Scratch

Old Bay Seasoning

2012-06-03T06:07:00.001-07:00

Hello again,

I would like to share some homemade condiments I have whipped up in the last couple of weeks. First, is this version old bay seasoning, which is not available on this side of the Atlantic.

Usually this type of seasoning would be made out of dried and ground ingredients only, but I thought why not substitute some ingredients for their fresh counterparts. Especially with ginger I so much prefer to leave the ground verity in the cabinet. This method makes a slightly moist seasoning, so dont make too much and keep it in the fridge to use up within a month or so.

I used this seasoning together with some red chili paste I had made earlier with lemon slices to marinade a kilo of shrimp and prepared them in the shell, "papillote' style in the oven. They were spicy and heavenly.

The method is simple:

Combine all ingredients in a small processor and grind until a paste forms. I noticed the mustard grains were still mostly whole, so I used the mortar to crush an additional amount.

Ingredients:

8 bay leaves

2 teaspoons celery salt

1-1/2 teaspoons whole mustard seed

1-1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon spanish paprika

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

3 cm peeled fresh ginger cut into slices

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

+/- 15 whole cloves

+/- 15 whole allspice berries

spinach and nut pesto quiche

2012-04-26T03:47:00.000-07:00

Hello again,

When I found myself left with a whole bunch of parsley and not in the mood to make a tabouleh salad, I decided to work it in a batch of nut pesto. I often make something like this, but never quite the same thing. basically, I toast some nuts or seeds, grab a bunch of green leafy herbs and put it all in the processor with some olive oil, shallot or garlic and seasoning. Its great to have in the fridge as it can be used to top a salad, on toast, in a sandwich and on pasta of course.

Here, I worked it into a quiche, with sauteed spinach. I usually keep some uncooked pie shells in the freezer, so this made for a really quick, light meal.

Pre-bake the crust with pie weights or perforated with a fork. Sauté the spinach with salt, pepper and olive oil in a large pot, finish with a finely diced onion. To prep the wet ingredients, whisk some eggs, add freshly grated parmesan, yogurt, mustard and nut pesto. season with salt and pepper. Fill the prepped pie-shell with the spinach mixture and pour in as much egg mixture as you can fit. Bake for +/- 30 minutes or until the quiche has set and no runny egg can be detected.

How do you like your nut pesto?

Liza xoxo

Crab salad in the real sense of the word

2012-04-24T03:14:00.000-07:00

Hello again,

My local seafood merchant sells these boiled crab legs. They have been asking for my attention for a while now, but since I am not a big mayonnaise eater (except for with my fries, and I wouldn't be a real belgian if I didn't), I decided to make a salad with crab instead.

I added what I had on hand, which is often a combination of salad ingredients that happen to be available at the veggie market. Sprouts are great for spring. Radishes are still available and give a nice bit of bitterness and crunch. Always avocado, I think there is no substitute for the richness and creaminess an avocado can add to a salad. And I need only half as much dressing for full satisfaction. I also added cucumber, because it is fresh and makes the salad much lighter. I do leave the seeds in there. I like the hidden bite of water, and if you eat the salad right away, there should be no danger of getting a pool of cucumber juice at the bottom of your bowl. Do dress your greens separately before adding them to your bowl, if you try to get them coated in dressing inside a bowl with heavy ingredients, your greens will wilt and bruise under the pressure. I also like to finish a salad with some toasted nuts and seeds. This time I used flax and sesame.

Note on the crab leg, put it in a ziplock bag and use a hammer. be careful not to add any bits of shel to your salad. you teeth will appreciate your concern.

Note for the dressing: add to a small jar, a bit of whole grain mustard, salt, pepper, lemon or lime juice from one small fruit and a 1/3 cup of nice cold pressed olive oil. Shake well, and serve.

Does anyone have a crabby salad they would like to share?

Liza xoxo

coffee in a jar

2012-04-22T02:40:00.003-07:00

Hello again,

More and more I am convinced that coffee and espresso machines are not worth buying. Sure, a decent tavern style espresso machine can make a great cup, but the kinds that are available for the home are just not strong enough.

I have been eyeballing this gadget. It doesn't use use any electricity and it's strength is irrelevant because its mussel pulled and therefore as strong as you are. If I ever get around to getting one, ill keep you posted.

In the meantime, this is how I brew my coffee at home. It is a method I came up with, holding in mind all the important factors that influence the flavor of your coffee, e.g. the ratio of coffee to water, the temperature of the water, the freshens of the grind and the amount of time the grinds are in contact with the water. Also, no expensive coffee nerd items are needed and yet this coffee is superb. Here is how it goes: I add 2 tblsp of freshly ground coffee (ground on the regular setting) to a jelly jar and fill it up with hot water. The water is just under the boiling temperature. I let I sit for 3 minutes and then I strain it through a coffee filter. I would say this method is a mix between french press and drip coffee. Notice the nice layer of foam?

I will be getting a better filter system, this is the one I have in mind.

Let me know how you like your coffee. For the frothed milk lovers, I will keep doing some research,...

Liza xoxo

Dutch

2012-01-29T04:49:00.000-08:00

This was the first time I made a dutch baby, no I did not produce a living being overnight. I found, its like a mix between a pancake and an omelet. Super soft in texture. Delicious! However, before living in NY I had never heard about anything called "Dutch baby" so I wonder where the name actually comes from. I did read somewhere, don't remember where, that it's based on an old German tradition. Its a super easy recipe and you could easily use the short oven time to set the table and brew some coffee. I had mine with apple butter ad some powdered sugar.

I don't remember if I mentioned this already, but I never buy powdered sugar. The fact that I hardly use it aside, its just too easy to make, and I can use unrefined sugar this way. Just pulverize it in a small spice blender, or mortar until it is fine enough to pass through a fine mesh sieve.

In Belgium, we have "kringloopwinkels" these are the kind of thrift stores that sell gifted items for next to nothing. It is the next best thing to a flee market if you want to find treasures for cents. Here are some of the finds I did in my last visit. Two enameled pots, ancient, but no damage at all. These are so much better then any of the teflon coated pots on the market these days. My grandmother says these are the secret to her delicious cock au vin. She had to share, when her daughter in law could not comprehend how she got the skin so perfectly brown and crispy without sticking to the pot.

A salad spinner, used to be part of every household. Now you see them hardly anywhere anymore. I seriously wonder sometimes how people wash their salad. I have been slaving myself over the salad greens. dumping them in a sink full of water and then drying them with a clean kitchen towel one by one. That's history now. I got a spinner for 50 cents.

My top find however is this copper pot. It needs a little bit of love before it can hit the stove, I'll do some research on how to naturally clean these after I am finished with this post. I paid 1 whole euro for this. New they cost an arm and a leg. I also got some baskets and some ancient cookbooks. Cant wait to try out some of there old menus.

The first dinner party my new home has catered that included more then one guest. An because I think teenagers are hard to please I decided to stick with Pizza. And to be completely on the safe side, I had them top their own. Served some salad and soup and, ... done.

I have been gathering some ideas for finger food. My mother is having an opening night at one of her exhibitions in a couple of weeks and has asked me to cater some snacks that people can eat without too many dishes. I saw this idea here and liked that it did not specify the specific ingredients. It makes you think about what it is you are in the mood for. They are ground nuts and dried fruits, shaped in balls and coated in toasted sesame. I added some marmalade for extra sweetness and tang.

One cup of fried fruits: Figs, dates and dried cranberries. One cup of ground toasted nuts: hazelnuts and walnuts. Note: toast the nuts when they are whole. This will allow them to shed some of the skin.

Kneed together with some marmalade until well combined and shape in balls the size of one tablespoon. Use wet hands to prevent from sticking too much. Roll in the toasted sesame and store in an airtight container.

Another first timer in my kitchen this week were some scones. I got the recipe here except I used coconut oil instead of butter and dried cranberries instead of dried currents. Dried currents are not easy to find here. This is kind of ironic, because currents are very much from this area. I just don't think its traditional to dry them here as they are so plentiful in the summer. These scones stayed fresh all week. I had one for breakfast every morning before work. It turned out to be a big time saver and I am sure they freeze well. I feel a new breakfast tradition coming on.

On the subject of saving time I have been focussing all week on stocking for lazy days. There is no point in telling yourself that you will make a freshly cooked meal every day, let alone a couple of times a day, so I decided to plan for these lazy days, with some easy to freeze items. Another way to combat this problem is to roast. These roasted fingerling potatoes with marinara sauce can be assembled in minutes and cook themselves in the oven while you attend to other things.

I'm still making no-kneed bread more then other breads. I start it before going to bed and the next day when I get home from work, I shape it into 2 loafs while I preheat the oven with cast iron pots inside. one hour later, I bake them for 15 minutes on the highest temp possible with steaming water (I do this by pouring water in the oven tray on the lowest position and having the cast iron pans on the wire rack positioned immediately above), and then another 40 on 350F/180C. I start with a kilo of all purpose flower, although I do experiment often with whole wheat and spelt combo's. As long as the total is about one kilo. 3 cups of water/whey/beer and 1 tsp of dried yeast. combine well in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a spot with a normal room temperature. I freeze one bread and let it defrost over the period when I am at work. It will be best when its baked for another 15/20 minutes to refresh the crust. let it cool completely before cutting into it. This is essential if you want the bread to last a couple of days.

From a blog I like to read, I got the idea to do a kumquat marmalade. Marmalade has been a guilty pleasure of mine and I always think that its not as bad If I make it with raw/unrefined sugar. Its laborious but worth it. What the recipe doesn't tell you is that its best to soak the rinds before you start cutting and boiling them. It makes them tender slower and it really pays off in texture.

It was delicious on my date/nut pancakes for brunch!

Apparently, arugula comes with clovers these days.

Quinoa patties for the freezer.

Mash of celery root for the freezer. Just make it like you would mashed potatoes.

And lots of brussels sprouts, with either toasted pumpkin seeds or chopped almonds.

Hope to be back soon with some finds from the new/old cookbooks.

Have a nice week!

Prepping for late New Year's Party

2012-01-14T02:31:00.000-08:00

My family likes to celebrate a late New Year, this usually means that almost everyone can be there at the same time. for years I had to pass, because I was abroad. But this year I made up for it with homemade festivities. Its a party of 20 and I thought I was going to make it easy on myself and make a large put of stew and a couple of lasagnas. However, my grandpa confessed he never ate a stuffed turkey and since I have picked up the skill in the US, I had to put in the extra effort and show the man what he had or had not been missing. The truth in my opinion is that if stuffed turkey was so great, people would eat it all year around. But it is traditional, also in Europe so on the menu, some cocktail bites, two large lasagnas and 2 stuffed turkeys.

First I needed to prepare some of the main ingredients like ricotta cheese, marinara sauce, pasta sheets, ...

Heating milk and cream for the ricotta. Traditionally this is made from why, but I haven't started to experiment with making other cheeses yet and the result with milk and cream is very nice. All it entails is heating until just under boiling temperature with some salt. Take if off the heat and stir in some lemon juice. Let it sit for 15 minutes and it will curdle. Then you can strain it through a cheese cloth or a towel.

Then, for some vegetable stock. I know it is traditional to make turkey stock from the giblets and wings and such, but I noticed that when I ordered the turkey here with the butcher, they prepare it it for you by opening up the turkey, taking out the bones and everything else and then they suggest to stuff it for you, which I thankfully declined. They gave me some kitchen twine to sew it back together instead. The point of the story I didn't have any extra turkey parts for the stock. I should remember to ask the butcher to keep all of that for me in the future.

What I used for the stock were, celery, fennel, onion, carrots, thyme, parsley, bay leaf, salt and whole black pepper.

For the marinara sauce I softened some onion, added whole, canned, peeled tomatoes, salt and pepper, and a whole lot of fresh basil. Let it simmer for 30 minutes and used a hand held blender to get the creamy texture.

Of course the pasta sheets, same old recipe. 100g of flour to 1 egg and a pinch of salt. I do have to say that getting the little machine, makes all the difference! you don't have to worry about kneading as much (this dough gets really tough) because you can pass it through the machine over and over, folding it in half every time.

Then for the lasagna meat sauce. This becomes a lot easier when you have your marinara pre-made. brown the minced meat in a dry put, add whatever vegetables you like, I used mushrooms and bell pepper) and let all the juice evaporate. Then add the marinara and let it simmer for 2 hours at least. The meat needs to be really tender.

To stuff the turkeys, I made some sausage meat with ground pork, sage, nutmeg, allspice and cognac. Just mix it all together an chill for a couple of hours.

In the meantime some mashed potatoes for the side dishes. These were made ahead and baked with cheese 30 minutes before the turkey was served.

For the white lasagna sauce, whisk a couple of eggs and mix in the ricotta cheese. I had to make a double batch of ricotta. That means you need to start with a liter of milk and half a cup of cream to get enough ricotta for one large lasagna. Then, mix in about 2 balls of fresh buffalo mozzarella and 1/2 cup of freshly grated parmigiana as well as a bunch of chopped parsley. Remember this is for 2 of these large lasagnas.

After chilling the sausage meat, it needs to be browned and cooled. Then I mixed in w hole loaf of toasted sourdough bread, I was stuffing 2 turkeys after all. Then I softened some onion, celery, apple, pear and parsley to mix in with the stuffing also.

Cranberry sauce is just heating one cup of water with one cup of sugar and 2 bags of cranberries with 2 pieces of fresh peeled ginger and a wedge of lemon. Its ready when all the berries have disintegrated and the sauce is think enough the coat the back of a spoon.

These bites are made from roasted pumpkin which I put in the blender, some fresh goats cheese and puff pastry. The were baked for 20 minutes just before the cava was served.

I also made some cheese puffs with the whey of the ricotta and some trappist beer, but I think this is where I started stressing for time, because all of a sudden I stopped taking pictures. I did get in a last money shot of the Turkeys.

No Fuss

2011-12-24T14:08:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you, but I have seen so many christmas dinner ideas on the internet that I feel full, even before I had an actual celebration dinner. Last night my mother and I enjoyed some quality time together with some fresh food and managed to get a festive night between the two of us, without feeling the next morning like we ate an entire pig. In fact that's how I have been making food decisions for the last two weeks now. Here are some of the things i managed to get on camera:

The dish below is my variation on a local winter dish called hutsepot, which is basically a stew from different kinds of meat and vegetables and not to be confused with the dutch dish called hutspot, which is in essence a mash of potatoes and carrots. I made mine with bacon, instead of the usual variety of stock meats, this allows the dish to be made quicker and in smaller quantities. The winter vegetables I used were brussels sprouts and turnips as well as some celery and potato.

Some tacos with some stir-fried vegetables, turkey breast and avocado. Its not like one can buy corn tortillas here, and I knew that ahead of time, so I managed to bring over a tortilla press from NY as well as some masa seca. When that runs out however, I guess I will have to make my own. In fat I am drying some field corn from the late fall now, so when the time comes, I'll let you all know how that goes.

For the casual sandwich I made some vegetable spread, simply by putting some cooked white beans, the rest of my stir-fry and avocado in the blender with some salt. That turned out really great and I definitely recommend trying it.

Of course some christmas gifts had to be made also. I was able to fill these cookies with my grandmother's jam btw, isn't that a nice collaboration?

Simple vegetable stock. I used the bottom and outer leaves of both a fennel and a celery, two small onions cut in big chunks, some whole cloves of garlic, a bay leaf, some thyme springs and some whole black peppercorns and salt. I ended up using it for baking a local fish called Brill with some lemon juice and a coarsely chopped shallot and some jerusalem artichoke. These root vegetables are low in starch and go lovely with seafood.

To go with the brill, I made a variation on Heidi's wintersquash salad and some brusselssprouts "cole slaw" with toasted pumpkin seeds, kohlrabi and a dressing of apple cider, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I also added some home dried apple.

Did you notice the heart in the dried apple? I sliced the apple first and then sued a cookie cutter to take the seed house out. I think they made a super cute garnish as well as a decoration for around the stem of a champagne glass.

The Old and the New

2011-12-13T12:39:00.000-08:00

Although the cycle of life is nothing new, my attention has recently been drawn more and more to the phenomenon and the vague lines between the old and the new. I guess winter would be the natural time of year to hold still and think about what that means, but its been a steady recurrent theme for me lately. There is the obvious theme of my old neighborhood becoming my new neighborhood and what feels like yesterday in New York is slowly becoming a distant past. But, last week, I have heard of 2 families in the neighborhood who had to go though the horror of burying their baby, while in the same week, two friends of mine have become proud parents for the second time. This is all very overwhelming and yet very hard to imagine what exactly it is those people are going though. Deep pain and intense joy that change can bring.

My mother's new home is an old farm in the French Provence. She has a vegetable patch there and with the winter here and brought me these vegetables on her last ride back. Of course, coming from an own garden, these are so pure, its almost a shame to do anything to them other then just eat them the way they are. The beets and the squash, were roasted in the oven with nothing more then some olive oil, salt, pepper and some fresh herbs. With the chard and a verity of onions I was able to make some quiches. To make a quiche you need to do nothing more then make a classic piecrust, sauté some vegetables for the filling and mix some eggs with some cheese and some cream to poor over the whole thing before it goes in the oven. This basic principle creates so many possibilities that is a shame to post a recipe here, so, I wont. Be creative, use what you have in your fridge and omit or replace the items you don't have. The Technique for the piecrust is also simple; Put 1 cup all purpose flour (or a combination of flours, even almond meal works great) in a bowl and add 3/4 cup of cold, hard butter and about 5 tablespoons of ice water. Use a pastry blender or a food processor to pulse the flour and the butter to a course sand, add ice water one tablespoon at a time until the dough comes together. Do not kneed the dough, but refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes before rolling out and lining your tartlet pans.

In the light of turning something old into something new, this piece of furniture is on the to do list. Don't you just love these ancient bolts? The idea is to restore this wardrobe into a linen closet early spring 2012. Wish me luck!

Back from being gone

2011-11-29T11:55:00.001-08:00

For months I have been telling my friends I will pick up blogging again in just a couple of days. But it is a lot easier said then done. Some people can achieve things where and when they feel like it, but I count myself under those that need the comfort of a home to get productive. Also situations like a full hard drive and no where to put new pictures doesn't help.

Now, I am here. I had to loose a bunch of pictures in the downloading process (how the hell does that happen), but after all I made it.

You can see, the kitchen is still mid works. I'm in the middle of screwing together the cabinets. And instead of a real space to store things like pots and knives, they are pretty much everywhere. The truth is, though, I really don't care. My home is where my dough is fermenting, ...

The first blessing of moving back to Belgium was the free food. Seriously, I had a hard time finding an excuse to go to the store. Aunts and uncles of uncles so to speak have too many apples and nuts. I sat cracking nutshells long before I had a car. My granny, she's a blessing, has a ton of rose bushes, so what better time passing then drying rose hips for tee. I cut the amount of rose hip with a third of dried lemon peel. The flavor is amazing, just make sure you dry them separately as the lemon peel doesn't need as long and when you make the tee, it needs to sit for a good 10 minutes for the flavor to be full and rich.

A second blessing of living here now is the gas fire. Its a cute little heater that does the job for the whole house. You can imagine the charm of going back to basics with a cherry stone to warm up the bed. Anyway, the gas fire is an excellent place to dry things for the winter. One of the first projects was ginger. After all this is the Scratch blog, so if there is a way to get the desired ginger powder, for the coming Christmas cookies, from real ginger, I'm going for it. I took the cheese grater to get smaller pieces of ginger, put them on a kitchen towel next to the fire place and when it was all dry and shriveled up a little electrical spice grinder/ coffee grinder will get it to powder.

Berry picking

2011-07-16T10:15:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna let the pictures speak for themselves here. I obviously went berry picking and I have not much to add other then: "It was wonderful".

Summer BBQ Scallops

2011-07-15T15:34:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, I always get really jealous when I see pictures of people having a barbeque. I have worked weekends for the longest time and always got stuck with days off in the week. It has its advantages, I have to admit, but I have never been invited to a barbeque in the middle of the week. Now that I did have the chance to join a friend to their friends house for a house warming summer barbeque, I was all over the idea. Since I am still cleaning out cabinets and getting rid of random little jars I decided to take some things to the party. I stuffed a jar of harissa and and a jar of mango butter in my purse and I was on my way.

The friend I was going with suggested we pick up something to throw on the grill so we went to the supermarket together and ended up buying a batch of scallops. I decided to make a "BBQ-Sauce" by mixing the harissa and the mango butter, marinated the scallops in the sauce and crusted the scallops in crushed peanuts, which were already available at the party. The host made a delicious Thai treat. I decided there and then that, since Thai cuisine is undiscovered territory for me, I must experiment more with these flavors.

The scallop skewers took only a couple of minutes on either side. I had to be careful not to burn the peanuts so I chose a place on the grill were the flame was tempered. In hindsight, I could also have grilled them just seasoned with salt and pepper and then served them with harissa-mango sauce and crushed peanuts. They were delicious though, and it was wonderful to see complete strangers munch at them.

The afternoon went by too quickly with a never ending supply of chops, beer can-chicken, cabbage salad, potato salad, watermelon-vodka coolers, fireflies and eventually candle lit conversation. What a good way to forget about your troubles and meet new people.

Ricotta pancakes

2011-07-11T11:59:00.000-07:00

I have been looking into homemade cheeses lately and ricotta is one of the easiest to do. There are no special additives that you need to order online like rennet, which is used in most cheeses, so its a perfect one to start the cheese making journey with.

Ingredients:

8 Cups milk

1/2 C Cream

1 tsp sea salt

2 tbsp white vinegar

Bring the milk, cream and salt to just under a simmer, stirring all the while. If you have a thermometer, your are looking for 180-190F. When the desired temperature has been reached turn off the heat and stir in the acid. Let it sit for 15 minutes, you will see the solids starting the separate from the whey.

After 15 minutes or so, strain it through a colander lined with a tea towel and let it sit for at least an hour, up to two hours. The longer it sits, the more solid it will become. I use the why for many kinds of things, it makes a great oatmeal porridge, or in this case I used it in my pancakes. Just remember that it is salted and acidic, its fine to drink straight, so just taste for seasoning before you add it to anything.

For the pancakes, I like the use what I call the 3 bowl method. One for the dry ingredients, one for the wet ingredients and one for the egg whites. I beat the egg whites first, this way I don't have to worry about washing the whisk as thoroughly. (egg whites don't stiffen well with an oily whisk). But if you already have your favorite pancake recipe, you can just add ricotta to that. About half a cup of ricotta to 1 cup of flour.

Ingredients for the pancakes:
10 oz flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 oz raw sugar
2 eggs separated
1 C plus 2/3 C liquid (milk, buttermilk, whey, ...)
2 oz melted butter or oil
1 1/2 C homemade ricotta

In the wet ingredients I used, whey, milk, eggs and oil. But there is a lot of flexibility here, I always just use what I have, cream, butter and buttermilk make it in there often.

The ricotta goes in with the wet ingredients. It will look a bit curdled but wont affect the end product.

Then add the beaten whites and add the dry ingredients carefully without over mixing the batter. Be careful not to deflate the whites. To prevent lumps in the flour many recipes call for sifting the flour in. I think its too much trouble for what its worth and I just give the flour a good whisk and add it to the wet mix in 3 additions.

You know you need to turn your pancake when these small bubbles form on the surface, about 1 1/2 minutes. If it takes significantly longer or shorter, your heat needs to be adjusted accordingly.

I like to eat mine with maple syrup or jam.

References:
ontbijt en brunch
Smitten kitchen
Chow

focaccia

2011-06-27T14:39:00.000-07:00

I did some bread posts already so this one won't be as thorough. I made a couple of batches of focaccia lately so I just wanted to share. It really doesn't take that much effort, its totally fine to knead this bread in the stand mixer. The dough is wetter then that of regular bread. It's actually very close to a pizza dough with extra oil and salt. I used unbleached bread flour, but regular all purpose is fine. I haven't made any whole wheat versions. Usually I am a firm believer in adding at least a third of whole flours, be it wheat or spelt or something else. In my head focaccia needs to me really light and fluffy.

I did notice that the bread goes stale quite fast, so from now on ill stick to serving it at dinner parties with 4 guests and more so it's gone by the end of the night. Serve it warm, but not hot. That's another bread rule being broken.

The dough has a single rising period in a bowl coated in oil and covered with a towel. Then it gets shaped into a rectangle to fit the baking sheet and gets another 30 minutes of rising, this time uncovered, while the oven is being preheated as hot as possible.

When you are ready to bake, poke holes all over using your fingers. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with coarse salt and chopped rosemary. Of course you are free to add whatever you like, but at some point you have to call it pizza. I added some chopped basil, in line with the idea of emptying out the kitchen.

Ingredients:

4 cups of flour

1 1/2 tsp of instant yeast

2 tsp salt

1 1/3 cups warm water (maybe more)

1 tsp olive oil for in the dough, plus extra for topping.

Directions:

Mix the dry ingredients in the stand mixer, slowly add the water, when combined add the oil. If the dough looks tough and dry, add more water. Kneed on low speed for 10 minutes.

Shape into a ball, coat with olive oil and let rise until doubled in size, covered with a towel or plastic bag.

Prepare a baking sheet with olive oil, turn the dough out onto the baking sheet and shape it to fit into the corners. let rest for 30 minutes while heating up the oven to 500-550F.

Poke holes all over and top with oil, salt and rosemary, ... . Throw a couple of ice cubes on the bottom of the oven, this will create a nice humid environment. Bake for 20 minutes at 500F. Turn the heat down to 400F and bake another 20 minutes.

References:

The river cottage bread handbook by Daniel Stevens

Blueberry Pie

2011-06-25T13:25:00.000-07:00

I have some pretty big news to share; I decided to move back to Belgium. When exactly I will be moving out of the country hasn't been decided. My guess is any time between the end of summer and the end of the year. I do know I'm moving out of my current apartment by the end of august. I guess I will mostly be blogging about cleaning out cabinets for the next two months. The months after that probably mostly about "nomadic cooking" in other people's kitchens. Eventually I hope to focus my blog on building a solid pantry completely in line with the idea of cooking from scratch. I hope to share with you some of my local finds and "un-finds". I have to admit it scares me a little to be cut off from the endless availability New York has to offer. On the other hand, I am sure I will come to love other opportunities local communities have to offer, like going directly to the farm.

The first thing I am using up today is an over-sized tub of blueberries. And what better way to use them then in an all American desert. An early goodbye ode.

I looked up a couple of different recipes for blueberry pie. You would think that putting blueberries and sugar between two layers of crust about describes the idea, but I have made some bad pie crusts and I was determined to get to the bottom of good crust making. The two dangers are a dry crust or a tough crust. Basically they are both caused by wrong amounts of water. Using the correct amount of water is tricky however as it depends on your flour and on the weather. I found the solution on the website from "America's test kitchen". Using half water and half vodka. The vodka, allows you to add "too much" liquid at the beginning to make a wet workable dough, but vodka evaporates quickly and doesn't allow the gluten to develop during baking thus preventing a tough crust.

Another thing I took away from their recipe is using both butter and shortening. That was said to give it the flaky texture caused by shortening and the flavor added by the butter. If you ask me, there is really no reason to use shortening unless you are dairy intolerant. Butter should make it just as flakey. The idea is to eat as wholesome as possible. I know I cant make shortening at home but I can make butter, so that's exactly what I did. I made butter and used it in addition to the shortening that I am trying to use up anyway.

Most recipes call for a food processor. They tell you how many times you need to pulse the mixture to make sure its not over blended, ...

I like to do this by hand. The dough blender that you can see in the picture does a really good job. It cuts the fat into the flour and leaves a grainy, sandy texture. If you are worried about over processing the dough, start with two thirds of the flour and cut in all the fat, then stir in the other third of flour. That way you are guaranteed to have some uncoated flour in there to help you with the layers you are trying to form which will result in a flaky crust.

Another problem with fruit pies is the water that comes out of the fruit. Most recipes call for starch as a binding agent. Of course then there is the risk of having a thick solid pie. If you use jam making tricks like natural fruit pectin with sugar, you don't need to use that much starch. Apple and citrus have high levels of pectin. I used grated apple, lime juice and lime zest. Just because that's what I had at the house.

I put half the blueberries in a saucepan, mashed them with a potato masher and started to make some jam. Then, after it had cooled for a little bit I added the apple, lime juice and lime zest, sugar and starch. I am sure these could have been added in the pot, but I was worried of over activating the pectin as it still had to go into the oven for about an hour. I made the right decision because it came out solid enough.

Another thing I have sitting in the cabinets is matzo meal. I haven't gotten around to using it up. It works great as a starch to absorb some liquid from the pie, so that's what I used.

For rolling out the dough, make sure it is chilled, all recipe books tell you this, and its worth it. It really works. Another thing that works great it rolling it in wax paper, it peels right off. I measured the width of the paper and knew that a round exactly to the edge would be 12' in diameter. Perfect for a 9' pie dish.

Make some hols in the top layer, however you like to. It really doesn't matter, its just to let the steam escape. Let esthetics be your guide. Make sure you get rid of the excess dough around the edge. Leave about 1/2' to cramp the edges together.

I realized I had extra lime juice, lime zest, vodka and sugar. Voila, a shot was born. I did melt the sugar first in some hot water to make a simple syrup.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1 1/2 Cup (6oz) chilled cubed butter

1/2 Cup (2oz) vegetable shortening (or butter)

1/4 Cup cold water

1/4 cup vodka

1 egg, beaten with a tbsp of water

5 to 6 Cup of blueberries

2 tsp lime or lemon zest

2 tsp lime or lemon juice

1 grated apple (squeeze the juice out)

3/4 Cup raw sugar

2 tbsp Matzo meal (or another starch)

Directions:

For the crust: Mix 2/3 of the flour with the salt and the sugar. Cut in the fat in 3 additions. gently mix in the rest of the flour using a spatula. Add the water ad the vodka and mix until the dough comes together. Make to disks, one a bit larger then the other and refrigerate for one hour.

Take the disks out and roll them into 11' and 12' rounds between 2 sheets of wax paper or parchment paper. If it becomes too soft ans sticky, put it in the freezer for one or two minutes. The larger round goes in the pie pan and becomes the bottom crust. Make sure it is nicely tucked into the corners. The top round needs to be pierced with air holes before it is put on the pie and the edges are crimped.

For the filling: put 3 cups of blueberries in a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Mash them with a potato masher and let them cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes until nice and thick. You will see both large and small air bubbles come to the surface. Take of the heat and let the mixture cool down.

Mix the rest of the berries with the "jam", the grated apple, lime juice, lime zest, sugar and matzo meal, and put it all into the prepared bottom pie shell. Close the pie, cut and crimp the edges. Brush the top crust with the egg mixture. Bake in a preheated oven on 400F for 30 minutes. Turn the heat down to 350F, bake for another 30-40 minutes or until ready. The blueberry jam will start to bubble a little bit out of the holes, that's when you know it is ready.

Strawberry Jam

2011-06-09T11:10:00.000-07:00

I recently became interested in canning. No doubt something that most of our grandmothers knew how to do but somehow the baby boomers thought the store bought stuff was good enough. I made some strawberry jam a couple of days ago and I didn't get around to canning it. It's too tasty and I am sure it wont last a week.   

It takes time to learn how to live with the seasons. At least 1 year until all the seasons passed the review. And if you don't watch out those few weeks that your favorite produce is in peek season might slip by unnoticed. I have been waiting for strawberry time and I am very excited to see it is here. Ill just have to make sure that I make some larger batches of jam to get through the winter. 

In jam and jelly making what happens is that the pectin in the fruit works together with the sugar and the acidity to form a gel when the mixture is left to cool. Some fruits are low in pectin, strawberry being one of them. The solution is to add pectin derived from another fruit. You can buy a processed pectin in the store, but I really don't see the point since lemon peel is packed with it. Add the peel, including the pith, of half a lemon for every 4 cups of strawberries. Some people add the juice of half a lemon or some apple instead, but that will obviously change the flavor. The lemon peel can be fished out before the jam is jarred. 

Some recipes call for normal granulated sugar, others for dusting sugar. I am not a big fan of either. I like to use raw, unrefined sugar. If I need it finer I just pulverize it in the mortar. You can even make dusting sugar this way, it will just be slightly darker in color, which I certainly don't have a problem with.

Mix the strawberries, lemon peel and sugar in a heavy bottomed, enameled dutch oven. When working with fruits it is best to use a non reactive pot. When using a metal pot, the acids will interact with the metal and actually alter the flavor. let the mixture sit for about two hours. The sugar will start to work the strawberries, this will enhance the flavor, and create more complexities then if you just start cooking them right away.

After the strawberries have been allowed to sit, give them a quick mash with a potato masher. Here you have the option to control the consistency you prefer. Whole berries, chunky, fine. I went for chunky. 

Turn the heat on medium heat, stir every minute or so and let it reduce for about 10 minutes. You will see small bubbles indicating a simmer. A rolling boil means you need to turn the heat down. No bubbles means you need to turn the heat up.

After about 10 minutes, you will see the juice is becoming thicker. It should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. When the jam cools down it will actually get a lot thicker, so don't overdo it here.

For a small batch like this you will need 4 cups of quartered strawberries, peel of half a lemon and 3/4 cup of fine sugar. 

References:
The lost art of real cooking
bon appetit june issue
river cottage preserves handbook

Peanut Butter

2011-06-08T12:43:00.000-07:00

If someone gave me a thousand empty jars, I bet I would fill them. Even though I live in a small New York apartment with the typical New York kitchen. I only have myself and one other person to feed, I still run out of jars. 

Peanut butter is made out of toasted peanuts. Toasting them yourself is no big deal. A dry cake dish will do. Toast them for 6-8 minutes on 350F moving them around every couple of minutes. When buying peanuts, make sure they are not seasoned. They should preferably be raw. I got a bag of dry toasted peanuts in the shell, so I had to skip the toasting process.  

 Give your peanuts a quick rinse and put them in the food processor. For each cup of nuts put a pinch of salt and about a tablespoon of oil. Peanut oil if you have it. Sunflower oil will do the trick as well. 

Start the food processor on medium speed and work your way up. Check  from time to time if you need to scrape the sides of the bowl. The paste will  get creamier and softer. To get a really smooth paste you'll need about  10 minutes.  

No preservatives are used, so you should keep your homemade peanut butter in the fridge and use it within a couple of weeks.

Carrot Soup

2011-06-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

It has been too long since I made carrot soup. I think it is the perfect soup. It is easy to make and versatile. There are many possibilities for variations so you have the option to get rid of some things that need to be eaten. Today I noticed that I had some cilantro that shouldn't go another day and a half used can of coconut milk. 

The  trick to most soups is to start with an onion and some good olive oil  or butter. Use a heavy bottomed pot on very low heat. I turn on the pot  with the oil in it when I am cutting the onion. It helps me resist to  turn the heat up and the pot is being warmed through gradually and  evenly. When throwing in the onion stir it around to make sure that the  onions are well coated in oil and let them cook slowly. If they get  color in less then 5 minutes, the heat was too high. They should be  cooked for about 10 minutes in low heat until translucent. Again, to  stop myself from turning up the heat, I use this time to chop the  carrots. 

The  carrots should be sauteed in the oil with the onions until they start  to get tender. That releases more flavor than when they get added to the  broth. When it is time to add the stock, throw in all other solids you  plan to use. In my case the ginger, I used a cheese cloth pouch to put  my ginger in, so I could fish it out later. If you are adding fresh soft  herbs like cilantro add them in the last 10 minutes. When seasoning  with Salt and pepper always think about the broth you are using. Taste  first, take a spoonful, add some salt to the spoon and taste to see if  it needs more. 

I  like to blend my soups, its just a personal preference. If you intend  to do the same you have the option of using water instead of stock as  the flavor of the vegetables will be stronger.

About  the stock. I used chicken stock. I always have pint sized jars in the  freezer. If you are buying chicken stock, please stop. The home made  stuff is soooo much better. Ill do a post on that soon. 

A  basic carrot soup doesnt need anything more then oil, onion carrots,  stock or water, salt and pepper. But you can never go wrong with some  fresh ginger, chervil, tarragon, chili peppers, sour cream, orange,  garlic, curry, coconut milk, cinnamon, honey or mint.

I try not to cling to exact amounts that much. I admit in baking it can be essential, but it not for carrot soup. 

I used about

1/4 olive oil 

1 onion

4 large carrots

4 Cups of chicken stock 

1/2 can of coconut milk 

1/4 cilantro

salt and pepper

Chocolate Spread

2011-06-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

With my last two posts focusing on bread, you might start to get how much I love bread. I crave bread every day. Sometimes I like to eat a savory sandwich but most of the time I like to eat something sweet. My absolute favorite is chocolate spread. I used to buy jars of nutella, then I started looking for verities with a decent grade of chocolate and less junk in them like preservatives. But then I noticed that it is one of the easiest things to make. Basically you just need to melt some chocolate in a bowl over boiling water, add butter and let it melt in there. Take it of the heat and stir in some hazelnut butter. 

By doing it yourself you have the utmost control over the ingredients. For my friend who is lactose intolerant I have made versions with coconut oil and almond butter. This time I used vegetable shortening, which I have to admit I am not a big fan of, since I read about how it is made, but I'm also not a big fan of throwing tings in the garbage, so here you go. 

There are also a lot of different nut butters you can use, look for one that has nothing but nuts and oil. There are too many verities that use emulsifiers and preservatives. Or you can make your own nut butter, I will do a post on that soon.  

The only tricky part is to get the ratios right so when it cools down it will solidify just enough to have a nice spreadable consistency. I got the ratios out of a very cute little book called the basics

Ingredients: 

10 oz bittersweet chocolate

1 Cup and 4 tablespoons of butter (if you are using shortening add 2 tablespoons of water)

1 lb of Nut butter. Here I used a nut butter a fellow blogger received as a gift: Honey roasted cashew butter. Since I used a dark chocolate, the honey gives it some extra sweetness. 

Sugar, if you decide to use it, let it melt with the chocolate and don't use more then 1/3 cup. 

a pinch of salt 

Pita Bread

2011-06-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

If the traditional loaf seams a bit too daunting and time consuming, pita bread is a lot easier and faster to make. you could be eating pita bread 2 hours after you first thought of making it. It keeps in the fridge or in the freezer and if it does go stale, you an still make pita chips. In my opinion pita bread from the store really is NOT worth it compared to the home made version. 

I shared my pita bread with a friend, we had it with falafel, tabuli salad and tahini sauce. All recipes you can make from scratch. If you would like to see some videos on those recipes, go to dedemed

For the amounts the standard ratio applies. 100 units flour, 60 unites water, 2 unites salt and 1 unit yeast. These ratios are based upon weight and must be adjusted if you are using unites by volume. 

In a bowl, mix 3 cups of flour (I used half all purpose and half whole wheat) with 2 teaspoons of salt and make a well in the middle. 

In a cup, mix a tablespoon of yeast with a tablespoon of honey  and about half a cup of warm water. The honey will activate the yeast  and after about 10-15 minutes a big layer of foam will form on the  water.  

Using a spoon start working in some water mixture into the flour  mixture by pouring some in the well and making circular motions with the  spoon on the edge of the well. The total amount of water needed is  about 1 1/2 cups, I used a half cup already for activating the yeast, so  one more cup needs to be added. Use warm water, cold water will slow  the yeast down, and hot water will kill the yeast. 

The people who read the traditional bread post will notice that I  added the flour to  the water there and here we are adding the water to  the flour. I just wanted to point out that these are just different  ways of mixing the dough. There are a number of ways additional to these  two. I think it just comes down to using the methods you are most  comfortable with. 

Once the flour is totally worked in you will have a dough that's  too sticky to shape into a ball. You can leave the dough in the mixing  bowl, cover it with a towel and let it rise until doubled in size. The  weather has been very warm the last couple of days, so 30 minutes of  rising was enough for me. If you do this in the winter, try to find a  warm spot in the house. Some people like to preheat the oven to 100F  then turn of the heat and let the dough rise inside. 

When the dough has doubled in size, turn it out onto a well floured work surface and knead for about ten minutes. I was fortunate to have a friend over to share the pita bread with me and help out with the picture taking. I hope these pictures capture some of the steps in kneading, which is something that was very difficult to do for the traditional bread post as I was alone. There are a lot of verities of techniques in kneading, but the principle stays the same; the dough needs to be stretched, folded and turned to develop the gluten. 

You know you are done kneading when the dough becomes silky and you are able to stretch a piece of dough without braking it. With white flour, you can go even further, and stretch it so thin that light will come through. 

If you worked with a batch of about 3 cups of flour, you should get about 8 pita breads out of it. Divide the dough in 8 almost equal pieces, deflate them with your finger tips and shape them in balls. The same rules apply here as with the regular bread, you want to fold the edges in, pinch to close the seams and stretch the surface to create some tension. Cover the balls in a cotton towel and let them proof (rise) for about 15 minutes. In the mean time you'll want to preheat the oven to 500F, preferably with a baking stone inside.

Roll the pitas out very thin and plop them on your baking stone without opening the oven door for too long. They only need a couple of minutes, they dont need to be flipped, and you know when they are done, when they have had the chance to balloon up for about 30 seconds.

Basic old fashioned yeast bread

2011-05-29T22:55:00.000-07:00

I am not going to lie, making bread can be tricky and time consuming. But once you have made a great loaf, you will be hooked! There are so many possibilities and variations, the fun never ends. You can combine different flours like whole wheat, spelt, oat, barley, buckwheat and so on. Or things can be added to the dough, like nuts and fruits. You can vary the water and create different textures with whet dough like ciabatta. There are different options with the yeast as well, instant, fresh, sourdough starter. Recently the "no-knead" bread has even made it possible to skip the mess and uses a lot less yeast then the traditional bread. I feel like doing a whole blogging marathon on different breads, but I do think it is appropriate to start with the basic traditional loaf. 

 There are different stages in bread making. The total time of actually touching the dough doesn't add up to much more then half an hour, but with all the waiting included it's more then 4 hours. 

What you will need:

In one bowl: 

8 cups of flour (I like to use half all purpose and half whole wheat or spelt) 

4 teaspoons of salt

In a second bowl: 

2 1/2 cups of warm water (not hot, like a baby's bottle) 

1 tablespoon of active dry yeast 

1 tablespoon of honey

a dough scraper (I use a metal spatula)

a cotton towel 

a baking stone (a baking sheet works as well, but the texture of the crust really is worth the 10-15 dollars it will cost you) 

a peel (this is simply a peace of wood with a handle to transfer the bread in and out of the oven) 

A spray bottle with just water (this is to keep the oven humid) 

The first stage is to mix the flour and the salt in one bowl. In another bowl pour the warm water, add the yeast and the honey and let it sit for 15 minutes. What happens here is that the yeast is being fed by the sugars in the honey. This is not essential as the yeast will also be fed by the flour, but it is helpful because the yeast will start working faster. After 15 min you will be able to see that the yeast is literally raised above the water. Forming, what looks like, a pancake on top of the water. This proves the yeast is alive. If for any reason the yeast doesn't work. Stop now and buy new yeast. There is no point in wasting your time if the yeast is dead. 

Stage two is to add the flour mixture to the water, small handfuls at a time. Use one hand to mix in the flour, making a homogenous mixture before you add more flour. The batter will get thicker and thicker. When it starts holding together but is still sticky it is time to turn it out onto the work surface and start kneading. Kneading helps develop the gluten, they attach to each other forming long strands. This is needed for the elasticity of the bread. Later when the dough is rising because the yeast is producing gases, the dough needs to stretch around the gas bubbles. The kneading process takes about 10 minutes. If you start with a sticky dough and gradually add flour, you are letting your work surface help you with the kneading. This way it takes less effort. Once the dough is turned out use the base of your hand to stretch the dough out away from you. Then use your fingers to pull it back toward you and give the dough a quarter turn before you repeat this action. Use the dough scraper to return everything left on the surface back into the dough. After a couple of minutes, when you have added some flour and the dough starts to give more resistance, you won't be able to use long strokes like you were in the beginning. This is when I like to switch to a two hand kneading routine. Push with the base of both palms and pull back with 10 fingers, folding the end over towards the middle. The dough will take a wider horizontal shape. Here I give it a quarter turn only every couple of times. 

Be careful not to add to much flour, if the dough doesn't want to stick to itself anymore, it will be very difficult to shape the loafs. 

 When the kneading is finished, shape the dough into a ball and let it rise. The best way to do this is to use a clean bowl with some olive oil. Turn the dough around a couple of times in the bowl to coat it with oil. This will help when removing the dough from the bowl when it has doubled in size. The oil will keep the dough from drying out. Cover with a towel and let it sit until it has become twice as big. This is typically somewhere between 45 and 90 minutes depending on the room's temperature. 

Turn the dough out onto the work surface, upside down. Deflate the dough using your fingertips shaping it into a disk. Fold it over and give it a quick knead for about 1 minute. Shape it back into a ball and let it rise again in the same way until doubled in size. 

After the second rising period it is time to shape the loafs. Turn the dough out onto the work surface upside down again. The amounts used here are enough to make 2 medium loafs, or 8-12 rolls. I made 1 loaf and 4 rolls. 

Use the dough scraper or spatula to cut the dough. When shaping the loaf, it is key to create some surface tension. It is almost like you want to give the top of the bread a facelift and tuck the extra skin under on the bottom of the loaf. The best way to do this is to shape a rough ball, flatten it out into a disk, fold the outsides in, pinch to close the seam, turn it over, hold the ball in both hands and give it some finishing stretches with the sides of your hands.  

Once your loafs are shaped, they need to proof. The best thing to do here is to place them on a floured peel (an upside down baking sheet works fine). Space them out enough to allow for rising a third time and cover with a cotton towel. While the dough is proofing the oven should be preheated to 400-450F. If you are using the baking stone, place it in the oven before the oven is hot.

It's an option to make slits in the breads before they go in the oven. If you don't do this, they will crack randomly, which gives a more rustic look to the crust. There are several possibilities, but I like this one; two slits per loaf and one slit per roll. 

 Bake them for 10-15 minutes at 400-450F, then turn the heat down, depending on the color of the crust to about 300-350F for another 20-30 minutes for the loafs and 15-20 minutes for the rolls. Occasionally spray water into the oven. Having a humid environment will do wonders for the crust. 

You will know when they are ready, when you tap on the bottom of the loaf and it sounds hollow.

When coming out of the oven, let them cool completely before you start cutting into it. It's hard to resist but it will be worth the wait. If you cut into a loaf of bread prematurely, you will let the steam out, this is detrimental for the development of the crust. 

Bread at my house keeps easily for a couple of days, that is if I am able to resist eating all of it. Don't put it in plastic, it will become chewy. A paper bag works, although it does dry the bread out a bit. I find just letting it sit on the counter works fine, I turn the cut side down. A wooden box would be ideal. You also have the option of freezing the bread. Let it defrost naturally and bake it for 15-20 minutes at 300F. This will refresh the bread.

Tomato Jalapeño Salsa

2011-05-19T18:17:00.000-07:00

Now that Spring is here, everything looks really tasty at the farmers market. Spring onions, collard greens, asparagus, radishes, ... I even bought some tomatoes, but they are not really in season yet and still very over priced. 

So, I decided to put my expensive tomatoes to good use and made some salsa. Most people just chop some jalapeños, tomatoes, onion and cilantro and leave it at that.

However, the two steps that are crucial for releasing flavor are the roasting and the mashing of the garlic, jalapeño and tomatoes. I used my cast iron skillet for the roasting, but a broiler or even the gas flame works fine. The tomatoes do start to give off some juice once the skin comes off, so it is key to wrap them in foil at that point to save the liquid. Keep roasting until all ingredients are soft and remove them from the heat. Let them cool for a minute and remove the skins. To smash and grind the ingredients, you really need a mortar and pestle with a pinch of salt. I don't want to be preachy but everyone should have one, there is no substitute. That being said, it shouldn't keep you from making salsa, so you can put everything in the food processor as well.  

Once everything is transformed into a liquid paste, add chopped white  onion and chopped cilantro. Taste for salt and adjust the seasoning.  

I had some salsa with my lunch; Brown rice with collard greens, asparagus, spring onion and radishes. 

Ingredients:

2 jalapenos

3 garlic cloves with the skin

2 medium/large tomatoes

salt

1 small onion chopped

1 small hand full of chopped cilantro

Fresh Pasta

2011-05-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

Making pasta dough is easy. Many people believe that pasta making is an art, maybe it is, but its still easy! There are endless variations, in the ingredients, the shapes, the methods, ...

For instance, to make the dough, you can do it on the table with a well inside the flour, you can use the stand mixer, you can even use the food processor. I found a cool Jamie Oliver link, he brakes so many of the traditional rules to speed up the process and still comes to show with perfect pasta. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0XVDpPBHho 

I like to mix the dough by hand, but I have included the stand mixer method as well. which ever method you choose, your hand will get sticky. There is no way around it. 

For a nice workable batch i like to use 4 eggs, a pinch of salt and 400  grams of flour. In a medium bowl, put the flour and make a well in  the middle. In the well, put the salt and the eggs. With a fork start  working some flour into the eggs, use small circular motions. When the  dough becomes too stiff to work with the fork, turn it out onto the  counter top and start kneading by hand. As with bread the kneading  process helps to develop the gluten. This simply means that the protein  molecules in the dough start attaching to one another. This is what  makes the dough elastic. If the dough becomes to tough to work with,  simply cover it with a towel and let it rest for a while (10-30  minutes). The dough should rest for 30 minutes either way before it is  rolled out. To discover the difference between a tough dough and a dough  with relaxed gluten simply stick the tip of your finger in. If the dough  springs back, it needs to rest. If it doesn't spring back,  rolling the dough will be easier.  

With the stand mixer, the same quantities apply. First mix the dough with the flat beater until it lets loose from the sides of the bowl. If it remains too sticky and won't let loose, add some flour. If the dough doesn't stick together and flour is left at the bottom, add some water. 1 tablespoon at a time. Wait at least 30 seconds to see if it needs another tablespoon. Then change for the dough hook, kneed for about 5-10 minutes on speed nr 2. Remove the dough from the bowl kneed another 2 minutes by hand and cover in plastic to let it rest for 30 minutes. 

At this point it is ready to be put through the pasta roller. If you don't have one, no big deal, you can easily roll it by hand. Roll to about 1/8" or about 1/2mm. If the dough springs back to much while rolling, try letting it rest for another 10 minutes and then continue. Make sure your work surface is well floured, because the dough will get more sticky as it rests. 

Here is a cool link for traditional pasta rolling, Its in Italian, but well worth it to watch anyway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gLuLzA_tBE&feature=related 

Using the pasta roller, there is no real difference between the hand cranked one or the attachment to the stand mixer. Start on the widest setting and push the dough through. Make sure it's shape is kind of flat already. When it comes out, fold it in half and put it through again. Make sure you keep pushing it through in the same direction. What happens here is the gluten are being aligned lengthwise. Repeat this process about 7 or 8 times. Then stop folding it over and run it through in a single layer, gradually increasing the number on the machine until the desired thinness is achieved.   

For Lasagna, just keep the the sheets as they are and hang them to dry. 

For Fettuccine, I have a pasta cutter, but if you don't, no big deal, flour the sheets well, roll the sheets and cut 1/2" or 1 cm spirals off. Unroll them and hang them to dry. 

For Spaghetti, use the same principle, but cut them very thin. 

For bow tie pasta, cut squares and pinch the middle with your thumb and index finger.

There are so many more shapes, this is endless. I plan to do some more posts on this. Most likely staring with Ravioli and Tortellini. 

Butter

2011-05-15T19:44:00.000-07:00

Making butter is one of the simplest things to do. The only thing you need is cream and a device to agitate the cream. This can be any type of mixer, food processor or even "raw man power".

I like to use the hand mixer, because I have more control that way. I can move the mixer to areas on the edge of the bowl that would get less movement in the stand mixer. However, for the sake of using two hands to take pictures along the way, I opted for the stand mixer this time. That only meant I had to scrape the sides of the bowl down a couple of times. It does help if you use a larger quantity, but I just used 1 pint of heavy whipping cream this time.

I use organic cream because I don't like to think that I am eating hormones, steroids and antibiotics. I actually wish I had access to fresh raw milk, straight from the farm, I think I would skim off my own cream and be extra hard core at starting from scratch. I do live in the heart of Manhattan, so maybe that's for another time in my life. 

hmmm, whipped cream! 

1Pint of cream

a pinch of salt (if you want salted butter)

some garlic and herbs (if you want to make herb butter)

Pour the cream in the stand mixer and put the speed on high

Leave for 5-10 minutes until, what looks like water, starts to separate from the butter. At this point turn the mixer off and use your hands to squeeze the butter together and leave the buttermilk behind in the mixer. Alternatively use a cheese cloth to separate the butter from the buttermilk as shown on the picture above. Don't discard the buttermilk. Use it for morning pancakes, or something else. Note that the buttermilk is of a thinner consistency than that in the supermarket.