edibleunknown
nobody loves you like we do
I was looking for an Apple Pancake recipe last night. As I searched I found Virtual Cities' Internet Cookbook. It has many offerings from Bed and Breakfasts around the country as well as other culinary professionals.
The particular recipe I tried did not suit my fancy, but I am excited to try many other recipes off of their site. With over 6,000 recipes listed I am sure to find several new recipes to add to my favorites.
We've known for bazillions of years that wine is subjective, but it's interesting to learn that white chocolate goes well with caviar, that Slim Jims are made of mechanically separated chicken, that there's a drink made of bird's nest, or that you can eat fish poop. I feel a bit patriotic about my regional specialty, but then again, that's pretty normal, in a world where disgusting vegetarian clones of the already amorphous chicken nugget is sold outside of the endless army of chicken restaurants that all want to look the same. It can be cheaper to make your own breakfast foods, not to mention healthier in a day and age where butter flavoring gets abused and trans fats take all the blame.
One evening at 10pm I decided that I just had to make the Pop-Tarts I had seen good 'ol AB make on Good Eats. This is a super easy recipe and comes out tasting great.
To see the recipe in its original form please refer to The Food Network.
Here is how I work the recipe:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
Add the flour, baking powder and salt to a medium bowl. Stir with a fork (or if you would like you may sift them together).
Next add in 6 tablespoons shortening and combine until crumbly (as shown in photo). Now stir in 3/4 cup milk.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead until elastic.
Note: I find that this dough works best when it has just left the sticky stage. So, you may need to add in an extra 1/4 - 1/2 cup flour during the kneading process.
Divide the dough into two equal halves.
Roll each half into a 12 inch by 12 inch square. Cut each square into 12 rectangles measuring 3 inches by 4 inches.
Bottoms: Place about 1 tablespoon of your favorite jam, jelly, or preserves into the center of half of the rectangles.
Tops: With a fork dock the other half of the rectangles.
Dip your finger or pastry brush in water and run it around the edge of the bottom. Now add the top gently pushing out any air from the center. Use a fork to gently seal all the way around the edge.
Place the tarts on a baking sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. These tarts do not brown on the top.
Eat them hot from the oven or allow to cool and place into an airtight container. If you want a hot one just pop it in the toaster!
The kids and I have been talking about different flavors. All the early batches were strawberry, but today we used a greek jam that was sour cherry. I would like to try putting a bit of cream cheese inside with the jelly.
I did try out a frosting recipe, but the thought of Pop-Tart Blow-Torches has scared me away from pre-frosting the tarts. I would like to come up with a sweetened cream cheese frosting that I can keep in the freezer and then just squeeze on to the tarts after they have been toasted. Something like what Pillsbury does with their Toaster Strudels.
This recipe really is super simple and the kids all love them. I love them because they taste way better then a box of Pop-Tarts and they have none of the additives. The most unhealthy part would be the shortening, but Crisco just made that trans-fat free. If that is still a concern though you could try substituting Smart Balance Shortening. If you do try that let me know how it works out. I haven't bought a can yet, but it has been tempting especially with how often I have been making these tarts.
One final note. If you looked at the original recipe you may have noted that AB uses an egg wash around the edges of the tarts to seal them. After making the recipe several times and having to discard the remaining egg wash I decided that I wanted to find an alternative. I have found that simply using water is enough of sealant. No more wasted eggs!
Once again Teleolurian left me in charge of dinner. Woo, no that isn't right. Ohh no! Well it wasn't quite that bad, but it was something I must tackle head on.
First to determine the ingredients at hand. I found eggs and cheese. Sure, I could scramble some eggs up (that is really the only kind of stove top egg I can make). Nah, we need something new, something more adventurous. So off to Google I ran. Immediately I located a cookbook site that had an entire section of Egg and Cheese recipes. On this page I saw a recipe titled Baked Omelet Roll. That's it! This is definitely the recipe.
This recipe was a hit with all the kids and myself. I even made it the following week for lunch. Maybe one of these days I will actually make it for breakfast, but you know breakfast for dinner is just so yummy.
This recipe is super simple. Throw eggs, milk, flour and pepper into a blender (you could whip them by hand with a whisk or hand mixer). Pour into a greased pan and bake. Your done. Really a child can make this dish.
Now lets not let symantics get in the way. I have read on other sites that have this recipe posted that it really isn't an omelette at all as it is not cooked on the stove. This is the way I see it, call it what ever you like as long as you make it.
This recipe is very flexible. You may use whatever cheese you have on hand (Sharp Cheddar, Romano, PepperJack, etc.), throw in some sauteed mushrooms, or what ever other omelette ingredient you desire.
And now I will allow the photo's walk you through the easy steps.
We have the ingredients.
The blended mixture in the greased 9 by 13 dish ready to hit the oven.
Hot out of the oven.
The cheese has been added. Be sure to sprinkle the cheese all the way to the edges.
I use a large spatula to help start the rolling process and then use my hands to get it rolled up tightly.
And the rolling continues.
The completed Omelette Roll. Note the specks of pepper throughout.
Slice, serve, and eat up!
This was by far one of the yummiest dishes at Greek night. I am glad that I made it and plan on making it again in the future. I don't really know when the Greek eat this dish, but being a slightly sweet custard pie it makes either a great dessert or a wonderful addition to a breakfast/brunch buffet.
Does it not make you lust for pie!? |
I chose to use Cat Cora's Galaktoboureko recipe for this dish. Her directions were very clear and easy to understand. But I did have to make a few changes. I don't know what kind of baking dish she was specifically referring to, so I chose to use my Pampered Chef Deep Dish Baker. It worked perfectly.
Also, I am not sure where to acquire "thick" phyllo dough. None of the stores I went to had it. So, I just used regular thin sheets of phyllo dough.
I brushed one sheet w/butter and then added another sheet on top and buttered it. I continued this process until the stack was 8 sheets thick. I then laid this over half of the round baking dish, letting it drape over the sides. I repeated this process to cover the other half of the dish. Then for the top I prepared 6 more sheets of phyllo dough in the same manner.
I chose not to cut the top dough to fit the size of the dish as Cat Cora suggested, I just rolled up the little bit of extra dough when I rolled up the sides. The original recipe suggests scoring the top of the phyllo with diagonal cuts, but I must admit that while using the thin phyllo sheets this was almost impossible. So I just gave it some strategically placed small pokes with a sharp knife all around the top.
The pie was very easy to cut once it was cooked. Also, it will seem as if there is not enough room for the pie to "drink up" all of the lemon syrup. Just be patient. Give it as much as it can hold and just wait a minute or two, then start pouring more in slowly. It will eventually take it all. This part really adds a lot of flavor so you want to make sure you get all of the syrup in there.
I wouldn't worry too much about clarifying the butter, it really doesn't make that big of a difference in this case. Editor's Note: Liar. Just because you can't tell...
Just melt the butter and allow it to cool before using a spoon to skim off the fat that has crusted on top. That is really all that is necessary.
Now, to find some semolina. Semolina is a flour used to make pasta. It is sold in clear plastic bags and made by Bob's Red Mill. I was not able to locate it at any of the regular grocery stores in town (well at least not on any of their websites). Truth be told, I avoid the large grocery stores whenever possible. When I ran in to my trusted Sunflower Market they had it available right next to all the other great products by Bob's Red Mill. If you are looking for it in the store I would look for it where ever your store stocks the specialty grains. Editor's Note: What the heck, do they pay you?
This is a moon alien.
Really, once you have gathered all the ingredients to this dish together it is a very simple dish to prepare. It also tastes wonderful cold, so it is a recipe that you can make ahead of time, allow to cool and then refrigerate until needed. I love when I can prepare dishes ahead of time... less stress on party day that way!
Chicken Pot Pie.
Think about that steam curling up from the crust.
Chicken Freaking Pot Pie.
The Pennsylvania Dutch enslaved an entire nation with this rustic dish, which is one of the few meat pies enjoyed this side of the Atlantic (I KNOW YOU'RE THERE, NATCHITOCHES MEAT PIE. I will find the filthy, forbidden love that is deep fried meat pie some day).
The PD's (like they call them back in the hood) also brought us pretzels, apple butter, and funnel cakes, because they are sheer butter-encrusted evil. Their plan is to fatten all of humanity and use their disgusting man-fat to grease the largest slip-n-slide in history. But, you're not cleared for that information.
Her Tartness did the crust for this one, so I'll let her add that one.
WHAT? Butter comes by the stick. It's how I measure. We are a very skinny family. Bite me.
The chicken went in after the onion was clear, along with some soy sauce, pepper, paprika, finely chopped celery (2 sticks) and garlic powder.
Double barrel action after the chicken was thoroughly cooked as I unceremoniously plopped one can of cream of chicken and one can of cream of mushroom into the skillet. It sat there, jellied, like some disgusting panna cotta. I stirred it all in anyways.
Once it was less... upright, I threw in some mixed vegetables (frozen). What goes with mushroom and chicken? The T herbs! In went some fresh thyme (man, what I would have given for a marijuana smoker to break down those two twigs) and dried tarragon. When things thinned out a bit too much I added a tablespoon of cornstarch and stirred it in.
Tasting... what do I need? More soy sauce. A dab of worcestershire. Meanwhile, Tart-on was making some kind of dough as I simmered everything on low.
Magically, all those ingredients with the crust fit perfectly in a circular 9-inch baker. Turned oven to 400. Docked the crust with a fork and brushed it with one beaten egg. Put into the oven. WAITED A HORRIBLY LONG FORTY FIVE MINUTES.
Note: Why do I add soy sauce to so many things? Because the MSG in soy sauce makes everything taste like store-bought.
I was going to make pancakes for breakfast this morning, but that plan was foiled. Then I remembered this muffin recipe I had seen in Family Fun Magazine for French Breakfast Muffins. (You know my tendency towards desserts and sweets!) They have this great section called “Let's Cook†where they give you recipes that are simple enough to cook with your kids. Tele is much more patient with LittleRoq than I when it comes to cooking in the kitchen, but this was one recipe I thought I could tackle with him. Sure enough LittleRoq and I survived the experience with him doing most of the mixing and then spooning into the muffin stone (Pampered Chef of course). These muffins have a mild sweetness to them so everyone including Tele (who doesn't have much of a sweet tooth) enjoyed them. In searching Google I found that there are many similar recipes available out there so you should be able to find one to suite your fancy.
I think this would be a great recipe to use as a mix from your pantry. Just decide how many batches you would like to have on hand. Mix up the dry ingredients according to the directions and place in a zip-top baggie. Voila! Your very own muffin mix with no preservatives.
While I'm still at the point where every bechamel has a fifty percent chance of turning into gruel, I can admit with some well-deserved selling-out shame that I can do French Toast just as well as anyone else.
With indeterminate origins shrouded in the mists of time, French Toast (known colloquially in some American regions as 'Fried Eggy Bread', to the sounds of every dead Frenchman spinning violently in his grave) is known by several names throughout the world, including Bombay Toast, arme riddere ('poor knights'), and the term en francais, pain perdu.
Regardless of its origin, I got up this morning determined to eat something other than cereal or pork chops in hot sauce, so I started poking through the pantry looking for things that I might have, at one point in time, heard of as a potential ingredient in french toast. Unfortunately, her Tartiness immediately sensed the twinging of directionless fumbling resonating from deep within my Y chromosome, and hauled out her favorite french toast recipe.
As I reluctantly set down the Clabber Girl (we might have had an interesting breakfast indeed) and perused the recipe, my inherent fiddliness blossomed into full-on transmogrification mode. I mean, the recipe she gave me had six ingredients. Six! I believe in simplicity for simplicity's sake as much as the next man, but this morning I was feeling much more Da Vinci than Kazimir Malevich, and ornery besides. I glanced longingly at the Clabber Girl. Her disturbingly large Victorian eyes seemed to be pleading with me to ignore the pragmatic whims of my wife and instead follow her down a psychedelic yellow brick road of chaos, pestilence, and creative breads.
Unfortunately, looking at the bread and thinking 'yellow brick' inspired in me an unsettling urge to return to simplicity.
In a Pyrex baking dish, I added the two eggs, mixed in brown sugar (take that, recipe), and mixed in the rest of the ingredients in old-school eyeballing fashion. Since it was French toast that I was making, I used half a stick of butter and made sure to scorch each piece slightly.
The result was delicious- but heavy. Brown sugar and butter with a particularly absorbent bread do indeed yellow bricks make. Though they were pleasantly crunchy in a waffle-like fashion, they weren't too sweet, and didn't mind being dusted with confectioner's sugar (I think it was confectioners sugar, but where did little miss Clabber go?), nor did they mind a little pure maple in the tradition of the great French Toast Eating Lumberjacks that used their mighty axes to pave the way to our modern landscape of McDonalds and california rolls. I only managed to eat one piece, but the other slices quickly disappeared due to guerilla action from the other family members. Let freedom ring.
Zabaglione. It sounds like a post-modernistic WWII dictator running about the house screaming of Germans and meatballs. (note: I can make fun of Italians, because I am, in fact, Italian) But in reality is an Italian custard that is many times used as an appetizer or a component of many of the fabulous and artery assaulting desserts that make up Italian post meal cuisine. Notably, this is a side component of quite a few Tiramisu and Zuppa Inglese recipes. Although its not the real way you're supposed to make Tiramisu, just a faster way.
My personal favorite is to make this custard in ramekins and top with fresh berries, as a breakfast or dessert concoction. Of course, there are hundreds of ways to bastardize this custard, substituting Auslese or other German Eiswein, Sherries, or Ports for the Marsala. you can let your imagination run wild.
(Dammit. Every time I write an article I try to put as much schtick as I can into it, but it always inevitably falls back down to a hum drum cooking article. I could emulate tourrettes and just stick a random obscene word in the sentences somewhere I guess. Maybe I'll write a
Anyway, back to the custard at hand.
To make Zabaglione, one needs the following stuff from your local grocer (or, if you live in Vegas, your local 7-11):
Easy, no?
But it has raw eggs! I'll die!
If your eggs aren't pasteurized then you just may. But if you're living somewhere that doesn't have pasteurized eggs, you may want to move. Or at least get checked out for tapeworms.
Microwave?! BLASPHEMY!
True, Microwaves are evil. They are the incarnate of Lazy Americans(tm) everywhere, and they usually botch things up like no tomorrow. However. This prevents you from having to make it the old fashioned way, using a double-boiler (or a glass bowl on top of a boiling pot of water, my favorite). You can still make it that way, just be careful it doesn't cook too fast, otherwise you'll have an omelette. And a nasty omelette at that.
It is dark here!
You and your custard have been eaten by a grue.
That about sums up Q&A. I hope I've enlightened you, the viewer, to a world not unlike that of custards. Perhaps someday we will be privy to a custard takeover and have to bow to custard, and when that day comes, you can say you helped birth the enslavement of the human race. Until then, custard will remain our friend as ...
GOOD EATS
swanky music plays
(GOOD EATS is copyrighted somewhere by Food Network or Alton Brown, and because I love them like family, I hope they don't get mad)
Balsamic vinegar is a flavored vinegar traditionally served with italian meals and is rumored to have originated sometime during the middle ages.
There are only two true regions where Balsamic vinegar is made today, Modena and Reggio Emilia. If the Balsamic you're buying says its from somewhere else, I wouldn't get it!
Since vinegars are very closely related to wines, their age makes a distinct impact on their flavor and consistency. Younger Balsamics (1-5 yrs) will be very thin and have a light sweet taste with the acidity of a red wine vinegar, whilst more aged Balsamics (12-80+ yrs) will be thicker and have a consistency more akin to a syrup. Also, older Balsamic vinegars usually lose most of their acidity in lieu of a higher sugar content and much sweeter, smoother taste. Some people even consider these as an after dinner finish, they pour a small glass of a usually 12-18yr Balsamic and drink it straight, somewhat like Port wine is used!
Balsamic vinegar (depending on the age) can be used for every course of every meal of the day, if you so desire. The younger varieties lend themselves well to breakfast dishes, soups, salads, as a dipping sauce for breads, pastas, chicken, portobello mushrooms... well, you get the idea. The older of the Balsamic family can be used for any of the above, but is also good as a topping for ice cream, desserts (Panna Cotta!), cupcakes, or as an after dinner finish (as above).