Sprightly Biscuits

I've been cleaning out some boxes from my move (6 months ago) and came across a slip of paper with the following recipe on it.

"On Saturday, Melanie, David and I invented Sprightly Biscuits.  Let's see if I can reproduce the recipe here.

We started with Bisquick; however much is needed for a small batch of plain biscuits, but the prescribed amount of milk.

I pulsed the following in a food processor:
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
8 pitted dates
1/4 cup craisins

David, with a delightful grin on his face, added cinnamon, ground clove, and small amount of brown sugar.  This may have been all.

The Sprightly Biscuits were baked for however long, but with 2 minutes to go, David took them out, sprinkled them with sugar, and baked them for the remaining 2 minutes.

Delicious.  Perhaps in the future, it'll be made with flour, since Bisquick has such a distinct taste.  Further experimentation, here we come!"

This whole recipe was thrown together in about half an hour before a dinner party that my sister had to attend.  She was going to buy something at the store for the potluck, but David and I shamed her into taking something homemade.  Thus, Sprightly Biscuits.

Worst. Thing. Ever.

Failed bread. I've had few cooking experiences that compare in disappointment, embarassment, and disgustingness. Breadmaking is so formulaic that's it's easy and so satisfying that it should be done all the time. The anticipation of a baking loaf is so great, and the disappointment of failing so much greater. I would put this on the same level as burning popcorn or screwing up Easy Mac.

But by far the worst thing is that I can't stop myself from eating it.

I have a couple theories on what might have screwed it up. The most plausible is that I killed my yeast by adding buttermilk too soon. I gasped in horror as soon as I added it, but I thought I saw bubbles so I went ahead. It also could still be too cold for bread to rise well (though I doubt it, it's in the 70's in direct sunlight), or maybe my dough wasn't gluteny enough (I'm skeptical of my current flour, but my dough had a pretty good consistancy; I don't think that was the problem).

This post ironcially casts my cooking in a bad light, because most of it has been so good lately. This is the first product in a week that's stayed out of my mouth long enough to photograph. My recent successful activity includes:

• Buttermilk Biscuits
• Tomato-Basil Soup
• Jambalaya with Crab (seafood item #3)
• Puff Pastry (by far the coolest thing I've done, I'll try to post on it soon)
• Steak with Yogurt Gravy
• Exceptionally Flavorful Stocks (Chicken and Beef)
• Fajitas (with homemade marinade and homemade wheat tortillas)

If you're interested, the above (usually successful) bread recipe is:

• 1 1/4 cup water (this time I did 3/4 cup water and 1/2 cup orange flower water)
• 1 T yeast
• 1 T sugar
  
• 1 cup milk (buttermilk this time)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 T fake honey (real honey too rich for my blood)
• Pinch ground cloves
• 6 cups flour (I mix four kinds, which probably won't relate at all to what you get in the store.)
• 1 t salt

Warm the water, add sugar and yeast and let yeast wake up. Scald milk with butter, add honey and let cool to about 120 F. Mix liquids (though not if you are using buttermilk, my mistake above) and add 1 cup of flour and cloves and beat for about a minute. In a big bowl, mix 5 cups of flour together with salt. Pour batter into flour and mix together. Knead until you break a sweat, probably adding more flour. Let rise once in the bowl, once in the pans. I covered the above loaf with an egg wash and sesame seeds.

Strange Canned Seafood

I'm working my way through the strange canned seafood my parents packed for me on my way back to America. The original list included:

• Smoked Oysters
• Crab
• Caviar
• Octopus.

I tried two recipes and knocked out two:

Roasted Chicken with Oyster and Wild Rice Stuffing
Ingredients:

• Chicken
• Stale bread
• 1 can smoked oysters
• onions
• celery
• basil and oregano (I had no sage)
• 1 cup wild rice
• 2 cups chicken stock

I'm secretly trying to achieve the amazing roast chicken texture that my sitemate gets every time. She's big on soaking the chicken in brine, which I did for about 2 hours. I softened the onions and celery, added cooked rice, and all the other ingredients.

Everything was great, though the chicken could have used some a flavor rub.

Pulpo a Fiera (Octopus Tapas)

I got the recipe off this blog. I was pleased, but I mostly attribute the recipe's success to the out-of-site good olive oil we have in Morocco.

• Can of Octopus
• Bay Leaf
• Onion
• Potato
• Paprika
• Olive oil
• Garlic

I boiled the octopus and set aside (though I couldn't figure out if that is required of canned octopus, I'm assuming not). Then in the same water, added onions and bay and boiled the potatoes. Dressed with olive oil mixed with garlic and paprika.



Bssahha!

Gin and Tonic Cupcakes

After my gin and tonic party last month, I had about a shot of New Amsterdam gin left in my pantry, and was absolutely determined to make something with the gin.  But I had never heard of any recipe using gin.  Rum, tequila, vodka; all of these I've cooked with, but never gin.  Even my cocktail book has no baking or cooking uses for gin.  But I am a determined girl, and I found something.

Yumsugar has a recipe for Gin and Tonic Cupcakes that I altered a bit for my own purposes (read: items available to me in the pantry), and have found an interesting little snack.

Here's what I came up with:

CUPCAKES
2 egg whites
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tbsp sparkling water
lime zest
ICING
1/2 cup cream cheese
1 tbsp gin
2 tbsp powdered sugar
lime zest
lime slices dipped in sugar


Preheat the oven to 325 degrees farhenheit.


With a mixer, beat the egg whites with salt and lemon juice until risen like a soft merengue.

Beat in the sugar.  Fold in the flour.  Add sparkling water.

Bake 15-20 minutes.

Spoon cream cheese into a bowl, beat with gin and sugar and lime zest.

When cupcakes are cool, ice the tops and place a sugared lime slice on each.

Here is a link to some other suggestions for cooking with gin: (I can't vouch for any of them yet)
Chowhound

Fresh Blueberry Muffins

I've been thinking a lot about the Slow Food movement, and eating locally and eating seasonally.

This post is not about that.

We bought the blueberries out of season.  And they were good.  Very good.

Fresh Blueberry Muffins

3/4 cup sugar

1/8 cup vegetable oil

1/2 tsp lemon zest

1 egg

1 slightly beaten egg white

1/4 cup cottage cheese

1/4 cup yogurt

1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup buckwheat flour

1/2 tbsp baking powder

1/2 pint blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 350
2. Cream the sugar, oil, and zest.  Add the egg and egg white and mix.  Add the yogurt and cottage cheese and mix.  Add the vanilla and lemon juice and mix.
3. Slowly add the flour and baking powder, stirring until completely blended.
4. When the batter is smooth, add blueberries and fold gently.  Don't break up the berries.
5. If using paper muffin liners, place them in the muffin tin.  If not using liners, lightly spray the tin.  Fill the cups 3/4 full with the batter.  Place in the over and bake for 25 minutes, or until the center is set.

Good experiments (and bad)

So, to make up for the disappointing dinner disaster from last night, I hoped my lunch today would be better.  Let's start with last night.

Linguine and Clams with Tomato-Fennel Salad

I was really quite excited about it.  It sounded like an update on a recipe that my mom has cooked all my life, which is a linguine and clams with a lemon-garlic sauce.  On Saturday, she and I went to Soulard Market, and bought, among other things, fresh fennel.  Last night, home late from picking out fabric for a baby quilt for my cousin and critiquing my aunts new kitchen color scheme, I must have fallen back into my impatient cook mode, and that's probably why this meal didn't work so well.

• 2 cups chopped seeded tomatoes (about 4 large)
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh fennel bulb
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 3 tablespoons (packed) chopped fresh basil
• 1 tablespoon olive oil (preferably extra-virgin)
• 1/2 teaspoon (packed) grated orange peel

• 2 cups dry white wine
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 large garlic clove, crushed
• 30 littleneck clams, scrubbed

• 12 ounces linguine

Combine tomatoes, chopped fennel, red onion, basil, olive oil and orange peel in medium bowl. Season salsa with salt and pepper.


Bring wine, fennel seeds, salt and garlic to boil in very large pot. Reduce heat, cover tightly and simmer 10 minutes to blend flavors. Add clams. Increase heat to high, cover and cook until clams open, about 7 minutes (discard any clams that do not open.) Using slotted spoon, transfer clams to bowl. Strain clam cooking liquid through fine strainer; return to same pot. Boil until liquid is reduced to 1 2/3 cups, about 7 minutes. Add tomato salsa and bring to simmer. Remove from heat. Meanwhile, cook linguine in large pot with tomato mixture. Season with salt and pepper; toss to blend. Add clams; stir over medium heat until heated through, about 3 minutes.

Just realized I skipped a step: simmering the salsa in the cooking liquid.  THAT would be why it had no flavor...  Le sigh.  That's what happens when you're impatient.

So for lunch today, I sauted some fresh veggies and dill, toasted my favorite nut bread, mixed some cream cheese and blue cheese, and ate those together.  Delicious, really.  Makes up in taste for last nights dulldullmeal.

It's all an experiment.

I'm Connected!

After a month of agonizing red tape, I finally have internet in my dar (house)! I'm all set to start exchanging!

I've got two items to post for now:

Cabbage Stew with Lamb














(I always just guess on measurements)

Lamb
Bay
Salt
Pepper
Ginger
Onions
Carrots
Cabbage
Spinache (I had just a couple leaves lying around I wanted to get rid of)
Tomatoes

So this typical of how I have been (or at least should be) eating in the cold. Put stuff together in a pot with water and make it hot.

This was half inspired by my own incompetence, half inspired a recipe. I was at the market and the vender buying from had a cauliflour on display in front of a bunch of cabbage heads. Naturally assuming that the cauliflour was an open sample the other items, I picked up a huge one. I ran home (actually, the cyber at this time) and looked up a recipe for Italian-style caulifour in vinegar. Halfway through preparing the recipe, I turn to clean my cauliflour only to realize that there's no white stuff inside. It was all leaves!

So anyway, I've had cabbage sitting around needing to be used for a week, and I found something approaching this recipe online.

I didn't have any stock and the lamb cut I wasn't great, so I first made a stock with the lamb, boiling it for about an hour. Then I separated the meat from the bone and returned it to the pot with fresh veggies and the cabbage, and simmered it for another hour.

Savory Corn Pancakes














1/2 cup corn flour
1/2 cup normal flour
salt
2 t baking powder
pinch baking soda
1 t salt
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup buttermilk
green onions
green pepper


I know I took this off your list from before, but I think we had the same inspiration (your brunch in Chicago?). I'd be curious to see how you vary the recipe. Mine is a combination of a couple I found online.

The only big problem is that I didn't plan ahead for how I would dress it. I wanted to make something approaching ranch dressing with the butter milk I had left over, but they all called for mayonnaise and/or sour cream, neither of which I had. I ended up making a quick tomato and onion salsa; it's hard to go wrong with tomatoes, salt, and pepper.

Let it begin!

I've got a handful of recipes I've printed out or scribbled onto post-its stuck with a heavy-duty magnet to my fridge.

Carrot Cornbread
Cornmeal Pancakes
Spicy Stir-Fried Tofu with Snow Peas, Peanut Butter and Mushrooms
Earl Grey Tea Cookies
Asian Slaw
Potato Salad with Herbs and Grilled Summer Squash

I've made them all (except the carrot cornbread) and have intentions to play around with them and make them mine.  Until then, they're just good recipes I've come across and want to remember.

Let's get this Recipe Exchange-thing started. 

What do you suggest?