Baguette

Ted Allen's baguettes

In a food processor, mix 3 1/4 cup bread flour, 1/4 cup whole wheat flour, 2 1/4 tsp kosher salt, 1 tsp dry yeast.  Mix.  With blade running, add 1 1/2 cups warm water and 1 tbsp olive oil.  Mix for 30 seconds.  Oil a large bowl, place dough (which will be sticky) in it and cover with saran wrap.  Let rise until doubled, about 3 hours.  

Flour your hands, scoop up dough and divide into 2 rectangles.  Cover and let rest 30 min.

Lightly dust peel with cornmeal.  Arange dough on peel.  Fold the dough lengthwise halfway onto itself, then fold the other side onto it and pinch it.  Roll until about 2 inches wide.  Repeat with the other.  Cover and let
 rest another 1-2 hours.  

Preheat oven for 30 minutes with stone at 450 degrees.

Mix 1 egg with 1 tbsp water.  Brush on dough.  Make 4 slits in top of each.  Slide onto pizza stone.  Spray bread and walls of oven with spray bottle of water (couple of squirts).  Bake 5 minutes.  Spray walls again.  Bake another 25 minutes.  Let cool.

They are not pretty, but they were tasty.

Chicken Paillards

Chicken Paillards with pancetta

This is based on a recipe from Ted Allen's In My Kitchen.  I really like this cookbook, so much in fact that I ordered it after I made his no knead bread.  It was delicious.  This was also good.  Sanford wants to try it with pork loin next, but I liked it with chicken.  He has a prejudice, maybe rightfully so, against boneless, skinless chicken breast.

Pound out 4 chicken breast to about 1/2 inch thick.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Beat one egg and brush the chicken with it.  Place 2 sage leaves on top and cover with one thin slice of pancetta.  Put in refrigerator for about 15 minutes or until ready to use.  Heat pan for about 5 min.  Add 2 tbsp olive oil.  Cook pancetta side down for 4-5 min or until crisp, turn and cook another couple of minutes.  I placed it in a 200 degree oven to finish cooking while I made the sauce.  Add 1 tbsp butter.  Then add 1 minced shallot.  Cook until soft.  Add 1 tbsp flour.  Cook, stirring, a couple of minutes.  Add 1/2 tsp thyme leaves and 1/4 cup white wine.  Cook a few minutes, stirring.  Add 1 cup chicken broth and 4 chopped sage leaves.  Cook until thickened.  Serve chicken on a pool of sauce.

Sunday night supper club: Greece

Hosted this month by the lovely Kingsley family. 

 Souvlaki from How to Cook a Lamb.  First brine the pork overnight with water, salt and sugar.  Then rinse and put in a marinade of 1/2 cup olive oil, bay leaf, dried thyme and rosemary, 3 smashed garlic cloves, chopped, 1/2 cup finely chopped onions, salt and pepper.  Leave in brine overnight.  Thread pork cubes on skewers and grill.

                                 Sanford loving on Sammy.

After dinner with Laura and Lise.

and Sammy and Trixie

and a little basketball with Olive.

Dri's delicious walnut cake, but I don't have a recipe...

Kurt's zucchini cakes, with the recipe below.

Kingsley's spanokopita

The Werth's brought a delicious Greek salad.

 Kurt's pita bread:
Mix 1 tbsp yeast with 1 1/2 cups warm water.  Mix in 3 tbsp honey.  Let sit a couple of minutes.  Stir in 1 cup whole wheat flour and enough white flour to make it a dough.  Knead until elastic.  Let rise until doubled in size (about 45 minutes).  Roll out and grill.

Eggplant Moussaka brought by Richard and Lise.

 Sammy's meatballs.  Greek Lemon/Egg meatballs.  For balls mix ground beef, parsley, mint, white rice, salt and pepper, eggs, garlic and chicken broth.  Cook meatballs in chicken stock for 45 minutes on low (crock pot).  For sauce:  mix lemon juice, eggs, and flour to thicken.  Temper sauce and add it to the meatballs.  Cook on low until thickend and meatballs and rice are cooked through.

Mary Beth's potatoes can be found at the link below:

 http://greek.food.com/recipe/ellinikos-lemoni-patatas-greek-lemon-potatoes-90822

Sunday night supper club: Brazil

This month's supper club was at the McGarity's.  The theme - Brazil.  It was one of my favorites so far!  The food was delicious.  I failed in a couple of ways.  I don't have recipes for most of the dishes and I didn't change the setting on my camera from food to people, so not very many good people pictures. 

Feijoada.  I loved this.  I am eagerly awaiting the recipe.  I watched Sanford have 3 helpings of this, then take home a large bowl.  Made by Dri's mom. 

Dri's roast pork to have along side her porky feijoada and topping of farofa with bacon.  Ahh, pork on pork with pork on the side.

The toppings:  a lovely tomato relish and farofa.  I need these recipes too Dri.

The secret flour for the cheese bread.

And the cheese balls, which were gone very quickly.  I don't think the recipe will ever make it to the general public.

Jill's empanadas.  The small ones with the crust from the recipe.  The big ones, my empanada dough from earlier in the blog.  Recipe can be found :  http://www.cookbrasil.com/empada.htm

 I loved this drink.  So much that I bought a bottle of the cachaca.  Mixed with lime.

I regret to say that I don't know who made the above food or have the recipes.  (I was a little late to the party).    First there was a cooked banana dish.  Then some cookies that were eaten quickly by the kids, then filled crepes, the bottom 2 were a similar soup with shrimp, cilantro and coconut milk, both very good.  Please put your recipes on here if you made the dish.

Sam's beautiful and tasty Brigadeiro.  

In a med saucepan over med heat, combine 2 tbsp cocoa, 1 tbsp butter and 1 can condensed milk.  Cook, stirring, until thickened, about 10 minutes.  Let cool enough to handle.  For small balls and roll in various toppings (cocoa, nuts, sprinkles,etc)

Mary Beth and Pete's Empadinha.

The Wilson's amazing flan.  Dri also pulled out a Tres Leches cake that was wonderful.  No pictures.  Too full to get up and get the camera.

The Werth's chicken pie.  This photo doesn't do the dish justice.  It was delicious.

Tracy and Alex brought this tasty salad.

Ribollita

I realized that when I made ribollita earlier in the year, I posted a picture, but no recipe.  I checked out "Essentials of Italian", found the recipe and I am making it again now.  Now I will post the recipe, so I don't have to go back to the library.

Ribollita:

Heat 1/2 cup olive oil in a large pot.  Add 1 chopped yellow onion, 2 chopped and peeled carrots, and 1 chopped celery rib.  Saute 4 minutes.  Add 1 cup coarsely chopped cauliflower.  Stir.  Add, stirring after each addition, 1 bunch sliced kale, 1 bunch sliced Swiss chard, 2 chopped zucchini, 1 large peeled and diced boiling potato.  Stir.  Add 3-4 cups cooked white beans.  Stir.  Add 1 tbsp minced fresh parsley, 1/2 tsp dried sage, and 1 tsp dried rosemary.  Add 2 1/2 quarts chicken stock.  Bring to a boil.  Simmer 30 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper. 

Preheat oven to 425.

Ladle enough soup into a 91/2x13 pan to cover bottom.  Top with thinly sliced day old ciabatta.  Add another layer of soup, sprinkle with parmesan cheese, then lay more bread , soup, cheese and repeat for a 3rd layer.

Bake 20 minutes.  Drizzle with olive oil and serve.

Italian sausage with little Italian hot pockets.

 I decided to have another go at Italian sausage.  I liked the last one I made from the Charcuterie book, but I wanted more oomph.  Since I am not adding fat back to my sausage, just using pork shoulder steaks, I felt like I needed to up the seasoning.  I also used pork steaks from the MU meat lab which had more fat along the edges than the steaks at the grocery store.  The result was just what I was looking for! 

 

Cut up 2 1/2 pounds of pork shoulder steaks.  It is easier to do if they are semi-frozen still.  Then season with 4 tsp salt, 1 1/2 tbsp garlic powder, 1 1/2 tbsp fennel seeds, a bunch of ground black pepper (I didn't measure from the pepper mill), 3/4 tsp red pepper flakes, 2 tsp oregano, 1 1/2 tsp sage, 2 tsp thyme.

 Put through meat grinder.  There will be extra spices in the bowl.  Add them to the ground pork.  Attach the paddle to the kitchen aid.  Stir, adding 2 tbsp red wine vinegar and 1/4 cup cold water.  Mix for about 2 minutes.  Cook a little in a pan and taste for seasoning.   At this point you can stuff them or I just divided them into 1/4 pound patties and froze them.

But first I had to cook with it.  I decided to make an "Italian empanada" since I am in love with those little hot pockets.  I don't think that I can call this a calzone, because I think that needs pizza dough which is a yeast dough.  Anyway, whatever you want to call this is fine.  I loved it.

"Italian hot pocket"    

The dough:  Basically the same as the empanada but I substituted semolina flour for the masa and olive oil for canola oil.

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup semolina flour

1/2 tsp baking powder 

1/2 tsp salt

Stir while adding:

1/4 olive oil.

1/2 cup hot water.

Form into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerator 20-30 minutes.

Filling:  Saute the 1 cup of italian sausage.  Add 4 chopped scallions, chopped red and yellow bell pepper, 5 thinly sliced mushrooms, 4 minced garlic cloves.  Saute til soft.  Add a couple of handfuls of thinly sliced spinach.  Saute til wilted.  Season with salt and pepper.  Turn off heat.  Stir in several leaves of basil, thinly sliced and some parmesan cheese.  ( I was going to add ricotta, but when I opened the container it was moldy.  Still good without it.)  Let cool.

Divide the dough into 10 balls.  Roll out into 4 inch diameter.  Put filling on 1/2.  Fold over and crimp with fork.  Place on greased cookie sheet.  Repeat with the rest of the dough.  Poke a few holes in the top of the dough.  Use an egg wash of 1 egg and a tbsp of water to brush on the top.  Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.

My plan is to make quite a few of these and freeze them for snacks for the boys.  So far they haven't lasted long enough to make it to the freezer.

Ribolitta and steak, biscotti

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