Category: food

Angela made me a coconut birthday cake!

Ok, it was from a box. But it was my first “homemade” king cake.  I bought the mix for $6 at World Market. I was handy because all the purple, gold and green sugars came in the box. I mixed up the yeast dough in the food processor. You did have to wait for the yeast to rise 2 times, but otherwise it was easyish. I did have to make more glaze (powdered sugar, water and perhaps almond extract if I had it). It was much like a big cinnamon roll. We went to Ray’s Hell Burger in Rosslyn before. Michelle was in from San Francisco, and Mike from Norfolk. W, N, C and me, too. Mike got the baby. Next year, maybe I will try it really homemade–without the mix.

On the day before Christmas Eve AKT made pizza in Burlington.

KST helped with the sauce.
And AKT did the toppings.
And then into the oven.
Concerned cooks watched.
The finished product was great!

Recipe:
Easy Pizza Dough

Recipe By     : Fine Cooking
Serving Size  : 12

Amount  Measure       Ingredient — Preparation Method
——–  ————  ——————————–
2 1/4      teaspoons  active-dry yeast — 1 package
1 1/2           cups  water — very warm water; 110 degrees
18            ounces  all-purpose flour — 4 cups
1 1/2      teaspoons  salt
2        tablespoons  olive oil

Making and dividing the dough

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and set aside (a Pyrex 2-cup measure makes for easy pouring; be sure the cup isn’t cold). Meanwhile, put the flour and salt in a food processor fitted with the steel blade; process briefly to mix. With the machine running, add the water-yeast mixture in a steady stream. Turn the processor off and add the oil. Pulse a few times to mix in the oil.

Scrape the soft dough out of the processor and onto a lightly floured surface. With lightly floured hands, quickly knead the dough into a mass, incorporating any bits of flour or dough from the processor bowl that weren’t mixed in. Cut the dough into four equal pieces with a knife or a dough scraper. Roll each piece into a tight, smooth ball, kneading to push the air out.

Rising and storing the dough

What you do next depends on whether you want to make pizza right way or at a later date.

If you want to bake the pizzas as soon as possible, put the dough balls on a lightly floured surface, cover them with a clean dishtowel, and let them rise until they almost double in size, about 45 minutes. Meanwhile, turn your oven on, with the baking stone in it, to let the stone fully heat.

If you want to bake the pizzas tomorrow, line a baking sheet with a floured dishtowel, put the dough balls on it, and cover them with plastic wrap, giving them room to expand (they’ll almost double in size), and let them rise in the refrigerator overnight.

To use dough that has been refrigerated overnight, simply pull it out of the refrigerator about 15 minutes before shaping the dough into a pizza.

To freeze the dough balls, dust each one generously with flour as soon as you’ve made it, and put each one in a separate zip-top bag. Freeze for up to a month.

It’s best to transfer frozen dough from the freezer to the refrigerator the night before (or 10 to 12 hours before) you want to use it. But I’ve found that dough balls pulled straight from the freezer and left to warm up on the counter will be completely defrosted in about 1-1/2 hours. The dough is practically indestructible.

Shaping your pizza

Put the proofed or thawed ball of dough on a lightly floured wooden board.  Sprinkle a little more flour on top of the ball. Using your fingertips, press the ball down into a flat cake about 1/2 inch thick

Topping your pizza

For some people, pizza isn’t pizza without the scarlet of tomatoes peeking through the cheese, but there are many delicious savory combinations that show off fresh seasonal produce. It’s better to use winter vegetables like greens or even canned tomatoes when fresh tomatoes are out of season.

To get you started, here are two of my favorite ways to top a pizza – plus lots of suggestions for combinations to inspire your own designs.

To make the Angeli Caffé’s favorite, Pizza al Caprino — Over the shaped pizza, scatter 10 to 15 cloves roasted or slow-cooked garlic, 5 to 6 oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes (drained and sliced), 3 ounces crumbled goat cheese, a few capers, and a pinch of oregano. Drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil.

To make a simple flatbread — Scatter sliced garlic (3 to 4 cloves), minced fresh rosemary (from 1 small sprig), and coarse salt over the dough. Make several 1/2-inch slashes to keep the dough from puffing up.

Drizzle with lots of extra-virgin olive oil before baking, and garnish with Parmesan. Serve this delicious “Pizza Aglio e Olio” with a salad or cheese.

To design your own pizza — Use any of these topping combinations to inspire your own creation. A generous drizzle of olive oil is a great addition to just about any pizza.

* Sautéed onions, fresh sage leaves, grated pecorino romano, grated Parmesan.
* Basil pesto, toasted pine nuts, slow-cooked garlic, grated Parmesan.
* Sautéed leeks, chopped artichoke hearts, a bit of crushed tomatoes, grated Parmesan.
* Italian Fontina, Gorgonzola, sun-dried tomatoes.
* Garlic, olives, capers, anchovies, and crushed tomatoes.
* Sliced tomatoes, mozzarella, fresh basil.
* Thinly sliced prosciutto, ricotta, fresh basil, grated Parmesan.
* Cooked Italian sausage, sautéed onions, Italian Fontina, mozzarella.
* Sautéed mushrooms, thinly sliced cooked potatoes, Gorgonzola, crumbled cooked bacon or pancetta.

Baking your pizza

Put a pizza stone or unglazed terra-cotta tiles on the lowest rack of the oven and heat the oven to 500°F. Ideally, let the stone heat in the oven for an hour.

Shake the peel (or baking sheet) gently back and forth to make sure the pizza isn’t stuck. If it seems stuck, lift the edges up with a spatula and toss a bit of flour under the dough. Quickly slide the pizza onto the hot baking stone. Bake until the edges are golden, about 8 min. Using a peel, a wide spatula, or tongs, remove the pizza from the oven.

Source:
“Fine Cooking” Copyright:  “Feb March 2002″

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

NOTES : You can make the dough a day or a couple of weeks ahead. Put the individual balls in zip-top bags and refrigerate overnight or freeze for longer.Yields four balls of dough for four individual 8-inch pizzas; 1-3/4 pounds total.

I headed early to the Van Ness Market and almost got hit by a baby deer on Connecticut Ave, but I recovered to buy lucuma gelato.  I had no idea what a lucuma was, but I found it was a fruit, mostly found in Peru, with a dry and starchy orange-yellow flesh. The web says, “The bulk of the production is used in dehydrated form with only a small percentage reaching the local markets to be consumed fresh. Once dehydrated, the lucuma powder (or flour) is mainly sold as flavoring to be used in ice creams and other dairy products….Some may say it tastes like caramel custard and others a bit like pumpkin….In Peru, it is a favorite. Some say lucuma ice cream’s popularity surpasses even the common vanilla and chocolate flavors! ”

The kids at the market (college kids whose Mom is Peruvian and sends it here) had pudding, cookies and gelato. They also had big bags of the dried stuff you could buy. The cookies were nice, big and chewy. My nephew was telling me lucuma ice cream is his favorite flavor, and I may have to go back next week and buy the bag of powder.

Another bonus: it is somewhat good for you, and it may be used as a sweetener. “Lucuma is an excellent source of carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals including plentiful concentrations of beta-carotene, which makes it a powerful immune system booster. It is rich in iron, B2 and B1. It`s also high in niacin, which makes it a cholesterol and triglyceride balancer.”

We had a BBQ picnic at lunch, and I wanted to make something that one of my dairy free co-workers could eat (no cow products or cinnamon for here either). I was up for the challenge, but I wanted to make something that everyone else would like, too.

I’d read about “Chocolate Cupcakes for Almost Everybody” in the Best Food Writing 2009.

I used vanilla soy milk (the recipe calls for soy or rice milk, but a vegan friends says the rice milk doesn’t rise as well.) I also had Dutch Processed cocoa powder, which is a bit darker than regular cocoa powder.

The recipe says it will make 12 cupcakes, but it made 18 for me — it leaves more room for the glaze on top. That did reduce my cooking time from 20 minutes to about 15 minutes. I added orange/Halloween sprinkles to make them more festive.

And they were a hit. The chocolate cupcakes were moist and with a very rich, chocolate flavor. I really liked the 3-ingredient  icing / glaze — easy to make and spread. All the ingredients are ones I have on hand, and the recipe is very easy to make. You could use buttermilk if you aren’t a soy milk person, but the texture was just right – not my different than my black bottom cupcakes.

In an interview with The New York Times: “Eggs are the big lie in baking.” On the Web site, Post Punk Kitchen, Isa Chandra Moskowitz concedes that eggs give baked goods structure and leavening. “However,” she writes, “like a bad boyfriend, they can be replaced, and with pleasing results.”

Of course these won’t work for my gluten-free friends because of the flour . I’ll have to try that challenge the next time.

Someone has to Clean the Oven…Even if you have a self-cleaning one.

I’d read on the greenie sites that” Self-cleaning ovens are equipped with additional insulation to hold heat in the oven, so it doesn’t leak out into your kitchen and make your home cooling system work harder.” I liked the other features on the oven, so when  got my Kitchenaid I thought the  self-cleaning feature would be handy. But when I found it took about 3 hours at 900 degrees, didn’t do the racks, was a danger to small animals, and then you still had to wipe it down — it just didn’t seem worth it. Especially because my oven didn’t seem that dirty.

A friend recommended Carbona oven cleaner – fume-free, bio-degradable in a non-aerosol can. It wasn’t foam like others I used – this was a gel, and they said you could use it in self-cleaning ovens.

Well, it didn’t work so well in mine  — seemed like I had to do a lot of scrubbing on my own. However, I didn’t not leave it on overnight.

But I took it too a friend’s so I wouldn’t waste my $4. We forgot about it for the weekend (didn’t even pre-heat) and the old oven looks like new. I was amazed. I see they also have a rack cleaner — I’m tempted to try it, too.

some links:
The Chile Pepper Institute lots of stuff here, including seeds
Cross Country Nurseries bedding plants and chile pods (in central NJ)
www.peppers.com lots of food products
www.thechileman.org a UK site

some chiles that do well in containers: Early Jalapeno, Thai Chile, Big Early, Super Chile, Tangerine Dream, Redskin, Mohawk

For a vegetable-base hot sauce:

• saute 1/2 cup onions, 1/2 cup carrots, and two garlic cloves (minced)
• puree in blender with peppers of choice
• combine this mash with 1/2 cup vinegar and 1/4 cup lime juice
• simmer for 10 minutes
• strain into sterilized bottles and refrigerate