Buttermilk Scalloped Potatoes

I wanted rich Scalloped potatoes without cheese, not a gratin, and wanted the potatoes to "gel" instead of slip-sliding past each other. This uses the brine from the buttermilk marinated chicken. You could use regular Milk, too. This recipe is similar but uses a half the Milk and no Cream. It does take a long time to bake, so plan ahead. 

  1 L      3-4 Cups    Buttermilk marinade from chicken (or Milk)

                       Salt

                       Pepper
    pinch      pinch   Nutmeg

  2 clove    2 clove   Garlic, minced

  1 Kg       2 Pounds  Yukon Gold Potatoes

 30 g        2 Tbs     Butter

200 ml     2/3 C       Heavy Cream (may not be necessary)

Heat the Buttermilk in a pot until simmering, taste for Salt and adjust; add Pepper, Nutmeg, Garlic.

The buttermilk will start separating, but once the potatoes start cooking in it, the starch will bring it together again.

Optionally, peel the Potatoes; don't rinse, the starch will help gel the Milk.

Slice Potatoes 1-2mm thick on a mandolin and add to the hot Buttermilk.

Cook at a gentle simmer about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally,  until slightly tender but not in danger of falling apart.

Butter a casserole or baking dish to prevent sticking; toss any remaining Butter in the pot.

With a slotted spoon, layer the cooked Potatoes casually into the casserole.

Pour over with remaining Buttermilk, then Cream.

Bake 80-90 minutes at 180C/350F; you can probably go higher so it can bake at the same time as the Chicken.

Let sit 10 minutes to "gel".

If you do this in advance of the Chicken, you can reheat after gelling and cooling.

Buttermilk-Marinated Roast Chicken

This comes from Samin Nosrat's Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat (video) -- the chicken roasts up an appealing burnished brown, with moist flesh; it's surprisingly easy to make. You can make Scalloped Potatoes at the same time with the used Buttermilk, but they take longer to bake than the chicken.

Chicken on rack over cast iron pan: save those juices!

3-4 pound Whole Chicken
  2 Tbs   Salt
  4 Cups  Buttermilk

Generously salt the Chicken, inside and out; let sit an hour to absorb.
Put in a large bag and add 4 Cups Buttermilk; seal and fridge overnight.
Drain and save the Buttermilk for Scalloped Potatoes.
Put chicken on a rack, breast-side up, over a pan and let come to room temperature for an hour.

Heat oven to 425F/220C, non-convection.

Point the chicken legs to the corner, bake 20 minutes, reduce heat to 400, bake 10 minutes, point the legs to the other corner, and bake another 30 minutes.

Let sit 15 minutes before carving.

Save the pan juices! Pour out, scraping all the bits, let cool and separate. The fat has good flavor, but OMG, the concentrated juices firm up like precious demi-glace and is super tasty!

Zucchini Carpaccio

A refreshing and rather fancy-looking light appetizer for two. This recipe is unusual in that it provides different textures with the grilled slices versus the raw ones. The quantities here make a light side dish, but can be scaled to 3 Zucchini for a full meal for two people.

1         Zucchini (we used green)
1 tsp     Salt, Kosher

          Lemon Zest from 1/2 Lemon
          Lemon Juice from 1/2 Lemon
2 Tbs     Olive Oil, excellent quality (we once used smoked EVOO)
2 Tbs     Pine Nuts

1 Tbs     Mint leaves, torn

1 Tbs     Basil leaves, torn

6 pieces  Parmesan Cheese, shaved

On a mandolin, slice 3 slices from each side of the Zucchini, about 2mm thick; these will be seared so they need a bit more substance than the rest, and searing will make the skin more interesting. Slice the rest thinner on the mandolin. If you don't have a mandolin, you can cut the thick slices with a knife, and the thin ones with a vegetable peeler.

Using separate bowls or storage containers to simplify assembly, toss the thick and thin zucchini with Salt in bowls, and let sit for 30 minutes or so to draw off excess moisture. Drain then dry on kitchen towels.

In each of the separate bowls, whisk half of the Lemon Juice and Olive Oil, and return the thick and thin Zucchini. Combine gently and let marinate in the fridge for an hour or longer -- overnight is fine.

Pull out the 6 thickest pieces of Zucchini and sear until you've got some appealing black spots and it's heated through.

Meanwhile, toast the Pine Nuts and tear the Mint and Basil into strips.

Arrange the seared Zucchini on plate as a base.
Gently mix the Mint and Basil with the remaining uncooked Zucchini strips to combine.
Top the seared strips with a loose mound of the remaining, seasoned Zucchini.
Garnish with Pine Nuts, Lemon Zest, and shavings of Parmesan.

Fresh Pasta: Dried vs Just-Rolled

We make our own pasta dough and roll it out with a manual pasta roller and cutter; it's  easy enough we can do it on a weekday evening, and good therapy after a busy day. The dough can be made ahead and frozen in dinner portions, then thawed fairly quickly. 

One time we rolled it with a rolling pin, then floured it, rolled it into a loose jelly roll, and cut the noodles with a knife. We happened to let it air dry on the top of a warm fridge for a few hours while we prepped the rest of the meal. This turned out to be some of the best pasta we've made, with an excellent "bite".

Is there a difference between pasta that's been left to dry, versus just rolled and cut before boiling? We tried it out.

We cut the same lump of dough (equal parts AP flour and coarse semolina, and egg) into two pieces. I rolled one out and cut it into Fettuccine, dosed it with flour, and arranged it in a loose nest on a kitchen towel. We let it dry out for about 7 hours. 

We got two pots of salted water boiling, then repeated the rolling and cutting with the second lump. 

We then put both sets of noodles in separate pots, cooked until done, and served. We sauced some of it with pesto from our garden's basil, but left plenty exposed to try "naked".

The air-dried pasta was more toothsome, and seemed a bit more golden (possibly oxidized?); the freshly cut pasta had a softer texture.  They both seemed to taste the same. Interestingly, as the meal progressed, sauced with the pesto, the dried pasta retained it's firm texture, while the just-cut pasta became a bit too soft -- at least in comparison.

Our take-away is that both are good -- we eat the just-cut frequently -- but if you have the time, it's worth air-drying. This also opens opportunities for pre-making pasta before friends come over, and letting it dry until they arrive, then just boil: you don't have to be throwing flour around on your friends as you make last-minute pasta.  

Larb Kai: Thai Chicken Salad

This Thai dish is refreshing, especially on a hot day; we serve it cool to room temperature. The toasted rice is important -- without it there's a big exotic aroma you'll be missing. Have some extra lime juice and fish sauce to adjust the taste when done. Serve over lettuce leaves and rice like Jasmine or sticky rice. Other variations of the spelling use Laab and Gai. 

Serves 2 as a dinner, 4 as an appetizer.

80 ml     Lime Juice

50 ml     Fish Sauce

15 g      Brown Sugar

40 g      Toasted Rice Powder (see below)

 2        Kaffir Lime Leaves, julienned thin

10 g      Galangal, julienned fine

 2        Spring Onions, sliced, including green parts

 6        Thai Red Chilis, sliced

 3 sprigs Mint leaves, chopped

handful   Coriander, chopped

370 g     Chicken breast, chopped fine with a knife

500 ml    Chicken Stock (reuse previous batch of cooking liquid)

Mix Lime Juice,  Fish Sauce, and Sugar to dissolve; set the dressing aside.

To make toasted ("parched") rice, "dry fry" rice (preferably sticky/glutenous) in a skillet until it starts turning an attractive toasty color and releasing a nutty aroma. Grind in spice grinder. You can make extra and save it for the next time. 

Julienne very finely the chewy Kaffir Lime Leaves and fibrous Galangal.

Slice the Chilis and chop the Mint and Coriander.

Slice and chop the Chicken Breast by hand -- it doesn't take more than a few minutes, and a machine turns it to mush. You're looking for a size maybe a bit smaller than a pea, but consistency isn't important.

Cook the Chicken gently in the Chicken Stock; it doesn't take long, since it's so fine -- don't overcook it.

Drain through a sieve and collect the turbocharged stock, save for the next time.

Combine the cooked chicken, liquid dressing, vegetables and toasted rice;

you may want to hold back some of the chilis, depending on your pain tolerance :-)

Stir well, the toasted rice will absorb some of the dressing. 

Adjust flavors with Lime Juice and Fish Sauce.

Arrange Lettuce Leaves on a plate, top with cooked Rice, then mound the Larb Kai.

Eat while the flavors are fresh and zesty.

Wendy's Cherry Pickles

1 C Pickling Salt
5 Quarts Water

Boil 5 Quarts Water, add 1 C Pickling Salt

(This may go after "2 heads dill": plus handful [dried ...?] over jar.)

Put whole pickles, 2 heads dill to 1 Qt and cherry leaves into crock.

Pour brine over, let stand for 2 weeks, skimming and occasionally.

Take pickles out, discard soft ones, cut into chunks, put in jars, turn jars upside down to drain.

Boil 2 C Sugar and 1 C Vinegar.
Pour over pickles after adding 1 tsp pickling spice to each Quart of pickles.

Pita Bread

We're trying to get nice chew, but with a pocket. The oil in this makes it more tender than a bread (or our pizza dough) without any fat.

The Smitten Kitchen blog has a thoroughly tested version, which we tried on cast iron in the BBQ, and they almost puffed. I'll start from hers, show bakers percentage to compare with my usual 66-70% hydrations, and maybe try some  based on Mallmann's "chapa bread" variations like we've been doing with left-over pizza dough, because they don't require rolling.

455 g Flour, All Purpose
295 g Water, at room temperature (65% hydration)
 30 g Olive Oil (7%)
 13 g Kosher salt (2.9%)
  5 g Yeast (1.3%)

Knead in a stand mixer 10 minutes.
Rise in the fridge overnight in a covered container.
Split into 6 or 8 pieces and let warm and rise;
you can freeze these in zippy bags, and let warm a bubble 30 minutes before cooking.
Cook on hot cast iron on one side, flip, finish the other side.
It should puff up nicely.

Licorice Ice Cream

The flavor of Fernet reminded me of licorice, and that made me think of a Chocolate Fernet gelato I made. So why not Licorice ice cream? I'd never seen it, but the interwebs say it exists and there are recipes like this one from Epicurious.

I used licorice by Wiley Wallaby, as it seemed less like synthetic candy than Twizzlers. I also got some Pontefract Cakes from the UK which are more intense and less sweet, so I'll try that next. I've got some Brewers Licorice which I'd also like to try but need to understand how much to dilute it, as it's definitely not a candy: "will burn your mouth... wear gloves"!

Here's our first take on licorice ice cream; sorry, no pictures this time.

140 g       5 oz   Licorice
360 ml  1 1/2 C    Milk
360 ml  1 1/2 C    Heavy Cream
175 g     3/4 C    Sugar
pinch              Salt
  4         4      Egg Yolks
2.5 ml    1/2 tsp  Vanilla

Melt the Licorice in the Milk, slowly, stirring frequently; I got impatient and blitzed it with an immersion blender.
The licorice contains flour so it thickened the Milk quite a bit.
The licorice dye turns the Milk a ghastly gray-green color somewhere between camo and radically overcooked peas; if you have it, a few drops of Black Food Coloring would help.
Add Cream, Sugar, Salt, Vanilla and heat to dissolve.
Adjust heat to under 82C/180F -- higher than 85C/185F will curdle the Eggs.
Whisk the Egg Yolks.
Temper the Yolks by adding some of the hot liquid to them while whisking, then add this back to the hot Cream mixture.
Heat to 82-85C, 180-185F so the Yolks will thicken the Cream.
Pour into a container; it has a disturbingly gelatinous texture, like wallpaper paste, but should be fine once churned. The taste is good, like very sweet licorice; serving cold should balance out the sugar.
Cool overnight.
Process in an ice cream churn, put in a container and freeze overnight.
The thickness caused our churn to really struggle, but the finished texture came out fine.
Taste was good, not as intense as I'd like, but definitely a decent and slightly unusual dessert with an uncommon flavor profile.

Pizza Dough for a Crowd

We built a clay pizza oven in the back yard; it gets hot enough for Neapolitan pizza which by law needs to be 430-480C (800-900F), and results in beautiful pillowy crusts. Since it needs a lot of wood and a couple hours heating time, we need a large crowd to justify firing it up.

This recipe makes enough for 12 140g pizzas, which is about enough for 6 sedentary adults, or 4 hungry younger folks. The volume pretty much maxes out my Kitchenaid stand mixer. The international regulations specify a hydration percent between 55.5 and 62.5%, but I tend to go a bit higher, 66-70% hydration; here, I'll go with 66%, as wetter dough more difficult for inexperienced pizza makers to handle.

Before: 6 buckets each wit about 1.7Kg dough

After: 6 buckets risen to about 3L each

It's worth finding the proper pizza flour from Italy: the 00 grind is very fine and makes for a better result. We have found it at a very good price at a restaurant supply store, and at Literi's Italian market, and also bought it from a Neapolitan-certified pizza restaurant. It comes in 55-pound bags. Caputo is a fairly common brand, and it has 12.5% protein.

About 55 pounds of 00 pizza flour

1000 g Italian 00 Pizza Flour (2.2 pounds)
 660 g Water (2 3/4 C)
  30 g Kosher Salt (2 1/2 Tbs)
   5 g Yeast (2 tsp)

Knead 10 minutes.
Place in covered 2L container.
Let rise in the fridge 1-3 days.
The day of the pizza fest, pull the dough out about two hours before eating time and let warm up.
Divide into 12 pieces and roll into tight balls.
Let rise a while, covered; we do this in an inverted under-bed box.
Shape, put on cornmeal-dusted peel, sauce and top, then fire: they should be done in couple minutes if the oven is hot enough.

Pizza just put in the oven

Mallmann's Mustard Lamb

Lusty flavors and a a deep char give this a great taste on the BBQ; quick and easy. Adapted from Francis Mallmann's "Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way". Serves 2.

 16 oz  450 g     Lamb Leg
                  Salt
                  Pepper
1/4 cup  60 ml    Dijon Mustard
1/4 cup  handful  Fresh Oregano, fresh (omit if you only have dried)
  1       1       Lemon
                  Oil

Cut one or two inch-thick slices from the Lamb, across the grain; if you end up cutting more small pieces, that's fine.
Remove any obvious gristle and excess fat.
Cover with cling film and pound flat to an even 1/2 inch thickness.
Season both sides generously with Salt and Pepper.
Brush both sides evenly with Mustard.
Press chopped Oregano onto one side only, and press a thin Lemon slice on each piece.

On the BBQ, get a cast iron griddle or pan ripping hot.
Drizzle with oil and when smoking, slap on the Lamb, Lemon/Oregano-side down.
It will smoke a lot.

Let cook undisturbed until the Lemon and Oregano are charred (you'll have to peek carefully).
Flip and finish cooking to your desired internal temperature, about 135F is good: it should retain a bit of pink.
Serve with a rich Malbec, and vegetables grilled on the griddle.

Banana Bread

This is tasty, easy, and adaptable --  you can use a mixer, food processor or do everything by hand. From The Kitchn. This makes two loaf pans, with 4 to 6 very ripe bananas.

  1 C    100 g  Walnuts (optional)
 16 Tbs  230 g  Butter, softened
  2 C    450 g  Sugar
  4        4    Eggs
  2 t     10 ml Vanilla
  2 tsp    8 g  Baking Soda (Baking Powder works too)
1/2 C    120 ml Milk
4-6      550 g  Banana, chopped or mashed
  4 C    625 g  Flour

Preheat oven to 325F/165C convection or 350F/175C regular.
Line 2 loaf pans with parchment to make a sling and mist with cooking oil spray.
Chop the walnuts (you can do this with a pulse or two if you're using a food processor); toast until fragrant.
Cream the Butter with Sugar in the food processor, or just melt Butter and combine with Sugar.
Whiz or mix in Eggs, Vanilla, Baking Soda.
Chop or mash the banana: a pastry cutter or potato masher work well; don't use a food processor as it makes them too wet.
In a large bowl, combine the sugar-butter-egg mix with Milk, Banana, Flour, and stir to combine; don't over-work, it's OK if a little flour isn't incorporated thoroughly.
Pour into lined bread pans, shiggle to even out the thick batter a bit.
Bake for about 60 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
Pull out with paper slings and let cool on rack.

Gâteau Basque #1

This was a terrible recipe, but a tasty result. The technique was fussy and involved a piping bag to place the pastry bottom and top -- that's actually what attracted me. In the middle is an orange aromatic pastry cream, it's really quite luxurious. It's funny to me there is an entire festival about this dish, so it seemed important to try it.

I'm re-writing the recipe to use metric consistently, and order the ingredients the way you need to use them. For my 8-inch tart pan, I needed a little more Cake mix to cover, but it baked up adequately. There appear to be two variations, one with pastry cream, the other with Black Cherries, but here I used the cream and sour cherries which worked nicely. But really, next time, I'll use a more traditional and proper-bakers' recipe: the pastry is rolled normally and the cream is piped in, not the other way around!

Pastry Cream
300 ml     Milk, whole
  1        Orange, Zest
  1 whole  Egg
  1        Egg Yolk
240 g      Flour, all purpose
 15 g      Corn Starch
 60 g      Sugar
  5 ml     Vanilla extract

  ? ??     Sour Cherries

Cake
240 g      Flour, all purpose
  1 tsp    Baking Powder
160 g      Butter
160 g      Sugar
  2 whole  Eggs

Glaze
 1         Egg Yolk
 60 ml     Milk

Simmer Milk and Orange Zest to flavor the Milk.
In separate bowl, mix Egg, Egg Yolk, Flour, Corn Starch, Sugar and Vanilla to form a paste.
Add hot Milk mixture to mixing bowl, quickly stir to combine but not cook the eggs.
Return to saucepan, whisk over medium heat until it thickens to a pastry cream or custard texture, with out curdling the eggs.
Strain through fine sieve, cover, and chill in fridge.

Butter and dust with flour an 18 cm / 7 inch cake tin; I used an 8-inch tart pan which was just a bit too large diameter, but it worked.
Mix Flour and Baking Powder in a bowl.
In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat Butter with Sugar until smooth and creamy.
Beat in Eggs, one at a time.
Gradually add the Flour and Baking Powder and continue mixing; this is too dense for a cheap hand mixer.
Transfer into a piping bag, and pipe a spiral onto the bottom off the pie tin.
Pipe a line up the side to create an edge.

Fill the center with the cooled Pastry Cream and smooth.

Add the Sour Cherries.
Pipe the top using the same spiral technique; I didn't have quite enough to cover.
Chill while you preheat the oven to 180C / 350F.
Whisk the Egg Yolk and Milk and paint the Glaze on the top of the pie;
use the tines of a fork to carve a slight diagonal stripe pattern in the top.
Bake 45 minutes until dark golden; it will rise quite a bit.
Cool.

Julia Child's Pastry Dough: Pate Brisée

Irene's adaptation from Julia Child´s "The Way to Cook", using the food processor, converted to metric. Makes 2 9-inch crusts (our Pyrex pie dish says 23 cm). Julia uses 1 tsp Salt and 2 Tbs Sugar for sweet pies but Irene uses salt only so extra dough can be frozen and used for savory pies later.

210 g   1 1/2 C    All Purpose Flour
 70 g     1/2 C    Cake Flour
  6 g       1 tsp  Kosher Salt
170 g       6 oz   Butter, chilled, cut into chunks
 56 g       2 oz   Lard or more Butter
120 ml    1/2 C    Ice Water

Whiz Flours, Salt, Fats in food processor.
While running, drizzle in Water.
Form into ball on counter, dusting with flour if needed.
Wrap in cling film and chill for 2 hours.