Crepe update

"Leaving you honey bronzed and very desirable" (Snik sun tan cream description)

I made crepes this afternoon, following the arrival of my mom's much-anticipated recipe:

Blend/beat/whisk:
3 eggs
1 c milk (whole milk, which is standard for me)
2 T oil*
1 T sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Beat in:
2/3 c flour (I used a tad more)

Cook on medium heat, about 1/3 - 1/2 cup per crepe.

These turned out as I was hoping: taste like my mom's, feel like my mom's. They're a bit spongy in comparison to the last batch I made, because of the higher egg:milk:flour ratio, but I think it makes them better.

* I used olive oil, because I don't have any other around, but I really don't see the problem with it. Some people feel that its taste is too strong, and it overpowers some dishes. I like the flavour.

Served with bananas, yoghourt and syrup.

Blackstone Porter - Driftwood Brewery

Blackstone Porter
650mL 5.1% alc./vol.
Driftwood Brewery, Victoria, BC

(This post may turn into a porter/stout tasting, because I've been enjoying a few lately.) This porter was brought over by a friend, a touch of serendipity as I had eyed it up while in Victoria a few weekends ago but didn't want to carry it back.

It is well-described on the label and website (see below), so I won't go into detail about its taste. The chocolate wasn't exactly overwhelming, but it had a perfect blend of bitter and rich malty flavours. It was smooth without being bland, and is brewed locally.

It is available in Vancouver at Brewery Creek, at 14th and Main.

On the label:
"This London style porter is distuinguished by a bittersweet chocolate character derived from the delicate balance of a traditional sour mash and a blend of select black and chocolate malts."

From the website:
"With just enough dark malt to be black this Porter leans toward the dry side in its malt profile. The addition of a partial sour mash (not uncommon in pre-Industrial Revolution Porters) lends a subtle tartness to the bittersweet chocolate flavour that dominates."

Pita bread

Perfect pita.

As a child my family hosted a family from Iran for several months as they got used to Canada, learned English, etc. I have fond memories of eating pita and hommous with a salty soft white cheese, like feta but soaked in brine. I recently bought some soft Bulgarian sheep feta at a local deli and it made me want that pita and cheese again. So I found this recipe at about.com (odd, I know) and got to it.

Mix:
1/2 c warm water
2 1/4 tsp yeast (1 package)
1 tsp sugar (I would use honey next time)
Let yeast flower.

Mix:
3 c flour
1 1/4 tsp salt

Form hole in middle of flour. Pour yeast liquid into hole, add 1 c warm water and stir. Knead for 10-15 minutes, until dough is elastic. Let rise until doubled in size. Punch down. Form about 10 balls from the dough. Let sit covered for 10 minutes. Roll out dough into circles, 5-6 inches across, 1/4 inch thick. Bake at 500F on preheated sheet for 4 minutes until it puffs up, then flip and bake for 2 more.

This is working wonderfully; the pictures should tell the tale well enough. I am so pleased with this. The recipe is prefaced with this: "It is very hard to duplicate in a home kitchen". Well, thanks for the warning, but no need. The recipe is simple, and these are great.

One minor thing: Next time I won't knead for so long, as they are a bit chewy.

Doubled in far less than the suggested 3 hours.


Waiting for the rolling pin.


This was a pretty magical experience; until they puffed up I didn't quite believe that they would.

Crepes

Served with leftover cranberry sauce and sour cream, and apricot jam and cream cheese, both topped with maple syrup.

I went to make crepes the other morning, and couldn't find my mom's tried and true crepe recipe (see Edit below). I searched for about 2 1/2 minutes on the interweb and found two similar recipes, at all recipes and Alton Brown's on foodnetwork.

The first think I noticed is that both use water and milk, which struck me as odd. I followed the first one, though made a suggested change from the comments section: it says to mix the eggs and flour then add wet. The suggested change was to follow standard procedure and mix wet then add dry.

Mix (using great new electric beaters):
2 eggs
1/2 c milk
1/2 c water
2 T butter, melted
(I added vanilla)

Mix in:
1 c flour
1/4 tsp salt
(I added a splash of sugar)

They turned out okay, but not as good as I'm used to. It may have been the water. I'm going to get my mom's recipe and try again.

On the plus side, I did get to use my new mixing bowl and egg beaters. They performed admirably.

Frying in the cast ire.

Edit: My mom just emailed it to me. Much higher ratio of eggs/milk to flour. And none of this water in addition to milk business.

3 eggs

1 cup milk

1 T sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

2 T oil

2/3 cup flour

Eggs milk etc in blender, add dries

Homemade vanilla extract

The gorgeous vanilla caviar.

This will be short, as it's just a copy of these instructions at Vanilla Review. It felt pretty cool to make homemade vanilla, it took only a short time and wasn't at all expensive.

Vanilla beans in stores can be $5 each, so you would need a small fortune if you wanted to make some serious extract working with what's available in your local store. After reading a few tips, I looked at the offerings on eBay and found something that looked decent: 30 organic beans for $23 Cdn. And when they arrived there was a bonus pack of 10 more. I chose grade A, but apparently grade B provide more flavour by weight, so if you're buying by the pound go for that option.

Slice beans lengthwise, and scrape out the inner "caviar". Stick caviar and bean husk in alcohol, shake like a hot-damn, let sit for several weeks, and you're good to go. Use 6-8 beans per cup of alcohol. I used vodka, as it's a more neutral alcohol, but it might be fun to try other flavoured alcohols. On the advice of the instructions I chopped the bean husks up, to allow for better flavour extraction. Done and done.

Ceramic cutting board (our wooden ones would have absorbed so much vanilla flavour, I thought), knife, bottle, vodka, beans.


You can't really see, but the vanilla stuff is just under halfway to the top of the alcohol.

Merry Christmas to me: new measuring tools!

New tools. I won't show you my old measuring ones.

I had a wonderful Christmas in snowy Vancouver: family, food, drinks, movies, games and so on. And presents: chocolate, Drambuie, gloves, books, among other things.

After spending so much time baking, though, I realized that I wasn't at all happy with my measuring and mixing tools. They are plastic, ugly, and have started to deteriorate. Today, after the soup and biscuits, we went to look at some kitchen/housewares at Boxing Day sales. The offerings at nood weren't particularly good, so bidding our friends adieu we wandered over to Ming Wo in Chinatown. (Great store; not a great site.)

I love Ming Wo. Love love. All the essential cookware, good prices, and friendly Chinese ladies eager to help. I've only been to the original one in Chinatown, so I can't speak for the other locations, but every time I go in I spend more than I should and I have a great time.

At home I had checked out the Cookworks site, hoping to find measuring tools on sale. Booooo. Cookworks may be a great store but everything is overpriced. At Ming Wo I found similar or identical products for 1/2 or 3/4 the price. And here is what we bought:

1 set stainless steel oval measuring cups
1 set stainless steel measuring spoons
1 large stainless steel mixing bowl
1 plastic spatula-like scraping tool (for getting muffins out of cursed non-stick tins)
1 handheld electric mixer (no more egg beater mishaps for me)

We looked at paring knives but couldn't decide which one to get. Next visit. We also need muffin tins, a 9" x 9" pan, and.... ack, I'll wait till I get there so I can enjoy the browsing.

Edit: Nina wanted me to clarify: she bought everything. So when I say "we bought", I mean "Nina bought".

Cheese biscuits (sorry, no pictures)

With so much damn turkey left over, we had naught else to do but make soup. Stock this, vegetables that, and done. But what to have with it? Easy: biscuits. So I whipped up the ol' standby: my grandma's baking powder biscuits. Simple, fast, and take less than half an hour start to finish.

Mix:
1 3/4 - 2 c. flour*
some salt... 1/2 tsp?
2-3 tsp baking powder
maybe a sprinkle of sugar if you want

Cut in:
1/4 c butter
You want the butter to still be in small chunks, so that when it hits the hot oven it melts and spreads across the dough, creating layers in the biscuits.

Stir in:
2/3 - 3/4 c. milk**

Flatten to about 3/4 inch thick. Cut into biscuit shapes.
Bake at 425 F for 13-15 minutes.

At the death (footie terminology), someone suggests adding the cheddar cheese. So we grated some up and I worked it in, then stuck them in the oven. I'm not sure how much; maybe a half or whole cup loose?

The results were fantastic. Light, crisp, cheesy and chewy. Perfect buttered and dipped in turkey soup.

* I'm not sure why it's approximate. Also, I commonly use some corn flour (not meal), spelt, maybe some whole wheat, and occasionally throw in some poppyseeds. Doesn't seem to make a difference.

** I sometimes sub some yoghourt or an egg, keeping the total wet at the same amount. The recipe is really forgiving.