Robb + Jessie - 2010 January

Archive for January 2010

Daring Bakers’ Challenge: Gluten Free Nanaimo Bars

By Jessie on Wednesday, 27 January 2010 with 1 comment

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

For a while I have been planning to make authentic graham crackers to go with my homemade marshmallows, yet other projects have gotten in the way. When the project for gluten free graham crackers was announced, needless to say, I was excited.

This month proved difficult for finding the time I needed in the kitchen to devote to desert making. Mostly because we were in Seattle for 10 days and classes/TAing started as soon as we returned. Nevertheless, I was able to finally assemble these tasty creations last night in between work and leaving for bible study. I admit, I was a bit sloppy. And my pan was a bit larger than recommended. But the final product got two thumbs up from a happy Robb.

My post doesn’t contain copious amounts of “during the process” photos due to my time constraints. But let’s just say that my gluten-free graham crackers looked less than ideal. (Yet, they tasted 100x’s better than any other store-bought cracker). And that, indeed, you can make and assemble the entire recipe in less than 30 minutes. But I admit, I had to cheat because I didn’t have time to use a double boiler. I used my microwave!

Does this mean I might not be a “Daring Baker” … perhaps. But next month, I hopefully will exceed expectations.

The recipe for Gluten Free Nanaimo Bars:

Preparation time:
• Graham Wafers: 30 to 45 minutes total active prep, 2 ½ hours to overnight and 45 minutes inactive prep.
• Nanaimo Bars: 30 minutes.

Equipment required:
• Food Processor
• Bowls
• Parchment paper or silpats
• Cookie sheets
• Double boiler or pot and heatproof bowl
• 8 by 8 inch square pan
• Hand mixer or stand mixer (You may use a wooden spoon, but this makes it much easier!)
• Saucepan

For Gluten-Free Graham Wafers
Ingredients
1 cup (138 g) (4.9 ounces) Sweet rice flour (also known as glutinous rice flour)
3/4 cup (100 g) (3.5 ounces) Tapioca Starch/Flour
1/2 cup (65 g) (2.3 ounces) Sorghum Flour
1 cup (200 g) (7.1 ounces) Dark Brown Sugar, Lightly packed
1 teaspoon (5 mL) Baking soda
3/4 teaspoon (4 mL ) Kosher Salt
7 tablespoons (100 g) (3 ½ ounces) Unsalted Butter (Cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen)
1/3 cup (80 mL) Honey, Mild-flavoured such as clover.
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Whole Milk
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Pure Vanilla Extract

Directions:
1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pulse on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal. If making by hand, combine aforementioned dry ingredients with a whisk, then cut in butter until you have a coarse meal. No chunks of butter should be visible.
2. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky.
3. Turn the dough onto a surface well-floured with sweet rice flour and pat the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours, or overnight.
4. Divide the dough in half and return one half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of sweet rice flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be quite sticky, so flour as necessary. Cut into 4 by 4 inch squares. Gather the scraps together and set aside. Place wafers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. Repeat with the second batch of dough.
5. Adjust the rack to the upper and lower positions and preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).
6. Gather the scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and reroll. Dust the surface with more sweet rice flour and roll out the dough to get a couple more wafers.
7. Prick the wafers with toothpick or fork, not all the way through, in two or more rows.
8. Bake for 25 minutes, until browned and slightly firm to the touch, rotating sheets halfway through to ensure even baking. Might take less, and the starting location of each sheet may determine its required time. The ones that started on the bottom browned faster.
9. When cooled completely, place enough wafers in food processor to make 1 ¼ cups (300 mL) of crumbs. Another way to do this is to place in a large ziplock bag, force all air out and smash with a rolling pin until wafers are crumbs.

Nanaimo Bars
Ingredients:

For Nanaimo Bars — Bottom Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup (50 g) (1.8 ounces) Granulated Sugar
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Unsweetened Cocoa
1 Large Egg, Beaten
1 1/4 cups (300 mL) (160 g) (5.6 ounces) Gluten Free Graham Wafer Crumbs (See previous recipe)
1/2 cup (55 g) (1.9 ounces) Almonds (Any type, Finely chopped)
1 cup (130 g) (4.5 ounces) Coconut (Shredded, sweetened or unsweetened)

For Nanaimo Bars — Middle Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (40 mL) Heavy Cream
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Vanilla Custard Powder (Such as Bird’s. Vanilla pudding mix may be substituted.)
2 cups (254 g) (8.9 ounces) Icing Sugar

For Nanaimo Bars — Top Layer
4 ounces (115 g) Semi-sweet chocolate
2 tablespoons (28 g) (1 ounce) Unsalted Butter

Directions:
1. For bottom Layer: Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8 by 8 inch pan.
2. For Middle Layer: Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light in colour. Spread over bottom layer.
3. For Top Layer: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.

A Daring New Year

By Jessie on Thursday, 14 January 2010 with 2 comments

This year, despite a heavy course and work load (and the kind prodding from friends to post more often), I decided to challenge myself by joining the Daring Kitchen; I am now both a Daring Cook as well as a Daring Baker. What exactly are these designations? Simply put, in 2006, two bloggers challenged each other to bake homemade pretzels separately but using the same recipe. They patted each other on the back congratulating their success in their first challenge and proposed several more challenges over the coming months. The idea, their “little baking group”, began to spread until it became the official Daring Bakers. Each month, one of the daring bakers (and now cooks) choose a recipe for the Daring Baker/Cook community to follow and then on a specified reveal date, post their success on their blogs.

When you see this icon with one of my posts,
it will be referring to a challenge post.

This brings me to today.

The first challenge I participated in was hosted by “Cuppy” of Cuppylicious who chose a Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the cookbook 1000 Recipes by Maratha Day.

One thing I enjoy about these challenges is that they can easily fit into both our budget and our schedules. While some are bound to be more time intensive, for me nothing is as relaxing as following a recipe (exactly as written) and anticipating its outcome. Robb and I both agree, this first challenge recipe will probably be a “keeper” in our recipe collection. The following is the recipe as well as my notes and photographs. Bon appétit!

Chicken ~~Pork~~ Satay with Peanut Sauce

Satay Marinade

Ingredients
1/2 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 T ginger root, chopped (optional) (2 cm cubed)
2 T lemon juice (1 oz or 30 mls)
1 T soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 tsp ground coriander (5 mls)
1 tsp ground cumin (5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground turmeric (2-2.5 mls)
2 T vegetable oil (or peanut or olive oil) (30 mls)
1 T fish sauce
1 dragon chili I substituted sriracha sauce as I fogot to buy the chili!
1 pound of chicken breast ~~pork (loin or shoulder cuts)~~ (16 oz or 450g)

Method
If you have a food processor or blender, dump in everything except the pork and blend until smooth.

Cut chicken ~~pork~~ into 1 inch strips.

Cover chicken ~~pork~~ with marinade. You can place the ~~pork~~ into a bowl, cover/seal and chill, or place the whole lot of it into a ziplock bag, seal and chill. For chicken marinade 4 — 12 hours.

If using wooden or bamboo skewers, soak your skewers in warm water for at least 20 minutes before preparing skewers.

Gently and slowly slide meat strips onto skewers. Discard leftover marinade. (If you’re grilling or broiling, you could definitely brush once with extra marinade when you flip the skewers.)

Broil or grill at 290°C/550° F (or pan fry on medium-high) for 5 — 7 minutes or until the edges just start to char. Flip and cook another 5 — 7 minutes.

Accompanying sauces
While your meat is marinading, you can eaisly prep the sauce(s). The required sauce was the peanut one, but since I like multiple options I decided to do each of the three sauces.

Peanut Sauce

3/4 cup coconut milk (6 oz or 180 mls)
4 Tbsp peanut butter (2 oz or 60 mls)
1 Tbsp lemon juice (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 Tbsp soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 tsp brown sugar (5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground cumin (2.5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground coriander (2.5 mls)
1-2 dried red chilies, chopped (keep the seeds for heat)

Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl. Add soy sauce and lemon, mix well.

Over low heat, combine coconut milk, peanut butter and your soy-lemon-seasoning mix. Mix well, stir often.

All you’re doing is melting the peanut butter, so make your peanut sauce after you’ve made everything else in your meal, or make ahead of time and reheat.

Pepper Dip

4 Tbsp soy sauce (2 oz or 60 mls)
1 Tbsp lemon juice (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 tsp brown sugar (5 mls)
1-2 dried red chilies, chopped (keep the seeds for heat)
1 finely chopped green onion (scallion)

Mix well. Serve chilled or room temperature.

Tamarind Dip

Ah, but here is where we met the only challenge of the day. I went to Woodman’s on New Years Day with the intentions of procuring all of the ingredients for the challgene. I was still very sleepy from our trip to Milwaukee and either I could not find the tamarind paste in the humungous Asian-food section because my eyelids were attempting to sabotage my shopping trip or it was seriously not there. Unwilling to give up, I discovered (thanks to the handy iPhone) that I could indeed make my own tamarind paste. It is apparently quite simply if you can find the tamrind pods. Lo and behold, I had spied some of these beauties in the produce section while procuring my dried chillies. After some research I discovered that the pods needed to be soaked in water for about an hour and then the seeds (pea-sized little “rocks”) could be removed and what remained (the pulp) could put processed in a food mill. This is what I produced:

Not bad!

4 Tbsp tamarind paste (2 oz or 60 mls)
1 Tbsp soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 finely chopped green onion (scallion)
1 tsp brown or white sugar, or to taste (about 5 mls)

Mix well. Serve chilled or room temperature.

All in all, I should say this challenge was a delicious success!

Slow Food

By Jessie on Monday, 11 January 2010 with no comments

This winter I decided to utilize my slow cooker more often. While I didn’t use it every week like I had originally planned, the sporadic meals it produced over the past two months have been delectable. One that I would love to share with you is my tweaked recipe for beef stew. I was inspired by this recipe from Allrecipes. I added to it several steps to make it my own, including pre-browning the meat with the onions and adding almost half a bottle of red wine (like Merlot). I guess you could say it is a simplistic boeuf bourguignon.

Slow Cooker Beef Stew
adapted from: BUCHKO’s Slow Cooker Beef Stew I
Serves 6

Ingredients
2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
⅓ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1-½ cups red wine
1-½ cups beef broth (or chicken stock if you are in a pinch)
1 packet McCormik’s Beef Stew Seasoning
3 medium Russet potatoes, diced
4 carrots, sliced
1 stalk celery, chopped

Method
Rinse meat and pat dry. In a ziplock bag mix together the flour, salt, and pepper; shake beef in bag to coat with flour mixture. Saute coated beef in 1-2 tablespoons olive oil. Add onion to beef and cook until browned. Transfer to slow cooker.

Mix beef broth with Worcestershire and red wine. Pour into hot skillet to deglaze, then pour over beef and onions in slow cooker. Stir in the garlic, bay leaf, paprika, potatoes, carrots, and celery. Add packet of seasoning.

Cover, and cook on low setting for 10 to 12 hours, or on high setting for 4 to 6 hours.

Serve with crusty bread.