JayBassin

Onion Poppy Seed Rolls Very soft tasty dinner rolls. 1 c Tepid water (about 105 F) 2 tsp dry yeast 2 T sugar 1/4 c light rye flour (or wheat flour) 1 egg 2-3/4 c bread flour 1 tsp salt 2 T softened butter (or oil) 1/4 c poppy seeds 1 medium white onion, finely minced 1 T olive oil Mix together the finely chopped onion, poppy seed, and 1 Tbs oil, set aside. I find that a mandoline set on julienne works great for reducing an onion to fine dice quickly. Don’t use a food processor because it will become mush. In a stand mixer bowl, proof yeast for about 20 minutes with 1/4 C of the water and a pinch of the sugar until foamy. Pour in the rest of the water, sugar, rye flour, 2 3/4 C flour, egg, rest of sugar, salt, fat, and mix with dough hook on speed 1 until shaggy. Increase speed to 2 or 3 and knead until the bowl is clean and the dough is smooth and shiny. It should be soft, but not sticky. Add more flour if the dough is too wet (doesn’t separate from the bottom of the bowl). Total kneading time is about 8 minutes. Dump onto lightly floured counter and shape into a tight ball; it will be about 5” diameter. Spray the mixer bowl with Pam, put in the dough ball, spray the top of the dough ball (to keep it from drying out), and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise about 2 hours until doubled in size. Dump out on counter (it will be very soft and stretchy). Gently pull dough into a flat rectangle, about 14” by 24”; it will be thin (less than 1/2”). Smear the onion-poppy seed mixture on the dough. Roll up the dough tightly, starting with the short edge, so you end up with a tight roll about 14” long and about 1.5” diameter. With a serrated knife, slice into 1” pinwheels. Place 7 each into two 8” or 9” cake pans sprayed with Pam. Put 1 in the center and 6 around the circumference; they will grow together as they proof. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 2-3 hours (these rolls can take over-proofing, so don’t worry) until puffed. Bake in preheated 375 F oven for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Dump out immediately onto a rack to cool. Keywords: Easy, Bread ( RG1414 )

Same here, except I use quarry tiles set on the bottom rack of the oven. First time I buy quarry tiles, I put them through the "self-cleaning" cycle, which ought to blow out any offgases. edited to add: Should have mentioned my oven is electric.

Have you considered using a nut crust instead of a pastry crust?

Brush on melted caramel in a very thin layer. It will melt from any juice extruded from the tart filling, depending on the filling.

This looks great! Can you post your actual recipe? How much fermented bean curd and red bean curd do you use for this amount of chicken, and do you mash both curds?

Two museums in Baltimore: The Walters is a superb museum; their food court is basically cold sandwiches and salads. The Baltimore Museum of Art has an upscale restaurant, Gertrudes, run by minor-celebrity chef John Shields, that is vastly over priced and mediocre, with poor service. There are many good restaurants in Baltimore, so enjoy the museums and walk elsewhere for the food.

I agree with the posts against puff pastry. The only other suggestion is maybe some grated cheese in your crust---cheddar, colby, goat---and some herbs---whole thyme leaves especially. Sometimes I add tumeric to the crust for color, especially if its a beef or lamb pot pie.

Check this thread on stand mixers in the P/B forum.

The Texan closed several years ago. BCS is not a culinary destination. ← Kinda sorry to hear that it closed. For the time and place, the Texan was pretty good, and the owners went out of their way to raise the culinary standards of the community. It was where my wife and I went for special occassions, like anniversaries.

Most impressive are fine, even julienne of root veggies (celeriac remoulade, carrot salad, shoestring potatoes, veggie soup with julienned veg instead of diced). Also on my list is gaufrette slice of potatoes. Finally, paper-thin slices of potatoes (lengthwise), sandwiching some green herbs (tarragon, chervil, cilantro), then brushed with oil or butter and baked into chips.

I lived in BCS (CS) 1970-1975. I remember the *only* decent restaurant then was the "Texan", a revamped fast-food emporium on Hwy 6. It was "fine dining" because it served lobster and it had tablecloths. There were no Asian restaurants at all. Haven't been back since 1975, and don't plan to.

I've never made a filo apple pie, but I make Bhistilla fairly often using filo dough and partly cooked fillings (egg custard, herbs, chicken, nuts). I layer the dough in a pie pan, then add the filling, and then fold the filo up and over. The bottom crust is always crispy and not soggy. Should imagine the same will hold true for an apple-filo pie.

I pre-cook the apple filling to make strudel for 2 reasons: (1) to ensure the apples are cooked by the time the filo is done and just as importantly (2) to keep the filling from leaking out of the filo all over the baking sheet before setting up. The filling should be cooled to not more than room temp before wrapping in the filo.

Cubano's in downtown Silver Spring is good. It's across the street from Mi Rancho, but I forget the name of the street.

Put them in bags (3 or 4 per bag), marked them as "day-old" and reduced the price by 50%. That way, I would still recover the costs and if the regular customers thought they weren't up to scratch, they would assume it was the "day old" and not a bad batch.

Spaghetti alla carbonara: eggs, bacon (pancetta), parmesian, butter, ricotta, herbs. I've also seen it with heavy cream. It's very high in calories and saturated fats, but boy does it ever taste good!

Depending on one's taste, I recommend William S. Gilbert's "Yarn of the Nancy Bell" or Louis Carroll's "Walrus and the Carpenter" Both contain actual recipes (sixth stanzas from the end of each poem).

Ricotta salata diced into a green salad. Gruyere by itself or on crackers, or on gratin Mimolette, which is like a French edam--very hard and orange; excellent flavor

Crepes with a filling of jam (apricot, strawberry, orange, etc) laced with cognac, grand mariner, or other booze.

Chocolate truffles? Rolled in ground nuts or cocoa powder?

Fricassee Chicken with Vinegared Peppers Serves 4 as Main Dish. Easy, casserole-like dish that's very tasty. The cooking process takes the harshness out of the vinegar. Scaling up the recipe makes it an inexpensive dish for a crowd. Serve with rice pilaf. 1 fryer, cut into 8 pieces and optionally skinned 2 bell peppers (red, green, or one of each), seeded and cut into long strips 1-1/2 c distilled white vinegar 1 medium onion, sliced into 1/8" wedges 2 large white mushrooms, sliced 3 large cloves garlic, sliced paper thin 1 c flour (Wondra-style works best) 1 T minced dried herbs salt, pepper, paprika, powdered garlic cooking oil Read the entire recipe through first. Preferably a few days or up to a week before, pack sliced peppers into a glass jar and cover completely with vinegar, seal, and keep in fridge. Preheat oven to 350°F. Drain peppers, reserving vinegar. I prefer to skin the chicken because the fricassee makes the fried skin gummy. Lay out pieces of chicken and sprinkle on both sides with salt, pepper, paprika, garlic, herbs. Sift flour over, coating well. Bang off the excess flour, leaving the herby flour on counter (should be about 1/3 or 1/2 C). Saute in hot oil until chicken is quite brown on both sides. As the chicken pieces are done, remove to a roasting pan large enough to hold all the pieces in 1 layer. If you haven’t removed the skin first, pour off the excess fat from the skillet, leaving about 1 tablespoon. If you did remove the skin, add about 1 Tbs oil. Saute the mushrooms until lightly browned, and add the sliced onions and continue saute until they become translucent. Add the sliced garlic and cook until soft (not brown). Spread the cooked mushrooms and onions and raw (pickled) peppers over the chicken in the roasting pan. Keep the skillet on the burner. Stir the reserved flour into the skillet, then deglaze with the reserved vinegar, adding it quite slowly until the lumps are gone. Bring to a simmer. Pour over the chicken and vegetables in roasting pan, cover tightly with foil, and bake until quite done, about 30 minutes. Keywords: Main Dish, Easy, Chicken ( RG1406 )

I hope to revive this thread about nut-crumb and cookie-crumb pie crusts (and cheesecake bottoms!). I do a lot of nut and cookie crusts and want to get more tips. I think they have an inherently better flavor than dough crusts, but they usually don't look as good. In particular, I've never figured out a good way to get a decorative edge (a la fluting). Is anyone else doing press-in crusts? If so, what works for you, what hasn't? Do you ever have problems with them cutting well? A question for those of you who cater pastries: do you get requests for press-in crusts? If so, in what context?

Every few months you should melt all of it and bring it up to a simmer to evaporate all moisture and kill anything that began to grow (you don't want to know). If you do that, you can keep it indefinitely in the fridge. I separate my fat after making duck confit into 1 qt jars and "can" them because I can't use so much at home in one year.

Separate the eggs first and fold softly beaten whites back into the yolk base.

A porkchop, breaded and fried.