Eat. Sleep. Cook.

Best Apple Pie. Ever.

2009-08-14T10:04:00.002-04:00

Best I've ever made because it's the first one I've ever made. And best I've ever eaten because I don't think I've actually ever had a homemade apple pie. Hungarians don't make pies.

Pie Crust

2.5 cups Flour. 1.5 sticks Butter. 1/4 cup cold Vegetable Shortening. 1/2 tsp. Salt. 4 Tbsp. Ice Water.

Cut butter into 1/2 inch cubes. Mix in flour, shortening, and salt. Mix by hand until the butter pieces are distributed, and pea-sized.
Drizzle in ice water and stir with a fork.
Squeeze the dough with your hand. It should stick together. If not, add more water until it does.
On a board or counter, divide dough into 8 pieces. Smear each against the counter with the heel of your hand to distribute the butter.
Divide dough in half. Make each into a ball, then flatten into a thick disk.
Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Apple Pie

3 Tbsp. Flour. 1 tsp. lemon zest. 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon. 1/4 tsp. Allspice. 1/8 tsp. Salt. 1.75 lbs. each Sliced Granny Smith Apples and Fuji Apples. 1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice. 2/3 cup + 1 Tbsp. Sugar. 1 Egg, beaten.

Place a baking sheet in the oen and preheat to 425 degrees.
Mix together flour, zest, cinnamon, allspice, salt, and 2/3 cup sugar in large bowl. Add apples and lemon juice.
Roll out one piece of dough on a lightly floured surface. Fit into pie plate. Trim edge 1/2 from plate. Return to refrigerator.
Take out other piece of dough and roll out to fit top of pie plate, with extra.
Spoon filling into shell and cover with dough. Squeeze edges of top and bottom dough together and trim to 1/2 inch past pie plate.
Roll up dough edges and press down with a fork.
Cut three vents in top of pie. Sprinkle with tablespoon sugar.
Bake on sheet for 20 minutes. Reduce oven to 375 and bake for another 40 minutes.
Cool pie for 2-3 hours.

Taken from:

The Gourmet Cookbook

Ruth Reichel

2004

Caution: Contents May Be Hot

2009-08-12T16:36:00.002-04:00

It's been a while since I've had any Hungarian dessert. They are oh so good, but quite complicated and time consuming. I have not yet dared making the pastries, even though I only get them around the holidays when Mom devotes weeks to making them. Feeling lazy, I made one of the quicker ones today. They won't look exactly like the photo. My breadcrumbs were stale, so I just used cinnamon and powdered sugar. They are definitely not the same.

Szilvas Gomboc (Plum Dumplings)

2 cups Flour. 2 Eggs. Water. pinch Salt. 1 tsp. Vegetable Oil. 2 Tbsp. Cinnamon. 1/4 cup Sugar. 1 cup Breadcrumbs. 1 cup Lekvar (Plum Preserve). 1/2 cup Butter.

Sift the flour onto a clean counter or board. Make a well in the center and add the egg and a pinch of salt.
Start mixing, adding water as needed to make a soft dough. Knead until smooth and cut in half. Brush with vegetable oil and let sit, covered, for 15 minutes.
Roll out one piece as thin as possible without tearing a hole. Use a 4" circle cutter, or top of a drinking glass to cut out circles in the dough.
Roll them out more now if they still aren't very thin. You should be able to just see your hand through it when holding it.
Mix the lekvar with a little it of sugar and cinnamon, to taste.
Spoon a very small amount of lekvar into each circle.
Whisk an egg with a small amount of water. Use to brush a SMALL amount on the edges of the circles.
To close, bring the edges together and pinch. Pinch off any extra dough. Make sure the top is completely closed.
Drop into lightly salted water at a low boil. Stir to keep from sticking to the bottom.
Remove and let water drain off when floating.
In a pan, melt butter. Add breadcrumbs and toast until golden. Add sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
Roll each dumpling in the breadcrumbs.
Serve warm.

That French Chicken Dish

2009-08-12T10:54:00.004-04:00

Inspired by the movie "Julie & Julia", I picked a random Julia Child recipe to make last night. Can't go wrong with an entire stick of butter, right? It turned out delicious, in all its buttery glory.

Poulet Saute Aux Herbes De Provence

For Chicken:

1 stick Butter. 1 Whole Chicken. 1 tsp. Dry Thyme, 1 tsp. Dry Basil, 1/4 tsp. Fennel Seed, ground. 3 Unpeeled Garlic Cloves. 2/3 cup Dry White Wine

For Sauce:

2 Egg Yolks. 1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice. 1 Tbsp. Dry White Wine.

Chicken. Using a sharp knife, cut the chicken into legs, thighs, wings, and breasts. Start by cutting out the backbone. It's pretty easy from there. Find the joints when you can. The knife you are using should be able to cut through bone to cut the breasts apart. Remove any stray pieces of fat or bone
Wash and dry the pieces thoroughly. I they aren't dry, they wont brown properly.
Melt butter in pan and brown the chicken, both sides, each 8 minutes, on med-high. Careful not to burn the butter. Season both sides with the spices. Add garlic cloves.
Cover and cook on medium for 15 minutes, basting and turning occasionally.
Remove chicken. Remove peel from garlic and mash the cloves. Add wine. Reduce until 3/4 cup is left.
Sauce. In a separate pan, whisk egg yolks, wine, and lemon juice. Gradually whisk pan juices in. Place on low heat, constantly whisking, until thickened.

Notes:

Don't try to reheat the sauce, it's an emulsion, and it'll just fall apart and be greasy.

Use the extra chicken parts, like the backbone, to make chicken broth, or bean soup.

The Lighter Side

2009-08-12T10:07:00.009-04:00

Last weekend, John wanted something "light". I understood, seeing as we ate a massive dinner at Ruth Chris Steakhouse the night before. BUT this meant salad. Ugh salad...diet food...so boring. So I snuck in some pasta. mmm carbs.

Italian Salad with Orzo

Salad Greens. Orzo Pasta. Chopped Fresh Basil. Balsamic Vinegar. Olive Oil. Quartered Vine Tomatoes. Cubed Fresh Mozzarella. Toasted Pine Nuts (optional). Sun-dried Tomatoes (optional). Salt. Pepper.

Mix together at the ratios of your liking. Pair with garlic cheese bread.

Notes.

Cook pasta with salt and garlic to give it flavor.

Grow your own basil pants for fresh basil anytime. They grow like weeds, you don't have to do anything to them. And you save $4 buying that little package of 5 leaves at the grocery store.

Buy the Mozzarella that is in water. Even better, buy buffalo mozzarella. These are usually in the fancy cheese refrigerated section. Getting deli mozzarella is NOT the same.

If you can't find toasted pine nuts, get pine nuts from the baking section and toast them yourself, in a pan, on LOW heat. They burn easily.

Cover your salad with a wet paper towel when putting it away. It keeps everything crunchy.

Also use the balsamic and olive oil for dipping a good bread like "boule", an artisan bread. Add salt and dipping spices if you like.

Criminal

2009-08-11T21:31:00.008-04:00

The neglect I've given this blog is criminal, yes, criminal. I've been sitting on my butt watching all of the Desperate Housewives Seasons, NOT working on vet school applications, and working two whole half-days a week. On the weekends, I travel, go visit people. Laszlo in Maryland (wedding), Jess in Tally, John in Orlando. And yes, I drank way too much wine tonight, . It's Robert Mondavi Private Selection Pinot Grigio California 2008. Very good, I must say, for a dry white wine. I developing an aversion to white wine. I've become a red wine-o. Inspired by the $56 Robert Mondavi Pinot Noir John and I had at The Grey Gables in Charlevoix, MI a few weeks ago. $30 at the store by the way, don't you love restaurants? It was delicious, the price made it taste even better. Expensive things always taste better, even if they are actually worse. I had a good Pepper-Crusted New York Strip with it. He had a GREAT, enormous, Tomahawk steak with it. I was jealous. He ate the whole thing and only gave me a bite. He is a greedy man. Anyways, I used the Pinot Grigio in a dish I made tonight. Inspired by the recent movie "Julie & Julia" I made "Poulet Saute Aux Herbes De Provence". I stole it from a recent Food & Wine Magazine article. I was disgusted by the amount of butter used, but this of course, it what makes it good. The sauce is the best part, it makes the dish... characteristically French. I'm not sure I'm sold on French food. It wasn't that good. But nothing ever is when you make it yourself. Things are always better when someone else makes it, right? I wish someone would make ME something someday. Dr. Sameck had an interesting talk with us at the last staff meeting. It was about Love Languages. Apparently there's touch (which he commented we shouldn't use at work), service, speaking...and I'm not sure what else as I haven't read the book, yet. I've decided mine is definitely service. You know I love you when I cook for you. I REALLY love you if I cook for you all the time, and make excuses to cook for you. And get really nervous about it. John is a touch person. I feel like I need the speaking language back though. Ok. Wait. Stop. This is a cooking blog. What am I doing? Ok. So today I was thinking...I'm going to put Hungarian recipes in a separate blog. Hungarian food is SO fattening, and I'm not willing to sacrifice my figure for putting them all up here. I'm going to have to interchange them with some healthier things. So. eat.sleep.cook.hungarian will likely be born soon. I'm not happy that I'm coming back to this when I actually will have a lot to do soon. Wanted to get applications done before school starts, which starts in 2 weeks. Can I say procrastinator? What can I say, I do well under pressure. I'm going to drown myself in delicious fudge from Murdick's Famous Fudge in Charlevoix now. Goodnight, and hopefully I'll be more proactive soon.

Nom Nom

2009-04-09T19:37:00.002-04:00

A plethora of Hungarian family recipes to come, just a few more weeks of torture...

The recipe list:

Bablaves (Bean Soup)
Csirke Paprikas (Paprika Chicken)
Fank (Doughnuts)
Gulyas (Beef Stew)
Haluska (Cabbage & Noodles)
Langos (Elephant Ear Pastry)
Nokedli (Egg Dumplings, like Spaetzle)

Magyaros Karfiol es Brakoli (Broccoli & Cauliflower Casserole)

Meggy Leves (Sour Cherry Soup)

Palacsinta (Crepes)
Tepertos Pogacsa (Bacon Biscuits)
Toltottkaposzta (Cabbage Rolls)
Szekely Gulyas (Pork & Sauerkraut Stew)
Szilvas Gomboc (Plum Dumplings)

Veal Stew
Potato Salad

Stealing Chris's Ideas

2008-08-09T16:17:00.006-04:00

Just partially anyway. He made some buffalo chicken one night for dinner. It's super easy, he just grilled up some chicken breasts drenched in Budweiser brand wing sauce. We ate them on hoagie rolls with provolone cheese, ranch, lettuce, and tomato. You can use any brand of wing sauce you like and any cheese that you like.

Quick Look - Buffalo Chicken

Ingredients:

Chicken Breasts. Buffalo Wing Sauce. Cheese. Ranch. Tomato. Lettuce. Bread.

Instructions:

Marinate the chicken breasts in the wing sauce for 15 minutes.
Grill, basting with more wing sauce.
Assemble sandwiches with desired toppings.

The part that makes it partially mine is next. We had a lot of this chicken left
over and I wanted to do something different with them. But, I also wanted to
do something quick. I had been craving pizza, so I picked up some premade
pizza dough from Publix. I let it rise according to he package, stretched it out,
put wing sauce, chicken, and cheese on top and threw it in the oven. It came
out great!

Quick Look - Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Ingredients:

Pizza Dough. Wing Sauce. Buffalo Chicken. Cheese.

Instructions:

Preheat oven and let the dough rise according to the package directions.
When ready, stretch or roll the pizza dough out to the desired size.
Top with a thin layer of wing sauce, chicken, and cheese.
Bake in oven according to dough package.

Sorry no photos for this one :( And I promise I'll be more consistent with my
posts instead of waiting a while then posting a bunch. School always makes
me more organized.

Asian Adventure

2008-06-18T14:50:00.011-04:00

Since I so deeply miss the amazing dim sum I had in Australia, and of course Gainesville doesn't have the real thing, so I decided on a little venture into the unknown. There aren't many things in cooking that I'm totally clueless about. Asian cooking is, however, something I am totally clueless about. (Sidenote: This is funny, since they say that the ancestors of Hungarians are actually Asian.)

I decided on some gyoza pork dumplings and shrimp dumplings, along with some miso soup from scratch. I tried to keep everything authentic (since I was aiming to hit the spot in my tummy with dim sum), so I definitely had to hit the local asian market for the real (and inexpensive) ingredients.

I used the same mixture of ingredients for both the shrimp and the pork dumplings. It's really fairly easy, chop everything into a mush, mix, and put inside some dumpling wrappers, then steam. The miso soup was also easy, make some broth from seaweed and fish flakes, strain, then stir in some miso paste and chopped scallions.

Quick Look - Dumplings

Ingredients:

Gyoza Dumpling Wrappers. Ground Pork and/or Shrimp. Fresh Ginger. Fish Sauce. Sesame Oil. Rice Wine. Scallions. Soy Sauce. Black Mushrooms. Sugar.

Instructions:

Mix a pound of pork and/or shrimp (you can use either or both) with 1 tsp grated ginger, 1 tbsp fish sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp soy sauce, 1/2 c chopped scallions, 1 tbsp rice wine, 1/4 c chopped black mushrooms, 1tsp sugar, and 1/2 tsp salt.

Place the mixture in the center of the gyoza wrappers, wet the edges, and press them together at the top.

Steam for a few minutes.

Notes:

You can use wonton wrappers cut into circles with a large enough cup if you can't get gyoza wrappers.
The ingredients are flexible, you can eliminate things if you don't like or cant get them. You can also add water chestnuts, bok choy, bamboo shoots, oyster sauce, tofu, garlic, etc.

Brush vegetable oil on the steamer so the dumplings don't stick, then brush the dumplings before you put them away so they won't stick to each other.

Rice wine is also called "Mirin".

If you don't have a steamer, fill a deep pot 1/4 full with water, put a metal strainer on top, and partially close it up with a large pot/pan lid, and voila! - your ghetto steamer. (I did this - someone needs to buy me a steamer for my birthday).

Quick Look - Miso Soup

Ingredients:

Kombu (kelp). Water. Bonito Flakes. Scallions. Rice Wine. Miso Paste. Firm Tofu (optional).

Instructions:

To make the dashi, or broth, bring 5 cups of water to a boil.

Add a 12 inch sheet of kelp and 1/4 c bonito flakes. Remove from heat.

Let the broth stand for a few minutes, then strain out the flakes and kelp.
Stir in 4tbsp miso paste with a whisk. Add 1/4 c scallions and 1/4 c rice wine.

Top with scallions. Add tofu if you'd like.

Fish Tacos?

2008-06-11T15:40:00.019-04:00

Yes, fish tacos! It's the new craze! I'd never actually had them, but they sounded delish. Sadly, Chris didn't think so, so he got chicken.

Whilst browsing Food Network's website yesterday and I found a recipe for some carne asada tacos - it sounded great, but I had just had beef for dinner the night before, so I decided to tweak it a little (as I always do). I'm using chicken and fish (tilapia), but you can use any meat you'd like. I'm also making some fried plantains.

Prep.
I marinated the meat in some mojo sauce, olive oil, lime juice, and orange juice for a few hours. If you don't have the time, you can just let it marinate for a few minutes. The orange and lime juices help to tenderize the meat, and give it a great citrus flavor at the same time. You can find the mojo sauce bottled in the ethnic food isle of the grocery store - it is well seasoned and tastes great.

Cooking.
Be sure to salt and pepper the meat to your liking. You can either pan fry it with some olive oil or throw it onto the grill. I like the grill, since it gives the meat another dimension of flavor. Unfortunately I have a gas grill - easy to use, yes, but it just doesn't compare to the flavor you get over real wood. So, my trick is to add some small oak branches on top of the gas burners, burn them through while preheating the grill, and douse them with water (to put the flames out and make them smoke) right before putting the meat on the grill.

For toppings, I made some premixed rice and beans (package directions) and some salsa - yes, fresh salsa, once you eat it you'll never eat the canned stuff again. Other toppings I offered were colby jack cheese, sour cream, avocado, extra onions and tomatoes, and lime juice.

The salsa I made included onions, tomatoes, jalapenos, cayenne pepper, fresh garlic, cilantro, olive oil, lime, salt, pepper, and cumin. You can add avocados to this to create guacamole - the ripe ones are black on the outside and soft.

Quick Look.

Ingredients:

Mojo. Meat. Orange Juice. Olive Oil. 2 Cloves Garlic. Cilantro. Cumin. 2 Large tomatoes. 1 Small Onion. 5 Limes. 4 Haas Avocados. 1 Jalapeno. Tortillas or Hard Tacos. Packaged Rice and Beans. Colby Jack Cheese. Sour Cream. Vegetable Oil. Yellow-Brown Plantains. Cayenne Pepper.

Instructions:

Marinate the meat in the mojo sauce, lime juice, orange juice, and olive oil.

Salt and pepper the meat before grilling. Prepare the packaged rice and beans. Slice the meat into strips when cool enough.

Chop garlic, cilantro, tomatoes, jalapeno, and onion and add salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cumin, lime juice, and teaspoon olive oil. Mix and serve as salsa.

Slice avocados as a topping or add to the salsa to make guacamole.

Slice the plantains and squish the slices with a mallet. Fry them in shallow vegetable oil for a few minutes and drain on a paper towel.

Make margaritas with the leftover limes.

Tips:

Use fresh spices rather than dry if you can. Freshly grind your black pepper.

Haas avocados are a little more expensive, but they are more flavorful than other varieties.

Add more cayenne pepper and/or jalapenos to your salsa/gauc for some spicyness.

Grilling gives more flavor, especially when it's over real wood like oak.

The Project

2008-06-10T16:51:00.003-04:00

I don't know about you, but I hate not being able to see the food I'm reading about! So my first big project is going to be trying to incorporate photos of my food into my posts. I'm glad to break out my old Nikon SLR again. Although, this gives me a good reason to go out and buy a new digital SLR :)

In high school I completed two years of international baccalaureate (college level) photography coursework. Ever since then, photography has been something I truely enjoy. The class was divided up into sections throughout the two years consisting of different areas of photography such as landscapes, still life, developing film, color photography, digital photography, using the darkroom, etc. Never did we cover lighting techniques, which is probably the most important skill I'll need to photograph the food I cook. I know that the harsh yellow lighting of my house definitely will not do, however I also don't want to spend the money on any expensive lighting setups either. I've done some research and it looks like some sunlight from a window will do. I also found some other tips from http://www.digicamhelp.com/learn/special-subjects/food.php:

You want the light from the window coming from behind the plate of food.
To prevent a silhoutte effect, any white object can be placed next to the plate to reflect some light back onto the food.
Since the lighting will be fairly low, and you want to use a low ISO for the best quality, it's best to use a tripod.
Food looks best when it's shot immediately after plating using a simple, white plate, and unobtrusive background.
Never use a flash. It will make the food look flat, and ruin all the hard work you put into your window setup.
The f-stop should be set low so that only the food and maybe the plate is in focus, not the window behind it.
Shoot from the side of the plate, preferably at a 45 degree angle or from straight above, depending on the plate of food and how it looks most interesting. Use your best judgement here.
White balance settings should be adjusted to your liking.
Try to use a lens with a macro setting, so you can get close up photos in good focus.

My only problem: I cook at night a lot, and I don't live in Alaska, so it's pretty unlikely that I have any useable light coming from the window most of the time. So, if anyone has any suggestions, by all means, I would love to hear them!

Also, if it's a dish that's ready to eat, I want to make it look pretty, but garnishing is something I'm not familiar with at all. I'll have to do some research on this one, and maybe take some notes while watching Top Chef.

The Description Box Isn't Large Enough!

2008-06-10T16:05:00.001-04:00

My passions are as varied as they get. I'm a student. A veterinary technician. A photographer. A gamer. A science nerd. A computer buff. But most of all, a cook. My educational life is, and always has been based in the dry, creativeless world of science and medicine. My family life, however, is quite different. I'm a first generation child of two Hungarian immigrants and my roots are held in the traditions of strong family ties which, of course, revolve around the kitchen. From here sprouts my obsession with food. Cooking is ever more becoming my creative outlet and escape from the stressful pre-veterinary world. Hence, I cook...and I cook more...even when there's no one to eat, I cook. And now I write.