Getting back to our routine, I finally tried my hand at baking flatbread. The July 2008 Gourmet issue had an inspiring, super-easy flatbread recipe that really, I had no excuse not to make it. I LOVE flatbread and I look forward to ordering appetizers that are served with it. Admittedly, I sometimes cave in to buying those horrendously expensive bag of them from the store. I think I’ll stick to making them now:
I still have this slight phobia with bread making, and this recipe increased my hopes for bread nirvana. It was light, crispy (but not abrasive for the roof of your mouth, if you know what I mean) and with a nice flavor.
It was sooo nice to bite into.
The recipe makes 3 rustic flatbreads. For my first batch in the oven, I followed 450ºF temperature and checked it after 8 minutes. It was dark, dark brown on one side. I tried it at 400ºF for the second one and baked it for 12 minutes and it was perfect. It was light brown and just golden brown in the right areas — PRETTY. I used the store-brand coarse salt from Whole Foods. It worked out really well.
The bread was seriously delicious. Dan and I split one over a bowl of fresh corn and chicken soup. It’s great to eat on its own as well. I probably ate one whole bread today. It’s completely addicting.
You’ll notice from the recipe that it calls for the use of parchment paper. Well, this is what happens when you leave your boyfriend in charge of the apartment: your boxes of parchment and aluminum foil magically disappears into the kitchen abyss. Haha. So anyway, I just used my trusty Silpat and it delivered fantastic results as usual. I LOVE consistently good products.
Flatbread is one of those foods that you start making and it will change the way you look at the store-bought varieties. It is so good fresh out of the oven!
CRISP ROSEMARY FLATBREAD
Ingredients (4 servings)
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon chopped rosemary, plus 2 (6-inch) sprigs
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup olive oil plus more for brushing
Flaky sea salt such as Maldon. You can easily substitute with kosher salt.
Preparation
Preheat oven to 450°F with the oven rack positioned in the middle, and place a heavy baking sheet on it.
Mix together flour, chopped rosemary, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Create a well in center and pour water and oil into it. Continuously stir together the dry and wet ingredients with a wooden spoon until the dough forms. Transfer on a clean work surface and slowly knead the dough with your hands for 5 minutes.
Divide and form dough into 3 balls. Take one and leave the remaining ones covered in plastic wrap). Roll out 1 ball on a sheet of parchment paper until you form a 10-inch round disk. Dough should be thin, but you don’t have to make a perfect circle. It’s meant to look rustic.
Lightly brush the top of the disk with olive oil and sprinkle rosemary leaves on top, pressing in slightly. Sprinkle with sea salt.
Carefully slide and transport the dough on parchment paper onto the preheated baking sheet. Bake until pale golden and slightly browned raised areas, about 8 to 10 minutes.
Transfer flatbread, without the parchment paper, onto to a cooling rack. Repeat steps #3 to #6 for the remaining dough balls, working on each one at a time on fresh parchment. Do not brush the disks with oil or salt until just before baking them. Break into pieces before serving.
Notes
You can bake the flatbread 2 days in advance. Cool completely before keeping in an airtight container stored at room temperature.
Do you have those moments when you think you should know (how to do) something by default as a result of your ethnicity (or perhaps last name, family, affiliation, etc.)? And then you refuse to seek guidance because “it’s in you”. It’s like assuming that as an Asian I should know how to cook rice perfectly without any measuring tools or timer.
That’s exactly what was going on in my mind when I embarked on this Pot Sticker Adventure. I was pretty confident I could pull this off by channeling my inner 1/minisculeth Chinese. A book I’m reading says this is what artists are prone to do — Wing It. Did I ever wing it. I just wanted to use what we had in the kitchen, including kale.
I think I added shredded kale, chopped carrots, green onions, salt, pepper to the ground pork. I can’t remember. I wrote down the ingredients but I could not find that piece of paper anymore.
I made the wrapper with equal parts boiling water and flour. [Please don't ask me what got into my head.] The sealing/folding left something to be desired, but it still resembled what it should look like. Somewhat.
In the end, my first pot sticker experiment tasted REALLY good for something that’s based out of nothing. Dan and I were more surprised than anything. The wrapper was not so good, so I’ll stick to pre-made ones next time. Other than that…yummy!
The dipping sauce, if you’re curious, was a mixture of light soy sauce, white vinegar and smashed whole clove of garlic. It’s a Filipino dip that’s normally used for roasted pig but I tried it with the pot stickers to balance the saltiness. Dan loved it. :)
What have you experimented/concocted lately? Share your links if you blogged about them.
When I saw the photo for this on the May 2008 Gourmet magazine, I knew I had to make it. How can I resist cheese? I’ve also been meaning to get into bread-making. I thought this would be a good start. Yes, I’ve made cinnamon rolls so many times, but it’s time to move on and progress towards my goals of baking a good French bread and soft pretzels.
This recipe was not one to disappoint as you can see. It smelled and tasted so good, and it has that rustic look and texture, it made us feel like we’re in the country as we drooled over it:
The dough was a bit of challenge to work with, I should warn you (or it could just be me, really). For my first time, I think I did good. I ‘cheated’ and used a rolling pin to flatten it out, instead of using just my hands. Having refrigerated the dough overnight, I was faced with a really tough dough.
You might be wondering how the cheese got ingrained in there. The two kinds of coarsely grated cheeses (I used havarti and fresh mozzarella chopped in the food processor) are lumped into one big ball — and you might cry when you realize the amount of cheese in there as you hold it, but carry on because this really is one mightily awesome food to reach your mouth — but as I was saying, so the ball is placed in the middle of the slightly flattened dough, then it’s wrapped and ‘tied’ at the top, then pushed back down to spread into an 11-inch disk. Makes sense? That was the most challenging part for me.
It’s baked for 10 minutes, then sprayed with olive oil and baked for another 3 minutes to brown. And then you’ll be rewarded with this:
I’m killing you now, aren’t I? Please, dig in!
You know what else you can use this dough for?
Pizza! Yup, I made this with parmesan, mozza, and turkey bacon. Great for snacks. The dough is comparable to the frozen pizza doughs you can buy, and reminiscent of Pizza Hut’s P-zone’s dough. Not too shabby since this doesn’t take a lot of effort as the other pizza dough recipes I’ve seen (and have been scared with).
Alright, after taunting you, here’s the the recipe: [And Happy Friday!]
Sprinkle yeast over warm water and stir in a tablespoon flour. Let stand until creamy, about 5 minutes. (If yeast does not activate, start over with new yeast.)
Stir together salt and remaining flour in a large bowl, then stir in egg and yeast mixture to form dough.
Transfer dough onto a well-floured surface and turn to coat with flour, and then knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Form into a ball and dust with flour. Let the dough rest in a bowl, covered with plastic wrap, punching down with a wet fist every hour, at least 2 hours and up to 3.
Preheat oven to 500°F with rack in middle. Turn out dough onto floured pizza pan. Turn to coat. Flatten with your fingers into a 7-inch disk.
Toss together cheeses and compact them into a 3-inch ball with your hands. Place ball in middle of dough, then gather dough up around ball of cheese, squeezing excess dough into a topknot. Press down on topknot with a damp fist to press cheese out from center. Continue to flatten dough and distribute cheese evenly, pressing outward from center, until dough is an 11-inch disk.
Cut a 6-inch X through top of dough to expose cheese. Bake until pale golden, about 10 to 12 minutes. Brush/spray surface of dough with olive oil and bake until golden and cooked through, 3 to 5 minutes more. Serve cut into wedges.
Notes
Dough can be made 1 day ahead and chilled in bowl (for a slow rise), covered with plastic wrap. Punch down and bring to room temperature before proceeding with recipe.
If you are using a perforated pizza pan, be sure to have a baking sheet on the rack underneath it when you bake the bread. There might be cheese dripping through the holes. On that note, the cheese might burn so be ready for a smoky oven (and kitchen, and house…).
The cheese bread reheats well in the microwave for 20 seconds.
We always have lemon in our kitchen. It’s so versatile I’ll put it right beside kosher salt and fresh ground pepper as my top go-to flavor enhancers for anything from salads and appetizers, to main dishes and desserts. This time I used it to marinate the chicken tenders. It gives a slight acidity to counter the saltiness of the flour coating and dip. I’m not sure if lemon juice adds to the tenderness, but the chicken pieces were a joy to sink my teeth into. They were very juicy. Yumm!
When Elle posted a baked chicken wing recipe on her site, I craved for these BWW wings. However, as you can see on what we’ve been posting lately, the past week has seen the height of all things unhealthy in our household. I decided to make something less life-threatening . I tried to get the goodness of wings into a healthier package for a guilt-free eating experience by:
(1) using chicken tenders instead of chicken wings;
(2) baking instead of frying in vegetable oil; and
(3) using canola oil instead of butter.
Just to give you some perspective, butter has 62% saturated fatty acids, while canola oil only has 7% [source: On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen], the lowest of all common edible oils. Addendum: According to the nutrition information on the label of the oil I used, it contains 1g of saturated fat per tablespoon. I used half a cup or 8 tablespoons for the recipe and there were leftovers. After baking, some of the oil were left in the pan as well.
Doesn’t that make it a lot more appealing to indulge in these?
I’ll be bold enough to say that they taste better than the BWW wings we cooked before:
It has the right amount of spice and a nice blend of garlic flavor, but not too much to keep you from engaging in a conversation (hehe). It’s a fantastic substitute for spicy chicken wings. Better flavor, but less the fat. What more can you ask for?
Give it a try next time you’re in the mood for wings. Here’s the recipe: Continue Reading
Things are busy here as it’s tax season, and with mommy and daddy filing their taxes for personal and their respective businesses, posting is a wee bit slower than usual. They’ve also been going out to see friends, which is always a good thing. The cocoa brownies weren’t posted as anticipated– our sincere apologies for those who are waiting.
Ben’s French Bread – Beautiful homemade bread that we wish we can make someday.
Michelle’s Pretty Good for Now Buttermilk Biscuits – She’s still on the quest to find The One biscuit recipe, but this looks great to us! If you have a phenomenal biscuit recipe, come on over there and let her know…help a fellow foodie out.
I’ve never had a Valentine’s day Cook-In before, but rest assured this will not be the last. Dinner was wonderful. And instead of roses, Dan gave me lilies which I adore.
Recipes are coming soon, including chocolate dipped strawberry marshmallow cones and boiled beef soup (a Filipino dish). I tried to recreate my childhood favorite (junk) food, the mallow cones, which turned out into a whole different food project. I’ll tell you more about that this weekend. But for now, we’re off to Sedona.
Wish you all a great weekend! And you US government employees, you lucky chaps with your long weekend, enjoy! [You know who you are...you Vegas-bound peeps. :p]
It’s the big game. The big game means big eats. I knew coming into the party that my parents were hosting that Portillo’s Hot Dogs and Italian Beef would be served. It’s a staple in the family to prepare it at least once a year. Thankfully this year it was at one of the greatest games around. We wanted to bring something for everyone to enjoy. Taking from a dish at our nearest dinner spot, I decided to make a spinach and artichoke dip.
When it was completed and every one had a taste, there were requests for the recipe all around. By popular demand, I present the recipe. However, in the Gourmeted fashion, no recipe is ever replicated.
Please register and Vote for Gourmeted between February 4 and 8. Won’t you please, please — vote for the newbie on the block?
We’ll all have a chance to win a trip to Napa Valley for the annual Death by Chocolate Festival. We’ll take you there with pictures and send you postcards from beautiful Napa, if you want. ;-) It’s a win-win situation! What are you waiting for? Go vote!
Portobello, portabella…to-MAY-toe, to-MAH-to. However spelled, I love them. And tuna, too. When I was in highschool, and a geek to the core, I obsessed about eating tuna because it was considered “brain food”. Aside from the ‘benefits’ of the fish, I can’t get enough of the flavor.In this quick dish, I combined my favorites: tuna, mushroom, parmesan cheese, celery, Italian parsley, and olive oil.
Tuna Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms
Ingredients
2 tablespoons solid light tuna in olive oil
2-inch celery stalk, chopped
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon grated parmesan cheese
2 baby portobello mushrooms
a few leaves of chopped Italian parsley
salt
fresh ground pepper
olive oil
Preparation
1. Pre-heat oven (or oven toaster) to 350°F.
2. Combine all the ingredients, except for the mushrooms, in a small bowl. Add salt and pepper to suit your taste. The saltiness of the canned tuna might be enough for you.
3. Divide and spread the mixture on the bottoms of the two mushrooms. Placed mushrooms on an oven safe dish.
4. Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes. Take out and spray on, or drizzle over, some olive oil. Bake for another 5 minutes.
5. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with chopped parsley and tent with aluminum foil for 5 minutes.
6. Remove foil and serve. It’s fantastic to eat with rice, and can also complement a creamy and light pasta dish very well.
A few years ago, Safeway introduced a line-up of restaurant-inspired soups. They were high quality, flavorful, and more affordable than getting them at the restaurant. Safeway called them Signature and people agreed. The store I used to work at, the top seller was the Tuscan Tomato Basil Bisque. This was not my personal favorite. Mine was Loaded Baked Potato. I used to pick up a cup and a dinner roll for lunch when I worked.
A few years later and a few careers later, I thought I would revisit my old passion and give it a review. Please read on to see how well my old favorite stands out.
One of our appetizers for Christmas Eve dinner was the Spinach Dip from the 75th Anniversary Joy of Cooking. While we have no images, I believe the ingredients speak for themselves as to how delectable the dish will be.
I still have this slight phobia with bread making, and this recipe increased my hopes for bread nirvana. It was light, crispy (but not abrasive for the roof of your mouth, if you know what I mean) and with a nice flavor.
We always have lemon in our kitchen. It’s so versatile I’ll put it right beside kosher salt and fresh ground pepper as my top go-to flavor enhancers for anything from salads and appetizers, to main dishes and desserts. This time I used it to marinate the chicken tenders. It gives a slight acidity to counter the saltiness of the flour coating and dip. I’m not sure if lemon juice adds to the tenderness, but the chicken pieces were a joy to sink my teeth into. They were very juicy. Yumm!
Portobello, portabella…to-MAY-toe, to-MAH-to. However spelled, I love them. And tuna, too. When I was in highschool, and a geek to the core, I obsessed about eating tuna because it was considered “brain food”. Aside from the ‘benefits’ of the fish, I can’t get enough of the flavor.In this quick dish, I combined my favorites: tuna, mushroom, parmesan cheese, celery, Italian parsley, and olive oil.
A few years ago, 
