Joy vs. the Four Foot Baguette

Last week as a thank you gift, I received a four foot baguette from Iggy's.  Four feet.  Of bread.  FYI, I'm only five feet tall.  It was a lot of bread, especially for someone who doesn't usually eat that much bread.  But I decided I was going to challenge myself to use it all.

The first thing I knew I wanted to make was Zuni Cafe's eggs fried in bread crumbs.  I found this recipe years ago, and every time I end up with some leftover bread I find myself making this.  It's the ultimate comfort food:  crispy, crunchy bread crumbs topped with a fried egg that oozes golden yellow yolk, cut with a drizzle of warmed balsamic vinegar dressing.

I used to always flip the eggs over at the end so that the top wouldn't be raw but I never liked how they looked when I did that.  Then one day I saw my friend Kay making perfect sunny side up eggs that were set on top without having to flip them over.  I asked her how she did that, and she told me she just put the lid on when she fried her eggs so that the steam would cook the tops of the eggs.  The solution was so simple and brilliant!

Zuni Cafe's Fried Eggs in Bread Crumbs (adapted from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook)
serves 1

6-8 inches French baguette, or another chewy, white peasant-style bread (enough to make 3 packed tablespoons of crustless breadcrumbs)
Salt
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Thyme leaves or coarsely chopped rosemary (optional)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Tear off the bread from the crusts and add to a food processor or blender.

Grind into rough, uneven bread crumbs.

Place the crumbs in a 6- to 8-inch nonstick pan, sprinkle with salt to taste, and then drizzle with the olive oil. Set the pan over medium heat.

Let the crumbs warm through, then swirl the pan as they begin drying out -- which will make a quiet static-like sound. Stir once or twice.

The moment you see the crumbs begin to color, quickly add the herbs if using, then crack the eggs directly onto the crumbs. Cover the pan with a lid and cook the egg until the top is just set.

Slide onto a warm plate, then add the vinegar to the hot pan. Swirl the pan once, then pour the drops of sizzling vinegar over the eggs.

Next up:  BLT with Avocado and Basil Mayonnaise

Four years ago:  Curried Carrot Soup

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Green Beans Paruppu Usili/ Green Beans And Lentils

          Paruppu Usili, this is a very popular dish in South India, is basically a dish made with lentils that is soaked, ground and scrambled. Though I have used different vegetables to the usili, usually it's made with fresh green beans or cluster beans. This is a very healthy dish, good source of protein and makes a perfect combo with rice and moru kuzhambu..

Need To Have

• Chopped Green Beans - 3 cups
• Tuvar Dal/ Split Pigeaon Peas - 1/2 cup
• Dried Red Chillies - 6
• Urad Dal/ Husked Split Black Gram - 1 teaspoon
• Mustard Seeds - 1/4 teaspoon
• Cumin Seeds - 1/4 teaspoon
• Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
• Curry Leaves - 10
• Salt - to taste

Method

          Soak the tuvar dal for an hour and grind it coarsely with the dried red chillies, using as little water as possible.

          At this stage you can make balls with the ground mixture and steam it in a regular steamer ( idli cooker ). I have used the egg poucher used in the microwave oven, greased it, filled it halfway through and microwaved it for 1 to 11/2 mins. Repeat it with all the ground mixture, remove and cool it.

          Break the cooled lentil cakes into small pieces, take a small quantity in the blender and pulse it lightly. Repeat it with all the pieces.

          Remove and keep the lentil crumbles. Heat a little oil, add the chopped beans and salt and about 1/4 cup water, cover and cook it till done, remove and keep.

          Heat some more oil, add the urad dal, mustard seeds and cumin seeds, when it starts spluttering, add the asafoetida and the curry leaves. Now add the lentil crumbs and a little salt and mix for about 2 minutes, on medium heat.

          Then add the cooked beans, mix for another 3 minutes, remove and serve.

Note
You can use just tuvar dal/ split pigeon peas or a mixture of tuvar dal and chana dal/ bengal gram.
As mentioned earlier you can use other vegetables like carrot, beets and cabbage.

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Pecena palenta sa sirom i pancetom

Palentu jako volim,ali eto nisam pisala puno recepata  jer pretezno to bude prilog ,pa ako preostane  ja za sebe pravim kombinacije koje volim !!

Danas je bilo glavno jelo uz dosta salate..

1 salica(250ml)instant palente

4 salice povrtne juhe ili vode

350gr mix topljenih sireva

100gr parmezana

200gr dimljene pancete

sol,biber-po potrebi

Skuhati palentu i razliti je na tepsiju koju isplahnemo vodom.

Debljina neka bude oko 1cm ili deblja,ali tada je potrebno sjeci na pola da bude tanja.

Uzeti drugu tepsiju manjih dimenzija u koju cete slagati slojeve palente,te je tako i "iskrojiti" po velicini tepsije u kojoj cete palentu peci.

Namazati posudu za pecenje/tepsiju maslacem,zatim slagati red palente,red sira i sve tako dok se sve ne utrosi,a odozgo sloziti pancetu i sve zapceci u predhodno zagrijanoj rerni na 200C oko 30minuta

Ako slucajno imate ostatak umaka/sosa od paradajza ,patlidzana ,takoder mozete praviti kombinaciju ali u tom slucaju izbaciti pancetu,a umak samo odozgo staviti i zapeci !!

Prijatno!!

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Sanjina torta

           Da,ovo je bilo za njen dan...ali...kao i u posljenih nekoliko godina slavljenica ni ne proba tortu koju je mama napravila,no, nema veze,ja cu je zapisati mozda nekada nade vremena pa je pogleda da barem vidi kako je izgledala...

Torta je uradena od osnovice  za Nela snite,uz moje male izmjene.

Izmjene koje sam uradila bile su u kremama.

Zamijenila sam crnu cokoladu za bijelu i dodala sloj vocne kreme,koji sam napravila od:

500gr zamrznutih malina

100gr secera

50gr gustina

50gr maslaca

Draga Sanja,

Svu srecu Svijeta zeli ti mama !!

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Eggless Jam Swirled Muffins

           I am not able to blog more frequently these days, in the middle of so many things, hopefully everything will settle down in a month's time. I didn't want to miss the challenge for the Eggless Baking group, somehow managed to do it. We had to do an eggless version of these Jam Swirled Muffins, I have used flax seed powder in the place of eggs, and used strawberry preserves for the jam. The muffins turned out superb, perfect for a light breakfast or an evening snack..

Need To Have

• All Purpose Flour - 1 cup
• Yogurt/ Curd - 1/3 cup
• Powdered Sugar - 1/3 cup
• Strawberry Preserves - 1/3 cup
• Flax Seed Powder - 1 tablespoon
• Oil - 1/4 cup
• Hot Water - 6 tablespoons
• Baking Powder - 1 teaspoon
• Baking Soda - 1/2 teaspoon
• Salt - 1/8 teaspoon
• Vanilla Extract - 1 teaspoon

Original Recipe here

Method

          Add the flax seed powder to 3 tablespoons of the hot water and leave it for 10 minutes, then beat it nicely. Then add the yogurt, oil, salt, vanilla extract and the remaining 3 tablespoons of hot water and mix well. Add the sugar and mix it nicely.

          Sift the flour with the baking powder and baking soda. Then add it to the wet ingredients and mix it lightly, finally add the strawberry preserves and just swirl it in very lightly.

          Pour it into greased muffin pans and bake it at 190 C for 25 minutes, cool and remove it.

Note
After pouring it in the muffin pans, I added 1/2 teaspoon of the strawberry preserve on the top and lightly mixed with a knife.
You can use any fruit jam or preserve of your choice.
I refrigerated the muffins, just warmed them in the microwave before serving, they tasted good.
I got 8 medium sized muffins.

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Potatoes Boulangère

I got yet another pound of potatoes in my Boston Organics delivery and was trying to figure out a new way to eat it.  I love potatoes, but I was a little tired of having them crashed or dominoed.  Then while watching the season 1 premiere of Gordon Ramsay's The F Word, inspiration struck.  He made something called potatoes boulangère, which look like scalloped potatoes but without all the cheese or cream.  I had never heard of it before, and I didn't even know how to spell it, so I had to look up the episode to figure it out.

Basically, you layer thinly sliced potatoes with onions and then braise the whole thing in the oven with some stock.  It's amazingly simple, but if you take the time of arrange the layers, can look very elegant.  I chose to follow the recipe from the James Beard Foundation which has you sweat the onions first until golden, adding a some depth to the flavor.  I also sprinkled in some chopped rosemary and thyme, adding another dimension of flavor.

The addition of the stock and the braising method of cooking is what sets this dish apart from a potato galette.  The stock you add is absorbed by the potatoes and onions and really infuses it all with a nice shot of umami.  By braising it in the oven, you get a nice gradient of texture, from the crispy browned edges to the soft, melt-in-your-mouth layers in the middle.  It's so good I have to admit I ate half the dish in one sitting.

Potatoes Boulangère (adapted from the James Beard Foundation)
makes 2 servings

2 medium-large potatoes
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon oil
1 medium onion
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary and/or thyme
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup of chicken, beef, or vegetable stock

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Thinly slice the onion.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the butter and the oil in a skillet and add onions. Cook until golden and soft (not brown), shaking the pan occasionally. Drain, saving the liquid.

Using a mandoline, slice the potatoes into paper-thin slices.  (I left the skin on this time, but you can also peel the skin off beforehand.)

Liberally butter a 1-quart baking dish (I used a pie pan).

Put in a layer of potatoes, followed by a layer of onions. Season with the chopped herbs, salt, and pepper.

Continue to make layers of potatoes and onions, seasoning the layers, and end with a top layer of potatoes.

Season with more chopped herbs, salt, and pepper and dot with remaining butter.

Pour on the liquid from the onions and the stock.

Bake about 30 or 40 minutes, until the liquid has been absorbed and the potatoes test tender with a fork.

Honestly, you could just fill in all the bottom layers haphazardly and just make the top layer look all pretty, and you'd get the same effect!

Three years ago:  Slow Cooker Bolognese Sauce

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Bubble Tea Popsicles

When Ilene first posted about these boba tea ice cream bars, I totally wanted to try to make it.  But I didn't have any popsicle molds at the time, so I tried just making a milk tea ice cream and folding in syrup-soaked boba.  Unfortunately, after hardening the ice cream in the freezer, the boba ended up way too hard for the ice cream to be palatable.

Now that I do have popsicle molds, I was looking up recipes for a milk tea popsicle the other day and came across this recipe for milk tea with tapioca pearl ice pops.  I knew it was time to try again.

When I went to my closest Asian grocery store, they didn't have any of the par-cooked, vaccum-sealed black tapioca balls, only the kind that were completely dried.  I didn't really feel like reconstituting the boba from scratch, so I did the next best thing and went to the Lollicup in the food court and asked if I could buy just the boba.  They were really nice about it and sold it to me for the same price as a cup of bubble tea.

They asked if I wanted the regular-sized boba or the mini ones, and since I didn't really know if one would work better than the other, I just asked for a half cup of both.  They also offered to add some extra syrup in the cups so that the boba wouldn't stick to each other, something I would've asked them to do anyways.

The recipe has you freeze the bubble tea in two layers, presumably because the boba would float or sink in the liquid so by freezing in two layers you would get a better distribution along the whole length of the popsicle.  (Spoiler alert:  they float, at least in this particular mixture.)  Since I was filling twelve popsicle molds, I decided to fill four with all regular-sized boba, four with mini-sized boba, and four with mini on the bottom and regular on the top, kind of like a gradient.

After freezing and eating the popsicles, there was a clear winner between the two sizes.  Just like before, the regular-sized boba ended up being too hard, but the mini-boba stayed nice and chewy!  Success!

Bubble Tea Popsicles (adapted from Chow)
makes twelve 2 oz. popsicles

1 3/4 cup water
6 Chinese black tea bags (or 6 tablespoons loose leaf tea in a tea sock)
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup mini boba, cooked and soaking in syrup

Bring the water to a boil over medium-high heat in a small saucepan with a tightfitting lid. Add the tea bags, stir to combine, and return to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, cover, and let sit for 10 minutes.

Remove the tea bags or tea sock, pressing the extra liquid from the bags or sock back into the pan, and discard the tea bags. Add the condensed milk and whisk until evenly combined.

Using a slotted spoon, remove 1/3 cup of the pearls from the syrup and divide them among the pop molds. Fill the molds halfway with the milk tea base. Stir the boba around in the milk tea to make sure that there aren't any large clumps.  Freeze until the pops are almost solid, about 2 hours. Meanwhile, set the remaining pearls aside in the syrup at room temperature. Place the remaining milk tea base in the refrigerator.

After 2 hours, drain the remaining tapioca pearls and divide them among the molds. Top with the remaining milk tea base.

Stir the boba again to break up any clumps.  Insert the sticks and freeze until solid, at least 6 hours.

I wasn't as enamored with the milk tea part of the popsicle.  It was a little too sweet and icy for me.  If I had to do it again, I might just freeze some straight up milk tea (maybe with a little more half & half added to it) if I wanted a popsicle or churn some milk tea ice cream with mini boba and use that to fill the popsicle molds for a bubble tea ice cream bar.

Three years ago:  Coconut Lime Sorbet

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