Category: Recipes

Easter Rolls

This year our Easter brunch is out in Ventura, with various family members coming and sharing goodies.  As always, it will be pleasant to see everyone, old and young, and to enjoy the company of family.  And eat good food!  Our contribution is homemade egg bread rolls with poppy seeds, made by the master brewer himself, Josh.

Easter Rolls Recipe

  • 1/2 cup plus 2/3 cup warm water
  • 2 tablespoons dry yeast
  • 1 tablespoon plus 1/2 cup sugar
  • 6 large eggs
  • 1/2 c. melted butter
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 7 1/2 cups (about) all-purpose flour
  • 2 large egg yolks
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • black poppy seeds

Proof the yeast and create a sponge by combining 1/2 c. warm water, 1 T. yeast, and 1 T. sugar in glass; stir until dissolved.  Let stand until foamy, which is about 10-15 minutes.


In large bowl, using electric mixer (such as a Kitchen Aid with a whisk and bread dough hook), beat 5 eggs until light yellow; add melted butter, 3/4 c. sugar, and continue beating until light and thick, about 3-5 minutes.  Continue beating as you add 2/3 c. warm water, and then the yeast mixture.   Change whisk for bread hook.  Add flour 1 c. at a time until a smooth dough is formed – about 5 cups, but more or less may be necessary.  Beat well after each cup of flour.  After all the flour is added to bowl, continue to  beat on medium speed until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.  If necessary, add more flour in tablespoons (you don’t want a tough dough) if it gets sticky.  When done in the bowl, tun out onto a floured board, and knead by hand about 2 minutes.


Lightly oil large bowl; place dough in bowl, turning to coat with the oil.  Cover with saran wrap and / or a damp kitchen towel; let dough rise  until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.


Punch down dough; recover with plastic / towel and let rise another 30 minutes.

Grease 2 large baking sheets. Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface. Divide dough into 24 equal portions. This can be done by slicing dough with sharp knife and weighing out.  If you have a kitchen scale, place a saucer on the scale, set to zero, and allocate dough for 2.5 oz.  Once weighed out, roll into ball, and place onto baking sheet, allowing room to expand.  Let rise in warm area until almost doubled, about 30 minutes.  If you do not have a scale, create rolls which are about 2-3 inches in diameter, or consistent in size for even baking.




Preheat oven to 400°F. Whisk 2 yolks with 1 tablespoon water to blend. Brush dough with egg mixture.  Sprinkle on poppy seeds.  Drop oven heat to 350°F.  Bake about 20 minutes; rolls will be golden brown and sound hollow when tapped on bottom.  Cool on wire racks.

Cornbread

I always forget to buy cornmeal it seems, so Sunday I saw it in the market, and grabbed it.  I like it for its texture and flavor.  And I love cornbread.  Since school begins again tomorrow, I decided to go ahead and make a nice dinner that will carry over into lunch for a day or two.  Meatloaf, cornbread, salad.

There are all sorts of theories about “Northern” versus “Southern” cornbread, with the former being with yellow corn meal and a bit of sugar, while the  latter is made in an iron skillet using white corn meal.

This is a recipe for “Golden Northern Cornbread.”  And another.  Don’t forget to look up cornbread on Epicurious, either.

Here is a recipe for “Ben’s Southern Cornbread.”  Here is an article called “The Great Corn Divide.”  And here is another recipe for Southern cornbread.

Corn has been a staple ingredient in Tex-Mex, Mexican, and Southwestern cooking for a long time – after all, corn originated in the Americas.  So there are other variations of cornbread still to be found.

My version is decidedly a Southwestern-style, as it has green chilis, cheese, and corn in it.  For what it’s worth, here is my recipe.

Naomi’s Southwestern Cornbread

Preheat oven to 350-375 F.

1 c. flour
1.5 c. yellow cornmeal
1 T. sugar
1 T. baking powder
pinch of salt

Combine all of the above together in a large bowl.

1 stick sweet butter
1 large, fresh pasilla pepper, chopped up (you can use other peppers, as hot as you like, and perhaps some onion as well)
1 c. corn (fresh is best, but I used frozen today)

In pan, melt butter, saute peppers and corn. Even if corn is frozen, put it in with the peppers and butter and break apart. Saute till tender.

1 c. milk (can be a combination of milk, cream, yogurt, buttermilk, and water to equal a cup – good way to do it if you are short any one ingredient)
2 eggs

Beat together until well blended. Dump into corn-flour mixture. Stir in a bit, then follow it up with the butter-corn-pepper melange, and finally the grated cheese.

1/2 c. grated Jack cheese (I like a bit of cheese in cornbread – makes it nicely moist.  Use more if you like it gooey!)

Pour into greased bread loaf pan. Bake 30-40 minutes until done. Turn out onto wire rack to cool. Serve plain, with butter, or reheat on skillet in morning, to toast.

Enjoy!

Moussaka

I’m currently reading The Bellini Card, by Jason Goodwin.  If you are not familiar with the series, I suggest you pick one up, especially if you enjoy cooking, foreign culture, and history. Our hero, Yashim, is in Venice in 1840. And, at one point, he makes Turkish Moussaka for a Venetian family – “lasagna without noodles.”

Having the house all to myself for the next three days, I thought I’d do a bit of baking. And since the moussaka sounded good, exotic, and filling, I did a bit of research and created my own:

Moussaka a la Turque

4 small Italian eggplants
1 1/2 large white onions
4-6 large cloves of garlic
1 lb. ground lamb
1/2 c. chopped Italian parsley
3 chopped medium-sized tomatoes
1 1/2 tsp. Chinese cinnamon
1 tsp. ground allspice
1-2 tsp. fresh ground pepper
2 eggs
2 c. goat milk yogurt
Aleppo pepper

Heat broiler.

Peel eggplants, slice about 1/2 inch thick. In large bowl of salted water, place peeled, sliced eggplants, and let soak for about 30 minutes (while you do some other things).

Chop onion and garlic together, very fine. Place in 10-12 inch frying pan, saute until golden in 3 T. olive oil. Add ground lamb, and continue to cook, stirring the lamb-onion-garlic mixture to brown the meat. When meat is browned, add parsley, tomatoes, cinnamon, allspice, pepper, and about 1/4 – 1/2 c. water. Continue to cook over medium heat to make a thick sauce.

While meat is cooking, mix together eggs, yogurt, and aleppo pepper. Let sit. Add pinch of salt if desired.

Drain eggplant slices, squeeze, and set out on paper towels, pat dry. Lightly grease cookie sheet, and in one layer, place sliced eggplant. Spray with oil, or lighly brush slices with oil. Broil until slices are lightly browned, about 5 mins. Turn over, coat with oil, and repeat. Remove from oven.

Drop oven to 375 degrees F.

In 9 x 9 glass pan, place ground meat mixture. Cover with eggplant slices. Pour yogurt-egg mixture on top. Clean up the kitchen, letting the yogurt-egg mixture settle over meat and eggplant.

Bake for 40 minutes, until top is nicely browned. Cool about 15 minutes. Serve with salad.

Kitchen Sink Cooking

Cooking and baking can be “gotta follow the recipe to get it right” or “just throw it all together and hope for the best” in approach.  Every culture and country has its national dish for leftovers all thrown together.  When I was growing up, it was called “mish-mash” and usually had egg noodles, onions, sour cream, and whatever else was lying around.  The Japanese have, I think (if I understood a friend correctly) “okazu,” which is mostly rice, with leftovers.  Hash is another variant.  Anyway, you get the idea:  use it up if you got it!

For some things, you don’t really need a recipe, just ingredients.  Granola is perfect for this.  Tonight, I did need some cooking / baking skills for chicken pie.  The mish-mash side was chicken and vegetables.  Leftover roast chicken, potatoes, corn cut from the cob, red pepper, onion, celery, and carrots.  Sauteed the chopped up stuff in a bit of oil and butter.  Boiled up new potatoes (diced), about 3, and then saved some liquid.  Into this, I threw some sour cream (natch!) and homemade chicken broth.  After sauteeing the other stuff in the pan (which would then go into the oven), I sprinkled the mix with some flour, stirred it up a bit, and then poured the potato water / sour cream / chicken stock over it.  Season with herbs and spices.  I like rosemary, sage, thyme, garlic, pepper, and bay leaves.  Sometimes a lot of celery seed is also good.

Next step:  biscuit dough.  1 stick butter, about 3 c. flour, a T. of powder, and a bit of salt.  Add pepper if you like, or sage or parsley.  Use your hands and fingers to rub the flour and butter together until crumbly.  Add about 1 1/4 c. milk or cream (I had neither, so mixed up the rest of the sour cream and some water), dump it in, stir it up briefly, knead out on a floured board, shape into a lump, and roll out, adding flour as needed.  Roll from center out, making a circle about the diameter of the pan you will be putting into the oven.  Fold into quarters, transfer to pan, unfold, slice into it for venting, pop into the oven.  Oven is preheated to 400; bake about 1 hour.   Prep time – about 1 hour, so about 2 hours total.  

Virtuous little housewife, ain’t I?

Granola Girl!

As we all know, “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”  Some will disagree, but I won’t.   No breakfast, no fun, not nice.

I’ve been craving more “summery” kinds of food for mornings, and fruit with granola, or yogurt-fruit-granola are some of the best.  Light, but sustaining, and not a lot of work, either.  So, yesterday, after having it on the back of my mind for the past week, I finally rummaged through the pantry to see what I had.  I had oatmeal, pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, golden and black raisins, dried montmorency cherries, walnuts.  I eyed the candied ginger and dried white peaches and hazelnuts, and decided that those should be saved for other things and times.  I also looked at the spices, and decided on mace.  I like its difference.  Here is the recipe.  Amounts can vary as desired.  If you do a bigger recipe, increase cooking time.

Granola Girl Granola

Preheat oven to 400 F, and then drop to 300 when you bake it.

In large dutch oven, melt together 1/2 stick butter (about 4T), some maple syrup (real stuff, please), and a couple T of lightweight oil.  Stir it up a bit to blend.  Then add:

5 c. rolled oats

1/2 c. pinhead oats or ground flaxseed

1 c. chopped walnuts or pecans

handful pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries and raisins and cherries, as desired

ground mace – or other spices if you want (I like cinnamon, nutmeg, and Chinese 5-spice)

Coat all ingredients with oil-syrup-butter mixture.  Then put into oven, dropping temperature to 300 F.  Set timer for 15 minutes, and then stir thoroughly.  Repeat 2 more times, for a total of 45 minutes or so.   As it cools, it becomes crispier. Store in plastic container.