Testing Pot

I've been looking for an excuse to use the big pot my brother got me for Christmas. So I made some chili to test my new pot.

Chili
2 onions, chopped
4 serrano peppers, chopped
1 Ancho Chile, chopped
20 garlic cloves, chopped
1 lb ground chuck
3 28oz cans of fire roasted tomatoes
4c dried kidney beans, soaked overnight and drained
2-6c stock or water
1/4c Fresh Oregano, chopped
2T cumin, ground
Salt to taste


Saute onions, garlic, serrano, ancho, and ground meat until the ground meat stays separated into crumb sized clumps. Add tomatoes, kidney beans, and stock. Add just enough stock or water to cover the beans with an inch of liquid. Simmer chili covered for 1h. Add oregano, cumin, and salt. Boil chili uncovered for 30m. Add salt to taste again (the beans will have absorbed some of the salt).

Teff Experiment

I bought some teff flour a while back and have been trying to decide what to test it on.

Spinach Pie with Teff Crust

4 Tbs Butter
1.5 c Teff Flour or All-Purpose Flour
Ice Water

8 Garlic, cloves
1/4lb Tofu
1/2 c Feta, crumbled
1/2 c Parmesan, grated
8 c Spinach, cooked and chopped
Salt
Pepper


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut butter, with pastry cutter, into Flour until the butter becomes crumb-sized. Stir in water, teaspoons at a time, until dough comes together. Roll to desired thickness and place in a greased pie plate.
Puree Garlic, Tofu, and Feta. Stir Garlic Mixture with spinach and half of the Parmesan cheese until combined. Plop Spinach Mixture into pie shell and even out in the shell. Sprinkle remaining Parmesan on top of the pie. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.

I promise you can do this!

This is the easiest recipe on this site (So far anyway). I promise you can do this. I did it without my mixer, which means that it was more trouble to pick my mixer up than to stir for the one minute I needed to make the shaggy dough. After I made my dough, I ate supper and watched a movie before adding my 1/4 cup of flour. After that, I went to bed and shopping with Vi. I came back dumped out my dough onto 1/2 cup of flour and watched another movie. I turned on the oven and stuck my CorningWare inside. I played on the internet for 30 minutes and dumped the dough into the preheated CorningWare to bake for 30 minutes. After I removed the lid I came to write this blog entry for the next 30 minutes of baking.

Whole Wheat Bread in 24 hours
Adapted from Jim Lahey's Recipe

Ingredients
1.5 teaspoons yeast
1.5 teaspoons Kosher salt
3 cups White Whole Wheat Flour (you can get this at Whole Foods or Calandro's)
1.5 cups water
1/4 cup White Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup White Whole Wheat Flour

Equipment
3-qt mixing bowl that fits in your microwave
Measuring cups and spoons
Stirring Spoon or Spatula
Saran Wrap
Microwave (you're looking for a non-drafty spot)
Cookie Sheet
2.5-qt oven safe dish with lid (CorningWare or enameled cast iron are great)
Cooling rack

24h:
Mix yeast, salt and 3 cups of the flour in a 3-qt bowl. Add water and stir until dough becomes a shaggy ball. Cover tightly with Saran and place bowl in the microwave.
21h:
Remove bowl from microwave. Remove the saran, don't throw it away you're going to put it right back on the bowl. Stir in 1/4 cup of flour. Replace the saran on the bowl. Place in microwave.
4h:
Place 1/2 cup of flour on cookie sheet and scoop/roll the dough out of the bowl and onto the cookie sheet.
2.5h:
Turn the oven on to 450 degrees with the oven safe dish and lid inside the oven.
2h:
Brush the extra flour on the cookie sheet into the sink. If there is some or lots of flour on the bread, that's fine. Being careful not to burn yourself, remove oven safe dish and lid from the oven, remove lid and slide/roll dough into the dish. (The dish is never oiled/Pam-sprayed) Cover with lid and return to oven.
1.5h:
Remove lid and bake for 10-30 minutes, probably all 30.
1h:
Remove oven safe dish from oven.
50min:
Remove bread from oven safe dish and place on cooling rack.
0min:
Slice or tear and eat.

While it's not the best bread I've ever had in my life, it's still better than anything you can buy. You can also do this for a white version with all-purpose flour and 1/2 teaspoon of yeast instead of the 1.5 teaspoons of yeast. All the other directions remain the same, so it would be:

White Bread in 24 hours
Adapted from Jim Lahey's Recipe

Ingredients
1/2 teaspoon yeast
1.5 teaspoons Kosher salt
3 cups All-purpose Flour
1.5 cups water
1/4 cup All-purpose Flour
1/2 cup All-purpose Flour

Equipment
3-qt mixing bowl that fits in your microwave
Measuring cups and spoons
Stirring Spoon or Spatula
Saran Wrap
Microwave (you're looking for a non-drafty spot)
Cookie Sheet
2.5-qt oven safe dish with lid (CorningWare or enameled cast iron are great)
Cooling rack

24h:
Mix yeast, salt and 3 cups of the flour in a 3-qt bowl. Add water and stir until dough becomes a shaggy ball. Cover tightly with Saran and place bowl in the microwave.
21h:
Remove bowl from microwave. Remove the saran, don't throw it away you're going to put it right back on the bowl. Stir in 1/4 cup of flour. Replace the saran on the bowl. Place in microwave.
4h:
Place 1/2 cup of flour on cookie sheet and scoop/roll the dough out of the bowl and onto the cookie sheet.
2.5h:
Turn the oven on to 450 degrees with the oven safe dish and lid inside the oven.
2h:
Brush the extra flour on the cookie sheet into the sink. If there is some or lots of flour on the bread, that's fine. Being careful not to burn yourself, remove oven safe dish and lid from the oven, remove lid and slide/roll dough into the dish. (The dish is never oiled/Pam-sprayed) Cover with lid and return to oven.
1.5h:
Remove lid and bake for 10-30 minutes, probably all 30.
1h:
Remove oven safe dish from oven.
50min:
Remove bread from oven safe dish and place on cooling rack.
0min:
Slice or tear and eat.

Grilled Cheese

I was flipping through a Cooking Light Stacey let me look through and saw a recipe for a Sun-dried Tomato, Roasted Garlic, and White bean dip. I thought it would make a good soup instead.

1 recipe Heidi's Tomato Sauce:
[3 Garlic Cloves, minced
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 olive oil
1 28oz can Crushed tomatoes
1 Lemon Zest] <--Heidi's Sauce ingredients
1 cup dried Navy Beans
3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 Onion, quatered
1 head Garlic
Salt
Pepper

Soak the beans overnight. Then cook in water with Smashed Garlic Cloves and Quatered Onion for 1h-1.5h. Save about 2 cups of the Bean cooking water and drain the beans.

Spray the Garlic Head with Pam or rub with oil. Wrap the Garlic Head in foil and roast the Garlic Head @ 400 degrees for 1h.

Put the 1/4 cup of oil in a small (~2 qt) saucepan. Add the red pepper flakes, salt and garlic to the oil. Turn the stove to medium-high heat for ~45sec - 1m. Add the canned tomatoes, stir and heat throughly. When the Sauce is hot zest the lemon into the sauce, stir and remove from heat.

Puree the Beans and roasted garlic cloves (removing the papery skin), using the bean water to thin to your liking. When thinned, stir in the tomato sauce. Serve with Grilled Cheese.

Grilled Cheese

Mozzarella, sliced
Parmesan, grated
Bread
Butter
Fresh Basil Leaves

Lay mozzarella slices on one slice of bread; top Mozzarella with Basil Leaves. Melt butter in skillet. Place Mozzarella Bread in skillet, bread side down. Place Parmesan on second slice of bread. Broil Parmesan Bread, bread side down. [Watch the Parmesan bread closely and don't burn them like I did] Once the Mozzarella starts to melt add the Parmesan Bread, leaving the Parmesan up:

Parmesan
Bread
Basil
Mozzarella
Bread

Mac and Cheese!

Normally I make this with garlic but the shallot version turned out much better.

1 shallot, sliced
1/2 T butter
1 c Heavy Cream
2 c Cheddar, grated
Cooked Macaroni

Melt the butter. Cook shallot until softened. Add cream and heat until cream is warm. Add cheese and stir until melted. Serve sauce over macaroni.

Paul maintains that this is the best macaroni he's ever had, but he's biased.