mooflyfood

Pot Roast

mooflyfoof — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:20:47 +0000

I know, I know, it’s the middle of summer. Who wants pot roast in July? This foggy San Franciscan does! A few days ago I had a sudden craving for pot roast. I think it’s because I’ve been eating mostly vegetarian lately and I needed to make up for it. My mom had given me a recipe for pot roast that she’s been making, so I decided to give it a shot. Large chunks of meat are generally not my area of expertise so I was excited to try something new.

Pot Roast

Adapted from Relish’s Classic Pot Roast

INGREDIENTS

2.5 to 3 lbs chuck roast, about 2″ thick
Kosher salt
Ground black pepper
Olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, sliced thinly
2 carrots, peeled and cut into rounds
2 stalks celery, diced
8 garlic cloves, crushed
1.5 lbs small red potatoes, whole
1 pound mushrooms (crimini/portabello or shiitake), sliced
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 1/2 cups beef or chicken broth
8 ounces canned tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups red wine (merlot is good)
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves
2 bay leaves

DIRECTIONS

Take the beef out of the fridge and allow it to rest at room temperature.
Set up your mise en place: Chop all vegetables. Put onions, carrots, celery in one bowl. Put mushrooms, garlic, chili powder in another bowl. Mix together wine, bay leaves, thyme, tomato sauce, broth in a third bowl.
Preheat oven to 300°F. Heat a large, enameled dutch oven (or other non-reactive, oven-safe pot) on the stovetop on high.
Sprinkle beef liberally with kosher salt and ground pepper on both sides; rub in. Heat oil (a few tablespoons or so) in dutch oven, then carefully add the beef. Let it brown on one side for five minutes without disturbing it. (Disturbing it will affect its ability to form a good brown crust.) Turn the meat over and brown the other side for five minutes. Remove beef from the pan and set aside.
Add a bit more oil to the pan and then saute onion, carrot and celery until lightly browned, about 8 minutes.
Add garlic, mushrooms, and chili powder to the pan. Cook 3 minutes.
Return beef to the pan, trying to get it underneath the vegetables. Add broth, tomato sauce, red wine, thyme, and bay leaves. Add potatoes and make sure they’re submerged in the liquid. Bring to a boil.
Place in oven and cook covered for 3 hours. Remove cover and cook another 1/2 hour, until beef is fork-tender. There will be lots of liquid, which is delicious sopped up with bread.
Enjoy with a glass of red wine!

Olallieberry Jam

mooflyfoof — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 05:25:46 +0000

A few weeks ago, my friend Rich alerted me that olallieberry season was upon us. We’d previously talked about how much fun it would be to go berry picking, especially for the elusive olallieberry, a hybrid available almost exclusively in Central/Northern California and almost never in the grocery store. So on a sunny Sunday in late June, a bunch of us piled into the car and headed south to Swanton Berry Farms’ Coastways Ranch to pick some berries. We had a great time in the sun, picking strawberries and olallieberries with a central coast ocean breeze whipping our hair about and keeping us cool.

Mella, proud of her haul.

For more photos, please visit my Flickr set.

After a day of picking, we headed back to the Mooflyfood, Inc. kitchens in San Francisco. Rich started on a couple of olallieberry-strawberry pies, while I began the process of making jam. The reason I began canning again in 2008 was because I wanted to make olallieberry jam, but unfortunately I kept missing the season by a couple of weeks. I was excited to finally be making the jam I’d been waiting literally years to make. I cobbled together the recipe from a few different sources on the internet, modifying them extensively to suit my low-sugar preferences. This is what I did.

Olallieberry Jam

This should work fine with blackberries if you don’t have olallieberries in your area.

INGREDIENTS
1 1.75 oz. package Sure-Jell no-sugar pectin (powder)
8 cups olallieberries (about 2.5 lbs)
4 cups sugar

DIRECTIONS
In a large pot, crush berries with a potato masher. Stir in pectin and mix well. Heat mixture on high until it reaches a full boil. Add sugar all at once and mix well. Continue cooking on high heat till it reaches a full boil again, stirring constantly. Cook at a full boil for one more minute, skimming foam. Remove from heat. Ladle into sterilized jars and process. For a reminder on how to sterilize jars and process jam, please click here for my tutorial.

Yield: About 6 half-pint jars, maybe a little more.

Bacon Pretzels with Maple-Dijon Dipping Sauce

mooflyfoof — Fri, 07 May 2010 19:13:19 +0000

It’s that time of the year again… Time for BACON CAMP! My dear friend Karen is once again working her magic to organize the second annual San Francisco Bacon Camp. I had a little trouble coming up with something to follow my award-winning entry last year, but ultimately decided to just chill out and make something that tastes good.

Fortunately, my internet friend Lucky Olive posted a picture of a delicious-looking home-made pretzel and inspiration struck. I would make bacon pretzels. Baconifying the original recipe wasn’t too difficult.

Bacon Pretzels with Maple-Dijon Dipping Sauce

Adapted from Almost-Famous Soft Pretzels, from FoodNetwork.com

Yield: 6 large pretzels

INGREDIENTS

For the pretzels:
8 slices thick-cut bacon
1 cup milk
1 package (2 1/2 teaspoons) active dry yeast
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
6 tablespoons bacon fat, divided
1 teaspoon fine salt
1/3 cup baking soda
2 tablespoons coarse salt

For the dipping sauce:
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup dijon mustard (I like Maille)
3 tablespoons real maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

DIRECTIONS

For the pretzels:

Chop 6 pieces of the raw bacon into roughly 1 cm square pieces. Cook in a frying pan until the pieces are crispy and delicious. Put bacon on a paper towel to drain. These pieces are to go in the dough. Reserve the fat from the pan.
Cook another 2 pieces of bacon whole, this time leaving them slightly less done — they shouldn’t be crispy. Drain these pieces of bacon on paper towels, patting off excess grease. Dice them finely. Put them in a small dish and refrigerate them. These bits are to go on top of the pretzels. Again, reserve the fat from the pan.
Warm the milk in a saucepan until it’s about 110°F. Make sure it’s not any warmer or the yeast will die and not work as well. I used a candy thermometer to check the temperature.
Pour the milk into a mixing bowl and sprinkle in the yeast. Let the yeast soften, about 2 minutes.
Stir in the brown sugar and 1 cup of the flour with a wooden spoon.
Add 2 tablespoons of melted bacon fat and the bacon pieces you made in Step 1. Stir to mix well.
Add the remaining 2 1/2 cups flour and the fine salt; mix well to make a sticky dough.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding more flour if needed, until smooth but still slightly tacky, about 5 minutes.
Lightly grease a bowl (I used bacon fat, of course). Shape the dough into a ball. Roll it around in the bowl to coat it in grease. Turn it over so it is crease side down, and then cover the bowl with a lightly moistened tea towel. Set it aside in a warm place to rise for an hour or so, till the dough has doubled in size.
This would be a good time to make the dipping sauce (see below).
When the dough is almost done rising, preheat the oven to 450°F. Grease a large baking sheet (you might need two).
Punch the dough to deflate it, then turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. If the dough seems tight, cover it and let it rest until it relaxes.
Divide the dough into 6 pieces. Carefully roll and stretch each piece with the palms of your hands into a long, thin rope. Form each rope into a pretzel shape.
Dissolve the baking soda in 3 cups warm water in a shallow baking dish. Gently dip each pretzel in the soda solution, then arrange on the prepared baking sheet(s).
Sprinkle liberally with coarse salt and the bacon bits you made in Step 2.
Bake until golden, 10-12 minutes.
When the pretzels are done baking, brush or drizzle them with melted bacon fat, being careful not to dislodge the bacon bits. Let them drain on a wire rack. Serve warm with dipping sauce.

For the dipping sauce:

Whisk together the mayonnaise, mustard, maple syrup, and vinegar until they are smooth and evenly mixed. Cover and refrigerate.

Want to taste my bacon pretzels? Stop by Bacon Camp tomorrow:
Saturday May 8, 2010
Chez Poulet
3359 Cesar Chavez St. (at Mission)
San Francisco, CA 94110

Apple Pan Dowdy

mooflyfoof — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 06:52:39 +0000

Another recipe from my childhood vaults — one of my favorites. For the baking-phobic out there, this is a good recipe for you. No precise quantities here! And you really can’t get much more bang for your buck with a dessert recipe. This recipe is so easy and has so few ingredients, but is impressively delicious. People will think you’ve slaved over a hot stove all day. It’s also a good way to get rid of apples that have gone mealy and are on their way out. I threw together this pan dowdy with only two apples, and guessed at the rest of the ingredients. Oh, and did I mention it’s easily vegan/dairy-free?

In case you’re wondering about the name, I like this explanation. It’s true, looks can be deceiving…

My kingdom for a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Apple Pan Dowdy

INGREDIENTS

For the filling:
6-8 large apples
Lemon juice, maybe 1/4-1/3 cup
cinnamon, about 1/2 teaspoon
cloves, about 1/4 teaspoon
nutmeg, about 1/4 teaspoon
ginger, about 1/2 teaspoon

For the topping:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 cube) butter or non-hydrogenated margarine (Earth Balance does the trick), room temperature

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Peel, core, and slice the apples into thin wedges. Add lemon juice and spices, toss until apples are evenly covered. The amount of lemon juice and spices used is eyeballed. Add enough lemon juice to wet the apple slices, but not so much that there’s soup at the bottom of the bowl. The spices should cover all the apple slices in a very thin layer (I like mine spicy).
In a separate bowl, mix together the whole wheat flour, brown sugar, and butter or margarine until the chunks of butter are gone. I use a pastry cutter for this job, but a hand mixer would be fine too.
In a large glass baking pan (I think mine’s 10″x14″ — told you nothing was exact here!), put all the apple slices in an even layer. Crumble the topping over the apples. Bake at 350°F for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Topping should be crispy and apples should be oozing and very soft.
Serve with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream. Prepare for sugar rush.

(Bacon) Bourbon Truffles

mooflyfoof — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:14:23 +0000

Photo by Edrabbit

I know, I know, it’s a little late, but these rich treats are a perfect Valentine’s day gift. Bookmark this for next year! I made these for my sweetie this year. I made half of them with bacon and half of them without. Both versions are delicious, it just depends on how much you love bacon. They’re dairy free, and if you leave out the bacon they’re vegan!

(Bacon) Bourbon Truffles

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma

INGREDIENTS

For the filling:
1/4 cup soy milk (or heavy cream)
4 tablespoons dairy-free margarine, like Earth Balance (butter works too, if you aren’t vegan) (Note: replacing part of this with bacon grease would be good if you really like bacon!)
12 oz semisweet chocolate (I like Guittard chocolate chips, which are vegan)
1/4 cup bourbon (I used Bulleit)
4 pieces of bacon
Cocoa powder, for rolling

For the coating:
12 oz. semisweet chocolate (again, Guittard chocolate chips are great)

DIRECTIONS

Cut bacon into bits and cook it in a frying pan. Allow to drain on paper towels.
In a heavy saucepan, combine the soy milk and margarine over medium-low heat. Stir until the margarine melts and the soy milk simmers. Remove from heat and add 12 oz. chocolate and stir until melted and smooth. A whisk is helpful here. Pour in the bourbon and bacon bits and mix thoroughly. Pour into a bowl. Cover and freeze until just firm enough to mound in a spoon, about 40 minutes.
Line the bottom of a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Scoop out the filling by tablespoonfuls, spacing them evenly. Roll them into rough balls. This will be messy, and they don’t have to be perfect-looking. Cover and return to the freezer for 30 minutes.
Pour cocoa powder onto a plate. Roll chocolate balls in cocoa powder to coat evenly. Re-roll balls to even them out — the cocoa powder will help them not melt and stick to your hands. They should look more like actual spheres now.
Return truffles to the foil-lined baking sheet, cover, and put in the freezer while you prepare the coating.
To make the coating, melt 12 oz. of chocolate in a double boiler until it’s smooth. Remove from heat.
Re-roll truffles between your palms to remove any loose cocoa. Gently drop one truffle ball into the melted chocolate coating, tilting the pan if necessary to coat the ball completely. Slip a fork under the truffle, lift it from the chocolate, and tap the fork gently against the side of the pan to allow any excess chocolate to drip off. Using a knife, gently slide the truffle off the fork onto the foil-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining truffles.
Refrigerate, uncovered, until firm, about 1 hour. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.

(Bacon) Beer Bread

mooflyfoof — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:40:24 +0000

My friend Mazzie tipped me onto this crazy stuff. Beer bread is a quickbread, but some reaction between the beer and the flour gives the bread a texture that’s surprisingly similar to yeasted bread (which, of course, takes significantly longer to make). It has a slight sweetness to it, making it somewhat perplexing: is it savory, or is it for dessert? Well, honestly, you could have it either way. It would be great with a hearty stew. You can also put whatever you want in it. I chose to put bacon in it, but chunks of cheese would be a good choice too. Or, if you leave the bacon out, the bread becomes vegan. It takes about 5 minutes to stir together and an hour to cook. Easy peasy.

(Bacon) Beer Bread

Adapted from this recipe

INGREDIENTS

3 cups all purpose flour, sifted*
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 12-ounce can of beer
4 slices bacon (omit for vegan)
1/4 cup bacon grease, or butter, or margarine

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease a loaf pan.
Cut bacon into bits and cook in a frying pan. Place on paper towel to drain.
Mix dry ingredients with beer.
Pour batter into greased loaf pan. Pour bacon grease, butter, or margarine over the top of the batter.
Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour. Remove from pan and let cool at least 15 minutes before serving

* According to the recipe I used, sifting is not optional. If you don’t want to sift, you can spoon the flour into the measuring cup. The goal is to avoid scooping it out of the container and leveling it off, which compacts the flour. If you do that, you’ll add too much flour and the bread will turn out brick-like. I used the spooning method and it worked fine.

Tom Kha Gai

mooflyfoof — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:15:03 +0000

A few weeks ago we had a Thai-themed potluck at our house. It was a fantastic success. Tom kha gai! Cucumber salad! Banh mi! Spring rolls! Tea salad! Pineapple fried rice! Pumpkin curry! Pad thai! Sticky rice & mango! My contribution was tom kha gai, the delicious coconut milk soup that has always been my favorite Thai dish. I’d never cooked Thai food before, but it turned out to be incredibly easy. The catch is that you have to have access to some ingredients that might be hard to acquire, especially if you don’t live in a big city. But if you can find the ingredients, this soup is well worth making.

Tom Kha Gai

From CHOW

INGREDIENTS
4 cups chicken stock (Swanson’s Organic is good)
1/4 cup Thai fish sauce
Juice and zest of 1 lime
2 crushed kaffir lime leaves (if you can find them – if not, it’s okay to omit)
4-inch section lemongrass
1-inch section galangal, sliced (similar to ginger)
1/4 pound chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 13.5 ounce can coconut milk (Chao Koh brand is good)
2 to 10 (to taste) small red thai chiles, slightly crushed
Cilantro leaves for garnish

DIRECTIONS

Bring chicken stock, fish sauce, lemongrass, and galangal to a boil. Simmer 20 minutes. Strain if desired (the lemongrass and galangal is not edible).
Add chicken pieces, coconut milk, and chiles. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 2 minutes.
Add lime juice and zest and stir till mixed. Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve.

Peanut Butter Cookies

mooflyfoof — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:05:29 +0000

When I was a kid, I loved my mom’s old Betty Crocker Cooky Book. I think it was all the colorful cookies that enthralled me. Oddly, I only ever made one recipe from it regularly: Peanut Butter Cookies. They’re fantastic cookies so I never got bored of it. A few years ago for my birthday, my parents gave me a reprinted version of this book, which was originally published in 1963. It was then that I renewed my love of this peanut butter cookies recipe. Tonight I made a vegan version for a bunch of friends and everyone raved about how good they were. Thanks Betty!

Betty Crocker’s Peanut Butter Cookies

This recipe is doubled from the original, and produces about 3 dozen cookies.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup peanut butter (best if you use good, natural, unsalted, crunchy peanut butter)
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 375°F
Mix butter, peanut butter, sugars, egg.
In a separate bowl, mix all dry ingedients.
Mix dry ingredients with wet ingredients until well blended.
Roll dough into 1 1/4″ balls and put them on a cookie sheet. Mash with a fork in a criss-cross pattern. Bake in a 375°F oven for 10 minutes. Cookies should be very slightly browned around the edges but still gooey and shiny looking in the center. Allow them to cool for about 5 minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.

To make these vegan, I substituted Earth Balance margarine for the butter, and Ener-G egg replacer for the egg. Two eggs worth of replacer is 1 tablespoon of egg replacer powder + 1/4 cup warm water, whisked together. I found that there wasn’t enough moisture though, so I added some soymilk, a bit at a time, until the dough came together with the right consistency. It should stick together and not be crumbly, but it shouldn’t be too mushy. I also added a little canola oil because some of the peanut butter I’d used was extremely dry.

Chicken Dumpling Soup

mooflyfoof — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:36:38 +0000

On Wednesday evening, my friend Morley came over for an evening of wine, soup, Obama, and studying. It was a good night. I had a bunch of bread-ends in the freezer that needed to be used up, so I decided to make chicken dumpling soup. The basic soup started with the chicken noodle soup recipe I posted not too long ago, but I omitted the noodles in lieu of dumplings. Morley had brought some lovely farm share leeks so I chopped those up and added them to the stock, which added a lovely, subtle new dimension. I’d never made dumplings before so I kind of winged it but it turned out great! The dumplings were a perfect, slightly sweet, spiced foil for the salty soup, and they stayed together wonderfully (much to my surprise). I used this recipe as a starting point for the dumplings, but ended up changing it pretty heavily. Here’s how I did it.

Chicken Dumpling Soup

INGREDIENTS

One batch of my chicken noodle soup, omitting the noodles and adding one chopped leek at the same time you add the onions, celery, and garlic.

6 cups bread crumbs (I used the ends of a few loaves of Orowheat whole wheat bread, pulverized in the blender)
1 cup soy milk (or real milk, or cream — I used soy so Ed could eat them)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
fresh ground black pepper, to taste
1 whole egg + the yolk of another egg
Olive oil for frying (a couple tablespoons)

DIRECTIONS

Make chicken soup per the other recipe.
While the soup is boiling, whisk together bread crumbs, salt, nutmeg, thyme, turmeric, nutritional yeast, and pepper.
Add soymilk and mix well. Allow to soak in for a few minutes.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg and egg yolk well. Add to the breadcrumb mixture and mix well. Roll into 1 1/4 inch balls and place on parchment paper. They’ll be a little mushy but don’t worry about it.
Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil and heat it.
Place evenly spaced dumplings in frying pan, minding the fact that it might spatter. Don’t place the dumplings too close to each other or they’ll be difficult to turn.
When dumplings are dark golden brown on one side, turn them to another side and cook till it’s dark golden brown too. Repeat as many times as necessary until all sides are golden brown and crispy.
Keep the dumplings separate from the soup. Add them to each bowl just prior to serving. They stay together fairly well in the soup, but not much longer than the time it takes to eat it. To reheat dumplings (as serving as leftovers), microwave them for 30 seconds before adding them to hot soup.

Italian Sausage Soup with Croutons

mooflyfoof — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:53:23 +0000

I’ve discovered the wonders of soup-making just in time for this ultra-rainy San Francisco winter. It’s so easy and satisfying! There’s nothing quite as lovely than a steaming hot bowl of homemade soup to slurp as the rain drips outside and the heater struggles to keep your home warm.

Italian Sausage Soup

Adapted from this recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 lb ground Italian sausage
3 cloves garlic, smashed
6 leaves fresh basil, ripped
2 carrots, peeled, cut into rounds
2 red potatoes, peeled, cubed
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
2 15oz. cans beans (butter beans are good, and so are black eyed peas), drained
1 15oz. can diced tomatoes
26 oz. container of Swanson’s beef stock (the good stuff, without MSG)
1 15oz. can’s worth of water
Splash of olive oil (1 tablespoon?)
Splash red wine
Salt, to taste (1 1/2 teaspoons?)
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste (1/2 teaspoon?)
Crushed red pepper, to taste (1/4 teaspoon?)

DIRECTIONS

Chop all veggies. Drain beans.
Remove sausage from casing and separate into chunks. Heat olive oil in large pot. Brown sausage in oil till cooked through.
Add onions, garlic, and basil. Saute a few minutes.
Add everything else except the beans. Stir well. Adjust seasonings as necessary. Cover and bring to a boil.
Lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes, covered. Add beans. Simmer another 5 minutes, covered. Make sure potatoes and carrots are soft enough. Serve with baguette croutons (recipe below).

Baguette Croutons

INGREDIENTS

Sweet baguette
Olive oil
Salt
Garlic salt

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 425°F.
Toss slices of baguette with a generous amount of olive oil, salt, and garlic salt, to taste. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Flip each crouton over and bake another 10 minutes, checking to make sure they aren’t getting burnt. Croutons should be golden brown and crispy.