Scratch Buttermilk Pancakes

Never made pancakes before. I have a vague memory of my mom making little 'silver dollar' pancakes occasionally when I was a child, but as an adult I've never been much of a pancake eater and as such I've never bothered to try making them.

So why did I make them, then? That's a long story involving the lovely and thoughtful Mrs. Ford and my picky-eating, stubborn son John.

John only likes to eat carbs. Pop tarts if he can get them, bread/crackers/goldfish if he can't. The only things I cook that he will regularly eat are homemade pizza and homemade bread (I'm not counting desserts like chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes here, obviously...) Lots of evenings if I have made something that I think the kids ought to eat (pasta, rice, lentils, beans, etc.) John goes to bed with no dinner because he refuses to even try a bite of any of the above things.

The Fords came over for dinner this most recent Saturday and got to see the sad sight of John morosely glaring at a plate of buttered tagliatelle while the rest of us feasted on said tagliatelle with meatballs and roasted tomato sauce. When Rebecca pointed out that he really only like breakfast foods Mrs. Ford replied 'we used to eat breakfast foods for dinner sometimes as kids.'

The next day I was pondering dinner options (and honestly, planning on leftover meatballs for me!) and I remembered what Mrs. Ford said. Then I remembered recently reading a Good Eats recipe for scratch buttermilk pancakes (ironically from a cookbook that the Fords gave me for Christmas) and I decided to see whether or not flipping pancakes is really that hard. (the answer, by the way, is 'no, not really') Sydney was as usual a big help - she did much of the mixing and stirring (and egg cracking) and got to enjoy the final product too.



The below recipe can be scaled up or down as you see fit; made as written, it will make about a dozen medium-sized pancakes. You can also make a big batch of the dry team and store it for months in an airtight container if you want to save some time for future pancake making.

Dry Team (aka homemade pancake mix)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons sugar

Wet Team
2 cups buttermilk
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2 eggs, separated

Whisk together the dry team in a large mixing bowl, set aside. Mix the egg whites with the buttermilk and the egg yolks with the melted butter, then combine. Pour the wet team into the dry team and stir to combine - don't overmix, the batter should be somewhat lumpy. If it looks too thick add a splash more buttermilk to loosen it (it should be thicker than cake batter but thinner than brownie batter, if that makes sense.)

Heat a non-stick skillet or a griddle pan over medium heat. You want a cooking temperature of about 350 degrees, which should cause a drop of water to dance on the pan. Lube the pan with a rub of butter or spray of oil and pour a ladle of batter into the center of the pan. They should set up fast - when the edges start to pull away from the pan and bubbles have formed around the top edge, use a large spatula to flip the pancake and cook until the other side is golden brown. For me this was faster than I expected (I burned the first one, and slightly overcooked the second one) - each side only took about 2 minutes. Serve immediately or remove to a warm (200 degree) oven covered with a towel while you make the rest.

Serve with real-deal grade A amber maple syrup (in one of those weird synchronisity moments, this was ALSO a gift from the Fords) and maybe a hint of butter.

So what did John think? He devoured two of them, literally laughing with glee the whole time.



I think I will be making a lot more pancakes going forward.

Special shout-outs to my good friends the Fords for the cookbook, the maple syrup, and most importantly the idea for this experiment!

Cornbread Muffins

A fun and easy recipe.  Sydney likes making this one with me (in large part because she gets to lick the extra honey out of the measuring cup afterwords) and is actually quite skilled at spooning the batter into the muffin cups.  Eat while piping hot with a generous amount of butter!

Hardware:
12-muffin muffin tin
2 medium sized mixing bowls
balloon whisk
ladle


Software (Dry Team:)
1 cup corn meal
1 cup AP flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Software (Wet Team:)
1 cup whole milk
1 egg
1/4 cup honey
3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Grease muffin tin with nonstick spray.  Whisk together Dry Team in one bowl, set aside.  Whisk together Wet Team in second bowl until honey and oil are fully incorporated.  Stir Wet Team into Dry Team until well combined.

Ladle into muffin tin (these don't rise a lot, so you can fill the cups about 3/4 of the way with no overflow problem) and bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating halfway through.

Best Baked Beans

This is another recipe courtesy of Alton Brown - easy, delicious, filling.  They do take a fairly long time to cook, so plan accordingly.

My two main alterations to Mr. Brown's recipe are the use of the slow-cooker (instead of the oven) and a slight reduction in the amount of bacon.

Hardware:
Large skillet or saute pan
Large (4qt) slow cooker

Software:
1 lb great northern beans, rinsed and picked, soaked in cold water for at least 24 hours
12 oz smoked bacon, diced
1 large onion, diced
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and cored, diced
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 quart (4 cups) vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste
(optional) 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Assembly:
Set up your slow cooker to run for 6 hours at 'High' temp.  Add the beans, sugar, molasses, tomato paste, and vegetable broth to the crock.  Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and cook the bacon until mostly done (and some of the fat has rendered.)  Add the bacon to the crock and saute the onion and pepper in the remaining bacon fat with a healthy pinch of salt.  Add to the crock along with several grinds of black pepper and another pinch of salt, stir to combine, cover and cook.

After 6 hours the broth should be mostly absorbed and the beans should be tender but still 'distinct' thanks to the molasses.  Check seasoning and serve warm.

Goes really, really well with honey cornbread muffins or southern-style biscuits.

Coq au Vin!

Les américains ne peuvent pas faire coq au vin correctement!

Sadly this turned out to be somewhat true - I was not overly impressed with the outcome of this experiment.  The resulting dish wasn't terrible, but it wasn't anything special either, and it was fairly labor intensive for something so mediocre.

It was partially my fault - I've wanted to make this ever since seeing the relevant Good Eats episode but I wasn't all that interested in the rather extreme prep time (2 days, really?) and couldn't get my hands on a couple of the suggested ingredients... so I went with a much quicker and easier recipe.  I made some modifications (like omitting the mushrooms, since I didn't have any on hand)

Hardware:
1 large oven-proof dutch oven or similar

Software:
4 ounces bacon, diced
1 (3 to 4-pound) chicken, cut in 8ths
1/2 pound carrots, peeled and diced
1 yellow onion, diced
1/2 pound celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 bottle (375 ml) dry red wine
1 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons flour
Thyme (fresh is better, otherwise 1 tablespoon dried)
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.  Cook the bacon in your dutch oven over medium-high heat until browned; remove to paper towels to drain.  Working in batches, season the chicken with salt and pepper and brown in the pan, removing to towels to drain.  Once all the chicken is cooked, add the mier poix to the pan along with a heavy pinch of salt and cook over medium heat until the onions are translucent.  Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more, then add the wine, the broth, the herbs, and return the chicken and bacon to the pan.  Cover and remove to the oven, baking for 30-45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.  Remove to the stovetop.

Melt the butter in a bowl and whisk together with the flour.  Stir the mixture into the dish, check seasoning, serve. 

Can be served over egg noodles or rice, or with hearty bread.

Like I said above, the final product wasn't terrible, but was pretty 'meh' especially considering the effort involved.  I may try again someday and make the 'proper' 2 day version just for comparison, although it would have to be pretty fantastic to justify that amount of work. 

Chicken Enchiladas Suizas

These are my non-traditional, quick and easy, slightly healthier chicken enchiladas.  They have a lot in common with King Ranch Casserole in terms of prep and construction, but are different enough in taste and texture to warrant their own place in my recipe collection.

Hardware:
9x13 glassware baking dish
aluminum foil
mixing bowl

Software
1 lb cooked chicken, diced or shredded
1 small onion, diced
4 cups verde salsa
1 cup sour cream
24 corn tortillas
3 cups shredded cheese

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Combine 3 cups of the salsa, the sour cream, and approximately half the cheese in the mixing bowl.  Dice or shred your cooked chicken and add to the bowl.  Sweat the onion over low heat in a splash of oil and a pinch of salt and add (this step, and the onion for that matter, are optional) and add.

Place 6 tortillas in the bottom of your 9x13 baking dish.  Ladle on approximately 1/3rd of the filling mix, then top with another 6 tortillas.  Repeat this process until you have 4 layers of tortillas sandwiching 3 layers of filling.  Top the last layer with the remaining 1 cup salsa and the remaining cheese.

Cover with foil and bake approximately 1 hour or until cooked through.  Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes to brown the top.

As with king ranch casserole, lots of possible alterations here.  You can use roasted chicken breast, rotisserie chicken, boiled picked chicken, leftover turkey, etc.  You can also experiment with different salsas (including homemade, although it's time consuming.)  Avoid 'homestyle' tortillas as they are too thick and will soak up all your salsa.

If you want traditional 'rolled' enchiladas you will need to add an extra step.  Heat a 1/4 cup of oil in a skillet over medium-low heat, and dip each tortilla in it for a few seconds.  This will soften the tortillas enough to allow you to roll them around a small amount of filling.  Personally, I don't think this tastes any different, and it is a lot more work (and slightly more calories) than the stacked method above.

Capellini Pomodoro (aka Floopy Noodles)

It's been a while since I posted anything since I have been making all the recipes already on here for the last few weeks (or experimenting with things that didn't quite turn out.)  Yesterday, though, Sydney requested I make 'that pasta with the long flooping noodles and no sauce' and after a few seconds I realized she meant 'capellini pomodoro' - one of the few things I cook that she really likes.

This is a really simple, quick dish with almost no prep time involved.  It's also easy to keep all the ingredients on hand (as they are all long-term-storage items) and it goes well with lots of other things - from pasta e fagioli to salad to chicken piccata.

Hardware:
large stock or pasta pot
large saute pan or high-sided skillet
colander(s)
chef's knife
cutting board

Software:
1lb dried capellini (aka angel hair) pasta
1 large (28oz) can whole plum tomatoes, 1/4 cup juice reserved
1/4 cup good quality olive oil
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed or finely minced
handful of fresh basil, chiffonade (or 1 tablespoon dried basil)
salt and pepper to taste

Salt 6-8 quarts of water in a large pot and set to boil.  Peel and crush or mince the garlic, set aside.  Drain the tomatoes, reserving 1/4 cup of juice.  Pop the tomatoes under running water and try to remove the majority of the seeds, then roughly chop and place in a colander to drain. 

Once the water is boiling add the pasta.  Heat the oil in your saute pan over medium heat; add the garlic and cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.  Once the garlic is turning golden add the tomatoes and basil, season with salt and pepper, and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently.  Kill the heat and drain the pasta (which should be al dente at this point) then return to the stock pot.  Add the sauce mixture and the reserved tomato juice and toss to combine.  Add the parmesan and additional salt to taste (this dish takes a LOT of salt to fully season) and serve immediately.