Having an Ah-Ha! moment...

I only changed up what we were having for dinner about three times between 5 and 9 am this morning.  I finally settled on the Mushroom and Chive tart from the Rose Bakery cookbook.  I followed their formula pretty closely apart from some minor tweaks (I used a 9" deep dish premade pie shell instead of a homemade 1 X 11" tart case and half as many mushrooms).  After years of not really getting quiche (I ate it and liked it but didn't see what the ruckus was about) I did tonight.  Eggy, custardy, light, and simply delicious.  It got a request to re-do it next week from LSW.

Revisiting old favorites

LSW requested that we revisit some old stand-by menus from months past - Red Beans and Rice, Spaghetti, and a couple of others. 

It's Monday in New Orleans and that means Red Beans and Rice.  Nothing fancy tonight - just Blue Runner.  Not exactly sure why this simple meal satisfies like it does but when we eventually move from here it'll stay on the menu. 

Breakfast and Polar Bread

Allergy season is with us yet again...stopped up, itchy eyes, sore throat, anon...

Dinner was a simple affair - scrambled eggs with cheese and turkey sausage.

Got a wild hair up and decided to try a recipe I found for Polar Bread - again with the Swedish stuff, I know, but it's bread too...been having some successes there and loving it. 

I followed this formula and as of the writing the rounds are in the final proof before being baked off in a pan on the stove top.  Apart from the refrigerator bulk ferment step I followed things exactly as written.  Seems to work very well (and I even had the heavy cream as a left over from the other night).  The dough is soft yet not terribly sticky.  I used medium rye and unbleached bread flours from King Arthur Flour. 

Busy, busy...

My apologies to any reader(s) out there.  Been a nutty 10 days. 

Dinner tonight:

Bucatini with Parmesan tomato cream sauce
Marinated grilled chicken
Caesar salad

Parmesan tomato cream sauce:

1 medium onion, chopped fine
3 cloves garlic, chopped fine and then smashed into paste (no salt)
3-4 Tbsp olive oil
28 oz can crushed tomatoes
3/4 cup grated parmesan
1/2 cup heavy cream
salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and italian seasoning blend to taste

Heat olive oil in a large saute pan over medium high heat.  Add onion and saute 8 to 10 minutes or until onions are golden, but not browned.  Add garlic and saute for one minute.  Add crushed tomatoes.  Add italian seasoning blend and red pepper flakes and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until tomatoes thicken slightly.  Reduce heat to low and add parmesan and cream, stirring well, and reheat thoroughly, but do not simmer.  Cook bucatini according to package directions, draining and retaining cooking water.  Add bucatini to sauce and mix well, addding pasta water to thin to desired consistency. 

Marinated chicken

Marinade:

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tsp italian seasoning
1/4 tsp each onion, garlic, and red pepper flakes
2 tsp mustard
1/2 cup vegetable oil
salt and pepper to taste

Mix ingredients as a vinaigrette, cover chicken in marinade.  Allow to rest at room temperature for 25 to 30 minutes.

Saturday...

I woke up early this morning for some reason.  I was wide awake at five minutes of six and I headed for the kitchen.  We're having dinner with friends tonight and I'm doing dessert.  I had preassembled a pate brisee (per Michael Ruhlman's fabulous book Ratio - the 3-2-1 crust) and had cut up my apples and sugared them to drain some of the excess liquid last night before bed.  Got up and rolled out the crust and put it in the 8" springform tin (yes, springform, no pie plates for me today.  Put it back in the fridge to chill a bit more.  Went back and dozed with my loving wife for an hour or so and then got up, drained the apples, reduced their juice, filled the tin, and made a crumb-esque topping.  Baked the whole mess at 350 for about an hour.  I'll snap pics once it comes out of the tin but the whole house smells of short pastry, apples, and cinnamon. 

BTW - on the Swedish food thing...I've gotten stuck on crisp bread at breakfast - this morning was Wasa Hearty with hummus and plenty of Lofbergs Lila Skaneroast coffee.  Need to go see what fresh fruit we have to add some extra goodness to my morning. 

America and Sweden meet in South Louisiana in September...

I've been on a Swedish food kick of late (out of sheer curiosity after reading 2 of the Millenium trilogy).  I bought a bottle of Swedish style mustard (Lars' Own) and on the back it talks about it begin great on potato sausage.  Being German/Irish sausage is a very important thing to me.  It's a way of life down here in SE Louisiana too.  So I Googled "Swedish Potato Sausage" and ran across way too many variations on a theme.  Some very basic elements that stuck out - pork, beef, potato, onion, salt, pepper, and allspice.  I live in a place where I can buy sausage casings in the grocery.  I have a KitchenAid with grinder attachment.  I could pick up a set of stuffing tubes easy and go to work.  I just don't...mostly out of laziness.  For a week now I've been thinking about how to make good old Potatis Korv in a ready-for-dinner manner.  Enter American meatloaf...which on a variety of levels is like a giant slab of fresh sausage - meat, salt, seasonings, binder...you get the idea.  Thus Potatis Korv-loaf.  The seasonings need a bit of tweaking but what follows is the recipe I cooked up tonight:

1/2 lb ground chuck
1/2 lb ground turkey thighs
1/2 medium onion, chopped very fine (1/8" dice)
1 potato, chopped fine (1/8" dice)
2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp dried marjoram
dash of garlic powder
1 tsp spice blend (equal parts by weight black pepper, white pepper, and allspice)

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.  Spread in to small roasting pan or loaf tin and bake at 350F for 45 minutes to an hour.  Serve in medium to thin slices with mustard.

I think next time I'd add a full tablespoon of salt and maybe a teaspoon and a half of the spice blend.  Great meal tonight though with steamed broccoli and cauliflower.

Following up on bake day...

I like to bake bread.  Sometimes it even likes me when I bake it.  It was sort of that way on this bake day - the cardamom braid turned out well, beautiful glossy brown top covered in pearl sugar.  The limpa didn't so much.  The taste was ok but I could use these things as doorstops.  Grrr...I'm going to toss that formula or at very least tweak it heavily as a 10 hour preferment with all that sugar lead to some very potent aromas.  I got very busy as soon as I took the loaves out of the oven, hence the delay in my post. Dinner tonight is still rattling about in my head.  I'll post notes on whatever I decide to do.

Pre-bake day notes...

I enjoy long weekends.  I get an extra day on one end or the other to actually get some stuff done.  Tonight is setting up some baking work - Swedish Limpa and a cardamom braid.  Tonight is just the pre-ferment for the Limpa - rye flour, molasses, brown sugar, fennel, water, salt, and yeast.  According to the notes it is supposed to sit out at room temp for 9 to 10 hours.  I'll take pictures to document and if I can ever figure out how to get the wretched pictures to post from flickr they'll be here too (along with all the others that are ridiculously overdue). 

Been away too long...

Was one of those days...so glad to come home to a big pot of soup in the Crock Pot.  I've been reading a lot about Swedish food (and have been cooking a little here and there) and decided that I really wanted to try the yellow pea soup that apparently graces Thursday menus all over the country.  I've put together a recipe that I've followed (about to puree and strain and do the final seasoning).

                            Ärtsoppa – Swedish Yellow Pea Soup


1 lb. dried yellow peas, soaked overnight (I used split as it was all I could find)
1 large onion, chopped
4 ribs celery, chopped
3 carrots, chopped (I used a handful of baby carrots and chunked them up)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 smoked hocks
6 cups water
4 Tbsp Osem Vegetable Soup/Seasoning powder
2 Turkish bay leaves

½ tsp dried thyme
¼ tsp dried marjoram

½ tsp ginger
½ tsp turmeric
Salt and white pepper to taste

Add first nine ingredients to a crock pot (or other slow cooker), cover, put on low for 8 to 10 hours. After the time has elapsed remove hocks (checking thoroughly to make sure all bones are removed) and allow them to cool so that you can handle them. Add to remaining soup thyme and marjoram and allow to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Turn off soup. Remove bay leaves and then puree soup in blender in batches (remember hot liquids expand dramatically when agitated so don’t fill the blender more than half full unless you really want to redecorate your kitchen in a very yellow color and burn yourself in a painful and embarrassing manner). Strain into large saucepan (for silky texture, if you like it more rustic don’t strain). Add turmeric and ginger and simmer for another 15 minutes. Check seasonings and adjust accordingly with salt and pepper. Pick over hocks and remove meat. Chop meat and reserve, discard remainder of hocks. Serve soup, garnishing with chopped meat from hocks, with mustard and Swedish pancakes or bacon pancakes with lingonberry jam/preserves/whatever it may be.

I'm pairing dinner tonight with bacon pancakes and lingonberry preserves.