Quarantine Cooking!

Now that we're all doing our best to be house bound, this seemed like a the perfect time to revive our cooking blog to swap recipes. Last night we made a good, freezable, fridge-cleaning soup that we call date soup! Here's the (very flexible) recipe:

For the protein:
1 lb ground meat (preferably chicken or turkey) (Or no meat! Do beans instead)
Liberal amounts of garlic (like 8 cloves?)
Basil or parsley (dried or fresh is fine)
Salt or garlic salt or onion salt, or a mix of all three!
Pepper
Olive oil
Cut any of the above seasonings, or add others that you like (I'd add fennel seeds, but that's not popular with the wife).

Add meat, crushed garlic, and seasonings to a bowl, and squish together like you're making meatballs or sausage. Heat the olive oil in a soup pot, then add meat, and cook so it ends up in little bits, like you're making a bolognese sauce or taco meat.

For the rest of the soup:

Carrots
Onion
Zucchini
Yellow summer squash
Mushrooms
Spinach
Fresh basil
Omit any of the above vegetables, or add others that you like or need to get out of your fridge.

Cut up your vegetables into spoon-appropriate sized bits. Add the carrots and onions to the protein, stirring until they're a bit cooked, then add:

Canned tomatoes or a can of spaghetti sauce
Chicken or vegetable broth
Bay leaves
Other seasonings (Italian seasoning, etc)

Then add the rest of the vegetables, starting with the summer squashes, waiting a while, then adding mushrooms, waiting a while, and adding spinach and basil right before it's done.

As the soup is cooking, cook noodles (pasta shells are traditional for us) to eat it with, or eat it with bread. (Italian rustic is really good, and here's an easy recipe that's worked well for me. (NOT SO RIDICULOUS OF ME TO HAVE BOUGHT A FIFTY POUND BAG OF BREAD FLOUR, NOW, IS IT, STEVE??))
Parmesan or mozzarella are great on top of this soup!

Happy New Year!

Yesterday we updated our New Year's Eve tradition by making out own pizza instead of ordering out. Mom took care of the dough in her new Cuisinart while I prepared olives, onions, sausage, cheese, and other toppings. Then, while the dough rose, I made some olivata using this recipe, and it turned out pretty good.

Mom made a large pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarella, sausage, basil, spinach, onions, and red pepper. I made a smaller one with olives but sans sausage and red pepper. Steve made himself a small sausage pizza, and I made a dessert pizza with strawberry jam, mozzarella, and a tiny bit of experimental olivata on one corner. It was surprisingly good. I think we might have a new tradition for New Year's Eve.

Ginger Drops for the Bean (how we made Lebkuchen by accident)

The Bean requested gingerbread cookies, and we've been sick for the past week, so baking cookies seemed like a nice pick-me up. H wanted to eat cookies NOW so we used a drop cookie recipe. I made all sorts of substitutions, but I think the final product might be even better than the original. The batter looked like cake batter, and the cookies are like little cakes as well, or like whoopie pie cookies, but spicy and delicious. You can't even taste the cocoa, but since we were missing Molasses, I substituted honey + 2 T cocoa powder for the rich molasses color. Once the cookies cooled all the way, the spices have really gotten more intense, and P and I realized we've made homemade Lebkuchen! H ate three or four as soon as they came out of the oven.



Beanie's Honey-Ginger Drops (Lebkuchen)
2 cups flour
2 T cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 -1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup hot water
1 large egg

Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease three baking sheets.

Combine dry ingredients until well mixed.

In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, honey, water, and egg until creamy. Add flour mixture, and stir until just blended. Let the batter stand 5 minutes before dropping by rounded teaspoonfuls onto baking sheets, spacing drops 2 inches apart (Really do, you can still fit 1 dozen on one sheet, and they are spready).

Bake for 8 - 12 minutes. Reverse baking sheets during baking. With wide turner, immediately transfer cookies to wire racks.

Rumor has it, you're supposed to store them in covered container, separated by wax paper. We'll see if mine are a giant cookie mass tomorrow.

Flammkuchen!

Yesterday I went to a friend's house to bake Flammkuchen, and it was surprisingly easy (There is lots of Flammkuchen in Heidelberg because we're not too far from Alsace.)! We looked up a yeast-free recipe that went like this:

For dough:
250g (ca 2 cups) Flour
2.5 Tbsp Canola Oil
150ml (ca 2/3 cup) Water
Pinch of Salt

For toppings:
250g (ca. 1 cup) Crème Frâiche
1 onion (can be red or sweet onions)
1 Tbsp Butter
125g (ca. 1/4lb) Bacon
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 clove Garlic

dried basil

Combine ingredients for crust. The dough shouldn’t be sticky. Slice onions into rings and sauté in butter until clear (don’t caramelize). Cook bacon until crisp. Finely chop garlic and add it with seasonings to the cream. Roll out the dough as thinly as possible and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. On the highest heat your oven will go (or around 400-450 degrees Fahrenheit) bake for around 10-15 minutes, or until the dough has begun to create bubbles and you see nice browning (you don’t want burnt!). Watch carefully while baking.

 We also put tomatoes on it, and it was delicious. The website also mentioned that the dough works well for pizza dough in a pinch, and I bet a whole-wheat version would work, too.

Weekend Baking

Last weekend we did a bunch of baking.

We made graham crackers to take to daycare for their Valentines Day party and since Elizabeth managed to convince me to buy 6 bananas and then promptly decided she didn't want to eat any bananas that week, we had 3 brown bananas on the counter which were just itching to be made into banana bread.


We used this recipe for the graham crackers except we used maple syrup instead of honey. We also cut them into hearts and sprinkled them with red sugar instead of the topping they suggest. We did the 1/2 cup whole wheat. My comments on the recipe is that the dough is VERY soft and quite difficult to handle. I want to make graham crackers again but I'll try a different recipe next time.

Here is Elizabeth who got bored and decided to do dishes instead of helping me with the cookies:



Here is before baking:

I forgot to take any pictures after baking but they look just like that but poofier and browner. :)

Graham Crackers

2 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (375 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour (a swap of 1/2 cup with whole wheat flour or 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour works well here, too)
1 cup (176 grams) dark brown sugar, lightly packed
1 teaspoon (6 grams) baking soda
3/4 teaspoon kosher or coarse sea salt (4 grams)
7 tablespoons (3 1/2 ounces or 100 grams) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen
1/3 cup (114 grams) mild-flavored honey, such as clover - we used maple syrup
5 tablespoons (77 grams) milk, full-fat is best
2 tablespoons (27 grams) pure vanilla extract

Topping (optional) - we skipped this
3 tablespoons (43 grams) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon (5 grams) ground cinnamon

Make the dough: Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade or in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Pulse or mix on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off on and off, or mix on low, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal.

In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, milk, and vanilla extract. Add to the flour mixture and pulse on and off a few times or mix on low until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky. Lay out a large piece of plastic wrap and dust it lightly with flour, then turn the dough out onto it and pat it into a rectangle about 1-inch thick. Wrap it, then chill it until firm, about 2 hours or overnight. Meanwhile, prepare the topping, if using, by combining the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and setting aside.

Roll out the crackers: Divide the dough in half and return one half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be sticky, so flour as necessary. (We cut this into hearts.)

Place the crackers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets and sprinkle with the topping. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes in the fridge or 15 to 20 minutes in the freezer. Repeat with the second batch of dough. Finally, gather any scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and re-roll.

Adjust the oven rack to the upper and lower positions and preheat the oven to 350°F.

Bake for 15 to 25 minutes, until browned and slightly firm to the touch, rotating the sheets halfway through to ensure even baking. (I didn't rotate and it was only 15 minutes for us. If you don't chill in the freezer prior to baking, they will be burnt at 15 min)

This is the whole wheat banana bread recipe we did. Again, I swapped out the honey for maple syrup since we were out of honey. I also added some mini chocolate chips.

• 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 1 cup honey (I used maple syrup)
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups mashed ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup hot water

Directions:

1. Stir together dry ingredients.
2. Beat oil and honey together; add eggs and beat well.
3. Add bananas and beat to combine.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet, alternating with hot water; mix well after each addition.
5. Spoon batter into 24 greased muffin cups; bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes, or until muffins are golden brown and test done. (I did 24 mini muffins and 17 full size muffins)
6. Remove from oven and cool on rack.

Here is the finished product:



Alex and E sampling


And apparently it's the perfect hangover food. Not sure WHY she's hung over but this was the next morning:


Alex seems to have a bit less to recover from: