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Thu, 16 Aug 2018 04:42:58 +0000
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Avocado toast salad
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Wed, 15 Aug 2018 06:44:27 +0000
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I’m on a bit of an (intentional) microorganism kick in the kitchen lately. I’ve been watching a lot of It’s Alive. My cultured butter was aggressively unphotogenic, and the half-sour pickles in the fridge are of slight concern to me because I realize that my container isn’t truly airtight. But, my sourdough starter is still kicking! It’s a little sleepy these days, but I was able to rouse the starter enough to make a modest loaf last week.
Whenever I make a loaf of sourdough, or whenever I pick up a bag of avocados from Costco, my entire week then becomes focused around maximizing how much I can reasonably eat bread and/or avocados. If I manage to match up the times that I have a loaf of quickly-staling bread and quickly-mushing avocados, then we enter a harmonious avocado toast season. And, now, “avocado toast salad” season! I really do like to salad all the things, but this is a fun one, I promise! Salad greens+ a handful of warm za’atar croutons + pickled red onions + a medium-boiled egg + half an avocado. If your onions are already pickled and you’ve got bread handy, this meal comes together in like 15 minutes.
Avocado toast salad
1 slice of crusty bread
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons za’atar (or more to taste)
pickled red onion
1 egg
1/2 avocado
salad greens or spinach
Preheat your oven (or small toaster oven) to about 400˚F and put some water on to boil.
Cube the bread and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle on za’atar (and additional salt to taste, if your za’atar does not already include salt). Toast the bread while you prepare the other ingredients, until it’s your preferred crouton texture — I like mine crusty on the outside but still soft on the inside.
Once your water is boiling, carefully add the egg. Boil the egg for ~7 minutes (time varies a bit depending on the size of your egg and how cold it was) for a medium-boiled egg. Just before assembling the salad, slice the egg in half
Slice your avocado into thin slices, cubes, tiny “pixels,” whatever you want.
Assemble the salad.
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Strawberry shortcake stack
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Thu, 02 Aug 2018 01:56:08 +0000
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Hello from the sky! The monitor on the seatback tells me that I am somewhere over Kansas right now, or maybe the most eastern part of Colorado? The map is small. I’m heading back to California from a whirlwind East Coast trip, where I slept in 4 different locations (including in the middle of a triple-decker bunk bed), ate Xi’an food twice, cried approximately 30 times at a wedding, and got a dear friend into Jane the Virgin.
My dinner today is strawberry Pocky (don’t worry, I’m very fed, see above double Xi’an spicy noodles), which are very fun on a plane when I can’t really taste anything, so the sweet + crunchy is amazing. When not on a plane, and making a mess, carrying liquids, and having enough space to straighten my arms aren’t concerns, I love strawberry shortcake. For a while, I had this confused with shortbread (also a fan, and also, names are confusing). But fresh strawberries and cream biscuits and whipped cream? It’s the food of dreams. Make it now, while strawberries are all over the place!
Strawberry Shortcake Stack
Adapted slightly from NYT Cooking
2 pints strawberries (washed)
Shortcake:
1/4 cup sugar
4 cups flour
3 Tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup butter, slightly softened
Whipped cream:
3 cups whipping cream
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Hull (I use the paring knife method) and slice the strawberries into half or quarters, depending on their size. Sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar over the berries and gently turn over with a spoon. Allow them to macerate like this for at least 30 minutes while you make the rest of the ingredients.
Preheat the oven to 450˚. Prepare a cutting board by lightly dusting it with flour.
Sift together your dry ingredients – flour, sugar, salt, baking powder. Separate out 3/4 of your butter and add it to your dry ingredients, working it in with a pastry cutter or a fork, or with your hands (quickly). The mixture will look like coarse sand once the butter is combined.
Add the 1-1/4 cups of the cream and gently knead together with your hands, working the dough as little as possible. Gently knead the dough just enough so that it is mostly uniform, then roll it out onto your floured cutting board into a 1/2 inch thick slab.
Use a biscuit cutter, if you have one (I used a mason jar because I am a millenial) to cut into rounds — around 8 of them.
Line a baking sheet with a baking mat or parchment. Melt the leftover 1/4 butter.
Place one shortcake round on the baking sheet, then brush it with a little butter. Top it with another shortcake round. Repeat until the shortcake rounds are done. It’s not a big deal if you have one left over without a buddy… that one can be a taste test! Brush the top rounds with some butter for good measure.
Bake 10-15 minutes, until the tops are lightly golden brown and the bottoms have some color. Remove from oven when done and set aside until you’re ready to serve.
Add the remaining tablespoon of sugar to the remaining cream. Add the vanilla extract and beat until it forms a loose whipped cream.
When you are ready to serve, bring it all to the table and pull apart the shortcakes, layering with berries and cream (however each eater would like).
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Two chocolate chip cookies from the Internet
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Mon, 02 Apr 2018 14:39:04 +0000
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These are actual topics from my Google app feed, which apparently uses “web & app activity” to guess topics of interest for me:
– cookie
– butter
– cream
– cake
– The Bachelor
I am not sure how to feel about the fact that Google has somewhat accurately pegged me as a cartoon character who dreams of desserts while desperately looking for Internet strangers with whom to belatedly freak out over The Bachelor finale.
I do know that I spend a lot of time looking at photos of chocolate chip cookies on Instagram. So, I made the two Internet-famous cookies.
First up, the pan banging cookies from The Vanilla Bean Blog. I’d admired these pretty rippled cookies for possibly years before finally making them… I’m pretty loyal to the brown butter choc chip cookies and also really like the ones from Seven Spoons. But the pretty ripples and promises of crinkly, crisp edges and a soft, chewy center lured me in. I found these slightly too sweet for my taste, in the end, and not as soft in the middle as I’d hoped. I’ll note that I did not make them as big as in the recipe (1/3 cup of cookie dough each!), which I think greatly contributed to my texture woes. But they sure are photogenic! I brought them to a high school classroom where I volunteer, and they were completely inhaled, so my tastes may be in the minority.
Pan Banging Rippled Chocolate Chip Cookies
From NYT Cooking
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter at room temperature
1-1/2 cups granulated white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1-1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (at least 60%), chopped
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter until fluffy. Add in the sugars and beat until fluffy again. Add the egg and vanilla, mixing on low until combined.
Mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt, and add it to the butter mixture, mixing by hand until just short of combined. Add the chocolate pieces and finish mixing until just combined.
Preheat the oven to 350˚F.
Line 2 pans with parchment paper. (I found that these cookies did not work very well with silicon mats.)
Scoop large cookies, leaving a lot of room in between for spreading. With cookies that were about 2 Tablespoons, I could fit ~6 on a baking sheet. The recipe suggests 1/3 cup of cookie dough; I imagine even 4 cookies would be stretching it, then.
Chill the baking sheet – with cookie dough – in freezer for 15 minutes.
While the first baking sheet is chilling, prepare the second sheet.
Once the first baking sheet is done chilling, place in the preheated oven. Wait 8-10 minutes – until the center of the cookies are puffy, but the edges are set. Lift the baking sheet a few inches off the rack and let it fall (pan bang), until the centers fall down.
Repeat this every 2 minutes or so, as soon as the centers puff up. Remove when the cookies have baked a total of 13-16 minutes, when the insides are still quite soft. The cookies will finish baking on the sheet. I couldn’t resist sprinkling these with a little salt.
You can continue, switching out pans and preparing one pan during the other’s 8-10 minute first bake, until the dough is done.
Of course, I couldn’t resist finishing with a little salt.
The next cookies, salted chocolate chunk shortbread cookies from Alison Roman’s Dining In, I knew I had to make the moment I saw them. Shortbread? With salt sprinkled on top? And rolled in turbinado sugar? I knew I’d be obsessed with this cookie. I just had to wait until I was sure I could bring most of the recipe to work or an event to avoid eating 2+ sticks of butter. These cookies didn’t disappoint, for me. They’re dense and extremely buttery, and the salt and sugar make them crunchy as well as crispy. I don’t think these replace my preferred classic choc chip cookie recipes, but they are amazing. I think of them as more similar to Dorie Greenspan’s world peace cookies.
Salted Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookies
From NYT Cooking
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter (preferably salted), at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1/4 light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
6 ounces semisweet chocolate (at least 60%), chopped
1 large egg, beaten
turbinado sugar, for rolling – about 1/4 cup
flaky salt, for sprinkling
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, both sugars, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add the flour and chocolate chunks and mix on slow (or by hand) until combined. You may need to use your hands to knead the dough to coax it into combining. Don’t worry if it’s a little crumbly! The cookies are forgiving, and they’ll firm up a bit in the fridge.
Divide the dough in half, dumping each half onto a large piece of plastic wrap. Roll half the dough into a long log, using the plastic wrap to guide. I made my cookies pretty small, so my log was about 10 inches long, and the cookies were 1 to 1-1/2 inches in diameter. Repeat with the other half of the dough.
Refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven for 350˚F.
Brush the outside of the dough with the beaten egg. Roll the log into the turbinado sugar.
Using a serrated knife or very sharp chef’s knife, carefully cut the log into 1/2 inch slices. You may need to wiggle or gently saw if you hit a chocolate chunk (or simply re-assemble a cracked cookie).
Place them on parchment or silicon-lined baking sheets with 1 inch between (they don’t spread very much at all). Sprinkle with flaky salt, and bake for 12 minutes or so, until the edges are barely browned.
Let the cookies cool before eating; they really are better cooled!
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Vegetarian Pho Bowls
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Thu, 22 Mar 2018 14:54:13 +0000
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I’m into the idea of saunas right now. I’m not sure if it’s because the NYT told me that they’ll be good for blood pressure or because I’m chronically cold, so the idea of being surrounded by hot salt is extremely appealing, or what. The persistent dreary weather is contributing for sure. I don’t go all that often, though, despite passing by the steam room at the gym constantly.
I also have some open questions regarding the salt room. Are you allowed to touch the salt wall? If you have wet hands, does this means the wall rubs away after a while? Could I sample it like it’s a deer lick, and I’m a deer? Would it work to cook on them like a kitchen salt block? What do the kids actually mean when they say they are “salty?”
Due to these and more questions, I have been settling for my at-home sauna, which is… making pho broth and placing my face over the gingery scented steam. Yum. Omitting meat from pho definitely changes the taste; this recipe won’t imitate the taste of beef or chicken. It’s much more ginger-forward and spicy instead of savory. It’s a lot faster to make and feels lighter. Compared to restaurant pho, this pho is much less salty, and the flavor of the spices comes through more. If I’ve got leftover chicken from something, I usually make a broth and then sub the broth for the water in this broth… also quite good.
Vegetarian Pho
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
2 yellow onions, with peels
Thumb-sized knob of ginger
2-3 quarts water
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons sugar
Some of these spices: Cinnamon stick, star anise, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, cloves
1/4 cup fish sauce
2-3 servings of rice noodles (I like the brown rice ones from Star Anise Foods.)
2 cups of chopped green vegetables like bok choy
6 oz tofu, raw or baked
3 limes, halved or quartered
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
2 green onions, sliced
1 jalepeno, thinly sliced
2-3 handfuls of bean sprouts or other fresh/crunchy vegetable (I used thinly sliced fennel, which I had on hand)
Hoisin sauce
Sriracha
Preheat your oven to 400˚F. Rub a bit of vegetable oil on a small baking sheet. Quarter the onions and slice the ginger, arranging on the baking sheet. Char in the oven for 20-30 minutes, until the tips of the onion are charred and the vegetables are soft.
Boil onion, ginger, spices (you can use a tea strainer to keep the spices tidy), salt, and sugar in the water for at least 30 minutes, adjusting salt as needed. Add the fish sauce to taste after.
While the broth is boiling, parboil your noodles and green vegetables. I usually do this by arranging the noodles in a bowl and pouring hot (not boiling) water over them and letting them sit until “al dente.” For the vegetables, blanch them by submerging in boiling water for a few minutes (until bright green) and then immediately removing. Run cold water over the vegetables to stop the cooking.
When the broth is ready and all your toppings are prepared, assemble your bowls. Add a small bundle of noodles, vegetables and tofu to taste, and pour very hot broth over the bowl. Top with cilantro, green onions, jalepeno, and a squeeze of lime. Serve with hoisin sauce, Sriracha.
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Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie
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Wed, 14 Mar 2018 16:55:29 +0000
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I seem to be talking a lot about oatmeal these days. I remain an advocate of savory oatmeal as an important part of breakfast rotation (with soy sauce and a fried egg; technique from Mom). There was an extended conversation about the place porridge has in the Millennial diet during which I’d drank so much coffee that I was slightly yelling and slightly frothy. And, relatedly, I declared oatmeal as “basically the same” as grits when I was trying to make a point about breakfast mushy foods. I’m really fun to converse with, basically.
This isn’t even including oatmeal in desserts (which I’m for, for the record). I decided to make this black bottom oatmeal pie for Pi Day at the last minute. It’s very good, and I have never deviated from the Elsen sisters’ recipe — very rare for me. It is kind of like a giant oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, as all the descriptions read. It’s also an unfussy pie (don’t let the double layers of filling scare you). The ganache layer on the bottom is forgiving since it’s not visible, and the oatmeal/custard layer comes together in one bowl and bakes up evenly. There’s no second rolling of a crust or too much liquid to worry about. And it smells so good while it’s baking.
And, bonus, if you bring it in to your office, you get to talk at your coworkers about, you know, how oatmeal works conceptually in pies.
Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie
From The Four and Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book, via Food52
1 single pie crust, rolled and placed into a pie tin (I used my usual buttermilk pie crust from Joy the Baker)
1-1/2 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup heavy cream
4 oz 70% or more chocolate, chopped into small pieces
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 Tablespoons melted butter
1 cup dark corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
4 large eggs
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Parbake your pie crust for 15 minutes using pie weights. Beat one egg and brush the pie crust bottom with the egg and return to the oven for 1-2 minutes, uncovered, just to set the egg. Save the rest of the egg for the filling.
Lower the temperature of the oven to 350°F. Spread the oats out on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until they smell… toasty, around 12 minutes. Set aside to cool while you make the filling
Make the ganache by bringing the cream to just under a boil using medium heat in a saucepan. Remove the saucepan from the heat, pour in the chocolate pieces, and let it sit for a few minutes to melt the chocolate. Stir gently until the ganache is smooth. Spread the ganache onto your pie crust evenly, and place the pie crust in the freezer to set the ganache.
In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar, ginger, salt, and melted butter, whisking until combined. Add the corn syrup, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar, whisking again.
Beat all 4 eggs (including the egg you saved from the beginning) and add a little at a time, whisking to combine. Stir in the cooled oats.
Retrieve the pie shell from the freezer and place on a baking sheet. Carefully pour in the oatmeal filling.
Bake in the oven for 50 minutes to an hour, rotating midway through. The pie is done when the edges are slightly puffed, and the center is not liquidy but still has some give.
Pie should be cooled completely before serving. A little finishing salt is very good on this pie.
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Fifty Shades Freed recap
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Wed, 07 Mar 2018 04:24:37 +0000
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I saw Fifty Shades Freed in a theater by myself on a Tuesday night because I’m a grown lady, and I do what I want. It was immensely entertaining and easily worth whatever portion of my $10/month movie subscription it gets. It is a brilliantly incoherent movie made up of random bits of schizophrenic movie interspersed between sex scenes.
The movie opens with Christian and Ana’s wedding. It’s pretty short, unlike in Breaking Dawn, because we want to get right to the hanky panky. In fact, they actually leave their own wedding when Christian whispers to her while they are dancing, “Let’s get out of here. I’m tired of sharing you with the riff raff.” And they just peace, whereupon we are treated to the first Red Flag of the movie. Wthey get to their private jet, Ana asks, “Wait, is this yours?” So I guess that particular asset hadn’t come up before the nuptials.
During their honeymoon is that Christian “won’t let” Ana take her top off at a topless beach (Red Flag #2) which is controlling in the most basic way. It’s all very yawn until Ana protests with, “It’s boobs in boobland!” This profoundly stupid line is very charmingly delivered by Dakota Johnson, and I am smitten. She does take her top off at some point, I forget. After this follows an inevitable disciplinary
When they return, Ana goes to work and finds that, while she’s been away, she has been promoted, and her office has been redecorated, I guess, as a part of the promotion? I find this so confusing that I keep thinking it will turn into a plot point, but it doesn’t. It just happens.
Before she can even settle into her new office, Christian storms in, outraged that an email he wrote to her with her new last name bounced (Red Flag #3). Listen, she was busy landing a promotion! She doesn’t have time to set up a request with IT to change her email address! I can only assume this leads to sex, but I’ve totally forgotten.
At some point, Christian shows Ana a house that he just bought “for them” without consulting her (Red Flag #4). I expected them to have angry sex about it, but instead, she’s thrilled with this turn of events. What does anger Ana is the fact that the architect who’s working on the house is putting the moves on Christian. She makes fun of her for having a brown car, because, you know, that’s the color of poop. This impresses Christian so much that he “allows” Ana to drive his car, right into a car chase. After they escape their chaser, they pull into some random public parking lot and have sex.
Which reminds me — the action movie part of Fifty Shades! Turns out Ana’s ex-boss is super pissed at her and Christian and is trying to… kill them? Blackmail them? It’s unclear.
Christian needs to go on a work trip and asks Ana to come with, but she’s VP of Having a Redecorated Office now, so she can’t. He tells her she must go straight home after work like it’s some kind of cautionary fable about stranger danger (Red Flag #5). When she inevitably breaks this rule, she gets immediately tattled on by her personal security guard. Oh yeah, she has one of those, now, and a backup. Good thing, too, because once she does get home, pissed ex-boss is there and threatens to kill her, completely slipping by security guard #1. Security guard #2 steps in, and ex-boss gets arrested.
I feel like Christian comes home somehow during all of this. At some point, he takes a shower, and Ana joins him and tries to start up some shower sex, and he wanders away. This is the biggest plot twist in the whole movie.
Sometime after this, there is a disturbing orgasm denial scene (Red Flag #I’ve Lost Count). The only good part about this scene is that we discover that Christian’s sex pants have made it to this last part of the trilogy. He has a specific pair of jeans he wears just for sex.
They go to Aspen to go spend time in their spare mansion, I guess? I don’t care, because it’ a setup for the best scene in the movie, which I will transcribe here with as high fidelity as possible. Anastasia is eating ice cream in the kitchen in the middle of the night, as you do. Christian wanders out and rummages around in the fridge. When he turns around and sees Ana, he says, “There you are; I was looking for you.” In the refrigerator, I guess? They have sex, which is actually a sweet scene, except for the brief moment when I was terrified that Christian would place a spoonful of ice cream into Ana’s vagina. Thankfully, he swerves for her thigh instead.
Anyway, Anastasia finds out she’s pregnant. Christian reacts in the most abominable way ever (Red Flag Aaahhh). It’s all very problematic and not fun.
Ana gets a call from her evil ex-boss that he’s kidnapped Christian’s sister, and he needs $5 million in cash. So Ana goes home to change into her ransom outfit and grab the fanciest leather ransom duffle bags, and then withdraws a cool $5 mill from their bank account. Their banker calls Christian, but that’s the single security check. Christian’s poor sister, Rita Ora, is tied to a chair, when Ana arrives with the duffle bags of money. Ana shoots evil ex-boss in the leg, and Christian comes to… take credit for saving the day even though Ana’s the stone cold shooter now? The best part of this scene is that, when Ana and Christian’s relationship flashes before her eyes, a good third of it is a scene of Christian working out.
They make up and are now excited to have the baby. Nobody discusses abortion. In like 5 minutes, they tie up the evil ex-boss plot point and also try to discuss privilege. The movie literally ends with a sex scene and Christian, in his sex pants, saying, “You’re topping from the bottom… but I’m okay with it.”
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Cheese Board Collective’s Potato Bread
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Tue, 13 Feb 2018 05:28:47 +0000
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Also known as, a bread worth waiting for (one hopes).
I had a dream last night that I used this exfoliator (it looked like the non-business side of a spiralizer/large pencil sharpener) that made my face *~* glow *~*. I woke up and successfully made breakfast and went swimming until I remembered my dream. Washing my face in the shower, I thought, “Wait, why am I not using my new exfoliator that looks like a huge pencil sharpener?” and then immediately realized how uncomfortable that would be. This is one of the things that is happening now that I’m nearly 30; I dream about skincare and wake up deeply disappointed that this miracle product doesn’t actually exist.
It makes me nostalgic for college, when I would dream of sandwiches! I mean, I still dream of sandwiches, but they are more daydreams than nightdreams. My college-time sandwich dreams were usually related to this bread. I’d make loaves and loaves the night before these big house dinners we’d have, and in order to keep them safe from drunk, hungry, grabby hands late at night, I’d store them in my room. It made my room smell like the inside of a baguette, and I could not even be in there because I’d just want toast constantly. I’d dream of sandwiches all night long.
This bread is a huge crowd-pleaser and is worth the slight fuss of cooking the potatoes, which can be done in advance if you want. It’s salty and peppery and hugely puffy without losing any satisfying bite. The potatoes help keep the inside moist. I often recommend it to new bread bakers because it always delivers. Even though I’ve been trying my damnedest to get a nice, complex sourdough, my friends/forced receivers of leftovers sometimes wistfully/pointedly wonder, “Are you ever going to make that potato bread, again?” I did.
Potato Bread
From The Cheese Board Collective Works. I love this book so much. I lost my first copy, I think because I lost track of who was borrowing it, and I bought another one. Even on my second copy, it’s my most-loved cookbook with stains, watermarks, and bookmarks throughout — super unusual for me because I’m quite obsessive about keeping my books clean. That’s how much I love these recipes.
2 large potatoes (preferably russet)
1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
4 cups bread flour (or 3-3/4 cups all-purpose flour and 1/4 cup wheat gluten)
1 Tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
Cornmeal for dusting the pan
Preheat the oven to 425˚ F. Prick a few holes into each potato with a fork and lightly coat with olive oil. Wrap the potatoes in aluminum foil and bake until soft, usually 45 minutes to an hour. Allow to cool slightly (cut them in half or quarters to expedite this) and shred using the coarse side of a grater. You can do this a day or two in advance.
Proof the yeast by mixing it in with the lukewarm water. Mix the flour, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Add the yeast/water mixture and the oil and mix until the ingredients are roughly combined and the dough is shaggy. Sprinkle a little flour on a flat surface and dump the dough out, kneading until the dough is soft and slightly shiny.
Flatten the dough out into a large round and dump the grated potatoes onto the dough. Knead gently and briefly to incorporate the potatoes. Leave large pieces of potato in the dough if possible. Drizzle a little oil into a large bowl, gently form the dough into a ball, and place into the bowl, rotating it slightly to cover with oil again. Cover with a damp towel and let rise until doubled in size, usually about an hour.
Preheat the oven to 450˚F.
When the first rise is done, split the dough into 2 equal-ish pieces. Prepare one large baking sheet by sprinkling liberally with cornmeal. Form them into loaves. I prefer to make freeform rounds, but loaf pans work well, too. To make a freeform loaf, shape the dough into rounds and start pulling the dough from the top to create a taut surface, pinching the dough at the bottom of the round. Place gently onto your prepared pan and make a few slices (less than 1/2 inch deep) to help the dough rise. Cover again with a damp towel and let rise for 45 minutes.
Once the dough has risen, prepare a steam bath for your loaves. Place 1/2 cup of cold water and 1/2 cup of ice cubes into a metal baking pan. Seriously, use a metal one. I exploded a Pyrex pan doing this in college. Gently place the baking pan in the oven, followed immediately by the loaves, and close the oven. The good people at the Cheese Board recommend doing the steam bath again in 5 minutes, but I usually skip this step.
Bake the loaf for a total of 45 minutes until they are golden and sound hollow when you tap on them.
Allow the loaves to cool as much as you can wait until slicing in.
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Stuffed Artichokes
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Sun, 14 Feb 2016 23:39:44 +0000
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I had a whole thing going about “stuffed artichoke hearts” for Valentine’s Day, which I thought was going to save me from not having actually prepared anything thematic for today. Then I realized that you don’t actually stuff the hearts, you stuff the entire ‘chokes. And there might be a slightly less G-rated themed post about stuffing, but I can’t figure out a way to make those jokes without putting us all off of eating the artichokes. Which, why would we do that? Artichokes are delicious.
So, yeah, I’m less prepared than my delightfully adorable yoga instructor this morning who did a “heart” themed class, and also less prepared than the decidedly sassy but practical instructor yesterday who did a hip themed class. (I promise, those are the only two times I’ve been in the last few weeks; I’m still your friendly, mostly inflexible blogger.) My Valentine’s post has to do with stuffing a food that may have a part that’s called a heart, but there’s an unromantic amount of carnage and a surprising amount of hair involved, so we’ll just leave it unthemed, shall we?
I’ll also be honest — stuffing the ‘chokes was fun and festive, but half the time, I sort of wished I hadn’t bothered and was eating plain chokes with the stuffing on the side. None of the hip bloggers actually stuff their turkeys anymore, right? So maybe artichokes are next. In any case, I wouldn’t blame you if you served them separately, mainly because then you can eat the artichoke leaves with mayonnaise– I mean aioli, or good old melted butter. Both the artichokes and the stuffing are very good, and together they’re a pretty plate, so I’d say, stuff them for the vegetarian dinner party centerpiece, but leave them separate for your weeknight dinner.
Spiced stuffing
2 cups of cooked rice and lentils, in whichever proportion you like
1/2 large onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 large carrot
1 handful baby spinach
1/2 cup panko
1 Tbsp cumin
1 tsp garam masala
juice from one lemon
pinch red pepper flakes (optional)
I had some leftover stuck-pot rice (spicy edition) so used that as my cooked rice and lentils, here. I’d say any grain and/or pulse mixture would work out fairly well, though larger beans might not fit into the crevices of an artichoke very well.
Dice the onion and carrot, and mince the garlic. Heat up a bit of oil in a skillet and fry the onion, garlic, and carrots until soft. Add the spices and red pepper flakes midway through, and reduce the heat to medium. Add the cooked rice and lentils and stir gently until heated through. Turn off the heat and add the spinach, incorporating into the warm mixture until the spinach wilts. Add in the panko/breadcrumbs and stir just to combine. Sprinkle with lemon juice.
Stuffed artichokes
Adapted from The Kitchn
4 artichokes (medium-sized)
spiced stuffing, from above
handful of chopped parsley
Trim the artichokes by cutting off the stems and sawing off the top inch or so of each artichoke. Set the artichokes, stem side down, in a large pot and fill pot midway with water. Add salt to water and bring the artichokes to a boil, covering the pot, for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400˚F.
Let the artichokes cool until you can comfortably handle them. Now we’re going to remove the hairy “choke” part of the artichoke so you can just get to eatin’ at the dinner table. Start by carefully plucking out the pale leaves in the center of the artichoke. Keep plucking until you see the hair layer. At that point, use a small spoon to carefully scrape away the hair, trying not to remove too much of the tender heart.
Repeat with remaining artichokes.
Fan out the artichoke leaves slightly and arrange in a pan. (Loaf pan works well for two, and a small square pan works well for four.) Scoop in the stuffing, working it into the gaps between leaves.
Bake in your preheated oven for another 20 minutes or so, until the bottom leaves of the artichokes are detachable with a gentle tug.
Garnish with parsley.
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Matcha Black Sesame Sandwich Cookies
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Mon, 08 Feb 2016 01:52:53 +0000
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Hello from my Chinese-American family — we’re waiting for Beyonce to come on at the Superbowl halftime before we (well, my mom) starts preparing a Lunar New Year dinner of fish three ways: steamed whole, seared fillet, and sashimi. So lucky to have the ocean in my belly, tonight.
Other things I’m doing for the festivities: wearing my red Madewell pants, which are both soft and stretchy — great for the coming feast, catching up with an old friend and thinking I might actually get back into dating this year (I get to count the lunar year as a new one), and trying to write another blog post.
Yes. I’ve been a little preoccupied with work and life and a little struggle with work / life balance, but I’m fighting my way back! And now, with more baking, because I’ve rediscovered the joys of bringing sweets to work. Oh, to work at a place without unlimited cookies — a food blogger’s dream! I know, I’m so, so spoiled.
I made these little Asian Oreos a while back, and I liked them so much that I knew I had to get rid of them immediately. I’m a sucker for anything matcha and anything black sesame, so, naturally, I decided to combine them into the sandwich cookie of my dreams. Matcha and black sesame are like my peanut butter and jelly (though I do love me some PB&J), so these were a winner for me, easily.
I used a recipe for matcha shortbread from Two Red Bowls and black sesame buttercream from My Name is Yeh to make these little bite-sized treats. Baked goods always get bonus points if they can survive a little jostling in my bike panniers so I can bring them to work.
Matcha Shortbread
from Two Red Bowls, adapted slightly
We’ll make two batches of dough — one in light green, and one in dark green, to make the swirl effect. I suggest actually differentiating the matcha powder a bit more than I did, since my swirl effect is quite faint.
Light green layer:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) salted butter, at room tepmerature
3 Tbsp powdered sugar
1/2 egg yolk
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp matcha powder
1 pinch of baking powder
Dark green layer:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) salted butter, room temperature
3 Tbsp powdered sugar
1/2 egg yolk
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp matcha powder
1 pinch of baking powder
First, the light green layer (to avoid darkening it with the dough from the dark green layer): Cream together the butter and sugar using an electric mixer until fluffy, and then mix in the 1/2 egg yolk. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and matcha powder. Add the dry ingredients gradually to the butter/sugar/eggs, beating between additions. The dough will form a dense ball. Smooth out the ball of dough, wrap in saran wrap, and refrigerate.
Follow the same instructions above for the dark green layer.
You can prepare the doughs ahead of time (up to a few days) if you want, or you can roll them out immediately.
To roll out, sandwich a ball of dough between two layers of saran wrap and roll into roughly equal rectangles. I used a small cutting board as a proxy for the size I wanted the dough (about the same size as a 8.5″ by 11″ sheet of paper).
Carefully lay one rectangle of dough on top of the other, and then roll up, short side to short side, like a cinnamon roll. Wrap the log and stick back in the refrigerator to firm up, for at least an hour.
After an hour, preheat your oven to 350˚F. Remove the log from the refrigerator and slice into thin rounds — 1/4 inch, or thinner if possible. Arrange on a silicon or parchment-lined baking sheet; close is okay, since they won’t spread much.
Bake for about 10 minutes, until the edges are browned.
Black Sesame Buttercream
from My Name is Yeh, slightly adapted
1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp toasted black sesame seeds
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Grind your black sesame seeds into a paste. I used the coffee grinder that I use to grind spices… which actually gave my frosting a hint of Sichaun pepper. I kind of liked it.
Use an electric mixer to beat together the ingredients and set in the refrigerator to chill.
Assembly — wait until the cookies have cooled completely and the frosting has chilled for ease of assembly. :) The cookies transport the best when slightly frozen.
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Takoyaki (Ika-yaki?) Waffle
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Mon, 14 Dec 2015 00:28:13 +0000
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Things I’ve made in my waffle iron: waffled tofu (good!), falafawaffle (fail!), sweet potatoes (yum!) greens waffle (surprisingly good!), hash browns (obvi good!), cashew oat waffle.
Things I haven’t made in my waffle iron: normal waffles
And, now, we can add these squid waffles. It’s my take on the Japanese octopus balls, takoyaki — which are divine and made in a heavy pan with half-sphere holes in it, turning the batter with bamboo sticks. It’s awesome to watch, and they’re obviously delicious. But, apartment living makes it slightly hard for me to justify buying a takoyaki grill (yet), so the waffle iron seemed like the next best thing! And, it’s much easier. No fiddling around with bamboo sticks, anyways. I think “tako” means octopus, so it’s not strictly correct to call my version “takoyaki” even if we ignore the untraditional shape. I used calamari from our seafood CSA, so I’ve tentatively named this ika-yaki?
I enjoy strolling the somewhat mystifying aisles of the Japanese grocery store, so I used a takoyaki mix. There’s a recipe for the mix on i am a food blog that looks legit without using yamaimo (which sort of intimidates me), though, if you don’t want to go buy a mysterious bag of probably flour, salt, and baking powder. But I don’t recommend you skip the mayonnaise and the sauce! As always, the toppings are the best part.
Takoyaki / Ikayaki Waffle
1 serving of takoyaki flour (mine was 4 oz)
+ whatever the package says you need (mine was 1 1/2 cups water and 2 eggs)
1 lb calamari, cleaned and sliced
1 bunch of green onions
takoyaki sauce and Japanese mayonnaise
furikake / bonito flakes
Slice your green onions thinly. Prepare your takoyaki batter (it will be quite thin) and add in 1/2 the green onions. Reserve the remaining half for toppings.
Heat up your waffle iron! Turn the heat to high, if you have such a setting.
When the waffle iron is ready, give it a quick spray with some nonstick oil. Pour on a small amount of batter — probably about 1/3 a waffle’s worth. (For me, this is just under 1/4 cup.) Quickly distribute pieces of calamari evenly on the waffle. Pour on a bit more batter, then close the waffle iron. Cook until the waffle iron deems the waffle done.
Top with takoyaki sauce, Japanese mayonnaise, and furikake.
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