SOUPer Exchange!

This past Friday, I had the pleasure of spending some time with my friends, the Michigan Lady Food Bloggers! This time around, we had an Oktoberfest beer tasting + soup exchange. This means, of course, that I got to eat soup, take soup home and drink some beer in my little Arbor Brewing Company tasting glass.

For my part, I brought some French Onion soup for the exchange, some butterscotch bars to snack on and Bell's Brown Ale to share.

The recipe for the French Onion soup is ridiculously simple. Since I worked all day Friday, I had to have something crock pot friendly, and here is what I did:

I sliced up about 6 large onions the night before, and sauteed them in 1 stick of butter (mmmm!!!! Smelled like Thanksgiving morning).

On Friday, I put about 60 oz of beef broth (I cheated here and used some organic stuff that I found at Kroger), 1 tsp of Worcestershire sauce and some bay leafs (plus the onions, of course) into my crock pot. Then I put it onto the slow setting, plugged it in and went off to work.

When I came home, the house smelled great! I sent Jeff off to Morgan and York for some bread and cheese. He came home with a loaf of French bread and some very yummy farmers soft cheese. Once I got to Alison's house, we put some cheese on the bread, broiled it and there we had it!

Here are our lovely soup pots:





We also had snacks!! For my part, I brought something from the Brass Sisters' cookbook and as always, my girls didn't disappoint. I made the butterscotch bars with brown sugar meringue topping.

You will need:
2 cups pecan pieces (I only had walnut, so that's what I used this time; I've used pecan before and either type of nut is fine)
1.5 c flour
1.5 t baking powder
1/8 t salt
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c cold butter, cut into dice
2 egg yolks
1 t vanilla

For topping:
2 egg whites
1 c brown sugar
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The recipe wants you to brown the nuts first. I have down that before, but I didn't have time this time around so I didn't do it. I don't know that there was a noticeable difference. If you choose to brown the nuts, put them on a baking sheet and bake for about 7-10 minutes at 350.

Meantime, put some foil (shiny side up) into a 9x13 pan and spray with non-stick spray.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and brown sugar in a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Add butter. Pulse until the butter is the size of small peas. Add the egg yolks and vanilla and pulse until the mixture has the consistency of sandy clumps.

Put the mixture into the pan and press it in (I used my hands...they were clean). Press the nuts on top.

Now, you need to make the topping. Beat the egg whites until they peak. Add brown sugar and beat for 4 more minutes, at a high speed. Then spread on top of the stuff in the pan and bake for about 25 minutes at 350.

Of course, I fucked up the topping and put some brown sugar in at the beginning. I found that this makes them not "peak", no matter how long you leave it under the Kitchen Aid or how much you pray to the God of Egg Whites. So, I had to dig out some frozen egg whites from my freezer and thaw them under the hot water in the bath tub. (My sink was full). I found out that the Kitchen Aid will toss out frozen clumps of egg whites and it's quite a treat to catch them or scoop them up from the counter (it was clean). At any rate, I finally got the f'in egg whites to peak and then I put in the brown sugar and all was good.

Here is the picture of the food bloggers!!

Beer Chili

This time of year calls for chili (yes it is even cold in Mexico City) and what could be better than chili with beer in it, right Patty?

Beer Chili to keep you warm:

2 thick slices nice smoky bacon, cut into cubes
1 medium onion, chopped
16 ounces lean beef
minced garlic, 2 cloves
1 bottle beer
15 oz can stewed tomatoes with juice, break the tomatoes up with a spoon (or your by squeezing with your hand)
1 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon smoked chipotle powder
1 teaspoon cheyenne (if you like it hot)
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon salt
pepper
can black beans drained and rinsed (or what ever bean you like)


Brown bacon in a deep pot, once brown add in the onions and cover and let cook over medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. add into the pot the garlic and ground meat and let it brown. Once the meat is brown add in the been and cook until it evaporates and the meat is really cooked down, about 10 minutes. add in the rest of the ingredients except the beans, cover and cook for about 30 minutes. add the beans and cook for another 5 minutes.

Apple Bacon Roast Chicken

It’s finally cool enough that firing up the oven actually sounds appealing…especially if, after a while, a tasty roast chicken just happens to come out of said oven. I also had a couple of roaster chickens knocking around in my fridge so I set out to find an interesting roast chicken recipe. Among several intriguing choices, this one caught my eye because not only did I have all the ingredients at home already but one of the ingredients was bacon. Bacon that you covered the whole bird in. This I had to try.

My husband isn’t one for the sweet and meat pairing so I used the Recipezaar recipe more as inspiration than as tried and true directions. However, I bet maple syrup glazed, bacon coated, apple cooked chicken would be absolutely fantastic. One of these days when my husband is out of town I just may make Maple Bacon Chicken as written but for now, here’s my inspired but different Apple Bacon Roast Chicken.

Ingredients
1 roaster chicken (4lbs-ish)
1 apple
1 lb bacon
2 potatoes
1 handful of baby carrots or 2 sliced regular sized carrots
2 onions
black pepper
Cayenne pepper
salt
1T oil

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Lightly grease the bottom of a chicken roaster with oil just to keep the veggies from sticking. Slice the potatoes and onions into the bottom of the pan. Add the baby carrots/big carrots.

Wash the chicken and remove the giblets plus any excess fat. Salt and pepper the top, bottom and cavity of the chicken. Peel and quarter an apple and put it in the cavity. Place the chicken in the roaster, breast side up. Cover the top with the bacon. Cover the roasting pan and cook for 1.25 to 2 hours, depending on the size of the bird.

Production Notes
First of all this was one delicious bird, although I wish the apple and bacon flavor had come out more strongly in the meat. I expect that the maple syrup glaze might help somewhat to flavor the chicken with bacon and apple. The veggies, on the other hand, tasted of apples, bacon and awesome even if they were a bit greasy. Quite a bit greasy actually but it was totally worth it. Yum.

We were a little perplexed as to what to do with the bacon once the bird came out of the oven. It looks pretty but is a little impractical once you get down to carving. We wound up pulling the bacon off and piling it on one side and then serving a couple strips with a cut of meat and some veggies. Ultimately, cutting the bacon up with pieces of chicken worked the best and I’ll bet that changing up strips of bacon for chopped bits would solve the bacon conundrum. A sort of bacon encrusted roasted chicken if you will.

Hrudka (Slovak egg cheese for Easter)

The Slovak traditions for Christmas and Easter have imprinted certain taste memories that I can't avoid craving every year. One of the things I wonder why I desire is hrudka. Hrudka is also called cirek, sirets, sirok, sirecz, as well as just Easter egg cheese (by those who have trouble trilling their Rs) and it is basically a ball of scrambled eggs served at Easter. Some people put a slice of it on sandwiches but I always ate it plain with salt.

My family is always generous and I know that there would be a ball of hrudka for me to take at Easter. But this year things are a little crazy with our move coming up and I don't know for sure what our plans will be. Plus, the hrudka my family makes has cow's milk and my son has never been able to taste it. So this year I asserted my independence and made my own. It was fairly easy and the flavor only barely changed with my soy milk substitution. That is it still tasted like a ball of scrambled eggs. What can I say, it's tradition and somehow makes sense to my springtime taste buds.

I also was inspired by the posts on Bittersweet, a vegan blog. There she made soy cottage cheese spread and used the soy whey in bread for the following post. It's probably terrible for me to un-veganize an idea but in this I'm trying to respect the gifts of the eggs and not let any part go to waste. So I used my whey in the traditional paska (Easter bread), now made non-traditional with my dairy-free soy milk. Using the whey is apparently common but it's not something my grandmother did so I didn't know about it before. I'm waiting to taste the bread until Easter morning but it looks gorgeous this year and has a richer smell than my previous versions with just soy milk. Now that I've had my hrudka fix I can start playing with homemade soy cottage cheese!

Hrudka (Slovak Easter Egg Cheese)
Adapted from the recipe found in "Our Best to You", the 1st edition Sacred Heart Byzantine Catholic Church cookbook of Livonia, Michigan. The original recipe was submitted by Mrs. Helen Rapasky. Hrudka is served for Easter along with ham, kielbasa, beet horseradish, and paska (Easter bread). Some people put it on a ham or kielbasa sandwich but I always eat a slice plain with a little salt. This savory version is what my family makes but sweet variations are common, some are listed at the end of the recipe.
Makes 1 large ball of cheese, ~1 3/4 pounds

1 dozen eggs
1 quart milk (dairy-free for us, I used soy)
1 teaspoon salt

-Set up a large double boiler or make one using two pans or a pan and a bowl. I used a large stainless steel bowl over a saucepan. Fill the lower pan with an inch of water. Bring the water to a boil and turn down the heat so that it is strongly simmering.
-Off the heat, beat the eggs in the upper pan or bowl and then add the milk and salt. Beat all the ingredients to combine and then place over the pan of simmering water.
-Cook the egg and milk mixture stirring frequently with a wooden spoon until the mixture curdles, this will take approximately 20-30 minutes. You'll see curds separated out and leave a thin, watery whey. Stop once it seems like no more whey is being produced, IE coming out of the curds.
-Line a colander with a square, double layer of cheesecloth and place over a large bowl or pot. Pour the curds and whey carefully onto the center of the cheesecloth.
-Gather the cheesecloth together to form a large ball with the curds. Twist the top and press to remove more whey and then tie with kitchen twine.
-Tie the ball to a wooden spoon and suspend it over a pot to drain further and cool. Other directions recommend tieing the ball to your kitchen faucet to drain.
-When the ball is mostly cooled and not dripping any more whey place it in the fridge to set overnight. You can save the whey to make paska (Easter bread), links to paska recipes follow.
-After chilling overnight, remove the cheesecloth. Store in the fridge wrapped with plastic or waxed paper. Serve slices on sandwiches or on their own sprinkled with a little salt.

Hrudka variations:
I have never had anything but the plain unsweetened hrudka but sweet recipes are common, just Google hrudka recipe. These recipes have anywhere from 1 tablespoon to 1 cup of sugar added to the one dozen egg recipe and most of the sweet versions also have vanilla extract. There are also recipes that call for any one of the following: cloves, caraway seeds, cinnamon, pepper or saffron. For a drier cheese you can bake the drained ball for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F. Baked ball of scrambled eggs sounds even more bizarre to me.

Paska bread recipes:
My grandmother never used the whey for her paska bread but I like the idea of not wasting it. Plus, since I'm using soy milk in place of the traditional cow's milk I'm hoping it will add more flavor to my bread. I used the paska recipe from the same Sacred Heart church cookbook but only made the plain dough. The plain dough gave me enough for three small loaves. Here is another simple paska recipe that is similar to others from my grandmother's church cookbook. For something different you could try this paska recipe using whey and whole wheat flour.

Cooking the hrudka (counter clockwise from top left): starting cooking the egg and milk mixture, curds begin to form, curds and whey
A closeup of the hrudka curds and whey
The colander and cheesecloth ready to strain the hrduka curds from the whey Hanging the hrudka
This year's paska bread

Crossposted on Dog Hill Kitchen

April theme?

What's up for April, ladies? Easter or Passover recipes? Ways to use spring veggies? Ideas?

Patti :)

Ginger-Chocolate Stout Cake & Couscous Salad

Cross posted to Good Life = Good Food, Good Beer

Recently, we had a dinner party. This gave me the perfect opportunity to try out some recipes that have been waiting patiently in my kitchen.

First, I made Couscous Salad from a recipe that I found, in all places, in the Ann Arbor News. I must admit some hesitancy to eat couscous. Part of this concern comes from an episode of South Park wherein Chef shares that Meatloaf's original stage name was Couscous...and you can see how well that went. It turns out that it's not as bad as I thought.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3 T brown sugar
1 c quinoa (which I call the Q stuff, because I can't pronounce it)
2 c salted water
olive oil
1 c hot water
1/4 cup scallions (I used regular yellow onion)
1/2 cup dried figs (yum!!)

1. Bring the vinegar and sugar to a boil and then simmer. Simmer until the mixture coats the back of the spoon. Not really sure what this means, so I just simmered until it looks semi-thick. Let liquid cool.
2. Bring 2 cups of salted water and the Q stuff to a boil. Simmer. Turn off heat when you see the tail of the seed open. Again, I didn't know what this meant, so I just kept an eye on it until the appearance changed and, sure enough, it look like a little tail! Drain and cool.
3. Add 1 cup hot water to the couscous and add olive oil to cover. Cover until mixture is absorbed, about 15 minutes.
I had an oopsie-poopsie with this one--water wasn't hot enough--so I ended up just boiling the water until the couscous was chewable.
4. Chop onions and figs and mix everything together. Let it sit overnight to properly blend the flavors.

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Ginger-Chocolate Stout Cake

I got this recipe from Vegetarian Times. It is described as chocolate cake for grown-ups, and I must agree.

Use:
2 c of flour (I used whole wheat all purpose)
3/4 c unsweetened cocoa
1 T ginger
1 T cinnamon
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 c maple syrup
1 1/4 cups stout (I used 2 cups :) )
1/2 c butter
1/4 c brown sugar
2 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9x11 pan (I used 9x13 and it came out fine). Whisk together flour, cocoa, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
2. Place 1 c maple syrup into a bowl. Bring stout to a boil and add to the syrup.
**Let me say that bringing beer to a boil was weird. I've previously only brought beer to a boil when it wasn't quite beer yet....
3. Beat butter and brown sugar with your Kitchenaid. Beat in eggs. Alternate adding the stout and the flour mixture to the batter. Pour into prepared pan and bake about 35 minutes.

You also make a topping for it, but I didn't care for it. You just mix 1 c low fat sour cream and 2/3 cup light brown sugar. I served this on the side, but most people just ate the cake.

If you cut it into 16 squares, each piece has about 250 calories (with the topping on it).

Hiatus until April

To my dear bloggy buds,

I'm throwing up my hands. It's a good thing - I just have too much going on this month and I recognize when I need to say "uncle".

I'll miss you all, but I'll be back April 1st.

Just think of it as my April Fool's joke.

Happy March!

(cross-posted at a2eatwrite)