Stuffed Grape Leaves, the old family classic.

I had more time than I was used to today and I think I may have gotten a little cared away. But I was hungry and needed something comforting. So there I went.

Stuffed Grape Leaves (Greek Dolmades)

• 1 (16-ounce) jar grape leaves, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups water
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 lemon
• ~2 Cups Rice Filling

The Filling

• 1/2 cup Onion, minced
• 2 Tbl Olive Oil
• 1 Cup Long Grain Rice
• 2 cups water
• 1 tbl sugar
• 1/2 tbl cinnamon
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 2 tbl fresh dillweed, minced
• 2 tbl fresh parsley, minced
• TT Salt
• TT Black Pepper

Procedure

Before doing anything with the leaves it is wise to have your rice filling prepared and cooled. This will ensure the leaves stay intact. Your filling can and will vary, I’ll save that for a latter day perhaps. To keep it simple saute the onion in olive oil. Then combine the rice, water, sugar amd cinnamon. Cover and let cook gently until water is absorbed. Remove from heat and combine the lemon juice, dillweed, parsley, salt and pepper. Let cool for about half an hour.

Out of the jar (my godmother would kill me) and into a simmering pot of water to tenderize the leaves and rid them of that brine taste:

Let leaves simmer for 2-3 minutes, then drain carefully. Lay leaves on a towel.

Remove the stems, and your a ready to roll, yes, literally.

How to Stuff and Roll Grape Leaves

Start with the stem side up, place your filling in the middle, fold leaves in. 1. 2. 3. 4. Then roll away. Illustrated:

Once rolled place in a heavy pot and align. Overcrowding will not give your stuffed grape leaves enough space to cook, and not enough will give you an uneven result in texture. Try not to go more than two rows in height, as well. If you have any left over leaves lay them down underneath the rolls to prevent them from sticking to the pot. Fill with water, olive oil, and lemon juice. Now place a plate (something oven safe) on top to hold them down and keep them from unrolling. Bring to a simmer then place in a 350 degree oven.

Everybody is talking about ice cream.

Photo by Mo

Personally, I think Ice Cream may be the most over rated food, but I still find myself indulging every now and then.

And so does the rest of the United States with annual sales exceeding $21 billion. But why let the corporates have all the fun.

You can make your own!

Make Vanilla Ice Cream

Photo by Chris Metcalf

Ice Cream Ingredients

• 1 cup Milk
• Pinch of Salt
• 3/4 Cup Sugar
• 2 cups Heavy Cream
• 1 Vanilla Bean, split and scraped
• 5 egg yolks

Procedure

1. Combine the milk, sugar and salt and heat.
2. Remove the bean from the vanilla; either by snipping one end and running your finger along the hull as if where a toothpaste tube or but slicing the bean with a paring knife down the entire length and extracting it. Add the removed vanilla into the milk.
3. Mix your egg yolk, and gradually add some of the warmed milk while string to combine yolks with the milk.
4. Return milk and yolks to heat and continue to cook of low heat, constantly stirring to avoid scorching, until thick enough to coat on spoon.
5. Strain into the heavy cream.
6. Chill, with the remainder of the vanilla bean to allow for the remaining to be absorbed.
7. Remove the bean a let freeze in cream maker.

Make Ice Cream with out a Machine

1. Prepare your ice cream mixture. (Steps 1-6 above)
2. Pour mixture into a chilled durable bowl and place in the freezer.
3. Let freeze for about 45 minutes. You should see the edges start to form large cyrstals.
4. If so remove and mix thouroghly with a wisk, breaking up all the frozen parts, and return to freezer.
5. Every half hour or so recheck and rewisk, quite vigioursly, for 2-3 hours. You will want to break up as much of the crystals as possible to get a nice smooth and creamy result.

I’ve been eating a lot of Guacamole lately.

Perhaps you could say it may be too much. But I have to make it every day, so why not enjoy the fruits of your labor right?

If your looking for a scientific approach, I wrote an article, How to make Salsa, some time ago that will walk you through some procedure.

So lets get to the recipe!

Guacamole Recipe

Recipe makes 1 qt

• 6 Avocados
• 2.5 fl oz Lime Juice (or lemon)
• 4Tbsp Green Onions, sliced
• 1 Bunch Cilantro, Fresh, chopped
• 1 tsp Garlic, chopped
• 1/2 tsp Oregano, dried
• 1 Jalapeno, seeded, chopped
• 3 Tbsp Tomato, seeded, diced
• TT Salt

Procedure

1. Cut avocados in half. Spoon out entire inside from the peel with a large kitchen spoon and discard seed.
2. In a bowl break up the avocado. Add the lime juice, sliced green onions, cilantro, garlic, and spices and mix.
3. Now your peppers will vary in flavor so, start adding in small amounts and test for flavor. They can be very hot. (If you want to be smarter than me the other day I would advise using gloves and do not touch your eyes! for hours!)
4. Keep the tomatoes separate until ready to serve.

Notes

1. The fresher your ingedients the better your flavor will be. Adjust meausrments accordingly.
2. Your guacomole will turn brown if left out in the air. Cover with plastic wrap, and put a wet towel on directly on the surface of the guacamole.

My basil plants are looking good and are ready for a little harvest. And what’s everybody favorite recipe featuring these little guys, Pesto. (At least most of the people I know).

The Pesto

Photo by sa_ku_ra cc

Category of food: Condiments

Yield Amount: 1 cup

Ingredients:

• 2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts
• 3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Combine the basil in with the pine nuts, pulse a few times in a food processor. (If you are using walnuts instead of pine nuts and they are not already chopped, pulse them a few times first, before adding the basil.) Add the garlic, pulse a few times more.
2. Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Pesto Chicken

Now to make our basil pesto into a nice dinner how about making a pesto chicken, perhaps with a fresh salad or pasta. Since its summer time, tonight turned on the grill for a nice grilled pesto chicken over fettucini and added some cherry tomatoes. The opportunities for pesto are endless, even without a widespread imagination.

What’s your favorite Pesto dish or recipe?

This one today is for all you that still drink coffee in the summertime, sipping a hot cup o joe outside your neighborhood cafe or underneath your own home version of the sun’s heavy rays. Nothing else is like having a little snack during the fun, and the Italian twice baked cookies can be a treat (and a meal) in itself.

Photo by andreas hagerman

Biscotti

Makes about 30 cookies.

Ingredients

• 10 ounces bread flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 6 ounces white bread crumbs
• 4 ounces whole almonds, with skin
• 4 ounces whole hazelnuts, with skin
• 1/8 cup Orange Juice
• 1/2 tea. Orange flower water
• 1/2 tea. vanilla extract
• 2-3 eggs
• Egg wash
• Crystal sugar

Procedure

1. Combine Flour and baking soda and sift.
2. Add sugar and bread crumbs and combine at low speeds
3. Mix in almonds and hazelnuts. You can toast them before hand if you like that kind of flavor.
4. Combine orange juice, orange flower water, vanilla, and eggs and add to the dry gradually. Mix for about 1 minute or until dough is firm.
5. Separate dough into uniform halves for easier working and roll each half into a uniform rope, a little over a foot or so long.
6. Place ropes onto sheet pans lined with baking paper. Brush on egg wash and sprinkle with crystal sugar.
7. Bake at 350 F until golden (about 25 minutes).
8. Let cool. At least wait an hour but leaving them overnight will produce a better result.
9. Slice ropes into cookies on a diagona, placing the cut-side down on sheet pans lined with baking paper.
10. Bake 375 F until golden around the edges ( about 15 minutes).

Once cooled down you can dip them into melted chocolate for some added delight. Bo Friberg suggests in The Professional Pastry Chef that it is worthwhile to temper real chocolate instead of coating chocolate.

Cookies will last 2-3 weeks in an airtight container.

Now that we have our cookies and are ready to sit down with our coffees, lets take attention to this heat and the surrounding environment. Watch 350.org’s new cartoon made to spread awareness in stabilizing carbon dioxide at 350 parts per million.

If you are reading this in an email click here to watch.

Can’t spare the valuable time? Looking for an extra dazzle in your dishes?

Pan Sauces are the key!

Ah forget the marketing slogans, pan sauces are great addition to sauteed meat, poultry and fish plates. Made directly in the saute pan in which your course was cooked, Pan Sauces will also get you out of the kitchen quicker (like you really wanted to) and sitting down at your dinning table.

Making a Pan Sauce

The basic idea to a pan sauce is to use the fond (all those caramelized tasty bits and pieces) left in the pan when sauteing meat to make a sauce thats well not only delicious but a perfect match for your dish as well. To get the fond to stick do not use a Teflon coated or other non stick type pan.

Once you have your dish sauteed and you have all that caramelized goodness in the pan, remove your meat and deglaze your pan with a liquid (usally something acidic like vinider, lemon juice or alcohol or even stock).

Now that you have all the flavor from the pan mixed into your liquid, allow time for it to reduce. This will concentrate the flavor.

Strain your result if desired and you have yourself a nice pan sauce that will complement your dish perfectly.

Sauteed Pork Chop with a Rosemary Pan Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 each        Pork Chop, 6 oz. Trimmed
•                    Flour
• 2 Tbsp.     Clarified butter
• 1 Tbsp.     Shallot, Minced
• 1 tsp,        Garlic, Minced
• 1/2 cup    White Wine
• 1 tsp.        Dried Rosemary
• 1 cup        Strong Chicken Stock
• TT           Salt and Pepper
• 2 tsp.       Whole Butter

Procedure

1. Season pork chop with salt and pepper and dredge in flour
2. Heat clarified butter in a saute pan. Saute the pork chop over medium heat until deep golden brown on both sides.
3. Pour out excess fat from pan. Add shallot and garlic and saute briefly until softened. Do not brown.
4. Add white wine and rosemary and reduce to 2 tablespoons. Add chicken stock and reduce to a nice thick but liquid solution. Mount with butter and season to taste.
5. Strain the sauce onto your plate, place the pork chop on sauce
6. Dredge pork chop

If you plan on cooking from scratch and care about taste, learn to make a good stock. A good stock is the key to transcending a mixture of ingredients to a tasteful dish. From wonderful soups and sauces to complementing a braised entree, the simple process of preparing a stock will enhance your cooking.

Photo: by cygnoir

Stocks

Formally a stock is an liquid flavored by extractions from meat, poultry, fish and their bones as well as vegetables and seasoning. From this definition we can get a few types of stocks, each classified by the ingredients and techniques used.
A White Stock is made from the simmering of chicken, veal or beef bones in water with vegetables and seasonings resulting in a almost clear liquid.

A Brown Stock is also made by simmering chicken, veal or beef bones in water with vegetables and seasonings but before the being added to the water, each is caramelized. This will give our stock a rich, dark color.

A Fish Stock and a Fumet are stocks made from slow cooked fish bones or crustacean shells in water with vegetables. The Fumet differs with an addition of wine and lemon juice. Both stocks are quite colorless, but strongly flavored.

Vegetable Stocks can also be made if a meatless dish is required.

The key to a good a good stock is to look at and strive for four main characteristics, body flavor clarity and color.

• Body- The body of a stock develops from the break down of collagen from your meat. Vegetable stocks in result will have less body since they lack animal protein.
• Flavor- Obtained from the vegetables and herbs begin added in the proper ratios.
• Clarity- To get a stock clear, you must remove blemishes and impurities.
• Color- Most ingredients will contribute to the color of a stock. To obtain a lighter stock, vegetables like carrots and leeks can be used. Browned bones and tomato paste will darken a stock.

Ingredients

Bones

Adding flavor, richness and color the bones are the primary ingredient in a stock. If been told of a time when kitchens, home and commercial, would break down there own animals. Use the meat for its uses and save the bones for stock. The idea is wonderful, but sadly I see these logical process being broken down and proportioned out (Can any give me a reason other than cooperate gain). It can a rare thing nowadays for butcher shops to have bones.

Continueing on our stock bones, different bones release their flavor at different times. Beef bones, even cut down into pieces, will require six to eight hours to cook; while a stock made with chicken bones will take five or six.

Beef and Veal Bones

When choosing bones you want the bones that will make your stock taste best, right? A better tasting beef stock will be made from bones with high collagen content. Collagen, found in cartilage and other connective tissue, is found more in younger animals. In regards to bone relations with one another, back, neck and shank bones have higher collagen contents than others, providing a better taste. Once you have your bones cut them in pieces of 3 to 4 inch in length allowing enough flavor to be released as possible.

Chicken Bones

For chickens the back and neck are the best bones to use for a stock. If you have a whole chicken carcass, use it. I would advise cutting it up though so you can handle it with ease.

Fish Bones

For fish, lean fish make great stock. Sole, Flounder, whiting or turbot are examples of lean fish. Salmon, tuna and swordfish are fatty fish, and do not make good stocks. The whole carcass can be used, but again I advise cutting it up for even extraction. Before putting fish bones in your stock rinse them under cold water to remove blood, loose scales and other features that will cause impurities.

Other Bones

Lamb, turkey, game and ham bones can also be used in a stock or even mixed in. Lamb and game bones tend to be quite strong, so be careful when mixing with beef, veal or chicken.

Vegetables

The basic standard of vegetables to be use in a stock is referred to as mirepoix. Mirepoix is a mixture of onions, carrots and celery: 50%, 25%, 25% respectively by weight. Size of each vegetable is considered by cooking time. The longer the stock will need to cook, the larger the vegetables will need to be. When making a white stock, you could use parsnips, mushrooms and/or leeks instead of carrots for a clearer result.

Seasonings

Peppercorns, bay leaves, thyme, parsley stems sometimes garlic are the five primary seasonings for a stock. These seasonings can be left whole, for stocks take enough time to cook, allowing the full flavor of the season to be extracted. Therefor there is no need to grind or chop your seasonings if they are added from the start. However, you may want to add your seasoning mid way through if you are making a beef stock since it takes longer to cook.

You may want to bind your seasoning for ease when removing them. They can be tied up in cheesecloth, referred as a Sachet, or tied by twine in a bundle, referred to as a bouquet garni. Classically a standard Sachet consists of peppercorns, bay leaves, parsley stems, thyme and cloves while a standard bouquet garni consists of parsley stems, celery, thyme, leeks, and carrots.

Salt, should not be added to a stock. Even though salt is one of those necessary things (mostly) adding salt to your stock will limit you greatly in what you can do with it. Salt does not reduce, therefore, if you need to reduce your stock for a sauce it will be to salty. Furthermore if you add salt, you may not be able to use ingredients high in salt with you finished stock. Salt can be added anytime in the cooking process with the same effect, so why limit ourselves to add it during the stock making process.

While making yogurt yesterday I figured while I was at it I would make some cheese as well. And that plan turned out to be a good one, for I used it tonight for dinner. Homemade Ravioli was on menu. Its really quite simple and a wonderful feeling when you make an entire dish from scratch.

The Pasta

First get your pasta ready. If you are unsure how to make pasta I wrote the article Preparing Fresh Pasta some time ago to help you along.

The Filling

Ingredients

1/4 pound Ricotta cheese, drained. Learn to make your own here.

2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese, grated

1 lightly beaten egg

dash of black pepper to taste.

If you are making your own cheese it is important to drain it well. The excess liquid will cause your raviolis to break when cooking them off. I would even drain store bought ricotta as well.

You can add some extra flavor in the filling as well, but watch your moisture content. Tonight I cooked down some spinach before hand and added it in chopped. Your fresh pasta should only need a minute or so to cook off, so if you plan on using a meat product of something that needs to be cooked, make sure it is before mixing it into your filling.

Procedure

Once your pasta is rolled out spoon you filling to desired size onto your pasta, leaving roughly 2 inches in between. Now, around your filling spread a thin layer of egg wash (you could also use water). This will act as an adhesive and seal your filling in tight. Lay another equal size sheet of pasta over and smooth down the sides. When sealing your filling in make sure you work from the middle outward to prevent air pockets from forming.

Once your filling is sealed cut into squares are fork the sides to make it look all fancy and professional. Cook off in boiling water for 1-3 minutes until finished and enjoy!

Photo: sobodda

A couple weeks ago I presented a video tutorial on making Homemade Cheese from a recipe I got from my godmother (Greek Orthodox). Well she also gave me a couple more great milk based Greek recipes while she was at it. One of these is Homemade Yogurt.

Making yogurt is something I have been waiting to tackle for some time now, but the weather has been all but permitting. When making yogurt from this recipe you must let it sit out in a very warm area, so it has been too cold. Now that June has approached and this heat advisory has rolled up on us here in Philadelphia, the perfect yogurt making weather has come.

Ingredients

• 1 Gallon Whole Milk or 2% depending on preference
• Small Package Quality yogurt that has “active cultures” that is plain with no fruit or sugar added

Procedure

1. To begin bring 1 Gallon of milk to a simmer.
2. Mix 3 tablespoons of yogurt to one cup of warmed milk.
3. Once mixed, Add the remainder of warmed milk.
4. Leave and let rest 6 or more hours, with lid on, in very warm area with no draft, to thicken until a water appears on top.
5. Hang the yogurt up in cheese cloth to remove liquid until desired thickness is reached (approximately 4-6 hours)
6. Chill and Serve.

For a more Greek style yogurt let hang for the greater portion of time. The more whey that drains the thicker the yogurt will be. You can also use a splash of white wine vinegar to help the curds separate from the whey with a dash of salt.

This yogurt can replace sour cream and milk in recipes and is excellent served with fresh fruit, raisins, nuts or sweetened jams.

Shelf life is usually 2 weeks, but I would keep a close eye.

Enjoy!

-Jimi

If your interested in other milk based Greek recipes:

• Feta: My post on homemade cheese, just substitute the cows milk for raw goats milk.

You may also be interested in our article on Vitamin D in Milk

Today we will be making a white curd cheese. This is an old recipe from my Greek god mother, she used goats milk and called it feta. For ease of availability I am going to use pasteurized whole milk. The end result will more a ricotta style cheese. Get out a gallon of milk, 2 cups of white vinegar, a little kosher salt and we’ll get started:

What you will need:

1 Gallon Milk (Whole milk or you could use 2%)

2 cups White Vinegar

Kosher Salt

Cheese Cloth

Procedure:

First we are going to bring our gallon of milk to a boil. It is important that you do not use pots that may react with milk and acidic products, such as aluminum, brass or copper. Stainless steel is a good choice.

Stir generously. This will prevent any burning at the bottom and give you an even consistency. Milk also has the tendency to boil quickly and rapidly once it is brought to your point. Keep a close eye and stir it often.

Once your milk has come to a boil, lower the heat and add your vinegar. Stir. You will see the vinegar pull the curds away from the whey.

Once stir in add salt, mix and remove from heat.

Line a strainer with cheese cloth over a bowl. Straining into a bowl will allow us to use the whey latter.

Drain all the liquid out of the cloth. If you prefer a harder cheese hold the cloth up and allow to drain. The less liquid the harder the cheese will be.

Put onto a plate or bowl, cover with a pinch of salt and from.

This could right in a stuffed shells etc. or place it in the refrigerator where it will last a week.

Best of luck,

Jimi