Archives for the 'cookbook' Category
Dorie’s great grain muffins…a taste of yellow
You know how much I love strawberry scones, right? Well, even though I haven’t made them as often as I did last year, I still make them…or at least I intend to. On Sunday I fully intended to make scones using Dorie Greenspan’s recipe…but then I remembered all the pain au chocolat that I’ve been eating because Cameron has been turning out such perfect delights lately, and then I thought about the baquette and butter splurge I went on the other evening, and I said to myself “hmmm, you need more whole grains”. Of course Dorie had the answer in the form of her great grain muffins.
A good muffin can be really good, but a bad muffin is often no better than a doorstop. Back in the 80’s I bought Jane Brody’s Good Food Book and learned a lot about whole grain cooking but as usual for me I went overboard…the details are unclear now but what I do remember is that the muffins I made were really dense (like a hockey puck) and heavy and I’m sure they had no resemblance to anything in Jane Brody’s book. The worst part is that I actually gave them to people to eat…I had no frame of reference on what a good muffin should be since I’d never made muffins before and honestly there were no muffins in my background…it wasn’t something my mom ever made.
These muffins are the good kind. They rise up with a nice perky little domes, their texture is good, they’re not heavy or dense…but they are satisfying. I chose to add dried cranberries and pistachios and I think it was a good choice. The colors add some interest and the flavors are well matched. 
Speaking of color…this post is my entry into the Taste of Yellow blogging event hosted by Barbara over at Winos and Foodies. I doubt that there is anyone who hasn’t been touched by cancer in some way and LIVESTRONG Day is the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s one-day initiative to raise awareness and funds for the cancer fight. LIVESTRONG Day 2008 will occur on Tuesday, May 13.
Great Grains Muffins
adapted from Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan
printer-friendly recipe
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup old-fashioned oats
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons plain yogurt
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 stick of butter, melted
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup pistachios
Preheat the oven to 400° and butter a 12 count muffin tin or line the cups with paper muffin cups.
Combine the flours, cornmeal, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Stir to combine. In another bowl combine the milk, yogurt, syrup, sugar, eggs, and butter. Whisk to combine. Add the cranberries and pistachios to the dry mixture. Fold the wet mixture into the dry mixture making sure to only stir enough to combine…don’t over-stir. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into a muffin comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let it rest for 5 minutes. Gently remove the muffins and allow them to cool, or eat them right away…that’s what we do!
Try a little tenderness…pork roast with vinegar & bay leaves
Otis Redding was 26 when he died on December 10, 1967. He was on his way to Madison with his band the Bar-Kays when his small plane crashed into the cold water of Lake Monona. Otis and 6 others died in the crash. It’s merely a sick twist of fate that his opening act for that show was suppoed to be a group called The Grim Reapers. I drive by that lake every day and I often think of Otis, his incredible talent, and the great music he left behind. He’s best known for his song Dock of the Bay, but you might not know that he wrote Respect. Aretha did a good job with it but when Otis sings Respect, he owns it. My favorite Otis songs are the soulful and romantic Try a Little Tenderness and I’ve Been Loving You.
I promised to follow a recipe once a week this year and I’m trying to stick to it. I gotta tell you, it’s killing me. For one thing there is absolutely no standard when it comes to meat cuts. One butcher might call a pork shoulder roast a pork butt, or maybe a boston butt, or maybe just a pork roast…there is absolutely no standardization. I dug around in my freezer for a pork shoulder roast and all I could turn up was a “pork roast”. It didn’t have the shape of a shoulder roast and it didn’t have the shape of a loin…it was sort of in between. I decided, after much debate with GH, that I would just treat it like a shoulder roast.
I knew I was going to turn to Marcella Hazan’s Essential’s of Classic Italian Cooking for the recipe since it came highly recommended by my friend Lisa. I checked the index for pork recipes and decided to go with roast pork with vinegar and bay leaves. I had all the ingredients including my own homemade red wine vinegar. It’s from a vinegar mother that I got about 15 years ago from my friend Francesca. I’m sure she’s had it for years…who knows how long its actually been around. Every once in awhile I top it off with wine and white vinegar and let it steep…it’s a tasty .
The contrast of the acidy vinegar and the bite of the bay leaves and pepper with the rich pork was seriously perfect. But I must confess that I didn’t enjoy following the recipe, actually I found it to be an enormous pain in the ass, even though it was super simple and it turned out exquisite. However, it did free my brain up to be creative elsewhere. I made a rosemary foccacia and garlic green beans to go with this lovely porky pile of meat. It was a great meal, especially for a Tuesday. The dessert I made was a total improve riff, you can see and read about at Accidental Hedonist…check it out because it was fabulous, quick, and easy.
Marcella Hazan’s Roast Pork with Vinegar and Bay Leaves
-printer-friendly version-
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 pounds pork roast
salt
1 teaspoon whole peppercorns
3 bay leaves
½ cup good red wine vinegar
Choose a heavy pot that the roast will fit in snugly. Put it on a burner over medium heat and add the butter and vegetable oil. Melt the butter but don’t allow it to brown. Once it foams add the meat and brown well on all sides, turning it to get good browning everywhere. Turn the burner down to medium low and salt the meat. Crush the peppercorns with a meat mallet and add them, the bay leaves and the vinegar. Loosen any crusty bits from the bottom of the pot, bring the liquid up to a simmer and then cover the pot tightly and let it simmer for 2 to 3 hours. Occasionally lift the lid and prod the meat with a fork to check the tenderness and to turn the meat. Put the lid back on the pot.
When the roast is tender remove it from the pan, keep it warm, and let it rest. Take the juices left in the pan and skim the excess fat from the top. Add ½ cup of water, loosen all the crusty bits with a spoon and turn up the heat and reduce the liquid. Slice the meat and serve it with the reduced pan juice.
Enjoy some Otis…
Pork is the word
Peter Kaminsky, “Pig Perfect”
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, “The River Cottage Meat Book”
Stéphane Reynaud, “Pork & Sons”
Fergus Henderson, “The Whole Beast”
Today I begin my stint as the guest writer at Accidental Hedonist. Head over there to see what I’ve cooked up. In the meantime, these are my all time favorite books about pork. They are all engaging, well written, and total advocates for buying local, humanely-raised meat. Also check out what Bill Buford says about The River Cottage Meat Book and Pork and Sons in this article from a December New Yorker. I love this review because I think Buford is an excellent writer himself, plus he absolutely captures the dilemma of reading any of these books…the wanton pork lust that forces you to put down the book, get out the pork, and start cooking.
“There’s nothing like a pork belly to steady the nerves.”
-Fergus Henderson
Here’s a printer-friendly version of the recipe I posted at Accidental Hedonist.
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