Monthly Archives: December 2018

Vegetarian pot pie

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I love pot pie or rather I love the concept of pot pie, the actual pot pie often disappoints . The base of the crust base is often soggy and a little under baked.

My solution is to bake the crust separately. Here I used store bought puff pastry (all butter) and baked according to the instructions.

I make a lot of different potpie fillings, some are traditional (mostly bechamel based) and others like this malai paneer one are curry based. I used cranberries in place of my regular raisins today and I use less cream to make the sauce thicker.

Assemble just before serving, the pastry is crisp and buttery and the filling is creamy and full of veggies. A perfect Christmas lunch.

Brazilian Cheese puffs ( Pao de Queijo)

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It’s always tricky to bake something you have never actually eaten before. If you don’t like it, is it because you did a terrible job or because the taste is so new to you.

Luckily, there is no such conundrum with this recipe, it combines the best qualities of gougeres with mochi. Imagine a crisp crust with a glutinous but airy center. This is what the British call a “moreish” recipe, you cannot stop at one.

I looked up several recipes online and settled on this one from the NYT . It starts like a choux pastry recipe but with tapioca flour and then the cheese is folded in.  I always weigh all my ingredients- especially in a brand new recipe. Also- a stand mixer seems essential for this recipe, this is just a super tacky dough.

Ingredients:

  • 335 grams tapioca starch (about 3 cups)
  • 2 tsp kosher salt 
  • ¼ teaspoon baking powder
  • ⅔ cup whole milk
  • 2/3 cup water
  • ½ cup canola oil
  • 1 ½ tablespoons butter, softened
  • 2 large eggs
  • 94 grams grated Pecorino Romano cheese (about ¾ cup)
  • 94 grams grated Parmesan cheese (about ¾ cup)

Boil the water, milk, butter and oil together.

Add to the starch, baking powder and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer. Dump the liquids in and using a paddle attachment, mix at low speed till the ingredients come together (4 minutes for me).

Add the eggs- mix on low for 4 minutes, scrape the bottom and paddle and mix again for 4–6 minutes till the dough gets tacky and forms strands with the edges.

Add the cheese and mix for another  minute. Scrape the bottom of the bowl and cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Divide the dough using a bench scraper into 8ths and then into 32s. Make 32 small balls using tapioca flour to dust your hands.

Bake at 375 for 20-23 minutes till pale golden brown. Bake only as many as will be immediately consumed. Apparently these get hard as they cool. We did not test this hypothesis since all the puffs were consumed within 10 minutes.

 

No Knead Rye Bread

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My life changed when I read Mark Bittman’s column on no-knead bread.  I found out that professional baking ovens had steam injectors which injected steam at the start of the baking process. This is what led to the shatteringly thin crust and soft centers of the artisan boules I loved. Jim Lahey said- just start the baking in a dutch oven- bake your loaf covered for 30 minutes and then uncovered. Brilliant in its simplicity!

The no-knead recipe not only saves time but allows complex sourdough flavors to develop with regular active dry yeast. 5 minute artisan bread a day by Jeff Hertzberg is my favorite bread cookbook. This recipe is inspired from his book.

Ingredients:

3 cups lukewarm water (680 gm)

Active dry yeast – 1 tbsp

Caraway seeds- 1.5 tbsp

Kosher salt- 1 tbsp

Rye flour 1 cup (120 g)

All purpose flour 5.5 cups ( 780 gm)

Cornstarch wash: Boil 1/2 cup of water with 1/2 tsp of cornflour in the microwave till glassy (1-2 minutes).  Cool

Add the yeast, salt and caraway seeds to the water and stir till they dissolve. Dump in all the flour and mix without kneading. I use a danish whisk and mix it till all the flour is hydrated. This will form a goopy, wet dough and the whole process shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes.

Rest covered till doubled in size (2-4 hours)

Refrigerate for at least 24 hours. The dough will undergo a second slow rise in the refrigerator and can be stored for 14 days.

Baking day! Remove 1 lb of dough. Dust your bench and your hands and fold the dough onto itself till it forms a smooth ball. This is the trickiest and most important step and should be quick (less than 2 minutes) . The flour dusted smooth surface is critical for the final rise and texture of the bread. There should be no crags or cracks on the surface. Rest for 40 min- 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 450 F. Heat a cast iron dutch oven or a baking cloche for 30 minutes.

Just before baking , brush boule with cornstarch wash, sprinkle with caraway seeds. I place it with the parchment in the cloche and bake covered for 30 minutes and then uncovered for 5-10 minutes till top is brown and the loaf sounds hollow when you tap the bottom.

Rest the bread for 10 minutes before slicing.

Gruyere Biscuits

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These are from Paul Hollywood’s book How to Bake. They are flaky and cheesy and extremely dangerous to bake when you are alone at home. The recipe makes around 20 cookies and I may have eaten at least 7 while the cookies were still warm.

I love recipes with 3 ingredients .

Ingredients:

75 g all purpose flour, 75 gm shredded gruyere ( I used an aged dry one) and 75 gm unsalted butter (cold in 1 cm cubes). Salt and pepper to sprinkle

Using a food processor or a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour till the mixture resembles bread crumbs, add the cheese and knead very gently till it just forms a soft dough. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes at least.

Flour your surface, roll dough out to 5 mm thickness ( I use 5mm rubber bands on my rolling pin) and use a 5 cm biscuit cutter to cut out the biscuits. Bake at 400 F for 10 minutes till just brown around edges.

Remove to a cooling rack and cool (or not). Paul Hollywood says he enjoys these with champagne- they taste pretty good even without any

 

 

Vegan philly cheese “steak”

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When I ate meat, the philly cheesesteak was one of my favorite sandwiches. It’s grilled veggies, protein and cheese sauce. It’s always delicious.

This is my version. I used seitan inspired by a delicious vegan reuben that I had at Modern Love (Isa Moscowitz’s restaurant). Unlike other fake meats, seitan has been popular in East Asia for centuries. It is really good when crisped up with a little oil.

For my vegan cheese sauce, I used another Isa Moscowitz recipe – I’ve blogged about it before. Here is the link. Feel free of course to use real cheese, which I often do

The recipe is practically non-existent. Fry onions and peppers in oil with a few cumin seeds till brown. Fry seitan in 1 tbsp of oil till edges brown a little.

Pile on a roll ( I used a whole grain roll) and add cheese sauce.

Roasted pepper soup

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This is my vegetarian version of chicken noodle soup. I make it when someone is sick. It’s got lots of garlic and black pepper and it’s warm and comforting.

Ingredients:

1 red pepper, 1 medium red onion, 1 14 oz can of tomatoes, 10 large cloves of garlic, 2 cups vegetable broth, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1-2 tbsp butter, 3-4 tbsp heavy whipping cream, 1 tsp cumin powder, 1 tsp coriander powder, 1 tsp black peppercorns, 1 tsp oregano

Chop the onions and peppers into 3 inch pieces, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast either on a grill or in a 450F oven for 20-30 min till soft and charred

Heat butter, add the garlic and fry till lightly golden brown. Add the tomatoes, vegetable stock, roasted onions, peppers and tomatoes and the spices. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 20 minutes.

Blend. Garnish with a tbsp of cream and a drizzle of olive oil

Serve over spaghetti

    Note about vegetable stock- I’ve been using Better than Bouillon lately and the flavor of their vegetable base is extremely good. I suspect it’s the MSG or whatever equivalent they’ve called it. It’s delicious