Penney’s Palate

I haven’t been very creative in the kitchen lately. Just chugging along, finding recipes to make for dinner. No substitutions necessary since I have nothing in the fridge and nothing on the counter to use up. Even though my creativity level has been low, we have had some pretty good dinners lately.

And not that this affects the typical dinners that Tommy and I make, I thought I would let everyone know that I have quit using high fructose corn syrup. NO MORE! I’m sure I won’t really notice an actual difference in my body by not having HFCS, but I feel better about it. I’m curious to know how long I will be able to not use it. Tommy and I watched King Corn a few weeks ago, and since then I’ve been anti-HFCS, and I’ve also been a little uneasy about beef and such, the non-grass fed kind. I’m definitely not a vegetarian or even close, but I don’t feel bad about paying a little bit more for local (ish) grass fed beef.

Some recipes that I have enjoyed recently are:

Chipotle Shrimp Tostadas, from our most recent Food & Wine magazine. I have recently discovered that I love cabbage and fish tacos, so this meal wasn’t a big stretch. The only variation I used was that I didn’t have chipotle chile powder, so I just used regular chile powder. The wine pairing recommendation was a Rose, which is exactly what we had. Delicious.

Another dinner from our most recent Food & Wine, Lemongrass Pork with Pickled Carrots, served alongside Caramelized Broccoli with Garlic was delicious too. We used boneless pork chops sliced thin, and served it over brown rice. The only thing that I would like to note about this recipe is that this is the first time that Tommy and I have cooked with Fish Sauce. When Tommy saw it on the grocery list, he said “ewww”. But I remained optimistic and forged on anyway. As I started preparing the meal, the fish sauce SMELLED REALLY BAD. I was dreading the thought of finishing the cooking and it tasting like it was smelling. But again, I kept quiet (I was hoping that Tommy wasn’t smelling what I smelled) and forged on. The finished product tasted nothing like it smelled. All of it was pretty tasty. Aside from all of the chopping (Tommy was chopping, and he goes really slow because all of his minced pieces are of uniform size), this meal was fairly quick to make. I like quick but delicious meals.

When I was little, one of my favorite things to eat was “Stew and Noodles”. My parents would buy the canned beef stew, cook up some egg noodles, and BAM, I would devour it. Whole Foods had some grass-fed stew beef that I was eyeing over the weekend. After finding a use for it, I went back and bought some. Some people might think that Tommy and I are weird for making beef stew in South Carolina in August. But we eat soup all year ’round, no matter how hot. Although it has been rather cool lately, in the 80’s. The only substitution I made for this Tuscan Beef Stew was that instead of 2.5 cups of red wine (who wants to use 2.5 cups, that’s almost the whole bottle!!), I used 1 cup of red wine (a merlot) and 1.5 cups of beef stock. We ate it with egg noodles and I slurped it up while thinking of childhood memories. For some weird reason, the memory that came up first was when I was eating the soup at our kitchen table, and I was watching our ferret steal the dog’s food, and the dog was going crazy, too afraid to stand up to the ferret stealing his food.

I was very excited about this month’s challenge. It seemed simple enough, just a little time consuming. Up until this challenge, I had never made laminated dough. It wasn’t even on my list of things to try to bake. Some things, I thought, are better left to pastry shops where you can go in, spend a few bucks, and buy one already made by someone else. So one morning while Tommy’s family was in town, I rolled out the dough and got it to its resting spot in the fridge. The next morning I woke up at 6AM to roll the dough out one last time, get the filling in and braid it. I left it to proof for a few hours while I went back to bed.

After everyone was awake, I brushed it with the egg wash, stuck it in the oven for 20 minutes, and out came this beautifully browned pastry! Oh the excitement! The combination of an excited baker and hungry stomachs meant that there were no pictures of the final product. Only memories, and the other half of the dough in the freezer.

I chose to do two different fillings in one braid, each filling taking up half of the braid. I put pastry filling along the entire length of the braid. I filled the first half with a raspberry-blueberry filling (a very runny filling I might add), and the other half with bittersweet chocolate chips and bananas. While the whole thing was delicious, I would have to agree with Tommy that the cardamom seemed too much for the pastry. It overpowered the fillings, and in general, just didn’t seem to go with the pastry. I would happily leave that out next time. The texture of it, however, was PERFECT! Warm and flaky. I can’t wait to use up the second half of the dough. I’m thinking about doing a variety of things, including a few croissants, and some decorative danishes with filling in them. I’m just waiting for a time when others can help us eat them. I would highly recommend trying this out if you have a few hours to kill in the kitchen one afternoon. I enjoyed it.

A Danish Braid
Ingredients
For the dough (Detrempe)
1 ounce fresh yeast or 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup whole milk
1/3 cup sugar
Zest of 1 orange, finely grated
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
2 large eggs, chilled
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

For the butter block (Beurrage)
1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter (At the recommendation of someone on the forum, I used Lurpak butter because it has less water content than American butter. I don’t know if it helped or not, but my danish was perfect)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Preparation
Dough
Combine yeast and milk in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed. Slowly add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice. Mix well. Change to the dough hook and add the salt with the flour, 1 cup at a time, increasing speed to medium as the flour is incorporated. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, or until smooth. You may need to add a little more flour if it is sticky. Transfer dough to a lightly floured baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Butter Block
1. Combine butter and flour in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle and then beat for 1 minute more, or until smooth and lump free. Set aside at room temperature.
2. After the detrempe has chilled 30 minutes, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough into a rectangle approximately 18 x 13 inches and ¼ inch thick. The dough may be sticky, so keep dusting it lightly with flour. Spread the butter evenly over the center and right thirds of the dough. Fold the left edge of the detrempe to the right, covering half of the butter. Fold the right third of the rectangle over the center third. The first turn has now been completed. Mark the dough by poking it with your finger to keep track of your turns, or use a sticky and keep a tally. Place the dough on a baking sheet, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Place the dough lengthwise on a floured work surface. The open ends should be to your right and left. Roll the dough into another approximately 13 x 18 inch, ¼-inch-thick rectangle. Again, fold the left third of the rectangle over the center third and the right third over the center third. No additional butter will be added as it is already in the dough. The second turn has now been completed. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.
4. Roll out, turn, and refrigerate the dough two more times, for a total of four single turns. Make sure you are keeping track of your turns. Refrigerate the dough after the final turn for at least 5 hours or overnight. The Danish dough is now ready to be used. (If you will not be using the dough within 24 hours, freeze it. To do this, roll the dough out to about 1 inch in thickness, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and freeze. Defrost the dough slowly in the refrigerator for easiest handling. Danish dough will keep in the freezer for up to 1 month.)

Danish Braid
1/2 recipe Danish Dough (above)
2 cups filling
1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk

1. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll the Danish Dough into a 15 x 20-inch rectangle, ¼ inch thick. If the dough seems elastic and shrinks back when rolled, let it rest for a few minutes, then roll again. Place the dough on the baking sheet.
2. Along one long side of the pastry make parallel, 5-inch-long cuts with a knife or rolling pastry wheel, each about 1 inch apart. Repeat on the opposite side, making sure to line up the cuts with those you’ve already made.
3. Spoon the filling you’ve chosen to fill your braid down the center of the rectangle. Starting with the top and bottom “flaps”, fold the top flap down over the filling to cover. Next, fold the bottom “flap” up to cover filling. This helps keep the braid neat and helps to hold in the filling. Now begin folding the cut side strips of dough over the filling, alternating first left, then right, left, right, until finished. Trim any excess dough and tuck in the ends.

Proofing and Baking
1. Spray cooking oil (Pam…) onto a piece of plastic wrap, and place over the braid. Proof at room temperature or, if possible, in a controlled 90 degree F environment for about 2 hours, or until doubled in volume and light to the touch.
2. Near the end of proofing, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Position a rack in the center of the oven. Whisk together the whole egg and yolk in a bowl and with a pastry brush, lightly coat the braid.
3. Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate the pan so that the side of the braid previously in the back of the oven is now in the front. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and bake about 15-20 minutes more, or until golden brown. Cool and serve the braid either still warm from the oven or at room temperature. The cooled braid can be wrapped airtight and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, or freeze for 1 month.

Tommy and I signed up for a CSA (community shared agriculture), and as a result, get about 10 lbs of vegetables weekly from a local farm. I want to believe that we are eating more vegetables as a result. We’re DEFINITELY eating more salads as a result. Each week we have gotten, among other things, 2 heads of lettuce. We don’t even make it through one head before the next week, when we get 2 more heads! Time to start giving away lettuce.

But the other vegetables have been fun to cook with. Spring in South Carolina yields plenty of greens, broccoli, turnips, radishes, and an abundance of strawberries. Last week we got an unidentified vegetable that I had never seen before. After a few long internet searches, I finally found what this vegetable was: Kohlrabi. Once finding out what it was, I began trying to figure out how to prepare it. It sounds like it is a lot like broccoli stems in texture and taste, only a tad bit sweeter. It can be eaten raw or cooked. I am going to cut it up into bitesize pieces and roast the pieces along with the cute little baby squash that we got.

I pick up my box on Wednesdays after work. Every Wednesday I find myself anxiously waiting to find out what is in the box for that week. This week we’re supposed to be getting fresh eggs too! I am also learning what grows in South Carolina and when it grows. The vegetables will keep coming through mid-July. I think that once the summer heat hits, we will be transitioning away from the greens (the heat kills them) to water melons, canteloupe, beans, and peppers.

My applesauce consumption has gone up considerably from 0 a day to 1 a day for the past month or so. I like eating a little something sweet after I eat lunch at work… I quit yogurt cold turkey because I got tired of it, and promptly made the switch to applesauce. One day I am not going to want applesauce, but before that day comes, I thought that I would like to try to make my own. It can’t be that hard right? It has always seemed like a mystery to me, so now we can all unravel the mystery together.

I picked 3 different recipes that I felt represented 3 different ways to make applesauce. Feel free not to use them. I will post my applesauce adventure on March 23rd. To my surprise, all of these recipes seem very simple (I was thinking that applesauce took hours and hours of hovering over a stove). I’m guessing that apple selection is critical to good applesauce.

Microwave Method
Few ingredients with a little sugar for a sweetener
Exotic

I’m curious: How do you go about deciding what to eat for dinner?

Tommy and I have been cooking at home more and more. Sometimes there is no dinner plan until one of us comes home. Other times, I have planned out what to make for dinner every night of the week, and I even go to the grocery store on Saturday or Sunday to pick up the ingredients for at least the first few days of the week (when buying meat, I prefer to buy it the day of, or at most, one day prior to eating).

I used to use only foodtv.com and my Food & Wine magazines for recipe ideas. I don’t like the search feature of foodtv.com, but if you have an idea of what you want, it works pretty well. Tommy and I are always able to find tasty recipes (and some not so tasty) on the website. Lately I feel as if the site has failed us. I haven’t been able to find many recipes that I am interested in making. So last weekend I stumbled across Epicurious. I have known about epicurious for a very long time, but have never made an effort to really poke around the website. I like the site a lot. The three things that I like most about it are: 1. It has recipes that are available from Gourmet and Bon Apetit Magazines, providing a nice alternative to the Food & Wine recipes that I have available. 2. Users can post their own recipes… most of which seam reasonable and easy to sort through. 3. You can review or read reviews of all recipes that are posted. This is the one thing that foodtv.com does not have. I like browsing through the reviews of a recipe to see if there are other things I can add or things I should leave out of the recipe. Are there any other good places to go to look for recipe ideas?