Manolo for the Big Girl

Darlings, it’s been a long week of non-stop baking here at Casa Twistie. Alas! That isn’t really helping for Recipe of the Week, since the only one that was a new recipe to me was more a case of me slightly altering an old standby…well, something I’d baked before. Mostly I adapted a cocoanut cake into a Pina Colada cake by replacing every instance of cocoanut extract with pineapple extract in a cake that uses cocoanut milk for some of the liquid and fat to begin with. That’s the key. If you start off with a cake that will still taste of cocoanut when you extract the cocoanut extract, replacing the extracted extract with pineapple will do the trick nicely. Oh, and I added a nice smattering of finely chopped candied pineapple for a fun surprise inside. I think I have several new friends based entirely on the hope that they can have more of that cake.

Anyway.

Since I was baking all these cakes (well, two layer cakes and a triple batch of cupcakes) for a milestone birthday party for a friend, I did a lot of old standbys for dinner this week, too. Roast chicken is a fave of mine, since I can then concentrate entirely on side dishes for a day or two after and then make chicken stock.

It’s fun sometimes, though, to spruce up a simple roast chicken with a fun sauce. I decided to give that a go this week, and to go Medieval in honor of our dear, departed Francesca, who loves a good Renaissance Faire as much as I do.

One of my favorite websites is Gode Cookery. It’s a great source for historical recipes from Ancient Rome up to the 17th century. There’s also a smattering of modern recipes that would work well with those more ancient concoctions, but those are clearly marked for those who wish to stay as authentic as possible.

Sauce Gingyuer, the one I chose, dates back to the 15th century, and is pitifully easy:

Take white brede, stepe it with vynegre, and draw it .ij. or .iij. tymes thurgh a straynour; and thanne put ther-to poudre gingere, and serue forthe.

Got that? No? Perhaps the modern translation complete with proportions will be helpful.

Ingredients

1 Cup wine vinegar (I used white, but red would work just fine, too)

1/2 Cup white breadcrumbs, very finely ground (I left them a little coarse because I like the texture, but don’t make them too big or they’ll just soak up the vinegar and leave you with bread lumps rather than sauce)

2 tsp powdered ginger, or to taste (Mr. Twistie and I are both huge ginger fans, so I was a tiny bit generous, keeping in mind that I didn’t want to completely overwhelm the subtle flavors of chicken with too aggressive a sauce)

In a bowl, combine vinegar, crumbs, and ginger. Stir well together and allow to sit for about an hour. Whisk sauce well before serving.

Yields one cup sauce. (I will double this next time, because Mr. Twistie pounced on it like a starving man and I had to fight to get some.)

Note (from website): Some sauces are easier to adapt than others. This is a great sauce and goes well with meat, fish or fowl. In Harlien MS 4016 this sauce is recommended for boiled gunard.

I don’t think they carry gunard at my local market. Hmmm….

It’s been something of a long week at Casa Twistie. Things Happened. Many of them involved plumbing and random electrical equipment going awry. We have been a tidge grumpy about the scatter, including the cat who has been thrown out of the bedroom at night on no less than three occasions this week for playing soccer with his catnip mouse on my feet in the wee hours of the morning. The crust of me wanting to sleep!

In light of all that, I decided that I wanted to try a recipe for something that brings a little joy to my world even when Things Happen. What did I want?

Ice cream.

The thing is, most modern ice cream recipes assume that one has an ice cream maker. I do not possess one. Recipe after recipe informs me that in order to make my own ice cream, it’s as simple as putting together their combination of ingredients and following the manufacturer’s instructions. It became something of a point of very weird honor for me not to follow manufacturer’s instructions in making ice cream. Surely, I thought to myself as I sometimes do, there must be a way to do it sans ice cream making thingamajiggy. After all, Dolley Madison served ice cream at the White House when she was First Lady (or was it when she was acting as the widowed Thomas Jefferson’s official hostess?), and I don’t think they had ice cream makers, per se, back then.

Then I thought of something.

I believe I’ve mentioned this before, but Mr. Twistie loves flea markets and garage sales. Sometimes he brings back things that would give Plummy the vapors, but once in a while he finds a true treasure for yours truly. A couple years ago, he found a huge stack of vintage cooking pamphlets and booklets that someone sold him for pretty much nothing. I pulled them out and found the timeless classic 250 Delectable Desserts, published in 1940. That’s right, 250 recipes for sweet things crammed into 48 pages, complete with dozens of black and white photos of some of the delights contained within.

It was within this slender volume that I found today’s recipe.

Mocha Ice Cream

Ingredients:

2 Cups Milk

4 Tblsp ground coffee (next time I might use a slightly smaller amount of espresso powder instead for a deeper flavor and less grainy texture, as well as to skip a step that was a little messy)

1/3 Cup Corn Sirup (sic)

1/3 Cup sugar

2 Tblsp flour

1/8 tsp salt (call it a dash and be done with it)

2 eggs, separated

1 tsp vanilla

1 Cup heavy cream, whipped.

Heat milk and coffee for 10 minutes in the top of a double boiler (or, if you don’t have one, just simmer some water in a saucepan and place another saucepan of similar size on top. Make sure the water doesn’t actually touch the bottom of the upper saucepan); strain through cheesecloth (Messy). Mix corn sirup (sic), sugar, flour and salt; add scalded coffee milk slowly stirring constantly. Return to double boiler stirring until it thickens (this took a surprisingly long time for me, but it might have something to do with the fact that my stove is rapidly reaching the end of its useful life and getting crochety…or it might have something to do with the fact that this is just the kind of thing that rarely works as well for me in the kitchen as it seems to for some other cooks, because we all have our weak spots); cook 5 minutes longer. Add hot milk mixture slowly to beaten egg yolks (be careful about doing this part slowly or you can accidentally wind up with bits of scrambled egg in your ice cream, which…not the taste treat of the century, or so I’m told) and cook 3 minutes longer. Chill (no, really, that’s all they said here so I guessed and stuck it in the fridge for about an hour, and it seemed to work) and add vanilla. Beat egg whites until stiff; whip cream and fold both into chilled mixture. Freeze in refrigerator tray (or, you know, your handy dandy freezer now that we have such things) until firm. Serves 6.

How did it come out? A little soft and fragile compared to commercial ice creams, a tiny touch grainy because while I made some exciting Jackson Pollock-esque patterns while pouring scalding coffee milk through cheesecloth, I also managed to let a few of the grounds I was trying to remove get through the cloth into my ice cream. Espresso powder for sure, next time. All the same, it was tasty, it had a good coffee flavor, and I would absolutely do this again.

I may not have an ice cream maker, but I’ll definitely be one as the weather heats up.

It is a fact that I love greens. I love spinach and kale and collard greens and mustard greens and…well, most things that are leafy and green.

It is also a fact that I don’t eat as many as I would like. Why? Because Mr. Twistie isn’t wild about them, and most of the time I’m feeding him as well as me. He often finds them bitter and unpleasant. Sigh.

Because of these two facts, I went looking for a recipe that would let me have my green and leafies while pleasing Mr. Twistie’s palate. I found just the thing in my copy of The Savory Way by Deborah Madison. It’s a fantastic vegetarian cookbook that I pull out both when I’m feeding someone who doesn’t eat meat, when I feel like having a good meal sans meat, or when I’m looking for the perfect side dish to go with a great piece of meat. I was going to link to the book on Amazon, but at present it would appear to be more or less a collector’s item over there. The cheapest copy I found was something like seventy-eight bucks for the hardcover. The paperback started well over two hundred smackers. I suggest going to your local second-hand bookstore and seeing if you can find a previously loved copy.

Anyway. The dish is pretty easy (and easier if – unlike me – you get your chopping and dicing out of the way before you start cooking rather than after), requires no specialized equipment, cooks pretty rapidly, and is surprisingly fabulous. It’s also flexible. If you go to the store or your farmer’s market and there are no collard greens or the broccoli rabe is looking limp, just pick up some mustard greens or Swiss chard and have at it. Follow the cut for the recipe.

(more…)

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve spent a lot of my time this week staring at a screen at what’s going on in Vancouver (a lovely city where, incidentally, Mr. Twistie and I honeymooned). That’s meant less time than usual for cooking and more need than usual for the kind of fun, easy to eat snacks that one doesn’t feel so horrible about accidentally strewing about the room on seeing someone do something incredible or seeing one’s personal favorite athlete make the podium (Go Evan Lysacek!).

In addition to that, this happens to coincide with a request from reader JB who apparently read my mind and requested a couple recipes that don’t require an oven, since she is currently without.

I also decided that it was time to take a look at some of the great recipes available for free on the web instead of cookbooks that might or might not fit into the current available budget of some of our readers. There are some fabulous sites out there brimful of great recipes that are fun to make and utterly delicious. Besides, my personal challenge was to use written recipes I’ve never used before, but I never said they had to come out of books!

So it was that I perused the quick and easy snack recipes over at epicurious and found a couple goodies that looked tasty and wouldn’t dislodge me from the hypnotic joys of curling or the drama of short track speed skating (You couldn’t pay me to watch roller derby, but put it on ice skates instead of wheels, and I can’t look away. Go figure.) for too long.

Since the recipes are both available online, I’m just posting links to them and notes about how they worked for me.

First up, Pecan Praline Popcorn Treats. This is what Cracker Jack wants to be when it grows up. Ridiculously simple, quick, and a fabulous combination of crunch, goo, salty and sweet. In short, this is the almost perfect TV watching junk food. The almost? Well, that gooey, sticky factor does eventually make you either go wash your hands or get caramel all over the remote. Keep a couple wipes at hand, so you don’t wind up with a remote that sticks to both the couch and the cat. Enjoy the heck out of this one!

Next, Cheddar Chutney Tea Sandwiches. After all, you’ll need some savory treats as well as sweet. These lovely little bite-and-a-half sized sandwiches are a breeze to make (all you’ll need is a knife, a grater, a spoon, and a bowl, really), delicious, zesty, and satisfying. Watch for drips if you don’t just pop the whole (tiny) sandwich in your mouth. I recommend extra-sharp cheddar for the bite, but it would still be good with a milder cheese. I also substituted a different chutney than Major Grey’s. MG’s is more than fine, but I get an incredible tamarind-based chutney from my local farmer’s market. Play with cheeses and chutneys until you find the combo that makes you smile.

Maybe I’ll have some of both while I watch tonight’s broadcast.

When I started the new recipe every week for a year project, I had a goal in mind. I wanted to try out new techniques and new ingredients as I went along. Well, this week I didn’t learn a new technique. I was under the weather a bit, and just wanted something a little soothing and easy. Hence basically a roasted veggie dish. I roast vegetables all the time. I love how they taste, and roasting is something I’m quite good at.

I did, however, try out a new ingredient. Halloumi cheese. One thing to keep in mind when trying out this recipe, take it seriously when it says not to salt the veggies. Halloumi, like the Feta offered as an alternative, is very salty. I honestly didn’t want any more salt than was already in the cheese.

Where did I find this one? From the ever fabulous Nigella Lawson in her book Nigella Bites. It’s a lovely veggie dish that’s absolutely vegetarian-friendly. I intend to make it again and try some different veggies, because while I adore this combination, I could see a lot of other delicious things working in the dish. The cheese obviously makes it not very vegan, but if you left off the cheese (which is only added at the end) and threw a dash of salt on it, you’d have a fabulously delicious and hearty vegan dish, too. Those of us who eat meat can rely on this as a satisfying side to steaks or chops. Seriously, anyone who can chop up veggies and roast them should give this one a go, because it’s so much more than the sum of its parts.

So let’s get to the heart of the matter: the recipe.

(more…)

Okay, I have a confession. Until I tried this recipe, ’soubise’ was a term I had heard a few times on Top Chef, but couldn’t actually define and had never eaten. Friends, I am now a huuuuugge fan! This was tremendously yummy and surprisingly simple to make. It takes time, but very little effort for the result. Oh, and this one is vegetarian, and could be made vegan with the substitution of a little olive oil for the butter in the recipe. While I adored the buttery taste of the soubise as written, I’ll probably try it with olive oil myself soon, so Mr. Twistie can join in the fun despite his high cholesterol and lactose intolerance. But in that case, I might also fiddle with the seasonings to add a little extra oomph.

I got the recipe from a friend, and I have no idea where she got it. All I can say is thank you to my buddy for offering up such a great recipe. Join me after the cut for the details.

(more…)

You may not know this, but garlic is a food group at Casa Twistie. Very few things get made in my kitchen sans garlic. One of the things that told me Mr. Twistie was The One was the fact that he was willing to share garlic fondue on our first date (that and the fact that he then took me back to his place to watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail, making his move for our first kiss at that romantic juncture when the knight slashes the throat of the Famous Historian which made my heart go pitter-pat). Onions and members of the onion family also feature largely in my cuisine.

So a recipe that features garlic and that oft-overlooked cousin of the onion, the shallot, is always going to get my attention. One that further allows me to make use of that massive chicken I found on sale at Safeway for half price is also a good use of my time and energy. One that also allows me to use up the heavy cream and white wine I had sitting around from previous recipes is yet another great idea. This one did it all and had Mr. Twistie threatening to lick his plate clean. I was about ready to join him, too!

It comes from the Food & Wine Annual for 1997, and I’ll be making it again.

(more…)

Those who know me well are aware of my lifelong love affair with whipped cream. I adore the stuff. And so it was that when I opened up my Christmas gift from Mr. Twistie (well, the one that was a cookbook) and found a recipe for Whipped Cream Cake, I knew it would be the first thing I made in said book. What book is that? Why, Rose’s Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum.

And since this has been a dismally rainy week (rainy to the point where my phone and internet were both out of service for more than a day, leaving me with little to do but mistreat my poor Simmies), I decided that Whipped Cream Cake would be good both as a way of fulfilling my new recipe of the week goal and raising my poor waterlogged spirits.

As it turns out, this is a very easy recipe that goes pretty quickly.

Want to know more? Follow the cut and see how it’s done!

(more…)