Homemade Pitas

This was a big hit with the kids - I made them to go with falafel and was surprised at how much better than storebought they were. 

Software:
3 cups bread flour (you can substitute up to 1/2 with whole-wheat flour)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 packet instant yeast
1 cup warm water

Hardware:
Stand mixer, food processor or bread machine
peel
rolling pin
baking stone

Combine the ingredients except the water in your stand mixer with the paddle attachment.  With the mixer set to 'stir' slowly add the water and stir until the dough comes together.  Switch out the paddle for the dough hook and knead the dough for 5 minutes; form into a ball and cover to let rise for 1-2 hours.

After the dough has risen punch it down and divide into 8-12 equal portions.  Roll these into balls and flour lightly; cover with a towel and leave to rise for 20 minutes while preheating your oven (with a baking stone on the middle rack) to 350 degrees.

Roll out your pitas to ~1/4 inch thickness and use the peel to deposit them on the baking stone.  Bake for 3-4 minutes, then flip over and bake another 3-4 minutes.  Remove and devour as is, or brush with melted butter.  Or use them to make a falafel sandwich!

Falafel!

This recipe is somewhat labor intensive but the result is delicious, healthy, and kid-friendly.  It's also vegan, incidentally, if that sort of thing matters to you  :)

So what is falafel, anyway?  Basically it's the middle eastern take on a hush puppy (that's how my wife described it after trying it for the first time) - a fried ball or patty made up of minced chickpeas, onion, garlic, and various spices.  A food processor is fairly essential for the construction, although you might be able to make it work with a grinder attachment to a stand mixer instead.

You can eat it as-is or make a sort of sandwich using pita bread.  Traditional condiments include lettuce, tomato, red onion and tahini or yogurt sauce.

Falafel with homemade pita bread and lemon-pepper-yogurt sauce

Software:
1 lb dried chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans)
1 small onion, quartered
3 cloves garlic
large handful cilantro or parsley leaves
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper or red pepper flake
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Hardware:
Food processor with blade attachment
large skillet or dutch oven for frying
1 qt neutral oil (such as grapeseed) for frying
draining rig (a cooling rack, a plate, and a couple of paper towels works fine)

Start by soaking the chickpeas in cold water overnight (12-24 hours).  Drain, and place in the work bowl of your food processor along with all the other ingredients.  Pulse repeatedly until the chickpeas are a coarse, well-chopped texture (there should still be visible pieces of bean, but small pieces.)  Shape into balls or patties and let rest while you heat the oil (at least an inch deep) to 350 degrees over medium high heat.

Fry the patties for 2-3 minutes per side, or until well browned.  Remove to draining rig to drain and cool. 

Some pro tips:
The tricky part of making falafel is that often the 'dough' will not want to form into anything, but rather will fall apart regardless of shaping.  If this happens it means that your mixture is too wet.  Place the pile of 'dough' in a tea towel and wring out over the sink (this is a fairly difficult thing to do without making a huge mess, so dress appropriately) - you will be surprised at how much water comes out! 

If the dough still resists forming, try adding a couple of tablespoons of flour, stirring to combine, waiting a few minutes, and trying again.  If you have chickpea flour (gram) it is an even more effective option.

If your falafel holds together pretty well, your oil should be good for at least one or two more frying sessions.  If they fall apart really badly, the burned debris will probably mean the oil should be thrown out.

Irish Stew (St. Patrick's Day Special Edition)

I have been remiss in keeping this blog updated over the last few months - things have been busy, and although I've been cooking as much as normal I haven't been trying a lot of new recipes.

Today of course is St. Patrick's Day, and in honor of the holiday and its innate Irishness I am making a hearty lamb stew.  Why not corned beef and cabbage, you ask?  Well for one thing, the stew is a lot tastier, but also - it's actually Irish, whereas corned beef and cabbage is Irish-American immigrant food.

Software:
2.5 - 3 lbs boneless lamb shoulder, cut into bite size chunks
12oz bacon, diced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 cloves garlic; minced or crushed
1/4 cup beef broth
2 cups beef broth
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
teaspoon kosher salt
teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cups diced carrot
2 cups diced potato
1 cup diced onion
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 cup white wine

Brown the bacon in a skillet over medium-high heat; remove to large stock pot, reserving the fat.  Whisk together the flour, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl; add the lamb chunks and toss until evenly coated.  Working in batches, brown the lamb chunks in the bacon fat in the skillet over medium-high heat, adding to the stock pot once done.  Saute the onion, celery and garlic in the skillet and add to the stock pot.  Deglaze the pan with the 1/4 cup broth, add this, the 2 cups broth, and the sugar to the stock pot.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 2 hours.

After 2 hours add the carrot, potato, onion, thyme, and wine; cook for an additional 20-30 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked to desired tenderness.

This recipe should serve 6 people (and hungry ones at that) but can easily be scaled up or down.

Serve with bread (irish soda bread if you want to be extra authentic, but I actually prefer french country style bread myself)

Light & Delicious Gingerbread Cookies

I've always liked the idea of gingerbread cookies but never cared much for actual gingerbread cookies - they always taste heavy with molasses and too strongly spiced with cloves for my liking.  When Rebecca asked me to make cookies for her kindergarten class (after a minor baking cataclysm deprived them of cookies the week before) I went on the prowl for a recipe that might make cookies that tasted delicious instead of like somebody working in the clove industry came up with them.

Using the awesome snowflake cutter the Fords bought us, long ago

 

2 large ginger-men, a snowflake, and a S for Sydney!

 

Final product.  A delicious, unique, and beautiful snowflake.

Dry Team:
3 cups all purpose flour (plus additional for work surface / rolling pin / etc.)
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Wet Team:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3/4 brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1/2 cup molasses

whisk together the dry team in a mixing bowl and set aside.  In a stand mixer or using a hand mixer, beat together the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until well combined.  Add the molasses and continue mixing until thoroughly integrated.  Working in batches, add the dry team and stir together on low until all ingredients are mixed.  You may need to add a couple of tablespoons of water if the dough is having trouble coming together.  Cover the dough and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Working on a well floured surface, roll the dough out to ~1/4 inch thickness and cut into your desired shapes.  Bake for 7-10 minutes and allow to cool before decorating (or devour, warm, as is.)  Makes ~30 small ginger-men or about 36 small cookies.

The cookies taste almost bland at first but have a wonderful gingery taste with a hint of clove and cinnamon in harmony.  They received universal acclaim in our household, as well as in Rebecca's classroom.

Best Sauteed Zucchini

This recipe is from a Jamie Oliver cookbook my friends the Foxes gave me for Christmas a few years back.  It has a lot of really interesting recipes in it (although unfortunately, a fair number of them require ingredients that are hard to come by in Central Texas, or at least at reasonable prices)

Rebecca asks me to make this all the time.  It's absurdly quick and easy, and a big serving of the resulting dish has something like 75 calories, so bon appetit!

Hardware
Big non-stick skillet or saute pan
Mandoline slicer (if you have one)
Medium mixing bowl
Colander (optional)

Software
4-6 zucchini squash
2 tablespoons olive oil
pinch red pepper flake
2 cloves garlic, crushed or finely minced
juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon butter
Salt and black pepper to taste

Slice the zucchini evenly into thin (1/16th inch) slices - this is quick and easy if you have a mandoline or something similar.  Toss in the mixing bowl with the red pepper flake and garlic, set aside.

Heat the oil in your pan over medium-high heat.  When the oil is shimmering, add the zucchini and cook, stirring frequently, until it begins to lightly brown around the edges (4-5 minutes.)

Add the butter, lemon juice, and lemon zest and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until most of the juice has cooked off and the zucchini is browned and cooked through (3-4 minutes)

Season with salt to taste and serve hot.

Interesting pro tip:  if you have time, you can improve the texture and flavor of the final product considerably by 'koshering' the zucchini.  After slicing them, place in a colander and toss with a couple of heavy pinches of kosher salt.  Let rest for at least 15 minutes (30 is better) then rinse and pat dry.  The salt will pull a lot of the moisture out of the zucchini, making the final product much tastier.

Red Beans and Rice

Another recipe courtesy of Alton Brown - this one is healthy and delicious.  Its flavors improve significantly after cooking - it's actually best if you make it, store it in the fridge for 2 days, then reheat and serve.  Not that it's bad right out of the pot...

If you don't want to make homemade pickled pork to go in your beans you can use a pound of andouille sausage instead, but it won't be as good  :)  Technically you can also use bacon but if you're going to go that route, I prefer the sweet smokiness of the Baked Bean.

Hardware:
Large dutch oven or stock pot
knife and cutting board

Software:
1 lb red beans, rinsed and picked over for rocks
2 quarts (8 cups) water
2 large bell peppers, seeded and cored, diced
1 medium onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
12 -16 ounces homemade pickled pork (recipe follows)
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon tabasco sauce (or similar)
additional salt and black pepper to taste

Add a splash of vegetable oil to your pot and place over medium-high heat.  Add the celery, onion, bell pepper and salt and cook until translucent, about 8 minutes.  Add garlic and cook an additional 2 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and cover.  Cook covered for 90 minutes or until the beans are tender, then continue cooking uncovered until desired consistency is reached.  You can use a potato masher or immersion blender to help speed along this process. 

Serve over warm white rice with extra tabasco sauce for those who like it hot.

Homemade Pickled Pork (shockingly easy)

Hardware:
saucepan
zip top bag
plastic bin for containment

Software
1-2 lbs pork shoulder (aka boston butt) cut into 1 inch cubes
2 cups water
1 cup apple cider vinegar
4 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
1/4 cup salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons mustard seed
2 tablespoons tabasco sauce
1 tablespoon celery seed
dozen black peppercorns


Bring all ingredients except the pork to a boil in your saucepan.  Kill the heat and add ~2 cups ice.  Once cooled, place your pork shoulder in the zip-top bag and pour the pickling solution over it.  Press as much air as possible out of the bag and close.  Store in the refrigerator (turning occasionally) for a minimum of 2 days and a maximum of 2 weeks (after that, you can drain off the solution and freeze it)

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!