| Sunday, March 18, 2007 |
| Luck of the Irish |
I skipped cooking last week, because I was stressed out having to study for back-to-back exams. So as penance, I made two dishes on St. Patrick's Day.
One was an Irish Stew, which was yummy. Even if the meat was tough and had to be gnawed to be even digested.
The other was a beer bread (originally I planned to make a soda bread, but forgot the buttermilk.
Here's how to make the bread:
3 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 Tb sugar
2 tsp dill seeds (optional, I didn't have these)
1 2/3 oz butter, cubed
12 fluid oz. Guiness Stout Ale (all in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day!)
1/4 c. all purpose flour, extra
dill seeds, extra (optional)
coarse sea salt
1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Brush a baking sheet with melted butter or oil. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into large bowl. Add sugar and dill seeds; stir to combine. Use your fingers to rub butter cubes into the mixture. Make a well in the center and pour in beer all at once. Using a wooden spoon, quickly mix into a soft dough.
2) Turn out onto floured surface. Sprinkle extra dough onto hands and dough. Knead for 1-2 minutes until dough forms a smooth ball. Elongate ball slightly, flatten a little, and with the blunt end of a large knife, press down 1 inch along center. Brush surface with water, than sprinkle liberally with dill seeds and coarse salt.
3). Bake 20 minutes, lower temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until cooked. Remove from oven and place on wire rack and leave to cool.Labels: recipe |
posted by Me @ 5:17 PM  |
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| Monday, March 05, 2007 |
| Week 8: Spinach Quiche |
This is actually spinach quiche! I will actually post a recipe for this...it's the crust that I used for the other quiche I made, but with a variation on the filling. This was actually for the fundraiser party I went to this past weekend, and one of my friends is vegetarian, so I stayed away from making anythign meat. And it was very, very good. (but I didnt' win any raffles ;( but at least it went to a good cause.) |
| posted by Me @ 8:18 PM |
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| Week 7: More penance |
Mom opened a huge bag of shrimps and defrosted them. She took the ones she wanted and left a whole bag full for me. So I made shrimp scampi. It's rather easy...I'll post a recipe for it sometime soon. And it was very yummy. Especially when washed down with white wine (also used in the cooking). I boiled the leftover shrimp and had shrimp cocktail. The reason I did that, other than having enough shrimp--is because I decided that peeling raw shrimp totally grosses me out. Especially when the little legs are persistently stuck to the body...and I have to pull off those little legs. Yuck. But still not quite enough to convert me to vegetarianism. |
| posted by Me @ 8:13 PM |
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| Week 7: Penance |
Do you know it costs about 8 dollars to buy 8 ounces of Pancetta? And sometimes it's a good idea to follow directions to the letter? In the ingredients list, it says, "1 Tb red pepper flakes (or to taste)." I looked at the flakes, thought to myself, yeah, one tablespoon isn't exactly enough. So I added more. And as i was grating the cheese for this dish, my mom wandered into the kitchen and sampled some pasta from the pot. She then sucked her breath in and was like, "Boy, that is hot!" So I asked, "Hot hot, or like, temperature hot?" "It's hot, even for me! You're going to think it's too hot!" And it was pretty spicy. But very good. Especially with my famous garlic bread. |
| posted by Me @ 8:09 PM |
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| Week 6: Bad girl! |
| Bad girl! No cooking! |
| posted by Me @ 8:08 PM |
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| Week 4: White Chicken Chili |
I wanted something good and hearty. Yummy. And i was in the mood for chicken, and have never tried chicken chili, but having had some lousy experiences with traditional chili, I opted for white chili, which I actually love.
So I chose a recipe from Cook's Illustrated, and it sounded pretty good, and necessitated my buying three kinds of chilies. I know what jalapenos look like, but the other (Anaheim and Poblano) were a mystery. I forgot to take pictures of the uncut chilies.
But anyway, i wound up with like, banana peppers and realized that I got the wrong peppers (not a problem; my dad ate the banana peppers). But I went to two different Giant Eagles and two Acmes to get my peppers!
Now I know what poblano peppers look like. The chili required 9 chilies, which made me a little worried, because I'm not sure of chilies. But it turned out to be quite flavorful rather than fire alarm spicy.
Previous white chilies that I have tried usually are creamy (I'm guessing thickened with masa), so I was kind of surprised this was more like a stew, a little soupy but very yummy. So rich and very simple. I have nothing bad to say about this, except that I had to run to 4 different grocery stores to get my poblanos and anaheims.
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| posted by Me @ 7:51 PM |
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| Week 3: Pork Picadillo |
I am dreadful.
Lest you think I've not been posting...
I have been cooking. There were a couple weeks when I was unable to cook, so the following week I cooked TWO dishes for penance. This is week three. Pork Picadillo. This was ok. easy to make (maybe like 15 minutes prep., 15 minutes cooking. Not too bad, but not my most favorite dish. Kinda boring. But then again, this is a girl who likes food hot and spicy.
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| posted by Me @ 7:45 PM |
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