Look at that ridiculous one in the back! He is like, standing on his tippy-toes or something!
Friday, February 5, 2010
Pita Bread Photos
Don't think I ever posted pictures of pitas in the oven before, but they are one of the more interesting things I've baked. They swell up like balloons with steam and look ridiculous!
Look at that ridiculous one in the back! He is like, standing on his tippy-toes or something!
Look at that ridiculous one in the back! He is like, standing on his tippy-toes or something!
On Updates:
So bi-daily was a nice idea but I found myself scrambling or dredging through the kitchen sometimes when I didn't want to be. I would like to have a regular schedule, and when possible I will endeavour to do such, but I think a much more useful meter will be to set out some targets and try to get those done within the month.
To that end, my immediate goals are makowiec, hot cross buns, and pizza pops. For makowiec, I'd like to do a bunch of reading and do a write-up with sources and references and what I changed and why. Hot cross buns I will try a few different things with, like icing cross versus pastry cross or yeasted dough versus baking powder. The hot cross idea that sounds the best in my head right now is just making little brioche rolls and putting a sweet pastry cross with a hint of almond on top. Man I am looking forwards to that.
Also, pizza pops! The samosa dough I just used should work fairly well for that. It'll definitely take some work to perfect the filling, though, and I think I'd let the yeast get up to speed a bit more and let them rise a bit before baking so we get a lighter, pizza-ier dough pocket.
Also I'd like to make some 'healthier' (not full of butter) breakfast muffins, but I so completely non-stoked for baking muffins without butter that that is definitely lowest priority in my mind right now.
That's mostly what I hope to get up to before march, and I think it's very doable. I'm aiming to get those things done well and have some simple updates like 'pastry scraps:' or 'baked in buttery pastry in a ramekin'. Ten posts in February will be my minimum goal, assuming I don't leave town for a week again!
To that end, my immediate goals are makowiec, hot cross buns, and pizza pops. For makowiec, I'd like to do a bunch of reading and do a write-up with sources and references and what I changed and why. Hot cross buns I will try a few different things with, like icing cross versus pastry cross or yeasted dough versus baking powder. The hot cross idea that sounds the best in my head right now is just making little brioche rolls and putting a sweet pastry cross with a hint of almond on top. Man I am looking forwards to that.
Also, pizza pops! The samosa dough I just used should work fairly well for that. It'll definitely take some work to perfect the filling, though, and I think I'd let the yeast get up to speed a bit more and let them rise a bit before baking so we get a lighter, pizza-ier dough pocket.
Also I'd like to make some 'healthier' (not full of butter) breakfast muffins, but I so completely non-stoked for baking muffins without butter that that is definitely lowest priority in my mind right now.
That's mostly what I hope to get up to before march, and I think it's very doable. I'm aiming to get those things done well and have some simple updates like 'pastry scraps:' or 'baked in buttery pastry in a ramekin'. Ten posts in February will be my minimum goal, assuming I don't leave town for a week again!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Samosas!
We are kind of living an exercise in frugality right now, so the question of the day was how to feed two people with the one chicken breast left in the freezer. The answer: samosas! These are essentially dough packets, stuffed with a fairly dry potato & chicken curry. None of the samosa recipes I referenced called for either eggs or yeast in the dough, but I love the yeasty taste in dough and I thought an egg would give us a richer pastry, so that's what I did. Samosas, as I interpret them, are just some sort of curry dish stuffed in some sort of pastry, and this is what I came up with.
Dough:OK, proof the yeast in the warm water with the sugar in some sort of proofing vessel (like a bowl!). When it's floated up from the deeps, add 1/2 cup of the flour, mix well, cover, and set aside for an hour in a not-cold place. When that's done, it should be bubbly and alive, so add the oil and egg and mix well. Add a cup of the flour, mix until it forms a raggedy messy mass, then work in the rest of the flour until you've got a nice feeling dough. Knead well for at least ten minutes, because you do want this dough to be stretchy, strong, and workable. Form it into a ball, and let it rest & rise while you fix the fillings.
Filling:Cut the potatoes into 1/4 inch cubes and parboil them for five minutes. Put the oil in your cooking pan, add the mustard and heat it up. When the mustard seeds are crackling and popping, it's ready for the garlic and ginger, which should be minced together, and, if you have it, mashed up in a mortar and pestle. Fry the garlic and ginger for about thirty seconds, then add the garam masala and chili flakes. Toss in the chicken and onions, and when the chicken looks cooked on the outside, through in the chopped carrot and potatoes. Fry a little longer, then add the stock and let cook uncovered. Once the stock has all cooked away, it's ready to go! Let this stuff cool while you prep the dough.
Defleat then divide the dough into six equal portions. Form each piece into a ball and roll out into a big circle, about an eighth of an inch thick. Keep the rolled circles covered to prevent them from drying out, as this makes them more difficult to handle. When they're all rolled, Cut them in half, place stuffing on half of each half, leaving a border and fold over, stretching the top flap as necessary to fit over the filling. For those of you in Waterloo, this makes them in the style you get at Farah's foods. I have an certain fondness for those ones because of all the times I've wandered from the MC to Farah's at 4:00AM looking for matlab fuel. Diagram (grey is filling, fold from left over right):
Bake in a greased pan or just on parchment paper at 350F for 20-25 minutes, until the pastry is cooked.
I did two sizes to see how they'd go. I ate three of the tiny ones for lunch, mum had two. The bigger ones might be good for a breakfast or lunch on their own. I'm having one of the big ones for breakfast tomorrow, and the other big one is in the freezer, and mom will eat it for lunch on Saturday. Part of this experiment is to see how well these things freeze for re-heating, so I'll update when the frozen ones are consumed.
Post-analysis on the samosas has determined that the filling could have been a bit tastier. Maybe more spices would of helped, or more garlic or ginger. If you think that you can make a better curry than me, you probably can. I am OK at curry but not great. If you deviate, just remember that you want your filling to be fully cooked and edible before baking. Mom thinks they'd be better if they were a little wetter inside, so perhaps it might be an idea to add a bit more stock and then thicken it up with some starch or flour.
The dough is also a little cakey in the crumb. I'm OK with this, it is the product of my yeasting and egging it. The dough would be OK without those, though, if you don't like the texture.
Dough:OK, proof the yeast in the warm water with the sugar in some sort of proofing vessel (like a bowl!). When it's floated up from the deeps, add 1/2 cup of the flour, mix well, cover, and set aside for an hour in a not-cold place. When that's done, it should be bubbly and alive, so add the oil and egg and mix well. Add a cup of the flour, mix until it forms a raggedy messy mass, then work in the rest of the flour until you've got a nice feeling dough. Knead well for at least ten minutes, because you do want this dough to be stretchy, strong, and workable. Form it into a ball, and let it rest & rise while you fix the fillings.
Filling:Cut the potatoes into 1/4 inch cubes and parboil them for five minutes. Put the oil in your cooking pan, add the mustard and heat it up. When the mustard seeds are crackling and popping, it's ready for the garlic and ginger, which should be minced together, and, if you have it, mashed up in a mortar and pestle. Fry the garlic and ginger for about thirty seconds, then add the garam masala and chili flakes. Toss in the chicken and onions, and when the chicken looks cooked on the outside, through in the chopped carrot and potatoes. Fry a little longer, then add the stock and let cook uncovered. Once the stock has all cooked away, it's ready to go! Let this stuff cool while you prep the dough.
Defleat then divide the dough into six equal portions. Form each piece into a ball and roll out into a big circle, about an eighth of an inch thick. Keep the rolled circles covered to prevent them from drying out, as this makes them more difficult to handle. When they're all rolled, Cut them in half, place stuffing on half of each half, leaving a border and fold over, stretching the top flap as necessary to fit over the filling. For those of you in Waterloo, this makes them in the style you get at Farah's foods. I have an certain fondness for those ones because of all the times I've wandered from the MC to Farah's at 4:00AM looking for matlab fuel. Diagram (grey is filling, fold from left over right):
Bake in a greased pan or just on parchment paper at 350F for 20-25 minutes, until the pastry is cooked.
I did two sizes to see how they'd go. I ate three of the tiny ones for lunch, mum had two. The bigger ones might be good for a breakfast or lunch on their own. I'm having one of the big ones for breakfast tomorrow, and the other big one is in the freezer, and mom will eat it for lunch on Saturday. Part of this experiment is to see how well these things freeze for re-heating, so I'll update when the frozen ones are consumed.
Post-analysis on the samosas has determined that the filling could have been a bit tastier. Maybe more spices would of helped, or more garlic or ginger. If you think that you can make a better curry than me, you probably can. I am OK at curry but not great. If you deviate, just remember that you want your filling to be fully cooked and edible before baking. Mom thinks they'd be better if they were a little wetter inside, so perhaps it might be an idea to add a bit more stock and then thicken it up with some starch or flour.
The dough is also a little cakey in the crumb. I'm OK with this, it is the product of my yeasting and egging it. The dough would be OK without those, though, if you don't like the texture.
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