09.30.09
Posted in American, Cuisines, Dinner, Leftovers, Meats, Pies & Tarts, Poultry at 11:23 pm by julie
The weather here is on the verge of turning cool and wet, and we were in some serious need of comfort swathed in pie crust, so last week I set about making homemade chicken pot pies. I’ve never made them from scratch before, and I have never been a big fan of the frozen version—as with frozen quiches, I find the soggy bottom crust of most potpies appalling. I decided to make individual mug pies with top crusts only. Because I was out of shortening, I was unable to use my new standard pie crust from Baking: From My Home to Yours, so I picked an all-butter crust from Tyler Florence instead, and it did the trick.
For my potpie filling, I went with an adaptation of Ina Garten’s chicken pot pie, scaled back and simplified with boneless chicken breasts. Still, it’s a pretty involved recipe that takes a little while to complete, so you would be best served making lots and either refrigerating or freezing what you won’t be eating right away. This recipe made enough crust and filling for 6 large mugs, and I imagine it would double well. I baked all of them at once, and refrigerated half for another night, covered in foil; they reheated nicely in the oven at 350F for 20-30 minutes, keeping the foil on to protect the crusts from over-browning.
This recipe is extremely adaptable: put in whatever meat and veggies you like, season it up with herbs, wine, or mustard, go nuts. We all really liked it—Jeremy commented about how he wanted to gnaw the crust off the edges of his mug—so I’m sure I’ll make it again sometime this winter.
Chicken Mug-Pies
For the crust:
2 1/4 C all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 C (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold and cut into small chunks
1/2 C ice water, plus more if needed
For the filling:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 T olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 C chicken stock, preferably homemade, divided
1 C yellow onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 C medium-diced carrots
6 small red potatoes, medium-diced
1/2 C frozen peas
4 T unsalted butter
1/3 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C heavy cream
For the crust: Combine the flour and salt in a food processor. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Pour in the ice water and pulse just enough to bind the dough into a ball. Squeeze a small amount together, and if it is crumbly, add more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Flatten the dough into a 1″ thick disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate while preparing the rest of the recipe (feel free to make the dough the night before if you prefer.)
For the filling: In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, and cook on both sides just until golden brown. Add about 1/2 C chicken stock, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer until chicken is cooked through and stock has cooked down. Remove chicken from the pan, cool, and shred with two forks; set aside in a large bowl.
In the same skillet, pour in another tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat, and add the onion, garlic, carrots, and potatoes. Season with salt and pepper, saute until they get a little bit of color. Add about another half a cup of chicken stock, cover, and simmer until the carrots and potatoes are just tender and the stock has cooked down, about 4-5 minutes. Pour this mixture into the bowl with the chicken.
Return the skillet to medium heat and melt the butter. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for a minute or two to cook out the raw flour taste. Add the remaining chicken stock and cream to this roux, and whisk to incorporate. Simmer over medium-high heat until the sauce thickens to a gravy-like consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning, then pour over chicken and vegetables; add the frozen peas to the bowl also, and toss well to combine.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Divide the filling equally among 4 ovenproof bowls or 6 mugs. Divide the dough into 4 or 6 pieces respectively, and roll each piece into an 8-inch circle. Brush the outside edges of each bowl with the egg wash, then place the dough on top. Trim the circle to 1/2-inch larger than the top of the bowl. Crimp the dough to fold over the side, pressing it to make it stick. Brush the dough with egg wash and make 3 slits in the top. Sprinkle with sea salt and cracked pepper. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 45-60 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the filling is bubbling hot.
Source: Food Network.
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09.28.09
Posted in Beef, Bread, Dinner, Dips & Spreads, Leftovers, Meats, Sides, Veggies at 6:05 pm by julie
I’m still not sure where the summer went. I’ve been meaning to post these recipes from our 4th of July dinner for several months now, but there always seems to be something pulling me away from the computer, and I just realized I haven’t posted anything but Daring Baker challenges . Time for a little catch-up. Our little sticky bun is now eighteen months old (!) and can walk, run, dance, climb, and almost reach stuff on the kitchen counters. He makes off with all of my Tupperware containers, and likes to help me unload the dishwasher, even before I’ve gotten the chance to run it, so a lot of our meals are prepared either very quickly or in short increments throughout the day. But he is still a very good little eater, and can handle practically anything thanks to his sparkly new molars and canine teeth. Not quite all of them had come through yet when I made these meals, but that didn’t stop him from eating lots and lots of thinly sliced beef and mashed potatoes.
We usually don’t buy filet mignon, but as long as we were splurging, I took the extra steps of crusting our steaks with ground porcini mushrooms and topping them with gorgonzola-garlic butter. To round out the meal with some greens, I made haricots verts with a shallot vinaigrette, and stirred some ribbons of wilted chard—courtesy of a friend’s prolific garden—into the mashed potatoes.
Porcini-Crusted Filet with Gorgonzola-Garlic Butter
1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
6 1-inch-thick filet mignon steaks
2 T butter
4-6 cloves of garlic, skins on
1 T olive oil
1/4 C (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1-2 oz crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
1 T chopped fresh parsley
Process dried porcini mushrooms in spice grinder to fine powder. Transfer powder to plate. Sprinkle steaks with salt and pepper. Press steaks into porcini powder to coat both sides well.
Heat oil in a small skillet over medium heat, and add garlic cloves. Toast cloves, turning frequently to avoid burning, until tender. Remove from the heat, cool until you can handle them, and peel off the skins; they should come off easily. Mash garlic into a paste with your knife or a garlic press, and mix in with the butter, cheese and parsley. Refrigerate until needed.
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add steaks to skillet and cook to desired doneness, about 6 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer steaks to plates. Spoon rounded tablespoon of gorgonzola-garlic butter atop each steak and serve.
Source: Epicurious and Epicurious.
The next day, I made a batch of rustic potato bread with some of the leftover mashed potatoes. This is a recipe from Macrina Bakery that I’ve used before with gargantuan results, so I knew that I would be able to get more than one boule from it. I ended up dividing it into a 4 sandwich rolls and a standard loaf, all imbedded with decorative flecks of chard. Split, toasted and spread liberally with leftover compound butter, the rolls made perfect vehicles for our extra filet, which I sliced thinly and slathered with caramelized onion for a sublime sandwich and a perfect end to the holiday weekend, if I do say so myself.
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Posted in Bread, Breakfast, Cuisines, Eggs, Foodblog Events, French at 12:01 am by julie
The September 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.
This post will have to be short and sweet. The challenge was essentially to make a classic puff pastry dough, bake it off into charming, flaky little cups, and then fill them with whatever our hearts desired, sweet or savory. I wasn’t too concerned about this particular challenge, having already participated in the Danish braid challenge back in June 2008, which used a slightly different method to create a laminated yeast dough. The biggest difference seemed to be that the danish dough called for beating the butter before spreading it onto the dough, while this recipe called for beating four sticks of cold butter into a uniform block. Although smacking butter with my rolling pin elicited grins from my toddler and helped me work out a little aggression, in the end it was the most difficult step in making the puff pastry dough. I got my butter block encased in dough and went through the various rolling, folding, and chilling phases, and before I knew it, I had a block of homemade puff pastry ready to shape and bake. The dough did tear and dry out a little in the process, but I forged ahead.
I used two biscuit cutters to shape my vols-au-vent. They were a little too close together in size and their edges weren’t as sharp as I would have liked, but beggars can’t be choosers, and they did the trick nonetheless. I used just a third of my dough, and produced enough shapes for 5 vols-au-vent and their little caps. One had to be Frankensteined together from the scraps, so it came out pretty flat and on the ugly side, but I gave that one to the baby, and he didn’t seem to care. 
All told they puffed up alright as they baked (I think they just about tripled in height), but seemed to lose a lot of butter in the process, and I think my dull cutters crimped their edges a bit.
I gave Jeremy a choice of fillings between chicken dijon stew and a riff off of eggs florentine, and he immediately chose the latter—possibly because I just made chicken pot pies last week (post to come, hopefully). So I made a simple mornay sauce of gruyere and parmesan, sauteed some onions and spinach, and scrambled a few eggs. My vols-au-vent were on the small side so they couldn’t hold much filling, but two of them were nevertheless plenty for dinner, and very tasty. I’ve still got two-thirds of my puff pastry dough in the fridge, and, thanks to my fellow Daring Bakers, infinite possibilities of what to use it for. A sweet variation is definitely in our future. Thanks so much to Steph for choosing the challenge, and please check out all the daring pastries at the Daring Bakers Blogroll.
I am a member of the Theta Class of Daring Bakers, inducted in July 2007. Below is a list of previous challenges:
Strawberry Mirror Cake – July 2007
Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart – August 2007
Cinnamon Rolls and Sticky Buns – September 2007
Bostini Cream Pies – October 2007
Tender Potato Bread – November 2007
Traditional Buche de Noel – December 2007
Lemon Meringue Pie – January 2008
French Bread – February 2008
Perfect Party Cake – March 2008
Opéra Cake – May 2008
Danish Braid – June 2008
Filbert Gateau – July 2008
Chocolate Éclairs – August 2008
Lavash Crackers and Dip – September 2008
French Yule Log – December 2008
Tuiles – January 2009
Chocolate Valentino and Ice Cream – February 2009
Lasagne of Emilia-Romana – March 2009
Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake – April 2009
Apple Strudel – May 2009
Bakewell Tart and Homemade Jam – June 2009
Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies – July 2009
Dobos Torte – August 2009
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09.01.09
Posted in Cuisines, Dinner, Foodblog Events, Seafood, Shrimp, Spanish at 10:16 pm by julie
I’ve been a bad, bad Daring Cook. I’m finding that it is difficult for me to obtain certain perishable ingredients in Salem, and then coordinate that with an appropriate timeframe in which to cook them, so I’m starting to think I may have to sit out on future challenges. I was able to complete the August challenge with some modifications, but I haven’t had a chance to write up a post until now.
The August Daring Cooks challenge was Rice with Mushrooms, Cuttlefish and Artichokes by the celebrated Spanish chef José Andrés, a sort of variation on paella. I would have liked to try my hand at working with cuttlefish or squid for the first time, despite my many reservations about the potential for rubbery texture, but I was not able to find any here in town, so I ended up substituting with shrimp. I also substituted reconstituted porcini mushrooms for fresh buttons, but I at least got my hands on some fresh artichokes, so I had the challenge of getting those broken down. I ended up skipping the allioli for this recipe due to time constraints and lack of a mortar and pestle, although I did attempt a very similar aioli earlier in the month. Notice the emphasis on attempt: I’ve never been able to get my homemade mayonnaises and aiolis to thicken up sufficiently, even when they seem to emulsify properly. I’ve tried it by hand, in my Cuisinart and my mini-food chopper, all with similar results; the blender will have to be my next experiment, unless anyone has tips for me.
Once I got the sofregit made and the artichokes broken down, this recipe actually was not that time-consuming. I sauteed my shrimp first and set them aside to try and avoid overcooking, and of course soaked the mushrooms in advance. For my liquids, I used a combination of water, leftover chicken stock, and mushroom steeping liquid. The end result was a very flavorful one-pot meal that everyone enjoyed, even the baby. I’m just sorry that I wasn’t able to post about it in a more timely fashion.
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