I am in a rut!

Lately, I seems to have been in a terrible rut, when in the kitchen.  My uninspired phase seems to have lasted longer than I have thought it would.  Yesterday, I began experimenting in the kitchen again, and recipes will begin to reflow onto my blog.

Yesterday, I made cream of smoked tomato and onion soup, with spiral pasta, garnished with paprika, olive oil, and pumpkin seeds, served with rustic bread sticks.

This evening, I made fried red tomatoes; they were good for a first try, but the recipe needs some work.  

Perfect Fluffy Rice; like the "Bend & Snap," it works every time!

I love rice, from the sticky Asian rices, to wild rice, to fluffy white rice. Unfortunately, I have always had difficulty with making fluffy white rice.  I usually buy rice in bulk, and when buying white rice, I love both the basmatti and jasmine varieties.  The directions always state to rinse the rice before cooking to remove the starches.  No matter mow many times I pre-rinse the rice, I seem to end up with a sticky overcooked mess. I really hate overcooked rice, and for years, it seemed that I was cursed when trying to make fluffy rice.

After some experimenting, I came up with this method of cooking fluffy, and slightly al dente, white rice. Like the bend and snap, it works every time!

Perfect Fluffy Rice

Skill level:

Ingredients

1 cup long grain white rice 

4 1/4 cups water

2 tablespoons butter, margarine, or olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Preparation

1. Put the rice, and 4 cups of water, and 1 teaspoon of salt  in a pan with a lid. 
2. Bring the rice and water to a boil.
3. When rice mix comes to a boil, reduce the heat (maintaining a rolling boil) and cook for 9 minutes.
4. Remove the rice from heat.  (The water in the rice mixture will be milky with the rice starches, which is the cause of gummy and sticky rice).  

5. Pour the rice into a colander, and rinse thoroughly with cold water.  Rinse until the water flows clear, and the rice is completely cold.  This usually takes about 3 to 4 minutes.

6. Rinse any residue from the pan used for boiling the rice.
7. Put the remaining 1/4 cup of water, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and butter in the pan.  
8. Bring the butter and water mixture to a boil.

9. When mixture is boiling, add 1/2 of the rice, and stir so that the rice gets coated. Repeat with remaining rice.

10. When the rice is all back in the pan, reduce the heat to just past the low setting, and put the lid on the pan.  This will rewarm the rice, and the liquid will absorb completely within 5 minutes.

11. Fluff with a fork, and serve.

Home Made Crostini Crackers

One of my favorite snack items are Crostini crackers. They are simple, flavorful, and accompany everything from dips to spreads very well. (I love these with hummus). In addition, there are many varieties available featuring herbs, cheeses, seeds, olives, etc. They are truly a versatile little item, and I usually have a bag on hand.

With grocery prices soaring, especially on "specialty items." The last bag I bought was nearly five dollars, for a 7.5 ounce bag! This seemed outrageous, as the ingredients are simple, and relatively inexpensive. I decided it was time to figure out how to make my own. After a couple of attempts to replicate the store bought Crostini crackers, I created this recipe. The flavor resemblance is extremely close, and, in fact, I almost think mine are better, as they are fresh, and have not sat in packaging, on a shelf, or had to endure long warehousing and transportation to the grocery store.

Best of all, this recipe makes a tub full. As my time is my own, and ingredients are cheap, it costs far less than the grocery store, for significantly more crackers.   

Home Made Crostini Crackers

Skill level:

(I gave this and "advanced" rating, because the dough can be fragile when rolled, otherwise this is an extremely easy recipe)

Ingredients

2 teaspoons yeast

3/4 cup warm water

2 cups flour

1/3 cup olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Additional Flour

Dried herbs (optional)

Preparation

1. In a bowl, combine yeast, water, and 1/4 cup of the flour. Using a whisk, stir together until combined.

2. Allow the yeast mixture to sit for 20 minutes. It will expand and become "fluffy" looking.

3. Using a stand mixer, fitted with the standard stirring attachment, add remaining flour, olive oil, and salt. Blend on medium slow setting for 4 to 5 minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally. When done, the dough will be ribbony, stretchy, and quite sticky.
   
4. Put a small mound of flour onto a clean surface, and speed it out until you have a 6 to 8 inch circle of flour.

5. Scrape dough from bowl, on top of the flour pile.
   
6. Gently kneed the dough in the flour, 10 to 15 times, until dough is no longer incredibly sticky. Kneading time is minimal, as you do want the dough to remain soft and stretchy.

7. Divide dough into 2 parts,
8. Optional: Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of dried herbs onto one of the dough mounds, and gently kneed another 20 to 25 times, until herbs are combined into the dough. (In the pictures, I used a mixture rosemary and oregano leaves). 


9. Round both dough clumps into nice rounds.

10. Loosely wrap dough balls in plastic wrap. 

11. Allow to sit for 1 hour. Dough will rise slightly, and wrap will tighten around the dough.

12. Take 2 cookie sheets, and cut 2 pieces of baking parchment to the size of the baking sheet.
13. Take one ball of the dough, and roll out very thin, on a lightly floured surface. Make sure to roll the dough nearly to the size of your baking sheets.  (I try to leave 1 1/2 to 2 inch borders).

14. Place one piece of parchment on top of the dough.

15. As the dough is very thin and fragile, carefully roll dough and parchment around a rolling pin, and transfer (parchment side down) onto one of the baking sheets.
    
16. Repeat steps 13 through 15 with the remaining dough ball.
17. Use a fork, and poke random holes all over the rolled dough.  The crackers will puff while baking, the random holes keep the crackers from becoming completely hollow.

18. Using a pizza cutter, cut the rolled dough into 1 1/4 wide strips.  (I found that using a knife does not work well, as the dough is thin and sticky).

19. Again, using a pizza cutter, cut the strips into 2 1/2 wide pieces.

20. Place the first baking sheet with the cut strips into a 425 degree oven. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes, until the crostini begin to brown and puff up a bit. 

21. Remove from oven, and turn all of the crostinis over, braking apart any that may have stuck together.

22. Bake again for another 5 to 7 minutes, until lightly browned.

23. Remove from the oven.
24. Repeat steps 20 through 23, with the remaining cut dough.
25. When both batches are complete, reduce the oven temperature to 200 degrees.
26. Pile all of the crostini onto one baking sheet, and allow to dry and crisp in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes.

27. Remove "dried" crostini from the oven, and transfer to a cooling rack.
28. Allow to cool completely, as part of the crispness is achieved while the crackers cool.
29. Store in an air tight container, until ready to serve.

New American Meatloaf

Meatloaf has been an Ameriacn staple for generations.  As I child, I simply loathed meatloaf (and casseroles), and refused to eat it in my adult life.   Meatloaf seemed a messy concoction, with a bizzare assortment of ingredients, usually bland in flavor, and seemed to resemble cat food, far too closely.  Also, I think the catsup baked (and crusted) on top of the meatloaf tasted weird, and seemed an oddly sweet topping.

In recent years, I began experimenting with meatloaf, as I needed something I could eat for a few days, as I was working extremely long hours, and did not have time to cook.  Over time, I came up with this flavorful recipe, featuring hints of traditional meatloaf, with new twists.  The catsup is replaced by sun dried tomatoes, and there are plenty of herbs and spices to add flavor, texture, and color to the mix.

New American Meatloaf

Skill level:

Serves 3 to 4

Ingredients

1/4 cup roughly chopped green peppers

2 gloves of garlic, peeled, and roughly chopped

1/4 cup fresh parsley

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon rosemary

2 heaping tablespoons chopped sun dried tomatoes (I prefer the oil pack variety, but any kind will work nicely)

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon beau monde seasoning

4 saltine crackers (or 1/4 cup plain bread crumbs)

1 green onion

1 pound of hamburger or ground chuck roast

1/4 cup parmesian cheese (optional)

1/4 cup pine nuts (optional)

1/3 cup shredded cheddar (optional)

Preparation

1. Put peppers, garlic, parsley, egg, salt, pepper, rosemary, sun dried tomatoes, oregano, and beau monde seasoning into a food processor, equipped with the blade attachment.  

2. Pulse the food processor a few times until contents are combined, and resembles salsa.

3. Chop the green onion and stems (discarding the roots).

4. Put the meat into a bowl.
5. Using your hands crush the crackers over the meat. (Sustitte plain bread crumbs, if you like)

6. Add the chopped onion to the meat and cracker mixture. Optional: Add pine nuts, and parmesian cheese.

7. Add the egg and spice mixture from the food processor to the meat.

8. Using your hands, squeeze all of the ingredients together until uniformly combined.

9. Shape the mat loaf mixture into a log, roughly 9 by 3 inches.

10. Roll the meat loaf log in baking parchment, and then twist the ends tightly against the end of the log, so that the wrapped meat loaf resembles a giant tootsie roll.
    
    

11. Tuck the ends under the log, and place on an edged baking sheet (seems down, to allow for drainage).

12. Bake in the oven (I just use my taster oven, as the meat loaf is not too large) at 375, or 55 minutes to 1 hour.  Note:  I usually use a cooking thermometer, poked through the parchment, to make sure the center is a minimum of 160 degrees. 
13. Remove from oven, and using an oven hit, untwist one of the ends of the twisted parchment.  using the oven hit, grab the remaining twisted end of the parchment, and gently shake the meat loaf log out of the paper covering.  Usually, it will just slide out.
14. Optional: When the meat loaf is done, sprinkle shredded cheddar over the length of the log, and return to the oven, until the cheese begins to melt.

15. Using a serrated knife, cut into 8 slices, and serve.