Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2015 - January 2016 i Cook's Country

THE CULINARY FOLKLORE of boulangère potatoes is a well-spun yarn: Before French peasants had home ovens, they would bring their Sunday roasts, nestled on beds of potatoes, to the town bread baker (the boulangère) to cook in the residual heat of his oven. The tasty rendered fat would drip down onto the potatoes, infusing them with meaty flavor. I used this idea as inspiration for a simple but luxurious holiday meal. Nothing beats a bone-in prime rib for a holiday centerpiece, and I knew that this cut’s ample marbling (also known as fat) would render and flavor the potatoes. Following test kitchen protocol, I trimmed the roast of excess fat, made shallow crosshatch cuts in the remaining fat cap, and rubbed the roast all over with salt a full 24…

ACORN SQUASH, THOSE squat ridged numbers resembling giant acorns that appear every fall, are delicious simply roasted and mashed with butter. But come holiday time, we want to gussy them up a bit in a festive but not overburdened side dish. Early tests of existing recipes, along with some research into our company’s previous squash recipes, showed me that to get flesh that was velvety and soft but still stable enough to hold its shape, I’d have to precook the squash wedges before adding the stuffing. But precooking has a bonus: a bit of browning on the squash sides that adds a sweet, caramelized note. To maximize that browning, I positioned the squash wedges on their sides on a rimmed baking sheet and slid them into the oven to roast…

Bonus! Find two more new holiday cookie recipes at CooksCountry.com/dec15. CHOCOLATE SALAMI Makes 24 cookies There’s nothing savory about this confection rooted in Portuguese and Italian tradition. With a base akin to a chocolate truffle, it’s typically chock-full of dried fruit, nuts, and crushed cookies. To complete the salami look, the dough is rolled into logs before being dredged in confectioners’ sugar. We liked the combination of dried cherries (first macerated in Grand Marnier) and pistachios, and we used dried ladyfingers as the cookie component— although any dry, biscuitlike cookie will work. ½ cup dried cherries, chopped coarse 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier 4 ounces dried ladyfingers (savoiardi), cut into .-inch chunks 1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips ⅓ cup heavy cream Pinch salt ⅔ cup pistachios, toasted…

CORNISH PASTIES SHOULD be great: tender beef and vegetables wrapped in a flaky handheld crust. So I was surprised when one of our editors who ate these as a child told me, “The best thing about a pasty is the ketchup on the side.” Pasties do evoke strong feelings. Some fans adamantly oppose any vegetables in the filling other than potatoes and onions. Some, equally adamantly, endorse turnips, carrots, and rutabagas. Some recipes call for lard, while others use butter. Where to begin? The mining industry in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula attracted immigrants from Cornwall, England, in the 19th century (see “The American Table”); they brought their pasties with them. The miners’ pasties were as big as dinner plates, filled with enough food to fuel an entire day’s labor. The crust…

APPLE-CINNAMON MUFFINS, soft and crumbly with vibrant fruit flavor and spicy cinnamon. It’s such a simple idea. But, as I learned after testing dozens of existing recipes, the goal is frustratingly elusive. The methods I found were similar (simple batters of oil or melted butter, flour, eggs, and dairy)—until it came to adding in fruit. The recipes I experimented with called for a bewildering array of treatments: grating the apples, cooking them down to a sauce, or just chopping and adding them raw. All the muffins were failures. Some were wet, others dense, and yet others flavorless. One muffin could only be eaten with a spoon. These disasters only steeled my resolve, though: I was determined to devise a simple recipe for tender apple muffins with plenty of fruit flavor…

DON’T BE ANGRY IF you’re bumped in the back when wandering through the farmers’ market in Madison, Wisconsin. It is likely that the person who walked into you has his or her attention on a giant loaf of steaming, fragrant bread and is pulling off chunks and gobbling them down as he or she strolls. Stella’s bakery sells dozens of loaves of their famous spicy cheese bread at the market, where the soft, sweet, chewy, cheesy, spicy snack is legendary. Since not everyone has easy access to Stella’s and the market in Madison, I set out to create a similarly delicious bread back in the test kitchen—one that took minimal active work and yielded a substantial reward. No small task. I experimented with various breads, including brioche and country-style, but…

COCONUT SHRIMP HAS an image problem. Too many dive bars serve prefab, dried-out, overcooked shrimp encased in soggy coatings. I wanted sweet, tender shrimp in crispy jackets with vivid coconut flavor. I did some research into this South Florida favorite and tried a few existing recipes. Some used a simple batter with coconut stirred in, others a bound breading with added coconut. Some were baked, others shallow- or deepfried. The results were disheartening: sandy breadings, flimsy coatings, rubbery shrimp. My only takeaway was that the deep-fried versions were best. Other than that, I’d have to start from scratch. Most times, when we want to add a crunchy coating to chicken or fish, we start with a light flour dusting to absorb the meat’s moisture, give the meat a quick dunk…

THERE’S JUST SO much to love about a big, family-size pot of baked ziti: tender pasta, vibrant tomato sauce, oozy pockets of mozzarella, and dollops of creamy, bubbling ricotta. But it’s a project that can quickly spiral out of control: multiple components, numerous pots and pans, a great deal of time and attention, and endless opportunities for things to go south. It’s hardly a weeknight kind of meal. But shouldn’t it be? What better way to take the edge off a Monday than this comforting dish? Determined to find out, I armed myself with a single Dutch oven and a big bag of ziti and hit the stove. A great baked pasta dish lives or dies by its sauce. After creating many iterations over the years in the test kitchen,…

THE CHOICE BETWEEN A bowl of creamy, plump, pleasantly chewy slow-cooked steel-cut oatmeal and the gummy stuff you get from those just-add-water instant packets is a no-brainer—as long as someone else is doing the cooking. But too often, speed trumps quality. I set out to create a recipe for the far superior steel-cut oatmeal with easy flavor variations that was, if not instant, at least quicker. Convenience varieties of oats are processed in ways that speed cooking; old-fashioned or rolled oats are flattened between rollers to allow them to more quickly absorb hot water, while quickcooking and instant oats are also steamed, toasted, and cut smaller to hasten cooking time even more. The only processing steel-cut oats go through, on the other hand, is being cut into small pieces. Cooking…

We’re looking for recipes that you treasure—the ones that have been handed down in your family for a generation or more; that always come out for the holidays; that have earned a place at your table and in your heart, through many years of meals. Send us the recipes that spell home to you. Visit CooksCountry.com/magazines/home (or write to Heirloom Recipes, Cook’s Country, P.O. Box 470739, Brookline, MA 02447); click on Heirloom Recipes and tell us a little about the recipe. Include your name and mailing address. If we print your recipe, you’ll receive a free one-year subscription to Cook’s Country. HOT GINGER-SPICED MULLED CIDER Makes about 1 gallon “The aroma of simmering cider reminds me of the holidays of my youth.” —Karen Ward, Bristol, N.H. You can find cheesecloth…

Sherry Substitute Some of your recipes call for sherry. Are there any nonalcoholic ingredients I can use instead? –Shawna Sullivan, Hickory, N.C. Sherry is a Spanish fortified white wine, which means that the wine has liquor added. It has a distinctive caramel, earthy, often musky flavor that is typically both sweet and acidic. After a few days of experimenting in the test kitchen, we landed on a simple formula to imitate those qualities. To yield about a cup of nonalcoholic sherry substitute, combine . cup water, ⅓ cup apple juice, 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, and . teaspoon soy sauce (to mimic sherry’s muskiness). We tested this in our Sherry-Rosemary Pan Sauce, and it tasted very close to the sauce made with sherry. When testing our “mock sherry” in our…

COLLARD GREENS BOILED in the traditional Southern way take an hour to cook and, while tasty, can take on a muddy, pale hue. I wanted to dress up these humble greens for a vibrant, elegant holiday side. I washed and dried a few bunches of collards, trimmed and discarded the stem pieces below the leaves, chopped the leaves (leaving the ribs intact), and hit the stove. I tried sautéing the chopped collards in olive oil, but it took about 40 minutes to soften the remaining stem pieces. Too long. Blanching them before sautéing helped but took two extra dishes. For my next test, I didn’t bother drying the chopped greens after washing them. I placed the wet leaves in a Dutch oven, hoping the clinging water would steam them. I…

A PHILADELPHIA GRANDMOTHER places a weathered black-andwhite photograph on top of the bakery case at the Swiss Haus Bakery in the Center City neighborhood of Philadelphia. The faded picture shows her as a young bride a half-century ago, cutting through her Swiss Haus wedding cake. The woman wants to know if the bakery, which has been making the same recipes in the same building since 1923, can re-create this dessert for an upcoming celebration. The bakery can proudly fill this order, as a piece of Swiss Haus cake is a piece of living history. When I visited the Swiss Haus Bakery to taste their famous hazelnut sponge cake, I found a beautiful cake frosted with a fluffy vanilla icing and covered in chocolate shavings. The cake itself was light and…

WHETHER IT’S applewoodsmoked bacon or pork chops served with applesauce, pork and apples are a classic combination. With this in mind, I set out to create a recipe for a pork roast slowly braised in cider. I collected several recipes to test drive. They featured different cuts, different cooking times and temperatures, and supporting ingredients that ranged from onions and celery to orange and caraway. Out of the six recipes I prepared, not one was a success. The meat was bland and leathery in recipes that called for lean tenderloin or loin. Recipes that called for fattier cuts were greasy and produced tough, chewy meat. And they all had muddied flavors that didn’t taste much like either pork or apples. I wanted a flavorful, tender roast infused with clean, bright,…

When it comes to broccoli, roasting and sauteing have their advantages (brown edges, crisp florets) but for even cooking every time, quickly, we turn to the microwave. The reason? Water. Unlike standard ovens, which cook food through the direct application of heat, a microwave uses electromagnetic waves to penetrate the food. When the food is mostly water (like broccoli, which is 91 percent water), the microwave steams it from the inside. Careful cutting is essential to even cooking: I found that the broccoli was best when I cut the florets into 1-inch pieces and then used a vegetable peeler to remove the fibrous exterior from the very flavorful stem (too often discarded) and cut it into .-inch cubes. I tossed everything with a bit of salt in a microwave-safe bowl,…

EARLY LAST CENTURY, the question of who invented Crab Louis inspired vigorous debate in western states. Restaurants from Puget Sound to Santa Cruz claimed ownership of this tangy salad of flaky crabmeat, crisp lettuce, and an array of add-ins like tomatoes and hard-cooked eggs, all mixed with a creamy Thousand Island– style dressing. I wanted to bring it back for contemporary tables. But first I wanted to find out its story. After much digging, our culinary research expert helped clear up the dish’s murky origins. The first Crab Louis–style salad listed on a menu was at one of San Francisco’s oldest restaurants, the Old Poodle Dog. Founded in 1849, the restaurant (which also maintained upstairs rooms where male clientele would visit with women whose companionship came with an hourly rate)…

Every Saturday from mid-April to mid-November, you’ll find the sprawling Dane County Farmers’ Market in full swing around Capitol Square in downtown Madison, Wisconsin. What started as a ramshackle group of five farmers in 1972 (decades before farmers’ markets saturated urban centers everywhere) grew steadily over the years; it’s now 150 vendors strong. Farmers’ markets across the country still look to the Dane County model for inspiration. The farmers, cheesemakers, beekeepers, and, of course, breadmakers—all local, all strictly vetted by the Madison Chamber of Commerce (it’s competitive to get into this market)—set up tents on the sidewalks surrounding a grassy patch of park by the towering capitol building at the center of town. But this is more than just a pop-up venue for commerce. It’s a full-blown community happening that…

A LMOND BONELESS CHICKEN consists of boneless chicken breasts pounded thin, dipped in batter, and deep-fried; the chicken is sliced and served on a bed of iceberg lettuce with a mild brown sauce and a sprinkling of almonds and scallions. Also known as ABC, it’s a Chinese American staple on restaurant menus in the Detroit region, and almost nowhere else. I wanted to change that. I recruited a few native Michiganders to act as consultants. They confirmed that the dish, though mild in flavor, is a riot of textures: crunchy iceberg lettuce, crispy battered chicken, velvety sauce. I found a few existing recipes, all of which used a batter made with egg, water, flour, and cornstarch, plus a leavening agent like baking soda or powder, in varying amounts. One thick…

CHICKEN AND RICE soup seems like a natural for the slow cooker: Just brown some chicken and vegetables, dump them into the insert with broth and rice, and walk away. If only life were that easy. I made several slow-cooker recipes for this classic soup, and all were surprisingly bad. Most featured weak chicken flavor, but the big problem was the rice, which was half disintegrated and yet somehow still too chewy and wholly unpleasant. There was nowhere to go but up. I decided I’d make a great chicken soup first and then figure out how best to add the rice. I knew that using bonein chicken pieces would be the way to go, as pieces are easier to manage than a whole bird and the bones add flavor and…

CHEESY CORN CASSEROLE, a common holiday side dish in the South and Midwest, falls somewhere on the spectrum between creamed corn and cornbread. Most recipes involve stirring together corn muffin mix, canned creamed corn, canned (or frozen) corn kernels, sour cream, cheese, and eggs. You just dump it into a casserole and bake. Sound too good to be true? It is. The worst of the handful of existing recipes I tried didn’t even justify this minimal effort. They ranged from goopy to greasy and from appallingly bland to unappealingly dense. I knew this dish could do with a makeover. I envisioned something substantial but light, with sweet corn and savory cheese flavors. Prefab corn muffin mixes are good in a pinch but too sweet for this casserole. Instead, I made…

TOO OFTEN, chicken dishes taste like whatever else is in the dish rather than the chicken itself. But smothered chicken is designed to coax out as much chicken flavor as possible and then bolster it with supporting— not distracting—ingredients. I tried a handful of existing recipes from some of the South’s best cooks (including Edna Lewis and John Folse) to get my bearings and set my goals: big chicken flavor and weekday ease. To start, I tossed chicken parts in lightly seasoned flour and browned them in batches in a Dutch oven to render some of the fat and build a base of flavor. Once the chicken pieces were browned, I set them aside and began to add the ingredients for my smothering sauce. I found that a simple mix…

What, exactly, is beer? It’s the nectar created when malt (a grain, most often barley, that has germinated and then been dried and/or roasted) is mixed with water, strained, and the resulting liquid fermented. Fermentation is the process—triggered by yeast or bacteria—that converts the sugar in the malt into acid, gas, and/or alcohol. Many beers are flavored with hops, the seed cones of a climbing vine, which add flowery, bitter, and piney flavors to the mix. Session ALL-DAY SIPPER Session beers were invented as a response to ever-increasing alcohol percentages in craft beers such as India Pale Ales. The addition of more hops doesn’t just increase a craft beer’s flavor, it also sends its alcohol content by volume (ABV) sky high (between 8 and 12 percent). Session beers are brewed…

SALTIMBOCCA, WHICH ROUGHLY translates as “jumps in the mouth” in Italian, is a traditional Roman dish popular in Italian American restaurants. In the classic version, thin veal cutlets are topped with prosciutto and sage, rolled into bundles, seared, and then finished in a bright white wine–and-butter sauce. More common today are deconstructed versions that lay the sage and prosciutto on top of a thin piece of veal (or chicken) before sautéing and saucing. My goal was to reinvent this dish using pork tenderloin, a cut that, like veal and chicken, is mild and tender. I gathered and prepared a handful of recipes, and my tasters and I found plenty of problems to fix, including tough and chewy meat and out-of-balance flavors. Different recipes call for various methods for getting the…

SPRINKLE FILLINGS After rolling the dough into a rectangle, cover the surface with cheese cubes and red pepper flakes. ROLL INTO LOG Starting with the longer side, roll the dough into a tight cylinder, trapping the cheese cubes inside. CREATE SPIRAL Use gentle pressure to roll the dough log back and forth until it is 30 inches long. Then, create a spiral shape. PLACE IN PAN Nestle the spiral into a greased cake pan, cover it with a towel, and let the dough rise for 1 to 1½ hours. ADD SPICE Once the dough has doubled in size, brush the top with beaten egg and sprinkle it with red pepper flakes.…

HERB ROAST CHICKEN Serves 4 The test kitchen’s favorite whole chickens are Mary’s Free Range Air Chilled Chicken (also sold as Pitman’s) and Bell & Evans Air Chilled Premium Fresh Chicken. Note that after the herb paste is applied, the chicken needs to rest for at least 1 hour (and up to 24 hours) before cooking. ½ cup chopped fresh parsley 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme 1½ teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary 1 garlic clove, minced Salt and pepper 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 (3½- to 4-pound) whole chicken, giblets discarded 1 cup chicken broth 3 tablespoons white wine 1½ teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon cold water 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, chilled 1. Process parsley, thyme, rosemary, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper in food processor until paste…

WITH A LITTLE KNOW-HOW, most home cooks can purchase and cook a beautiful basic steak that measures up to steakhouse quality—and for a lot less money. But what about a more involved steakhouse preparation, like a tender filet mignon punched up with a crunchy, buttery herb crust? (Filet mignon, for all of its textural virtues, is a mild-tasting cut that benefits from a flavor boost.) I wanted to develop a recipe for this dish that was up to—or even better than— steakhouse standards but would be easy enough for a special weeknight dinner for two at home. The test kitchen has a fantastic, show-stopping recipe for Herb-Crusted Beef Tenderloin that serves 10 to 12 people, so I figured I’d start there and downsize. That recipe calls for trimming and rubbing…

FOR SUCH AN indispensable ingredient, leavening remains an afterthought to most home bakers. But it’s undoubtedly essential: Without the transformative powers of leavening, many baked goods would emerge from the oven dense, flat, or hard. Most leaveners work on the same principle: When added to a batter or dough, they release gas, creating air bubbles that lift the mixture. The most familiar natural leavener is yeast, which consumes the sugars in a dough and produces air bubbles. Resilient doughs, like bread doughs, are elastic and can contain gas bubbles for a relatively long period. Quick bread doughs and runny cake batters can’t hold gas bubbles for long, so when making these, we rely on fast-acting chemical leaveners. There are two commonly available chemical leaveners, baking soda and baking powder. Baking…