Friday, May 7, 2010

Just Roll with It

Life. That's what some people say right? Or roll with the punches?
 
My best friend and I used to joke about rolling around our apartments after a long, debauchery filled night. Shhhh, don't tell her I'm sharing that with y'all. It may be privileged information.

What I'm getting at is.... I love rolls. A) Carbs. B) It's personal-sized and travels well. C) Endless flavor variations. I don't need to continue do I?

Cute aren't they? And yes, food can be cute. I don't know why...

Recently, I've come into possession of a book titled Stop and Smell the Rosemary. It is a collection of recipes compiled by the Junior League of Houston. I'm already a huge fan. This is my first attempted recipe from the book....

Coolrise Sweet Dough

Ingredients:
6 to 7 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 packages dry yeast (~5 tsp)
1 1/2 cups hot water
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 tsp salt

Preparation:
1. Combine 2 cups flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Stir to blend. Add butter and hot water all at once. Beat with a mixer at medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.

2. Add eggs and 1 cup flour. Beat at high speed 1 minute, scraping bowl occasionally. Gradually stir in enough dough out onto a floured board and knead 5 to 10 minutes. Cover loosely with plastic wrap, then a towel. Let dough rest 20 minutes on the board. Punch down.

This is the basic recipe for Coolrise Sweet Dinner Rolls, Coolrise Orange Rolls, and Coolrise Cinnamon Rolls. Coolrise Sweet Dough may also be shaped into 2 mini-loaves.

Tine's Notes: I made two shapes- the cloverleaf and pan rolls! 

Coolrise Sweet Dinner Rolls

Prepare Coolrise Sweet Dough as directed. Shaped dough into any of the shaped described below. After shaping, cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 to 24 hours. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake rolls 15 to 20 minutes.

Dinner Rolls: Pinch off 2-inch piece. Rill into a ball. Roll until ball forms a log 4 inches long. Roll ends between hands to taper. Place on a greased baking sheet 2 inches apart.

Cloverleaf Rolls: Pinch off a 1-inch piece. Roll into a ball. Place 3 balls in each cup of a greased muffin pan. Balls should touch bottom of cups and fill them half full.

Pan Rolls: Pinch off 2-inch pieces and roll into balls. Place in greased round cake pan, letting balls touch each other. Do not place in center of pan.

Butter Horns: Roll dough to a 1/4-inch thickness, brush lightly with melted butter and cut into a 12-inch circle. Cut circle in 16 pie shaped pieces. Starting at wide end, toll up. Place, point end down, on a greased baking sheet 2 inches apart.

Crescent: Same procedure as Butter Horns, but curve ends to form crescents.

Yields: 2 to 2 1/2 dozen rolls

Bu- boo- Bolognese!

After a friend introduced me to The Pioneer Woman, I've been hooked. You will be too if you have yet to check out her site. It's full of food, home, photography and randomness that I LOVE. I envy her lodge kitchen T  H  I  S much. Maybe more.

Perusing her site will easily suck hours out of my life. Finding this recipe during one of those time warps was definitely worth it.

Entered as Bolognese Sauce in my recipe collection-- it's Pastor Ryan's Bolognese Sauce if you want to get technical. I just know it's dee-li-shous. Look at it, how could it not?


Ingredients:
½ cups Olive Oil
1-½ cup Grated Carrots
1 whole Large Red Onion, Diced
2 pounds Ground Beef
2 Tablespoons Dried Oregano
2 Tablespoons Dried Basil Flakes
1 can (6 Ounce) Tomato Paste
5 cloves Garlic, Minced
1 cup (to 2 Cups) Red Wine
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire
2 cans (28 Ounce) Whole Tomatoes
1 cup Milk
Salt And Pepper, to taste
Fresh Parmesan Cheese

Cooking:
1. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven or skillet over medium heat. Add grated carrots and onions and cook for a few minutes. Make a well in the center of the mixture, and then add in the ground beef. Cook for a few minutes until brown, gradually stirring it into the carrot mixture.

2. Throw in oregano and basil. Use fresh if you have it; if you don’t, it’s fine. When the meat is browned and combined with other ingredients, make another well. Add tomato paste and let it heat. Add garlic and stir to combine.

3. Make a well in the center of the mixture and add red wine. Stir together. Add Worcestershire and stir. Add canned tomatoes. Finally, pour in milk, stir, and let simmer for 30 minutes to 2 hours—however long you need.

4. Serve with pasta and a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.

Yields: 8 servings

Tine's Notes: I pretty much followed the recipe exactly. I used dried oregano and basil-- so fragrant! The only major change I made was to use only 1 can of whole tomatoes and 2 quartered fresh roma tomatoes. Also added a dash of sugar to balance out the acidity. Served on whole wheat rotini with grated Pecorino Romano. YUM YUM YUM

Salad: Friend or Foe?

Sometimes I joke that salads are like grazing on grass. The most basic ones. Do you crave that? I like flavor, texture, crunch.

This salad came about via another Iron Chef moment (glimpse into the fridge to check ingredients) and baby spinach and a cantaloupe greeted me. By now you should understand that I just basically mix whatever I have on hand into something edible. Not a bad way to explore food actually. Don't be scared by this salad, it gets better I promise.... it's pretty!


Spinach Cantaloupe Salad with Mint

Ingredients:
4 cups fresh spinach leaves
1 cup sliced cantaloupe
1 cup sliced avocado
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves

1 tablespoon mint apple jelly
1 1/2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, minced

Preparation:
1. Divide spinach between 2 serving plates. Arrange half of the cantaloupe and half of the avocado in a circular pattern over the spinach on each plate. Sprinkle with diced red pepper and fresh mint.

2. Mix together the mint jelly, white wine vinegar, oil and garlic. Drizzle over the salads. Serve.

Yields: 2 servings

Tine's NotesIt's best when served cold, so I arranged the plates and popped them in the fridge minus the dressing for about 10 minutes. The fresh mint leaves really make the salad so don't skimp on them. I was worried about the garlic in the dressing, but it is surprisingly mild and masked by all the other flavors. The cantaloupe is a great refreshing pop in this otherwise odd salad. A perfect summer salad.


Hmmm pie + chicken

That's right, the quintessential home-cooked meal. Chicken. Pot. Pie. I remember the first time I had one at a friend's house down the street. It was of the personal sized pre-frozen variety, but I was so intrigued by this pie that was not a dessert.

Now is the time I have to admit something to you, fair reader(s). Sometimes I cheat. At cooking, I mean. I consider some forms of cooking to be shortcuts and I'm fine with them, other times I just can't conceive doing something like cooking an entire meal in the microwave. I draw the line there. Other than the microwave, I'm not really opposed to exploring other methods. Thus enters... the NuWave oven. Yes, we have one. Ok, fine we have two, but that's a story for another time. Back to the oven-- it takes up a good amount of counter space so I decided that it needed to earn its due if it was going to stay there or be demoted to the bay window sill, or worse, under the counter cabinet. I am not usually the cook who used it so this would be something I needed to do a little research. If you've seen the infomercials, I'm sure you know all the bells and whistles this thing can do. Me? Sort of, I just knew I could cook frozen things in there. Great! Convenient for me! No more thawing!

Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:
1 (10 oz.) can Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup
1 1/2 cups frozen mixed vegetables, thawed
1 1/2 cups cubed, cooked chicken
3/4 cup chicken broth combined with 3 tablespoons flour
2 Pillsbury pie shells

Cooking:
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix soup, vegetables (may use fresh vegetables), chicken, and broth. (The mixture should be somewhat thick.)

2. Put mixture into the bottom pie shell. Cover with the top pie crust and crimp to seal. Slice a few vent holes in the top.

3. Bake for 40 minutes or until golden. Cover pie edge with aluminum foil or a pie shield if it begins to brown too quickly.

Tine's Notes: I used Cream of Chicken and Mushroom soup but it tasted just fine. I also added 2 tbsp of milk to make it more creamy. I used fresh carrots, but frozen peas and corn. Variety is good right? Instead of pre-bought shells, I made my own courtesy of Mrs. Fields and only used it to top the chicken and vegetable mixture. And yes, I sure did use the NuWave oven. 35 minutes on high if you need to know. =)

Yields: One 9-inch pie

Crust:
6 tbsp cold unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 to 3 tbsp ice water

1. With a pastry blender, incorporate the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Toss the mixture with a fork, sprinkling on just enough of the ice water to form a cohesive dough. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for 45 minutes. Roll out to an 11-inch circle and fir into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim and crimp edges. 

**This a pic free post. No, I won't be doing it often, I just don't want to steal a pic for this. Just know it didn't take long to eat.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

No pictures, no pictures

Correct title. There are no pictures of the meal I made tonight. Why? I was just that hungry. [BUT I won't leave you with nothing to look at, this a food blog, I know you come for the pictures.]

Reality: If I don't shop for particular ingredients that I deem necessary for a dish, I often go Iron Chef in the kitchen.
Translation: I do substitutions and or make MY version of the meal. Works out pretty well. Most of the time.

Tonight's dish:

Carrot Rice
recipe and photo by Allrecipes.com 

Ingredients:
1 cup basmati rice
2 cups water
1/4 cup roasted peanuts
1 tablespoon margarine
1 onion, sliced
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
3/4 cup grated carrots
salt to taste
cayenne pepper to taste
chopped fresh cilantro

Cooking:
1. Combine rice and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover with lid, and allow to steam until tender, about 20 minutes.

2. While rice is cooking, grind peanuts in a blender and set aside. Heat the margarine in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onion; cook and stir until the onion has softened and turned golden brown about 10 minutes.

3. Stir in ginger, carrots, and salt to taste. Reduce heat to low and cover to steam 5 minutes. Stir in cayenne pepper and peanuts. When rice is done, add it to skillet and stir gently to combine with other ingredients. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

Tine's Notes: I used brown rice and I used a rice cooker. Sue me. I left out the peanuts, used butter and left out the cayenne pepper. My customers are a little picky. I used the tsp of grated ginger and added extra ground ginger. It is flavorful and slightly sweet. I actually loved the way it turned out.

This was served with Steak Dianne. What is that? Basically, steak with a butter sauce. You know how to cook a steak right? [See blog title banner for a picture of a steak.] I thought using a butter sauce would be somewhat acceptable since I didn't season the steak before I cooked it. [Note: I didn't have Worcestershire sauce on hand so I used a splash of a Bloody Mary mix I had which also covered the need for extra salt or pepper. Improvisation skills!]

Sauce:
4 tablespoons butter melted
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
chives, minced
salt and pepper