Failed attempt 1 at Peach Nirvana

I am working on developing a recipe for "Peach Nirvana" as a sort of cobbler for a science fiction story my wife and I are writing. Long story. At least so far, but we aren't done writing it yet. The cook in the story makes a cobbler for the crew that is a hit.

My first attempt was to adapt the Lemon Wedges over Shortbread recipe with the peach syrup and peaches in place of the lemon juice and zest. I cut the sugar in half since there is a lot of sweetness in the syrup and peaches and none of the sour of the lemon to contend with.

Little known fact, peaches are bigger and juicier than shavings of lemon zest. Word.

FAIL

But there were some lessons learned.

Never give up. Never surrender. 

Lemon wedges on shortbread

Wanted to bring a little something to a party and realized I hadn't had lemon squares in a long while. Dug around for a recipe, and didn't see anything familiar, so I decided to try the one from The New Best Recipe Cookbook.

It was quite rich but very flavorful with good balance between the filling and the crust.

Spring scramble: sausage potato spinach

My lady asked for potatoes and sausage. This is what I came up with. 

This time I pulled out my cast iron. I like the way it turned out. I often make something similar in stainless steel. So, to your own liking I suppose.

Steam quartered potatoes until tender.
Fry up sausage, chopped green onion in butter and bacon drippings. Add chopped apple, prepared potatoes, roasted carrots (previously frozen).
Set the oven on low heat 150º-200º F and put tortillas on an oven safe plate with another upside down on top as a cover.

BBQed Butterflied chicken burrito

First, butterfly a chicken.

Then broilify the chicken on a bed of aromatic veggies.

Once the skin is nice, roastify it in a 350 degree oven until done (I ended up at an internal temp of 160).

Broil some pineapple chunks.

Then sautee them with some onions.

Add the chicken, shredded, and some BBQ sauce. 

Serve on a toasted tortilla with some sour cream rolled into a burrito. 

Another failed attempt at bacon jam. You may recall the first attempt at Bacon Butter FAIL which had almost the same outcome. I was much more diligent with the stirring, so I don't think it was inattention. I suspect I am applying much more heat in the early part. Also there isn't much mention of lids. I assumed that simmer implied lid off to allow reduction, but maybe it is simmer lid on?

I am going to have to schedule a time to make it with my friend who has made it successfully.

Anyway, the salami, pastrami, turkey quesadilla for dinner worked out.
And now I have some lumps of Bacon Coal to save for unsuspecting naughty girls and boys stockings this christmas.

French bread pudding

I got this recipe from my good friend Dawn who says it is a combination of ones she found in The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Desserts and one from a Better Homes & Gardens recipe.

Bread Pudding recipe needed

I had some fantastic bread pudding last night. If you have a recipe that you like for bread pudding that you are willing to share, please do so in the comments. It seems like there is a tremendous variety of approaches to bread pudding so I am interested in doing some exploring of the space of possibilities. So even if you don't have a favorite recipe, what do you think makes a good bread pudding?

The one I had last night tasted like a combination of boiled custard and french toast and was really delightful, light, moist, and comforting. Seemed like an excellent summer desert or decadent breakfast. I suspect that later in the year when things turn cold again, it would be nice to have something a little more substantial. Maybe with some dried cranberries and more spices and a little denser.

Some recipes on line I may explore:

• Wikibooks: has a straightforward recipe that looks a little dry in the photo
• Pioneer Woman: Bread Puddding with sourdough bread cubes and pecan topping and a Whiskey Cream Sauce
• There look to be a lot of recipes at Betty Crocker
• Traditional recipes for amish bread pudding, and english bread and butter pudding

Any thoughts welcome ...

Bacon Butter FAIL

I was camping with a buddy of mine and he pulled out some bacon butter. Wow. Just wow. So I sought out the recipe and here is my first attempt.

I made a couple of tweaks from the original ingredient list.

Site assembled brick oven

Wouldn't camping with a thousand of your closest friends be more fun with an on-site assembled oven? Of course it would, as I found out last weekend.

The design is based off directions for a backyard pizza oven found on You Tube, with added angle iron structure for more stability. Wonderboard is placed on saw horses for the base. Then one layer of 12 fire bricks make up the bed of the oven. Then courses of ordinary red clay bricks, not cement brick , are built up with angle irons to hold everything in place.

Courses across the top are supported by angle irons. Extra pieces of wonderboard serve as wind screens, a top, and a door.

Apple Bacon German Pancake

Another take on one of my favorite breakfast foods, the german pancake, but this time with bacon!

Hazelnut Almond Cookies

I had rather a lot of egg whites to turn into almond cookies. Rather more in fact than I had almond meal on hand in the fridge. So I experimented with replacing 1/3 of the almond meal with hazelnut meal. I like the look and texture that resulted. Gave the cookies a little more depth.

For 3 egg whites, use 1 1/3 cups almond meal 2/3 cup hazelnut meal, 1/3 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, and a pinch of salt.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees -- low and slow.

Whip the egg whites with a little cream of tartar to stiff peaks. Whip in sugar and vanilla. Fold in nut meals.

Scoop batter onto lined baking sheets. I like to use an scoop. You could spoon them on for a more irregular surface.

Bake at 300 degrees until set and just starting to brown. About 30 minutes, but times vary.

I have noticed a lot of variation from batch to batch depending on the ratios of eggs to meal to sugar. You can get something more like a meringue or more like a cookie.

Fruit juice gelatin from scratch

There's always room for jello, or in this case, fruit juice gelatin.

Bloom  2 packets of gelatin (I use Knox) in 1/2 cup cold water.
Heat 3-4 cups juice to near boiling.
Add bloomed gelatin and 1-2 Tbs lemon juice.
Cool to near room temperature (could put over ice or cool water to speed it along).
Add fruit.
Refrigerate until set.

I use 3 cups of juice for a firm gelatin. More juice would result in a softer set.

Pan Fried Cod with Lime sauce and Lemon

I have been trying to eat more fish. Cod seemed like a good place to start. I started with a recipe from sippitysup.com. I have since tried it again without the brining step. The brining did add something. But in a pinch, better to get dinner to the table and it can be skipped.

Brine the fish for 1 hour in 6 cups iced water and 1/4 cup coarse salt.

Rinse and dry.

Dredge the brined then dried fish with seasoned flour about 1/4 cup.

Set the oven to 200 degrees to uses as a warming drawer. Place serving platter in the oven.

Fry the fish presentation side down in a pan with olive oil and butter over medium-high heat. It will take less than two minute in to get some nice browning. 

Flip the fish and insert an instant read probe thermometer. Place this lemon slices on top.

I love having a probe thermometer with a temperature alarm. Make sure the probe goes sideways into the middle of the fish and not up and down (harder to get an accurate measurement).

Pull from the heat when it hits 118 degrees (it will continue to cook with the carryover heat). Place the fish in the warming drawer. Reserve the pan drippings and fond for a sauce.

I used half a bottle of Mike's Hard Limeade to deglaze the pan over high heat, scrapping all the lovely cooked bits off the bottom of the pan. Reduce the sauce then take off the heat and add a Tbs of butter and swirl in.

What to do with the half a bottle of limeade that's left over? 

Sauce the fish with the lemon slices and serve.

Definitely an approach I will use again and again.

Making fresh cheese

After several experiments with making fresh cheese I am hooked.

I like to use the cheese in salads, artichoke dip, anywhere you might use a soft cheese really.

Vanilla recipe

I have been enjoying my homemade vanilla that I had posted about earlier. Now that it has developed a nice color and flavor and has been refreshed a number of times, I thought it would be good to revisit the subject.

The vanilla recipe I used came from make some vanilla extract.

Pictured is my current stock.

Here is how it looked when first assembled.

I picked up some Indian vanilla beans from Stone Cottage (my favorite spice store), and some cheap vodka from my local liquor store.

Make Sushi Party -- Norimaki

In this third installment of the Sushi Party recap we look at what I always think of when people talk about sushi, norimaki. Seaweed wrapped around sushi rice surrounding some good stuff.

Make Sushi Party -- California Rolls

I enjoy sushi, but it is not a big part of my life. So I was unprepared for how fantastic a sushi making party could be. We had a couple of folks who seemed to know what they were doing show the rest of us how to prepare, roll, and cut california rolls and other delicacies for what turned out to be an amazing lunch.

Make Sushi Party -- Rice pockets

As part of a sushi making party my young friend Rachel pitched in making rice pockets in fried soy bean curd -- also called inarizushi.

Creamed butter, sugar, and eggs.

So when I posted about the chocolate chip cookie fail, one thing I didn't get a picture of was how strange the caramel + brown sugar + butter + eggs looked. The butter clarified and didn't fully incorporate into the caramel.

This is what creamed butter, sugar, and eggs is supposed to look like ...

I wish I better understood the chemistry of what is going on with this magical concoction when making cookies.

Update: I got a great comment from donaleen about a Baking 911 blog post that goes into great detail about creaming butter and sugar and the considerations of the temperatures involved. Well worth a read.

Things to try

Time to start a new list of things to try:

• Home made food colors (with some recipes from here)
• Cheese snack crackers