Tasty Bytes

it’s peanut butter again but inspired by a traditional Chinese pastry that we only have during the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration. Here is one version. My Mom makes hers using special wrappers from New Hong Kong Noodle Company in San Francisco. I think they are called ‘Sui Gok’ wrappers – the are round like ‘sui gow’ wrappers but thinner. These are filled with a roasted peanut, shredded coconut, toasted sesame and brown sugar mixture. Then they are fried in peanut oil until they are crispy brown and the sugar in the filling has melted coating the insides. We look forward to this treat every year.

This year I decided to make a cookie based on ‘Gok Doy’ so here it is:

* Exported from MasterCook *

New Year Peanut Sesame Cookie

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 30 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
1/4 pound slightly chilled unsalted butter — diced
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter (6.75 wt oz)
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup brown or white rice flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 cup sesame seeds, lightly toasted
3/4 cup shredded sweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 350F

Beat butter and sugar with a mixer on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the egg then peanut butter. Mix well. In a separate bowl, mix together flours, baking soda, and salt. Add to the peanut butter mixture and mix to a smooth dough. Now stir in by hand the sesame seeds and coconut – mix well.

Using a tablespoon or a small ice cream scoop (#70), form the dough into 1/2 inch balls and place on baking sheet lined with parchment (or silicon mat.) Flatten the balls or shape into little crescents. They should be about 1/4″ thick. Bake until golden brown, about 10-12 minutes. Cool for about 5 minutes on the pan, then transfer to a rack to cool completely. Next time out I will adjust the recipe to leave out the egg to go for a more ‘shortbread’ texture.
Don’t pig out!

Happy New Year! The Year of the Golden Pig!

I’ve been craving Japanese style curry! But I wanted to make this from scratch because the packaged curry paste seemed too scary with all the MSG and other stuff. After searching high and low I based this recipe off of Saveur’s February 2007 issue. Though made a few changes 😉

I made this vegetarian with some veg broth, water and shiitakes instead of chicken and it still came out good! Ha ha. For me, I served it with some sauteed fish and brown rice…had it for dinner last night, breakfast and lunch today! I’m gonna turn yellow from all the turmeric! I’m on my own with this pot of curry because it was a tad too hot for P.

Other variations – add some coconut milk in place of some of the stock, add different veggies (zuchinni, sweet potato, winter squash, mushrooms.) Instead of chicken – use pork or beef (cook longer), shrimp or fish (cook separate from curry and serve with sauce on top). How about a few raisins thrown in? I used S & B brand curry – beware this is pretty hot even for the mild version.

Enjoy!

* Exported from MasterCook *

Curry Wafuu – Japanese Curry

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 4 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
3 cups chicken stock or mix with water or sub vegetable broth
1 tablespoon oil
1 pound chicken thigh — cut in chunks
salt and pepper
Sauce
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon ginger — minced
1/2 medium onion — finely chopped
1 clove garlic — minced
2 tablespoons + 1 tsp flour (add another teaspoon or 2 if you like it thick)
2 tablespoons curry powder — S & B Brand
2 tablespoons crushed tomatoes
Remaining Ingredients
1/2 medium onion — diced in 1″ pieces
1 medium carrot — cut 1/2″ thick
1 stalk celery — cut 1/2″ thick
1 medium russet potato — cut in 1″ cubes
1 small fuji or granny smith apple — peeled and grated
1 each bay leaf
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Heat chicken stock in a 3 to 4 quart pot.

Salt and pepper chicken and saute in a skillet with oil. Remove from skillet and set aside.

In same skillet, melt butter and saute fine chopped onion. When onions are light brown add ginger and garlic. Continue cooking until onion is caramelized – add more butter if needed.

Sprinkle in flour and stir until browned.

Add curry powder and tomatoes. Stir to combine. Be careful not to burn curry…ick.

Remove from heat.

Add 1/2 cup of hot stock and whisk, scrapping up browned bits.

Pour into pot of chicken stock and whisk to thicken.

Add onion, carrot, celery, potato, bay leaf, apple and chicken. Simmer low for about 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Add honey, soy and salt to taste. Simmer another 10 minutes.

Serve over steamed brown rice.

Source:
“Saveur 100 Feb 2007”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

I hate it when I can’t decide what kind of cookie I want to eat. This dilemma was moot at a recent party I attended. Lucky for me it was put on by a fabulous chef with a few talented chefs in attendance. MG always brings sweet treats and he did not disappoint with his Peanut Butter “Plenty” Cookies.

Not too far from the “Patti’s Favorite” cookies I like to make which have oatmeal, chocolate chips and shredded coconut, these cookies have the added addition of peanut butter and orange zest. Yum! Most peanut butter cookies are a bit rich and overly peanuty to me but these have a nice balance. I also love the textures that the coconut and oatmeal lend. These are the new favorite cookie in this house.

I made a few changes to his original recipe…a bit less sugar, used semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of chopped bittersweet chocolate and baked them a tad darker.

Here is the recipe:

Peanut Butter ‘Plenty’ Cookie

1/2 lb slightly chilled unsalted butter, diced
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup crunchy or smooth peanut butter (9 wt oz or 256 g)
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/2 cups old fashion oatmeal
1 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
finely grated zest of 1 orange or tangerine

Preheat oven to 350F

Beat butter and sugars with a mixer on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add eggs and vanilla, then add the peanut butter. Mix well. In a separate bowl, mix together the zest, flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the peanut butter mixture and mix to a smooth dough. Now add by hand the oatmeal, chocolate and coconut – mix well.

Using a tablespoon or a small ice cream scoop (#70), form the dough into 1/2 inch balls and place on baking sheet lined with parchment (or silicon mat.) Flatten the balls with a fork (dip the fork in water if it sticks to the dough.) Bake until golden brown, about 10-14 minutes. Cool for about 5 minutes on the pan, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

I finally learned how to post picture’s! Here is a pic of No-Knead Loaf #10…

8 oz Bread Flour
4 oz Whole Wheat Flour
4 oz Pumpernickle Rye
2 teaspoons sea salt
8 oz sour dough starter
8 oz water

The starter is starting to change…it is less sour and more yeasty. After a bit of research on the web, I discovered my new starter pet is much more finicky to take care of than I thought! To keep the lactic acid bacteria happy there is an optimum temperature to grow them at…oh, much too much attention than I can give. Anyhow, the starter still works and I will see what she ends up morphing into.

My mom loves these pancakes. We found this recipe years ago in Sunset Book’s ‘Favorite Recipes 2.’

Oatmeal Pancakes

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
2 cups rolled oats
2 cups buttermilk
2 each egg
4 tablespoons butter — melted and cooled
1/2 cup flour — or sub buckwheat flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar or sucanat or rapadura
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a bowl, combine oats and buttermilk; stir until well blended. Cover and refrigerate until the next day.

In a bowl, beat eggs slightly and add to oat mixture along with melted butter.

Mix together dry ingredients and add to oat mixture. Stir until just moistened. If batter is too thick add a bit more buttermilk or milk.

Preheat griddle over medium heat; grease lightly. Spoon about 1/3 cup for each pancake. Spread to about 4 inch in diameter. Cook until tops are bubbly and appear dry; turn and cook until the other side is browned.

Great served with butter, warm maple syrup and a side of apple sauce.

According to the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commision, sales of sweet potatoes a.k.a. yams peak during the month of November. No doubt many a Thanksgiving table will feature a casserole of butter and brown sugar coated sweet potatoes hidden under a blanket of (no doubt another hot November seller) mini marshmallows.

I have to admit my family would have my hide if I didn’t make the candied yams. My family loves their traditional Thanksgiving dishes and don’t dare mess with tradition! I heard a mighty ear full during my early cheffing career while trying to ‘explore new tastes.’ Then when I decided to be more health conscious and cut back on the sugar and butter – whoa! Mom’s favorite dish was messed with! I went home with my head hung low and the dish barely touched. So I have learned not to mess with tradition when it comes to my family’s Thanksgiving dinner! …though I have managed to accidentally forget the mini marshmallows the last few years…

If I could re-write the traditional menu, I would make this sweet potato dish that our good friend R shared with us a few years ago. For a more colorful salad, use a mix of yellow, orange and purple sweet potatoes.

Sweet Potato Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
Dijon Vinaigrette
2 tablespoons Bragg’s apple cider vinegar or White wine vinegar or White Balsamic Vinegar
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

1 1/2 pounds Sweet potato or Yams — steamed and diced
2 each scallion – thinly sliced

Whisk together dijon vinaigrette ingredients.

Cook sweet potato by putting halved unpeeled sweet potato in a single layer in a steamer. Steam til tender – about 1/2 hour. Remove from heat and cool. Peel and dice into 1/2 – 3/4″ dice.dice.

Toss sweet potatoes with scallions and vinaigrette. Serve at room temp or slightly warm.

Enjoy!

I can’t believe I missed National Homemade Bread Day yesterday. I guess in the internet fueled New York Times No-Knead Bread frenzy I was lost in making loaf number 4…oh, wait I guess I didn’t miss it after all! I just didn’t know I was participating 😉

It all started last Wednesday when Mark Bittman wrote an article about Jim Lahey’s easy recipe for making crusty artisanal style bread at home. The wild fire started – all across the globe hundreds of folks dusted off their dutch ovens, rummaged in their cupboards for bags of flour and woke up their sleepy stores of yeast. Zig zagging from coast to coast through America, up and down the northern and southern hemispheres, from Germany to Beijing to cities in Japan, folks were pulling out cracking loaves of beautiful crusty homemade bread from their ovens.

I resisted for a few days but finally gave in…dear P could only step aside as I coated our kitchen and myself in flour over the past week while obsessing on types of flour, percent hydration, giving life support to a sourdough starter found in the back of the frig and our lack of a proper bread baking vessel.

While the method described in the article is nearly fool-proof (my first loaf made a mighty fine door stop – how embarrassing being a chef and all…in my defense I didn’t follow the recipe…ok not a good defense but a lesson to you all to follow a recipe the first time!) So here are some things I found out along the way…

First, let’s talk about the cooking vessel – you will need a pot or casserole of some sort with a tight fitting lid that can with stand 450F. It should be heavy – something that can retain heat – so a cast iron or enamel coated cast iron dutch oven or pot, heavy stainless steel dutch oven or pot, ceramic pot or casserole, Pyrex casserole, or Corning ware casserole. The size can be any where from 4 to 8 quarts. Since the dough can be quite soft and spread, the diameter of the vessel will determine to some extent the diameter and height of your loaf.

I do not have any cast iron dutch ovens so my first loaves were made in a All-Clad 6 quart sauce pan which had a 10 ¼” inside diameter and about 4 inches high. Nice crusty loaves though rather wide and not very tall. The lastest loaf was baked in a no-name heavy stainless steel stock pot with a diameter of 9 ¼” and 6 ½” tall (sort of like this one shown here). Since this pot came with a glass lid and I wasn’t sure if it was oven safe, I used a 10” lodge fry pan as the lid. The loaf came out just as crusty though a bit taller. I suspect the height had more to do with the ‘stiffness’ of the dough (as this was the firmest dough I’d made so far) and the way I put the dough into the pot (more like dropping a sticky blob into a red hot cylinder) rather than the actual diameter of the pot. In any case, I’d venture to say you will have success with whatever covered 4-8 quart oven safe vessel you have available. I will probably go back to the All-Clad 6 quart sauce pan for the next loaf.

So here is the recipe I have been using:

2 cups King Arthur bread flour (the *bread* flour gave better results for me than regular all-purpose flour – should be no mystery there!)
1 cup Guisto’s medium whole wheat flour or Guisto’s pumpernickel rye
2 teaspoons of Redmond sea salt
¼ teaspoon of active dry yeast (not sure of the brand – bulk bin Berkeley Bowl)

Mix the above in a 3 or 4 quart bowl.

With a wooden spoon, mix in 1 ½ c of filtered water. The dough should be somewhat firm/stiff but still pretty sticky. It is a ‘wet’ dough not a batter. Cover with plastic wrap and set in a 68-70F place to ferment until bubbly and doubled in volume – 12 to 18 hours give or take a few hours. It took from 18 to 20 hours for the loaves I made. On to the next step.

The dough is really sticky by now. With flour coated hands, turn out the dough onto a very well floured workspace – a counter top or wooden board. Let rest 15 minutes. Now fold four times – as if you were making an envelope. Put the dough fold side down into a very well floured 3 quart bowl and cover with a towel. Let rise for about 2 hours. The dough is ready when you poke your finger about 1/3” into the dough and it does not spring back.

The cooking vessel needs to be preheated in the oven to 450F – this takes about 30 minutes so you will need to crank up the oven about a half hour before you anticipate the dough being ready for baking.

Now the tricky part…hopefully the dough is not stuck to the bowl. Being careful not to burn yourself on the very hot pot, dump the dough into the pot by inverting. If the dough sticks – no big deal just get the dough into the pot…somehow (my last loaf looked like a doughy amoeba but after baking looked less amoeba like.)

Bake at 450F for 30 minutes covered. Remove the lid at the 30-minute mark and continue baking until the top is a nice medium brown – about 20-30 more minutes.

Dump the loaf onto a cooling rack and listen to the crust crackle while it cools. Wait at least 20-30 minutes before slicing.

Variation – I have also tried using 1/3 c sour dough starter with a generous pinch of yeast with success. I’m still trying to waken up the starter so will play with this some more.

From the many posts on eGullet and Chowhound this dough and method is very forgiving. But bread making is like that so if you’ve always wanted to make bread but had been afraid to try why not give it a go?

Happy Day after Homemade Bread Day!

Lot’s of blogger’s here with their No-Knead adventures…many methods to success:

The Wednesday Chef

Plate Tectonics for dinner rolls

Chili Und Ciabatta

Bread, Water, Salt, Oil…

Real Baking with Rose

The Fresh Loaf

Life Begins at 65

Chez Pei

Toast with many links to other No-Kneaders

Most people I know turn their noses up at the sight of these and in all honesty I used to too. Well, no wonder when my experience as a young impressionable child was of a sulfurous mini cabbage head boiled to a watery death. Then I learned a wonderful way to cook these little mini cruciferous gems. Julienned and sauteed in butter. Yum – how could you go wrong with anything sauteed in butter with a dash of sea salt and black pepper. The brussels stay crisp, brown a bit and develop a nice nutty flavor. These days I like to guss it up a bit so tonight I sauteed the brussels up with an apple and finished it with a splash of fig balsamic. Sometimes I will add in a bit of curry powder but sweetie had a bit of an upset tummy so no strong spices tonight. Next time some crumbled bacon might have to make it’s way into the pan – well, at least my half.

Eat your Brussels Sprouts!

I finally got a chance to try the Potato and Corn Tikka at the Temescal Farmer’s Market. Yum. It sure hit the spot on that particular chilly morning. As far as I could tell the ‘batter’ was mashed potatoes and corn meal with spices, corn, peas and carrots. I happen to have a few stray yukon gold potatoes in the frig so decided to experiment a bit. We enjoyed these Potato Corn Tikkas for dinner with the Green Tomato and Fig Chutney I had made last week.

Potato and Corn Tikka

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
4 each potatoes — russets or other starchy potato
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup corn meal
2 each jalapeno — minced
1 /2 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon ginger root — peeled and grated
3/4 teaspoon cumin seed — toasted
1/2 teaspoon amchoor powder — (mango seed powder) or sub 1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons cilantro — chopped
2/3 cup corn
2/3 cup peas
2 teaspoons ghee

Slice potato and put into a 3 qt sauce pot. Add a pinch of sea salt and water until just covering the potatoes. Simmer until soft. Drain. Return pot with potatoes to heat. Add cream. When cream is hot turn off heat and add cornmeal, jalapeno, spices and sea salt. Mash with a potato masher. Mix in cilantro, corn and peas with a spoon.

Form into 8 patties about 3 inches in diameter. Heat griddle over medium heat. Fry patties in ghee until golden brown on both sides. 3-5 minutes per side.

Serve hot with your favorite chutney.

Enjoy!