Skillz

I realize that what I consider to be major accomplishments in school right now are things that normal people do on a daily basis in their homes because it is what normal people do. Normal people can cut things up without incident. Normal people can saute vegetables without breaking into cold sweats. Normal people will also know when these vegetables are done cooking. Normal people can grill a piece of fish. I don't know how I missed obtaining the basic skill of cooking, even cooking simply. If you watch How I Met Your Mother, this is one of my (many) gaps in knowledge.

I really shouldn't be so excited and feel so proud that I grilled a piece of fish today but I do. I have never grilled anything except a cheese sandwich before. But, I also can now fillet and skin that fish. Not everyone can do that (right?).

The culinary course I am in now has stepped it up a notch. There is a whole lot less cutting going on and now more cooking. I know how to make stocks and sauces (with fancy french names). I know what it means to sweat vegetables. I can tie, cut and de-bone a chicken. But what I am most proud of is that I made dinner on Sunday.

In class last week our instructor showed us how to  make braised lamb and I wrote down every step so that I could try it at home.

For braised lamb you want something like a shoulder, something a little more on the tough side and with lots of connective tissue. You also need a large pan or dutch oven that you can bake. Lightly season the meat with some kosher salt. The first step is to sear the meat to a nice brown color on all sides, getting a good carmelization in the pan. Set the meat aside.

Cut up a couple onions and shallots in a medium dice. Heat them up in a little oil and then cover the pan to sweat the vegetables until they are translucent. Add minced garlic (about 10 cloves). Cook for another minute. Then add a small can of tomato paste and mix in with the veggies. Once that has been well incorporated add some flour (about 3/4 cup). Gently mix in the flour and cook for a minute or two. Then add 4 roma tomatoes, halved and slice thin. Cover and cook for another minute to release the juices. Make a bouquet garni with some thyme, black peppercorns and a bay leaf. Throw the meat and the veggie mixture into the pan with the bouquet garni and bake for about 2 1/2 hours with a cover on. I started out at 350 and reduced to 325 after about an hour.

Mean while blanch some green beans and cut up some turnips, carrots and potatoes. I used 4 of each and a bunch of green beans. You could add more if you want to go heavy on the vegetables. Steam the potatoes in one pan and the carrots and turnips in another (add salt to the potatoes and sugar to the other). We steamed ours by making a parchment paper cover. Set the veggies aside.

Right before the lamb is done, saute the potatoes in a little oil. Saute the carrots and turnips in a little oil with some sugar to make kind of a little glaze. Throw the green beans in for a minute towards the end just to heat them back up.

When the lamb and all the vegetables are done, put them all in a large bowl and gently mix to combine them. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Eat and enjoy!

When the chef made this in class and we all got to eat it, our class was ridiculously happy. It made my day. It is perfect for these damp, cold fall days and I can't wait to do it again.

The real deal

Here are the real chocolate chip cookies that I have been wanting ever since the ice cream cookie dough experiment. This is my Aunt Georgia's recipe from one of her many small town church lady cookbooks. She made these cookies for me a couple months ago when I went down to visit her in Iowa. I was blown away with how tasty they were. I usually just go with the recipe on the bag of chocolate chips and they never turn out this good. She gave me the recipe, and after some explaining (do any of you know what oleo is?) I was excited to try them out.

They turn out to be the prettiest cookies I've made. And delicious.

Aunt Georgia's Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 cup butter (or  oleo I guess)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup chocolate chips
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (I used Kosher because it is yummy)

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix butter, oil, and both sugars together until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla and beat again until smooth. Add the dry ingredients in two additions. Add the chocolate chips. Bake for 8-10 minutes*. Cool on wire cooling rack

*Note: They are probably done before you think they are. They firm up a lot on the wire rack. Bake until the edges are golden and they are firm enough to transfer from baking sheet to rack.

The Test Kitchen

I've already posted about my new obsession with message cookies. I did not talk about how frustrating it has been to find the perfect sugar cookie recipe to use them with. I tried three recipes over the course of a couple days to try to find perfection. It was not found.

The first recipe, the one that came with the cookie cutters, I found to be too crunchy. They turned out more like sweet crackers. I think they did this so that the letters would keep their shape. The text did look fantastic but I was not a huge fan of the cookies (sorry muddy buddies). Fail.

Next I tried a recipe from my favorite baking book. It is kind of fancy and everything I have ever made from it has been fantastic so I was expecting the best. These cookies tasted great and kept their form well but I thought they were a little dry. Almost like shortbread, which I love, but it just wasn't what I was looking for in a sugar cookie. Tasty Fail.

The last recipe was from one of those cookbooks that has a little of everything and it all turns out pretty good. It is an old standby. These cookies were more like a typical sugar cookie. They were pretty sweet and slightly puffy. I found them hard to roll out because the dough got a little crumbly. The puffiness meant the letters didn't turnout as sharp. I was not a fan of the level of sweetness either. I think sugar cookies are often too sweet, almost to the point of being grainy with sugar, yuck. These weren't that bad but still too sweet for me. Sugar Fail.

The only solution was to combine the best elements into a new recipe. I think they are perfect, not too dry, not too puffy, not too sweet.

Sugar Cookies
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp kosher salt

Beat the sugar butter, shortening and vanilla together on medium speed for about 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat for another minute or until well combined. Add the flour and salt slowly, beating well after each addition.
Divide the dough in half, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 350. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick, cut out shapes.
Bake cookies for 12-18 minutes, rotating baking sheet once halfway through. Cool on wire cooling rack.

 I made Thank You cookies to go in the freezer and Wine Party cookies for a party we were going to. I added a little frosting to the wine party cookies just to make them a little cuter. It is just a combination of red wine (for a wine party after all) and powdered sugar. I just played with the ingredients until I got the consistency I wanted.

I love the way these cookies taste and I really love the way they roll out. Try it out and let me know what you think!

And jelly

Yesterday I was scouring the kitchen for a snack and all I could find was unsalted peanuts. So unsatisfying. Peanut butter is very satisfying but did we have that? Nope. I was recently reading about how much food people, but especially Americans throw away each year. The article urged readers to look through their fridge and try to make dinner with the things they have instead of running to the store. I applied these general principles and made peanut butter! I know the peanuts weren't going to go bad anytime soon but why waste the time and gas to go buy peanut butter when it is basically sitting there in your cupboard?

After a quick Google search I found out that all you need are peanuts, salt, honey, peanut oil and a food processor. Throw 15 oz of peanuts in with 1 tsp salt and 1 1/2 tsp honey and blend for about a minute. Then slowly add 1 1/2tsp of peanut oil while you blend until it is smooth. Voila! Peanut butter. I used kosher salt in mine and locally sourced honey from Ames Farms. I also used slightly more of these ingredients because I love them. Kosher salt especially makes everything better.

Toast with homemade peanut butter and homemade strawberry freezer jam that I made last month is the perfect snack! Now comes my favorite part. What else can I put in peanut butter? How can I make it better? What baked goods should I make with homemade peanut butter?

Sadly, these experiments will need to wait for another day. I am out of peanuts.