Common Kitchen Blog Feed

Simple Smoothie

parker@commonkitchen.com — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:03:00 -0400

I've said before that I like recipes which require no measuring. As a heat wave smothers the Northeast U.S., I've pulled it out again to provide a lunch where three of the five ingredients are chilled–and one comes from the freezer.

One or two bananas
One 8-ounce can of pineapple chunks (or half a 16-ounce can)
One regular yogurt cup (mine are 6 ounces, but this can vary), vanilla or almost any fruit flavor will do
One 10-ounce bag of frozen strawberries (or half a 16- or 20-ounce bag)
One cup (or so) of orange juice (I just pour some in.)

Put all of the above in a blender, preferably one which can handle ice cubes (which is essentially what the strawberries are) and blend until smooth. Makes about two pints; leftovers keep fairly well in the fridge.

Variation: You can use nearly any kind of frozen fruit; I've tried raspberries with some success, but blueberries, while tasting good, left a lot of skins in the mix. A "mixed berry" blend is great. The flavor and quantity of yogurt is very variable; it can reinforce or compliment the other fruit with strawberries, raspberries, blueberry, pineapple, or add a vanilla note. It also helps make the whole thing slightly creamy, along with the bananas. If you have two bananas, use two, but if you just use one, that's fine as well. So, in general, you can fiddle with the quantities for any of these.

The chicken-cooking tip I keep coming back to

parker@commonkitchen.com — Sun, 25 May 2008 18:36:00 -0400

When I'm making a recipe which calls for chicken, it's almost always the same situation: breast tenders cut into small chunks, which are then stir-fried with a very little bit of oil (and sometimes onions, scallions, or garlic) in a wok or skillet. This often produced hard, dry chunks of meat until I discovered a recipe which required the chicken to be drizzled with lemon juice before cooking.

This changed things tremendously. The lemon juice (think of those little plastic squirt-lemons; I'm using a fraction of a teaspoon each time) doesn't add a very strong flavor, but locks in a lot of the moisture of the chicken, making the result much easier to chew (or shred finer for some recipes) and generally pleasant to eat. Now I tend to lemon-coat my chicken before cooking whether the recipe calls for it or not.

Substituting sugars

parker@commonkitchen.com — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 12:45:00 -0400

I have a standby whole wheat bread recipe that calls for molasses. After discovering that my other whole wheat recipe (with honey) could have the honey replaced with maple syrup, and finding that I was out of molasses, I tried the molasses recipe with honey instead. Eureka! Splendid.

So it seems to me that all the sweeteners for bread - honey, molasses, maple syrup, etc. - are interchangeable. What else should I be trying? The idea of going from milled and refined sugar to honey as a sweetener in as many places appeals to me.

Hamburger and Rice

parker@commonkitchen.com — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:53:00 -0400

Rice and meat is a pretty fundamental dish idea around the world. Just look at the Spanish "Arroz con Pollo" (rice and chicken) staple.

My mother made a "hamburger and rice" dish which was closely related to ACS and equally loved in the family. I tried making it myself shortly after I graduated from college and failed miserably; it was only recently that I got around to calling my mother and asking for direct guidance. Since then, I've done it two or three times with greater success.

The ingredients are:

1lb. or so ground beef.
1 can tomato soup concentrate (e.g. Campbell's.)
1 heaping cup of instant rice (Minute Rice or the like)
1/2 an onion.

Chop the onion and put it in a large frying pan. Break the meat into small chunks and mix it with the onion, then brown the lot. I've had great results seasoning the meat with something like Lawry's seasoned salt while it's browning.

Once the meat is browned, add the tomato soup concentrate and water as directed on the can, probably an equal amount of water to the concentrate. (Just re-fill the can with water, then pour that in.) I like to add a big squirt of ketchup at this point as well, but that's optional. Stir to mix the water and concentrate, then bring the whole mess to a boil. When it's reached a boil, stir in the rice and turn off the heat.

Now you need to let the rice sit for fifteen or twenty minutes soaking up the soup. You'll know it's ready when the top of the food in the pan looks dry. This should serve four; I have a pretty big appetite and I get three meals out of it.

Substitution and variation: I imagine this could be done with regular rather than instant rice, but I don't want to be the one performing that experiment; I'm not a rice virtuoso. The ground beef can be replaced with any other ground meat (i.e. turkey, chicken.) I've also substituted chopped scallions for the onion with some success.

Sweet potato chips

parker@commonkitchen.com — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 13:01:00 -0500

When I learn a new cooking technique, I sometimes see the potential to expand it to other applications. So last week, when Noah showed me how to make tortilla chips, I started planning some frying of my own.

Specifically, last night I sliced up one of my favorite root vegetables and fried some sweet potato chips. Simple process: put about 1/4" of vegetable oil in a high-sided pan. Heat oil. Slice sweet potato as thin as practical. (I imagine a food processor would be helpful here.) Then pop the slices into the hot oil until they start to brown. (If you want to hurry the process, push the slices under the surface a bit; they tend to float in the oil, which slows the frying process.) Remove them with tongs and place them on a paper towel to drain.

This is a lot of work for relatively few chips, of course. The advantage to doing the work yourself instead of just buying a bag of Terra chips is, one, the price, and two, the ability to season them to taste. The sweet potatos don't always require salting, for example, and it's possible to cook up one's own seasoning mixture with, say, paprika, or cumin, or some other appropriate spices. (Suggestions?)

Thai Kitchen's Creen Curry Paste

noah@commonkitchen.com — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:13:00 -0500

I love green curry when I eat out, so a few months ago I decided to try Thai Kitchen's "Green Curry Paste" as a base for home-cooked curries. It comes in a small 4 oz jar, and takes about only 1 Tbsp per batch, so it lasts for quite a while. I wholeheartedly reccomend this to anyone who wants to try Thai Curry at home, and I bought a jar of "Red Curry Paste" to try next!

ACS

parker@commonkitchen.com — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 22:08:00 -0500

Every month or so I make a big casserole that follows a recipe I learned from my mother. When I was growing up, we used to be able to finish a batch off in about a meal and a half (all four of us for dinner, plus leftovers for my father's lunch the next day.) When I was in my first job, I discovered that the leftovers microwaved extremely well, and a batch was about three days of lunches and dinners for me, which for a single apartment-dweller is a pretty good yield.

The puzzle was, what to call it? Growing up, it was "American Chop Suey" (which is one of the names it's known by.) When I left home and started associating with people who might be expected to know what real chop suey was, however, that name started feeling a little silly, and I tried to avoid it; why make this dish, which I liked, into a pale imitation of something authentic? (My paternal grandmother made another version of this dish which was hard to recognize as the same thing and certainly wasn't something I would've tried to imitate.)

Some research found that the dish is also sometimes known as "American Goulash," but having eaten Hungarian goulash, I think I can safely say it's not that, either. I then realized that, in the shift to email and text-based communication, my family had adopted the relatively meaningless abbreviation "ACS." So that's what I call it now: Ay-see-ess.

It's a great single-guy (or single-father) recipe because it requires almost no measurement and very little prep; with one or two exceptions, all the ingredients go in right out of their supermarket packages.

1 box elbows (whole wheat is fine)
1 pound ground meat (ground beef is the original version, but ground chicken or turkey is fine)
1 can tomato soup concentrate (e.g. the iconic Campbell's can)
1 can tomato sauce (a 12-oz. can, I think - slightly larger than the soup can)
a dollop of ketchup (maybe a quarter cup, but whatever)
About half an onion, chopped (this is the extent of the preparation)
(Optional) Paprika and/or chili powder

Boil water and put the pasta in to cook. While it's cooking, brown the ground meat with the chopped onion in a skillet. If it's not non-stick skillet, you'll want to heat some oil in the skillet first, and put the onions in for a minute or so before the meat. The meat should get chopped into relatively small chunks in the course of browning. You can sprinkle some paprika or chili powder on the meat in this process for some extra flavor; I like the kick of the paprika, especially when I'm using turkey.

Meanwhile, mix the tomato sauce, soup concentrate, and ketchup in a casserole dish. (This is why I never measure the ketchup; I just squirt it in on top of the soup and sauce.) When the meat is browned, add to the mixed sauce and stir well. Finally, when the elbows are done, drain them and mix with the sauce and meat. If your casserole dish isn't quite big enough, you may need to be careful about this.

You can serve this immediately at this point, and refrigerate the leftovers for as much as a week, serving out portions to microwave at work as lunch.

World Market

parker@commonkitchen.com — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:16:00 -0500

Earlier this week, I found myself chasing down ingredients for a particular stir-fry recipe I am not yet at liberty to share. Three in particular turned out to be difficult: peanut oil (sesame oil is easy to find, peanut oil much less so), "Stir Fry Sauce" (a distressingly non-specific description), and stir fry noodles.

I may have been able to chase down all three at our local Whole Foods, but for some reason I convinced myself, instead, to drive a few miles more to the World Market, a small Asian grocery. This business used to be located in a nondescript cinder-block structure which would be considered a "shack" if it wasn't so concrete, sharing its parking lot with a porn store. Now it has moved to a more solid building with more reputable neighbors, and my own recent Asian experiences persuaded me to take a look.

I found my peanut oil and stir fry sauce without too much trouble, in an aisle which also featured cup noodles which will never be found in a mainstream American grocery store. (Every one, without exception, was labeled "Very spicy" or "hot".) The stir fry noodles were a bit tougher, because I needed "4-6 ounces" and all the packages were much larger than that. Eventually I discovered "yakisoba" which was sold in packs containing three 5-ounce packages, and since the packaging said "stir fry noodles" I assume this is what I wanted.

While there were many foodstuffs on inventory which I may never have call for (many different ways of packaging whole fish, for example, or fowl) I was intrigued by the spices, curries, and noodles available (including one brand from Vermont). I'll be back!

The Easiest Guacamole Ever

noah@commonkitchen.com — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:18:00 -0500

This is a tomato-less guac, and is so easy that it is almost foolproof.

Ingredients

2 Haas Avacados
1 Lemon
1 Tablespoon minced Garlic, or Garlic paste
Salt to taste

Mash the avacados well, stopping just before all the lumps are removed. Squeeze in the whole lemon, add the garlic, mix, and add salt to taste.

There -- wasn't that easy! Serve with tortilla chips, or with burritos or chili.

Jean-Luc gets me fed in San Juan

parker@commonkitchen.com — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:32:00 -0500

I often mention time abroad as something which pushed me into a more adventuresome approach to food, but there was one trip when food pushed me into an adventure of sorts.

I was 20 and on a spring break training trip in Puerto Rico with my college track team. We'd been running triple workouts at a back-country training site for three or four days, and this day we rested (some), running only in the morning and taking a bus in to San Juan for the rest of the day.

I had been walking around Old Town with one of the senior captains, a sprinter and jumper named Jean-Luc who hailed from Haiti via the American South. We didn't have the cash to eat fancy, but we wanted to avoid fast food or tourist joints as well.

We were headed down a back street, looking in some of the huge street windows the houses have in the old town, when we went by one where the open windows showed three or four big tables, a tile floor, a stove in the back, and a menu painted on the wall. The men at the tables were spattered with paint or grease; it looked like the sort of crowd you'd see at a truck stop.

"Looks like a local haunt," I said, preparing to move on, but Jean-Luc stopped me and pulled us in.

Within seconds he and the cook were deep in conversation in Haitian creole. Meanwhile, I was experiencing (probably for the first time in my life, but ultimately not the last) the uncomfortable feeling of being the only white person in the room, standing there in my shorts and t-shirt amid a group of men who had plainly worked hard for their dinners.

Jean-Luc, the cook's new favorite, and I were seated in the front corner and Jean-Luc explained that dinner was on its way. The cook, he said, thought we were crew from a visiting cruise ship, and Jean-Luc was high on his list as one of his countrymen.

Dinner was most of a roasted chicken, sticky rice and vegetables. The chicken tasted good, but greasy; the rice was heavy. I remember being barely halfway through the meal and feeling full, wondering if I would offend Jean-Luc's new friend if I didn't clean my plate.

But since then I've remembered Jean-Luc and Old San Juan every time I find myself in a strange place with little clue about feeding myself. I push on in, follow the locals' lead for manners, and hope to be more unobtrusive than I was then. Sometimes, it even works.

Alex and Nana's Pumpkin Muffins

morse.elizabeth@gmail.com — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:07:00 -0500

My grand daughter, Alex, loves to cook with me. She started out reading me the recipe and I would fill the measures and she would pour them in. Now she has advanced to the point where I get the ingredients out, she measures them and puts them in. She just needs a little advice now and again like, "don't pat the flour down, Alex" and "just 'tunk' the egg on the side of the bowl and pull it apart with your thumbs." We have a really good time. One of our favorite things to cook is muffins. They are fast and usually come out well, no matter what. We have found a recipe for Pumpkin Muffins that I will share with you. Pumpkin muffins are great. They aren't as crumbly as most muffins and they are very tasty. They go with about anything too. So here is Alex and my favorite pumpkin muffin recipe.

1-1/2 cup flour 1/2 cup sugar 2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1/2 cup milk 1/2 cup canned (or fresh if you really want to work) pumpkin 1/2 cup butter, melted (Alex and I use canola oil) 1 egg 1/2 cup raisins (Alex and I NEVER put in raisins

Heat over to 400 degrees. Grease bottoms of 12 medium muffin cups. Mix all ingredients just until flour is moistened. Batter should be lumpy. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon sugar over batter in each cup. Bake 18 - 20 minutes. Immediately remove from pan.

Makes 12 muffins, but you won't be able to tell because they disappear so fast!

Macaroni and Cheese Should be Molten, Dang It!

imaginer01@gmail.com — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:57:00 -0500

I'm a big fan of homemade macaroni and cheese, when I can get it, but it is almost invariably baked, which drains a lot of the joy out of it. My taste buds lean more towards cheese being molten, rather than fluffy, which is what baked feels like to me. I'm not really sure how to get molten to work properly though. Instinctively, I wanna say that a crock-pot is the best way to go, but I thought maybe someone would read this and save me from buying a new piece of kitchen equipment with a better idea :D

Liquor in Pie Crust?

beaupreart@gmail.com — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:40:00 -0500

I just finished reading through the December issue of Cook's Illustrated and I was shocked to find an article on the perfect pie dough. Apparently Vodka is the secret pie dough ingredient that every pastry chef has ever dreamed of! It lets you add more water to your dough for easier mixing without it getting over-worked and tough. The science behind this tidbit is that gluten holds pie dough together, and water plus flour equals gluten. Since vodka is only 60% water, the 40% ethanol generates less gluten. Taaadaaa! Soft pastry dough! Cook's Illustrated suggests 4 Tbls of vodka and water to 2 1/2 cups of flour and 1 1/2 sticks of butter.

A Ramen Upgrade

noah@commonkitchen.com — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 14:49:00 -0500

As a reformed grad student, it probably won't surprise you to hear that I was in the Ramen noodles section of my local grocery store replenishing the top shelf of our pantry. Nearby there were some fancier add-water-to-noodles packages, and I decided to try a few. So far the best has been "Nissin Original Chow Mein, Teriyaki Beef Flavor" -- and while out-pricing your standard Ramen by 500% it is still wicked cheap.

Rabbit Rabbit

parker@commonkitchen.com — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 12:38:00 -0500

How many times do you have to do something before it becomes a tradition? This is the second consecutive year we've spent New Year's Eve "in", baking. We made gingerbread men, except that instead of the "men" described in the cookbook, we used more-modern cookie cutters and made gingerbread bunnies.

These photos are from last year's edition:

Overjoyed

parker@commonkitchen.com — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 22:57:00 -0500

My copy of The Joy of Cooking is a little aged. The most recent copyright year inside the cover is in the 1960s.

When I got it from my aunt, upon my departure for my first post-college apartment and job, it was held together with a rubber band, but that failed within a few years, and now it's mostly held together by wishful thinking.

It has a lot of bookmarks. Some of them mark important things (meatloaf is marked with a recipe card from Mrs. T's pierogis) and others, not so much. There's a galley proof of a column from Runner's World about soup, and a page of notes scrawled on a leaf of a day-planner: Tuesday, April 20, 1976. Amid the notes about tomatoes, peas, garlic and ginger, in both pencil and ink, I recognize my parents' phone number.

The problem with this Joy is that sometimes I'm too worried about its structural integrity (it might fall apart) to actually look up a recipe in it.

Peppermint Stick Ice Cream, Take 2

noah@commonkitchen.com — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 08:45:00 -0500

After trying several different variations on this excellent recipe, we have settled on this egg-less recipe for peppermint stick ice cream:

1 lb finely crushed peppermint stick candy
4 cups whole milk
1 3/4 cups sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
4 tsp. vanilla extract
4 cups whipping cream

Start the night before, soaking the crushed candy in 2 cups of the milk. Refrigerate overnight.

2-3 hours before you are ready to start cranking: heat milk to lukewarm, add sugar and salt, stir til dissolved. Add milk and candy mixture, pour into freezer canister, and chill in your freezer.

Just before cranking, remove chilled mixture and blend to smooth (if necessary). Add vanilla and whipping cream. It should take between 20-30 minutes of cranking to complete.

Everything I know about Christmas fudge

parker@commonkitchen.com — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 08:31:00 -0500

I started making fudge as a contribution to Thanksgiving dinner when I was in high school, I think, and because it makes a good gift for some people on my list, very soon after I started, I found myself making two or three batches every Christmas. I'd bet I've made about fifty batches since I first started, and in the process, I realized last night, I've learned quite a lot about it that's not written in the recipe.

(The recipe I use, by the way, and recommend above all others, is Remarkable Fudge from the Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book.)

The first thing to know is to use the right saucepan. It needs to be big; you're going to dump in four cups of sugar and three more cups of milk and butter, and when that gets hot its volume expands significantly. (It froths up.) High walls will keep the bubbling syrup from spitting hot sugar on to the cook, an unpleasant side effect.

It also helps if your saucepan has some heft; too thin a pan will transfer the burner heat too directly to the syrup, and you'll risk scorching sugar to the bottom of the pan. I have a T-Fal pot which looks big enough to fit a medium-sized chicken, and it's the best I've ever used for this purpose. It has a non-stick bottom, as well, so when I pour out the fudge into the pan I don't leave a lot in the pot.

Also, butter the pan you'll be pouring the fudge into. Getting the candy out of an un-buttered pan is a pain.

The first step is the boring one, involving heating milk, sugar and butter until it reaches a particular temperature. First, the recipe calls for "14 and 2/3 ounces" of evaporated milk; this is an obsolete size of can, so get the 12-ounce can and add a splash of regular milk. It will be fine.

Second, mix the milk and sugar as soon as possible, so all the sugar is in solution and not dry, burning to the bottom of the saucepan. The butter will melt quickly enough on its own, but breaking it into chunks will speed the process, as any chemistry teacher will tell you.

Once the butter is melted, you'll see this syrup pass through a series of state changes which are a better indicator of what's going on than any candy thermometer. The old cookbooks explained the stages of candy syrups by defining what a drop of the syrup would do in cold water, naming the stages as "soft ball," "hard ball," and "hard crack." There are specific temperatures associated with each stage. I've never had the time to do a cold water test, so I use the thermometer at the end, but for most of the process, I just watch.

The syrup will be light and frothy to start with, and as it gets hotter--into the "soft ball" stage--it will get denser, and its volume goes down, looking more like a pool of lava than a boiling pot. As you near your target temperature, it will look drier and almost solid, sticking to itself much better, though it will still stir like soup.

The trick is not to put the thermometer in until you're pretty sure you're almost there. The biggest (and easiest) goof you can make with fudge is to get impatient and not let the syrup get hot enough. The recipe says 236 degrees; I go all the way to 240, just to be sure. If your final fudge is soft, you didn't let the syrup get hot enough here.

Once you've hit your temperature, things get very busy very fast. You need to turn off the heat and add marshmallow creme, chocolate, and vanilla, melt and mix before the syrup cools and sets up. The key is that this doesn't happen as fast as you might fear. Don't panic. Get the chocolate (a bag of chips) and marshmallow (one of the glass jars of Fluff; the big plastic tubs would require measuring, and trust me, you don't want to have to measure Fluff) in quickly so they can start melting. Then apply the vanilla. If the vanilla goes in too early, it may boil off, but usually the time needed to get the chocolate and Fluff in cools it enough that the vanilla can follow directly.

Stir this mix very well. Don't be tempted to pour it out into the pan until it's very thoroughly mixed; you'll wind up with streaky fudge, or chunks of un-melted chocolate (which may be a good thing, depending on your perspective.)

Here's where you have the chance to do substitutions. The classic chocolate fudge uses a 12-ounce bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Swapping in 12 ounces of white chocolate makes a very, very rich white fudge; I've also used peanut butter chips (or the mixed chocolate/peanut butter chips) to make peanut butter fudge. Note that anything other than the semi-sweet chips will make a slightly softer product, tending more to crumbs. The peanut butter variety will sometimes share its smell and flavor with other varieties in the same container, as well; I only make it by request.

Adding peppermint extract (or substituting it for the vanilla) gives a hint of mint to the final product, but you'll need a greater amount of peppermint than the amount of vanilla called for; the peppermint cooks off at a lower temperature, so it's more likely to evaporate in the cooking process. You could try crushed mints (candy canes or starlights) as well for a more bark-like effect, but I haven't tried that myself. You'd probably want them crushed quite small.

Once poured into the pan, the original recipe isn't kidding about "score while warm." This stuff sets up firm (fudge is not meant to be soft!) and cutting it can be a chore if the cuts aren't already half-made. Give it four or five minutes to cool, then take a knife and make "starter cuts" that don't quite go to the bottom of the pan. You'll be able to cut along these scores when it's time to get the fudge out of the pan. Ultimately, the fudge should cool for two or three hours before you try getting it out of the pan.

If your fudge is too soft, you can try refrigerating it, or you can dump it back in the pan and try re-heating it. This is tricky, since the chocolate/marshmallow/vanilla are in now, but may save the batch. I haven't gone this route myself; it's better to let it get hot enough in the first place.

Now, go forth and make good candy!

Trinity Red Ale

noah@commonkitchen.com — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:34:00 -0500

Another Trader Joes beer purchase, this was $5.50 for a six-pack. I was impressed, actually, although I'm not a huge red ale fan. This was much better than Killian's, IMHO.

Latkes

noah@commonkitchen.com — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:02:00 -0500

We made some latkes last night from a recipe I found on RecipeZaar. Pretty good, when not cooked too thick.

We put lemon and sour cream on them, with applesauce on the side. What do you eat with your latkes?

Sally's Everyday Bread

morse.elizabeth@gmail.com — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 09:11:00 -0500

My mother-in-law used to make wonderful yeast rolls. She would make them and then freeze them. Whenever the need (or knead) for yeast rolls arose, she would product a plastic bag with a dozen or two in it. They were great! I can remember back when we had a sailboat, sailing back from Monhegan Island to Boothbay Harbor munching on Nana's rolls and listening to Parker read from an absolutely hilarious book as we sloshed along in dying wind. Anyway, Nana did something awful. She passed away without teaching us how to make her rolls! Holidays are when we miss them most. This year, my friend Sally gave me a recipe she said she used at Thanksgiving to make rolls. This is a simple recipe and i tried it this past weekend. The dough can be used to make rolls or bread but, frankly, the bread I made was much better than the rolls.

Sally's Everyday Bread "2 hours from mixing bowl to oven"

3 cups warm water 3 Tblsp or 3 envelopes yeast 1/4 cup sugar or honey (I used honey) 8 - 10 cups flour (i used about 9-1/2) 5 tsp. salt (I used 4 but perhaps should have used 5) 5 Tblsp oil

Combine water, yeast, supga/honey in large bowl. Stir until yeast dissolves. Add salt & half of the flour. (Can substitute 1 to 4 cups of whole wheat flour or 1/4 - 1/2 cup of wheat germ at this point.) Beat hard with spoon until batter is smooth. Add remaining flour and blend well with spoon and hands. Pour oil over dough and knead in bowl for a couple minutes. Oil makes this easy. Cover bowl and let rise until double - about 45 minutes. Turn out on floured board and knead slightly. Shape into 2 loaves and place in buttered pans, or make into rolls. (1/2 recipe makes large pan of rolls.) Let rise until double. Bake at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes (rolls probably 15 minutes or so.) Brush tops with butter for a pretty crust after removing from the oven. Enjoy!

Pie Crust

morse.elizabeth@gmail.com — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 20:50:00 -0500

The earlier pie crust post talked about freezing pie crust for later use. It reminded me that my mother used to make large batches of pie crust, mixing the dry ingredients and storing them in large glass jars. When she wanted to make a pie, she measured out enough to make a two or one crust pie and added water before rolling it out. She made fabulous pie crust and I have to think that some of the flavor came from the dry crust setting in those glass jars "seasoning". On the other hand, the glass jars that she stored the dry crust were ones my father brought home from work. He was a chemistry teacher, perhaps that is where the flavor came from.

Pie Dough

gabrielssmith@gmail.com — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 11:50:00 -0500

I have been struggling to find a decent pie dough recipe, I have not found the perfect one yet but I feel that this recipe is getting there. Not only does it taste pretty good but is very easy to make.

2 cups Flour
12 T Butter
1 t Salt
6-7 T ice Water

This batch will make 2 pie dough disks, more can be made and stored in the freezer for later use if you wish but they do not last more then a couple of weeks.

Combine the flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Cube the butter and work it gently into the flour until the mixture is soft and crumbly. Add ice water a little bit at a time until you have reached the desired texture. What you are going for is just enough water so that the small crumbs at the bottom of the bowl are brought into the dough. Do not over mix, this is very important as it will drastically change the texture and taste of your dough after baking. Roll out to desired thickness using lots of flour, or wrap in tinfoil and store in the freezer for later use.

Pecan Pie

gabrielssmith@gmail.com — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 11:24:00 -0500

Pecan pie is a great holiday tradition, and with the season approaching I have been trying different recipes. Here is my latest attempt which I also think might be the best so far. I am however still in search of a better pie dough recipe...

Pecan Pie

4 T Butter
2 large Eggs
2 t Vanilla
1 3/4 c Maple Syrup
pecans
chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 425, you will also need a greased 9" pie pan, as well as a disk of pie dough. Roll out the dough and place in the greased pan, and crimp the edges.

Melt the butter in a sauce pan until it is lightly browned, this will give a nutty flavor to the pie. Remove from stove and allow to cool, while the butter is cooling beat the eggs and vanilla together, then whisk in the maple syrup. Fill the pie shell 3/4 of the way full with pecans (if you would like you can substitute about 1/2 cup of chocolate chips for pecans, this makes a very rich, but delicious pie!). Add the cooled butter to the egg, vanilla and maple syrup mixture and then pour over the pecans. The level of liquid should come up to the top of the pecans so do not use all the liquid if it is not needed. Pat the pecans down to insure they are stuck in the liquid. Bake for 30 minutes or until the center of the pie has just set, if the edges of the crust start to brown too quickly you can lower the oven temperature to 400.

For another twist you can add a teaspoon or two of rum to the liquid mixture before pouring over the pecans.

Cheesey Bean Dip

rgbeaupre@gmail.com — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:14:00 -0500

I've tried a number of different bean dip recipes, but just haven't quite found the perfect dish. This is a version that I recently created - heavy on the cheese and slightly spicy. Takes about 15 minutes to make.

1 small yellow onion, diced
1 tsp. raw minced garlic
2 Tbls. butter
2 cups (15 oz) cooked black or pinto beans, mashed
1 cup mild cheese (Monterey Jack)
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Dice onion and garlic. Mash cooked beans with a potato masher. In a heavy-bottomed pan, saute garlic and onion in butter until tender. Add beans and cook over low heat until warm. Add cheese and spices. Heat thoroughly.

Serve warm with tortilla chips. Makes 2 cups.

Queso Fundido

imaginer01@gmail.com — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 12:39:00 -0500

One of my favorite Mexican dishes is queso fundido - basically heaping quantities of melted cheese mixed with various meats (usually chorizo) and served in tortillas as an appetizer. The trouble is finding good Mexican ingredients at your local New England grocery store. Mexican melting cheese and chorizo are not always readily available.

So I experimented with a lb. of white American cheese from the deli (as close to Mexican cheese as I could find) and a sort of homemade "chorizo" made by pouring all sorts of spices into ground pork. It actually turned out rather well, considering. I intend to play with it some more and experiment on my friends, but it seemed to be a success (and not that all difficult to prepare - if I could only learn to dice an onion properly).

Holiday Cranberry Bread

rgbeaupre@gmail.com — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 11:25:00 -0500

This is a staple Thanksgiving bread in my family, though we've often made it for Christmas as well. The tart flavor of cranberries are sweetened with orange juice and rind.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 5 inch bread pan.

Sift:

1 c. sugar
2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder

Juice and rind one orange. Add enough boiling water to orange juice to make 3/4 cup.

2 Tbls. melted shortening
1 beaten egg
1/2 c. chopped nuts (preferalby walnuts)
1 c. fresh cranberries, chopped

Sift dry ingredients. Beat edd and melted shortening. Add water/juice mix. Add liquids to dry ingredients and stir until mixed. Stir in nuts and cranberries. Pour into prepared pan and bake 1 hour until lightly golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

Crab Dip

morse.elizabeth@gmail.com — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 08:33:00 -0500

The blog post about crab cakes reminded me of this wonderful crab dip recipe that I have been hiding in my recipe box for way too long.

Crab Dip

In the top of a double boiler combine, 8 oz. Cream Cheese 3 TBS mayonnaise 1 TBS lemon juice 8 oz. Crab Meat

Heat until cream cheese is melted and mixture is warm.

Serve with chips or crackers.

How easy is that! And everyone will love it.

Grilled Cheese with Ham... and flavor

parker@commonkitchen.com — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:09:00 -0500

This grilled cheese sandwich has flavor beyond that of the cheese.

2 slices bread (rye is great)
2 slices swiss cheese
Ham
Peppers (optional)
Grated mozzarella cheese (optional)
Oregano
Olive oil (optional)

Construct the sandwich bottom-up, as usual, in this order: one slice of bread, one slice of swiss, ham. Now sprinkle oregano over the ham. If you wish, slice some strips from a bell pepper and place them over the ham; you may also sprinkle grated mozzarella cheese in here. Because the mozzarella melts faster than the swiss, it's a good glue in the middle of the sandwich, but you won't suffer from leaving it out if you don't have any handy. Now top it off with the other slice of swiss and the final slice of bread.

If you grill this on a skillet, you can brush the outsides of the bread slices with olive oil (butter or margarine is an acceptable substitute,) but if you have a sandwich grill of some sort you can skip it.

What else can you stuff in here?

(Almost) everything is better with oregano

parker@commonkitchen.com — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:00:00 -0500

I confess to being mystified at why oregano comes in such large canisters relative to almost every other spice in the rack. When cumin comes in tiny little thimbles barely big enough to hold six quarters, oregano comes in tubs you could use to carry water up Mt. Washington. Maybe it's frightfully easy to grow, and supply so out-strips demand that suppliers try to keep costs down by minimizing the packaging-to-oregano ratio.

I've started actively looking for places to use my oregano overstock, and I've found that nearly anything that tastes plain to start with is improved with a light sprinkling of oregano. The trick is to add the oregano at a point where it won't get burned in the cooking.

For example, I'll sprinkle it over pizza sauce before adding toppings and cheese. I've tried adding it to ground meat for burgers, but this needs to happen before the burger is shaped. I've even added it to boiling water while cooking pasta, with relatively unnoticeable effect. (Bullion cubes, or just a teaspoon of Mrs. Dash, another spice I'm trying to get rid of, it much more effective with pasta boiling.)

The best oregano destination, though, is a grilled-cheese sandwich. The oregano, for the record, goes inside the sandwich, as I'll explain next...

Crab Cakes

gabrielssmith@gmail.com — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:55:00 -0500

I had a pound of canned crab in the fridge today and thought crab cakes sounded good for dinner. Here is the recipe that I used (it is loosely based on a recipe that came from a family friend, with my additions).

1 lb crab meat
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 T mayo
1 t mustard (any type will work, but I like dijon the best)
1 t salt
pepper to taste
1 t Worcestershire sauce
1 T maple syrup
1 t hot sauce
1 1/2 cups crushed saltine crackers
1/2 cup bread crumbs (this amount really depends on the texture of the mixture)
2 T butter (for cooking)
2 T veg. oil (for cooking)

Mix the eggs, mayo, mustard and beat with a whisk, then add the salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, maple syrup, hot sauce and crab. Mix gently so that you do not mash the crab, but you want everything well incorporated. Then add 1 cup of the crushed crackers, mix gently, if your mixture is too wet to form into a 2-3" patty you should start to slowly add the bread crumbs until you have a workable mixture. Form the patties into about 8 portions and then coat the cakes with the remaining 1/2 cup of crushed crackers. Serve with lemon, tartar sauce or my favorite a little more hot sauce! Enjoy!

Grandma Grace's Banana Bread

rgbeaupre@gmail.com — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 13:57:00 -0500

As with many of my family recipes, I'm sure when and how this one originated, but it is one that my grandmother passed on to my mom, and she in turn to my sisters and I. I've always laughed a bit at the fact that it calls for 1 cup of All Bran cereal, but it really is a very good, basic banana bread recipe. Here are the details:

1/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 well beaten egg
1 cup All Bran cereal
2 Tbsp water
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 2)
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup walnuts

Cream together sugar and shortening until fluffy. Add beaten egg and bran. Mix well. Combine water and bananas. Sift dry ingredients into a separate bowl. Add dry ingredients alternately with water and bananas to shortening and sugar. Add vanilla and nuts. Pour into a lightly buttered and floured bread pan and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 1 hour.

Trader Joe's Bohemian Lager

noah@commonkitchen.com — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 13:22:00 -0500

Even at $5.50 a six-pack this beer does not beg to be bought again. There was nothing particularly objectionable about it, but nothing endearing either...

Lazy sweet potato fries

parker@commonkitchen.com — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:14:00 -0500

I am always looking for minimal-work dishes, so this easy way of making tasty sweet potato "fries" appealed to me immediately.

No point in listing ingredients, because nothing needs measuring. You need at least one yam; two would work, depending on your hunger. Preheat the oven to something over 400° F.

Peeling is optional, but you should wash the yam if you're not peeling it. Slice off the north and south poles, then take off slabs cutting north to south, so you have a stack of yam-slices the full height of the spud. Slice across those to make your sticks.

Now, lightly grease a cookie sheet, and array the slices on the sheet. If you have a means of spraying, say, olive oil on the sticks (a Misto would do the trick), you can oil them as well. Then use a shaker to lightly salt the whole sheet. (You can season them other ways--seasoning salt leaps to mind, but anything you can invent out of your spice rack is fair game. Tell me if you come up with something nifty.)

Now put the sheet in the oven for eight or nine minutes. After that time, pull it out and use a spatula to flip the fries. (Don't do this one-by-one and don't worry too much if one or two wind up on the same side they started on.) You can re-season at this point as well, if you want. Another eight to ten minutes should have the fries in good shape!

Let 'em cool a bit before eating.

Chicken Pot Pie, Goshen Style

rgbeaupre@gmail.com — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:52:00 -0400

This is the richest, creamiest, most heavenly-herbed chicken pot pie you'll find. Once again, it comes from my mom's kitchen, and is likely her own variation of a more antiquated source. It takes a while to make, but it is SOOOOO worth it.

Broth:

1 (2 1/2-3 lb) broiler-fryer chicken
1 onion, quartered
1 celery stalk, cut in large pieces
1 tsp basil
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp rosemary
1 bay leaf

Filling:

Chicken (diced)
1 onion (roughly 1 cup)
1 cup celery (diced)
1 cup carrots (diced)
1 cup potatoes (diced)
1/3 cup melted butter
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Pastry:

3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup shortening
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup pus 1 tbsp ice water
1 tbsp vinegar
1 Tbsp milk
1 egg, beaten

1). Simmer chicken and broth ingredients for one hour. Reserve 1 1/2 cups of broth. 2). Remove chicken and cut into bite sized pieces. 3). Saute celery, onion, carrot and potato in butter (note: potatoes can be parboiled in water first). 4). Add flour and stir until smooth, cook 1 minute while stirring. 5). Gradually add broth and half and half, stirring constantly. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly. 6). Stir in salt, pepper and chicken. 7). Roll out pastry dough into 2 - 1/8 inch thick rounds. Place in a 9 1/2" pastry dish. 8). Add filling and cover with second layer of dough. Brush with egg and milk, and prick with a fork. 9). Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 30 minutes, or until crust is golden and filling is bubbly.

My Mom's Apple Crisp

rgbeaupre@gmail.com — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:47:00 -0400

My family has used the "Fannie Farmer Cookbook" as a bible for years, but my mom's version of her apple crisp definitely takes the cake. Here's her rendition; a perfect dessert for any fall day.

4 cups slices tart apples
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter/margarine (softened)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a deep pie-pan or 9 x 9 inch glass casserole dish. In a bowl, mix flour, oatmeal, sugar and cinnamon. Cut in butter. Place apples and water in baking dish. Cover with dry mixture. Bake uncovered 30-40 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream. Serves 4-6.

Hoppin' John

rgbeaupre@gmail.com — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:39:00 -0400

My older sister introduced me to this one. She spent a period of time in Texas, and apparently this dish is a New Year's favorite down that way. Here's my version.

Serves 6 to 8

4 cups canned black beans including the liquid from their cans (dried beans can also be cooked in advance)
1/2 cup water
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup finely chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp chili powder
Ground pepper
3 cups cooked white or brown rice

Toppings:

1 large tomato, chopped
1/2 cup chopped scallions
Sour cream
Grated cheddar cheese

Saute onions and garlic in butter until golden in color, about 5 minutes. Add the spices and soy sauce. Add the beans and water. Simmer gently for about 20 minutes, allowing the flavors to marinate. Stir frequently. Serve when beans are soft and most of liquid has been absorbed. Serve on top of dish of rice, and top with sour cream, tomatoes, scallions and cheese.

Creamy Chicken and Potato Chowder

rgbeaupre@gmail.com — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:29:00 -0400

This has become a fall/winter favorite since "Momcat" shared with me last year. I'm not certain of its original source, but I've made just a few adjustments.

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked chicken, cut into bit-sized pieces*
1 quart chicken broth
3 cups diced potatoes (raw)
4 Tablespoons butter (or olive oil)
1 cup diced celery**
1/2 cup chopped onion
4 tablespoons flour
2 cups whole milk*
1 teaspoon dried dill
salt and pepper to taste

*If you don't have precooked chicken, you can simmer the chicken meat in the broth for 30-40 minutes, then cool and chop. A faster alternative is to dice the meat, then saute in a few tablespoons of oil until mostly cooked. Then just add chicken to broth, following basic instructions.

**Celery can be omitted entirely without too much effect. I often use a whole medium onion and no celery - I almost think this version is tastier.

*A combination of 1% milk and half and half is also suitable.

Saute celery and onion in butter/oil.
When onion is translucent, add broth, chicken pieces and potatoes. Cook 20 minutes.
Whisk together flour and milk and add this mixture to the soup. Stir until thickened.
Add dill and taste for seasoning.

Simple Pizza Dough

rgbeaupre@gmail.com — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:10:00 -0400

Some days I'm in the mood for a delicious pizza crust, and I'm willing to spend the time to go through a lengthy rising process. Other days, I just don't have the time in my schedule too leisurely do this. On those occassions, I whip up this quick and easy pizza dough, and I have my tasty calzone or pie in less than 40 minutes.

Here's what I do:

1 cup warm water
1 package of yeast
2 cups flour (a mix of white and wheat is nice)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

Optional: herbs or garlic to flavor (oregano and parsley make a nice mix) Fillings of choice

Stir the yeast in warm water and let dissolve for five minutes. Meanwhile, place oven on warm, and mix flour, sugar, salt and herbs (if desired) in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and stir in oil and water/yeast mixture. This will make a sticky dough.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until soft, semi-elastic, and no longer sticky. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, and put in warmed oven. Let rise until doubled in bulk, about 15 or 20 minutes.

Prepare your fillings. I suggest italian sausage (precooked), raw broccoli florets, cheese and a small amount of pasta sauce and garlic. When the dough has risen, punch down and divide. Dough will make two small round pizzas or three very large calzones. Heat oven to 425. Roll each piece of dough into a flat circle, about 1/2 an inch thick. Spread pasta sauce and garlic on one half, leaving a border around it. Layer cheese, broccoli and sausage, and fold over open half. Pinch down to seal, and prick air holes with a knife.

Place on a lightly corn-mealed pizza stone in a preheated oven. Calzones cook in about 12-15 minutes. Serve topped with warm pasta sauce and parmesian cheese. Enjoy!

Best Pizza in Town

parker@commonkitchen.com — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 21:19:00 -0400

It is an article of faith in my house (wherever that may be) that the best pizza in town (whichever town that may be) comes from my oven.

It's a mix of scratch (the dough) and store (the sauce) but with pizza, how you do it is almost as important as what you use.

The dough I make in a bread maker. The recipe came from the manual; I do it mostly from memory now.

1 cup water
2 Tbsp. oil
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
1.5 cup bread flour (or other white flour)
1 tsp. active dry yeast

Put it in the bread maker and let it run.

I divide the resulting boule of dough and freeze one half for later. Then I start the oven pre-heating: 425° F.

Then the stretching happens. I never learned the toss-and-spin method, so I flatten the sphere on my hands first, stretch it on a pan by hand for a little way, then use a rolling pin to go the rest of the way. I put corn meal on the pan to keep the dough from sticking. Once I have the dough out to about the size of the pan, I crimp up the edges, then thoroughly perforate the disk with a fork. This keeps the dough from bubbling up.

The disk should be baked nine or ten minutes (it should just be starting to brown) by itself while you get the rest of the pizza ready. Then whip it out on to the pan again, and start putting together the pizza.

The key here is the order of application: sauce first, toppings next, cheese last. I use pizza sauce from the store, but if you're good with tomato sauce, feel free to make your own. Tomato paste works well, too, and if you find the taste too bland, oregano is your friend. Oregano may be your friend anyway. Sprinkle it over the pizza after applying the sauce. I've been trying to find a good barbecue sauce to substitute, but that hasn't worked for me yet.

Toppings go next. Feel free to experiment. I've used mushrooms (cut them small), all colors of bell peppers, turkey bacon, onions, scallions, ground beef (pre-cook it a bit), chicken chunks (again, pre-cooked) and potatoes (cook these a bit, too) in various combinations with good results. The trick is to get an even distribution and don't let the toppings congregate in the center of your pizza. Remember that you're going to be cutting through the center, and you don't want your slices to sag and dump their toppings on their way to your mouth.

Cheese comes on last. You can grate your own mozzarella or buy the bagged stuff; it doesn't make much difference. You probably need less than you think; remember that it will spread when it melts. You don't want a big sheet of cheese smothering your pizza. Again, make sure you get out close to the edges of the pizza.

Now, the whole pie goes back in the oven for another nine or ten minutes. Different people like the cheese done different amounts; for me, I like to see the cheese on the edges just starting to brown. At that point it's time to bring it out.

Wait a few minutes before slicing, so the cheese can set back up a bit. Otherwise all the cheese will come with your knife or wheel. Once you start cutting, you can do wedges if you want; mine never meet properly in the middle, so I've started slicing my pizzas into six by doing one big cut through the middle, then two smaller, perpendicular cuts, like a big H where the crossbar goes across the whole pizza. I'm left with two mostly-square "center" pieces and four more traditional wedges on the outside. Nobody said you had to slice your pizza into wedges; do whatever works.