A quick dinner of Baby Bok Choy and Ramen

One of the exciting things about moving here is there is an Asian grocery store about a block from my house. I went there last week. The only problem was I didn't really know what I had at home and what I wanted to make. I was driving by it so I decided to stop. I bought some baby bok choy and a couple sauces.

Well the other day I came home and was dead tired and starving. Tired won so I went to bed. I woke up at 1AM starving. I was half asleep and I saw the bok choy in the fridge. I took it out and put it on a cutting board so I could open up the bunches. Well in my half asleep stupor, I was holding the bok choy in my right hand and cut it with my left. That's when I realized the knife was on my finger, not the bok choy.

After I cleaned up my wonderfully cut finger I went back to my quest for food. At first was just going to cook up some of it. Then I figured that would not fill me so I'd end up making something else. I made some ramen and combined the two. Woohoo. A cheap relatively tasty and maybe not too bad (it's got a vegetable, it's not all carbs!) for you meal. And it took less than 10 mins to make!



Bok Choy and Ramen

4 heads of baby bok choy, chopped to remove the stem holding them together
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
a splash sesame oil
1 pack chicken flavored ramen (preferably with the seasoning packet and the oil packet)

Heat the baby bok choy in a sauce pan on medium.
Add a little water to help the bok choy wilt down.
Add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, vinegar and oil.
Cook about 2 mins.
Add enough water so that it is deep enough to cook the ramen and bring to a boil.
Add the seasoning packets.
Add the ramen noodles.
Cook just until ramen noodles are done.
Eat.

Barefoot Bloggers Catch up: Butternut Squash Risotto

I did another catch up recipe from the Barefoot Bloggers. This time I did the Butternut Squash Risotto. It's the perfect season for butternut squash now so I picked one up.

This year was the first time I've ever cooked butternut squash. Sad, I know. I never really ate any gourds growing up and well... I've had it now. It's quite tasty. Earthy and mildly sweet. Quite a bit like sweet potatoes.

As usual, I followed the recipe somewhat loosely. I don't seem to be capable of following a recipe as it is written. Even when I intend to follow a recipe exactly as it's written something inevitably happens. Maybe I need to seek help in this matter.

Anyway, I made approximately 1/3 of the recipe.... I would have been eating risotto for the next 6 months if I made the whole thing. And I pureed the butternut squash before adding it (though not all that well). And I didn't have any wine so I just used a bit more chicken stock. And I didn't have any shallots, pancetta or saffron so I just used onions. Below is my recipe.

I had it with soy balsamic glazed chicken thighs. I know, they don't really go together but you should be used to that by now.



Butternut Squash Risotto

• 1/2 butternut squash
  
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2.5 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 large onion, finely chopped
  
• 1/2 cup rice
• freshly grated Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Peel the butternut squash, remove the seeds, and cut it into 3/4-inch cubes. Place the squash on a sheet pan and toss it with the olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Roast for 25 to 30 minutes, tossing once, until very tender. Puree in food processor.

In a pot melt the butter and saute the onions on medium-low heat for 10 minutes, until translucent but not browned. Add the rice and stir to coat the grains with butter. Add about 1/2 cup stock, salt and pepper and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Each time, cook until the mixture seems a little dry, then add more stock. Continue until the rice is cooked through, but still al dente, about 30 minutes total. Add the roasted squash puree and Parmesan. Mix well and serve.

Barefoot Bloggers Catch up: Mac 'n Cheese

Yesterday was a lazy day. I woke up about 8 but just puttered around the house a little and watched TV in bed for most of the day. I just couldn't seem to get going. It didn't help that I didn't really have anything planned for the day. Finally at about 3PM I decided to get up and shower and find something to do.

I'm starting to make the recipes that I want to catch up on for Daring Bakers and Barefoot Bloggers. I decided to do the Grown Up Mac 'n Cheese tonight. If you want to make it for real you should use the link and follow the real recipe. I interpreted it pretty loosely. But it came out good so mine is below. It's quite rich and really creamy.




As a tribute to Pottsville (or maybe Catholics or where ever it stems from) I had it with fish sticks. No stewed tomatoes though. THose are just ick.

• 4 ounces thick-sliced bacon
• Kosher salt
• 2 cups elbow macaroni or cavatappi
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 4 ounces Asiago cheese, grated
• 3 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, grated
• 2 ounces Gorgonzola
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Pinch nutmeg
• A dash of Frank's Red Hot
• A sprinkling of dried parsley and basil
• 1 cup of frozen peas
  
• Panko bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cook the bacon in a large pan. Transfer the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels and crumble when it is cool enough to handle. Leave the drippings in the pan. Add flour to the drippings and mix well to incorporate. Add the milk to the pan and bring up to a boil, mixing well to incorporate until thick and smooth.

Off the heat, add the everything except the pasta, breadcrumbs and a small handful of cheddar cheese to the sauce.

Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package. Drain well. Add the cooked pasta, peas and crumbled bacon to the sauce and stir well. Pour into a large baking dish.

Sprinkle breadcrumbs and any leftover cheese over the pasta. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the macaroni is browned on the top. Allow to cool for a few minutes before eating if you don't want to burn yourself.

Cinnamon Bun Trauma

I have made cinnamon buns many times. I started with Alton Brow's recipe, practiced a whole bunch, made my own little tweaks on it and ultimately had my cinnamon bun recipe. I've made it probably 20 times or so with very consistent results.

After I got settled in a little, I made my pasta and stuff, which was really successful. My kitchen layout is wonderful. I have so much more working space and it's all right by the stove so it works really well. I was giddy with the prospects of everything I was going to make and how tasty it was going to be.

I figured I'd make my tried and true cinnamon buns so that I could bring them to work and get my boss off my case for not having any baked goods that day. I had made a pot of oatmeal over the weekend as well so I had that for breakfast and I brought the tray in without trying them first figuring they would be good like they always are.

I brought them to our Monday morning meeting and dished them out. Other people started trying them first while I was scooping them out but I assured them they would be good because I'd made them so many times. After I got a bunch out I grabbed one to have myself even though I wasn't really hungry I figured I needed to have one before they were gone.

Well this was rather traumatic. It was hard and tough and all sorts of not good. The flavor was good but the texture was all wrong. It was supposed to be gooey and soft and all sorts of wonderfulness that is cinnamon buns. It was all sorts of wrong.

That night I came home and started another batch. I baked them Wednesday night even though I had some sort of nasty stomach unhappiness. Unhappiness that kept me from tasting them that night. They came out slightly better but still not quite right.

So I will do another batch this weekend and see how it goes. This needs to be resolved.

My New House

Here are some real pics of my house using my new camera. I finally found my card reader so I could post these.

These are of the house empty. Let's start at the entry again. Here are the stairs up to the bedrooms and office.


To the left, the living room with the daybed I inherited because they couldn't get it out.
And through the living room to the dining room/kitchen.


And over to the sunroom
Now let's head up. Here's the guest bath.
And the guest bedroom
My office. Which by the way isn't in the hvac so we'll see how much use it really gets besides as a place to store stuff.
My master bath
The hall between the bath and my bedroom with the monstrous closets.

And my bedroom




And this was after my stuff was delivered. I had an unpacking service so I had them take care of some items, though not everything. The unpacking is really nice because they take away the boxes and paper. If they hadn't I would have filled our dumpster many times over.

This is my pathetic wardrobe. I had them unpack my clothes and this is what it filled. This is just the walk in closet. There is another side of the closet on the right as well that I couldnt' get in the picture. There is a 2nd closet as well.
Fortunately I had my suitcase of clothes that I had brought down with me that when I spread it out and put all my coats and hung up all my jackets, sweatshirts, fleeces, etc and moved everything from my dressers to my closet made it look like I could almost make good use of it.

DB: Pizza.... I'm Back!!!!!!

This month's Daring Baker's challenge was chosen by Rosa. She's got some cool pics and recipes on her blog though it's not all in English. This is problematic. It looks like maybe French? I don't know french! And everyone knows the world revolves around me!

Well at least she chose an interesting recipe. I once had a bad attempt at Deep Dish Pizza before. It came out dry and grainy and all sorts of bleh. That was the only attempt at pizza dough that I had made before so I was not overly optimistic.

The dough came together quite easily. I did it all in my stand mixer so it was even easier. I must have not worked in enough flour in the kneading process because there was no tossing action to be seen. I picked up the dough balls and they pretty much started stretching instantly. They stretched out so quick I just rushed to get something under it so I didn't just drop it.

The first 2 I tried the cornmeal, skooch off a baking pan idea. That failed miserably. I guess I didn't cornmeal evenly enough and it stuck to the pan. I ended up using a spatula to push it off onto my griddle pan that was hot in the oven and it made a mess.

Well I baked it anyway. It didn't come out too bad, considering... the part that I pushed off that flipped over ended up burning before the rest of the pizza was done. It tasted OK after I cut the burnt part off. The crust came out nice and crispy.

Look at that crisp crust... fresh out of the oven and me burning myself only a little

The next one I tried was a dessert pizza. I put some frozen mixed berries, chocolate and walnuts. This time I put the pan that I assembled it on into the oven. This didn't get the nice crisp crust I guess because the pan had to warm up. I also didn't chop up the chocolate small enough I guess and it didn't melt very well. While it tasted OK, the crust was lacking and it was rather mediocre.

After that I made the last 4 so I would have food for a couple days. I did a BBQ chicken with onions and gouda, 2 with the meatsauce that I had from last week and mozzerella and an another attempt at a dessert pizza. They came out decent when they were fresh but once I stuck them in the fridge and had them for lunch they were edible but not really good. Sigh.

Here are pics of round 2:
The BBQ Chicken pizza with gouda cheese and onion:
Pizza with meat sauce and italian blend of cheeses:
Pizza with meat sauce and fresh mozzerella:


And dessert.... cream cheese base with strawberries and walnuts on top.
I was starving by the time they got in the oven so there are no pics of them cooked.





~ BASIC PIZZA DOUGH ~
Original recipe taken from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart.

Makes 6 pizza crusts (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter).

Ingredients:
4 1/2 Cups (20 1/4 ounces/607.5 g) Unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled
1 3/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Instant yeast
1/4 Cup (2 ounces/60g) vegetable oil
1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces/420g or 420ml) Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
1 Tb sugar
Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting

DAY ONE

Method:
1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer).

2. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water.

NOTE: If you are using an electric mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for the same amount of time.The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour, so that it clears the sides. If, on the contrary, it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water.
The finished dough should be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50°-55° F/10°-13° C.

3. Flour a work surface or counter. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper.

4. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you want to make larger pizzas).

NOTE: To avoid the dough from sticking to the scraper, dip the scraper into water between cuts.

5. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball.

NOTE: If the dough sticks to your hands, then dip your hands into the flour again.

6. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap.

7. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to thee days.

NOTE: You can store the dough balls in a zippered freezer bag if you want to save some of the dough for any future baking. In that case, pour some oil(a few tablespooons only) in a medium bowl and dip each dough ball into the oil, so that it is completely covered in oil. Then put each ball into a separate bag. Store the bags in the freezer for no longer than 3 months. The day before you plan to make pizza, remember to transfer the dough balls from the freezer to the refrigerator.

DAY TWO

8. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours.

9. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C).

NOTE: If you do not have a baking stone, then use the back of a jelly pan. Do not preheat the pan.

10. Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.

NOTE: Make only one pizza at a time.
During the tossing process, if the dough tends to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and reflour your hands, then continue the tossing and shaping.
In case you would be having trouble tossing the dough or if the dough never wants to expand and always springs back, let it rest for approximately 5-20 minutes in order for the gluten to relax fully,then try again.
You can also resort to using a rolling pin, although it isn’t as effective as the toss method.

11. When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter - for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan.

12. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.

NOTE: Remember that the best pizzas are topped not too generously. No more than 3 or 4 toppings (including sauce and cheese) are sufficient.

13. Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for abour 5-8 minutes.

NOTE: After 2 minutes baking, take a peek. For an even baking, rotate 180°.

If the top gets done before the bottom, you will need to move the stone or jelly pane to a lower shelf before the next round. On the contrary, if the bottom crisps before the cheese caramelizes, then you will need to raise the stone or jelly.

14. Take the pizza out of the oven and transfer it to a cutting board or your plate. In order to allow the cheese to set a little, wait 3-5 minutes before slicing or serving.

DB/BB/New House and deflowering my new kitchen!

I have now closed on my house! It was a bit painful. The money transfer took all day Tuesday and then the movers showed up almost 4 hours late. But now everything is here. And a lot is unpacked.... not all... but a lot. I have pics but I can't currently find my SD Card reader.


Now I have a real kitchen! For the last week or so I've been thinking about my first real meal I was going to make in my new kitchen. I decided on Spaghetti Bolognese with freshly made spaghetti and freshly ground meat using my stand mixer and attachments that have sadly been sitting in a box for over 2 months now. They have been crying to get out of the box and make something. Maybe that's why I haven't been sleeping well. I also made fresh baked bread, based of the No Knead Bread recipe that has been all the rage for a while with some garlic butter. I threw in a salad to call it a balanced meal and attempted to make Creme Brulee for dessert.

The first time doing something doesn't always work out the way you hope it would. It can be awkward because you don't know exactly how everything should happen. I had very ambitious hopes for how it would be. Which can lead to disappoint. Well let me tell you, it was everything I hoped it would be. Although it wasn't perfect, we'll get there eventually, it was a very good and satisfying experience.

So the first thing I started was the No Knead Bread. I pretty much used this recipe, the original. Here is my version. I made the dough Friday night so that I could have it with my bread on Saturday. It came out wonderfully. It had a wonderful crisp chewy crust. I threw a head of garlic in the oven while the pan was heating and made garlic butter to spread on the bread. mmmmmmmmmm tasty


No Knead Bread

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
1 5/8 cup water

Mix everything together in a bowl and let it rise on the counter for at least 12 hours. The dough is very wet.
Flour your countertop and hands generously and dump the dough on the counter. Work the dough into a ball. Flour a bowl generously and throw in the dough.
Allow to rise about 2 hours.
Heat up a cast iron dutch oven in the oven at 450 for at least a half an hour.
Dump the dough into the dutch oven, cover and bake for 30 mins.
Take the lid off and bake for an additional 15 mins until the bread is golden brown and crusty.


Next item was the sauce. I ground 2 lbs of chuck with my stand mixer. I learned that the piece I used last time for making the really thick spaghetti is actually for the meat grinder. Oops. It was still good. Well I learned something. I went a little heavy with the red pepper flake but it was good. It makes a lot of sauce. I froze 2 quarts of it and still had enough for a half a lb of pasta. The round quart containers like the ones from chinese takeout places fit perfectly in the door of my freezer. Woohoo I'm filling my fridge.


Bolognese Sauce

2 lbs ground chuck
8 oz mushrooms, finely chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 jar tomato sauce
mozzerella cheese
parmesan cheese
sprinkles of red pepper flake, basil, oregano, parsley, garlic powder to taste

Brown the beef in a large skillet on medium high. Remove the meat and set aside.
Add the mushrooms to the pan and brown for a minute then add the onion. Cook until translucent.
Add back the meat and the tomato sauce, bring to a simmer and lower heat to medium low.
Taste and season as desired.
Add cheese.
Simmer until the pasta is ready.


The next item was the pasta. I learned something there too... the first time I made the dough I made it too wet and the noodles all stuck together. This time I made it too dry and it doesn't extrude. It's like trying to extrude plastic with the heats too low or off. I had to rip the whole thing apart, get the dough out, incorporate more water and re-extrude. But I got it. I made half of it and froze the other half.


Fresh Pasta

2 1/4 cup flour
1 large egg
water

Mix flour and egg in your stand mixer.
Add water slowly just until the dough holds together if squeezed.
Rest dough for 15 mins to let the water saturate the flour.
Extrude through your pasta maker. Re-extrude as necessary.
Add to boiling salted water until it floats.
Add to hot sauce immediately to get the sauce to integrate into the pasta.


And for dessert.... creme brule. I used something like Dorie Greenspan's recipe that people did for Tuesdays with Dorie. Of course I had my modifications. I did it in a water bath rather than low oven temp. I still tried to caramelize the sugar on top in the toaster oven, like before I moved in because I don't have a torch. It didn't work so well. I have a couple more ramekins of the custard that I will try again. I only had a couple small ramekins with me and not enough room in the fridge for the ingredients and whatnot until I got in the house.

Creme Brulee

1 1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
sugar on top to coat

Preheat oven to 350.
Heat milk and cream in a pan to a simmer.
Mix egg yolks and sugar in a medium bowl.
Stream into egg yolks while whisking to temper the eggs.
Stir in vanilla.
Pour through strainer into 4 1 cup ramekins.
Place a pan to be used as a water bath in the oven.
Place ramekins in pan and pour boiling water to create water bath.
Bake for 1 hour or until custard is firm.
Chill for at least 4 hours.
Just before eating, sprinkle sugar on top just to coat.
Use a torch or broiler to caramelize the sugar on top.
Allow to cool a couple minutes so crust forms.
Eat immediately.



Next I will try to catch up on the Daring Bakers and Barefoot Bloggers challenges I've missed for a while now. I will make as many as possible but some of them probably aren't going to happen. I have my doubts I'm going to find good enough tomatoes to make a panzanella salad. Hopefully most of the others will happen over the next couple months.

Maybe I'll get the rest of stuff put away at some point too.