Yorkshire Puddings
December 28, 2009
After eating a delicious roast beast and homemade Yorkshire puddings at a friend's house for Christmas, I decided to give the puddings a try. The trick, I was told, was to let the ingredients sit out to room temperature before baking. Armed with that knowledge and a couple recipes to compare, I began baking. The first attempt was a failure, but after adjusting ingredients, I had a success.
Simply whip up 3 eggs, 1 1/2 c whole milk, and 1 c flour (with pinch of salt, baking soda, and 2 tsp sugar mixed in), and whisk untul smooth. Put batter on top of fridge to warm up for a half hour. Pour into greased muffin tin and bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and eat immediately while it is still hot. Mmmmm!
Eggy in the Basket
August 10, 2009
I had stale bread, eggs, and magically -- prosciutto and Camembert. Camembert is a delicious, soft-ripened cheese that resembles a brie, but is not nearly as soft because it is not a triple cream. To me, it tastes a little like eating the smell of a fresh mushroom.
For my dish, I buttered that stale piece of bread on each side, and cut a hole out from the middle. I toasted each side in a pan on medium heat until the toast was golden. I broke an egg over the hole in the toast and cooked it for a few minutes on each side so the toast was covered in egg. I removed the "eggy in the basket" (a phrase I steal from the movie, "V for Vendetta"), and placed it on a warm plate. I cut four pieces of Camembert and placed it on top of the toast where it began to melt -- just slightly. I heated some leftover prociutto in the pan and piled that on top as well. The result? A fatty-protein rich dream that I could eat over and over again.
You can find Camembert at a chesse shop or Whole Foods (it comes in a cute little round wooden box).
Labels: bread, breakfast, cheese, eggs, prosciutto
Pan de Tomate
June 20, 2007
Summer time brings the best out in BBQ. Whether you’re an omnivore or an herbivore, you’re food will taste radically different if exposed to the heat of an open flame. I had some slightly stale french bread laying around and decided to make it into Pan de Tomate. This dish really has a Catalan name and origin, but I simply referred to it as "tomato bread" with my friend Berta, a Catalan native of Barcelona with whom I visited in San Pol de Mar, Spain.
Berta went to a school for "hoteleria" (hospitality and hotel services study) and would return from the kitchen with stale bread. She and her friend Merced would take both ripe and unripe tomatoes, cut them in half, and intensely rub each piece of bread down with the tomato until it was pulp. They then doused each piece with a very green olive oil, usually rubbing it over the whole piece. They placed the bread in an oven on broil until crispy, or if it was really nice outside, over the grill to cook. I preferred this latter method of grilling the bread, but I have used the broil method for wintery days.
Using this process, the bread is resurrected from a tasteless and useless state to one of intense flavor, with a crispy outside texture and chewy to soft center inside. I ate this bread with slices of "jamon serrano" - quite literally a leg of pork that dries on your counter top from which you take chunks of meat from. The closest thing to jamon serrano I’ve found at typical grocery or butcher stores is Italian prociutto. Lay that on top of this bread with fresh slices of brie or manchego cheese and you’ve got yourself a heck of a "bocadillo" - a little streetside vendor type sandwich popular throughout Spain.
Now a bit about tomatoes: use vine ripened if you can. They are sweeter and have a lot more juice than steak tomatoes. Also, never ever put your tomatoes in the refrigerator! Exposing them to the cold air causes the sugars to arrest and the tomato completely loses flavor.
And for the olive oil: What I learned from Berta is that the greener olive oils are used most commonly in Spain in all their raw glory - that is, with fresh bread, or atop salad greens, or as a base for a dressing. The green olive oils tend to be cloudy and pungent and are wonderful fresh, but not so great for cooking. More about olive oils next time.
Finally the bread: Use french bread loaves as they tend to hold up better on the grill or under the broiler. Also, if it is too stale, it simply won’t work. If you don’t eat all your bread the day you buy it, store it in a plastic grocery bag up to a week if you plan on making it into pan de tomate.
AnnaBanana Bread
March 22, 2006
I've been baking this banana bread since I discovered my mother's Menonite cookbook buried in our kitchen cupboards when I was 8. My Aunt Lilly sent my mother, many years ago, the "Christian Home Cookbook," a cookbook with recipes assembled from Menonite colonies across the country, and has recently sent us a new edition printed a few years ago. There are four banana bread recipes and I have baked all of them. From these, I have combined what I thought were the most essential ingredients to make my own AnnaBanana Bread. I share with all of you a sure fire recipe for this delightful morning treat.
You will need: 3 ripe bananas; 3/4 c sugar; 1/4 c butter slightly melted; 1/2 tsp of baking soda dissolved in 1tsp water; 1 egg slightly beaten; 1 tsp of baking powder (add 1 more if at 6000+ feet in altitude); 2 c flour sifted.
Crockery: Bake these in small loaf pans or even muffin pans because high altitude prevents the middle of this bread from baking all the way through without burning the outside. Butter and flour the pan.
Step One: Preheat oven to 350 degrees (175 degrees Celsius).
Step Two: In a large bowl, mash bananas with a fork until runny. Add sugar, baking soda, and butter. Mix these ingredients with a wooden spoon (don't blend with a mixer, ever ever). Beat egg and incorporate into mixture.
Step Three: Sift flour and baking powder into wet mixture and stir in until completely incorporated. Pour into 3 mini loaf pans and bake for 20-27 minutes or until golden brown on top. Turn off oven, leaving bread in there to cool down. Serve hot with butter, or eat the following morning with your coffee. MMMMMM.
Tip: You can flavor your banana bread with grated ginger, spices like nutmeg or cinnamon, fresh walnuts, frangelico, rum, or any other spirit you like.
Herb Muffins by Clotilde
February 05, 2006
The most fabulous food blog I've found to date has to be Chocolate and Zucchini by Clotilde. The site is run from her home in Europe and features mostly French cooking. I tried this herb muffin recipe posted also on NPR and adjusted the ingredients for what was in my pantry. You can do the same as long as you keep the liquid and dry ingredients consistent.
You will need: handful of chopped flat leafed Italian parsley and thyme, or basil (fresh); 3 eggs; 1/2 c buttermilk; 1 tbslp pesto; 1/4 fresh grated parmesan; 1 1/4 c flour; 1 tbsp baking powder; 1 tblsp sesame seeds; 1/2 tsp salt and pepper.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Step One: Whisk the eggs with a blender or by hand until very frothy. Add salt and pepper.
Step Two: Pour in buttermild, pesto, parmesan cheese, and whisk until incorporated.
Step Three: Sift flour and baking powder into the bowl and stir ingredients together with a wooden spoon - do not over mix. It is okay if your batter is lumpy.
Step Four: spoon batter into muffin pan halfway full and sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake for 17-20 minutes.
Simple French Toast
December 26, 2005
If you are thinking about tossing out that left over crusty baguette bread - don't! You can convert this bread into breakfast with a little milk and eggs.
You will need:
- 6 (or four) hearty slices of leftover baguette (really fresh baguette isn't that great for this dish);
- 2 eggs,
- 1/2 c of half and half or cream;
- 1/2 tsp of nutmeg or cinnamon,
- 1 tsp of vanilla.
For a really yummy treat, add 1 tsp of frangelico or rum.
Butter, and quality maple syrup are a must.
Step one: in a bowl, whip the eggs with a wire wisk or fork, add milk, vanilla, and spices.
Step Two: Dip bread in so it soaks up mixture on each side, place in a hot skillet with 1 tbsp of butter melted (cook on medium).
Step Three: Serve with syrup, butter, and powdered sugar if you like.
