This is definitely a make-ahead spread. It's great if you know you have guests coming the next weekend and you want to make a dip. You can do a little bit every day, then finish it the morning they arrive. I enjoy it with some homemade sourdough bread - but it's also fabulous with chips. The roasted garlic gives it an incredible flavor, and by processing the beans as described below, you don't have any unwanted "beany" flavor/ordor or side effects. Ingredients:
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So, this is a dessert made of leftovers. I had some extra pie crust from when I made my strawberry rhubarb pie, some extra jam after making strawberry jam this morning, and I pitted a bunch of cherries, but not enough to make a whole pie. So, I put the cherries into a ramekin and poured the excess jam over them. Then I rolled out the pie crust and cut out star shapes. I painted on a little egg wash, and sprinkled a little lilac sugar on top. Then baked it for 25 min at 375F.
For this class, we made two very different cakes. The first was a sweet, yeasted bread filled with a ground almond mixture. It required two rises – a ferment and a proof – and after the bake, it’s iced with a sugared glaze. I couldn’t find the exact recipe online but this one is pretty close. The second was a more traditional coffee cake batter that we layered with a cinnamon sugar and walnuts filling. This was a fun cake to make and it wasn’t very difficult so we had some fun with it. We created about three layers in a paper tube pan. The process of making the almond ring was very similar to making a babka dough, but without the overnight cold ferment. The filling and shaping process felt very similar until we rolled the dough. Here we shaped the roll into a ring, and then using a pair of scissors, we cut slices into the ring, and twisted each piece so it lays flat on the parchment, forming a “petal” ring. The best part – eating the fruits of my labors.
I have been thinking about Barbara Elsi's Sourdough Donuts for two weeks now. Tonight I had the chance to make them.
Barbara's directions were really strong. I had to get used to shaping this dough, and when I put them in the oil, they puffed up and expanded a lot, which was fun to watch. The dough really did need a good 15 minutes on the mixer. Then I kneaded by hand a bit before putting it into a bowl to ferment. I had to constantly adjust the heat. These donuts can go from golden to dark quickly. I melted some 66% Valhrona cocoa in a double boiler and dipped the finished donuts in the melted chocolate. These donuts are super light and delicate. They are not too sweet. In fact, they aren't very sweet at all, which makes them easy to eat. I'll definitely make these again! YUM!
This weekend my boyfriend and I traveled up to Vermont, where I took some classes at King Arthur Flour. We worked from their French Baguette recipe.
They made and measured out the poolish for us in advance. Then had us mix the dough by hand. Now, I confess that I mix almost all of my bread dough in a Kitchen Aid Mixer- and almost never mix by hand. I do a lot of my kneading in the mixer as well – so this forced me to think and work differently (always a good thing). The recipe made very wet dough, which we then kneaded by hand using a rapid slap-and-fold method that she demonstrates in the video below.
After kneading until partial gluten development, we left the dough to rise while we worked with pre-made dough on shaping and scoring. Their method was slightly different from Peter Reinhardt’s method in his craftsy class, and it took some getting used to before I felt comfortable with it. You can see it in the video below.
Finally we worked on scoring. Much like shaping, scoring is one of those techniques that just takes a lot of practice. I felt a lot more comfortable with the scoring than I did with the shaping. In the end, we turned out some beautiful loaves. As a little girl, my great grandmother fed me noodles and pot cheese. A quick and easy meal that eastern Europeans made for their children, the fresh pot-style cottage cheese from the local farms served as gravy for the hot salted and buttered egg noodles. This plain but tasty meal became one of Grandma Elsie’s staples when she needed to feed me.
Some of my fondest memories of Elsie surrounded food. She would tell the stories of Greek Mythology while feeding me. I learned of how Hades stole Persephone from her mother Demeter through the residue that the hot chocolate left behind in the mug. Each time I took a sip of the chocolate, she told me more of the story. I have often made egg noodles with cottage cheese when I needed comfort food, until I developed a dairy allergy. Each bite would bring me back to being six years old in my grandmother's kitchen. For those who can eat dairy, and want a simple, plain and soul-filling meal. This is it. It is a very simple dish to make.
This bread is so good, in my house, it almost never makes it past the cooling period. It's eaten so quickly. If you don't have a star shaped Brioche pan, you can bake it in a regular loaf pan.
Sponge
Dough
combine eggs, milk, honey, sugar, at low speed 5 min. Add flour, spices, and sponge, mix for 5 minutes-low speed. Add butter, pumpkin puree ,and salt, mix 4 min fast. Let rise at 75 degree for 45 minutes. Fold and allow to rest another 45 min Divide and shape into rounds – let rest 15 – 20 min, covered. Shape or add to molds and proof for 1 ½ hours on parchment lined sheet pans Egg wash & top with pearl sugar Bake at 350F for 15 min 20 min, or until golden brown on top and bottom (internal temp) 190 F. I’m not even sure this qualifies as a curry since it doesn’t use curry paste, but I do serve and eat it much like a curry. It’s a quick and easy preparation and makes a delicious meal weeknight meal.
Curry:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Mix everything except the lime juice and the cod in the bottom of a casserole dish. Place the cod pieces so they do not overlap and each piece is submerged. Bake for 15- 20 minutes until the fish is tender and flaky. Add the lime juice once it comes out of the oven. Rice:
Add in rice cooker and cook while preparing fish. When the fish and the rice are both ready, fill a bowl ½ way with rice and then add the curry over it. Top with some basil leaves, and serve. What do you do with leftover steak (I know, how often do you have steak leftover?) Well, one of the benefits to making steak medium rare is that if you need to reheat it, you have room to work with it before it gets overcooked.
I happened to have some flank steak leftover from lunch the other day, so I sliced it thin and placed it into an oven proof pan and put it under the broiler for about 6-8 minutes (until it was hot). While the steak was heating up, I made my omelet. For this omelet, I freshly minced basil, rosemary and thyme. Once my omelet was done, I took out the steak and lined the plate with it, topped it off with some hot sauce and garnished the dish with some fresh star fruit, which added a sweet citrus flavor to the dish. It was delicious and the whole meal took about 15 minutes to prepare. Ingredients:
Directions:
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DebI'm a home cook with a lifelong passion for learning, exploring and experimenting in my kitchen. You can find me at @Debs1 on Twitter and @Debs121212 on Instagram. Categories
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July 2020
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