Popovers

Any native Dallasite knows the glory of popovers and strawberry butter from Neiman Marcus. Because of this, while at the Chef's Catalog warehouse sale, I bought 2 popover pans, but rarely make them. They are easy, but require a lot of steps (and a LOT of butter!).

Brian asked me where popovers came from. I didn't know, so I tried to do a little research. It all seems a little sketchy, but seems to be an Americanized version of the Yorkshire pudding, but using butter rather than animal fat drippings.

Here's the recipe that I use, which always results in gorgeous, crispy on the ouside, slightly custardy on the inside, popovers. Now, I've heard you can make them in a muffin tin, but I cannot attest to how they come out. My recipe came with the popover pan.

Popovers

1 1/4 C. Flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3 eggs
1 1/4 C. milk
1 TBSP unsalted butter, melted
2 TBSPs unsalted butter, cut into even pieces depending on how many popovers you are going to make - I used a 6 cup popover pan, so I cut the butter into 6 even pieces).

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees and set rack in the middle of the oven.
-Blend flour, salt, eggs, milk, and 1 TBSP melted butter until the mixture is a heavy cream consistency (I use a mixer, but a blender would work too). Set aside.
-Spray pan with non-stick spray. Put popover pan in oven and preheat popover pan for about 2 minutes.
-Remove pan, and place 1 piece of butter in each cup, and place pan back in oven.
-Fill each cup halfway with batter. Bake for 20 minutes.
-Reduce heat to 300 degrees, and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes.

To be completely honest, Neiman's popovers are great, but these are knock your socks off... My guess is because no matter what, you are not going to get a straight-from-the-oven popover at Neiman's - they are always slightly cooled off. You can see the steam coming off mine in the photo!



Sources:
http://home.insightbb.com/~bonnett/popover/popover_history.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popover

Everyday Food's Pear Custard Pie

Pear Custard Pie
from Everyday Food: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/custard-pie

3 Comice or Bartlett pears, peeled, halved, cored, and sliced
1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
Confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; butter a 9-inch pie dish. Peel, halve, and core 3 Comice or Bartlett pears; slice 1/4 inch thick lengthwise. Arrange slices, overlapping slightly, in dish.

In a blender, process 1/4 cup melted unsalted butter, 1/3 cup each granulated sugar and all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 3 large eggs, 3/4 cup milk, and 1/4 teaspoon salt until smooth.

Pour batter over pears; bake until golden and firm to touch, 40 to 45 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature, dusted with confectioners' sugar.

There's a reason why you only see pictures of the pie in the whole pie form. It does not cut well. Maybe if I use whole milk rather than skim it would be thicker. Maybe if I used more ripe pears it would be softer. But when you cut into it, it just falls apart. This does not plate well.

The taste is okay. I might try it with different pears (I used Bartlett, that I think should have been riper). I thought I might have overcooked it, but Martha's is darker. It was so easy with ingredients I almost always have on hand, so I'll defintely try it again.

Chocolate Mug Cake

A while back, I went to the Senior Center in the town I work to man a library booth. This lady came up to my booth - she had perfectly coiffed hair, makeup, and she was wearing this shockingly purple pantsuit. I told her what a nice suit it was, she pulled on the bottom of the jacket and raised her shoulders and said, "Thank you! Purple is my favorite color. I saw a recipe on how to make chocolate cake in the microwave." I was incredibly confused on how we got so quickly from her shockingly purple pantsuit to chocolate cake in the microwave, but I rolled with it.
"How to do you do that?" I asked.
"In a mug!" She said.
Okay.

After that, I thought, maybe I'll look on the Star-Telegram's website and see if I can find this recipe. But I soon forgot about it.

Fast forward to a couple months later, I am looking at Food Gawker, and I found a blog about it. I saved that link, but still didn't think much about it until a co-worker forwarded an email to me with the recipe, stating it was the "Most dangerous cake in the world." So, I thought, "Okay, it's time to give this a try."

Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Mug Cake

4 tbsp flour
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 egg
3 tbsp milk
3 tbsp oil
3 tbsp chocolate chips
dash of vanilla

Combine the dry ingredients in a medium to large microwaveable mug. Add the egg and mix well. Add the milk and oil, mix well. Stir in the chocolate chips and vanilla. Cook in microwave for 3 minutes.

Here it is in the mug. I suggest using a 16oz mug for this. I started out with a 10oz mug, and I had to switch.

Here's the top (from the bottom of the mug). All the chocolate chips fell to the bottom of the mug.I sprinkled powdered sugar on it - ice cream would have been very nice with it:

It was moist, but kind of spongy at the same time. I think maybe there's too much egg in it.


Overall, not bad. We ate it, so obviously it wasn't too bad. I think next time I might try to lower the amount of egg in it. If nothing else, it was fun experiment, and not nearly as scary as putting a CD in the microwave.

Brian's Bento

Thanks to Costco and a dear friend that we are cat-sitting for, I had a surplus of veggies. I realized that I had everything I needed to make Japanese potato salad (I have had it before, but never made it). I found a recipe on the wonderful webpage Justhungry.com.

I added radish to the mix too, and I used red potatoes. I think the red potatoes are creamy in and of themselves, which means I can use a little less mayo. I boiled an egg, but it didn't come out right, so I didn't add it. I am terrible at boiling eggs! I also added a dash or two of sesame oil, and topped with sesame seeds.

I put it in a box with sesame snap peas. I made these a while ago, but with frozen peas. I just steamed the peas over the pan when I was boiling the potatoes.

Brian seemed like his bento box. I'm already craving the potato salad again!! So good!

Gnocchi alla Romana

Most people by now are familiar with gnocchi, Italian dumplings. Here, we are most familiar with boiled potato gnocchi, however, Gnocchi alla Romana is baked semolina and cheese dumplings. I have made gnocchi so many times successfully, that I thought when Brian and I first started dating that it was something I could really wow him with. I read a different recipe than this one, and I thought I'd try a different technique, and it didn't work. I was so embarrassed! I ended up making spaghetti! How lame! I did have a caprese salad with heirloom tomatoes, so it kind of made up for it.

This recipe is the best. So cheesy goodness.

Gnocchi alla Romana

2 cups milk
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups semolina flour
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons heavy cream (sometimes I use half and half)
2 eggs (original recipe says 1 egg and 2 yolks)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
more grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Bring milk and butter to a boil in a large sauce pan. Add semolina and all-purpose flour. Stir over low heat until absorbed, and continue to stir until mixture is rolling off the sides of the pan (about 5 minutes). Remove from heat, add the cream, eggs, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and stir until smooth. Season to taste (salt, pepper, nutmeg, etc). On a sheet of wax paper, spread to 1/2 inch thick. Cool for 30 minutes, then cut into rounds with a round cookie cutter. Put in baking dish (overlap like scallops if you don't have room to lay each piece out individually), drizzle with melted butter and grate more Parmigiano-Reggiano over top. Bake 20-45 minutes, until golden brown.

This time I served it with a tomato basil salad (basically, you just toss together chopped tomatoes and fresh basil, add dash of red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper) and sauteed spinach. I found a recipe in an Italian cook book, but I just improvised it... I sauteed chopped onion and garlic in olive oil, added pine nuts, and then spinach, nutmeg, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and raisins.

Cream Scones

I've been loving our monthly brunch bunch! First was Jewish Brunch - when I made the kugel. Then there was Mexican brunch, where we didn't make anything but stopped into the most wonderful little bakery that is right around the corner from us and got a wonderful array of beautiful pastries including amazing churros and pumpkin empanadas (to go along with the tamales, papas con huevos etc.). This time it was British Brunch, with a fry up and scones. Since I would probably turn inside out if I ate a gallon of bacon and sausage grease with my brunch, I made scones!

I have made scones many times before, but I'm never happy with the traditional scones I try to make. I found the recipe for these on the Joy of Baking's Website. Here it is:

Cream Scones
copied from: http://www.joyofbaking.com/scones.html

Scone Recipe:

2 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar
2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup (76 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (120 ml) whipping cream or milk

Glaze:
Cream

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and place the rack in the middle of the oven. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. In a small measuring cup combine the whipping cream, beaten egg and vanilla. Add this mixture to the flour mixture. Stir just until combined. Do not over mix.

Knead dough gently on a lightly floured surface. Roll or pat the dough into a circle that is about 7 inches (18 cm) round. Then, using a 2 1/2 inch (6.5 cm) round cookie cutter, cut the dough into rounds. Place the rounds on the prepared cookie sheet, spacing a few inches apart. Brush the tops of the scones with a little cream. This helps to brown the tops of the scones during baking.

Bake for about 15 - 18 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of a scone comes out clean. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve with Devon cream or softly whipped cream and your favorite jam.

These scones freeze very well.

Makes about 10 - 2 1/2 inch (6.5 cm) round scones.

I did not cut the butter into the flour by hand - I used my electric mixer with the paddle attachment. I also did the parchment paper trick, but I personally thought the bottoms still turned out a little dark... I probably should have pulled them out of the oven a minute or two earlier. Otherwise, they were a good vehicle for the clotted cream and jam, also great with lemon curd and blackberries!

Next time will be German brunch! Can't wait!

Finally - Tofu Success!!!

After many unsuccessful attempts to cook tofu in my early days as a pseudo-vegetarian, I had all but given up on it. I decided I could never make it like restaurants, so I thought this was best to leave to the professionals. Brian actually brought me to try it again. He bought some tofu to make pad thai. It does just what it always does for me: falls apart and looks like scrambled eggs. I've tried every trick - draining, using cheesecloth, etc... nothing works.

We had made pad thai with tofu a couple days before, and we didn't want to tofu to go to waste. We decided to try to pan-fry the tofu to top a salad. I cut the tofu into about 1 inch square cubes, marinaded it for a few minutes in Soy Vey and chili garlic sauce. I heated some vegetable oil into a non-stick pan, and placed the the cubes in the pan. I think this was actually the trick - I didn't touch it! I left it in the pan on one side until it was nice and dark (maybe a little too dark - but oh well). Then I gently turned the cubes to one side over, and cooked that side until it was done. I did that until all sides were fully cooked.

It turned out pretty good. I think next time I will marinade them for a little longer. We put it on a bed of spinach, broccoli slaw, sesame dressing, and topped with sesame seeds and green onions.

I'm still trying to figure out my new camera - still a little blurry....


If anyone has a tofu success stories, please share them with me - a slight success has me inspired to make more tofu!