Rollin With My Homies

French Bread Rolls

Start with the basic, simple, easy dough recipe.

Divide dough into rolls. Let them rise in a cloth/flour lined muffin tin.

Spritz a HOT oven with water to get a crisp, golden roll.

Serve warm...

...with the best quality butter you can. Divine!

Beets, Lentils & Strawberries

An interesting evening and very satisfying dinner! We started strong with beets from the Cheverly Community Market. The main course was a blending of two recipes involving lentils and pork products. Dessert included fresh strawberries, also from the Market, paired with a delicious scone and fresh whipped cream~~yippee~~Strawberry Shortcake!!!

This weekend, we bought a single bunch of fresh beets. Neither of us like beets. So we bought them on a hunch...why not...give beets a chance. So I peeled and quartered them. They received a little salt and were wrapped in foil and put in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes, until they were fork tender. Since we still weren't sure what to do to them, we settled on some butter.

And they were delicious. Think of the freshest, sweetest sweet corn you can imagine. It's weird to think of sweet corn, but they were really good! We both would have had more, but alas, the small, single bunch only included 4 little beets.

The main course of the evening was a blending of two different lentil recipes. Lentils with Sausage & Bacon and Warm French Lentil Salad. Bacon, sausage, simple dressing, and lentils. Very filling and super tasty. Easy. Cook the lentils, the bacon, stir and enjoy!

The lentils are good for you in all sorts of ways. They are only made better for you with the addition of the bacon and sausage! Right. RIGHT!!!! Good. And they are filling.

Melting butter. That's all. Delicious, golden, melting butter!

The scones. They came from a mix that we received at Christmas and are just getting around to making them. The mix was simple. I enhanced the flavor with some cinnamon, cardamom and freshly grated nutmeg. I gave the scones a brush with some egg wash and sprinkled some grainy sugar on top! They are good just like that. But let's gild the lily shall we...

Fresh strawberries from the Market. Sliced up and mixed with a wee touch of sugar and a vanilla bean. Simmer over medium-low heat until the sugar is melted and mixing with the juice. Allow to sit for awhile until they come almost to room temperature. Split the scone in half, spoon strawberries over the bottom half, add some fresh whipped cream, add the top half of the scone...spoon some extra strawberry juice over the top for more fun! The scones hold up really well, maintaining their structure while soaking up the juice. They were also a great foil to the sweet berries. Woo hoo!

Not for Dieting

Oh glorious butter. And sour cream. And chicken...with the skin on!

This is not diet food, but it is very delicious.

Last night's dinner was Chicken Paprikash. A dish I've made before, but last night I approached it differently and I think that was key to making a very tasty dish. I used the same ingredients, just used them in a different order and with a few different processes.

Season skin-on chicken thighs with salt & pepper. Place in a large pan set over medium-high heat and cook. No need to add any butter or fat at this point. Sear the chicken, about 5--8 minutes, skin side down. The fat will render/melt out of the chicken. When brown, flip and cook for another 3-5 minutes. The chicken won't be cooked thru, this is ok. Work in batches, so the chicken isn't crowded in the pan. If it is, it will steam.

Remove the chicken to a plate and pour out the excess chicken fat. Melt butter.


Add onions and garlic to the melted butter. Saute for a few minutes until they become translucent and soft. Sprinkle with paprika. Cook for 1-2 minutes. This will allow the paprika to "bloom" in the fat, allowing the flavors to really pop. Add water and stir.


Return the chicken, skin side up, to the pan. Place in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove chicken from the pan. Add broth to the onion/butter/paprika mixture. Stir to incorporate and simmer for a few minutes until reduced. Turn off the heat and stir in the sour cream.


Serve the chicken on a bed of hot buttered noodles and spoon the sauce over the top. Enjoy!

Sizzle

There are few things more glorious than melting butter!


Well, ok, there are plenty of more glorious things, but butter does rate right up there. Especially when you are soon to add onions, garlic, spices and many other yummy things...stay tuned.

Treats are ready for Santa

Let's just gets started shall we?
The recipes at the bottom...

Melt butter and brown sugar together!

Three types of chips; chocolate, cappuccino, butterscotch.

A few eggs whipped into the melted brown sugar and butter.

Flour, salt and baking powder folded in.

Chips and slivered almonds.

Spread into a small pan.

Allow to bake and rest. Like my pot holders...my mum made them for me a few years ago.

Cooled and ready for slicing for Santa.

That's not the Valley of Death...that's the Valley of Bliss!

Sweet Sweet Heaven. Merry Christmas Santa...hope you like them!

Blondies by Bobby Flay

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, plus butter for pan
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup light brown muscovado sugar
1/2 cup dark brown muscovado sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons toffee chips
1/2 cup coarsely chopped toasted almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and line a 9 by 9 by 2-inch baking pan with parchment paper, allowing a 2-inch overhang. Butter the lining too.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan; add both sugars and whisk until combined and sugar is melted, about 5 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl and let cool slightly. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract until combined. Add the flour and whisk until just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips, toffee chips and almonds and transfer the mixture to the prepared pan.

Bake for 24 to 27 minutes or until the top cracks slightly and is firm to the touch and a skewer inserted into the center comes out with moist pieces clinging to it. Remove to a wire rack and let cool completely. Remove the bars from the pan using the parchment handles, transfer to a cutting board and cut into 2-inch squares.

I Gots The Giggles

I love when I give myself the giggles...and it wasn't the bubbly either....

It started with the vanilla.

Which I opened up to release the flavorful goodies inside.

Tee hee...then there was the Irish butter. Ha!

Ultimately those beautiful things were added to some fresh pears.
Looking good! Luscious. Sweet. Subtle.

Get that whole mess into small ramekin dishes.

Top with some more butter, oats and brown sugar.

Bake for awhile. Tender. Aromatic. Sweet. Buttery.

While slightly warm, serve with homemade cardamom ice cream.

Giggle and cry at the same time. Seriously. It's that good.

Butter.
Browned Butter.
Vanilla.
Vanilla Browned Butter.
Pears.

Pear and Vanilla Browned Butter Crisp!

Sweet Sweet Nirvana.


from Gourmet (10/2007), via Smitten Kitchen, and altered a bit by me

For topping:
1/4 cup quick oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/8 tsp salt
2 TB butter, melted

(The original topping had almonds and more flour...I didn't have almonds, so I went with a more traditional oat topping.)

For filling:
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 TB granulated sugar
1 TB all-purpose flour
3 firm-ripe Anjou or Bartlett pears, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 TB pear vodka (if you have it), recipe called for pear brandy, which I didn't have.

Equipment: 4 small ramekins

Make topping: Toss together flour, otas, brown sugar, and salt. Drizzle butter, toss with a fork until blended. Place in the fridge until ready to use.

Make filling and bake crisps: Preheat oven to 425°F with rack in middle.

Scrape seeds from vanilla bean into a small heavy saucepan, then add pod and butter and cook over medium-low heat, swirling pan occasionally, until butter is browned and fragrant, about 4 minutes.

While butter browns, stir together sugars, flour, and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Add pears and vodka and toss to combine.

Discard vanilla pod, then toss butter with pear mixture. Spoon filling into gratin dishes and sprinkle with topping, mounding it slightly in centers. Put in a shallow baking pan and bake 30 minutes, then rotate baking sheet and bake until topping is golden brown and filling is bubbling, 10 to 15 minutes more. Cool to warm or room temperature on a rack.

Make-ahead tips: The topping can made in advance, chilled and covered for up to 2 days. The crisps can be assembled (but not baked) 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Bring them room temperature before baking.

Brown Sugar, Butter, Syrup!

Had some pancakes this morning. I love pancakes...as long as I don't eat too many...then my belly gets made at me.

I used the recipe I've shared here before, with one change...I used brown sugar instead of white sugar. I noticed a very subtle difference and I liked it! There was one other change, but that was out of necessity. I didn't have milk, so I used some cream and water. About 1/2 cream, 1/2 water to equal the total amount of milk needed. I works.

The first batch...the cream was a little thicker than milk, so the batter stayed thicker, creating a fluffy and very tender pancake.

Add a touch of butter and some syrup of your choice.

Butter, I Love It!

Yesterday I attended a cooking class that I recieved as a birthday gift from Dancer. I was skeptical when I received the certificate, as I knew the class was going to be held in someone's home; I wasn't sure about the professionalism of the class, or even if I would learn anything.

The class was planned by TasteDC.com, hosted by Charlie Adler with Chef Brian Boots from Elegance A La Carte as our teacher. The class was in Charlie's home, up near American University in Washington, DC.

Again, I had no idea what to expect...

So imagine my surprise when I walked in a was greeted with "We're having a butter tasting, take a seat and get started. And have some wine."

It's just 12pm and we're tasting seven butters and drinking wine. And more wine as the day went on.

So the seven butters. I don't remember the names of them. But what I know is that Kerrygold was rated as the best tasting butter. Yeah! You know I love my Kerrygold. I felt justified in constant search and purchase of my favorite butter. In fact, I had two blocks in my fridge while we were tasting! There is one obvious caveat for this tasting...Kerrygold was salted butter, the others were unsalted. But for tasting purposes, salted butter is ok. You do want to try to have unsalted for cooking purposes.

And know that Kerrygold is a little more spending than your average butter. I pay about $4 for 8oz. of Kerrygold at Safeway. For 16oz. of unsalted store brand, I'm usually paying $3-4.

Back to the class. We were seated in the dinner/living room of Charlie's home. Chef Boots was situated at a table in front of us with two small gas burners for cooking. Charlie had a large screen HDTV hooked up to a video camera that would catch what Chef was doing at the gas burners.

A number of items were prepared and served, starting with:

Buttery Cornbread with Habanero Compound Butter

The cornbread wasn't bad. It was cornbread, moist and dense. The butter was mixed with habanero, salt, pepper and basil. Delicious. I couldn't taste the basil, so I might skip it in the future.

Next Up:

Indian Butter Chicken

The chicken was marinaded in mild yogurt blended with spices, then tossed in the oven. Chef prepared the sauce on the gas burners in just a few minutes. The sauce is butter, tomato, spices and cream. The chicken was served with the sauce spooned over the top. The chicken was moist and tender. The sauce was good. I do like my Indian Butter Chicken recipe more though. Dispite the extra steps needed; they are worth it. The Butter Chicken Chef prepared was very mild and a good introduction for someone not familiar or comfortable with trying Indian food.

With the plates cleared we moved onto something a little more traditional in the butter sauces:

Seared Sea Scallops with Saffron Beurre Blanc

Butter and wine sauce with Saffron. Can you go wrong? I have before! I still don't know what went wrong, because what Chef did was similiar to my preparation, and Chef's prep was much much better.

Not being a seafood person, I tend to approach seafood with caution. Chef's Beurre Blanc was prepared by simmering white wine until it was reduced by half. Roasted garlic, saffron and lemon juice was added. Then heavy cream. The blend was allowed to reduce by half again, then the sauce was mounted with butter. Mounted with Butter. Sounds scandalous! Well, the heat was turned off and pieces of butter were stirred into the sauce until melted and incorporated. Great!

Following Beurre Blanc we moved onto Flounder Meuniere and Roasted Potatoes with Beurre Noir

Again, seafood. But the flounder was great. Lightly coated in flour and fryed in butter. Mmmm! The potatoes were alright, slighly under-cooked. The Beurre Noir (Black Butter) was alright. I didn't get much flavor from the Beurre Noir. But I would like to try it again on my own.

Next we had Roasted Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce

The asparagus was ok. I think it was slightly over cooked. The Hollandaise Sauce was good. It was more runny than the Sauce I've made. It had a richer golden yellow color then mine as well. Flavorwise it was good. Needed a pinch or two of salt and pepper.

The last dish was had was Buttery Fudge Brownies with Butter Rum Sauce

The brownies were not very good. I was a little bummed as I was most looking forward to them. The Butter Rum Sauce was tasty though. It could have used a little more rum though. The recipe looks like it called for 4 teaspoons of rum extract. I know Chef used actual rum and I'm not sure the quantity was increased to make up for the less concentrated flavor or the rum.

And we're done...oh, wait, nope one more thing.

Chef made Butter! You need heavy cream that is not ultra-pasteurized. The pasteurization process remove bacteria. That's a good thing, for health reasons. But on the flavor side of things, it's bad. So, find heavy cream that has only been pasteurized, not ultra-pasteurized. Pour about a few cups of cream in your mixer and run it with the whisk attachment. This goes on for awhile, first you have the cream...then you have whipped cream...then...then...oh...wait for it...butter!!! But you're not done yet. The butter needs to be squeezed and pressed to remove the buttermilk. Then we ate it. Very good. I can't wait to try it myself.

Now we're done.

My table of six people had 5 bottles of wine and lots of butter.

This was fun.

Thanks J-lo!


Wine. I tried three of the wines. Two of them were really good:

De Loach 2005 Pinot Noir
Mebmer Riesling 2005

Spicy Nuts

Butter-check
Pecans-check

A sprinkle of this, a dash of that...

Ginger and Cardamom Spiced Pecans

2 cups pecans
3 TB butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp salt

Over medium heat in a large pan, cook the pecans with the butter for 4-6 minutes. You'll smell the nutty goodness of both the pecans and the natural nuttiness of toasted butter.

Mix the sugar, spice and salt in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the nuts. Toss to coat. Cook for about 2 minutes. Remove and spread the nuts out on a baking sheet to cool.

Enjoy. Store in an airtight container.