06.29.08
Posted in Bread, Breakfast, Dessert, Dinner, Foodblog Events, Fruits at 10:45 am by julie
I was excited when I found out that this month’s Daring Bakers challenge would be Danish braids, but the time commitment of making laminated dough must have been more intimidating than I was willing to admit, because I procrastinated until almost the last moment to make it. Finally, impending hot weather made me spring into action this past Thursday.
I took advantage of Nolan’s early afternoon nap to make the dough, or detrempe, using clementine zest and juice, vanilla paste, and ground cardamom from an elderly bottle that I know I should replace. The dough was not kind to my stand mixer, and kept trying to escape out the top of the bowl, so I had to babysit it. It came out rather firm and very slightly tacky, and went in the fridge while I made the butter block, or beurrage.
Then I remembered that my stand mixer bowl always screws itself up tight when I make dough, so much that I can’t actually unscrew it myself. Jeremy was still at work, so I ended up having to wash out the bowl while it was still attached to the mixer. Bah. I left everything for half an hour to go pump and feed the little guy (who, I have to brag, was having an incredibly cheerful day, probably to make up for the post-vaccination shriekfest of the evening before).
The actual lamination process took much less dedicated time than I had expected: four turns half an hour apart, each requiring no more than about 5 minutes at once. Piece of cake… or Danish, as the case may be!
The next day, around the same time of afternoon, I sauteed up some Fuji apples and pondered my other filling options while making the braid. This process was pretty straightforward, and I took other Daring Bakers’ advice to make sure that my cut slices were long enough to completely cover the filling and anchor with a little pressure on the opposite side.
Two hours and an egg wash later, my braid went in the oven, only slightly enlarged from its original state. I baked for 5 minutes at 400F as the recipe called for, then turned down the temp to 350F and left it in for just another 5 minutes, after which it was nicely browned. Once it had cooled a bit, we ate slices with vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of the syrup from the sauteed apples.
The leftovers were polished off for breakfast yesterday morning, graced with a drizzle of simple powdered sugar icing. I was pleased to note that the bread softened up a bit to that ideal Danish texture after its overnight rest.
Fortified with apple Danish, I settled on using the remainder of the dough on smaller pastries with a variety of shapes and fillings. This was really fun to play with, and I didn’t even have the energy to get as creative as many of my fellow Daring Bakers did. I made 3 small Danishes with dollops of leftover grape pie filling I pulled out of the freezer, and a few mini chocolate croissants. I also made two types of bear claws. The first four had the traditional cinnamon-almond filling, made with homemade almond paste; for the rest, I added some golden raisins and my leftover sauteed apples, finely chopped, to the almond filling at Jeremy’s request. I got everything made up, egg washed and proofing in my 85F-degree house (it was 100F outside at this point), and we tried vainly to cool down with scoops of ice cream; I topped Jeremy’s scoop with the last few spoonfuls of apple-almond-raisin filling, and he was in heaven.
I couldn’t be happier with the way this dough turned out, especially after being so intimidated at the prospect. I envisioned butter squishing out the sides like toothpaste, but it was actually very easy to work with. It might have been a different story if I had attempted to laminate it in yesterday’s heat, though; as it was, I was very careful to roll out the portions for my small pastries in two batches to keep it from melting. The baked pastries were light and flaky with clearly discernible layers; the flavor was predominantly of orange, which I blame solely on my old bottle of cardamom (Penzeys, here I come!). The dough was so fun to shape, and made me feel almost like a professional baker. I definitely hope to make it again and play with flavors, shapes and fillings, now that I know it isn’t nearly as hard to make as it appears to be. Plus, those bear claws were awesome!
Thanks so much to Kelly of Sass & Veracity, and Ben of What’s Cookin’? for choosing this recipe, which came from Sherry Yard’s The Secrets of Baking
Be sure to check out all of the gorgeous, creative Danishes at the Daring Bakers blogroll here.
Bearclaw Almond Filling
1/4 C butter
1/3 C firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 C almond paste (I used homemade; see below)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp grated lemon zest
Melt and simmer for about 2 minutes the butter and brown sugar. Remove from heat and stir in the remaining ingredients. Cool slightly before using.
Almond Paste
8 oz whole blanched almonds
8 oz powdered sugar
1 egg white
1/8 tsp almond extract
Combine almonds and sugar in a food processor and pulse until finely ground. Add egg white and extract and continue to pulse until mixture comes together as a thick smooth dough. Unblanched almonds can be used, but will affect the color of the paste. Makes about 2 cups.
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06.28.08
Posted in Cake, Chocolate, Dessert at 10:44 am by julie
My blog posts are starting to get backed up, but Nolan is cooperating right now, so here we go!
Jeremy and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary on June 19th. We couldn’t really get out anywhere with the little one to take care of, but we made up for it with a slow-cooked dinner using my shiny red anniversary present: a 5-quart oval Le Creuset that I’ve had my eye on for several years. I love it—the perfect shape for so many of the cuts of meat I braise, and not quite as heavy as Big Red. I immediately christened it with a Yankee pot roast, accompanied with a side of potato-celeriac mashers.
For dessert, Jeremy’s only request was something to go with vanilla ice cream. Because he had given me a cute little heart -shaped ramekin in addition to the dutch oven (not to mention a copy of the The Zuni Cafe Cookbook… I love you, honey!), I immediately thought of making molten chocolate cakes. Believe it or not, I missed out on that whole fad—not only have I never baked them, to my knowledge I’ve never even had one in a restaurant. I’m still not quite sure how I managed that, because they’re right up my alley. Anyway, I chose a simple version from Baking: From My Home to Yours, dividing the batter between the heart ramekin and 4 6-oz. round ones. You can find the recipe online here.
These little cakes performed their given function beautifully—they were great with vanilla ice cream. 
The portions were just the right size, and their innards were indeed nicely gooey, even though they don’t bother with ganache filling like many similar recipes. Make sure you use a chocolate you would be happy eating straight, because that’s all you taste: I used Scharffenberger 70% dark.
The best part about this dessert, though, was how mommy-friendly it is. I mixed up the batter in a few minutes early in the afternoon when I had a free moment, and just popped the covered ramekins in the fridge for later. When we were ready for dessert, all I had to do was preheat the oven and pop two ramekins in… and the same went for the next night too!
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06.24.08
Posted in American, Cuisines, Dinner, Meats, Pork and Ham at 10:21 am by julie
Finally it is starting to feel a bit like summer around here! About time, too, since it is the end of June…
Even though I have very little time for cooking of late, I’ve made a few dishes that are definitely going on our hit parade. This easy braised pork dish is one of them: it requires very little prep time, and the result is an outstanding balance of savory, salty, sweet and spicy, with a touch of heat and a luxurious mouth-feel. You will want to serve it over rice to soak up all that lovely sauce—even more so with the reheated leftovers!
I didn’t have any Chinese five-spice, which I have had miserable luck tracking down in grocery stores, so I made my own makeshift blend based on Pim’s recommendations. Needing so little, I just did pinches of freshly grated star anise, ground cassia, coarsely crushed sichuan peppercorns, ground cumin, clove, and coriander, but I will certainly make a larger amount with whole toasted spices, if I ever get a spice grinder.
Hawaiian-Style Braised Pork Ribs
3 1/2 lb boneless country-style pork spareribs, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
3 T vegetable oil
6 garlic cloves, chopped
2 T chopped peeled fresh ginger
12 oz low-salt chicken broth
1/3 C soy sauce
1 T dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp dried crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
1 1/2 T cornstarch
Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper. Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add 1/3 of pork to pot and sauté until brown, about 6 minutes; transfer to bowl. Repeat with remaining pork. Add garlic and ginger to pot; sauté 1 minute. Return pork and any juices to pot. Add broth, soy sauce, sugar, crushed red pepper, and five-spice powder; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until pork is very tender, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Scoop out about half a cup of braising liquid and whisk it together with cornstarch in a cup to dissolve; mix back into pork. Simmer until gravy thickens slightly, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes. Season with pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool slightly and chill. Rewarm over low heat.)
Source: Slightly adapted from Epicurious.
Update 7/27/08: Jeremy brought home 6.5 pounds of boneless pork ribs from Costco yesterday, so I made a double batch of this braised pork for dinner (and many many leftovers) tonight. I got some Chinese 5-spice from Penzey’s recently, and used a quarter teaspoon of that and added cumin, coriander and Szechuan peppercorns to it for my personal blend. I also used chicken stock that I made last night from a rotisserie chicken carcass. It came out beautifully, just like the first time, and I served it with stir-fried red cabbage from the accompanying Epicurious recipe, adding a bit of garlic to the ginger.
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06.21.08
Posted in Dinner, Fish, Seafood, Veggies at 11:40 am by julie
Like many picky eaters, I really struggled with vegetables as a child, but for some reason crucifers were always high on my list. Cauliflower is one of my favorites, particularly since I discovered the technique of roasting them to bring out their nutty depths. Really, the only problem I have with cauliflowers is their pale complexion, since I already have a tendency to cook with a palette of brown and white. Enter this little guy:
(If you look closely enough, you might be able to see the bug hitchhiker I washed off the cauliflower right after taking this shot…)
I couldn’t resist snatching up this purple cauliflower at Lifesource the other day, then did a little research to decide how best to go about cooking it. As good for you as the ordinary white brand of cauliflower is, the purple kind is even better: its color comes from anthocyanin, a flavanoid jam-packed with antioxidants. The catch is that anthocyanin is water-soluble, so boiling or steaming the vegetable would cause a portion of those benefits to end up down the drain, quite literally.
Fortunately, my new favorite method for cooking cauliflower is entirely water-free. I’ve been using Lidia Bastianich’s recipe for skillet cauliflower to get that roasty caramelized flavor on the stovetop, and the only water in it comes from salting and covering the cauliflower as they cook: moisture is released from the vegetables themselves, so they steam just enough to soften up before browning. It was the perfect technique to seal in that beautiful amethyst color, and I served it alongside some pan-cooked tilapia simply seasoned with smoked paprika and garlic.
Skillet Cauliflower
1 large cauliflower (white, purple or orange)
1/4 C extra-virgin olive oil
4 plump garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp salt
Tear off the outer leaves of the cauliflower and core it, separating it into florets. Next, cut the florets into slices roughly 1/2″ thick.
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or saute pan over medium-low heat. Scatter the garlic slices and pepper flakes into the oil, and cover them with the cauliflower; sprinkle the salt over the florets, toss everything together well, and cover. Let the cauliflower sweat for about 4 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally, then toss thoroughly with a spoon. Cover, allow to cook for another 3 minutes or so, and toss again. The edges of the cauliflower should be starting to brown; if not, turn up the heat a little. Continue cooking in this fashion until the cauliflower is tender and beautifully caramelized, about 12-15 minutes total time.
Source: Lidia’s Family Table, by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich (p. 268-269)
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06.15.08
Posted in American, Cuisines, Dessert, Fruits, Pies & Tarts at 9:27 am by julie
For a while there, it was starting to feel like we already had our summer this year: exactly one weekend of 100F weather about two weeks ago in the midst of a neverending torrent of cool, grey, windy, rainy days. It’s June, for heaven’s sake! At last it is starting to warm up a little. Anyway, we had a surplus of apples in the house, so in honor of the faux-fall weather, I made some apple dumplings for dessert last week.
This is a combination of recipes that works well for me. I generally make the full batch and freeze the extra apples before baking, so we can have apple dumplings on demand for a while. In this instance, I only had time to prep 2 apples before Nolan started fussing, so I refrigerated the dough overnight and used it the next evening for another two apples. It is a soft dough because of the shortening, and didn’t even require warming up to room temperature before I could roll it out. I used gala apples because that’s what we had, and they worked nicely in this context, but I typically use Granny Smiths. I also prefer to serve this with vanilla ice cream, but we didn’t have any.
Apple Dumplings
1 C AP flour
1 C white whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 C shortening
1/2 C milk
6 apples, peeled and cored
Lemon juice
Cinnamon sugar
Brown sugar
Unsalted butter
1 1/2 C water
1 1/2 C sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3 T butter
In a food processor, combine the flours, salt and BP. Add the shortening, and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs; add the milk all at once and pulse just until the dough forms a ball. On a liberally floured surface, roll out the dough into a rectangle about 1/4″ thickness; cut into 6 squares large enough to completely enclose an apple.
Dip an apple in lemon juice, then roll in cinnamon sugar. Place in the center of a square of dough, and stuff its core with alternating spoons of brown sugar and little cubes of butter, packing it down until you run out of room. Gently pull the dough up around the apple and seal it, trying to avoid leaving any holes that the juices could run out from. They are supposed to be homey and rustic-looking, so patch away if you need to. Place in a small glass or stoneware casserole or pie pan large enough to hold all the apples you want to bake. Repeat with the remaining apples. (If you don’t want to bake and eat all the apples in one sitting, you can wrap each extra one in aluminum foil at this point and freeze them.)
Preheat the oven to 375F. In a small saucepan over medium high heat, bring the sugar, water, cinnamon and nutmeg to a boil. Remove from the heat, add the butter, and swirl to melt. Pour the sugar syrup over the apples, and bake at 375F for 35 minutes, or until the apples are tender when you insert a knife. As they come out of the oven, spoon the caramelized sugar syrup over the apples’ crusts before it cools. Serve with vanilla ice cream if desired.
If you froze some of your apples, you can bake them off right from the frozen state. Just remove them from the foil, stick them in a dish and cover them with freshly made sugar syrup, and bake them for a few extra minutes, until the apples are tender.
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06.14.08
Posted in Dinner, Fish, Lamb, Meats, Seafood at 9:11 am by julie
I’ve had an exceptionally busy week—which I’ll tell you about sometime soon over garlic scape pesto—so I fell behind in my posts this week. These two was my response to a huge fillet of farmed Atlantic salmon Jeremy brought home last week: two meals that punched up the somewhat lackluster flavor of the fish while requiring very little prep time. The first was salmon baked with a pastrami spice rub. The chunk of salmon I dedicated to this was somewhat smaller than called for, but I used the whole recipe of spice rub and it was pretty darn strong. I ended up scraping a bit of it off the cooked fish and still found it a little much for myself, but Jeremy liked it a lot. It’s worth making again, just with a slightly lighter hand on the rub.
Pastrami-Style Salmon
1 T dark brown sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 to 1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 (1 1/2-pound) center-cut salmon fillet
1/2 tsp olive oil
Combine first 7 ingredients. Place salmon fillet, skin side down, on a cutting board or work surface; brush evenly with olive oil. Sprinkle spice mixture evenly over salmon; gently rub mixture into fish. Cover lightly with plastic wrap, and chill 15 minutes.
Place fish, skin side down, on a grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 10 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. (Or bake at 400F for 12 minutes.)
Source: Cooking Light
For the next night’s dinner, I marinated my remaining salmon in a soy-dijon marinade from Simply Ming. If you aren’t familiar with the book, it employs large master recipes for spice blends, marinades, sauces and the like to make a variety of meals. I cut the marinade recipe I used in half and still had enough of it for three separate meals; it keeps nicely in the fridge for up to two weeks. The salmon itself had an hour-long bath in the marinade, then went in the oven with a simple crumb crust. It was really fantastic and will definitely go in our rotation—the most time-consuming part of the whole thing was mincing garlic, which could be avoided by purchasing a prepared jar.
Soy-Dijon Salmon
Marinade:
1 T coarsely ground pepper
Kosher salt to taste
1/2 C red wine
1/4 C soy sauce
3/4 C Dijon mustard
1 T dried thyme
1/4 C minced garlic
1 1/4 C canola oil
Put the pepper in a small skillet and heat over medium-high heat until it becomes fragrant and just begins to smoke. Place it in a medium bowl and add salt, wine, soy sauce, Dijon, thyme, and garlic; whisk until thoroughly blended. In a slow steady stream, whisk in the canola oil until the marinade is emulsified. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks if not using right away. Makes 3 cups.
Salmon:
1 lb salmon fillet
1 C soy-dijon marinade
1/2 C coarse bread crumbs
Salt and pepper to taste
Place the salmon in a ziploc bag and add the marinade; gently massage to coat the salmon and refrigerate for an hour.
Preheat oven to 400F. Remove the fillet from the marinade and place in a roasting pan or casserole of an appropriate size; discard marinade. Press bread crumbs on surface of fish; season with salt and pepper. Bake in the oven for 12 minutes, or until fish flakes easily with a fork and breadcrumbs are lightly browned. Serve over rice.
Source: Adapted from Simply Ming, by Ming Tsai
Update 6/7/08: I include this photo because I also used the soy-dijon marinade overnight on some lamb loin chops, and then grilled them up until the largest ones temped out at medium rare for Jeremy and the smaller ones were closer to my preference of medium. The last of the marinade will go on pork chops or chicken breasts.
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06.01.08
Posted in Beef, Cuisines, Meats, Thai at 8:37 am by julie
So this was kind of fun. I’ve had a sort of off-hand interest in making the beef rendang from Molly Stevens’ All About Braising for a while now, since reading rave reviews of it on eGullet. However, Molly’s version includes a few ingredients that I am pretty sure I couldn’t get in Salem, and have never actually seen in real life, such as fresh galangal and turmeric. (I’m not even sure I had realized dried turmeric came from a root, for that matter.) The ingredients essentially add up to a red curry paste, in which beef is slowly cooked with coconut milk until all the liquid evaporates, and the beef is fried in the remaining coconut oil and gravy-like remnants of curry.
After our last order of Curry Simple sauces arrived, I looked over the booty and began to wonder if I might be able to use some of it to make a simplified version of beef rendang. Jeremy brought me home a beautiful 3-pound brisket, and the next day I cut it into cubes, trimming off the fat cap as I went, and tossed it in my big Dutch oven with some whole star anise, a chunk of ginger, and enough red curry sauce to cover. It simmered ever so slowly away into the evening, and after a few hours of periodic stirring, I had a potful of tender beef covered in a rich mahogany gravy. Served over rice, it took no more of my time to prepare than does our favorite masaman curry, just spread out over the course of an afternoon, and the flavor was fantastic. Mind you, we haven’t eaten the red curry yet in its more basic form, but cooking it down with the beef made it complex and savory, with hints of sweetness, citrus (from the lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, I imagine), and heat. It was a bit spicier than the masaman and yellow curries, but nothing a tall glass of water, a pile of rice, and a scoop of white chocolate ice cream for dessert couldn’t solve.
If I ever track down a source for fresh galangal and turmeric—there must be some in Portland somewhere, right?—it would be fun to try my hand at mixing my very own curry paste. In the meantime, we’ll definitely be making this version again!
Simple Beef Rendang
3 lb beef brisket, trimmed of fat and cut into 1 1/2″ cubes
2 T olive oil
3 star anise, whole
1″ chunk of ginger, peeled
1 family-size packet of Curry Simple red curry sauce
In a large Dutch oven over medium high heat, cook the brisket in the olive oil just until the meat begins to get a good sear. Add the star anise, ginger, and just enough red curry sauce to cover the meat. You may not need the whole packet; the excess can be refrigerated or frozen. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to low. Simmer very slowly uncovered for 2-3 hours, stirring every 25 minutes or so, until the curry sauce reduces to a thick gravy. If desired, skim off any excess fat before serving over rice.
Source: Loosely based on All About Braising, by Molly Stevens
Update 6/1/08: Tonight’s dinner was a panang-ified chicken curry with onions and peppers, using the remains of the red curry packet. (There was just enough leftover from the rendang to make 3 servings.) I added a tablespoon of peanut butter to the sauce, as recommended by the Curry Simple website. I’ve never had panang curry, but Jeremy said it tasted a little like what he’s had before. In this incarnation, the red curry sauce was definitely spicier than it was in the rendang—it was pushing the limits of my heat tolerance, but I went back for a little more, so clearly it didn’t bother me too much.
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