Recipes / Food - Drink

[HomeInMyShoes]

I baked some Cranberry Lemon Shortbread for the holidays. Of course, they actually have to survive until the holidays.

[BenG]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

I made a chicken pot pie this afternoon -- actually 2 of them -- loosely following the recipe in Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything." :whispers: except I used canned biscuits for the top instead of making my own crust.

But I DID use my own vegetables from my weekly delivery (new potatoes, carrots, and onions with some frozen peas added in), and 1/2 cup of cream, and other tasty things. It was very good!

I usually cheat and make them with Bisquick. I make the dough a little thinner to make it easier to spread.

[phenomshel]

Home made chicken pot pie is NOTHING like your memory, Stitchawl. I make it too. You can also use leftover Thanksgiving turkey.

Mine isn't as "from scratch" as Mark Bittman's, because I use cream of whatever soup in it. (If it's only me eating it I'll use one can cream of chicken and one cream of mushroom). Plus chopped up cooked chicken, mixed vegetables (usually carrots, peas, corn, green beans frozen mix). Then the Bisquick trick as BenG says above, only I brush mine with melted garlic butter after it's cooked. The only thing you have to remember is that your filling must be boiling hot before you put the crust on, or the bottom of your biscuit crust won't cook on the bottom.

[BenG]

I've been trying to avoid canned soup so I make a white sauce, replacing the milk with chicken broth. A little garlic or sage in the biscuit dough is good too.

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by BenG

I've been trying to avoid canned soup so I make a white sauce, replacing the milk with chicken broth. A little garlic or sage in the biscuit dough is good too.

Lots of people are doing that these days. I had a recipe once for chicken pot pie "gravy" made without the cream soups that sounded divine, but I can't find it anymore. I remember it was more than a simple roux, though.

[Stitchawl]

I guess it's memories of all that soup that bother me so much. I think I'd like it if the filling with basically chicken and veggies, all sort of 'coated' with some sort of sauce, rather than swimming in it. Even better if the sauce were to somehow solidify during the cooking process, more like a custard... So you could slice off a wedge of it and actually pick it up to eat, not that eating it that way would be the goal.

Stitchawl

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

I guess it's memories of all that soup that bother me so much. I think I'd like it if the filling with basically chicken and veggies, all sort of 'coated' with some sort of sauce, rather than swimming in it. Even better if the sauce were to somehow solidify during the cooking process, more like a custard... So you could slice off a wedge of it and actually pick it up to eat, not that eating it that way would be the goal.

Stitchawl

Well no, you couldn't do that with this. I sort of globbed a biscuit topping onto each plate and spooned filling over it. The filling is veggies softened a little bit in oil, then you add a little flour and brown a bit. Then add your chicken stock and cream. Let it thicken a little then put in cooked chicken and green peas, stir, and put in a buttered baking dish. Top with pastry of choice - I used Grands biscuits - and bake at 375 until filling is bubbly and crust is browned.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Betty, my only experience with chicken pot pies came as a child when my mother would force me to eat 'Swanson's Chicken Pot Pie,' which to my palate seemed to me more like small cubes of 'stuff' swimming in boiling wallpaper paste. GAK!

I have to believe that your homemade pies are not like that, and must be pretty good if you actually eat them rather than decorate your walls with it. I love the idea of mixing pie crust with good foods. So.... PLEASE.... give us the recipe!


Stitchawl

I've used this recipe:

Chicken Pot Pie Recipe

Ingredients
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 cup carrots, chopped
1/2 cup potatoes, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
pinch of black pepper (optional)
1 bay leaf
2 cups turkey or chicken stock
1 cup frozen peas
2 cups cooked turkey or chicken, chopped
Pastry for 9" double pie crust
2 tablespoons milk

Method
Several hours before serving:Melt butter in a saucepan (medium heat). Add onion, carrots, potatoes and celery and cook until softened, about 5 to 7 minutes.

Stir in flour and whisk, keeping the pot on medium heat, about 2 minutes. Add seasonings and stock, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly, until it thickens, about 5 minutes.

Remove bay leaf. Stir in peas and chopped turkey or chicken. Cover and set aside to cool, then refrigerate until cold. The cold filling will be quite thick.

45 minutes before serving:Preheat oven to 425°.

Spoon filling into 9" pie crust shell. Place second pastry layer over top of pie and seal the edges. Make vents in the top of the pie with a knife or fork, for steam to escape. Brush top with milk.

Bake 12 to 14 minutes, then reduce heat to 325° and bake 15 to 20 minutes longer or until pasty is golden brown and filling is bubbling.

Serves 6

[Stitchawl]

Thanks, Peter! That looks like a good place for me to start. Of course, a half cup of celery here in Japan will cost a small fortune. It's sold here 'by the stalk,' rather than by the bunch... But I think if I added a couple of eggs to the mix, and reduced the stock, I should be able to make a more 'solid' filling for myself.

I'll probably change from dried herbs to fresh as this seems to be a pretty fast cooking dish. I only use dried herbs when the dish is going to cook for 30 minutes or more. Thanks for the recipe!


Stitchawl

[beppe]

Poached meat balls (tiny)
It was the first time that I ventured in this classic of the Northern Cuisine (my Austrian grand mother made a delicious clear soup with tiny leberknodels).

Ingredients (in the order of application)
1 pound minced pork meat
1+1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
50 g oatmeal (I used rolled oats)
1-1/12 cup of milk
1 onion
1 clove of garlic (optional)
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 tsp powdered coriander (make 2 and it will be even better)
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Preparation
- In a sizable bowl, mix the meat with the salt and let it rest while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. This is the first of the two key passages to develop a full flavor.
- In the mean time I grate the ginger (I have the professional microplanes, for this I use the fine one) and reduce to fine powder the coriander grains in the spice blender.
- My trick is to stick blend the onion and the garlic with the milk.
- I mix everything with a wooden spoon. Taste and adjust by adding a bit of milk or of oats.
- I put the bowl in the fridge to rest for half an hour, while I prepare the cooking brine, I prepare the sauce, work on the other elements of the dinner and put in order the working space. At this point I had a small glass of Gewurtz Traminer, that I intended to serve with the meal and wanted to make sure that it was apt to my sophisticated guests (the girls, who else?). It was, so I had a second glass, always small. BTW, making the stuff rest is the second key passage to the development of the full flavors.

Cooking
I set up a large pot with a lot of water, slightly salted. I put it to boil, then I moved it on the smallest fire, so that it simmered as gently as possible. This is critical. If you poach in boiling water, the meat balls will dissolve.

Than with the aid of a small spoon, I make little balls, the size of a cherry tomato, and kindly slided them in the simmering water. I do about 1/3 of the stuff at a time. Let it go for about 6 minutes. My little balls did not disintegrate and actually started to float. Take them out with a spoon and put them in a bowl. Repeat with the second batch and then with the third one. When you are finished, you can put them back in the salted water, without fire, so that they keep warm. The great thing about this way of cooking is that everything can be done calmly and without hustle. Nothing is critical, except that the water should not be boiling. That's all.

Finishing them
I made a sauce to go with them. Actually they are grim looking and unappetizing, little gray, naked things. They would look better in a soup of course, or well robed in a luscious sauce.

I made a sort of oriental sauce. Fried in oil some finely chopped onion and garlic, 2 tsp of curry powder, 2 tsp of coriander powder and 1 bay leaf. I then mixed in it a small pack of coconut milk. Brought it to a gentle boil. Made it more dense with a small amount (2 tsp) of starch, added some of the salted water. Adjusted with a dash of fish sauce and few drops of lemon juice. Fantastic look, flavor and texture.

Serving them

I made steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes (the last one for the girls, so that if they disliked the unusual dish, they could resort to their beloved Parma ham, salami, frankfurters or even a bit of cheese, the creatures, I could always cook a fast omelet for them).

I put some meatballs in the pot with sauce and very cautiously enrobed them.
Some I left unseasoned for Little Girl ( I gave her a dash of ketchup that she adores) and maybe for BigGirl that is quite reluctant to my cooking extravaganzas. She is very open minded on all aspects of life, except for food where she really prefers a sandwich of salami and a glass of red. But I do not let myself become discouraged. Imagine.

A big succes. Maybe just a bit too soft. Next time I will cook the little meat balls a bit more.
Comments on the sauce. The coconut milk is a great smoother and binder of flavors. The sauce could be anything that goes well with the spices in the meatballs. This time it was curry. But it could have been all spices, both in the meatballs and in the sauce. Next time I will go in the parsley direction and use more Mediterranean flavors, like thyme, star anise, or French with estragon and why not blue cheese. Porcini? I loved this poached approach. It is a bit of work, but it makes a lovely dish without frying. Overall count about 1 hour of time.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Of course, a half cup of celery here in Japan will cost a small fortune.

My wife cant have celery so I will admit that doesnt even go in with me... Her digestion just can't handle it.

[Stitchawl]

OK... let no one say that I am closed minded...
Previously I stated that I wasn't happy with bread machines, and several folks here said they loved the bread they made with them. Realizing that my last personal experience with them was almost 20 years ago, and that they 'may' have changed...

Yesterday I went to the new Costco that just opened in my neighborhood. I saw that they were selling bread machines... I found one that did three loaf sizes, multi-programable, 13 hour timer, etc., and not expensive, and brought it home. I have to translate the instruction manual first, and I'll make a couple of loaves this week. Let's see if they really have improved...


Stitchawl

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

OK... let no one say that I am closed minded...
Previously I stated that I wasn't happy with bread machines, and several folks here said they loved the bread they made with them. Realizing that my last personal experience with them was almost 20 years ago, and that they 'may' have changed...

Yesterday I went to the new Costco that just opened in my neighborhood. I saw that they were selling bread machines... I found one that did three loaf sizes, multi-programable, 13 hour timer, etc., and not expensive, and brought it home. I have to translate the instruction manual first, and I'll make a couple of loaves this week. Let's see if they really have improved...


Stitchawl

one of the main reasons I have used the bread machines is that my house is rarely warm enough to get bread to raise except in the summer, and I don't want to make bread then!

[5thWiggle]

The only time I let the bread bake in the bread machine is if I use the timer function for fresh bread in the morning. Bread baked in the machine doesn't have the same crumb as it does when baked in the oven, even for the exact same recipe. Machine baked bread has a more coarse crumb, probably due to the fact it doesn't get the extra kneading and final rise that oven baked bread gets when you shape the loaf.

All that aside, I love my bread machine even though I mainly use it as a "dough" machine.

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

I have to translate the instruction manual first, and I'll make a couple of loaves this week. Let's see if they really have improved...

Well... first impression is that they certainly have improved! I made a French bread as it's first test.
Results: surprisingly good crust on all but the top side of the loaf, and mediocre crumb. Taste was perfect. Rise was good.

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

one of the main reasons I have used the bread machines is that my house is rarely warm enough to get bread to raise except in the summer, and I don't want to make bread then!

I had the same problem here before I added a DeLonghi heater to the equation. The kitchen and living room (our basic living spaces) stay at a constant 24 degrees (75F) year round. And when I wanted to insure a good yeast rise, I'd put the bowl in a large stock pot of warm water just to be sure.

Originally Posted by 5thWiggle

Bread baked in the machine doesn't have the same crumb as it does when baked in the oven, even for the exact same recipe. Machine baked bread has a more coarse crumb, probably due to the fact it doesn't get the extra kneading and final rise that oven baked bread gets when you shape the loaf.

That's odd... I find the crumb too fine! The instruction booklet says that you can adjust this, as it's a result of the moisture content of the flour used, but you have to check the dough frequently during the mixing process. My problem is that I buy flour in one kilo bags... Not even enough for two loaves. No way for me to really know how to compensate for the moisture. I have this same moisture problem with our rice, but we get that from my sister-in-law's paddy in 25k bags, so we know; 'this' bag came from this year's harvest and needs a bit less water than the last bag of older rice, etc.

All that aside, I love my bread machine even though I mainly use it as a "dough" machine.

That was how I treated the machine I had 20 years ago. But that machine gave absolutely no crust at all! I used it just to make dough. It DID make a wonderful pizza dough, and I wish I could find that recipe again! It was the best pizza dough I ever had... I seem to remember that it had instant mashed potato powder in the mix...


Stitchawl