTravelWrite.com. She very recently filled some macarons with Meyer Lemon Curd and a special blackberry jam. I made lemon curd from our Meyer lemons and I already had a jar of blackberry jam from Amber in the fridge.

I pity the boule. #BakeTogether

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:55:06 -0800

I liked the #BakeTogether Peasant Boule I made last week well enough that I wanted to make it again. It was so tasty as sandwich bread that I decided to vary the recipe slightly again and make it into a traditional loaf. It was barely cool before I sliced off the end and ate it with European butter. Mmmm!

This time I did much the same, but left out the baking powder. Not sure I notice a difference.

It did take a bit longer to bake, but that was probably due to me setting the temperature at 350°F accidentally.

Update: I did this again making it rye. See the note at the bottom.

Whole Wheat Loaf (adapted from Abby Dodge)

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 scant tablespoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
1 1/3 cups warm water (about 110°F)
1 tablespoon butter melted

1. Dissolve sugar in the warm water, add yeast to proof. Wait until you see a foamy top to continue. If you don’t after 10 minutes your yeast may not be alive. Don’t proceed unless you yeast is doing it’s job. 
2. In a large bowl of electric stand mixer, whisk the flour, salt and baking powder. Clip the bowl into the mixer stand and fit the mixer with the dough hook. 
3. With mixer on medium-low speed, slowly pour the water/yeast into the flour and mix until the flour is completely incorporated. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the bottom and sides of the bowl, about 10 minutes. It shouldn’t be too sticky at this point. Slight sticky is fine.  
4. Scoop up the dough and shape it into a ball. Lightly oil a rising bucket (or mixing bowl) and pop the dough, rounded side down, turn over. Cover the top securely. Let the covered dough rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 45 minutes to an hour. 
5. Punch down the dough, smooth it out and let it rise in the bucket again until doubled, another 45 minutes or so. 
6. Oil or butter a standard loaf pan. I use olive oil spray. 
7. Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and press to deflate it. Shape the dough into a flatish oblong shape. Pull the sides and ends towards the middle, pinching to get them to stick together. Turn over and place in loaf pan.  
8. Let the dough rise covered in a warm spot until almost doubled in size, about 30 minutes.  
9. Preheat the oven to 375°F while the dough is rising. Brush the top of the loaf with the melted butter. Bake 40 - 50 minutes. The loaf should sound hollow when you knock on it’s bottom and be nicely browned all around.

Rye Variation: substitute dark or light rye flour for the whole wheat flour and add 2 tablespoons of caraway seeds. Mine turned out fairly dense, but tastes good. It may take a bit longer to rise.

Peasant Boule #BakeTogether

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:37:53 -0800

As Barbara of Creative Culinary just noticed, there seems to be a treatment facility for #CharcutePalooza addicts and it’s called #BakeTogether. Abby Dodge has been heading the project for a few months now. I just heard about it through other paloozers. The idea is to take Abby’s recipe, modify it and post your results. Come and go as you like, not a lot of rules. I need motivation to post more often, so I thought I’d take a stab at her boule, the January project.

It all starts with her recipe. I made some modifications, mainly switching out some for white flour for whole wheat, and active dry yeast instead of instant. I was dubious about the baking powder, originally leaving it out and then deciding to put it in. I’ve never made a yeast bread with it before and I’ve been baking bread for 40 years. (Eek, maybe I shouldn’t admit that number.) I’m not exactly clear on what it’s role is here. If I was a real food blogger, I’d make it again today without and do a blind taste test. But, that ain’t gonna happen.

I rise dough in a plastic bucket like thing from the restaurant supply place. Over time theses are replacing my plastic storage containers. They’re inexpensive, like $3.49 plus $1.49 for the lid, and perform better. I have several sizes. You can buy them from King Arthur online at an exorbitant markup.

This is the picture after the first rise. Contrary to the original recipe I also went for a second rise.
 My final change to the recipe was to do the final rise in my brotform proofing basket. I sprayed it lightly with olive oil spray, dusted it with flour and that’s what makes the pretty spiral on the top.

I served it at a dinner party last night and it was a big hit. Just the right amount of whole wheat to give it some flavor, but not to weigh it down. However, I think it was best this morning as toast. Super yummy, the expensive European butter probably helped too.

Whole Wheat Peasant Boule (adapted from Abby Dodge) Makes 1 round loaf

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 scant tablespoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/3 cups warm water (about 110°F)
water bottle for misting the oven(optional)

1. Dissolve sugar in the warm water, add yeast to proof. 
2. In a large bowl of electric stand mixer, whisk the flour, salt and baking powder. Clip the bowl into the mixer stand and fit the mixer with the dough hook. 
3. With mixer on medium-low speed, slowly pour the water into the flour and mix until the flour is completely incorporated. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the bottom and sides of the bowl, about 10 minutes. It shouldn’t be too sticky at this point. Slight sticky is fine.  
4. Scoop up the dough and shape it into a ball. Lightly oil a rising bucket (or mixing bowl) and pop the dough, rounded side down, turn over. Cover the top securely. Let the covered dough rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 45 minutes to an hour. 
5. Punch down the dough, smooth it out and let it rise in the bucket again until doubled, another 45 minutes or so. 
6. If you have a proofing basket get it ready. Otherwise grease up an 8-inch round cake pan with some room temperature butter. 
7. Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and press to deflate it. Shape the dough into a 7-inch-wide round and place it, smooth side up, in the center of the prepared basket or pan.  
8. Let the dough rise covered in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.  
9. Preheat the oven to 375°F while the dough is rising. If using the rising basket you’ll need to have a pizza stone in the oven to invert the boule onto. Or you could put a cookie sheet in the oven to invert it on. When ready, mist the oven with your water bottle, invert the boule onto the stone and close the oven. Bake 5 minutes and mist the oven again. This will give you a crisp crust. Omit the misting if you want a softer crust. Bake and additional 30 - 40 minutes. The boule should sound hollow when you knock on it’s bottom and be nicely browned all around. 

Showing Off, #CharcutePalooza month 12

Mon, 5 Dec 2011 11:05:38 -0800

Bresaola, Lonzino Style Pork Leg Ham, Salami, Duck Breast “Proscuitto”

Showing off? I can do that. I’ve been doing it all year; serving my homemade Charcuterie to all our dinner guests. Well, except for the occasional vegetarian meal. I planned a dinner for eight. It went off without a hitch Saturday December 3, other than it might have been a tad too much food. Everyone left stuffed.

English Pork Pie

Bucatini ala Gricia

Andouille Shrimp & Grits with a Sopressata Beignet(recipe below)

Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie

Thanks to Cathy and Kim for putting #Charcutepalooza together. Thanks also to our sponsors D’Artangnan, Trufflepig, Kate Hill & Food52. Big thanks to Michael Ruhlman for his year long support, answering the questions of the masses. Thanks also to Brian Polcyn for his part in the book that inspired all this cured meat making. Finally, thanks to Josh, Howard’s nephew, for the awesome camera and lights that helped me take much better photos.

What a year of meat it’s been. I’ve learned so much this year and will use many of the techniques going forward. At first, I thought dealing with hog casings was kinda gross. That is, until I met my first bung. I now know that it was also my last bung. I know my limits.

If you’re reading this and you’ve never made any Charcuterie, go make some Duck “Proscuitto” it’s super easy and you really don’t need anything specialized to make it. Its just duck breast, salt, cheesecloth and time. Michael Ruhlman’s online recipe is here. A more detailed recipe is at WrightFood. If you don’t have a basement or cool place to hang it, just hang it in your fridge. Weigh it before you hang it and it’s ready when it’s lost 30% of it’s weight. If you don’t have a scale, just wait a week or two and squeeze it. If it’s firm and no longer squishy, it’s ready. It’s buttery delicious and you’re friends and family will rave about it. Go. Cure.

My little video tribute:

Sopressata Beignets

4 Tablespoons butter
2/3 cup water
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 - 1/2 cup Sopressata cut into small pieces
Oil for frying

Make the choux pastry: heat the butter and water in a heavy saucepan until the butter has melted. Add the flour all at once. Stir with a wooden spoon until a ball forms and the mass no longer sticks to the sides, about a minute. This cooks out the flour taste too.

Off the heat, beat in the eggs. You can do this with a mixer or by hand with a whisk. Either way, add the a little at a time to prevent scrambling. Mix in Sopressata.

Fry in hot 375°F oil until brown and cooked through. Small ones for about 3-4 minutes. Break one open to make sure they’re done all the way through. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle while hot with salt.

They may be kept warm in a 200°F oven for a few minutes while you fry up the batch. However, they’re best served right away.

Recipes in: Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing
By Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn.

Curing, #CharcutePalooza month 11

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:00:24 -0800

OK, don’t get mad at me, but I get to make and excuse and brag at the same time. I can’t resist. I was in Paris when this month’s challenge was announced. I didn’t get home until the evening of the 23rd. That sure shaved some time off this challenge and this was a challenge that you needed a lot of time. Curing doesn’t always come on a schedule.
 Still I woke up on the 24th not feeling any effects of jet lag. Over coffee and morning TV I tried to find a challenge that I could complete in the time left, thinking I only had until November 15th. I had just made salami last month and it went really quickly, so I decided that Sopresatta would be a good choice, as it’s similar.

Well, the best laid plans of Mice and Men, as they say. I went to the butcher, came home and started in. Doing things a little out of order, I ground the meat and fat and added all the spices, milk powder, dextrose, etc. Then came time to get the starter culture out of the freezer. Oops. The recipe calls for 20 grams and I only had 11. That’s right, when I made the salami, I made a half recipe. Shoot.

What to do? Consult the book. Read about the starter and it’s role and how important that is. The package says it’s good for 220 pounds of meat. Upon further investigation I read in the book that the critical number for us home cooks is 1/4 of the package. That’s about 6.25 grams. I had 11 grams, that seemed like a good enough number. I forged ahead. I stuffed, I weighed, labeled and set out to let the bacteria get going. I wish I’d have thought of some way to keep the sausage at 85°F as recommended. Another Charcutepaloozer used a heat blanket in her closed and off oven. Smart! As it was only about 75°F during the day and lower at night I let them “incubate” a bit longer than the 12 hours stated in the recipe.
They went from grey to pink overnight. That is a good sign that the curing salt has done it’s job. I hung them in the curing fridge and crossed my fingers. Actually, I was pretty confident that everything would be fine. That is until I weighed them a week later. Only a 7-8 percent drop in weight.

Today they’re not quite ready, down 27% and still a little soft. I tasted a few slices of one. It so reminds me of pepperoni pizza topping. The flavors are similar and I can imagine it cooked and crispy. I’ll incorporate it into my final challenge.

As it happened, I was able to get a Bresaola cured, once I realized that we had additional time for this challenge. When I was a kid and I was sick or my mother was sick there were a couple of things she made that were super easy. Once was hamburger gravy over toast. Brown hamburger meat, add milk and thicken with flour, seasoned generously with salt. I loved it. Our school cafeteria served it fairly often too, but over mashed potatoes. The other dish mom made was what we called dried beef gravy. Basically the same dish, but with a jar of Armour dried beef shredded instead of the hamburger. Salty and comforting. So, this memory came up and got me to wondering what dried beef was. I did a few internet searches and realized that it’s in the book and called Bresaola. I had to make it. I couldn’t drive to the butcher fast enough to get an beef eye of round. My first one is pictured at the bottom of this post. My second is to the right.

I made some dried beef gravy over mashed potatoes with my first Bresaola, but is was almost too refined. It didn’t trigger memories like I thought it would. However, it was scrumptious. It’s very nice on a platter of cured meats.

I also did some other curing projects throughout the year. They were very successful and the highlights are below.

At the top is a picture of my salami sliced from last month. I followed the recipe in the book with the addition of orange zest. A local, very popular, purveyor puts orange in theirs and it gave me the idea. The salami turned out great, if a bit sour. That sourness has mellowed as the salami has aged, shrink wrapped in my fridge. Some I just had seems to have balanced out quite a bit. The process was the same as the Sopressata above and I’ll admit I’m finally getting fairly good at stuffing sausages by myself.

Back in April our CSA delivered to us a tied up roast that merely said “pork leg”. I asked about what I could do with it and Kate suggested Noix de Jambon. I researched, read, watched videos. I got the general idea and forged ahead. I made one piece of the leg meat into this “Nut of Ham”. It’s cured in salt for a day and then smoked. You can see it to the right. It was good, hammy, but a bit dry. I had trouble controlling my smoker and it may have gotten too hot. “Lightly” smoked was what Kate said. This was definitely more smoked than that.

Feeling super confident I decided to my own thing with the rest of the leg. I had been reading about Lonzino and Lomo. Both looked gorgeous and more like the dried hams that I enjoy. Lonzino is made with pork loin, a solid piece of meat. I figured there shouldn’t be any reason I couldn’t use the recipe on leg meat instead. I used Hank Shaw’s recipe, which has you cure in the fridge for 12 days and then hang for at least 12 days. I was ecstatic at how it turned out. This was basically a quick proscuitto. No, it doesn’t get the same depth of flavor as something aged 12 months, but I was very happy with it. I’ve made it again with small leg pieces.

Finally, here’s a picture of my first Bresaola. It was a bit more photogenic and had a bit stronger flavor as it was smaller around and the spices penetrated it better.

I will definitely be using this curing technique long after #charcutepalooza is over.

Recipes in: Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing
By Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn.

Hidden Kitchen, Paris

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 23:31:46 -0700

We know we can count on our friend Jacque to know what’s going on in the food scene of Paris. I can barely keep up with the stateside blogs I read, let alone add a bounty of blogs from Paris. I do read David Lebovitz frequently, but cannot keep up with all his posts. So, anyway, we trust Jacque.

Jacque and her husband Jim come to Paris frequently and have been coming for most of October for three years. They rent apartments from Paris Address. This year we were invited to share their two bedroom in the first. So, we’re here for 10 days. Lucky us! Style guides won’t let me use more than one exclamation mark there, but they would be deserved.

Jacque tried to get into Hidden Kitchen last year, but things didn’t work out. So when we were planning our trip she got us reservations well in advance. It’s called a private dining club and the couple, Braden & Laura, host it in their home. The table for 16 takes over their living room for a couple of evenings a week.

When we arrived, Laura greeted us, took our coats and gave us a glass of Champagne that had pomegranate floating in it with some vodka in there too. It was delicious. We chatted up the other people there. Over the coarse of the night we found there were several people born in Ohio. We are many.

The ten courses and wine pairings are to the right. The food was innovative, interesting and very good. Standout courses for me were the agnolotti with sea urchin butter and the next course, the salmon.

This special experience was made more special by the fact that it was one of the hosts’ last. They’re opening a wine bar and restaurant down the street. It hasn’t been an easy process, but they’re due to open the wine bar this week. We’ll certainly drop in if we can.

Restaurant Verjus
52, rue Richelieu
75001 Paris

Verjus Bar à vin
47, rue Montpensier
75001 Paris

www.verjusparis.com

Stretching, #CharcutePalooza month 10

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 11:18:54 -0700

I promised myself last month that I’d take on the harder challenge this month. I could have changed my mind, but that’s not usual for me. I make a plan and stick with it. So, I read and re-read the Chicken Galantine recipe in the book and forged ahead.

The recipe starts with boning out a whole chicken. I’ve done a few times before, but always with a turkey. There’s a video online by the man I’ve probably learned the most kitchen techniques from, Jacques Pepin. I watched it a couple of times and ran it while I was actually doing it. What I so love about Jacques is how he makes everything simple, breaking it down into the essential steps. I won’t ever get to his espoused “couple of minutes” to debone a fowl, I can get it done in just a few. Well, less than ten anyway.

In Jacques video he’s going to leave the meat in place, put in a filling and cook. The book’s technique has you remove all the meat, freeze the skin and scrape away all the fat. I wasn’t particularly thorough about the scraping myself. I did clean the meat as directed, which includes taking the tendons in the legs. Jacques always has you use a towel during this kind of operation, which works fine, but I think my solution works better. I use a pair of hemostats.
I learned in college about this handy tool. Someone had figured out that they had uses outside the biology lab. Although, at that point we didn’t use them for cooking. They clamp closed and hold on, clicking into place. They’re perfect for pulling bones out of fish or tendons out of chicken legs. With all the meat cleaned up and trimmed to size, the breasts are heavily seasoned and seared. Some of the remaining meat is ground up, using much the same technique as the mousseline. You lay down half of the mixture, top it with the breasts and roll it all up.
This the the point where things went a little bit south. The skin didn’t completely cover. So, I took out some of the forcemeat. I was using butter muslin instead of cheesecloth. It’s much the same except it has much smaller holes, like using the double layer of cheesecloth the recipe called for. It ended up being bulging and weird looking.

The crockpot was already up to the right cooking temperature filled with stock and I had set my controller to keep it at 165°F. In the galantine went. It poached for quite a while to come up to temperature. I checked it in several places and it had gone past the 160°F to 164°F.

It chilled overnight in the fridge in the liquid. I took it out, unwrapped it and immediately noticed “pinkness”. Even right under the skin. I cut into it and right around the breast filet in the middle was a pink gelatinous ooze. I’m still baffled what this is. The breast in the middle is fully cooked, so I know it’s not blood. I’m still at a loss.

It tastes delicious, but I can say it’s not the most visually appealing dish. After the first day that pinkness turned to grey. I suppose that’s why it’s always served with a sauce. I choose my homemade plum chutney and my homemade Indian spiced tomato jam. Both were good, but the chutney went especially well with the galantine.

I’ve learned a lot this year, but something I didn’t anticipate getting into my noggin is how different people have very different tastes. Every month reading tweets and blog posts you get opinions from all over the map. Janis declared the galantine her favorite so far. Cathy raved about the hot dogs and mortadella. For me pancetta still is top of the heap. Merguez is close behind with duck proscuitto, pork pie, and mousseline rounding out my top five. But, I’m so glad to have all of the years’ challenges in my cooking arsenal.

Recipes in: Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing
By Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn.

Packing, #CharcutePalooza month 9

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 17:27:40 -0700

With traveling to Ohio for a wedding and other activities this month I was very happy to read that the new Charcutepalooza challenge could be completed in one day. I once again choose the challenge option that would more easily adapt to a two person household. It’s been a bit of an entertaining desert here of late, so a big old loaf of country paté might not work out well for us.

The English Pork Pie however, held out great promise. The recipe, which I now don’t believe, says it serves six. I had plans to divide it in two and freeze one for later use. This worked out very well, so far. I haven’t yet cooked the pie from the freezer, but my experience with freezing other pies makes me confident it will be fine.

The crust recipe used a mix of lard and butter, a method I’ve been using for about a year, with great results. You get flavor from the butter and flakiness from the lard. The only difference is that this dough also had an egg in it. I re-read the recipe just before starting: the meat filling is made by grinding pork shoulder with the spices adding in some cooked onions, using chicken stock to create a bind. Then you mix in some smoked ham.
 Oops. I didn’t have any ham in the house. I had just made andouille sausage, which is smoked so I chopped up a cup of that. That got me into this Cajun kind of thinking and I doctored up the spices and used more thyme, some dried basil, white pepper, cayenne pepper and some additional garlic.

Everything actually came together very easily. All those skills we’ve been building came in handy and my pie making of the last couple of years sure helped out too.

The pie is assembled in a way that seems strange to me, but it works. You basically make an open faced gallete and then put a lid on it, with a hole in the lid, brushing with egg wash along the way. I might be tempted next time to use a bigger circle of dough and leave it like a gallete to cook.

We ate it warm for dinner and I went back for seconds. I rarely do that. It was delicious. Sort of like a pork meatloaf, but a fancy one. There was some left over which I have then tried at room temperature for lunch with some grainy mustard. It also was delicious. In fact, I think I liked it that way better. This seemed to be an easier way to make an approximation of Pâté de Campagne en croute. I have plans for the one in the freezer and will make the aspic for that one.

Next month is “stretching”. There are easy and harder options. After two months of taking the easier road, I should challenge myself to the harder one.

Recipes in: Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing
By Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn.

Binding, #CharcutePalooza month 8

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 09:11:10 -0700

In the past year or so I’ve helped “harvest” our Thanksgiving turkey, had to cull a sick chicken from my flock and dealt with pig intestines and cow stomach like pouch that smelled funky. All of these have tested me. They’ve all been challenges that I’ve faced, gotten through and felt good about. However, I’m not ready to boil a pig head. From what I understand, it’s not the most pleasant smell. Usually, it’s smells that bother me the most in these situations.   So, I chickened out and made a mousseline for this month’s Charcutepalooza Challenge. I had grand ideas of taking the recipe in the book and modify it to stunning results. I didn’t quite have that in me this month either. Last month’s challenge kind of took the wind out of my enthusiasm. I know it shouldn’t have, but some other factors have been weighing on me too. But, you don’t come here to hear about my problems, so I’ll get back to making the mousseline.

There’s just two of us in the house and the two big terrines that the book’s recipe makes was going to be way too much. I had procrastinated so long that there was only a few days left in the month, with no dinner parties on the horizon to use the terrine for either. So, I made a half recipe and used it two ways.

I have this great little metal French mold who’s bottom comes off and it’s sides detach and the finished product from it fits perfectly on a cracker. It’s been in my collection of kitchen gear for a long time, originally getting it for an all hors d’oeuvres party that I prepared recipes mostly from Martha Stewart’s Hors D’Ooeuvres Handboook. It’s actually one of my favorite cookbooks to consult when having a big party.

In Martha’s book she also makes terrines in it. The cooked leek greens are overlapped on a piece of plastic wrap and it all fit very nicely into the mould. Onto the scallop and crab mousseline. The cream is heated with saffron and cooled. Then in the food processor you puree the scallops with the cream and egg whites. The scallops were still very icy and the result was basically scallop ice cream. Hmm. There’s an idea there somewhere, but I didn’t have time to pursue it.
The chives and crab are folded in and then put into the mould. I saved enough on the side for my second recipe. The leeks are folded over and trimmed. Then the whole thing goes into a hot water bath and the oven. This small of a terrine didn’t take long to cook, somewhere around 30 minutes. The book’s recipe has you weight it down at this point, but that wasn’t really possible with the mould so I skipped that step and you’ll see some air holes in the resulting terrine. Nothing too dramatic though, I certainly didn’t think it detracted much from the final product.

The un-used mousseline was augmented by a little bit more crab for texture reasons and I stuffed ravioli with them. I took the shortcut of using round pot-sticker wrappers for the ravioli, something I do quite often. They’re a bit thicker than won ton wrappers so I like them better.

I felt they needed a fairly simple preparation so as to not cover up the delicate flavors of the filling. I browned some butter in a pan, added some chopped leeks leftover from the terrine and threw in a handful of crab. The ravioli cooked quickly in boiling water and were tossed into the pan. I sautéed them for a couple of minutes letting them get a bit brown and crusty on the outside. They were outstanding.

Yesterday I had the chance to serve the terrine as an appetizer at an impromptu dinner that we got invited to. It was delicious. We ate it on crackers and just slices by themselves. Both were really good, but all alone the subtle flavors were highlighted better. Crackers on the bland side worked better and I imagine toast points would have been optimal.

I’m definitely going to use this recipe again as a ravioli filling. Then next time we have a big hors d’oeuvres party the terrine may well make an appearance too. When I’m feeling more flush and creative I’d like to substitute lobster for the crab.

Scallop & Crab Mousseline Ravioli in Leek Brown Butter

Scallop & Crab Mousseline
Pot-sticker wrappers or other pasta for ravioli
Butter
Chopped leeks, white & light green only
crab meat

Add a bit more crab to the mousseline if desired, it adds a little more texture. Make the ravioli by putting about one scant tablespoon of the crab mixture on a pot-sticker wrapper. Run a wet finger around the rim of the pot-sticker so that the top one with stick. Seal by pressing down all the way around or pick up and squeeze the two sides together all the way around.

Brown the butter in a large skillet, toss in the leeks and a couple of minutes later some crab. Sauté until lightly brown.

Boil ravioli until they float and then toss into the pan with the butter and leeks. Sauté to lightly brown the ravioli. Serve on hot plates.

Recipes in: Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing
By Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn.

Blending, #CharcutePalooza month 7

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 08:29:02 -0700

Blending, a.k.a., emulsification was the major objective of this month’s challenge. This meant that the meats would spend time in the food processor, becoming more like pastes than in our previous sausage making. It gives the resulting products a ‘bite’ that anyone who’s ever had a hot dog could identify, if they thought about it. I certainly hadn’t until this challenge.

I was in a bit of a pickle with the challenge as none of the assigned tasks particularly thrilled me. My palate has evolved and changed. I don’t much like the foods I liked at age 12, yet those were the very things we were tasked to make: baloney or hot dogs. To be accurate Mortadella not baloney. Yet, Mortadella is where Oscar Meyer got it’s inspiration.

I had a beef bung in the refrigerator from when I ordered the hog casings. I had read enough recipes in the book to think we might need one at some point. I also procured all the ingredients with dry milk powder proving to be the most difficult. I didn’t need the big box, but that’s all that was available at the first Safeway I visited. Luckily, the second had a smaller container.

The next day I set out to make the Mortadella. I got the packaged bung out of the fridge and set it to soak. Gross. This thing made me a little queasy. It has a smell. An animal funk smell, not rank, but not to my liking either. I rinsed and changed the water several times. The smell persisted.

Frankly, the bung smelled better than the next step: blanching the pork fatback. It’s the white chunks you see in the final Mortadella. OK, I was really having my stomach turn at this point. Luckily, I have not one but two strong fans in my vent hood. So, the smell was mercifully brief. Cooled off the fatback is then cut into big dice. I laid out the rest of the ingredients too.

I ground the pork butt and the other pork fatback separately as the the recipe asks. They are put in the freezer to firm up as the process requires starting out with really cold meat. There are three stages of processing in a food processor: first with the meat and spices; second adding in the ground fat; third adding the powdered milk. You end up with a smooth sticky paste. The blanched fatback and pistachios are folded in, then it’s stuffed into the lovely bung. Pretty, huh?

During the Twitter Q&A session I had asked about using a sous-vide bath to poach the Mortadella and Michael Ruhlman said it would work well. It did, but took about 3 1/2 hours to cook to the 150°F temperature in the center. I use a crock pot with an aquarium temperature controller to do my sous-vide. I weighted down the Mortadella with a small plate.

It went right into and ice bath when done. The bung was cut off and into then into the fridge. The next day I sliced into it and tasted. The verdict? It tasted like baloney. Good baloney. How impressed was I? Not very. The work to wow ratio was low. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but it was no pancetta.

I made a fried baloney sandwich with it, which is a very nostalgia filled thing for me. Mom used to make them when I was little. Frying it made the baloney taste special. So, even filled with memories of childhood, I couldn’t muster up much enthusiasm for Mortadella. Yeah it was good, it just wasn’t special.

I had heard about such good results people were getting with the hot dogs, so I decided to make them too, thinking they would be this blog post. I won’t go into the whole process here, it’s in the book. They also turned out to be a good version, with good flavor and the right bite, but also not worth the effort. I had problems stuffing & linking. Somehow, I’m getting worse not better at this.

I know I’ll be in the minority, if not standing alone, but this month’s challenge didn’t do it for me. It didn’t add anything to my standing repertoire. Learning the technique was good though and I’ll probably try some of the other sausages in this section of the book, like the smoked andouille.

Recipes in:Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing
By Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn.

Stuffing Sausage, #CharcutePalooza month 6

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:43:57 -0700

This month’s challenge built on the skills we learned last month in sausage grinding, asking us to stuff that sausage into casings. I choose the poultry category and started racking my brain. I do want to try Michael Ruhlman’s professed favorite from the book, Chicken Sausage with Basil & Tomatoes, but I wanted to also try and create something of my own. It took me several days to think to look at my favorite chicken recipes for inspiration. When I finally did, one jumped out as the exact dish I’d try to re-create in a sausage: Moroccan Chicken. The recipe I follow to make the dish is from The New Basics, a cookbook that has gotten a lot of use since I got it in 1989 or so.

I looked at a few more online recipes for Moroccan Chicken for further inspiration. I tweaked the ingredient list from the original recipe a few ways and forged ahead. I started out with some nice organic chicken thighs and good long list of other ingredients. Making the filling was easy, grinding everything together. Stuffing was another story. I had several problems, including having trouble putting the casing onto the stuffer, air bubbles, burst sausages, but I learned several things.

1) Put the stuffer onto the Kitchenaid before trying to put the casings on. For some odd reason it’s easier, I guess because it’s more stable.
2) Don’t tie the end off or you’ll end up with air bubbles. Watch the video, and go ahead and laugh:
3) When you twist up the links, give it more twists than you might think. Mine seem to come undone when cooking.
4) Don’t overstuff, they’ll burst both when stuffing and when cooking
5) Blanch for a few minutes in boiling water or beer to keep them from bursting when frying or grilling.
6) Prick the sausages all over to help prevent bursting too.
7) Get someone to help you when the stuffing part comes. It really does take more than two hands. It’s not impossible to do, but it gets frustrating by yourself.

So, how did they turn out? The flavor is spot on. They’re delicious on a toasted bun with a little mayonnaise and chutney. It’s like the dish, in a sausage. Just as tasty. My one disappointment is with the texture. The recipe probably needs something more as a binder. The sausages don’t hold together if you wanted to cut them open to grill. The filling tends to fall apart. If anyone has suggestions on how to modify the recipe to fix that, I’d love to hear them.

Moroccan Chicken Sausages

2 lbs. 12 ounces chicken thighs
1/4 lb. pork fat
1/4 cup diced apricots
1/4 cup diced dates
1 Tbl. almond flour
1 red onion diced
1/2 cup chopped almonds
about 1 cup mixed black & green olives, pitted & diced
1 Tbl. honey
4 cloves garlic chopped
2 tsp. chopped fresh cilantro
1 Tbl. chopped fresh parsley
2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. turmeric
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. ginger powder
3/4 tsp. cumin
3/4 tsp. paprika
3/4 tsp. black pepper

1/4 c dry white wine chilled
1/4 c ice water (optional)

hog casings

Soak hog casing in cold water for at least 30 minutes. Rinse several times before using.

Put meat grinder parts into the freezer. Cut the thighs into chunks and put into the freezer while preparing the rest.

Toss diced apricots & dates with the almond flour. This keeps them from clumping together.

Measure and chop the remaining items. When ready, remove the meat from the freezer and toss everything but the wine together. Grind through the large holes on the grinder into a bowl that’s sitting in ice. After grinding, mix with the paddle of a stand mixer, adding in the chilled wine. You may add a little additional ice water to get it to bind correctly.

Cook a small piece and check the seasoning. Adjust as you see fit.

Chill the meat in the fridge until thoroughly cold again, up to overnight to allow the flavors to meld.

Stuff into hog casings and twist into links.

Recipes in:Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing
By Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn.