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Archive for November, 2006

Whaddya eating?

Posted in Whaddya Eating? on November 30, 2006 | 10 Comments »

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I hope everyone had a filling Thanksgiving. For the first time ever, Q and I had company for our meal. There was great conversation, good natured banter, and loads of bubbly. And shrimp dip, that’ll get its own post later. It almost made up for the food which was shameful.

There were problems with the turkey from the beginning. Everybody raves how moist and flavorful the meat is after brining in a sugar and salt solution so I thought it was worth a try. The only thing big enough to hold the bird and brine was my 15-quart stock pot. It was a tight squeeze but I managed to submerge most of it in the solution by dropping the turkey in head first with most of the legs sticking out. No problem, I just covered the exposed parts with cling wrap and let it rest overnight in the fridge. The plan was to get up early, flip it over, and let it soak for another 3 hours so it was evenly brined. It was a real wrestling match trying to get the damn thing out of the pot the next morning. Even after the brine was poured out, the turkey didn’t want to move. So I kneeled on a chair above the sink, stuck my arms inside the pot and tried to lift and shimmy it out. The whole time I was thinking of all the horror stories I’ve heard about childbirth, wondering if there wasn’t some poor midwife or OB out there doing the same thing with an over-sized baby. I pulled a little too hard. I ended up smacking myself in the face with the raw bastard, knocking off my glasses, and soaking everything with potential salmonella infested liquid. But I did manage to catch it before it skidded off the chair by pressing my left hip between it and the sink. It was only 8:30 in the morning, I was dripping wet with germy water, blind, with a sore nose, and very very unhappy.

The worst part is that I didn’t need to go through all that hassle, because the bloody oven thermometer tricked me into thinking that the temp was at a decent 350F where in reality it was closer to 500F. It was one dry turkey plus all the other dishes were off.

Next year there will be no full Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings, it’ll just be shrimp dip.

So what did everybody else have over the weekend? Any good leftovers? For any newcomers to this site, feel free to tell me all about the food highlights of your most recent meals. Any recipes, take-out, home-cooking, Thanksgiving disasters or triumphs, leave them in the comments section.

I’ll be working more on this blog to get it up to scratch and hope to get more posts going by the weekend.

cheers,

Butta Buns

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Sage Bread for Stuffing

Posted in Sides on November 21, 2006 | 3 Comments »

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Technically this is called “dressing” since it’s not going inside the bird. I plan on putting sliced lemons, onions, herbs, and garlic in the turkey’s tuckus since I love how the flavors seep into the dark meat so beautifully. I feel the need to justify this since some people (all my siblings, their spouses, etc.) would accuse me of being a pussy. But I digress.

The amount of herb for this bread is exaggerated and would be too overpowering to eat on its own. For the dressing I make a loaf each of sage bread and white bread to be used as the filler.

Sage Bread
3.5 cups white flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. yeast
2-3 tbsp. cold unsalted butter
1 1/4 c. cold water
4 tbsp. fresh sage leaves, minced

For a food processor: Place the flour, salt, and yeast in the bowl of the processor and pulse. With the blade running, add the cold butter bit by bit, and then slowly pour in the water. The dough shouldn’t be too sticky, in other words y0u can pull your fingers free of the dough without it looking like a scene from The Blob. If it is, then knead more flour into it.

Take the dough out, form it into a ball, and place it in a lightly buttered bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let it rise for 2-3 hours.

After it’s risen, knead in the sage leaves and fold it a few times into a flat rectangle. Put it in greased loaf pan and cover it again. Let it rise for another 1-2 hours.

Bake at 450F for 30-40 minutes. The nice thing is that it doesn’t matter if it’s under or over cooked since it’ll be re-baked as a dressing.

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Butterscotch Bread Pudding in a Pumpkin

Posted in Sweets on November 20, 2006 | 5 Comments »


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To start, take two 5lb. sugar pumpkins and scrape out all the innards and seeds. Rub the inside with a pat of butter and roast for 30 minutes at 350F.

Bread Pudding

2 cups milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 loaf of Challah, cut into cubes

1 egg, lightly beaten

2/3 c. raisins

1 c. butterscotch sauce (see the previous post for the recipe)

Gently scald the milk over low heat. Add the vanilla and cinnamon. Let cool to room temperature.

Place the bread cubes in a large bowl with the raisins and stir in the cooled milk. Add the beaten egg, mixing well. Stir in the cup of butterscotch sauce.

Stuff the pumpkins with the pudding and bake at 350F for 45 minutes.

I split the pumpkins in half, then quartered, and served them in wedges.

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Butterscotch Sauce

Posted in Sweets on November 19, 2006 | 2 Comments »

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Who could resist something this succulent? Sweet velvety butter that coats the inside of your mouth.

It’s a shame that butterscotch sauce has never obtained such a high standard as it’s caramel counterpart. The flavor is 10 times more intense, infinitely easier to make (I’ve suffered 2nd degree burns on my scalp from making caramelizing sugar), and has such an agreeable texture. The consistency alone gives it a very versatile edge. It’s perfect for ice cream, can be added to cake batters or finished products and is a lovely fondue dip. I’m waiting for the day that a certain coffee empire comes up with the butterscotch latte. If you have a sweet tooth like mine, the possibilities are endless.

Contrary to popular belief there is no Scotch in butterscotch. There is of course butter but surprisingly it only takes up 15% of the recipe.

Butterscotch Sauce
1 c. brown sugar
2/3 c. light corn syrup
4 tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 c. heavy cream
1/4 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt

In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the ingredients one by one, stirring frequently. Bring up the heat gradually and let it boil gently for 60 seconds. Take off the heat and let cool.

As it cools, the butter solids will separate to the top. The resulting decadent butter makes excellent cookies, just adjust the recipe to omit the refined sugar.

PS To my lactose intolerant or vegan pals, I am in the middle of trying to perfect a soy and margarine based sauce. The last batch passed muster but the consistency was rather watery. More on that later.

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