Hazelnut Dacquois, Julia Child, and a Happyish Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. I celebrated by spending the morning at the pediatrician's office for a well baby check. My darling princess has her fifth ear infection in her right ear in five months. I know it's completely irrational, but I feel like a bad mommy that I can't seem to protect her from these ear infections. And I am starting to think that we just aren't getting rid of the ear infection and that this has been one long ear infection. Which makes me feel worse. Fortunately, the princess had an all time happy day other than the pesky irritation of having to take a nap. And while she napped I made a big birthday dinner for myself. Thank God she's a long napper! (Once she finally goes down!)

Amusing herself while waiting for the latest prescription!

I decided to tackle one of my Julia Child cookbooks for my birthday dinner. I tried the recipe for casserole roasted pork. It was fairly easy and really delicious. I was also impressed that the whole thing, including the gravy was completely gluten free. My sister is gluten intolerant so I try to pay attention to that kind of thing despite the fact that she lives in Baltimore and can't come to dinner. I think of her frequently when I'm cooking though and it's nice to know that if she came to visit (and wasn't a pescaterian) that I made something she could eat. (HAHAHAHAA spell check says that I meant to write Presbyterian instead of pescaterian! She's not a Presbyterian she just a vegetarian that also eats fish!) Anyhow, back to the pork. The recipe just has  the vegetables and pan drippings and bouquet garni deglazed with some white wine and reduced. I don't usually like gravy, but it was super good!

Julia's garlic mashed potatoes were a different story. They were extremely labor intensive. I had to boil about 30 cloves of garlic, and then peel them (ouch! hot on my fingers!) Then I had to slowly cook them in butter (without browning them? That was challenging.) Then I had to add flour (so... not gluten free here) and let the flour foam. Then I had to add boiling milk and cook. Then I had to puree. This was like pureeing wallpaper paste. My immersion blender wasn't doing it and I thought about putting it through the Vitamix, but then I questioned whether I'd be able to get the sauce out. I finally settled on pressing it through a sieve as Julia suggests. Then I had to rice the potatoes. And after it was all done, I was not impressed. The princess tried to throw hers on the floor. (This was not a critique of the food. Every meal has about a 70% chance of getting thrown to the dog.) Today the potatoes had a very garlic-y flavor to them and they are much better in very small doses. Perhaps the dinner itself was richer than I'm used to.

Oh yumminess!

And then we got to the birthday cake. I have this cookbook called Perfect Cakes by Nick Malgieri. I like this cookbook. I have made several cakes out of it and they have all been delicious. But I've only tried fairly easy cakes. I made the Irish Currant and Raisin Cake, the High Ratio Pound Cake (Lemon variation), the High Ratio Fresh Ginger Pound Cake with Lemon Glaze, and the Coconut Raspberry Layer Cake (easy because I already knew how to make a buttercream. I've made this one twice.) I frequently look at the pictures of the fancier cakes and mentally think about making them, but then I get intimidated and put the book away. Yesterday, though, I decided to be daring. Yeah, I miss the Daring Bakers and Lis. And I decided I would give one of the "scary" ones a try. I decided to try a meringue cake. Actually there's a picture of the Hazelnut Dacquois at the beginning of the meringue cakes chapter so I had a rough idea of what it was supposed to look like. 

My only troubles with the recipe were "user error" type personal problems. They were that I could not find whole hazelnuts at the local Walmart and with sick baby I'm not traveling to the next county to look for hazelnuts (rural life problem anyhow). And the chopped hazelnuts were not skinned. This was not as big of an issue, I think, as it sounds. Maybe they weren't as pretty? Maybe they added a little bitterness? The other issue I had is that I think I don't know how to fold right. My egg whites got really deflated when I added the nuts and I had tons of Japonais batter left over. (It was delicious and I made little rounds and ate them. So I'm not really complaining about that!) I also somehow managed to undercook the Japonais layers. I think it had something to do with running out of parchment paper and wanting to get the roast in the oven. Also, my espresso powder was kind of old and when I mixed it with hot water it sort of smelled like beef bullion. It was fine when I added it to the buttercream. I just kept reminding myself of the Daring Baker challenges and how they didn't always go 100% perfectly. 

Very rich so cut small slices. 

Anyhow, I persevered. And this cake is super delicious! Like whoa! I think now that I've had some experience with the whole Japonais thing and now that I know this type of cake is not one I can fly through making while worrying about the napping princess, the next cake I make like this will be much better. Interestingly, while I was thinking about my sister because this was another gluten free recipe, I was also thinking about my brother. My brother's son is allergic to nuts and every time I make something with nuts I think about him. It is kind of nice that cooking makes me think about my family. I think about my mom every time I make pot roast too (but that's sort of a family joke.) 

This is seriously one of the best specialty cookbooks I've got.  I'm happy I stepped out of my comfort zone and made this cake. I'm also happy that it's in the back of my car being chilled by the second coming of the polar vortex and that I can take it in to work and leave it in the teacher's lounge. Otherwise, I could (and would) eat the whole thing.

Butter Turkey

In my previous life, I lived in Chicago. I lived about 2 miles north of Devon Avenue. Now that may not mean anything to you. It didn't mean a whole lot to me except that I lived fairly close to some really delicious Indian food and I saw stunningly beautiful Saris and Salwar Chemises in the store fronts. Then one day I was talking to my beautiful sister in law (who happens to be of Asian Indian ethnicity) and her parents and they got very excited that I lived close to Devon Avenue. Apparently Devon Avenue is known throughout the Indian Community as a shopping mecca. 

My two Salwar Chemises- given to me by my sister in law's mother

I happen to love Indian food. A lot. Last year's New Year's Resolution (which carried into this year) was to cook 2 recipes from each cookbook that I own. This has been a really fun informative journey. So last year I cooked from books I had that I had never cooked from before. And I cooked from the time tested all purpose cookbooks.The cookbooks I have left fall into 4 separate categories: Cookbooks that held some appeal at one time and now I don't know what I wanted to cook out of them, cookbooks that I just didn't get to, but I'm sure I'll find something interesting in them (like the Cooking Light yearbooks), cookbooks that are just exotic enough so that I wonder when it would be appropriate to cook from (a whole cookbook on cheesecake? 3 separate fondue cookbooks?) and finally cookbooks that I have pretty much cooked the entire cookbook and now I have to find 2 more recipes from it. Betty Crocker's Indian Home Cooking by Raghavan Iyer falls into the last category. 

Seriously I love this cookbook. I can tell you my copy is well worn and has some nice splatters on it even though I try to keep my cookbooks un-splattered. The Egg Tomato Curry is an old standby for me. As is the Mutter Kheema. They are comfort food. I've also blogged the Sag Paneer. I've also really enjoyed about 10 other recipes in this book! Raghavan Iyer has also written the cookbook 660 Curries which is on my shelf and I have blogged about a recipe out of it here and here and here. I swear I'm not some crazy stalker of Mr Iyer. He just makes Indian food accessible and his recipes always turn out.

When I used to dine on Devon Avenue, the Butter Chicken was my favorite. In all it's heady deliciousness. It's a little spicy and it has a hard to describe flavor. It is the flavor of Methi leaves, or as they are also known Fenugreek leaves. I can not find Methi leaves here in rural northern Ohio. I did find them in NYC while visiting Super G. I'm sure that I could find them in any major metropolis that has an Indian grocery store. I know they exist on Devon Avenue! I can't describe the smell except to say that it's a sweet smell. A good sweet smell, not a sickly sweet smell. I can also tell you that when I opened the package I thought to myself that I should have made this a long long long time ago (like when I first visited Super G and picked them up!) On the internet I read that they have a maple syrup aroma and flavor. I think that's hooey. But I don't think I could describe it any better.

Cold outside? Second coming of the Polar Vortex? This curry will warm you up!

Our little family doesn't eat a whole lot of chicken. We buy turkeys at the fair. So we have turkeys in the freezer. It seems pointless to buy chicken when we have turkeys. So I made Butter Turkey. I cut down on the cayenne a little and I used olive oil instead of ghee. The picture looks a little dry because I had an overtired toddler hanging on my leg while I was making it. And then said toddler had to go down for nappy before I could take the picture (and eat it). This is the second time I've made it and the Brain also seems to be a pretty big fan. I served it with Yogurt with Fresh Mint (Pudhina Raita). I didn't alter that at all, so you'll have to buy the book for that super delicious condiment! Seriously, you should go buy the book for all the other recipes in there. Every single one that I've made is absolutely delicious.

Butter Turkey
adapted a little from Betty Crocker's Indian Home Cooking

1 pound turkey breast pieces cut into 1/2 inch strips
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 Tbsp finely chopped ginger (I used the convenient squeeze tube that you can get at the grocery)
5 medium cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
heaping 1/8 tsp cayenne
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup tomato sauce
2 Tbsp dried Methi (Fenugreek) leaves - crumbled

Mix all the ingredients except the oil, tomato sauce and methi leaves together. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or up to 24 hours.
Heat the oil in a medium skillet. Add the turkey mixture and tomato sauce and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. 
Stir in the methi leaves and reduce the heat to low. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes until the turkey is cooked through.

This is really good with rice or naan, and a generous scoop or two of raita!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Last night Super G and I had an interesting phone conversation. She was complaining that I was anticipating not just one snow day, but two if the full 12 inches of snow hits like it's supposed to. It started at 7am this morning. Right on schedule! (As it turns out, Super G can no longer whine about there being no snow days in New York City. School is cancelled for her tomorrow too!)

To make her feel better Super G and I were discussing the benefits of living in New York City. Not that I really know, because I've only lived in what seems like every major metropolitan area in the Midwest not the East Coast. So I pointed out things like being able to find rice flour, or marscapone cheese and being able to go to places like fancy chocolate shops and Murray's cheese shop, and if she wants Indian food she doesn't have to cook it herself. Super G then started to feel better because, as she pointed out to me, she was able to have some Scharffenberger cocoa powder delivered to her house with her groceries.

I don't think I can find Scharffenberger cocoa out here. Well certainly not in this county anyway. Askinosie isn't available either. I have to admit that I was starting to feel a little blue. The best cocoa I can find is whatever Walmart carries. But then I started to think of the advantages of being out here in the middle of Nowhere, Ohio. For example, all of our meat is raised lovingly by little kids and is pretty near organic. Also, the secretary at the school I'm doing my student teaching at sells farm fresh brown eggs from her very own chickens.

Super G may have access to fancy expensive specialty foods, but I know where mine comes from. I know the 15 year old 4H "farmers". And sometimes you just don't need fancy specialty foods. Some good old fashioned oats will do. And some raisins. And there you have an iconic cookie. The Oatmeal Raisin cookie.

Sometimes when I'm lying awake at night trying to go to sleep I create impossible stories in my head. Nothing that will ever come about, but fun to think about kinds of things. Like owning a bakery. That would be fun. Well except for the whole employees and taxes and inventory and rent and electricity bills and stuff like that. But if I ever did own a bakery, these would be the oatmeal cookies I would sell. They are sturdy and yummy and yet down-home and delicious. I think the oatmeal cookie recipe from the Quaker Oats box has just been bumped from my recipe collection!

The recipe comes from a Christmas present cookbook from my brother and his beautiful wife. The Grand Central Baking Book. The recipes are easy to follow. The photos are drool-worthy. And frankly, if every recipe in the book is as good as the oatmeal cookies, then I may have to make a trip to Portland (or Seattle) and eat at the Grand Central Bakery. As it turns out, they celebrate the same food philosophy I do. They are all about foods that are locally grown, artisan breads, and homemade scratch cooking. Yum! (If you perhaps live out in the Pacific Northwest, you should really check them out. The bread is apparently in grocery stores, and there are bakery locations in both Portland and Seattle.)

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

from The Grand Central Baking Book

1 3/4 cup (8.75 ounces) all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 1/4 cups (11.5 ounces) rolled oats

1 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 5 baking sheets with parchment paper (or if you don't have that many sheets, only line 2, but you will have to wait while cookies cool on the baking sheets.)

Whisk to combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, and sugars on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Scraping the bowl occasionally. While the mixer is running, crack the eggs into a liquid measuring cup and add the vanilla extract. Reduce the speed to low and pour the eggs, one at a time, into the batter. Allow the first egg to be fully incorporated into the dough before adding the second. Scrape the bowl again.

Add the dry ingredients in 2 or 3 additions with the mixer on low speed. Scrape the bowl again. Mix the oats and raisins in the now empty flour bowl and then add them to the dry ingredients. Mix just until everything is well distributed.

Weigh out scoops of dough that are approximately 1.5 ounces each. Roll these scoops into balls. Place 6 balls on each cookie sheet and then gently flatten them to about 1/2 inch thick. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through cooking time. When they are done they should look a little underdone in the middle, but golden at the edges. Pull the sheets out of the oven and let the cookies cool on the cookie sheets. (The cookies continue to bake on the hot cookie sheets.)

These aren't the quickest batch of cookies to make, but they really are worth the time spent making them!

Aadrak Lasoon Masoor Ki Dal

What? Yeah that means Gingered Red Lentils. Really fantastically good Gingered Red Lentils. They were on one hand soothing comfort food and on the other hand knocked my taste buds for a loop. Kind of like if you broke up with a boyfriend they would pat you on the head and tell you everything would be okay and then go and kick said ex-boyfriend's behind. They're really good.

I received this cookbook, 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer. Yeah, he's the same guy from the Betty Crocker Indian Home Cooking cookbook, which I have and also love. And he was recently featured in Cooking Light Magazine. (Yikes, now I'm sounding like a groupie!) I have to say, this cookbook was seriously intimidating for me. First, there were hardly any pictures so I didn't really know what things were supposed to look like. This really isn't too big of a problem, it just made picking the first recipe a little difficult for me. 660 is a lot of curries and it took a long time to single one out. Secondly, there are many ingredients that are hard to find in the middle of Nowhere, Ohio.

That said, I do highly recommend this cookbook. There's something for everyone really. It has many of the familiar Indian dishes, so you could ease into the Indian cooking experience. Mr. Iyer has clear and easy to follow directions, so even though there are no pictures you are able to tell that your dish came out looking correctly. Thirdly, there is a glossary of ingredients in the back, so that if you are like me and live far from the nearest Indian family, much less Indian grocery store you can figure out exactly what you need. And finally after the glossary in back, there is a list of online sources for spices and legumes as well as this link to finding an Indian grocery near you. Oh yeah, and he even has a website to discuss his cookbook with you.

Unfortunately there isn't an Indian grocery anywhere close to me (less than 50 miles anyway). So while I was at my mom's I went to a terrific Indian/Pakistani grocery store in Troy, MI called Subzi Mandi. The people were very friendly and helpful and I stocked up on loads of spices. The only minor glitch was I ended up with this bag of Takmaria (aka Tukmaria, aka Basil seeds) when I was hoping for Nigella seeds. They didn't know what Nigella seeds were. Consulting Mr. Iyer's cookbook, I found out that Nigella seeds are also known as black cumin seeds despite not really being cumin. If anyone knows what to do with Takmaria/Tukmaria seeds besides plant them and hope for basil please let me know!

Yeah, I am not sure if red lentils are hard to find out here because I got them in Michigan too. But I can tell you that I'm on the lookout for them here. I have enough to make this only one more time and I'm going to want to make it again and again. This is also my contribution to the annual Vegetables, Beautiful Vegetables 2008 event hosted by Eat The Right Stuff. This is a fun event celebrating National Vegetarian Week in the U.K. (May 19th through 25th) and even though I'm not a vegetarian this dish was tasty enough for me to stuff myself with completely on it's own last night and I'm sure vegetarians, especially British vegetarians will love it too. Incidentally, there are loads of vegetarian and vegan recipes in 660 curries, and I noticed at least one meat curry that gave the option of substitutions to make it vegetarian.

Gingered Red Lentils (Aadrak Lasoon Masoor Ki Dal)

Copied directly from 660 Curries

1 cup skinned split brown lentils (salmon-colored in this form, masoor dal), picked over for stones

1 small red onion, coarsely chopped (I used 1/2 a medium yellow onion)

4 large cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

4 lengthwise slices fresh ginger (each 2 inches long, 1 inch wide, and 1/8 inch thick), coarsely chopped

2 fresh green Thai, cayenne, or Serrano chiles, stems removed

2 tablespoons Ghee or canola oil

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

2 dried red Thai or cayenne chiles, stems removed

1 medium sized tomato, cored and finely chopped

1 teaspoon coarse kosher or sea salt

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems

1. Place the lentils in a medium size saucepan. Fill the pan halfway with water, and rinse the lentils by rubbing them between your fingertips. The water will become cloudy. Drain this water. Repeat three or four times, until the water remains relatively clear; drain. Now add 3 cups water and bring to a boil, uncovered, over medium heat. Skim off and discard any foam that forms on the surface. Reduce the heat to medium low, cover the pan, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the lentil are tender, 18 to 20 minutes.

2. While the lentils are cooking, combine the onion, garlic, and fresh chiles in a food processor. Mince the ingredients, using the puling action. (Letting the blades run constantly will yield a watery blend.)

3. Heat the ghee in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add the cumin seeds and dried chiles, and cook until the chiles blacken and the seeds turn reddish brown, and smell nutty, 5 to 10 seconds. Immediately add the onion blend, reduce the heat to medium and stir fry until the mixture is light brown around the edges, 3 to 5 minutes.

4. Stir in the tomato, salt, and turmeric. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the tomato softens and the ghee starts to separate around the edges of the sauce, 3 to 6 minutes. Stir in the cilantro.

5. Stir the sauce into the cooked lentils. Ladle some of the lentil mixture into the skillet and stir it around to wash it out; add this to the lentils.

6. Cover the pan and simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the flavors mingle, about 5 minutes. Then serve.