Popovers

I've been making Popovers instead of serving buns or bread with the meal. Very tasty. I don't have Popover cups, so I use a pie plate instead. The result is kind of like a Welsh Pudding.

This recipie comes from Good Eats...

Put 1 tbsp of butter into a pie plate. Put the pie late into the oven and heat to 400F.

Mix 1 cups of milk, 2 eggs, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tbsp melted butter.

Now, mix in 1 cup of all purpose flour. I take a stick belder to it just until smooth-- about 30 seconds.

When the oven has finished heating, swirl the butter in the pie plate around. Pour the batter into the pie plate.

Let them bake for 40 minutes. Take out and stab holes into them to let the steam out.

The Joy of cooking has a few more suggestions....

Try using 1.5 cups of milk instead of 1 cup. Bake at 450F for 15 minutes and then 350F for 20 minutes.

If you want crispy Popovers, take the popovers out of the pie plate and put them on a wire rack. Turn the oven off and let the popovers sit in the oven for 10 minutes.

The Red House

410 Burnett Ave S, Renton.

So good and so affordable.

Wine is priced at retail plus a five dollar corking fee. You can have excellent wine for under $20.00!

Try the beets with sherry, garlic and Gorgonzola. I'm serious... try them. This dish elevates beets from Germanic side dish to great cuisine.

Tomato Soup.

Finely chop a carrot, a stock of celery and an onion. Sweat these in a sauce pan until soft.

Add 64 oz of diced & seeded tomatoes. Add 8oz of chicken stock.

Simmer for 30 minutes or pressure cook for 15.

Take a stick blender to soup to make it nice and smooth.

Season to taste.

Pressure Cooking

I received a new pressure cooker as a gift. Now, many slow cooked foods are practial week night dishes.

I made an excellent beef stock in under an hour. With thirty more minutes I turned the stock into a french onion soup which my partner claims is the best he has ever had.

Dried beens can cooked in under 35 minutes. If you presoak first, it takes less than 15 minutes.

Vegitarian.

Lately, I've been eating vegitarian every 2nd or 3rd night. This has two advantages. First, it's cheaper. Second, I enjoy my meat more. Cooked animal is even better if you didn't have cooked animal yesterday.

Pudding...

Coco powder, flour and corn starch often clump if you are not careful when mixing them into a liquid. You can avoid this problem by shaking them up in a large container, rather than mixing with a spoon or whisk...

Chocolate pudding...

In a sauce pan on medium heat, melt one tablespoon of butter.

In a large sealable container add...
half a cup coco powder.
half a cup sugar.
3 tablespoons corn starch.

seal the container and vigorously shake until combined.

Now pour two cups of milk into the container, quickly reseal it and vigorously shake some more

pour the mixture into the sauce pan. Stir often with a spatula. Don't walk away-- the mixture can quickly develope a thick layer on the bottom of the pan.

When the mixture starts to thicken and simmer, set the temperature to low and let simmer for one minute more.

Pour into four dishes

You can add some frozen fruit and serve hot, or put the dishes in the refrigerator and serve later cold.

Fritata

This turned out well. It takes about an hour to make, the it's worth it.

Put half a tbsp of butter and half a tbsp of oil into a pie plate.

Put the pie plate into an oven and heat to 400F. The idea is to heat the pie plate and oil up so that when the egg mixture hits it, a quick and thin crust will form to prevent sticking.

Break five eggs into a measuring cup. Add milk to bring the measure up to two cups. Wisk to combine.

Find a cup of filling-- I used left over vegitables-- and chop the filling into small pieces.

When the pie plate has heated up and the oil is popping, pull the plate out of the oven, swirl the oil and butter around to coat. Now, quickly pour the egg & milk into the pie plate. Don't mix or scrape the bottom.

Sprinkle the filling all over the eggs.

Cover with half a cup of grated cheese.

Bake at 400F for 40 minutes.

Rice Pudding.

Lately I've been taking left over rice and making rice pudding. Very taste. Very easy.

Take one cup of cooked rice.

Add three cups of milk and half a cup of sugar.

Heat on medium until a simmer is reached, then turn down to low.

Stir regularly to avoid burning.

When the milk is mostly absorbed, beat one egg with one third a cup of sugar.

Temper the egg & suger with one cup of the rice & milk-- that is, take a cup of rice & milk and slowly pour it into the egg & sugar, beating constantly. This will heat up the egg and prevent it from curdling.

Mix the egg & sugar back into the rice & milk.

Add half a teaspooon of vanilla extract.

Heat unti thickened.

Cool down.

For bonus points, make rice pudding brulee. Spoon the rice pudding into a bowl. Place a teaspoon of sugar ontop of the rice pudding. Take a blow torch to the sugar until it melts.

Crackers

You can make your own crackers. They taste good!

One cup flour-- or various flours. I've tried this with half amaranth flour plus half bread flower and half whole wheat, plus half bread.

half a teaspoon salt.

two tablespoons oil.

three tablespoons water.

one teaspoon seasonings. Any kind. Rosemary is good.

Mix everything together until it forms a ball. You may need to add more water.

Roll the ball out on parchment paper. Roll as thin as possible.

Bake at 400F for 15 minutes-- peek at 10 minutes to make sure nothing is burning.

Splenda.

Mmmmm Splenda. Sugar and chlorine together at last!

Seared Ahi with Finger Potatoes and Asparagus

Mark enjoyed this meal so much that he asked me to write it down so I could reproduce it again and again. The meal was seared ahi with finger potatoes and asparagus.

I marinated the ahi in

• 2tbsp sesame oil
• 2tbsp soy sauce
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp ginger.
• pinch of salt
• pepper

I seared the ahi at medium high heat for about 40 seconds a side.

I plated the ahi on a bed of lettuce and carrot strips with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

For the potatoes, I sliced each finger potate in half length wise, springled with oil and paramsan chease. I then roasted the potatoes for 40 minutes at 400F.

I roasted the asparagus for about 10 minutes at 400F. I served with a pat of butter.

More No Kneed Bread...

The bread recipie continues to evolve. I am now use dough from the old batch as a starter for the new. This way I don't need any yeast-- the last expensive ingredient.

In a large bowl mix until combined....

• 2 cups of bread dough starter
• 3 cups hot water (1ooF)
• 1 tbsp kosher salt.
• 1.5 cups whole wheat flour
• 5 cups bread flower

The dough doesn't need to be smooth. Just make sure there are no big flour clumps.

Pull off about 2 cups of the dough. This will be used as a starter for next time. Put the starter into a sealable container than can hold at least 4 cups.

Split the remaining dough into two lumps. Put each lump into a greased & floured bread pan. I cover the pans with plastic wrap.

Rest the dough and the starter in a warm spot, I use a heating pad. Let them raise till doubled.

After everything has risen, put everyting into the fridge for up to two weeks.

When you want bread, take a pan out and let it rest at room temp for about 30 minutes.

Put a broiler pan on the low rock in the oven and preheat to 450F.

Put a cup of hot water into the broiler pan. Put the loaf on the rack above it.

Bake for 30 minutes.

The Joy of Cooking calls this a mixed starter method. It says that over time the dough will take longer and longer to rise. Slow rises improve the taste. If the rise ever takes too long, you can boost things the next time by adding a teaspoon of yeast to the mix.

More bread.

The bred recipie is still evolving. I've reduced it, added some whole wheat flower and pour it into loaf pans for rising. This way, when I want fresh bread, I grab a pan and pop it in the oven.

Mix...

• 1 tbsp kosher salt.
• 1 tbsp yeast.

into

• 2 cups hot water (100F)

Add...

• 3 cups bread flour
• 1.5 cups whole wheat flour.

Mix until combined. I put all the ingredients into a large sealable container, shake and then stir a little to get rid of any flour clumps.

Split the dough between two loaf pans. Let it raise in a warm spot until more than doubled (Min of 2 hours). I use a heating pad since my home is on the cold side.

Put the loaves in the fridge for up to two weeks. Bake as before.

Next, I'm going to try eliminating the yeast and using some of the dough as a starter. This is covered in the "Joy of Cooking" under "Mixed Starters" so it should work. I'll have inexpensive and easy to make fresh bread whenever I want. Yum!

Chocolate Ganache

I am having great luck with ganache. Basically, you take a 50/50 mixture of dark chocolate and heavy cream, add sugar, mix, whip and serv.

Ch0p up 8oz dark chocolate.

In a sauce pan mix the chopped chocolate with 2 cups heavy cream and half a cup brown sugar.

Heat on medium until everything melts and mixes. About 170F.

Chill.

Whip.

This is very rich, so while it's great on it's own, it's better to team it up. Try banana's brule or berries.

I have had excellent results with the No Knead Bread recipie.

I am going to modify the recipie the following ways..

1. Instead of cutting off a piece of the dough, I'm going to raise and rest the dough in tin baking pans. This way, come baking time, I don't have to form the dough. I'll let it rest for 40 minutes and then bake.

2. I'm going to include whole wheat flour in the mix. First 1 cup whole weat and 5 cups bread flower. If that turns out well, I'll try 2 and 4 cups respectivly.

No Knead Bread.

I got this from the Splendid Table. It turned out great.

It's an easy to make dough that you keep in your fridge for up to two week. The originators claim that the taste of the bread improves if you age the dough in the fridge for a few days before baking. I had great results almost right away.

Combine... 1.5 tbsp of kosher salt. 1.5 tbsp yeast. 3 cups. 100F water. 6.5 cups bread flour. I put it all in large container, sealed the lid and then shook until everything was combined. I removed the lid and covered with a wet cloth. Then I wrapped the container with a heating pad on low and let the dough sit for about two hours. By that point it had tripled in volume. Then I put the container in the fridge and let chill for 5 hours.

To bake, put a pizza stone and a broiler tray in the oven and preheat to 450F

Hack off a piece of the dough, about the size of a grape fruit. Gently form it into a ball, trying not to squeeze out too many bubbles. Let the dough rest for 45 minutes.

Pour a cup of hot water into the broiler tray and slide the dough onto the pizza stone. Bake for 30 minutes.

Bananas Brulee

I love Bananas Brulee with ice cream. I can make it in about five minutes. It looks like and tastes like an expensive fancy dessert.

Split a banana into two. Set them flat side up. Sprinkle about a teaspoon of sugar on each banana. Whip out the blow torch and brulee just like a creme brule.

Add a scoop of ice cream.

Drizzle with a sauce, chocolate or caramel work well.

Stainelss Steel Pots and Pans

About a year ago, I switched away from non-stick pots to stainless steel. For the most part I like it. Stainless steel doesn't have to be handled carefully. You can poke with forks and flip and scrape with spoons without fear of scatching the non-stick coating.

Yes, sometimes the cleanup is more difficult. I was tought a trick by a friend. When food is stuck to the bottom of a pot, put a couple of teaspoons of dishwasher detergent into the pot, add some hot water and let it soak over night. By the next morning the food will be liberated.

We don't know why it works. It just does.

Creme Brule With a Blow Torch

For the first time I have made creme brule with a blow torche. I'm supprised how easy it is. Sugar easily turns to a nice caramel wafer when you add fire.

A word on blow torches-- while cheap is nice, make sure the blow torch you buy can handle being tilted. I bought a $10.00 torch. It makes the brule just fine, but it rapidly flames out if I tilt it more than fourty five degrees. This means I have to tilt the food instead which is difficult when the food is covered with sugar.

I am going to brule much more-- bananas and maybe even pizza by first baking the dough, then adding the toppings and applying fire.

Saar's Mart

I'm am very impressed with the Saar's grocery on Sunset. I'll admit that Saar's is a low-income now-frills chain and that from the outside, the Saar's store looks old and unkept. But, inside, it's all very clean, well stocked with good prices.

This particular Saar's makes it's own tortillas on premis. Yum!

The wine selection was excellet. The vegitables look great.

Now, a word on the meat. It was all very inexpensive. But, the beef appears to be unaged, sub choice cuts. Don't shop here if you are looking for a great steak. You will find a good roasts for slow cooking or hamburger. But, the pickings are slim if you want to eat rare.

Fortunatly Shawn & Ted's Quality Meat is not too far away.