Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Most people have heard of Julia Child, and most foodies think of her fondly. What I am most fond about her was her ability to make mistakes on camera, deal with it, and move on. Now a days the ol’ Food Network would never show someone dropping a piece of meat on the ground, picking it up, dusting it off and using it. The horror. I mean if I drop a $50 beef tenderloin on the floor at home, I am going to throw it out, right? Not.

I’m quite fed up with the Food Network and their on going quest to provide less and less actual cooking on the network. They seemed to be more concerned with making sure Rachel Ray has highlights in her hair and Giada’s boobs are peaking out at every possible moment. And the thing that irks me the most is that everything is “perfect, just perfect” to quote Ina Garten. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the Barefoot Contessa, but really, how can every fricken thing she makes be perfect? I experiment in the kitchen a lot. Sometimes what I make turns out like crap. Now granted, they probably aren’t going to put the crap recipe on their show, but you can’t tell me her soup doesn’t need more seasoning every now and again?

So when this month’s recipe was chosen, I was happy to see Julia Child’s name attached. I knew it would be a long one, but one that would no doubt please, and it did just that. I am giving you the recipe, just a link. It’s a LONG one. But don’t let that scare you. If you just break it down step by step, you will have no problems making this bread. Breadchick Mary (The Sour Dough) & Sara (I Like to Cook) were the co-hostesses for this month’s Daring Baker Challenge and what a lovely one it was.
This makes for a surprisingly flavorful bread, though it could have helped that I used fresh yeast.
Mine were made into one loaf and then several little mini batards to go with my beef barley soup.
If you’ve got the time, you should give this bread a go.
To see what the hundreds and hundreds of other Daring Bakers did, go here.
Bon Appetit!

I’m sick. Sick. Sick. I can’t even tell you what this weeks TWD baked good tasted like. It looked good. But food and I are not getting along right now.
But being the trooper that I am I got this done. Luckily, this week was Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits(selected by Ashley of Eat Me Delicious) and so little time was needed to accomplish it.
Make sure to check out the Tuesdays With Dorie blog to see way better efforts than me this week.
Off to bed.

Pecan Sour Cream Biscuits
 (Makes about 12 biscuits)

2 cups all-purpose flour (or 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour and 1/3 cup cake flour)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 10 pieces
1/2 cup cold sour cream
1/4 cold whole milk
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans, preferably toasted

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Get out a sharp 2-inch-diameter biscuit cutter and line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.

Whisk the flour(s), baking powder, salt, and baking soda together in a bow. Stir in the brown sugar, making certain there are no lumps. Drop in the butter and, using your fingers, toss to coat the pieces of butter with flour. Quickly, working with your fingertips (my favorite method) or a pastry blender, cut and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is pebbly. You’ll have pea-size pieces, pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and pieces the size of everything in between– and that’s just right.

Stir the sour cream and milk together and pour over the dry ingredients. Grab a fork and gently toss and turn the ingredients together until you’ve got a nice soft dough. Now reach into the bowl with your hands and give the dough a quick gentle kneading– 3 or 4 turns should be just enough to bring everything together. Toss in the pecans and knead 2 to 3 times to incorporate them.

Lightly dust a work surface with flour and turn out the dough. Dust the top of the dough very lightly with flour, pat the dough out with your hands or toll it with a pin until it is about 1/2 inch high. Don’t worry if the dough isn’t completely even– a quick, light touch is more important than accuracy.

Use the biscuit cutter to cut out as many biscuits as you can. Try to cut the biscuits close to one another so you get the most you can out of the first round. By hand or with a small spatula, transfer the biscuits to the baking sheet. Gather together the scraps, working with them as little as possible, pat out to a 1/2-inch thickness and cut as many additional biscuits as you can; transfer these to the sheet. (The biscuits ca be made to this point and frozen on the baking sheet, then wrapped airtight and kept for up to 2 months. Bake without defrosting– just add a couple more minutes to the oven time.)

Bake the biscuits for 14-18 minutes, or until they are tall, puffed and golden brown. Transfer them to a serving basket.

Source: Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, Houghton Mifflin Company, November 2006

My mother likes to remind me from time to time that I tell embarrassing things about our family on this blog. I reminded her that I did not tell embarrassing stories about our family…just me, my husband, her and my dad. My brother’s and their families have yet to be brought down in blog glory. I also told her that she should stop providing me with so much embarrassing material then I would have nothing to write about.
So keeping with embarrassing, I will embarrass myself today by saying that though I have access to some of the best seafood around, my husband and I usually go to Red Lobster once a year. Are you happy mom? I am embarrassing myself, not you(you are up next week). Now in all fairness though, I don’t actually go for the seafood. You are feeling better about this now, aren’t you?
I go for two things, the Cheddar Bay Biscuits and a Sunset Passion Colada.
If you are unfamiliar with the Red Lobster, you will live I can assure you. But if you have been surely you know of the addictive cheddar biscuits that they bring to your table. My husband and I plow through tons of them.
The other thing I love there is the Sunset Passion Colada. Yeah, it’s a fancy name for a pina colada with some strawberry sauce on top. But for some reason I really, really like them. I loved pina coladas as a kid…the virgin kind, I’m not Drew Barrymore, and I don’t think that love ever went away. Now in my “older” years beer and wine are what you will usually find me drinking. The shear calories in a pina colada(around 600) are frightening and I would much rather EAT my calories then drink them. But when we make the trek to the giant lobster in the sky…well mall outskirts, I always have one, and if I am throwing caution to the wind, two of them.
It’s been well over a year now since we have gone and I have been craving a Red Lobster colada and so I thought I would create a dessert instead…that way I could eat the calories and not drink them. This is a simple coconut cake, some pineapple(crushed from a can…I know, but no fresh was looking good), a pineapple Bavarian and a strawberry-guava syrup. I have to say that this dessert will more than tide me over until we make our next trek to the Red Lobster. If I could make the biscuits at home we would never have to go. Now, before you say there are copy cat recipes, I know this. I don’t want to know them. Learning to make those biscuits would be a very, very bad thing. Very bad. Very bad indeed. I have colada control…I don’t have Cheddar Bay Biscuit control.

Pina Colada Torte with Strawberry-Guava Syrup

Coconut Cake

8 TBSP unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup vegetable shortening
1 TBSP baking powder
1 ¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp coconut extract
5 large egg whites
2 ¾ cup cake flour
1 cup milk
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, shortening, baking powder, sugar, salt and extracts until light and fluffy, at least 3 minutes. Add the egg whites to the butter mixture one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Stir in one-third of the flour into the creamed mixture, then half the milk, another third of the flour, the remaining milk, and the remaining flour. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl occasionally throughout this process. Fold the coconut into the batter.
Pour the batter into a greased and floured 9-x-13-inch pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Remove cakes from oven, and cool them on rack.

Source: Adapted Form King Arthur Flour Bakers Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Book, 2003

Pineapple Bavarian

1 packet powdered gelatin(around 2 ¼ tsp)
1 cup fresh pineapple juice, divided
3 large eggs, separated
¼ cup granulated sugar, divided
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Place ¼ cup of the pineapple juice into a small bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over and let dissolve.
In a saucepan, whisk together egg yolks and 1/8 cup granulated sugar. Do not place over heat, yet.
Bring remaining pineapple juice to a boil in a small saucepan. Once boiled, remove from heat. Temper egg mixture with juice, slowly adding the juice to the egg mixture and whisking the whole time. Move to stove top and heat and simmer, stirring constantly, until sauce coats the back of a spoon.
Place saucepan  into a large, heat proof bowl filled with ice. This will help the mixture cool quicker. Watch to make sure the gelatin doesn’t start to set. Once cool, remove from ice bath and set aside.
Whip 1 cup heavy cream into stiff peaks. Set aside.
Whip egg whites and the remaining 1/8 cup granulated sugar until stiff peaks form.
Carefully fold the egg whites with the whipped cream. Then fold the mixture into the cooled pineapple mixture.

Strawberry-Guava Syrup

½ cup granulated sugar
2 ounce water
2 ounces guava juice
3 ounces of strawberries, pureed

In a small saucepan, bring sugar and water to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in the guava juice and strawberry puree.

To assemble: Find a round cookie cutter that is the size of the bottom of the dish you are using. Cut out coconut cake using that cutter.
Spray your dish with baking spray or butter them lightly.
Place cake circle at bottom of dish. Top with pineapple(optional). Fill remainder of the dish with pineapple Bavarian.
Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Unmold and serve with Strawberry-Guava Syrup.

So back towards the end of January I held my housewarming party. It was only females, most of who belonged to either a Newlywed group I hang out with or the Book Club Girls. I chose to go this route because my husband and I’s friends are most definitely eclectic and probably wouldn’t mesh all that well…plus, I’m not paying for alcohol for hockey players(we throw back..a lot).
I of course made more food than what the girls could eat, but my mother raised me to cook for 50…even when only 5 were coming. We had a couple vegetarians and so I kept that in mind when making the menu. The menu looked like this(keep in mind this was a 1:00pm party):

Cheese Platter with Grapes and Apples: Cabernet Soaked Cheddar, Balrina Hard Goat Cheese, Double Cream Brie, and Mango-Ginger Stilton
Cheddar Ale Spread
Hummus and Veggies
Pear, Pecan and Gorgonzola Salad
Puff Pastry Bites filled with Chicken Salad
Puff Pastry Bites filled with Goat Cheese and Roasted Peppers
Bacon wrapped Water Chestnuts in Blackberry BBQ Sauce 
Mini Vanilla Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting
Brownie Cake Bites with Caramel-Peanut Sauce
Ricotta Cheesecake with Mixed Seasonal Fruit

Beverages: White wine(La Crema Chardonnay, A to Z Pinot Gris), Izze Sodas in Blackberry, Apple and Clemintine. I really wanted the Pear but couldn’t find it anywhere. Strawberry Lemonade Smoothies.

I forgot to take pictures before we started to eat and some of the food was in the kitchen, but you get the idea.

I realized when I started writing this post that you all have not seen a picture of my completed kitchen. So here are two shots of the place where I spend most of my time.

Now onto the food. One of the desserts that was served was a Ricotta Cheesecake. If you have never had one, they are different from that of a New York Style cheesecake…much lighter and of course the texture is different due to the ricotta. I like to serve it at parties since it a little lighter. You can use whatever berries or fruit you would like on top. I chose strawberries for the shear fact that they were the best looking produce(fruit) that day.

Ricotta Cheesecake

For the Crust:

2 cups crushed vanilla Oreos or vanilla wafers
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup melted butter

Combine ingredients in a food processor. This makes for a thick crust. If you want less crust, half the recipe. Press mixture down flat into a greased 10-inch spring form pan.
Preheat oven to 350F. Bake crust for 12 minutes. Set aside.
For the Cheesecake:

1 pound cream cheese
1 pound Ricotta cheese
2 cups sour cream
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
½ cup all-purpose flour
6 eggs
1 tsp lemon zest
1 TBSP vanilla extract

Reduce oven heat to 325F.
Cream the cheeses on medium speed until soft and blended.
Add the sugar and mix well, about 3 minutes. Add the sour cream and mix for another minute.
Reduce speed to low and add flour.
Add eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add lemon zest and vanilla extract.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in a water bath for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Check cheesecake after one hour.
When cake is removed from oven, remove it from water bath. Let cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Then refrigerate for at least 4 hours, overnight works best.

To make the fruit:

3 cups diced strawberries
juice of one lime
1/3 cup sugar

Mix together and let maserate overnight. Place onto of cheesecake when ready to serve.