Just a quick little note/link today...still failing to find the balance between things I want to post on versus my post-work desire to vegetate or run errands. Vegetation is winning.
In one of my food blogs today, there was a link to a New York Times article about a berry called Miracle Fruit. Apparently eating the pulp of this cranberry-looking berry changes sour tastes to sweet tastes for about an hour. Thus, sugary things taste even more sugary and sour things taste like sugar. Like the setting of the article, I too think this would make for an awesome gathering of people, especially if it were people who were not that familiar with one another. Everyone experiencing something new tends to bond. And who doesn't want to pour Tabasco down your throat and feel what hot icing is like? Even though the berries are about $2 each, for an hour of altered food tasting is worth it, I think. It is like a drug trip for your taste buds!
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Twisted and Oh So Good..
It was a slow and lazy Saturday afternoon about a month ago. I was relaxing on the couch, enjoying the offerings of full cable, watching Bobby Flay on "Throwdown." For those not in the know, Throwdown is a show wherein Flay is given an assignment to try and beat another chef/restaurateur at what they make best - hot dogs, cakes, Texas Chili, etc. On this particular show, Flay was challenged to make a better pretzel and dipping sauce that a place in Philly. Raise your hands if you knew Philly was known for its pretzels? Me either, but apparently this is the case. Bobby pulled of a surprise win and it got me thinking about my own pretzel-making experiences...
The first recollection of the pretzel creative process came my senior year in college with roomie Lisa and friend Brannen/on/an (I cannot remember how he spelled his name). I do not remember much more than me being the worst twister of the bunch. My ends would not stay together, my logs were too thin, the complications were numerous.
Next memory also has a little Lisa in it. At her wedding, her favors were cookie cutters tied to a little recipe book that had some of her and hubby's favorite foods (oatmeal cookies, possum and egg noodles some of the highlights). One of them was her recipe for pretzels. Now that I had a year or two of age on me, I thought I was mature enough to manage the twisting. Which I did (with Aaron's help) quite wonderfully. However, in the printing of the recipe, a critical step was left off. There was not baking the pretzels, so it was assumed by Aaron and I that after the dough was boiled, they were ready to eat. They were not. We tried boiling them longer, which made them more wet and spongy. Then we tried baking them but the damage had already been done. I later emailed Lisa and got the missing step, but always was a little leery that she had left another step off in a ploy to corner the market on her pretzels. Moral of the story, don't trust a Midwesterner with curly hair. (I love you, Lisa!)
Back to the Saturday...
Emboldened with a courage that can only come from a lack of anything else to do, I began looking for Lisa's pretzel recipe so I could make a batch. But wait...why make Lisa's when I could see if Bobby's was so good as to merit a Throwdown win? I checked out the recipe online and was happy to see I had all the needed ingredients, so to pretzel making I went. It is fairly simple to make...a lot like pizza dough. In fact, I bet it would make good pizza dough...or focaccia, mmm focaccia.
After letting the dough rise, it was time to test my twisting abilities. I did pretty well overall, with two or three casualties post-boiling that became cinnamon sugar pretzels. The boiling is where I veered from the recipe slightly. I used less baking soda in the water because I was almost out, and I did not see any adverse issues. I do not think the pretzels would have faired as well were it not for my use of a spider, which allowed me to remove the pretzels without breaking them. Popped them in the oven, waited patiently and look what came out...
Seriously. I mean, come on. You cannot get that at Auntie Anne's. The outside has a great crust, but not rubbery or dry (even after microwaving to reheat), the inside is dense, airy, salty with a little hint of sweetness. I wanted to eat them all.
And, if that were not enough, I had leftover cheese from an enchilada dinner so I made a version of the Queso Poblano sauce using chili powder and cayenne pepper instead of the poblano. I think it worked well - gave the sauce a nice orange hue, played well off the salty and hint of sweet of the pretzel. No wonder Bobby won this Throwdown. And, because the cinnamon sugar ones needed some dipping love, I made a quick glaze with powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract - yummy!
Since that Saturday, I have made another batch or two, each as successful as the first. Even though the recipe makes 8, I was did make 12 once, but that was pushing it. The less dough you use, the thinner the pretzel, and who wants a skinny pretzel? In addition, the thinner pretzels make it a little harder in the boiling - more apt to come apart during and after boiling (think getting penne out of water with a spoon vs. getting spaghetti out).
When Aaron tasted one, he exclaimed, "This is by far the best thing you have made since you moved here." (So maybe that was not word-for-word what he said, but it is the general tone and feeling he emoted.) And, I would have to agree. The question now is: who would win in a Bobby's pretzel throwdown -me or Bobby?
The first recollection of the pretzel creative process came my senior year in college with roomie Lisa and friend Brannen/on/an (I cannot remember how he spelled his name). I do not remember much more than me being the worst twister of the bunch. My ends would not stay together, my logs were too thin, the complications were numerous.
Next memory also has a little Lisa in it. At her wedding, her favors were cookie cutters tied to a little recipe book that had some of her and hubby's favorite foods (oatmeal cookies, possum and egg noodles some of the highlights). One of them was her recipe for pretzels. Now that I had a year or two of age on me, I thought I was mature enough to manage the twisting. Which I did (with Aaron's help) quite wonderfully. However, in the printing of the recipe, a critical step was left off. There was not baking the pretzels, so it was assumed by Aaron and I that after the dough was boiled, they were ready to eat. They were not. We tried boiling them longer, which made them more wet and spongy. Then we tried baking them but the damage had already been done. I later emailed Lisa and got the missing step, but always was a little leery that she had left another step off in a ploy to corner the market on her pretzels. Moral of the story, don't trust a Midwesterner with curly hair. (I love you, Lisa!)
Back to the Saturday...
Emboldened with a courage that can only come from a lack of anything else to do, I began looking for Lisa's pretzel recipe so I could make a batch. But wait...why make Lisa's when I could see if Bobby's was so good as to merit a Throwdown win? I checked out the recipe online and was happy to see I had all the needed ingredients, so to pretzel making I went. It is fairly simple to make...a lot like pizza dough. In fact, I bet it would make good pizza dough...or focaccia, mmm focaccia.
After letting the dough rise, it was time to test my twisting abilities. I did pretty well overall, with two or three casualties post-boiling that became cinnamon sugar pretzels. The boiling is where I veered from the recipe slightly. I used less baking soda in the water because I was almost out, and I did not see any adverse issues. I do not think the pretzels would have faired as well were it not for my use of a spider, which allowed me to remove the pretzels without breaking them. Popped them in the oven, waited patiently and look what came out...
Seriously. I mean, come on. You cannot get that at Auntie Anne's. The outside has a great crust, but not rubbery or dry (even after microwaving to reheat), the inside is dense, airy, salty with a little hint of sweetness. I wanted to eat them all.
And, if that were not enough, I had leftover cheese from an enchilada dinner so I made a version of the Queso Poblano sauce using chili powder and cayenne pepper instead of the poblano. I think it worked well - gave the sauce a nice orange hue, played well off the salty and hint of sweet of the pretzel. No wonder Bobby won this Throwdown. And, because the cinnamon sugar ones needed some dipping love, I made a quick glaze with powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract - yummy!
Since that Saturday, I have made another batch or two, each as successful as the first. Even though the recipe makes 8, I was did make 12 once, but that was pushing it. The less dough you use, the thinner the pretzel, and who wants a skinny pretzel? In addition, the thinner pretzels make it a little harder in the boiling - more apt to come apart during and after boiling (think getting penne out of water with a spoon vs. getting spaghetti out).
When Aaron tasted one, he exclaimed, "This is by far the best thing you have made since you moved here." (So maybe that was not word-for-word what he said, but it is the general tone and feeling he emoted.) And, I would have to agree. The question now is: who would win in a Bobby's pretzel throwdown -me or Bobby?
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Ice cream minus cream
I have an ongoing list of things I want to post about, but now that I have a job (yippee!) I no longer have 8+ hours in the day to blog at my leisure. So, until I get to those planned posts, I will write about a dessert you can buy ready-made at any grocery store - Haagen-Dazs!
I was read on Serious Eats about low-calorie ice cream (not for the low-cal part so much as the ice cream part) and saw Haagen-Dazs makes a chocolate sorbet, dairy-free frozen dessert. Generally speaking, I am not a gigantic fan of chocolate ice cream, but this is not chocolate ice cream, is it? It is sorbet, which means no dairy, which in turn means my tummy should like it more (silly lactose intolerance). But the only sorbets I have seen previous have been fruit-flavored, which is fine, but sometimes a person needs a pint of chocolate frozen goodness.
Cut to a few weeks later and Aaron and I decide to make burgers. At the grocery store, we gather all the needed items and make our way to the checkout. I cleverly veer toward the ice cream section "just to see" if the sorbet was there. Approximately 10 seconds later, I had my chocolate sorbet and Aaron had his pomegranate chip.
Burgers were great and it was time for dessert; the moment of truth. Will it taste like a watery, fake chocolate or like ice cream? Verdict: I don't need no stinkin' cream to have my chocolate frozen dessert. The texture is smooth, creamy (yeah, I don't know how they pull it off, either) with a great chocolate flavor. The chocolate does not taste sweet or syrupy, but a deep, rich flavor permeates the mouth. So now I have a great alternative to a "special" ice cream to get from time to time, and Haagen-Dazs continues to impress me with its flavors. (See also: Sticky Toffee Pudding and Mayan Chocolate)
And, for the curious, Pomegranate Chip is also a phenomenal ice cream - sweet, tart, a little bitter - mighty tasty.
I was read on Serious Eats about low-calorie ice cream (not for the low-cal part so much as the ice cream part) and saw Haagen-Dazs makes a chocolate sorbet, dairy-free frozen dessert. Generally speaking, I am not a gigantic fan of chocolate ice cream, but this is not chocolate ice cream, is it? It is sorbet, which means no dairy, which in turn means my tummy should like it more (silly lactose intolerance). But the only sorbets I have seen previous have been fruit-flavored, which is fine, but sometimes a person needs a pint of chocolate frozen goodness.
Cut to a few weeks later and Aaron and I decide to make burgers. At the grocery store, we gather all the needed items and make our way to the checkout. I cleverly veer toward the ice cream section "just to see" if the sorbet was there. Approximately 10 seconds later, I had my chocolate sorbet and Aaron had his pomegranate chip.
Burgers were great and it was time for dessert; the moment of truth. Will it taste like a watery, fake chocolate or like ice cream? Verdict: I don't need no stinkin' cream to have my chocolate frozen dessert. The texture is smooth, creamy (yeah, I don't know how they pull it off, either) with a great chocolate flavor. The chocolate does not taste sweet or syrupy, but a deep, rich flavor permeates the mouth. So now I have a great alternative to a "special" ice cream to get from time to time, and Haagen-Dazs continues to impress me with its flavors. (See also: Sticky Toffee Pudding and Mayan Chocolate)
And, for the curious, Pomegranate Chip is also a phenomenal ice cream - sweet, tart, a little bitter - mighty tasty.
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