Sugar pillows

A few years ago, I got inspired by some acquaintances to try making homemade marshmallows--if you've never had them, you're missing out.  There's nothing quite like the wonderful sugar pillow of a homemade marshmallow.  Plain are exceedingly easy to make and adding flavor is just a small variation.

I have some cranberry sauce leftover from Thanksgiving still and some (recently opened) canned pumpkin puree that I wanted to use up--so inspired by a high school friend, I decided to try making marshmallows with them.

Since the fruit adds a bit of water, you need to adjust the basic recipe some to compensate (both below).  The sugar carries flavors amazingly well so be careful of over-flavoring if you do other variations--one I think I'll have to try at some point is using apple butter and a hint of cinnamon as the fruit addition.

Plain:

1.5 pkgs of gelatin (for my packages that was 12 grams)

1/2 cup water

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

equal parts powdered sugar and corn starch mixed together (about 1/3 cup each is what I used)

Bloom the gelatin in the bowl of your stand mixer with half the water.  Stir together the remaining water, sugar, and corn syrup.  Cover and put on medium high heat for 3 minutes.  Remove cover and continue to boil until a candy thermometer reads 240F.  Start the stand mixer with the whisk attachment on low.  Pour the sugar  down the side of the bowl, taking care to not splatter onto yourself.  (If you have a splatter cover for the mixer, this is the time to put it on.)  Crank the speed to high and leave for 10-12 minutes.  Add the vanilla and whisk for one more minute.

While the marshmallows are whipping, spray a 9x9 baking dish with cooking spray, and coat with a tablespoon or so of the powdered sugar/corn starch mixture.  Shake off the excess and put back into the original mixture.

Spray a spatula with cooking spray and set aside.  Working quickly, remove the bowl from the mixer and shake as much marshmallow from the whisk as you can.  Pour the mixture into the baking dish, scraping as needed with the spatula.  Smooth the mixture gently and let stand for at least 6 hours.

Generously dust a cutting board with some of the powdered sugar mixture.  Turn the marshmallows onto the cutting board. Using a pizza cutter, slice the marshmallows into the desired size and coat with the powdered sugar mixture until no longer sticky.  Store in an airtight container.

Fruit Marshmallows

2 pkgs of gelatin (for my packages that was 12 grams)

1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons water

1/4 cup fruit puree

1.5 cups sugar

1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons light corn syrup

pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

equal parts powdered sugar and corn starch mixed together (about 1/3 cup each is what I used)

Instructions as above, except add the fruit and any spices to the 1/4 cup water and gelatin.

For the pumpkin, I used:  1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and a dash each of clove, ginger, and nutmeg.

For the cranberry, I used just leftover cranberry sauce (which was cranberries, maple syrup, sugar, orange juice and a shot of Grand Marnier).

Celebrity Chefs....

Foodnetworks' chefs for the most part interest (in a rubbernecking sort of way) and annoy me at the same time.  Their recipes are set, no indication of "if you substitute this or change that, you could have a different dish."  The one sporadic exception is Alton Brown.   I feel like most of the time the chefs teach people to make the food they (i.e. the chefs) like, and not how to make cooking personal.   Rarely do they talk about healthy substitutions, how to make a meal vegetarian, how to adapt recipes for people with food allergies or sensitivities, why a particular technique works, or how to tweak ingredients for that special occasion meal.

Three people come to mind that should be much more vaunted as real celebrities (outside of foodie circles) in teaching people to cook:  Harold McGee, Deborah Madison, and Lynne Rossetto Kaspar.

McGee's On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen is a go-to book for understanding the chemistry and physics of why cooking does what it does.  I sat down and read it cover to cover a few years ago--which I wouldn't recommend unless you also like reading dictionaries or encyclopedias, too.  It is now a frequent reference on how foods will react to certain cooking methods or work with other ingredients.

Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone does exactly what I want a teacher-chef to do.  She outlines the basics of a recipe and then gives tons of ways to riff on them--by suggesting new spice combinations, substitutions, additions, etc.  The writing is no-nonsense and very accessible to beginner and advanced cooks alike.

Finally Rossetto Kaspar's Splendid Table radio show is truly incredible.  She brings in guests from all styles of cooking and has commentary on everything from basic diner foods to 5-star restaurants.  The best part, however, is the listener questions portion, where Rossetto Kaspar doles out advice on flavor combinations or cooking techniques--usually as variations on basic recipes.  Rather than giving exact proportions, she directs listeners to explore for themselves.

When it all comes down to it... I guess the culinary masters I would choose as celebrities are the ones that show home cooks how to find their own style, how to experiment based on the science of food, and how to have fun while doing it.

Winter comfort foods... curried "chicken" pot pie

The last couple of days have been a bit on the chilly side (ok, I admit it, I've become a northern California wimp when it comes to cold).  Tonight for dinner I wanted something warm and hearty to go with a nice glass of rich red wine and a fire in the fireplace.  I typically loathe using fake meat in recipes, but there are a couple of things I'll make exceptions for.... and tonight was one of them--curried "chicken" pot pie, inspired by Alton Brown (more about celebrity chefs in a future blog entry).  The crust turned out very crisp, but flaky and the filling was tangy and rich--just the right thing to warm belly and soul.

I based the crust on Alton Brown's standard pie crust recipe.  Instead of water, I used Imagine's No-Chicken Broth and Crisco instead of lard.  I can't stress enough the importance of deeply chilling the butter and Crisco before processing.  I cut both into very small chunks then put them in the freezer for about 45 minutes before using.  After the rest period, I divided the dough into 8 equal parts (think SNL anal chef, I used my kitchen scale for this) and rolled 4 of them out until they fit in medium sized ramekins.  The other 4 I rolled out as tops for the individual portions, generously floured and stacked them and put everything back in the fridge to rest again while I made the filling.

The filling, again inspired by Alton's recipe.  I made a few modifications--I substituted about 1.5 teaspoons of dried onion flakes (a compromise since my husband thinks he hates onion) and put in 2 cloves of garlic.  Instead of milk, I used non-fat evaporated milk for a richer flavor.  I added a few extra veggies that were in the fridge--some mushrooms, half a carrot, and fresh parsley instead of the dried.  Finally, instead of the chicken, I used MorningStar Farms' Chik'n Strips.

Once the filling was done, I added it into the unbaked crust in the ramekins in equal parts.  Then used the pre-rolled tops to cover the filling, sealing the edges along the way.  After an egg wash, I made 4 small slits in each and baked at 375 for about 45 minutes--until the pies were golden brown and a bit of the liquid had bubbled out of the vents.  Don't dare eat them until they've had 5-10 minutes to cool--otherwise you'll be eating molten curried lava!

Inaugural Food Post

A couple of people have suggested I start a blog about my adventures in the kitchen... so here it goes...

The first one is a reminiscing about the sweets of the holiday seasons--inspired by cooking pecan sandies (my paternal grandmother's family recipe) and a doctored version of "million dollar fudge" (something my maternal grandmother used to make--I make it with dark chocolate, a touch of salt, and a splash each of espresso and liquer).

Growing up we always had tons of sweets during the holiday season--partially because of the frugal backgrounds of my grandparents and partially because they all liked making presents instead of buying impersonal trinkets.

As a kid, I waited for the holiday season every year to get iced sugar cookies from a friend of my grandmother. She painstakingly rolled the dough, cut holiday shapes, and then handpainted them--more than just a simple single-color icing, she painted ornaments and strands on the trees, a full red & white suit on Santa, and colored ribbons on the bells.

It's funny how a few things came and went over the years--one of my grandmothers used to bake mince-meat pies and the other did peanut brittle... both items eventually were dropped from the holiday baking. For many years, my mother made turtles, truffles, and filled chocolate balls--again, they all disappeared from the holiday season. I'll have to revive some of these I think--they were labor intensive, but fun and great to do as an assembly line of friends.

The things that remained were the cookies and fudge I made this evening and one additional cookie. The additional cookie has several spellings from my grandmother's grandmother's (etc.) handwritten recipes--vanillekanzes is the one that we've all settled on (if anyone knows the real name, let me know!).

Vanillekanzes are the essence of the holidays. The single batch of dough makes at least a gross of cookies if not 2 gross. It's a stiff butter, flour, egg, sugar dough that you roll paper thin, coat with an egg wash, press a few toasted almond slices into and sprinkle with sugar. They cook up light and crispy and are more addictive than Lays potato chips. Over the years, the extremely stiff batter claimed the lives of many hand mixers.

Ok... enough rambling.... what sweets remind you of the holiday season?