Macaron bake off

Other than white flour, there are  many alternatives, the most recent popular is almond flour or meal used in baking sweet cookies. Most of the recipes are the same. The fillings can vary due to your preference.

Recently the sister in law participated in an invite by Diane to make and bake these cookies, actually a part of a holiday gift package of the macaron baking mat and ingredients.

Both baked on the mat and parchment paper.

Most recipes are not specific as to the use of almond meal or almond flour, the small dark flecks are from the almond skins, if using flour or meal derived from blanched almonds would probably not have the skins contained in the meal or flour.

Would you bake them again ?  Cross that off the bucket list of baking LOL.

more fermentation…dough

Bread, a staple in our diet,  made fresh most of the time, some recent photos as the more I make bread, the more I vary the recipe.

First up Babka, similar from a previous posting https://pmetro.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/photosdraft/that was left un tagged I could not find, so a recipe from https://smittenkitchen.com/2014/10/better-chocolate-babka/ about the same recipe.

rolling….

chocolate !

twisted

gifts for guests

leftover dough

gifts for guests…

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multi seed sourdough

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Rustic bread

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random styles

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bread made with soft Italian flour

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experiment of dough on waffle iron, some stuffed

various tasting of dough recipes

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the tipo “00” flour , soft Italian flour, Neapolitan style pizza, 500 degree oven..

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testing convection oven baking bread

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Experimental pizza

Eggplant with mushrooms and cheese

That’s all folks !

December memories, with recipes

It’s been both a busy time and a relaxing time, an effort to return to the blogisphere , catching up reading most of the blogs  I follow,  2017  now a time for renewal, physically in the kitchen with small upgrades by usual standards, to refresh the kitchen environment. All not accomplished in one fell swoop, as it won’t be a demolition and rebuild but improvements, cleanouts and replacements one thing at a time. But rewind slightly to December, the wrap up of the calendar year and Holiday time meals.

Roasted veggies

Soup, trying a mandolin slicer

1/2 Peking (style) duck

5 spice powder and ginger rub

Convection oven cooking

Duck meat is a treat, usually I only find duck at the supercentre at holiday times. Hoisin sauce and soy sauce based finish.

another version of pasta and veggies

Christmas appetizer, gorton, a pork type spread, sometimes now a days  frowned upon as to it’s high fat content, but the food police seem to look the other way at Holiday time !!!!! (but it’s not eaten every day)

Gorton

1 1/4 lb. Pork Butt, diced
3/4 cup onion, finely diced
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup milk (optional as needed)
1/4 cup fine bread crumbs
— all spice

spices are ground
measurements are a starting point. Open to interpretation.

It’s stressed that pork butt is used not pork shoulder.
If it’s possible, have the butcher cut the pork butt into
stew cubes. If a whole butt, bone in or boneless, is used, process to cube sized pieces. Fat content is necessary for consistency and taste.

Part of the recipe is in the preparation of the pork without using
a food processor. With a sharp knife, finely dice each cube of pork, to a fine dice and remove and discard any gristle and silver skin Do not omit the fat. Having a friend/relative sit with you with an additional cutting board and knife is a social aspect of the recipe.(if possible)

Cook onions and garlic in a heavy pan for simmering, sweating, not browning. Add the diced meat and slowly bring to a simmer. Add about 1/4 cup water, cover and simmer. Check every so often and add water as necessary. Simmer until the mixture is broken down completely, several hours. Add the rest of the spices adjusting to your preference  . Cool and refrigerate. Usually pressed into a oiled small bowl etc. and un molded to serve with crackers or dried bread, like a pat`e.

 

The typical Christmas dinner, finally I tried the spatch cock  turkey, this year was a scaled down meal in both the size of the turkey and guests.

Stuffed under the skin was a recipe of slightly hot and sweet rice. Bread stuffing was a required family side dish cooked in a separate baking dish.  The turkey was a bit overdone as I try to gage timing for dinner, but it’s hard to tell how long appetizer and socializing time will last. should have been pulled from oven sooner. I would cook a bird like this again as the cooking time is reduced and the bird cooks more evenly. Turkey was about 10 lbs. Thanks to twitter video postings, it prompted me to actually split the turkey this year.

Later in the day , cake and meat pie.

Meat Pie

1 1/2 ground beef (90% lean)
1 1/2 ground pork
1 medium onion, fine dice
1 small can (or container) beef broth, (14oz)
1/2 teaspoon Bell’s poultry seasonings
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 sleeve saltine crackers, crushed fine

Stir onions, meat and broth in a pan, when cooked*
add crackers crumbs, then add seasonings, salt and pepper to taste.
use as a filling for two 9 inch pie crusts, with tops.
350 degrees Fahrenheit, lower middle rack of oven, till crust is done.
Best at room temperature or cold.
Yields 2 pies

*when cooked, meat is cooked through and simmered till desired
consistency. Adjust with additional broth/water if necessary. Recipe is similar to meat stuffing, and as always amounts
and length of cooking time are open to interpretation.

Happy Christmas !

Cajun sour dough bread

An interesting twist to the traditional white bread. From Breadtopia.com.

Now that the crock that was gifted to me recently sits on the countertop with sourdough starter within, It’s only natural that sourdough recipes are more frequent. I would have never though of these additions to bread but the results were good. Even better would be a grilled cheese made with the bread.

I loosely followed the recipe for Cajun 3 pepper bread.

About 1 cup of the sourdough starter added to the mix.

White flour

1/2 teaspoon smoked pepper flakes

Cornmeal

1/2 teaspoon  pepper blend

1 and 1/2 teaspoon Hawaiian sea salt

1 tablespoon  After  Death Hot Sauce

1 tablespoon garlic

1 tablespoon parsley

And yeast of course.

The finished loaf, free formed into a preheated  clay baker.

The additions to the dough…..

The final mix.

With some additional dough left over , several rolls were made.

The recipe suggested a long fermentation, a luxury I did not have it was a double rise within several hours , the dough a bit heavier than usual.

multi meat stew

A mild fall day, meat and vegetables made for the week.

A combination of meats along with root vegetables oven roasted several hours.

Chicken breast, pork neck bones, pigs feet , chicken feet, beef rib, sausage, along with root vegetables.

Carrot, leeks, turnip, parsnips, onions, mushrooms, potato, garlic.

Lightly seasoned with Hawaiian sea salt , peppercorns, slight bit of hot pepper flakes.

Baked at about 350 decreasing to 250 degrees for several hours.

The meat picked from the bones, pan juices reduced, chicken broth added, a bit of wine and finished with butter/flour thickening, strained.

breakfast bread pudding

 

cubed bread

milk
eggs
fried bacon crisps
American cheese

oven baked at 400 degrees

stuffed eggplant

Eggplant is one if those ingredients that can replaced meat or augment it. Usually I prepare one type of eggplant recipe most often, sliced , breaded, and fried, or baked. That  method requires preparation. If you follow the salt and drain routine to remove the moisture from the eggplant this is  more prep time. Occasionally viewing cooking shows on TV gave me the idea to change the routine breaded eggplant recipe.

Stuffed eggplant seemed like a straight forward recipe, remove the eggplant interior  from the eggplant, once sliced in half lengthwise, and return it to the shells after being cooked and mixed with stuffing components and baked.

 

A quick search for Lydia’s stuffed eggplant recipe gave me the starting point for the recipe. Ground chicken thighs would replace the ground beef.  Also I would being using one rather large eggplant.

No breadcrumbs were available so stubborn me, resisting the quick trip to the market to get some, made a quick biscuit recipe. Then when done, further baked  at a low heat to dry it out some what. Finally this was cut to resemble cubes of bread. This biscuit was in the form of one large round biscuit , the dough being pressed into a large diameter cake pan which fit in the microwave/convection oven.

Time wise the stuffing had be be cooled when completed so there was sufficient time to prepare the cubed bread substitute. 

 

The ground chicken was cooked and then added some rice wine, another substitution as I don’t usually have white wine available as an Italian kitchen would. No green bell pepper available either.The Parmesan cheese only measured about 1/2 cup. Now the recipe was coming together, this was along the lines of a meat stuffing one would prepare for a turkey for example.

Didn’t get any pictures when this was done from the oven but the result did remind me of a stuffing for poultry with a filling meatloaf like texture, the biscuit substitute actually better than bread due to the fact it was denser. Cherry tomatoes (we are fortunate to have a small amount of hydroponic cherry tomatoes available, more on that endeavor to be posted) also rounded out the stuffing and thyme instead of parsley, perhaps that accented the the poultry flavor with the ground chicken thighs.

All in all a good meal and as I am partial to cold meatloaf sandwiches, this meal was better the next day un-reheated.

I’m going to rework this recipe as far as the stuffing combination, rice will be used instead of the bread and it most likely will have a more spicy flair.

http://createtv.com/recipe/meat+stuffed+eggplant