Corn Tortillas

Corn Tortillas

from Rick Bayless

Makes 15 tortillas

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups powdered masa harina for tortillas (Maseca brand is widely available)

water

Directions

1. Mix dough. Measure into bowl the corn flour and add 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons hot tap water. Mix with hand, kneading until thoroughly combined. Cover and let stand 15 minutes.

2. Heat griddle or skillet at medium heat.

3. Adjust consistency of dough. Gently squeeze dough. If it is stiff (it probably will be), knead in water 1 or 2 teaspoons at a time until the dough feels like soft cookie dough—not stiff, but not sticky. Divide evenly into 15 pieces and roll each into a ball. Cover with plastic.

4. Press out dough balls. Cut 2 pieces of plastic wrap (better than the wax paper I used)

1-inch larger than tortilla press. Open press. Lay in one piece of plastic. Lay dough ball in center. Gently mash. Top with second piece of plastic. Close press. Press gently—enough to mash dough into 1/8-inch disc. Pull off top piece of plastic very carefully as the tortilla tears easily.

I highly recommend the tortilla press, but I am also eager to try Carlee's sisters book method. If you guys try it, let me know how it works.

5. Place tortilla in skillet.

6. First flip. After about 20-30 seconds, edges of tortilla will dry slightly and tortilla will release from griddle—before this moment, tortilla will be stuck. With the spatula, flip the tortilla over.

7. Second flip. After about 30 seconds, tortilla should be browned underneath. Flip. Cook 30 seconds more—tortilla should puff in places (or all over—a gentle press with spatula or fingers encourages puffing). Transfer to basket lined with towel.

8. Continue. Press and bake remaining tortillas. Stack each baked tortilla on previous one. Keep tortillas well wrapped in towel to keep warm.

Keeping the tortillas warm is key to them being soft and delicious instead of crispy on the outside. Also, make sure to reheat any tortillas by wrapping them in a damp dish cloth/towel on medium power in the microwave for several about 3 minutes.

Horchata

picture from foodpeoplewant.com
Wouldn't it be great if I actually took pictures of this stuff myself?

Ingredients

• 1 and 1/3 cup uncooked white long-grain rice
• 5 cups water
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cinnamon sticks or 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 2/3 cup white sugar
  

Put 1 1/3 cup rice in the blender with 2 cups of water and the 2 cinnamon sticks. Blend until the rice and cinnamon are roughly ground - about a minute or so. Add the remaining water and blend thoroughly. Pour into a pitcher (or keep in your blender if it DOESN'T leak) and place in the refrigerator to soak (overnight is best) but at the very least 4-5 hours. Stir (or blend if it is still in the blender) the mixture before you strain it through a sieve. Add the milk, SUGAR, and vanilla - stir and serve over ice.

Just an FYI: I usually do 1/2 cup of sugar and think it tastes fine, but Ross insists on using more...

Chocolate Soufflé

 Chocolate perfection in a ramekin my friends. 

It's rich, yet light in texture. It's decadence at its best.

This is a great dessert to make when you're hosting dinner and want to bring some next-level awesomeness to the meal. It's very impressive, yet not too difficult to make. I suggest making them just before serving so they're nice and warm. Okay....onto the recipe. This recipe has simple ingredients. The key is in the techniques. Be sure to follow the steps carefully and you'll have success. Soufflé isn't near as finicky to make as you may think. We like to say that it just needs to be made with love :)

Recipe from foodnetwork.com 

Ingredients

• 7 ounces finely chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus for preparing the molds
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3 large egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons warm water
• 1/2 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons
• 8 large egg whites, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

For Topping (something I've added) 

1 8oz stick of cream cheese at room temperature, or softened

1/4- 1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

• Brush 6 (6-ounce) ramekins with soft butter, then coat with sugar. Put the prepared ramekins in the freezer. (This can be done a day ahead.)
• Set an oven rack in lower third of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F.
• Put the chocolate and butter in a medium heatproof bowl. Bring a saucepan filled with an inch or so of water to a very slow simmer; set the bowl over, but not touching, the water. Stir the chocolate occasionally until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. Set aside.
• Combine the egg yolks and warm water in the bowl of a standing mixer or large bowl and beat until frothy. Gradually add 2 tablespoons sugar, and continue beating until ribbons form, about 5 minutes. Very lightly fold the yolks into the chocolate mixture. (Rinse the bowl well, if using for beating the egg whites.)
• Remove prepared ramekins from freezer. Put the egg whites in the bowl of a standing mixer, or large non-reactive bowl, add the lemon juice. Beat on medium until frothy; then gradually add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar and increase speed to high. Beat until the whites hold a stiff but not dry peak.
• Working quickly, fold about a third of the egg whites into the chocolate to lighten; then fold in remaining whites until blended. Gently ladle or spoon the souffle mixture into the ramekins, and place on a baking sheet. (Level off the surface with a straight edge, scraping any excess mixture back into the bowl.)

Immediately bake until the souffle rises about 1 1/2 inches from the ramekins, and the tops are touched with brown, about 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven, and serve immediately.

NOTE: We removed ours about 3-4 minutes early. We watch them and when they begin to crack on the tops we take them out. An overdone s

oufflé just isn't the same. 

Look how pretty they are.....

I can't leave well enough alone, so I top mine with a sweetened cream cheese mixture. Simply beat your cream cheese and vanilla with an electric beater or whisk. Add powdered sugar a little at a time until you make it how sweet you prefer. I like it just slightly sweet. I think it pairs perfectly with the bittersweet chocolate and adds another element of creaminess.

Oh my. It's divine.

You'll want to lick the ramekin clean...and I won't lie, I think I have before.

You may also add other garnish instead or in addition to the cream cheese topping, such as a raspberry sauce. I personally don't think it's necessary, but it's delicious. The original recipe says to just dust them with powdered sugar before serving, but that's boring.

Toffee Lace Cups

While reading Alton Brown's book, "Gear For Your Kitchen" the other night, I came across a recipe for Lace Cups. I was intrigued. They sounded fancy, but pretty simple, so they were moved to the topish portion of my "to try" list. I tried to locate the recipe online so I could bookmark it, but instead came across a different variation - Toffee Lace Cups - and decided I had no choice but to make them right away. Late at night. On a Saturday. Anyway, I made them and they turned out great. We've just been breaking them up and eating the toffee pieces. So good! But the real success was last night when I made Alton's homemade vanilla ice cream (which consequently is the best homemade ice cream recipe I've ever tried), spiked it with crushed candy cane pieces, and served it inside the cups. Successful indeed. Which was a relief since I've had so many unsuccesses as of late. Made that word up I think. So, uh, here's a picture (speaking of unsuccesses...):

Recipe adapted from Foodnetwork.com by Alton Brown

Ingredients:

1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup plus 1 TBSP dark corn syrup (2.5 fluid ounces)
Pinch of kosher salt
A few drops of lemon juice
1/2 cup flour

Directions:

Combine all ingredients except flour in a small, heavy saucepan over med-high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring often. Once mixture is at a boil, stir constantly for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and sift in flour a little at a time, stirring to combine each addition before adding the next. Cool to room temperature or refrigerate for later use. (If refrigerated, allow mixture to come up to room temperature before cooking.) Mixture will thicken a lot as it sits.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cover a baking pan or cookie sheet with parchment paper and spoon out mixture with a metal soup spoon or a small cookie disher. Cookies will spread out like crazy, so place dollops 6 to 8 inches apart. Bake 17-18 minutes or until deep mahogany brown.

Once out of the oven, allow disks to sit for roughly 30 seconds before removing from the pan, otherwise they will be too soft to transfer. Use a metal spatula to transfer the hot candy disks to the bottoms of inverted custard cups or small drinking cups, depending on how deep you want the bowls to be. (Have a cup for each disk, or the disks will set before you can get through them all.) Work quickly and the disks will conform to the shape of the cups. Remove when cool. Store wrapped with paper towel inside resealable plastic bags. Makes approximately 14 cups.

Variation: While hot, disks can be cut into shapes with a pizza cutter or broken by hand when cool and used to garnish other desserts. Or do as the Pioneer Woman would do and give this a try, which I plan to do asap.

White Pizza

I got this recipe from Ina Garten, but I adapted it to my own. For instance, I didn't use her pizza crust, I used my own. And instead of Arugula, I used Collard Greens because that's what I had on hand. You could also use a spring mix or whatever. The full recipe is at the bottom. Here are the steps:

First, make the garlic oil. Ina says not to burn the garlic, but I think I did. It still tasted good.

Next, get out your cheeses. I used Fontina, Goat Cheese, and Mozzarella.


I shredded the Mozzarella, grated the Fontina, and just crumbled the Goat Cheese.

After you mix the dough, shape it into individual size pizzas, like my kids and I did. Or you can just make one big pizza. My kids loved making their own. Here are theirs. After you shape the dough, brush some garlic oil on top, then sprinkle with salt.

Next, sprinkle with Fontina, Mozzarella, then Goat Cheese. Drizzle a little more oil on top.

While the pizza is baking, make the lemon vinaigrette and pour over chopped greens.

I didn't put the greens on top of the kids pizzas, because I didn't think they would like it. I was nervous if they'd like the pizzas at all!

But here is PROOF that they loved them. They gobbled them right up. (By the way, I don't usually let my kids eat in front of the TV, but Josh was working late, so we decided to have a picnic.)

Here is my pizza. I just put the greens on half, because I didn't know if I would like it, but I did and I ended up putting them on the whole thing.

This pizza is pretty rich and filling, but it was really good! I couldn't get enough!
ENJOY!


Pizza Crust:

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 1/2 Tbsp. yeast

1 1/2 tsp. sugar

1 1/2 tsp. salt

Half of 1/3 cup oil (I don't know how much that is)

3 1/2 cups flour

Mix dough and knead well. No need to rise. Use as soon as you mix.

Garlic Oil:
1/2 cup EVOO

4 cloves garlic

5 sprigs thyme

red pepper flakes

Place all ingredients in saucepan and on low heat, simmer for 10 minutes.

Pizza:

8 oz. grated Fontina

8 oz. shredded Mozzarella

11 oz. creamy Goat Cheese

Salad:

8 oz. chopped salad greens

1/2 cup EVOO

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

salt and pepper

Mix dough, and shape into pizzas. Brush with garlic oil, salt, then top with cheeses. Top with a little more oil. Bake at 475 for 10-15 minutes. Then top with salad.

Baklava Minis

Here's the thing about baklava: it's freaking amazing.

So, traditional baklava is made in a cake pan and is beastly to cut and dish out and all that jazz, and since I have an affinity for all things mini, I found this recipe that works perfectly for me. So without further ado I present to you, baklava minis:

Ingredients:

Recipe adapted from FoodNetwork.com by Giada De Laurentiis

Baklava

1/2 cup almonds

1/2 cup walnuts

1/4 cup plain bread crumbs

2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Pinch of nutmeg

Pinch of salt

7 tablespoons butter, melted, divided

3 tablespoons honey
12 sheets phyllo dough

Sauce

1/4 cup water

1/8 cup sugar

1/8 cup honey

Directions:

(If you've never worked with phyllo before, click here)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the almonds, walnuts, bread crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt in a food processor. Run the machine until the mixture is very finely chopped. Transfer the mixture to a small bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of the melted butter and the honey and stir to combine.

On a dry work surface place 1 sheet of phyllo. Using a pastry brush and the remaining melted butter, lightly cover the entire sheet of phyllo with melted butter. Cover the first sheet with a second sheet of phyllo and brush with melted butter. Continue until there is a stack of 6 sheets of phyllo. Comprende? Good then.

Using a pizza cutter, cut the stacked phyllo rectangle into 12 equal pieces (Cut lengthwise into 4 pieces and widthwise into 3 pieces.)

Gently press each cut stack of phyllo into mini-muffin tin cups. Press 1 tablespoon of the nut mixture into each of the phyllo cups.

Gather the ends of each of the phyllo squares and twist to make a sachet shape.

Repeat with remaining phyllo until you have 24 baklava minis, and then brush the tops with any remaining melted butter. Why? Because thou shalt never waste good butter. It's written somewhere...

Bake until the edges of the phyllo are golden, about 18-23 minutes.

Meanwhile, begin making the sauce. In a small saucepan over medium heat add the water, sugar, and honey and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until reduced and slightly thickened, about 8 to 10 minutes. Pour 1 teaspoon syrup into each cup and allow it to soak in.

When cool enough to handle, remove the baklava minis and transfer to a serving plate. Or, you know, just eat it all right then and there so you don't have to dirty another plate. Either way.

Well done, Greek people. Well done.

Tyropitakia - Greek Cheese Pies

Phyllo (Fillo) dough is basically paper-thin sheets of raw, unleavened flour dough used for making pastries in Greek and Middle Eastern cuisines. You can find it in any grocery store in the frozen food section, next to the pie shells and puff pastry. I buy Athens brand because I like the size of the sheets. Each box comes with two packages, with each package containing about 20 sheets. Since its so thin, it dries out super fast and once you cut the top of the bag and pull it out, you basically need to use all of the dough at that time. I've tried putting it back inside the bag, taping it up, and putting it back in the fridge so I could use it another time, but when I pull it out again, it just shatters, so I'm not sure if it can be done. Anyway, it has become one of my favorite things to bake with...and eat. I was completely intimidated by it for years before I finally decided to take the plunge and give it a whirl a few months ago. And come to find out, it's not hard at all. It's a little fickle and you gotta handle with care, but it's pretty forgiving and makes for fabulous eats.

After consuming roughly half my weight in baklava over the past few months, I really wanted to try something savory, so after much research, I finally found this recipe for Tyropitakia (which I have no idea how to pronounce, so we'll just go with Greek cheese pies). I bookmarked. I tried. I loved. The filling is kinda like ravioli, but the flaky phyllo shell makes it especially unique and delicious...and who are we kidding, the abundance of butter definitely doesn't hurt.

So let's get this show on the road...

Ingredients:

Recipe adapted from FoodNetwork.com by Cat Cora

• 4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
• 1/4 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/4 cup parmesan or asiago cheese, grated
• 2 oz. cream cheese
• Dried or fresh parsley to taste
• Grated nutmeg to taste
• Pepper to taste
• 1 egg, well beaten
• 1/4 cup butter, melted (I use unsalted)
• 5-6 sheets commercial phyllo pastry

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

To make the filling, combine all the cheeses together with the parsley, nutmeg, pepper, and egg. Mix well. Pull phyllo from the refrigerator and unroll. Be sure to keep it covered so it doesn't dry out while you prepare the pies. I use the plastic that it comes packaged in, covered by a damp towel. Don't be swayed by recipes that tell you to just go ahead and cover it up with a damp towel. If you do this, all your dough will stick together. And you will curse. I promise. Anyway, brush each piece of phyllo with melted butter before cutting. (The silicone brushes work fine, but I'm sure the bristle brushes probably work better.)

Then cut each piece lengthwise into 3 equal strips.

Place a small dollop of the cheese mix in the middle of the top of each strip.

Now you fold. Folding the phyllo is like folding a flag...fold the right corner to the left to form a right angle and then upward. Continue folding at right angles until you reach the top and have a triangle. Place the triangles on an ungreased baking sheet in absolutely no particular order.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown on each side.

Mmm...

Makes approximately 15-18 pies.