culinary experimentation
Apple Butter
Sooooo I finally did some canning at my place! Yayyyy. I made apple butter and all my cans sealed properly which is quite exciting. I used Bramley apples which are very tart cooking apples so the finished product is very apple pie like. It's excellent in a cheese sandwich.
Raspberry Syrup
Making simple syrup is so easy. Fruit flavored syrup is easy but straining out the seeds is tedious. I made this syrup because Pippa has been asking for pink milk like Lola drinks in the Charlie and Lola series of books/shows. The raspberry syrup makes the milk more of a rosy color but it's close enough. Gordon says it's purple but he doesn't know what he's talking about.
Anyway just adding a little bit of the raspberry syrup to milk causes Pippa to drink an entire cup of milk whereas usually she will only drink maybe 1/4 c.
Sablefish
I bought some of this at a fishmonger's months ago and it's been sitting in my freezer taunting me ever since. Finally I just defrosted it and tried something very simple, poaching it with herbs and vermouth. It was really really good! It helps that it's a fatty fish like salmon so it's difficult to overcook it. The price was very good for fish. I paid $6/lb at the time for boneless fillets, and I just got some more for only $4/lb. Supposedly the omega 3 content rivals salmon and it's sustainably fished so this is a great choice, and also fairly local for where I am; it's a northern Pacific fish.
Pippa took two bites and announced she hated it, but lately she hates most new things the first time, so I didn't push it. She'll get to try it again soon.
No Knead Pan Pizza
I followed this recipe. I did a dry run at lunch time. This is my first time ever doing any kind of no knead dough, so I was skittish and too gentle with the dough that first go. I handled the dough like it was a bomb about to go off. Result: it puffed up like a pizza souffle, and the toppings just kind of slid around on the top. It was still edible, but it wasn't pizza. It was a very puffy and spongy sort of bun with some tomato sauce and cheese on top.
So when I made it again for dinner (when Gordon got home from work) I slapped the dough around and gave it the what for before the second rise, and it was perfect. PERFECT. Chewy and crispy and buttery crust. I can't believe I'm saying this, but it actually needed less cheese. With the crust being so buttery, it needed less cheese on top for balance. We topped one of the pizzas the second go round with pepperoni and olives, the other with chicken, feta, artichoke hearts, and two kinds of olives, and the second one was definitely better in terms of balance, because the acidic/salty toppings contrasted with the buttery crust. However, when I do this again, I need to make sure I take the time to really drain the toppings well, because the second pizza's crust was a bit softer and less golden, and I think that's because the toppings were too moist and created too much steam in the oven.
Mango Club Soda
I don't make this, a local grocery store makes this as a store brand, and I'm addicted. I'm drinking like three cans a day. I'm going to get one right now in fact.
Sooooo I finally did some canning at my place! Yayyyy. I made apple butter and all my cans sealed properly which is quite exciting. I used Bramley apples which are very tart cooking apples so the finished product is very apple pie like. It's excellent in a cheese sandwich.
Raspberry Syrup
Making simple syrup is so easy. Fruit flavored syrup is easy but straining out the seeds is tedious. I made this syrup because Pippa has been asking for pink milk like Lola drinks in the Charlie and Lola series of books/shows. The raspberry syrup makes the milk more of a rosy color but it's close enough. Gordon says it's purple but he doesn't know what he's talking about.
Anyway just adding a little bit of the raspberry syrup to milk causes Pippa to drink an entire cup of milk whereas usually she will only drink maybe 1/4 c.
Sablefish
I bought some of this at a fishmonger's months ago and it's been sitting in my freezer taunting me ever since. Finally I just defrosted it and tried something very simple, poaching it with herbs and vermouth. It was really really good! It helps that it's a fatty fish like salmon so it's difficult to overcook it. The price was very good for fish. I paid $6/lb at the time for boneless fillets, and I just got some more for only $4/lb. Supposedly the omega 3 content rivals salmon and it's sustainably fished so this is a great choice, and also fairly local for where I am; it's a northern Pacific fish.
Pippa took two bites and announced she hated it, but lately she hates most new things the first time, so I didn't push it. She'll get to try it again soon.
No Knead Pan Pizza
I followed this recipe. I did a dry run at lunch time. This is my first time ever doing any kind of no knead dough, so I was skittish and too gentle with the dough that first go. I handled the dough like it was a bomb about to go off. Result: it puffed up like a pizza souffle, and the toppings just kind of slid around on the top. It was still edible, but it wasn't pizza. It was a very puffy and spongy sort of bun with some tomato sauce and cheese on top.
So when I made it again for dinner (when Gordon got home from work) I slapped the dough around and gave it the what for before the second rise, and it was perfect. PERFECT. Chewy and crispy and buttery crust. I can't believe I'm saying this, but it actually needed less cheese. With the crust being so buttery, it needed less cheese on top for balance. We topped one of the pizzas the second go round with pepperoni and olives, the other with chicken, feta, artichoke hearts, and two kinds of olives, and the second one was definitely better in terms of balance, because the acidic/salty toppings contrasted with the buttery crust. However, when I do this again, I need to make sure I take the time to really drain the toppings well, because the second pizza's crust was a bit softer and less golden, and I think that's because the toppings were too moist and created too much steam in the oven.
Mango Club Soda
I don't make this, a local grocery store makes this as a store brand, and I'm addicted. I'm drinking like three cans a day. I'm going to get one right now in fact.