Pierogi
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Posts posted by Pierogi
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And here's another dumb question: other than making bread crumbs or croutons, what the heck else can I do with frozen leftover bread?
Panzanella (bread salad) or riboletta (bread soup) are also way yummy. The Panaznella uses croutons that are mixed with veggies & herbs (think tomatoes, olives, cucumbers, onions, etc. and basil, parsley, garlic......) and a vinaigrette dressing.........OH, with anchovies........the BEST summer meal ever. EVER.
Riboletta is a similar concept, you take stale bread, and cook it down in a stock with some veg and some cheese. And there's always bread pudding, which can actually also be savory. I have on my agenda for next week a fennel, Italian sausage and sourdough bread pudding. Sounds very interesting....
And as to salting pasta water, I've heard that the water should be salty like the sea before you add the pasta, so you should add lots. A tablespoon per quart actually sounds about right.
Edit--because "the" does not have a "Y" in it, at least not in the English language.
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I DID IT !!!! I DID IT !!!! I DID IT !!!!!!! (really need that jumping up & down icon.........)
So, the boule I made today from the 2/3 new:1/3 old dough was AWESOME. Um, pictures, well, it got eaten too quickly for that.
But the crust rocked, the crumb rocked, the taste rocked !!!! And I'm a happy camper. It was still a little "damper" that I would have liked right in the dead center of the loaf, but I'm way willing to live with that, especially since it seemed to dry out rather quickly after it was sliced.
I will bake off another boule this weekend, and remember to post pictures then. But I think I may have it knocked.........
Wow.
Thanks for all your help, everyone, especially Zoe. Yay me !
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Hmmm, not that I am either a pastry *or* a clafouti expert, but all the recipes I've seen, and made, do not have any kind of a crust at all. It's more like a thick pancake batter poured over the fruit. I've made several from different sources, Ina Garten, Mark Bittman, andIdon'trememberwho(orwhere).........They've all been an egg-y, thin-ish, batter, with some flour in it to hold it all together, poured over the fruit and cooked in a deep-dish pie pan.
The recipes I've done have said that, like a custard, there will be carry-over cooking from the residual heat, and that you should pull them while still slightly "jiggly" in the center, and that has seemed to work OK for me. By the time I was ready to serve them (like maybe 45 minutes after they came out of the oven) they were fine. Not rock hard, but nice and creamy around the fruit.
Now again, I haven't a HUGE amount of experience, but I've made clafouti from cherries, plums, nectarines and most recently clemantine tangerines, and all have basically been the same deal. Kim, the only thing I'd say maybe caused your problem is if your fruit was really wet & juicy...that could contribute to it not setting up right.
It's probably too late for you for this to be of help, but I'd have kept it in for a bit longer, and then waited for that lovely carry-over cooking to do its magic......
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OMG, Randi, that cake was a staple of my childhood ! Mom made it *all* the time...I think the recipe used to be on the back of the Bisquik box and it was called "something velvet cake". Wow. Haven't seen (or thought about that......) in several eons.
I do remember it being really really good.
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O. M. G. That was absolutely priceless ! Your imagination (not to mention talent !) is awe-inspiring. Congratulations on a perfect event, and I certainly hope your SO realizes what a prize you are !
*I am soooooooo not worthy.......bowing down*
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This doesn't qualify as a "meal" per se, although it could. I had them for breakfast each day this week....
Several months ago I got a box of frozen chocolate croissants at TJs. You let them thaw & rise overnight at room temp and bake them off. They were AMAZING. I'm on the hunt for at least another 2-3 boxes when I make the TJ trip this weekend. So so good.
And I second the vote for the frozen veggie mix with the edamame and spinach. It also had green beans in it. It was excellent. As are the flash-frozen fish, they have a good selection of wild caught varieties. And at least in SoCal they have a frozen, breaded orange chicken that, stir-fried and combined with their General Tsang's stir fry sauce makes a good, quick meal with rice.
Try the chocolate croissants. You will NOT be disappointed.
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But then I topped myself last week. Made a beautiful batch of scones and decided to freeze most of them. Never again will I think it might be a good idea to seal them in a Handi-Vac baggie and not pay attention to how much air (all of it!) I'm sucking out of the darned bag!!
Think 1/8 inch thick scones.
I'm never gonna live this one down. I may have to turn in my apron.
The secret is to freeze them individually, then vacuum pack them. And yes, I speak from experience (except I think mine were really bad char siu bao, so it wasn't so bad they got hockey-pucked).
LOL, LOL, LOL, LOL, stepping up & joining the parade.......
Ummmmmm, I did the same with homemade biscuits. I actually (hanging head) was sorta surprised they didn't spring back. They *WERE* very fluffy, so I was hopin'............
I *can* vouch for the individual freezing & then vacuum sealing. Works like a dream....unless you really like baked goods that look like they've been run over by a bus.
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...sauerkraut - 1 can
Other than brats, what to do with sauerkraut?
OH KA, as a sauerkraut sort-of-connoisseur, trust me on this one.......
Ditch the canned 'kraut without so much as the slightest guilty inkling. Canned 'kraut is dreadful, dreadful stuff, usually picks up an off-taste from the can. And it's limp and flaccid, where good 'kraut should be crisp & crunchy & perky. If you really want kraut, buy the stuff in the glass jars, or better yet, the stuff in the refrigerated deli case in the plastic bags. MUCH better.
Toss it. Please. My Polish ancestors are beggin' ya on this one......
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Hi Pierogi,
Any chance you live in the mountains?
Thanks for not giving up!
Zoë
Zoe, thank YOU for the advice.
Mountains, no, Long Beach is about as close to near sea level as you can get ! *I* am over 6 feet tall, though, does that make a difference??? LOL LOL LOL
The near successes I have had, and the successes people here have had are keeping me going. Well, that and the idea of good bread.......
I'll keep you posted. This weekend is up for another go. Thanks again,
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A while back, I saw a recipe in one of my cooking magazines for a spicy Asian beef stir fry that used flank steak. It sounded awesome (and flavor-wise it was really good.....), so I made sure I had what I needed, and got a flank steak to make it.
Tonight was the night. I pulled the meat out of the package, which was clearly labeled "flank steak" and started to cut it into the across-the-grain thin strips I needed for the recipe. I immediately noticed something odd....the meat looked as though it had been run through a tenderizer, like a "cube steak". I believe they call the process jacquarding. Each of my strips had that distinct, quite characteristic, honeycomb texture to it.
Now, I've been cooking for over 30 years, and I've sliced a few flank steaks in my day. Never saw anything like this before. The meat also gave up quite a bit more moisture than I expected, so much so I had to drain the pan, and then drain the strips after they'd sat for a bit on a plate like the recipe suggested.
Anyone else encounter this? Is this yet ANOTHER example of the dumbing down of our commercial food? You know, "I'm all like, uhhhhhhhh, if it isn't tender, people won't buy it..." Me, I know what to expect from a flank steak. When I buy that cut, I expect a little chew in it.
BTW, I bought this abomination at my "gourmet" Ralphs, which is a Kroger outlet. I tossed the wrapper before I realized how watery the meat was, so I have no idea if it was also "enhanced" in addition to the obvious tenderizing.
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Thanks, Kim , for the compliments, and I'm kindered spirit left-over loather......Once I've had a craving for something, made it, and satisfied the urge, I'm DONE. Like, totally....for a long while usually....tough when you're cooking for one ! I can usually tolerate a lunch during the following week, so long as its not the day after.
Anyways, after a bit of a dry spell, when nothing turned out really well, looked really pretty, or hit the right spots, I seem to have gotten back on the horse, so to speak. This weekend's, and tonight's offerings:
Chipotle Chicken and Pasta:
Lasagna:
Split pea & ham soup (very steamy) (good for the cold, rainy day here yesterday):
And tonight, Spicy Flank Steak, with Peanuts, Chilies and Herbs, on Dragon Soba:
And Bruce's eternal cukes (with tomato and onion, marinated in rice wine vinegar, sesame oil & Sriracha......yum)
And David, that Reuben is perfection. Ann, as usual, fabulous photos..
And both carbonaras have me drooling......off to bed to dream of creamy eggy sauce with porky goodness on pasta.
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Back in my less, ummmmmmm, temperate youth, my friends and I swore that a Filet-O-Fish and a root beer was the best cure for a hangover commercially available.
Not that *I* ever needed such a cure, of course............
But to this day, they are my favorite (usually only) choice at a Mickey D's.
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Based on those my knowledge of the history of water and Los Angeles, I find it even more interesting that LA won an award for its tap water.
Well, yeah, we *stole* it, but it tastes good !!!
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Wellllllllll, it may not have been Strike 3, but it certainly was Strike 2.5, and I keep hitting fouls...........
I gently (or so I think......) pulled out 1/2 of the dough, and immediately knew I wasn't going to have a good experience. There was a decided puddle of wet, runny..."sludge"...under the dough and the top of it had an almost crusty skin on it. But I preservered, or something.
I flopped the 1/2 I was going to work with on top of some flour to try to tighten up the bottom, and formed it. Let it sit for an hour and then baked it. Virtually no oven spring, but after it came out, I saw I may not have slashed it deep enough since the skin was so tough. Aside from no rise, the taste was decent, the crust was TO DIE FOR, but the interior was sort of gummy, even though it had some decent gas/air bubbles. And that was my complaint with the first loaf I made. I took the interior temp after 40 minutes, and it was over 220°F, so I'm pretty sure (?) it was done.
I saw from reading some earlier posts that the interior of a properly made loaf is chewier than commercial breads, so I'm willing to live with that. What concerned me was the runny sludge under and the thick skin on the top.
BUT I'M NOT GOING TO GIVE UP. I'm going to make another 1/2 batch next Thursday (my next day off work) and want to mix it with the remainder of the stuff in the fridge (at that point it'll be 2 weeks old). It would give me a 2 parts new to 1 part old mix.
Next round of questions: Do I pull the old dough out of my fridge container and to mix it into the new dough, or do I just plop the new dough on top of the old? If I mix, how long and when? Should I mix more flour into the runny stuff I've got now, or just use as is?
Thanks all, so much in advance. I'm so smitten by the idea of having dough on hand to bake at will that I am determined, single-mindedly determined, to conquer this !
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Just a beautiful blog, Ilana. I love the feel the Shabbat pictures, the feel of being *HOME*. And all that brings with it, the warmth, the security, the peacefulness. Just gorgeous.
The jachnun looked very intriguing ! Are the dough rolls stuffed with anything? If so, what? I've never heard of this dish before.......but the rolls look so fabulous after their long, slow roast.
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I adore the combination of blue cheese, nuts, and a fruity salad dressing.
Oh yeah, babe (as Emeril would say........not that I watch Food Network, or anything.............
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Ohhhhhh, Ilana, so beautiful ! This shiksa wants some of these.........
homemade potato burekas with mushroom sauce:
mini challahs
And those...........^^^^
Like, immediately.
Congratulations on a beautiful blog and a glimpse into your life !
Again, from the shiksa perspective Shabbat Shalom ! (It's technically still Saturday night where I am..........)
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Pierogi, congrats on the bread and biscuits.
Thanks Bruce and Shelby ! It is still so terribly exciting to me when a bread-type project actually turns out and is not only edible, but looks like its supposed to look. Many, many failures later, I think I may finally be turning a corner......
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YUM Pierogi! I've never seen that brand of chili sauce--what's it like? I love the picture of your recipe
Oh yeah, Shelby, they were YUM for sure. I guess that chili sauce must be regional or local, it never occured to me before. Its the one I grew up with. Its thicker and more.......ummmmm.......tangy than the others I've tried. Chunkier. I haven't really used many others, I think I've used maybe Heinz and a store brand. Usually I just get the "Homemade Chili Sauce" ! The others sort of taste like ketchup mixed with pickle relish and some mild peppers to me. This has some zing, not hot but tangy, not as sweet.
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Plus, Rachel dear, they will last your great-great-great grandchildren's lifetime.
They are indestructable, and damned good at what they do.
Someone will lovingly look at your LC 7 quart French Oven in about 100 years and say "I remember when Nana Rachel made beef stew in this, it was the best stew ever. She said it had fairy dust in it........"
Some things are, indeed, worth the cost. LC is one of them.
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*WAVING THE WHITE FLAG*
No, I guess that's surrender, and I'm not ready to do that yet. So what flag do you wave for HELLLLLPPPPPP !!!!!!!!!
I am a very very (did I mention VERY) novice baker. Noob doesn't even begin to describe it. One of my culinary resolutions for 2008 was to teach myself to bake, specifically bread and biscuit-y type things. I do OK with cookies, and don't have much call for cakes. But breads have always totally flummoxed me.
So, I thought the 5 Minute Artisan Bread was right up my alley. I made one batch and it was OK, baked one loaf immediately, meh, and ended up (due to life) having to ditch the rest of the dough. BTW, I'm just me, no family so I cut the recipe in half. As I said, not overwhelmed with the first attempt. Strike 1.
Then I found this thread and was sooooooooooo happy. Figured I'd been underwhelmed with the first attempt because it was new dough, and not hydrated enough. So I tried again, uping the amount of water. Well, I tried to mouse it (as in Mickey.....) because I didn't use a scale, and so ended up with way too wet a dough. Strike 2.
In the interim, I've made 3 loaves of "normal" bread (one from an Alton Brown recipe, one from a recipe that was in my local paper and one from the recipe booklet I got with my KA mixer) and they turned out really well. Good taste, decent crumb, good crust, I was happy. So maybe I'm getting the hang of this, I'm thinkin'. But the down side is they're all a huge investment of time, and I love the idea of this whole 5 minute concept. Keep the dough going, bake it when you can, yeah baby.
So last week I got serious, bought a scale, went to Zoe's website and watched the video, did the calculations on the proper hydration and gave it another go. Made the dough on Thursday, intending to bake one loaf on Sunday, and one loaf this weekend. The inital rise was AWESOME, the quantity probably quadrupled. HUGE bubbles, I was jazzed. Stuck the stuff in the fridge, not sealed air tight, and life intervened again. Didn't get the loaf made last weekend.
Now, I look at it, and it's, well....sad. The volume is down to probably close to what it was initially. Itty-bitty-teeee-tiny bubbles. A good number of them, but small. Really small. Its as though the dough (and at this point its only 7 days old) has lost all of the initial rise and gas, and sunk back down on itself. It seems to be shrinking daily.
Is it usable or is it all over? It literally has lost 3/4s of the volume from that first rise. Its cold & rainy here, and I'm planning on making split-pea soup over the weekend, and I'd love fresh bread with it. Should I attempt to bake this dough off, or should I seek an alternative? Is this Strike 3 and I'm out.....?
Thanks so much in advance from a baking wimp.
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OK, I know this is way after the fact, but when I made the gabluki that were inspired by this cook-off, I was still pretty intimidated by ImageGullet and didn't know how to use it. Heck, I *BARELY* knew how to use the camera !!
Sooooooo, now that I'm a self-proclaimed expert at posting pictures, here's my efforts, actually made in probably November or late October last year. Oh my they were good, as I said in another post, Polish soul food, baby.
The wilted leaves, lined up awaiting their destiny of savory filling:
The meat & veg (onions & green bell peppers) getting browned and softened:
The other stuffing ingredients, freshly made bread crumbs included:
A pre-rolling roll:
A nice neat package (no toothpicks required):
In the pan, waiting for the lovely sauce:
Sauced & dotted with BUTTAH baby (the better to withstand those Polish winters...):
Plated with the poppy seed noodles with croutons (after the sour cream has been mixed into the tomato sauce...low calorie/low cholesterol, ummm, not so much, those long winters again, you know...):
And finally, my cherished recipe card, the one Mom used to make them:
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And for some of the more pedestrian offerings of late:
Slow roasted brisket with pan juices, potatoes rossele and creamed spinach:
Served with my pride and joy:
I MADE BREAD !!!!!!!!!!!! And it didn't suck !!
Leftover brisket made a very good hash:
with roasted asparagus and these beauties......
I MADE BISCUITS !!!!!!!!!! And they didn't suck !!
Ummm, sorry. I've never been much of a baker and when my baked goods actually turn out, I get pretty excited. Not only did that bread and the biscuits not suck they were very tasty. The bread made a fine brisket sandwich for lunch during the week, and made its last apperance as a decent bruschetta, rubbed with garlic and halved tomatoes. The cheese biscuits just got hoovered right on up. I'm right proud of myself, I am. Maybe I actually *can* bake as well as cook.
I Forgot How Good Bugles Were!
in Ready to Eat
Posted
Three little words.
To. Die. For.