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

How to Make Galaktobouriko

::GREEK CUSTARD WRAPPED IN PHYLLO::

If you're familiar with the Greek language at all you'll notice that the first part of this long scary word means milk_"gala". Milk in this case makes up a good portion of this recipe, which I grew up eating trays full with a fork and a smile, while butting elbows with my brother over the last bite.
This recipe is fairly easy but does require a good amount of patience. You'll see why in a minute.

First I grabbed all of my ingredients.

-1 gallon MILK
-3 1/2 cups SUGAR
-2 1/2 cups SEMOLINA
-18 EGG YOLKS
-1 whole LEMON PEEL
-1 tbsp VANILLA extract
-1 box PHYLLO #7
-1/4 lb melted BUTTER

I grab a pot, pour in the milk and turn the stove on medium heat. Heating up the milk before hand helps speed up the thickening process. Then I grabbed my mixer and a bowl and threw in the sugar, vanilla and egg yolks and blended them together with my hand mixer. Starting slow as always to make sure that everything stays in the bowl and doesn't splatter all over the walls. I continue mixing till the mixture is thick and turns a creamy eggshell white color. This process takes approximately 3-4 minutes.

The temperature of the milk at this point should be a little above body temperature and thats exactly what I'm looking for. So I pour my semolina into the milk and stir until the mixture is well combined and the semolina isn't clumped up at the bottom.

Now it was time to combine the two mixtures together. So, I grabbed my rubber spatula and slowly poured the creamy egg yolk and sugar mixture into the milk and semolina. At this point I turn the heat on high, and throw in the lemon peel.

Now the stirring begins and continues for the next 10-15 minutes. Any stirrer seems to work at this point but after a few batches of practice I found that the rubber spatula is the best tool for the job. I stir and stir making sure that the bottom doesn't burn, and it will burn fast if I don't. The mixture thickens pretty quickly and as soon as I see large bubbles, my job is complete.

The next part of the recipe deals with the phyllo. I will post a video on "How to Wrap Galaktobouriko". Check back in soon!

Holiday Breads…Challah/Penia/Tsoureki

Last week was full of all different types of ethnic cuisine, more specifically some
very good holiday breads. The Jewish have their challah, the Italians have their penia, and us Greeks have our tsoureki. (the French also have their brioche which are very similar to the Italian penia and the greek tsoureki which are highly enriched
with milk and butter, but I'm not sure if this is their traditional Easter bread)
Challah is traditionally served during passover and usually consists of a large number of eggs, all purpose flour, water, yeast and sugar. There are variations to the basic challah where whole wheat or spelt are substituted for the All purpose flour and where molasses or honey are substituted for the sugar. The main difference between the other holiday breads that I've mentioned is that challah is not traditionally made with any milk or butter (parve).

Penia is an Italian Easter bread similar to a brioche with addition of lemon zest, juice and anise. Traditionally brushed with egg then topped with sprinkles.


Tsoureki is the bread that I'm most familiar with. My mother makes it every Easter and she stays pretty true with the traditional recipe, which consists of eggs, milk, yeast, sugar, mahlepi (is an aromatic spice made from the seeds of the St Lucie Cherry), orange zest and mastic which is an aromatic resin obtained from the mastic tree, also used to make chewing gum. The loaves are then brushed with an egg wash and topped with seeds, most commonly sesame.

Well, I made my own version so call it what you will.

-1 1/2 cups WATER (warm)
-1/2 cup MILK
-4 EGGS lightly beaten
-3/4 cup of HONEY (warm)
-1/2 cup BUTTER (melted, but not too hot)
-1 1/2 tbsp YEAST
-1 tbsp ORANGE ZEST
-7+ cups of AP FLOUR
-1 1/2 tbsp SALT

So I grabbed my mixer bowl and threw in all the above ingredients except for the salt and flour. I mixed everything well and made sure that the honey didn't settle at the bottom of the bowl. Next I threw in the flour and salt, I never let the yeast come in direct contact with the salt that is why I always add it mixed in with the flour. I allowed the mixer to do it's thing for the next 5 minutes and then kneaded with my hands for another 5 minutes.

After rising for about 2 hours I punched down the dough to release all of the air bubbles and put aside to rise again. A second rise allows the dough to become much lighter in weight and texture.

Now it's time for the rolling and braiding of the dough. I ripped off 3 grapefruit size pieces of dough and rolled them out so each rope was about an inch and a half thick and about ten inches long. Next I lined up the ropes of dough vertically and made a simple braid. This part I have to give credit to my fiancé for cause I've never braided anything In my life. This recipe is good for about 4 good sized loaves so I placed the finished loaf on a buttered baking sheet and continued working on the next three loaves.

Once finished I covered them loosely with a dry towel and let them rise again for another hour. Finally, I placed the trays in my 300 degree heated oven and cooked for about 30-40 minutes until golden brown.

I hope you give this recipe a try, you'll be very satisfied with the end result even though it is a little time consuming.

How to Make Spinach Pie..aka..SPANAKOPITA

The clearest memory I have growing up was the smell from my mothers kitchen.  A lot of great food came out of that kitchen from Avgolemono Soup to Galaktobouriko, but the one smell that I can remember most was the Spanakopita.  The butter starting to brown the phyllo, the melting feta cheese, the unmistakeable smell of the dill and leeks...just thinking about it makes my mouth water.

-1.5 tbsp EVOO

-1 LARGE ONION

-4 cups LEEKS

-2 cups SCALLIONS

Starting with the prep work I finely chopped all my veggies.  Then I turned the stove on high and threw in the Olive Oil.  Next I added the onions, leeks and scallions. I let those cook down for about 15 minutes while stirring frequently.

-6 lbs frozen chopped SPINACH

-1 cup DILL

-1 tbsp SALT

-1 tsp PEPPER

Once the onions are cooked down I add the Spinach and Dill and mix together with the sauteed veggies.  I did this on medium heat for about 10 more minutes while stirring until the Spinach absorbed the flavors of the other vegetables.  Then I added the Salt and Pepper.  At this point a take the filling off the stove and I'm ready to move on to the next steps.

-1.5 lb RICOTTA CHEESE

-1 lb COTTAGE CHEESE

-1 lb FETA CHEESE

-4 EGGS lightly beaten

Now for the cheesy goodness!  First I crumbled in the feta cheese, then I added the eggs, ricotta and cottage cheese. Mixed it all together and that was that.

Now it was time to fold the pies in the phyllo dough and before I get into trying to explain the steps in this post, I shot a video (coming Soon!) to give you a better idea on how it went down.  ENJOY!