Scones and/or Short Bread w/ Strawberries & Cream

I just love scones. For some reason, I can’t eat things that are too sweet. I guess that’s a good thing for me regarding weight. Scones are buttery and hit the spot but I can’t seem to make them right.  I have tried with varying degrees of success but perhaps I wasn’t putting enough emphasis on cold ingredients, how much or fast to mix and how long to bake. As a beginner cook, I am realizing just how important these techniques are along with these variables.

The best scones I’ve ever had was at an English Tea hosted by Old Westbury Gardens located in Old Westbury, NY. The scones were tinted brown so I must assume they used brown sugar and/or molasses. Sugar was sprinkled on top and they were so moist and flakey. I am going to attempt to make them once again and we’ll see how I do.

I saw this recipe, courtesy of Ina Garten, which is really for short cakes but can be used for scones as well. Add whipped cream to a martini glass and fresh cut strawberries on top to serve with the short cakes and you have a new version of Strawberry Shortcake.

Ingredients

12 TBs (2 sticks of butter) Cold, diced

2 cups flour

2 TBS sugar

1 TB Baking Powder

1 Tsp Salt

½ cup heavy cream

3 eggs (2 for the mixture)

PREP: 

Cut the cold butter the long way. Turn and cut the short ways until you have diced, squares of butter. Mix 2 eggs and the heavy cream together.

DRY INGREDIENTS:

Add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to the sifter and sift right into the Kitchen Aid bowl. Add cold butter and mix slowly with mixer until the butter is pea sized. When the dough is perfect, add the wet ingredients slowly as it’s mixing. Don’t over mix!

TIP

Adding the diced cold butter, helps it stay in bits in the dough so that the steam from baking melts it, making the dough rise so it’s light and flakey.

Put some flour on a board and place roll the dough in the flour, into a ball so some of the flour gets into it. When the dough is sticky, the dough is good.

If you’re making scones, pinch off a good sized piece and add to a greased cookie sheet. For the Strawberry Shortcakes, cut the dough with a round, cookie cutter and placed on a greased cookie sheet. Add the egg wash (see below) and bake at 400 degrees F for 15-20 minutes. DO THIS ALL QUICKLY SO THE BUTTER DOESN’T HAVE TIME TO MELT.

TIP

Make an egg wash for the top of the short cakes and/or scones. It will brown them nicely. Also, add sugar on top to make then crunchy.

PREP: Egg wash

Add 1 egg with 2 TB of water and mix it up well. Take a pastry brush and do the tops of the short cakes or scones.

FOR STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKES:

Add whip cream to a martini or wine glass and add fresh cut strawberries on top. Serve with the short cakes as a new spin on Strawberry short cake.

SCONES:

Add some brown sugar in place of the regular sugar.

French String Bean Salad by Ina Garten

Ingredients

1 ½ cups of French String Beans

2 TB good Dijon Mustard

2 TB White Wine Vinegar

½ tsp Salt

¼ tsp Fresh ground black pepper

2 TB Olive Oil

2 TB fresh, chopped Dill

Pour string beans into a pot of boiling water for around one minute or until they are tender but still a bit crisp, not soggy. Remove beans from water and place into a bowl of icy water.

TIP

Placing hot, boiled beans (or broccoli) in icy water stops them from cooking and it maintains the green color.

To make the dressing, add the Dijon Mustard to a glass bowl. Then add the white wine vinegar, salt and ground black pepper. Whisk together and then slowly add the olive oil while whisking which will make an emulsion.

Drizzle over the string beans and add fresh, chopped Dill on top.

TIP
A mixture of one liquid with another with which it cannot normally combine smoothly — oil and water being the classic example. Emulsifying is done by slowly (sometimes drop-by-drop) adding one ingredient to another while at the same time mixing rapidly. This disperses and suspends minute droplets of one liquid throughout the other. Emulsified mixtures are usually thick and satiny in texture. Mayonnaise (an uncooked combination of oil, egg yolks and vinegar or lemon juice) and HOLLANDAISE SAUCE (a cooked mixture of butter, egg yolks and vinegar or lemon juice) are two of the best-known emulsions.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/tools/fooddictionary/entry#ixzz1vYP3kqqg

Easy Oven Risotto

I feel like a bear. No, that's not a misspelling. I didn’t mean beer although I've never tried cooking while drinking. THAT could be interesting. I meant like a bear because I’ve been in hibernation all winter and haven’t added much to my cooking blog. Well, I am BACK and ready to add more recipes including a TIPS section as am I learning more about the process of cooking as I go along.

Some of the recipes I was going to add as winter dishes was my mom’s split pea and dumpling soup, KooKoo which is like polenta with split pea, her home made bread and fish broth. All of these are West Indian inspired as my parents are from Grenada W. I.

For today, I am sticking with the basics and since I have left over Chicken breasts, I am going to make this easy recipe for Risotto. I just love this moist, pasta like rice but it’s a pain to make with all the stirring that goes into it. I can make it easily in my pressure cooker but I'm not always around a pressure cooker. I was inspired by this oven baked recipe from Barefoot Contessa. It’s easy and it works! The risotto is al dente as it should be without all the stirring and fussing. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 ½ cup Arborio Rice

4 cups of Chicken Stock –preferably home made

½ white wine (sugg. Pinot Grigio)

3 TB butter diced up

1 cup Parmesan cheese-the key to Risotto

Green peas, artichoke, broccoli bits or spinach

2 Tsp salt

1 Tsp pepper

Pour the rice and just 3 cups of chicken stock into a dutch oven pot and place in the oven for 45 minutes at 350 degrees F. When it is done, it’s should be al dente, add last cup of stock which is kept warm.

Next add the white wine, diced butter so it melts into the Risotto, Parmesan, salt and pepper and stir for 2-3 minutes.

Next you can add frozen peas or bits of cooked broccoli or spinach and stir. 

Mexican inspired, Healthy Meatloaf

Boring? Meatloaf? Nah. Not when you can jazz it up! And, make it healthy while you're at it. I use ground turkey instead of ground beef so there's less fat and cholesterol. But, it's never as good as ground beef and more mushy. So, I add more ingredients such as SALT, to make it taste more like the real thing. Then I add some pinto beans, chili powder and other ingredients, and I have to say, it tastes quite good. It's easy to make and well, not all that boring either!


Ingredients
-ground turkey 1/2 lb.
-1 egg
-half cup of milk (or more until you get the proper consistency)
-1 cup bread crumbs
-chopped onion
-minced garlic
-2 tsp salt or to taste
-1 tsp chili powder
-1 tsp ground mustard
-1 tsp Sage
-1 tsp Cilantro
-1/2 tsp black pepper

Mix all ingredients together. Place in loaf pan. I use the, Perfect Meatloaf pan so the fat drains out of the meatloaf and to the bottom of the pan. Put ketchup on top and some honey BBQ sauce. 

Bake for 1 hour. Serve with corn bread for a real, Mexican-esqe pairing. 

Enjoy

How to Chop an Onion

How to Chop an Onion-YouTube Video by Gordon Ramsay

Chicken a la King

This is one of those meals that is semi-simple but real yummy. Once you have it down, it’s so easy to make for the most part and it makes a great, hearty meal for the family. A mean that you can prepare when you come home from work or have limited time. 

If you are new to cooking and enjoy it, as I do, you will notice that it’s the cooking process and combining of ingredients that turns cooking into an artful project. Almost reminds me of my chemistry set sans the lengthy, difficult equations. Just make sure not to blow anything up!

Serves 1 or 2 people. Double up on ingredients to make more.

Ingredients

• 2-3 Boneless/Skinless Chicken breasts
• 1 cup of Rice
• Olive Oil
• (1)         Green bell pepper
• Mushrooms
• 1 onion
• 3 cloves Garlic minced
• Salt
• Black Pepper
• Milk or light cream
• 2 or 3 tablespoons of Flour

Directions

Hours ahead of time, prior to work or going out, take out 2 or 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts to dethaw.

When ready to cook, pour one cup of rice along with one cup of water in a pot along with some salt and butter to cook, as per rice directions.

Wash chicken and using a pair of shears, cut the chicken into pieces. Heat up skillet and add some olive oil to coat the pan. Then add chicken.

Chop up the onion, small green bell pepper or half large pepper and add to skillet. Place lid on skillet and let cook for 5 minutes. Stir and turn chicken over to cook and let cook another 5-10 minutes. The chicken won’t be pink and will start to look white and cooked-for those of you who don’t know.

Then stir in mushrooms and minced garlic along with salt and black pepper to taste. Let cook for a few minutes and stir.

Add milk/light cream to the skillet and a tablespoon or two of flour to thicken milk into a cream sauce. Turn up the heat and let the sauce bubble a bit and then remove from stove.

Now you are ready for this delicious mushroom/green pepper inspired cream sauce poured over the plain white rice.

Mistro Musings "N" Travels

Dear gf's,

Today I went through my Christmas cards to take stock of “who sends” and “doesn't send” so I can cross off my list! :) I gave my husband Tom, the task of reading the names off the Christmas cards. Truly NOT a masculine job to give a guy so there was the making of SOMETHING comical right from the start. 

Read more...