Shrimp, Catfish and Bagel. Nov 2011

Today we made a delicious sea food meal that was served with my recipe of bagels and fresh butter.

The shrimp sauce turned out very delicious. The way we cooked the cat fish, with not that much oil, but enough and quite hot to keep it crunchy and flavorful was also great, but the cat fish itself still tasted a bit too "earthy" for me.

I would rather have had this same dish with a piece of Bass.

Pan Fried Cat Fish with Shrimp Etouffee

Port 12

Shrimp Etouffee

• 1.5 lb Shrimp
• 3 oz Butter
• Tomato product (paste, whole peeled or sauce)
• 6 oz Onions chopped
• 3 oz Green Bell Peppers chopped
• 3 oz Celery chopped
• 2 oz Scallions chopped
• 2 Garlic cloves
• 3 tbsp Flour
• 12 floz Water or Fish stock
• 1/4 tsp Dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp Paprika
• 1/4 tsp Cayenne
• 1/4 tsp Black Pepper
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 4 tbsp chopped Parsley
• Salt, to taste

Procedure

Sweat your vegetables with your spices to activate your spices, add your flour and make a blond roux. Add your fish stock and the tomato product and let it simmer until thick and flavorful.

Put your sauce to the side now prep your shrimp: 

peel, saute them and once pink combine them with your sauce.

Cat Fish

• 1.5 tsp Salt
• 1.5 tsp Paprika
• 1/4 tsp Cayenne
• 1/2 tsp Dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp Black pepper
• 1/4 tsp White Pepper
• 3 lb Cat Fish
• Clarified Butter, or a high smoke point oil (as needed)

Procedure

Season both sides of the fillets, flour both sides and pan fry it in a medium heat.

Serve it with the shrimp sauce and some rice of your choice.

Bagels

Yield 10 4x1.5 inch high bagels

Starter

• 1 tsp Instant dry east
• 2 1/4 cup Water
• 3 cups Bread flour

Flour Mix

• 3 tbsp (1.5 oz) Butter
• 2 1/3 cup (12.75 oz) Bread Flour
• 1 tsp Instant yeast
• 1 tbsp (0.7 oz) Malt Syrup
• 1 tbsp (0.5 oz) Sugar
• 1 tbsp (0.75oz) Salt
• Black Pepper, to taste

Procedure

In a bowl whisk two cups  (11 oz) flour, your yeast, malt, sugar, salt and pepper. Sprinkle this mix over your sponge. Do not stir. 

Cover it with plastic wrap and let it stand from 1-4 yours at room temperature (or 1 hour at room temperature and then refrigerate it overnight - 24 hrs).

Mix the Dough

Add the butter and the remaining flour (all but 2 tbsp) and mix the dough with a hook at low speed, until it is moistened, for 1 minute. Raise the speed to medium 5-7 minutes adding the remaining 2 tbsp of flour in the dough if the dough does not pull away from the bowl.

The dough should be elastic, smooth and should jump back when pressed.

Place it in a lightly floured counter and knead it a few times, as little as possible. If it is too tacky to the touch, add a bit more flour.

*If you want to stop working at this point, you can rest it overnight and continue the next day.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise until it doubles in size. It should take from 1 to 2 hours.

Punch it down, turn it once and set it back in the container.

Oil the top, cover it and refrigerate it for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Let it stand  for 30 minutes at room temperature before shaping it.

Shaping the dough and letting it rise

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and transfer the dough onto an un-floured counter. Cut the dough in half and place one piece covered in the cooler. Now cut the remaining piece in 5 equal pieces and allow the dough to rest for 10 min.

Form a ball with the dough, preferably folding in each corner. This makes it a more firm and even ball. With your index finger and then thumb punch a whole in the middle. Form a ring with a 2.5 inch hole and place it on the lined sheet.

Oil a plastic wrap or a second floured towel and cover it.

Allow it to rise for 15 minutes.

Pre heat the oven at 500 F 30 minutes before baking and when baking use the lowest level of your shelf, preferably with a baking stone. 

A hot baking stone will allow the baking process to start quicker by giving the yest in the dough more strength from all the heat combined (stone and oven) to rise, forming a nicer and lighter crumb.

Water Bath Topping

• 1 big stock pot with boiling water
• 2 tbsp Molasses or sugar (1/4 cup)
• 1 tsp Baking soda

Glaze and Topping

• 2 large Egg whites
• 1 tsp cold water

Seeds

Use any raw seeds of your preference to coat the outside of the bagel.

Procedure

Prepare half a sheet pan with seeds for sticking on both sides of the bagel.

Add your sugar and baking soda to the boiling water and put your bagel in 1 at a time without crowding them. 

Cook 2 or 3 at a time without letting them touch each other. 

The longer time they boil for, the thicker the crust will become once baked.

Remove the boiled bagel with a pancake spatula and set it on the seeds. 

Now move them to the bread peel and glaze them with the mix of egg whites and cold water. Try not to let this mix drip onto the peel or else they will glue the bagels. 

Brush them with a second coat of glaze

Slide them quickly (so that you don't loose oven heat) onto the hot stone or bake them on the baking sheet on top of the stone.

Bake them for 5 min. and now lower the temp. to 450 F and bake for about 20 min, until golden. 

Turn off the oven and let them sit for 5 minutes longer.

Remove them and let them cool before serving.

This one has a touch of sesame seeds.

This one was coated in millet seeds. 

It looks very attractive, but the seeds are kind of hard to chew on.

Here are both types on a sheet pan.

I am still impressed with the fall colors even in midst of the beautiful November snow.

Pecan Pie is one of my favorites! Nov 2011

Today, as I was returning from my walk, I saw this beautiful dear enjoying the garden. It looked so present and proud. I was impressed with its beauty.

Grits with Cheddar Cheese

Portions 12, 6 oz per size

• 2 cups Hominy Grits
• 2 qt Water
• 1tsp Salt
• 8oz Cheddar cheese grated

Procedure

Stir your grits with the water. If your grits are stone ground let them settle and skim off the hulls.

Bring it to a boil add some salt and pepper and simmer about 45 minutes stirring every 5 to 10 minutes, until they look thickened and moistened.

Adjust seasoning and add your grated cheese.

You can also garnish them with some diced tomatoes, green onions and parsley. The crunchy texture brings a nice addition to this soft meal.

Collards Greens with Ham

Portions 16, portion size 4 oz

• 2lb Smoked ham hocks
• 6lb Collard greens
• Black pepper to taste
• 2 tsp or more Hot pepper sauce
• Cider vinegar as needed
• Onions, celery and carrots (mire poix)

Procedure

Simmer the ham hock in water until tender, about 1.5 to 2 hours. Remove it and save the water.

Reduce this stock until it tastes strong and delicious.

Now simmer the greens in some water (just until it is covered) until tender, around 45 minutes. Now add the mire poix, your fortified ham stock, some extra bacon pieces, some cider vinegar, your hot sauce and spices of your choice. Let it cook until very tender and flavorful.

This was a very delicious dish, but I would say that what was even more delicious was drinking the very hot collard juice below out of a coffee mug. It was an experience that warmed and nurtured my whole body.

We served it with a piece of hot corn bread and melting honey butter on top.

Pecan Pie

Yield 2 pies 9 inch each

Filling

• 5 Eggs
• 3 oz Brown sugar
• 4 oz Unsalted butter barely melted
• 0.25 oz Vanilla extract
• 0.1 oz (1/2tsp) actually, a little bit less Salt that stated
• 14 fl oz Dark maple syrup
• 22 oz pecan halves pieces, raw

Pie Crust-Pate Brise (If you want precise measurements, a precise recipe is on previous posts, please look through, but you should be able to eye ball it by the way it feels and tastes)

• Butter, unsalted and chilled and in small chunks
• Pastry flour or AP 
• Salt a pinch
• Water, chilled

Mix your butter and flour until little chunks are still showing. Now barely mix the rest of the ingredients in your dough keeping the chunks visible and then flatten it in a square shape. Wrap it tightly and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes, until the dough is very chilled and hard. 

Now roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface keeping it round. It is easy to keep it round by rolling every side starting from the center equally and not going until the edge. Now mold your pie shell.

Dock it and freeze it.

Pre-bake it with your baking beans on top and parchment paper and once it has a light pale color remove the beans and finish baking the bottom part keeping it still pale but crunchy. Now it is ready to be filled.

Procedure for the filling

Whisk the eggs, butter, brown sugar. Add your vanilla and salt and whisk. Add your maple syrup and whisk until well combined.

Divide the pecans among the baked shells and pour the liquid filling on top of each crust. 

Since I was using two big pie shell of about 10.5 inches, I was short on pie filling, so next time I would make 1/4 or 1/2 extra filling for the two large pie shells.

Bake in a 325 F until the center is set. About 35 to 40 minutes.

Here is how it turned out. The crust was very flaky, flavorful, crunchy and buttery. It melted in my mouth after the first crunch...delicious.

Since it was a touch too salty, I recommend lightly diminishing the salt quantity.

Since I diminished the original amount of brown sugar in the filling and omitted the corn syrup in it as well, the custard was a lot less sweet and very enjoyable to eat. People told me it had the perfect amount of sweetness.

I had mine with a dab of lightly sweetened whipped cream and a cup of coffee with cream. 

The perfect combination.

It seems like everyone in class enjoyed it.

After having many pictures taken, the dear decided to move on...

Italian food is always a good call! Nov 2011

As I sometimes take a walk in the morning, this is the driveway I walk up as I am returning home.

Today at school we decided to make Italian Food. We had Polenta as our main course, with some bread and Biscotti with coffee after our meal. Or meal was light, simple and delicious.

Polenta

Yield: 5 lb

• 5 pt Water or milk
• 1 tbsp Salt
• 1 lb Polenta

Procedure

Bring the liquid and stirred in salt to a boil, add your polenta and slowly stir it over low heat until it thickens and starts unsticking from the sides. It should take about thirty minutes.

If you want to serve it soft keep it warm over a bain marie stirring it occasionally. 

If you want to serve it in pieces, pour it over a butter-coated sheet pan and let it cool. Once cool, cut it into squares and lightly bake the pieces in a low heat oven with some olive oil and dried spices to give it a crunch.

Meat Sauce-Procedure

Brown some ground meat on a sauce pan with some high smoke-point oil keeping a lot of space in between the browning pieces so that the juice that leeks out of the meat evaporates quickly before getting any part of the meat gray. As the meat is starting to brown add some dried spices of your choice, such as oregano, basil, salt, curry and pepper and also add some chopped onions, carrots and sweat them in the fat in the pan. 

Finally add your minced garlic, making it golden. 

Now that the meat is browned, the onions are translucent, the carrots are getting golden and the garlic is golden, remove all this delicious food from your sauce pan and deglaze the pan with some red wine.

Add your canned or fresh tomatoes with all its juices and add all the previous ingredients and let it simmer until tender.

Serve it on top of the pieces of crunchy polenta and your choice of cheese. I chose some house made and well flavored broiled Ricotta. 

These are some dinner rolls that we made with Baguette dough.

Important note:

I have learned from a new baking book I just bought, Artisan Baking Across America-Maggie Glezer, that it is very important to Autolyse the bread dough as you are making your bread. This means that after you mix the flour, instant dry east (or active dry yeast) and the water together, your should let the dough sit covered for a period of 15 to 30 minutes before adding your salt and sponge mixture. 

This will allow the flour and the water to mix intensely developing the proper gluten.  

Don't add the salt and the sponge as you Autolyse, since the salt would tighten the gluten, hindering its development and hydration, and the the sponge would ferment and acidify the dough giving it an odd flavor. 

The yeast that was added at the beginning of the mixing before the Autolyse period will not acidify the dough since it does take about 30 minutes for a dry yeast to start its activation.

At the end of the Autolyse your once rough dough will have greatly smoothed out and become much more extensible. Now you can add your salt, sponge (or compressed yest) and continue mixing.

Autolyse will result in final product with a creamier colored crumb and more aroma and sweet wheat flavor.

To follow our Italian main course we also made some Almond Biscotti to eat with coffee. 

Almond Biscotti

Yield: 4 lb and 3 oz

• 10 oz Eggs
• 1lb and 2 oz Sugar
• 2 tsp Salt

• 2 tsp Vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 tsp grated Orange zest

• 1lb 12oz Pastry flour
• 0.7oz Baking pouder
• 10oz blanched Whole almonds

Procedure

Whip over a hot water bath the eggs, sugar and salt until thick. Fold in the vanilla and the orange zest. 

Stir the flour and the baking powder together and mix it in the egg mix little by little. 

Finally mix it the almonds and shape the dough into logs, about 2.5 inches thick. The dough should be soft, so flour your hands and use a bench scraper to help you shape.

On a baking sheet, bake your logs in a 325 F oven until lightly golden, about 30 to 40 minutes.

Let it cool slightly  and now slice the logs diagonally 0.5 inches thick slices. Place the slices on a sheet pan and bake them in a 275 F oven until toasted and golden brown. 

It will take you about 30 minutes.

These are the final Biscottis. They became very crunchy and flavorful.

Part of this beautiful winter day.

Muzzarela Nov 2011

Today is another sunny and beautiful day in ho-hum paradise.

Muzzarela

yiel 1.5 lb

• 2 gal Whole milk
• 1 tbsp Citric acid
• 1/4 Tablet rennet
• 1/4 Cup cool ice water
• 1/4 Salt (for salting whey)

Procedure

Dissolve the rennet in the water. 

Pour the milk into a large pot.

Sprinkle the citric acid (not the rennet) into the cold milk. Stir.

Bring the milk to 88 F - 90 F (for goat's milk bring it to 86 F - 88 F).

Stir the milk a few times. It will take about 10 minutes.

Pour the dissolved rennet into the milk while stirring with an up and down motion. 

Heat the milk to 100 F - 105 F.

Turn off the heat. Keep stirring slowly. The milk will begin to thicken and clot. The curds will separate from the whey.

Place your strainer over another pot and spread 2 layers of cheese cloth over it. Drain the curds to remain in the cheese cloth and reserve the whey.

Wrap the cheese cloth over the curds and press the excess whey out by placing a small container with a small amount of weight on top of the curds.

Return the whey to the stove and add the salt. Heat it up to 120 F - 160 F.

Meanwhile keep the curd in a big bowl. Glove up your hands with 3 layers to protect it from the heat.

Add half the whey to the curd. Mix it with your hand to make it toffee like.

When it starts cooling, dump some more hot whey from the pot in your bowl of toffee like curd. 

Now make the balls. Form the Muzzarela balls and dump them in bucket with half ice water bucket and half salted whey.

Store the Muzzarela in this liquid in the cooler.

Below we are straining the whey from the curd.

This is what it is suppose to look like.

Once we dump in the hot salted whey and start pressing it. This is what it will look like with a toffee texture.

We are making balls. Make sure to form them firmly.

Once the Muzzarela pieces were firm and stored properly, at service time we sliced them and served them in a Caprese style with fresh Tomato slices, strips of Balsamic vinegar, Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Salt.

Below are simple slices of fresh Muzzarela that were lightly baked in the oven and topped with Basil and Garlic flavored Olive Oil.

This was my invention of a Muzzarela dish that was served in one of our dinners: lightly broiled served with a Rosemary and Garlic Flavored Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a touch of Balsamic and some mixed greens.

While some of us are in the kitchen having fun, others are chilling on a nice sunny day.