No Knead Cinnamon Buns with Laughing Cow Icing

A friend called recently to wax rhapsodic about the cinnamon he ordered from Penzey's.  Being about out of cinnamon myself, I decided to place an order.  We're celebrating the arrival of the box with cinnamon buns made using the no-knead bread method to start.  Yummy!

Ingredients:

• 4 generous cups bread flour, all-purpose flour, or a combination
• 1 ½ tsp. salt
• ½ cup granulated sugar, divided
• 1 envelope rapid-rise yeast
• 2 cups water
• ¼ cup butter (sweet or salted according to your taste)
  
• 1 Tbl. cinnamon.  I used Penzey's Korintje Indonesia Cinnamon.
• 2 wedges Laughing Cow Light Swiss Original cheese (or 1½-2 ounces cream cheese)
• 2 Tbl. milk
• ¾-1 cup confectioner's (powdered) sugar

Procedure:

1. Combine flour, salt, half the granulated sugar (¼ cup), and yeast in a large bowl.
2. Stir in the two cups water to make a ragged dough.
3. Cover and let sit 4-6 hours to rise.
4.  On a slick, well-floured surface with a well-floured rolling pin, shape the dough into a rectangle and roll until ¼" thick.
5. Melt the butter and brush it on the dough rectangle.
6. Sprinkle the cinnamon and the remaining ¼ cup of granulated sugar on the rectangle.
7. Starting with the edge closest to you, roll the dough up as you would a bedroll.
8. Slice the rolled dough into 1-1½" slices.
9. Arrange the slices cut side up in greased 2-3 inch deep baking dishes. You can either space them or place them next to each other depending on whether you want them flatter and crisper or soft and pull-apart.
10. Let rise 1-2 hours until doubled in size.
11. Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven until golden, 30-40 minutes.
12. Mix the cheese, confectioner's sugar, and milk to make a loose icing and distribute this over the still hot rolls.  
13. Let cool in the pans.

This makes a light, tender cinnamon roll.

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Phew! I found that little slip of paper I had written the roasted red pepper sauce formula on! Red bell peppers were 89¢ each at the Piggly Wiggly today so it's time for another freezer-stocking project!

Freshly roasted red peppers are one of life's great pleasures. They are smooth and sweet and bear absolutely no resemblance to jarred red peppers. And they go on or in anything! Fish, pasta, potatoes, chicken, you name it! Frozen, red pepper sauce keeps that wonderful flavor around to be used at a moment's notice.

The pictures are from an 8-pepper (quadruple) batch.

Ingredients: 2 red bell peppers, roasted and peeled 1/4 cup white wine 1/4 cup chicken broth 1 medium red sweet onion, roughly chopped 1 Tbl. olive oil 1 Tbl. minced garlic
Procedure for roasting the peppers: Preheat the oven broiler and move a rack to within 4 inches or so from the element or flames Line a cookie sheet with foil. Cut the red peppers in half and remove the stem, seeds, and whitish membranes. Place the pepper halves skin side up on the foil and press them with the palm of your hand to flatten them. They will break a bit as you flatten them and will not lie completely flat.
Broil the peppers until the skin is almost totally black char but the meat is still moist. Keep the door of the oven ajar so the broiler element will stay on. These were broiled for 10 minutes, turning the tray half way through.
Remove from the oven and gather the foil up around the peppers to form a sealed sack to steam them.
When the peppers are cool enough to handle, remove the skin from the meat of the pepper. At this point, the roasted peppers are ready for use. I usually slice them into narrow strips. If moved to a sealed plastic bag, they will keep in the refrigerator for 3 or 4 days.
Procedure for the coulis (sauce): Sweat the chopped onion in olive oil until translucent and starting to carmelize. Add the garlic and sauté another minute. Pour the wine into the pan and stir to deglaze. Simmer to reduce the wine by half.
Add the roasted and peeled peppers and stock. Simmer 10 more minutes to thicken. When cool enough to do so, purée
The red pepper sauce can be served hot or cold. It will keep refrigerated for several days. It can also be frozen in meal-sized amounts for later use. It's bright red and pretty and tasty and will impress the heck out of your friends.

A Word About Rosemary

Growing up, the ancient jar of dried rosemary came out once a year to flavor the creamed onions for Thanksgiving. Oh, we loved the flavor of those dry, prickly little pine needle pieces! Of course, we had no idea that fresh rosemary was so much better or so easy to have at hand. Fresh rosemary is actually soft! Not at all like eating pine needles!

This, I learned from my dear friend, Jaylyn. Jaylyn, a great cook who serves dinner for 12 at the drop of a hat, has had a rosemary shrub-let growing in her Boston kitchen window for years. This way she can grab a fresh spring whenever she needs one. Here in South Carolina, I have my pot of rosemary out on the front steps year-round.

It's as easy to grow as a cheap shrub. Give it occasional water and its happy. If you live far enough south to leave it outside, you may not even need to water it. Nothing beats being able to pop outside and grab fresh rosemary whenever I want it.

Now, if only dill and basil were that easy ...

Fig Balsamic Sauce

My next door neighbor, the one who keeps me supplied with basil, offered me some fresh figs from the tree at her family farm. They were fresh and ripe and ready to be made into a sauce. Figs with balsamic vinegar is an italian classic. This sauce starts with that idea and some inspiration from epicurean.com, among others.
The aim is small containers of sauce that can be stored in the freezer and taken out to perk up a chicken breast or pork chop with some fruity goodness. It will be a good sauce for fruits, vegetables and salads, too. Drizzle some over chunks of good parmesan for a sumptuous appetizer or as part of a cheese course.

I imagine you could do this with dried figs, rehydrated with hot water, if fresh figs are not at hand. How about a sliced strawberry with a little stream of this and a tiny glass of champagne as an amuse-bouche? Over a lychee? Cauliflower! I'm salivating here!

Ingredients: 1 cup fresh figs, stemmed and quartered 1 sweet onion, roughly chopped needles from 2 sprigs rosemary 6-8 whole cloves 2 Tbl. olive oil 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar 1/2 cup honey
Procedure: In a non-reactive saucepan, sweat the onion, rosemary and cloves in the olive oil over low heat until the onions are soft but not colored. Add the figs, vinegar and honey and bring to a simmer.
Let simmer on medium low for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat and let the mixture steep for 20 to 30 minutes.
Whir briefly with an immersion blender or in the food processor and strain through a screen to remove the biggest pieces of skin, rosemary and cloves.
Using a rubber spatula, stir the sauce against the screen until only the dry parts are left behind.
I used a turkey baster to squirt the resulting sauce into 2 oz. containers I picked up at a party store, filling 12 containers with enough sauce left over for the cook, me, to have over some fruit before I tackle cleaning up.

Hamburgers & Sweet Potato "Fries" in the Oven

Here's a meal that takes very little prep time and only thirty minutes in the oven. Burgers and fries are not exactly "good for you" but letting the burgers grill up out of the grease and making sweet potato fries in the oven is a healthier version.

I used Za'atar to flavor the fries. Za'atar is a variable mixture of herbs, often with thyme as a base, used in Middle-Eastern cooking. I've spoken before about buying spices while on vacation. I got this bag of Za'atar at a Lebanese grocery store while visiting friends in Los Angeles.

Ingredients:

• Sweet potato
  
• Ground beef shaped into hamburgers about 1 inch thick
• Za'atar or other herb mix for the potatoes
• Salt
  
• Olive oil

Determine amounts by how many servings you want. For two servings I used one large sweet potato and two four-ounce burgers.

Procedure:

1. Place an iron grill pan in the oven if you have one (If you don't have an iron grill pan, forego preheating the pan and use a broiling pan with a rack.)
2. Turn on the oven and preheat to 400°
   
3. Peeled the sweet potato and cut into french-fry shaped pieces about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick
4. Toss the sweet potato in olive oil to coat.
5. Toss the coated potatoes with Za'atar and salt to taste
6. Place the potatoes in a single layer on a baking pan
   
7. When the oven is up to heat, cook the potatoes for 10 minutes
8. By this time your grill pan should be very hot. Use a barbecue brush to "paint" the grill pan (or rack) with olive oil to prevent sticking.
   
9. Place the hamburger on the oiled grill pan or rack and cook in the oven for 10 minutes.
   
10. Flip the burgers and the potatoes.
11. Cook another 10 minutes (30 minutes total for the potatoes, 20 minutes for the burgers)

It this point, the burgers will be medium well-done and the potatoes will be soft and slightly carmelized. We put some honey dill mustard on the burgers. Yum.

Good Neighbors Make Good Pesto

I live in a row of town houses where the sun shines brightly on the front steps all afternoon. My next door neighbor is much better about watering plants than I am so she raises a crop of basil out front each summer. She doesn't cook much. I make the pesto and keep us both supplied. It's a great partnership.

Traditionally, pesto is basil, pine nuts, parmesan, garlic, and olive oil. I also add a little salt and pepper. This works out okay for frozen basil but I'm not sure what effect the salt would have on pesto stored at refrigerator temps.

Thanks to adventurous chefs, the definition of pesto has expanded to include many variations on the theme. Right now my freezer has both traditional pesto and a spinach/parsley variation.

I also use pesto in a tube when I just need a small squit. My refrigerator door usually has a partially squeezed tube of Amore Pesto Paste (and a variety of other Amore tubes). I used to have to hunt for it but now it's easy to find in grocery stores. When fresh pesto isn't around, Classico jarred pesto works well, too.

But no pre-packaged pesto compares to home made fresh pesto. Frozen home made pesto stays bright in flavor and color for a few months if well packed.

Ingredients (Measurements for pesto are all "to taste":

• Fresh basil leaves -- freshly picked is noticeably better than produce section basil.
• Pine nuts
• Parmesan cheese
• Several cloves of garlic
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Freshly ground sea salt & black pepper (optional)

Procedure:

1. Cut the parmesan in cubes and then whir in the food processor until evenly cut into small granules of cheese. Place the cheese in a bowl large enough to hold all the pesto.
   
2. Wash the basil well and keep only the fresh, bright leaves.
3. Smash and peel the garlic cloves, removing the hard ends if needed.
4. Whir the basil, garlic cloves and pine nuts in the food processor with just enough oil to keep things moving. You may need to do this in batches.
5. Add this slurry to the cheese and mix well, adding olive oil as needed to make a wet paste.
6. Add salt and pepper if desired.
7. Divide the pesto into meal-sized portions to freeze and store.

There are a variety of freezing/storage options. You can make pesto cubes in ice cube trays and then wrap each cube and store in plastic bags. You can use small disposable plastic food storage containers. My latest method involves small (bathroom sized) disposable plastic cups and clear plastic wrap. The advantage of these small cups is that a small amount of hot water on the outside and the pesto slips right out into the pan for cooking. The lidded plastic cups restaurants use for dressing would be great.

Try these variations for pesto (olive oil, garlic, and salt and pepper are a constant):

• baby spinach, flat leaf parsley, romano, and nutmeg (no nuts)
• cilantro, a hard Spanish cheese like manchego, and pine nuts
• Curly parsley, parmesan, and walnuts

Home made gnocchi tossed in home made pesto. Ahhhhh.

A produce guy told me the local commercial farmer's market sells basil to restaurants by the pound year round. I'm thinking this will need investigation when the front porch crop runs out.

Giving Elegance to a Veggie -- Lemon Butter Breadcrumbs

Here's a quick way to make microwaved green beans, asparagus, or broccoli luxurious. For two to three servings:

1. While the veggies are cooking, melt a tablespoon of butter in a small skillet.
   
2. Add 1/4 cup of bread crumbs and gently sauté until lightly browned.
   
3. Add the juice of half a lemon. Optionally, add half the zest as well.
   
4. Heat through but do not allow to burn.
5. Toss the vegetable with the bread crumbs and serve.
   

Yummy!

Squits and Dollops of Flavor, or Stocking Your Refrigerator Door

My refrigerator door is full of things that can add flavor to the most mundane ingredients. In fact, between the fridge and various cupboards and shelves, there are many different ingredients standing ready.

Although, like spices, some of them are expensive per pound, you don't use them by the pound. You use them in squits and dollops. So think of their expense per meal. And think of the flavor they can add to yet another boneless chicken breast or broccoli crown.

Here of some of my standards, all readily available in the supermarket. (Hint: different grocery stores in the same chain carry different things by neighborhood. Use this to your advantage in the hunt for flavors.)

Fresh on hand? Different things different weeks but always one or another thrown in the grocery cart. Garlic, shallots, onions, lemons, parsleys and other herbs. Peruse the fruit and vegetable section and ponder what could be used for flavor. Think of a Granny Smith apple as a flavoring agent. Or a single jalapeno. Is the dill fresh this week?

Barbecue sauces are ever at the ready to perk up a pork chop, moisten some brisket, or give kick to pulled pork.

Sesame oil, fish sauce (Nam Pla), soy sauces of various strengths, and other Asian ingredients.

Jarred pestos and tapenades, e.g. the classic basil pesto and the more recently available sun-dried tomato pesto, black olive tapenade.

Vinegars: white, cider, wine (red, white and rice), and balsamic.

Salad dressings for quick marinades of fish or chicken breasts.

Various tubes of goodies like black olive paste, sundried tomato paste, and pre-chopped dill.

Wine and other liquors. Since I'm cooking for only two, I find the little four-packs of wine to be convenient for cooking. Want to make a spectacular dessert that calls for Grand Marnier? Know what liquor store in town has the best mini-bottle collection.

Of course, I don't have all ingredients on hand at all times. Who has the money or storage for that? But by picking up a few things weekly, the larder is always ready for some experimentation.

Travel to exotic places, like Cincinnati, and buy spices

I now have a spice cupboard! Yes, in the recent remodel of my home office/pantry, a re-purposed bar and entertainment center yielded a spice cupboard among other things. Why do I need a whole cupboard for spices? Because you never know when you might need marjoram for the chicken salad, celery seed for the coleslaw, or cream of tartar for the snickerdoodles.

Stocking a spice cabinet can be an expensive proposition but not if you spread the project over a lifetime of cooking and travel -- interspersed with trips to the local ethnic markets, health food stores, and even supermarkets.

Buying Little Bits in Bulk

If you stop to add up how much bottled spices bought in the grocery store cost per pound, you will consider storing them in the safe deposit box! The supermarket is a very convenient place to buy spices but once I have that nicely labeled container, I refill it with stock from cheaper sources. When your cinnamon bottle is empty, don't buy another bottle. Buy bulk cinnamon from the health food store or look in the supermarket or taqueria for cinnamon in plastic bags. Much cheaper. When your oft-refilled bottle starts to look seedy, buy another bottle.

Spices as Souvenirs

I've bought spices as souvenirs since those days when the only travel I did was to visit friends or attend professional meetings. I would come home from seeing Boston friends stocked with goodies from the Italian North End. My gumbo file was my souvenir from a conference in New Orleans. Souvenirs help us remember our journeys. Why not spice up a trip to visit the inlaws with a stop in Cincinnati at Jungle Jims, the world's largest grocery store, to restock that wonderful lemon pepper or find a disposable grinder full of nutmeg bits? If a friend asks you what to bring back from their trip, ask for spices, especially if that trip is home to a foreign land. I will never know what was in those wonderful spice blends brought to me from a mother in Israel but, oh, they were delicious while they lasted!

Oh, and yes, though freshly purchased and ground spices are best, you can keep most spices for years if they stay air conditioned. Just use more. When they lose their taste, throw them away and start over.

A Word About Mustards

As the courier dropped the box off, he said, "Mustard Museum? That's a new one on me!"

Yes, we order our mustard online. Even though there are only the two of us we go through mustard at quite a pace. Bill eats it on the sandwiches he carries to work. I cook with it.

Mustard isn't just mustard. Mustard comes in hundreds of varieties from a glossy Canadian honey mustard to a course-ground British mustard that is to die for on a chunk of good cheddar. Mustard also keeps in the fridge for months after opening and is relatively cheap. A $3 to $5 jar of mustard can bring excitement to many meals.

So, several times a year, we order a half-dozen or so different mustards from the Mustard Musem in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin. Although I wonder how exquisite the $22 french mustard tastes, I have a lot of fun ordering from the lower end of the price spectrum. Six jars is about right for filling a box while keeping the shipping costs low.

Oh, and as you can see in the picture, I got to visit the place last summer. I raided the sale table!