Giada's Potatoes!

I came across a solid recipe from Giada's show on the food network the other day and gave it a go.  This is the third recipe of hers that I've tasted and the first that I've attempted to recreate.  I have to say...My love for Giada has grown after tasting this potato pancake recipe, that girl can cook!

Click for Recipe!

Saffron is Greek?

While doing some research on Greek Cuisine and the different regions of Greece, I came across an article which I found pretty interesting.  It turns out that Saffron is a Greek Spice!  Northern Greece's cuisine sounds a lot spicier than what I'm used to, and for that fact what most are used to from the Greek Culinary World.  Anyway, here's a link to the article...Enjoy!

http://www.nrn.com/article/cutting-edge-macedonia-thrace-greece

Puff Pastry

I'm not gonna lie, home made puff pastry is one of those things that involves a good amount of effort, but the end result is well worth it. So I grabbed my mixing bowl and got to work.

-3 cups AP FLOUR
-3 oz. BUTTER room temp. cut into little squares

I worked the butter into the flour with my fingertips until the bits of butter were about corn kernel size.

-2 tsp. SALT
-1 1/8 ICE WATER

Next, I diluted the salt into the water and slowly poured it into the flour and butter mixture. Mixing gently with a rubber spatula and then with my hands while forming a round cushion shape out of the dough. At this point the dough looked rough and flaky and almost falling apart, but that's exactly how I want it. I covered the ball of dough with a sheet of wax paper stuffed it into a zip lock bag and through it into the fridge for 30 minutes.

-12 oz. BUTTER room temp
-1/2 cup AP FLOUR

Next I grabbed the 12 ounce block of butter and pounded it down with my rolling pin until the thickness was about an inch. Next I worked the flour into the butter with the heel of my hand. With my dough scraper I folded the butter over itself and continued working in the flour. I worked quickly trying to avoid the butter from melting. I formed a 5" x 5" square about 1 1/2 inches thick then I went to grab my dough from the fridge.

I took my rolling pin and rolled out the ball of dough, bringing it down to about a half an inch thickness while maintaing a round shape which started to resemble a pizza pie. I then placed the square of butter in the center of the flattened dough, folding the dough around the square of butter creating a little package, then pinching and sealing the folded edges closed. Next I want to roll out the dough package into a rectangle shape 16 inches long and 8 inches wide flouring the top of the dough lightly as well as my work surface to prevent sticking.


This next process is referred to as turns 1 and 2.

Once I have my rectangle made I move onto the folding. I fold the bottom third over the center of the dough and then the top third over that creating something similar to a tri-fold pamphlet or brochure. Then with the folded edge facing me and to my right I rolled out the dough again creating another 16”x8” rectangle (turn #1). I repeated this process one more time folding in three and rolling out (turn #2), folded one more time and wrapped the dough in wax paper slid it into a zip lock and placed it into the fridge for an hour.


What makes this recipe intimidating for most in my opinion is how long it takes to complete, but most of the time is spent refrigerating the dough so you can get a lot of other things done in between each turning process.

Next on the list is turns 3 and 4.

I repeated the previous process two more times....folded...wrapped in wax paper stuffed into a zip lock, and then placed the dough back to the fridge for another hour.

I’m almost done...Turns 5 and 6.

Again I repeated two final times...folded...wrapped in wax paper...back in the refrigerator...and two hours later my homemade pastry was ready roll out and bake.

Another great thing about this recipe is that you can make this dough and freeze it until your ready to bake, so you can have homemade pastry whenever you want.

Enjoy!

Baby Artichokes

My first experience with baby artichokes was a messy and painful one at first but as I got through about 20 of them I figured out a little trick that helped me breeze through the rest of the batch. I realized that the top of the artichoke was the part with sharpest needles, so before I started peeling off the leaves I cut the top off of each artichoke. Only about a half an inch or so but it made a huge difference.

Artichokes brown very quickly after being cleaned so I filled a container with water and lemon juice (2-3 lemons). Supposedly, the acid from the lemons prevents them from browning.

We had some extra beer batter laying around, and I thought that it would be a cool idea. But first I needed to cook the artichokes and a quick boil would do the trick. About 15 minutes or so until they were tender.


BEER BATTER:

2 cups AP FLOUR
1 bottle of BEER
2 EGGS
2 tsp SALT
1 tsp PEPPER
1 tsp PAPRIKA

(Like I said the batter was already made but the recipe is very simple. Throw the dry ingredients + the eggs into a mixing bowl and hit them with a hand mixer while slowly pouring in the beer. The batter works better when on the thicker side so you might not need the whole bottle of beer.)

I ran some cold water over the artichokes to make the next steps a little easier, and then grabbed a frying pan with about a cup of vegetable oil. I dipped each artichoke into the batter one by one and gently placed them into the hot oil cooking until golden brown on each side, then removed them from the oil onto a plate covered with a couple of paper towels to soak up the excess oil.

Best if served hot with either Marinara sauce or skordalia (potato & garlic dip).

ENJOY!

Yet Another Bread Pudding...

My day off has me a little bored and left with not much to do but sit here and write on my iPad, so I decided to take some week-old bread that Dani brought home from the health food store and throw together a bread pudding. I guess I've been fascinated by the dessert recently and it's endless possibilities. I don't do much cooking at home besides the occasional scrambled eggs with bacon for breakfast, but honestly haven't even done that in a while.

Cutting up this bread was a little difficult...being a week-old it was almost petrified! I got through it anyway, cautiously crunching off the crusts with my wusthof that we got as an engagement gift a few months ago while trying not to chop off my fingers in the process. Getting all of my ingredients together was also a little tricky...like I said I don't do too much cooking at home so the supplies are sparse. I managed to put a few things together none the less.

-5 EGGS
-1 quart 1% MILK
-1 cup SUGAR
-1 tbsp CINNAMON
-1 tsp ALMOND EXTRACT
-1 VANILLA BEAN
-1 tbsp ORANGE ZEST
-1/4 cup DRIED FIGS chopped
-1/4 cup DRIED APRICOTS chopped
-1 stick of SALTED BUTTER

My reasoning for adding the butter was due to the fact that I had no heavy cream...so I had to rough it out with the 1% Milk in my refrigerator. But, after tasting the pudding I definitely could have done without it or maybe just a lot less…it didn't really mix in well with the rest of the ingredients. I whisked all the wet ingredients together, tossed in the chunks of bread and let them soak for a half an hour. Then I transferred everything into my baking tray loosely covering it with aluminum foil and slid it in to the oven which I preheated @325.

Baking time is normally 45 minutes-1 hour. Although the butter threw off the texture a little, I was very happy with the flavors. Next time I'll make sure I go to the store and pick up some heavy cream…should make a huge difference.

ENJOY!

Chocolate Bread Pudding

With HomeMade Challah Bread:

This recipe is great for all of that leftover holiday bread that nobody seems to want to even look at anymore. Once beautiful, soft and fluffy now stale and unattractively torn apart...its only hope_Bread Pudding. I guess the best way to describe it is like a warm chocolatey french toast.

12-1 inch thick SLICES OF BREAD
1.5 quarts HALF & HALF
10 ounces CHOCOLATE (bittersweet 75%, chopped)
1 tbsp COCOA POWDER
1/2 tsp NUTMEG
1/2 tsp CINNAMON
1/4 cup GRAN MARNIER
1 tsp VANILLA EXTRACT
10 EGG YOLKS
1 1/2 cup SUGAR

So I grab to leftover stale bread and cut it into one inch by one inch squares while at the same time slicing off the crust. Next I pour my H & H into a 5 quart sauce pan, turn the heat on low and bring the temperature just to about 100 degrees. An easy way to measure the heat is just above body temperature, so I dip my finger in (clean finger) periodically to get it just right…warm but not hot.

At this point I take the H & H off of the stove and add in the chocolate and stir it in until completely dissolved and resembles chocolate milk...which it pretty much is. Next I add in the cocoa powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, gran marnier and stir again.
In a separate bowl I throw in the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla extract and blend together with my hand mixer until creamy and smooth. Then I add the two together_similar to the method we used for "galaktobouriko". I stirred this up and threw in the bread to let it soak up this chocolatey mixture for 30-40 minutes.

Then I pour everything into a 4 inch deep baking tray and cover it loosely with aluminum foil. I punch a few wholes in the foil with my knife and throw the tray into the 325 degree preheated oven.

45 minutes later…we were ready to eat some "clog your heart up" bread pudding. Definitely not for the health conscious people out there but it is damn good.

ENJOY!

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Crappy Coffee

I came across this article today in the NY Times and one thing came to mind after reading it…Who was the sick bastard who actually thought to boil these shitty coffee beans and drink them. I can picture him afterwards chasing this little animal around to scoop up it's crap for his morning brew.

Must be a good cup of coffee. $227/lb

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/world/asia/18civetcoffee.html?emc=eta1