Flash in the Pan

One problem I've found with making your own ice cream is having to plan ahead. Using a compressor-type machine like the Cuisinart Supreme I reviewed is that even so, you still need to make and chill the mix so you're not waiting forever for it to freeze. But here's a Philadelphia-style vanilla I improvised today that's pretty good -- no custard base, so not as rich as you'd get with eggs, but you don't even have to heat the liquid to dissolve the sugar. You go immediately from mixing to the freezer, so it's great for a whim.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream


• 1 cup half and half


• 1/2 cup granulated sugar


• 1/8 tsp. salt


• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a bowl, mix the heavy cream, half and half, sugar, and salt until the sugar and salt are completely dissolved.


2. Stir in the vanilla extract until completely mixed in.


3. Freeze using ice cream freezer directions.

Makes about 3 cups of ice cream.

Labels: dessert, ice cream, recipes

Biscuits and gravy is an old, and great, southern breakfast. This version adds a bit of bite through the chorizo sausage.

Ingredients

• 1 pound chorizo sausage
• 4 1/2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 3 cups milk, heated until warm but not scalded
• 8 biscuits (I have a buttermilk biscuit recipe here)

Directions

1. Prepare four plates. For each, split two biscuits and place the halves, split-side up, on the plate.
2. Cut the chorizo into 1/4-inch slices. Don't worry if the sausage begins to crumble or the slices start to come apart.
3. Over high heat, place to sausage into a 10-inch fry pan. Cook for two minutes.
4. Sprinkle flour over sausage slices and cook another three minutes.
5. Add milk all at once and stir mixture until flour dissolves. Continue stiring until the mixture comes to a boil and the gravy is thickened.
6. Pour gravy over each set of biscuits.

Serves 4.

Labels: biscuits, breakfast, recipes

I've been fiddling with my biscuit recipe for years. Here's the latest, and best, version.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose power
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 4 Tbsp. Sacco buttermilk powder (note, you can omit this, substituting buttermilk for the water when added in the recipe)
• 5 Tbsp. butter, cold

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Cut butter into dry ingredients until mixture resembles coarse meal.
4. Add water slowly, mixing until all dry ingredients are damp and dough loosely holds together. Dough should be wet.
5. Turn dough out onto well-floured board and knead for about 30 seconds. Instead of traditional bread kneading motion, fold dough in half, press flat, and repeat.
6. Roll dough out approximately 3/8-inch in thickness, then use biscuit cutter or cup. Take scraps, form into new ball, roll out to 3/8-inch thickness, and cut additional rounds. Place biscuit rounds on ungreased cookie sheet with at least 1-inch separation.
7. Bake biscuits for approximately 18 minutes or until golden brown.

Labels: biscuits, recipes

I came up with this to test an ice cream maker -- and it's definitely worth making. The ginger is subtle and the lemon helps keep the mango from becoming cloying.

Ingredients:

• 1 lemon
• 1-inch piece of ginger root, peeled
• 2 1/4 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 very ripe mangoes (soft to the touch)

Directions:

1. Roughly chop ginger and place into medium saucepan.
2. Peel zest from lemon and place into saucepan.
3. Juice lemon and reserve juice.
4. Put 2 cups water into medium saucepan. Bring to boil and boil for five minutes.
5. Add sugar and continue boiling until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool as you perform the next steps.
6. Peel mangoes and cut flesh from pit. Place pieces of mango into a blender with 1/4 cup water. Blend until pureed.
7. Pour puree into saucepan and mix. Pour half of mixture back into blender and blend again until smooth. Pour blended mix into a 1 1/2 quart container. Repeat with other half of mixture in saucepan.
8. Cover container and place in refrigerator for at least four hours.
9. Freeze in ice cream freezer according to directions until the resulting sorbet is soft.

Makes about 1.5 quarts.

Labels: dessert, recipes, sorbet

Well, call this a recipe of sorts, as it's not exact. But if you cook at all, the idea is easy to implement.

The approach was sparked by a lunch at Hope and Olive, a restaurant in Greenfield, MA that has killer salmon cakes at lunch. Both my wife and I were also impressed with the brussel sprouts. A waitress said that the restaurant first roasts them in a pan until they are halfway cooked, and then finishes them in a deep fryer.

It may sound weird, but it works. However, we wanted a version that didn't require the deep fat. (Who needs the calories or the mess?) So we treated them more or less the way we treat roasted potatoes.

Take the sprouts, trim the bottoms, and then split them lengthwise. Put into a pan, splash some olive oil on them, and toss. Sprinkle with kosher salt or sea salt and some pepper. Roast at about 450ºF for maybe half an hour, or until well caramelized. If you want a variation that I think would be good, saute some garlic in the oil before it goes on the sprouts.

Labels: brussel sprouts, recipes, roast, vegetables

While traipsing about my media intake, I came across the site for the Orwell Prize for political writing. On the site is an entire article, scanned or photographed from the original manuscript, that Orwell wrote about British cooking, and which includes some of his own recipes. The article was never published (a problem with the recipes not taking post-war food shortages into account), and includes some of his own recipes.

Labels: authors, celebrities, recipes

I've been playing around on and off, trying to find a pancake recipe I liked. After making a number of changes here and there in what I saw, the family voted this one a keeper.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 3 TBS. sugar (reduce to 2 TBS. if using a sweet syrup)
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 eggs, separated
• 1 1/8 cup milk
• 2 TBS. butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Directions

1. Put butter and milk into microwave-safe container and heat until butter melts. Heat large pan or griddle over high heat.
2. In a large bowl, mix flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder.
3. In a medium bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. In another medium bowl, lightly beat egg yolks until mixed.
4. Add milk and butter mixture to egg yolks, mixing constantly.
5. Add milk and egg yolk mixture to flour mixture and gently mix until completely combined.
6. Folk egg whites into batter, taking care not to deflate the whites.

Cook the pancakes. Yields about 15 3-inch pancakes. (Definitely enough for four people.)

Labels: pancakes, recipes

Apparently we have another ongoing cooking plagiarism scandal, this time in the presidential campaign. For the second time, John McCain's wife Cindy has been accused of passing on a recipe taken from another source. This time, the July 2008 issue of Family Circle ran cookie recipes from each candidate's spouse. Someone found that McCain's recipe was virtually identical ("a few minor details" changed) to one on Hersheys.com. In the article, she had attributed the recipe to a friend, and I certainly can see how it would be easy for someone to take a recipe, maybe make some changes, and then put it into a recipe file, not even remembering the original source. There is also the point that a lot of cooking, particularly baking, relies on rations dictated by chemistry.

When I was writing my pizza book, I developed a dough recipe - and eventually learned (long before going to print) that one of my favorite bread books had the identical recipe. I didn't start with that recipe as a reference. Instead, I just put stuff together until it looked and felt right. But there are only so many ratios of flour to water to salt that will give you a particular result. (However, I did mention the unintended similarity in the book - and also heartily recommended the other title, Secrets of a Jewish Baker, which is definitely worth finding used if you like to bake bread.)

So, my sympathy was with Cindy McCain - until I read about the first time this happened in April. John McCain's campaign web site had a number of "her" recipes posted, when someone noticed that many appeared identical to recipes taken from the Food Network's web site. (Really, how many people come up with a passion fruit mousse?) The campaign eventually blamed an unpaid intern, which raises the question of how this person was sent off to find recipes that would be posted as coming from Cindy McCain. If it was a blunder, didn't any of the McCains notice that something was wrong? Or maybe passion fruit is considered a common ingredient in Arizona. And doesn't your family make ahi tuna with napa cabbage slaw or farfalle pasta with turkey sausage, peas and mushrooms? I thought so.

So much for sympathy. By the way, did I tell you about my new cookie recipe?

Labels: plagiarism, politics, recipes

I saw some asparagus on sale at $1.99 a pound and decided to have some fun:

Ingredients

• 1 lb. asparagus
• 1 TBS. sesame oil
• 1 TBS. peanut oil (or neutral-tasting oil)
• 1 TBS. rice vinegar
• juice of 1/2 orange
• julienned zest from 1/2 orange

Directions

1. If asparagus spears are thicker than 1/4 inch, peel tough skin. Trim bottoms; discard bottoms. Put spears into 10-inch pan with 1/4 inch water and place on high heat. Steam asparagus until turns deep green and is still firm.
2. While asparagus is cooking, take all remaining ingredients other than zest and whisk together.
3. When asparagus is done, remove from pan and put into non-reactive deep dish. Cover with the mixed ingredients. Garnish with zest. Serve at once or at room temperature.

To get more of a vinaigrette effect, chill the asparagus for two to six hours before you serve it. You can go lighter on the oil if you prefer, or even eliminate the non-sesame oil altogether.

Labels: recipes, vegetables

I got a press release from the Haas (a variety) Avocado Board (a grouping of several trade organizations) about avocado recipes for the holidays. The organization has a web site, which I checked out, although I'm not the biggest fan of the vegetable (or would it be a fruit?) to be found. The recipe in the release was for Holiday Hass Avocado and Au Gratin Potatoes but called for au gratin potato mix, which didn't seem too promising. However, there are some reasonable recipes on the organization's site. Some are better than others, and the range of recipes from the Mexican Hass Avocado people were disappointing in range - salsa or tacos or salad or guacamole. But one like the Avocado Pear-Honey Pastry Rounds appetizer sounded interesting, so take a look and see if there is something that might help you mix things up a bit for a holiday party.

Labels: recipes, web site

I know, it's only Tuesday, there's at least a whole other day before Thanksgiving hits - so what do I mean last minute? Call it almost last minute - this is a time when, if you're in charge of cooking, you don't want things to go wrong. There are generally too many people watching, and they're all family, so any mistake is something you'll have to live with for, oh, the rest of your life.

If you want a moist and tasty turkey, I'd suggest one of two routes. The first is to get a good kosher bird. They really do taste better, and the pan drippings for gravy are unbeatable. If you can't get kosher, then look at brining the bird. You submerge it in a mix of water, kosher salt, and sugar, keeping your dinner from drying out and adding a touch of a salty undertone which improves the overall flavor. The Morton salt people have an online guide, which I had to dig out, as the press release that suggested I go to the main page didn't say where to look for the guide. Clicking on the cookbook link got some weird error, but the link I provide above should work. Or you can skip the suger, brine with salt and water (more traditional, I think), and get some hints from the Food Network and Alton Brown's Good Eats program.

For gravy, I'll provide some tips of my own, as I've often walked into dinners and heard, “Oh, there you are! Great to see you, here, let me take your coat, and could you make the gravy?” Here's a recipe:

• neck, heart, and kidneys from the turkey


• 1 medium onion, diced


• 2 stalks celery, diced


• 2 carrots, peeled and diced


• 4 1/2 Tbs. flour


• 4 1/2 Tbs. butter

1. Mix the onion, celery, and carrots together and place in the bottom of a roasting pan. Place the turkey on a roasting rack and put into the pan. Move the vegetables out of the way so the rack sits flat. While roasting the turkey, place the neck, heart, and kidneys in a small saucepan, cover with cold water, and bring to a simmer for an hour, making a light broth. Strain the broth and reserve.


2. When the turkey is cooked through, remove pan from the oven. Take the turkey and rack from the pan and place to the side. If there is liquid in the pan, remove it from the pan, spoon off the fat, then add enough water to make three cups total liquid.


3. Put the pan across two burners on a stove and turn the burners on. When heated, add the liquid and use a wooden spoon to dissolve any crust in the pan and to mix the roasted mirepoix. When all crust is dissolved, strain and reserve.


4. In a heavy saucepan over a medium heat, melt the butter, then add the flour. Cook and stir with a whisk until the mixture turns a golden brown and bubbles. Add all the liquid and whisk until smooth. Season to taste, though if you used a brined or kosher turkey, salt may be superfluous. Serve with the meal.

As for pie, Crisco has a hotline: 1-800-367-7438. (Actually, they say call 800-FOR PIE TIPS, probably because they thought 800-FOR PIET looked odd.) It's open 24 hours, has recorded tips, and they'll let you talk to an expert if necessary, though not on Thanksgiving day itself, so get your advice today and tomorrow while you still can. There is also information on the company's web site.

While I'm on the subject of pie, you might pick up a copy of this month's Cooks Illustrated. It had an article on pie crusts and the suggestion of using half cold water, half vodka instead of all water when moistening the flour and fat mixture. As the vodka includes alcohol, the theory is that you reduce the amount of gluten that forms when water hits flour, and so the crust is easy to roll and form, but still stays flaky. They swear by it, though I haven't had a chance to try it myself. They also mix shortening and butter, which should combine flavor and handling ability.

Labels: Complete Techniques, holidays, recipes, resources, Thanksgiving

I was on a business trip in St. John's and took part in a dinner at Chef To Go, where you literally work for your supper. The name makes it sound like some type of take-out establishment, and is the result of its first two years of operation in which chef/proprietor Robert Arniel offered catering for small groups in private homes. Today, he offers cooking classes and arranges dining evenings for groups, in which he gives a cooking lesson and then the participants get involved in the preparation of the evening's dinner. All go home with an apron and a collection of the evening's recipes.

You don't actually get to go through every step of the preparation, as, to be fair, that could take hours of work and offer too much room for mistakes. Instead, most of the prep work is done. For example, our menu consisted of the following:

Crab Claws with Cognac Sauce

Mussels on the Half Shell

Sun-Dried Tomato Tapenade Crostini

Choice of Blackened Salmon with Kiwi Salsa or Seared Beef Tenderloin with Stilton Crust and Cabernet Sauvignon Sauce

Oven Roasted Root Vegetables

Seasonal Berry Napoleon with Minted White Chocolate Pastry Cream

The group broke out into three teams, each working a different part of the menu, with enough work done ahead that there was only about half an hour at the most of actual labor. That kept anyone from feeling overwhelmed in the kitchen and also kept it a social affair. Basically you are involved in final preparations and cooking - no breaking a sweat.

There were two people serving all the food, including the first two appetizers, already prepared, while everyone was working. (There were also several choices of wine to lubricate the physical labor.) Everyone is done about the same time, sits at tables, and enjoys the dinner. Some of the ingredients came out of the chef's backyard garden.

The "restaurant" is acutally the first two floors of his house, and his wife and he live on the top two. Having an eating establishment in a home is actually an old tradition: you can find it in Havana today, and some decades ago there was a well-regarded and famous example in Manhattan, a woman who offered diners whatever she decided to cook that day.

Arniel had an accomplished career as a chef before opening this spot, and the results tell. Not only are the recipes good, but he has enough understanding of the dynamics of cooking to make the diners comfortable and successful in their efforts. As this is geared to groups, it might be difficult to do one of the dinners. But aside from classes that last a few weeks, he also offers intensive Saturday classes. Cooking and eating in a pleasant atmosphere - what else could you ask for? Chef Arniel said I could post a recipe or two from the ones I received, so here is one for the tenderloin dish:

Cabernet Sauvignon Sauce

Ingredients:

• 250 ml cabernet sauvignon


• 250 ml light cream


• 125 ml minced shallots


• 1 clove garlic, minced


• 2.5 ml fresh thyme


• 1 ml sea salt


• 0.5 ml fresh pepper

Instructions:

1. Place all ingredients in heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, or until reduced by half.


2. Pour sauce into blender and puree until smooth.


3. Strain through fine strainer and keep warm.

Blue Cheese Crusted Beef Tenderloin

Ingredients:

• 250 g Stilton (substitute other blue cheese)


• 100 g butter


• 350 ml coarse fresh bread crumbs


• 10 ml fresh thyme


• 8 beef tenderloin steaks


• clarified butter (substitute olive oil)


• salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Process first cheese and butter in a food processor.


2. Add bread crumbs and thyme and process until combined.


3. Heat saute pan over high heat, add 1 TBS clarified butter or olive oil, and sear steaks on each side until just browned.


4. Let steaks cook and coat each one evenly with blue cheese mixture.


5. Finish steaks in 375ºF convection oven (400ºF in normal oven) until medium rare, about 10 minutes.


6. Serve with cabernet sauvignon suace.

Serves 8.

Labels: cabernet sauvignon, Canada, cooking, corned beef, lessons, Newfoundland, recipes, restaurant, review, St. John's, stilton, tenderloin

Posted by Erik Sherman @ 9:05 AM Permalink 1 comments links to this post

Rouxbe (pronounced ROO-bee) offering an interesting online step-by-step videos of recipe preparations. I just viewed one of the recipes that doesn't require membership (which, after a month-long trial, runs about $50/year or $100 for a lifetime membership, though there is a sponsored version, which wasn't clear to me from first looking at the site). It was for a pan-seared cod. There are some great advantages to a video approach. With a close-up view of the procedure (and not some smiling chef trying to build more of a business platform) you can see critical details, like how finely to crush the coriander seeds. As new things come up, like a mention of Japanese Panko breadcrumbs, you can jump aside to see something about them, and then return to the main video. When getting ready to coat the cod in a Panko and coriander seed mix, all you have to figure out is how to rinse the fish and pat it dry. Everything else - including sprinkling salt and pepper on the fish surfaces, is in front of you, and you get a visceral sense of how much is enough, rather than using some prescribed amount that might not be a good match for the actual pieces of fish you have. Or you get to see just how brown the top of the fish should be before transferring to an oven.

There are some minor weaknesses in the recipes. For example, the cod one said that the fish goes into an over for five to eight minutes, depending on the thickness of the cod. They eventually do say how to tell that the fish is done, but it would have been smart to tell people to wait and that they'd see it soon. But that is criticism almost reaching quibbling.

Even if you are an experienced cook, you might find that you will learn a few new tricks. For example, in the cod preparation, the cook used the flat of a knife to crush olives, making it easy to remove the pits and then chop. Now there's a handy tip that I had never seen before.

I do think that the price is a bit high for this when currently they only have 83 recipes by my count, not including the various intermediary demonstrations, like how to cut a chiffonade, though if you can choose to watch some ads to get to the content, it's not bad at all. It's also tough to get a real sense of the site, and things aren't necessarily clear in the layout. For example, at first I couldn't find the list of ingredients; someone from the site had to point out that clicking a Print button would have given that.

However, I look at this as a first step to new types of cooking sites that will undoubtedly spring up. In fact, I had already planned a series of videos of how to make dough for my new cookbook's web site. This is giving me additional ideas, particularly in terms of integrating background music and using production to get a more useful result.

Apparently the people who run the site see it as an online cooking school, comparing the price in a favorable way. But, as I wrote back, video and even in-home materials aren’t enough, because there are a thousand and one things that someone won’t correctly get and that the teacher won't know without significant professional experience: short-cuts, ways of recovering from problems, tips about how to handle certain ingredients, someone there to correct when the student is doing something wrong, and so on. While video can be a useful tool, it’s not a replacement. However, overall the site is a worthy attempt.

Labels: cooking, recipes, review, videos, web