TODAY'S COOKING:
Knishes: Well, THAT was educational! I was paying closer attention to each one in all steps. Here are my discoveries so far:
- Potato: This is the first time I used russets rather than Eastern. Eastern is good because they're potentially local, but they're like the AP flour of potato -- good for most things, but not if your making pastries or hearty bread. Russets milled a lot lighter and flakier, but developed a nice smoothness when worked in with the other ingredients. For the basic potato, it was caramelized onions, eggs, some vegetable shortening, several grinds of black pepper and salt, nothing more. Had to go back and add salt and taste a few times before it started singing.
- Sweet Potato: This was gonna be sweet potato curry, but realized at the last minute I threw out my curry powder last week because it didn't smell fresh. The sweet potato mash alone is very moist, so I mixed about 2/3 sweet potato with 1/3 plain potato to get it firm, along with onion, egg, a little vegetable shorting & salt. For this round, instead of curry, I added a little cayenne not so much for heat as much as roundness of flavor. Due to moisture, they spread a little more than others.
- Broccoli Cheddar: This is like the retarded little kid you think will be a drain on your baseball team but you have to have on to be a good guy, and turns out to be a great team player. Broc, shredded mild cheddar, potato, egg, and pepper (no shortening or salt needed due to the cheese.) They baked up nice and firm, no problems.
- Spinach: Like with the sweet potato, added about 1/3 plain potato to the garlicky cooked spinach for firmness, along with some egg. No need for shortening as the spinach was already cooked in it, salt to make it hollah like yo momma.
- Kasha: Problematic. I was hoping for this to perhaps be a "vegan" dish, but the grain was just too....grainy, crumbly, loose. So egg and potato had to go in to firm it up, and some shortening and salt to amp it up, as well as a bigger black pepper grind than the others. I had to trash a few with the original mix because they would just flop open when sealed.
- Chocolate Hazelnut Cheese: Interesting. This is essentially V 1.0 of this knish. Lined cupcake tin with dough, scooped in the filling, folded flaps over the tops. They came out goonish, the filing expanded and burst, the bottoms burned. But despite that, the filling was firm, sweet, chocolaty and cheesy in the right way. Needs some cocoa powder, maybe some hazelnut extract, lower temp, less filling to account for expansion, but it's a solid first step.
- Misc: Found out that adding scraps of dough to fill out the square pieces cut out of round sheets works well without harming quality, good efficiency saving. Oven ran at 425 convection mode. First round I did the cupcake tray on the bottom, elevated by another cupcake tray which was fine, but on the second round put knishes on a broiler pan on top of tray -- they burned. I added another protective pan and it was good, but prevented the two trays above from browning. If I'm going to run three sheets per batch in my home oven instead of the standard two, I gotta figure this out.
AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea
BREAKFAST: 9:15am, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Good yogurt, dead organic milk, banana, frozen blueberries, cherries & peaches, vanilla extract, ground flax, salt. First time I used peaches, funny. I don't eat peaches, as I hate the feel of them in my mouth, but the flavor it gives is very familiar -- concentrated peach juice is a common ingredient in overly sweet juice drinks.
PM SNACK: 12:15pm, 1 small chocolate hazelnut cheese knish, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 1:45pm, halves of five knishes & a choco knish, lime rickey, butternut squash soup, pickle, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
SNICKLESNACK: 8pm, popcorn, sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 10:30pm, curry ramen, seafood rice, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
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