Daring Cooks – February 2010 – Mezze
The 2010 February Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.
I really loved this challenge. I’d never made pita before and there were so many different ways you could take the meal.
I made the mezze for dinner one night for my boyfriend and myself. There were two required elements for the challenge – pita bread and hummus. The pita bread was easy, tasty and turned out perfectly. I made a half batch and still we ate it over the next two days as well.
The hummus wasn’t quite as successful. I used peanut butter instead of tahini and the end result tasted like garlicky peanut butter that wasn’t quite right.
As well as the pita and hummus, I also made Tunisian potato & olive salad and lamb meatballs. Both of these were great – but I was particularly fond of the salad. I’ll definitely be making it again. It tasted even better the next day after the flavours all had a chance to mingle.
I served this all with added olives & haloumi.
Pita Bread – Recipe adapted from Flatbreads & Flavors by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid
Prep time: 20 minutes to make, 90 minutes to rise and about 45 minutes to cook
2 teaspoons regular dry yeast (.43 ounces/12.1 grams)
2.5 cups lukewarm water (21 ounces/591 grams)
5-6 cups all-purpose flour (may use a combination of 50% whole wheat and 50% all-purpose, or a combination of alternative flours for gluten free pita) (17.5 -21 ounces/497-596 grams)
1 tablespoon table salt (.50 ounces/15 grams)
2 tablespoons olive oil (.95 ounces/29 ml)
Directions:
1. In a large bread bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water. Stir to dissolve. Stir in 3 cups flour, a cup at a time, and then stir 100 times, about 1 minute, in the same direction to activate the gluten. Let this sponge rest for at least 10 minutes, or as long as 2 hours.
2. Sprinkle the salt over the sponge and stir in the olive oil. Mix well. Add more flour, a cup at a time, until the dough is too stiff to stir. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 to 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Rinse out the bowl, dry, and lightly oil. Return the dough to the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until at least doubled in size, approximately 1 1/2 hours.
3. Place a pizza stone, or two small baking sheets, on the bottom rack of your oven, leaving a 1-inch gap all around between the stone or sheets and the oven walls to allow heat to circulate. Preheat the oven to 450F (230C).
4. Gently punch down the dough. Divide the dough in half, and then set half aside, covered, while you work with the rest. Divide the other half into 8 equal pieces and flatten each piece with lightly floured hands. Roll out each piece to a circle 8 to 9 inches in diameter and less than 1/4 inch thick. Keep the rolled-out breads covered until ready to bake, but do not stack.
5. Place 2 breads, or more if your oven is large enough, on the stone or baking sheets, and bake for 2 to 3 minutes, or until each bread has gone into a full balloon. If for some reason your bread doesn’t puff up, don’t worry it should still taste delicious. Wrap the baked breads together in a large kitchen towel to keep them warm and soft while you bake the remaining rolled-out breads. Then repeat with the rest of the dough.
Hummus – Recipe adapted from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden
Prep Time: Hummus can be made in about 15 minutes once the beans are cooked. If you’re using dried beans you need to soak them overnight and then cook them the next day which takes about 90 minutes.
1.5 cups dried chickpeas, soaked in cold water overnight (or substitute well drained canned chickpeas and omit the cooking) (10 ounces/301 grams)
2-2.5 lemons, juiced (3 ounces/89ml)
2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
a big pinch of salt
4 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste) OR use peanut butter or any other nut butter—feel free to experiment) (1.5 ounces/45 grams)
additional flavorings (optional) I would use about 1/3 cup or a few ounces to start, and add more to taste
Directions:
1. Drain and boil the soaked chickpeas in fresh water for about 1 ½ hours, or until tender. Drain, but reserve the cooking liquid.
2. Puree the beans in a food processor (or you can use a potato masher) adding the cooking water as needed until you have a smooth paste.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Adjust the seasonings to taste.
Aromatic Lamb Meatballs – from Feast by Nigella Lawson
1 pound ground lamb
1/4 cup finely chopped scallions
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons semolina
1 egg
Vegetable oil, for frying
Put the lamb into a bowl and add the scallions. Sprinkle over the spices, salt, and semolina, and then beat the egg adding to the bowl. Work everything together thoroughly with your hands, and then cover with plastic wrap and leave in the refrigerator for half an hour.
Line a baking sheet with plastic wrap and scoop out a scant teaspoon of the mixture. Roll in your hands to form the meatball and place on the lined baking sheet. Have a bowl of cold water beside you to dampen your hands with; this helps them not get too sticky for rolling the meatballs.
When you are ready to cook them, heat about 1/2-inch of oil in a frying pan. Line another baking sheet with kitchen towel, and when the oil is hot, fry the meatballs in batches without overcrowding the pan. Cook them for about a minute a side, or until golden brown all over.
Tunisian Potato & Olive Salad
1 pound tiny creamer potatoes
Salt, as needed
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Generous sprinkling of each, cumin and paprika (I added quite a lot of paprika)
Tiny pinch of cayenne pepper
2 to 3 garlic cloves, chopped
15 to 20 oil-cured black Mediterranean olives
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon, or to taste
Place the potatoes in a pot with water to cover; add 1 teaspoon salt and the sugar. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender (timing depends on the size and age of the potatoes).
Drain the potatoes, return them to the pan and shake in the dry pan for a few minutes, until thoroughly dry.
Cut the potatoes into thick slices, several per potato, or into quarters. Place in a bowl and toss with the cumin, paprika, cayenne, garlic and olives. Dress with the olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Refrigerate until ready to serve, or serve at room temperature.
Serves 4 to 6.
(Found here http://www.sudairy.com/mer/recipes/potato.html )
Daring Bakers – January 2010 – Nanaimo Bars
The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.
OM NOM NOM NOM NOM. Let’s just get that straight out of the way. These things are amazing.
As an Aussie, I’ve never had Graham Crackers before and wasn’t really sure what to expect. I’d always thought they must be like water crackers or something, so was slightly bewildered when I saw the ingredient list. Sugar? Vanilla? What on earth are these crackers?
I didn’t make the gluten free version (just because I’m trying to save money and didn’t want to buy flours I wouldn’t use again) but the wheat version was great! No idea if they’re authentic but they tasted wonderful and I’ll definitely make them again.
Despite the instructions to keep the mixture cool and not let the butter melt, I finally had time to make them on a hot Melbourne summer’s day when it was… 45 degrees celcius. (That’s 113 F!)
To compensate, I put a fan in the kitchen, directed at my mixing bowl and put the butter in the freezer for 3 hours in preparation.
Despite people saying they had problems with the stickiness of the dough, I had absolutely no problems at all! The dough was beautiful and by far the easiest I’ve ever worked with. Score!
A few days later I managed to find the time to make the Nanaimo bars.
I don’t have a food processor so making crumbs was all me, a rolling pin and all my pent up frustrations! I’m sure the neighbours loved me.
Here’s the bottom layer all made
Instead of the middle buttercream filling, I decided to mimic my favourite fudgy/brownie/slice thing – the Mrs Fields Peanut Butter bar. So, for the middle layer I used 1/3 cup peanut butter, 1/3 cup butter and 1/2 cup icing sugar.
Then add on the chocolate layer….
YUM. Lachlan and I slowly devoured the batch over the course of about a week and a half. This slice is very rich so you can’t eat too much at once!
It was so good, I later decided to try a different batch to use up the rest of the almost stale by that point Graham Crackers. Instead of the 1/3 cup of peanut butter in the middle, I tried 1/3 cup of nutella.
In fact, I’m eating one right now.
For Graham Crackers
Ingredients
2 cups & 2 tbs flour
1 cup (200 g) (7.1 ounces) Dark Brown Sugar, Lightly packed
1 teaspoon (5 mL) Baking soda
3/4 teaspoon (4 mL ) Kosher Salt
7 tablespoons (100 g) (3 ½ ounces) Unsalted Butter (Cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen)
1/3 cup (80 mL) Honey, Mild-flavoured such as clover.
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Whole Milk
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Pure Vanilla Extract
Directions:
1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pulse on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal. If making by hand, combine aforementioned dry ingredients with a whisk, then cut in butter until you have a coarse meal. No chunks of butter should be visible.
2. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky.
3. Turn the dough onto a surface well-floured with sweet rice flour and pat the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours, or overnight.
4. Divide the dough in half and return one half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of sweet rice flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be quite sticky, so flour as necessary. Cut into 4 by 4 inch squares. Gather the scraps together and set aside. Place wafers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. Repeat with the second batch of dough.
5. Adjust the rack to the upper and lower positions and preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).
6. Gather the scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and reroll. Dust the surface with more sweet rice flour and roll out the dough to get a couple more wafers.
7. Prick the wafers with toothpick or fork, not all the way through, in two or more rows.
8. Bake for 25 minutes, until browned and slightly firm to the touch, rotating sheets halfway through to ensure even baking. Might take less, and the starting location of each sheet may determine its required time. The ones that started on the bottom browned faster.
9. When cooled completely, place enough wafers in food processor to make 1 ¼ cups (300 mL) of crumbs. Another way to do this is to place in a large ziplock bag, force all air out and smash with a rolling pin until wafers are crumbs.
Nanaimo Bars
Ingredients:
For Nanaimo Bars — Bottom Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup (50 g) (1.8 ounces) Granulated Sugar
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Unsweetened Cocoa
1 Large Egg, Beaten
1 1/4 cups (300 mL) (160 g) (5.6 ounces) Graham Cracker Crumbs (See previous recipe)
1/2 cup (55 g) (1.9 ounces) Almonds (Any type, Finely chopped)
1 cup (130 g) (4.5 ounces) Coconut (Shredded, sweetened or unsweetened)
For Nanaimo Bars — Middle Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (40 mL) Heavy Cream
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Vanilla Custard Powder (Such as Bird’s. Vanilla pudding mix may be substituted.)
2 cups (254 g) (8.9 ounces) Icing Sugar
Or my version – 1/3 cup peanut butter / 1/3 cup unsalted butter / 1/2 cup icing sugar
For Nanaimo Bars — Top Layer
4 ounces (115 g) Semi-sweet chocolate
2 tablespoons (28 g) (1 ounce) Unsalted Butter
Directions:
1. For bottom Layer: Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8 by 8 inch pan.
2. For Middle Layer: Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light in colour. Spread over bottom layer.
3. For Top Layer: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.
Daring Cooks – January 2010 – Satay
The January 2010 DC challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day.
I really like Satay so I was excited by this challenge. I used Lamb instead of Pork, just because I felt like lamb that night!
I made the marinade with the suggested fish sauce and extra ginger and also added a squeeze of chilli in a tube. (I know… i know…) I also left out the onion cause I really hate onion.
I left that to marinade all day before skewering them.
I cooked them over a grill and they smelt amazing! The smell made me really hungry and I couldn’t wait to dig in. I served them with rice and the Peanut sauce. ( and pappadums but shhhh! I’m mixing my food ethnicities!)
Then I bit in and… well, I didn’t really like it. It was ok, but it didn’t taste like satay I’m used to. Plenty of other people on the Daring Cooks board loved it, but I don’t think I’d bother making this recipe again. I wouldn’t mind trying other, more authentic, Satay recipes though.
Pork Satay with Peanut Sauce
Satay Marinade
1/2 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 T ginger root, chopped (optional) (2 cm cubed)
2 T lemon juice (1 oz or 30 mls)
1 T soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 tsp ground coriander (5 mls)
1 tsp ground cumin (5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground turmeric (2-2.5 mls)
2 T vegetable oil (or peanut or olive oil) (30 mls)
1 pound of pork (loin or shoulder cuts) (16 oz or 450g)
Feeling the need to make it more Thai? Try adding a dragon chili, an extra tablespoon of ginger root, and 1 tablespoon (0.5 oz or 15 mls) of fish sauce.
Directions:
1. Cheater alert: If you have a food processor or blender, dump in everything except the pork and blend until smooth. Lacking a food processor, I prefer to chop my onions, garlic and ginger really fine then mix it all together in a medium to large bowl.
2. Cut pork into 1 inch strips.
3. Cover pork with marinade. You can place the pork into a bowl, cover/seal and chill, or place the whole lot of it into a ziplock bag, seal and chill.
4. If using wooden or bamboo skewers, soak your skewers in warm water for at least 20 minutes before preparing skewers.
5. Gently and slowly slide meat strips onto skewers. Discard leftover marinade.*
6. Broil or grill at 290°C/550° F (or pan fry on medium-high) for 8-10 minutes or until the edges just start to char. Flip and cook another 8-10 minutes.
* If you’re grilling or broiling, you could definitely brush once with extra marinade when you flip the skewers.
Peanut Sauce
3/4 cup coconut milk (6 oz or 180 mls)
4 Tbsp peanut butter (2 oz or 60 mls)
1 Tbsp lemon juice (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 Tbsp soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 tsp brown sugar (5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground cumin (2.5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground coriander (2.5 mls)
1-2 dried red chilies, chopped (keep the seeds for heat)
1. Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl. Add soy sauce and lemon, mix well.
2. Over low heat, combine coconut milk, peanut butter and your soy-lemon-seasoning mix. Mix well, stir often.
3. All you’re doing is melting the peanut butter, so make your peanut sauce after you’ve made everything else in your meal, or make ahead of time and reheat.
Daring Bakers – December 2009 – Gingerbread House
The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.
First was mixing up the sugar, cream and golden syrup (I substituted golden syrup for the molasses as I could just not find any!)
Then came the flour. I didn’t have a bowl big enough for all that flour and had to use two bowls instead. Once all the ingredients were added together, they came to the brim of the biggest mixing bowl I had and it took a lot of effort to keep it all inside the bowl!
It made a lot of dough. A lot. This all rested in the fridge overnight while I ran to a Christmas party I was running late for (still covered in flour!)
The next morning, the dough was really quite dry and fell apart when I tried to roll it out. I put each piece into a bowl one at a time and added water until the dough felt better, then wrapped it up again and stuck them all in the fridge again for another 6 hours.
That improved the dough a lot. I was then able to roll it, cut it and bake it. The kitchen smelt great!
I made up some royal icing (egg white, icing sugar and vinegar) and attempted to pipe on some decorations. My icing was a little too runny though and my piping skills were medicore at best.
The crappy roof icing was covered up with marshmallows instead and then I stuck the house together using a simple sugar syrup. Noting matched up and the roof kept falling off. Oh no! (This was fixed with a toothpick which was against the challenge rules – but the roof just would not stay on without it!)
I’ve had a small taste of the house – while not awful, it’s not the tastiest thing I’ve ever eaten. This really is more for (dodgy) decoration than for eating.
Anna’s Recipe:
Spicy Gingerbread Dough (from Good Housekeeping)
2 1/2 cups (500g) packed dark brown sugar
1 1/2 cups (360mL) heavy cream or whipping cream
1 1/4 cups (425g) molasses
9 1/2 cups (1663g) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoon(s) baking soda
1 tablespoon(s) ground ginger
Directions
1. In very large bowl, with wire whisk (or with an electric mixer), beat brown sugar, cream, and molasses until sugar lumps dissolve and mixture is smooth. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and ginger. With spoon, stir flour mixture into cream mixture in 3 additions until dough is too stiff to stir, then knead with hands until flour is incorporated and dough is smooth.
2. Divide dough into 4 equal portions; flatten each into a disk to speed chilling. Wrap each disk well with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until dough is firm enough to roll.
3. Grease and flour large cookie sheets (17-inch by 14-inch/43×36cm)
4. Roll out dough, 1 disk at a time on each cookie sheet to about 3/16-inch thickness. (Placing 3/16-inch dowels or rulers on either side of dough to use as a guide will help roll dough to uniform thickness.)
5. Trim excess dough from cookie sheet; wrap and reserve in refrigerator. Chill rolled dough on cookie sheet in refrigerator or freezer at least 10 minutes or until firm enough to cut easily.
6. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (149C)
7. Use chilled rolled dough, floured poster board patterns, and sharp paring knife to cut all house pieces on cookie sheet, making sure to leave at least 1 1/4 inches between pieces because dough will expand slightly during baking. Wrap and reserve trimmings in refrigerator. Combine and use trimmings as necessary to complete house and other decorative pieces. Cut and bake large pieces and small pieces separately.
8. Chill for 10 minutes before baking if the dough seems really soft after you cut it. This will discourage too much spreading/warping of the shapes you cut.
9. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until pieces are firm to the touch. Do not overbake; pieces will be too crisp to trim to proper size.
10. Remove cookie sheet from oven. While house pieces are still warm, place poster-board patterns on top and use them as guides to trim shapes to match if necessary. Cool pieces completely before attempting to assemble the house.
Daring Cooks – December 2009 – Beef Wellington
The 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Simone of Junglefrog Cooking. Simone chose Salmon en Croute (or alternative recipes for Beef Wellington or Vegetable en Croute) from Good Food Online.
This was my first challenge ever and it went… ok.
I chose the Beef Wellington as my partner doesn’t really like salmon and I don’t normally cook with beef all too often.
Started with a mountain of chopped mushrooms. The mushrooms were meant to be cooked until they were a thick paste but mine never seemed paste-y at all. They reduced down a lot though, but all I could manage was well cooked. Oh well!
I also decided to really challenge myself the first time and make the pastry from scratch as well.
I chucked that in the fridge to chill while everything else started coming together.
Next step was the herb crepes. These came together really easily – I just should have put more herbs in them. You can barely spot them!
The beef was then seared in the pan until brown. Next step was layering it all. First a layer of herb crepes, the mushroom mixture and then the beef. The whole thing was rolled up and put in the fridge to chill.
Back to the pastry. I tried rolling it out and it just would not stick together. Added more water and butter and finally got it to a point where it was (barely) coming together. The herb crepe wrapped parcel was put in the centre of the pastry and then I attempted to wrap the parcel in the pastry – DISASTER! The whole sheet of pastry either a) stuck to the kitchen counter or b) completely crumbled.
At this point I was getting so hungry that I gave up and used some puff pastry sheets that were in the freezer. Unfortunately even these were a bit past it and the edges were dry and hard. I cut all the shitty bits off and managed to get just enough pastry out of two sheets to wrap my wellington up in.
The end result was great though! Everything came together really well and my boyfriend and I gobbled it up.
Instructions for Beef Wellington (serves 4)
Button mushrooms – 17.6 ounces/500gr (stalks removed and finely chopped)
Olive oil – 2-3 tbsp
thyme – 1 sprig
Beef fillet, center cut piece – 21.16 ounce/600 gr
English mustard – 1 tbsp
puff pastry (all butter pastry pack) – 17.6 ounce/500 gr
parma ham (prosciutto) – 3 slices
egg yolk – 1 pcs, beaten
For the herb crepes:
plain (all purpose) flour – 0.3 cup/1.76 ounce/50 gr
milk – 0.5 cup/125 ml
mixed herbs – 1 tbsp (chopped, use herbs such as cervil, chives and tarragon
butter – 0.5 tbsp
Instructions:
1. To make the crepes, whizz the flour, egg and milk with a pinch of salt in a blender or processor until smooth. Pour into a jug and stir in the herbs and some seasoning. Leave to rest.
2. Fry the mushrooms in a little oil until they give up all their moisture and it has evaporated, leaving you with a thick paste. Add the thyme leaves and some seasoning and keep cooking for a few minutes. Cool.
3. Stir the melted butter into the crepe batter, heat a 15 cm crepe pan and oil it lightly. Pour in enough batter to make a thin layer on the base of the pan, cook until the top surface sets and then turn over and cook briefly. Remove and repeat with the rest of the batter. This will make a couple more than you need so choose the thinnest ones for the recipe.
4. Sear the beef all over in a little oil in a very hot pan. Brush with the mustard, season and allow to cool.
5. Lay a large sheet of cling-film on a kitchen surface and put two crepes down on it, overlapping a little. Lay over the parmaham (prosciutto). Spread the mushroom mixture over the ham and put the beef in the centre. Roll the cling-film up, taking the crepe with it, to wrap the beef completely into a nice neat log. Chill for 1 hour.
6. Heat the oven to 200°C/390F. Roll out the pastry, remove the clingfilm and wrap the beef in the pastry like a parcel, with the ends tucked under. Trim to keep it nice and neat. Brush with egg, score with shallow lines across the top and chill for 20 minutes.
7. Cook for 20 minutes. The best way to test if the meat is done to your liking is to neatly and carefully stick a skewer into the beef, count to three and then test it against your inner wrist. If it is cold, the beef will be raw, if it is warm then the beef will be rare and if it’s hot, it’ll be cooked through. Leave to rest for 20 minutes before carving.