A Life, Lived

Huge Yorkshire Puddings

A few months ago one of the grocery stores featured sirloin tip roast for $5.99 a pound ($9.00 off the regular price). I bought three and stuck in the freezer.

We don't make roasts very often which is odd because we had roast beef every week when I was a child. However, from time to time I get a craving.

Last Sunday I went all out. Roast, gravy, roasted potatoes, veg, and of course, Yorkshire puddings. I was dreaming of the Yorkshire puddings we had at the Jamie Oliver restaurant we went to when we were in London.

They were amazing. I didn't want any old Yorkshire puddings i wanted HUGE ones.

I googled 'huge Yorkshire puddings' and this recipe came up. Happily it was buy Jamie Oliver.

The recipe is easy to follow. I didn't use as much oil as he suggested because I was worried about the oil overflowing. They didn't turn out as crispy as the ones I remember from London but they were good nonetheless.

I think that there are two secrets here - a hot oven and making sure your batter sits on the counter to rest. This actually gives it some time for the natural yeasts to start to work helping you to achieve Yorkshire pudding hugeness.

Enjoy!

Huge Yorkshire Puddings

1/2 pint (285 milliliters) milk
4 ounces (115 grams) all-purpose flour
Pinch salt
3 eggs
Vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Mix the batter ingredients together. Let rest for 10 minutes

Preheat a Yorkshire pudding tray or muffin tin with 1/2-inch (1 centimeter) of oil in each section. After the 10 minutes divide the batter into the tray. Cook for around 15 to 20 minutes until crisp and puffy, don't open the oven door before then or they won't rise.

Concord Grape Focaccia

Grape focaccia, or Schiacciata All’uva, is a magnificent Tuscan tradition sometimes known as winemakers’ focaccia that’s homemade flatbread with a smattering of black grapes that’s roasted until it creates a wondrously jammy sweetness.

There are plenty of recipes out there for making it but none as easy as this one.

Traditionally, grape focaccia, or Schiacciata All’uva, takes its characteristic jamminess from native Tuscan wine grapes known as canaiolo, the small, dark grapes make up part of the blend of Chianti wine. It’s an Italian winemakers tradition. These days it’s usually made with the more common and fragrant concord grapes (uva fragola). Just be warned if you use grapes with seeds, the bread will be punctuated with bitter crunchiness.

While concord grapes have seeds theya re tiny and you wont notice them in the finished product. The combination of the grapes, sugar, and rosemary is delicious.

Enjoy!

Concord Grape Focaccia

1 lb pizza dough
⅔ lb Concord grapes (NOTE: I actually think this might be too much. I'll use less grapes next time I make this)
2 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 branches rosemary
2 teaspoon turbinado sugar

Spread/roll the pizza dough until it's about ½ inch thick then transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover and let rise 10 minutes.

Drizzle the olive oil over top and massage it into the dough, tucking a little of the oil under the edges of the dough too.

Let the dough rest 10 minutes. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 400ºF.

Sprinkle the granulated sugar over the oiled focaccia dough and scatter the grapes over top and then the leaves of rosemary (discard stems). Top with turbinado.

Bake for a good 30 minutes, until it is a nice golden brown color. Let cool slightly before slicing and serving.

No-Fuss Focaccia

There is a lot to be said for a recipe that includes the term 'no-fuss' in the title. A term that doesn't always come to mind when you think of bread. A term that is aptly used in this case.

Warm, aromatic yeast bread, hot from the oven — with no kneading, AND in under 2 hours?

See, no-fuss.

We were having pasta for dinner so I decided to make some focaccia to serve alongside. We had had a hectic day of jobs around the hose so I didn't want anything too complex. This certainly fit the bill.

You'll need to be careful with the yeast. It calls for instant yeast - not the regular kind which needs more time to rise. Also, the recipe calls for a tablespoon of yeast. I had one of those little packets so I thought I was fine. Then I realized that a packet contains 2.25 teaspoons of yeast so I didn't use enough. The bread still rose but the crumb wasn't as good as it would have been had I used the right amount. Next time.

I've added a jar of instant yeast to my shopping list.

Anyway, yeast trauma aside, this turned out well. Great flavour, no-fuss 9as promised), and ready in less than two hours.

No-Fuss Focaccia

5 tablespoons (60g) olive oil, divided
1 1/2 cups (340g) water, warm
1 1/4 teaspoons (8g) salt
3 1/2 cups (418g)  all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon instant yeast

Use non-stick vegetable oil spray to lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan. Drizzle about 2 tablespoons (25g) of the olive oil atop the spray; the spray keeps the bread from sticking, while the olive oil gives the bottom crust great flavor and a bit of crunch.

Combine the remaining 3 tablespoons (35g) of the olive oil with the rest of the dough ingredients, and beat at high speed with an electric mixer for 60 seconds.

Scoop the sticky batter into the prepared pan, cover the pan, and let it rise at room temperature for 60 minutes — it should be quite puffy, but not fragile-looking.

While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 375°F.

Gently poke the dough all over with your index finger.

Drizzle it lightly with olive oil, and dried herbs of your choice, if desired.

Bake the bread until it's golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes.

Remove it from the oven, wait 5 minutes, then turn it out of the pan onto a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

No Knead Bread

Here is another of the COVID19 foodie trends that I joined late in the party.

In my defense, I've been making no-knead bread for many years (although for some reason I haven't made any for the past while).

This trend is one of the reasons why it is nearly impossible to find flour and yeast in stores. We're OK on the flour front and I managed to find some yeast (after a nice follower on twitter sent me in the right direction). Last week I made this recipe. You can't go wrong - you mix together 4 simple ingredients, about 18 hours later you dump it in a hot Dutch Oven, and bake in a hot oven. The resulting bread that is simply perfection.

The slow rise is what gives the bread that great flavor, and the baking method is what gives it that incredible crispy crust. As you bake it with the lid on, it creates steam inside the pot therefore creating a nice crust on the bread. Oh yes, it’ll also fill your house with the wonderful aroma of freshly baked bread. What is not to love about that during the pandemic?

No Knead Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups water room temperature

Form the dough: In a big bowl mix the flour, salt and yeast together. Pour water into the bowl and using a spatula or a wooden spoon mix it until well incorporated. You do not need to activate the yeast before, even though we're using active dry yeast. The slow rising process will do the trick.

Allow it to rise: Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit on your counter or inside your unheated oven for 12 to 18 hours.

Preheat your oven: Preheat oven to 450 F degrees. Add your cast iron pot to the oven as it's heating and heat it as well until it's at 450 F degrees. Usually when the oven is done preheating your pot should be hot enough as well. Remove the pot from the oven and remove the lid from it. Use oven mitts, as to not burn yourself.

Shape the dough: Flour your hands really well and also sprinkle a bit of flour over the dough. With your floured hands gently remove the dough from the bowl and roughly shape it into a ball. Sprinkle some extra flour directly into the bottom of the pot. Take the ball of dough and drop it into the pot. Cover the pot with the lid and place it back in the oven. Alternatively, you can also place the ball of dough onto a piece of parchment paper, then lift the parchment paper and drop it in the pot, with parchment paper and all. This could also ensure that your bread doesn't stick at all to the bottom of the pot. I have found that if I use parchment paper, the bread doesn't brown so much on the sides, but otherwise it's still crusty and delicious.

Finish the bread: Bake for 30 minutes with the lid on, after which remove the lid and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown. Remove the bread from the pot, it should fall out easily. Let cool completely before slicing into it and serving.

Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

Lemon and blueberry is one of my favourite taste combinations. Here it joins an easy buttermilk pancake recipe to make a delicious breakfast treat.

These pancakes are amazing. They are so soft and fluffy, they might throw you for a loop because they’re not quite like the typical pancakes: they are almost like a souffle. They are so insanely delicious, however, you will find yourself craving them at all hours.

Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons sugar
pinch of salt
2 large eggs, beaten
zest from one very large or two small lemons
3 cups buttermilk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups blueberries, frozen or fresh<
Additional butter for grill

Preheat griddle on medium low heat.

In large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center.

In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, zest, buttermilk, and melted butter. Pour wet ingredients into bowl with the dry ingredients. Stir very gently by folding liquid into dry ingredients. You want your batter to be lumpy.

Grease hot grill with butter. Place large spoonful of batter onto grill. Top each pancake with 8-12 blueberries, then dot the top of each blueberry with a bit of batter to prevent the pancake from sticking to the grill after you flip it. Do not flip until the pancake has lots of bubbles and the bottom is a golden brown. Flip only once and do not smash down with your spatula.

Serve with pure maple syrup.

Banana Bread

Here we go - another post about banana bread. Apparently in my delirious state I kept buying bananas whether we needed them or not. Paul pointed out to me that I had a number which were well on their way to being good for nothing but banana bread. I was sick of the usual recipes and decided to try this one from Bon Appetit.

This recipe is one used by a woman named Julia in her Kahakuloa, HI market stand. It is one of her best sellers. I can see why.

Not only does it taste great but it is easy to make -always a bonus in my books!

You'll notice very quickly that there is nothing healthy about this. . . but what great flavour!

Banana Bread

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs
1½ cups sugar
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 large)&
¾ cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350°. Coat a 9x5x3” loaf pan with nonstick spray. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk eggs, sugar, bananas, and oil in a large bowl until smooth. Add dry ingredients to banana mixture and stir just until combined. Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth top.

Bake until a tester inserted into the center of bread comes out clean, 60–70 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack; let bread cool in pan for 15 minutes. Run a knife around inside of pan to release the bread. Turn out onto rack and let cool completely.

Apple Cinnamon Buttermilk Pancakes

This is a delayed post. We made these for Pancake Tuesday (Shrove Tuesday . . . Fat Tuesday) - whatever you call it . . . it was awhile ago!

We had some apples which were going a bit soft so we thought apple pancakes would be in order. The recipe was a bit odd - I don't think I've seen a pancake recipe include sour cream before - but the results were wonderful. The nice thing about pancakes for dinner is they come together easily and quickly after a crazy day of work.

NOTE: we used whole wheat flour.

Apple Cinnamon Buttermilk Pancakes

1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 -3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs, beaten
1 1⁄2 cups buttermilk
1⁄2 cup sour cream
1⁄4 cup butter or 1⁄4 cup margarine, melted
1 large apple, peeled, cored and grated

In a large bowl, mix together the baking soda, flour, baking powder, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, sour cream and melted butter; add to the flour mixture and stir JUST until the flour is moistened.

Stir in the grated apple.

Drop a scant 1/4 cup of batter onto a hot lightly greased griddle.

Cook, turning once until golden brown.

Zucchini Muffins

I was searching for ways to use up the zucchini delivered in our CSA when I found this recipe on the Simply Recipes blog. Elise declared that they were 'the best zucchini muffins ever.' Now I've never had a zucchini muffing (that I am aware of) so I had no comparison. I can declare that they were bloody amazing!

In fact. . . . someone in this house ate 3 of them the day I pulled them from the oven. If that is not a positive endorsement I have no idea what is.

Zucchini Muffins

3 cups grated fresh zucchini
2/3 cup melted unsalted butter
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons baking soda
Pinch salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup walnuts
1 cup raisins or dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). In a large bowl combine the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in the grated zucchini and then the melted butter. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Stir these dry ingredients into the zucchini mixture. Stir in walnuts, raisins or cranberries if using.

Coat each muffin cup in your muffin pan with a little butter or vegetable oil spray. Use a spoon to distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups, filling the cups up completely. Bake on the middle rack until muffins are golden brown, and the top of the muffins bounce back when you press on them, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick or a thin bamboo skewer to make sure the center of the muffins are done. Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the tin let cool another 20 minutes.

Note, if you are including walnuts and dried fruit, you will likely have more batter than is needed for 12 muffins. I got about 14 muffins from this batch, and that included filling the muffin cups up as far as they could possibly go (above the surface of the muffin tin).

Lynn Crawford's Buttermilk Pancakes

This year at Christmas my sister broke the family 'no gifts for adults' rule. Of course there shall be retribution galore for this transgression at the appropriate time. What she did was send us the latest cookbook by Canadian celebrity chef Lynn Crawford called 'At Home With Lynn Crawford'. I suspect our rush towards punishment would be quicker if we were not so darn pleased with the gift!

Chef Lynn Crawford is passionate about cooking in her busy restaurant Ruby WatchCo, but when she has time off, nothing beats cooking for family and friends in her own kitchen. Simple, real home cooking that’s full of great flavour is the secret to Crawford’s favourite everyday recipes that she serves at home.

 In this cookbook she offers sure-fire recipes that she makes over and over because they’re crowd-pleasingly delicious and keep things easy in the kitchen. From Sunday brunches to grilling to cocktails and desserts, Chef Lynn has got you covered.

The other day we tried her recipe for buttermilk pancakes and they were amazing. I have made lots of buttermilk pancakes over the years and these were amongst the best - the resulting pancakes light, fluffy, and fully of that delicious sweet tang that only comes from the real thing! She serves them with flavoured maple syrups (imagine a maple bacon syrup?) but we went with good old local syrup. We also added some frozen wild blueberries. MMMMM

Lynn Crawford's Buttermilk Pancakes

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
3 T granulated sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
3 T butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 200 degrees f.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate bowl, lightly beat the egg. Add the buttermilk, melted butter, and vanilla. Pour over the flour mixture and whisk until just combined.

Grease a large nonstick frying pan or griddle. Heat to a hot temperature. Pour 1/2 cup batter pre pancake on the prepared griddle. Cook until bubbles appear on the top of the pancake and the edges of the pancake have lost their shine, about two minutes. Flip. Cook for another 2 minutes.  Transfer pancakes to a baking sheet in the oven to keep warm. Repeat with the remaining batter.

Serve hot, topped with butter and maple syrup.

Smoked Turkey, Cheddar, Chive Scones

When we were heading camping last week I decided that I absolutely had to do something I haven't done in months - turn on the oven and bake. If you asked me why I'd have no rational reason for you. Just don't ask. It is better that way.

For some reason I had the cravings for cheddar scones.

It wasn't completely a whim - I had a hunk of aged cheddar that needed to be used up. The chives in the garden are out of control.

That became the source of my google search - cheddar, chive scones.

I found a great recipe on the King Arthur Flour site (why the heck have I never been there before???????) but it called for bacon. We're not eating much bacon these days so I subbed in some smoked turkey. The results were amazing!

We usually think of scones as sweet, not savory. But these rich, tender scones are packed with chunks of cheese and turkey, and accented with fresh chives. They are great on their own or you can serve them with soup or a salad for a satisfying meal.

Smoked Turkey, Cheddar, Chive Scones

2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) King Arthur  Unbleached All-Purpose Flour or Perfect Pastry Blend
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick, 2 ounces) cold  butter
1 cup (4 ounces) very coarsely grated or  diced cheddar cheese
1/3 cup (about 1/2 ounce) snipped fresh chives, or finely diced scallion tops (the  green part, 3/4 ounce)
1/2 pound smoked turkey, cubed
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (7 ounces) heavy cream or whipping cream (I used light cream and it seemed to be OK), or enough to make the dough cohesive

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet, or line it with parchment.

Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar.

Work the butter into the flour until the mixture is unevenly crumbly, with some of the butter remaining in larger pieces.

Mix in the cheese, chives, and smoked turkey until evenly distributed.

Add ¾ cup of the cream, stirring to combine. Try squeezing the dough together; if it’s crumbly and won’t hang together, or if there are crumbs remaining in the bottom of the bowl, add cream until the dough comes together. Transfer the shaggy dough to a well-floured work surface.

Pat the dough into a smooth 7" disk about ¾" thick. Transfer the disk to the prepared baking sheet.

Use a knife or bench knife to cut the disk into 8 wedges, spreading the wedges apart a bit on the pan.

Brush the scones with a bit of cream; this will help their crust brown.

Bake the scones for 22 to 24 minutes, until they’re golden brown. Remove them from the oven, and cool right on the pan. Serve warm, or at room temperature.