tobom.com Cooking & Baking

Cooking projects (week of 7/16/12)

2012-07-23T02:11:43Z

[As always, click on the images below to see much higher resolution versions]

The first thing I made this week was muffin tin chicken pot pies. I got the recipe from the baker chick, a great blog I found online. This great recipe also let me put my new muffin tin to good use.

I made the filling first by boiling cubed chicken, potatoes, carrots and onions. I really like this kind of meal, since you can play fast and loose with the ingredients and just add whatever tastes good to you.

The dough was a bit more work to make, though well worth it (rather than buying the pre-made frozen stuff). I wasn't sure how thin to roll the dough and I probably didn't roll the circles out as large as the recipe called for. Luckily they turned out fine regardless. When the filling finished boiling, I added flour, chicken stock, and milk to get it to a gravy-like consistency and poured it into the dough in the muffin tin.

I scored the tops of the pies to let steam escape before baking them for about 30 minutes. When I took them out, they were browned on the top without being burnt.

The finished pot pies turned out amazingly - the filling was very flavorful and I think I did a good job of balancing the various ingredients. The crust was extremely flaky and crisp (though perhaps a little bit too buttery). This was a great meal, since they're easy to freeze individually to reheat later.

On Saturday, I went to Pike Place Market and was somehow persuaded into buying a whole flat of raspberries, leading me to look for any opportunity to use them in baking.

I decided to make mini peach-raspberry hand pies, with the recipe again coming from the baker chick (I modified her peach hand pie recipe to use my raspberries). They weren't very difficult to make, with the dough being the most time-consuming aspect. The filling was just a mixture of fresh raspberries, diced peaches, sugar, flour, vanilla extract and a little bit of bourbon (I used Maker's Mark). I thought the bourbon and vanilla extract really brought out the flavors of the fruit and added a nice twist.

To construct the pies, I cut out circles of dough and placed on a baking sheet. I put about 2 tablespoons of the filling on each disk and folded one side over to create a half moon. After they baked for about 20 minutes, I immediately moved the pies to a cooling rack.

To try to make even a small dent in my raspberry stores, I decided to make raspberry white chocolate pancakes. I forgot to add the raspberries after pouring the batter onto the pan, so a few pancakes ended up a little burnt. Also, my pancake-making skills still leave much to be desired, though they improved towards the end of the batch. I also fried up some bacon, which is treated as a staple in my apartment (replaced like milk or eggs every week).

Finally, I also decided to try a dish that would make great use of some fresh salmon I bought from Pike Place Market: salmon with ginger caponata. Caponata is an Italian relish, usually made with eggplant. This recipe used fresh ginger and lemon zest, both very aromatic and flavorful. These were combined with shallots, parsley, cilantro and lemon zest to make a unique salad.

The red bulbs in the caponata are pomegranate seeds, one of my favorite fruits. The salmon was simply seasoned with salt and pepper before cooking in a frying pan with canola oil.

To complete the dish, the salmon was placed on top of plain Greek yogurt with some of the caponata spooned on top. Usually I'm not a fan of using yogurt in dinner/savory meals, but I thought it worked well here. The lemon and ginger were really noticeable in the final dish and worked especially well with the yogurt.

Cooking projects (weeks of 7/2/12 and 7/9/12)

2012-07-15T12:26:33Z

[Since I failed to write a cooking post last week, this one will cover two weeks' worth of projects. Again, remember to click on the images to see larger versions]

The first meal I made was herb-crusted pork tenderloin with roasted potatoes and a bacon-sherry vinaigrette. Pork doesn't feature very heavily in the meals I make, but it might show up more frequently after this dish.

Much of the flavor comes from the bacon-sherry vinaigrette. Sometimes when recipes don't have pictures for each part of the dish, I start losing confidence that I'm making it right. Hopefully this looks like julienned bacon with shallots, sherry wine vinegar and olive oil.

The next task was to sear the pork tenderloins before finishing them in the oven. I coated them with rosemary, thyme and parsley.

Meanwhile, I prepared the potatoes. I rubbed the quartered Yukon gold potatoes with olive oil, then seasoned with salt and pepper.

After the potatoes and tenderloin roasted in the oven for about 20 minutes, it was time to slice the tenderloin and plate them both, topped by the vinaigrette.

This turned out to be one of the best things I've cooked since I moved to Seattle. The vinaigrette was a perfect match for the potatoes and pork, adding a rich and slightly tangy flavor. I ended up having to put the potatoes in for an extra ten minutes since the ones I used were larger than the recipe called for. After that extra time, they turned out perfect though. The pork turned out well too, but really benefited from the vinaigrette flavor. A great dish overall, likely a new favorite.

The next day, I decided to cook up two meals so that I'd have lots of freezable dinners to reheat during the week. I went shopping in Pike Place Market to pick up fresh snapper to pan sear (though I somehow ended up buying much more than that). To go with the fish, I also made lentils and a red wine-shallot sauce.

I seasoned the snapper with salt and pepper, then seared it for about 7 minutes. It ended up perfectly cooked - a slight crust, but very moist inside. However, I should have removed the bones before cooking, as it was much more difficult after it was cooked.

The lentils and red-wine shallot sauce deserve less space however. I discovered that lentils are not among my favorite legumes, even though they were cooked with browned garlic and onion (which provide one of the best scents in cooking):

Personally, I found the shallots a bit unappealing once they had simmered with the red wine and port to make the sauce. I may have cut the shallots incorrectly or used too many. Subsequent servings featured the sauce less prominently.

After cooking the snapper, I started on chicken with verjus and garlic cloves. This was a pretty simple baked chicken breast with a strong sauce featuring lots of garlic. The sauce also made use of verjus, an acidic French liquid sometimes used instead of vinegar.

The recipe made use of many cloves of garlic, which are apparently eaten in between bites of chicken.

The garlic went in with verjus and simmered for 15 minutes while the chicken was sautéed for 5 minutes, then baked to finish cooking. A very simple recipe to follow.

I don't have a picture of the plated meal, since I immediately put individual portions in the freezer. This did not turn out to be a terrific dish, as I found the sauce much too strong. Eating the garlic cloves proved to be unappetizing and I didn't enjoy the strong sweet and sour combination from the verjus. Not a recipe I would make again.

Luckily, I had picked up a few cupcakes while out shopping, so the meal was saved.

Finally, I also made raspberry-cherry muffins. Originally intended to be raspberry muffins, they were enhanced with fresh Rainier cherries when I ate too many raspberries in a moment of weakness. To keep the muffins from having huge chunks of fruit, I cut the cherries in half before mixing them into the batter.

Other than that, I followed a straightforward muffin recipe, with flour, sugar, egg, baking powder, butter, egg, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. The muffins turned out great and went perfectly with some raspberry tea that I bought at the Uwajimaya Asian market in Seattle (which seems to indicate that I've become completely domesticated).

Cooking projects (weeks of 7/23 and 7/30)

2012-08-12T13:56:34Z

[Since I haven't had too many cooking projects lately (still eating leftovers), I decided to write a single post for the last two weeks. As always, click on the images below to see much higher resolution versions]

Recently I've been using the weekends as break from the usual breakfast routine of a rushed bowl of cereal. Though it usually takes an extra hour of work before I finally eat I've really enjoyed the variety in the mornings.

Last weekend I tried making eggs in a basket for the first time. This is a fun way of having eggs and toast together, where the egg is fried inside a hole in the bread. Typically, the cutout piece of bread is used to mop up runny egg yolk at the end of the meal.

Even though I didn't use especially thick bread, the concept worked out pretty well. I actually used a cookie cutter to make a perfect circle in the bread which helped keep it from tearing. This is a very cool looking breakfast project with the egg yolk floats in the center of the hole and while the rest of the egg attaches to the sides of the bread.

Some people have trouble keeping the egg white from leaking out under the bottom of the bread, which ruins the effect a little bit. I used a trick I found online to push down on the bread immediately after dropping the egg in the whole. This lets the bottom of the egg solidify without giving it a chance to run.

Since the whole thing is fried in butter, the bread is perfectly tasty in its own right. I left it on the pan a little bit too long after flipping, leaving the yolk completely solid. Nevertheless, it turned out delicious and a perfect treat to break up the weekday breakfast monotony (especially since it's very quick to cook).

I've also been getting into making omelets for at least one of the weekend days. Omelets are nice because you can just throw in whatever you have in the pantry for the filling. In addition to bacon and cheddar cheese, I've been making use of a large bag of potatoes I bought recently, and the extras serve as a nice side for the omelet.

I also tried making fruit pancakes again. My last batch ended up with a few burnt attempts. This time I did a better job by starting with a sacrificial pancake to see how hot the pan was. I used strawberries in the batter this time, with a few slices on top. I realized that I had forgotten to buy syrup, so I whipped up some homemade syrup with brown sugar, water and vanilla extract.

I also made a couple of desserts in the last couple of weeks. Using a great recipe from The Baker Chick, I made lemon-blueberry cupcakes. This is a dangerous development for me, as it eliminates my dependency on cupcake shops for my weekly fix. The recipe used 2 cups of blueberries, so each cupcake ended up with a fair amount.

I also made the frosting from scratch, which used fresh lemon juice and lemon zest along with cream cheese. It ended up being very appropriate for summer, as the lemon added a pleasant tangy flavor. At the store I had to restrain myself from buying 10 different frosting tips, but I ended up with one rose, one smooth and two star tips.

The batter then went into cupcake liners and into the oven for 25 minutes at 325º. I took the cupcakes out to cool on the rack before frosting them. Since even I can't eat this many cupcakes in a single day, I ended up freezing them, covered in plastic wrap.

Finally, I also made buttermilk bacon pralines. These are brittle-like circles that get a ridiculous amount of flavor from brown sugar, pecans, bacon and a small bit of orange zest. The recipe started off by heating sugar, brown sugar, buttermilk and salt in a large saucepan. No mention was made of how much this would bubble up, leading to a fair bit of alarm as I watched it rise. After the concoction had heated up enough, I mixed in vanilla extract, orange zest, chopped pecans, crumbled bacon and butter before mixing until smooth. I scooped out teaspoon-sized portions of the mixture onto parchment paper to cool (though I ended up putting them in the fridge since they still were too soft after an hour of cooling).

They ended up a bit too sweet to have by themselves but were just as ridiculously packed with flavors as the recipe promised.

Pimentón roasted chicken on lemons and potatoes

2013-04-12T08:46:53Z

I don't make roast chicken too frequently - all too often a recipe will turn out bland and uninspired. Recently however, I've made a few dishes that call for pimentón, or Spanish paprika. This spice is often used in restaurants but surprisingly difficult to find in stores. While paprika is frequently used just to add color (especially with deviled eggs), pimentón adds smokiness and heat and works great as a rub for meats.

I also appreciated this recipe's suggestion to simply place the bird directly on the oven rack, with the potatoes placed underneath to catch the drippings. Except for the difficulty of removing it from the oven (without dripping onto the heating element), this worked out perfectly.

The recipe is very straightforward - after the ingredients are prepared, they're virtually ready to be cooked. The rounds just needed to be coated with olive oil, seasoned, and mixed with the thyme before they could be spread out over the roasting pan.

The chicken (after it was cut), just needed to be seasoned before it was ready to go in the oven. I think I used a bit more spice than the recipe called for, but I wanted to make sure every bit of skin was coated.

I probably should have cut the lemon slices a little thicker as they ended up drying out too much. The pimentón was key for this recipe, since it gave the chicken some much needed extra flavor but didn't end up too overpowering. The roasting time was spot-on, as the chicken didn't dry out and the potatoes finished at the same time.

Cooking projects (week of 6/18/12)

2012-06-25T01:24:52Z

[As suggested by Madeline of Munching in the Mitten, I've taken to documenting my culinary adventures on this blog. I'll post weekly about whatever I cook and bake during the week, with both pictures and descriptions. Click on the pictures in the post for unnecessarily high-resolution versions]

This week I had an ambitious set of recipes that I didn't quite get to completing. As I'm finding out, it's pretty difficult to muster up the energy to cook after a long day at work. This means most of my projects get relegated to the weekend. However, I was still able to make a few recipes that I was pretty excited about!

The big meal of the week was a tart-hot beef with malt vinegar and cayenne. The recipe came from Food & Wine's "Best of the Best Cookbook," a gift from Amie of Hungry Beluga. It's a modified goan vindaloo, with malt vinegar substituted for traditional (and hard to find) palm or cashew vinegar. The beef is tenderized by soaking in the vinegar overnight, which helps make it soft enough to fall apart on your fork after cooking.

Though the recipe calls for 6 whole Thai chile peppers, I cut this down to 5 for my curry. This turned out to be a smart move, as the dish still turned out pretty hot. However, the heat added to the flavors instead of distracted from them. Overall, it was an excellent dish, very flavorful (as you would expect with a vindaloo) and the beef ended up extremely tender.

The next item was a baking project. I've really enjoyed the opportunity to bake in my new apartment, since it was a bit impractical back when I lived in Ann Arbor. It also gives me a chance to indulge my prodigious sweet tooth. This week, I made shortbread cookies with raspberry-peach champagne jam. The recipe came from an amalgamation of online sources and I added the jam on my own.

Since I don't have an electric mixer, I had to mix as our ancestors did - by hand. Which gets old after about 5 minutes. After the dough was mixed, I put it in the fridge for a while so that the cookies would keep their shape when they baked. Since I rolled them to 1/4 inch thickness, they were done very quickly (just 8 minutes) and I had to be careful not to let them overcook.

On Sunday, I made a bolognese pasta sauce. This is a perfect project for the weekend, since you can give it a proper four-hour simmer and freeze any leftovers for a quick meal during the week. I didn't follow a recipe, choosing to trust my (developing) culinary instincts instead. I used 3 kinds of meat - bacon, ground beef, and ground veal. The bacon was sautéed first, along with pearl onions, sliced carrots and minced garlic. I then added red wine, diced roma tomatoes, tomato paste, salt and pepper and the browned meat. I let this simmer for 3 hours to let the flavors mix and seep in.

When I make this dish again, I think I'll use more tomato paste (since it ended up a little wet) and less meat. Still, it turned out pretty well anyway and provided 7 easy meals to freeze!

Cooking projects (August/September 2012)

2012-09-25T06:55:04Z

[As always, click on the pictures below for larger versions. Note: after this week, I'll be breaking out each cooking project into its own post. This'll give me a chance to update more often and write more about each project. I'll include recipes and more pictures from the cooking process.]

So far I've only blogged about new food projects, but I've still been making my favorites again after writing about them. One of the best desserts I've made so far were the shortbread cookies from June. After buying some new tayberry jam at Pike Place Market, I decided to make these cookies again.

They turned out great again, and I made sure to freeze some so I wouldn't eat two dozen in a few days.

However, I've still been trying new recipes too. Amie (of hungrybeluga.com) hosted a little grill-out at her apartment this month, which gave me an opportunity to try a new recipe for crab burgers. This came from a great cookbook (which I got for my birthday) that focuses on using fresh ingredients from the Pacific Northwest region.

The recipe was pretty simple, consisting mainly of buttermilk and Dungeness crab. Even though the recipe calls for pan-frying the patties, I was hoping that I would be able to make them firm enough to grill. However, they didn't really stick together enough to cook that way. Luckily I only lost one before resorting to the stovetop.

The burgers turned out perfect when I cooked them in the pan. They ended up slightly sweet (characteristic of Dungeness crab) and very buttery. Served with fresh lettuce on a soft kaiser role, the burgers were delicious (though expensive). Definitely something I could see myself making for a special occasion.

Thanks to Amie, I recently got a great recipe for Lemongrass Chicken. I haven't cooked very many Asian dishes (besides the occasional stir fry with sauce from a bottle), so this recipe was a good introduction to authentic dishes. The flavor in the dish came from fish sauce (a typical ingredient in Asian cuisine), fresh lemongrass (finely minced), chopped garlic, and a jalapeño chile. The recipe also used rice wine and chile paste - two other common ingredients in Asian food.

I don't own a large wok unfortunately, so I had to make do with a skillet. I don't think it affected the overall flavor of the food, but it made frying a bit more difficult.

I also visited Fran's Chocolates, where my neighbor Erin was kind enough to try to expand my palate (still not entirely convinced that stuffing your mouth full of chocolate isn't the best way to get an accurate flavor profile). After being enlightened about the evils of Dutch process chocolate, I also left with some hot chocolate (and decided to get a port too for good measure).

Mini Heart Cheesecakes

2016-02-14T00:50:20Z

I think that minifying improves almost any dessert. It lets you eat a bunch more than you normally would without feeling guilty.

Mini versions are also better for entertaining. A platter of mini cheesecake bites are much easier for guests to eat than cutting slices of a whole cheesecake. You don't have to worry about splitting the dessert into small enough pieces so that everyone can try it - you can just double the number of mini cheesecakes that you make.

I found this recipe for mini cheesecakes on La Receta de la Felicidad. There are a ton of great dessert ideas on that site (all of which look super impressive when they're done). Check it out!

Raspbery lemon muffins

2016-03-16T02:26:18Z

I know that in my last recipe (for mini cheesecakes) I extolled the virtues of minifying recipes, but I want to add an exception for when you plan on eating an entire batch by yourself. In that case, you want each portion to be as large as possible to save on trips from the couch to the kitchen.

Smitten Kitchen is one of the all-time great food blogs. Deb has the perfect recipe for any season or mood. You can lose hours just browsing her site and planning cooking projects for every day of the next week. It's a constant struggle to keep this site from just being pictures of me making recipes from that site.

Christmas Cookies 2014

2014-12-25T04:32:25Z

When I want to make impressive cookies, I usually make sugar cookies decorated with royal frosting. They're easy enough to make and end up looking great.

But sugar cookies have a very predictable taste, and some people don't like the taste of royal frosting. This year, I decided to look for cookie ideas that were a little out of the ordinary.

The Rudolph gingerbread cookies didn't require many special ingredients. I followed a standard gingerbread cookie recipe and decorated them with a cinnamon candy nose and I piped brown-colored frosting to make the eyes and antlers. The next time I make these, I'll probably use a red M&M for the nose, since the cinnamon candy ended up staying hard after baking.

The melted Frosty the Snowman cookies took a little more effort to track down the ingredients. The cookie itself wasn't too complicated, just a fudgy chocolate cookie (I picked a recipe that produced taller cookies so that the vanilla topping would run a little bit). Gathering the vanilla candy coating (which gets melted down to make the snow) and mini peanut butter cups for the hats took a little more work.

I followed this recipe from Better Homes & Gardens. If you give it a try, let me know!