Breads and Grains

Ingredients
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 ¹⁄₂ cups milk, at room temperature
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons kosher salt
1 ¹⁄₂ cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons beef fat drippings, leftover from Prime Rib (if you need more, use olive oil to make up the difference)

Instructions
1. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and salt.  Stir in flour ¹⁄₂ cup at a time, making sure flour is completely incorporated before adding more.  Rest at room temperature for 30 minutes or up to 3 hours. 

2. Heat oven to 450*F. 

3. Stir 1 tablespoon beef fat into batter. 

4. Put ¹⁄₂ teaspoon beef fat into each cup of a 12-cup muffin pan.  Place pan in oven and heat 3 minutes, or until fat is smoking. 

5. Carefully remove pan from oven and separate batter between cups.  Return to oven and bake 20 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350*F and bake 10 more minutes until golden brown and puffy. 

6. Remove from oven and pierce each pudding with a toothpick (or chopstick, or whatever) to prevent collapse. 

Comments
This recipe is from Steamy Kitchen.  I basically did everything wrong.  I forgot to read the recipe ahead of time and didn’t bring anything to room temperature.  Nor did I wait the 30 minutes for the batter to rest after mixing.  You know what?  They were still delicious!  I wished I had made more of them.  This were nice and crispy on the outside and perfect in the middle.  They were even dipped into the Horseradish Cream Sauce.  Very nice addition to a prime rib dinner. 

I actually cooked the asparagus at the same time and just tossed them with olive oil, kosher salt, and pepper.  Then I spread them out on a baking sheet and popped them on the shelf underneath the muffin tin.  This worked out quite well!

Shown here with Prime Rib, Horseradish Cream Sauce, and roasted asparagus.

Internet - Steamy Kitchen

Ingredients
2 teaspoons yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
¹⁄₄ cup warm water
¹⁄₂ cup nonfat plain yogurt, whisked until smooth
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups all purpose flour
¹⁄₄ teaspoon salt
1 cup all purpose flour in bowl or pie plate, for dusting
¹⁄₄ cup butter, melted

Instructions
1. For the dough, dissolve the yeast and sugar in warm water and set aside until frothy, about 5 minutes. Mix in the yogurt and oil.

2. Place the flour and salt in the food processor and process until mixed. With the motor running, pour the yeast mixture into the work bowl in a thin stream and process until the flour gathers into a ball and the sides of the processor are clean. (If the dough seems too sticky, add some more flour through the feeder tube, or add some more yogurt if the dough is dry and hard.) Transfer to a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap or the lid of the bowl, and place in a warm draft-free spot until it doubles in volume, 3 to 4 hours. If keeping for a longer period, refrigerate the dough.  (Note: Both times I’ve made this I’ve needed to add extra yogurt.)

3. To roll and cook, the naan breads, with clean, lightly oiled hands, divide the dough equally into 6 to 12 balls and cover with foil to prevent drying. Working with each ball of dough separately, place in the bowl with the dry flour, flatten it with your fingertips and coat well with the dry flour. Then transfer to a cutting board or any other clean flat surface and, with a rolling pin, roll into a 7- to 8- inch triangle. (If the dough sticks to the rolling surface, dust with more flour.)

4. Place on large baking trays or, if you have a separate broiler, place on the broiler trays - 3 to 4 per tray. With a basting brush or your fingers, lightly baste the top of each naan with water.

5. Preheat the oven to broil or preheat the broiler, and place the trays, one at a time, 4 to 5 inches below the heating element and broil until small brown spots appear on the top surface, about 1 minute. With spatula, carefully, turn each naan over and cook until the other side is golden, about 30 seconds. Transfer the naan breads to a platter, baste lightly with butter, if you wish, and serve hot.

Note: If you have a good cast iron pizza pan, or similar, heat this under the broiler and then transfer dough to pizza pan in oven instead of cooking on trays.  This will help cook it on both sides at the same time better than a baking sheet. 

Comments
This recipe is from 1,000 Indian Recipes by Neelam Batra.  The naan shown here has a little turmeric and fresh, minced garlic added to the butter baste at the end for garlicky naan.  I feel like this is the first recipe I’ve tried to make naan at home and I’ve now made it twice.  Both times it turned out great!  I didn’t include minced garlic the second time, just a plain butter baste at the end.  I’m pleased with both the texture and the flavor.  Some day I’d like to try cooking this in the Big Green Egg at high temperature, but that might take a bit more planning and coordination than I’ve spent until this point. 

Shown here with Basic Chicken Curry (Har-Roz ki Murgh Kari).

1,000 Indian Recipes

Ingredients
¹⁄₂ cup fine bulgur
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup boiling water
2 cups fresh parsley, finely chopped (preferably flat leaf)
¹⁄₂ cup fresh mint, finely chopped
1 pound tomatoes, cut into small pieces
¹⁄₂ cucumber, peeled, cored, and cut into small pieces
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
³⁄₄ teaspoon salt
¹⁄₄ teaspoon black pepper

Instructions
1. Stir together bulgur and 1 tablespoon oil in large bowl.  Pour in boiling water, stir, and cover tightly.  Let stand 15 minutes.  Drain bulgur in sieve, pressing with spatula to remove excess liquid, then return to bowl. 

2. Toss with remaining 2 tablespoons oil and other ingredients. 

Comments
This recipe is from epicurious.com.  My mom suggested that we make Tabbouleh because it’s something she loves.  I’d never had it before, but was willing to try, so I tracked down this recipe.  It’s great!  Flat leaf parsley works better than the curly stuff, but  if you can’t find the flat stuff, the curly will still work.  It’s a lot of chopping, but comes together easily enough.  It’s even better the second day when all of the flavors have had time to meld more. 

If you can’t find bulgur at your store, try looking for tabbouleh mix and just remove whatever seasoning packet it comes with.  I have to get bulgur at my local health food store because it’s not available in any form at my normal groceries. 

Shown here with Chicken Shawarma, pita bread, Tomato Relish, and Tahini Sauce.

Internet - Epicurious

Ingredients
2 cups (10 ounces) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¹⁄₂ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
³⁄₄ teaspoon table salt
1 cup buttermilk, cold
12 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
3 cloves garlic, minced or grated

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 475*F.  Melt 8 tablespoons butter in microwave. 

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in large bowl. Combine buttermilk and 8 tablespoons warm melted butter in medium bowl, stirring until buttermilk and butter for small clumps. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with rubber spatula until just incorporated and batter pulls away from sides of bowl. Stir in shredded cheese. 

3. Using greased ¹⁄₄-cup dry measure or #30 disher, scoop level amount of batter and drop onto parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with remaining batter, spacing biscuits about 1 ¹⁄₂ inches apart. Bake until tops are golden brown and crisp, about 12 to 14 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, melt remaining 4 tablespoons butter over low heat in small saucepan.  Add garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until garlic softens and begins to color.  Remove from heat. 

5. Brush cooked biscuit tops with garlic butter. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 5 minutes before serving. Best eaten warm! 

Comments
This is a modified version of Buttermilk Drop Biscuits.  I made these for a gathering at Zekiah and they were a hit.  The cheese flavor was great and the biscuits were tender and tasty.  Next time, I think I might add some garlic into the melted butter that goes into the batter, to try to up the garlic flavors in the biscuits. 

I’ve got a few left in the fridge, so I hope to be adding a picture soon, unless they all get gobbled up before I’m able to!

Person - Gwen

Ingredients
1 pint small tomatoes, quartered or halved
¹⁄₄ cup olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 cups quinoa
2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups white wine
5 cloves garlic, minced
4-6 ounces feta cheese, crumbled or chopped
1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

Instructions
1. Heat oven to 400*F. 

2. Toss tomatoes with 2 tablespoons oil, salt and pepper.  Place tomatoes on wire rack set in baking sheet, cut side down, and bake 30 minutes or until tomatoes start to shrivel. 

3. After tomatoes have cooked for 15 minutes, start to prepare quinoa.  Heat remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in saucepan over medium heat.  Add garlic and quinoa and cook, stirring, until garlic is fragrant.  Add white and broth, cover and bring to boil over high heat.  Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, with lid half on, for about 15 minutes or until liquid has been absorbed. 

4. Add tomatoes, feta, and chickpeas to quinoa and stir well to combine. 

Comments
This recipe is from Sprout and Pea.  I had delicious local feta in my fridge and decided this recipe would be a great way to use it.  I thought it was delicious!  Next time I might add a little bit of lemon juice, but I thought the recipe was great as it was.  The roasted tomatoes were very flavorful and the garlic added great flavor to the quinoa.  This was a fantastic side dish for the grilled leg of lamb. 

The feta, by the way, was grand. 

Shown here with Grilled Marinated Leg of Lamb.

Internet - Sprout and Pea

Ingredients
¹⁄₂ cup butter, softened
1 ¹⁄₂ cup plain yogurt (I used Greek.)
2 eggs
¹⁄₂ cup brown sugar plus 2 tablespoons
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup flour
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
12 ounces frozen corn

Instructions
1. Heat oven to 375*F. 

2. Beat together butter, yogurt, eggs, and ¹⁄₂ cup brown sugar.  Add cornmeal, flour, baking soda and salt.  Mix until batter forms. 

3. In 10-inch ovenproof skillet heat olive oil over high heat.  Add frozen corn and 2 tablespoons brown sugar and sauté 5 minutes. 

4. Pour batter over sautéed corn and stir to combine.  Place skillet in oven and bake 30 to 35 minutes or until top turns golden and toothpick comes out clean.  Cool 5 minutes before serving. 

Comments
This recipe is from Five Dollar Dinners.  Many years ago, Art and I used to spend quite a bit of weekend time in Rockville, MD and there was a specialty food store there called Eatzi’s.  Sadly, it went out of business but it had the most amazing skillet cornbread that had bits of corn in it, not just cornmeal.  We’d often pick one up to take home with us and the bread was always devoured.  I’ve been looking for a recipe that comes close to that deliciousness for quite some time now and I think this might be the one.  The bread had just the right amount of sweetness, great texture due to the corn, and a nice crust from the skillet.  This might just be the cornbread of my dreams. 

Shown here with Spice-Rubbed Chicken Fingers with Cilantro Dipping Sauce.

Internet - Five Dollar Dinners

Ingredients
2 ¹⁄₄ teaspoons yeast
1 ¹⁄₂ cups milk, lukewarm
4 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon butter, cut into small bits, plus more for buttering dish
1 can coconut milk
¹⁄₄ cup sugar

Instructions
1. Mix yeast and milk in large bowl.  Let rest for 5 minutes until yeast has dissolved.  Stir in butter pieces then slowly add flour, 1 cup at a time.  Mix until dough easily pulls away from sides of bowl and forms a smooth ball. 

2. Place dough in buttered bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and rest until doubled in volume.  (This took about an hour for my dough.)  Butter 12 by 9-inch baking dish. 

3. Split dough into 18 pieces, roll into balls, and place in baking dish.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for another hour. 

4. Meanwhile, mix coconut milk with sugar.  Once rolls have risen, pour coconut milk over dough and heat oven to 375*F. 

5. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, or until done. 

Comments
I found this recipe on A Little Bit of Everything.  They looked great and, miraculously, I had a can of coconut milk that was unclaimed by any other recipe hanging out in my pantry!  I don’t have a lot of experience with breads that need to rise, since I tend to use the bread machine.  These were very simple to make, and the flavor was great.  They were a bit gooey and messy to eat, but I didn’t care one bit.

Internet - A Little Bit of Everything

Ingredients
³⁄₄ cup cornmeal
¹⁄₂ cup all purpose flour
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons baking powder
¹⁄₂ teaspoon baking soda
³⁄₄ teaspoon salt
¹⁄₄ teaspoon cayenne pepper
³⁄₄ cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
¹⁄₄ cup onion, minced
2 quarts peanut or vegetable oil

Instructions
1. Combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cayenne in large bowl. Whisk in buttermilk, eggs, and onion until combined. Let batter sit at room temperature for 10 minutes or up to 1 hour.

2. Heat oil in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat to 350*F. Drop half of batter into oil in heaping tablespoons and fry until deep golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes, turning hushpuppies halfway through cooking. Transfer to wire rack set over rimmed baking sheet and repeat with remaining batter. Serve.

Note: Hushpuppies can be refrigerated in airtight container for 2 days. Reheat in 450*F oven for about 10 minutes.

Comments
This recipe is from the 2009 Cook’s Country Annual and the hushpuppies tasted awesome!  I was amazed!  All the hushpuppies I’ve had before have been dense balls but these were light and airy!  The number of exclamation points I’ve used here should indicate how tasty they were.  I had a hard time getting them into the oil since the batter was very wet.  However, even if they all didn’t look very neat, the taste more than made up for looks. 

Shown here with Smoked Beef Brisket and Cheater Greens (sans bacon).

Cook’s Country 2009

Ingredients
2 cups (10 ounces) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¹⁄₂ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
³⁄₄ teaspoon table salt
1 cup buttermilk, cold
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly, plus 2 tablespoons for brushing biscuits

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 475*F. 

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in large bowl.  Combine buttermilk and 8 tablespoons warm melted butter in medium bowl, stirring until buttermilk and butter form small clumps. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with rubber spatula until just incorporated and batter pulls away from sides of bowl. 

3. Using greased ¹⁄₄-cup dry measure, or #30 disher, scoop level amount of batter and drop onto parchment-lined baking sheet.  Repeat with remaining batter, spacing biscuits about 1 ¹⁄₂ inches apart.  Bake until tops are golden brown and crisp, about 12 to 14 minutes. 

4. Brush biscuit tops with remaining 2 tablespoons melted butter. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 5 minutes before serving.  Best eaten warm!

Comments
The other night, for dinner, I made Crunchy Buttermilk-Coconut Chicken Fingers.  Recipes calling for buttermilk always leave me with more than I know what to do with and this was no exception.  I thought to myself, “Self, how about buttermilk biscuits?” and turned to Cook’s Illustrated to help.  I found this recipe in the 2007 Cook’s Illustrated Annual and, like all CI (recipes, it turned out perfectly.  These are, without a doubt, the best biscuits I’ve ever eaten.  They’re capital B biscuits, the paragon of biscuitdom.  I will be making this again over the weekend to appease Art with Biscuits and Gravy. 

Shown here with Crunchy Buttermilk-Coconut Chicken Fingers and Cheater Mustard Greens.

Cook’s Illustrated 2007

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
¹⁄₂ teaspoon baking powder
¹⁄₂ teaspoon baking soda
¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt
³⁄₄ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs
¹⁄₂ cup vegetable oil
¹⁄₂ cup fat-free plain Greek yogurt
1 cup zucchini, shredded
1 cup walnut halves, chopped (Optional.)

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 325*F. 

2. In a large bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl, mix the sugar with the eggs, vegetable oil and fat-free yogurt. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients along with the grated zucchini and walnuts and stir until the batter is evenly moistened. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 1 hour and 10 minutes, until the loaf is risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the loaf cool on a rack for 30 minutes before unmolding and serving.

Comments
This is not like any zucchini bread I’ve ever had before.  All the others have been dark and spicy, this was quite mildly flavored in comparison.  It was, however, moist and delicious.  I think I enjoyed it most.  I recommend cutting into it before it fully cools, spreading it with butter, and chowing down while it’s still nice and warm.

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