DinnerCakes

Slow Cooker Week – Day 2, Vegetable Stock

January 12th, 2010

by Chef Edwin

Stock: culinary ambrosia. A perfect candidate for the slow cooker. I have to admit, the non-vegetarian stocks are much easier to work with, in terms of creating high quality. Sure there are plenty of ways to go in terms of herbs or spices, but it’s really the bones that make the stock. Everything else after that is just gravy (no pun intended).

It’s the fat, really. Fat makes just about everything taste better and, well, veggies aren’t exactly on the plump end of that spectrum. Every time I make vegetable stock I change it up a little, in constant search of something that will put it on its own pillar. Taking a page from Heather’s book, I decided to employ the use mushrooms; something I’ve never been fond of. I have to admit they added a great dimension and this is by far my best tasting stock yet. I guess I’ll have to give the ol’ fungus another shot.

Slow Cooker Vegetable Stock
I got a bit too much burning on my sliced mushrooms, so I’ve modified the recipe to just halve them. Be sure to cut and discard anything that’s simply burnt instead of browned.

1 parsnip; peeled and cut in half lengthwise
2 carrots; peeled and cut in half lengthwise
2 medium yellow onions; quartered
1 potato (I used russet); chopped into 1 1/2 inch pieces, roughly
1 turnip; peeled and chopped into 1 1/2 inch pieces, roughly
5oz mushrooms; halved
2 stalks celery; cut into 1 inch pieces
4 garlic cloves; unpeeled and smashed
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup chopped parsley

Put all your vegetables and mushrooms in baking sheets, evenly spaced, and drizzle with oil. Roast in a 450° oven for 30 minutes; rotating halfway through. Throw into a 4 to 6 quart slow cooker with 12 cups of water and cook, covered, for 8 hours.

Let the stock cool for a bit strain through a a fine mesh sieve. Let drain a bit and press/mash the veggies a bit to release some of the liquid. If you only have a small one (like me), simply scoop out your veggies a bit of a time, dumping the leftover vegetables as you go.

Let cool to room temperature and portion into several tightly sealed containers. Store in the refrigerator for up to a week or in the freezer for several months. Enjoy!

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Slow Cooker Week – Day 1, Sweet Potato & Beef Stew

January 11th, 2010

by Heather (Ghost Baker)

It’s time for another theme week at DinnerCakes! From time to time we like to devote a week to a particular style or genre of cooking, a holiday or anything really that strikes our fancy. Past theme weeks include Rainbow Week, Halloween Week and Smoothie Week. Welcome to Slow Cooker (ie Crockpot) week!

When I say slow cooker, do visions of fatty, salty stews pop into your head? Slow cooker meals can be unhealthy when all you’re doing is opening a bunch of canned food into the pot and letting it simmer. Canned food contains a great deal of sodium, which is great to keep it fresher in the can… but not so great for your heart, blood pressure, etc.

So the trick is to use fresh ingredients when possible (watch the canned food), add spices and seasonings liberally (but create your own flavors instead of relying on flavor packets and premade seasonings) and get creative!

I’m starting out the week with the cliched beef stew, but I jazzed it up a little bit. Instead of adding russet potatoes, I used two sweet potatoes that I had in the kitchen, emphasizing the savory and sweet flavors of a stew. I also relied more on veggies than beef, using only a handful of leftover cubed beef that I had from my fondue experiment. Lastly, I didn’t measure any seasonings that I added to the pot. I’m sorry, Julia Childs, but slow cooker meals simmer for hours in the added spices, and I think trying to be too precise about measuring it would lead to a bland stew. Trust your own hand!

Though I was grumbling while preparing the ingredients in the morning, it’s so nice to be able to just walk over to the slow cooker and spoon out dinner in the evening!

Savory Beef & Sweet Potato Stew

Approx. one pound of beef stew meat, cubed
Approx. 1/2 cup flour (for dusting the beef)
2 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed, peeled and diced
Approx. 5 whole carrots, peeled and diced
Approx. 4 whole celery hearts, diced
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 cup frozen peas
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
32 oz. low sodium beef broth
salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder (for sprinkling on beef)
salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, celery seed, paprika, thyme (to taste)

In the morning, prepare ingredients – season beef, cut carrots, celery, onion, potatoes, etc. Add vegetables to the bottom of the slow cooker.

Dredge beef cubes in flour. Heat a skillet on medium heat. Add cooking spray or a small amount of oil and lightly brown beef, then add to slow cooker. Add a small amount of beef broth to the pan and add onions. Saute until lightly browned, then add onions and deglazed beef broth to the slow cooker. Add all remaining ingredients and beef broth to the slow cooker. Toss to combine ingredients and spices.

Cook on low approximately 6-8 hours. If stew needs additional thickening, add more flour or cornstarch and stir. If this is the first time you’ve used your crock pot, try to monitor the cook time as cookers vary in temperature (mine tends to be on the hot side).

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Kitchen Tips – Keep That Cutting Board From Getting Away!

January 8th, 2010

by Chef Edwin

One that really drives up the Edwin-Annoyance factor in the kitchen is when my cutting board won’t hold still. Not only is it annoying (return to me!), but it’s also unsafe. Fortunately, there’s an easy solution to this. If you find your cutting board slipping, simply put a damp towel under it. This can be a paper towel or a regular cloth dish towel you most likely have in the kitchen. This will ensure you a more satisfying and safe cutting experience.

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Assembling a Trifle

January 7th, 2010

by Heather (Ghost Baker)

My eyes aren’t fully undilated, so please forgive any typos or bizarre things contained within this post. I feel fairly cross-eyed!

So the other day I was thinking about things I could make for dessert that aren’t so heavy. I came back to my old favorite, the red, white and blueberry trifle. However I realized after looking through this post that I was rather vague with the assembly. So why don’t we walk through that a little better?

First bake and cool a delicious vanilla pound cake. My favorite for trifles remains the Double Vanilla Pound Cake from The Art & Soul of Baking.

I let my pound cake cool, wrapped it in foil and let it sit overnight so that it wouldn’t crumble when putting together the trifle.

Next, gently trim away any crusty edges.

Cut the pound cake to one inch slices.

And I like to eat the end pieces…

Cut each slice in half long ways.

Then cube it.

We’re going for 1/2 inch to 1 inch cubes.

You could also cut two slices at once to save time if you wanted.

Arrange your first layer at the bottom of the trifle bowl. Use about two slices of pound cake in each layer.

Add a layer of sliced strawberries over the pound cake. Because basically no fruit is in season right now, I used frozen strawberries and frozen blueberries.. which are frozen in their prime anyway. While cooling the pound cake the night before, I also sliced the strawberries and moved my fruit to the fridge overnight to thaw.

After strawberries comes blueberries. You should have sprinkled your fruit with a bit of sugar while it thawed overnight. After adding the fruit to the trifle bowl, feel free to sprinkle additional sugar.

After fruit comes pudding. I used two small boxes of fat free/sugar free vanilla pudding. To make the pudding you mix each packet with two cups of cold milk, whisking for about 2 minutes. The pudding will set in about 5 minutes.

A layer of fat free Cool Whip will even out the cake and fruit.

So pound cake, strawberries, blueberries, a sprinkle of sugar, pudding and Cool Whip is the routine. After the Cool Whip you begin your layer again.

Lots of people like to get fancy here, arranging each strawberry slice individually. Ghost Baker refuses to indulge this level of detail!

Rustic arrangements keep me sane.

Do you notice anything that doesn’t belong in this photo? Prying noses and paws, perhaps?

Once you’re done with your layers, you can get decorative at the top… making lovely fruit arrangements, adding dollops of Cool Whip, coconut, nuts or other kinds of fruit.

If you’d like your cake to get a little softer and let the pudding and Cool Whip seep in, prepare this early and chill it until it’s time to serve. If you’re firmly against softened cake, then prepare just before serving. I enjoy the pudding-laden cubes of cake, so I prepare mine several hours before serving. Enjoy!

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Ack!

January 7th, 2010

by Heather (Ghost Baker)

So I went to the eye doctor this morning and now my pupils are dilated! Hope this isn’t filled with typos – because I can’t see a thing! Please stay tuned.. anyone know how long dilation lasts??

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Food Photography – Can I Interest You In Some Tempeh Curry?

January 6th, 2010

by Chef Edwin

Happy food photo day, everyone. I’ve been doing a lot with tempeh and other faux meats lately and I’m not entirely sure why. This is another dish from Totally Vegetarian, though I must admit this one did not knock my socks off. With tempeh and it’s brethren, the proper proper flavors are crucial to taking that block of bleh into something delish.

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Hello, 2010. Let’s Have Fondue.

January 5th, 2010

by Heather (Ghost Baker)

I typically hate New Years. There’s so much pressure to maximize your fun… just thinking about it makes me tired (see Caring for your Introvert by Jonathan Rauch)!

But yesterday someone posted on their facebook page “2010 new years goals (if you call them resolutions, you never ever do them).” Huh.. that seems so true! So here are my DinnerCakes goals for 2010; we’ll see how I do:

1) Read the cookbooks I already have
2) Experiment more
3) Work with foods I’ve never cooked with before
4) Try cooking things I think I won’t like (…many things)
5) More vegetables!

Let’s stick with that for now.

So far this month I’ve made fondue using an electric fondue pot. If you’re trying to make meat fondue, this is really the only way to go. The word fondue is from the French verb fondre, which means to melt. It’s actually a Swiss dish in origin. HungryMonster describes:

During the frigid Swiss winters snow covered mountain valleys isolated villages and towns. Consequently fresh food became scarce. Towns people had to rely upon locally made foods. These were produced by area cheese makers in the summer months. During winter months these cheeses became dryer and more unpalatable. Out of necessity came a wonderful dish, the fondue. It’s named derived from the French word fondue – meaning to melt or to blend. This was exactly what the stale cheese needed to make it more digestible. The cheese was melted in a earthenware pot called the caquelon. Local wines and seasonings were added and even the stale bread tasted delicious after it was swirled in the creamy cheese sauce.

I don’t know how accurate this information is, but it makes a nice story! I was inspired to experiment with fondue after a friend’s sister had my husband and I over for a fondue night. She used to work at The Melting Pot, so she had some good advice along the way. She made a cheese fondue with cheddar, white wine and garlic, a meat fondue with chicken broth and red wine, and a smores chocolate fondue dessert complete with flambee!

In my own adventures after this dinner, I just made the cheese and meat fondue… I probably didn’t need two chocolate fondues in one week (though I wanted it). This is only round one of me & fondue (you’ll be hearing more later as I learn more), but so far some tips I can pass along include

Cheese Fondue (dippers this time – cauliflower, crusty cubed bread, apples)
1) Flour your cheese – more than you think you need to
2) Beer in the cheese is delicious, but only use about 1/3 of the bottle
3) Use more than one kind of cheese for depth of flavor
4) Keep the temperature hot but not boiling

Meat Fondue (dippers this time – chicken and beef, new potatoes and mushrooms & teriyaki and BBQ dipping sauce)
1) Use chicken broth instead of vegetable broth – the veggie broth made the beef taste more like beef stew
2) Don’t use beef that is specifically for beef stew
3) Use dry red wine in the cooking base, like Pinot Noir
4) Veggies like new potatoes and baby bella mushrooms are excellent choices

My friend’s sister also gave me an awesome recipe for Green Goddess vegetable dip. I haven’t tried to make it yet, though, so I’ll let you know how that goes soon!

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Take That Winter! Thick And Hearty Lentil Stew

January 4th, 2010

by Chef Edwin

Happy 2010 everyone! I hope you all had a joyous holiday and a fun (and safe) New Years Eve. I traveled to the windy and disturbingly cold Chicago for Christmas to see quite a few members of the extended family. Despite the shivering, it was a great time and well worth the twelve hour drive it took to get there (that’s right, we drove there). My family, with our German roots, is not big on the vegetarian cuisine and the term “light” does not enter the vocabulary either (I believe the word is “licht”, in case you were wondering). There will be much to make up for these following months.

The new year has started off wickedly cold up here in DC and the strong winds we’ve been getting lately have been so horrid I have given serious thought to becoming a professional hermit. I suppose moving would be a little more realistic…. Regardless, I shall be cutting down on any non-essential trips out of my building and surrounding myself with whatever keeps me warm.

I’ve always loved meals with copious chunks of fruit or vegetables and this is because I’ve always been a picker. I would always start munching on whatever Mom was making for dinner before it was ready until she kicked me out of the kitchen. My sister HATED this (“he’s putting his hands in our food!”). You can’t really “pick” a piece of biscuit or spaghetti. You’re either going to get caught or burned. But fruit salad, roasted vegetables? Score.

ANYWAY, with winter in full swing I wanted something as well as filling, so I took a recipe from my hero Alton Brown and stewified it; making it heartier. Next time, I shall add a potato, I believe, but the broccoli was a great addition as part of the soup and for picking potential (you can pick from soup. it’s just harder). Try this next time you’re looking for something to warm the deep chill out of your bones.

Thick and Hearty Lentil Stew
2 tablespoons butter
2 onions; chopped
2 medium carrots; diced
1 stalk celery; chopped
4 cloves garlic; minced
1/3 cup fresh chopped cilantro
3/4 lb green lentils; rinsed and drained
1 head of broccoli; chopped into small florets
3 medium tomatoes; chopped
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
12 cups water/stock
1/4 cup lemon juice
10oz spinach; roughly chopped

Sweat the onions, carrots, celery, garlic and cilantro until the onions have softened. Add the lentils, broccoli, tomatoes, spices and water/stock. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Add the spinach and lemon juice and simmer for another 10 minutes. Serve with salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

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Third Annual Bake-a-Thon

December 29th, 2009

by Heather (Ghost Baker)

So Bake-a-Thon was a little different this year. In year’s past, a bunch of us have gathered at Edwin’s apartment where we work like a chain gang for an entire day – measuring, mixing, chilling, baking, cleaning, repeat.

This year we hosted the event at Jane’s house, which provided us with a lot more room to scamper around in the kitchen. Bake-a-Thon also coincided with a historically large snow fall on the east coast that barricaded us inside (except for Edwin, who seems to enjoy taking his life in his hands).

But those who weren’t already at Jane’s when the snow started falling could never make it over, thus our chain gang was cut in half. And since everyone brings a recipe of their choice to the event, we were down in cookie varieties. Some bakers even had technical difficulties (sigh… me…). Bake-a-Thon 2009 was, you could say, a struggle. I could tell you tales of hardened espresso powder and overly softened butter…

We also had distractions – watching snow accumulate outside, a whining furry puppy trying to steal butter wrappers out of the trash and New Super Mario Brothers for Wii – we were bombarded on all fronts. It was also the first time I had actually seen Edwin and Jane since moving to Charlottesville in August. Now that I think about it, it’s truly amazing that any cookies were made at all.

Holiday baking is a battlefield. I also forgot my apron and hat – Qué lástima!

There was also some PDA in the kitchen. Tye set up a video camera in the kitchen, so I’m sure there is a time-lapse video of all the trials and tribulations somewhere.

Edwin probably walks away with the cookie award for his perfectionism in the kitchen. He moved along on schedule and his cookies looked beautiful.

Jane enjoyed some tea.

Right before a round of Super Mario Bros Wii.

Yeah… there was a steak break, too. Courtesy of Dong.

Edwin drowned his guilt about gorging on steak by heading back to work.

See? He’s not even looking at the pretty snow outside.

We all had a laugh at Jane’s Espresso Shortbread Cookie dough. Something is just odd about pouring dough in a Ziploc.

Edwin arranged his cookies to cool, while Jane ate them.

Edwin’s Sour Cherry Hamantaschen

I was very embarrassed about my Russian Tea Cakes. I’ve made them 100 times without problems, but the 101st time really got me. Two batches – one with butter softened via microwave and one with it left out for 45 minutes – neither was perfect.

Jane had success with the Espresso-Chocolate Shortbreads from Smitten Kitchen.

Tune in next year for the 4th Annual Bake-a-Thon! Will we have another record-breaking snow? Will Edwin finally fall victim to distraction? Will I ever reconcile my differences with room temperature butter? Time will tell…

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Let it Snow?

December 23rd, 2009

by Heather (Ghost Baker)

You may have noticed Edwin and I are taking a little mini vacation this week. He’s off to Chi-town with family, and I’m trying to do all the Christmas shopping that exams prevented me from getting done!

If you haven’t heard, parts of the east coast were slammed this past weekend with record snowfall. Eek. I’m still working on digging out my car, and I take my life in my hands every time I leave the house. We did have Bake-a-Thon, however many of our usual bakers were unable to make it due to the snow… more on that later this week!

In other news, my baby dog is becoming an adolescent dog. And we got him to finally wear his Christmas bandanna – take a look!

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