Garlicky crumb-coated broccoli FFwD

This Friday's challenge for French Fridays with Dorie was a simple, delicious way to prepare some broccoli.  I steamed some stalks, sauteed some minced garlic in butter.  After the garlic was softened, I added breadcrumbs and then some chopped parsley.  The stalks had been drained and patted dry and were coated with the breadcrumbs.

Here is were I failed, by coating didn't coat.  Some of it got on, but most ended up sprinkled on the final dish.  I am a coating failure.

It was tasty.  A bit like broccoli scampi.   I like my broccoli cooked in olive oil, garlic and red peppers.  I'm not looking for a new method for one of my favorite veggies.  Maybe we are stuck in a rut, but I'm ok with that.

Dessert - The Ugliest cake

My mother thinks that I don't make dessert often enough.  I've been known to bake dessert for birthdays, Easter and Thanksgiving.  That leaves over 345 days undesserted.  I pull an occasional dessert out of the hat, but for the most part we are dessertless. 

I bought Rose Levy Beranbaum's Rose's heavenly cakes because I couldn't resist the pictures.   I should have started with The Cake Bible but some of the desserts in this cookbook called out to me.

I made a bundt cake a while back.  I do enjoy a good bundt cake.  I remember having some difficulties getting the cake out in one piece.

Rose has a beautiful yellow daisy cake in her cookbook.  She bakes it in a Nordic Ware daisy cake pan.  It is  a beautiful pan cake pan that leaves daisies on the top of the cake, for say $35 dollars.  I am at the point in my life where I am trying to downsize the number of things in my kitchen.  I can't see spending the money for a spring time cake pan when Rose says that a fluted tube pan can be used instead.

Perhaps I should mention that many of the things in the kitchen that I am trying to downsize are over 25 years old.  The fluted tube pan, which I will refer to as bundt pan, has seen better days.  But remembering my recent difficulties, I was certain to well prepare the pan.  To no avail.  The top of the cake remained in the pan.  The bottom almost did as well, but I stuck a knife in and saved the day. 

Good news, I was planning on dividing the cake and filling it with berries and cream.  It self divided.  But it was no easy feat releasing the top; it came out in chunks.  Which I then covered with more cream.

I threw the pan out.  I'm not a big fan of throwing things out.  But my darling husband asked me what chemicals are being released by 25 year old nonstick pans that are way past their prime.  I have ordered a new pan.

The cake was delicious, ugly but delicious.   Here is a link to Rose's blog with a yellow cake recipe.

short ribs in red wine and port - ffwd

Something very unusually happened here in San Antonio, we got snow.  Not much, certainly not enough to make a city ground to a stop back where I grew up.  We knew that something was going to happen.  The weathermen were all excited.  We received multiple emails on what the district would do in the event of snow.

Then, during the night, plans changed.  We got freezing rain and then, a dusting of snow.  Perhaps where you are from, the plows and salt trucks would be out in full force.  I don't think that we have any, maybe we have one or two.  So early in the morning, the city closed every highway.  Done deal, no school for anyone.  The excited weathermen talked all morning long about how ice is slippery.  All morning long, through the Today show, which is one of my favorite indulgences.  And since I normally leave at 710, I don't indulge often.  

There hasn't been real snow here for decades.  So we got up, and made a snowman on the basketball court, we tried for a snow angel.  Somewhere in the midst of all this excitement, the camera was handed from one mittened hand to another.  We have no real skill with mittens.  And we dropped the camera, and like tiny little electronic things everywhere, the camera stopped working.

So, my photos are from my phone.  And they do not do the short ribs in red wine and port justice.  I have become a big fan of cooking meat in vast quantities of alcohol.  Go Dorie.  One of the February Friday challenges was for this delicious, winter appropriate meal.

The recipe starts with a bouquet garni.  Parsley sprigs, thyme sprigs, bay leaves, rosemary, star anise and celery stalks are tied up in cheese clothe.

Short ribs are broiled on all sizes until browned and sizzling then seasoned with salt and pepper.

Onions, carrots, parsnips, ginger and garlic are sauted in oil and seasoned with salt and pepper until a little browned about 10 mins.  2 T of tomatoes is added to the pan and stirred about.

Then, an entire bottle of Syrah and 1.5 cups of port and the bouquet garni are added and boiled until the liquid reduces by a third.  The meat is added to the pot with enough beef broth to cover it.  The covered with foild and cooked for 2 hours.  The foil folded back to let some steam leave and then cooked for one more hours.  At this point, I added carrots.  We love carrots, lightly cooked.

The sauce is strained and reduced further.  The short ribs are put under the broiler and served.

This broth was delicious.  Short ribs annoy me.  I ended up taking all the meat off the bones and putting it back in the broth.  Next time, I want to try this with a lovely pot roast.

basque potato tortilla - ffwd

There is a suggestion at French Fridays with Dorie for a delicious Valentine's Day dinner.  The potato tortilla, served at warm temperature, is suggested as an appetizer.

Tortilla means something completely different in the Basque region of France than it does in Texas.  This is more like a room temperature omelet than anything that would be considered a tortilla in my neck of the woods.

You start by cooking some cubed Yukon Golds and diced onion in a cast iron pan.  Some rosemary,  garlic with the skin left on and salt and pepper are added to the potatoes and onions.  It is sauteed for about twenty minutes.  After the potatoes are tender, they are removed and the pan is wiped down.  The garlic and rosemary are removed, I had to hunt around for the garlic skins.

9 large eggs that have been beaten with salt and pepper and a pinch of cayenne are mixed with the potatoes and onions.  The mixture is returned to the oil coated skilled, cooked slowly and then put under the broiler for final browning.

We ate the tortilla warm.  My husband and daughter enjoyed it.

Pullman Bread or pain de mie - mellow bakers

My husband asked when we were going to have homemade bread again.

I haven't baked bread for a couple of weeks.  I think that I was a little tired from my baking, feeding fest over Christmas where I tried to fatten my children.  Unfortunately, my children currently lack the fattening metabolism and the only person that I succeeded in fattening was myself.

In an attempt to become a little healthier, I have decided to try to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into my diet and to get more regular exercise.  I'm not an anticarb person, I just need to use a little more discretion about which ones are invited into my house and with what frequency.

January's Mellow Baker's  assignment includes three breads; golden raisin, pain de mie and a three stage sourdough rye.  I believe that I have mentioned that no one in my house eats cooked raisins.  Perhaps, on occasion, I have mentioned some of my trials with rye flour, so I opted for the pain de mie.  Hamelman and I have the same sized pain de mie pan.  I got mine on sale at King Arthur flour when they were releasing the newer, perhaps smoothier lidded, version.  A pullman pan is a rectangular pan with a lid.

I pull it out whenever I have the desire for a rectangular prism.  Which really isn't that often. 

This was a very easy recipe.  The ingredients were assembled.

Bread flour, dry milk, salt, sugar, yeast, butter and water were combined.  The dough fermented for two hours, and then was shaped.  I had enough for one loaf in the pain de mie pan and then another smaller loaf.  My white bread loving husband was concerned that I was going to throw the dough out because it was too small.  Really...  The dough was shaped into the pullman pan and a smaller pan, and fermented again for an hour and then baked.

In the end you have made white bread, which isn't my favorite, but will make a fun breakfast.

I was tempted to make french toast, but always wanted to try eggs in the nest.

My Go To Beef Daube - FFwD

French Fridays with Dorie picked four recipes for the month of December.  Although I have made three of them, things have been a little hectic and this is only my second post for FFwD for the month of December.  Its OK because FFwD rules  say cook along as much as you can!

The great thing about the second part of December is that I have had sons home from college.  My sons are willing sous chefs.  They will peel, chop and stir if I promise to feed them at the end of the day.  And then they will eat everything in the house!  I will miss them when they go back to college..

Dorie says that we all need a great beef stew recipe.  This certainly was easy and delicious.  Bacon was sauteed in the dutch oven and then beef chuck roast was cubed into 2 inch cubes and browned and removed.   Onions and shallots were sauteed for 8 mins.  Then garlic, carrots, parsnips and herbs were added to the pot.   It cooked for 2.5 hours in the entire bottle of wine and made the house smell delicious.

We made this on a cold, wet, rainy day.  It was just the recipe for the weather.  Now I need to find another bottle of wine to sacrifice for future stews!

Gougères

I would like Jacques Pépin to come to my kitchen.  He seems like such a pleasant chef.  I enjoy watching him on TV.  Apparently, he has a new TV show called Essential Pépin  that will be coming out in the fall of 2011.  

On Christmas Eve, we put a prime rib in the oven for an hour, and then turn the oven off for three hours.  During the off time, we head out to Mass.  When we return, we turn the oven on again and everyone starts making a little something to bring to the table.

I make Jacques Pépin's Gougères.  You can make them the morning before and pop them in the refrigerator and bake them when you get home.  You can even freeze them.  This recipe is taken from Food & Wine.  

Makes about 30

1 cup milk
4 T unsalted butter
1/4 t salt
dash of cayenne pepper (I add some cracked pepper as well)
1 cup ap flour
3 large eggs
1/2 t papirika
1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese
1 & 1/2 c grated Swiss cheese
Coarse sal, fleur de sel or kosher salt.  If you are going to put them in the refrigerator, don't put the salt on top until right before baking.

Directions

1. Bring the milk, butter, salt, and cayenne to a boil in a saucepan. Remove from the heat, add the flour all at once, and mix vigorously with a wooden spatula until the mixture forms a ball. Return the pan to the heat and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 1 minute to dry the mixture a bit. Transfer to the bowl of a food processor, let cool for 5 minutes, then process for about 5 seconds.
2. Add the eggs and paprika to the processor bowl, and process for 10 to 15 seconds, until well mixed. Transfer the choux paste to a mixing bowl, and let cool for 10 minutes. 

1. Preheat the oven to 375°. Line a cookie sheet with a reusable nonstick baking mat or parchment paper. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the grated Parmesan cheese, then add the remainder and all the Swiss cheese to the choux paste. Stir just enough to incorporate. Using a tablespoon, scoop out a level tablespoon of the gougère dough, and push it off the spoon onto the cooking mat. Continue making individual gougères, spacing them about 2-inches apart on the sheet. Sprinkle a few grains of coarse salt and a little of the reserved Parmesan cheese on each gougère. Bake for about 30 minutes, until nicely browned and crisp. Serve lukewarm or at room temperature with drinks.