Posts filed under 'Homemade'
Just before Mother’s Day, Jennifer acquired her new KitchenAid stand mixer. Every once in a while I see her glancing at it with an enamored look and hear a little sigh. There was an offer of a free ice cream attachment with the purchase of the mixer, which we gladly accepted. I had dreams of eating homemade ice cream throughout the summer. Well, there’s still a little summer left, so I thought I’d get on with it.
We saw a Paula Deen episode back then in which she made a simple butter pecan ice cream. I decided back then that I’d break in the ice creamer with that recipe. It’s not a traditional ice cream concoction by any stretch — there’s a box of pudding in it! And no cream! But, when in doubt, we trust Paula. She doesn’t make things that don’t taste good.
An admission.. it was late when I started this (Jennifer was mixing a cake batter) and I declared that I was going to wimp out on the pecans. They were supposed to be cooked in a tablespoon of butter in a saucepan. I knew this would unlock the pecany goodness within them. When I told Jennifer, she reassured me telling me it would be the 8:15 PM version of the recipe.
I mixed together a can of evaporated milk, 3 cups of whole milk, a teaspoon of vanilla extract, and a cup of sugar together in a big measuring bowl with a pour spout. I held the pudding out until I had the frozen mixer bowl out of the freezer and mounted on the mixer. I suspected that the mixture would be too dilute to thicken up as a pudding, but I didn’t want to take any chances on my first try. Other ice cream wisdom has the mixture sit in the fridge until it is closer to freezing temperature. Because of the pudding content (and Paula not telling me to), I didn’t chill the mixture, but poured it right into the mixer bowl, dasher already spinning.
The pecans were not to go in until 10 minutes into the mixing process. This gave me plenty of time to regret not preparing the pecans as Paula preached. It came to fruition when I realized that the ice cream was called butter pecan. I quickly melted butter and sauteed the pecans for a few minutes until Jennifer, several feet away, stopped what she was doing, took in a deep breath, and let me know I’d made the right decision. Since they were hot and the ice cream was thickening up, I put them in the freezer for a few minutes so as not to melt the ice cream when they were introduced.
I could tell that the ice creamer was just starting to lose its cool, but the contents were thick enough to transfer into a plastic tub and then into the freezer. In retrospect, putting the evaporated milk in the fridge the night before would chill the mixture and help the process.
It wasn’t completely set when we first tasted it, but that was more a factor of impatience (and the late hour) than the recipe. We tried it alongside a slice of Jennifer’s chocolate marble cake (which was oooh so good). The ice cream did taste remarkably like butter pecan ice cream from the store. The color was as rich as the flavor, both we think from the pudding. We enjoyed our first attempt with the ice cream attachment which is already in the freezer getting ready for round two.
September 5th, 2006
For a pre-Labor Day get-together, we pulled out all the cholesterol stops and fried up some chicken and hush puppies. There was also fish, but since we don’t eat fish I’ll skip right over that.
My sister was in charge of the chicken. She used Paula Deen’s method for the first time, and we all agreed that it was the best we’d ever had. Adding hot sauce to the overnight soak really added some wonderful flavor to the chicken. There wasn’t enough of the hot sauce to really make it hot, but the flavor was still there.
Our contribution was hush puppies. For those of you unfamiliar, hush puppies are little fritters made of flour, cornmeal, milk, and onions. There can also be a variety of seasonings and creamed corn. My great aunt, who was an incredible cook, made the best hush puppies I’ve ever had. Sadly, I don’t know her specific recipe, so I set out to find just the right one.
After looking through several, I decided I most liked Alton Brown’s version from I’m Just Here for More Food, an often used book in our kitchen. I used its basics and came up with my own version of his recipe.
For the dry ingredients, I combined 150 grams (you do have a kitchen scale, right?) of AP flour, 142 grams of cornmeal, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon of baking soday, 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, 2 teaspoons of salt, and a couple of turns of freshly ground black pepper.
When the dry ingredients are combined, add 1 & 1/2 cups of buttermilk and 1 small chopped onion. A little less onion is fine. Actually, I didn’t quite use all of the onion that Quinn chopped. In common Alton fashion, let the batter rest at room temperature for about 10 minutes.
I volunteered Quinn for the actual frying process. He dropped the batter by tablespoonfuls into the oil (about 340 degrees). Don’t worry about little stray gobs of batter. Those will fry up, too, and are quite tasty. When the hush puppies float to the top, try to turn them over. This won’t be easy, but it will help them get evenly cooked. After 3 minutes or so, they should be done. Use tongs, a spider, or a long-handle spotted spoon to remove them to a rack or a pan lined with paper towels. These will stay plenty warm at room temperature while you finish cooking. Cover them loosely with aluminum foil.
I must say that they were very good. Most of the ones I’ve had in the past were overdone. Golden brown is what we’re looking for, not dark brown. Just about 3 minutes is plenty of frying time. Everyone agreed with me, too, that the shorter cooking time was better. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t turn down one like I’ve been accustomed to eating. Hush puppies are (dare I say) good eats.
September 2nd, 2006
Jennifer and I recently perused Square Books on the square in Oxford, MS, home to Ole Miss, her alma mater. I noticed a cookbook called Square Table which contained a collection of recipes from Oxford restaurants. As Jennifer’s birthday was only a month away, I didn’t point it out to her and was able to surprise her with it. Several recipes were from restaurants she loved during her college days but which have since closed. We’ll certainly be revisiting this cookbook for its time-machine possibilities.
Deciding on this cookbook for dinner, we took to its pages in search of just the recipe. Jennifer had already tagged four. We decided on a baked linguine recipe that sounded divine.
We browned two pounds of ground beef (we found fresh ground chuck from our butcher’s case that was beautiful) with some freshly minced garlic, about double the requested two cloves. Once browned, one can each of crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste, a teaspoon of salt and two of sugar were stirred in and the wonderful mixture was allowed to simmer for 30 minutes.
It’s worth pointing out that this recipe does not call for any pepper. Pepper is such a ubiquitous spice (and one of our personal favorites) that it’s absence was noticed. Trusting the recipe, we followed it and were curious to see how it turned out.
We started working on the linguini while the sauce simmered. Twelve ounces of linguini boiled to al dente. With the pasta in the pot, we turned to a very special component. A brick of cream cheese, 16 ounces of sour cream, and two bundles of green onions (how could we kick off Eating Onions Together without some onions!?), chopped. These were mixed together, smelled (followed by an excited discussion), and set aside.
When the pasta was ready, we drained it and added it to a 9×13 pan. Jennifer received a beautiful Le Creuset pan recently and was excited to give it a try. It was a little less than 13″, so we used most of the pasta, filling the pan about halfway. The cream cheese, sour cream and onion mixture was spooned on top of the pasta and topped with the meat sauce.
After 20 minutes in the oven at 350, we removed the pan and added 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese and eyeballed 1/2 cup of grated parmesan. Then it was back into the oven for 5 minutes to melt the cheese. We let it set the suggested 10 minutes before serving. Being a big Alton Brown fan, I’m familiar with his frequent saying, “your patience will be rewarded.” This is also why I’m suspicious of any meal that can be whipped together in 30 minutes. I have to say that taking photographs makes this waiting period much easier to bear.
We paired this meal with a chianti, the 2003 Classico made by Cecchi. When in doubt, a good chianti will compliment a pasta dish. To be honest, despite my love of wine, I’ve never had the olfactory skills to drink one and pick out the hints of lilac and elm bark with clear mineral tones. Mineral tones?! I have always had this suspicion that people just sit around a table (drinking way too much wine) and make these things up. However, I’m keeping an open mind and will try to hone my appreciation and super-sniffer skills. Does anyone have any recommendations for books or resources on wineology?
How was the linguini? Well, I think a rating scale based on “would we make this again?” is the best measure of a recipe. It balances taste and difficulty together.. if it’s torture to make, it’d better taste awfully good. The baked linguini is definitely a keeper. Jennifer and I discussed the similarities with lasagna while we were preparing it and while we were eating it, as well. Its components are somewhat similar to Jennifer’s lasagna recipe: pasta, meaty red sauce, and a cheesy layers. This baked linguini has one layer of each that all blended together a little during cooking and completely during the meal. The baked linguini was an involved production, but not as time-consuming as lasagna. It was definitely worth the effort.
The creamy layer was a huge hit, the first thing Jennifer commented on. It was a pleasant departure from a ricotta-based component. We didn’t miss the pepper in this dish. The seasoning in this dish were predominantly from the garlic and onions. At Alton’s recent seminar, he commented that he had minimized his spices down to about six items (although he didn’t list them). He went on to say that he was more concerned with simplifying food, echoing the sentiments of Hippocrates: first do no harm. I think this dish lives up to this wisdom.
September 1st, 2006
