Bacon and Onion Quiche

November 2010 - Bacon, my Jewish friends tell me bacon is the one pork product that has either caused or could cause them to break with kosher. Pork, for my part, is part of my nutritional heritage as a descendent to the Gauls (I base this on the historically accurate documents about a small village that resisted the Romans, chronicled in the works titled "Astérix le Gaulois"). In spite of this, it is also one of the meats that, in my current financially precarious state, I will only buy free range or organic, and have waited with bated breath for the time the happy porker farmers come to the local farmer's market so that I can purchase a few choice packets. As luck would have it, happy pigs are more readily available that I thought, for the local Capers-slash-Whole Foods market carries bacon from happy, outdoor pigs from a local producer. As happy as I am to have discovered this bacon, I nevertheless use it judiciously - its flavour is so strong that it tends to overpower anything else in the dish, which is why I use it primarily as 'lardons' when making hearty winter stews. But for some reason I wanted to make a quiche with bacon and gruyère. After looking around at other recipes, I decided to throw in some onion and dijon mustard as well. And I'm quite pleased with the result - a nice balance of flavours for a warming winter dish where the bacon plays a part in the society of flavours instead of being a corporate raider.

1 blind baked pie crust, completely cooled

3 slices bacon (thick slices, if thin adjust the quantity accordingly)

1 large onion, sliced into rounds

1 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 garlic clove, minced

Salt

Fresh ground black pepper

3 large eggs

½ cup heavy cream

½ cup milk

2 tsps Dijon mustard

¾ cup Gruyère cheese, grated

1. Prepare the blind-baked pie crust. Allow to cool completely before using to allow the crust to set.
2. Preheat oven to 375°F.
3. Chop bacon into lardons (cut bacon into paper-clip sized pieces). Cook the lardons in a big skillet until semi crisp.
4. Remove all but 1 Tbsp. of the bacon fat (to save in use in other recipes) from the skillet and heat over medium heat. Add the sliced onion and cook until the onions are soft and start to brown. At this point, add the parsley and garlic, and cook 1 more minute.
5. Once the bacon has cooled a bit, chop into smaller pieces, and combine with the onion mixture.
6. In a bowl, whisk the eggs until light. Stir in dairy and mustard and whisk again to combine. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
7. In the pre-baked pie shell, sprinkle the cheese on the bottom, then the onion and bacon mixture, and finally smother it all with the egg mixture.
8. Bake the quiche until it's all puffed and golden brown and joyful, about 35 minutes.
9. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Tuscan Bean Stew

It may be a little premature for me to post this recipe because I've only made it once. When I made it I didn't want to wait to soak the beans and cook them, so I used two cans of white kidney beans instead, and it was delicious. This means I don't know which version is better - with the dry beans or the canned beans or if they're both just as good as the other. Thanks Cook's Illustrated for the base recipe!

Part 1 - the beans

Salt

1 lb dried cannellini beans (about 2 cups), rinsed and picked over (OR two cans canned beans)

Part 2 - the mushrooms
1⁄2 oz dried porcini mushrooms
1⁄2 cup water (save to add to the soup)

Part 3 - stage 1 of the soup
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil plus extra for drizzling
1 large onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, cut into 1⁄2" pieces
2 carrots, in 1⁄2" pieces
8 garlic cloves, crushed
4 cups water
3 cups broth
2 bay leaves

Part 4 - stage 2 of the soup
14oz (398mL) can diced tomatoes
1 medium bunch kale or collard greens (about 1 pound), stems trimmed, leaves chopped into 1-inch pieces)
1 sprig fresh rosemary

Part 5 - serving
Ground black pepper
Grated Parmesan cheese

1. Dissolve 3 tablespoons salt in 4 quarts cold water in large bowl or container. Add beans and soak, at room temperature, for at least 8 and up to 24 hours. (Soaking the beans in salt water overnight helps them cook up creamy, with tender skins.) Drain and rinse well.
2. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 250°F. (Cooking the beans at a near-simmer in a 250°F oven leads to fewer exploded beans in the finished stew.)
3. Pour 1⁄2 cup boiling water in a small bowl and add dried mushrooms. Let stand until mushrooms soften, about 5 minutes. Lift mushrooms from liquid with fork and mince. Strain liquid through fine-mesh strainer lined with paper towels into medium bowl. Set mushrooms and liquid aside.
4. Heat oil in large Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion, celery, and carrots. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened and lightly browned, 10 to 16 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in remaining 4 cups water, broth, bay leaves, soaked beans, and reserved mushrooms and cooking liquid. Increase heat to high and bring stew to simmer. Cover pot, transfer to oven, and cook until beans are almost tender (very centre of beans will still be firm), 45 minutes to 1 hour.
5. Remove pot from oven and stir in tomatoes and greens (the acid in tomatoes can interfere with the beans’ tender texture. Add them toward the end of cooking, after the beans have already softened). Return pot to oven and continue to cook until beans and greens are fully tender, 30 to 40 minutes longer.
6. Remove pot from oven and submerge rosemary sprig in stew. Cover and let stand 15 minutes. Discard bay leaves and rosemary sprig; season stew with salt and pepper to taste. If desired, use back of spoon to press some beans against side of pot to thicken stew. Serve, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and lightly drizzled with olive oil.

Turnip Torte - you gotta try it!

Whaaat? A delicious, comforting dish made from turnip? It's surprising but, yes, it's pretty darned good. Assembly is very easy, but it does require quite a bit of cooking time.

NOTE: next time I'll try adding a few sprinkles of either whole or cracked caraway seeds.
Response - it was good!

2 lbs turnip

1 Tbsp (½ oz/14gr) butter

½ lb havarti, grated

salt & freshly ground black pepper
Caraway seeds

1. Boil the unpeeled turnip in salted water until tender, about 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the size of the turnip(s); drain, cool, peel and cut into 1/4" thick rounds.
2. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
3. Spread the butter on the bottom of a shallow pie plate and sprinkle 1⁄4 of the cheese in the pan; top with 1⁄3 of the turnip slices, slightly overlapping them; season with salt, pepper and a light sprinkle of caraway, and repeat, salting, peppering and carraway-ing each layer of turnip until the last quarter measure of cheese is sprinkled on top.
4. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown; let it cool a bit before serving.
5. Goes very nicely as a main dish with some toasted, crusty rye bread.

Multigrain Bread

I think I may have found my ideal multigrain bread recipe. The combination of the reconstituted whole grain meal and flax seeds makes it moist and flavorful - I wonder if I could make a delicious, high fiber bread pudding with it? That is, if it lasts long enough to be old enough to use!

1 1⁄4 cups multi-grain hot cereal mix

2½ cups boiling water

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting work surface

1½ cups whole wheat flour

4 Tbsps maple syrup (or honey)

1⁄4 cup (2oz/58gr) butter, melted and cooled slightly

2½ tsps instant yeast

1 Tbsps salt

½ cup raw sunflower seeds

1⁄4 cup flax seeds

½ cup old-fashioned rolled oats or quick oats

1. Combine cereal mix in bowl of standing mixer and boiling water in your main mixing bowl; let stand, stirring occasionally, until the mixture cools to about 100°F and resembles thick porridge, under 1 hour.
2. Whisk the flours together in a medium bowl.
3. Once the cereal has cooled, add the maple syrup, the melted butter, and the yeast and stir to combine until it forms a ragged ball covered in dry flour. Pour everything out onto a clean surface and knead - the dough will still be quite sticky, but keep kneading until all the flour has been taken up and dough is just clammy and firm. Return the ball to the mixing bowl, cover with a damp cloth and let rest 20 minutes.
4. Combine the seeds and pour onto your work surface, as if you were spreading flour. Turn the dough onto the seeds, sprinkle it with the salt, and knead for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until the seeds and salt are all taken up by the dough and well distributed throughout, the dough becomes a taut ball, and it springs back when you pinch it.
5. Grease a large bowl and place dough inside; cover ant let rise until doubled, from 45 to 60 minutes.
6. Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat to 375°F. Grease two 9 by 5-inch loaf pans. Transfer the dough to a very lightly floured work surface and pat into a 12 by 9-inch rectangle; cut the dough in half, roll each piece to make a 9" long log and roll in the oats OR to make buns, divide the dough into either 9 or 16 equally-sized pieces and wedge together in a 9x9 inch pan. Cover again with well dampened cloth and let it rise until it doubles in size, about 30-40 minutes. Bake until the internal temperature registers 200°F on an instant-read thermometer, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove the loaves from the pans and allow to cool on wire racks before slicing, about 3 hours.

Source recipe: http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/detail.asp?docid=7535

Braised Baby Bok-Choy

Simple and good. 'Nuff said, go eat!

2 baby bok-choy

3⁄4 cup broth (vegetable, beef or chicken)

1⁄4 cup white wine

Salt and pepper

1. Put the broth and wine to boil in a saucepan. Reduce to a high simmer.
2. Slice the bok-choy in half and arrange, cut-side down, in the pan. Cover and cook a few minutes, then turn bok-choy onto its 'back', simmer until knife inserts easily. Serve cut-side facing up, sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Fresh Apricot Tarts

1 recipe of Cookie pie crust, completely cooled

3⁄4 pound apricots, pits discarded, cut into 1⁄4" wedges

4 tsps. sugar

1⁄2 cup apricot jam

1. On a lightly floured surface, roll out half the Cookie pie crust to a 1⁄8" thick rectangle, about 6 by 11 inches. Using a 5" round cutter or a bowl, cut out 2 circles; transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough. Using a fork, poke several holes in the crusts to prevent them from ballooning while cooking. Chill the dough on the sheet in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
2. Heat the oven to 400°F and bake the crust until it's pale golden, about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and reduce the temperature to 350°F. 
3. Cool the crust completely before going on to the next step.
4. Arrange the apricots in a fan shape on the crusts. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon sugar on each tart and bake until the tarts are golden and the apricots start to brown, 25 to 35 minutes. As tarts bake, warm the jam in a saucepan. Remove the tarts from the oven and cool. Strain the jam into a bowl and discard the solids; this is your apricot glaze. Brush the glaze on the tarts and enjoy.

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

I'd been looking for a good recipe for whole wheat bread, and I think I found it. Whole wheat bread recipes tended to taste too strongly of whole wheat and be more dense than I like, and thanks to http://www.cooksillustrated.com/, I think I've figured out why and, also found out what bread dough should feel like. More in the Instructions for the recipe on that! I've made a few changes to their recipe and am really pleased with the result.
NOTE: It is pretty sweet. I reduced the 3 Tbsps. of syrup to only 2.

2 1⁄4 cups bread flour, plus extra for work surface

1 1⁄3 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsps salt

2 Tbsps (1oz/28gr) butter

1 cup milk

1⁄3 cup water

2 Tbsps maple syrup (or honey, or agave syrup)

2 1⁄4 tsps dry active yeast 

1. Adjust oven rack to low position and heat oven to 200°F. Once oven temperature reaches 200°F, maintain heat 10 minutes, then turn off oven heat.
2. Mix flours and salt in a large bowl and create a well in the middle. In a pot, melt butter, add milk, water, and maple syrup and heat to 110°F. Remove from heat immediately and allow to cool - the pot will continue to heat the liquid, and you want it to be no greater than 110F or it will kill the yeast. Pour the 110°F liquid into the well, then add yeast to the liquid. With a wooden spoon, start mixing the flour and the liquid/yeast together. When it thickens, use hands to combine everything. Now this is important: the dough will be quite sticky to start - just rub your hands together to get the dough off and keep kneading in the bowl. Once in coalesces into a ball, pour out any remaining flour from the bowl onto your work surface, and keep kneading the dough to incorporate it all. And this is my real discovery about making bread - do not add more flour than this or the bread will be tough. Just knead the bread until it stops feeling sticky, and starts to feel smooth, slightly warm and damp, like someone whose palms are sweaty. If the ball feels dry and floury, then you've used too much flour. Another test is to lightly pinch the dough, and if it bounces back, it's done. Kneading should take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Place dough in a very lightly oiled bowl, rubbing dough around bowl to lightly coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap OR a (very) damp cloth; place in the warm oven until the dough doubles in size, 40 to 50 minutes.
4. Form the dough into a loaf by gently pressing the dough into a rectangle, one inch thick and no wider than the length of the loaf pan. Next, roll the dough firmly into a cylinder, pressing with your fingers to make sure the dough sticks to itself. Turn the dough seam side up and pinch it closed. Place the dough in a greased 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan and press gently so dough touches all four sides of pan.
5. Cover with plastic wrap OR (very) damp cloth; set aside in a warm spot until the dough almost doubles in size, 40 minutes. Heat the oven to 350°F, placing an empty loaf pan on the bottom rack. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil.
6. Remove the plastic wrap/cloth from the loaf pan. Place the pan in the oven, also pouring heated water into the empty loaf pan; close the oven door. Bake until instant-read thermometer inserted at an angle from the short end just above the pan rim into the center of the loaf reads 195°F, about 40 to 50 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan, transfer to a wire rack, and cool to room temperature. Slice and serve.