Hummus

Homemade hummus is easy, fast, and super yummy! It's also impossible to go wrong, and you can vary the ingredients any way you like depending on the flavor you want.

Today I made a traditional hummus with a few added spices.

Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas (or you can buy beans and soak them overnight)
1/4 c water from chickpeas
2 T olive oil
Juice of 1 small lemon
1-3 T tahini
1-2 cloves fresh garlic
1/2 t salt
pepper, to taste

Optional:
cumin & paprika, to taste
roasted red pepper
roasted garlic

Because hummus is very personal (I find), all the ingredients are estimates. I usually just toss in a little bit of everything without measuring and taste as I go until I like the flavor.

It's best to make hummus in some type of food processor or blender, although I have a friend who makes it by hand with a potato masher and hers was delicious.

Combine all ingredients in the food processor except the water, being conservative at first (maybe half the lemon juice, 1 T tahini, 1 clove garlic). As it's mixing, add the water slowly until desired consistency is reached. Taste and add more ingredients until you're satisfied with the flavor.

If you're making roasted red pepper/roasted garlic, before you make the hummus preheat your oven to 400 F. Take an entire head of garlic and slice off about 1/4'' on top so most of the cloves are exposed. Drizzled olive oil over the cloves so it soaks inside and sprinkle with seasoning/spices if desired. Wrap in aluminum foil and place on a baking tray with the red pepper. Bake for 20-30 minutes, turning the pepper until the skin is blackened on all sides. Remove from oven & remove the pepper skin when it's cool enough to handle. Save as much juice as possible and add this to the hummus with your pepper. The garlic will be easy to remove from its skin as well and extra can be stored in the fridge.

Multigrain Seeded Bread (German Brown Bread)

I found this recipe online one day when I was craving a hearty multigrain/whole wheat bread. Something tasty and full of flavor but not so dense that every bite weighs you down. In the reviews, someone said it tasted like authentic German seeded bread. After making it once & having been to Germany and eaten their delicious dark bread, I agree. Thus, my name for this bread is: German Brown Bread.

Here is the original recipe, from allrecipes.com

The great thing about this recipe is there is a lot of room for improvisation. Not only with the ingredients, but also in the method. I like making bread by hand because it's fun, but this can easily be made in a bread machine. Also, I made some changes to the method listed in the recipe (mostly because it didn't make too much sense). I'm going to tell you how I did it here, to see the original, just click the link above.

Ingredients:
1 package yeast
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
3/4 c white flour
1/2 t salt
2 T molasses
1 c water
1 egg white
3 T sunflower seeds
3 T pumpkin seeds
3 T sesame seeds
1/3 c rolled oats (steel cut oats also work)
1 T milk

In a small pan, mix together the water and molasses and heat until the water starts to steam. I usually stick my finger in to test the warmth, or you can use a thermometer--about 120 F. If it is too hot to hold your finger in for a few seconds, then it is too hot to start the yeast. If the water is the right temperature, pour into a large bowl and add the yeast & salt. Set aside until it's foamy, about 5-10 mins.

Meanwhile, sift your flours into a bowl & separate your egg white. You can substitute anything you like for flour here. Usually I'll put in oat flour for some of the white flour, and bran & flax for some of the wheat. When the yeast is ready, pour some of the flour into the bowl and mix. Then add the egg, then the rest of the flour. If the dough is too dry to mix with a spoon, pour out onto a floured surface and start kneading. If you need to add more flour, do that and then begin kneading.

Knead the dough for 10 minutes. Place back into the bowl, coat with vegetable oil, and cover with a towel.

Let rise 2 hours. While rising, punch down every 15-30 mins. The more you punch it down the more the dough rises.

Now is the fun part! Uncover the bread and bring it back to your workspace. Mix together the seeds & oats & sprinkle all except 2 T into the bread bowl. (The 2 T will be for sprinkling on top later). Knead the seeds into the dough until combined. Empty onto a floured surface and shape into a loaf. Place into a greased loaf pan, cover, and let rise 1 hr.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Brush with milk and sprinkle with remaining seeds. Bake 30 minutes. Test to see if the bread is done by turning it out of the pan and tapping on the bottom. If it sounds hollow it's done. Let cool before serving.

The tanginess from the molasses & crunch of the seeds result in a very satisfying flavor & texture combination. Mmm, great with dinner and it will be even better for breakfast tomorrow morning.

Baking Powder Biscuits

Biscuits were the first recipe I ever made by myself and they are easily the recipe I have made the most times in my life. They only have 5 ingredients, are easy and fun to make, and I have the recipe memorized, so I've made them many times while traveling or staying with friends.

In New Zealand I used to call these "American Biscuits" since their cookies are biscuits.

Ingredients:
5 1/3 T butter (1/3 c)
2 c flour (I like to do 1/2 whole wheat 1/2 white)
3 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
3/4 c milk

If you would like to add some variation to your biscuits, you can also add in fresh fruit like blueberries, peaches, plums, or sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar.

Preheat oven to 450 F.

Prepare your dry ingredients before you remove the butter from the fridge. The colder it is while you work, the better they come out. Sift the flour, salt, & baking powder into a bowl. Then add the butter & cut it in quickly. I used to use my hands to mix it in until it was a crumb-like texture, but this warms up the butter. I now have a handy little tool for cutting-in butter that also works well for pies. Hands work just fine though, plus its more fun :)
 
After your butter is mixed in, grab a fork in your right hand and the 3/4 c milk in your left hand. Pour the milk in the bowl while you stir with the fork. Stop stirring when everything is combined into a clump and there are barely-to-no crumbs left. You want the dough to be wet to the touch & stick to your finger.

At this point you have two options.
1: Drop biscuits, where you simply remove clumps of dough and drop them onto an ungreased sheet pan. Make sure you flour your hands so the dough doesn't stick and make a mess.

2 (I usually do it this way): Dump out onto a floured surface and press down to about 1/4'' thick. Here you can add anything you like--blueberries, other fruit, cinnamon sugar--then fold in half and press down again. Do this about 4 or 5 times, adding toppings each time. Make sure you save some to sprinkle on top. When you're done, only press it down to about 1/2'' and cut into pieces. Makes 10-12 pieces. Place on ungreased baking sheet & poke with a fork.

Bake 8-10 minutes.

When I made them this morning I made half with cinnamon sugar & half with fresh plum. I had to use Sea Salt instead of regular table salt and they came out incredibly salty. I found it very distracting, though others who ate them didn't mind at all.

Fruit Cobbler

Today I found myself aimlessly wandering around the kitchen, opening and reopening the fridge and cabinets looking for food that was nowhere to be found. Clearly this excess of energy and lack of food must be resolved by baking something!

Four nectarines had sadly been confined to the fridge fruit bin, after sitting on the kitchen table for days, ripening to perfection, but still lacking any flavor whatsover. They were asking to be made into a delicious dessert. I decided to make a cobbler, since I've made quite a few pies in the past week or so and it's been months (or maybe even a year) since I've made cobbler.

Cobbler can be baked with either the fruit on the bottom or on top, but it is always served with the fruit on top. I prefer making it with the fruit on the bottom, that way the fruit is moist and juicy while the crust is crunchy and browned, but still fluffy.

I decided to use the recipe from the Joy of Cooking, I don't think I've ever made their cobbler before. It also uses the book's "Fluffy Biscuit/Shortcake" recipe as the pastry topping, which I tried insetad of my own biscuit recipe.

Ingredients:
First make the pastry:
1 short c flour
1/2 t salt
2 t baking powder
1/2 T sugar
3 T butter
3/8 c milk

In a bowl, sift dry ingredients then cut in the butter. (When making pastry, make sure the butter is taken directly out of the fridge and still cold.) Add in the milk, and mix with a fork until combined and few crumbs remain. Set aside. NOTE: When I made this, I didn't flip back to the cobbler page and started kneading the dough. I ended up kneaded it into an 8''x8'' square to make a fit topping for the cobbler. If you'd rather do this, flour your surface, and very gently fold over the dough several times and press down until it has about 6-8 layers.

When the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 425 F and grease an 8''x8'' square pan. Start making the fruit filling by peeling your fruit and removing pits/seeds.

Fruit Filling:
3 c fruit (I used nectarines and a couple small plums)
1/3 c sugar, or more depending on sweetness of fruit
1 T flour
cinnamon & nutmeg to taste
2 T butter

Combine fruit, sugar, & flour into a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Heat on M until the fruit starts bubbling, stirring regularly. Once it smells good and the sauce has thickened (about 5 minutes), remove from heat and pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon & nutmeg and dot with butter. Cover with pastry. If made into an 8''x8'' sheet like I did, this can be carefully placed on top as with pie dough--fold in half, move to the dish, then unfold. If you left your pastry in the bowl, you can pull off clumps of it and drop them on top of the fruit, similar to drop biscuits, and you'll get a nice texture when it bakes.

Bake 30 mins & serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream (or both).
I let the cobbler sit for a few hours before eating, but it was still a little warm when I served it. The fruit held together nicely and was not too sweet. The pastry topping balanced the filling perfectly and was not too buttery. I wish I had some ice cream to eat with it!

Right out of the oven

Corn Bread

A nice accompaniment to any meal, corn bread also makes a delicious snack. Unlike most breads, I like to eat it immediately after it comes out of the oven, while its still steaming. Tonight I made it as a side dish with dinner--vegetable soup, salad, & corn bread--yum!

Choosing a good bread recipe is more difficult than one may think. The first time I made corn bread, I found one called "Grandma's Corn Bread", thinking this would be delicious. It took forever to bake, and was still soggy on the inside when the outside was brown and crispy. It was also incredibly buttery. Sorry Grandma, but this recipe was just okay.

This time, I pulled out my favorite bread book, "Bread Winners" by Mel London. It's an ancient text, with yellowing pages and a torn cover, but the recipes it holds have yet to disappoint. My goal is to try everything in this book at least once.

The index listed several recipes, including: Sour Milk Corn Bread, Texas Corn Bread, Sourdough Corn Bread, Buttermilk Corn Bread, Extra Corny Bread, and 2 for just plain Corn Bread. I glanced at the ingredients list for Texas Corn Bread (which I had bookmarked previously), and the plain Corn Breads. I settled on making the following corn bread recipe because it called for plain milk instead of buttermilk (which I did not have), and had less sugar than the other recipes.

Ingredients
1 c flour
1 c yellow cornmeal
2 t baking powder
3/4 t salt
1 1/8 c milk
2 eggs
4 T melted butter
3 t honey

Preheat oven to 425 F & grease 12 muffin tins. Alternatively, you can bake in an 8''x8'' square pan, but it will take a few minutes longer.

Sift dry ingredients into a bowl & make a well in the center. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, melted butter, honey, and eggs, slightly beaten. Pour your liquids into the well in the dry ingredients and mix together to combine. Do not overmix. Pour into prepared muffin tins and bake for 18 minutes.

The recipe says to bake 20-25 minutes, but mine came out a bit crispy. I'm not sure why, but 18 minutes seems to be the secret number with muffins or cupcakes. That being said, the cornbread was still moist and delicious--unlike past attempts--and my whole family was pleased with the result. I wouldn't change anything about it, there was a perfect balance of sweet, salty, and buttery, and I will definitely be making these again.

Beef Stroganoff

The other night we went out to a Russian restaurant for dinner. While debating whether to order Chicken Kiev, Beef Stroganoff, or Lasagna made with filo dough, the waitress came over and offered, "In my opinion I wouldn't get the beef stroganoff, because it's easy to make at home". Her response settled our debate over dinner, but the next night my sister-in-law had a great idea: let's make beef stroganoff!

She pulled out "Please to the Table: The Russian Cookbook" and found the recipe for beef stroganoff. We made a half recipe, enough for the 3 of us plus leftovers.
Ingredients (halved):
1lb  filet mignon, cut into thin strips*
1 1/2 T butter
3/8 c finely chopped onion
1/2 lb fresh white mushrooms, cut in half
2 tsp flour
1/6 c beef stock
1/6 c heavy or whipping cream
1/4 c sour cream
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tsp chopped fresh dill
1 1/2 tsp chopped fresh parsley
salt & pepper to taste

* The author suggests cutting the steak into thin strips and searing in a pan 3-4 mins. Instead, we kept the pieces whole and grilled them. After letting the steak rest, we cut it into thin strips. Make sure you save the liquid from the meat, to add later.

After cooking the meat, melt the butter in a skillet over M heat. Saute the onion until tender/translucent. Increase to M/H heat and add mushrooms. Cook until well done & browned, the book suggests 20 mins.

Lower the heat to M/L, sprinkle in the flour and stir for 1 min.

Next, the directions say to add in the stock, heavy cream, mustard, & meat juices. Make sure the pan is on L & not too hot. When we added our liquids they instantly bubbled away and we had to add more. Simmer for 5 minutes until the sauce thickens--don't boil.

Finally, return the meat to the pan, coat with the sauce, and add in your herbs and spices to taste. We added more dill & parsley than the recipe called for.

Beef stroganoff can be served over pasta, mashed potatoes, or rice. We decided to serve ours over mashed potatoes, which worked out well because it wasn't incredibly saucey like when it's served in restaurants. Next time I'll add more stock and make sure the heat is lower when I add the liquids.

Crepes

Usually I wake up in the morning and lie in bed contemplating for a few moments all the breakfast recipes I could make. Then I go through the ingredients in my head and decide which recipe would be best based on what I feel like eating and what is available.

While lying in bed this particular morning, I weighed the pros and cons between crepes and muffins. We had a very ripe peach and some blueberries leftover, which would work in both recipes. I settled on crepes, because the fruit would be tastier in them, and finding a good recipe would be a breeze.

I searched for "Authentic Crepe Recipe" online. One of the first recipes that popped up was listed by a French Canadian, and had conflicting reviews (though overall, good ratings). The good reviews said they were excellent and authentic, the bad reviews said they were bland and boring. I'll go with boring but authentic any day over unnecessarily complicated. I also like to keep my ingredients list to a minimum--bigger does not mean better when you're crafting the perfect cake, bread, or dinner.

Here is the recipe:
1 c flour
1 egg
2 c milk
1 pinch salt*

Sift flour into a bowl and make a well in the center. Add egg, and begin whisking. Slowly pour in the milk until all the flour is combined. Can chill in the fridge overnight, but I like to use it right away. Some recipes suggest chilling for 2 hrs minimum, to remove lumps, but when you mix it this way there won't be lumps :)
*I added a pinch of salt after tasting the first crepe, it was a bit bland.

I usually cook crepes in a nice non-stick frying pan, but my brother has a specifically designed crepe pan, so I used that. While the pan was heating (low heat), I combined in a small heavy-bottom pot the peach (peeled), a handful of blueberries, 1 spoonful of brown sugar (about 2 tsp), a sprinkle of cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp vanilla. I turned this pan on medium and let the fruit stew for a few minutes, until it was soft and smelled scrumptious. If you overdo this part, you will be left with fruit stew, so be careful!

Meanwhile, my crepe pan was ready. I coated the pan in a little butter, and poured the first spoonful of batter. The recipe said to make them "paper thin" and my first one was definitely this thin. It didn't break, but for  how buttery it was, there probably should have been more batter. The first one is always a tester ;) My brother ate it and said it was good. My favorite filling was the cooked fruit with a little greek yogurt, but anything will work--sweet or savory. One time I made crepes with a friend and first we filled them with sweet things for breakfast, then filled them with meats, cheeses, and veggies for lunch.

Overall, true to recipe and reviews. Perhaps not the best crepes I've had, but satisfying nonetheless.

French Toast

What better way to start off this blog than with the most basic of basic breakfast foods: french toast.
French toast is so simple, I've never used a recipe for it before; simply crack some eggs into a bowl, add milk, and cinnamon, whisk to combine and ta-da you're ready to make some toast.

Yesterday morning was different. I woke up craving french toast, but decided to open up the Joy of Cooking and browse for recipes to perhaps "spice it up" a bit. The recipe I found called for 1/2 t vanilla in addition to 2 eggs, 1/3 c milk, & a sprinkle of cinnamon and salt for 4 pieces of stale bread. I omitted the 2 T sugar, since I usually douse my toast in maple syrup or the equivalent sweet toppings.

I used some leftover potato bread that had been sitting out overnight. It's the kind that comes in a paper bag, so it's delicious when you first cut into it, but doesn't really hold up well for more than a day. It had a thick crust and soft interior (despite being a day old).

I cooked on a cast iron pan, buttering it first. 10 minutes & a fully belly later, I felt very happy with my decision to use a recipe. The vanilla made all the difference. I definitely will be using it every time I make french toast from now on!