Thanksgiving: The Acceptable

Here it is - kinda, there were peas too (this is a shot of the leftovers). Doesn't look too bad, does it?



Actually forgot to mention that I made an apple galette too (again, no pictures), which came out fine and joined a delicious lemon pie and some rice krispie treats made by our guests, and a pumpkin pie from the old Italian bakery next door (pumpkin pie much too daunting to attempt).

But other things were a bit more, shall we say, challenging...

The main problem was - all together now - timing.

The turkey got off to a good start, but then I worried it would be ready before our guests arrived, so slowed it down by covering it with foil.

But then I put the stuffing and the veggies in the oven and everything seemed to grind to a halt. Nothing was cooking.

So I turned up the oven a bit. And then suddenly everything was done all at once. Which was a bit of a problem, as I still had to rest and carve the turkey, reheat the cabbage, cook the carrots and peas, fix the gravy, etc. Panic!!

The Recipe: Basic Roast TurkeyAdapted from various sources, including Mark Bittman and the NY Times, which was running a very helpful and funny Thanksgiving web hotline.

Our 10lb turkey (very scary and repulsive).



1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Prepare turkey: remove neck and giblets; rinse, pat dry; put onions and lemons into cavity (I used 1.5 onions, quartered, and a couple of lemons, halved), with some herb sprigs (I used thyme); rub outside with 3 tbspns melted butter, salt & pepper.
3. Put on rack in large roasting pan. Add 0.5 cup water to bottom of pan. Roast for 30 mins, then turn oven down to 325F.
4. Continue to roast, checking every 30 mins, basting if desired (people don't seem to think this is worth doing, I didn't bother). Cover top with foil if browning too much. Add 0.5 cup water to pan if it dries out.
5. Roast until done (temperature read in thickest part of thigh, not touching bone, is 165F). Allow approx 10-15 mins per pound.
6. Remove from oven, and allow to rest approx. 20 mins before carving.

Sounds so easy. Huh.

The Recipe: Roasted Vegetables
From my friend Kate.

I used half a butternut squash, 4 parsnips, 2 yams, 4 yukon gold potatoes, and had about twice as much as we needed (6 people).

1. Chop veggies into small-ish cubes (about 1.5 inches). Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with rosemary, salt and pepper, and toss to cover.
2. Roast at 400F (yes, a problem right there) for approx 30-40 mins or until done, tossing occasionally to make sure they don't stick and are roasting evenly.

The Recipe: Macheesmo's Favorite Stuffing
From Macheesmo.

My sister recommended the one she uses every year - it's truly gorgeous, but rolling logs was well beyond my capabilities.



Before all the trouble started.

I left out the chestnuts (as he suggested). His only problem with the stuffing is its tendency to be too moist. This is not an issue if you burn it to a crisp.

Thoughts/Tips/Mistakes

Oh, where to start?

The problem began, I think, with me trying to slow down the turkey. Too late (i.e. the next day) I saw the entry on the NYTimes blog that said you shouldn't do that - the turkey will be fine sitting and waiting for everyone/everything else to catch up. Better to have lukewarm, moist turkey than hot, dry turkey.

I'd hoped to start the veggies and stuffing alongside the turkey, then crank up the oven after it came out to finish them off. But that all went wrong.

Then I forgot to switch off the oven after removing the turkey, so even though they were done (perhaps perfectly) at that point, the veggies and stuffing sat there, overcooking, for the next 20 mins.

The veggies survived, but the stuffing was a travesty of its no doubt delicious self.

But the end result was still edible (mostly, see above), no-one got food poisoning, and only one person apart from Jack saw me have a very tiny meltdown.

Back, with a Focaccia Failure

This was Mark Bittman's recipe, which is based on his pizza dough, just slightly adjusted. So I should probably have realized what someone on Culinate pointed out - that it would turn out like glorified pizza crust. It didn't have any bready quality at all, plus I overcooked it a bit too.

But it was tasty at least, and we had it with just-made mozzarella from the Italian deli next door, and fresh basil and heirloom tomatoes from the farmer's market. Classy, huh? Said the person who didn't know an heirloom tomato from a hairy bottom two weeks ago!

Anyway, won't bother sharing this recipe - but stay tuned for the next attempt. Next up, gazpacho (not a failure at all)...

Asparagus Risotto

Tonight's dinner - nice, but not as good as the pea risotto, methinks. A tad bland.

The Recipe: Asparagus Risotto
From Mr. B. online at NYTimes.

Thoughts/Tips/Mistakes

The point of this article is that you don't need to stir risotto constantly. That may be true, but not sure that even Mr. B. totally buys into his argument here. In his How to Cook Everything (aka The Bible), he says you shouldn't walk away from the stove for more than a minute, and that seems about right, in my (extremely limited) experience.

Pix

Beginning Step 4.















End Step 4.















On plate, baaad pic. Garnish is some left-over prosciutto, sauteed a couple of mins:

Homemade Pasta, Messily

The inspiration here came from a post I found on Macheesmo when browsing his Learn to Cook section. Inspiration actually being an important word. He says (hope he won't mind me quoting): "This is one of those posts that I think really embodies what I’m trying to do with this site. I’ve never made fresh pasta before. The excuse I’ve always said is that I don’t have a pasta press. But a few weeks ago I got to thinking that you know what, pasta was made before pasta presses. Not having that one little piece of equipment shouldn’t stop me from giving it a shot."

Well, I don't have a pasta press either. And, unlike Macheesmo, I don't have any idea what I'm doing. But once he'd pointed out that you could make pasta with a rolling pin, it had to be tried. After all, that's the spirit of this blog, right? Cooking without a clue...

The Recipe: Homemade Pasta
From Mark Bittman, via Macheesmo. I used regular all-purpose flour, rather than semolina. Will try semolina next time, it's apparently a better taste.

Thoughts/Tips/Mistakes
It went awry pretty much instantly. You put the flour on your kneading surface, and make a well in it. Then you put your eggs in the well. But, without thinking, I'd beaten the eggs, then noticed that neither he nor Mr. B. had done that. Oh. It probably doesn't matter. Actually, it does. The eggs overflowed my well, and ran all over the board, the table, and a chair:















Frantically, I tried to pen them in with my hands and sop them up with flour - the board, table, and my fingers turned into a gloopy mess. Because I'd lost about a quarter of the eggs, the "dough" was just a bunch of dry crumbs. So I added some water. And it turned into a sticky blob. So added some flour. And it looked like this. Compare and contrast with Macheesmo's.















Mr. B. has some pretty helpful instructions on kneading: "Continue kneading until the dough is completely smooth, somewhat skinlike, with some elasticity (if you break off a piece, it should stretch a bit before breaking; if it breaks off immediately, keep kneading."

So I kneaded mine till it was like skin (rather a repulsive idea at the best of times). Unfortunately, it was like the skin of an elderly gentleman.















The rolling out part went OK. Mr. B. suggested dividing the dough into three, and I followed his advice because I only had a tiny surface area to work on. The disadvantage is that you have to do the rolling three times. Way to get in shape!

But should have checked out Macheesmo's pics before cutting - my strips were way too wide.

But looked quite pasta-like.

But took waaaay longer to cook (about 8-10 mins). Though I comforted myself with the fact that even Macheesmo said his were too fat. They puff up when you cook them too.

But they tasted perfectly fine. Did them with some sauteed shallot, creme fraiche, peas (rather a lot), and chopped Italian parsley.

The conclusion? Ridiculously fun. And I'd like a pasta press.

(More) Pix











































Bad pic, sorry - looks a bit disgusting!

Spicy Cioppino & Frozen Scallops

So this was dinner last night - Spicy Cioppino, which apparently is a San Franciscan-Italian thing. You can make it with whatever fish you want, but they suggested tilapia and scallops. It was... interesting (see Thoughts for more details).

Frozen scallops - who knew they were controversial? Was trying to find out how to thaw them, and discovered that apparently a guy got chucked off Top Chef last year for using them. Oh well, this is really the opposite of Top Chef here. (Bottom Chef? Um, actually, let's not go there...) So I'm not worrying about it.

What I did worry about was giving us food poisoning by thawing them incorrectly. Anyhoo, chowhound and others suggested putting them in a plastic bag under cold running water for approx. 15 mins. Then you don't rinse them, just pat them dry. Apparently if you rinse them all the flavor goes down the drain too. So that's what I did, with no ill effects so far.

The Recipe: Spicy Cioppino
From Eating Well.

Thoughts/Tips/Mistakes

We didn't have any hot paprika, just the regular kind, so followed a suggestion from the interwebs and used some red pepper flakes too. Now, the slightly annoying thing is that the recipe says to add the paprika "to taste," but you have to put it in before it's physically possible to taste it. Hmm.

Anyway, it turned out super paprika-y. And since both tilapia and scallops have gentle flavors, I felt this was a bit of a problem. But maybe I did something wrong. Haven't cooked with paprika before, in fact didn't think of it as having much of a flavor, so didn't know what to expect. Suggestions gratefully received.

But it was perfectly edible, we ate it with some nice bread to soak up the juices. And I did manage not to overcook the scallops.

Pix

Thawing the scallops:















Sauce simmering:















It did look nice in the evening sun:

Technique: Microwaving Bacon

Why would one want to do that, you ask? Well, Mr. B. says that it's the best way to cook 3-6 slices of bacon, so we thought we'd give it a go.

His instructions:

• Put the bacon on a triple layer of paper towels on a microwave-safe plate and cover with a double layer of towels.
• Microwave on High for 2 mins, then check; move the pieces around a little and continue to microwave for 1-min intervals until done.
• Total time will depend on the power of your microwave but will be less than 5 mins even in a small oven.

Jack did his for a total of 5 mins and they were fine. I like mine well done, so did one more minute and they looked good. But... they were chewy rather than crispy (actually a bit like a dog chew).

The conclusion: A good method if you fancy a quick hit of bacon without all the stinking and splatting that goes with frying. But not if you like your bacon crispy or want an authentic bacon experience.

Slow-Roasted Salmon with Fennel

So, the thing about doing some crazy baking is that other recipes seem so much easier. Though this one was pretty simple anyway.

It had been on my to-do list for a while - ever since we got a whole bottle of Pernod to use one teaspoon, and then were left wondering what to do with the rest of it (a common problem, apparently).

The Recipe: Slow-Roasted Arctic Char (or Salmon) with Fennel

It's from Culinate and was actually for artic char, but we couldn't get any, so used salmon instead.

Thoughts/Tips/Mistakes

It was good, and certainly could be a dinner-party dish, though you'd want something very refreshing for dessert. The creamy sauce did make it rich.

It actually took about 50 mins to cook in our oven at 250F, rather than 25 mins, which makes sense considering the name of the recipe. (Don't know about you, but 25 mins doesn't seem especially slow.)

The only thing I wondered was how their sauce ended up looking so saucy - there really wasn't very much liquid in mine, and I didn't just want to keep adding cream. Wasn't sure what to do about it. But maybe mine just festered too long while we were waiting for the fish. Any suggestions gratefully received.

Oh, and they use fennel pollen. We did not - it costs $30 a jar! Followed their suggestion and used some crushed fennel seeds instead (no curry powder though as we didn't have any).

Pix

Sauce cooking










On the plate, not very saucy

First Ever Baking Attempt: Hot Anxious Buns

Aaaahhh, a long holiday weekend. The perfect time to... do something terrifying. My mum and I had some hot cross buns when I was over in England this week, and it planted the seed of a very foolish idea. Of course this meant completely ignoring my mother's advice ("don't start with things that need yeast, it's too complicated"), even though I knew she was right (nothing new here).

Consulted Mr B. and Ms W. for advice, but you know, bless them, they really didn't have enough detail for a total beginner/nitwit, especially one who doesn't have a food processor. But stumbled on a fantastic site, Baking 911 - with almost too much information - and it held my hand through the entire process.

The result? A little chewy (see mistakes section below), but bore a striking resemblance to the real thing, and actually tasted good - spicy and just sweet enough.

It did all take a long time. I know that theoretically you can go off and get on with your life while the dough is rising, etc., but I ended up hovering like a new mum by the crib. Was the yeast doing anything? Was the dough rising? Too much? Not enough?

The experience? Nerve-wracking, but fun. Like many of the better things in life, she observed, sagaciously...

The Recipe: Nigella Lawson's Hot Cross Buns

Took the recipe out of my mum's Radio Times (quaintly-named UK TV listing mag; the recipe originally appeared in the book Feast). Would normally avoid Nigella on principle, as she's far too annoyingly hot herself.

For the dough:

• 6 fl oz (175 ml) milk
• 2 oz (50g) butter
• Zest 1 orange
• 1 clove
• 2 cardamom pods
• 14 oz (400g) bread flour
• 1 tbspn superfine (caster) sugar
• 0.25 oz (7g, 1 packet) instant yeast [I used active dry, since it was all they had in the store - "how much harder can it be?" she thought, oh how naively]
• 4 oz (100g) mixed dried fruit [in the UK we use sultanas, raisins, currants, and something called "mixed peel" that I couldn't find here - just some rather chunky candied lemon peel, which I cut into little pieces]
• 1 tspn ground cinnamon
• 0.5 tspn ground nutmeg
• 0.25 tspn ground ginger
• 1 egg
• 1 egg, beaten with a little milk to make egg wash

For the crosses:

• 3 tbspn all-purpose (plain) flour
• 0.5 tbspn superfine (caster) sugar
• 2 tbspn water

For the sugar glaze:

• 1 tbspn superfine (caster) sugar
• 1 tbspn boiling water

Makes 16 buns.

1. Heat the milk, butter, orange zest, clove, and cardamom pods in a saucepan until the butter melts, then leave to infuse. [If using active dry yeast, prepare it and prove it too, following directions on packet.]

2. Measure the flour, sugar, yeast [if using instant yeast] into a bowl and add the spices.

3. When the infused milk has cooled to blood temperature, take out the cardamom pods, and beat in the egg. [If using active dry yeast, add it to the mixture - make sure the mixture's not too hot or too cold though, as that would stop the yeast from working.]

4. Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients and mix. Knead the dough either by hand or with a machine with a dough hook: if it is too dry, add a little more warm milk or water. [It seemed fine to me].

5. Keep kneading until you have silky, elastic dough, but bear in mind that the dried fruit will stop this from being exactly satin-smooth. [Baking 911 said you should knead by hand for about 8-10 mins; apparently most people don't knead long enough, but you don't want to overknead either. Aargh.]

6. Form dough into a ball and place in a buttered bowl covered with plastic wrap, and leave to rise overnight in the fridge. Alternatively, you could leave it to rise for 1.5 hrs in a warm-ish place in the kitchen, but I [Nigella] always find it easier to go the overnight route, plus I think it gives a better taste and texture. [I did the 1.5 hr thing, but would use the fridge next time - see mistakes section.]

7. Heat oven to 425F (220C). Take dough out of fridge and let it come to room temperature. Punch the dough down, and knead it again until it is smooth and elastic. [See mistakes section for thoughts on this.]

8. Divide into 16 balls and shape into smooth round buns. No need to worry unduly about their size: just keep halving the dough until it's in 16 pieces. [I somehow ended up with two runty ones.]

9. Sit the buns on a lined baking sheet. Make sure they are quite snug together but not touching. Using the back of an ordinary eating kife, score the tops of the buns to make a cross. Cover with a tea towel, and leave to rise again for about 45 mins - they should have risen and almost joined up. [Baking 911 says that tea towels etc can get stuck to the top of the bread, so she recommends making a little tent by putting glasses at the four corners of the tray and draping plastic wrap over them. Seemed like a good idea, so I did it - see pix section below.]

10. Brush the buns with the egg wash, then mix the flour, sugar, and water into a smooth, thick paste. Using a teaspoon, dribble two lines over the buns in the indent of the cross. Bake in oven for 15-20 mins. [Actually, "smear" might be a better word; I diluted the paste so it was dribble-able, and the crosses came out a bit wishy-washy.]

11. When the hot cross buns come out of the oven, mix the sugar and boiling water together for the glaze, and brush each hot bun to make them sweet and shiny.

Thoughts/Tips/Mistakes

Well, they really didn't rise enough on the second go-round. My guess, based on Baking 911, is that the dough rose too much the first time. I clung to the 1.5 hrs in the recipe for the first rise, but apparently (and very sensibly) you should go by what's actually happening in front of you, as there are just so many variables (temperature, weather, what color knickers you're wearing, etc.) that recipes are just a guide. I'd try doing it overnight in the fridge next time, a more controlled environment.

Also, I really think that the kneading part before the second rise in the recipe must be because the dough was coming out of the fridge. Baking 911 says absolutely not to knead before 2nd rise. I actually tried an experiment - kneaded the two runty buns before shaping them, and sure enough, they hardly rose at all.

Also, most of the recipes I've seen since (on foodgawker) use all-purpose flour rather than bread flour - might try this next time.

Next year.

Pix

Ohmygod, the yeast! It's working!

Before first rise - so tiny

After about 45 mins - huge! Should have stopped it here, oh well

Set up for 2nd rise - Baking 911's tent idea

Ready for oven

Done!

A bun

Another bun

Full disclosure - shot showing the runty ones

Edamame Corn Chowder (Blah)

Bland soup, anyone? With perhaps a slightly farty smell? Didn't think so.

Last week (and so far this one too) was a bit of a come-down from the tagine. Plenty of cooking has been done, just not very successfully, and the blogging has fallen behind too. Anyway, here's Monday night's effort - I'll post last week's cooking in the next couple of days.

It was another recipe from Everyday Food, and it sounded so good... (and could be made veggie, if you're determined to try it).

The Recipe: Edamame Corn Chowder

http://www.pbs.org/everydayfood/recipes/Edamame_Corn_Chowder.html

Thoughts/Tips/Mistakes

I pretty much followed the recipe, apart from using regular frozen corn instead of creamed corn (added in step 2) and blending the soup after step 2 was done. Not being American, I have no idea what creamed corn tastes like - would that have made the difference?

Didn't have Italian herbs, so threw in some tarragon, because I like it, but might not have been a good choice? A bit soapy?

Also added some fresh Italian parsley, because we had some sitting in the fridge, but I don't think that would have adversely affected the flavor?

I think the smell was the edamame. But might have been one of the cats. (Not us, of course.)

Anyway, the end result was bland, even though I added plenty of salt. Thank god for the bacon garnish. We weren't exactly excited about eating it again tonight, with no bacon bits to liven things up. But I had a small inspiration and grated some parm on top - perhaps some cheese was what it was missing all along?

Pix

For what it's worth...

Easy Paella-ish (with Scary Shrimp)

Turns out I'm as scared of cooking shrimp as I am about chicken. And here was dealing with frozen shrimp, which made it even scarier. What if they weren't defrosted properly, so didn't cook right? And we both got horribly sick and were found in the bathroom ten days later, with our heads in the toilet and our pants round our ankles, half-eaten by the cats?

The Technique: Defrosting Shrimp
The interwebs, as always, provided the answer on this. The consensus was that you just soak them in ice cold water (not hot, you don't want to start the cooking process) for about 15-20 mins, changing the water a few times. What's Cooking America has some useful tips on shrimp in general.

The Recipe: Easy Paella-ish

http://www.pbs.org/everydayfood/recipes/easy_paella.html

I'm no expert, clearly, but this really seems like a fake paella to me (it was more like a risotto). And I hadn't realized that Everyday Food is a Martha Stewart thing - gack! (Apologies to any Martha fans.) But it tasted fine and, after all that panicking, the shrimp came out perfectly.

Will try a more authentic paella recipe at some point, though.

Thoughts/Tips/Mistakes

I used Portuguese linguica instead of the chicken sausage, because Jack is Portuguese-American and brought some home when we last visited his family. It has a pretty strong taste, so probably overpowered the rest of the flavors a bit.

Halved the recipe (it serves 8) and only did a few shrimp as we were going to have leftovers the next day, and didn't think the shrimp would reheat very well (would probably get chewy).

Pix


Step 3.












Almost done.