mktye

Lemon Chess Pie (Thanks Geeky!)

At the top of the opening page of their website: "Over 25 Years Serving Alexandria"I ate there for one of rwtye's holiday parties last December. It was the worst meal I had all year (the sauce on top of my pasta dish was refrigerator-cold) and the service was so surly it was comical.

I've only bought their heavy brocade-like stuff (I just looked at the C&B website and they don't seem to be offering any of it this year, but you can see it my thanksgiving pic here). It has held up quite well, even with normal washing and drying (and if you pull it out of the dryer while still just a tiny bit damp, it does not need ironing ). I have also found napkins in a similar material at Sur la Table (I hate ironing!), but no matching tablecloths of a decent size.

Your brine should be the same concentration regardless of the number of chickens swimming around in it. In other words, if you increase your water by 50%, increase your seasonings, sugar, salt, etc. by 50%.

We totally goofed and missed a friend's retirement party, so I recently baked up a batch of these to try to make amends: Cucidati (Sicilian Fig-Filled Cookies) Makes ~60 cookies Dough: 4 cups all-purpose flour 2/3 cup sugar 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces 4 large eggs Fig Filling: 12 ounces (about 2 cups) dried Calimyrna figs ½ cup raisins 1/3 cup candied orange peel, diced 1/3 cup whole almonds, chopped and lightly toasted 3 ounces semisweet chocolate, cut into 1/4-inch pieces 1/3 cup apricot preserves 3 tablespoons dark rum 1 teaspoon instant espresso coffee granules ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon ¼ teaspoon ground cloves Egg wash: 1 large egg, well beaten with 1 pinch salt For the dough, in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Pulse two or three times to mix. Add the butter and pulse repeatedly until finely incorporated and the mixture is cool and powdery. Add the eggs and continue to pulse until the dough forms a ball. Scrape the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap. Press the dough into a square about an inch thick and wrap it tightly. Chill the dough while preparing the filling. For the filling, in a large bowl, stem and dice the figs. If they are hard, place them in a saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Drain the figs in a strainer and allow them to cool before proceeding. Combine the diced figs with the rest of the filling ingredients in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade and pulse to grind the filling mixture finely. Take the dough out of the refrigerator, unwrap it, and place it on a floured surface. Knead the dough lightly to make it malleable again and roll into a cylinder. Cut the cylinder into twelve equal pieces. One at a time, on a floured surface, flatten each and make it into a rectangle 3” wide and 12” long. Paint the egg wash on the dough and evenly distribute 1/3 cup filling down its length. Bring the edges of dough up around the filling to enclose it and press the edges of the dough together firmly to seal in the filling. Use your palms to roll over the filled cylinder of dough until it extends to 15” and cut it into five 3” lengths. Set the filled cylinders aside while filling, rolling, and cutting the other pieces of dough. To finish shaping the cookies, use the point of a sharp knife to make a 1” long cut in the middle of each end and pull the cut sides apart to make the cookie an “X”. Place each formed cookie on a parchment-lined sheet pan, leaving ~1” all around between the cookies. After all the cucidati are formed and placed on the pans, paint the outsides lightly with the egg wash. Bake the cookies in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until they are a light golden color. Slide the cookies still on the parchpaper from the pans to racks to cool. Store the cooled cookies between sheets of parchment or wax paper in a tin or plastic container with a tight-fitting cover. They keep nearly indefinitely. From Cookies Unlimited by Nick Malgieri

I also have a pretty severe table linen habit (which ended up being a gateway to a really severe servingware habit). Williams-Sonoma outlets, both electronic and bricks-and-mortar (I'm headed out to the store in Leesburg next week ), have good deals on linens (20-50% off). Crate & Barrel outlets also have decent prices on napkins, placemats, runners, but they only have the occasional (usually seasonal) tablecloth. It seems like the better deals are at the outlet stores for W-S and at the electronic outlet for C&B. Go figure. One of the sure signs of addiction: Always carrying a swatch of one's dining room chair upholstery fabric around in one's purse.

That formula is for a single 9" crust and generously so. Usually, I triple the amounts and get four single 9" crusts out of the resulting dough (even if I only need one crust, I like to fill all my favorite pie pans while I am at it and toss the extras in the freezer).I've always just gone by volume regardless of the fat of choice. In my experience, there is a good amount of leeway (or at least enough to cover the differences in % fat per volume) and you are adding water as needed. As far as workability goes, a lower-fat dough will nearly always need to be treated more gently than a higher-fat dough. With greater amounts of fat present, it is "covering" more of the flour and preventing the water from getting to the flour and, in turn, that hinders the development of gluten. But I would not consider this recipe terribly low in the amount of fat and it does not require extra-special handling (however, a nice rest in the refrigerator or freezer, after rolling it out, prevents almost all of the dreaded shrinkage ). I have found some very high fat doughs (usually short doughs for tarts and such) can be a bit of pain to work with because they have hardly any gluten development and are very fragile. So some gluten development is helpful in regards to workability. American-style pie crust really is a balancing act and I think one of the most difficult pastries to master. But, oh, it is so worth it.

One of my favorite recipes for apple crisp calls for it to be served with a whiskey-enhanced whipped cream. A delicious combo.

Worth the Trip: Calamares Plancha

I second that. Not in Alexandria, but close... Fischer Hardware off Backlick Road in Springfield has a huge assortment of polishing and cleaning products (in addition to tons of kitchen gadgets and an impressive array of Lodge cookware, so a trip there is never a waste).

More about infusing vodka here.

From the Nielsen-Massey website:

My opinion is that it is a result of the fat/flour ratio. I've noticed the same "leaking" of butter only in doughs with a really high amount of fat compared to the amount of flour. One that immediately springs to mind is the galette dough recipe by Flo Braker in "Baking with Julia". It calls for 7 Tbsp. butter, 3 Tbsp. sour cream for 1 cup flour and 1/4 cornmeal and it always leaks butter when baked.I tend to live on the wild side with my butter temps and have never noticed any differences in the end product (unless you are making a laminated dough, but that is a whole other problem). I look at it as a purely "mechanical" issue in that the flour can only hold so much fat. (And to go back to your reference to the laminated doughs, one fix for croissants leaking butter when baked is to mix 2-4 Tbsp. of flour into your block of butter before it is layered into the dough.) The pie crust recipe I nearly always use is the one from "Fannie Farmer's Baking Book" and has much less fat per the amount of flour. I've never had a problem with it leaking like you describe, no matter the type fat. Here is the formula: 1½ cups bleached, all-purpose flour ¼ teaspoon salt ½ cup (8 tablespoons) vegetable shortening, butter, or a combination of the two, cold 3 to 5 tablespoons cold water As far as water/liquid in pie crust dough -- I like to err on the side of too much rather than too little. My reasoning is that a softer dough is easier to roll so you are not fighting it as much during rolling and there is less gluten development. I used to have a heck of a time with pie crust until I started adding more water. Lastly, I bet you are your own harshest critic. I suspect all of your family and guests where totally thrilled with your baking!

Yup. Even the good china can only do so much.

One resource for ideas for substitutions is The Cook's Thesaurus.I went to make the rolls this year for Thanksgiving dinner and realized I was completely out of unbleached, all-purpose flour which was called for in the recipe. So I subbed 2/3 bread flour and 1/3 bleached flour. And (coincidentally?) the rolls came out especially well.

I am happy (relieved?) to say that the acorn project is drawing to a close. Not quite sure what I will do with the ~2 quarts of acorn meal we have leftover, but... What I've made so far: Acorn Rolls -- 1 cup acorn meal, 1 cup oatmeal, 1 cup white whole wheat flour, 3-4 cups bread flour, salt, maple syrup, olive oil, yeast and water. I was a little worried that the acorns might somehow affect the yeast and hinder rising, but there were no issues at all. I make this bread recipe quite often (using pecan meal in the place of the acorn meal) and the rolls tasted pretty much like they always taste but the maple flavor may have been a bit more noticeable. For your viewing pleasure: A-Cornbread -- 1 cup acorn meal, 1 cup unbleached AP flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, buttermilk, butter. While the texture was good, these were pretty bland tasting (I mainly tasted the buttermilk). Butter certainly helped and seemed to mask the slightly bitter finish. Acorn Mush -- equal parts acorn meal and turkey stock, garlic cooked a bit in butter, bacon, salt. With all the butter, garlic and bacon, how could it be anything other than tasty? And a couple of pics of the coarsely ground acorn meal after leaching and then after whirring it in the food processor to make it a finer grind: Lessons learned: -- Whole, unshelled acorns mildew easily. Ideally, they should be stored in a single layer. -- Newly fallen acorns are a pain to shell. But the best way to do so is to place an acorn on a hard surface, whack with a hammer to split and then pry out the acorn meat with a table knife. Even better would be to let them dry for a couple of months and you can probably shell them with your hands. -- Store shelled acorns in the freezer. They will also mildew quickly at room temperature. -- Don't toast acorns before leaching since it seems to impede the leaching of the tannins. -- To leach the acorns in the most expedient manner: coarsely grind the shelled acorns (I ground them with an equal volume of water in a blender) and soak in water hot from the tap. Let sit for one hour, pour off the water, mix in more hot water, and so on. For our acorns, I changed the water about two dozen times and used about double the volume of water to that of the acorns. -- Cook up a bit of the acorn meal (with equal volume of water) to taste for bitterness since the heat seems to bring it out. -- Acorn meal can be used pretty much like you would cornmeal and has similar properties (it will thicken up when cooked). However, acorns (at least the ones off of our Chestnut Oaks) have a very subtle flavor and, even after lots of leaching, there is still a bit of a bitter finish. Overall Acorn Project Conclusion: If you are hungry and need a food source, acorns are perfectly acceptable and can be made into tasty dishes. However, it is a heck of a lot of work and there are much more convenient forms of food out there that have more flavor.

The spread: and the Acorn Mush (rwtye thinks I need to call it by a more appetizing-sounding name, his suggestion: Acorn Gruel) cooked in turkey stock with garlic and bacon Pies: Pumpkin (supplied by my mother-in-law, she even brought the crust with her in her suitcase and seriously considered toting along her own eggs too), Apple (with home-grown apples supplied by my mother-in-law) and Pecan

You don't need to copy out the whole thing (or the technique), but what are the amounts of flour/fat/liquid in the recipe?

Acornbread.

Try non-stick foil.

The hot- (actually semi-hot) leaching has been the key. With the cold leaching taking forever, we switched to a modified hot-leaching process. Ground acorns + hot water from the tap, let sit for one hour, pour off the water and repeat. A couple dozen changes of the water and the bitterness was nearly gone. But as CrescentFresh noted -- acorns are not terribly flavorful to start so they definitely need some sort of enhancement (perhaps a conure-flavored acorn dish? ). A surprise result is that the hot-leached acorn meal still thickens when boiled, so acorn mush will be an option.Tomorrow is the big day for acorn-containing baked goods experimentation. The acorns are leached and various flours are sitting out and ready to go. You may just get your wish Mr. Fresh.

Further fat discussion here.

Have you considered giving the dough one stir (or at least a fold) to help the little yeasties distribute themselves? Poor little yeasties, vainly trying to colonize a vast ocean of hydrated flour...

Some of my homies from so cal were in town so we decided to have dinner at Bebo. The food was good, but the service still had a few kinks. Luckily, we had a reservation because the place was packed at 7:30 on a Tuesday(!). The hostess stand was a whirlpool of confusion due to the simultaneous arrival of a walk-in party in front of us, my friends and me, another walk-in party behind us and a large group from the bar that was ready to be seated. Eventually, one of the three ladies from behind the hostesses stand called my name and we made our way to a table (the same table where I have sat the three previous times I've been to Oyamel ). I told the hostess that the fifth in our party (rwtye) had yet to arrive and asked her to please keep an eye out for him. 7:40, no rwtye. 7:42, my phone rings. It is rwtye calling from some place that is just as noisy as the dining room at Bebo... the bar at Bebo. I walked over to find him hanging with Fresh Master C and his posse (including Iced-C who is so rarely seen outside of his 'hood -- the bar at Restaurant Eve). rwtye had gotten to Bebo ahead of us, talked to the hostess(es?), given the name of the reservation and was assured someone would come get him from the bar when the rest of the party arrived. Ooops. Our waitress, Sema (I think that was how she told me it was spelled) was quite knowledgeable and very professional. But the rest of the staff we dealt with were somewhat frazzled. I usually don't give it a second thought if by chance plates get mixed up and the wrong person gets the wrong food, but rwtye's appetizer was set down in front of my friend even though all three of us were shaking our heads "no" and my friend was actually waving it off. When my friend picked up the plate and handed it to rwtye, the food runner stood there for a good 5 seconds completely perplexed by what had happened. Not a big deal and, actually, pretty amusing by that point. But what was unforgivable (to me ) was that fact that we could not get any additional bread after we finished off the initial offering. But on to the really important part... the food... I also had this. I also thought it was very good. And I also still miss Oyamel a little.For a main, I had squash/ricotta filled agnolotti (it was a special). While tasty, the ricotta really masked the squash flavor. I guess I prefer the version that contains mainly squash with just a touch of parmesan and nutmeg. But the pasta was perfectly cooked and was just the right quantity. I also had the hazelnut "cake". Our waitress was quick to point out that the cake was more like a cookie and that was fine with me. They brought out the desserts. Then, five minutes later, they brought us spoons. Only spoons.The "cake" was in three chunks, each about 2" across and nearly an 1" thick and a spoon literally was not going to cut it. Try as I might, I could not get anyone's attention to request a fork and a knife so I ended up picking up the pieces of "cake" with my fingers and biting off little, dainty pieces in what I hope appeared to be lady-like manner. The ice cream was the best part of the dish. I found the "cake" was a bit too sweet for my tastes, especially for the quantity and, while good, the caramel sauce was nothing out of the ordinary and only added to the over-sweetness of the dish. I snagged a bite of my friend's strawberry dessert and totally regretted I did not order that. All in all, a good dinner, but I think rwtye had the right idea in joining Fresh Master C and his peeps at the bar.

From WETA's The Intersection e-Newsletter: Yes, this Wednesday, the 15th, at 11:00 a.m., 90.9 FM or listen online here.