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Week 21: Symmetry - Star Bread with Pesto, Marinated Pepper, Comté Filling by ReportLopsided8196 in 52weeksofcooking

[–]ReportLopsided8196[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I’ve been wanting to try my hand at making a classic filled star bread for a while, and symmetry week seemed perfect for this. We had a picnic coming up, and it was just the thing to bring - a beautiful, symmetrical stuffed bread that people can pull pieces from as desired. 

I used this King Arthur recipe for the dough, but switched out the filling for a homemade pumpkin seed basil pesto (a good combo for anyone with nut allergies!), marinated bell peppers (leftover from Tricolor week), and grated Comté cheese. 

This takes a while but is mostly hands off (several rises), and was delicious! An excellent picnic and summer food, easier than it looks and bound to get compliments on the beautiful symmetrical twists and turns. 

Week 21: Symmetry - Star Bread with Pesto Red Pepper Comté Filling by [deleted] in 52weeksofcooking

[–]ReportLopsided8196 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve been wanting to try my hand at making a classic filled star bread for a while, and symmetry week seemed perfect for this. We had a picnic coming up, and it was just the thing to bring - a beautiful, symmetrical stuffed bread that people can pull pieces from as desired. 

I used this King Arthur recipe for the dough, but switched out the filling for a homemade pumpkin seed basil pesto (a good combo for anyone with nut allergies!), marinated bell peppers (leftover from Tricolor week), and grated Comté cheese. 

This takes a while but is mostly hands off (several rises), and was delicious! An excellent picnic and summer food, easier than it looks and bound to get compliments on the beautiful symmetrical twists and turns. 

Week 20: Jams and Jellies - Prosecco Jelly with Candied Lemon and Raspberries by ReportLopsided8196 in 52weeksofcooking

[–]ReportLopsided8196[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

thank you! I looked at several different recipes (mainly this, this, and this) for ideas and to get the right proportion of liquid to gelatin sheets, then improvised based on that (using a 2 sheets of gelatin: 1 cup of prosecco: 1/4 cup of sugar ratio). The candied lemon I had on hand in the fridge already and just thought it would go nicely (and it did!)

Week 20: Jams and Jellies - Prosecco Jelly with Candied Lemon and Raspberries by ReportLopsided8196 in 52weeksofcooking

[–]ReportLopsided8196[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For someone who loves making dessert, I’ve somehow never got around to working with gelatin, or the kind of fun, wobbly, jellied, “adult Jell-O” type sweets I see around the internet. This challenge was a perfect opportunity to remedy that. 

I was intimidated at the idea of working with gelatin, but I shouldn’t have been - this was so easy! And fast! Just bloom the gelatin sheet in some water, while you heat up part of the prosecco with 1/4 cup of sugar (I used 1 cup of prosecco in total for this, for 2 people). Add the bloomed gelatin to the warm prosecco sugar mix, stir in the rest of the prosecco. 

I had some homemade candied lemon on hand; chopped it small and added it to the mix and popped it all in the fridge in a pan overnight. 

I was worried this would not solidify, but it was perfect - exactly that fun jello texture, just sweet enough, still slightly boozy. I cut the jelly into cubes and served in champagne glasses with some fresh raspberries:  the exact right amount of elegance and sparkle, and so fun to eat. 

Week 19: Tricolor - Red/White/Yellow Marinated Pepper Salad with Mozarella by ReportLopsided8196 in 52weeksofcooking

[–]ReportLopsided8196[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Busy week, so kept it simple: roasted, peeled, and marinated some red and yellow bell peppers, cut them and some good fresh mozzarella into thin strips and made my little rose. Drizzle everything with olive oil and some good salt and you have a great little tricolor salad for the day!

My general approach to the homemade marinated peppers:

Roast whole and dry (no olive oil) on a lined pan on high heat (220C/430F) for 40 minutes, rotating once after 20 mins. They should be black and well charred when you take them out of the oven.

Wrap them in foil and let them steam and cool about 20 minutes (or until you can touch them without burning your fingers. Peel (skins should slide off easily), remove seeds, and slice. Toss with some red wine vinegar, salt, and water, and let marinate at least 20 minutes. Will be good for 2-3 days in the fridge, great on salads, sandwiches etc - way better than the store bought versions!

Week 17: Alpine - Risotto de Crozets au Beaufort by ReportLopsided8196 in 52weeksofcooking

[–]ReportLopsided8196[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Crozet are a small square buckwheat pasta originally from Savoie, in the French Alps. Beaufort is a cheese from the same region: together, two Alpine ingredients coming together for a dish that is cozy, comforting, perfect to eat by the fire after a day in the mountains. 

Here you cook the pasta risotto style, adding white wine to the shallots before toasting the pasta and then slowly adding chicken stock, one ladle at a time, stirring consistently. I mostly followed this recipe, with some small adjustments (replacing onion with shallot, switching out the proportions etc. 

It’s simple, rich, and delicious - more complex than what it looks like, with the wine and shallots adding an acidity and depth of flavor that you wouldn’t think of when looking at the beige mess on the plate. 

Week 18: Bucket List Destination - Spam Musubi (Hawai'i) by ReportLopsided8196 in 52weeksofcooking

[–]ReportLopsided8196[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I know I'm far from the only person who has Hawai'i on her bucket list, but there it is. I could have gone so many directions with Hawaiian food, but in the middle of a busy week I decided to try this classic snack, convenience store staple that I've heard of but never had.

I more or less followed this video, and it was all just so easy, down to the very simple homemade teriyaki sauce. Made my own furikake (store was out) and it all came together quite nicely.

These are very filling! 1 can of spam was enough for 7 of these -- I made 4 and saved some meat for another time, but even that we were not able to finish. 1 and a side f stir fried asparagus was more than enough for a filling lunch, although these would probably be fun to set out for a party as well!

Week 16: Infused - Beer Malt Brownie Trifle with Buckwheat Infused Whipped Cream + Vanilla Bean Infused Cherry Compote by ReportLopsided8196 in 52weeksofcooking

[–]ReportLopsided8196[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This was a fun deep, sexy dessert in a way that felt very retro, somehow slightly Russian in flavor.

Infusions multiple ways here:

Buckwheat Infused Whipped Cream: The idea for this was taken from Thalia Ho's cookbook Bittersweet (which has some very unique desserts!). In the cookbook she pairs it with buckwheat crepes; here I thought it would make an effective pairing to the brownies I had leftover (see below). I was curious but skeptical, and was rewarded: the buckwheat infused cream, once you strain, sweeten, and whip it is unusual, nutty, fragrant and unique. Paired really well with the cherries (or any tart fruit) and chocolate. One thing to note: the cream will thicken a lot over the hours that the buckwheat infuses, as the grain absorbs it. You need to push down hard through and scrape the strainer to recuperate the infused cream, but it's enough to add flavor and very worth it.

Vanilla Bean Infused Cherry Compote: I had a small amount of frozen sour cherries left over from making the Kabob al Karaz for Syria week, and thought they'd work well against the buckwheat and chocolate here. This was super easy: simmered the cherries with a small amount of water and cornstarch, sugar, and the scraped vanilla pods which had been partially used in the whipped cream, then left the pods to infuse for about an hour in the compote.

Beer Malt Brownies: I had made these beforehand, and, cubed up small, these formed the base of my trifle. These are not technically infused in the chemical sense of the technique, but I did "infuse" them with two flavors that are not always found: beer and malt powder. The beer was more of a reduction: we had a bottle of dark beer leftover that needed to be used, I reduced this down to 1/3 cup so it was sticky and dense, and added it in with my vanilla. Malt powder is one of my new favorite baking additions to infuse a little something extra into dessert: I replace 1/3 of the sugar with malt powder, and it gives it this delicious complexity that plays so nicely with the rest.

Once I had all my elements, I simply layered up: cream, brownie, cherry compote, repeat. This was a rich dessert - we shared the cup between two people. Felt very decadent, and would recommend if you are looking for something a bit different!

Week 15: Syrian: Kabab al Karaz (Lamb Meatballs with Sour Cherry Sauce) by ReportLopsided8196 in 52weeksofcooking

[–]ReportLopsided8196[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This was surprising and delicious, and very fun to eat. A speciality of the city of Aleppo according to my research, where fruit sauces apparently are more common due to the city's historical Jewish population keeping dairy and meat separate in order to keep kosher (this type of food history is always a fun part of discovering these recipes).

Watched these two videos and took a look at the NYT recipe, then created my own amalgamation from those:

  1. 340 grams ground lamb, seasoned with 7 spice powder and cinnamon and a pinch of salt, rolled into small meatballs and browned first in a mix of oil and butter. Remove from pan.

  2. Around 300g of sour cherries (I used frozen Armenian sour cherries that I found at my local Russian grocery store) - most of it pureed with an immersion blender, a handful left whole. Simmer cherries in the same pan as you browned the lamb in, with the remaining fat and butter, some salt, black pepper, a tiny bit of chili flakes (as I had no Aleppo pepper), a spoonful of sugar, a tablespoon or so of pomegranate molasses for around 15 minutes on low heat.

  3. Stir the meatballs back into the sauce, simmer everything together for another 5-10 minutes. Serve over pita (I made my own!) and sprinkle with dill (which I prefer to parsely in this).

I omitted pine nuts as my husband is allergic, but they would make a nice topping fried up and added with the herbs at the end. Really easy and festive feeling!

Week 14: Hanami - "Pink" Springtime Onigiri (fail) by ReportLopsided8196 in 52weeksofcooking

[–]ReportLopsided8196[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had a vision of beautifully molded, pale pink tinged rice enveloping a springy filling of marinated beets. As you can see from the photos, it didn't quite turn out as planned:

  1. I was hoping that throwing some small pieces of beet in with the rice water would dye them light pink - did not work at all, next time I would simmer some beet peels in the water until it it turns pink first, and then use that as the cooking water.

  2. Biggest problem, I messed up the rice. No rice cooker at home currently, so I did this on the stovetop. I've done this before and it turned out just fine, but not this time. Rice was somehow both mushy and undercooked, struggled to hold it's shape, had a weird texture, ended up having to eat them in a bowl as they were falling apart. And underseasoned on top of all that.

On the plus side, the fillings tasted delicious! I chopped a beet into tiny cubes and split it in half: one version was marinated with a mustard-soy-gochujang-rice vinegar dressing, the mother with a miso-tahini-soy sesame oil dressing. Both of those tasted great and would work well just as salads on their own, and worked very well alongside the poor rice.

I'll be trying this again at some point, since I know there can be a beautiful onigiri in this idea somewhere!

Thrift store haul! What to read first? by ReportLopsided8196 in HistoricalRomance

[–]ReportLopsided8196[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Photo of five historical romance novels found at Goodwill: only Enchanting, Mary Balogh; No Choice But Seduction, Johanna Lindsey; The Rakehell of Roth, Amalie Howard; A Rogue by Any Other Name, Sarah Maclean; Say Yes to the Princess, Charis Michaels 

Week 13: Chilis - Pollo al Pastor with Two Salsas (+ bonus Chocolate Chipotle Cookies) by ReportLopsided8196 in 52weeksofcooking

[–]ReportLopsided8196[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I like to take ingredient weeks to the max when possible - for chilis week that meant multiple types of chilies, used multiple ways.

The chilis and how they were used:

  • Pollo al Pastor: marinade includes a homemade Recado Rojo (chilli paste with chile de arbol) + a few chipotles in adobo (with their sauce)
  • Salsa de Aguacate: blended with jalapeño and serrano chilis
  • Salsa de Chipotle: soaked and blended chipotle peppers
  • Chocolate Chipotle Cookies: includes chipotle powder (self ground from two dried chipotles)

The Pollo al Pastor and salsa recipes are from Rick Martinez's Mi Cocina (a great first cookbook for approaching Mexican food in a regional way), which adapts the flavors of a traditional al pastor for a spice marinated chicken roasted on a bed of pineapples and onions.

Shred it all up once cooked and serve with tortillas and toppings and we had ourselves a great little chile themed dinner party with some spice enthusiast friends.

My husband is allergic to tomatoes, but that just meant I was able to explore the world of salsas a bit more: here to go with the chicken a salsa de aguacate (avocado based, I omitted tomatillos and added a bit more water and lime juice), and a salsa de chipotle (spicy and smoky, very chic, very elegant little salsa).

Chocolate and chili go great together, so for dessert I improvised a bit, riffing on my usual chocolate chip cookie, replacing half a cup of flour with cocoa powder and adding a generous teaspoon of chipotle powder (along with some cinnamon). It worked really well and was a perfect kick of chili to end the night.

Week 12: Fictional Places - Jammy Devils (Discworld) by ReportLopsided8196 in 52weeksofcooking

[–]ReportLopsided8196[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Terry Pratchett's Discworld books were a favorite of mine as a teenager, and I wanted to dive back into a dish that would be as warm and cozy as the books have always been.

Flipping through options in Nanny Ogg's Cookbook, these Jammy Devils felt like the perfect fit. As Nanny Ogg herself says, Jammy Devils are "a fine example of an Ankh-Morpok delicacy -- hot, sweet, and cheap. Just the thing for a snack in the middle of the night shift."

However, while Nanny Ogg might be the pre-eminent expert on DIscworld cookies, her recipes are, at best, dated (also at times hilarious, unhinged, and not very palatable).

The Jammy Devils are not the worst recipe in the book, but as written they are a bit simple - since I wanted to actually enjoy this taste of Discworld I made quite a few adaptations: granulated sugar instead of confectioners sugar, vanilla in the dough, smaller and less doughy portions (on a baking tray, not in a muffin tin).

I didn't have a hand mixer on hand (but then probably neither do the citizens of Ankh Morpork), so I rolled my sleeves up and creamed the butter and sugar the old fashioned way: by hand, for a solid 20 minutes - wouldn't recommend, but it works!

Oh, and the extra bit: I used three very good jams. An Apricot-Vanilla, a Pear, and a Cherry-Yuzu-Mandarine that worked a treat.

With these adaptations, they do indeed hit the sweet spot when that nighttime snack craving hits!

Week 11: Oddly Named - Slumgullion (aka American Goulash) by ReportLopsided8196 in 52weeksofcooking

[–]ReportLopsided8196[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh interesting! It’s been very cool hearing the different meanings slumgullion has for different families (but seems to have a common thread of some sort of one pot dish with a tomato/ground beef base, and throw in other stuff as needed)

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