d Constitutional Cooking: January 2007

Friday, January 26, 2007

Buns in the Oven


So, I'm finally back after too long of a hiatus from cooking. The frigid weather here in the EDTN inspired me to make something tasty and warm with which to start my days - so I pulled out a recipe I stumbled upon last year for cinnamon rolls. Funnily enough, I found this recipe in a magazine - Sunset (I've never heard of it) - that was floating around the law journal office. Go figure. The rolls' official title is Grandma Carroll's Cinnamon Rolls. No idea who Grandma Carroll is, but she certainly does have some nice buns.

  • 1 1/4 cups whole milk (I used 1% because it was all I had)
  • 1 package active dry yeast
  • 1 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • About 5 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup ground cinnamon
  • Icing (recipe follows)
(1) In a 2-quart pan over medium heat, heat milk to lukewarm (I looked up why you have to do this - warming the milk breaks it down so that it won't prevent the yeast from rising). In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in 1 cup warm (110 degrees) water. Let stand 5 minutes.

(2) With a wooden spoon, stir milk, 3 tablespoons sugar, 2 tablespoons butter, the salt, and 3 1/2 cups flour into yeast mixture. Stir vigorously until slightly stretchy, 2 to 4 minutes. Stir in 1 1/2 cups more flour until a stiff dough forms. Scrape onto a floured surface and knead until smooth, elastic, and no longer sticky, about 8 minutes; add flour as required to prevent sticking. Return dough to bowl.

(3) Cover bowl airtight and let rise at room temperature until doubled, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

(4) Scrape dough onto a floured surface and press gently to expel air. Divide in half. Roll each half into a 10 by 16-inch rectangle. Spread 6 tablespoons butter (I find that this is way too much butter - I usually use about half that amount) over each rectangle. In a small bowl, mix 1 1/4 cups sugar with cinnamon. Sprinkle half the mixture over each rectangle.

(5) Starting from the long end, roll each rectangle into a tight cylinder. Cut each cylinder into six equal pieces. Place, cut side down and slightly apart, in two 7 by 11-inch baking pans. Cover pans and let stand at room temperature until rolls are almost doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

(6) Bake in a 350 degree oven until rolls are browned, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then drizzle with icing. Serve warm from the pan

Icing: In a bowl, mix 3 cups powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1/4 cup water. Thin with water if icing is too thick to drizzle. Fo-shizzle.

Two notes: (1) This recipe makes 12 rolls, but I have halved it without problem. (2) With two rising stages, this one takes a while to make, but you can make it easier on yourself by allowing it to rise in the fridge while you're at work.


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posted by ATP at 7:36 AM 2 comments

Thursday, January 25, 2007

More from the Crock Pot

It being freezing and snowy, I've been wearing out my slow-cooker. Here is a recipe that is filling and delish:

Slow Cooker Beef with Root Vegetables
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 4 small red potatoes, quartered
  • 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
  • 1 turnip, peeled and chopped
  • 1 rutabaga, peeled and chopped
  • 1 (3-pound) chuck roast
  • Salt and ground black pepper
  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
  • 2/3 cup brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon mustard powder
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder

Arrange onion, potatoes, carrots, turnip, and rutabaga in bottom of slow cooker. Season beef all over with salt and black pepper. Rub flour all over beef. Place roast on top of vegetables in slow cooker.

Whisk together tomato sauce, brown sugar, chili powder, cumin, mustard powder, and garlic powder. Pour mixture over beef. Cover and cook on LOW for 12 hours or on HIGH for 8 hours.

The original recipe says to serve a third of the beef and all of the vegetables with this meal, then shred and refrigerate the remaining beef until ready to use. I just divided up the entire contents of the slow-cooker into about six meals - and even divided by six, each portion is likely too much for me for a dinner by myself. For real, this stuff sticks to your ribs.

Also, when I attempted to lift the roast out of the slow cooker using two forks, the meat was so tender that I only lifted out the two fork-sized portions directly supported by the forks. It literally fell apart at a touch. And to come home after a long day and a cold walk (of a mere ten minutes, but even so) to an aromatic apartment...man. It was the definition of goodness.

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posted by ek at 8:46 AM 0 comments

Friday, January 12, 2007

M.D. of the Deep South: Guest Post of Yummy (easy) Dinner

A fellow clerk making his new home in the bright sunny South sent this to us. Sounds easy and good. He may be bored, but I anticipate making a Southern boy out of him yet. (step one, JS: go buy a creature belt. or camo. either one.)
___________________________

Dear Clerkscook Gals,

I'm a long time reader, first time poster.

Being a city boy in a small Southern town, and thus kind of bored, I thought this year would be a good one to hone my culinary skills. It's been a rocky journey.

A few highlights are as follows: an emergency trip to the doctor following a nasty run-in with a hot pot handle (result = wore a cumbersome bandage on my right hand for over a month and endured snickering from fellow court employees); a fire that nearly burned down my apartment complex after the wok I was using for a stir fry burst into flames; many ugly looking dinners.

But with practice, I've improved. Here's a dish that I made last night and, with prodding by MG, I thought I should share.

Baked Chicken with White Beans, Turkey Bacon, and Tomatoes

What you need
-Turkey bacon (maybe 8 slices)
-Chicken thighs with skin and bone (1 to 1.5 lbs total)
-1 onion
-1 can of stewed tomatoes (with juice)
-1 can of white beans

How to do it
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Cook about 8 strips of the turkey bacon over moderate heat until browned and crisp. Takes about 8 minutes or so. Put bacon on paper towels to drain. Leave the turkey bacon fat in the skillet.
3. While cooking the bacon, season the chicken with a coating of Kosher salt and pepper. Once the bacon is done, brown the chicken in the same skillet for about 8 minutes (turning once). Transfer chicken to paper towels to drain.
4. Reduce heat and then cook the onions (chopped) in the skillet. Sprinkle with some Kosher salt. Cook onions until brown.
5. Stir in the tomato stew. Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to let simmer for about 3 minutes.
6. Stir in the beans and bacon (now cut into little pieces). Put chicken (skin up) on top of beans, and then bake, uncovered, until chicken is cooked. I left it in the oven for 25 minutes.

-JS

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posted by mg at 10:40 AM 2 comments

Monday, January 08, 2007

Judicial Resources: Tomato Goodness

A particularly esteemed judicial figure here in the courthouse just passed this along to me. His trip to Sam's Club ended up with more of those larger-than-cherry-but-smaller-than-regular tomatoes than could reasonably be eaten, so he tried this recipe with good results.

Article III Oven-Roasted Tomatoes
  • Oven: 350 degrees
  • Take those small tomatoes, cut in half and put on a baking sheet.
  • Drizzle with olive oil, salt, and garlic
  • Bake forever, or until the tomatoes are little shriveled messes of sweet goodness

These are apparently good eaten on their own or tossed with some pasta and more olive oil. I believe that I would dice them, then eat on toast like bruschetta.

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posted by mg at 6:08 PM 2 comments

Friday, January 05, 2007

Baked Oatmeal, Revisited

Hi all,

Hope everyone had a really great holiday and that y'all are back into the swing of 2007.

2 things:

1. I've started cooking again, and revisited E's Baked Oatmeal recipe from back in September (see here, I couldn't figure out how to link it up directly). Instead of butter, I substituted applesauce and it came out delicious. Plus, a little more healthy, in keeping with the new YMCA membership.

However, a few things to note: reduce the amt of brown sugar if you're using applesauce, as it is naturally sweet. I also think you'll have to bake it a little more and maybe reduce some of the milk included. Mine's a little mushier than the original batch my mother and I made in September.

Happy Cooking, y'all!

2. Also - as a side note. I've migrated the blog over to google, so you can link your blogger acct to your gmail account. As, well we know, google is going to take over the world. As an aside, try the Docs/spreadsheets and Calendar and Reader for RSS feeds. All your procrastination, simplified with one dangerous password.

A fabulous upside to the new blogger is post labels. I could never figure out the code we'd need to insert this, but now Blogger just gives it to us. We should start labeling for ease of searching and maybe come up with some general labels (vegetarian, easy, quick, I have 20 pending motions on the 6-month list, breakfast, etc.).

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posted by mg at 10:48 AM 1 comments

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

I hate myself for loving ewe.*

Starting the New Year off with a bang and a pun, here is the most delicious recipe for Hearty Lamb and Lentil Stew over Polenta (slow-cooker style):



1 pound lentils, rinsed and picked over to remove debris
1/2 pound lean lamb cubes
6 cups reduced-sodium vegetable or chicken broth
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 chopped onion
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced or 3 teaspoons pre-minced garlic
2 teaspoons dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
Salt and ground black pepper

In a slow cooker, combine all ingredients but the parsley, salt and black pepper.
Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours or on HIGH for 3 to 4 hours.

Just before serving, remove bay leaves, stir in parsley and season, to taste, with salt and black pepper.

Polenta:
4 1/4 C boiling, salted water
about 8 oz Bellino Instant Polenta
shredded parmesean or pecorino-romano to taste

Add polenta to water; reduce heat QUICKLY, stir constantly for three minutes. Longer cooking time equals thicker polenta. Add cheese.

I serve a mound of polenta in the bottom of the bowl, a healthy ladle-full of stew over top.


*I struggle with my true affection for lamb. I know it's a baby sheep. I know that it's cute and cuddly. It's also quite delish.

**Big thanks to the Real Mamma H for the new camera!

posted by ek at 8:24 PM 0 comments