Seahawk Cookies and Breakfast Dinner

Today's cooking activities are fairly self explanatory. This afternoon I baked Seahawks colored M&M and chocolate chip cookies in preparation for the Super Bowl tomorrow. I used peanut butter Ms which disperse a nice peanut butter flavor through the cookie. And for dinner tonight? A little breakfast love. Eggs, bacon and a croissant!

 

National Croissant Day

January 30, 2015 is National Croissant Day! What better time to finally try making croissants? This was the third day of preparation. I started by rolling out the dough to be approximately 8x44 inches.

 

Divided into triangles.

 

 

Once rolled into the correct shape, I allowed the croissants to proof for two hours. Some of the croissants I left plain and a few were filled with chocolate. The chocolate ones aren't bent into the crescent shape.

 

The croissants are egg washed twice. One before proofing and once just before baking.

 



 

They browned up a little faster than they should have so I decreased the oven temperature by about 15 degrees. Our oven is kind of small and sometimes it heats weirdly.

 

 

 

 

The texture was amazing. So light, flakey and tender. Picking one up was like handling buttered air. I couldn't be more pleased with how my first croissant attempt turned out and will definitely be making these again. The recipe I followed can be found here.

 

 

Mulligatawny Soup

Mulligatawny is an Indian soup. Jason made ours with carrot, onion, celery, various spices and coconut. The soup was served with a dollop of yogurt and cilantro. The spice palate reminded me of other Indian dishes we've had recently. I only wish that I'd had a chance to make some fresh naan to go with it. The more Indian cuisine I have, the more I like it. It's just so flavorful, and quite frankly so different from a lot of other tastes, that the change is very refreshing.



The reason I didn't make naan is because I am on day two of my croissant project. Tonight I pounded out a square of butter and folded it into the dough. Once the butter was incased, I rolled out and folded the dough in thirds three times. Tomorrow will be the moment of truth. Hopefully, they'll turn out great.

 

 

 

Simple Food

I am tired. Today, I ran six miles, shoveled horse manure, blocked a hole in the pond bank, scrubbed the bathtub and hacked out a new walking trail on the property. Simple and easy was the goal for cooking tonight. I lightly fried a bunch of chicken thighs and made mashed potatoes. There was also a little cornbread leftover from yesterday. The chicken cooked 10 mins in a cast iron skillet on the stovetop and then in the oven at 350 degrees for another 40 mins. For some reason I first turn the oven on to 425 which happens to be the temperature a Papa Murphy's pizza bakes at. Coincidence? I think not.

After eating I started the dough to make croissants. The first step is just a mixing of ingredients. The entire process stretches over three days. I have been curious about making croissants in the past. When I saw a sign at the local Starbucks advertising January 30th as National Croissant Day it seemed like the perfect time to try them out.

Black Bean Soup

Jason makes a simple black bean soup. It's a pound of black beans, eight cups of water and about a tablespoon of salt. Cook until the beans are tender, approximately four to six hours. The soup is then topped with fresh ingredients of your choosing. We used purple onion, jalapeno, cilantro and queso fresco.

Hush Puppy, It's a Catfish

I wasn't born there but, I really like Louisiana food. Something I have made a few times now is the catfish po'boy. Po'boys may also be known as such things as a sub sandwich or a loaf. I tend to use catfish in the sandwich for no better reason than I like how it tastes. The catfish is pan fried, placed on the French bread loaf and topped with coleslaw and possibly pickles, if you're into that sort of thing. I also experimented with homemade hushpuppies this time. I once, many moons ago, attempted to make hushpuppies from a box mix. It didn't go well. Tonight was much better. Excellent dough consistency and nice flavor. It's about three hours post dinner and I'm still stuffed.

Carbonara Fruitcake

Spaghetti alla Carbonara and fruitcake have absolutely nothing to do with each other except that they both attended the same party in my stomach. The first is a rich Italian pasta dish. It's like someone said "Let's have breakfast for dinner and hey we have wine too!" and carbonara was born. A sauce of white wine, eggs, bacon, olive oil and cheese gets stirred onto the hot pasta. There is enough heat off the pasta that the eggs get cooked. If you haven't tried it yet, I highly recommend you do.

Fruitcake. Jason and I were talking about foods with a bad reputation one day (meatloaf, fruitcake etc). Fruitcake is the butt of jokes. It's that Christmas present that nobody wants. Hard as a rock and flavorless, I've heard it makes a mighty fine doorstop. But, if fruitcake really is so bad, why did it ever get made more than once? It's full of dried fruit which doesn't come cheaply, so we had to think there was something to it that made people want to repeat the experience. Homemade meatloaf is awesome too.

 

We found a fruitcake recipe with great reviews for a little post Christmas holiday cheer. I have to say it is wonderful. Full of flavor and spice, it is the exact opposite of what fruitcake is made out to be. We wondered how long it might maintain its quality, but I don't think any of it will be around long enough for us to find out.

 

 If you need more fruitcake love, there's always the Jimmy Buffett song "Fruitcakes". He may be talking about people though and not the edible variety.

 

Half baked cookies in the oven
Half baked people on the bus
There's a little bit of fruitcake left in everyone of us

Carbs + Cheese

 

I like carbs. No, scratch that. I love carbs. Tonight's meal had a little carb on carb action. I made four smallish loaves of "no-knead crusty white bread" and crispy risotto cakes out of Wednesday's leftover risotto.

 

 

This was my first time making this particular recipe and I was pleased with the results. It is possible to let the dough sit in the refrigerator for several days to further develop flavor, but I had to make it in a shorter time frame today. There were about four hours of total rise time. If you're interested in trying it out yourself, you can follow this link to the recipe.

 





To create the risotto cakes I took the leftover risotto and shaped them into medium size cakes. I then added about a tablespoon of mozzarella in the middle of a cake and hid the cheese inside. Dipped the cake in an egg wash and bread crumbs and fried until golden brown.

"Waiter, there is too much pepper on my paprikash."

Or at least that's what they say in "When Harry Met Sally". Dinner tonight was chicken paprikash and French bread. Jason made the paprikash and I made the bread. Paprikash is a Hungarian dish but, it actually reminded me a lot of coq au vin, which is French. It has the same general idea of stewing chicken in an awesome wine based sauce. In truth though, the two dishes taste nothing at all alike. That could be because there is almost as much paprika as there is wine in the paprikash.

Risotto

A couple of months ago, I came across the recipe for risotto in one of my books. I would have tried it then, but I didn't have any white wine and we live in a dry county. This week, we are concentrating on recipes with white wine in them. The bottle is opened up and it won't stay fresh forever. I made the basic recipe which needed about 50 minutes of cooking time. Once finished, I topped with roasted squash, zucchini and tomato and a few shaves of parmesan. Later this week, I'll use the leftovers to create crispy risotto cakes.

Irish Heritage

Jason has Irish ancestry. Sometimes, when I ask really nicely, he'll talk with an "Irish" accent (bogus) - which I very much enjoy hearing. Tonight, he made colcannon soup. I don't have the pronunciation done, so it's good that this is typed. The soup is a combination of cabbage, potatoes, onion and leeks with bacon and chives as a garnish. He substituted in green onions for the chives since they were on hand. I made a grilled cheese sandwich with a little Tillamook cheddar as a companion piece and had a bottle of Bedford's Ginger Beer to drink. Bedford's is a soda company out of Port Angeles, Washington where I lived last year. P.S. I didn't take the time to bake bread for the sandwich and yes I do feel a little guilty using store bought. In my defense, it needed to be used up.

When It Doesn't Quite Work

I have been lucky in that most of my cooking experiments have turned out reasonably well. I did once singe a bunch of sweet potato fries but that's a different story. Tonight, I attempted to make "Catfish in Salty-Sweet Caramel Sauce". The recipe is straight forward - add this, mix that. It's also a really brief process compared to a lot of things. The entire list of ingredients and instructions only consumes half a page. Somewhere along the way, something must have gone wonky. The sauce refused to thicken. I gave it more time. Nothing. Adjusted the heat. Still no luck. After maybe 15 extra minutes of cook time I had to face that this was the best it was going to get. What resulted was decidedly Asian tasting and Asian smelling (as it was supposed to be) but, I can't help but feel I missed a certain glow that would have gone with a well thickened caramel sauce.

BURGR - Gordon Ramsay

Among the mere facade, panache, and decadence that is Sin City there is a humble eating experience in that of which I have partaken. Back on the twelfth night of November in 2014 I was intrigued by the opportunity to eat at a Gordon Ramsey established restaurant called BURGR. Now, I am not an avid Ramsey fan, but I have watched a number of his television programs and have noted his reputation as a world renowned chef and restaurateur. Everything I have seen and know of Mr. Ramsey would not come to my description of him being humble and would reflect quite the opposite. However, hamburgers, being a staple fastfood cuisine, are quite humble. So how does Gordon Ramsey approach the hamburger. I had to try it, but how does one approach such an experience when they have eaten countless hamburgers. Do I assume this will be the best burger I've ever eaten or do I compare it to what I know of other burgers. I needed this experience to be unique yet with elements that I was familiar with eating. Due to my years of experience foraging, cooking and eating chanterelle mushrooms I chose to have the Chanterelle Burger.

 

The menu at BURGR was not easy to choose from other than it seemed appropriate that I indeed have a burger. From the eleven selections given, not including the Fish & Chips Burger or The Hog Burger, it was difficult for me to choose between the American Burger and the Chanterelle Burger. All the options would have been wonderful, I am sure, but I needed a test. I knew this was a fine dining experience and I needed to compare it to previous knowledge despite my lack of opportunity with fine cuisine. The Chanterelle Burger ultimately was my choice due to my experience with the subtle flavors of this mushroom. The burger had, aside from the mushrooms, arugula lettuce and a fig-onion jam. I had my concerns that the lettuce or the jam could over power the chanterelle flavors, but I had faith that since Gordon Ramsey put his name to the restaurant that it had to be good. I ordered onion rings as a side. What came to me met expectation and yet it was so simple. There were no fireworks or sparklers. No jugglers on rollerskates swallowing swords. What came was a burger with a sesame seed bun on a square white plate. It was beautiful and I loved it. The onion rings were more flashy in the metallic cone in which they were served. It simply stated 'this is it'.

                                                                                    

 

Well, I see no need to praise Gordon Ramsey or the BURGR establishment. I would however like to thank them for the best burger eating experience of my life. The bun was excellent, fresh yet firm that yielded to each bite and not over powering any part of the experience. My fears of overpowering flavors were cast aside as the flavors of my beloved chanterelle mushrooms were complimented. They were enhanced and centalized with the balance of flavors of the smoky beef, sweet onion and fig with the spicy arugula. The meat was cooked perfectly to my request. Yes, the onion rings were the best I had ever had also, but it was the simplicity and amazing experience of the burger that put all other burgers to judgement. As a burger enthusiast this burger, unless I come across another, is the standard by which all others will be measured. In this I have been humbled.

 

Jason

 

Leftover Night

An evening of leftovers is relaxing, useful and necessary at times. Sure, you may end up eating zigni, cold pizza and dry roasted peanuts at the same meal, but you also create fewer dishes. Since washing dishes is one of my least favorite things, I greatly appreciate the trade off. Tonight, we'll relax. Perhaps watch an episode on Netflix. The Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl and I see hot wings in the future.

Okonomiyaki is a Wonderful Word

So many syllables! Okonomiyaki, also called a Japanese pancake, is both fun to say and a pleasure to eat. Basically, it's cabbage plus batter and what could be a variety of toppings and ingredients. Ours contained cabbage, carrots, zucchini, and green onions. They were topped with mayo, Worcestershire sauce, bacon and a sprinkling of green onion.

Last Night's Zigni

For dinner last night, Jason cooked up a meal we had in last spring's "Pancake Week". There was zigni (beef stew), injera (the pancake bread) and atakilt wat (the cabbage). While I enjoy the combination of the three, the spices of the zigni send me into an almost euphoric state. It was wide eyed happiness with my stomach cheering on my mouth. Once I came down from my high and eyeing other people's plates, I really wanted a nap.

Ginger Beer by The Ginger People

Admittedly, I like ginger a lot. In my younger days Canada Dry was my ginger ale of choice. Lately, I've sought out stronger and stronger ginger beverages which brought me to the ginger beer neighborhood. The absolute strongest, most flavorful, sit up and take notice drink I've found is The Ginger People's Ginger Beer. They actually put ginger juice in it which gives it that extra kick. If you do try Ginger Beer remember to turn the bottle upside down and mix it. Otherwise, the bottom is going to have a lot more attitude than the top. A word of warning - this drink is probably not for the casual ginger enthusiast.

The Ginger People - Ginger Beer

It's All About the Bun

In an effort to return to this food blog project of mine, may I ask that we consider the hamburger. I have eaten good, bad, blah and way to many condiments. In my opinion, what takes a good burger to great all rests with the bun. Store-bought, dried-out, or gummy can completely change my opinion about an otherwise nice assembly. Seriously, the bun should never stick to the back of my teeth while I'm eating. An in-house or homemade bun has no comparison. The bread is what truly makes or breaks the burger.