A Pate a Choux trick

For most of us at home, using a pastry bag, nozzles, etc. is a royal pain.With that in mind, I was making some mini gougeres for a party over the weekend. Sure enough I had a bunch of gooey, cheesy choux pastry and no desire to use a bag. I could have used a pair of spoons, but that's a we bit messy too.

Instead I wrapped the choux pastry in cling wrap and chilled it. When ready to use it, I cut it into strips, and then each strip into cubes. The secret here was to use a meat slicing knife and a glass of hot water. The slicing knife has a granton edge so it is doesn't drag quite as much as my chef's knife. The hot water was to cote the knife so it didn't stick to the pastry.

I was left with 24 choux pastry cubes. I laid them on a baking sheet, allowed them to come to room temperature and then put them in a 425F oven - whose temperature I immediately dropped to 400F.

They came out just as well as they would have done had I extruded them through a pastry bag - less waste and cleanup too.

Bravetart

Bravetart, the dessert cookbook from Stella Parks has some very approachable recipes for the home cook. She explains things clearly an simply. No weird ingredients and excellent results. I have made her coconut cream pie and the no knead English muffins. Both turned out very well (although I didn't regulate the flat top temperature well enough for the muffins).

In making the coconut cream pie, I ended up with left over pastry (I was only making 1 pie), toasted sugar and left over marshmallow meringue. So what to do?

Her "No stress all butter pie-crust" is as advertised a really easy pastry. It bakes up nice and flaky - almost biscuit (English short biscuits) like. That inspired me to try the following:

Ingredients - Biscuits

1/2 Bravetart Pie dough recipe, rolled into an 5x7 incch rectangle.

3 oz thin crystallized ginger pieces

Granulated sugar (or better still toasted sugar) to top

Method

Preheat the oven to 375F. Shingle the crystallized ginger onto the rolled out pastry rectangle. Arrange the shingle parallel with the short side, and only cover 1/2 of the dough.

Fold the uncovered dough over the ginger covered half, and press the edges to seal. Using a pizza wheel cut the packet into strips. Lay the strips onto a silicone or parchment lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with the sugar.

Bake in the 375 oven for 30 - 40 minutes, until the bars are browned and cooked through.  

Marshmallow Meringue Macaroons

The coconut cream pie recipe calls for 8 egg yolks. That means we have 8 egg whites. Making  the marshmallow meringue is essentially a Swiss meringue technique, but  with the egg/sugar mixture heated to 175F before whisking.

Preheat the oven to 375F. If you have just made the pie or the biscuits, the oven will be at 375.

Once the meringue is made, and spread onto the pie, combine the left over meringue with about 6 oz sweetened shredded coconut. Form into small mounds on a baking sheet.  

Place the baking sheet onto a rack in the middle of the oven. After 15 minutes, turn the oven heat off, but leave the fan running.  After a further 10 minutes, turn the macaroons over to dry out their flat edges and leave in the cooling oven for a further 30 minutes.

Cast Iron isn't a good conductor

For all of the great benefits of cast iron for skillets, flat tops, etc. One thing that I overlook is that it doesn't actually conduct heat very well. It has great thermal capacity, but it needs careful treatment if you want even cooking temperatures.

This thought came about when I was making the excellent English Muffin's from Stella Parks' book "Bravetart".  The muffins had all the flavor, but weren't as puffy as I wanted. So I pinged Ms. Parks on twitter. She opined that the griddle was too hot, so the outsides set up before the middle could rise properly. Her recipe was quite specific - heat to 350F. If I had an electric griddle with a temperature control and a thermostat, it would have been easy. But I don't. So I had to guess using my cast iron flat top.

After that less than satisfactory outcome, it was clearly time for a gadget - in this case a surface temperature thermometer. I didn't want to go the full Alton Brown, but I did want to do a little experimentation. Off to AceMart (my local commercial kitchen supply store) where I found this jewel for $39.

Quite a revelation. I turned the burners to medium and started heating the flat top. First mistake! I had them too high. After 5 minutes the surface over the burners was about 375 and the middle was 280.

Turned burners down to their lowest setting. Waited another 10 minutes. Now the ends where the burners are was 410 and the middle was 375. Everithing far too hot for what I needed/wanted.

Moral of the story:

• Believe the experts when they say heat your cast iron slowly
• It gets up to temperature unevenly
• It's really hard to tell when it is at the temperature you want (unless you practice a lot)
• It's still the best surface for  stove top frying

Valentine's Day - 2018

When I am home for Valentine's Day, I always try to make something a little extra special for dinner. This year was no exception, but because it is midweek and we are both working I didn't have all day to slave over the stove.
This dish was grilled romaine with roasted beets, diced red pepper, warm Israeli couscous all with a bitter orange dressing. Oh and we had some sous vide chicken thighs left over from a different dish, so added that too.
To make it vegetarian or vegan use oil instead of bacon and omit the chicken.
It did get the "We Can Serve This To People" appellation, so I guess madame liked it!

Ingredients - CousCous 

3 strips bacon cut into small pieces (for vegetarians, use olive oil instead of bacon)

1 small shallot diced finely

1/4 cup Israeli couscous

1/2t smoked paprika

1/2t sumac

1 medium carrot diced into 1/4" cubes. Size matters here for the speed of cooking

1/2 cup boiling water

Ingredients - The Dressing

4T bitter orange orange marmalade - jelly only, no peel strips

Juice of 1 lemon

1/3 cup high quality olive oil (a finishing oil)

salt to taste - remember that in this dish there is bacon that is itself salty

Ingredients - The Rest

1/2 red pepper diced into 1/4" pieces

2 medium roasted beets diced into 1/4" pieces

1 cooked chicken thigh diced (optional - we happened to have one left over)

1 romaine lettuce heart halved lengthwise

Coarse salt

Pepper

Method - CousCous

Do the couscous first as it takes the longest. 

Gently render the bacon in a large saucier. When the bacon is rendered, add the shallot, couscous and spices. Cook over medium heat, stirring or shaking frequently for about a minute - until the couscous is lightly toasted. Add the carrots and boiling water. Cover and simmer until the water is absorbed. This is about 10 minutes. When the couscous is cooked,  turn off the heat and allow to stand until ready to serve (at room temperature)

Method - Dressing

In a large bowl whisk together the ingredients, ad let stand. Whisk again immediately before use.

Method - The Rest (And Final Assembly)

Grill the romaine on a medium/hot griddle - or over a gas/charcoal grill if you prefer. When it is slightly charred, transfer to an individual plate. Place the room temperature couscous on one corener of the plate. Some of the chicken on another corner. Dress the romaine with a teaspoon of dressing. Pile the diced red pepper and beets onto the romaine. Add 2 more teaspoons of dressing. Sprinkle with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper. Serve with a nice, crisp white wine.  In our case a South African Sauvignon Blanc.