French bread (p. 601)

First things first--my mom's new dog loves to watch me take pictures:

I think that's about the cutest picture of a dog that I've seen in a long time.

I've been failing at the breads and coffee cakes chapter big time. It's mostly because I'm absolutely terrified of bread making at high altitude. The first time my mom visited she attempted to make bread. It failed and she swears she stayed up all night angry about it, so she got up at 5 am to try again. It was much better but still not to her liking. So I've always thought that if my mom, an accomplished bread baker failed, what the heck could I do?

So mom brought up making bread when I was home in Iowa. I thought it was a great idea and started flipping through TJOC. Mom had neither bread flour or milk, one of which is required in almost every TJOC bread recipe. I finally found one that would work--French bread (p. 601).

The recipe has very few ingredients--all-purpose flour, salt, and dry yeast were mixed together. This recipe is slightly strange because the yeast is mixed directly into the flour instead of being mixed with water first. My mom mentioned that my great-aunt, whose baking skills are legendary in my family, always made bread this way.

I made a well in the center and poured in some water:

I then mixed it with my hands until it was "soft and elastic".

The bread went into an oiled dish and was covered (clean towel, ziploc bag, almost the same thing):

Until it doubled in size (a couple hours):

I punched it down and then let it rise again. Eventually, I rolled the loaves out and laid them on a greased pan:

I scored the top of the bread (I did diagonal stripes but TJOC mentions that you can also do one long horizontal stripe):

It looked perfect!

The bread was delicious! Nice and crusty, like a good baguette (or even a good Italian bread). Mom and I expected it to get hard very quickly (because of the total lack of preservatives) but it really didn't. The baguette made amazing little ham sandwiches! The bread was easy and quick--it was actually really fun to make.

Roast chicken I (p. 424)

I actually roast chickens relatively often. But I hadn't officially made Roast chicken I (p. 424). It's a really simple recipe, which was exactly what I needed after a huge day of cooking on New Year's Eve. I rinsed the chicken, rubbed it with olive oil, and then let mom season it (the picture is pre-seasoning):

It was cooked for about an hour and we attacked it like hyenas:

Delicious! Roasting a chicken is so amazingly easy that it blows my mind when people mention that they've never done it before. Honestly, if you are scared of roasting something, start with a chicken--they are so cheap that if you mess up (and you won't), it doesn't really matter. Then use the carcass to make stock!

I noticed that everyone else seems to posting a list of resolutions on their blog, so I'm going to follow the trend:

1. Graduate with my PhD. Preferably in May.

2. Cook 201 recipes in 2010.

3. Find a job.

4. Regularly exercise using my Wii--I hate excercising, so this is going to be a challenge.

5. Visit Dallas, New Orleans, Des Moines, Los Angeles, Kansas City, and Chicago to visit friends--I feel like I'm not seeing them nearly enough. And those are the easy ones--I'm really not seeing my friends in places like Fayetteville nearly enough.

6. Throw a massive garage sale and liquidate out some of the way too much stuff in this house

7. Read Stand Facing the Stove, the biography of Irma Rombauer

8. Take better pictures for the blog.

9. Get my dissertation research published.

10. Take more pictures! I have entire years with only one picture of myself.

NYE #5--Dolmas (p. 82) and Vegetarian chili (p. 254)

The final New Year's Eve post! Be sure to read them all.

Dolmas (p. 82). I will never be able to see the word "dolma" without immediately following it up in my head with "a giant pain in the ass". Rachel made the lion's share of these dolmas--I'll admit it--but I'm counting them off because I was standing next to her helping the whole time. I made about six other dishes in the time she was actively working on these stupid things. They took at least 4 hours, most of it active time.

The first step of dolma-making is soaking the grape leaves in water, separating each leaf. This took almost an hour--there were a LOT of leaves in those jars:

After soaking the leaves and changing the water twice (to remove the salt), the leaves had to be dried. Rachel's solution for this was to rip up paper towels. This took at least a half hour more--maybe more:

We made the mixture for the middle--lamb, onion (twice as much onion as lamb!), parsley, dill, and rice (we used brown rice instead of white). It didn't seem like much meat--this would be a good recipe to stretch meat.

The mixture was combined:

The mixture was then wrapped in the grape leaf like a little envelope:

And they were layered into a big pot, drizzled in olive oil, and covered in beef broth:

The whole mixture was then cooked. These pictures are depressing to even look at--apparently, neither Rachel nor I like dolmas very well. I don't think there was anything wrong with TJOC's recipe, per se, but neither one of us is a big fan of lamb and the grape leaves were really tough. Plus, there were a lot of onions in the mixture. A LOT of onions--and I don't really like onions. So they took forever and the dolmas were definitely our least favorite dish of the night. I think Rachel may have mentioned that they tasted a bit like feet smell, which I know is an appetizing thought. Oddly, my mother thought they were tasty, but then again, she eats cold chicken livers (to be seen in a future post).

Rachel, her fiance, and myself are all Iowa State University alumni--and our Cyclones finally managed to make it into a bowl game (and they won!). So, obviously, the game was on (although Rachel and I barely left the kitchen during the game--fine with me, I don't like watching sports). We thought it would be nice to have a meal during the game, since it started at 5 pm. We settled on Vegetarian chili (p. 254).

We cooked onion, red and green bell peppers, carrots, and garlic in a little olive oil.

So pretty! We added jalapenos, chili powder, cumin (freshly ground!), tomatoes (canned from Rachel's mom's garden!), and multiple kinds of beans (kidney, Great Northern, and black), as well as tomato juice to the veggie mixture:

The whole thing was cooked for almost an hour. It was really good! Hearty and flavorful with a really good mix of flavors! I like my chili to have a lot of tomatoes and a lot of beans, so it was right up my alley. That being said, most of the people at the party like their chili to include one additional ingredient--meat.

Yes, we added meat to the vegetarian chili:

Even more delicious! It was a big hit although it made a LOT of chili. We doubled the recipe but probably didn't need to--Rachel had a TON of chili left over.

All in all, it was a very fun party and I really enjoyed cooking for so many people! I hope to do it again.

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope everyone has a truly excellent 2010. Any resolutions?

NYE #4--Pesto cheesecake (p. 76), Pigs in a blanket (p. 91), Curried nuts (p. 70), and Rosemary and brown sugar nuts (p. 70)

First things first, if you have the slightest doubt that this was a HUGE day of cooking--

This was our list of recipes that we would make. I needed the organization and it included how much cook time, fridge time, and prep time each item would take. I greatly underestimated the prep time of some of the foods (I'm talking to you, samosas and dolmas). Some of the items got knocked off the list as we cooked and ran out of time (Swedish meatballs, cupcakes) and I've blogged about other items before (Blue cheese dressing, honey mustard).

My mom had watched a tv segment on cream cheese covered in hot pepper jelly that she thought we should make. I happened to have a big jar of dad's homemade green pepper jelly that I had not idea what to do with. This was the result:

It was amazing! I thought green pepper jelly sounded horrible but it tastes almost nothing like hot pepper and is super sweet! It was so good on crackers! Dad gave me another big jar of it and I am going to make this at home in the future.

Rachel's cat was also being helpful:

There is something very strange to me about a savory cheesecake. I adore cheesecake. In fact, I would say that cheesecake is one of my favorite desserts. But Pesto cheesecake (p. 76)? It seemed so strange. TJOC gives no indication on how to eat it either--do you just take a slice? Or do you smear it on something? This was high on my list of "when am I ever going to make this" so when Rachel mentioned we should make something that I wouldn't normally make, it was the first thing to pop into my mind. The only experience I had with savory cheesecake was when Melissa of Melissa Cooks Gourmet made a green chili version.

The recipe wasn't difficult but was time-consuming. I combined pesto (store-bought) with ricotta cheese, sour cream, eggs, salt, lemon zest, nutmeg, and black pepper. I then poured the mixture into a springform pan that had been buttered and sprinkled with breadcrumbs:

It was then cooked in a waterbath:

And refrigerated for six hours (yes, six hours. Give yourself lots of lead time with this recipe). We popped the springform pan off, smeared more pesto on the top, and decorated it with sundried tomatoes:

We are such dorks! It seemed like the perfect decoration for the party. I would recommend this cheesecake to everybody who likes pesto. If you like pesto, this cheesecake will be a big hit. If you don't, it's going to be the most disgusting thing you've ever tasted. Rachel and I both liked it and I think it would have been even better if we had made it in an 8-inch pan instead of the 9-inch pan I had with me. I think you just eat it in slices, like sweet cheesecake. It was actually a very beautiful dish (but not a very popular one).

Pigs in a blanket (p. 91) are one of those foods that EVERYBODY seems to like but me. I don't know what it is about them but they just don't appeal to me. That being said, they seem to appeal to everyone else--we even had them as a hors d'oeuvres at the wedding (and got tons of compliments). I decided that they would be perfect for the party.

I took a can of refridgerated crescent roll dough, unrolled it, and cut it into pieces (ignoring the perferated lines). I then wrapped the dough around cocktail franks.

Each batch of the piggies made about a cookie sheets worth.

Popped into the oven, they puffed!

I made honey mustard sauce to go with them. They were a HUGE hit. They were so much of a hit that Rachel's boyfriend asked us to hide the rest of them so they weren't all gone before everyone got to the party. We did as he asked and people still hunted them down! The pigs in a blanket were absolutely the most popular thing at the party, which I think is a little ironic. We made all these difficult dishes that took hours and yet the pigs in a freakin' blanket are the first things eaten!

I thought Curried nuts (p. 70) seemed interesting and Rachel agreed. She pointed out that she didn't really like the curry mix she had (the real question is, why did we continue on at this point?).

Curry powder, cayenne, and butter were mixed together:

And the nuts were mixed in. The nuts (I used almonds from a friend's farm and store-bought peanuts and cashews) were roasted for about seven minutes.

We didn't have any parchment paper, so we just used aluminum foil--it's not quite as good but it worked okay. The nuts were strange because the curry powder wasn't very good--I think they would have been amazing if we would have used my own curry mixture. I've really never tried my hand at high-end nuts but it was much, much cooler than just putting out a bowl of salted mixed nuts. If I had a high-end lounge, these would totally be on the table, along with Rosemary and brown sugar nuts (p. 70). Rosemary and brown sugar nuts were made much the same way as curried nuts, except for a rosemary/brown sugar/corn syrup/butter mixture instead of the curry mixture:

I roasted them:

The corn syrup made them beautiful and glossy. Rosemary and brown sugar are unexpected flavors when it comes to nuts but they were absolutely delicious. I would make these again in a heartbeat. Again, they seemed very high-end. I think it would be even better with macadamia nuts, cashews, and pecans, but that's probably because those are my three favorite nuts.

NYE #3--Hot chorizo and cheese dip (p. 73), Beer cheese dip in a bread bowl (p. 73), Red onion dip (p. 72), and Honey yogurt dip (p. 78)

We thought that a New Year's Eve party menu would be primarily appetizers. Dips seemed particularly appropriate!

We made so many dishes that I forgot to take pictures of some of the dishes. Hot chorizo and cheese dip (p. 73) suffered this fate. I only have a final picture:



It was an easy recipe-I sauteed onion in butter, added chorizo, added flour, whisked in milk, and waited until thickened. And waited. And waited. I'm not sure if it was thickened when I said "good enough" but that step took a really long time. Cheddar was then added, along with poblanos, and done! We kept it in a little Crock Pot so it didn't get hard--it was really delicious and slightly spicy. I'm not really into cheese dips so I'm not a good judge of these.

Which might beg the question, why did we make Beer cheese dip in a bread bowl (p. 73)? I think I'm the oddity and that most people really like cheese dips for chips and that certainly seemed the case at the party.

The first step was hallowing out a nice dark rye bread:



I was very nervous about this step! I didn't want to make a hole because then the cheese would leak out. Remember to keep the extra bread for dipping!

I simmered some beer on the stove (beer from the keg!) and then added a cornstarch/water mixture. When the beer thickened up (strange), I added a mixture of cheddar, cream cheese, blue cheese, Dijon mustard, and Worchestershire sauce that I had mixed in another bowl.



And I added it to the bread bowl:



No leaks! It was really good--pretty much like every beer cheese dip I've ever had. I thought that the blue cheese lent it a nice tangy quality that most dips don't have. Rachel said this was her favorite dish of the night and happily ate most of it. I was pretty excited to have made a bread bowl--it's something that always intimidated me but it was actually pretty simple.

I don't like onions (something I am actually--thankfully--getting over) but Red onion dip (p. 72) is a recipe that I would probably never make for myself. I think part of why I don't like onions is because I am really sensitive to them. Rachel chopped all the onions, I was completely across the kitchen, and my eyes were watering like mad. I'm not sensitive to eating them, thankfully!

Two onions is a LOT of onions--I sauteed them in butter until they were soft and then stirred in a little salt and a little sugar.



When they turned golden brown, I added beef broth, garlic cloves, and thyme.



The mixture was then cooked down until almost all the broth is evaporated. This took forever and I was worried that it was going to burn at the end. A little balsamic vinegar was added and then a cup of sour cream was stirred in:



To me, it tasted exactly like the onion dip that you can buy pre-made at the grocery store. Many of you know my philosophy--I won't make something if it isn't either cheaper or better in homemade form (I don't have that much time!) and I don't think this recipe is cheaper or better than store-bought dip. It's just as good but not better. And it was extremely time-consuming--honestly, I think it took at least an hour, which is way too long for a cold dip.

On a slightly different note, we also made Honey yogurt dip (p. 78). This recipe was exactly the type of dip recipe I like--mix yogurt, honey, mind, and lemon zest together and done!



It's a strange flavor combination--especially the mint. Like many TJOC recipes (pickled grapes anyone) the first couple bites seem gross. Then a couple more bites and it's better. All of a sudden it's totally gone! I didn't eat much of this because we didn't have any fruit (why did we make a fruit dip if we didn't have any fruit? I have no idea). It was good though and I actually think I would make it again. It would be even better with fresh garden mint.

NYE #2--Tamarind dipping sauce (p. 237), Samosas with ground beef (p. 89), and Samosas with potatoes and peas (p. 89)

Rachel pointed out that we should make samosas for the New Year's Eve party. We both like samosas, she made made them before (granted, with puff pastry rather than phyllo), and I had used phyllo before (making mushroom triangles), so it seemed perfect. We decided we would make both types of samosas in TJOC and a tamarind dipping sauce (conveniently on the randomly generated list!). Rachel mentioned that maybe we should just make half batches of both types and I said the words that would come back to haunt me--"Oh no. You like samosas, TJOC recipes don't always half well, we'll just make both".

Tamarind dipping sauce (p. 237). I'm not an expert on tamarind dipping sauce although it is pretty ubiquitous at Indian restaurants. I had never seen tamarind before but, bizarrely, Rachel had some in the cupboard.

This is tamarind paste:



It looks absolutely disgusting but smells deliciously fruity. You don't even use the tamarind--you soak it in water and then use the water and through out the tamarind. That seems bizarre to me. So the tamarind water, raisins, dates, brown sugar, cilantro, chili-garlic sauce (which Rachel tasted, made a face, which motivated me to taste it and make a face--it's very salty!), salt, cumin, and ginger were added to the blender:



If you are wondering what that yellow is--I was making three recipes at once, got mixed up, and that's yellow mustard that I got the vast majority removed (I wasn't about to through it out and start over!).

It was blended and then strained:



OMG! It was sooooo good. Sweet and tangy and the perfect condiment for the samosas. Everyone who tried it said that it tasted just as good as at restaurants and it was my favorite thing that we made all night. Rachel gave me some tamarind paste so I can make it again (unfortunately, I don't have any dates but I'm sure I can fix that).

These samosas were made at the end of the night after almost twelve hours of cooking and my pictures started to suffer (in other words, I took very few pictures of the samosa-making process). We made Samosas with ground beef (p. 89). It was an easy start--onion, garlic, ginger, coriander, turmeric, and salt were sauteed in vegetable oil. Ground beef was added and then water until it evaporated. At the very end cilantro and jalapeno peppers were added.

This picture is at the beginning of the process:



We also made Samosas with potatoes and peas (p. 89). We cooked potatoes and mashed them. We then cooked mustard seeds and garlic in vegetable oil and added it to the potatoes, along with peas, an onion, cilantro, jalapeno, lemon juice, and salt:



The samosas were wrapped in exactly the same way that the mushroom triangles (referenced above) were wrapped:



When they came out of the oven they were beautiful:





No exaggeration, the samosas took me at least 2.5 hours to wrap. I never seemed to make an progress! And that was with me wrapping and Rachel popping them into the oven and getting them out--without her doing that job, it would have easily taken twice as long. When Rachel bit into the first one, I told her I sure hoped they were good, otherwise I was going to cry.

The samosas were absolutely amazing! I'm thinking that we didn't make 120 of them (the amount the recipe claims it makes) but it easily made 100. Different people had different opinion on which ones were the best. The beef was heavily seasoned and strong and the potatoes were crisp and savory. I absolutely adored the ground beef ones--they were so delicious!

I would make these again but only for a special occasion. They were well worth the time but it was a LOT of time...

The pea and potato samosa recipe is online.