It's All Delicious - Mom's Test Kitchen

Tuesday

04Nov2008

Corn "Spoon" Bread Muffins

Tuesday, November 4, 2008 at 7:35AM

I had one hit and one miss. I’ve been looking for a good, no wait…a great corn muffin recipe for years. I don’t want it sweet and I don’t want it dry. I thought I had it cracked with a recipe using fine ground white cornmeal. I even sent away for a bag of it. The postage cost more than the cornmeal, but it didn’t matter to me if it produced the cornmeal muffin of my dreams. The white cornmeal from J.T. Pollard in Alabama was light, ground almost as fine as flour and a joy to work with...well worth it!

The muffins turned out creamy, like custard inside. The recipe advised eating them within an hour; something nice for brunch, and that was exactly right. Thanks to the suggestion from Scott Peacock, eat warm with a little honey and butter…very, very nice. But still not what I was looking for.

So then I thought, well, I’d fine grind the yellow cornmeal I had on hand and use the same recipe. That didn’t work at all and produced dry, dense, hard muffins, which I threw out. So that was the big miss. For this purpose, white and yellow cornmeal were not interchangeable. While I liked these airy muffins, and would make them again, my quest continues for the cornmeal muffin recipe of my dreams.

Corn “spoon” Bread muffins

Makes 12 muffins

1-½ cups extra-fine grind white cornmeal

1-teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon kosher salt

2-¼ cups buttermilk (shake well)

2 large eggs, beaten

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Equipment: Standard 12 cup muffin pan

Preheat oven to 425°F with rack in middle. Butter muffin cups. Whisk cornmeal, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Whisk buttermilk into eggs, add to cornmeal mixture and whisk vigorously until smooth. Whisk in melted butter.

Divide batter among muffin cups and bake until edges begin to pull away from sides and a tester inserted to center of muffin comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. Turn muffins on to rack and serve warm.

Recipe adapted from Gourmet, January 2008

Mom’s Note: The muffins were nice the day after heated up for a bit. The corn flavor was slightly stronger. Also, 18 minutes was plenty of cooking time.

Cornmeal supplier: JT Pollard Milling Company 334-588-3391

sally |

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Tuesday

18Nov2008

Cornbread...for stuffing only

Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at 9:30AM

I’m still searching for the cornbread muffin of my dreams but this recipe will be perfect for stuffing. It was very easy and easily doubled. I ended up making 2 ½ batches for our projected 22lb turkey. Some stuffing for inside the bird and some baked in a separate dish. I’ll wrap the cornbread in one piece and freeze it but did cut a little off of one just to see the texture. It cut into cubes nicely and did not crumble. The recipe stated that one batch should yield 12 cups of ½ inch cubes. I honestly didn’t think much of eating it warm with honey like the recipe suggested, the texture was too dense and course, which will hold up well for the stuffing but not light and dreamy enough for my taste. It’s a good basic better than average recipe.

I posted the recipe below with a few minor changes but you can find the original at:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cornbread-for-Dressing-240387

Ingredients

1 ¾ cups buttermilk, shaken

5 large eggs

2 tablespoons sugar

1 ½ teaspoons coarse kosher salt

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¾ teaspoon baking soda

2 ¼ cups yellow cornmeal

3 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 400°F. Butter an 8 ½ x 8 ½ x 2-inch metal baking pan. Whisk buttermilk, eggs, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in large bowl until blended. Whisk in cornmeal, then butter. Pour batter to prepared pan.

Bake cornbread until top is golden brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 23 minutes. Cool cornbread in pan on rack.

A beautiful golden brown bottom

sally |

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autumn,

thanksgiving

Tuesday

21Oct2008

Curried Peas* - Please

Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 12:46PM

When I read the recipe it sounded like a nice tasty change from simple steamed peas for the Test Kitchen, and it was. It surprised me that the kids liked them and went back for more. They liked the curry and Sophie, who is the in house pea hater, even put them in her lunch the next day (always a good sign in the leftover department).

The first time I tested the recipe I included the sour cream and almonds. The crunch of the almonds was nice and the sour cream held the tastes together, but if you don’t have them on hand, don’t worry, make it anyway. Same with the cilantro, if it’s not in the fridge, increase the curry, but still make it.

The second time I tested the dish (by popular demand) I increased the chicken stock from the suggested ½ cup to a scant 2/3 of a cup. I omitted the sour cream and almonds (economizing on cost and calorie intake) and the dish was just as good.

I liked the recipe, so much, for several reasons; all around ease, taste and versatility. You can prepare everything well in advance then add the peas 5 minutes before you want to serve them and then stir in the sour cream. You could add chicken or pieces of ham for a light lunch. Brown a little pancetta or bacon in the pan to start for richer flavor. An all around hit!

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 red onion, minced

2 minced garlic cloves

1-teaspoon ground cumin

2/3-cup chicken broth

½ teaspoon light brown sugar

1 pound frozen petite green peas

1/3-cup sour cream (or yogurt)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Salt and pepper

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the minced onion and a few pinches of salt. Cook until the onion softens and begins to turn brown. Add garlic, curry powder, cumin and cook until fragrant. Add broth, brown sugar and simmer until the sugar dissolves. Can be prepared two hours ahead.

Five minutes before serving, bring onion mixture back to a simmer, stir in peas and almonds. Cook uncovered until peas are just cooked through. Remove skillet from heat, stir in sour cream and cilantro. Season with salt and pepper if needed.

*Adapted from Cook’s Country Magazine (the rogue subscription)

sally |

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vegetables

Tuesday

14Oct2008

Fresh Fig and Almond Crostata

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 at 7:50AM

This weeks Mom’s Tuesday Test Kitchen is from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food October 2008.

Mom Says: The Figs were some of the nicest I’ve seen this season. The crust for the tart was the highlight…all butter…crisp, light and tasty. The filling didn’t have much of an almond taste and next time I’ll increase the almonds from ½ cup to at least ¾ and cut down on the sugar. It was too sweet and over powered the figs. The egg wash dressed the crostata up, looked nice, but not necessary. The crust? Ten out of ten and will make an apple crostata later in the week.

For the dough:

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour – and a bit more for rolling out

½ teaspoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup chilled butter cut into pieces

2-4 tablespoon ice water

For the filling:

½ cup blanched almonds

½ cup sugar

2 large eggs

4 tablespoons butter – room temperature

2 teaspoons all purpose flour

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8-teaspoon salt

1 pound ripe fresh figs – stemmed and thinly sliced

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Make dough: in a food processor pulse flour, sugar and salt to combine. Add butter; pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few pea-size pieces of butter remaining. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons ice water, pulse until dough is crumbly but holds together when squeezed (if necessary gradually add up to 2 tablespoons more water). Do not over mix. Flatten dough into a disk; wrap tightly in plastic. Refrigerate until firm at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.

Preheat oven to 350 ° F

Make filling: in a food processor, combine almonds and sugar. Process until finely ground. Add 1 egg, butter, flour, vanilla, and salt; pulse until smooth and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine figs and lemon juice; set aside.

On a large lightly floured piece of parchment paper, roll dough to a 14-inch round. Spread almond filling in center, leaving a 2-inch border; to with fig mixture. Fold border over edge of filling, pleating all around; press down gently to seal. In a small bowl, mix remaining egg with 1 teaspoon water; brush dough with egg wash.

Lifting edges of parchment, transfer crostata to a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until crust is golden brown, about 1 hour. Let cool in baking sheet at least 30 minutes. To serve, cut crostata into wedges

* From Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food, October 2008

sally |

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dessert,

figs

Wednesday

08Oct2008

Green Goddess Dressing*

Wednesday, October 8, 2008 at 6:57PM

I used Ina Garten’s recipe from “Barefoot Contessa at Home” She uses basil rather than a mixture of herbs. Next time I’ll cut back on the salt by half (just use 1 teaspoon) and let the anchovies do the rest. It’s a great dressing, nice alternative to Caesar or America’s "favorite" (ranch?). Another point - make it easy on yourself and prep everything before hand, then you won’t end up feeling like it’s easier to prepare a ten course meal than to make this dressing.

Ingredients

1-cup mayonnaise

1 cup chopped green onions (white and green parts, about 7)

1-cup fresh basil leaves

¼ lemon juice (2 lemons)

2 teaspoons chopped garlic (2 cloves)

2 teaspoons anchovy paste

2 teaspoons kosher salt (next time I will use 1 teaspoon)

1-teaspoon black pepper

1-cup sour cream (Daisy Brand is our sour cream of choice)

In a food process combine mayonnaise, green onions, basil, lemon juice, garlic anchovy paste, salt and pepper. Process until blended and smooth. Add the sour cream and process until just blended. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Note: Use it on lettuce, asparagus or other blanched veggies.

* Adapted from Barefoot Contessa at Home

sally |

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salad dressing