Whipped Butter

This whipped butter is my grandmothers recipe and is a hit with muffins or on top of corn. You can add herbs, brown sugar and cinnamon or cayenne to flavor it. Bring this and a loaf of homemade bread to any one's house and you will be the hit!

1# softened butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil (or olive oil)
1 cup buttermilk

with electric mixer beat the butter and oil until thoroughly mixed, then beat in buttermilk until beautiful and fluffy! Eat!

Fig Preserves

David made two batches of fig preserves this week, which were really successful. The second batch he amended with a bit of maple syrup and some cracked black pepper - wow! They are insanely easy and would be great on toast, ice cream or yogurt, or a soft mild cheese.
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There is probably no better known use for figs (as with most fruit) than as preserves. Debates between cooks continue on whether "real" fig preserves contain some citrus (we like it) and whether one should peel the figs (don't expect me to do it

Here's the classic guide:
Ratio: one cup sugar to one cup chopped fresh figs (it works the same for one pound of sugar to one pound of fresh figs; one palmful of sugar to one handful of figs -- you get the picture...)Grated lemon zest or finely sliced bits of lemon (the paper thin slices make the preserves delightfully like a marmalade - leave them out if this does not please you)

***Basic Directions: Cut up the figs as fine as you like. Mix the figs with the sugar and let rest in a covered plastic or glass container overnight. The next morning, cook the mixture down over very low heat until it is soft and thick. Spoon into hot canning jars and cover with lids you've had soaking in boiling (hot) water. The lids will seal as the jam cools. Refrigerate any jars that do not compress and seal.That's basically it and the recipe has been winning blue ribbons for generations. Everything else is the individual cook's imagination. We like it less sweet and cut back on the sugar. (We have not tried artificial sweetners or honey. Any reports from folks who have?) We have had this with a lot of citrus grated and sliced into it; with raisins cooked into it; with cinnamon and other spices. Be careful - the taste of the figs is rich but light and can be quickly overpowered. We recommend trying a straight batch first and then getting adventurous

from http://www.paradisenursery.com/frfigpr.html

Pizza

This week we are rerunning our recipe for pizza dough, which is a staple on our house. We make it in quadruple batches and freeze it in individual balls. It works great for garlic knots, bread sticks, calazones or focaccia. Use it as a base for any extra veggies – think way beyond pepperoni. Eggplant, peppers, fresh tomatoes are all great! How about zucchini or grated carrots? David makes a great breakfast pizza that is a rip off of a Wolfgang Puck pizza - with eggs, bacon and basil! Yum!

Pizza Dough

1 T active dry yeast

¾ C + 2 T water

2 ¾ C flour

1 t salt

1 T extra virgin olive oil

Dissolve yeast in water, add flour and salt, knead by hand or machine. Roll finished ball in olive oil and let rise for about an hour before using. Or divide into smaller balls and freeze immediately. Let thaw and rise a bit before you use it.

TIPS:You can substitute part of the flour for whole wheat/rye/buckwheat flour to have a heartier dough. A great whole wheat pizza is topped with sliced cooked potatoes, fresh rosemary, olive oil and crunchy sea salt. Sounds weird – but is amazing! You need to have a pizza stone to make this as sublime as it should be. Place it on the bottom of your stove and set the temp for as hot as your stove will go (450-500) and let preheat for at least 30-45min.Use a bread peel or the back of a baking sheet dusted with cornmeal, semolina flour or regular flour. The trick to get it onto the stone is all in the wrist – practice a few times before you put the toppings on to make sure the dough is not sticking anywhere. Should cook in 5-10 min, depending on your stove. The best sauce would be a thick homemade, marinara sauce. For cheese, we love whole milk mozzarella (BIG difference from part-skim) mixed with fontina, and Parmesan. This is a thin, Italian style pizza – so I would stay light on the toppings and avoid wet sauces. We even like just fresh sliced tomatoes, whole milk or fresh mozzarella, garlic and olive oil.

Cat’s Wacky Pesto Bread

(stolen, with improvements, from The Cook’s Encyclopedia of Breach Machine Baking)

5/8 c. milk
Scant 2/3 c. water
2 T olive oil
4 cups bread flour (white is recommended and I’ve never tried it with whole wheat)
1 ½ t salt
1 ½ t sugar
1 ½ t rapid-rise active dry yeast (I use the bread machine yeast)

7 T pesto (I’ve used basil pesto, sun-dried tomato pesto, but never cilantro pesto—though it might be good)

I use a bread machine for the dough, which usually takes about 2 hours to make (that includes the warming up, the kneading and the rising.

If you are doing it by hand, I suggest that you make the water warm and put the yeast in it until it comes alive (some would say put the sugar in there, too, but I’m not convinced it really matters). Mix together the dry ingredients (holding back some flour for working in after you do your hand mixing) while the yeast is cooking up and finally add the rest of the wet ingredients to the yeast mixture before going for the mixing/kneading. I think kneading should last a good 5-10 minutes—more if you’ve got the gusto. Then let it rise.

Once the dough is ready, pull it out and roll it out into a rectangle about 10-12 inches long. Depending on the way the dough is behaving, I’ll sometimes push it and make it longer. I have let it sit covered for about 10 minutes at this point, but you don’t really have to, which saves you a little time.

Next you get to spread the pesto on the dough. Leave one long edge un-pestoed to allow for a little seepage after you roll it up. Now roll it, “jelly-roll” fashion (lengthwise). The seam side should be down and I usually now make the transfer on a piece of baking paper on a baking sheet. I also tuck in the ends (usually folding them under). Now it sits with a piece of oiled plastic on top for about 45 minutes (I will put it on the porch or in a sunny room). You can also just put it on the stove and if you don’t like to use plastic wrap, you can just goo it up with olive oil and it won’t dry out (which is the reason you put that plastic on it anyway).
Start pre-heating your oven after about 20 minutes into the second rise. I use my baking stone for this bread, which means I heat the oven to about 500 to make sure that my stone (pizza stones work just fine, too!) is hot enough. If you aren’t a baking nut like I am, just pre-heat to 425. You baking stone people will need to turn it down to 425 before you put the bread in anyway.

After the 45 minutes are over, brush (rub or spray) olive oil onto the dough. Then, take a sharp knife and cut peek-a-boo holes cross-wise on the top of the bread. I like to put quite a few, but that’s mostly because I like using knives. Then take a coarse salt and sprinkle as much or as little as you want. I like to use the kosher coarse salt, but I would think the sea salt would be fine, too.

Get it in the oven and cook it for 25-30 minutes. I usually set the timer for 15-20 minutes so that I can make sure it doesn’t burn. If it looks nicely browned at 20, I’ll take put some tin foil on top so it won’t brown anymore. It really does need at least 25 minutes to cook fully, though (even with the stone).

Yum.

-Cat Eskins

Mustard Scrambled Eggs

We love to use eggs as our main dish for dinner. Omelettes, fritattas and even scrambled eggs make a filling and nutritious meal, especially when served with a big salad and some crusty bread. This recipe is amazingly simple and delicious.

2 1/2 oz butter
8 eggs, beaten
6 Tbsp Gruyere or cheddar (we used Comte)
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh herbs (tarragon, parsley, chives or scallions are all good)

melt butter in a saucepan over medium low heat. Add eggs and cook, stirring
constantly, until just thickened. Add the cheese and stir until just
melted. Remove from the heat. Stir in the mustard, herbs and salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

from Organic Cooking, Naturally Good Food by Renee Elliott and Eric Treuille.

chicken paprikas with dumplings

this recipe came to me from my hungarian grandmother. we make dumplings all the time - usually with chicken paprikas and the cucumber salad i posted earlier...

dumplings
4 eggs, beaten
4 cups flour
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
2 cups milk
mix all ingredients well (kitchen aid of course!) drop batter by tablespoons into salted boiling water. boil about 10 minutes - or until dumplings float to the top and are fairly firm. remove from the water with a slotted spoon and top with lots of butter and salt!

we often make chicken paprikas and top the dumplings with that - with the cucumbers as a side dish.

chicken paprikas
1 large onion, chopped
4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon paprika (plus a little more for good measure! :)
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons salt
chicken **
1/2 pint sour cream
brown onions in butter. add seasonings and chicken. brown 10 minutes (5 mins on each side). cover and let simmer slowly - about 30 minutes. add sour cream to drippings in the pan and mix well.

** my grandmother used to make this with bone-in, skin-on chicken - all kinds of pieces. we use boneless, skinless thighs and breasts. i usually use about 6 thighs or 4 breasts - depending on size. it should all fit in a regular frying pan.

-Erin

eggplant soup

If you are wondering what to do with those little eggplants, I adapted a recipe I have for eggplant soup & it turned out great.
I blackened the eggplant & purple peppers on the grill, placed in a plastic bag for at least 10 minutes & cooled. Peeled and discarded the skins. Cut up into pieces. In a 3-qt. pot, over low heat, In a couple of Tbsps. of olive oil, I cooked the veggies w/a large garlic clove & a small red onion, both chopped, for 15 minutes or until very tender. Added salt and pepper to taste & a couple of cups of vegetable broth (could use chicken broth). Pureed the whole mixture in the blender until very smooth.

Koz