Creamy Pasta Primavera

Technically I shouldn't be calling this pasta primavera as this is neither tomato based nor super light - two traits of the traditional dish. But this is my own version and it is one of the nicest I have ever had. As a teenager I was vegetarian for many years and at that time there were not very many vegetarian options on menus, so one thing that I ate a lot of was a "pasta primavera", the standard meatless option. I quote it because it was frequently a heavy and thick cream based dish that scarcely resembled fresh vegetables. I actually have a very distinct memory of eating it at the Disneyland hotel and not being able to finish it because it was congealed and cold - not that I am claiming that everyone else's food was good that day :). I also have a few really amazing memories of this fresh vegetable pasta dish, one great one in particular visiting my aunt on the east coast at around the same age.

So, for me this dish has high hopes and I certainly wouldn't make it unless I had nice fresh vegetables. So how to turn a potentially boring dish into something great? Use Marcella Hazan as your inspiration! I used the basis of the cream sauce from her Creamy Basil and Zucchini dish from her Classic Italian Cookbook and did a little tweaking. It is nice because there is no cream, but you get a really nice creamy consistency from the egg yolk and cheeses. When I had my vision for this this afternoon at work I had imagined making pasta from scratch too, but by the time I got home I was too tired so some store bought linguine did the trick. You could use any pasta here I would think. And of course do mix up the vegetables just tweak the blanching time accordingly you want to under cook them to make them just tender but still crisp. Veggies that would be great I think would be asparagus, summer squash, and peppers.

Creamy Pasta Primavera:
(makes 2-4 portions)
-1 zucchini, scrubbed and cut into 1/2cm rounds.
-3 small carrots, diagonally cut into 1" pieces
-1/2 small onion, sliced and broken into half moons.
-2 celery stalks, diagonally cut into 1" pieces
-1 tomato, de-seed and cut into ribs (see below)
-1/2 bag of baby spinach (60g dry), washed
-3T butter
-1T oil
-1 egg yolk
-1/2C freshly grated Parmiggiano Reggiano (or 1/4 each of Parmiggiano Reggiano and Pecorino Romano)
-1/2C milk
-1T flour
-salt and pepper to season

1. Prep the zucchini, carrots, spinach and celery. Bring a large unsalted pot of water to a boil and prepare an ice bath big enough to accommodate all the veggies nearby. Put the carrots in the water and set the timer for a minute. Once the timer is done add the zucchini and celery and set another minute timer. When that is up add the spinach for one last minute. Remove all the veggies from the pot and immediately submerge them in an ice bath. (TIP: if you use a slotted spoon rather then draining the water you can boil the pasta in it.). When the veggies have cooled drain and set aside.
2. In a saute pan over medium low heat sweat the onions until tender (about 10 minutes) stirring frequently so they don't brown. Meanwhile seed and chop the tomato. To do this first remove the core from the tomato and cut it in half through the core and then in quarters again so that you can see all the seeds. over a sink or garbage bowl slide clean fingers into each quarter of the tomato to discard the seeds. Now cut the tomato into strips 1cm thick, and then each strip in half widthwise. Add the tomatoes to the cooked veggies. When the onions are done take off the heat and set aside.
3. Assemble all your ingredients so you are ready to put it all together, have at hand the cheese, milk, egg yolk and veggies. Stir the flour into the milk to dissolve it.
4. Melt 1.5T of the butter in a large saute pan over medium heat, meanwhile put the pasta on. The pasta will cook while you make the sauce. When the butter starts to bubble turn it down to medium low and slowly whisk in the milk and flour. Allow to cook for a minute continuously whisking. Add all of the veggies turning a few times to coat and allow the veggies to heat up. When they are heated through remove from the heat and immediately stir in the remaining butter. Once melted do the same for the egg yolk and cheese. When the cheese has melted and the sauce is consistent you will want to taste for seasoning, you will probably need about a 1/2t salt plus several healthy grindings of pepper.
5. Drain the pasta and toss with the sauce immediately.

Pierogis

This recipe is all thanks to Helen from Beyond Salmon, you can check out her post here. The picture of her pierogis completely inspired me to try and make them again. Well, I must say that though it did take a few hours it was totally worth it! I made the filling yesterday so all I had to make today was the dough then put them together. If you do it all at once do let the filling cool to room temperature before assembling.

These were so tasty I could have served them with just butter, but they were good with sauteed onions, sour cream and freshly diced tomatoes. These were a huge hit, its a good thing the recipe made about 75 pierogis!

I have made perogis before using a recipe from the food processor bible, but this one was easily superior. While the other recipe I found heavier then the store bought version these ones I found much lighter. But not so delicate they fall apart either.


Filling:
3 large red skinned potatoes
1/2 package of cream cheese
4T butter
1 large white onion

1. Bring the cream cheese and butter to room temperature to soften.
2. Saute the onions in 1T of the butter until they are lightly browned. Buzz them in a food processor and set aside.
3. Peel and mash the potatoes with the cheese and butter. Season to taste, do not be afraid of salt!
4. Mix the onions into the potatoes.

Dough:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp kosher salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup water

1. In a mixer bowl whisk together salt and flour, holding back a 1/2C of flour. Make a well in the center and add the egg and water.
2. Attach dough hook and knead on low speed until a dough forms. If it doesn't come together add more water a teaspoon at the time while mixer running. If it seems too wet slowly add the flour a tablespoon at a time.
3. Turn the speed up and knead for 2 minutes(No higher then speed 2 on a kitchen aid).
4. Cover the dough and let sit for 20 minutes before using.

Assembling:
1. Divide the dough in quarters and work in batches. First you want to roll out the dough. I used my pasta maker to do this so I could get it nice and thin (setting 4 on the mixer attachment) about 2 mm.
2. You can do this one of two ways, cut out circles first or fold the dough over and then cut it out. I use a 2.5" diameter ravioli cutter to cut out the circles first.
3. Putting the dough in my hand, I then grab about a teaspoon and a half of filling, fold the dough over and pinch around the semi-circle. You may find the dough isn't sticking well enough - if thats the case run a wet finger around the edge before sealing.

Cooking:
These fresh pierogis will take about 90 seconds in boiling water or until they float to the surface. After boiling you can serve them as is or fry them in a little butter to crisp them up.

Storing:
Put them on a parchment lined cookie sheet brushed with melted butter. Continue layering with parchment between the layers. You can put them directly into the freezer this way then transfer them to zip loc bags or freezer pack them after about 18 hours.

Today's Bread

I spent the weekend bread baking which was highly satisfying. Today I made a double recipe of flax bread as well as a pugliese, both from the Bread Bible. In fact the pugliese is the bread on the cover of the book. I still have had had success with every recipe I have tried from the book. Yesterday I made the potato buttermilk bread and really liked it too.

Here are all of them:


And here is the pugliese, it really does look like the picture in the book! I even cheated and substituted semolina for durum because I couldn't find durum so I whirred the semolina in the food processor first.

Roast Potatoes

One of the things I have learned about cooking is not to assume any knowledge, either in myself or others. For example, I just learned how to make scrambled eggs and mashed potatoes this year. Both of which I kept screwing up because of my impatience by the way. So on that note here is the way to make easy roast potatoes. This is a great starchy side dish to a roast or meat dish and the only trick with this one is timing it with your other foods.

When you are prepping potatoes you want to give them a good scrub and then remove any eyes, or black or green spots. If you aren't sure about the potatoes (i.e. they looks dodgy from the outside) don't be afraid to cut them in half and take a look. Most of the nutritional value is in the skin, so do keep it on if possible.

In terms of what potatoes to select, baking is the easiest method as any potato will bake up well. However if you want to boil potatoes or make potato salad - anything where the potatoes shape is important - then you want boiling potatoes. Boiling potatoes can be found in the grocery store and will be red or white and round as well as all baby or new potatoes. The other main kind of potatoes are baking potatoes they are oblong and tuber shaped, two common varieties are Idaho and Russet. Baking potatoes are soft, dry and fluffy and are good for thickening soups, baking, and fries. The trick to remember is that boiling potatoes can be baked, but baking potatoes won't really survive boiling!


Herbed Roast Potatoes
4 potatoes, cleaned and chopped into 1-2" pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ teaspoon thyme, dried or fresh
1 teaspoon parsley, minced
salt
pepper

1. In an oven safe casserole toss the potatoes with the thyme and salt and pepper. Toss with the olive oil to coat.
2. Bake at 425F for about 40 minutes or until tender. Turning and tossing every ten minutes.
3. Garnish with the parsley.

Also nice instead or as well as parsley is any fresh herb, such as dill. In addition you can substitute rosemary for the thyme and you will get rosemary potatoes!

Mixer Musings

So I got my new mixer this weekend. A super hoorah to Canada Post who delivered it on Sunday, they really are better then anyone else for parcels here. Mostly because you don't have to drive out to the suburbs to pick up your package if you miss delivery. Back on topic, I received my mixer early enough time to make something exciting. Since it was already mid afternoon on Sunday that eliminated most bread options so I went with cupcakes instead. In the end I was really impressed with the overall cupcakes but I am still not entirely sure about the mixer.


It is certainly a thing of beauty to behold and it even fits where the old one did which is nice. However after turning it on I found it to be extremely loud. Much, much louder then my old Ultra Power model. The noise appeared to be in sync with the motion so I thought maybe the paddle was scraping along the bottom. I attempted to recalibrate the paddle height but didn't see any improvement. So I went onto the kitchen aid forums (a great resource) and learned about the dime test.

The dime test is an easy way to see if your paddle is at the right height for your bowl. Place a dime in your bowl and attach the paddle. Turn the machine onto stir, the dime should move about 3/4" per rotation. If it doesn't move at all the paddle is too high, if it has trouble moving the dime it is too low. Don't forget to make sure your bowl is securely locked in place with the bowl clip in the back if you have the bowl lift model.

After I had made sure the machine height was correct my machine was still making the noise so again I turned to the kitchenaid forums. It turns out that such noises are expected as it takes awhile for the grease to work through the gears. In fact a 6-8 hour break in time is expected! Wow, at 7 minutes per bread that's a lot of loaves!

So overall I am not completely won over by her yet but I haven't tried the new spiral hook either. I am also looking for name ideas - Betty has been tossed around here?

Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla icing

For the last few weeks I have had a fierce craving for cupcakes and in my experience there is only one way to make a craving go away. I almost never bake desserts unless they are cookies so I was amazed by how much work it is to make a simple cupcake! Don't get me wrong. These are perfect, airy-moist-chocolatley goodness. But they are also serious high maintenance business, so be prepared. Both the cupcakes and the icing come from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything .

Chocolate Cupcakes:
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 cups flour
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups milk

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a double boiler melt the chocolate, stir frequently so as to not let it burn.
3. In your mixer cream the butter until smooth (speed 4 on my mixer) gradually add the sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy. Beat in the yolks one at a time.
4. Whisk together flour, baking powder, soda and salt in a separate bowl. Add dry ingredients to mixture a bit at a time and stir in by hand alternating with the milk. Don't overmix.
5. Beat egg whites until they are soft peaks and gently fold into the rest of mixture.
6. Put batter into 2 well greased (or silicone) muffin tins and bake for ~25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool on a wire rack before icing.

Vanilla Butter Cream Icing:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 cups icing sugar
3 tablespoons milk or cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

In your mixer cream the butter and gradually work in sugar and milk, alternating. Stir in vanilla. If it's too thick add more milk\cream. If it's not thick enough put it in the fridge and allow the butter to get more solid. (Don't substitute margarine for the butter or you will have runny icing!)

Salmon and Caper Salad

I had some nice wild sockeye in the freezer from the fall which was the inspiration for this dish. The recipe comes from the Barefoot Contessa cookbook, though I used green onions rather then red onions. I prefer the more muted green onion for flavour but you do lose out on the beautiful colour contrasts that you get with the red.


This recipe spotlights dill which is a classic combination with salmon. I tried growing dill myself last year, but was not successful. With a little bit of research I have just learned that there is a specific kind of dill which only grows to 18 inches called Fernleaf and is suited to indoor growing. I bought mine in a small pot from a garden store but it was too tall and didn't survive in a small pot. It seems as though that was my mistake. Apparently you can grow dill from seed indoors as long as it is near a window. In a few months I totally going to give this a try!

I am also using this post as my entry into this weeks Weekend Herb Blogging. This weeks event is being hosted from Ed over at Tomato who seems to have a lot in common with Anthony Bourdain when it comes to food bravery. Something which I can aspire to, but certainly do not currently possess. Don't forget to check out the wrap up on Sunday!


Salmon and Caper Salad
9 ounces Salmon, (or 2 large fillets)
2 stalks celery, large diced
2 green onions, diced
1 tablespoon capers
1 tablespoon fresh dill, minced
1 tablespoon rasberry vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
¼ teaspoon ground pepper
1 pinch salt

1. Cook the salmon, on the grill or under the broiler until on the cooked side of rare in the middle. (About 6 minutes under the broiler.) Transfer to a plate, cover in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge until cool.
2. When salmon is cool, remove skin and break into large flakes. Make sure and remove any bones you find. Put Salmon in a bowl and add celery, onions, capers, and dill. Toss.
3. Add oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and toss again.
4. Serve cold or at room temperature, you can easily make this ahead.

Zesty Orange Loaf

Okay, so I feel as though I am repeating myself a little bit. A few days ago I made apple crisp to use up some apples, well similarly this weekend we needed to use up some oranges (we have like a dozen, we really need to up the fruit intake). So, since I sold my old mixer on Saturday morning I turned to the Cuisinart for inspiration. More specifically the Food Processor Bible. Amazingly enough there was a recipe which managed to use up two whole oranges! I thought this was okay but not really to my taste, however my boyfriend and his friends devoured it and really liked it, so who knows! I wouldn't say that the glaze is necessary but again the testers disagreed with me. I didn't have the chance to try this but apparently it freezes well.

On a silly note, selling my old Ultra Power mixer was a sad moment. Especially since I have been making so much bread lately I just couldn't convince myself to make bread without it, even though of course I have made bread by hand before. However, I managed to sell it for pretty much what I bought it for (2nd hand) a year ago, so it really was a good investment. My new mixer arrived today and it is sooo pretty. More on that to come.

Zesty Orange Loaf
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
1 ¾C flour
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
¼ cup margerine
½ cup applesauce
½ cup fresh orange juice
½ cup yogourt

1. Preheat oven to 350f
2. Mix flour, baking powder, soda and orange zest and set aside.
3. In a food processor process eggs, 3/4c sugar, margarine and applesauce until light about 2 minutes.
4. Add 1/4C orange juice and yoghourt and blend for 3 seconds.
5. Add dry ingredients and process just long enough to mix.
6. Pour into a sprayed 9x5" loaf pan. bake for 40-45 minutes.
7. To make the syrup combine 1/4C orange juice with 1/4C of sugar over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved.
8. Poke loaf with a skewer all over, then pour syrup on top.

How to Clean a Spice Grinder or Coffee Grinder

This is my tip of the day. I read it in a magazine yesterday and gave it a try this morning. It works like a charm! Put a handful of rice in your grinder and give it a few pulses. The rice should absorb whatever is left in your grinder. Discard the rice and your grinder is clean!

See now, if only I had known this a year ago I wouldn't have had to buy my boyfriend a new coffee grinder. You see, I got it into my head that I should make my own garam masala. I got away with it for a few days until he made a comment that he thought his coffee was "off", it tasted funny. Silly me I confessed and he demanded a new coffee grinder. Too bad it wasn't nuts rather then curry. Of course, now I have my own dedicated spice grinder!

Apple Crisp

We had a whole crisper drawer full of apples to use up, so yesterday I was informed by my boyfriend that we needed to make a crisp. Since I occasionally play the role of dutiful girlfriend I stopped at the store and picked up some oats in preparation. Then I had a brain fart. I looked up an apple crisp recipe in the Joy of Cooking and went ahead and followed it - even though it contained no oats! Damn it. That will teach me to cook right after work. At any rate next time I will have to make what I consider a real crumble\crisp, one with oats!


This turned out pretty good and was a nice accompaniment to American Idol and a cup of tea. Beware that apples shrink when they cook, so this either makes 4 small portions, or two big ones! This is not the exact recipe but rather an adaptation.

Apple Crisp:
-2/3C flour
-2/3C sugar
-1/4t cinnamon
-1/4t salt
-1 stick of cold unsalted butter, chopped into small pieces
-5 apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1" pieces

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.
2. After peeling, coring and chopping up the apples put them in a baking dish so that you have more then one layer.
3. In a food processor mix together the dry ingredients. Add the butter evenly into the mixture and pulse until the butter becomes the size of coarse breadcrumbs.
4. Evenly distribute over the apples and give the dish a little nudge to shift some of the mix through the apples.
5. Bake for 45-60 minutes or until it is nice and browned on top.

Thai Prawn Noodle Soup

This is a bit of a creation on my part, I was craving an asian-style broth with noodles and prawns so I basically flavoured the broth with what I was able to find at the regular grocery store and some of my homemade chicken stock. another good way to make chicken soup for the sickies. All and all I was quite pleased, my only concern was that next time I would put in more cilantro!


Thai Prawn Noodle Soup
-makes 4 servings
3C chicken stock, try my homemade recipe.
2c water
3 stalks of lemongrass
3T fish stock, vietnamese or thai
10-12 kaffir lime leaves
1T canola oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
a thumb-sized piece of ginger, minced (about as much as the garlic when said and done.)
1 large shallot, finely diced
1/2t crushed thai chillies
20 raw prawns
1/4 package of rice stick noodles
2 limes, 1 1/2 juiced and 1/2 into wedges for garnish
1 handful of cilantro leaves only

1. Bring to a simmer the water, chicken stock, fish sauce, lime leaves and lemon grass (see HERE on how to use lemon grass). Allow it to simmer for at least 20 minutes.
2. In a pot large enough to accommodate the stock sweat the shallots, garlic, ginger and chillies until shallot is translucent - about 5 minutes. Don't let the garlic brown!
3. Strain the broth into the pot with the garlic and etc. Bring to a boil.
4. Ideally you want to cook the noodles and prawns so they finish at the same time. In my case the noodles were about 6 minutes. So I cooked the noodles for 4 minutes, turned it down to a simmer and added the prawns which take about 2 minutes.
5. When prawns and noodles are done take the soup off the heat. Stir in lime juice. Taste for salt, depending on your fish sauce you may need to add some.
6. Ladle soup into bowls garnish with a healthy amount of cilantro and a lime wedge.

How-to use Lemongrass

If you want to use lemongrass in a soup or curry it is really quite easy. Lemongrass comes in stalks about a foot or so long. It shouldn't be brown but rather pale yellow turning into green as you get towards the end. Strip away the dry outer leaves, cut away the stumpy end and the dry leafy ends. Chop into 3" pieces. next you want to bruise the lemongrass. To do this bend the stem a bunch using your fingers to stimulate the juices and even make a few cuts in the stem.

Great for Thai currys, soups or stocks. Here in Vancouver I can find it in the produce section of most grocery stores. Also, if you want to store it it freezes quite well so if it is hard to find in your location you can always buy lots when you see it.

Fabulous Deal - KitchenAid Pro 5

I just splurged and bought myself a new mixer to replace my old Kitchenaid UltraPower. The Canadian shopping channel has them on, just today for $345Cad - so I couldn't resist. I bought it in Cherry, so exciting! It is going to be a long 7-10 days. Check it out www.tsc.ca. I have always secretly wanted to buy something from the shopping channel.

Sourdough Starter Sadness

So, I got a phone call from the doctor yesterday, it turns out the flu that has been plaguing me is actually Strep throat. (Darn doctors, 2 days after the test was supposed to come back. ) What this means is that I think I have to give up on my current starter, I am a little leery that I could have infected it, meaning that any bread anyone ate could potentially contain streptococcus? Thats a bad scene. So, I think I will do some more research, wait till I am feeling better then attempt it again. Thanks to everyone who has given me feedback, it will certainly be used for my next bout. Stay tuned!

Sourdough Starter - Day 7

Okay, so I agree, I agree on the warmth front but I am not convinced on weight. Weighing by volume is less exact, maybe that is why mine is so liquid? However, I went over to Rose Levy Berenbaum's website and looked around. Alot of people took more then the 5 days to get activity - one suggestion was to add more rye to add more yeast to the mix. So thats just what I did. Today, after halving it I added 30g bread flour + 30g organic rye flour + 60g bottled water. And this is what I got:

Mint-Cilantro Chicken Curry

I borrowed the Vij's cookbook from my friend last week and when I saw this recipe it caught my attention instantly. Vij's is one of Vancouver's best restaurants, they serve intensely rich and imaginative Indian Fusion. I used the curry almost exactly as it was - except for two changes, I used more yogurt and I omitted the asafoetida required since I couldn't find any without going on a bit of a trek. Serve with this cucumber raita and rice or naan.

Another reason I was excited to see this recipe was because I thought it would be a perfect entry into Weekend Herb Blogging. This week's event is being hosted by Sue from Coffee & Cornbread. Does Sue have the nicest looking kitchen or what? Seriously I am jealous of that and of the fact that she used to run a B&B, although I am sure it is much less romantic that it actually sounds...

As to the herb I am using - I am actually using two as per the title but the bulk is in cilantro, I actually had enough mint still alive in my window box to avoid buying mint which is always a bit of a victory. But back to Cilantro, coriander itself is key in Indian cuisine as it is a part of garam masala in the form of the seeds. We all know how important garam masala is, and how every family's recipe can be different. According to wikipedia coriander seeds are also frequently roasted and eaten as a snack in India. Mental note to attempt to do that later.


Mint-Cilantro Chicken Curry:
(serves 6-8)
2 cups cilantro, chopped
½ cup mint, chopped
2 jalapenos, finely chopped
1.5 cups red onion, chopped
1 tablespoon ginger, chopped
1 cup water
½ cup canola oil
1.5 tablespoons cumin seeds
1 tablespoon coriander seed
3 tablespoons garlic , crushed
1 tablespoon salt
2 cup plain yoghourt, stirred, or 3/4C whole buttermilk
3 lbs chicken thighs, bone in
3 cups basmati rice, cooked

Cilantro-Mint Chutney
Mix cilantro leaves and stems, mint leaves, jalapenos, and ginger in a food processor. Add 1C water and puree until smooth. Set aside.


Curry
1. Heat oil in a heavy shallow pot on med heat for 1 min. Add cumin and coriander seeds and allow them to sizzle for about 30 seconds.
2. Add garlic and saute for about 3 minutes or until golden brown, Stir in salt.
3. Turn off the heat and after 2-3 minutes stir in 1C yogourt. Add chicken thighs and stir well. Turn the heat to medium and cover and cook for about 25 minutes, stirring regularly. (If you have the time, let it cook a little longer, then the chicken should just fall off the bone.) Remove curry from the heat and cool for about 20 minutes.
4. Transfer chicken to a mixing bowl. Wearing latex gloves peel chicken meat off the bones. The size of the chicken pieces doesn't matter but do not shred them. Discard bones and stir chicken back into curry.
5. Stir in mint-cilantro chutney and the other cup of yogourt, About 15 mins before serving bring curry to a boil on medium heat. Turn down the heat to a summer cook, uncovered for about 10 minutes or until chicken is ell mixed.
6. Serve over rice.

Cucumber Raita

This is a raita recipe to go with any spicy curry. Make it a bit ahead so the flavours can gel!

Cucumber Raita:
1 cup plain yogourt
½ cucumber, peeled and shredded (not english cuke.)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon garam masala
⅛ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Put yoghourt in a bowl. Using a food processor shredded the cuke. Combine with the yoghourt. Add spices and stir.

Beef Bourguignon

Another good comfort food meal for this dismal stormy weather. I can't even believe that we had another snowstorm today, that's like 4 this winter which is unheard of for Vancouver. This recipe is based on Ina Garten's Beef Bourguinon. However, I added potatoes because I like potatoes in stew and we had some on hand. This is also a great way to use that homemade wine which is good enough to drink but not good enough to serve to guests :)

I made a big batch (the recipe below) two weekends ago and had my first batch from the freezer last night. It is officially better after having been frozen. God I love that.

I served this with homemade garlic toast as was the suggestion, or just good hearty bread. Other good ideas I think I may try? Mashed potatoes, egg noodles or a simple risotto. This makes 8 servings.

Beef Bourguignon:
1 tablespoon olive oil
200 gram bacon, diced
700 gram stewing beef, cut 1" cubes
1 Onion , roughly chopped
3 cups carrots, roughly chopped
2 clove garlic, minced
1 bottle red wine
2.5 cups beef stock
1 tablespoon thyme
2 tablespoon tomato paste
3 potatoes, chopped, skin on
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
7 cups mushrooms, roughly chopped
1.5 cups pearl onions
2 tablespoon butter
3 tablespoon flour
1. In a large dutch oven bring the oil to medium heat and saute the bacon until lightly browned.
2. Remove bacon to a plate with a slotted spoon. Sprinkle the meat with salt and pepper and sear in batches on all sides. Also remove to the plate with the bacon.
3. In the same pot saute the onions and carrots until the onions start to brown. Add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes.
4. If the pearl onions are raw blanch them for 2 minutes, and remove the skins. Stir into the stew. (If they are frozen you can add them after the stew comes out of the oven.)
5. Return the meat to the pot and add the bottle of wine and stock. Stir in the potatoes and bring the mixture to a simmer. Stir in the thyme and tomato paste.
6. Bake in a 275F oven for about an 75 minutes or until meat and vegetables are tender.
7. Meanwhile in a medium skillet saute the mushrooms in 1T of oil and 1T of butter until browned. Set aside. If the pearl onions are frozen they need no prep. If not blanch them for 2 minutes allow to cool and remove the skins.
8. When the stew is tender return to the stovetop and stir in the mushrooms and pearl onions.
9. In a 2C measure mix together the flour and the 2T of butter. Whisk in a bit of the braising liquid enough so that it will be easy to incorporate back into the stew.
10. Stir in the mix in the measuring cup. Bring the stew to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes until thickened.
11. Serve with garlic bread, or over rice or egg noodles garnished with parsley.

Sourdough Starter - Day 6

Okay, this is really getting dull. But I feel the need to push on and finish what I started. So again, I have nowhere near 3 cups and I did the refreshing it thing.

I started thinking about what and where I could've gone wrong - my main theories are that I have been throwing away more then half or it's too cold\too warm in my apartment. However according to the book you are just supposed to wait for the change and so I wait. One thing though, I think next time I will make sure I weigh as I go along so I know that I am properly throwing away half at a time.

Starter before refreshing:


Start after refreshing:

Sourdough Starter - Day 5

When I looked at the starter today I didn't have as much volume as I wanted - you are supposed to have 3-4 cups worth. So I did exactly the same as yesterday 60g water + 60g bread flour. Not very interesting I know, but I want to have a record of what I did, plus I am still sick and feeling less then witty to say the least.

Starter before refreshing:


Starter after refreshing:

Sourdough Starter - Day 4

Well today's certainly looked as though something was happening. It was a lot more like pancake batter and had some bubbles in it, plus when I went to divide it in half it was quite difficult to separate it as all the strands really were sticking together. My small amount of knowledge makes me think this is the gluten? It also has a smell, not a bad smell (its kinda yeasty) but not citrusy as described in my book. At any rate here we are:


And then I did the same thing as yesterday, threw away half, added 60g water and 60g bread flour. My container is getting dirtier and dirtier and starting to look more like a science experiment. Here we are after refreshing, it looks almost identical to yesterday: