Recipe Notes: Spanish-style Meatballs in Almond Sauce

26 August 2019

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, March 2019; also available online.

I didn't know tabout Spanish-style meatballs, not that I had ever thought about it. Italian meatballs and Swedish meatballs I have heard about, but not Spanish. These meatballs, albóndigas, are often served as a tapas offering but they can also be served as a main dish with dinner. I was intrigued by the recipe and so gave them a try. 

The first step was to prepare a picada which provides the sauce for the meatballs. Almonds and white bread were finely ground in a food processor then transferred to a nonstick skillet. Olive oil was added and the mixture cooked until golden brown. The picada was finished by adding minced fresh parsley and garlic. The meatballs are made from ground pork rather than ground beef. Bread was finely ground in the food processor. Egg, garlic, water, parsley, salt, and pepper are added and processed until smooth. Ground pork was added to this panade and pulsed until combined. A #60 portioning scoop (about 1 tablespoon) was used to form the meatballs. I made 38 though the recipe says I should get about 24, so I guess my meatballs are a little on the small size for this recipe. Extra-virgin olive oil was heated in a nonstick skillet and finely chopped onion was cooked until softened. Paprika was added and cooked until fragrant, followed by chicken broth and white wine which were brought to a simmer. Saffron was stirred into the mixture and the meatballs were added. These were cooked in the simmering liquid, turning the meatballs once, until they reached an internal temperature of 160°. The picada was stirred in and cooked for a few minutes until thickened. Off heat, red wine vinegar was stirred in to finish the dish. Total time was 90 minutes.

I wish I had a better palate and more training so I could better identify the flavors in this dish. This is the first time I have ever cooked with expensive saffron. Whatever it was, the meatballs and sauce were wonderful. The meatballs were tender and the sauce had a wonderful aromatic flavor. The flavors were more subtle than those in Italian and Swedish meatballs but that is not to say this dish is inferior in any way. We had these meatballs for three meals, served with either rice or mashed potatoes, and they only got better after sitting in the refrigerator for a few days. This is a dish worth making again.

Recipe Notes: Pizza Al Taglio with Arugula and Fresh Mozzarella

18 August 2019

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, March 2019.

I have not made many pizzas from scratch. After reading the article in the recent Cook's Illustrated I knew that I wanted to make this one. It is unlike pizza as we think of it. It's distinguishing feature is a an airy, chewy crust that is crisp on both top and bottom, burnished with a thin layer of sauce. Rather than round it is baked on a sheet pan and then cut up to be eaten. Al taglio translates to "when cut" in English.

The dough was made a day ahead of time. The long, cold fermentation built both structure and flavor. Bread flour and yeast were whisked together. Water and extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) were stirred into the dry ingredients and the shaggy dough was left to sit for 10 minutes. Salt was then stirred into the dough and it rested for another 20 minutes. The kneading method consisted of folding the dough onto itself in the bowl, then turning the bowl and repeating six times. The dough rested and the folding/turning process was repeated followed by another rest. It was then placed in an oiled baking pan, covered, and put into the refrigerator for 25 hours. The preparation process took about 80 minutes.

The next day sauce was made by combining canned tomatoes, extra-virgin olive oil, anchovy paste (the recipe specified fillets, I guesstimated a substitution of paste), dried oregano, table salt, and red pepper flakes in a blender. The dough was removed from the refrigerator, drizzled with EVOO, and inverted onto a rimmed baking sheet. After stretching the dough to the edges of the baking sheet it was covered and left to rise. A small amount of the sauce, just ½ cup, was distributed over the dough then covered with a thin layer of EVOO. The pizza (with no toppings!) was baked in a 450° oven for about 20 minutes. It was cut into squares and topped with arugula that had been dressed with EVOO, some fresh mozzarella, and parmesan cheese. Total time to prepare the pizza on day 2 was 110 minutes.

I need to make pizza more often because this was great! The star was the crust which was crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, with a pleasing complex flavor. The sauce provided some subtle background notes and this was all complemented by the fresh greens and creamy cheeses. As leftovers it was still good as the toppings were added fresh. However, and this was no surprise, it did not have the great crusty texture of the fresh pizza. The biggest criticism I have is that it makes too much for just the two of us. This leads to having leftovers which lack the impact of the freshly baked pizza. The recipe includes two other suggestions for toppings that would be fun to try. Diane wanted the cheese to be melted and at least one of these variations has that.

Recipe Notes: Chewy Sugar Cookies

25 July 2019

Recipe from The Perfect Cookie, America's Test Kitchen, 2017, page 36; also available online. 

The Perfect Cookie has two recipes for sugar cookies that I have already made and enjoyed: Brown Sugar Cookies, and Chocolate Sugar Cookies. It seemed time to try third sugar cookie recipe for Chewy Sugar Cookies. This would seem to be a recipe for plain ole sugar cookies, as opposed to the two others that feature a flavor in addition to sugar and vanilla. 

These cookies have one ingredient that you don't usually see in cookies, cream cheese, and the dough was mixed by hand. First, the dry ingredients (AP flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) were whisked together and set aside. Sugar and the cream cheese were put into a bowl then whisked with melted butter. (The cream cheese had been cut into pieces, which was a challenge because it is so soft.) In turn, the additional wet ingredients were whisked into the mixture: vegetable oil, egg, milk, and vanilla. The dry ingredients were folded into the wet forming a wet dough. Using a #30 portioning scoop, the balls of dough (about 2 tablespoons each) were made, rolled in sugar, and placed on a backing sheet. They were flattened into 3-inch disks using a metal measuring cup that was sprayed with cooking oil. The cookies were sprinkled with sugar and baked in a 350° oven until the edges just started to brown. Total time to make about 2 dozen cookies was just over one hour.

These are good cookies with a nice taste enhanced by the bit of tang that comes from the cream cheese. When fresh they seemed almost too chewy, as if they were under baked. Perhaps they were, the episode of the TV show where they demonstrated this recipe discussed how critical the baking time could be. As leftovers, stored in the freezer, they were good, too. They were still crispy with a chewy interior and didn't seem like under baked cookies to me. I didn't like them as well as the other two varieties of sugar cookie which were more interesting to me than these which are a little plain. 

Recipe Notes: Oregon Blackberry Pie

23 June 2019

Recipe from Cook's Country, August 2016

When it comes to making pies, my confidence level is low. As a result I don't make as many pies as I otherwise would, and that is a shame because I like to eat pie. My lack of confidence relates to my ability to handle the pastry crust. From rolling out the dough (it never looks like a circle when I'm done with it) to putting it into the pie pan, trimming it, and crimping it ... I'm just never happy with the result. I know that all I need is practice. A perfect opportunity presented itself a few weeks ago as we visited Gizdich Ranch to pick ollalieberries. Most of them were made into jam but we set aside enough to make a pie, too. I used a recipe that calls for marionberries, but ollalies are similar so it should work fine.

The recipe uses an all-butter crust. Some sour cream was added to provide a little tang and to make the dough easier to roll out. The half pound of butter was cut into little, ¼-inch pieces. These were combined with the dry ingredients (flour, salt, sugar) with ten pulses in a food processor, about 10 pulses. Ice water was added and pulsed to form a dough that held together nicely. It was shaped into a disk, wrapped in plastic, and chilled for 80 minutes in the refrigerator. It was then divided into two equal portions. One was rolled into a disk and chilled. The other was rolled into a disk, cut into 1" strips, and chilled. To prepare the filling, 4 cups of berries (22 ounces) was gently coated with a mixture of sugar, cornstarch, and salt. These were then gently stirred with some lemon juice. The chilled dough was placed in a pie plate, the filling was added and dotted with butter. The strips were used to make a simple lattice which was not woven but looks almost as good. The edges were trimmed and crumpled and the pie was brushed with an egg wash. The pie was baked for 50 minutes in a 400° oven. Total time, excluding the four-hour cool down, was three hours, half of which was hands off.

This pie was great! Not only did it taste good but it looked good, too, providing me a much needed confidence boost in my pie-making skills. The filling was tart, but not too tart, with just the right amount of sweetness. It held together after cutting, no juice escaping into the bottom of the pie plate. The dough was easy to work with but ten pulses in the food processor were too many for the small pieces of butter: the crust was not real flaky, it was more like a short-crust pastry and it tasted great. It was a warm day when I made the pie so the dough was starting to get soft when I was crimping so it lost some definition, but I was still very happy with the result. I look forward to having this again when fresh-berry season comes around again.