Entries Tagged as 'Fearless Fridays'

Fearless Friday #31: A Twist on an Old Recipe

January 29th, 2010 4 Comments

Heather says:

I had pretty much written off Fearless Friday for this week. Since I’m out of town, without a real pantry, that’s about all the cooking adventure I was willing to handle while working under the pressure of a big deadline. Then last night, I saw a tweet from Candice of Ragamuffin Design. She had taken my favorite pizza dough recipe, tweaked it slightly and used it to make flatbread for a Greek meal. She sent me her technique and I thought it would be fun to share with you. Did you do anything for Fearless Friday this week? Share a link at the end of the post or tell us in the comments.

Remember, Fearless Friday is about our sharing failures -I like to think of them as learning experiences- as much as it is our successes.

Home-Ec 101 and Ragamuffin Design Flatbread

Ingredients:

  • 1 TBSP active dry yeast
  • 1 1/2 cups warm water
  • 3 1/2 cups bread flour + a little more for dusting
  • 1 1/2 TBSP olive oil + extra to grease the bowl for rising
  • 1 TBSP molasses
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 minced, grated, or pressed garlic clove

Directions:

Add the yeast to the warm water and set it aside.  Place the flour in a large bowl and whisk it to fluff it up.  With your hands, clean please, create a well in the flour.  Remember when you used to make a volcano with mashed potatoes and gravy? Yes, just like that.

To make clean up easier, measure the olive oil and then the molasses.  There is no chemical reason for doing this, other than the oil lubricates the spoon so you don’t have to struggle with the sticky molasses.  Add the salt and garlic clove, add all of this to the well in the flour.

Does the yeast and water look foamy?  Wonderful, add that to the well.  If you are using a stand mixer, use your dough hook to stir and knead.  Use the lowest setting and only knead it for about a minute after the dough comes together.

If you are kneading by hand, stir the ingredients until they are moist and well mixed.  Flour your work surface and knead the dough for around three minutes.  Estimate, this is pretty forgiving.

After kneading shape the dough into a ball. (Just like playdough folks, just like playdough).  Set aside.  Grease a large bowl with olive oil.  Place the dough in the bowl, turning it several times to coat with oil.  Cover with a damp cloth and allow to rise  / rest for thirty minutes. This gives the yeast time to develop flavor. It’s not going to rise a whole lot.

Divide the dough into balls about 2TBSP each. One at a time, lightly coat each ball with flour and roll very thin on a floured work surface.

Heat an ungreased skillet over medium high and cook each dough circle 1.5 minutes on each side. Stack until ready to serve.

Enjoy!

Share your Fearless Friday feats.

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Green Beans, Roasted: Fearless Friday #30

January 22nd, 2010 8 Comments

Heather says:

Fearless Fridays are a chance for readers of this site to share what they’ve been trying in the kitchen. It doesn’t have to be fancy, all I ask is that it be a new recipe or a new technique. Share a link to your effort in the McKlinky or tell us about it in the comments. There is even a Flickr group that everyone is welcome to join and share.

What did you try this week?

I know I’ve been talking about eating seasonally, but there were green beans and they were cheap, so I cheated and bought them. Why? They were whispering to me, “Remember when you heard someone say after they tried roasted green beans, they’d never eat them any other way” Why yes, I did remember that. So the green beans were soon bagged, taken on a car ride, and tucked into the crisper.

I roast root vegetables, broccoli, and cauliflower all the time. The high heat does a beautiful thing to the natural sugars. So I decided, what the heck, why not try it with green beans?

Preheat the oven to 425F make sure one rack is in the top position.

Wash the beans, pinch off the stems and the tips -I had only done the stems in my batch, next time the tips come off, they crisped too quickly.-  Place the trimmed beans in a large bowl and toss with a small amount of olive oil.

Spread on a baking sheet and sprinkle with kosher salt. Cook for 10 – 15 minutes, watch them carefully the last few minutes as brown yields fabulous flavor, but if it turns black you may as well suck on a charcoal briquette.

Verdict? Fabulous. It’s an easy side for any evening where the oven has already been in use. It’s a side dish that can be prepped at any time during the meal preparation and finished at the last minute while the table is set and drinks are poured.

Enjoy.

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Rutabaga, Mashed A Fearless Friday Experiment

January 15th, 2010 17 Comments

Heather says:

Welcome to the Fearless Friday that almost wasn’t. I’ve been under the weather and limited to soups and very soft foods. Being the masochist I am, I’ve also been paging through and drooling over my cookbooks waiting for the day I can manage them. Thursday’s dinner prep rolled around and as I stood there, I realized I had given absolutely no thought to this week’s Fearless Friday.

I looked around the kitchen somewhat desperately, trying to find a balance between something I had the energy to try and the ability to eat. Since I’ve been trying to focus on seasonal cooking my eyes landed on the rutabaga lurking on my counter. Perfect, I thought.

Fearless Fridays are a weekly event where readers of this site share their culinary adventures. For some, it’s simply the act of preparing a meal in their home instead of hitting the drive through. For others it’s trying new foods, recipes, or techniques. It’s a chance to push against our boundaries and maybe discover new favorites. Not every attempt will be successful  but everyone is encouraged to share, if you have a blog post a link to your post below, if you have a Flickr account share a picture, and if you have neither? Just share in the comments.

What do you do with a rutabaga?

I had planned roasting this rutabaga with turnips and carrots. Instead I decided to try mashing it. It was ridiculously easy. Cut off both the top and root, then use a vegetable peeler or paring knife to remove the waxy outer layer. Cut the vegetable into equal size pieces and steam, either in a steamer or in a pot with an inch or so of water.

Steam until tender, I was distracted, but I think it took 30 minutes.

At first, I tried to use a pastry blender to mash the steamed rutabaga, but I quickly gave up and broke out my immersion blender. Rutabaga is not as starchy as potatoes and even using a stick blender, it did not become gluey. Since I had never used rutabaga before, I simply added butter, salt, and fresh ground pepper.

The results?

Delicious.

The mashed rutabaga is slightly sweeter than a mashed potato, but not as sweet as a squash. It has a faint “root” like taste, I don’t know how to describe it, other than it reminds me of the smell of pulling weeds in the summer.

Before experimenting, I wanted to try it plain, I wanted a feel for the vegetable with the silly name. In the future, I’ll steam it with stock, either chicken or vegetable and I’ll add herbs that complement the main dish. I’ll experiment with adding a splash of milk or cream, as I do with mashed potatoes, but mostly I’ll just be sure this previously ignored vegetable becomes a part of our diet.

What did you do for Fearless Friday?

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Fearless Friday Edition #28

January 8th, 2010 9 Comments

Heather says:

Fearless Friday is back! I took a break around the holidays, but I’m ready to host this carnival once again. To participate all you have to do is push your culinary boundaries and tell us about it. Does it have to be successful? Nope, Fearless Failures are absolutely welcome and a part of the game.

Share what you tried in the McKlinky if you have a blog or Flickr picture of your adventure. If you don’t, please just share your story in the comments.

So what did I do this week?

I was cruising YouTube, I can’t remember why and came across this video:

I love sushi and so does my husband, yes even the grocery store kind. The problem with this love is that it isn’t exactly frugal. So this week I decided to start learning one of the techniques.

So it’s not exactly riveting, but I’m starting with the cucumbers. I may never approach the speed of the man in the video, but I think in a week or two I’ll be able to to get the knack of turning the cucumber flesh into a spiral.

Oops, I forgot to add the results:

Sushi StyleCucumber

Neat!

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Post-Turkey Day Fearless Friday

November 27th, 2009 8 Comments

Heather says:

Well, it’s the morning after one of the biggest cooking fests of the year (Christmas and Easter are close on the heels of Thanksgiving in my home).

How was your holiday? Apologies to my Canadian and other Home Ec readers, sometimes you just have to put up with my American perspective.

Did you attempt anything new? How did it turn out?

I admit it, after this year’s pre-Thanksgiving day photo shoot I totally took it easy and enjoyed dinner at my mom and stepdad’s. I brought the broccoli salad and apple pie. I nearly ate myself sick on collard greens (he uses bacon instead of smoked sausage).

Sweets for the Season launches tonight tomorrow, but I have a big, new project on my plate. So this year I am approaching it a little differently. I will be re-visiting many of the previous years’ recipes and taking new, hopefully better pictures. Look for one recipe a day, tomorrow through Christmas Eve.

If you have a request for a cookie or dessert recipe, please feel free to send it my way. Additionally, I would love to do a recipe carnival that includes your favorite cookie recipes.  The deadline for that will be December 11. If you don’t have a blog, you are still welcome to participate and your recipe / photo will be included in the post.  If you do send me your favorite recipe, make sure the narrative is your own. This is important, so I don’t accidentally infringe on any one’s copyright. Send links to posts or your recipes to Heather@home-ec101.com and be sure to put Cookie Carnival in the subject line. (This will help me not lose anyone’s entry in a deluge of spam). I’m hoping to get the carnival posted on the 15th of December.

This really is my favorite time of year.

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