THE BEAUTY OF VELVETING

Posted in Seafood by

Oriental-style stir fries are often part of our rotation meals for dinner. Usually chicken or shrimp as the main protein. Shrimp cooks super fast, I usually brine it and incorporate it into the wok, and that does prevent it from getting tough and dry. But if you want the most perfect and succulent texture, look no further: go for the traditional Chinese method of velveting. It can be done in oil or water, I always opt for the latter. Once you have velveted shrimp, it can sit at room temperature for an hour without problems. Just use it in any recipe and be ready to fall in love…

SHRIMP STIR-FRY WITH BROCCOLI AND CASHEWS
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)

for velveting the shrimp:
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sherry
1 large egg white, whisked briefly
1 + 1/2 Tablespoon cornstarch
1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 pound large shrimp, peeled and de-veined
1 medium head of broccoli florets
1/2 yellow bell pepper, sliced thin
2 stalks celery, cut in 1/4 inch slices
Cashews, lightly toasted
peanut oil, about 3 tablespoons
1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil
salt and black pepper to taste

finishing sauce:
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce or tamari
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon Sriracha sauce (or more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon minced ginger
2 teaspoons arrowroot powder

Place the shrimp in a bowl. Sprinkle the salt and sherry, gently mix. Add the egg white, cornstarch and olive oil, stir well but gently. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Bring a pot with water to a gentle boil, add a smidgen of olive oil and then place the shrimp straight from the fridge in the water. Stir gently so they do not stick to each other. Simmer for a couple of minutes and immediately drain in a colander. Rinse very briefly with cold water to stop the cooking, and reserve until time to finish the recipe. You can do this step one hour in advance.

Mix all ingredients for the finishing sauce and reserve. Place the broccoli and a sprinkle of water in a microwave safe bowl, season gently with salt. Microwave for 2 minutes, drain, and reserve.

Heat the peanut oil in a wok, when smoking hot add the celery and yellow bell pepper. Season lightly with salt and pepper. When very fragrant and the veggies are soft, add the broccoli and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the velveted shrimp, cook gently for another minute or so. Whisk the prepared finishing sauce and pour into the wok, bring to a boil. Cook until thickened and well combined with the ingredients. Sprinkle toasted cashews on top and serve, adjusting seasoning if so desired.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: If you love stir-fries, I urge you to incorporate the velveting step to make your recipe even more special. Phil tasted it and immediately said “You nailed this one!” Indeed, you cannot beat the texture of these babies. You can use any recipe you like, and also do the exact same process (minus the cornstarch) to velvet chicken. I never use oil because I refuse to have to deal with a large amount of leftover oil, particularly if used for seafood. But your kitchen, your rules. I don’t think the oil method will produce a better outcome anyway. We enjoyed it with some brown rice and ate like Royals of The Ming Dynasty! Or so it seemed to us…


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STRAWBERRY SHORTBREAD COOKIES, TWO WAYS

Posted in Cookies by

One cookie dough, two different outcomes. Not sure which one I loved most, but the rolled out and cut as circles is obviously the simplest and easiest. But, how to resist little tiny strawberry shaped cookies, coated in chocolate?

STRAWBERRY SHORTBREAD COOKIES
(slightly modified from Bakes by Brown Sugar)

320 grams unbleached all-purpose flour
15 grams strawberry powder
227 grams unsalted butter room temperature
114 grams granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Strawberry Glaze
1 cup (115 grams) powdered sugar
5g strawberry powder
3-5 teaspoons whole milk


Mix the flour, strawberry powder and salt in a bowl. Reserve.

Place the butter, sugar and vanilla extract in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and mix on medium speed until the mixture is smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.

Add all the flour-strawberry mixture at once. Turn the mixer to low speed and mix until all the dry ingredients are combined and the dough forms into a cohesive dough ball. The dough will be crumbly at first but then form into a dough ball. Turn the cookie dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Use your hands to shape the dough into a rectangle and lightly flour the top of the dough.

Roll the dough out to 1/2-inch thick. Use a round cookie cutter to cut out the cookies. Place the cookies on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper or perforated silicone mat. Freeze for 15 minutes.

Heat the oven to 300 degrees F. Bake the cookies for 20-23 minutes.

Make the glaze: place the powdered sugar and strawberry powder in a bowl. Add 3 teaspoons of milk and stir until the mixture is creamy and smooth and there are no lumps. The glaze will be thick. If you want a thinner glaze, add milk 1/2 teaspoon at a time until the desired consistency is achieved.

Holding each cookie on their sides, dip the top of the of the cookie into the glaze. Press down slightly to ensure the whole of the top side is covered. Lift the cookie up and shake off any excess glaze. Place the cookie back on the wire rack and let the glaze set. Decorate with fondant or chocolate pieces.

To make strawberry shaped cookies, press the cookie dough in the cavities of a silicone mold (I used this one), and bake at 350F for about 15 minutes. Let it cool completely in the mold before removing the cookies. Wash the mold and dry well. Paint melted compound chocolate dyed red and green carefully in the cavities, then drop the baked cookie back inside. Place in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes to solidity the chocolate. Carefully remove the coated cookies, use a Microplane if you need to adjust the edges.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: This delicious cookie recipe comes from a former contestant of The Great American Baking Show, participant before my time, Cheryl. I subscribe to her blog, and invite you to visit clicking here. I modified her recipe to use a product I am quite fond of, strawberry powder. Easier to use than freeze-dried, although you will have to cave and support the Evil Empire to get some. I have never seen it sold in grocery stores in my town. The cookies are absolutely delicious, you could skip the glaze but I urge you not to. Just wonderful! Thank you, Cheryl!

The little strawberries were a bit more involved to make, but they were a big hit when I donated them. I know some have issues using compound chocolate, but it does a good job here. Not too hard to bite into, and if you use a nice brand, it tastes fine. Just take your time painting the inside of the strawberry. Do the green part first, let it set, then come with the red all over it, and immediately place the cookie inside.

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BRINED AND SLOW-ROASTED CHICKEN THIGHS

Posted in Poultry by

We love chicken thighs, they are part of our dinner rotation, at least once every two weeks. I am partial to slow-roasting and then blasting them skin side up at higher temperature, but today I share one more twist to this method: brining the pieces of chicken first. They end up with a wonderful texture, slightly more tender and juicy. It is an extra step, but you can do it hours in advance and forget about it until it is time to cook your meal.


BRINED AND SLOW-ROASTED CHICKEN THIGHS
(from the Bewitching Kitchen)

6 chicken thighs
1 quart water
1/4 cup Kosher salt

Marinade:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 lemon, juice and zest
black pepper
drizzle of honey
2 tsp mustard

Dissolve the salt in the water, and soak the pieces to completely cover them. Place in the fridge anywhere from 2 to 6 hours.

Remove pieces from the brine, rinse briefly, pat dry. Make the marinade by mixing all ingredients, then add to the brined thighs. Place back in the fridge for a couple of hours or even overnight.

Roasts the chicken at 325F for about 90 minutes, skin side down, covered with foil. You can sprinkle the pieces with a bit of salt if you like, but the brining step is going to make them slightly salty already. Remove the foil, flip the pieces to have the skin up, increase temperature to 425F and roast until the skin is dark brown to your liking, 20 to 25 minutes longer.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: You can take the marinade in many different directions, or even omit it altogether for a very basic method that will still be delicious. I intend to go for a little gochujang kick next time. Leftovers stay great for days, which is – as you know – a bonus with us. I hope you give this method a try if you have never brined chicken pieces before.

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ONE DOUGH, THREE OUTCOMES

Posted in Breads by

For some odd reason, we’ve been going through sourdough eating at a fast pace. I used my default recipe two days in a row, first being a regular boule with an attempt of flowery design that had so much enthusiasm in the oven that it exploded through the petals, but I am not one to complain about excessive oven spring…

Next day, I went a bit crazy and did something totally different. I shaped the dough as a batard, and placed it in the fridge overnight. Next day, I divided it lengthwise in half, and used the first portion to bake a baguette-ish creature (not quite as thin), and divided the remaining half in 7 pieces to bake as small boules in a muffin tin. You can watch a short video of my first attempt to do this technique, which had a few issues, but nothing too serious. Halfway through the video, the important stuff got a bit off-center, but I caught in time to re-adjust for the final scoring. Apologies, I am a true newbie at this. Also, if the closed captions are showing and annoying you, I do not know now how to get rid of them. Will have to investigate that for future videos.

Apart from the problems handling the dough, I loved the method, and intend to do it again and again, The little boules are adorable and two of them were almost immediately consumed by the husband with a bit of jam.

As to the recipe, essentially any formula will work. I used 475g white bread flour and 25g whole-wheat, with my usual method that you can find here. I have incorporated following the fermentation by removing a small portion of the dough to a little jar, which gives me extra confidence in the bulk fermentation step. I leave it fermenting at room temperature until almost doubled in volume, then shape and place in the fridge overnight.

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NUTELLA TARTLETS

Posted in Desserts, Desserts, Sweets by

I saw these adorable tartlets on Instagram, fell in love and could not wait to try and make them myself. I invite you to follow Joyce, she is a wonderful baker, endless source of inspiration.

NUTELLA TARTLETS
(from @joyfulhomecooking)

for the dough:
1¾ cups flour
½ cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg, room temperature
1 egg yolk, room temperature
½ cup + 2 tbsp butter, room temperature

for the filling:
1 cup Nutella

In a bowl mix the flour, sugar and baking powder, add the egg, yolk and butter and bring the dough together. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough and cut circles, place them in a muffin pan. Fill with hazelnut spread. Cut sunflower shapes from the remaining dough using a cookie cutter and place on top.

Bake at 350F until lightly golden.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: To make these tartlets, I used two special gadgets: this set of baking pan from Evilcakegenius and this cookie cutter from PME. The dough was a pleasure to work with, I had no issues to roll, shape and cut the top shape.

It does get soft quickly, so you need to work with it while still cold and try to be fast, but if at any moment things get out of control, stick everything in the fridge for 10 minutes. Make sure to chill the cut daisy tops before moving them around, and be gentle, use a thin spatula to help you out.

I did not cut the center out as Joyce did, because I forgot. So I just improvised a little decoration on top instead. I intend to make them again in the near future, as they were a big hit. However, I might use a shallower tartlet format because they were truly super rich with the Nutella filling. Maybe a smaller version will work even better. Keep that in mind. One last thought, after Eha’s comment on the problems of Nutella and palm oil, I realize that not only there is a palm-free alternative, but I do have it in my pantry and it is pretty delicious: Soom spread, available here. You can avoid palm oil, but it is almost impossible to avoid the Amazon Evil Empire (sigh).
.

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