Sunday, September 11, 2011
packed puff pastries
My graduate program had a welcome back rooftop party so I decided to make these. I kinda made it up in my head as I went along so there's nothing really exact.
Here's a recipe:
2 packages Dufour puff pastry
1 1/2 pound package of meatloaf meat (that has a 1/2 pound each of ground veal, beef and pork) or just buy them separately
1/2 pound ground lamb
a handful of fresh tarragon leaves chopped
a large handful of fresh oregano chopped
a bunch of fresh flat parsley chopped
8 cloves garlic chopped into small pieces(or to taste)
1/2 vidalia onion minced fine
fresh cracked pepper to taste
a pinch of cumin seeds ground up in a mortar and pestle (I ran out of powder)
a dash of ancho chili powder
a dash or three of Penzy's Arizona Dreaming spice mix
5 dashes of Hungarian sweet paprika
a dash of cayenne pepper
a couple dashes of Worchestershire sauce
a couple dashes of soy sauce
a dash of sweet balsamic vinegar
a teaspoon of chicken soup base (better than bouillon)
1/2 a small package of feta cheese
6 oz parmigiano reggiano
1/2 pound blue or gorgonzola
butter
2 egg yolks mixed with water for an egg wash
the puff pastry:
You can leave it out at room temperature for 40 minutes, or do like the package suggests and defrost in the fridge for 3 hours. My fridge did not really completely defrost it in more than 3 hours, but if you press your hand against the dough to warm it wherever it needs it will roll out fine.
the filling:
I started out by using some bacon ends I had to render oil for the onions and garlic to caramelize. You can use olive oil or nothing and just add them along with the meat. Once that was done I added the meat and cooked till browned and the juices were almost absorbed.
I drained the meat and put it back in the pan with a pat of butter to replace any oil lost, but not risk the puffs coming out soggy from too much liquid.
I added the freshly chopped tarragon leaves and oregano to the pan. Then I added the other seasonings. This was mainly trial and error, I didn't know what sort of flavor I was going for yet so I kept adding things till I liked the taste.
Once everything was cooked through I chopped up the fresh parsley and added it to the mix. Then I added the Parmesan cheese.
I let this sit on the stove for a while then popped it into my fridge in a container to cool more after adding half the package of Greek feta.
Once the mixture was cool enough I crumbled the blue cheese in and added it to the rest.
You will have half of this mixture left over and can use it on pasta or in more puffs later!
putting it together:
Pre-heat the oven to 375 F
Lay the pastry out on a floured board and roll out the rectangle to a 12x12 square. Cut 16 ~3 inch squares out of the sheet with a pizza cutter.
spoon a teaspoon full of filling into the center of each square.
moisten the edges of each square with egg wash and fold over. You can make triangles or rectangles. FYI rectangles are easier when you're tired of folding pastry.
Crimp the edges with a fork or if you're fancy, crimp them in a nicer way. My crimping attempts tend to look like a dog got a hold of the edges and shredded them with its teeth so I still use a fork.
Place the puffs on parchment paper on a cookie sheet or in a roasting pan. You can pretty much use whatever you have handy.
Brush the egg wash on top of each.
Bake in the oven for 25-40 minutes or until the tops are browned and the pastries are puffed out plumply.
Repeat with the other package of pastry.
This will make 32 puffs.
Labels:
appetizers,
beef,
blue cheese,
butter,
feta cheese,
food,
lamb,
meat,
oregano,
pork,
puff pastry,
tarragon,
veal
Saturday, September 3, 2011
thai iced tea cake
Before I went to 5 and Diamond and after I made my first pitcher of Thai iced tea I made a cake.
Since I had the tea in the fridge anyway, I added a bit of the undiluted mixture to the cake for extra flavor. Try it, it's yummy.
Labels:
cake,
sweets,
thai iced tea,
vanilla bean
surprise! quiche
I ended up leaving some eggs out so I decided they needed to all be cooked right away... surprise! quiche.
I use Mdme. Fromage's recipe from epicurious, but I use all cream and a bunch more cheese.... also no crust!
This one had cubed ham and sauteed zucchini inside along with a bunch of extra sharp cheddar.
5 and diamond
I went to 5 and Diamond up in Harlem with some friends a few weeks ago and took two pictures.
The first is one of the 5 mac and cheeses they had to sample that night
and the second was a great heirloom tomato salad.
The first is one of the 5 mac and cheeses they had to sample that night
and the second was a great heirloom tomato salad.
Labels:
5 and Diamond,
food,
harlem,
heirloom tomatoes,
macaroni and cheese
tons of thai iced tea
Solution?
Make it yourself.
Thai tea leaves
Sugar
Water
Cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg.
I used over a cup of loose Thai tea leaves and a bunch of sugar with about 10 cups of water.
First let the water boil then add the tea leaves, spices and sugar to simmer for at least 20 minutes.
Let it sit off the heat for 30 mins.
Strain into a heat proof container ( I used flour sack cloth to strain through a colander into a bowl).
Let it cool to room temperature then place in a pitcher.
Serve over ice with half and half, cream or evaporated milk.
You can also make it less sweet initially and then use condensed milk.
Monday, June 13, 2011
crab rangoon makes me cranky
I realize this is Americanized Chinese cuisine and I'm completely ok with that. What I'm not ok with is how annoying these things are to make.
I didn't have a chance to go down to Chinatown for real (and cheaper) wonton wrappers so I had to use the oddly shaped Quasimodo-esque Nasoya ones.
So they're not perfectly square and they're squishy and just generally make me want to punch imaginary babies.
I persevere and get them folded up all nice and tight then begin to fry.
If you leave them one second too long one part of the rangoon is going to spurt hot cheese mixture all over your frying oil.
They still came out great but anything cream cheese filled is going on my "make rarely" list.
Crab Rangoon
1 package wonton wrappers
1 package imitation crab meat
2 stalks scallion
3 cloves fresh garlic
a dash of Worcestershire sauce
1 package cream cheese
salt & pepper to taste
water
oil for frying
I ended up putting everything in the blender to make a smooth paste. I chopped the scallions before adding them.
Place less than a teaspoon of filling inside each wonton wrapper and wet around the filling.
Fold the sides together (not the corners) so it looks kind of like a 4 pointed star.
Heat up the oil and pray none of them break when they fry.
Here are a few links on how to fold/make em:
http://www.starportfoods.com/Crab_Rangoons.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms6f_CBrZOI
Labels:
crab,
crab rangoon,
cream cheese,
imitation crab,
kani,
scallions,
wonton
Monday, May 16, 2011
nectar diner, an appetizing brunch
So my boyfriend's cousin was in town and she and her best friend went to the Met.
While they waited on a very long, rainy Sunday line we went to Nectar for brunch.
I love this little diner and its offerings even though I never managed to go there when I went to high school in the area.
For brunch I had two appetizers:
fava skordalia with pita
and grilled octopus with roasted red pepper and fennel orzo.
pretty good for diner fare, eh?
Speaking of the Met and the Line that deserves its own capitalization: this is what it looked like that afternoon:
The line for the Alexander McQueen exhibit was 1.5 hours by the time we finished brunch. Luckily, cousin and bff had already made it in with only a 20 minute wait.
While they waited on a very long, rainy Sunday line we went to Nectar for brunch.
I love this little diner and its offerings even though I never managed to go there when I went to high school in the area.
For brunch I had two appetizers:
fava skordalia with pita
and grilled octopus with roasted red pepper and fennel orzo.
pretty good for diner fare, eh?
Speaking of the Met and the Line that deserves its own capitalization: this is what it looked like that afternoon:
The line for the Alexander McQueen exhibit was 1.5 hours by the time we finished brunch. Luckily, cousin and bff had already made it in with only a 20 minute wait.
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