Wednesday, May 31, 2006

marvelous marbella

My friend, Rachel, made Chicken Marbella for me just after I had my first baby. It was so good we're still talking about it two years later. I finally got around to making it myself and we're hooked. I'm going to make it every week until we get sick of it. However, I found an error in my recipe, which may be contributing to our obsession for this dish. My recipe calls for either 4 chicken breasts and 4 thighs or 1 chicken quartered. I thought this was strange because 1 chicken quartered is clearly much less that 4 breasts and 4 thighs. This was especially evident when I tried "sprinkling" the cup of brown sugar over the 1 chicken quartered - that's a lot of sugar for one little bird. So when I looked for recipes on the internet, I discovered that most recipes call for at least 2 chickens quartered and some even 4, with the same ratios for the other ingredients. So the sugar in my dish has been 2-4 times the intended concentration. Shall I ignore this little detail and continue my sugary ways? Time will tell.

Friday, May 19, 2006

frog cake


Frog cake for my two year old. Bad photo but fun.

Monday, May 15, 2006

ribs

Just a reminder that pork ribs are so good. Get cooking.

My husband treated me to a special mother's day treat and wow! Best ribs I ever ate. He used the Cook's Illustrated recipe, which is members only, so I don't feel comfortable reposting it here. But I highly recommend subscribing to their website.

crust and crumb

This lovely loaf rose so tall in the oven and I was proud. The crust was golden, the crumb delicate. Then my first bite. So sad when bread goes bad. The mysterious bitterness haunted us for days until we finally decided the honey was the culprit. Oh, Schweizer Wald Honig - you do me wrong! So now I'm on the search for the perfect honey. Let me rephrase. I'm on the search for a perfect honey available in Switzerland. I already know that Tupelo is "The Honey" - may all other honey bow before it. But alas, I am far from home.

So how should one select honey without being able to taste it? Since the bread debaucle, I've already tried four new ones, three duds and one perfectly average. The packaging is enticing, but deceptive. And price is no indication of quality. Plus, taste is subjective. Based on hazy recollections of previous favorable honey encounters, I've decided to limit my search to light colored honeys from France. I can broaden from there if necessary. Suggestions are welcome.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

pita bread

I've made pita bread before but this time every last one of them puffed up in the oven, just like they are supposed to. It's so satisfying and delicious. Now where's that hummus?


Per request, here's the recipe:

Combine 3 cups bread flour (14g protein), 1.5 TB sugar, 1.5 tsp salt, 4 tsp dry yeast. Add 2 TB melted butter and 1.25 cups room-temperature water. Mix on low speed to combine then knead for 10 minutes (6-8 minutes in stand mixer with dough hook) until dough is smooth, elastic and passes the windowpane test (meaning you can stretch the dough and see through it and it doesn't break). Add flour or water if needed (try not to add flour unless it's is an absolute sticky nightmare). The dough should be tacky but not super sticky. Transfer dough to oiled bowl and turn the dough over to cover it (if not, the dough will dry out on top, restricting the rise). Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until double, 1-1.5 hours.

Punch down down, divide into 8 pieces, roll each into a ball. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes. Preheat over to 450F, preferably with pizza stone - you can alternatively use upside down baking sheet.

Roll each ball of dough into a circle, about 8 inches in diameter and 1/8 inch thick. Spray pizza stone, wait 30 seconds, then place as many dough rounds as will fit directly on the pizza stone (1 or 2 in my oven). Bake until dough puffs into a baloon, about 3 minutes, wait 30 seconds, then remove to rack to cool. If you leave the bread in the oven too long, they will not deflate to flat disks and will be brittle. Don't worry if some don't puff, they will still taste good.

It might sound harder than it is. Just try it, it's fun.

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