Ajo Blanco

I've been craving this soup for a few days after having a garlic soup at dinner over the last weekend.  The flavors are very similar except that ajo blanco is served cold.  It is usually enjoyed in a glass over ice, maybe with a few grapes and apples floating in it.

 

 

The plan for my ajo blanco was to make it for dinner so I wanted to incorporate some prepared vegetables and a bit of meat as well. the base for the soup is fairly simple: blanched almonds, roasted garlic, bread, olive oil, vinegar, water, salt, pepper. I decided to top the soup with blanched asparagus, roasted red peppers and some carnitas I picked up from the Mexican grocery store.

To prepare, I used 200g of peeled slivered almonds and blanched them for about 4 minutes. I removed about have of the cooking liquid and added them to my blender.  I roasted 5 garlic cloves (you can use 2 but I like garlic a lot) and added those to the blender as well.  I topped this with 8oz of good olive oil, and a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. I blended until a puree formed, then I ripped off a couple of handfuls of crusty bread (day old is best) and added to the blender along with 12 oz of water.  I blended this all together to get it as smooth as possible, adding salt and pepper to taste.  That's it, soup is done.

 

To serve I topped with asparagus, red pepper, and carnitas.  The asparagus was simply blanched and the red pepper I roasted and chopped.  The carnitas were already prepared by the butcher and made a great addition to the soup. I finished it with a few drops of olive oil.

 

 

I made a more traditional version by splitting green grapes in half and floating them in the soup.  I served in a tall glass with ice and some more olive oil.  The sweetness of the grapes go really well with the garlicky soup and it seems I was able to taste the almond more as a result.



scones

I made scones last week for Mother's Day and they came out pretty well as a first attempt.  I used a basic biscuit recipe of 3 parts flour to 1 part fat to 2 parts liquid.  I added some sugar to the dry ingredients to sweeten it up and a bit of baking powder.

I made two different types of scones.  The beauty of scones is that the basic dough recipe is the same and you can simply mix in the flavors you want to incorporate.  First up: apricot ginger scones. I combined flour and butter until there was a coarse grainy consistency.  I then poured in the milk and mixed and stop right when it all came together.  I then folded in a combination of chopped dried apricots and candied ginger.

I rolled up the dough and placed it on a baking sheet.  I cut the dough into large triangles, I kept them close together on the baking sheet.  Not too sure of the technique hear but I'm always told that it is best to have them touch a bit.

The scones came out great, not bad for a first attempt.  Keeping the ratio consistent seems to be the key.  I rather enjoyed this scone but I wish I had sweetened it up a bit more.

I followed a similar process for pecan and salted caramel scones.  I made a caramel sauce by first boiling sugar and a bit of water until the sugar darkened a little.  I added some canela during the process to add an additional cinnamon flavor.

Once the sugar was at the appropriate temperature, I took it off the burner and added a few nubs of butter and some cream.  I added some ground sea salt to the mix.  I followed the same dough recipe as the apricot scones except with pecans and a bit of the caramel sauce mixed in. I initally had hope to get solid bits of caramel, but I added too much liquid leaving me more with a sauce.  It was still rather tasty so along with incorporating a bit into the dough I drizzled over the finished scones for additional sweetness.

It was pretty fun to put together the scones.  The process went along more smoothly than I had first anticipated, I will definitely be trying out different varieties of this.  These scones were a crowd pleaser making my mom and two sisters-in-law more than happy to enjoy them on their special day.

corned beef and cabbage

This past month's charcutepalooza challenge was brining, specifically beef brisket for corned beef. Though I knew I would be a few days past the challenge deadline I was glad that I would have corned beef ready for St. Patricks Day! I've never really had a meal consisting of corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes so I knew I wanted to keep it traditional as I knew how.

It started 5 days before St. Patrick's day. I had a very nice beef brisket I got from Paulina Meat Market here in Chicago and it was ready to be brined. In a large pot I combined water, salt, pink salt, crushed garlic and hot pickling spice and brought to a boil. I let the brine completely cool before adding the brisket. To make sure the beef was completely submerged I used a large 2 gallon ziploc bag, placed in a deep roasting pan and placed in the refrigerator. It was very difficult to see the corned beef day after day, I just wanted to cook it up and eat it!

After a long 5 days, I was able to remove the brisket from the brine and rinsed it thoroughly. I placed the beef in a large stock pot, covered with water and added celery, carrots and onion. After simmering for 3 hours, the brisket was fork tender and looks gorgeous.

To serve along with the corned beef, I cut up a head of cabbage and sauteed in combination of butter, onion, garlic and caraway seeds.  I continued to cook the until it browned a bit then finished with a few splashes of vinegar to bring out more flavor.  I also made whipped potatoes by taking russet potatoes that I boiled then combined with butter and cream, mixing at a very high speed until completely smooth.  Finally, I made soda bread which was probably one of the simplest things breads I've made and has great flavor.   I combined flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt and raisins in a large bowl cut in a stick and a half of butter before mixing in buttermilk and one egg.  The buttermilk combines with the baking soda providing the leavening.  After an hour in the oven the bread, and dinner is ready.

I was very happy with the results of the dinner, everything tasted great and the different items went together well.  I was somewhat in disbelief that I've never had a dinner like this, growing up I always hear of friends' St. Patrick's Day dinners and they never described it as anything special.  I can now say that I've had corned beef and cabbage and I'm definitely a fan, I might even make it part of my own tradition every year.

playing with my new toy: basic bread recipe

So this Christmas I was very lucky and honored to have spent time with Drew and his family. His parents were generous enough to give us a kitchenaid stand mixer as our Christmas present. I all but jumped for joy, reliving that feeling you get as a child when you open the big Christmas present. This thing is massive, a 5.5 qt professional mixer in red, even a few days later I can't help but stare at it on the counter.

I premiered the mixer by making whipped potatoes for Christmas dinner which went over well, everyone loved them. Basically hot boiled potatoes, butter, sour cream, milk and garlic whipped up with the paddle attachment.

Yesterday, since I had more time I decided to make a first attempt at baking a loaf of bread. For this I used a basic bread dough recipe of 4 cups of bread flour, 1.5 cups water, 1 tsp dry active yeast and two tsp salt. To this I added 2 tsp of olive oil and a few cloves of garlic to give the bread some added flavor. I added all these ingredients at once to the mixer, making sure the yeast dissolved into the water. Using the hook attachment I mixed all the ingredients together for a good 15 minutes until the dough formed into a smooth ball.

I let the dough rise for about an hour until it doubled in size. I then took the dough and kneaded a bit to take out some gas and redistribute the yeast. I rolled the dough into a boule and placed it into an enameled dutch oven that was brushed with olive oil. I got the idea to use the dutch oven from reading Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everday Cooking by Michael Ruhlman. In it he explains that baking in a dutch oven with the lid on allows for steam to circulate and makes for a perfect bread crust. I let the dough proof in the dutch oven for another hour and a half before baking.

Before placing in the oven cut a few slits on the top of the bread, brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt. I also decided to place a few cloves of garlic into the slits I cut out so they can roast into the bread. I placed the lid on the dutch oven and placed in a preheated 450 degree oven and baked covered for a half hour, then removed the lid and baked for another 15 minutes or so. Once out of the oven the crust on the bread was perfect. The bread fell right out of the dutch oven and was ready to serve.

The bread was delicious and I was very excited about how easy it was to make. We ate the bread as is, just warm out of the oven without any butter, there is something quite enjoyable about basic warm bread. This will definitely be my go to recipe for breadmaking, give it a try!

Recipe after the jump...