Bread Making

I am sorry to say I have neglected this blog because I have been too busy working, and because all this thinking about food is making me fatter and fatter. I have, however, been endeavoring to learn how to make a good loaf of sandwich bread. So far I have made two loaves that fell during the baking process. The first loaf I thought was too wet, but may have fallen because I allowed it to raise too long. Then, because I thought the first loaf was too wet, I made the second loaf too dry and it did not raise enough. Bread winning has taken on a whole new meaning, but I am determined to prevail. Although both of my efforts ended in dumpy loaves the flavor and texture were very good, and so I will recommend the recipe I used for sandwich bread here. I did make some pretty yummy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with my first loaf which held together beautifully. King Arthur Flour has many delicious recipes and another recipe I tried for soup was so delicious it is going into my own recipe book for frequent use.

Sauces

The next chapter is on sauces. Sauces are essential to french cooking, so I have learned. Take a nice omelet, add hollandaise sauce and viola! Something simple and and nice becomes something delectable and savorable. My experience was with meatballs.
My husband and I wanted to have Swedish meatballs unfortunately I had no recipe to go by, but the Swedish meatballs that I've had have always had a sweet brown sauce. So I turned to my Julia Child Cookbook. I learned a sauce consists of a few important components: a good roux, hot liquid, enrichment's and time. The most delicate sauces are cooked for 2 hours or as long as a whole day! The roux is made with fat (or butter) and flour. No more than 3 Tbsp of flour per cup of liquid for a thick sauce. For a good sauce I had to first cook the roux for several minutes (little bubbles) this step is key because if I didn't cook the roux long enough it would make the sauce pasty and raw tasting. Next I stirred in the beef stock and other seasonings, and let it simmer for a few minutes to thicken to the desired consistency. Adding butter or cream to enrich the sauce a few minutes before serving.
I dumped the hot meatballs into the sauce and served them spilling over the edge of mashed potatoes with salad on the side. It was delicious and I was impressed with how simple it was to make such a top notch sauce.
Sauces come in many forms, there are marinara sauces, brown sauces, white sauces, and gravy. I look forward to making hollandaise and Mayonnaise.

Hot and Steamy Liquid Love

The Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce and rice was absolutely delicious, so tasty in fact, that I didn't have enough time to take a picture before it was all gone. The chicken was marinated in a coconut and fish sauce mixture with some herbs and curry powder for about an hour, and then cooked on the grill outside in the pouring rain. Thankfully the grill is on the porch so the down pouring didn't ruin my Malaysian/Indonesian-barbecued-chicken-kabob-plans. The Peanut Sauce is where the real effort was in preparing. Many ingredients and techniques are called for; first pounding in a mortar with pestle, then sauteing, and last simmering. Next time I make Satay I now know I can make the Peanut sauce ahead of time. The Lemon Grass added a subtle tangy ..green-leafy flavor to the Peanut sauce that I admit doesn't sound altogether appetizing, but really was very pleasant.
It's nice to have something unusual for dinner from time to time, and I feel making it at home is much more healthy and satisfying than going out to eat (not to mention spending half as much money on the meal.) It's much more rewarding too, when my husband enjoys the meal that I prepared instead of a high end restaurant meal. For example; we never go out for curry, or mango and sticky rice anymore (one of our favorite meals and dessert) because I now can make it at home just as well as the restaurant. Curry and Mango with Sticky Rice is so simple and cheap to make, so I can spend ten dollars making it at home instead of thirty dollars plus tip to eat it at a restaurant! Learning to cook ethnic foods has definitely made my life a little bit easier and more fun.

I finished reading the first chapter of Mastering the Art of French Cooking entitled Soups. My family have never been big soup eaters; although I do enjoy soup, beyond what comes in a can I have just never had much exposure to making soup or the varieties available. Growing up, my mother would make potato soup from time to time, or a pot of beans, or a minestrone soup from scratch, but it just was not a big part of my meals. As an adult, when eating out, I hesitatingly would order a soup from time to time to see what as out there: French Onion, Clam Chowder, and Tortilla Soup but it was either a hit or miss as to which restaurants had good soup. So it was with courage I took on the task of choosing and making a soup last night. There were Potato and Leek Soup, Watercress, Vichyssoise, Garlic, Onion, Mushroom, and Fish Soups recipes to choose from. I have come to the unfortunate discovery that I dislike Leeks very much. I am not very picky as a rule and generally force myself to give all food a fair chance to win my taste buds over so I will allow myself to dislike leeks. Needless to say I did not want to make a leek soup, and I want to make sure I can make good soup before I take on a Vichyssoise, so since my husband and I both love mushrooms I settled on a Cream of Mushroom Soup.
It took an hour of my careful and inexperienced preparation, a half a cup of some Wanna-Be European Butter (I bought special for the occasion,) and about half a cup of cream to make the rich "Grand Occasion or.. Sunday Supper" soup. It was divine. Not bland and viscous like that canned stuff you buy at the store for a dollar and a quarter, but steamy with a soft liquid creamy richness that makes one pause after a sip to savor and ponder the experience. I toasted some white bread and melted some real butter on it as an accompaniment to the lovely soup. Soup and bread was just the thing after a rainy day and a chest cold! Other than adding a bit too much salt at the end I would have to say my hard work definitely paid off. I think I will try making a Potato and Onion soup soon and maybe a fish soup as well. Mrs. Child said, "Once you have mastered a technique, you hardly need look at a recipe again." and I mean to master Soups.
The next chapter is on Sauces and I am so looking forward to making Hollandaise for the first time as well as Mayonnaise! Yippee!

Arrival of a Long Awaited Package

My Julia Child cookbooks finally arrived this afternoon! They were shipped late so I had to wait an extra four days for them. My fingers trembled with excitement, as I opened the cover of Julia's Kitchen Wisdom, eager to absorb all of the experience and instruction she had so meticulously and thoughtfully measured into it. (I know not everyone gets this excited about cook books, but cum' on it was a package! Alright, I know I'm a dork so get over it.) I eventually set Julia's Kitchen Wisdom down after reading the introduction, as it is mostly a reference book, and soon began to devour Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The "Introduction" is an appropriate title because I was introduced to Julia Child, the circumstances which led her and her associates to writing this book together, and Mrs. Child's successes thereafter.
Next I read the "Forward" in which Mrs. Child explains her purpose of writing and the most effective way in which to read Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which led me to believe it was really a textbook. I intend to treat it as a textbook at any rate. I will carefully read through the instruction and recipes of each section, and then selecting recipes out of each category to fit my needs and pocketbook, I will test my comprehension and practice what I have learned. I'm so excited to broaden by abilities in cooking; Julia says that French Cooking provides a skill level that will act as a foundation to many other ethnic cooking. I believe it will; if only to help me take cooking more seriously -pushing me to sacrifice the time to make a dish excellent instead of opting for a shortcut, as Julia says, and hoping no one notices the difference.
Reading through the techniques and processes remind me of times when, as a child, I watched my mother from the kitchen table or received instruction from her that I had long forgotten until now. How to fold egg whites in properly for example, or when my father taught me to slice and chop vegetables so as not to cut myself or fear the knife. I wonder to myself; as I read, absorb, and reflect, whether my mother or father had ever read these things themselves or if they had learned it from their parents. Maybe my grandparents had read it! How much has this book really influenced our world and we don't even realize it because it is just a trifle like a cookbook. But, deeper thoughts are for other writings and so my friends until next posting, Happy Cooking!

Finding Oil that Won't Smoke or Burn

When buying oil for cooking and baking it's important to consider the smoking point of an oil and what oil will contribute the best flavor at the temperature you will be cooking or baking at. The media and health experts are always promoting olive oil for good health, but my husband can't stand the flavor. I never noticed the bitter flavor until I tried to fry pancakes in olive oil (aw, don't snicker at my naivety) and they were just aweful! As a newly wed wife it is important for a woman to feel like her husband can appreciate her efforts in the kitchen. (At least a woman like ME feels that way.) So I threw out the olive oil altogether and looked up cooking oils on the internet to educate myself after crying on the phone to my mother about my failure. Soon after reading about "smoking points" I went out and bought a gallon of Peanut oil. I'd heard it makes everything taste like peanuts, but that doesn't bother me and hasn't bothered my husband. However, when deep fat frying foods I found that Peanut oil does not flatter all foods, especially doughnuts so I will have to try Almond oil sometime because it seems to me that it wouldn't taste so bitter. I'm looking forward to trying several different oils for different things. Walnut oil is supposed to be highly healthful (with omega 3 and 6 that olive oil is revered for) and is recommended drizzled on salad. So I may be able to avoid Olive oil altogether and still get the benifits desired! I found on line, "The cost of walnut oil is higher than that of most other oils, but the payoff is worth it. In addition to providing a delicate flavor that enhances many foods, walnut oil also has therapeutic properties when applied to the skin, and may even act to ward off both cancer and heart disease." Excellent! I'll take a double serving for MY family!
I added a link with a chart of Smoking Points but here's another from Wikipedia that shows more of them.

A Matter of Altitude

An important thing to consider in your kitchen activities, is elevation. I found this to be a tedious section in Better Homes and Gardens, so I condensed it into a simpler list for quick reference. Basically; since water boils at lower temperatures 3,000 feet above sea level or higher, moisture evaporates faster and can cause cooking food to dry out. Elevation can also effect the leavening in baked goods causing them to "fall," this explains a lot of the problems I had making biscuits when I moved to go to college! I'll have to invest in a meat thermometer so I can check the temperature for doneness since it takes longer to cook meat at higher altitude. After I moved to "the Valley" I noticed meat cooks allot faster; I love it, but now I have to be careful to not over cook dinner. Adjusting to altitude seems to be one among many of the challenges of moving.
A couple of days ago my sister sent me an e-mail about Allspice and it's origin she looked it up out of curiosity. I've heard Allspice is it's own spice, but I've also heard otherwise so I thought I'd share our findings with you. Wikipedia says, "Ground allspice is not, as some people believe, a mixture of spices. Rather, it is the dried fruit of the Pimenta dioica plant. The fruit is picked when it is green and unripe and traditionally dried in the sun. When dry, the fruits are brown and resemble large brown peppercorns. The whole fruits have a longer shelf life than the powdered product and produce a more aromatic product when freshly ground before use." Many spices are better freshly ground; therefore, a great appliance for a serious cook to have on hand is a spice grinder.
My husband bought me a mortar and pestle for my birthday earlier this year (a much longed for kitchen item), but I will soon be investing in a spice grinder or coffee grinder for finer textures. I am also excited to be able to produce my own nut fours, (such as almond flour) which are sometimes hard to find and an adequate grinder may be used for.
A helpful convenience, if you only want to try a spice without buying the bottle, is to buy only a measure of a spice. Several farmers markets carry an assortment of herbs and spices to measure out a desired quantity to purchase. I've found even irregular items such as chamomile flowers at a farmers market! I feel it's worth the extra effort to find and take advantage local farmers markets, they carry fresher ingredients at lower cost and it's usually grown locally so you know what your eating and cooking with. I love to experiment, find new things to try, and ask questions! I've found it's the best way to learn about food and it's potential.

A Case of Pots, Pans and Poison

Choosing the right cookware is very important especially when starting out. I don't want to go buy just whatever, and it matters a lot because I don't want to waste my money, so I'm finding out what items are going to give me the results I like best.
Some pointers I picked up in the BHG cookbook are:

Shiny metals reflect heat and result in a lighter thinner crust.
These are Aluminum, Stainless Steel, and Tin.
So I'm going to want to buy shiny stainless steel pans for cookies, cheesecake, cake, bread, muffins, bundts, and brownies.
"Dark or dull-finished bake ware, such as tin, glass, and many non-stick pans, absorbs more heat, increasing the amount of browning." If you use these check the directions for decreased heat and bake time.
I'll use these for pie (since I'll need the [extra browning factor so the bottom does not become soggy]) and any goods with acidic ingredients which can react with other bake wares. I found out I need to be sure to remove baked goods (such as lasagna or lemon bars) from the pan and not leave them overnight, since acidity strips non-stick off of my pans.

Another helpful hint my husband discovered and shared with me the other day:
If I use a non-stick pan to fry, say.. eggs, wait for the pan to get hot before putting anything in it. What happens is the non-stick molecules are spread out when they are cool and get close and tight together when they are hot, so if you put something in there during the shrinking process, it will stick in my non-stick pan. Wish I'd known that a long time ago!

Last week while grocery shopping I made an important discovery. While looking at some Balsamic Vinegar I found a bottle that had printed on it, approved under California Proposition 65, containing no lead. What!!! So I went home and looked up California Proposition 65 which states that food products containing certain contaminants must be made known to California consumers. Every year California has a list made of all the contaminants in consumed goods, and they have a department that takes care of the whole operation of finding these facts and making them known to California residents. A couple of questions come to mind; first of all, why isn't this a nationwide proposition, and secondly, why are goods with harmful elements even sold in stores for consumption! What an outrage! Just so we all know, Red wine vinegar and Balsamic Vinegar contain lead which can result in birth defects and reproductive problems, and it's do to the grapes.

Here are some other helpful facts I have found for the health conscious:

Some High Fructose Corn Syrup contains mercury- the fish lovers' bane of existence. So guess what, we can run from tuna but we can't hide from mercury because high fructose corn syrup is found in just about everything sweet now from cookies to applesauce. In fact, I heard on the news that our country's the sugar resources are upset we haven't been purchasing as much sugar from them (because we are using high fructose corn syrup) and they will be inflicting a sugar shortage on us. So sugar prices are about to go up. Great fun!

Aspartame, which is so abundant in sweet drinks and chewing gum, turns to formaldehyde when it's being digested. Yummy! So good news America, we're all being poisoned!

I've been reading the ingredients labels on everything I buy much more religiously now, and I do encourage others to do the same. It's amazing how many additives are put into store bought foods just to preserve them and keep them looking appetizing. That just goes to show that looks aren't everything, and here's another good reason to make your own instead of buying pre-made. Not to mention, the satisfaction of the success and the creation.
Happy Cooking!