Reuben

I got some wisdom teeth pulled on Tuesday and I've pretty much been in hibernation, sleeping for about 18 hours a day, ever since. Lemme tell ya, the novelty of eating milkshakes and soups wears off real fast. I've been in a real pissy mood lately because after 5 days of eating mush all I want is some real food, something with texture, something with crunch. I just want a goddamn burger and extra large side of onion rings. Sadly, I won't be eating that anytime soon. But I swear as soon as I'm able to open my jaw again, I am going to make the biggest and best burger ever. Heck, I'll even make the bun from scratch.

In my desperation for real food, I started looking through all the recipes I have yet to post, and unsurprisingly, that didn't make things any better. This is a prime example of what I can't eat right now, which also happens to be one of my top 3 sandwiches. :( A big, fat Reuben that's crunchy on the outside and hot, juicy, and gooey on the inside. *siiigh* It was delicious when I made it a week or so ago though.

Reuben Sandwich

Rye bread (dark is preferable, though personally I like marbled rye because it looks cool)
Corned beef or Pastrami (but then it would be a Rachel), thinly sliced
Sauerkraut, drained
Swiss Cheese, shredded
Russian Dressing or Thousand Island
Butter

Cheater's Thousand Island:
Mix equal parts ketchup and tartar sauce or mayo if you don't have tartar sauce. Add a little vinegar for acidity then some Worcestershire to taste.

Feel free to use a sandwich press or whatever sandwich-making gizmo you like (I hear a George Foreman works well). But I just have a plain old cast iron skillet.

Butter 2 slices of bread, place them butter side down on the skillet. Cover one slice of bread with corned beef, then add some sauerkraut, and top with some dressing. Add shredded Swiss on the other slice of bread (shredded cheese melts faster). Turn the heat to medium low and cover the pan to keep the heat in. Check the bottom of the bread periodically. You want the bread to be a lovely golden brown, the cheese to melt, and the meat and sauerkraut to warm up a bit. Avoid turning the heat up too high otherwise the bread may burn very quickly.

When both pieces of bread are golden brown, cover the meat/kraut piece of bread with the cheese covered bread (not the other way around or stuff will be falling off everywhere). Smush it down a little to glue the sandwich together, cut in half, and serve hot.

Thai Red Curry Chicken

When Steven said he didn't like curries, I suggested that he try a Thai curry. Unlike Indian curries that are spice based, Thai curries are made with a paste of aromatics and fresh ingredients and cooked in coconut milk. I made a chicken red curry and at first he was skeptical but after tasting it, he loved it! Hooray! He even told me he liked it more than his mom's curry. Score! +1 point for me. I'm usually not a competitive person, except with cooking, and it made me feel so special when he said that. :D

Thai curry paste contains a bunch of ingredients including: chilies, garlic, shallots, lemongrass, ginger, galangal, coriander root, etc. Red curries are made with red chilies, green curries are made with green chilies, and yellow curry are includes spices like turmeric and cumin. Although it seems counterintuitive, green curries are actually hotter than red curries. For convenience sake, I use a store-bought curry paste (Mae Ploy brand) because it's a lot of trouble making your own curry paste since some of the ingredients are difficult to find. Using a premade paste cuts down the ingredient list by half and makes things a whole lot easier. I like using dark meat so I can slowly simmer the curry without overcooking the chicken. The end result is delicious, flavorful, and reheats beautifully, in fact, it tastes even better the next day.

Thai Red Curry (Chicken)
3 pounds of chicken drumsticks
1 onion, chopped
1 14oz. can of coconut milk (my fav is Chaokoh)
1/4 C Thai red curry paste
Fish sauce (I like Three Crabs)
1 Tbsp palm sugar or brown sugar
Lime/Rice vinegar
Handful of Thai basil leaves

Optional step: Use a large cleaver and cut the chicken drumsticks in half, first cut through the flesh to the bone, then try your best to hit that spot with a strong whack. Sometimes you won't hit the first cut you made spot on, but it will be enough to break the bone. If you don't feel comfortable doing this, skip this step. Please don't hurt yourself doing this. After cutting the drumsticks in half, rinse the exposed bone area under some running water to loosen any bone shards. Do this over a sieve to catch the bone shards so they don't mess up your disposal. This step is completely optional, I just think it makes the curry more presentable and easier to eat.

Do not shake the can of coconut milk. Open the can and skim off the "cream" on top (roughly the top 1/3 of the can) and add it to a Dutch oven or large pan.

The first step is to "fry" the curry paste in the coconut cream. Add the paste to the coconut cream in the pan, stir and cook this over medium heat until the oils separate from the paste. First, the mixture will look soupy and very messy. Slowly, it will begin to cook down into a thick paste, then finally the aromatic oils will begin to separate from the paste. After you see the oil, add the chopped onion and cook the onion for about 1 minute.

Add the chicken and the remainder of the can of coconut milk. Bring this to a boil then lower to a bare simmer. Season with fish sauce to taste, a tablespoon at a time. Add a tablespoon of brown sugar. Cover the pot and simmer gently for about 40 min to an hour, or until the chicken is tender (the meat will start to retract from the bone). When the chicken has finished cooking, stir in the juice of half a lime to start with, taste, and if it needs more tang, add more lime juice. If you don't have a lime you can use rice vinegar. Add more brown sugar if it needs more sweetness (the sweetness should be subtle and not overwhelming). Stir in a big handful of Thai basil leaves that are torn in half. It's important to balance the salty, sour, sweet, and spicy with Thai food. Don't tear the leaves in advance or they will turn black.

Serve with rice.

Green Tea White Chocolate Opera Cake

Earlier this month I volunteered to bake a cake for a birthday party. I was trying to decide what kind of cake to make but it just so happened that our cohosts this month, Lis and Ivonne, founders of the DB, and Fran and Shea chose an opera cake for the group's monthly challenge. How perfect! The traditional opera cake consists of three layers of joconde, almond sponge/genoise, soaked with a strong coffees syrup, coffee buttercream, and finished with a shiny, dark chocolate glaze.
But this month's challenge was extra special and it wasn't going to be just any opera cake, this opera cake is a tribute to Barbara, fellow food blogger, honorary Daring Baker, cancer survivor, and host of one of the biggest food blogging events, A Taste of Yellow for LIVESTRONG Day. I was so bummed I missed the deadline for A Taste of Yellow this year so I'm very grateful for a second chance to give tribute to not only Barbara but all cancer survivors, those currently battling cancer, and everyone that has been affected by this disease. In honor of Barbara's A Taste of Yellow event, the main rule for this challenge was to keep everything light colored, no browns or dark colors. Instead of the traditional chocolate glaze, we were using a white chocolate glaze. Immediately, I thought of pairing the white chocolate with green tea because that combo is one of my absolute favorites for desserts and the light green of matcha buttercream is very Spring.

Believe it or not, I actually finished the challenge way before the posting date this month. Yay for me! Too bad I can't say the same about posting on time. Oh well, baby steps people, baby steps. This month I had a different deadline to work with, the day of the party. And like a professional procrastinator, I finished the cake with literally minutes to spare before I had to leave for the party.

Okay, moving on to the cake. I kept the joconde plain adding just a little almond extract, made a green tea soaking syrup, a green tea buttercream, and finally the white chocolate glaze (I skipped the mousse because I'm lazy). The plan was to bake the cake and make the syrup the night before then make the buttercream and assemble the cake the next morning (the party being at noon). But whenever you make a plan, something always goes wrong, that's just how it goes right? I ran into an issue with the buttercream; after adding three sticks of butter to the egg yolk syrup mixture I was left with runny buttery glop that couldn't hold a peak to save its life. With only a three hours left, I had to make a new buttercream but this time I played it safe and went with a Swiss buttercream (Dorie's recipe), which I'm more comfortable with. But I was running out of time and my butter needed to be at room temperature and I had just taken it out of the fridge. After some frantic instant messaging to my friend telling him of my failures as a French buttercream maker, he suggested sitting on the cold butter (not seriously of course... I don't think). Gives a new meaning to the word buttercream eh? Anyway, the butter eventually softened enough (no sitting required) to make the buttercream and luckily, the second batch of buttercream turned out perfectly, melt-on-the-tongue ethereal. With 30 minutes left to put the cake together, I haphazardly assembled the joconde layers, brushed on the syrup, spread on the buttercream, and finally poured on the white chocolate glaze, which thank god did not seize because it was my last bit of my white chocolate. I didn't have time to make any decorations or even trim the messy looking edges. I snapped a few photos then ran off to catch the bus. I feel a little embarrassed about my naked cake. No spiffy decorations here but I've seen some drop dead gorgeous decorations this month. Man, this group never ceases to amaze me. So make sure to check out the DB Blogroll to see some beautiful music notes, g clefs, sexy legs, and a gorgeous edible rose.

Now I'm feeling kinda lazy again (actually, I've just been lazy recently, as you can see from the lack of posting) so instead of writing out the recipe, I will link to it because it is veeerrrry loooonggg.

Recipe:
Daring Bakers' Opera Cake

My notes:
- Almond meal can be really expensive but luckily it can be made very easily at home. If you are starting from raw almonds, first blanch them and squeeze them out of the skins (how to blanch almonds). Then be sure to grind them very fine in the food processor. Add a tablespoon or two of the flour from the recipe with the almonds to soak up some of the oils that the almonds release. It will start to get clump so make sure to stop the food processor once in a while and loosen up the mixture. Do not overprocess to almond butter.

- Dorie's buttercream recipe is the same one we used for the March Challenge, Perfect Party Cake. Instead of the lemon juices addition at the end, I dissolved some matcha powder in a few tablespoons of hot water (ideally 180 deg F), then cooled that to room temperature, then slowly added that to the buttercream in the end.

Creme Brulee

The first time I made creme brulee, I was 17 and totally ill-equipped. I didn't have any ramekins so I used small pyrex bowls and small disposable foil tins, you know the kind from frozen pot pies, yes it was sooo very ghetto. Instead of a vanilla bean I used imitation vanilla extract *shudders* and in lieu of a torch, I used the broiler - luckily the pyrex didn't explode, whew! Even without the proper equipment, the creme brulees turned out pretty decent. That's the beauty of creme brulee, it looks very impressive and seems like it would be complicated to make but it's pretty simple to do. Creme brulee is one of the best desserts to showcase the beauty of a vanilla bean but you can play around with many different flavors like Earl Grey or lavender honey.

Creme Brulee
from Cook's Illustrated
4 ramekins or 6 shallow ramekins

2 C heavy cream
6 egg yolks
1/3 C sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 vanilla bean or 1 tsp of vanilla extract but skip the steeping of the cream
4 - 6 tsp of turbinado sugar or Demerara sugar

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Combine 1 cup of the cream, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan. Cut the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape the seeds with a paring knife and add to the cream. You can either submerge the pod in the cream as well or leave it out and save it for making extract. Bring the cream mixture to a gentle boil over medium heat, remove the pan from heat, and let steep for 15 minutes.

Place a kitchen towel or silicone baking mat in the bottom of a large roasting pan and place the ramekins in the pan. Bring a kettle of water to a boil.

After the cream has steeped and cooled, stir in the remaining cup of cream. Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl and whisk in the cream mixture. Strain into a 2 cup measuring cup.

Pull out the oven rack and place the roasting pan on the rack. You can either pour the custard mixture into the ramekins first then pour the boiling water in the roasting pan, or pour the boiling water first, then the custard. I like pouring the boiling water first into the pan followed by the custard into the ramekins to minimize splashing water into the custard. Pour the water until it reaches 2/3 up the side of the ramekins. Carefully slide the rack back into the oven.

Bake until the center of the custards are barely sit, not sloshy but a little jiggly. The center should read about 170 - 175 deg F, 30 - 35 minutes (25 - 30 minutes for shallow fluted dishes). Begin checking the temperature 5 minutes ahead of time.

Transfer the ramekins to a wire rack to cool to room temperature, about 2 hours. Then transfer to a rimmed baking sheet, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until cold at least 4 hours or up to 4 days.

Before bruleeing, place a paper towel on the surface on the custards to soak up any moisture. Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of turbinado sugar on the surface (may need to use more for shallow dishes), tilt and shake the ramekin so the sugar covers the surface completely, and brulee until the sugar forms a caramel colored crust.

Optional: refrigerate uncovered for 30 - 45 minutes to re-chill.

Hunan Eggplant

I hated eggplants as a kid. Eggplant dishes were always mushy, watery, tasteless, just plain "bleh". Doesn't inspire much confidence in an already weird looking vegetable. Since then, I've avoided buying and cooking with eggplants. But after reading about all the flavors and ingredients of Hunan cooking in Fuchsia Dunlop's Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook, I was inspired to create a Hunan style eggplant dish. Insipid eggplant dishes are now a thing of the past! I won't lie, it doesn't look very pretty but the taste more than makes up for it. I'm not bragging here but this was hands down the best eggplant dish I've ever had. I made it for my dad when he was in town and he was surprised that eggplant can taste so good. This could be the dish to convert even a diehard eggplant hater like me.

I would only recommend using Chinese/Japanese eggplants because they are less bitter and are less watery than the globe variety that's commonly found in supermarkets. The most important flavoring ingredient is the chili bean paste so choose a good one that's made with fermented broad beans (aka fava bean) or a combination with fermented soy beans rather than only fermented soy beans. Lee Kum Kee is a good brand (it's made with both fermented broad beans and soy beans). The dried shrimp add a lot of umami flavor but feel free to omit it for a vegetarian version. Chinese picked mustard tuber, zha cai, is also called Szechuan/Sichuan picked vegetable. It's the salted and pickled stem of a type of mustard green. Rinse the vegetable before using to get rid of any excess salt and fermenting liquid.

Hunan Eggplant
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 oz. zha cai, Chinese/Szechuan/Sichuan pickled mustard tubers, minced
2 Tbsp dried shrimp, minced
1/4 C chili bean sauce
3 green onions, white parts only, thinly sliced
1 tsp minced or grated ginger
4 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
4 Chinese/Japanese eggplants
2 Tbsp soy sauce (more to taste)
1/2 tsp sugar
White pepper
Salt to taste

Garnish
Green onion, green part, thinly sliced



Soak the dried shrimp in a few tablespoons of hot water for about 5 minutes. Drain, rinse, then mince the shrimp.

Cut the eggplant into chunks on the bias (see picture). Cut at an angle, then rotate the eggplant a half turn, then cut on the bias again, repeat.

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok or large skillet over medium high heat. Add the chopped zha cai and minced dried shrimp, cook for a minute or two in the hot oil. Add the chili paste, green onions, minced ginger, and minced garlic and cook until the mixture is fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the eggplant and stir to coat the pieces in the chili mixture, cook for a minute. Add the soy sauce, sugar, white pepper, and about a 1/4 cup of water. Cover and steam until eggplant are tender but not mushy. Stir occassionally, don't be too rough or you'll smash the eggplant. Season to taste with more soy sauce or salt.

Garnish with sliced green onions (green part only). Serve with rice.

Guacamole

I looove guacamole. Not only is it my favorite dip (chips are just the vehicle for large scoops of guac), but it's also my favorite topping for tacos, burritos, burgers, sandwiches, breakfast bagels (try it on a bagel or toast with scrambled eggs, mmm...), or whatever else I can think of that would benefit from a hit of avocadoey goodness. So I knew right away what I was going to make with the two avocados in our CSA box. Everyone makes guacamole a little differently. It can be smooth or chunky, with or without tomatoes, and include a few herbs and spices. Here's how I make my guacamole. First of all, it has to be chunky with no dairy fillers, so no mixing in sour cream or *shudders* mayo into the guacamole. I throw in some diced tomatoes because I like the bright red color adds. I skip the cilantro because Steven absolutely hates it due to a genetic quirk that makes cilantro taste gross and soapy. I could add parsley as a substitute for cilantro but I didn't have any today. I don't add any spices, but I do like just 1 clove of finely minced garlic. There has to be enough tang from the citrus (both lime or lemon is fine) juice to cut through the richness of the avocado and finally some salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

Now go on and try that guac on a hearty slice of toast with some scrambled eggs, maybe throw on some bacon or a slice of ham on top.

Guacamole
2 ripe Hass avocados
1 small tomato, seeded and diced fine
1/4 small onion, diced fine
1 jalapeno or serrano, seeded and diced fine
1 garlic clove, minced by hand
Juice of 1 lime
Salt and pepper to taste

Halve the avocados, remove the seed, and scoop the flesh into a bowl. Add the rest of the diced and minced ingredients and gently mix and mash with a fork until it is as chunky or smooth as you like. Season with salt and pepper.

To store, press a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the guacamole to prevent the guacamole from turning brown due to oxidation (keeping the seed in the guacamole is a myth).

Serve with tortilla chips, or on anything else your heart desires. :)

Mizuna and Minced Chicken Stir Fry

Steven and I recently signed up for a local CSA. CSAs are growing increasingly popular and I bet many of you are already familiar with the concept but we just learned about them a few weeks ago (man I feel so behind the times). CSA or Community Supported Agriculture is a program where you establish a relationship with a local farm and you receive a weekly, biweekly, or monthly box of produce that the farm grows. It's a great way to 1. eat locally and support local farms, 2. eat seasonally, 3. eat more fruits and veggies (because okay, let's be honest, who gets their 5-a-day, not me...) and 4. try fruits and veggies that you've never tried before. The great thing about our CSA is the variety and flexibility. Everything in our box is organic. Some items come from the main farm, other items come from other farms in Washington State, and some come from outside of the region to give subscribers a little variety. We can make substitutions, pickup either weekly or biweekly, or cancel or put our subscription on hold at anytime.



Last week our box contained:
2 Russet potatoes
1 bunch Carrots
1 Leek
.75 lb Zucchini
.75 lb Shallots
2 Hass avocados
4 Valencia oranges
2 Tommy Atkins mangos
2 Lemons
1 Romaine lettuce
1 bunch Mizuna
.34 lb Spring Mix

Organic carrots taste so much better than the giant supermarket carrots and Bunny was happy that the carrots came with green leafy tops attached, which he quickly nommed away.

After looking at our produce list for the week, Steven asked me what mizuna was. I wouldn’t have had a clue if he had asked me the day before, but it just so happened that I had just read a post about mizuna on Susan's blog, Food Blogga. I felt pretty sharp when I replied, "Oh, it's a Japanese mustard green." So I knew what it was, but I was at a loss of how to prepare it. Google to the rescue! I found a recipe for a mizuna and chicken stir fry from Whole Foods, and while I liked the idea, that recipe called for all sorts of random ingredients. I just wanted a simple mizuna and chicken stir fry. Mizuna, I discovered, cooks down a lot. It’s like spinach, you start out with a huge bunch and 2 seconds later, poof, it shrinks down to nearly nothing. I kept a 1:1 ratio of mizuna to chicken in this recipe but feel free to use more or less chicken. The mizuna also cooks very quickly. I added it after I took the pan off the heat and the residual heat of the cooked chicken and hot pan was enough to gently wilt the mizuna. If it's cooked too long, the greens will be limp and lifeless.

Mizuna and Minced Chicken Stir Fry
Inspired by Whole Foods

3/4 lb chicken breast
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp Shao Xing rice wine
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp white pepper
3/4 lb mizuna
Salt to taste

Pulse the chicken breast in a food processor to mince it finely until there are no large pieces remaining but do not grind into a paste. Or alternatively mince it with a chef's knife. Mix the minced chicken with soy sauce, wine, cornstarch, sugar, and white pepper and set it aside to marinate.

Meanwhile, trim the ends off the mizuna. It's easiest to keep the mizuna in a bunch and trim the ends off all at once then untie the bunch to wash. My mizuna was pretty dirty, so wash it a few times to loosen and wash away any dirt on the stems and leaves.

Heat 2 tsp of oil in a wok or skillet over medium high heat. Add the chicken
and stir fry until it is fully cooked through, about 4 - 6 minutes. When the chicken is fully cooked, turn off the heat and add the mizuna. Toss the mizuna in the hot pan with the chicken and it will start to wilt and cook down, season to taste with salt.

Serve with rice.

More about CSAs:
If you live in the Pacific Northwest area, there are many different CSAs to choose from (we signed up with Full Circle Farms). To find a local CSA in your area go to this website: http://www.localharvest.org

Beef Stroganoff

Beef stroganoff is traditionally made by sauteing strips or cubes of beef but I have bad luck cooking beef this way. Sometimes my beef stir fries/sautes turns out great but many times it ends up kinda chewy and tough. So instead of a saute, I opt to braise the beef for my stroganoff. Braising takes longer but I love the way it magically transforms a cheap tough cut into something moist and fork tender. And this way I won't screw up cooking a pricey piece of meat. One of my local supermarkets had a 7-bone chuck roast (great braising cut) on sale for only $1.29/lb, quite the bargain compared to a $5/lb steak or tenderloin. I know some people dislike mushrooms but I can't have stroganoff with lots of them. Finally, a white wine sour cream sauce with thyme, dijon mustard, and teensy bit of soy sauce brings it all together.

Not all roasts are created equal. Here's a guide from Cook's Illustrated that rates the flavor of various cuts most widely available at the supermarket: http://www.cooksillustrated.com/images/document/howto/ND02_BeefRoasts.pdf
I like using the top blade roast or chuck 7-bone roast because those cuts are already thin so it's easier to cut into 1 inch cubes.

For a quick version, skip the braise and saute a strips of a tender cut like tenderloin, sirloin steak, or flank steak instead. Or you can even use ground beef.

Beef Stroganoff
Braise
3 lbs braising beef cut, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 bay leaves
1/2 C chicken stock + 1/2 C water

Veggies and Sauce
2 Tbsp butter
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 lb crimini or white button mushrooms, sliced
1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves
1/2 C white wine
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 1/2 C sour cream
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
Vegetable oil
Salt and pepper

Serve with:
Egg noodles or rice

Trim off any excess fat and cut the beef into 1 inch pieces and season with salt and pepper.

Heat 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add 1/3 of the beef and sear until browned on all sides (or a 2 - 3 sides if you want to cheat like me since I get impatient). Transfer to a boil and repeat the searing. If the browned bits on the bottom of the Dutch oven are accumulating and turning too brown, add some water and scrape up the browned bits. Pour this flavorful liquid into the bowl with the already seared pieces of beef and then resume the searing.

After all of the beef has seared, return the beef and any juices back into the Dutch oven. Add the chicken stock and water, two tablespoons of soy sauce, and bay leaves. Bring to a simmer then lower the heat until the contents are barely simmering. Cook for about 3 hours or until the beef is fork tender, stir occasionally to make sure all the pieces get cooked evenly. Transfer to a bowl and reserve one cup of the braising liquid.

In a skillet heat two tablespoon of butter over medium heat. Add the diced onions and cook until translucent and slightly browned on the edges. Add the sliced mushrooms, a little salt, and pepper. The mushrooms will release some liquid so cook until all of the liquid has reduced and the pan is dry. Add the white wine, reserved cup of braising liquid, and thyme. Turn up the heat to medium high and cook until this liquid is reduced and thickened. Season with a little soy sauce (about 1 - 2 tablespoons), salt, and pepper. Stir in the braised piece of beef and take the pan off heat. Off heat, stir in the dijon mustard and sour cream. Serve over buttered egg noodles or rice.

Cheesecake Pops

(clockwise from the top: Oreo, Butterscotch Coconut, Dark Chocolate with White Chocolate Powder, Graham Cracker, Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans)

They say food tastes better on a stick. It’s hard to improve on something as delicious as cheesecake but put it on a stick and sure enough, I daresay it might be tastier than the not-on-a-stick original. Not only are these cheesecake pops as creamy and decadent as a slice of cheesecake, but they get bonus points for being so gosh darn cute! They're so addictive it’s easy to lose count how many you’ve already devoured and if you make many different flavors, watch out because you may find yourself sampling each one!

Our lovely co-hosts for this month Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell chose this recipe from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor so that each Daring Baker could put their own personal touch on the cheesecake pops. I really loved this challenge because the pops were fun to decorate, absolutely adorable, and sinfully delicious - you can't ask for more! Be sure to check out all the creative ways other DBs decorated their pops by visiting Daring Baker Blogroll.

Dark Chocolate Pistachio Cheesecake Pop

Notes:
- Shaping the pops and decorating is quite messy. It's probably better to wear a pair of gloves so you don't get cheesecake all over your hands. I eventually got cheesecake all over everything, the counter, ice cream scoop handle, trays, the faucet, the cupboard (how the hell did that happen? I don’t really know). Then during decorating, I got crumbs all over the kitchen floor. But I still think the end result was worth it.


- I also found that the pops were too soft when stored in the fridge, so I kept them in the freezer. It might be because I pulled the cheesecake out too quickly from the oven but I didn't want to overbake it. They're delicious straight out of the freezer, like cheesecake ice cream, and they don't get too hard, still soft enough to bite through even after a few days in the freezer. Or you can let them warm up a bit before eating.

Cheesecake Pops
from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor

Makes 30 – 40 Pops (*I made half the recipe)

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature
2 C sugar
1/4 C all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 C heavy cream

Boiling water as needed

Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks (I used bamboo skewers snapped in half)

1 lb chocolate, finely chopped
2 Tbsp vegetable shortening
(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)

Possible decorations:
Chopped nuts
Colored sugar
Sprinkles
Crushed peppermints
Mini chocolate chips
Chopped chocolate covered espresso beans
Cocoa nibs
Toasted coconut
Crushed graham crackers
Crushed Oreos

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and adjust an oven rack to the middle position. Bring some water to a boil.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. Add the eggs, egg yolk, vanilla, and cream and beat until smooth.

Grease a 10 inch cake pan (or some ramekins if you made half the recipe). Pour the batter into the prepare pan(s). Place the pans into a larger roasting pan and pour water into the roasting pan until it comes up halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top. The recipe said 35 – 45 minutes but for a full recipe I’m guessing it will take closer to an hour since my half recipe baked in 30 – 40ish minutes.
Cool the cheesecake to room temperature then cover the cheesecake and refrigerate until it is very cold, 3 hours or up to overnight.

When the cheesecake is very cold and firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2 ounce balls and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. I wore a pair of gloves and used a 1 tablespoon ice cream scoop since I have no idea how big a 2 ounce ball. Be warned, this step is pretty messy. Insert a stick into each ball and freeze until they are very hard, 1 – 2 hours.

First prepare all your desired toppings. When the cheesecake pops are frozen, prepare the chocolate before taking them out. First use only half the chocolate and shortening. Melt the chocolate and shortening in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir until completely smooth. Do not overheat the chocolate; turn the heat down so that the pot of water is barely simmering.

Work with only a few pops at a time and keep the rest in the freezer. Quickly dip each pop into the melted chocolate and swirl to coat it completely, then immediately roll it in a desired decoration. The frozen pops will harden the chocolate very quickly so you’ll need to work fast. Set the finished pop on a clean parchment paper lined sheet. The recipe said to refrigerate until ready to serve but I think the pops store better in the freezer. Let them warm up a little bit before serving but they taste great straight out of the freezer too. For longer term storage, keep them in an airtight container in the freezer.

French Onion Soup

(updated from archives)

The Ram is a restaurant and brewery better known for brewing their own beer and the ginormous 1 pound burgers but I will always remember their absolutely atrocious French onion soup. The last time I went was a few years ago, back when Steven and I were still college kids with gastronomic knowledge limited to fast, cheap, and/or microwaveable consumables. When our soup arrived we were faced with a whole, uncut, and still somewhat crunchy red onion (at least they took the peel and root off) covered in a meager bit of cheese sitting in pool of insipid brown liquid. At this point, Steven and I stared at this "interpretation" of French onion soup and we both whispered to each other, "Is it supposed to be like this?" We were confused as to what we should do with the thing. Was the onion some new and innovative centerpiece that we missed the memo on? Do we eat around the onion or do we eat the onion too?

We didn't know any better so in the end we didn't complain and finished the broth, ate the cheese, and ate about half the onion. We don't like to waste food but at the same time, we had reached our onion limit. Now I know better. How dare they call that lousy excuse of a soup "French onion soup"?! Where were the caramelized onions and cheese-topped toasted baguette slices? That soup was definitely not French onion soup. Anyway, the other day I made my own French onion soup with homemade beef stock and properly caramelized onions. As for The Ram? I'm tempted to go back, order that soup, and if served the same thing, I will give them a piece of my mind!

French Onion Soup
2 Tbsp butter
2 lbs of yellow onions
6 C homemade beef stock (I like the take the meat of the ribs and shred that into the soup)
1/4 C dry red wine
1 bouquet garni: 2 sprigs of parsley, 1 sprig of thyme, and 1 bay leaf
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
Salt and ground black pepper
Baguette or French bread cut into 1/2 in to 3/4 in slices
3 oz. Gruyere or Comte, sliced coarsely grated

Melt the butter in a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add the onions and 1/2 tsp of salt. Once the onions are starting to turn translucent, lower the heat to medium or medium low depending on your stove. Cook the onions, stirring occasionally until they are syrupy and an even brown. This should take about an hour depending on the heat you use. Thomas Keller likes to do this for 4 hours but I'm not known for my patience.

Stir in the beef stock, dry red wine, bouquet and simmer for about 30 to 40 minutes. At the end, stir in the balsamic vinegar and ladle the soup into oven proof bowls.

Top each bowl with a slice of bread, either 2 baguette slices or 1 slice of french onion. Cover the bread with a layer of shredded cheese. Broil until the cheese is melted, spotty brown, and bubbly, about 10 minutes.

If you do not have an oven proof bowl:
1. Place the bread slices on a baking tray then cover with the cheese and bake/toast this in an oven or toaster oven until the cheese is melted and spotty brown. Then remove the slices of bread and float these in your bowls.

Cream Scones

One of the biggest events of the year here in Western Washington is the Puyallup Fair (Pew-allup not Pooyallup). For many, going to the fair is an annual tradition, but I've lived in Seattle for almost 10 years and have never gone. Steven says he can't remember ever going either and isn't particularly interested in it. I guess it's just not our thing, not to mention we have to drive nearly an hour, assuming there's no traffic, to get there. But last year I was really tempted to go, not because I felt like I was missing out on the quintessential fair experience, but for the scones. I had read an article in the Seattle Times about the Fair's most popular and famous food item, the Puyallup Fair scones. People will wait in line for almost an hour, maybe longer, for these buttered and jam smeared scones, and many buy a dozen or dozens to stock up on. So naturally, I wondered what the big fuss was all about. But Steven and I weren't gonna drive all the way down there, pay admission, and wait in line just for a scone.

In the end, we never did make it to the fair last year. Plus, Steven was skeptical, how can a scone be that good? Aren’t scones bone dry, tasteless, and usually served with tea because you need something to wash it down? Then the other day I found a half pint of heavy cream that had hit the sell by date. Don’t worry it wasn’t opened and it didn’t smell funky so I couldn't just let it go to waste. I thought why not try making some cream scones. So what’s the difference between a biscuit and a scone aside from shape (round vs. wedge) and country of origin (American vs. Scottish)? Well, to be honest, I don't really know. The lines are kinda fuzzy but for the most part a biscuit is eaten with savory foods like gravy or fried chicken (or both... mmm mm!) whereas scones are sweeter and paired with tea. Meh, technicalities don't matter, as long as it tastes good!

Oh man did the scones smell good when they were baking! When you think about it, how can something with heavy cream and butter not be delicious? After they came out of the oven, I couldn’t resist and immediately broke off a corner to taste test, you know, for quality control. They were so rich and tender and were hands down, absolutely the best scones I've ever had. After waiting anxiously for the scones to be cool enough to handle, I split one in half and smeared it with butter and homemade blackberry jam. Yummmm... Steven and I are now scone converts. Are these scones better than the ones from the fair? I can't say for sure since I've never had the ones at the fair. I'm gonna say yes because after reading the article more closely, the scones are made from a mix with water! Not heavy cream! On the other hand, the Fair Scones do come with the whole package, the mooing cows in the background or whatnot. But it's good to know I don't have to wait all year then drive an hour to get a good scone when I can make it in my kitchen.

Cream Scones

2 C all purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter cut into 1/2 in cubes
2 Tbsp honey
1 C heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 400 deg F and adjust the oven rack to the middle position. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Using a pastry cutter, two forks, or your hands, rub the butter in the flour until it's pebbly (or you can use a food processor and pulse the butter in the flour a few times).

Whisk the honey with the cream and pour this into the dry ingredients. Fold the cream into the flour, at first it will be sticky, and bring the dough together with your hands without overworking it.

Lightly flour a work surface and turn the dough out. Form the dough into a round disc then roll it out until it is about 7 inches in diameter. Cut the dough into 8 pieces (first in half, then quarters, then each quarter in half into eighths). Transfer each wedge onto a baking sheet and bake for about 18 - 22 minutes, or until their tops are golden.

Let them cool for 10 minutes and spread with butter and jam. For an extra special treat, mix some honey into softened butter before smearing on your scone, just like the honey butter at the Fair.

Store in an airtight container and they're great the next day warmed in the microwave or toaster oven.

Duck Confit

For the longest time, I've had a food crush on duck confit. It was duck, and I love duck, and it was French, so it sounds all sexy. I knew it had to be delicious, even before tasting it. Sometimes, when you have high expectations, the real deal can let you down. But not duck confit. When I ordered it for the first time, every bite was as delicious as I thought it would be. It was love at first bite.

One of my most prized ingredients is my container of duck fat. I had been saving the fat from my previous roast ducks in hopes of collecting enough to make confit. While I love ordering confit de canard, I wanted to try to making it home, even if it was just once. My main concern was the cooking temperature. Duck legs (the breast will also work) are immersed in fat and slowly poached ideally at 180 - 190 deg F, no higher than 200 deg F, any higher and the meat will be stringy. The problem is that many home ovens can't go lower than 200 deg F, not to mention my home oven is a little unreliable. Then I had the great idea to use my slow cooker since the "low" setting should hold contents at around 170 - 180 deg F.

Instead of buying duck legs, I started with a whole duck since it was cheaper and I like having the giblets and bones. Aside from confiting the duck legs and breast, I made a duck soup with the wing tips, neck, and carcass, braised the wings, gizzard, and heart, and made a pate/rillette out of the liver. After cooking, I covered the confit in fat to ripen in the fridge for a week. Confit was first used as a preservation technique and the meat can be stored submerged in fat for many months, but I wasn't interested in keeping it for that long, I wanted to eat it. Finally, after waiting a week, it was finally ready to be eaten. I crisped up the skin in a cast iron skillet and then pan fried some Yukon Golds in more duck fat to accompany the confit. Potatoes cooked in olive oil is eh, cooked in butter is good, but cooked in duck fat is absolute perfection; the two are just meant to be together. The fat from the confit can be reused many times for confit until it gets too salty but then you can use a little bit to cook with (potatoes, fried rice, vegetables, etc.). I don't think I could ever bear to throw away duck fat.

Duck Confit/Confit de Canard
Adapted from Bouchon

4 whole duck legs (I used 2 duck legs and 2 breasts)
Enough fat to cover the legs, 4+ cups

Green salt
4 Tbsp kosher salt
1 bay leaf
1 Tbsp thyme leaves
2 Tbsp packed parsley leaves
1/2 tsp black peppercorns

Add the ingredients for the green salt in a small food processor or spice grinder. Process until well combined and bright green.

Trim off any excess fat or skin on the duck legs, rinse, and pat dry. Rub the duck with green salt, using about 1 tablespoon per leg or breast. Place the duck in a baking dish in one layer flesh side up. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours to cure.

After the cure, rinse the legs (or breast) and pat dry. Preheat the oven to 190 deg F. Place in an ovenproof pot with lid and cover the duck with rendered fat. Place the pot in the oven and cook for 10 hours. Alternatively, place the duck in a slow cooker insert and set the slow cooker to high for 1 hour then turn it down to low for 9 more hours. (A note about slow cookers: some newer slow cookers will heat contents past 180 def F even on the low setting, so be sure to check the temperature of the contents once in a while to make sure it's not above 200 deg F.) The duck is done with it is very tender and the meat will pull away from the bone on the drumstick and shrink towards the thigh. The fat should be clear, meaning that the meat is no longer releasing any juices.

Remove the pot from the oven or take out the insert from the slow cooker and cool the duck slowly to room temperature. When the duck has cooled, gently lift the legs out of the fat and transfer to a container, place them skin side down in the container. Cover the duck completely with fat and store in the fridge for a week. It can be stored for months but you must be extremely careful about not getting any meat juices in the container, as that will cause the meat to spoil.

Save the meat juices. It's intensely flavorful and gelatinous so it will add great body to sauces. It can also be mixed with shredded confit meat and fat to make a rillette. To separate the fat from the juices at the bottom, chill the fat and when it is firm enough, you can remove the fat with a spoon, taking care not to disturb the gelled meat juices at the bottom (the aspic).

To Serve
Bring the container of duck confit to room temperature to soften the fat. Preheat the oven to 375 deg F.

Gently lift the legs out of the fat, scrape off any excess fat. Heat a nonstick or cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add the duck skin side down and cook until the skin is golden brown and crisp, about 5 - 6 minutes. Transfer the legs to a baking pan, skin side up, and bake for an additional 8 minute to heat them through.

Serve with the traditional side dish of pomme salardaise (potatoes pan fried in duck fat) or a green salad.

Duck Rillette
This spread is a combination pate and rillette because it has both a duck liver that came with my duck and shredded confited duck breast. There's really no recipe for this since it was just something I threw together, a duck liver, some shredded duck confit, some aspic (gelatin meat juices) from the confit, and duck fat all mixed together. It was delicious spread on baguette slices with a strong Dijon mustard (like Maille) and cornichons. Soak the duck liver in some milk for a few hours before cooking (to draw out the blood), then cook it in some duck fat until it is just pink on the inside. Puree the liver with duck fat and aspic, then mix in shredded confit meat. Pour a thin layer of melted duck fat on top to seal.


How to Render Fat
Cut the skin and large pieces of fat into small 1/2 inch pieces. Place in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a simmer then turn down to the lowest heat to slowly melt the fat. Cook until all the water is evaporated and the fat is clear and golden. Don't boil the fat or it will overheat and begin to break down and will be unusable. Strain the fat and reserve the pieces of skin and fat to make cracklings if you wish (bake in the oven at 250 deg F until they are crisp).

Kona Kampachi

When Hannah first contacted me on behalf of Kona Blue asking if I was interested in trying Kona Blue's Kampachi, it seemed too good to be true. I'm not used to getting asked to do reviews so I didn't know what to do. Then I saw a steamy review so I asked Jaden what she thought. Basically it's great fish, a great company, and no strings attached. I love sushi so much, how can I turn down sushi grade fish?! Hannah was also suuuuper nice and answered all of my questions! Thanks Hannah!

Kona Blue was founded in 2001 by two marine biologists who wanted to create sustainably raised, sushi-grade fish. I used to think that farmed fish, like farmed salmon, are inferior in both taste and nutrition to their wild counterpart. However, Kona Blue Kampachi is premium quality fish that's high in healthy omega-3 fatty acids and has no detectable levels of PCBs or mercury (a concern with fish like tuna). Kampachi is native to the waters of Hawaii and is better known as amberjack or kalaha. It's a relative of the Japanese hamachi or yellowtail (not yellowfin, which is a tuna). In the wild, kalaha is particularly susceptible to a toxin that causes serious food poisoning, but through aquaculture and by controlling what the fish eat, kampachi can now be raised sustainably and safely for consumption. The fish are raised in high tech pens suspended in the ocean, fed food made from fish meal and oil from sustainable fisheries and organic wheat, and they are not given any antibiotics or medications. And to top it off, Kona Kampachi has an even higher fat content than wild kalaha, a whopping 30% fat.

When you buy directly from Kona Blue, the fish is shipped overnight to you. I was so excited on the day my fish was to arrive, I kept looking outside the window scanning the streets for the Fedex truck. Inside the package, were 2 very large fillets sitting happily on plenty of ice packs. I've never had so much sushi grade fish in my house, it made me absolutely giddy. The first thing I did was I checked the fish for freshness and gave the fillets a big whiff. There was no fishy smell whatsoever, a good sign. It was pretty much odorless with a slight hint of ocean. I bet you're rolling your eyes thinking "Pssshh smells like ocean, what BS." But it's true, the fish was incredibly fresh! The flesh was firm and shiny, another good sign. I rinsed off each fillet and then removed the bloodline, the dark purply, red flesh on the skin side of the fillets. The bloodline usually tastes too strong, fishy, and just plain funky. It's best to keep fish as whole as possible until you're about to cook or serve it, and break it down into pieces no more than a day in advanced (I broke this rule and had some pieces I cut up 2 days in advance but it was still really fresh 2 days later).

The first thing I wanted to do with the fish was a dinner of sashimi and nigiri. It was so glorious, I couldn't bear to cook it. I reserved 2 large portions for searing the next day. The smaller pieces I used for ceviche and poke, a tribute to this Hawaiian fish. Finally there were 2 pieces of really fatty belly that were too thin for sashimi so I opted to sear these simply with salt and eat with rice for a simple lunch.

The fish is absolutely delicious - quite possibly some of the best fish I have ever had in my life. If purchasing directly from Kona Blue, a whole fish is $8.75/lb and fillets are $17/lb. That's the wholesale price and it's the price that chefs pay. It's still pretty darn pricey! But that's roughly the price I expect to pay for sushi grade fish at upscale markets like Whole Foods. But the deal breaker for me is the shipping, it costs almost as much as the fish itself! Shipping an overnight package from Hawaii ain't cheap, that's for sure. On the other hand, the overnight shipping and plenty of ice does ensure that your fish arrives as fresh as possible. But to be honest I wouldn't purchase this fish online because of the shipping costs. However, all hope is not lost! If you're in Seattle, currently Uwajimaya Market in the International District is the only market in the area that carries this fish ($10/lb for whole fish $20/lb for fillets). Kona Kampachi is already making appearances on menus all across the country. As Kona Kampachi becomes more recognized and more popular, I expect it will be available at upscale markets like Whole Foods perhaps at slightly more affordable prices. Here's the list of restaurants across the country that serve currently serve Kona Kampachi on their menu. So keep an eye out for this fish in the future. If I see this at Uwajimaya or Whole Foods one day, I would definitely buy it as a rare treat. :)

Now here's my Martha moment: Sustainably raised sushi grade fish? It's a good thing.


First a dinner of sashimi and nigiri:

Sashimi
Fish
Shredded daikon (palette cleanser)
Perilla/Shiso leaf (garnish, optional)

Make a mountain of shredded daikon, put some shiso leaves on top, and lay slices of fish on the daikon.

Nigiri
Fish
Sushi rice
Soy sauce
Optional:
Wasabi
Pickled ginger (stay away from the kind that's dyed pink)

The piece of sashimi or fish that goes on top of rice for nigiri should be about 2 fingers wide and 4 fingers across (something I read in the The Zen of Fish but it will vary with the size of your fingers). As for the thickness, that's up to you, but I like a decently thick piece of fish.

There was a whole page in The Zen of Fish dedicated to how a sushi master forms the nigiri rice. The mark of a sushi master is how light and loose the mound of rice is and how most of the rice grains face the same direction. I am no sushi master and the rice grains in my rice mounds definitely don't all face the same direction. But the most important part is to keep your hands slightly wet when forming so the rice doesn't stick all over your hands. Wet your hands, let the excess drip off, and then clap them together to get rid of excess water. Use a gently touch to form the rice mound, don't pack the rice so tight it's like a solid pellet.

As for dipping in soy sauce, never dip the rice part because a well made nigiri will just fall apart. Also never make a paste of wasabi with soy sauce. Most of the wasabi we get isn't even real wasabi, which is notoriously difficult to cultivate, it's horseradish paste with green coloring. The heat of the wasabi dissipates when it hits liquid so don't make that brown sludge with the soy sauce. It's best to dab the wasabi directly on the fish and dip the fish side down in the soy sauce. It's okay to eat sushi with your hands. :)

I never thought I would be sick of raw fish, but after gorging ourselves the previous night, Steven and I yearned for a cooked recipe. The high fat content in the fish not only gives the fish a great mouthfeel when eaten raw but it keeps the fish super moist and delicious even in the high heat of searing. I served the seared kampachi on a bed of cucumber and daikon ribbons and ponzu sauce with rice and cucumber salad.

Seared Kampachi Fillet with Ponzu Sauce

Kona Kampachi or another high content fish fillet will also work
Salt and pepper
Vegetable oil for searing

Ponzu Sauce
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp yuzu juice or 2 Tbsp lemon juice + 1 Tbsp yuzu marmalade

Season the fish with salt and pepper. Heat 2 teaspoons of oil over medium high heat in a nonstick skillet. ADd the fish and sear until there is a nice golden brown crust on both sides of the fish, 3 - 5 minutes per side.

Drizzle with ponzu sauce and garnish with toasted sesame seeds (optional).

Cucumber ribbons: you can use a mandoline but if you don't have one (like me), hold the cucumber flat on a cutting board and use a vegetable peeler and run it across the length of the cucumber to get a thin strip of even thickness. This works best with baby cucumbers or english cucumbers. Discard the first strip since that one is just skin.

Then the next day I tried two more recipes, one raw and one "cooked". I made a poke, a Hawaiian fish salad appetizer made with raw fish and a variety of other condiments, and ceviche, another type of fish "salad" where the fish is "cooked" in citrus juice. The acid in the juice denatures the proteins in the fish and slowly turns the fish from translucent to opaque, essentially cooking the fish.

I couldn't believe how easy it was to make ceviche. The mango added a really nice tropical sweetness and the toasted corn added a really light smokey flavor.

Ceviche
2 C sushi grade fish like kampachi, snapper, or scallop cut in a 1/2 inch dice
1/4 C lemon juice
1/4 C lime juice
2 - 3 roma tomatoes, 1/2 inch dice
1 C corn
Half a medium onion, small dice
1 mango, small cubes
1 avocado, small cubes
2 Tbsp or more to taste minced parsley, cilantro, or combination
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Add the citrus juices to the fish in a nonreactive bowl. Cover and refridgerate for 3 - 6 hours, stir every hour. The longer the fish marinate in the juices, the more cooked it will be.

Cut the tomatoes into a dice similar to the size of the fish and let it drain in a colander for 30 minutes.

Heat an empty skillet (no oil) over high heat and add the corn. Cook, shaking the pan occasionally, until the corn has toasty brown spots, and is almost popping out of the pan. Set aside to cool.

After the fish has cooked to your liking, drain it from the juices. Add the chopped onions, tomatoes, avocado, mangoes, corn, parsley/cilantro, olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour for the flavors to meld.

Serve with tortilla chips or on warm corn tortillas.

As for the poke, it was mix this and that in and season to taste with soy sauce and sesame oil. I didn't have any fresh seaweed, which is what's traditionally used, so I used some thinly sliced nori.

Poke
1 C cubed sushi grade fish usually mahi mahi, but I used Kampachi
1 - 2 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 - 2 tsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp sliced green onions (green part only)
1 roma tomato, 1/2 inch dice
1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds
2 Tbsp chopped macadamia nuts
Seaweed (I used some nori)

Mix the fish with the soy sauce and sesame oil. Let it marinate in the fridge for an hour. Start off light and season more later if needed.

30 minutes before serving, add the rest of the ingredients, season to taste, and chill before serving. Don't add the ingredients too earlier otherwise the nuts will get soggy.

No Knead Pizza Dough

I used to hate pizza crust as a kid. I would dread getting to that barren outer ring of crust where there was no more sauce, cheese, or pepperoni to hide the dry and tasteless breadstick. As I got older, I realized the world of pizza extends beyond school cafeterias and nationwide pizza chains. I discovered specialty pizzas, where the crust is the best part! My attempts to make pizza at home never got very far until I got a baking stone about a year and a half ago. The baking stone transformed a flabby, limp crust into a crisp one. But the most important element of great pizza is the dough, and it is also the trickiest part. My idea of the perfect pizza crust is one that's crisp on the outside and has a good chew on the inside. The crust should be thin except around the edge where there should be big, bulbous air pockets. Oh how I love those giant air bubbles. I've made some pretty good doughs but I still wasn't satisfied. Then I had a stroke of genius. Why not use no knead bread for pizza dough. The high water content in the dough will create that really crisp crust and the long rise time means plenty of gluten development for the chewy interior and lots of good air bubbles, just what I was looking for. I started experimenting with this idea a few months ago. But as it turns out I wasn't the only one with this idea (a whole book about no knead breads? Now that's genius). What can I say, great minds think alike. ;) My recipe is based on Jim Lahey's original No Knead Bread recipe. This is by far the best pizza dough ever (and omigosh it requires no kneading!). It's taken time and practice, but I have to say, I make a darn good pizza.


mmm... look at that bubbly crumb

This is the original No Knead Bread Recipe:
3 C flour
1 1/2 C water
1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 1/4 tsp salt

For no knead bread, I use unbleached all purpose flour and that gets the job done. But for pizza dough, I want a really chewy finished product so I use bread flour, which has more gluten. Usually when I make No Knead Bread, I use a combination of 2 cups all purpose flour and 1 cup of white whole wheat flour (I like King Arthur Mills). Whole wheat flour is more flavorful to begin with (it's healthier too!) and the extra long rise and fermentation really brings out even more flavor. I wanted my pizza dough to benefit from the flavor boost of WW flour so I kept this ratio for the dough: 2 cups of bread flour (again I like King Arthur Mills) and 1 cup of white whole wheat flour.

I kept the water content the same, preserving the 2:1 flour to water ratio.

And I also kept the yeast amount the same.

The salt content of the original recipe fits my tastes perfectly. Because I would be adding sauce and toppings, I scaled it down a bit to 1 teaspoon. This also makes it easier to halve or double the recipe.

Now for some pizza dough additions:
I'm not sure if anyone else experiences this but it seems like No Knead Bread goes stale really quickly. After half a day the crumb, once moist and delicious, gets a little crumbly and funky (though a little toasting in the oven reverses the staling). I like to add olive oil to my pizza doughs, which adds a great flavor but also improves the texture and the additional fat protects against staling. I like to add 1 tablespoon for every cup of flour, which is a little more than most recipes, so in goes 3 tablespoons of olive oil.

Next I also like to add honey, which helps boosts the flavor of the dough and works especially well with the whole wheat flour. 1 teaspoon for every cup of flour, 1 tablespoon total but you can go up to 2 tablespoons.

So here's my final recipe:

No Knead Pizza Dough
adapted from Jim Lahey's No Knead Bread
makes 2 medium sized pizzas

2 C bread flour
1 C whole wheat flour, preferably white
1 1/2 C water, warm about 100 degrees F
1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt (if you use kosher salt you will have to use more)
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 - 2 Tbsp honey

Dissolve the honey in the warm water. The water should feel tepid and slightly warm to the touch but not hot; hot water will kill the yeast. Whisk together the flour, yeast, and salt to evenly distribute. Add the warm water and olive oil and stir until the dough is well mixed. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature (optimal temp about 70 degrees) for 18 hours.


I made 1.5x the recipe and it looked like it was going to take over my kitchen.

No knead bread rises anywhere from 12 to 18 hours for the first rise, and then 1 - 2 for the second rise. For this pizza dough, I like to go for the full 18 hours to get maximum flavor and gluten development, then I let it rise for 2 - 3 hours for the second rise. Typically when I want to make pizzas for dinner, I start the dough the previous day at around 10pm. Then it let it rise all night and during the day when I'm at work. I get home at around 4pm when I shape it, then let it rise again until 7pm and then pizzas are done by 7:30, just in time for dinner. (If this time frame doesn't work for you, see my note about retarding the dough)

After 18 hours, flour your work surface, hands, and a bench scraper. Cut the dough in half. Handle the dough gently because if you're too rough, you will push all the hard earned air bubbles out of the dough. Gather all of the edges of the dough together, almost like a little pouch, and seal the seams. You will have a ball of dough. Brush any excess flour off your work surface to the side. You don't want too much flour on your surface for this step. Flip the ball of dough over so the seam is on the bottom. Flour your hands and lightly flour the sides of the dough. Then cup your hands, and shuffle the ball of dough back and forth between your hands in a circular motion. The bottom of the dough will grab onto the work surface and the circular motion will help the exterior of the dough pull taut and form a smooth surface. If there is too much flour on your work surface the dough will not be able to grab onto the work surface. Repeat this process with the second portion of dough. After you have formed the ball of dough, use a bench scraper to lift it off the work surface since it will be stuck, and transfer it to a floured area to rest. Loosely cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rise again for 2 - 3 hours.



Take this time to make your pizza sauce and prep your toppings.

Adjust an oven rack to the lowest position, set the pizza stone on the rack, and preheat the oven to 500 degrees F or as high as your oven will go and preheat for 30 minutes before baking. Do not add a pizza stone to a hot oven or it will crack. Place the stone in the cool oven before you turn it on and then let it heat up with the oven.

If you don't have a pizza peel, like me, you can use a cookie sheet with no lip. I place a square piece of parchment directly on the cookie sheet and form the pizza on the parchment. This way I don't have to deal with scattering cornmeal on the cookie sheet which always makes a big a mess and ends up all over my kitchen floor.

When it's time to stretch your dough, oil your hands front and back. The oil will prevent the dough from sticking to your hands and it will also get rubbed onto the exterior of the dough creating a nice crispy crust. Take one ball of dough and gently flatten it. Form two fists and drape the dough over your fists. Let gravity pull the dough down as you turn it over your fists. Once you get a rough circular dough, place it over your piece of parchment. Even out the dough with the heel of your palm, make sure to not thin it out too much otherwise the dough will tear. Top with sauce and toppings but don't overwhelm the dough with too much stuff or it will get soggy.

Take the cookie sheet or pizza peel and slide the pizza with the parchment paper onto the baking stone. Bake the pizza for 7 - 10 minutes or until the crust is a crisp and golden brown and the cheese is spotty brown. After 5 minutes the bottom of the pizza will be baked and you can slide the piece of pachment out from underneath. This way the crust will be in direct contact with the stone and will crisp up better.

After the pizza has finished baked, take your pizza peel or cookie sheet and slide it underneath the pizza or use a pair of tongs and gently grab the crust and pull the pizza onto the peel/sheet.

Cool for 5 minutes before cutting and serving.


*note:
Not everyone has the option of getting home at 4pm from work so if you want to make this on a weeknight, one possibility (I have not tried this yet however) is to refrigerate the dough after shaping but before the second rise. You will also need to start the first rise earlier around 5 - 6pm and let it rise until the next morning and then shape it for the second rise, cover well and refrigerate. The cooler temperatures will retard the dough and it will continue to rise at a much slower pace. You can shape it early in the morning, retard during the day, and take it out 30 minutes in advance to let it come to room temperature, cold dough will tear too easily.


Salami, kalamata olives, and artichoke hearts. nomnomnom!

Simple Tomato Sauce
1 28 oz can whole tomatoes, packed in juice
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
Salt and pepper
Fresh basil, chiffonade or torn into smaller pieces (if you have it)

Drain the tomatoes and puree them in a food processor or food mill. Add the garlic and olive oil to a cold unheated saucepan and place over medium heat. Let the mixture slowly heat up together. When the garlic starts to smell fragrant, add the tomato puree. Cook until it has thickened. Season with salt and pepper. Off heat stir in the basil.


A final note: I love making my pizzas with fresh mozzarella. If you have access to a Trader Joe's, they sell 1 pound logs of fresh mozzarella for only $5.

Halibut Cheeks on Mashed Yukon Gold Potatoes with Chive Oil

Last Friday Steven and I visited my favorite place in Seattle, Pike Place Market. We don't go there very often so I took the opportunity to splurge on all kinds of goodies. First we hit up World Spice Merchants, which is in my opinion Seattle's best spice house. If you live in the area and haven't been there you really owe it to yourself to go. They ground my allspice when I ordered it so it was as fresh as can be. Who knows how long that preground allspice has been sitting on that supermarket shelf? Next we perused the produce stands where I splurged on one, yes just one, blood orange. Along the way we tried some 25 year aged balsamic vinegar and some fig balsamic (both of which were simply amazing). We sampled some artisan chocolate pasta that you could eat dry and uncooked. Then off to the butcher for veal shanks ($12.90 a pound, ouch). Finally to the fishmonger, where the selection of seafood is just overwhelming: scallops the size of your palm, crimson fillets of king salmon, and fresh wild-caught halibut cheeks. At $16.99 a pound, there was definitely some hesitation, but I thought what the heck, it's still cheaper than dining out, so I got half a pound.

For the Chinese, the cheek is the most coveted part of the fish, prized for its sweet flavor and tenderness. Chopsticks gently pry this delicacy out from the cavity below the eyes and it is then offered to the guest of honor. The cheek of a typical steamed fish is a tiny morsel about the size of a raisin. However, the ginormous halibut will yield a behemoth of a cheek that are almost the size of a deck of playing cards. Eating a plate of only fish cheeks? It sounds too good to be true, almost wrong... yet so right.

I wanted to showcase the fish cheeks amazing flavor and texture so it required very little dressing up. This beautiful piece of fish requires no fancy sauce, just a little salt and pepper.The buttery taste of yukon golds pairs perfectly with the buttery fish. (I think the best mashed potatoes are made with yukon golds, russets are too bland and boring). The potatoes are topped with a little chive oil for the tiniest oniony kick and finally, a squeeze of lemon juice on the cheeks provides the perfect acidic note to counter the richness of the fish and potatoes.

Oh and what did Steven say?

"Hey guess what?" "We're eating haliBUTTCHEEKS. lol."

Halibut Cheeks with Mashed Yukon Gold Potatoes with Chive Oil

1/2 lb halibut cheeks
Salt and pepper
Roughly 2 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp Butter

Mashed Yukon Golds
1 lb Yukon Gold Potatoes
3 Tbsp butter, cut into 3 pieces
Salt and pepper
(optional: 1/2 tsp lemon zest for lemon scented mashed potatoes)

Chive Oil
2 Tbsp chopped fresh chives
2 Tbsp olive oil (or more)

Lemon wedges for serving

First make the chive oil, finely mince the chives and mix with olive oil and set aside to infuse.

Scrub the potatoes and dig out any emerging roots. Leave the potatoes whole and place them in a saucepan and fill with about half an inch of water. Simmer until they can be easily pierced with a knife, about 15 - 25 minutes depending on the size of your potatoes.

Leave the heat on. After all the potatoes are tender (smaller potatoes will require less time than the larger potatoes), peel the potatoes, then put them through a potato ricer, a food mill using the coarse disc, or mash with a potato masher. A ricer or food mill will produce the fluffiest potatoes. Rice the potatoes back into or mash them directly in the hot pot back on heat for a minute to dry out the potatoes. Then using a rubber spatula, fold in 3 tablespoons of butter and season with salt and pepper (optional ingredient: add some lemon zest for lemon scented potatoes). Keep warm until serving.

Season the cheeks with a little salt and pepper then dredge them in flour, shaking off the excess. The cheeks cook very quickly, like scallops, and will only take about minute or two per side. Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a nonstick skillet over medium heat heat. When the foaming stops, add the cheeks and cook until the first side is golden brown, 1 - 2 minutes. Flip over and cook the second side until golden brown, 1 - 2 minutes.

Place a mound of mashed potatoes on the plate, spoon some chive oil on top, and place the cheeks ontop of the mashed potatoes and squeeze some lemon juice on top. Serve immediately.

Dorie's Perfect Party Cake

This year when Steven and I celebrate our birthdays together in July, I want to bake an extra special cake for the two of us. I don't make many layer cakes because I think they're too fussy to make and frost. I'm more of a muffin/quick bread kind of gal where I only need two bowls and don't have to bust out the KitchenAid. But I just can't resist the sheer beauty and elegance of a pristine white layer cake with buttercream frosting. There's really no substitute for a tall layer cake for a special occasion so I need to get as much practice in as possible before making the official birthday cake. I don't want to screw up like last year because screwing up a birthday cake is something I never want to do again. A white layer cake something I've always wanted to make, it's even on the list! So when Morven chose Dorie's Perfect Party Cake, I really couldn't have asked for a more perfect challenge.



We had a lot of flexibility this month. We could play around with the cake flavor, the fillings, and the buttercream flavors, as long as we stuck to Dorie's basic recipe for the cake and frosting. At first glance, I was shocked by the amount of butter and sugar the entire recipe called for: a full POUND of butter and 2 1/2 cups of sugar (not counting the sugar in the preserves). Oh my! I didn't mess with the butter content but I simply couldn't put 1 1/2 cups of sugar in the cake alone! First I scaled down the recipe by 3/4 for my 8 inch cake pans and then decreased the sugar to 3/4 cups. I tasted a piece of the cake and it was sufficiently sweet so I can't imagine how cloyingly sweet it would have been if I had used the full amount. Many Daring Bakers had an issue with the cake not rising very much and I ended up with the same problem. I used cake flour and followed the instructions to a T and yet my cakes did not rise very much at all. After baking, the layers were about 1 inch high. I worried that my cake would end up like my first chiffon cake, dense and rubbery. I cut off a tiny piece and surprisingly, the interior of the cake was light and fluffy and tasted amazing, it just didn't rise very much. Odd but nothing catastrophic. I compared the recipe to a Cook's Illustrated recipe for white layer cake and found that CI used the same amount of flour, more butter, but also more baking powder and eggs whites. Maybe next time I should try adding a little more baking powder?

I knew I wanted to fill the cake with blackberry jam because I still had a huge gallon size bag of blackberries in the freezer from last summer that I needed to use (to make room for strawberry season). With my recently purchased shiny new food mill, I was able to make seedless jam since the first thing Steven did the last time I made jam was complain about all the seeds. I kept the lemon flavor in the cake because I think it pairs very well with blackberry. Instead of filling the cakes with buttercream and preserves, I boosted the lemony flavors of the cake by making Pierre Herme's lemon cream, also found in Dorie's book, to go inside. I still made the buttercream to frost the outside of the cake but since I had a 8 inch cake and no longer needed it to fill the cake, I only made half the recipe, just enough to frost the outside of the cake. Finally I made some candied lemon slices to decorate the outside. I used my new frosting spatulas that Bettina got me for Christmas for the first time (yay thanks Bettina!). This was my first time frosting a layer cake and all I can say is I definitely need more practice frosting cakes. Even though I did a crumb coat to seal in any loose crumbs, I still ended up with some crumbs on the outside of the cake. Oh well, go figure. And I spent a good 5 minutes trying to get the exterior to look perfectly smooth, but I gave up in the end. I planned to do a shell border on the top and bottom of the cake but only had enough frosting for a top border. At first the buttercream was too cold so it was difficult squeezing it out through the tip, then it started to melt from the heat of my hands and got a little too liquidy. I ended up with only half a dozen perfect shells, the rest were either chunky or blobby. It's okay, practice practice.

The cake was absolutely delicious. The blackberry and lemon flavors were perfect together. The cake was light and the frosting was sinfully creamy. I had 2 slices and then I realized I had just ingested roughly half a stick of butter. Eek! Better not think about that and just concentrate on how yummy it is. This is definitely a cake I will be making over and over for special occasions; it really is the perfect party cake.

I think everyone did the cake a little differently this month so be sure to check out all the great cakes by going to the Daring Baker Blog Roll

Dorie's Perfect Party Cake: Lemon and Blackberry
from Dorie's Baking: From My Home to Yours
Lemon White Cake (for 2 9inch pans)
2 1/4 C cake flour
1 Tbsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 C whole milk or buttermilk (I used buttermilk, Dorie says she prefers this with the lemon)
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1 stick (or 1/2 C or 4 oz.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 tsp pure lemon extract (I used some vanilla extract)

for 2 8 inch pans
1 2/3 C cake flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 C whole milk or buttermilk (I used buttermilk, Dorie says she prefers this with the lemon)
3 large egg whites
1 1/4 C sugar (<- oh my god that is so much sugar, I used 3/4 C and the end result was fine)
1/4 tsp pure lemon extract (I used 1/2 tsp vanilla extract)

For the Buttercream (I made half of this recipe)
1 C sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 C fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

For Finishing
Lemon Cream Filling
2 tsp lemon zest
1/3 C sugar
2 large eggs
1/3 C lemon juice
8 (1/2 C or 4oz.) unsalted butter, very cold cut into 8 slices

Blackberry preserves (I had some homemade)
(I skipped the coconut on the outside)

Getting Ready
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and adjust a rack to the center position. Butter 2 8 inch (see adjusted recipe for 8 inch pan) or 9 inch cake pans and line the bottom with a round piece of parchment paper. Set aside.

Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk the egg whites with the whole milk or buttermilk. Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar feels moist and smells lemony.

Using either the whisk or paddle attachment, add the butter to the sugar and beat at medium speed until the sugar and butter is fluffy and light, 3 full minutes.

Beat in the extract, then lower the speed and add one third of the flour mixture. If you continue to mix on medium you'll get flour poofing out. The add half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in the rest of the dry ingredients, mix until incorporated. Finally add the rest of the milk-egg mixture and beat for a full 2 minutes on medium speed to insure that the batter is homogeneous and aerated.

Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans and smooth out the top. Bake for 30 - 35 minutes (or 25 - 30 minutes for 8 inch cakes) or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Check early.

Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for 5 minutes, then remove them from the pans, peel off the parchment liner, and cool the cakes to room temperature (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

To Make the Lemon Cream Filling
Bring a saucepan of water to a simmer. Place the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or heatproof bowl and rub the two together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and lemony. Whisk in the eggs, followed by the lemon juice. Place this ontop of the pan of simmering water and whisk constantly until the mixture reaches 180 degrees. As it approaches 180 degrees it will thicken considerably and the whisk will begin to leave tracks. Be very diligent about checking the temperature at this point. As soon as it reaches 180 degrees take it off heat. With a rubber spatula, scrape the mixture into a blender or food processor and let it cool until it is 140 degrees, this will take about 5 - 10 minutes. When the mixture has cooled, turn on the blender or food processor and with it running, add 3 1-tablespoon pieces of butter at a time, waiting until each addition has been incorporated before adding more. Blend for a full 2 minutes to emulsify and aerate the cream. Chill it in the fridge for 30 minutes before working with it. It will store overnight but you will need to let it warm up and soften before you can work with it.

To Make the Buttercream (I made half of the recipe)
Bring a saucepan of water to a simmer. Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or heatproof bowl and place this bowl over the pan of simmering water. Whisk constantly until the mixture feels hot to the touch and the sugar has completely dissolved, about 3 minutes. The mixture will look white and shiny like marshmallow cream.

Using the whisk attachment, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes. It will become very white, fluffy, and sticky. Switch to the paddle attachment and add the butter one stick at a time. Since I was only using 1 1/2 sticks I added 1/2 a stick at each time. Beat the buttercream until it is thick, fluffy, and smooth. At some point it will curdle but don't worry, this is normally and with continued beating it will come together. Gradually add the lemon juice, making sure each addition is absorbed before adding more and finally add the vanilla. I don't know how well buttercream keeps in the fridge. It is best to work with it right after you make it. You can make the cakes and filling ahead of time, but make plan to make the buttercream and finish the cake on the same time. However after frosting the cake you can refrigerate it for 2 days or freeze it for a month.

To Assemble the Cake
Using a serrated knife, gently saw each cake layer into two layers. I like to first slice an outline around the perimeter of the cake then work my way in.

Dab a little frosting in the middle of a cardboard cake round or a cake plate and center the bottom layer cut side up. The frosting will act as the glue so the cake doesn't skid around when you are trying to frost it.

Spread 1/3 of the lemon cream on the layer. Then spread blackberry preserves on top. Place the top cake layer, cut side up. This way the domed top will be face down. Repeat with the spreading of the lemon cream and blackberry preserves. Now place the top layer of the second cake layer cut side up. Repeat with the filling, then filling place the final layer cut side down, the bottom of the cake layer should be facing up.

First apply a thin layer of frosting all around the cake as the crumb coat. This helps seals in all of the crumbs that you don't want on the outside of your cake. Then, use the remaining buttercream to evenly frost the outside of the cake. If you have any leftover frosting you can pipe designs on the outside. I made some candied lemon slices for the outside of the cake.

Storing
The cake is best the day it is made, but it will keep well covered and refrigerated for up to two days or you can freeze the cake (freeze it solid then wrap it well) for up to two months (defrost it well wrapped in the fridge overnight). Bring it to room temperature before serving. I find that the buttercream tastes the fluffiest the day it's made.

Playing Around
You can use whatever flavors or fillings your heart desires and decorate the cake however you like. In the original recipe, Dorie covered the outside of the cake with coconut but but you can also used grated chocolate, chopped nuts, or fresh berries.