Sous Vide Boston Baked Beans

 5 January 2022

Recipe from Sous Vide for Everybody, America's Test Kitchen, 2018, p. 170.  Recipe also available online.

In the book I used for this recipe the title is "Boston not-baked beans". Sous vide is used most commonly to cook meat. The constant temperature water bath gives great control over how done the meat is. Unlike cooking in the oven or stove top you can't overcook a steak or a roast when you cook them in a constant temperature water bath. It will be interesting to see how this works with baked beans.

The cooking process takes several days, but very little of that is hands on. A pound of dried small white beans was soaked in a brine at room temperature for 24 hours. (The recipe specifies dried navy beans, but neither of the two supermarkets that I checked had them.) While the hot water bath heated to 194° the beans were drained and rinsed to remove excess salt. Water, molasses, dark brown sugar, soy sauce, dry mustard, and black pepper were whisked together in a bowl. Salt pork, cut into ½-inch pieces, was rendered in a Dutch oven. A diced onion was added and cooked until soft. The molasses mixture was added and brought to a simmer. Baking soda was added and cooked until the foaming subsided. The beans were put into a vacuum bag, which allowed the bag to stand on its own. The molasses mixture was carefully poured in, a bay leaf added, the bag was sealed and the air was pumped out. This was placed in the 194° hot water bath for 21 hours. To finish, the bean mixture was poured into a Dutch oven and cooked for about 10 minutes to thicken the sauce. Total time was about 45 hours, but the hands-on time was about 1 hour.

If you are a fan of Boston baked beans this is a good way to prepare them. The beans were tender and firm, they were not mushy and were intact. Cooking them sous vide was much simpler to do than baking them for a lengthy stint in the oven with much easier clean up. I don't bake beans very often but when I do this is likely to be the method I would use.

Pennsylvania Dutch Apple Pie

 5 January 2022

Recipe from The Perfect Pie, America's Test Kitchen, 2019, p. 262. Recipe also available online.

I first learned of this recipe from the same episode of Cook's Country where I learned about Amish Cinnamon Bread.  It was only later that I looked in The Perfect Pie and saw that the recipe is available  there. It is apple season, a little late perhaps, but close enough to be making apple pie and this one had some interesting features: a streusel topping in place of a top crust and melted vanilla ice cream as an ingredient. It was an intriguing combination and it looked delicious, too.

The pie has three main components: crust, filling, and topping. Making the crust was the first step. I used the recipe for an all-butter crust, having had good luck with it before. The filling was made while the pie dough rested in the refrigerator. I used Golden Delicious apples which were peeled, cored, and sliced. These were combined in a large bowl with melted vanilla ice cream, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla extract, ground cinnamon, and salt. This sat, at room temperature, for several hours. The topping was made by combining AP flour, light brown sugar, melted butter, and salt. The topping was stored in the refrigerator.

After the dough was well chilled it was rolled into a 12-inch circle and placed in a 9-inch pie plate. The rolled out dough rested for about 30 minutes in the refrigerator. The pie was assembled by placing the filling into the pie plate, a handful at a time pressing each handful firmly into the pie plate. The liquid remaining in the bowl was poured over the filling. The streusel was scattered over the top and the pie was baked in a 350° oven. After it was down it cooled overnight before being ready to slice and eat. Except for the final cooling it took almost 5 hours to make the pie, though much of that time was hands off as the pie dough rested for long periods in the refrigerator.

This is a good pie. The crunchy streusel topping complemented the nicely balanced filling very well. The only complaint is a soggy bottom crust, presumably from all of the liquid that comes from the apples, not to mention the melted ice cream, that is added to the filling before baking. The pie slices nicely and the filling stayed together very well. I think this pie is worth making again but perhaps it should be baked on the bottom rack of the oven to better bake the bottom crust. It might also be worth trying a tarter apple such as a Granny Smith.

Greek Chicken

 13 December 2021

Recipe from Cook's Country, February 2019

I learned about this recipe from an episode of the Cook's Country TV show. It looked good with a lot of fresh herbs and lemon. But would it live up to the TV show accolades? And how would it be when  reheated as a leftover, an important factor when cooking for just two people.

A 4½-pound chicken was broken down into 2 split breasts, 2 drumsticks, 2 thighs, and 2 wings. Slashes were made in all but the wings so the marinade would get past the surface of the bird. A no-cook marinade was made by mixing olive oil, fresh rosemary, fresh thyme, garlic, lemon zest, salt, oregano, coriander, pepper flakes (as usual, I halved the recipe amount), and pepper. This was mixed in a bowl with the chicken pieces and set in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. The chicken pieces were then placed, skin side up, in a skillet and the marinade remaining in the bowl was poured over the chicken. The chicken was roasted in a 425° oven until the breasts reached 160° and the thighs and drumsticks 175°. (One breast was underdone so it was set aside to finish cooking when reheated as a leftover.) The skillet was removed from the oven, the pan juices were spooned over the chicken, which was then returned to the oven but now with the broiler on. After a few minutes the skin was browned and the chicken removed. Total time with 30 minutes marinating was just over 2 hours.

We both enjoyed this chicken. The dominant flavor for us was lemon which was good with chicken. There was nothing difficult about the preparation and it provided us with many meals. I used a hot water batch, sous vide, to reheat so as not to overcook the chicken and dry it out. As a leftover, however, it was nothing special, just roast chicken. The flavors you would expect from all of the herbs and spices just didn't come through in the leftovers.

Weeknight chicken noodle soup

 19 November 2021

Recipe from All Time Best Soups, America's Test Kitchen, 2016, p. 15.

Winter is soup season and here is another comforting recipe I tried for us to enjoy during our cooler months. I have previously made another chicken noodle soup from this same cookbook, one that take a little over two hours to prepare. This recipe was designed to be faster to make, but would it still be good soup?

Bay leaves and fresh thyme leaves in chicken broth were brought to a boil in the microwave then set aside. Boneless skinless chicken breasts were browned in a Dutch oven and set aside to cool. In the fat left in the Dutch oven, onion was cooked until lightly browned. The broth mixture was added followed by carrots, celery, and the browned chicken. This was covered and simmered gently until the chicken reached 160°. The chicken was removed from the broth and, after cooling, was shredded into bite-sized pieces. Noodles were stirred into the soup and simmered until just tender. Off heat, the bay leaves were removed and the chicken was added with minced fresh parsley. Total time was one hour.

This is a good chicken noodle soup, especially considering the relatively small effort that went into making it. Without doing a side-by-side tasting I am not prepared to say which is better, but I suspect it is the soup that took two hours to make. This soup has a small amount of broth compared to the amount of vegetables, meat, and noodles. The broth has a good flavor but it is not particularly complex. Nonetheless this is good soup especially on a cold day.

Pasta and Peas

 10 November 2021

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, May 2021

I'm always open to trying a new homemade soup recipe. This recipe, a version of the Italian pasta e piselli, is a combination of ingredients that we enjoy and it looked like it could be made quickly, so it was worth a try. This humble dish is similar to pasta e ceci (pasta and chickpeas) and pasta e fagioli (pasta and beans).

Onion, pancetta, salt, and pepper were cooked in hot olive oil in a large sauce pan until the onion was softened. Chicken broth and water were added and brought to a boil. Tubetti pasta was added and cooked until al dente. Frozen peas were stirred in off heat followed by Pecorino Romano cheese, fresh parsley, and fresh mint. I used spearmint as it was the only mint that was available at the supermarket. Total time to prepare the soup was 50 minutes.

This is a nice, simple soup, easy and quick to make. There is a nice contrast between the chewy pasta and fresh green peas. The recipe called for just the right amount of mint so you get a hint of it that did not overpower the other flavors. However, there is a lot of leftover fresh mint that I didn't have any use for. The soup might have benefitted from a little more cheese and a little more meat. 

Amish Cinnamon Bread

 25 October 2021

Recipe from Cook's Country, December 2018

It has been too long since I've updated my blog. It's not that I haven't been cooking or trying new recipes, I just haven't been writing about them. As a result, I have some catching up to do. I saw this recipe for Amish Cinnamon Bread, also called Friendship Bread, demonstrated on the Cook's Country TV show. Unlike other cinnamon breads this has cinnamon as part of the dough rather than just in swirls in the bread. It looked like something that I would like to have for breakfast.

This is a quick bread, i.e. it uses baking soda rather than yeast, there is no kneading or waiting for the dough to rise. Two loaf pans were prepared by spraying them with oil and coating this with cinnamon sugar. (The recipe says to brush on vegetable oil but the spray worked fine for me.) Flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt where whisked together in a large bowl. In a second bowl, milk, eggs, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract where whisked together. The milk mixture was stirred into the flour mixture and poured into the two prepared loaf pans. The top of the loaves were sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. The loaves baked at 325° until a paring knife inserted in the center came out clean, about 75 minutes using 9 by 5-inch pans. Total time was just 95 minutes, not counting cooling.

This is great bread which I really enjoyed! It pleased my sweet tooth and had a crunchy crust from the cinnamon sugar. I ate it for breakfast plain with no butter, no toasting. It had a moist, slightly sweet, uniform crumb and was just as good after being frozen as it was before.