Borscht

There once was a time in my life, hard to believe, that I had never tried beets. I adore them now. For some reason, I'd forgotten my love, and haven't had them in a while. This is all changing today, starting with this borscht. I got the recipe from A Feast of Ice and Fire cookbook, which is an incredible cookbook. I cannot get enough of it, and I cannot more highly recommend it. There are a plethora of recipes, and I've made almost all of them since buying it about a year ago. They have a website as well, Inn at the Crossroads, which has a number of different recipes, equally delicious. 

Since I think they are incredibly deserving of receiving money for their fantastic recipe, I'm not going to include amounts, just give a general overview of the recipe, to pique your interest.

First, I peeled my beets and gave them a good dice.

Then, I chopped leeks and washed them thoroughly. The way that leeks grow causes them to store dirt in between the rings, so its better to wash them after you cut them. Besides, it helps separate the rings for cooking anyway. 

After everything is chopped, coat the bottom of a medium saucepan with olive oil. Toss in the leeks, and ground coriander and cumin. Saute this for 5 minutes. I stopped at about this level of cooked: 

Then, add chicken broth, wine, red wine vinegar and your beets. 

 Once I added everything, it looked like the picture above. You then let the soup simmer, covered, for 45 minutes to an hour, until the beets are cooked. Since I diced my beets so small, they cooked in probably 35 minutes. (I take very small bites, so I've gotten used to cutting things quite small. It's not a bad habit to have, practicing your knife skills.)

I think that perhaps my lid was not on tightly, because it got drier than I was expecting for a soup. I mashed up the leeks and beets with a potato masher, and then added about a cup of water back in. I also found the vinegar taste to be quite strong, another reason why I added the water.

Overall, I found that this soup had good flavor, but next time I would make it with more spices and less vinegar. I'm a huge fan of coriander and cumin, and not a huge fan of vinegar, so I think it's just a personal preference. 

Another successful recipe from A Feast of Ice and Fire! 

Super Simple Dill Pickles

Cucumbers are not one of my favorite vegetables, but man, do I like pickles! This time of summer, fresh picked cucumbers are usually pretty easy to come by. Occasionally, my landlord will share some cukes with me from her bounty, but these I picked up at a farmers market on the weekend.

Now, I'm no canning expert. I've only recently started to read about it/have a real interest. It seems like something I'll probably get into, so I'm approaching it slowly. I attempted pickles about two weeks ago, and my fear caused me to chuck them. (Disclaimer: as a biochemist, microbes terrify me. Which is why canning worries me.) Here's a general overview of what I did last time - I tried a recipe which required fermenting on a shelf for 4 days, then going into the fridge. After a few days, I noticed a white sedimenty floating thing at the bottom, and freaked and tossed them. I also tried one (I'm a hypocrite) before tossing them, and the flavor was so powerful that I wasn't too disappointed to get rid of them.

So, round two, I wanted to get it right and try a safer recipe. I followed the guidelines of this recipe from The Kitchn. My favorite part? It goes directly into the fridge! My other favorite parts were that it was simple, fast, and ready to eat in 2 days. 

For these pickles, you'll need two mason jars, pint sized, with their rings and lids. If you're planning on storing the pickles for a long time, you'll need to sanitize the jars before you start, in boiling water. If you just want to keep them in the fridge for a few weeks, clean jars are fine. 

In a saucepan, combine 1 cup cider vinegar, 1 cup of water and 1.5 tablespoons of pickling salt. This salt is important, and different from regular salt. The first time I made pickles (see above), I believe this is what led to my white sediment - I used regular table salt, despite reading otherwise. I found pickling salt at my grocery store, but apparently Wegman's has an uncommon selection. I believe regular Kosher salt will do. You want pickling salt, because the other kinds of salt have anti-caking agents, and that is what precipitates out and scares me into thinking I'm going to poison myself with microbes.

Here's a more in-depth discussion on types of salt: Pickling Salt

Continuing on! Heat your mixture on high until it boils. While you are waiting for it to heat, you can clean and cut your cucumbers. This recipe calls for 1-1/2 pounds of cucumbers, and I actually weighed mine. My 3 cucumbers were 1.42 lbs. Try not to vary too much from that weight, and actually weigh them if you can. Make sure to cut off the ends that it grew from, because this has enzymes that make your pickles not so crunchy. (And why even bother with limp pickles??) I cut my cucumbers into rather small pieces, but what can I say, I take small bites, so I cut everything into small pieces.

Take 4 cloves of garlic, peel them and give them a rough chop, then divide them into your jars. Add 1 teaspoon of dill seed into each jar. (Side note: I used the herb of dill for my last pickles, and this time I used seeds - I find that both instill a good dill flavoring, and are probably interchangeable depending on which you have on hand. You can mess with the flavorings in this recipe, but don't mess with the acidity/salt levels) You can also add crushed red pepper - I added a dash or two and don't detect much difference, so I'll probably add more next time. 

Once your spices/garlic are divided into the jars, jam pack all your cucumber slices into your jar. Really pack them in tight, but make sure to leave some space at the top.

By now, your vinegar water should be boiling, and the salt should be dissolved. Carefully pour the brine into the jars, making sure to cover the pickles and leaving about 1/2" of space at the top. You'll probably have leftover brine, so just discard what you don't need. Close the jars and let them come to room temperature before popping them in the fridge. 

Here's how to store them for longer: Heat a pot of boiling water, and place jars in the boiling water. When the water comes back up to a boil, leave them in for five minutes and then immediately remove the jars. If the lids don't pop down, they haven't been sealed properly and you should put them in the fridge, to eat them first. They should last for a few weeks in the fridge once open.

I waited, as recommended in the recipe, two days before eating them. I found that they definitely have a dill pickle taste, but are a little sharp/tangy. It's edible, but definitely not the perfect recipe...yet! I'm planning on waiting and seeing how they turn out after a few more days.

To summarize, despite my lukewarm feelings towards cucumbers, they may have earned a position in next year's summer garden. 

Blueberry Lemon Galette

This past weekend, I went fruit picking with friends at a pick your own orchard. Apples, which are the usual fare at this location, aren't quite in season yet, but a few other fruits and veggies were around to be picked. The raspberries and blackberries were pretty picked through, but a few gems could be found in the blueberries. Most of the berries were a little tart for my taste, so I knew they were destined for a dessert of some sort. I also got peaches, which are a little on the unripe side, so they'll probably be destined for a cooking transformation of some kind, as well.

Look at these delicious fruits! Somehow, they're just better when you pick them yourself. So, after perusing a few recipes, I decided on a blueberry lemon galette, a recipe from Fine Cooking. Now, I'm not much of a pastry chef; savory dinner items are more of my forte. (Ironic that my first post is a dessert, eh?) Therefore, I had no idea what the heck a galette was. However, a quick dash to Wikipedia tells me that it is a French term to describe freeform crusty cakes. This seems more like a pie, but who am I to argue? Either way, it looks delicious, and based on the amount of butter (11 tablespoons!!), how could it not be?

The first step is to make the dough. This can be made ahead and saved for up to 4 days, or you can make a big batch and freeze it for later galettes. 

Whenever I measure for baking, I always try to weigh it out, if I'm given the option, especially with things like flour. Because flour can get packed into a measuring cup, or it can be measured loosely, the amount of flour actually added to your dough can vary greatly. The density of flour also varies greatly between brands of flour, and can even vary bag to bag! Granted, this isn't a huge concern for a home baker, however for a commercial business, reproducibility is a big deal. Moral of the story - balances are rather cheap, and if you plan on doing a lot of baking, it is a must.

So, weigh out your flour, sugar and salt needed for the dough in a large bowl. If you had a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, as recommended in the recipe, you can use that on low to mix it. However, my stand mixer isn't that great and I felt that I did a better job mixing it with two forks. Once combined, add the butter, which is in 1/2 inch cubes. Mix it on low, until the dough stays together. Break up any large lumps of butter. The recipe I followed recommended that anything larger than pea sized be broken up, but I had a hard time getting them all, and you can just crush the chunks of butter later when you "knead" the dough.

Combine the egg yolk and milk in a small bowl, then add it to the dry ingredients. Mix it until the dough just comes together. The dough will still be crumbly, but now you can turn the dough out on a clean counter and work with it. Gently knead the dough until it comes together and the dough is pliable. This should take about 1 minute, and is why I put knead in quotes, since an actual bread or pasta dough would be kneaded for much longer. You just want everything to be combined evenly.

Look at that beautiful little ball of dough. I worked with mine on a baking mat, which is another wonderful addition to your kitchen if you plan on baking much. This is a very sticky dough, so it was much less painful on a material that is extremely non-stick. If you don't have one of these, parchment paper probably works, or you can just clean your counter afterwards. Now you can wrap your ball of dough in plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge for 15-20 minutes, to let it rest. 

Many doughs are given a chance to rest, because the glutens will be too elastic, and the dough pulls back together when you try to roll it out. 

Now to make the filling! Make sure you wash your blueberries and pick through them well. I still had a few stems left on mine, since I picked them myself. That would not be an interesting addition to my galette. Once they're washed, put them in a large bowl. In the interest of conserving dishes (I HATE DISHES), I used the same bowl that had made the dough. I figured that it's all going into the same thing, and a little extra dough will just thicken up the filling. Can't hurt! 

So, toss your blueberries with 1/4 cup sugar. If your berries are on the tarter side, throw in up to 2 tbs of extra sugar. Then, add the lemon zest, honey, flour, and salt, then toss it together. 

After this, I removed the dough from the fridge and let it sit out for 5 minutes. I also turned on my oven at this point. Some bakers advocate preheating an oven for at least 30 minutes, but as my kitchen gets too hot simply from sauteing for 5 minutes, I preheat for as little time as possible. I've become an expert at finishing preps at the exact moment my oven is up to temperature. It's my super power. 

Once your dough has come to room temperature, you can roll it out. Again, I cannot advocate the baking mat more strongly here. You can roll it out on a lightly floured surface, but doughs really don't come much stickier than this one. My baking mat also conveniently has measurements along the side, so it wasn't difficult for me to measure a 13"x14" circle. I've included my rolling pin in the picture for reference for those of you who don't have a wonderful baking mat in your kitchen. Since you let your dough rest, you shouldn't have too much difficulty in rolling it out smoothly. Don't worry too much if it isn't a perfect circle, or if the ends tear, since it is going to be pleated, or folded onto itself. 

Next, dump your bowl of filling into the center of the dough. Fold the dough over the fruit, to about a 2 inch rim, pleating it as you go. If this seems confusing to you, look at my pictures below to get a good idea of what it should look like. 

Take your beaten egg and use a pastry brush to brush it on the dough. Strangely enough, I don't own a pastry brush. I know, I heavily advocate rather niche items like a balance and a baking mat, but I don't own a pastry brush. I can't explain it. Anyway, I kind of coated it onto the dough with a fork, which I also used to whisk it with. (I hate doing dishes.) 

After egg was applied to the dough, I sprinkled a little sugar onto it. Our cute little sugar pot came in very handy for sprinkling sugar on top.

Once done, it should look roughly like this. Now toss that puppy in the oven and try not to rip it out for the next 55 minutes. Take it out when golden brown, and attempt to let it cool on a wire rack. I admit, that's probably not possible. Once it has cooled, cut it into slices and serve it warm or at room temperature. 

Just look at it! 

All that deliciousness oozing out!!

As you can tell, I obviously did not wait until my galette had cooled before I cut into it, so it is a gooey, drippy, DELICIOUS mess. 

The rich, buttery crust blends perfectly with the sweet, slightly tart blueberry filling. I imagine it would pair nicely with vanilla ice cream, or a good whipped cream. I'll just have to "settle" for having it plain. A quick and easy recipe is below. I'm off to enjoy my slice (or two!) of galette!