One Ingredient Challenge: Hummus

Part of an ongoing series of cooking from scratch. That is, we cook something from basic items that don't have multiple ingredients (e.g. store-bought spaghetti sauce includes all sorts of spices and maybe other stuff too; we'd start with tomatoes and individual spices and add them together to make our own sauce). See other challenges here.

Finding an especially good hummus is not as easy as you might think. Having bookmarked a hummus recipe from Make the Bread, Buy the Butter, we decided to make our own to see how it came out. The book is all about various foods that can be made at home and whether it is cheaper to make or buy those foods. We've had plenty of success before with the book (though vanilla bean prices have gone up, making the store-bought vanilla extract more cost-effective) and were hoping for another positive outcome.

The recipe starts with chick peas,which we soaked overnight.

Soaking peas

The next day, we prepped other ingredients, like lemon zest and lemon juice.

Zesting a lemon

Juicing a lemon

Blending the ingredients was a fun process for our daughter.

Mixing ingredients in our little food processor

Adding tahini

The final batch was a lot of humus. The taste test worked out very well!

Testing the final product

Approved!

Making Pizza with the Fanciest Crust Ever

One day we decided to make a really fancy pizza crust for our pizza. The recipe is fairly pretentious, calling for "1/3 cup Durum Flour Biga" and "5 tablespoons cold-pressed first-pressing extra-virgin olive oil." The book has a separate recipe for the Biga, a pre-fermented starter used in baking Italian-style bread. They are generous enough to allow "1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano leaves, or 1/2 teaspoon dried." If you are very ambitious, you can find the crust recipe on pages 205-207 in Rustic European Breads from Your Bread Machine.

My wife prepared the Biga beforehand and let my daughter take charge the day of baking. She went from dough to oven with a jolly attitude.

Measuring the dough

Mixing some more

Working over the dough

Flattening out

Stretching out

Dough ball

With the dough complete, pizza construction was the next job.

Greasing the pan

Doughing the pan

Saucy

Cheesy

Putting toppings on the adults' pizza

The final results were deliciously satisfying!

The kids' pizza

Enjoying the kids' pizza

The adults' pizza

Awesome looking crust

Sweet Pea Cupcakes

After the success of our "blue food challenge" (featuring blueberries in various recipes), we started a "green food challenge" (featuring peas). One unusual recipe we tried was pea cakes, which is a terrible name in our humble opinion, so we renamed it Sweet Pea Cupcakes. We adapted this recipe.

We cut it down to make 6 cupcakes (small enough to bake in our toaster oven on a hot day).

• 3/4 cup frozen peas
• 4 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla
• zest and juice from 1/4 of a lemon
• 3/4 cup cake flour (or all purpose flour)
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt

1. Preheat the (toaster) oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Line tin with cupcake papers. Microwave frozen peas until thawed and warm (about 2 minutes, with stirring in between). Drain and rinse with cool water. Place peas, vanilla and lemon juice in a food processor and puree until smooth. Set aside.

Not sure about this ingredient

Visualizing whirled peas

Getting some zest with our special tool

Juicing what's left of the lemon

2.  In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine.

3.  Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, and then add the pea mixture and lemon zest. On low-medium speed, add the flour until  just incorporated.

Using hand-shaped whisks

4.  Spoon into cupcake papers. Bake for 20 minutes or until it passes the toothpick test. Cool cupcakes completely.

Uncooked

The results were perfect.

Cooked

To make the cakes more presentable, we made some simple lemon icing (butter, powdered sugar, lemon juice and zest) and sprinkled green sugar on top.

Icing

Finished product

The most important part of the cakes is, of course, the taste. After that horrible face in the first picture, what will my daughter's reaction be to the final product?

Taking a bite

Mmm....good!

Almost One Ingredient Challenge: Macaroons

Part of an ongoing series of cooking from scratch. That is, we cook something from basic items that don't have multiple ingredients (e.g. store-bought spaghetti sauce includes all sorts of spices and maybe other stuff too; we'd start with tomatoes and individual spices and add them together to make our own sauce). See other challenges here.

This recipe almost qualifies for the challenge. The coconuts are highly processed and the sprinkles are also an amalgamation of many other ingredients. We don't have an almond extract recipe either. And we don't use homemade vegetable oil spray. But they are Christmas cookies in the shape and appearance of festive wreaths, so the standards are relaxed.

Delectable finished product

Here's the recipe (from America's Test Kitchen, with additions for the shape and color):

Ingredients:

5 cups (20 oz) sweetened flaked or shredded coconut

8 large egg whites

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp almond extract

vegetable oil spray

(optional) green food coloring and sprinkles

1. Pulse the coconut in a food processor until finely chopped and transfer to a large bowl. Process the egg whites, sugar, salt, almond extract and food coloring if using, together in the food processor until light and foamy, about 15 seconds. Stir the egg mixture into the chopped coconut until combined. Wrap the bowl in plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture is thick, about 30 minutes.
2. Heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and coat with vegetable oil spray. Using wet hands, shape 1 tablespoon of the mixture into a wreath shape on the parchment paper. You may find that using a small cylinder in the middle of the wreath helps keep the shape consistent. Keep about 1 inch apart. Sprinkle with non-melting sprinkles. Large red ball sprinkles melt and should be added after baking.
3. Bake until the macaroons are light golden brown, 13 to 15 minutes, switching and rotating the baking sheets halfway through baking. Let the macaroons cool completely on the baking sheets for 30 minutes before serving.

The other most important thing we discovered came later. We were invited to a cookie exchange party that was very popular, i.e. seventeen different bakers were coming. At six cookies per person, that meant making eight and a half dozen cookies! Of course, that meant taking home eight and a half dozen, far too many for any normal sized family to eat in a single holiday season. So we did the only thing we could. We made variety plates and gave them to our non-attending friends. This happened two weeks before Christmas. Then the important thing happened--reciprocity! We received plates of homemade cookies from those to whom we had given. That was awesome, though we still have more cookies than we should probably eat by ourselves. Happily, the freezer has some room and a lot of patience...

Maundy Thursday 2012

UPDATED RECIPE LINK AND TEXT FOR THE LAMB

We did not make it to church for Maundy Thursday Mass. Dinner was a little delayed since we were making roast leg of lamb and unleavened bread. It took longer than we thought so neither my wife nor I were able to slip out to church before the bedtime routine started. In the interest of sharing, here's our food and recipes:

Marinating lamb and dough ball, i.e. the meal before cooking

The grilled lamb recipe we use (I don't remember where we stole it from [UPDATE--we stole it from the simplyrecipes.com blog post for grilled butterflied leg of lamb and I have modified the text so it isn't an exact duplicate of the wording of her recipe (it's still the same ingredients and procedure, so don't worry, but go check out the blog anyway, there's lots of good recipes there])...

Ingredients:

• 1/2 onion
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 Tbsp fresh or 1 Tbsp dried rosemary leaves
• Zest from 1 lemon
• 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• Kosher salt and ground black pepper
• 1 boneless leg of lamb (5-6 pounds) butterflied

Directions:

1. Put first six ingredients (onion to olive oil) in a food processor. Pulse to combine. (No food processor? Chop the onions, garlic, and rosemary very fine and combine with the other ingredients in a bowl.)
2. Sprinkle a lot of salt and pepper over the leg of lamb. Put marinade and lamb in a 1-gallon freezer bag. Be sure the marinade gets on all sides of the meat. Close the bag and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
3. Remove lamb from the refrigerator and let it return to room temperature (this should take about 20 mins). When ready for grilling, remove the meat from the gallon bag. To help turning the lamb on the grill, put two skewers through the meat crosswise.
4. Prepare the grill. For a charcoal grill, use "banked" grilling--have a double layer of colas on one side and a sparse single layer on the other. For a gas grill, turn all the burners to high at the start. After the meat is browned you reduce the heat.
5. Put the lamb (fat side down) on the grill on the double layer side (which is hotter). If flareups happen (which they probably will) have a squirt bottle or some cups of water for flame control. (the blogger's brother shakes a bottle of beer to squirt the coals when they flare up!) Sear on one side for four minutes, flip the lamb over and sear the other side for four more minutes. Then for a charcoal grill, move the lamb to the other side of the grill (with the sparse coals). For a gas grill, set the heat to low. The temperature should stay at 300-350°F. Cover the grill and cook for another 35 to 45 minutes until a meat thermometer registers at least 130°F in the thickest part (that results in a medium rare roast).
6. Move the meat to a cutting board with a well to collect the juices. Cover with foil and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove skewers if applicable. Cutting across the grain, make 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick slices. Serve on a warm platter with meat juices poured over the slices. The blogger recommends serving with mint jelly or horseradish. The meat should serve 8-10 people.

Our modifications:

• We didn't need to serve 8-10, so we had a 0.86 kilo (1.9 lbs.) butterfly cut from the lamb's leg. In case you don't know, a butterfly cut has the bone removed and leaves a layer of fat on one side of the meat. Cooking still took 35 minutes.
• I forgot the skewers. Since the cut was smaller, it was easier to turn on the grill. I think last year we had a four pound cut and the skewers helped a lot.
• We left our food processor behind (having the wrong plug for UK outlets) so I chopped stuff up. It wasn't too hard but it also wasn't as fast.
• No mint jelly or horseradish for us. Also, we don't have the cutting board with a well, so we used a plate.
• We didn't waste any beer on flareups on the grill. Using fingers to sprinkle water from a cup worked fine for me.

Roasting on the "cool" side of the grill

For the bread, we used a recipe from a church group we used to belong to. They make their own bread for the Eucharist, from a very simple recipe...

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (King Arthur brand is what they insisted on)
• 1/2 cup warm water (very warm, i.e. as close to boiling as you can stand)

 Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit (~140 Celsius)
2. Mix the ingredients
3. Knead the dough until it is soft (at least 10 minutes)
4. Roll out dough into a circle shape about half an inch thick
5. Put on a cookie sheet and poke the bread with a needle or toothpick in several places
6. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, flipping it every ten minutes

 Our modifications:

• My time on kneading the dough was a little inconsistent since I was going back and forth with the grill at the same time.
• I forgot to poke the dough. I remembered when I first went to flip it and saw air bubbles forming. I poked the half-cooked dough and that seemed to do the trick, so don't despair if you forget.

Not very circular but still satisfying

We also had one of those pre-mixed-and-washed salad bags as our "bitter herbs" in imitation of the Passover meal/Last Supper. I forgot to get some Kosher wine. We continued with our currently open bottle of wine.

Both the lamb and the bread turned out very well. Jacob was reluctant to try it but said he liked it (even though he only ate the one bite). Lucy was much more enthusiastic, eating several subsequent bites. They both used dipping sauce for the lamb--our favorite barbeque sauce.

We always think we should make lamb more often since it is so tender and delicious. Now that we are in England, we have lots more reminders around us that lamb is an option not to be overlooked.

UK Recipe: Toad in the Hole

Another UK dish that we've decided to try is Toad in the Hole, which involves the combination of sausages and Yorkshire pudding. Yorkshire pudding, for those who don't know, is a delightful pastry-shell-like side dish that is often served with meals (as a starch, I suppose). To turn it into a main dish, this recipe adds sausages. We also made a nice onion gravy to go with it and some vegetables on the side. The recipe turned out quite nicely:

Unfortunately, the children weren't very interested in eating them. Lucy ate some sausage; Jacob took a few bites of Yorkshire pudding. Boy, did they miss out! This recipe is delicious and will be repeated by us.

You can find the recipe we used at this web site. The recipe is good for making individual toads in the hole and also provides directions for making one large dish. Here it is in case you are too lazy to click through or the about.com web site has gone belly up.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

• 4 large, fresh eggs, measured in a jug
• Equal quantity of milk to eggs
• Equal quantity of all purpose/plain flour to eggs
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp lard, beef dripping or vegetable oil
• 6 beef or pork sausages

Preparation:

Serves 4

• Heat the oven to the highest temperature possible.
• Pour the eggs and milk into a large mixing bowl and add the pinch of salt. Whisk thoroughly with an electric hand beater or hand whisk. Leave to stand for 10 minutes.
• Gradually sieve the same volume of flour (as the eggs) into the milk and egg mixture, again using an electric hand beater or hand-whisk to create a lump free batter resembling thick cream, if there are any lumps pass the batter through a fine sieve.
• Leave the batter to rest in the kitchen for a minimum of 30 minutes, longer if possible - up to several hours.
• Place a pea-sized piece of lard, dripping or ½tsp vegetable oil in a Yorkshire pudding tin (4 x 2"/5cm hole tin) or 12-hole muffin tin and heat in the oven. Cut each sausage into pieces to fit the holes of the pudding tin, place one piece into the hot fat and return the tray to the oven. Cook until the sausage pieces are golden brown (approx 15 mins) golden.
• Give the batter another good whisk adding 2 tbsps of cold water and fill a third of each section of the tin with batter and return quickly to the oven.
• Leave to cook until golden brown approx 20 minutes. Repeat the last step again until all the batter is used up.
  

You have to love a recipe that tells you to turn the oven temperature as high as possible!

Another issue is where the name came from. The short answer is nobody knows. The sausage sort of looks like an amphibian peaking out of the pudding but that is a stretch. Feel free to make up your own etymology.

Food for a Saturday Morning

One of our normal Saturday rituals is making baked oatmeal for breakfast. The children used to be interested in only eating the oatmeal but lately they have found the wonder and joy of making it. They help out Mommy, taking turns putting ingredients in the big bowl and mixing it all up (each with their own spoon).

Two helpers use vertical enhancement to reach the bowl.

Happy to mix!

They also keep an eye on the oven to see when it is preheated. Once the oven's warmed up we put our pan in. Twenty-five minutes later we have a super-yummy breakfast that's almost, but not quite, a raisin oatmeal cookie. The twenty-five minutes is usually play time for Jacob, Lucy, and one adult while the other sets the table, cleans the dishes, makes tea, and maybe even fries up some bacon!

Finished product

If you want to join in the fun, here is the recipe. I hope you have enthusiastic helpers, too!

Baked Oatmeal

Ingredients:

• 3 cups oatmeal
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup pecans (chopped)
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), melted
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 Fahrenheit or 190 Celsius.
Mix all the ingredients.
Pour into greased 9 by 13 inch cake pan.
Bake for 25 minutes.

Since we like it is so much, this recipe is a double batch. You can halve the ingredients and use an 8x8 pan for a smaller batch. Cooking time is about the same. The other thing we do is to measure out a second set of dry ingredients (up to and including pecans) and keep them in a gallon zip lock bag. Then next week's batch is even easier to make.