Daring Kitchen January 2012: Tamales!

Blog-checking lines: Maranda of Jolts & Jollies was our January 2012 Daring Cooks hostess with the mostess! Maranda challenged us to make traditional Mexican Tamales as our first challenge of the year!

I was super excited for this challenge, because I’ve been wanting to make a batch of tamales for after this kid is born – and now I had an excuse to make Curt help!  I’ve made tamales several times, and they are one of my favorite easy dinners.  They freeze and reheat extremely well.

I followed this recipe for the dough, and we used cooked spiced chicken and cheddar cheese for the filling.

Also, I swear this post was ready to go last weekend except the pictures were on the camera still – and there they stayed until today.  Better late than never?

Prepping masa in the corn husk.

Ready to roll!

The finished product, ready to steam.

Thanks to Maranda for a great challenge!

New Year’s Day

It’s been amazingly warm here.  Today in the 40s, and yesterday it was in the 50s – very uncharacteristic for Nebraska in December/January.  Curt is LOVING it (because he hates winter) and I am indifferent because it’s probably going to come back and get us eventually.

We don’t have any new years’ food traditions.  I loved reading this article that our fabulous neighbor Niz wrote for the local paper.  And this post about various foods to eat for the end of the year.  I find food culture and traditions fascinating.

Anyway.  I should write some resolutions.  In 2012 I resolve to:

1. Eat well.
2. Not start smoking.
3. Have a baby.

Should be easy enough to accomplish those, right?

Enjoy your traditional or not-so-traditional New Year’s Day food – tonight we’re having chicken tikka masala from this recipe.  It’s a little more involved than most slow-cooker recipes I like to make, but it smells AMAZING and I’m really looking forward to it.  Happy 2012, everyone!

Split pea soup

Drive by, barely a post to say:  I made split pea soup and I liked it.

I have NEVER liked split pea soup.  Ever before.  But my in-laws made ham on Christmas eve, and for some reason Curt mentioned the night before that he loves split pea soup, so we took home some leftover ham (and the bone) and I made some split pea soup.

I tried it fully expecting to end up having a peanut butter sandwich for dinner, and ended up really liking it.  This is why I always try things again even if I didn’t like them the other times I’ve had them.

Split pea soup for the win!

I could take some photos but frankly, split pea soup is hideous.  So here is a picture of Nettie in her holiday gear:

This is why dogs bite people.  Happy holidays!

Daring Kitchen December 2011: Char sui bao

Blog-checking lines: Our Daring Cooks’ December 2011 hostess is Sara from Belly Rumbles! Sara chose awesome Char Sui Bao as our challenge, where we made the buns, Char Sui, and filling from scratch – delicious!

I am a day (actually several days) late and a dollar short on this one, as it was supposed to be posted on the 14th.  But I did make it before the posting date – just couldn’t get it together enough to actually write the post.

Char Sui (Cantonese BBQ Pork)

Ingredients

1 pork fillet/tenderloin (roughly 1-1.5 pounds)
4 large cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tsp ginger, grated
1 TB peanut oil
3 TB honey

2 TB hoisin sauce
1 TB light soy sauce
1 TB dark soy sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 TB shaoxing cooking wine
½ tsp ground white pepper
pinch of salt
½ tsp five spice powder
½ tsp sesame oil
½ tsp red food colouring

Directions:

Trim the pork loin to remove fat and tendon and slice lengthways so you have two long pieces, then cut in half to make four pieces total.  Place in a non-reactive container for marinating.

Combine all the other ingredients in a bowl and mix well to combine.  Cover pork well with ⅔ of the marinade mixture. Marinate for a minimum of 4 hours, I did overnight. Place the reserved ⅓ portion of the marinade covered in the fridge to use as a baste when cooking the pork.

The next day, pre-heat oven to moderate 350°F.  Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper. Place a rack in the pan to elevate the pork, and place the pork on the rack.

Bake for approximately 10 minutes, basting with the remaining marinade and turning every 2 to 3 minutes.

Turn the heat up to 400°F and cook until cooked through.  If you want, you can run under the broiler at the end of the cooking process to get some nice charring on the ends/edges.

Baked Char Sui Bao (Cantonese BBQ Pork Bun)

Makes 12

Dough Ingredients

1 TB yeast
0.25 C sugar
0.5 C warm water
2 C plain flour
1 egg
3 TB oil
0.5 tsp salt

Dough Directions:

Place the sugar and warm water in a bowl, mix until the sugar has dissolved. Add yeast and leave it for 10 – 15 minutes until it becomes all frothy.

Measure flour into a large bowl.  Add yeast mixture, egg, oil and salt and stir. Bring the flour mixture together with your hands.  Place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for approximately 10 minutes. The dough should be smooth and slightly elastic.  (I actually did this in our stand mixer.  I’m lazy about doughs).

Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Leave to rise until it has doubled in size. This will take from 1 – 2 hours depending on weather conditions.

While the dough rises, make your filling.

Filling Ingredients

12 oz. char sui, finely chopped
2 green onions, finely sliced
1 TB hoisin
1 TB dark soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
0.25 C chicken stock
1 tsp cornstarch
0.5 TB vegetable oil

 Filling Directions:

Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or pan over medium high heat.  Add diced char sui and spring onions, and cook for 1 minute.

Add hoisin, dark soy sauce and sesame oil to the pork mixture and stir fry for one minute.

Mix cornstarch and stock together and then add to the pork mixture.  Stir well and cook until the mixture thickens, about a minute or two.  Set aside until ready to use.

Assembly

Egg wash: 1 egg beaten with a dash of water

Preheat oven to 400º F.  Grease a baking sheet, or line with a baking mat or parchment paper.  Once dough has doubled in size, knock back and divide in to 12 portions.  Shape each portion into a round ball.

Roll and stretch each ball of dough to a circle approximately 3 inches in diameter.

Keep the dough slightly thicker in the center, so that when the buns cook they do not split on top.

Place about two tablespoons of filling on the dough circle.

Then gather the edges and seal your bun.

Place the bun seal side down on your baking sheet. Continue with rest of dough.

Once all buns are complete brush with the egg wash.

Bake in your preheated oven of for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Verdict:  delicious!  The meat was a pain to make because of all the steps, but the dough was SUPER easy to work with, and stuffing them goes quickly (much faster than making tamales or dumplings/empanadas if you’ve done those).  We have quite a bit of char sui left, and I think sometime before the spawn arrives I’m going to make a whole ton of these and freeze them.

Cranberry sauce muffins

Our Thanksgiving meal was delicious – we made some small menu alterations.  I ended up making mashed potatoes and then using the turnips and rutabaga I bought to make a gratin with emmentaler cheese.

Nettie enjoyed some squash too.

The turkey was a bit of a nightmare – it was measuring fine, temperature wise, but about 30 minutes ahead of schedule.  We took it out of the oven and upon carving, Curt realized that there were some portions that were RAW still.  I don’t know how a turkey can be measuring at 180F+ in one spot and then be raw in another… but it worked out just fine.  Curt cut up the bird and we put it on a sheet pan to finish cooking (while we cleaned all the cutting boards and knives) and we ended up eating a bit later than planned.

Anyway.  Food was good and a good time was had by all.  But now we have all kinds of cranberry sauce left!

I made this recipe for cranberry sauce – it’s really tasty and I highly recommend it.

It’s both sweet and tart and has a really great cranberry taste.  But it makes a ton so we have a couple cups left.  I decided to turn it into muffins, using this recipe as a starter.

Cranberry Sauce Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 C flour
• 1.5 C rolled oats
• 0.33 C brown sugar
• 1 TB baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1.5 C of leftover cranberry sauce
• 0.5 C milk
• 0.33 C vegetable oil
• 1 egg

Procedure

Heat oven to 400°F. Line muffin tin with paper baking cups.

In a large bowl, combine regular flour, whole-grain flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt; mix well. In medium bowl, combine milk, oil, cranberry sauce and egg; blend well. Fold into dry ingredients all at once; stir until dry ingredients are moistened.

Fill muffin cups about three-quarters full – I had enough batter for probably 3 dozen muffins.  Since I only have one muffin pan, I did a dozen muffins and a loaf of cranberry oat bread.

Bake muffins 20 to 25 minutes; bake bread 35 to 45 minutes, or until golden brown.

Items of note

I’m pregnant.  We’re expecting a baby in March 2012 – I’ve been waiting for some kind of perfect moment to talk about it, but really, that moment may never arrive.  And also that’s a big part of why I haven’t been posting very much, and why I’ve missed several Daring Cook’s challenges in the past few months.

We are very excited, although I can’t say Nettie is very interested at all.

22 weeks.  This is the night of the yoga class when I realized I really should not be in a traditional yoga class any more.  So much bending…

***

Thanksgiving is coming!  I can’t wait.  This is our tentative menu – I think we have 12 people:

Turkey – cider brine

Giblet gravy

Cranberry-orange chutney

Butternut squash & parm bread pudding

Mashed root veg

Roasted brussels sprouts

Carrot soup with roast squash seeds & lemon oil

Also, my sister’s boyfriend Andy has been threatening to make a bacon pig.  I really hope this happens.

***

Until Thanksgiving, we’re eating:

Shrimp & sausage gumbo with brown rice

Oven “fried” fish sandwiches + baked sweet potato fries

Homemade pizza

Butternut squash & parmesan bread pudding

Baked potato soup

Ratatouille (freezer) + mashed potatoes

Butternut squash & greens (kale, mustard, chard) lasagna

Beef & Guinness stew

Green chile chicken enchiladas

Pasta with meatballs & red sauce

Chicken saag + rice and frozen naan

Thai red curry shrimp & veggies + jasmine rice

Soup & sandwiches/quesadillas

***

Happy almost Thanksgiving, everyone!

Daring Kitchen November 2011: Cooking with Tea

Sarah from Simply Cooked was our November Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to create something truly unique in both taste and technique! We learned how to cook using tea with recipes from Tea Cookbook by Tonia George and The New Tea Book by Sara Perry.

This is another good challenge for me – I’ve never made anything with tea before.  Most of the recipes you’ll find are for sweet baked goods – things like cookies and scones.  But part of the challenge was to make a savory, not sweet dish – so I was stumped at first.

I was thinking of doing a soba cooked in green tea – but then I thought the dipping sauces and toppings would overpower the tea flavor too much.  And then I dinked around for ages and THEN the challenge was almost due so I had to make SOMETHING… so I decided to make crackers.

Tea-flavored Homemade Crackers, based on this recipe

Ingredients

1 ¼ c. flour
1.5 Tbs. sugar (or honey, I used honey)
0.5 tsp. salt
0.25 tsp. black pepper
4 Tbs. butter
0.25 c. water
0.25 tsp. vanilla
dry tea leaves (I used rooibos for half the batch and an Earl Grey green for the other half)

Method:

Preheat oven to 400F.

Combine the flour, salt, pepper, and butter in the bowl of a food processor, and pulse until the dough is pea-shaped. Combine the water and vanilla in a measuring cup, plus honey if using, and add to the flour mixture. Mix well until combined and dough forms, but only as long as necessary for the most tender crackers.

Use parchment paper, a lightly greased cookie sheet, or an ungreased baking stone.

Only use half of the dough at a time.  Add the tea and knead to incorporate into the dough.

Roll the dough as evenly as you can. Keep rolling until the dough is as thin as humanly possible without tearing.

Use a pizza cutter or sharp knife and cut the dough into squares or triangles, about 1 1/2 inches each.  If you want all beautifully square crackers, you can trim the edges square.  I am lazy and don’t care so I didn’t bother.

If you have used a mat or parchment paper, just slide it onto the cookie sheet. If you don’t have either, you’ll have to move each cracker individually.  (I used parchment paper to avoid this issue).  Sprinkle the squares lightly with salt.

Repeat with the remaining piece of dough.

Bake the crackers until crisp and browned, 5 to 10 minutes. If you want to do two trays at once, you can put one on top and one and bottom and switch them halfway through the baking time.

If some of the thinner crackers on the edges brown too quickly, remove them and return the remaining crackers to the oven to finish baking. Watch closely as they bake quickly!   I did 5 minutes, rotated the sheets, and then another 2.5 minutes and they were done.

Check it out!  Crackers!

These are tasty – you get a hint of tea flavor, and they’re nice and crisp.  Will definitely make them again!  Thanks Sarah for a fun challenge!

A post I do not want to write.

This is not the post I want to be writing right now.  Also, this is not about food.  Move along if that is the only thing you want to read.

***

On May 1, 2011 I did the Lincoln Half Marathon through Team In Training’s Nebraska chapter.  TNT is a sports endurance training program that raises funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  I signed up for the race because my friend Mike and friend and colleague Jack had recently been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, because our cousin Lacey has been battling chronic myeloid leukemia for years, and because I wanted to Do Something.  While I was doing training for my race, Mike underwent a bone marrow transplant and Jack prepared to have one.

I raised just over $1,400 for the LLS last spring and completed the race in just under 3 hours.  I am not exaggerating when I say that crossing that finish line is possibly the proudest moment of my life.

And then Mike relapsed in June.  And I was angry, and he was angry, but he began the whole thing over again.  He had another transplant in September.  And then he relapsed again – he found out on October 21st.

Halloween party, October 23, 2010

The doctors gave him two to six weeks.

We went down to visit the next weekend and were able to hang out briefly on October 29th.

Mike lost his fight with leukemia on October 31st.

March 2010

He is missed and will be for a long time.

If you also want to Do Something, here are  some ideas:

1. Join the bone marrow donation registry at Be The Match.
2. Donate to Be The Match or the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
3. Join your local chapter of Team In Training.

I will be volunteering with the local chapter of Team In Training (which I still need to arrange) and I will fundraise and participate in additional events with the local TNT chapter in the future.  I hope to see some of you there as well.

We met nine years ago as neighbors in a shitty apartment building.  We became friends – and although many, many things have changed since then, we remained friends.

I can’t believe he’s gone.

Fall into fall

I loooooove fall.  Curt does not – it makes him dread winter, which he despises.  But by the time fall comes around I am ready for sweaters again, ready to make soups and stews and squash and things with apples.

Two weekends ago, we canned 11 jars of apple pie filling from apples we got at the orchards in Nebraska City.  I haven’t tried any yet, but we used the same recipe as last year so I’m hoping it’s still a keeper.

Las weekend, Curt killed the garden – so we had parsnips and brussel sprouts to deal with.  I decided to start the day by making the butternut squash bread pudding from this article.  Curt made the carrot & parsnip soup earlier this week as well.

I made some changes to the recipe  - I had a bunch of weird bread that needed to be used (half a baguette, several burger buns, some sandwich bread) so I just chopped all of that up instead of buying or making French bread.

We also had that huge squash and tons of bread, so ended up doubling the recipe.  Other than the quantity, I pretty much followed the recipe as written (amazing!).

Savory Butternut Squash and Parmesan Bread Pudding, originally published in this book (Oxmoor House).

3 cups butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Cooking spray
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
2 cups 1 percent low-fat milk
1 cup (4 ounces) grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano or other hard cheese, divided
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 large eggs + 2 large egg whites (I just used 4 whole eggs for each batch)
8 ounces day-old French bread, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 9 cups)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Arrange squash in a single layer on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt.

The bottom of the shirt says Tim Gunn, and it was designed by Daniel Vosovic (season 2).  I am done with Project Runway (for real this time!  I swear!  I can’t deal with it anymore) but I will forever love Tim Gunn.  Anyway!  Back to cooking.

Bake at 400 degrees for 12 minutes or until tender (it took about 25 minutes, but I had a lot more than 3 cups of squash). Remove from oven; reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.

2. Heat oil in a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Add garlic, and sauté 1 minute. Remove from heat; cool slightly.

3. Combine remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, milk, 1/2 cup cheese, pepper, nutmeg, eggs and egg whites in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Stir in squash and onion mixture. Add bread, and stir gently to combine. Let stand 10 minutes. Spoon into a 2-quart baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until pudding is set and lightly browned.

Yield: 6 servings.

Yum.  We had this for dinner the night we made it, and it’s definitely on the “consider” list for Thanksgiving this year.  Very tasty.

***

We’re in Kansas City this weekend and I think will be in Minneapolis next weekend, so expect the sparse posting to continue.  Hopefully I’ll have some free time to post about our Thanksgiving menu – I can’t believe it’s so soon!

October 2011 Daring Cooks’ Challenge: Moo Shu

The October Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Shelley of C Mom Cook and her sister Ruth of The Crafts of Mommyhood. They challenged us to bring a taste of the East into our home kitchens by making our own Moo Shu, including thin pancakes, stir fry and sauce.

I figure this is my chance to redeem myself after the appam incident.  I will follow the directions!  My moo shu will be delicious and photograph beautifully!

HAHAHAHA.  Ahem.  To be fair, they were delicious – but it’s really damn hard to take beautiful pictures of flat dough.  I salute you, the makers of tortilla commercials.

Thin Pancakes:

Makes 24-30 pancakes
Preparation time: about 10 minutes plus 30 minutes’ standing time
Cooking time: 45-50 minutes

Ingredients
4 cups (960 ml) (560 gm) (19¾ oz) all purpose flour
About 1½ cup (300ml) (10 fl oz) boiling water
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vegetable oil
Dry flour for dusting

Directions:

Sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Gently pour in the water, stirring as you pour, then stir in the oil. Knead the mixture into a soft but firm dough. If your dough is dry, add more water, one tablespoon at a time, to reach the right consistency. Cover with a damp towel and let stand for about 30 minutes.

Lightly dust the surface of a worktop with dry flour. Knead the dough for 6-8 minutes or until smooth, then divide into 3 equal portions. Roll out each portion into a long sausage and cut each sausage into 8-10 pieces. Keep the dough that you are not actively working with covered with a lightly damp dish cloth to keep it from drying out.

Roll each piece into a ball, then, using the palm of your hand, press each piece into a flat pancake. Dust the worktop with more dry flour. Flatten each pancake into a 6 to 8 inch (15 cm to 20 cm) circle with a rolling pin, rolling gently on both sides.

Place an un-greased frying pan over high heat. Once the pan is hot, lower the heat to low and place the pancakes, one at a time, in the pan. Remove when little light-brown spots appear on the underside.

Cover with a damp cloth until ready to serve.

For the stir-fry, I combined some leftover honey-soy braised pork, napa cabbage, red cabbage, two eggs, onion, garlic & ginger along with hoisin, chili-garlic paste, soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice vinegar.

Oh, and quick soapbox on the eggs – we had one farm egg left from our last co-op delivery, and used that with one grocery-store egg.  Here’s a photo – the grocery store egg is on the right:

Buy farm eggs, people.

For the sauce, I had every intention of using the hoisin recipe that was provide by our lovely hosts.  But I forgot to make it and then I was really hungry.  Here’s the recipe anyway!

Hoisin Sauce

Ingredients
4 tablespoons (60 ml) soy sauce
2 tablespoons (30 ml) peanut butter OR black bean paste
1 tablespoon (15 ml) honey OR molasses
2 teaspoons (10 ml) white vinegar
1/8 teaspoon (⅔ ml) garlic powder
2 teaspoons (10 ml) sesame seed oil
20 drops (¼ teaspoon) Chinese style hot sauce (optional, depending on how hot you want your hoisin sauce)
1/8 teaspoon (⅔ ml) black pepper

Directions:
Simply mix all of the ingredients together by hand using a sturdy spoon.
At first it does not appear like it will mix, but keep at it just a bit longer and your sauce will come together.

The final plated moo shu + stirfry:

They were really tasty!  We ate them like little tacos – adorable and delicious.  Thanks Shelley and Ruth for a great challenge!