Focaccia with Rosemary and Onion

Not exactly, but just a slight change from this recipe,

https://recipereminiscing.wordpress.com/2017/07/07/focaccia-with-rosemary-and-onion-focaccia-med-rosmarin-og-lk/

Other focaccia type bread made in the past.

https://pmetro.wordpress.com/2014/11/02/rosemary-and-garlic-fococcia/

https://pmetro.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/bread-dough-focaccia/

 

White flour, sea salt, semolina flour, and the water/honey proofed yeast.

Flour by weight.

A  recent gift  I am learning to use, a new food processor, mixing the dough in this versus a mixer.

process the dry ingredients together

add the proofed yeast,

Just a couple of pulses and the dough comes together.

hand kneaded for about 5 minutes…

let rise in a bowl for about an hour

Pan roast some garlic

added some parsley (or whatever sprung from my parsley plant outside)

and some slightly ground rosemary

After an hour, the dough is very soft and flexible, stretch  and form into pan with depressions made with your  fingers.

Top with the garlic, rosemary, a bit of parsley, drizzle with olive oil.

Even though is was hot weather , just baked the dough in the oven, 375 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Though I baked it covered as the recipe indicates, I uncovered it for about the last 5 minutes of cooking.

It’s been a while since I’ve made a thick crust pizza. This focaccia was excellent The semolina gave it  a very soft crumb and crusty base. I would have preferred to have this run under the broiler for a bit of extra crunch.

green peppers stuffed with broccoli and rice.

Usually stuffed peppers contain some sort of meat, this time a cheesy rice with broccoli filling was used.

Other stuffed pepper recipes:

https://pmetro.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/stuffed-peppers/

https://pmetro.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/stuffed-peppers-2/

Prep the broccoli (and garlic ! of course)

I chose to steam instead of saute.

I usually zap the peppers in the microwave a bit to soften them up.

cut off the top and remove the seeds and ribs (but you knew that!)

as you would prepare some rice, use stock instead water for a kick of flavor.

Prepare a bechamel sauce (butter and flour with milk or for a rich sauce evaporated milk), seasoned as you would prefer.

add the broccoli mixture to the sauce.

mix in the rice

Add some grated cheese, in this case Parmesan to complete the stuffing.

in a baking dish big enough for the peppers, fill the peppers carefully and put them in the dish.

need some bread crumbs ? I chopped up some pretzels for the topping

Into the oven they go ….

run up the broiler after the peppers are hot and bubbly to get the brown crunchy top.

apple egg pudding

Having some apples to use, this recipe coincided from a blogger with  the question of what to do with them.

http://nimmiafzal.com/2014/08/06/super-easy-apple-egg-pudding/

This is similar to another recipe German Apple Pancake, that I have made often. https://pmetro.wordpress.com/2013/10/13/german-apple-pancake-apfelpfannkuchen/

This recipe has a bit more body to it. I used more apples that 1/4 and also added some grated ginger for spiciness. The cardamon  is a pleasant flavor for usually expecting a cinnamon apple pie flavor.

Easy ingredients:

6 eggs

apples , sliced

butter or gee

cardamon

Nuts, and/or raisins (I used a variety of nuts on hand)

sugar

First toast the nuts

Then saute the apples in butter

 

Extract some cardamon with some grated ginger root.

6 eggs

 

Arrange the apples and some of the toasted nuts in a buttered baking pan… I sprinkled the sugar on top of the apples here.

 

After beating together the eggs with spices and some nuts, add atop the apples.

Ready for a 400 degree oven..

 

Bake,  turn out, slice and enjoy with coffee or tea.

 

 

 

 

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.