Daring Cooks: January-Hearty Winter Stew the French Way

So due to what people are calling the "Snowpacolypse," which it wasn't (4 inches of snow, the big problem was the inches of ice Atlanta does not have the salt to melt), the grocery stores were closed and/or out of produce, so I was a little delayed in completing my daring cooks challenge this month.  But I did, and it was good.  I give you the required lines and then I'll discuss.

Blog Checking Lines: Our January 2011 Challenge comes from Jenni of The Gingered Whisk and Lisa from Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. They have challenged the Daring Cooks to learn how to make a confit and use it within the traditional French dish of Cassoulet. They have chosen a traditional recipe from Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman.


The requirements were a confit and cassoulet.  The most traditional confit I can think of is duck, but I do not have access to duck.  So you could have made chicken.  But garlic confit sounded so much better to me, so that's what I made.  And spending 3 days making a pot of meat for the cassoulet sounded like something I was not interested in, so I made the veggie one, which quite honestly isn't that different from the kind of thing I usually eat in winter.  However, the garlic breadcrumbs were an extra thing I wouldn't usually make (and man, grating that baguette took forever and I cut myself), though they were tasty.  I was going to say they weren't worth it, but thinking about it, I think they were.  I will probably have leftovers though, and I think they would make an awesome glue for bean burgers.  And the garlic confit was something totally new and awesome.  Yes, you have to peel 65 cloves of garlic, but the result is essentially extra awesome roasted garlic AND garlic and thyme infused olive oil.  TOTALLY WORTH IT.  But my fingers still smell like garlic and I made this for lunch yesterday, washed my hands dozens of times, showered, etc.  We were supposed to "incorporate" the confit in the cassoulet, which I just took to mean "eat with," though I realized after I started cooking the vegetables that I should have cooked them in some of the infused olive oil, so I added a little of it, but I wish I had caught that sooner.  I'm going to need to be reminded to use that infused olive oil in my cooking.  Maybe I should have tried meat, but I'm still weaning myself back into that  (yes, that's right, I'm going to eat more meat this year, I hope, I even bought some tilapia, which I guess isn't meat, to try to have fun with) and I was quite pleased with the result as it was.  Oh, and I made challah (see my previous pseudo post) to go with it, which was a pretty awesome (but nonvegan) combination.  I'll include the recipes I used.  Like I said, I'd recommend making the confit first and using the infused olive oil in the cassoulet and bread crumbs.

Garlic ConfitGarlic Confit from Saveur, Issue #129

Ingredients:

1½ cup (360 ml) Olive Oil
1½ tsp (7½ ml) (4 gm) kosher salt (**Note: if using table salt, use ½ the amount)
10 whole black peppercorns
5 sprigs fresh thyme
65 garlic cloves, peeled (about 1 ½ cups/360 ml)
1 dried bay leaf

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to slow 300°F/150°C/gas mark 2. Put ingredients in a 1 quart (950 ml) pot, making sure all the garlic is submerged in the oil. Cover pot. Bake until garlic is golden brown and tender, about 1 hour. Let cool.
2. Transfer mixture to a glass jar; cover surface of oil with plastic wrap. Cover jar and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks. Makes 2 cups/480 ml.

Bread crumbs out of the oven

Vegetarian/Vegan Cassoulet
Vegetarian Cassoulet by Gourmet Magazine, March 2008

Ingredients:

3 medium leeks (white and pale green parts only)
4 medium carrots, halved lengthwise and cut into 1-inch-wide (25 mm) pieces
3 celery ribs, cut into 1-inch-wide (25 mm) pieces
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup (60 ml) olive oil
4 thyme sprigs
2 parsley sprigs
1 Turkish or 1/2 California bay leaf
1/8 teaspoon (2/3 ml) (1 gm) ground cloves
3 (19-oz/540 gm) cans cannellini or Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained (I ideally use dried beans I cook myself, but I only had a cup and a half of dried beans, so I cooked those and used a can.  The canned ones were better, I somehow can cook all beans EXCEPT cannellini)
1 qt (4 cups/960 ml) water
4 cups (960 ml) (300 gm) coarse fresh bread crumbs from a baguette (I just used the part of a baguette I could avoid eating, and I had decent will power, so that was most of it)
1/3 cup (80 ml) olive oil
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (12 gm) chopped garlic
1/4 cup (60 ml) (80 gm) chopped parsley

Directions:

1. Halve leeks lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1/2-inch (13 mm) pieces, then wash well (see cooks’ note, below) and pat dry.
2. Cook leeks, carrots, celery, and garlic in oil with herb sprigs, bay leaf, cloves, and 1/2 teaspoon (2½ mm) each of salt and pepper in a large heavy pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened and golden, about 15 minutes. Stir in beans, then water, and simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally, until carrots are tender but not falling apart, about 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4 with rack in middle.
4. Toss bread crumbs with oil, garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon (1¼ ml) each of salt and pepper in a bowl until well coated.
5. Spread in a baking pan and toast in oven, stirring once halfway through, until crisp and golden, 12 to 15 minutes.
6. Cool crumbs in pan, then return to bowl and stir in parsley.
7. Discard herb sprigs and bay leaf. Mash some of beans in pot with a potato masher or back of a spoon to thicken broth.
8. Season with salt and pepper. Just before serving, sprinkle with garlic crumbs.

Challah

I found a challah recipe that doesn't make 2-3 loaves!  I am excited.  I love challah, but am not a huge fan of freezing and thawing my bread.  So I was excited when I found a recipe for 1 challah loaf.  And braiding bread is fun!  I would have taken a picture, but before I ate it a chunk before I had a chance and it was no longer photogenic.  Oh well, I'm sure I'll try again.

Something seemed a little off about it.  The texture wasn't quite right.  The instructions did confuse me a little.  You start out with a stiff blend of dough, then you knead until its soft?  The dough was never soft for me.  That is probably the problem.  Also, the taste was slightly off, but I expect that is because I used half honey that had crystalized (which I don't think was a problem or maybe that's what affected the texture, anyone know?) and half raw wildflower honey, which has a bit of a taste that is different from other honeys.

This might be a pointless entry with no picture and no recommendations and just a link to the recipe.  However, I'll try it again and we can compare, and then it will be more of a base of learning post.

However, I will take this opportunity to mention my new favorite website http://www.tastespotting.com/.  I'm trying to reduce my pointless time online, and this is actually good for that because 1) it's slightly less pointless than facebook.  I did after all get a challah recipe there. 2) It takes less time to look at pretty pictures and bookmark some of my favorites than I will invariably spend on any other site to get the same amount of "break" quality.  After all, sometimes I just feel like killing a few minutes online and reading through one page of that website is satisfies that craving sufficiently.

Baked Oatmeal

I don't think another post about oatmeal should surprise anyone, since it is one of my favorite foods and certainly my most common breakfast.

Last year around this time, my dad and I stopped at his favorite breakfast place and split a baked oatmeal.  I thought it was great and so easy, you make it once and you can heat it up the next day and it's just as good. I tried it once and it was too dry and too thin (I think it's better if it's about an inch thick), but I tried again for my family and it was a good thing.  And it smells like cinnamon rolls as you mix it, but it's so much healthier and heartier.  It's a great start to a cold winter day (and like I said, it keeps very well).  However one thing I've found that made it much better the second time: soaking it overnight.  Otherwise it's too dry.  In fact it was a little dry as it was, so you could get away with more milk.  My mom poured a little eggnog (as a substitute for cream) on top of hers.

Ingredients
1 egg
2 Tbsp melted butter
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (I would usually use sea salt, but my mom doesn't have that)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (I grated just a pinch instead)
1 cup milk
3 cup oats
2-3 Tbsp dried cranberries
slightly toasted walnuts to top (optional)

Beat egg, whisk together with butter, baking soda, salt, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and milk.  Add oats and stir until moistened.  Add cranberries and stir until distributed.  Grease a 9x9 pan and pour mixture into the pan.  Top with toasted walnuts if desired.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning, preheat the oven to 350, then bake for 30-40 minutes until set in the middle.

Cat Cora's Cinnamon Chicken

So I haven't bought meat to cook for about a year now.  The reasoning could be a whole series of posts, so I'll just say it's for environmental/economic reasons; I still eat meat, but I don't when I can avoid it.  This is a dish I made once before I stopped cooking meat and it's probably the first thing I will do when I buy chicken again.  But even better: my family does eat meat and really prefer not to constantly eat vegetarian food like I do.  My mom said we should make a simple chicken dish last week, and I recommended this, since it is one of my favorites.  As many people know (and I've probably mentioned more than a few times), I really love cinnamon.  So I'm just going to copy the recipe, I didn't make any modifications this time.  But my grad student I don't want to deal with chicken way of making it last time was using boneless skinless chicken breasts, I think I used 3 when I did it that way.  I think it's awesome served with broccoli, but that's usually my go to green vegetable too.  And it's really easy to plate nicely. Then again, my parents' plates make everything look a little nicer than mine.  So I'm just going to copy the recipe, I feel bad not giving you any of my own touches, but like I said, it's probably my favorite chicken dish, so I thought it was worthwhile to share.  It comes from Cat Cora via the Oprah website.  Oh, I guess my one note is that I didn't think 2 1/2 tsp was enough rub, so I made a lot more, mostly by adding extra cinnamon (go figure).

Servings: Serves 4

Ingredients

Greek Cinnamon Stewed Chicken

• 1 chicken (2 1/2 to 3 pounds), cut into 8 pieces (legs, breast and thighs)
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 5 cloves garlic , peeled and minced
• 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion , peeled and coarsely chopped
• 2 cups water
• 1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
• 1 Tbsp. dried Italian herb seasoning
• 1 cup orzo , cooked according to package directions
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Preboil water with sea salt.

Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. A wet chicken will cause the oil to splatter while the chicken is sautéing. Mix the cinnamon, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Rub the chicken pieces on all sides with the seasoning.

Heat the olive oil in a large, nonreactive, deep skillet over high heat. A 12-inch skillet with sides about 2 1/2 to 3 inches high will allow you to brown all the chicken at once. If you don't have a skillet large enough, brown them in two batches using 1/2 the oil for each batch. What's important is that the chicken isn't overcrowded, which would cause them to steam rather than brown.

Add the chicken to the oil and brown for about 4 to 5 minutes on each side. Turn the pieces using a metal spatula, as they have a tendency to stick to the pan. Remove the pieces when they are well browned on all sides.

Mince three of the garlic cloves. Lower the heat to medium-high, and add the onions and minced garlic. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly, until the onions have softened and are a rich golden brown. Add about 1/2 cup of the water and scrape the bottom of the pan with a spatula or spoon to deglaze the pan, loosening any particles stuck on the bottom.

When the water has evaporated, add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of water, tomato paste, Italian seasoning and remaining 2 garlic cloves, minced.

Return the chicken to the pan. The liquid should cover about 3/4 of the chicken pieces. Cover the pot and simmer over medium-high heat for about 30 to 40 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and thoroughly cooked. If the sauce becomes too thick, it can be thinned with a little more water. Season the finished sauce with kosher salt and pepper to taste. Serve over orzo, cooked according to package directions, and sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top.

Daring Bakers: December 2010, Stollen!

Stollen is one of those things that is all over the place in Wisconsin, even the Italian bakeries sell it, but I haven't seen it anywhere else.  However, it's also crazy expensive, usually about $10 for a pound loaf.  Over Thanksgiving break I saw it at the grocery store for $15 for a pound loaf, and thought "gee, I could definitely make it for less than that, if only I had a good recipe."  Then again, I don't usually like Stollen (or anything with candied cherries for that matter), so I thought my parents would appreciate the gesture, but I wouldn't really care.  And then low and behold, the Daring Bakers challenge for this month was making stollen.  Seriously, many of the challenges since I've started have tapped into what's been on the top of my list to try baking, for instance the ice cream cakes this summer (well, at very least, the ice cream), Crostada, souffle, perogies, apple butter, and now Stollen!  And because I made it, I reduced the amount of raisins and added dried apricots and cranberries instead and left out the stupid candied cherries.  And low and behold, I liked it!  That's because it is basically bread with stuff I approve of: cinnamon, vanilla, orange and lemon zests, orange extract (there was candied peel, but I can deal with a little of that), and of course, dried apricots (and other fruits too).  My dad said it was the best Stollen ever, which means I will probably have to make it every year for the rest of my life, but that's okay.  It's a new Christmas tradition and it's one I fully support.  Now the challenge will be getting my brother to try it.

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration. 

Here's what I did:

Stollen Wreath 

Makes one large wreath or two traditional shaped Stollen loaves. Serves 10-12 people 

Ingredients 

1/2 cup (60ml) lukewarm water (110º F / 43º C) 

2 packages (4 1/2 teaspoons) (22 ml) (14 grams) (1/2 oz) active dry yeast 

1 cup (240 ml) milk 

10 tablespoons (150 ml) (140 grams) unsalted butter (can use salted butter) 

6 cups (1320 ml) (27 ozs) (770 grams) all-purpose (plain) flour plus more for flouring

1/2 cup (120 ml) (115 gms) sugar 

3/4 teaspoon (3 ••• ml) (4 ••• grams) salt

1 teaspoon (5 ml) (6 grams) cinnamon 

3 large eggs, lightly beaten 

Grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange 

2 teaspoons (10 ml) (very good) vanilla extract 

1 teaspoon (5 ml) lemon extract or orange extract 

3/4 cup (180 ml) (4 ••• ozs) (135 grams) lemon peel

1/3 cup (240 ml) (6 ozs) (170 gms) firmly packed raisins 

1/3 cup dried apricots cut into small pieces

1/3 cup mixed golden raisins and cranberries (there may have been a few dried blueberries and cherries in there, but I tried to pick them out)

3 tablespoons (45ml) dark rum 

1 cup- a little since my mom used some to decorate cookies (240 ml) (3 ••• ozs) (100 grams) flaked almonds 

Melted unsalted butter for coating the wreath 

Confectioners’ (icing) (powdered) sugar for dusting wreath 

Note: If you don’t want to use alcohol, double the lemon or orange extract or you could use the juice from the zested orange. 

Directions: 

Soak the raisins 

In a small bowl, soak the raisins in the rum (or in the orange juice from the zested orange) and set aside. See Note under raisins. I soaked these for about 8 hours

To make the dough 

Pour 1/2 cup (60 ml) warm water into a small bowl, sprinkle with yeast and let stand 5 minutes. Stir to dissolve yeast completely. 

In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup (240 ml) milk and 10 tablespoons (150 ml) butter over medium - low heat until butter is melted. Let stand until lukewarm, about 5 minutes. 

Lightly beat eggs in a small bowl and add lemon and vanilla extracts. 

In a large mixing bowl (4 qt) (4 liters) (or in the bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment), stir together the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, orange and lemon zests. 

Then stir in (or mix on low speed with the paddle attachment) the yeast/water mixture, eggs and the lukewarm milk/butter mixture. This should take about 2 minutes. It should be a soft, but not sticky ball. When the dough comes together, cover the bowl with either plastic or a tea cloth and let rest for 10 minutes. 

Add in the mixed peel, soaked fruit and almonds and mix with your hands or on low speed to incorporate. Here is where you can add the cherries if you would like. Be delicate with the cherries or all your dough will turn red! 

Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, and begin kneading (or mixing with the dough hook) to distribute the fruit evenly, adding additional flour if needed. The dough should be soft and satiny, tacky but not sticky. Knead for approximately 8 minutes (6 minutes by machine). I kneaded for a lot more than this, maybe 15 minutes before i was convinced it was the right texture.  This may have been longer than what the recipe actually wanted, but i was happy with the texture of the end result.  The full six minutes of kneading is needed to distribute the dried fruit and other ingredients and to make the dough have a reasonable bread-dough consistency. You can tell when the dough is kneaded enough – a few raisins will start to fall off the dough onto the counter because at the beginning of the kneading process the dough is very sticky and the raisins will be held into the dough but when the dough is done it is tacky which isn't enough to bind the outside raisins onto the dough ball. Since this is an actual bread, I tried to use the window pane test of pulling a small piece apart and accepting it as done when the piece didn't tear.  However all the stuff in the bread made it tear, even after 15 minutes.

Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling around to coat it with the oil. (I just buttered the bowl and called it a day) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. 

Put it in the fridge overnight. The dough becomes very firm in the fridge (since the butter goes firm) but it does rise slowly… the raw dough can be kept in the refrigerator up to a week and then baked on the day you want.  I kept this in my mom's car in "the big refrigerator" known as out garage.

Shaping the Dough and Baking the Wreath 

1. Let the dough rest for 2 hours after taking out of the fridge in order to warm slightly. 

2. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. 

3. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4 with the oven rack on the middle shelf. 

4. Punch dough down, roll into a rectangle about 16 x 24 inches (40 x 61 cms) and 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick. This is what you are supposed to do.  How people roll into rectangles is beyond me.  I rolled it into an ellipse and rolled parallel to the major access of the ellipse.  it worked fine, though one side of the Stollen was a little smaller than the other.  I served that side first and no one noticed.

Starting with a long side, roll up tightly, forming a long, thin cylinder. 

Transfer the cylinder roll to the sheet pan. Join the ends together, trying to overlap the layers to make the seam stronger and pinch with your fingers to make it stick, forming a large circle. You can form it around a bowl to keep the shape. 

Using a sharp or serrated knife, make cuts along outside of circle, in 2-inch (5 cm) intervals, cutting 2/3 of the way through the dough. 

Twist each segment outward, forming a wreath shape. Mist the dough with spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap. 6 

Proof for approximately 2 hours at room temperature, or until about 1 1/2 times its original size. 

Bake the stollen for 20 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees for even baking and continue to bake for 20 to 30 minutes. The bread will bake to a dark mahogany color, should register 190°F/88°C in the center of the loaf, and should sound hollow when thumped on the bottom. 

Transfer to a cooling rack and brush the top with melted butter while still hot. 

Immediately tap a layer of powdered sugar over the top through a sieve or sifter. 

Wait for 1 minute, then tap another layer over the first. 

The bread should be coated generously with the powdered sugar. 

Let cool at least an hour before serving. Coat the stollen in butter and icing sugar three times, since this many coatings helps keeps the stollen fresh - especially if you intend on sending it in the mail as Christmas presents! 

When completely cool, store in a plastic bag. Or leave it out uncovered overnight to dry out slightly, German style. 

The stollen tastes even better in a couple of days and it toasts superbly…. so delicious with butter and a cup of tea….mmmmm 

Storage 

The more rum and the more coatings of butter and sugar you use the longer it will store. 

The following is for the recipe as written and uses the 45 mls of rum and two coatings of butter and icing sugar 

1. Stollen freezes beautifully about 4 months 

2. The baked stollen stores well for 2 weeks covered in foil and plastic wrap on the counter at room temperature and 

3. One month in the refrigerator well covered with foil and plastic wrap.