Food For Thought

May 16, 2011

Researching Gas Grills and Buying Tips

Filed under: Barbecue Recipes and Tips, Vegetarian, Writing — Tags: , , , , , — Theresa H Hall @ 11:33 am

In searching the Internet for gas grills, I came across an article that made a lot of sense. There were seven really good points to consider prior to deciding on a particular brand and shelling out your hard-earned cash, especially for an item which some might consider to be a major cooking purchase. I’m all for investing in quality, but the shiny object doesn’t always pass the test. This article by Derrick Riches, covers the finer aspects in-depth. I thought you would like to read up on this subject.

Here are those points:

1) Price

2) Fuel

3) Material

4) Size

5) Features

6) Heat

7) Durability

* Here is a fast recipe for a great side dish at your next BBQ meal.

Lightly Grilled Asparagus

Fresh asparagus (rinsed, and little knobs peeled off)

Olive Oil (not extra virgin olive oil, as it has a lower threshold to heat)

Fresh herbs (finely diced and sprinkled into the oil)

Sea Salt (lightly sprinkled on top after grilling)

~~~~~~~~

1) Prepare your grill and treat to be non-stick

2) Combine olive oil and herbs

3) Add lightly peeled asparagus to bowl and coat with oil and herbs

4) Grill only a few minutes on both sides

5) Sample one to make certain you do not burn or overcook

Enjoy!

April 30, 2011

Pipe These Raisins!

Filed under: Celebrating Food, Trying Something New, Writing — Tags: , , , , — Theresa H Hall @ 2:59 am

The last day of the month already? April 30th celebrates National Raisin Day. This fruit is really grape (joking). I mean it … grapes disguising themselves when they have given up their juiciness. Dried grapes are now raisins. Most kids love it when they find out about this metamorphosis. Raisins are tiny but they come packed with a punch of good nutrition. If you are dieting these make good healthy snacks. Here is a recipe to make a tasty old-fashioned French cookie.

Palais Raisin (pal le rhay zhon)

(This is a delicious, piped cookie)

8 oz butter (@ room temperature)

8 oz sugar

1 tsp vanilla

5 large eggs (@ room temperature)

11 oz AP flour

1/2 tsp salt

5 oz raisins (chopped a lot, then lightly coated with flour)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1) Combine dry ingredients into a bowl and set aside

2) Using mixer w/paddle attached, cream butter with a little sugar

(alternate adding some sugar then add an egg and repeat this process )

3) Add vanilla, then flour and stir together

4) Remove from mixer and add raisins folding in by hand

5) Attach either a #7 or #8 tip to the piping bag, and shape into 1″- 2″ cookies

Bake @ 375º for 8 to 10 minutes (light brown with darker edges)

Remove from oven and immediately brush tops with rum 10X glaze

Put back into oven for 2 minutes to set the glaze and cool on rack

Yield is 4 to 6 dozen cookies … depending on the amount piped

Rum 10X Glaze

Confectioners’ Sugar = 10X , up to a 1 Lb box (as much as needed)

Dark Rum and an equal amount of water

1) Pour 10X into bowl

2) Add equal amounts of dark rum and water to desired consistency

August 9, 2010

Pâte Brisée Dough

Filed under: Baking Tips, Writing — Tags: , — Theresa H Hall @ 1:16 pm

One of the first things you learn how to make in Culinary school for pastry arts, is dough. Here is a lovely recipe you can put together and use right away or freeze for up to a month, or keep in your refrigerator to be used within two to three days.

Pie and Tart Doughs

Pâte Brisée / Flaky Dough

Can be used for sweet or savory fillings. It’s quick, easy, versatile and is usually used for pie crusts and sometimes latticed for decoration. It may be cooled and later filled with a filling just before serving.

Ingredients:

8 oz A P flour

3 1/2 oz butter in 1/2″ cubes

1/ 2 t salt

1/3 c cold water with some lemon drops added

Instuctions:

1) Chill all of the ingredients.

2) Combine flour, salt and butter in mixer and attach paddle.  Stir together until butter is shimmed down to the size of peas (flaky) mealy (like cornmeal).

3) Add water a few drops at a time until the dough just holds together.

4) Turn onto a lightly floured cold surface.  Rub in small areas (fraisage) do not knead; by pressing dough into different directions to ensure butter is evenly dispersed.  Do not overwork.

6) Quickly roll dough to 1/8″ thickness, turning and lifting to avoid sticking.  Place the dough over the rolling pin and place onto a lightly greased tart pan.  You should reinforce (add more dough to strengthen),  or double wall sides of the tart.  Roll off top and flute edges if desired.  Any dough scraps should be piled atop one another and used again.  This is a directional dough, which means that you keep scraps in a pile, laying them in the same direction as the dough had been rolled out. Unlike pie dough, that does not matter which way the scraps were rolled.

7) Refrigerate before baking in order to relax the dough and chill the butter.  This allows the dough to absorb the water. About 30 minutes.

8) Bake in preheated oven 375º 10 to 12 minutes blind, remove weights and parchment paper and continue to bake 6 minutes or until amber in color.  Bake docked (using fork tines to mark the dough to keep from shrinking), 15 to 18 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack, add filling or wrap and store.  Can be baked with filling.

Yields 2 8″ to 10″ tart shells or 12 small tartlets.

Store wrapped in plastic wrap in refrigerator about 3 days or in the freezer for a month.

January 3, 2010

The ultimate cupcake

Filed under: Baking Tips, Entertaining — Tags: , , — TrishB @ 2:26 pm

cupcakes100 people for New Year’s Eve dinner. 18 house guests. 29 items (or more) on the menu. 3 days later and I am still exhausted. That’s correct, I did not accidentally add a zero to the number 10. On New Year’s Eve I had 100 people for dinner in my home. I awoke this morning realizing that amidst the craziness of the last week I had forgotten to write my Sunday HHM blog post. So today’s will be short and sweet. Of the 29 plus items on my menu one of the favorites of both adults and kids were the cupcakes I baked.

If you are a cupcake connoisseur, and know New York City, then you know the Magnolia Bakery. Their cupcakes are sinfully delicious and ridiculously expensive. Thankfully, they have a cookbook. So whenever I make cupcakes I use their easy to follow recipes. I cannot state with absolute certainty that this is exactly how they make them, but I do know that cupcakes made from their recipes get rave reviews. I think next year cupcakes will be the only thing on my menu, and a little bubbly, of course.

CUPCAKES

– 1 1/2  cups self-rising flour
– 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
– 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
– 2 cups sugar
– 4 large eggs, at room temperature
– 1 cup milk
– 1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.
In small bowl, combine the flours.  Set aside. In a large bowl, on medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing. Ice with Vanilla Buttercream.

Vanilla Buttercream Icing (makes enough for about 2 dozen cupcakes):


1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
6-8 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes.
Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of a good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar.
If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly.  Use and store the icing at room temperature. Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

November 16, 2009

Steak and Baked Potato Soup

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , — Anne Coleman @ 7:00 am

11_09 034I adore soup. In fact, I love it so much that I have a blog wholly devoted to soup. While I am admittedly selfish in wanting to keep my soup recipes for my soup blog, this one is in the ‘under 30 minutes’ department and as such deserves a spot here at Half Hour Meals.

One of my favorite ways to make up new soups is to disassemble a favorite dish and put it all into a big pot. If there are leftovers involved in the making, so much the better. This one uses leftover steak and baked potatoes as a base and with a few twists here and there, it comes together in one delicious potful of soup.

Steak and Baked Potato Soup
Serves 8
Ready In: 30 minutes

2 Tablespoons cooking oil
2 cloves garlic – minced
1/2 cup sliced green onions (a.k.a. scallions or spring onions)
8 cups beef stock
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1 pound leftover steak – sliced
4 large baked potatoes – skinned
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup milk
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
Salt to taste
4 slices bacon – cooked crisp and crumbled – optional

Heat oil in a large soup pot over medium high heat. Add green onion and garlic and cook briefly until fragrant – about 2 minutes.
Add stock, Worcestershire and pepper and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to low and add sliced steak.
Mash 2 potatoes and cube the other two. Add mashed potato to pot and stir well. Add cubed potato and simmer for 20 minutes.
Combine flour and milk and stir until smooth. Turn heat up to high and pour in flour and milk, stirring constantly to keep lumps from forming. Once soup has thickened slightly remove from heat and add cheddar cheese and bacon if desired.

September 24, 2009

Member Recipe Review: Cucumber and Roasted Peanut Salad

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , — Anne Coleman @ 8:00 am

2fall09 015There’s no doubt that summer is over here, but my cucumber vines didn’t get the memo. Not only did they produce quite copiously this year, they’re still flowering and wee little cucumbers are peeking out from beneath the blossoms.

After giving away all that we could without having the new neighbors whispering about the ‘odd cucumber family’, I soldiered on and dug deep within the recesses of my cookbook collection to find new and different ways to use up the prolific pepino production I had on my hands.

I needn’t have gone so far, for there was a recipe right here at Half Hour Meals that filled the bill quite well; Jurate’s Cucumber and Roasted Peanut Salad.

The bright flavors of cilantro and lime combined with cool cucumber and sweet red onion blend perfectly together to make a deliciously light salad perfect to help me use up the bounty I have on hand. Cumin seeds, black mustard seed and peanuts add a depth of flavor and crunch to the whole dish – a prime balance for the cool cuke.

Not only was it the choicest match to the soup I had for lunch today, but the kids thought rather highly of it as well. Give it a try yourself, the recipe can be found here: http://www.halfhourmeals.com/recipe/cucumber-and-roasted-peanut-salad

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