Fairway! and Bread!

There's some kind of dire snow situation going on here on the Eastern seaboard, but the moderating Atlantic winds have evidently killed off anything interesting from aculumating here. I'm supposed to finishing up (more like starting) these conference papers, but I'm also cooking and eating! And baking!

First is a ridiculous meal that blokey and I shared on Wednesday. It comes from Joan Schwartz' "Macaroni and Cheese: 52 recipes, from simple to sublime." A lovely colleague lent the book to me, and we actually ate the Swiss Mac and Potatoes during Thanksgiving. I've been dying to reproduce it since. This past week was my first week of the spring semester (only 15 or so weeks to go), and I was knackered on Wednesday evening. So of course, I walked up to Fairway and bought the necessary ingredients.

This was possibly a mistake. Low sodium and low fat swiss lorainne? This is what happens when you shop sleepy.

The Colavita was yummy. And not too pricey (thanks Fairway)

Dood, give me cheese and carbs over booze any day.

Swiss Mac with Potatoes (adapted from Joan Schwartz)
total time: about 1 hour
serves 4
Ingredients:
butter
1/2 lbs of elbow macaroni
3 small potatoes, sliced 1/2" thick
salt
2 c. of grates Swiss (you could ask the deli for 1/2 lb of medium sliced too)
2 eggs beaten
1 1/2 c. of milk
pepper

Method:
Preheat over to 350 degrees. Butter a 9"x13" pan (I used something a bit smaller, so I bet you could too)
Cook the macaroni until al dente (8 minutes) and boil the potato slices just about 8 minutes (so it pierces with a fork but is still firm). Drain both. I then sliced the potatoes into dices.
Layer macaroni, potatoes and cheese in the pan (cheese should be on top). This should be about 2 layers.
Mix eggs, milk, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Pour of the top of the pan.
Bake for 30-45 minutes until everything carmelizes on top (that's a long range, but I like it browner, others might not).

pink potatoes from the CSA drop (looks ham like)

Final product (I think that white stuff on the middle is egg white. Note to self, beat the eggs better next time)

Next, let's talk bread. We've been eating this bread all day. It's mostly whole wheat with added fiber via flax seeds, very little kneading, and very flexible time wise. I also adapted this recipe from Smitten Kitchen as well (I'm very devoted to her blog). She calls it "Bread without a timetable." There's no denying that her photos are beautiful and professional, but I think our loaf looks just as nice.


It's not that easy but it's not that hard either, and you can pretty much forget about it over night. And it uses very little yeast, which is great in my book. I'm made some adaptations (like the water bath), though, because I like a crispy crust.

"Writing Conference papers" bread
Time: about 30 minute of effort total, 30-45 minutes of baking, and hours when you should be thinking, writing, thinking.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. of all purpose flour, unbleached
2 1/4 c. of whole wheat flour (I think I will play with the proportions next time)
1/2 c. of warm water
1 c. of milk (or water)
1 teas of honey
1/4 teas of yeast (you can up this 1/2 teas if you're not going to be waiting over night).
1 generous teas of salt (you can up this a bit if you'd like. I thought my bread was a little bland)
1-2 Tbs of ground flax (the recipe called for wheat germ or bran, but this worked as really well)

I had to proof my yeast first, so I mixed the warm water with honey and the 1/4 teas of yeast (did this with 2 packets). After 10 minutes, it should be beer smelly (if it's just honey smelling, move on to the next packet and try again).
Next, mix all the dry ingredients in a big bowl. Then add the water and the about a cup of milk, although you may want to add more water if you need to. This should be on the wetter side, but not a mess all over the bowl. Knead a few minutes until well incorporated.
Flour the dough, put it back in the dough, and cover with a damp towl/cloth napkin. Put in a draft free place overnight (I stuck it in the oven).
Then, go back to work, lazy academic!
In the morning (or afternoon, which is when I often wake up), punch it down and let it rise once more. This was about 2 hours for me (you can do it slightly less).

after the second rise

Then shape into a "baguette". Deb's webpage has great instructions. I just sort of rolled it out with a pin, then rolled it up, tucking in the seams. Place on the baking sheet (or for me, the reused lasagna tray cover).
Cut in 4-5 slits with a knife on top and flour it. Flour it again.

Turn on the oven to 550 degrees (yes!). In the meantime, boil some water, and stick it in an overproof pan (I used a 9" cake pan).
Just before sticking the bread in, place the water bath on the lower rack. Place the bread on the middle rack. Shut the door.

Water bath in action. Note the brand new oven thermometer.

The water brings the heat down and makes a steam bath. After about five minutes, lower the heat to 450. Bake for another 20.
Check and see if it's done (is it hollow sounding when you tap it?) If not, keep it in the oven at 425 for another 5-15 (mine was done after the first 30 minutes).
Wait for it to cool, and eat it with cheese.

Here's a better view of the crumb and the thickness of the upper crust. And my office floor

Late May/ Early June food adventures and failures

Apologies for the gaps in updates. The middle of May since now has been a period of transition. My cat has moved in with me, and the blokey is visiting, so I've been trying to impress with culinary delights, but mostly I've been learning the extent of his patience. And I finished teaching those three classes and only have some grade complaints (always with these B+ students wanting As).

First a few of my "experiments"

Exhibit A: Asparagus Quiche of Good Intentions:
Why yes, the arugula and tomato salad with homemade vinagarette dressing is colorful and lovely. (method: wild rocket salad from Trader Joes, add quartered tomatoes, toss with about 1 1/2 Tbs of Olive Oil, 1 Tbs of Balsamic Vinagarette, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teas of pepper, some dried oregano). This is my summer go-to salad. It's even cheaper at the farmer's market stand at the Greenmarkets all over NY, but there hours are more limited.
But the quiche was a mistake. First, I tried to make my own "crust" following Betty Crocker's olive oil "pat in the pastry" single pie crust.
Ingredients
1& ½ cups, plus 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons cold milk

Instructions
Place flour, sugar and salt in a pie pan. Mix with fork until blended. In another bowl, add the vegetable oil and milk. Beat with a fork until creamy. Pour oil mixture over the flour mixture. Mix with the fork until moistened. With your fingers, pat the dough across the bottom and up the sides of the pie pan.

For the quice, I looked a bunch of recipes online. I mixed 5 eggs, 1/2 yogurt, 1/3 cup shredded romano cheese, sauteed onions, 12 oven roasted asparagus, 1 handful of wilted arugula, mixed it, layered some mozzerella slices on top, baked it at 425 for about 45 minutes. I expected a quivering, carmelized delicious pie, but it came out with a spongey, goopey mess. That blokey ate with no complaints, making some enthusiastic food noises along the way (bless him).
Lesson learned:
Quiches require real cream, and lots of cheese for substance (like 1 cup)
Less is more in terms of ingredients (you get a soggy quiche if you overdo the ingredients)
Simple arugula salad will cover up almost all salad woes.

Eastern Parkway Pizza

Saturday evening pizza, prep time is overnight, but actual pizza to mouth time is about 20 minutes. Feeds several happy and hungry friends.

My brownstone-mates and I get together and eat. It's the best thing ever and I am happy to have a living community that likes each other/eats together.
Yesterday was impromptu, but I had started a 1/2 whole wheat, 1/2 white flour cold fermentation pizza dough recipe on Friday night (since I had purchase flour and yeast the at the local Fine Fare, the place where everyone calls you "baby" or "mama"). I riffed a bit off of Heidi Swanson's post of Peter Rhinehart's cold fermentation pizza dough recipe. She did a white and a whole wheat one. But I didn't have "white whole wheat" King Arthur flour as she used, so I went halvies and added a wee bit more liquid. And we played around with the toppings, and the 4 of us ate four pizzas (and later and great dessert. food coma). Reading 101 cookbooks introduced me to the joys of home pizza baking, especially the hardcore and amazing Jeff Varasano, who broke the self-cleaning lock on his home oven to get it at 800degrees. Our oven goes relatively comfortably up to about 525 degrees (F), and that turns out pretty great pizzas in about 10-12 minutes (as opposed to 90 seconds). Evidently, any home pizza baker worth their salt uses a stone, which we don't have. I've read that an untreated ceramic floor tile works as well. Some people keep them in their oven even when not baking pizzas as way to ensure more even heat distribution.

"Crown Heights Hipster* Hovel Pizza"
*(I'm not the hipster, the artists and young people I live with are).

Dough:
2 1/2 c. Whole Wheat flour (chilled)
2 c. white all purpose flour (chilled)
1/4 c. olive oil
1 3/4 c. COLD water
1 teaspoon of instant dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp. of salt
more oil and flour for dusting, etc.
cornmeal for lining pan

Mix the dry ingredients. Then add the water and oil slowly, stirring to incorporate. When it gets to hard, roll up those sleeves and knead and punch and slush together for about 5-6 minutes (having a mixer with a dough hook can simply this step, but oh well). When you are done, it should still be a shaggy and wet ball, just barely clearing the bowl. Next, divide up in to 6 approximately equal balls (or 4 if you like a bigger pizza or thick crust), cover in olive oil, place in individual baggies, and stick in one large ziplock. Refridgerate at least over night, but 2 nights is even better.
Take out the dough about 2 hours before eating pizza. Take out of baggies, place on an oiled cookie sheet and cover with a damp towel (not paper towels, a mistake I only made once). Place in a warm place until read to use.
Preheat over to as high as comfortable. Prepare toppings (we used very little canned marinara sauce, sauteed garlic and mushrooms, fresh basil, fresh mozzerella and pecorino, and roma tomatoes. Less is probably more). When ready, pul apart the dough to desired thickness (it pulls quite thin and don't worry if it tears a little, you can fill it back in). It doens't have to be pretty or symmetrical, it will still taste good. If you can, preheat the pan/stone while prepping ingredients, sprinkle cornmeal on top, and place the stretched out dough onto the pan. Quickly place toppings and stick in the oven, about 10-12 minutes.
Take out, cut up, and eat (not to fast, as its hot).
This dough is crispy outside, soft on the inside, with a great texture from the half whole wheat/half white flour mixture. At high temperatures, the crust cooks as the cheese caramelizes and it looks great (doesn't last long with four hungry hippos, though).

Almost done teaching, almost puttanesca pasta

Who wants some steamy goodness?

I made this Wednesday night, when I was exhausted and had lugged "buy one get one half off" bottles of pinot noir from an Upper West Side wine shop (very nice workers, somewhat jerky and entitled customers. They thrilled that I smiled and made polite noises). I needed filling, fast, and salty. I made this (probably went overboard with the pecorino cheese. oh well).

Whole Wheat pasta with tomato basil spinach sauce
about 20 minutes, serves two people generously (or one very hungry hippo, named Professah S, who had nonstop teaching and meetings all day.)

Pasta (about 1/2 a box works for the sauce amount)
Boil water and cook pasta (I did a whole wheat spaghetti) according to directions until a little bit shy of al dente. While that's cooking do the following

Sauce:
1 can (14 oz) of crushed tomatoes (I used Muir Glen's fire roasted, for pure decadence)
1/4 onion, minced
1/2 bunch of fresh parlsey, chopped
2-4 cloves of garlic
handful of basil, chopped
olive oil (substitute: use store bought pesto sauce to replace last 3 ingredients, but damn, that shit usually has less delicious oils in it. avoid unless its only olive oil).
1/4 bag of spinach
1 Tbs capers (I buy the Goya brand)
dash of cayenne
black pepper to taste
juice of 1 lemon (or some good vingar, like a balsamic or good red wine vinegar)
pecorino/parmesan cheese for garnish

1. In a larger (i use a 12 inch with tall sides) sauce pan, saute onions and garlic in olive oil, until softened, over medium heat. Add crushed tomatoes, and heat until bubbling. Turn heat to low to simmer, and add basic, parsley, and spinach. Cook until wilted.
2. Add cayenne, black pepper, lemon juice, and capers. Taste sauce. Add more of each as desired.
3. After draining pasta, add to sauce and allow to cook a couple minutes, to finish cooking and get it to stick to the sauce.
4. Serve and try not to eat all at once, and garnish with grated pecorino cheese. (drink with a dry red wine and be happy with the neighbor drops by).

Why yes, I'd like some pasta with my cheese mountain, thank you.

Vegetarian migas with Chipotle-tomato sauce

This weekend, I attend the Brooklyn Food Conference which was pretty cool. I am quite familiar with lot of the policy and educational stuff I already knew, but it was great to hear about the activities local NY activists, especially in low income neighborhoods. I especially enjoyed the Young Culinary Masters, a program that teaches local NYC students how to cook, the NY Coalition for Healthy School Food (dunno why Heather Mills is a spokesperson) and the Q&A session with state representatives. It ties in nicely with what I've been trying to teach my students about trade, international relations, and inequality in regards to food production and agricultural subsidies.
Most exciting was meeting the lovely and sweet local celebrity blogger Cathy Erway, who lives in Crown Heights with me! Her equally adorable blog Not Eating Out in New York is both political, anti-consumerist, green and health/fun oriented. She asked me during a cooking demonstration if I had a blog, and I was embarrassed to say, "yes, but it's spotty." Since I cook more second semester, have joined the Crown Heights CSA, and have a flexible and hopefully productive summer in front of me, I think its time to resurrect this blog.
I decided to try a modified recipe from one of my favorite other NY food bloggers, Smitten Kitchen. Deb has gorgeous photos, but her recipes are usually meatier than I like. Plus, that anti-obesity panel I attended made me realize I send eat more greens, I tried to make it some what more heart healthy (although I used eggs, added guacamole, etc.) Her original recipe, with uses tradition chorizo, can be found here.

Vaguely more healthy Vegetarian Migas with Tomato-Chipotle sauce (she calls it a choltis, but I don't know what that is).

Serves 2 (although I cut down on the eggs and saved the rest for tomorrow)

oven chips: (if you don't want to buy tortilla chips)
6 corn tortilla cut into 1/6 wedges
Heat oven to about 400 degrees. Arrange wedges in a single layer (I had some lean against the tray "walls"). Cook about 15 minutes, opening around 1/2 way to flip, until gold brown (you can spray or brush with oil).

Before:

After:
(feel free to add salt or seasoning, but this works better if you've brushed with oil)

Sauce:
4-5 chipotle peppers (from a can with adobo sauce)
4 plum tomotos, roughly chopped
1/3 white onion
2-4 cloves garlic
Place on the above into a blender and pulse until incorporated. Add to saucepan and heat until bubbling; simmer for 15 minutes (to remove excess water) (I had to use a spoon as its quite thick). This business is spicy, even for maschocist Korean-American girls. You can cut it with yogurt/sour cream during the eating stage.

(apologies, I need to 409 that wall)

Migas:
3-4 eggs (or 5-6, cholesterol is good for the brain and moods), beaten
a bit of chopped onion
2 handfuls of bagged spinach (or any green or veggie that complements black beans- carrots, summer squash, etc.)
a little more than 1/2 can of black beans, drained (maybe just less than 1/4 cup dried and cooked?)
optional garnishes: shredded cheese (Deb recommends feta, but I like queso fresco or boring cheddar), a simple guacamole
olive oil

In a larger frying pan, warm up oil on medium heat and add onions. After they brown a bit, add spinach until it begins to wilt, and then add black beans. Push the spinach and black beans to side and scramble the eggs, adding the oven chips, until just a little wet (one of Mark Bittman's tips for perfect scrambled eggs) and incorporate with the other ingredients in the pan.
At this point, you can add cheese, as much sauce as you'd like, move to your plate, and eat (with leftover chips as garnish).
For a vegan alternative, stir fry 1/2 container of firm tofu that (with most of the liquid squeezed out with a cheese cloth, a process that makes the tofu look eggy) and add 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric, 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt, 1 Tablespoon of nutritional yeast flakes, and a pinch of cayenne. maybe some prepared mustard. Cook this with the spinach/beans a few minutes, and then add the chips and sauce on top (to soften chips)
This doesn't look anything like Deb's dish at Smitten Kitchen, but damn it was pretty delicious.



(apologies for the blurriness, as I was really excited to eat it)