Zucchini-Basil Soup

This is another recipe that came to me via Maggie.  I know we've both told Mom & Dad about it, but I thought it deserved to be posted on the blog.  Please try this, it looks like nothing exciting, but it really is delicious and creamy.

2 pounds zucchini, trimmed and cut crosswise into thirds

3/4 cup chopped onion

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1/4 cup olive oil

4 cups water, divided (you can also use veggie or chicken broth)

1/3 cup packed basil leaves

Julienne skin (only) from half of zucchini with slicer; toss with 1/2 teaspoon salt and drain in a sieve until wilted, at least 20 minutes. Coarsely chop remaining zucchini.

Cook onion and garlic in oil in a 3- to 4-quarts heavy saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add chopped zucchini and 1 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Add 3 cups water and simmer, partially covered, until tender, about 15 minutes. Purée soup with basil in 2 batches in a blender (use caution when blending hot liquids).

Bring remaining cup water to a boil in a small saucepan and blanch julienned zucchini 1 minute. Drain in a sieve set over a bowl (use liquid to thin soup if necessary).

Season soup with salt and pepper. Serve in shallow bowls with julienned zucchini mounded on top.

I made this with a roasted vegetable panzanella.  Yum.

Molly

Doing my part

I'm doing my part with the summer challenge this week.  I've tried two new recipes from the blog.  I tried Maggie's fajita rub last night.  You need to make that!  The fajitas were delicious and so simple!  Yum!

I also am currently making black beans from dried beans I bought, again using Maggie's recipe.  The verdict is still out on how they will turn out.  I'm optimistic!

Molly

I'm baaaaa-aaack! A "Mexican" salad!

Hey all,

I had a brief hiatus with cooking because I didn't have an appetite and was feeling too lame to do anything.  After a week in San Diego, I'm back and ready to roll!

This isn't much of a recipe, but boy was this salad delicious.  Tom is in dissertation world and wasn't eating especially well while I was gone.  I thought we could both use a dose of some leafy greens.  Here's what we ended up with.

Spring mix - chopped up a bit.  Most recipes would call for romaine, but we prefer spring mix.
Ear of corn - kernals cut off and sauteed with salt, pepper, and a little bit of butter
Cherry tomatoes - halved
Red bell pepper - chopped
Avocado - chopped
Black beans - rinsed
Feta or cotija cheese - crumbled

Dressing:
1/4 c lime juice
1/4 c olive oil
2T honey
cilantro - some, chopped
garlic - some, crushed
salt & pepper - to taste

Throw that all in a big old bowl and toss.  Note:  I did not toss the dressing with the salad because I didn't want to run the risk of having too much.  We also sauteed some chicken to throw on top, but that wasn't necessary, though it was tasty.

If you have any great salad recipes, throw them out here!  I'm not sure why I don't make salad for dinner more often.  I could use a few ideas.

Molly

Heretic's pie crust

For Patrick's birthday I made strawberry rhubarb pie from a recipe I found online.  To my surprise, the crust recipe used oil and milk instead of shortening and water.  The reviews mostly split into two camps.  Fist, pie crust purists who outright refused to try the crust made with oil, and second, people who had tried the recipe and loved the crust.  Since the oil crust was substantially easier than the shortening crust, I had to give it a try.  Purists, plug your ears...  It worked.  2 1/4 C flour, 1/2 t salt, 1/2 C vegetable oil, 6T milk.  Flour + salt, then oil + milk.  But don't mix the oil and milk together when you measure them together in the liquid measuring cup.  I don't know if that's actually important or not, but since it involves skipping a step instead of adding a step I follow that instruction religiously.  Don't add flour as you roll it out.  Instead, roll between two sheets of wax paper.  I actually found that the bottom layer of wax paper was unnecessary, since the dough doesn't stick to the counter.  I am actually planning to use the wax paper for all my rolling needs in the future, as it is much easier to control the mess compared to flour.  I always have stuff against the back edge of the counter, and getting flour on it drives me nuts. 

Yesterday was Jasper's birthday and I made empanadas for the party.  While making the crust, I poured the liquids into the flour, stirred twice, and just then Samara awakened from her nap and needed my help.  By the time I got back to the crust, the wet parts were too wet and the dry parts were too dry.  Chewey, glutinous strings had formed, and I had to add water and literally knead the crust to make it rollable.  I would have thrown it out except I didn't have enough oil to make a second batch, or enough time to go get more oil.  I soldiered on.  For each section I rolled, I kneaded it first, then rolled with all my might, only to watch it spring back from the edge like bread dough.  My 4" circles became 3" circles within a couple minutes.  Cutting small circles leaves a lot of scraps, so most of the rounds had dough that had been rolled at least twice.  I was about to be charged with pie crust abuse.

I cut my rounds, laid them between waxed paper, wrapped the stack in plastic, put it in the 'fridge and set it aside for 4 hours or so.  When I got them out to fill them, they had shrunk and thickened, and I had to smoosh them thin again between my fingers and work them with my hands to make them pliable enough to fill.  I was expecting them to be terrible, but they came out fine.  It wasn't a fine pastry, but it did the job and didn't detract from the meal.  There is no way a shortening or butter crust could have withstood this treatment.

When I did a better job the first time I made it, the crust was quite good and caused me very little hassle compared to a regular pie crust.  When I made it the second time, this recipe prevented a party disaster.  So I am now officially a pie crust heretic and plan to make my crusts with oil henceforward. 

Pane Siciliano - aka my go-to bread recipe

Here is the recipe I almost always make when I bake bread.  Sometimes I try to branch out, but I pretty much always come back to this recipe.  I consider it a bit of a medium-rich bread due to the oil and honey, but I think it's still technically a lean bread.  I've found that putting the bread in the fridge overnight almost always increases the flavor a lot, so this bread is better with the pre-ferment.  I've also made it as a single whole recipe and then put the whole thing in the fridge overnight.  This used to work better for me, but as my yeast has gotten older I've had some trouble getting a good rise the next day.  It does save having to mix the dough twice, which is nice.

Pate Fermentee (pre-ferment):
2 1/4 c (10 oz) bread flour
3/4 t salt
1/2 t yeast
3/4 - 7/8 c (6-7 oz) water

Mix as for bread dough.  Let rise at room temp, the place in the fridge over night.  The next day, cut the dough into about 10 pieces to warm up.

Pane Siciliano:
1 recipe pre-ferment
3 c (16 oz) bread flour
1 3/4 c (8 oz) semolina flour
1 1/4 t salt
1 1/4 t yeast
2 T (1 oz) oil*
1 T (3/4 oz) honey
1 1/4 - 1 1/2 (10-12 oz) water**
sesame seeds for sprinkling on top.

Mix, knead, let rise, without punching down (though with the understanding that you'll lose some rise as you handle the dough) shape into two loaves.  Make sure to properly develop the surface tension as you shape your loaf.  I've found this to be my biggest problem with putting a full recipe of dough in the fridge overnight. When the dough is colder, it's hard to get the right surface tension so that it rises without spilling over the edges of my pan.  Let it rise again, make three slices across the top, mist with water, then sprinkle on the sesame seeds.  Place a 9X13X2 metal pan inside the hot oven, then pour water in when you add your bread to the oven.  This will create steam that is supposed to help the bread rise more.  (I dunno, it's kinda annoying to do, and I'm not completely convinced it makes a huge difference, especially since I've developed my multi-temp baking method (see below).  Bake until the bread is done - ie about 190-205 degrees F internally.  I like softer, more tender insides, so I tend to pull mine any time after it reaches 190.  If you let it get up to 205, it's going to be drier, which may be your preference.  It should take 20-30 minutes to back.

*I use toasted sesame oil and love the strong flavor it gives.  The original recipe calls for olive oil.  I've found that a mix is also good.)
**I always err on the lower end for the water.  It depends on how dry your flour is, I guess.)

I think the three most important things for bread are the water content, the extent to which the gluten gets developed, and the temp at which it's baked.
-Bread dough should be wetter than you think.  My bread bible says "tacky, but not stick".  I'm not sure how to achieve just kneading the dough by hand.  The flour seems to absorb more water as you work the dough, so even if it seems too wet at first, as you keep working it, it becomes less sticky, even without the addition of extra flour.  I always make mine in my stand mixer, and I'm not sure how you get past that initial "too wet" phase without adding extra flour if you're just doing it by hand.
-Knead until the dough passes the "window pane" test.  If you pull off a small piece and gently stretch it with your fingers, you should be able to stretch it until it's translucent without it breaking.
-I've been playing around with the baking temp lately.  I like a good fluffy interior and a good solid crusty crust.  To get the dough to rise before forming a crust that is too hard for the CO2 to raise any more, I think you have to do the initial baking at a lower temp - say 425-430.  Then, I kick the temp up to 450 or so for the last 5-10 min to create a thicker darker crust.  I think spraying the crust with more water also helps create more "crackle".

Let me know what you think.  I also have recipes for leaner breads and for more rich breads, which I'm happy to pass along.

-Recipes copied or adapted from The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart.  I would recommend this book for all the info in the beginning about the various stages of bread baking.

Update:  The family seemed like they needed some homemade bread, so I went to my go-to recipe this weekend.  I baked it at 425 for about 15 minutes or so, then kicked the temp up to 435 for another 10 maybe (that's a bit of a guess), then up to 450 for the last 7 minutes.  I also used the water pan, and misted the bread and sides of the oven about 4 times during the first 5 minutes or so of baking.  Aleks took it out of the oven, and said the internal temp was somewhere around 205 or so.  It turned out beautifully - a decent crust (never like good bakery crust, but I think you have to have a different kind of oven for that), perfect texture - soft and chewy.   Suzie said "Mmm!" after each bite.
Since it turned out so pretty and I had just posted this recipe, I decided to take a picture.  

Note: I made the initial cuts in across the top when I first put them in the pan to rise.  I should have either made them deeper or deepened them right before I put it in the oven.  Another option, which is maybe the best one, is to only make the cuts right before you put it in the oven.  The point of the cuts is to relieve some of the surface tension, giving the bread a place to "bloom" out as it rises.


We enjoyed it with grilled lamb chops, steamed spinach, caramelized onions, grill-roasted cherry tomatoes with garlic and oregano, and a chipotle blue-cheese cream sauce.  Man, we eat well.

Amazing summertime breakfast, which can be made in the winter as well.

Alright, this is about the best, relatively simple breakfast yet...Now I know most of you probably don't have a problem eating hollandaise sauce, but I frequently eat breakfast with a young lady who finds the yellow, creamy stuff deplorable.  This caused a little problem when having lazy-morning killer breakfasts, since my idea of killer breakfast usually involved biscuits and gravy (hard to get out and do anything after that one) or some form of eggs benny.  Alas, a solution was found in the "tower of power" breakfast.  I'm not kidding any more, next time you wanna wake up slow and have a killer sunday morning breakfast and another pot of coffee, try this.  Kyrstan found the recipe at a blog called My New Roots, which I would also recommend checking out.  It seems that the lady running it used to be of lesser notoriety, and her recipes were simpler, not she seems to be changing styles to the slightly more gourmet side, but fun to check out either way.  For the record, when she says serves four, it means four considerate, or otherwise "light" eaters.  I would plan on an extra half sweet potato and doubling up the poached eggs for four keck-style eaters.

Veggie & Egg Tower of Power

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 giant sweet potato (750g / 26 oz.)

200 grams / 7 oz. cherry tomatoes

4 generous fistfuls of baby spinach (approx. 150 grams / 5 oz.) 

2 medium red onions

4 eggs

1 Tbsp. vinegar

ghee or coconut oil (or butter/oil sez Andy)

extra virgin olive oil (optional)

sea salt & pepper

chili flakes  

Directions:

1. Start by caramelizing the onions. Peel and slice the onions into rounds. Heat some ghee or oil in a skillet, add onions and a pinch of salt. Stir occasionally (not too often, or they will not brown) until dark, soft and sweet – approx. 30-45 minutes. Do not wash pan after use. 

2. Preheat oven to 400 °F/200 °C. Slice sweet potatoes across their width into ¼”/6 mm round discs. Coat with a little ghee or oil, place in a single layer on 2 baking sheets, leaving one sheet with a little space for the tomatoes. Wash and slice tomatoes in half. Place on one baking sheet with sweet potatoes, and roast in the oven for 20 minutes or so, until everything is soft. Keep in the oven until ready to serve.

3. Once the onions, sweet potatoes and tomatoes have all finished cooking, put a shallow saucepan of water on to boil, stir in 1 tablespoon of vinegar. 

4. Wash spinach, but do not spin dry, as the water will serve to steam the leaves while cooking. Add spinach to the onion pan on low heat and stir occasionally until wilted (3-4 minutes). 

5. While the spinach is wilting, poach the egg. 

6. While the eggs are poaching, assemble the plate: place 6-7 slices of roasted sweet potato on the bottom, followed by the wilted spinach and caramelized onions. Scatter the roasted tomatoes around the base with a drizzle of good olive oil. Place the poached egg on top of the stack, sprinkle with chili flakes if desired, and a generous grind of sea salt and black pepper. Serve immediately.    

Andy

Why have I never thought of this before?!?!

Okay, I'm going to bite on Andy's challenge, at least sort of.  I was actually checking the blog to post something really quickly anyway.

For dinner tonight, I needed something quick, since I had to go to the store after picking the kids up.  I settled on pasta with sausage and swiss chard.  I got some bulk hot Italian pork sausage and fried it up, then added about 5-6 cloves of chopped garlic.  We haven't been eating much pork sausage lately - I mainly use sausage in yorkshire pudding, and I've found that chicken sausages are just as good for that.  But, tonight I really wanted some good hot pork sausage.  So, like I said, I cooked up about 1/2 lb with some garlic, then threw in a two big bunches of chopped, washed swiss chard.  I spun the chard in our lettuce spinner after washing it, so it was only damp.  Cooked with the lid on to steam the chard, then removed the lid to evaporate the excess water.  I just made sure to turn it a few times so nothing burned.  It was pretty decent with a little parm on top of pasta.

But, what I really signed on to post was what we came up with for dessert.  I bought some cherries the other day which turned out to be only okay, but which still need to be eaten.  I also bought some peaches against my better judgment.  Aleks cut one up in my lunch today, and it was surprisingly good - enough so that I was willing to try serving the others uncooked.  Will picked out some plums today at the store, though without supervision.  Apparently we have different ideas of what "they're soft!" means.  The net result was that I had some mediocre stone fruit to get rid of, and while I wanted to just cut them up to serve for dessert, I thought they needed a little extra.  So, I checked our ice cream stock.  Apparently, Aleks has been indulging in a bowl of ice cream every now and then, because we were almost out.  But I had whipping cream.  So, I set Will to making a little bit of whipped cream while I pitted the cherries.  He slightly overwhipped the cream, so I had to run damage control, at which point I had a brilliant idea (if I do say so myself).  I added some cocoa.  WHY HAVE I NEVER HEARD OF CHOCOLATE WHIPPED CREAM BEFORE!?!!!?!?  It's amazing!  (By the way, adding cocoa didn't fix the over-whipping problem.  I just added a little more cream for that.  But, it all worked out, since the chocolate whipped cream was amazing, so we all wanted extra anyway.)  Cream, a little powdered sugar, cocoa.  Done.  It doesn't have to be sweet.

Will is ready to open a chocolate whipped cream shop, complete with cinnamon chocolate whipped cream, and double chocolate whipped cream with chocolate chips in it.  I may try chocolate cardamom whipped cream, since cardamom whipped cream is my other favorite.  Ah, the possibilities are endless...

I would say that stone fruit and chocolate are not the most obvious combination, for good reason, but strawberries and chocolate whipped cream with a glass of red wine sounds divine to me.

-Maggie

Summer time, a new month, A CHALLENGE

Today I am posing a challenge...Post a recipe, or recipe idea, for one thing that you've eaten in the past week, or month if has been a boring week.  Also, try one recipe on the blog that you did not post, and report back.  Man, I guess somebody has been going to community college online...Still its summertime, gardens are producing, CSAs and farmers markets are starting up, and you can still get any fruit or veggie imaginable in out out-of-touch idea of supermarkets, so lets get crankin'.

Today is June 4th, but since this is PCT I'll let you slide until the 5th, which puts one week at the 12th.  Plus, I'm allowing you to dip back one week which means you have from the 28th of May to the 12th of June to cook and/or eat something awesome, fun, delicious, interesting, or unique and tell us about it.  Hurry up, last week already happened.

"Somebody say one, two, three go."

"One, two, three, go."

Bonus points for the first one to name the quote, Dad excluded...Although I'll give Dad one bonus point for giving me the two lines leading up to this sequence.  

Love
Andy