Saturday, March 26, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
"Stuffed" Portabella Caps
Here's another homebrewed recipe I delivered recently. It's quite filling, and should be complemented with lighter sides and drinks. Though this mix is great the way it is, you could also substitute sausage for the scallops, and I'm thinking about replacing the artichoke with leeks next time.
Scallop-"Stuffed" Portabella Caps
Everything in this recipe (other than the mushroom caps) should be chopped finely, so that it will hang together once the bread crumbs and cheese are added.
- 10 portabella caps
- 1 yellow onion
- 6 T salted butter
- 4-5 bay leaves
- 1 yellow bell pepper
- 1 red bell pepper
- 2 c bay scallops
- 1 large can (22 oz) crushed tomato
- 1 large zucchini
- 1 jar marinated artichoke
- 1 t cayenne pepper
- 1/2 t black pepper
- 2 cloves of garlic (about 2 tsp)
- 3/4 c bread crumbs
- 1-1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese
Rinse and pat dry the portabella caps. Set them aside on a broiler pan. Preheat the oven to 350°.
Saute the onion in butter with ground-up bay leaf until the onion starts to become transparent. Add both bell peppers and saute for a few more minutes. Add the scallops, crushed tomato, zucchini, artichoke, cayenne, black pepper and garlic. Cook on low heat for fifteen minutes, or until about two-thirds of the moisture is gone. The zucchini pieces will release some water as they cook, so this will be a gradual process.
Add the bread crumbs and cheese, and mix well.
Scoop the mixture onto the mushroom caps. The caps will release quite a bit of water and will lose rigidity, so if the mixture is too close to the edge some may fall off.
Bake the caps on the next-to-top rack for 15 to 20 minutes.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Moroccan Pastries and the Curses of Filo Dough
About a year ago, I purchased a Moroccan cookbook, breaking my cardinal rule against buying specialized cookbooks that I won’t use on a regular basis. However, this particular book, despite its impracticality, included a recipe for b’stilla, a sweet and savory pie of shredded, spiced chicken and almond paste wrapped in delicate warka pastry, with which I had been obsessed since a dinner many years ago at a Moroccan restaurant in Santa Barbara. My roommates and I expressed such delight over the pie that the chef actually sent us a second b’stilla to take home at the end of the night. The memory of that fabulous meal (which in no way was influenced by our very hot waiter enticing me to try belly dancing with him) has remained so strong that I bought the book for this one recipe without a thought.
Other than one laborious but rewarding evening spent making said b’stilla, the cookbook has sat on my shelf unused, a mocking reminder of my rule-breaking lapse. So when I needed inspiration for New Year’s Eve hors d’oeuvres, I pulled it out, determined to add a Moroccan recipe or two to my list. I wanted appetizers that would be a little out of the ordinary yet appeal to a range of palates. I settled on two savory pastries, one cheese and one meat, folded in dough triangles and fried golden brown. The cookbook offered a recipe for traditional warka dough, but I opted for the safer and less time-consuming option of pre-made filo dough.
The morning of the party, I put together both fillings, starting with the meat. The recipe called for sautéing 8 ounces ground beef in a skillet with 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, and 1 teaspoon ground coriander. I instinctively doubled the amount of garlic, but a sample of the browned meat still tasted bland. After consultation with my “sous chef,” I realized the recipe lacked salt and pepper, so I added pinches of both. This brought out the other spices in the meat and I put the combination aside to cool.
The cheese filling included 8 ounces of goat cheese, ¼ cup butter (because there’s not enough fat in goat cheese, apparently), 2 tablespoons fresh thyme, salt and pepper to taste, and 1 lightly beaten egg, all mixed well in a large bowl. As I gathered the ingredients, I realized in the craze of party preparations, I’d neglected to buy fresh thyme. With no time to head back to the store, I turned to the internet for a solution.
While several websites suggested I could substitute 1 teaspoon of dried thyme for every tablespoon of fresh thyme in the recipe (http://bit.ly/f3m4gX, http://anse.rs/hBM0SI) at least one said this should only be done in recipes that called for a long cooking time to break down the woodsy dried leaves (http://bit.ly/if5SRx). Leery of serving my guests pastries concealing small wood chips, I considered omitting the thyme altogether but feared the pastries would be dull, especially given the very mild goat cheese I’d purchased. I settled on 1 teaspoon of dried thyme, an amount that dispersed well through the cheese mixture but presumably wouldn’t turn it fibrous if the leaves didn’t soften during the short frying process.
I began assembling the triangles late in the afternoon and was almost thwarted by a filo disaster of epic proportions. To make the pastries, I had to separate 10 sheets of dough and cut each sheet into 4 strips. However, when separating the sheets, always a delicate process with filo, I quickly ripped through an alarming number. Afraid of running out of dough before I separated a single sheet intact, I again turned to the internet for help. The problem stemmed from my thawing method. The directions on the box called for thawing the dough either over 24 hours in the refrigerator or over 2 hours at room temperature. In my party planning rush, I had opted for the latter. Unfortunately, all the filo dough tips I found online insisted that the dough really needed to be defrosted in the fridge to maintain the appropriate balance of moisture in the dough for the sheets to separate.
Sous chef came to the rescue, suggesting I cut the dough into strips first and then attempt to separate the individual strips from the larger sheets. This method, combined with spritzing the dough lightly with water and a lip-biting amount of concentration, produced enough mostly untorn strips to make the pastries. With that Herculean task accomplished, I placed a spoonful of filling on one end of each strip, folding the corner down to form a triangle, and then folding the triangle at right angles to the end of the strip. The end result was a pile of pastries that looked like the paper footballs my brother and I used to make as children but that would hopefully prove tastier.
I left frying the pastries until right before the guests arrived, so the pastries would be crisp and warm as the party started. The triangles quickly turned a lovely golden brown in about an inch of oil and I soon had two plates piled high with crisp, savory pastries.
In the end, the beef pastries were a bit of a disappointment. Although tasty, they were a bit dry and lacked the complex sweet yet spicy flavor unique to Moroccan cuisine. If I make them again, I’ll increase the original spices and perhaps add some cinnamon and onion to the mixture.
The cheese pastries proved much more successful. The crispy, flaky exterior contrasted well with the creamy, soft filling. The dried thyme didn’t interfere with the texture at all and gave the filling a lemony, earthy flavor that combined perfectly with the soft tang of the goat cheese, which in turn was made richer by the addition of the butter (despite my concerns over the added fat, which its probably best not to contemplate). They also paired remarkably well with champagne. My guests seemed to agree, as the plate of cheese pastries emptied almost as fast as the bottles of champagne, helping us all ring in the new year in good spirits and with a full belly.
Other than one laborious but rewarding evening spent making said b’stilla, the cookbook has sat on my shelf unused, a mocking reminder of my rule-breaking lapse. So when I needed inspiration for New Year’s Eve hors d’oeuvres, I pulled it out, determined to add a Moroccan recipe or two to my list. I wanted appetizers that would be a little out of the ordinary yet appeal to a range of palates. I settled on two savory pastries, one cheese and one meat, folded in dough triangles and fried golden brown. The cookbook offered a recipe for traditional warka dough, but I opted for the safer and less time-consuming option of pre-made filo dough.
The morning of the party, I put together both fillings, starting with the meat. The recipe called for sautéing 8 ounces ground beef in a skillet with 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, and 1 teaspoon ground coriander. I instinctively doubled the amount of garlic, but a sample of the browned meat still tasted bland. After consultation with my “sous chef,” I realized the recipe lacked salt and pepper, so I added pinches of both. This brought out the other spices in the meat and I put the combination aside to cool.
The cheese filling included 8 ounces of goat cheese, ¼ cup butter (because there’s not enough fat in goat cheese, apparently), 2 tablespoons fresh thyme, salt and pepper to taste, and 1 lightly beaten egg, all mixed well in a large bowl. As I gathered the ingredients, I realized in the craze of party preparations, I’d neglected to buy fresh thyme. With no time to head back to the store, I turned to the internet for a solution.
While several websites suggested I could substitute 1 teaspoon of dried thyme for every tablespoon of fresh thyme in the recipe (http://bit.ly/f3m4gX, http://anse.rs/hBM0SI) at least one said this should only be done in recipes that called for a long cooking time to break down the woodsy dried leaves (http://bit.ly/if5SRx). Leery of serving my guests pastries concealing small wood chips, I considered omitting the thyme altogether but feared the pastries would be dull, especially given the very mild goat cheese I’d purchased. I settled on 1 teaspoon of dried thyme, an amount that dispersed well through the cheese mixture but presumably wouldn’t turn it fibrous if the leaves didn’t soften during the short frying process.
I began assembling the triangles late in the afternoon and was almost thwarted by a filo disaster of epic proportions. To make the pastries, I had to separate 10 sheets of dough and cut each sheet into 4 strips. However, when separating the sheets, always a delicate process with filo, I quickly ripped through an alarming number. Afraid of running out of dough before I separated a single sheet intact, I again turned to the internet for help. The problem stemmed from my thawing method. The directions on the box called for thawing the dough either over 24 hours in the refrigerator or over 2 hours at room temperature. In my party planning rush, I had opted for the latter. Unfortunately, all the filo dough tips I found online insisted that the dough really needed to be defrosted in the fridge to maintain the appropriate balance of moisture in the dough for the sheets to separate.
Sous chef came to the rescue, suggesting I cut the dough into strips first and then attempt to separate the individual strips from the larger sheets. This method, combined with spritzing the dough lightly with water and a lip-biting amount of concentration, produced enough mostly untorn strips to make the pastries. With that Herculean task accomplished, I placed a spoonful of filling on one end of each strip, folding the corner down to form a triangle, and then folding the triangle at right angles to the end of the strip. The end result was a pile of pastries that looked like the paper footballs my brother and I used to make as children but that would hopefully prove tastier.
I left frying the pastries until right before the guests arrived, so the pastries would be crisp and warm as the party started. The triangles quickly turned a lovely golden brown in about an inch of oil and I soon had two plates piled high with crisp, savory pastries.
In the end, the beef pastries were a bit of a disappointment. Although tasty, they were a bit dry and lacked the complex sweet yet spicy flavor unique to Moroccan cuisine. If I make them again, I’ll increase the original spices and perhaps add some cinnamon and onion to the mixture.
The cheese pastries proved much more successful. The crispy, flaky exterior contrasted well with the creamy, soft filling. The dried thyme didn’t interfere with the texture at all and gave the filling a lemony, earthy flavor that combined perfectly with the soft tang of the goat cheese, which in turn was made richer by the addition of the butter (despite my concerns over the added fat, which its probably best not to contemplate). They also paired remarkably well with champagne. My guests seemed to agree, as the plate of cheese pastries emptied almost as fast as the bottles of champagne, helping us all ring in the new year in good spirits and with a full belly.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Vegetarian Satsivi
This New Year's Eve, several of us got together to make a mostly vegetarian, nut-themed dinner. I decided to adapt the Georgian dish satsivi for tofu. Satsivi, a dish popular throughout the former Soviet Union, is normally cold chicken served in a velvety walnut sauce. To make the tofu version, I knew I would have to start some extra firm tofu in a marinade several hours in advance. I also adapted a couple of different recipes so that I could combine some of the more promising looking techniques with some of my favorite Georgian flavors such as pomegranate.
The result, in my humble opinion, was a great success. The tofu was toothsome and flavorful, and the sauce was decadent and complex. It can be easily adapted to be vegan, as well. I will scale down the recipe a bit to serve 8.
Vegetarian satsivi
For the marinade:
2 large packages extra firm tofu
Four cubes of vegetable broth (you want the flavor to be concentrated)
2 cups hot water
2 cups unsweetened pomegranate juice
1 tbsp thyme
1 bay leaf
Put the thyme, bay leaf, and vegetable broth cubes in a large baking dish. Dissolve the vegetable broth cubes in the hot water. Add the pomegranate juice. Slice the tofu into ¼" square logs and place them in the marinade. Put a smaller baking dish on top of the tofu to slightly compress it and let it sit for at least four hours.
For the walnut pesto (adapted from this recipe):
3 cups walnut pieces
8 large cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
1 large bunch fresh cilantro
1 tbsp Aleppo or other medium-hot Turkish pepper (or coarse Hungarian hot paprika)
1 tsp kosher salt
Make the walnut pesto in two batches (more if you have a small food processor). Use a food processor to make a fairly smooth paste of the walnuts, garlic, cilantro, pepper and salt. Remember to save a few sprigs of cilantro for garnish because the dish is a somewhat unattractive gray-brown color and cries out for a garnish when plated.
For the sauce:
3 tbsp unsalted butter (or olive oil for a vegan or lower cholesterol variation)
2 large onions, finely chopped
1 tbsp flour
4 cups of the marinade (pour it through a strainer to get out the thyme and bay leaf)
2 egg yolks (leave out in the vegan version, natch)
3/4 tsp sweet Hungarian paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, or more to taste
1/2 tsp ground fenugreek
3/4 tsp ground coriander
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp dried tarragon
Salt to taste
¼ cup red wine vinegar
Cilantro sprigs and pomegranate seeds for garnish (optional)
Melt the butter in a very large pan over medium heat. Add the onions and saute until they just begin to color, about 8 to 10 min. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring for one minute more. Gradually stir in the marinade strained from the tofu. Let it simmer for 5 minutes without boiling.
Turn the heat down to low and gradually add the walnut pesto, stirring until blended. Add all of the spices and salt. Let this simmer for 3 to 4 min. Whisk the egg yolks in a small bowl, then stir in about a ladleful of the simmering mixture then blend the yolks into sauce (this step can be skipped if you're worried about the fat but they make the sauce velvety), and let it simmer for a few more minutes. Take another taste and adjust the seasoning. Turn off the heat and stir in the vinegar and the tofu, being gentle so as not to break the tofu down too much. Garnish with a few sprigs of cilantro and pomegranate seeds if you have them.
The dish is best served at room temperature, though warm is good, too.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Adventures in Cupcakes, Part I
I love cupcakes, but it’s hard to find good ones. The recent cupcake boom doesn’t seem to be very good for cupcakes much as the bagel boom wasn’t very good for bagels... but that’s for another time). For example, I’ve been disappointed by local bakery Kickass Cupcakes, whose cupcakes resolutely fail to kick ass.
Unfortunately, I’ve had similar problems finding a good cupcake recipe for baking at home, despite an antiquated copy of The Joy of Cooking on my shelf and my subscription to Cook’s Illustrated.
For my birthday, a dear friend bought me a copy of Nigella Lawson’s How To Be A Domestic Goddess , a baking cookbook with several recipes for cupcakes and fairy cakes (the difference escapes me; it’s a British distinction which does not seem to exist in American English). So last week I made three batches of cupcakes: one for a friend’s potluck going away party, one for Laura’s birthday, and one for the lab potluck holiday party. For the first two, I made espresso cupcakes, which are chocolate with coffee (espresso powder in the recipe, finely ground coffee for me), while for the third batch, I made burnt-butter brown-sugar cupcakes.
The book was published in the UK, so there were a few conversion issues to deal with first. Dry ingredients are listed in terms of weight, rather than volume, which appears to be customary in the UK, and probably better practice overall, since the volume of a given weight of flour will vary with humidity and so forth. Luckily, I have a kitchen scale (a hand-me-down from Elisabeth, no less!) denominated in both metric and conventional measures. Interestingly, Lawson gives volume measures in terms of tablespoons and teaspoons, not ml, which is good, since I don’t have metric measuring spoons!
Next, the ingredients are a bit different. I had to educate myself about sugars. Instead of granulated sugar and brown sugar, the recipes call for “caster sugar” and “muscovedo sugar”. Caster sugar turns out to be a superfine sugar, but not as fine as what we call “powdered sugar”. It’s available in supermarkets. Muscovedo is an unrefined brown sugar. According to my research, American brown sugar is made by adding molasses back in to refined sugar, while muscovedo is made by not taking it out in the first place. The two sugars are not interchangeable, because muscovedo brings more moisture. It also comes in light and dark varieties. Anyway, a trip to Whole Foods for exotic sugars was required. I suppose I could have just tried the recipes with the sugars more widely available here, but I try to be precise about baking projects whenever possible.
Then there was the “self-raising flour”. A trip to the web helpfully informed me that the American translation is “self-rising flour”, but that didn’t really do much good, since supermarkets in my area don’t seem to carry that. A bit of Internet research revealed that "self-raising/rising" flour is flour which has been premixed with baking powder and salt. The purpose for such a product escapes me; is it really that difficult to mix in baking powder yourself? Anyway, you can make your own by mixing in 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder and .25 teaspoons salt per cup of flour (actually, recommendations vary by about a quarter teaspoon for both ingredients, but this is what I used. I have no idea how this compares to what Lawson used). As it happens, 125 g of flour turns out to be ~1 cup, so that worked out well.
Before the recipes, a couple of notes. First, these are “adult” cupcakes, not in the sense that suitable for bachelor parties, but in that they are aimed at adult tastes. You probably don’t want to send them with your child for the fourth grade bake sale. Second, they’re a little on the dry side. My current hypothesis is that this is because they are made in the food processor. I’ll give them a whirl in the mixer for Part II and tell you what happens. Third, tasters have described them as “one note”, in that the icing is the same flavor as the cake. Again, in Part II I think I’ll mix up the flavors and see what happens!
espresso cupcakes
125 g soft unsalted butter
125 g dark muscovedo sugar
2 large eggs
125 g self-raising flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 tablespoon espresso coffee powder (or finely ground coffee)
50 g dark chocolate, melted (1-2 minutes in microwave should do it)
2 tablespoons milk
icing
300 g dark chocolate
50 g unsalted butter
2 teaspoons instant espresso coffee powder (or finely ground coffee)
put liners in a 12 muffin tin
preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6 (aka 400°F)
Pulse butter and sugar in the food processor, then add eggs and pulse again. Add flour, cocoa, and coffee, and process until you have a smooth batter. Then add the chocolate and milk, pulse again, then distribute evenly into cupcake liners. Bake for 15-20 minutes. As soon as the cakes are cool enough to be handled, remove them from the tin to finish cooling on a rack.
In the meantime, make the icing. Put chocolate, butter, and coffee together in a large bowl and microwave until chocolate and butter are melted (again, approximately 2 minutes, depending on your microwave). Whisk together to combine, then spread on top of cooled muffins (here Lawson suggests lopping off the top of the cake to make a flat surface, but this strikes me as a foolish waste of cake). There’s a lot of icing in this recipe, I found, so you can layer it on thickly, or maybe make two batches of cupcakes to one batch of icing!
burnt-butter brown-sugar cupcakes
150 g unsalted butter
125 g self-raising flour
60 g caster sugar (Lawson actually calls for golden caster sugar here, whatever that is, but I doubt it makes a difference)
65 g light muscovedo sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons milk
icing
150 g unsalted butter
250-300 g golden icing sugar, sieved (for this I substituted powdered sugar to no ill effect)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons milk
put liners in a 12 muffin tin
preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6 (aka 400°F)
First, we burn the butter! Put the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, and stir continuously until the butter turns a dark golden color. Strain the burnt butter through cheesecloth into a small bowl. Let it cool and solidify, but do not put it in the refrigerator. Lawson writes, "This shouldn't take long, except in hot weather, in which case leave the preheating of the oven till after the butter's been burnt." Halfway through a New England December, with the thermostat set at 65F, I found that it took around an hour to solidify. I find it's best to walk the dog while waiting for the butter to solidify. In light of this, I recommend making the burnt butter for the icing at the same time, assuming you're going to make the accompanying icing recipe.
When the butter is "solid but still soft", put all of the cake ingredients except the milk in a food processor and process (or, when in the UK, "blitz") to a smooth batter. Then add the milk in gradually through the feed tube while pulsing. Distribute into the liners and bake for 15-20 minutes.
Icing
Beat the solidified butter with half the sugar until stiff. Then alternate between adding milk and sugar until you reach the desired consistency, then beat in the vanilla. Spread on cooled cupcakes.
Unfortunately, I’ve had similar problems finding a good cupcake recipe for baking at home, despite an antiquated copy of The Joy of Cooking on my shelf and my subscription to Cook’s Illustrated.
For my birthday, a dear friend bought me a copy of Nigella Lawson’s How To Be A Domestic Goddess , a baking cookbook with several recipes for cupcakes and fairy cakes (the difference escapes me; it’s a British distinction which does not seem to exist in American English). So last week I made three batches of cupcakes: one for a friend’s potluck going away party, one for Laura’s birthday, and one for the lab potluck holiday party. For the first two, I made espresso cupcakes, which are chocolate with coffee (espresso powder in the recipe, finely ground coffee for me), while for the third batch, I made burnt-butter brown-sugar cupcakes.
The book was published in the UK, so there were a few conversion issues to deal with first. Dry ingredients are listed in terms of weight, rather than volume, which appears to be customary in the UK, and probably better practice overall, since the volume of a given weight of flour will vary with humidity and so forth. Luckily, I have a kitchen scale (a hand-me-down from Elisabeth, no less!) denominated in both metric and conventional measures. Interestingly, Lawson gives volume measures in terms of tablespoons and teaspoons, not ml, which is good, since I don’t have metric measuring spoons!
Next, the ingredients are a bit different. I had to educate myself about sugars. Instead of granulated sugar and brown sugar, the recipes call for “caster sugar” and “muscovedo sugar”. Caster sugar turns out to be a superfine sugar, but not as fine as what we call “powdered sugar”. It’s available in supermarkets. Muscovedo is an unrefined brown sugar. According to my research, American brown sugar is made by adding molasses back in to refined sugar, while muscovedo is made by not taking it out in the first place. The two sugars are not interchangeable, because muscovedo brings more moisture. It also comes in light and dark varieties. Anyway, a trip to Whole Foods for exotic sugars was required. I suppose I could have just tried the recipes with the sugars more widely available here, but I try to be precise about baking projects whenever possible.
Then there was the “self-raising flour”. A trip to the web helpfully informed me that the American translation is “self-rising flour”, but that didn’t really do much good, since supermarkets in my area don’t seem to carry that. A bit of Internet research revealed that "self-raising/rising" flour is flour which has been premixed with baking powder and salt. The purpose for such a product escapes me; is it really that difficult to mix in baking powder yourself? Anyway, you can make your own by mixing in 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder and .25 teaspoons salt per cup of flour (actually, recommendations vary by about a quarter teaspoon for both ingredients, but this is what I used. I have no idea how this compares to what Lawson used). As it happens, 125 g of flour turns out to be ~1 cup, so that worked out well.
Before the recipes, a couple of notes. First, these are “adult” cupcakes, not in the sense that suitable for bachelor parties, but in that they are aimed at adult tastes. You probably don’t want to send them with your child for the fourth grade bake sale. Second, they’re a little on the dry side. My current hypothesis is that this is because they are made in the food processor. I’ll give them a whirl in the mixer for Part II and tell you what happens. Third, tasters have described them as “one note”, in that the icing is the same flavor as the cake. Again, in Part II I think I’ll mix up the flavors and see what happens!
espresso cupcakes
125 g soft unsalted butter
125 g dark muscovedo sugar
2 large eggs
125 g self-raising flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 tablespoon espresso coffee powder (or finely ground coffee)
50 g dark chocolate, melted (1-2 minutes in microwave should do it)
2 tablespoons milk
icing
300 g dark chocolate
50 g unsalted butter
2 teaspoons instant espresso coffee powder (or finely ground coffee)
put liners in a 12 muffin tin
preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6 (aka 400°F)
Pulse butter and sugar in the food processor, then add eggs and pulse again. Add flour, cocoa, and coffee, and process until you have a smooth batter. Then add the chocolate and milk, pulse again, then distribute evenly into cupcake liners. Bake for 15-20 minutes. As soon as the cakes are cool enough to be handled, remove them from the tin to finish cooling on a rack.
In the meantime, make the icing. Put chocolate, butter, and coffee together in a large bowl and microwave until chocolate and butter are melted (again, approximately 2 minutes, depending on your microwave). Whisk together to combine, then spread on top of cooled muffins (here Lawson suggests lopping off the top of the cake to make a flat surface, but this strikes me as a foolish waste of cake). There’s a lot of icing in this recipe, I found, so you can layer it on thickly, or maybe make two batches of cupcakes to one batch of icing!
burnt-butter brown-sugar cupcakes
150 g unsalted butter
125 g self-raising flour
60 g caster sugar (Lawson actually calls for golden caster sugar here, whatever that is, but I doubt it makes a difference)
65 g light muscovedo sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons milk
icing
150 g unsalted butter
250-300 g golden icing sugar, sieved (for this I substituted powdered sugar to no ill effect)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons milk
put liners in a 12 muffin tin
preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6 (aka 400°F)
First, we burn the butter! Put the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, and stir continuously until the butter turns a dark golden color. Strain the burnt butter through cheesecloth into a small bowl. Let it cool and solidify, but do not put it in the refrigerator. Lawson writes, "This shouldn't take long, except in hot weather, in which case leave the preheating of the oven till after the butter's been burnt." Halfway through a New England December, with the thermostat set at 65F, I found that it took around an hour to solidify. I find it's best to walk the dog while waiting for the butter to solidify. In light of this, I recommend making the burnt butter for the icing at the same time, assuming you're going to make the accompanying icing recipe.
When the butter is "solid but still soft", put all of the cake ingredients except the milk in a food processor and process (or, when in the UK, "blitz") to a smooth batter. Then add the milk in gradually through the feed tube while pulsing. Distribute into the liners and bake for 15-20 minutes.
Icing
Beat the solidified butter with half the sugar until stiff. Then alternate between adding milk and sugar until you reach the desired consistency, then beat in the vanilla. Spread on cooled cupcakes.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Dipping a toe in Sourdough
I was recently given a King Arthur sourdough starter that I have grown up and begun to use.
So far I have made two loaves of the Mark Bittman/Jim Lahey No-Knead bread, modified for sourdough, and two versions of sourdough waffles.
I have been baking yeast-based No-Knead bread for some time, having been won over by the first loaf. I found the sourdough version to be similar in crust, but the crumb was not as light as the original. It was not notably sour, but this could be due to the cold temperature we keep our house. More experimentation is necessary.
The waffles are a nice byproduct of feeding the starter. When feeding the starter, a cup is removed before fresh flour is added. This cup can be given away, discarded or used to make waffles, pancakes or other quick breads. I've made both the high-fiber and classic waffles and prefer the classic.
If anyone wants some of this starter, let me know.
Tips, recipes etc. appreciated.
So far I have made two loaves of the Mark Bittman/Jim Lahey No-Knead bread, modified for sourdough, and two versions of sourdough waffles.
I have been baking yeast-based No-Knead bread for some time, having been won over by the first loaf. I found the sourdough version to be similar in crust, but the crumb was not as light as the original. It was not notably sour, but this could be due to the cold temperature we keep our house. More experimentation is necessary.
The waffles are a nice byproduct of feeding the starter. When feeding the starter, a cup is removed before fresh flour is added. This cup can be given away, discarded or used to make waffles, pancakes or other quick breads. I've made both the high-fiber and classic waffles and prefer the classic.
If anyone wants some of this starter, let me know.
Tips, recipes etc. appreciated.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Tropic of Tzimmes
Farmshare squash, the mother of invention ... This also applies to anyone whose neighbor grows zucchini. You know the situation -- a nearly endless supply of something that you'd love to eat once in a while. The household's last squash of the year was a Hubbard, a little under a foot in diameter. Since I was faced with the dual responsibility of a household dinner and a potluck contribution in the same night, I decided to see how much of that Hubbard I could use up with one recipe. Well, two-thirds is a decent start ...
What I ended up with was reminiscent of light-colored tzimmes. Though the ingredients were a little too close together in color, the flavor was just great, giving me a wonderful way to use up squash. My recipe is definitely sweet, but retains the savory flavor of the main ingredient; you can use it as dessert (topped with vanilla bean ice cream! Mmm!) or a side dish in a main course.
Try this out with your squash of choice. I would guess this amount serves around 15 people.
In a large bowl, mix together:
In a separate bowl, combine:
Pour the liquid into the large bowl and coat all the pieces thoroughly. There should be some standing liquid. Put the combination into one or more baking dishes so that most solid pieces are touching the liquid, and bake for 50 minutes or until the squash is soft to the fork. You can simultaneously use the oven for toasting those pecans.
When the dish is cooked, top it with the pecans. Coming right out of the oven, it should be cool enough to eat just a minute or two after being served.
What I ended up with was reminiscent of light-colored tzimmes. Though the ingredients were a little too close together in color, the flavor was just great, giving me a wonderful way to use up squash. My recipe is definitely sweet, but retains the savory flavor of the main ingredient; you can use it as dessert (topped with vanilla bean ice cream! Mmm!) or a side dish in a main course.
Try this out with your squash of choice. I would guess this amount serves around 15 people.
In a large bowl, mix together:
- 12 cups small cubes of squash (1/2 inch to 3/4 inch)
- 2.5 cups pineapple chunks
- 2 cups golden raisins (large, if you can get 'em)
In a separate bowl, combine:
- all the juice from the pineapple
- 13.5 ounces coconut milk
- 1/3 cup lemon juice
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons minced ginger
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1.5 cups coconut liqueur
Pour the liquid into the large bowl and coat all the pieces thoroughly. There should be some standing liquid. Put the combination into one or more baking dishes so that most solid pieces are touching the liquid, and bake for 50 minutes or until the squash is soft to the fork. You can simultaneously use the oven for toasting those pecans.
When the dish is cooked, top it with the pecans. Coming right out of the oven, it should be cool enough to eat just a minute or two after being served.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Olive oil and sea salt ice cream
In August I was in Atlanta for a conference and one of my colleagues suggested that we have dinner at Ecco in the Midtown district. He had been there the night before but had enjoyed it so much that he wanted to go back there again.
Ecco was just the kind of upscale restaurant that I love – rustic Mediterranean cuisine, interesting cocktails, modern décor, highly interactive staff, and savor-every-bite food that didn't leave you regretting the price. The dessert menu was positively quirky and I was stumped, so I asked the waiter, who without hesitation recommended that I get the olive oil and sea salt ice cream.
My dinner companions winced but I had a good feeling about it, and indeed, it was unbelievably delicious: buttery, fruity, chocolaty and salty all at once. With the help of my friends, there was nothing left of it by the end of the meal.
I had to make it at home.
My housemate heard what it was and also winced, but I knew that Todd would love it, if only I could get it right. I Googled it and found a recipe, also by someone who had eaten at Ecco and couldn't forget the ice cream, but this recipe was a failure -- by the author's own admission – due to the use of supermarket olive oil (!).
So far I have made two batches of the stuff and I think I have it figured out close enough to share it. The tricks are to find the right olive oil (see below for a suggestion), and to make sure that you use a chunky salt that you add right at the end. You want it to crunch, not to dissolve!
4 egg yolks
1 cup light cream
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup high quality, fruity and light extra virgin olive oil (such as Manzanillo from the Boston Olive Oil Company)
4 oz. finely chopped good quality bittersweet chocolate (such as Valrhona)
1 heaping tsp. coarse sea salt (I used sal de mer but we have some really chunky Hawaiian pink sea salt that I'm going to try in the next batch)
Heat the sugar and cream over medium low heat and whisk the egg yolks in a bowl. Once the milk/cream mixture is steaming (do not boil!), add a quarter cup of the warm cream to the yolks and whisk it together, gradually adding another ¼ cup of the cream, then add the whole mixture back to the cream on the stove. Stir constantly over low heat for about five minutes or until the mixture is slightly thickened.
Whisk in the milk and the olive oil, then chill the mixture for 3-4 hours. Make the ice cream in your ice cream maker per the instructions, giving it a good whisk first to make sure the olive oil doesn't separate. When the ice cream is done, add the chocolate and the salt. Leave the machine on only long enough to blend the last ingredients or the salt will dissolve too much.
Leave me a comment if you make this and let me know how it went!
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