11.19.08
Posted in Dinner, Fish, Lunch, Salads, Seafood at 11:53 am by julie
I’ve got a few tried and true salmon recipes that I make over and over, but they get boring after a while so I keep trying to mix it up. Here are a few I tried out on portions of a huge, beautiful fillet of salmon we cooked up a few weeks ago. Above is a simply baked piece of salmon over couscous with a lemon thyme beurre blanc sauce. It was very tasty, and a quick-fix meal for a night that I had very little available time. If I’d had my head on straight, I would have thrown some broccoli on to steam, because that would go beautifully with the beurre blanc as well.
This one was another simply cooked salmon, grilled this time, and topped with a balsamic glaze. I took my eye off the glaze for a bit too long thanks to the baby, so it was black and syrupy in the extreme. It tasted alright, but wasn’t particularly memorable; I’d make it again only if I was scrounging for a recipe to make from pantry ingredients, and even then I’d turn to that beurre blanc first. I served it with rice and some baby spinach sauteed with garlic and olive oil.
This salad, made with the fraction of the fillet I had left after two full meals, was the best recipe of the bunch. I just cut the salmon into strips, pan-roasted it skin-side first, and placed it over a salad of greens, roasted red pepper, and the mustard vinaigrette from the Macrina Bakery Cookbook
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Mustard Vinaigrette
1 T Dijon mustard
1 T sherry vinegar
1 T finely chopped shallots
1 tsp honey
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
3/4 C extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshy ground pepper
In a small bowl, combine everything but olive oil and S/P. Whisk in the olive oil very slowly to form an emulsion, then season with S/P to taste.
Source: Leslie Mackie’s Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook, p. 207.
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09.08.08
Posted in Bread, Cuisines, Dinner, Eggs, Lunch, Veggies at 11:40 am by julie
One of my favorite light meals is the combination of eggs and vegetables with toast. I’ve already written about that luscious long-cooked broccoli, but there is an infinite number of variations. Incidentally, most would benefit from eating with a knife and fork, rather than attempting to use your hands, as we keep trying to do—I always seem to end up with half my meal tumbling off onto the plate or my lap. Anyway, I could just keep adding and adding to this post, but I’m tired of seeing it in my Drafts folder, so I’ll draw the line at three for now.
My first duo is pretty classic: boiled dinosaur kale with poached eggs from the The Zuni Cafe Cookbook. Judy Rodgers gives four ways of serving her boiled kale; in the simple one I chose, the sturdy kale wilts, and the runny yolks form a delicious sauce together with the vegetables and shaved parmesan. I had a leftover bratwurst in the refrigerator, so I diced and sauteed it, to add a little more protein to the meal.
Boiled Kale on Toast
Generous 8 oz kale, preferably Tuscan kale (also known as dinosaur kale, lacinato kale, or cavolo nero)
1 1/2 C diced yellow onion
5 T olive oil
A pinch of red pepper flakes
2 garlic cloves, slivered
3-4 C water
Trim the kale of any damaged or discolored leaves, wash thoroughly in cold water, and drain; stack and roll several leaves at a time, and slice into 1/8″ ribbons.
Place the onions and oil in a 4-quart saucepan and set over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring a few times, while you work on the kale, until the onion is translucent but firm, about 3 minutes. Add the chili flakes, garlic, and kale, and stir until it all wilts, about 5 minutes. Add water to cover by about 1/2″ and bring to a simmer; add salt to taste and simmer, covered, until the kale is tender but not mushy, about 30 minutes.
Transfer kale to a wide saute pan, liquid and all. Crack 1-2 eggs per person into the pan, drizzle with olive oil, cover, and cook at a bare simmer until done to your liking. Serve eggs with kale over toast, with some parmesan or romano if desired.
Source: The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, by Judy Rodgers
The second veg-egg duo was one I made way back in June. I visited the farmer’s market and brought home a bundle of opalescent white asparagus, which I had never tried before. It cost a bit more than the typical green asparagus, but the blush of pink and purple in the stalks was too lovely to resist. Because white asparagus is popular in Belgium—they do like their vegetables pale, don’t they?—I tried out a Belgian egg and lemon sauce written up here, on Lindy’s blog, Toast. Despite some issues with my hard-boiled eggs (they were too fresh, and the whites kept peeling off right along with the shells), this was a tasty and fresh take on asparagus, and be sure you have some good bread to mop up any extra sauce.
I still think I prefer my pan-roasted asparagus with poached eggs, but this was a nice change of pace and satisfied my curiosity about white asparagus.
Most recently, I brought home a huge head of escarole, and made us a quick lunch of wilted greens, scrambled eggs, and crispy prosciutto over homemade potato bread. I was going by a recipe, and thought the end result had very good flavor, but a rather unappealing appearance, as the greens turned my eggs a sad beige color. Next time I’d go with my gut instinct and serve with poached or oil-basted eggs.
Escarole and Eggs on Toast
1.5 oz thinly sliced prosciutto, cut into 1/2-inch-wide strips and separated
1 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 double handfuls coarsely chopped escarole
4 eggs
4 slices of artisan bread, toasted
Parmesan cheese, optional
Salt and pepper
In a 10- to 12-inch nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat, stir prosciutto in olive oil until browned, 5 to 7 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer prosciutto to paper towels to drain. Reduce heat to medium.
Add garlic to pan and stir until golden. Stir in escarole and 1/4 cup water; cover and simmer until escarole is tender to bite, about 5 minutes. Drain off any remaining water.
Meanwhile, cook eggs according to your preference. Poached, soft-scrambled, or oil-basted would be equally delicious.
Set toasted bread on plates and top with escarole, then eggs, proscuitto and shavings of cheese, if desired. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Source: Loosely based on Sunset.
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08.10.08
Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Nuts, Grains & Legumes, Soups at 10:35 pm by julie
I swear I’m not crazy. Last week, when we had unseasonal temperatures in the 60’s and overcast skies, this lentil soup was just the ticket. More recently, with temperatures back in the mid-90’s, I’m overheating just thinking about soup. So this post will be brief.
I was mostly looking for something I could make from pantry staples to use up some freshly made chicken stock. Jeremy picked lentils out of the options I ticked off, and I wanted to track down something a bit out of the ordinary. The soup itself is pretty basic: the smoked paprika and even the carrots were additions of mine. The thing that makes it special is the walnut cream garnish, which adds depth and richness. The walnut cream is also very similar to the salsa di noci we like on rotini, and I used some of the extra for just that the next day.
Lentil Soup With Pounded Walnuts and Cream
2 C brown lentils
2 to 4 T butter
1 onion, finely diced
2 carrots, cut into small dice
1 bay leaf
1 tsp smoked paprika
6 C vegetable or chicken stock (or water)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 large garlic cloves, pan-roasted*
2/3 C lightly toasted walnuts
½ C ricotta
2 T heavy cream
Flax oil for garnish, optional
Soak the lentils in water for 2 hours, then drain.
Melt the butter in a large pot over low heat. Add the onion, carrot, and bay leaf. Sauté over medium-high heat until onion is translucent and carrots are tender, about 5 minutes. Add lentils, stock, smoked paprika and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Simmer, covered, until lentils are soft, about 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Using a food processor, grind together the garlic with the walnuts and a large pinch of salt. Add the cream and ricotta, and process until a smooth paste is formed.
To serve, ladle the soup into bowls and top each with a large spoonful of walnut cream, a sprinkle of smoked paprika and, if desired, a drizzle of flax oil. Serves 4 to 6.
Source: Adapted from New York Times; originally from “Vegetable Soups,” by Deborah Madison.
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07.09.08
Posted in American, Cuisines, Dinner, Eggs, French, Lunch, Salads at 9:53 am by julie
We had a good 4th of July weekend. For me, that constitutes getting to leave the house a glorious three times, including trips to the grocery store and farmer’s market. Nolan had never been to either place, and he was quite a champ, looking around quietly from his sling while we shopped. At the grocery store, we picked up fixings for an all-American sort of dinner: New York strip steaks, baby spinach for a classic salad with hot bacon vinaigrette, and (at Jeremy’s request) Boston baked beans. The steaks were coated in a mixture of oil and clarified butter and seasoned aggressively with salt and pepper, then cooked to a perfect medium on our cast iron grill. The salad was a tasty complement, with crisp bacon, sweet shallot, and hard-boiled egg.
At the farmer’s market the next day, our score included white asparagus, three kinds of wild mushrooms, dinosaur kale, and a big head of frisee lettuce. I would have liked to get more, but I couldn’t carry much with the baby, and Jeremy had his hands full with Freyja, who was in rare form trying to keep our little herd together. (Every time I went into a booth to buy something, she whined something fierce. Everyone stared at her, and several people commented on how protective she was being of me. She just wouldn’t let me out of her sight.) Anyway, I decided to use the frisee to make us another classic salad with eggs and bacon for lunch that day: a bistro salad with poached eggs and a sherry vinaigrette. Its similarity to the spinach salad was not lost on me, but the overall effect was quite different, mostly due to the extreme bitterness of the frisee. Tasty as it was, I think I prefer this salad in its fried egg sandwich incarnation, which cuts down on the volume of frisee.
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05.02.08
Posted in Cuisines, Dinner, Lunch, Polish & Hungarian at 4:08 pm by julie
I’m thinking I’d better just dive back into the blog whenever I can. I keep waiting until I have enough time to really do my posts justice, and then I end up posting nothing at all. Meanwhile, I keep taking photos and making short notes for the few meals I’ve been able to make since the little guy’s arrival, and I’d like to clear out my drafts files. 
I’ll start with the oldest stuff and work my way forward…
In the weeks before Nolan was born, I became interested in cooking meals that I could freeze, never mind the fact that we have very little spare freezer space. I made a huge pot roast and froze half of it, some ragu which I will write about next, and these pierogies.
You may remember from the dim past that I made a chocolate-coconut pie for Pi Day, in part to use up egg yolks from my March Daring Bakers project, the Perfect Party Cake. I still had 4 egg yolks to use up, though, and I decided it was the perfect opportunity to make pierogies. I love those crispy-chewy pockets of cheesy-potatoey goodness, and have been craving them ever since Brilynn first posted a recipe for them back in July. She wrote about them again for Valentine’s Day and I couldn’t take it anymore. I spent several hours one day rolling out, stuffing and shaping a huge double-batch of pierogies, stopping only to cook some up for lunch—and then some more, when we scarfed down our first platefuls in a minute flat. I still had enough leftover to fill a gallon-sized Ziploc bag for the freezer. (I froze without cooking, laid out on baking sheets so they wouldn’t amalgamate into one massive pierogy. The idea was that when we want some, I could just boil them up and then pan-fry them with bacon and onions. Mmmmm!)
I made the dough for the pierogies the night before I planned to churn them out. It was pretty dry going into the refrigerator, but the overnight rest produced a dough that was pretty nearly too soft and sticky to work with. I used my pasta roller with the intention of speeding up the process, but ended up having to work in very small batches with large amounts of dusting flour and pass every chunk of dough through the rollers many times to get smooth sheets. Eventually I would end up with a soft, smooth sheet of dough just right for stamping out with a biscuit cutter and folding around dollops of potato-cheddar filling. Like any stuffed pasta or dumpling, this is one of those recipes that benefits greatly from assembly-line preparation, especially if you double the recipe as I did. Fortunately, Jeremy was hungry so he was easy to recruit. He rolled and cut the dough while I doled out filling with my smallest cookie-scoop and sealed up each dumpling. Lots of work, but certainly worth the effort! We’ve benefitted since then, too, since the frozen pierogies cooked up just as I hoped they would.
All those pierogies got me in a Hungarian state of mind, so a few nights later, I took a page from the quick-and-easy dinner category and made chicken paprikash (I know “paprikás” is the more authentic spelling, but I don’t flatter myself that my version was remotely authentic!). I based my version on this one from Simply Recipes, but I adapted it into a skillet meal with cubed boneless chicken breast to save time. Essentially, I caramelized the onion in some butter and olive oil, adding garlic and then sweet paprika from Penzey’s when they were beginning to look golden brown. I tossed in the chicken and browned up the outsides a bit, then added a partial box of leftover chicken stock—maybe a cup and a half?—and let it all simmer down until the chicken was done cooking and the broth had mostly evaporated. A big dollop of good sour cream stirred through everything, and it was done. I wanted to use up the extra potato-cheese filling from the pierogies, so I supplemented that with a few freshly boiled potatoes and a splash of milk to make cheesy mashed potatoes. I prefer spaetzle with my paprikash, but it helped clear out the fridge.
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03.10.08
Posted in American, Cuisines, Dinner, Italian, Lunch, Pastas, Quick Breads, Soups at 1:49 pm by julie
These are some meals I made a while back. For some reason I hadn’t gotten around to posting them, so I’ve decided to consolidate a bit, just to do some cyber-cleaning and get them out of the Drafts queue. First up is a pot of soup I made to use up the last few vegetables in the crisper prior to a grocery trip. We were entirely out of onions, which removed most recipes as options: what I did have access to at the time was one tiny carrot, some elderly celery (I never manage to use up all my celery before it goes limp; it’s just not one of my favorites), part of a Napa cabbage, and some leek tops that I had been saving to use for stock (for this meal, I stripped off the dark green outsides and used the lighter insides). With the addition of some diced pancetta and garlic, a cubed baking potato, a box of chicken stock, and a can each of tomatoes and kidney beans, it actually manifested into a respectable pot of soup.
Minestrone
1 can kidney beans, low sodium
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 lb pancetta or sliced lean bacon, chopped
1/3 C olive oil
1 C leek, pale parts only, rinsed and chopped
1 large carrot, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 rib of celery, cut into 1/2-inch dice
3 garlic cloves, chopped fine
1/2 lb boiling potatoes
4 C shredded green cabbage (preferably Savoy)
1 14.5-ounce can tomatoes, chopped coarse and drained well
4 C chicken broth (preferably low-salt)
In a heavy kettle cook the pancetta in the oil over moderate heat, stirring, until it is crisp and pale golden, add the leek, and cook the mixture, stirring, until the leek is softened. Add the carrot, celery and garlic and cook the mixture, stirring, for 4 minutes. Add the potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch dice, and cook the mixture, stirring, for 4 minutes. Add the cabbage and cook, stirring, until the cabbage is wilted. Add the tomatoes and broth and simmer the soup, covered, for about an hour.
Drain the beans and stir into the soup. Simmer the soup, uncovered, for 15 minutes, and season it with salt and pepper. The soup may be made 3 days in advance and kept covered and chilled. Reheat the soup, thinning it with water as desired.
Source: Freely adapted from Epicurious.
Jeremy always likes some sort of bread or biscuit with his soup—really, who doesn’t?—so I made corny corn muffins to go with it. I’d never made the recipe before and actually wanted to follow it, but I nearly had to physically constrain my hands from adding cheddar cheese to it. It just sounded really good, and maybe I’ll try that out next time. They were delicious and easy to make, so there will definitely be a next time. The only adjustment I’ll admit to was the use of buttermilk powder rather than the fresh stuff, out of necessity.
Corniest Corn Muffins
1 C AP flour
1 C yellow cornmeal, preferably stone-ground
6 T sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 C buttermilk (I used dry buttermilk and water)
3 T unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 T corn oil (I used olive oil)
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 C corn kernels–fresh, frozen or canned
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400F.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, soda, and salt. In a large glass measuring cup, whisk the buttermilk, melted butter, oil, egg, and yolk together until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and use a rubber spatula to gently but quickly stir. Don’t worry about being thorough–lumps are to be expected. Stir in the corn kernels. Divide the batter evenly among the 12 cups of a silicone muffin pan.
Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack to cool for several minutes before removing from the mold.
Source: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan (p. 4).
Once the soup was all eaten up, we still had a few corn muffins leftover. As yummy as they were when fresh, stale cornbread just isn’t that great, but I hated to just throw them away. City Bakery to the rescue! From somewhere in the depths of my mind, I dredged up a recollection that City Bakery’s recipe for macaroni and cheese called for a cornbread crumb topping. I followed their proportions, but made a few slight adjustments for our personal mac and cheese tastes: pancetta added to the roux; a combination of sharp cheddar, gruyere, parmesan and pecorino cheese grated together in the Cuisinart; and a splash of Worcestershire added to the cheese sauce. It tasted great, but was rather fattier than our usual recipe (not that mac and cheese is ever health food) so I made sure to serve it with lots of broccoli. The original recipe is written out below, as I was unable to find the online source when I went back to look for it.
City Bakery Macaroni and Cheese
6 T butter, plus extra for the pan
1/4 C corn bread crumbs (or more, depending upon pan size)
1 pound elbow macaroni
1 qt whole milk
6 T flour
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 1/4 C (5 ounces) grated Gruyere cheese, divided use
1 1/4 C cheddar cheese, divided use
1 1/4 C (5 ounces) grated Grana Padano or parmesan cheese, divided use
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter a 3 1/2-quart deep baking dish or a 13-by-9-by-2-inch baking pan. Spread the crumbs in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake until golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Set aside.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the macaroni until al dente, 8 to 10 minutes, drain, and place in a large bowl. (To prepare up to a day ahead, mix in a small amount of canola oil, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to use.)
Bring the milk to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the 6 tablespoons of butter, add the flour, and mix well with a wooden spoon or spatula. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Whisk in the hot milk and continue whisking until smooth. Raise the heat to medium and cook, stirring continuously, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the spoon. Season with salt and pepper and strain through a fine strainer.
Add the sauce to the cooked macaroni. Add 1 cup each of the Gruyere, cheddar and Grana Padano, and mix well. Taste, and season with salt and pepper if necessary. Pour the macaroni mixture into the baking dish and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Sprinkle the toasted corn bread crumbs evenly over the casserole and cover with foil.
Bake on the middle shelf until heated through, about 20 minutes; remove foil and continue baking until the top is golden brown, an additional 10 minutes. Allow to stand for 10 minutes before serving.
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02.27.08
Posted in Breakfast, Cookies & Candies, Dessert, Dinner, Eggs, Lunch at 11:02 am by julie
For some reason I always have a really hard time wrapping my head around what to make with flavored chicken sausage. From time to time we pick up a package of chicken-apple or tomato-basil, and I scratch my head trying to come up with something more interesting than grilling them and sticking them in buns. Such was the case with the spinach-feta sausages we got earlier in the week, but I was able to put at least a few of them to good use in an easy crustless quiche.
The recipe hails from Baking Bites, and I chose it because it calls for similar flavorings and also because crusted quiches are my nemesis. I keep thinking the idea of eggs and cheese and pie crust together sounds great, because I love all of them, but whenever I eat it, I am bitterly disappointed by the sog-factor. Homemade pie crust is just enough work that, for the most part, I don’t consider quiche worth the risk unless it is crustless. (The single exception to that, so far, was the leek and bacon tart from All About Braising. That was deliciously sog-free, and I’d make it again in a heartbeat, presuming I had the braised leeks.)
Every so often I make a crustless broccoli quiche with feta and cottage cheese (and will post my cobbled-together recipe next time I do so). This recipe involves more flour—I used my faithful white whole wheat—and a looser batter than I am used to, but it baked up perfectly. I used a big handful of thawed and drained spinach from the freezer because it was all I had available, and similarly had to forego the sprinkle of feta on top, much to my dismay. The sausage that started it all was uncased, sliced, and sauteed briefly with the onion and spinach mixture.
The quiche gave me a new problem, however: I had an extra egg white in the fridge, though for the life of me I can’t recall now why that would be, so I used it up in the quiche and consequently ended up with an extra egg yolk that I wasn’t about to waste. I took the opportunity as a challenge to test out another chocolate chip cookie recipe that required an extra yolk: Robyn Lee’s Killer Big Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies, as posted on Serious Eats.
The best thing about this recipe was clearly the size of the cookies. It calls for quarter-cup scoops of dough, about twice as much as I typically use for home-baked cookies. It also makes about the most iconic looking chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever produced: perfectly round, thick, golden, and studded with big bittersweet chocolate chips (see photographic evidence). In case you’re wondering, I baked on my Silpat for exactly 23 minutes as specified, and got exactly 16 cookies out of the batch with a spoonful leftover for the baker’s treat.
Warm from the oven, these cookies tasted as good as they looked: crisp on the outside and around the edges, with a soft chewy center. Unfortunately, once they had cooled, they hardened up a bit much for my personal tastes, and required consumption with a glass of milk for dunking. That certainly didn’t stop us from polishing them off within a few days, of course!
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01.30.08
Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Soups, Veggies at 9:26 am by julie
Sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem artichokes, are neither related to Jerusalem or artichokes. Actually, they are in the sunflower family; the misnomer arose from the Italian word for sunflower, girasole, which apparently sounded a bit like Jerusalem to untrained ears. What we now refer to as a sunchoke is a starchy tuber that is edible both raw and cooked, and looks inside like a crisp, pearly potato. Their exterior is rather ugly, very knobbly and can drive you nuts if you find it necessary to peel them; since the skins are thin and nutritious, I generally just scrub them and trim off the offending bits.
Although sunchokes can be eaten raw in salads for a rather bland crunch along the lines of water chestnut or jicama, we prefer them cooked; they make an excellent secret ingredient in mashed potatoes, for instance, and have a lovely mildly nutty and sweet flavor. For dinner on Monday night, I decided to use them in a simple pureed soup, which also gave me the opportunity to break in my pretty new blender. To give it my own twist, I garnished the soup with smoky bacon bits and a tangle of sauteed radicchio, which provided a needed bitter counterpoint to the slightly sweet sunchokes. It looks a bit like cement, but it was delicious and fairly healthy to boot: sunchokes are good sources of potassium and iron, and radicchio is full of antioxidants and folate, all of which are especially good for me during pregnancy.
Sunchoke Bisque with Bacon and Radicchio
2 T butter
1 small yellow onion, diced
2 lb scrubbed, trimmed and diced sunchokes
1 quart chicken stock
3 T whipping cream
Salt and white pepper, to taste
2 slices smoked bacon, chopped
1 small head radicchio, rinsed, dried, and thinly sliced crosswise
Melt the butter in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onions with a pinch of salt and cook until translucent but not brown. Add the sunchokes and chicken stock and simmer until the sunchokes are tender when pierced with a fork, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat.
Using a blender or immersion blender, blend the sunchoke and onion mixture with the cream until very smooth. Season to taste with salt and white pepper. Return soup to stove on low, just to keep warm; do not allow the soup to boil.
For garnish: Cook bacon in a 10-inch skillet over medium high heat; drain on paper towels and remove all but a tablespoon or so of drippings. Add radicchio, season with salt and pepper, and cook until tender, about 5 minutes.
Place soup in warmed bowls; deposit a small tangle of radicchio in the center of each bowl and sprinkle with bacon. Serve with rolls or slices of bread. Serves about 4.
Source: Adapted from Project Foodie
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12.11.07
Posted in American, Beef, Bread, Cuisines, Dinner, Lunch, Meats at 12:02 pm by julie
We brought home a brisket for dinner on Sunday afternoon, and I immediately started thinking about braises. But after paging through my braising bible and browsing one uninspiring recipe after another online, I ended up changing tactics and going with a dry-rubbed, slow-roasted barbeque brisket recipe instead. It turned out to be the perfect solution because I had everything I needed on hand, and even got to try out my new chipotle powder and alder-smoked sea salt. Note to self: That chile powder is hot stuff; it was nearly too spicy for us even though I cut back from a tablespoon to 2 teaspoons, so if I make this again, I’ll just use one teaspoon.
I also made the suggested barbeque sauce to go with the meat, but had to improvise a little because I don’t keep chili sauce on hand. What I did have was some sweet ginger chili sauce from Ginger People that I bought as a dip for potstickers. It was way too spicy for the potstickers, at least for my sensitive tongue, but a quarter-cup of it was just enough to give the barbeque sauce a kick and a slightly exotic sweetness.
I was most proud of the buns, though. We of course had no hamburger buns, so when I popped the foil-wrapped brisket in the oven, I had to scramble to come up with a suitable barbeque-beef vehicle in the space of three hours. Turning right to my trusty Bread Baker’s Apprentice, I plunked my finger down on the first white bread recipe that didn’t require overnight fermentation and started throwing ingredients in the mixer. With a little help from some heating pads, I was able to coax the dough through both of its rises just in time to pop a dozen egg-washed rolls in the oven when the brisket was done (along with two par-microwaved baking potatoes). The rolls came out beautifully: perfectly sized and shaped, shiny and golden brown, with a soft texture that was still hearty enough to hold up against the moist beef. I will totally make these again, and will probably sneak some of my favorite white whole wheat flour in the next batch for the heck of it. There’s also a buttermilk variant in the book, so there could also be some fresh cinnamon swirl bread in our future.
Classic White Bread Burger Buns
Makes 12 burger or hot dog buns (or 2 1-lb loaves or 18 dinner rolls)
4 3/4 C unbleached bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 C powdered milk
3 1/4 T sugar
2 tsp instant yeast
1 large egg, slightly beaten, at room temp
3 1/4 T butter, melted or at room temp
1 1/2 C plus 1 T (up to 1 3/4 C) water, at room temp
1 egg, whisked with 1 tsp water until frothy (for optional egg wash)
Sesame or poppy seeds (for optional garnish)
Mix together flour, salt, powdered milk, sugar and yeast in the bowl of a 4-qt stand mixer. Pour in the egg, butter and 1 1/2 C plus 1 T water, and mix on low speed with the paddle attachment until all the flour is absorbed and the dough forms a ball. If the dough seems very stiff and dry, trickle in more water until the dough is supple.
Mix on medium speed with the dough hook, adding more flour if necessary, to create a soft, supple dough that is tacky but not sticky. Continue mixing for 6-8 minutes, during which the dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick slightly to the bottom. When ready, the dough will pass the windowpane test and register about 80F. Oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to it, turning to coat in the oil; cover the bowl with plastic wrap and proof in a warm room for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the dough doubles in size.
Remove the dough from the bowl and divide evenly into 12 3-oz pieces (or 18 2-oz pieces for rolls, or in two for loaves). Shape into tight boules for burger buns or pistolets for hot dog buns. Transfer to parchment-lined sheet pans, mist with spray oil and cover with plastic wrap or a towel; proof for an additional 60-90 minutes, until nearly doubled in size.
Preheat oven to 400F (or 350F for loaves). Brush buns with egg wash and sprinkle with garnish, if desired. Bake for approximately 15 minutes (or 35-45 minutes for loaves), rotating halfway through for even heating if necessary. The tops should be golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes on a rack before serving.
Source: The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, by Peter Reinhart (p. 266-267)
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12.10.07
Posted in American, Bread, Cuisines, French, Lunch, Nuts, Grains & Legumes at 11:56 am by julie
(Some days a creative title is just too much to ask…)
This weekend continued to be all about the breads here at the Persnickety Palate (or quasi-breads, as you may prefer to categorize my holiday quick breads and the biscuits I’m about to rave about below). Once again, we found ourselves sans milk and bread and perilously low on eggs, so I had to get creative with our meal options on Saturday. We ended up having lentil salad with bacon, and thanks to the half-full carton of buttermilk staring back at me from the fridge, a batch of hot buttermilk biscuits to go along with it.
I’ve now tried a few different recipes for biscuits, but when I have buttermilk to use up, this recipe is the clear winner. It is very easy to make, if a bit messy; I’m thinking a quarter-cup cookie scoop would be the perfect tool to streamline this recipe…I’ve been wanting one for doling out muffin batter and big wads of cookie dough anyway. 
Back to the subject at hand, these biscuits are super-fluffy and light inside, with a perfectly crisp golden-brown exterior. I adapted them slightly, as has been my wont lately with most baked goods, to use 50% white whole wheat flour instead of just AP. This results in a minor difference in color and absolutely no change in taste, while making me feel slightly less guilty about the melted butter you slather all over the dough before it goes in the oven. No wonder these taste so good!
Buttermilk Biscuits
1 C unbleached AP flour
1 C white whole wheat flour
1 T double-acting baking powder
1 T sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 T cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1 1/2 C cold buttermilk
1 C unbleached all-purpose flour, distributed in rimmed baking sheet
2 T unsalted butter, melted
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 500F. Spray 9-inch round cake pan with nonstick cooking spray; set aside. Generously spray inside and outside of 1/4 cup dry measure with nonstick cooking spray (or get out a large cookie scoop).
In a food processor, pulse the flours, baking powder, sugar, salt, and baking soda to combine, about six 1-second pulses. Scatter butter cubes evenly over dry ingredients; pulse until mixture resembles pebbly, coarse cornmeal, eight to ten more pulses. Add buttermilk to dry ingredients; pulse a few more times just until incorporated (dough will be very wet and slightly lumpy).
Using 1/4 cup measure and working quickly, scoop level amount of dough; drop dough from measuring cup into flour on baking sheet (if dough sticks to cup, use small spoon to pull it free). Repeat with remaining dough, forming 12 evenly sized mounds.
Dust tops of each piece of dough with flour from baking sheet. With floured hands, gently pick up piece of dough and coat with flour; gently shape dough into rough ball, shake off excess flour, and place in prepared cake pan. Repeat with remaining dough, arranging 9 rounds around perimeter of cake pan and 3 in center. Brush rounds with hot melted butter, taking care not to flatten them.
Bake 5 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 450F; continue to bake until biscuits are golden brown, about 15 minutes longer. Cool in pan 2 minutes, then invert biscuits from pan onto a rack or towel; turn biscuits right side up and break apart. Cool 5 minutes longer and serve.
Source: Cooks Illustrated, via The Amateur Gourmet.
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