This is another of the herbs in the front garden that I ruthlessly cut back to the ground last fall. It has come back with a vengeance over the last couple of weeks. In the fall it’ll bloom and bring butterflies by the dozens.
Entries from April 30th, 2009
enchilada sauce
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
I was making a chicken and black bean enchilada casserole this evening and realized that I was out of canned enchilada sauce. Then I thought … why not make my own? It would probably be much more flavorful than the store-bought variety, and besides, aren’t I trying to cut out prepared food? Besides that, how hard could it be?
As it turns out, not hard at all! I Googled a few recipes and wound up using Emeril’s – with a few tweaks. And darned if it wasn’t really good.
Start off by cooking 1 T of flour in 2 T vegetable oil. It’s not quite thick enough for a roux, but it’s the same principle. You want it to begin to brown.
Then you want to add the chili powder – about 1/4 cup (I admit, I heaped mine, since I love spicy food). Let it cook and turn a darker reddish brown color. Be careful breathing this in – it’s strong!
Then add the tomato sauce, the cumin, the salt, and the 2 cups of chicken broth (which I forgot to photograph).
Whisk it rapidly over medium heat until it’s well blended and then let it simmer for 15 or so minutes. (Note that the original recipe called for 10 oz of tomato paste, which I felt was too much, and 1 T of oregano which just doesn’t belong in Mexican food, in my Tex-Mex influenced opinion. So I altered the recipe appropriately.)
When you’re done, you’ll have a little over a pint of sauce. I figure a serving is about 2 T (or 35 g). The nutritional info below is based on 25 servings of 35g each.
Nutritional Info: (per 2 T serving) Calories: 27. Fat: 1.7g. Sodium: 159mg. Carbs: 2.9g. Fiber: 0.9g. Protein: 0.7g. (courtesy Calorie Count Recipe Analyser)
Finally, notice that right at the top of the post is linked the recipe w/out any of the “process” photos for those who want to skip straight to the recipe. I’m working on implementing this feature to the blog for all my recipes. Bear with me while I get everything done and linked!
Enjoy!
twd: chocolate cream tart
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Tuesdays with Dorie #4: Kim of Scrumptious Photography decided on the Chocolate Cream Tart on pages 352 and 353.
As with last week’s recipe, I made only 1/2 of this. Actually, I wound up making a full recipe of the tart crust before I remembered, but I think it’ll keep in the freezer and I’m sure I can find a use for it at some point.
I also made them in the cutest little tart pans I picked up at Cooks Warehouse last weekend. (I gotta say, TWD has played merry hell with my kitchen gadget habit. I was doing so well with clearing out stuff I no longer use – and now I’m refilling that room with adorable little tart pans, springform pans in all sizes, and more spatulas – because you can never have too many spatulas!)
First step was to make the chocolate tart shells and pre-bake them. I did this the night before. I didn’t use the foil when I prebaked them; I just let them puff up and then quickly pressed them down when I removed them from the oven. As they cooled, they held their shape nicely.
I’m really in love with the cuteness of these tarts and I took quite a few photos. I also had a little dough left over which I just threw on the pan to make into cookies. I found out that this is not a terribly sweet dough – which makes sense, since it’s a base for a creamy, sweet filling – so it doesn’t make great cookies. It does, however, lend itself to being photographed over and over and over.
Ok, ok, I’m stepping away from the tart shells.
Next I made the filling, which is the same basic recipe as the Banana Cream Pie filling from a few weeks ago – except with white sugar instead of brown, and with added chocolate. As with that filling, my custard never came to a boil before it thickened, but this time I was prepared for it and as soon as everything began to thicken up, I pulled it off the stove and whisked to save my life. And it turned out perfectly.
Then I started playing. The first tart I made and piped the whipped cream in a pretty pattern. Oh, and btw, this is how we pipe things in my household – with a star tip stuck into the corner of a Ziplock sandwich bag!
(As an aside: I find the proportion of powdered sugar to cream in Dorie’s recipes makes a whipped cream that is too sweet for my taste. I reduced the sugar by 1/2 and it came out much more to my taste.)
Then I played some more – making variations of the tart. The first was as described in the book, with the whipped cream topping spread edge-to-edge over the chocolate filling.
Then just the plain chocolate filling without any whipped cream.
And finally, I took the remaining filling and the remaining whipped cream and mixed them together in a big swirly pile, which I filled the last tart shell with.
I have to say that all of these variations worked for me, but I was most fond of the last one with the cream and filling swirled together. It was just perfect. And then H brought home some strawberries, which got dipped in the chocolate and whipped cream mixture and that was pretty much the end of that.
I’d say this recipe was a huge success and will definitely be made again, especially if I need a dessert that looks super fancy but doesn’t take a whole lot of time and effort. I might even use smaller tart molds to make little treats.
I really had fun with this and all the variations!
No nutritional info because (a) I forgot to input it and (b) I’m not about to ruin a good thing with too much knowledge. I’m sure it’s a lot of calories. I don’t care!
The recipe is available in Baking: From My Home to Yours
Enjoy!
collard greens
Monday, April 27, 2009
Collard greens are a uniquely Southern food, I think. Most people who aren’t from the South (or haven’t lived here a while) don’t really know what they are, even if they’ve heard of them to begin with. Usually non-Southerners approach collards with suspicion, if not outright fear, visions of some overcooked, slimy green in their heads.
Hopefully this recipe will banish those thoughts from your mind. I got this huge bunch of greens at the farmer’s market this past Saturday and almost immediately went home and made some of them to have with dinner.
Collards are also insanely good for you as well as being really delicious. A serving of collards is high in fiber, calcium, and vitamins A & D. They’re also low in calories and fat – assuming you don’t add too much in preparing them. They’re also best in the early spring and late fall – being cool season greens – but are usually available year-round.
Here’s how I make mine, which is mostly the same way my Meemaw made hers.
Start by cleaning your collards well. Pull off each stalk and rinse it thoroughly. I fill a tub with cold water in my sink and swish each leaf around to make sure all the sand and grit is gone. Then trim out the tough center stalk to about 1/2-way up the leaf. You can do this quickly by folding the leaf in half and then sliding your knife along the thick stalk to separate it from the leafy green.
Then roughly chop the greens into large squares. Once your greens are washed, trimmed, and chopped, you can move on to the cooking!
Use a heavy pot or dutch oven and add about 2 T of olive oil (my grandmother used bacon grease for hers, but I don’t tend to keep bacon grease around a lot). Add a couple of cloves of garlic and an onion, diced.
Cook until the onion is translucent and then add your chopped and washed collards (about 8 cups all together). Stir them around and let them turn dark green and begin to look wilty.
(I know … I didn’t need 2 images here, but they’re so pretty when they’re this vibrant green!)
Add 6-8-ish cups of stock or broth. I had ham stock that I made after Easter, so I used that. Ham, bacon, or other various forms of pork are a traditional flavoring ingredient for collards, and I try to use ham stock whenever possible to keep them as I remember. You can see that I just threw in my frozen cubes of stock.
I’ve also been known to pour in 1/2 a bottle or so of beer if I have it handy, just for a change up of the flavor. Or sprinkle the mix with some red pepper flakes to give the greens a little bite.
Bring the pot to a boil and then lower to a simmer. Collard greens are something that you want to cook nearly into oblivion. They’re tough, stringy greens, so you want to make sure that you break down that chewiness by long slow cooking. 2 hours of slow simmering would not be unreasonable. Unlike spinach and more delicate greens, collards will not become slimy and mushy when you cook them for a long time. They’ll just become tender and flavorful.
I like to uncover the greens for the last 30-45 minutes and let some of the liquid simmer down.
Now you have some really yummy greens for a meal or as a side dish. I often take a double serving of these to work with me and have them with bread or cornbread as my lunch. Salt them AFTER they’re cooked, as salting them before will make them tough and take them longer to break down. When you do serve them, a splash of pepper vinegar or a squeeze of lemon or lime juice will brighten the whole dish.
One more thing: Don’t discard the liquid left over – what we in the South call the pot-liquor. The pot-liquor is tasty and nutrient rich. Use it to add to soups or stews, as part of the liquid to braise meat or other veggies in, or just to sop up with some really good cornbread. It’s good stuff.
The ingredients are simple: 8 cups cleaned and chopped collards, 1 medium onion chopped fine, 2 cloves garlic chopped fine, 2 T olive oil, 6-8 cups low sodium stock or broth.
Nutritional Info: (4 side dish servings from the above amounts) Calories: 130. Fat: 6.7g. Sodium: 158mg. Carbs: 10.6g. Fiber: 3.5g. Protein: 6.5g. (courtesy Calorie Count Recipe Analyser)
If made with vegetable broth or water, this recipe is vegetarian and vegan.
Enjoy!
saturday farmer’s market and misc #2
Saturday, April 25, 2009
There were a few more stalls at our farmer’s market this morning. I’m still getting a feel for who is local and who is bringing in out of state veggies. I don’t want to be a food snob about it, but I’d rather buy from local farms and farmers first, the other markets next, and Whole Foods last. Once again, I only got veggies, but I think next week I might get some honey from a local apiary. In the meanwhile, here are this week’s purchases:
A huge bunch of collard greens (I have a ton of ham stock in the freezer, so I’m thinking I might cook these up tomorrow for lunches next week); more new red potatoes; another red bell pepper; more jalapeno peppers (salsa is cooking now); a couple of tomatoes; a cabbage (they were all so pretty piled up together); and a really lovely looking eggplant (veggie lasagna, I’m thinking). Total cost this week: $12.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have to get back to menu planning. I managed to use up all of last weeks veggies, but only barely. I left too much to the seat of my pants and wound up scrambling to use things at the last minute. Also, these few pounds I’ve put back on need to leave – again an area where meal planning will help. Maybe if I commit to posting them here, I’ll do better.
Another Tusdays with Dorie recipe is coming up. I think I’ll make it today while H is grilling steak for dinner.
I made the Cooks Illustrated “Nearly No Knead Bread” today and it turned out great. Now I’m going to experiment with freezing it, and making different sized loaves. This could become a weekly routine for me and would be much cheaper than the local artisan bread that I’m currently buying.
If anyone has a good recipe for a veggie lasagna, let me know in the comments. I want to make one next week and at the moment I’m planning on flying by the seat of my pants. Making it up as I go along seems to have worked well for me so far, but I’m open to anything.
I keep thinking about participating in the Kitchn Cure 2009 but then I realize it would be one more thing to have to keep up with and blog about. Still, it would be nice to get my kitchen cabinets cleaned out and organized and know where everything is.
Ok, that’s it for today’s miscellaneous thoughts. Stay tuned for more next week.
Stuffed Red Bell Peppers
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
This is another one of those I-made-it-up-as-I-went-along recipes. I had 2 red bell peppers from the farmers market that were just crying out for something more than being chopped up in a salad – stuffing them seemed like a good choice.
I spent a few minutes thinking about what makes a great stuffing. My mom used to stuff bell peppers with ground hamburger and white rice, and top them with jarred spaghetti sauce. Bland and boring, but it gave me a starting point to work from. I decided to take that formula and tinker with it. Here’s what I came up with:
- 1 cup of dried couscous, cooked in 2 cups of veggie broth, cooled and fluffed
- 1/2 lb of lean ground beef
- 1/2 lb of ground pork
- 1 medium onion, finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp red pepper flakes
- 1 bunch baby spinach leaves, chopped fine
- 2 cups homemade tomato sauce
- 1/2 cup shredded mixed cheeses (mozerella, romano, asiago)
- 4 medium bell peppers, washed and cored
I only had 2 peppers, but the filling I crafted makes enough to stuff 4. I had lots left over.
In a large skillet (I used a 12″ cast iron), crumble the ground beef and pork over medium heat. When the meat is about 1/2 way cooked, add the onion, garlic, and red pepper flakes and cook until the onion is translucent and the meat is done. Mix in the spinach and cook until the spinach is dark and wilty. Stir in the couscous and mix everything thoroughly. Salt and pepper to taste.
Put your cored bell peppers in a baking dish and drizzle with a little olive oil. Pack the filling into the peppers, putting any remaining filling in the bottom of the baking dish. Top with the tomato sauce and the cheese.
Bake in a 400° oven for about 35 minutes, until heated through and the cheese is melted and browned and bubbly.
This turned out really well – the bell peppers were still a little crunchy but tender enough to add their flavor to the filling. I would imagine that you could make this with all beef, all pork, or even ground turkey to help reduce calories and fat some. Rice, couscous, I even thought about trying orzo or quinoa for the more starchy part of the filler. Also, one serving of this was VERY filling, so at under 450 calories each, this a respectable dinner – you could even cut one in half and serve it with a big green salad, if you felt the need.
All in all, this was a great way to use some of the farmer’s market produce that I bought last weekend.
Nutritional Info: (4 servings of one stuffed pepper each) Calories: 444. Fat: 7.0g. Sodium: 434mg. Carbs: 53.1g. Fiber: 8.4g. Protein: 41.9g. (courtesy Calorie Count Recipe Analyser)
Enjoy!
twd: four-star chocolate bread pudding
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Tuesdays with Dorie #3: Lauren of Upper East Side Chronicle selected Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding, pages 410 and 411.
This is the first TWD recipe that I’ve altered significantly. I figured I wanted to make the first two exactly as they are in the book to see how the recipes “work” for me before I started making changes. I also think it’s hard to say honestly if I like or dislike a recipe if I’m not following the directions given, so I really want to keep “tweaking” to a minimum – at least the first time around.
However, I also realized that my jeans are getting a little snug and I attribute a good deal of that to the volume of sweet stuff I’ve started eating in the last 3 weeks. Not good. So for my first TWD change, I cut this recipe in half. It still made 4 large ramekins of bread pudding – more than enough for 2 people to enjoy for several days.
The 2nd change I made was to soak the raisins in kirsch for about an hour – since the recipe called for plump, moist raisins. Besides, I thought the kirsch would be a nice touch with the chocolate.
I made this with challah bread I bought at our local Publix. They had some on sale last week, which was perfect timing. I cut 6 oz of bread into 1″ cubes and let it sit in a bowl on the counter for about 4 days to get nice and stale. I added the raisins to the chunks of bread …
… and soaked the bread and custard in my pie plate for the 30 mins, since I was going to move the mixture to ramekins to bake.
Into the ramekins and then into the oven.
And out to cool.
Finally, plated and served with a drizzle of cream anglaise.
I have to admit honestly that I was not terribly fond of the final product. I’m shocked to say so – after all bread pudding and chocolate? What’s not to like? But it turns out that I’m a purist and I don’t want chocolate in my bread pudding. I also definitely don’t like my bread pudding served cold. It should be warm, chock-a-block with raisins, and dripping with a rich bourbon vanilla cream. I guess years of having really good bread pudding in New Orleans has spoiled me.
That said, I think this recipe is a nice one and would work well for me with some tweaks. What I’ll do differently next time: First thing is to eliminate the chocolate and add more raisins (soaked in the same kirsch or even in whiskey or bourbon). I’ll cut the bread in smaller chunks so that it can be made in smaller (4-oz) ramekins (8 of them). And finally, I’ll top it with a whiskey or bourbon sauce instead of plain cream anglaise.
Finally the Nutritional Info: (4 servings from 1/2 recipe) Calories: 410. Fat: 15.7g. Sodium: 390mg. Carbs: 47g. Fiber: 2.1g. Protein: 12.5g. (courtesy Calorie Count Recipe Analyser)
The recipe is available in Baking: From My Home to Yours
Enjoy!
Whey?
Monday, April 20, 2009
What do to with whey. This has been a topic that’s been on my mind lately. I know … I know. I’m weird. But it has. See, last week I made 3 batches of yogurt; one of them I left as is for use in recipes, one of them I strained slightly for my morning meals, and one of them I strained for nearly 24 hours through a tea-towel to make yogurt cheese. That left me with this:
That, my friends, is whey – as in curds and whey. As in the liquid left over when you strain out the solids from your yogurt or cheese. And yes, it really is, in real life, that brilliant, vibrant greeny-yellow color. It’s also tart and tangy and slightly syrupy in texture. And I have about 5 cups of it.
Wikipedia has a lot more information on whey. It contains vitamins and proteins and is used to make Ricotta, among other things.
So what do to with it? I hate to throw it away; that just seems wasteful. I did try substituting whey for buttermilk in a biscuit recipe with some level of success (post coming) but that still only used a cup. I froze 2 cups of it, just to see if it could be done, but I still don’t know what to do with it once I thaw it.
What do you think? Any suggestions? I’ve Googled “what to do with whey” but most of what I get is links to protein powder and bodybuilding sites. Not helpful really. So .. now what?
Popover!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Until a few weeks ago, I’d never made a popover. I’d certainly eaten them, and of course I’d read and heard about making them – complete with horror stories about how hard it was to get popovers to “pop,” but I’d never made them. Then I saw a recipe for them: 1 egg, 1/2 cup of milk, 1/2 cup of flour, and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt, pour it into a popover pan and cook at 450 till done. How simple is that? Except … I didn’t have a popover pan. So after a quick search online and some back and forth Twittering, I tried my popover recipe in a couple of small ramekins. Success .. until I tried to get the popovers out of the ramekins. The flavor was good, but the “pop” had left the building. Still, I was feeling very positive about making popovers and determined to try again soon.
Then a few days ago I was wandering through Target and they had popover pans on sale for $6. Obviously it was a sign from the universe that I needed to make popovers again.
And I did.
I doubled the recipe which made 6 perfect popovers. (Although I slightly under filled the middle row and they didn’t “pop” quite as high.)
Next up … I’m going to try for mini-popovers from my muffin tin and maybe with some blue cheese added. Because doesn’t blue cheese make anything taste better?
saturday farmers market and misc #1
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Today was the opening day of our local farmer’s market. It’s still early days for some of the local farmers, but there were still some good selections to be had. There are also a few new folks out there selling things like honey, bread, homemade jams and jellies and so forth. While those are nice, my main purpose in going to the market is to get fresh, locally grown produce to use at home. So here’s my haul from today:
A very fragrant bunch of new onions (I love the blooms on the ends of the stalks); cucmbers; red and green bell peppers (those suckers are $4 at the grocery store, or $0.75 at the market); jalapeno peppers (I’m thinkin’ of my very first batch of salsa for the season); green beans; and finally some baby red potatoes (crash hot potatoes, anyone?). A respectable bit of food for about $12 or so.
Now the miscellaneous stuff:
Still trying to figure out what to do with large quantities of whey from straining yogurt. Biscuits seem to work well (post coming). I’m also freezing a pint of it to see if it can be kept frozen. I hate to waste it. Any thoughts? Leave me a comment. I’ll try anything.
Finding I have little dibs and dabs of stuff left over – bits of basil, half a lemon, etc. So I’m experimenting with making flavored oils and vinegars for salads and drizzles over the course of the summer (post coming). I think I need to build a shelf above the kitchen sink so all the little jars can sit in the window.
I’m beginning to think that the reason our tomatoes never produce in quantity is that the designated tomato area doesn’t get enough direct sunlight. The problem is the HOA limits where we can plant things. Putting tomatoes out across from the patio would work much better, but will they fine us or make us take them up? H says better to ask forgiveness than permission. Maybe I’ll do it. What’s the worst that can happen?
The cilantro is beginning to pop up nicely. I’m looking forward to homemade salsa this year with more of my own produce in it. Store bought tomatoes just don’t cut it for me.
I moved the preserved lemons to a different jar – no metal lid and I think they just look prettier. I forgot I had these in the cupboard where I keep the tea and coffee.
I really wish we had room for a small chest freezer. I’m wondering if we could rearrange the storage closet on the patio and put one in there. If we wall mounted shelves and then had the freezer underneath, it would work well. The closet stays cool even in the heat of summer, so it wouldn’t put that much of a strain on a unit. Something to look into.
Ok there you have it. My random Saturday meanderings. More to come.
preserved lemons
Friday, April 17, 2009
I’ve always been interested in making these, but never gotten around to it. If nothing else, it takes the juice of a LOT of lemons, in addition to the lemons that are cut up in the jar. Earlier this week, though, I bought a 5lb bag of lemons with the idea of making homemade limoncello (more about that in another post). After I zested lemons for the vodka infusion, I was left with a pile of naked lemons and no clue what to do with them. Then I remembered the stack of recipes I had for North African/Moroccan preserved lemons. All of the recipes call for the same basic steps – pack the lemons in salt, press them to down to release the juice, top off with more juice, and store them, covered, for a few weeks until the rinds are soft.
Easy enough. So that’s what I did. And here are the results. I didn’t really measure anything.
I scrubbed 4 lemons thoroughly with a brush to make sure I got the wax and whatever off the skins.
Then I sliced them into wedges (Some recipes call for chunks, some for slices, some for whole lemons. I liked the look of the wedges.)
I put them in a bowl and tossed them with kosher salt until each wedge had a thick covering of salt. Seriously I have no idea how much salt I used. A lot.
Then I packed the wedges into a 1qt canning jar, using a chopstick to help me push the wedges down. I probably could have taken more time and made pretty patterns in arranging them, but I was going for volume, not aesthetics here.
Then I topped off the jar with lemon juice from the poor naked lemons I’d shaved for the limoncello.
Finally I sealed the jar and stuck it in the back of my fridge. I’ll check on it in about 2 weeks and see where we’re at. (Oh and the next day I moved the lemons to the jar you see at the beginning of this post. I have heard that the salt and lemon juice will eventually cause the regular canning lids to corrode – don’t want that!)
herbs #1: sage
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Last fall I cut all the herbs back to the ground. I was ruthless. A few weeks ago the sage started to send up little shoots. And today … this is what it looks like:
twd: chocolate amaretti torte
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Tuesdays with Dorie post #2: Holly of Phe/MOM/enon picked the 15 Minute Magic: Chocolate Amaretti Torte on pages 276 and 277.
At first I wasn’t going to make this recipe although I really wanted to. I just couldn’t justify dropping $12 on a box of cookies at Whole Foods, plus the almonds, cream, chocolate, etc., that the rest of the recipe called for. But someone on the group mentioned they found amaretti cookies at World Market for much less and so the game was on!
Believe it or not I don’t have any round cake pans, but I do have a tart pan, so I prepped the tart pan as directed. I wasn’t sure that the cake would come out as easily, but the removable bottom on the tart pan really helped. Just a nice gentle push around the bottom edge and the cake popped right out.
The cake took the full 35 minutes to bake and Dorie’s instructions warned that it might dome and crack. Yup.
It was also very thin, as she mentioned.
45 minutes to cool and then pour on the glaze.
Then 30 mins in the fridge to let the glaze set before cutting a slice.
Wow! I mean a serious wow factor with this cake. Even H loved the cake and normally this much chocolate makes him cringe. The richness of all the chocolate is mellowed a bit by the almond flavor that comes through. I think you could make nice variations of this recipe using different types of crisp cookies/biscuits and nuts. I might try a version with ginger biscuits and pecans at some point.
Also surprisingly, for such a rich dessert, it’s not a complete nutritional wasteland. (Not that I think 353 calories of chocolate, butter, and sugar is a good thing all the time – but as a once a while treat, this is a lot of flavor and richness for the calories and would make it a worthwhile splurge, IMO). I based this calculation on cutting your torte into 8 servings, but truly there is no way I could eat 1/8th of this at a sitting, it’s so rich and decadent.
Nutritional info: (8 servings) Calories: 353. Fat: 27g. Sodium: 135mg. Carbs: 22.5g. Fiber: 2.1g. Protein: 6.7g. (courtesy Calorie Count Recipe Analyser)
Thanks, Holly, for picking an awesome recipe!
The recipe is available in Baking: From My Home to Yours
Enjoy!
TWD Rewind: Coconut Butter Thins
Saturday, April 11, 2009
I joined Tuesdays with Dorie on St. Patrick’s Day and made my first recipe: Banana Cream Pie. Before I posted my inaugural TWD post, I went back and read every other members posts from the last recipes just to see how it was done. I didn’t want to commit any TWD faux pas on my first post! I wound up reading all the posts on the Coconut Butter Thins recipes – and with only one or two exceptions, every single post about these cookies was a flat out rave. Everyone seemed to have a different experience with the recipe, but regardless of the outcome everyone said that these cookies simply killed.
By the time I was done reading, I knew I had to make them. The recipe looked dead simple and I thought I could knock them out before I left town last week, so on Wednesday night I stopped at the grocery store on the way home and got the coconut and the macadamia nuts (whoa – $$$). I had everything else.
I also had an interesting time with these cookies and wound up practically getting 3 different cookies out of the one recipe. Here’s my recap:
I made these the night before I was due to go out of town, so I threw the chilled dough right into the freezer after rolling it out in the plastic bag. Because the surface I put it on wasn’t completely flat, the dough froze in a slight dome shape. When I tried to cut it, it “shattered” in places and I wound up with some oddly shaped bits of cookie as you can see.
I didn’t get any spreading from these at all – I think because the dough was still frozen and so the cookies held their shape in the oven. I cooked them for nearly 22 mins. These made lovely, blocky, thick, shortbread-type cookies. They had a nice crunch on the outside and a wonderful chewiness on the inside. Yummy. Already I was considering this recipe a success.
By then the dough had begun to thaw and little and was softer and more pliable, although still chilled. The next batch went into the oven and I “smushed” them just a little with my spatula to encourage the spreading that Dorie talks about (I was still looking for that “lacy edge” that she and many others mentioned). This batch spread a little more, was a little crispier all through the cookie. Also a success, but still not quite there for me yet. I mixed a quick little glaze with the juice of 1/2 of the lime and some powdered sugar and glazed these – it gave them a nice bright zip and tang – and then set them aside for the next batch.
I was still in search of that delicate lacy-ness that everyone was talking about. By that time the dough had completely thawed, so I tried something drastic. I first gathered all my remaining sliced cookies into one pile, then I used the large side of my melon-baller to scoop out just enough cookie to make small rounds. Then I rolled them into cute little balls
Then I took a drinking glass dipped in sugar …
… and smashed the holy living heck out of them …
… which left me with a sheet full of super-thin, round cookies to put into the oven.
SUCCESS!!!
These – THESE – are the cookies I was looking for. This is what I was imagining as I read through all the reviews. This is what I could feel in my mouth before I even made the cookies; that delicate crumbly edge, that snap as you bit into them, the subtle flavors of lime and the hint of saltiness from the nuts.
This will definitely become a go-to cookie recipe for me. Now that I have the feel for them, I’ll start playing. I think the next variation will try chopped pecans instead of macadamia and maybe a sprinkle of salt mixed with sugar on top.
The recipe is available on page 145 of Baking: From My Home to Yours
Now, excuse me while I go eat more cookies!
mac+cheese
Friday, April 10, 2009
It’s entirely possible that I was unduly influenced by Ree (the Pioneer Woman) and her posting of mac and cheese this week. Last night about 8:30, while sitting on the sofa waiting for Bones to start, I suddenly developed an craving for mac and cheese. A really bad craving. The kind of craving that sneaks into the room and calls your name repeatedly, driving you slowly insane. The kind of craving that you HAVE to satisfy or else.
So I made mac and cheese. It wasn’t until after I’d made and photographed it that I realized my recipe – with the exception of the nutmeg – looks EXACTLY like Ree’s. Exactly.
I’m blogging it anyway because, damnit, I made it and photographed it and even ate it. And it was yummy.
The cast of characters includes: penne rigate, butter, flour, mustard powder, nutmeg, an egg, milk, and cheese (in this case, shredded sharp cheddar).
First, get your pasta going. I like the penne rigate which is a little firmer than regular macaroni. It also has a larger hole and the outside of the pasta is ridged – both of which allow the penne to hold on to more sauce than just plain macaroni. You want this slightly undercooked – more al dente than you’d normally be happy with – especially if you plan to bake the mac and cheese. I used a 1 lb box. Drain it and set it aside.
Then begin to make the yummy, cheesy sauce. Melt the stick of butter and add 1/4 cup of flour. Stir it around until it just barely begins to brown. You want to cook it enough that the floury taste is gone, but not enough to make the flour really dark.
Add your 3 cups of milk and bring to a simmer. Stir slowly until the mixture just begins to thicken. This is when I add the mustard …
… and a grating of fresh nutmeg.
Then take a spoonful of the hot milk mixture and pour it slowly into your beaten egg, mixing steadily. This is “tempering” the egg … it slowly warms the egg so it doesn’t curdle when you add it into the pot.
Once the egg is added to the pot and everything is beginning to thicken up nicely you add the cheese. This is 4-ish cups of shredded sharp cheddar. Hey, I never claimed this was a low fat recipe. I also switch from a spatula to a whisk here because I think it’s easier to incorporate the cheese and keep the sauce from being lumpy.
Add your cooked pasta to the sauce and mix it thoroughly (ditching the whisk for your spatula again will help). Add salt and pepper to taste.
You have really yummy mac and cheese at this point. But if you want, you can layer the top with some more (yes MORE) shredded cheese, some crumbled saltine crackers, and a few dots of butter and bake it, uncovered, in a 350 oven for about 20 minutes.
Sometimes when I’m feeling creative, I’ll saute some onion and garlic, or toss in some chopped ham or proscuitto, or some finely chopped sage and tarragon … or pretty much whatever I feel like … to the butter when I’m making the sauce. It adds a nice twist and you can put in almost anything.
Oh and one last note – I made the whole thing in my 3qt Dutch oven. You can make the sauce on the stovetop and then add the pasta and toppings and move the whole thing to the oven. Nice and easy, and fewer pots and pans to clean.
But tonight … it’s just the basic, perfect, cheesy Mac + cheese. Mmmmm.
Enjoy!