Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
Thank you for the birthday wishes, everyone. My cake was Bischofsbrot, which is a cake baked in a long loaf pan with walnuts, maraschino cherries, and regular and golden raisins.
For lunch on Monday and the rest of this week, I made a Spaghetti Squash and Mushroom Quiche, an adaptation of Ken Haedrich's recipe in The Harvest Baker. My version has a lot less saturated fat. I make it for my weekly lunches since it requires onion, which my husband cannot eat. It is one of my favorite recipes for spaghetti squash, and I look forward to making it once or twice a season.
For dinner, we had the rest of the turkey-zucchini loaf and bulgur stir-fry.
For my birthday dinner, I selected "Tarragon Chicken, Mushrooms, and Rice." I have not made this recipe since last spring, when I made it for a visiting friend. I had some stomach upset afterwards (no one else did, so I thankfully ruled out food poisoning) and reluctantly concluded that the fat from the chicken skins causes an issue for me due to the statin I now take. I wanted to find a way to be able to make this recipe, as it is a favorite, and makes a stunning presentation when I do have company. This time, Scott skinned the chicken thighs for me. I rubbed them with some low-fat mayonnaise, then coated the tops with Panko. That reduced the fat that would end up when the thighs roast on the bed of rice, and the Panko kept the skinned thighs from drying out.
Thank you, Chocomouse. While I replace the butter in the Bischofsbrot with avocado oil and a bit of buttermilk, I do not replace the cup of dark chocolate chips; indeed, I went for a heaping cup of dark chocolate chips.
To go with the leftover turkey-zucchini loaf on Saturday, I did what I should have done yesterday: I made a bulgur stir-fry with carrots, celery, red bell pepper, and zucchini. We are feeding bits of the Teff I cooked last night to the dog, who thinks it is great.
I also made yogurt today.
Tonight, I am baking Bischofsbrot for my birthday tomorrow.
We used up the bread at lunch on Friday, so into the kitchen I went. I baked two loaves of "Mixed Grains Bread," a recipe that I baked once before (week of December 11, 2022). The recipe, from Martha Rose Shulman, had come to me in an email from Zester Daily some years before, a site that no longer exists. (I could not find the recipe anywhere on the internet.) I liked the recipe but have not gotten around to a second bake of it until now. I have adapted it to use a stand mixer, where she had mixed and kneaded by hand. I replaced 2/3 of the water with buttermilk, reduced the salt by 25%, and replaced the 2 cups of AP flour with an equal weight of bread flour. I omitted the sesame seed topping in deference to my husband. The bread has a sponge and three risings, so it is an all-afternoon project that can be interspersed with other activities. One of the grains it uses is millet flour, and I have some in the freezer to use up. It made two lovely loaves. I will see, when I slice a loaf for lunch tomorrow, if this bread is as wonderful as I recall. I think it will be, as the dough itself had a wonderful aroma, as did the loaves as they baked.
For dinner on Friday, I made my turkey-zucchini loaf with Dijon-peach glaze. We had broccoli as the vegetable. I wanted to do a quick side and pulled out an unopened bag of Teff. When I bought it, I think that I confused it with another ancient grain that Bob's Red Mill used to sell and discontinued. Teff is tiny, and when cooked, it looks like dark brown wet sand. It may be nutritious, but it is unappealing to the eye, and it has a slight citrusy taste to it. Apparently, it is often used as a breakfast porridge. The chicken broth in which I cooked it did not impart much by way of taste, at least not to my husband or to me, but the dog loved eating the tidbits that my husband fed her. I will need to read up on Teff, so that I can figure out how to use what is left over tonight, as well as the rest of the bag.
As for weather, we have been having rain and lots of fog. Temperatures are mostly in the upper 30s.
On Thursday, I baked five mini-loaves of Whole Grain Pumpkin Bread. (It's my adaptation of a recipe here at Nebraska Kitchen.) This time I used 1 cup whole wheat flour and ¼ cup barley flour for the whole grain portion. My plan is for us to have one for dessert on Friday and Saturday and to freeze the other four for dessert emergencies.
I also made dough for Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers, which I will bake next week.
We finished up the Chicken Pie with Biscuits and the Apple Cobbler.
I made applesauce on Thursday. It made two quarts, which I froze in separate containers. I probably have enough apples for at least two more batches. I like to be able to pull it out in the summer when the bonus kids visit, and I also want to have some for Easter.
Skeptic--could you do a long rise in the refrigerator for your buns? That would give the dough more rising time and protect the meat filling.
Thanks, Len, I'll look at Binny's.
For dinner tonight, we had some of the leftover chicken and biscuits. I wrote up the recipe for myself today, and I am calling it Scottish Scone-Topped Chicken Pot Pie.
Kimbob--It's good to hear from you and to know that you are baking bread again!
It was a rainy Wednesday, but at least the temperature is above freezing. We escaped the ice storm that was forecast for yesterday, so the rain is welcomed. In the morning, I baked Soft Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies, so that we would have cookies to go with tea. In the afternoon, I baked my Rye and Barley Crispbread. I have not baked it for a while, usually because I am baking sourdough crackers for my husband. He is not as keen on the Crispbread as I am, so I should have it around for snacking for a couple of weeks, especially if I bake him more sourdough crackers.
Thanks, Mike. It's the intense flavor that I missed, and adding more did not fix that issue. I will need to figure out where I can buy a bottle of Harvey's for cooking. I've always used the cream sherry because that is what my mother used, and I liked the flavor, particularly in chicken soups.
On Tuesday, I made the Sugar Crusted Apple Cobbler recipe from King Arthur that I first made in the fall. I made the same changes by replacing the butter with oil, halving the boiled cider and vanilla, and using white whole wheat flour. I baked it first, while putting together the dinner chicken pot pie, and it cooled and set while that was baking. Since my oven vent heat outside when I turn it off, it is nice to be able to do recipes in tandem so that there is only one cold start, and I can use the heat that is already present. We really like this recipe, and it is the only apple cobbler that I will make now.
Years ago, King Arthur emailed newsletters, and one had a recipe for Town Meeting Chicken Pie. It became a favorite of ours, but it makes copious use of butter in the filling and the biscuit topping, so I stopped making it. I tried one version a couple of years ago, but the problem was the biscuit topping. I decided to try again on Tuesday. The original recipe made a large pan, but I cut it in half and used a 9 x 9-inch ceramic baking dish. I made the white sauce using some avocado oil and 1% milk. For the topping, I pulled out the scone recipe that Bon Appetit published in a special issue on Scotland. These scones use just 1 Tbs. oil. So I made my adaptation, which is half barley, and put those biscuits on top of the hot filling. It worked very well, and the recipe is close to the original with much less saturated fat, so I will make it again whenever I have about 3 cups of leftover chicken.
I do have a question for the group. I used to use Harvey's Bristol Cream Sherry when a recipe, like by Black Bean and Pumpkin Soup or this Chicken Pie, calls for it for flavoring. I used up the bottle, and all I could find at the liquor store in our small town was Taylor Cream Sherry. When I used it in my black bean soup last fall, I had to use double the amount, and I still did not think that the taste came through, but I attributed it to having used more of the black bean broth. However, I noticed the same thing with the Chicken Pie.: I used double the amount, but the flavor does not come through. It would seem that the Harvey's has more sustained flavor than the Taylor's. Has anyone else who is familiar with different kinds of sherry noted a difference?
-
AuthorPosts
