Braisin' Hussy

Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Well, we had a fun bash last Sunday. The family got together over at Jon and Ryan's house for a late Father's Day BBQ. And we did what we do best, prepare and eat far too much food. Jon made burgers and guacamole (best.guac.EVER.), Ryan prepared a summer fruit galette (excellent crust), Mom and Dad brought potato salad and baked beans, and I brought cole slaw and corn.

Jon had asked for a peanutty cole slaw, so I replaced the four tablespoons (two fluid ounces) of yogurt with a tablespoon or two of prepared peanut sauce. Yeah, I could have made it myself, but I had the bottle. Plus, when I make it, the results aren't always consistent. I also scattered some unsalted, roasted peanuts over top of the dish (thanks to Rob for giving me those).

Went out to Sue's Indian Cuisine on Monday night. One of my neighbors had been making curry earlier, and I was totally craving it. I got Paneer Tikka Masala, yum! So damn good. When I went to Trader Joe's yesterday, I was still feeling the Indian, so I bought a box of TastyBite Palak Paneer. I've heard good things about the TastyBite foods.

I'd like to, if I may, give a shoutout to The Grub Report, a website run by Television Without Pity recapper Keckler. Give it a read. It's good times. And my email to her got mentioned! I wrote to ask her the Nero Wolfe way to prepare corn. And then I didn't do it, because a 525 or 550 degree oven on for about forty minutes in a non-air-conditioned house was not my idea of fun. So I did it the Cook's Illustrated grilled way, which I can't post right now since I'm not on Jon or Ryan's computers. (They have the online subscription, you see.) But I will have to try it that way. And soon. Sounds like I'm going to have to make another trip to Sigona's. Whee!
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Tuesday, June 29, 2004

Someone made Paula's Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding and lived to tell.
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Friday, June 25, 2004

So, I went to Cost Plus yesterday to buy the aforementioned tahini. I couldn't find it. I was annoyed. I asked the cashier about it. However, I had forgotten what tahini was actually made out of, so I said, "It's a nut or seed paste that you use to make hummus." She then told me that they only have it around the holidays. Because nothing says Christmas like hummus. I think she was thinking I meant marzipan. Which they did have. (And, ew.)

I brought biscuits to D&D last night. People seemed to like them (even though they were baked twice because I pulled them too soon when I first baked them and they were kind of raw in the middle). Huzzah! I brought my salsa as well, although I think only Rob and I ate it. Everyone else focused more on the Casa Sanchez Hot Salsa Roja, which I can understand, because it's better.

Also, we killed a golem.

I've been eating out a lot this week. For lunch on Tuesday, Mom and I went to Bangkok Bay. She had pad thai; I had spicy chicken with basil. I really liked mine. They were not kidding on the spicy, which is really quite nice. A lot of restaurants say "spicy" when all they mean is "not bland."

That evening Mom, Dad, and I went out to Cafe Vida, one of Menlo Park's many French restaurants. We split a couple of appetizers- a plate of assorted charcuterie, and some scallops in a fresh tomato sauce. For our main courses, Dad had coq au vin, Mom had mussels, and I had boudin noir with apples. I thought this had been my first experience with blood sausage, but I was wrong. There was some on one of the tapas plates we had at Cascal a few weeks ago. I have to say- boudin noir was not the weird experience I was expecting. (Well, neither was pigeon, but I enjoyed them both thoroughly.) Natural casings- a lot of snap in the bite. Beautiful color. The sausage filling was soft and kind of crumbly. It was like... you know how in England, if you get anything made with ground beef, it's a much finer grind than in America? Minced beef, perhaps. It was kind of like that.

On Wednesday, Rob came over and we went out for pizza and beer. Yum. I'm a fan. Last Friday we went to the Tied House in Mountain View, a local brew pub. Rob had catfish, and I had an elk burger. My first time eating elk! (Needed salt.)

Last Saturday, Rob and I and a bunch of friends went out for Thai food at King of Krung Siam. I would warn people away from the Angry Chicken- it's not as interesting as it sounds. The rest of what we got (and we ordered quite a bit of food) was very tasty. Especially the duck. Mm. Afterwards, we went to the movies and saw The Stepford Wives. It was funny, but there were too many plot holes. Also, was it REALLY necessary to change the ending that much?
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Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Well, salsa wins for this week, because I don't have any tahini. I may stop by Cost Plus on my way to D&D tomorrow night to buy some.

I've been trying to make good salsa for a while now. In today's attempt, I finally wrote down what I was doing. It didn't turn out outrageously hot, for a change. I tried to limit my use of the chile peppers. Usually when I make salsa, I have to add a can or two of tomatoes because it's so freaking hot. Seriously. My first try (about a year ago, if memory serves me right) used ten jalapenos and a quarter cup of chipotle/adobo puree. That was ridiculous.

I am not sure what I think of this yet. It needs to get chilled completely. I think I may have made it too sweet, somehow.

Shameless plug! Casa Sanchez makes wonderful chips. I recommend the thick ones. Their salsa is also pretty damn good. Very fresh tasting. I like the Hot Salsa Roja and the Garlic Salsa. I don't know if Casa Sanchez markets their products outside of the SF Bay Area.
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Salsa Attempt No. 1

6 smallish tomatoes
10 tomatillos
2 serrano pepper
2 Tbsp garlic
1 onion, in eighths
1 chipotle pepper in adobo
Juice of 1 lime
About a handful of cilantro
Salt

Turn on the broiler and move the oven rack to the second to the top position. On a broiling pan, arrange the tomatoes, tomatillos, onion pieces, and one serrano pepper. Place under the broiler and cook until pretty well browned or blackened, turning vegetables to cook evenly, probably 20 to 30 minutes.

Seed and de-membrane-ify the other serrano pepper. Put this pepper, the garlic, chipotle pepper, lime juice, and cilantro in a food processor.

Take the vegetables out from under the broiler. Cover for about five minutes. Take the skins off of the tomatoes, tomatillos, and the other serrano pepper. Seed the pepper as well as you can, and then put everything in the food processor. Puree until it reaches a consistency you like. Salt to taste. Chill before serving.
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Monday, June 21, 2004

My project this week is either going to be hummus or salsa.
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Friday, June 18, 2004

Cream of Mushroom Soup
Mastering the Art of French Cooking

1/4 cup minced onions
6-8 Tbsp butter (3+2+[1-3])
3 Tbsp flour
6 cups chicken or veal stock (or canned chicken broth with 2 sprigs parsley, 1 bay leaf, and 1/8 tsp thyme)
Salt and pepper
1 lb. mushrooms, separated into stems (chopped) and caps (sliced thinly)
1 tsp lemon juice
2 egg yolks
1/2 to 3/4 cup cream
2-3 Tbsp minced fresh chervil or parsley

Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan. Add the onions and cook until tender but not browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the flour and stir over medium heat for 3 minutes without browning. Off heat, beat in the boiling stock and blend it thoroughly with the flour. Season to taste. Stir in the mushroom stems and simmer partially covered for 20 minutes or more, skimming occasionally. Strain, pressing juices out of mushroom stems. Return the soup to the pan.

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a separate saucepan. When it is foaming, toss in the mushrooms, about 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and lemon juice. Cover and cook slowly for 5 minutes.

Pour the mushrooms and their cooking juices into the strained soup base. Simme for 10 mintues.

Beat the egg yolks and cream in a separate bowl. Then whisk in the hot soup by spoonfuls until a cup or two has been added. Slowly add the egg mixture back into the main saucepan with the rest of the soup, continually whisking. Stir over medium heat for a minute or two to poach the egg yolks, but do not allow the soup to come up to a simmer.

Off heat, stir in 1 to 3 tablespoons of butter, one tablespoon at a time. Serve the soup garnished with the fresh chervil or parsley.
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So, the soup below is what I made last Sunday when Rob came over. It did not turn out great, but I've realized why. I put in eight cups of broth instead of six, which is why the soup was so thin. Also, I forgot about the butter at the very end. (Because Julia LOVES the butter.) If I had prepared this properly, I have no doubt it would have been excellent.

Jon is very keen on Julia's French Onion Soup. The first time he made it, I cried. It was so damn good. I was hoping this would be a similar experience. Alas, it was not.

I also tried a new recipe for chicken stock last Sunday. This was from the Cook's Illustrated book The Best Recipe. It was supposed to be a faster, easier way to get homemade stock. It involved me hacking up chicken carcasses with a cleaver. FUN. A mess, but FUN. My opinion of the recipe is that it is good, but it needs more cooking time. It turned out too weak at first, but after I boiled it down a bit, it was very good. I will make it again. The recipe is after the cream of mushroom soup.
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Chicken Stock
The Best Recipe

1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, cut into medium dice
4 pounds chicken backs and wing tips or whole legs, hacked with cleaver into 2-inch pieces
2 quarts boiling water
2 tsp salt
2 bay leaves

Heat oil in a large stock pot. Add onion and saute until colored and softened slightly, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer onion to a large bowl.

Add half of the chicken pieces to the pot, and saute until no longer pink, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer cooked chicken to bowl with onion. Saute remaining chicken pieces. Return onion and chicken pieces to pot. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until chicken releases its juices, about 20 minutes.

Increase heat to high, and add boiling water, salt, and bay leaves. Reduce to simmer, then cover and barely simmer until stock is rich and flavorful, about 20 minutes*.

Strain stock and discard solids. Skim fat and reserve for use in later recipes (like croutons... yum). Stock may be refrigerated for 2 days or frozen for several months.

* After I cooled and defatted the stock, I decided that I wanted it stronger. I brought it up to a boil for probably 10 minutes. When I make this again, I will increase the simmer time to about an hour, probably.
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Thursday, June 17, 2004

I am in need of a Fat Mop. Does anyone know which stores might sell them?

I have a pasta sauce that needs defatting.
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Monday, June 14, 2004

Biscuit saga. Biscuit saga. Must. Write. Worst. Blogger. EVER.

So, in the last week, I've made four batches of biscuits with three recipes. Well, actually, only two recipes, but the first one I made in two different ways, although the ingredients were the same.

I was going to make Alton's recipe, but I was looking at it, and there was a note from Ma Mae (AB's grandmother, biscuit doyenne) that said, "I don't have much use for recipes but the one you get on a bag of White Lily self-rising flour is hard to beat. And it's a lot easier than the one my crazy grandson dreamed up."

So I decided to try the White Lily "Light" Biscuit recipe. The change I made was that instead of 1/4 cup of shortening, I used two tablespoons each of shortening and butter. The first day, I made the dough in a food processor. I figured that would be the easiest way, since I didn't have a pastry cutter and the two knife technique seemed entirely too time-consuming. If you're going to use a food processor, just use it to cut in the fat. I added the buttermilk to the processor and ended up overworking the dough. I also added too much buttermilk (one cup instead of the 2/3 to 3/4 cup specified- I had out the wrong measuring cup). Then, I decided to bake them at 425 instead of 500- I was trying to integrate certain aspects of the Alton Brown recipe (Food Network puts the oven temperature at 450 for his biscuits, but the episode transcript says 400- I put more faith in the transcripts to get what he said right). To finish, I cut the biscuits far too large. They looked like hockey pucks. They were really quite flat.

The next day, I tried again. I used the rasp on the butter, and that worked like a charm. I used the proper amount of buttermilk, I mixed the dough in a bowl so it wouldn't get overworked, and I cut the biscuits smaller. I added a little extra salt and baking powder to the dough. I can't remember if I went up or down 25 degrees on the oven temperature. These turned out much better, although they still weren't rising as high as I had hoped. I brought a combination of the two recipes to D&D that night, along with my over/under-cooked fried chicken (more on that in another post).

Over on the Television Without Pity Good Eats forum thread, a poster by the name of lotusbear recommended the Cook's Illustrated Flaky Biscuit recipe. I was over at Jon and Ryan's and was flipping through their issues of Cook's, seeing if that recipe had been updated recently. (The reason I did this was because the new mac & cheese turned out so much better than the old mac & cheese.) Lo! In the latest issue, there were a couple of pages on "Mile-High Biscuits." Excellent!

Now, one of the differences here is that these biscuits are dropped, not rolled. I suppose this makes them more tender, since you're not working the dough while pressing it out to be cut. The Cook's Illustrated recipe use regular AP flour and all butter. Even with the extra protein in the flour and the lack of tenderness contributed by shortening, I have to say, these biscuits were the CLEAR winner. The only complaint I have is that the bottoms get a little overbrowned. The dough is extremely wet, so make sure you've got plenty of flour on the baking sheet or the dough will stick to everything.

So, three cheers for the crazy Yanks over at Cook's Illustrated!
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Tall and Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits
from Cook's Illustrated

Nonstick cooking spray
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp double-acting baking powder
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes (or shredded on rasp)
1 1/2 cups cold buttermilk
2 Tbsp melted butter
Flour for dusting

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 500. Spray 9-inch round cake pan with nonstick cooking spray; set aside. Generously spray inside and outside of 1/4 cup dry measuring cup with nonstick cooking spray. Place a good amount of flour on a rimmed baking sheet and spread evenly.

Place flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and baking soda in a bowl and combine. Using a pastry cutter, blend in the cold butter until the mixture resembles pebbly, coarse cornmeal. Add buttermilk to bowl and stir with rubber spatula until just incorporated. The dough will be very wet and slightly lumpy.

Using the 1/4 cup measure, scoop level amount of dough; drop dough onto the floured baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough (you will have 10-12 piles of dough). Dust tops of each piece of dough with flour from the baking sheet. With floured hands, gently pick up a pile of dough and shape it into a rough ball. Shake off the excess flour and place in cake pan. Repeat with remaining dough, arranging the rounds around the edge first, then putting the remaining rounds in the center. Brush the tops with melted butter.

Bake for 5 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 450. Continue to bake until biscuits are deep golden brown, about 15 minutes longer. Cool in pan 2 minutes, then remove from pan and break apart. Cool 5 minutes and serve. Preferably with honey.
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White Lily "Light" Biscuits

2 cups White Lily Self-Rising Flour
1/4 cup shortening
2/3 to 3/4 cup milk or buttermilk

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Place flour in mixing bowl. With pastry blender or fork, cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Blend in just enough milk with fork until dough leaves sides of bowl. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface. Knead gently 10 to 12 strokes. Roll out dough 1/2-inch thick. Cut with 2-inch biscuit cutter dipping cutter into flour between cuts. Press cutter straight down without twisting for straight-sided, evenly shaped biscuits. Place biscuits on ungreased baking sheet 1 inch apart for crusty biscuits or with sides almost touching for soft-sided biscuits. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Makes 12 biscuits.
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Friday, June 11, 2004

I'm in the middle of recapping the biscuit saga. I'll post it later today or tomorrow.
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Tuesday, June 08, 2004

Dear lord! I'm watching Paula Deen (my first time watching her show, I think). She's making a Krispy Kreme bread pudding... I think I might be sick. Two dozen Krispy Kremes, chopped up. Sweetened condensed milk. Fruit cocktail with juice. Holy crap, that's going to be so damn sweet. Also, it's kind of an expensive recipe. Paula herself seems kind of insane.

I'm trying the biscuits again. I just took them out of the oven. I hope they're good. I had a brilliant idea, which I may have stolen from a Cook's Illustrated magazine. In order to make the cutting in of fat easier, I froze a stick of butter along with my Microplane rasp. I kept them in the freezer for a half hour or an hour, and then I grated the butter into the flour. This way the butter was in tiny, tiny pieces, ready to be integrated into the flour. Pity I couldn't do that with the shortening. I added a little less buttermilk and a little extra baking powder and salt to the dough- we'll see if that was a mistake. I also cut the biscuits a little smaller than yesterday.

Over the weekend, Rob and I went to dinner with Val and Grant. Val is Rob's former coworker and my former classmate from high school, and Grant is Val's husband and Rob's former roommate. We went to Cascal, a tapas bar in Mountain View. We sat in the bar area, because otherwise it would have taken us over an hour to get a table. What fun we had! Tapas is my kind of meal- endless little appetizers.

Anyway, I'm bringing Rob fried chicken and biscuits tonight for D&D to say thanks. And it means I can try a new recipe. I'll post it if/when I get it right.
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Monday, June 07, 2004

I think I'm hitting a dry patch or something. I attempted to make biscuits today (actually, they're baking as I type). The dough... it turned out incredibly sticky. I don't know if they'll bake up properly at all.

The flour I bought yesterday was White Lily Self-Rising, the flour of choice for Southern biscuit-makers (apparently).
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Sunday, June 06, 2004

Well, I made stracciatella for dinner tonight, but I don't think I'm happy enough with the results to write them down. Also, I need to figure out my amounts. I was kind of winging it. Stock, canned broth, eggs, nutmeg, salt, pepper, parmesan, pulverized bread crumbs, Tabasco... yeah.

I bought flour today. Ridiculously priced flour. Gr.
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Friday, June 04, 2004

First of all, an apology to my mother. I did not properly credit her with the recipe for the Thai Roll-ups. She started making these years ago, and they are a lovely appetizer. The only difficult thing about them is julienning all the vegetables. And possibly finding the rice papers and saifun, depending on your location. I tried to fry up a couple of leftover ones in a regular pan- what a mistake that was! A nonstick pan is a must if you're going to go that route. Those papers will stick to ANYTHING.

I need to start using the food in my freezer. I think it's at critical mass, thanks to some stuff I bought this week. I don't think I'm going to be able to fit anything else in there- I have it very carefully arranged for maximum space usage. I inventoried. I think I'm going to make stracciatella for lunch tomorrow. It'll use up a container of stock. I've started wrapping new purchases in foil to prevent freezer burn (and zip-top freezer bags to stop smells, but I'd already been doing that), because I have some food that is looking nast-ee. I may have to throw out some ground beef. The other stuff that looks burned (some beef short ribs and lamb), I think I can make for me, but I won't serve it to a guest.

Jon bought the Cook's Illustrated book The Best Recipe. I looked through it a bit when I was over yesterday. That's a cool book. I have a feeling I will be consulting it a lot. Maybe I'll just add it to my Amazon wish list. Or pick up a copy next time I'm over at Costco.

I bought a frozen entree at Trader Joe's the other day. (I was hungry and lazy.) Chicken Masala. It was actually pretty good.

"Parsley" is a hard word for me. There are probably some recipes on this site that ask for "parsely" in them. Yes, I'm dumb.
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Tuesday, June 01, 2004

After my Friday post, I was asked, "What is a wooden corner spoon?" To answer, I will have to tell a story. (No doubt, it will be a "Good story, Sarah.") I was talking with my mother about my preferred kitchen implement- I cannot imagine cooking without a decent wooden spatula (which are surprisingly hard to find). She then said she was very attached to wooden spoons. (I think Jon once told me his weapon of choice is a pair of tongs, but that's only slightly relevant.) Anyway, I was looking around at Bed, Bath, & Beyond, and I found the child of the wooden spoon and spatula- the corner spoon. And lo, I bought it. So far, I've enjoyed using it- not as much as a spatula, but more than a spoon.

Good story, Sarah.

I made a good deal of food this weekend. Unfortunately, except for the garlic bread, everything is was just a slightly tweaked version of a recipe I've already posted. I made the Spicy Italian Sausage and Feta Cream Sauce on Saturday. The changes I made were using cream instead of half-and-half (because I had cream I needed to use before it went bad), adding a teaspoon of Madeira, and adding a pinch of nutmeg. I'm not quite sure what the difference it made was, but it was definitely tastier than before. ("Well, duh. Heavy cream. Need I say more?") Also, if you let it simmer for long enough, the feta WILL melt. Amazing! Man, it's good.

I had Rob over for dinner on Sunday. He is currently in a state of not eating four-legged creatures, so I decided to make Jonsauce using Trader Joe's "Uncooked Chicken Sicilian Sausage with Fresh Tomatoes & Romano Cheese." With a name that long, you KNOW it's quality. The sauce ended up okay, but it was missing something. Something like pork. The chicken sausage had an overly soft texture. The tomatoes and cheese really didn't add much. I put in some red pepper flakes with the fennel and also added an extra 1/8 cup of red wine at the very end of cooking (along with the basil and garlic). Rob said it was very good. I think he's being overly nice, but I guess it was good if you're avoiding the unclean beast. 5/8 of the way Jonsauce is better than no Jonsauce.

I bought an extra half pound of mushrooms on Friday- I thought I needed a pound for the cream sauce, silly me. What to do with the extras? Stuff them! I am very keen on stuffing vegetables with themselves. (I am told I need to try angel wings, which is a Thai dish where chicken is stuffed with chicken.) Since I had used the cream up the night before in the cream sauce, I just used milk. I also added too much cheese (not really a problem, actually). They were a little overbrowned, but didn't taste burnt at all. Quite yum.

I had half a loaf of French bread that was getting kind of old, so I looked for the easiest Garlic Bread recipe I could find. The recipe below is adapted from Help! My Apartment Has a Kitchen, which is also where I got the recipe for the Spicy Bean Dip. I am one of those people who, when they eat anything garlicky, will ooze the odor from their pores for days, unless steps are taken. The next morning, I got up and exercised (really, quite remarkable) in order to break a sweat. Then, a very hot shower. Between my many tooth-brushing sessions, I munched on parsley. I really hope I was able to get rid of it before the barbeque that afternoon (because Memorial Day wouldn't be complete without a barbeque).
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