Ground Beef Stroganoff

16 September 2022

 Recipe from Cook's Country, December 2017

I have eaten stroganoff only a few times. I made it some years ago and I did enjoy it. When I learned of this simpler recipe that is based on ground beef I decided to gave it a try.

Thinly sliced button mushrooms were browned in oil in a Dutch oven then removed and set aside. More oil was added to the pot to cook diced onion and garlic until the onion started to soften. Ground beef was added and cooked until no longer pink. Flour was sprinkled over the beef, then stirred and cooked for 1 minute. Chicken broth and white wine were added and brought to a simmer and cooked for several minutes until slightly thickened. Wide egg noodles were added and cooked until tender. Off heat, sour cream and the browned mushrooms were stirred in. Total preparation time was just under 1 hour.

We enjoyed this stroganoff and have had it several times since first trying it. It is flavorful even though there are no herbs or spices, and by using ground beef you are ensured that it will be tender. It is very easy to make with only a few ingredients and I suspect we will be having it again.

Swedish Cinnamon Buns (Kanelbullar)

 22 January 2023

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, January 2022

Cinnamon buns are a Christmas morning tradition but that is not to say they are only eaten during the holidays. I usually eat cereal for breakfast but I like to mix it up by having something like a cinnamon bun instead. This CI recipe thus caught my attention, not only because of its Scandinavian origins but also because of the interesting shape of the rolls.

The dough started with tangzhong, a paste made from bread flour and hot water. This was whisked with cold milk in the bowl of a stand mixer. Bread flour and yeast were added and mixed with the dough hook to moisten the flour. After a 15-minute rest, sugar and salt were added and kneaded for 5 minutes. Unsalted butter and cardamon seeds, coarsely ground using a mortar and pestle, were added and the dough kneaded for another 5 minutes. The dough was pressed into the bottom of a greased 13x9-inch baking pan, covered, and refrigerated for 1 hour. The filling was made by mixing sugar, unsalted butter, ground cinnamon, bread flour, and salt then set aside. When the dough was removed from the refrigerator it was rolled into an 18x10 inch rectangle. The filling was spread over two-thirds of the dough which was then folded twice then rolled into a square. The dough was cut into 1-inch strips which were cut in half, almost, lengthwise. The long strips were then loosely wrapped around my fingers with the last wrap looped around bundle. The 12 buns were placed on a sheet pan, covered, and given one hour to rise. They were brushed with an egg mixture, sprinkled with Swedish pearl sugar, and baked at 425°. Total time to make 12 buns was just over four hours including the resting time.

The freshly baked rolls were light and buttery with a subdued taste of cardamon. As leftovers they had a  somewhat heavier texture, stronger cardamon flavor, and the pearl sugar was harder. These are good buns and fun to make with the unique shaping. Because of the cardamon they have a distinctive flavor which is different than the flavor for the cinnamon rolls that we are used to. I don't know if I'll make them again but they were worth making at least this one time.

Lemonade Concentrate

 4 October 2022

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, July 2021

Lemonade is my beverage of choice for lunch and dinner. I used to drink "Newman's Own" which I could purchase in a 1.8 quart container. Currently I use "Simply Lemonade" which I buy in a 2.7 quart container. Both are good and buying them at the store in a ready-to-drink form is convenient. A fairly recent edition of Cook's Illustrated had an intriguing recipe to make lemonade concentrate which you would mix with water to make lemonade. Would it be good and how convenient would it be?

The zest of two lemons was removed with a vegetable peeler and put into a bowl with sugar and salt. These were mashed together using a potato masher forming a damp, clumpy, fragrant mixture. Hot water was added and stirred to dissolve the sugar and salt. Thus was set aside until cool. Five lemons were juiced to get ¾ cup of juice. (I had to augment the lemons with a little bottled juice to get the desired volume.) The juice was stirred into the cooled zest mixture then strained to remove the zest. The resulting concentrate was refrigerated. It took about 50 minutes to make the concentrate. A few weeks later the concentrate was mixed with water to make a pitcher of lemonade.

The lemonade was good. It had a good balance of sweet and sour and the lemon flavor was not too strong. Despite this I don't expect to be using this recipe on a regular basis. The quality of the beverage made with fresh fruit is better than the bottled lemonades that I drink, but the difference is not enough to justify the investment in time to make the concentrate. I would have hoped that almost an hour's labor would make more than the 1 quart of lemonade that this recipe provides. Nonetheless it was a fun and useful exercise and I don't regret testing it for myself.

Chocolate Brownie Cookies

 16 September 2022

Recipe from Cook's Country, December 2020

I have tried several different recipes that aim to replicate the test and texture of brownies in a cookie. The best of these is the recipe for chocolate chubbies which I have made many times. But having found a very good recipe has not deterred from trying another when it came out in Cook's Country a few years ago.

There was nothing particularly challenging or out of the ordinary in this recipe. The dry ingredients—flour, Dutch-processed cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt—were whisked together in a bowl. Chocolate, oil, and butter were (carefully) heated in the microwave until the chocolate was melted then some milk was whisked into the chocolate mixture. Eggs and sugar were whipped on a stand mixer. The melted chocolate was then whisked into the egg mixture by hand and the flour mixture was folded in. An additional 4 ounces of chopped chocolate was then folded into the batter. A #30 portioning scoop was used to make 20 cookies on two rimmed baking sheets and the cookies were baked for about 16 minutes. The total time to make the cookies was one hour.

These are very good cookies. They are chewy and chocolatey and the chunks of chocolate provide some nice extra, chocolatey bites that provide a pleasant surprise when you bite into one. There is enough dough to make more than 20 cookies, so instead of 10 cookies per sheet (arranged 3-4-3) I should try 11 per sheet (4-3-4). Some espresso powder might be a good addition to punch up the chocolate flavor even more. Rather than using chocolate chunks it might be preferable to use chocolate chips which cost a little less and keep their shape while baking.

Ham and Bean Soup

 10 November 2022

Recipe from Cook's Country, December 2007

My search for a good bean soup continues. I have tried various recipes over the course of many years but I have yet to hit upon one that I liked well enough to make on a regular basis. I don't recall how I found this old recipe from Cook's Country but it looks promising. It is a simple recipe with just a few ingredients and simple directions. Will this be the one?

One pound of dried small white beans (in lieu of dried navy beans as I cannot find them in local stores) was soaked in cold water over night. Vegetable oil was heated in a Dutch oven and used to brown diced ham. Diced onion, carrots, and celery were added and cooked until softened. Minced garlic was added and cooked briefly followed by the addition of water, chicken stock, ham hocks, and the beans. The mixture was brought to a boil then simmered until the beans were tender. The hocks were removed then minced fresh thyme, black pepper, red wine vinegar, and salt were added. Total time, excluding soaking of the beans, was 3 hours.

We liked this soup when it was freshly made and even better, as is expected for soups, as a leftover. The beans are nice and tender without being mushy and the broth has a nice, smoky flavor. Meat from the ham hocks was tough and so can be omitted. The prep time was about half an hour. The ham took longer than predicted to brown because it gave off a lot of liquid. The initial boiling generated foam which dissipated as the soup simmered. I think this is the best bean soup I have made and unless I find something better it will become the go-to recipe!