Leek Pie

This recipe comes from The Ploughman's Lunch and the Miser's Feast by Brian Yarvin. Made it for dinner tonight. Came out really good. It's a stick-to-your-ribs sort of meal. I used the leftover crust dough to make odd shapes on top. Uses 1 hot-water crust recipe (see below).

Filling Ingredients

6 leeks, chopped into 1/2" pieces
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 c. heavy cream
1 c. cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten (optional)

Filling Directions

1. In a large skillet, heat oil and fry leeks until they are translucent; about 30 minutes.

2. Remove skillet from heat and combine leeks, cream, cheese, and spices in a large bowl. Mix well.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

4. Using one of the rolled out pie crust rounds, line a pie dish and add the filling. Cover with the second rolled out pie and trim off the edges. Decorate top of pie with excess crust dough cut into shapes. Crimp edge with fork tines. Brush top of pie with an egg wash (1 beaten egg).

5. Bake on the center rack for 40 minutes.

British Hot-Water Pie Crust

This part of the recipe makes two 9" pie crusts. As far as I can ascertain, the "British" part of this pie crust is using beef suet/lard/shortening. American pie crusts, Brian says, typically use ice water and chilled butter.

Crust Ingredients

4 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp salt
1/2 c. whole milk
1 c. shortening
1/2 c. water

Crust Directions

1. Sift flour into a large bowl.

2. In a small saucepan, combine milk, water, shortening, and salt. Bring to a boil then immediately add to the flour and mix together.

3. Once the dough comes together easily, divide into two equal portions. Roll out to fit the pie dish. Take care to not overwork the dough. This is a much thicker crust than what you'd use on a fruit pie.

4. Roll out dough to 11 inches wide and 1/8" thick.

Note: If the crust is too dry to roll out, add 1 tbsp of hot water. If the crust is too wet, add 1 tbsp of flour.

Pork Fried Noodles

The best part about tasty leftovers is being able to create a tasty dish that can be enjoyed. We had leftover pork roast and leftover whole wheat spaghetti noodles from two separate meals. You can easily substitute the pork for chicken breast, beef, or shrimp.

Ingredients

cooked spaghetti noodles
1 c. pork roast, sliced or diced
1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 c. garlic chives, cut into 1" slices
1 garlic clove, minced

Directions

1. In a large cast iron pan, heat 2 tbsp olive oil and add noodles. Fry over low heat until the noodles have browned. Flip the heap of noodles over so that the other side can brown too.

2. Add garlic, chives, soy sauce, sesame oil, and slices of pork roast. Stir into the noodles until everything is evenly distributed. Don't let the chives brown. When the chives turn a vibrant green color, they are cooked.

3. Serve in bowls or on plates. Enjoy.

Chipotle Quinoa Salad

I seem to have put a little too much of the chipotle powder into this recipe. I intended to give the salad a little kick. Made this for a weekend BBQ. It takes the freshness of late spring produce and kicks it up a notch.

Ingredients

2 1/4 c. organic quinoa
4 1/2 c. water
1/2 tsp salt
1 organic red bell pepper, seeded, pith removed, and diced
1 organic green (or yellow) bell pepper, seeded, pith removed and diced
2 small tomatoes, seeded and diced
2 tbsp lemon juice (or lime juice, if preferred)
1 green onion, minced
1/2 tsp chipotle powder
1/4 tsp paprika
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste (optional)

In a pot, bring salted water to a boil. Add quinoa and it back to a boil. Simmer covered for 15 minutes, or until the quinoa has absorbed all the water. Fluff with a spoon.

At this point, the quinoa is pretty plain and needs a little dressing up.

In a large bowl, mix green and red bell peppers, tomatoes, lemon juice, green onion, chipotle powder, and paprika until the ingredients are evenly distributed. Gradually mix in the cooked quinoa.

Serve immediately or chill.

Homemade Soft Prezels (batch #1)

This recipe seemed easy enough to do. How could it possibly fail after having such rave reviews by FN commenters. There are a few things wrong with it. For starters, the dough is way too soft. Yeah, I know the title of the recipe is soft pretzels but there is soft, and then there is soft and chewy; the latter of which is what we pay a premium for at amusement parks. These taste okay. I made some alterations to the mustard sauce recipe. And, because our weather went from awesome to sux0rz, I used a bread machine to mix and proof the dough. I don't recommend using coarse salt. With the baking soda bath, it tastes salty enough.

Homemade Soft Pretzels, lightly buttered

Ingredients

1 c. whole milk
1 pkg active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
2 tbsp brown sugar, packed
2 1/4 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tbsp unsalted butter, diced
1 tsp fine salt
1/3 c. baking soda + 3 cups warm water
a stick of cold butter (optional)

Directions

1. In a bread machine, add these ingredients in this order: milk, sugar, salt, flour, and yeast. Set the machine on the "dough" cycle. Come back in 1.5 hours.

2. Take the dough out of the bread machine. It'll be sticky, but manageable. Knead it a few times until it is smooth. Using a sharp knife, divide the dough into equal portions. This batch made six pretzels and from the photo, apparently I didn't roll the dough to a long enough rope length.

3. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

4. In a shallow baking dish, dissolve baking soda in warm water. Dip each pretzel into the soda water. Take out and set onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

5. Bake pretzels for 10-12 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.

6. Remove pretzels to a rack to cool. Optional step: use a cold stick of butter on the hot pretzels to lightly butter them. Don't add any more coarse salt. They should be good to eat.

Pretzel Dipping Sauce

2 tbsp organic mayonnaise
2 tbsp Plouchman's mustard
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp rice vinegar
splash of smoked chipotle Tabasco sauce

Mix ingredients together in a small bowl. This, btw, makes too much sauce for a mere half dozen pretzels. I'd probably cut the ratio in half again.

Coconut Brown Rice

Saw this at the demo booth at Trader Joe's the other day, except steamed long grain jasmine rice was used. The rice, when made this way, would complement a curry dish pretty well.

Ingredients

1 c. short grain brown rice, rinsed and drained
1 can (14 oz) coconut milk

Directions

In a heatproof bowl, combine coconut milk and brown rice. Stir to distribute liquid and grains of rice. Cover with a lid or aluminum foil. Bake for an hour at 375 degrees F. When the rice is done, fluff with a fork. If the rice looks a little runny, like there is still too much liquid, simply let the rice sit in the oven to cool. The rice will eventually absorb the excess liquid.

Fried Rice

This weekend I am in Chicago visiting relatives and it seemed like a good time to watch some food prep in action. While fried rice is a dish that anyone who knows how challenging leftover rice can be monotonous after a few reheats, fried rice takes some fresh ingredients (eggs, green onions, pork) and accommodates a LOT of leftover rice to make a very satisfying meal that feeds a lot of people. This particular batch made roughly 10 quarts of fried rice, feeding more than 10 adults and children, with plenty leftover. Sure, turning leftovers into more leftovers seems redundant, but fried rice stands on its own really well and can be reheated for lunch or an occasional snack.

Stir the rice to combine evenly while cooking.

Ingredients

2 tbsp vegetable oil

6 large eggs, beaten

1 tbsp soy sauce + up to 1/4 c water

2 bunches green onions, diced

1.5 pounds pork, small dice

Directions

In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, heat oil over medium heat and add the beaten eggs, green onions, and pork. Fry until the pork has lost its pinkness and the eggs are almost entirely cooked. 

Add all the leftover rice. Freshly made steamed rice does not work well in a recipe like this. You really need cooked rice made at least a day ahead. Add soy sauce while stirring the rice as it cooks. Really what you are doing in this step is bringing the rice up to the same temperature as the other ingredients. You can add some water to this mix to loosen up the rice, but don't add more than can be evaporated off.

Turn off heat and serve in small rice or soup bowls.

Oven-baked naan

The reason why packages of naan sell for $2.69 at Trader Joe's is because no one has the time to wait around for dough to rise for three hours before a meal. It's a bread that has a very short shelf life and this is because it tastes the best when piping hot and fresh from the oven. But, these reheat pretty well in the toaster the day after too. For today's experiment, I used ingredients that I had on hand. So, the yogurt inclusion isn't plain yogurt, it's vanilla whole milk yogurt. I like whole milk yogurts. The thickness and texture is very similar to Greek-styled yogurt. My pizza stone broke a few months ago (apparently it couldn't survive the self-cleaning setting of the oven), so I used the reverse side of a heavy baking sheet. Most of my bakeware, if it's not glass, is made of steel from the Baker's Advantage product line.

Freshly baked naan

Makes 4.

Ingredients

1 tsp yeast + 3/4 c. warm water (110 degrees F)
2 c. unbleached all purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
pinch of baking powder
2 1/2 tbsp yogurt
2 tbsp olive oil
bowl of water

Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine yeast and warm water. Let the yeast proof for about 10 minutes.

2. In a larger bowl, whisk together: flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Stir in yogurt and olive oil. Next, add the yeast-water liquid. Mix until the dough comes together.

3. With floured hands, knead the dough until it is smooth. Put dough into a clean bowl and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Let rise in a warm room for 3 hours, or until it has doubled in size.

4. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Punch down dough and divide into 4 equal portions. Roll each portion into a ball and set aside.

5. Dip dough ball into flour and roll out into a 1/4" thick oval shape on a clean kitchen towel. If you're using a baking sheet instead of a pizza stone, it's not necessary to preheat the sheet in the oven. Simply place the rolled out dough onto the sheet. As many as will fit on its surface with roughly 1" spacing.

6. Before putting the dough into the oven. Use your fingers to moisten the top of the naan with water. The added moisture help the dough from forming a hard pita-like crust. Bake for 4 minutes, flip the naan over and bake for an additional 1 minute. Remove from oven.

Fresh Mushroom Soup

A couple weeks ago I had the worst-ever bowl of cream of mushroom soup at Palomino's in Bellevue. There was no excuse for it. Certainly not on my part since I finished reading Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential that weekend, in which Bourdain clearly says what foods to avoid on certain days. For example, never order seafood on a Monday (because the fresh stuff comes in on Friday morning for F/Sa/Su). And, sure enough, the dungeness crab sliders that came with my soup were cold, soggy, tasteless, and ugh, the crab tasted like it was frozen and reheated a couple times. Never order cream of anything at a restaurant, he warns. That is because you can hide all sorts of things in a cream-based soup. Heck, if I can make a decent crab bisque with a meatless carcass, imagine what an experienced chef can do in the kitchen. Anyhow. Here's a much better rendition of mushroom soup.

Ingredients

8 oz fresh white mushrooms, sliced
1 qt organic beef stock
1 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp unbleached AP flour + 1 tbsp unsalted butter
3 tbsp organic white wine
1/4 c buttermilk, or cream
sea salt, freshly ground black pepper to taste
fresh parsley, chopped (optional, for garnish)

Directions

1. In a medium-sized pot, melt butter over medium heat and saute mushrooms until tender; about 5 minutes. Remove mushrooms from heat and set aside.

2. Add remaining butter and stir in flour. This will make a roux. The flour will clump together into a ball, but not to worry, it will smooth out once the broth is added. Speaking of which, gradually add the broth, whisking until the flour dissolves in the broth. Pour in the rest of the broth and add the wine. Return 2/3 of the mushrooms to the pot. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

3. Turn off heat and let the soup cool before using an immersion blender. The idea is to not purée the mushrooms, but to chop them up into little bits. Return remaining mushrooms to the pot along with the buttermilk, salt, and black pepper. Bring up to a boil for five minutes.

4. Remove from heat and ladle into bowls.

Corned Beef with Cabbage

This is the first year I haven't taken the lazy uninspired route of making this dish...which typically meant going to the grocery store and buying the corned beef already brined in a neat little package. What is a little distressing is that the spices I had to acquire for this dish costed almost as much as the brisket; and the meat was on sale for St Patrick's Day. This dish is an expensive cooking experiment (roughly $15 in ingredients, excluding spices already on hand). I hope I don't screw it up too badly. 

Brisket is a pretty unforgiving piece of meat that needs to be slow roasted for its connective muscle tissue to break down into delightful pleasures of eating. If you cook it too fast on high heat, the meat gets tough. If you cook it too slow on high heat, the meat is still tough. But, if you don't want to bother with basting the meat every 40-50 minutes while it roasts in the oven there is another modern convenience called the slow cooker; or as it says on my unit...a Crockpot. I am using Steamy Kitchen's recipe process for this because it looks really easy to do. One of my beer friends advised against using a Guinness dark beer so I am using Pike's Naughty Nelly artisan ale instead. No, I still don't drink beer. I don't care for bitter in my beverages, and while I love the smell of fermenting hops (smells like bread, go figure) it's just not for me. Beer is great in recipes though, like beer can chicken, steamed with clams or mussels, or in chocolate stout cupcakes.

Irish Soda Bread

Made Irish soda bread today. As I managed to get buttermilk-sticky flour and raisins all over my counter, the process reminded me of a forgetful baker who first conceived the recipe. At first, it is like making a biscuit dough, but then caraway seeds are added and then it seems like you're making rye bread but without the rye flour nor the yeast. You think a savory bread is going to be made until raisins are added. I divided the mass of dough into four portions and shaped them all into mini rounded soda bread loaves. A floured kitchen towel works really well for kneading sticky dough.

This ingredient ratio comes from the Seattle Times. Nearly all of the ingredients are represented, except for the heavy cream for the egg wash. I substituted buttermilk. In retrospect, two cups of raisins is too much for this recipe. There were so many unused raisins,  I had to stick the stragglers back into the dough. And, while baking, the dough pushed some of the raisins out to the surface. 

Ingredients

4 c. unbleached AP flour, sifted
1/4 c . organic granulated sugar
1/4 c. unsalted butter, cold
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp caraway seeds
2 c. organic seedless raisins
1 1/3 c. buttermilk
1 whole egg
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp buttermilk (for egg wash, optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

1. In a food prep: sift together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Cut in unsalted butter until coarse crumbs form.

2. Empty food prep into a large mixing bowl. Stir in caraway seeds until evenly distributed.

3. In a 2-cup measuring cup, mix together buttermilk, an egg, and baking soda. Pour into flour and stir to combine. Fold in raisins. Dough will be sticky.

4. Turn out dough onto a clean, floured kitchen towel. Knead a few times so that the dough comes together and shape it into a large ball; or divide into four equal portions. With a sharp knife or the edge of a pastry scraper, make a cross 1/4" deep in the center.

5. (optional) Brush bread with beaten egg yolk and buttermilk before baking.

6. If baking one large round, bake in a preheated oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes. If baking smaller rounds, bake for 50 minutes. 

Bell Pepper with Shitake Mushrooms

This is also pretty straightforward. I am writing it up as a post because I think the flavors taste good together. To rehydrate dried mushrooms, simply place them in a large bowl and add boiling water. Let them soak before using. The leftover liquid is mushroom dashi and can be used to flavor soups.

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients

3 large bell peppers, sliced into 1/2" pieces
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 c. dried shitake mushrooms, rehydrated
1 tbsp low-sodium natural soy sauce
sea salt, to taste
olive oil, for frying

Directions

1. In a large frying pan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. When the oil easily spreads across the bottom of the pan, add garlic and stir until lightly browned.

2. Add bell peppers and mushrooms and stir fry until the peppers have changed color. If using green bell peppers, the green with be a much richer lawn-green color. This should take no more than five minutes.

3. Season with soy sauce and sea salt while frying. Remove from heat and serve.

Foil baked trout

This is a pretty simple recipe and can be done in less than a half hour, provided that the trout is already gutted and cleaned. And, as long as the oil doesn't leak out of the foil packet, clean-up is easy. Assume serving size is one trout per person. I would recommend using olive oil on both sides of the fish to keep the skin from sticking to the foil.

Ingredients

1 trout, cleaned
fresh or dried herbs: thyme, parsley, garlic, poultry seasoning, whatever is available
lemon slices (optional)
unsalted butter, up to 1 tbsp
olive oil
sea salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. Tear out enough aluminum foil to wrap the fish in a rectangular package and lay fish, scored diagonally on both sides, in the center. Drizzle olive oil on both sides of the fish before adding herbs, salt and pepper.

2. Place two lemon slices, fresh/dried herbs, and butter inside the fish. You can also sprinkle a salt-free seasoning blend on both sides of the fish, or season with some sea salt and black pepper.

3. Wrap fish with aluminum foil and place on a baking tray. Bake for 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

Well, definitely this batch of cookie dough needs to be chilled before forming and baking. I did a test batch of six tablespoonfuls of batter onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and the cookies did what I thought they'd do. Melt and spread out into very thin discs. While they are tasty, the cookies did require more baking time than I thought, about 15 minutes, which gave the cookies a rich, dark brown color. Looks like rounded teaspoonfuls will have to be the measure for this ingredient ratio.

This is what happens when unchilled cookie dough is used.

Ingredients

1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 c. organic granulated sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar, lightly packed
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
3 c. old fashioned rolled oats
1 c. dried cranberries

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. In a food prep, cream butter and sugars together. Add eggs and vanilla extract. Blend together until well combined.

2. Add to the food prep, flour, salt and spices. Pulse until combined.

3. In a separate bowl, mix rolled oats and dried cranberries. Fold together with butter mixture.

4. Let the cookie dough chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before forming into rounded teaspoonfuls onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.

5. Bake for 10-15 minutes (depending on your oven), until the cookies are lightly browned.

6. Cool cookies on a wire rack before storing or eating.