Apple on Top

Edie had off from school today, so kept busy doing the laundry, baking knishes, given Edie mid-day showers, feeding myself, cleaning the huge mess Edie made in her path, took some phone calls resulting from the press release I've issued for the knish venture -- one even resulted in a piece on a blog the same day! Between baking, publicizing, taking active care of Edie, feeding myself homemade food, visiting a friend's new baby in the afternoon, all in all it was a busy day. When B came home, I ordered in dinner and collapsed on the sofa.

TODAY'S COOKING
Chicken Paillard: Hammered out the last piece of chicken, dunked it in a little peanut oil and Worcestershire -- definitely the best, salty, umami, just right. Gonna do this with my students next week.


Chocolate Hazelnut Cheese & Apple Cheese Knishes: Up until this point, the sweet knishes I've made were an afterthought, using left over dough. This time, it was all about the cheese knishes.

Instead of using the tougher, potato-based dough that has been my go-to for the savory, I consulted a book I plucked off of Amazon recently, Love & Knishes, long out of print, my edition from 1958. There were two dough recipes, one with and one without baking powder -- I chose the later, hoping for a flakier lighter lift. 2 cups flour, 2 eggs, 2 tbsp "salad oil" (I assumed vegetable oil)1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt. It warned it may be too try to come together, and to add water. It did not come together, but water would just develop gluten without adding anything, so I threw in a 3rd egg and all was copacetic.

For the fillings, I did a second attempt at chocolate hazelnut and a first attempt at apple. For the first one, used 1 pack of farmer's cheese, half a container of nutella, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 flour, 1 tbsp cocoa powder (dutched), 1 egg, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp vanilla. For the apple's cheese filling, the same with nutella swapped out for sour cream and no cocoa powder. I took three apples from the CSA, peeled, cored, sliced, fried in butter with a little cinnamon, cardamom, salt and brown sugar, until firm but a little soft. I made a slurry with 1 tsp of corn starch and 1 tbsp water, and added it to the pan once off the fire just to give the juices a little body, and prevent them from watering down the cheese mix.

Used a cupcake pan again, and after panning most of them, decided 4" square is enough dough for this pastries. For the apple, some I put the apples on the bottom, some on the top, but once they came out of the oven (300 degrees instead of the brown-inducing 425 for the savories, 20 minutes instead of savory 30-45), clearly the apple-on-top just looks more appetizing. Two hot ones went into my mouth with lunch and they were good, but the real test is when they are cold. The apple cheese didn't taste sweet enough (the apples were REALLY tart), but cold always makes things sweeter.

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 8:45am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:15pm, chicken paillard, brown rice pilaf, 2 small cheese knishes, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 

DINNER: 7pm, pad thai, fried tofu, 1 beer, water, 2 small cheese knishes, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Knish 6.0

Knocked out weight lifting after delivering Edie to school. Cooked, had lunch with L, who is helping me out in my knish adventures, picked up Edie, played in a park, got home, off to yoga with the HVS, then a snicklemovie, then home.


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

Knish 5.0

Betsy stayed home yesterday and slept, and I got Edie fed, bathed and to sleep by 9:30. The Sleep Game involved more getting her toy monkeys to sleep than herself, but it was still a good transition from up and playing to lights off and in bed. Unfortunately, I had some gastric distress and was up until after midnight. It continued this morning and had to have B take Edie to school.

Felt a bit better mid morning, got laundry done, lifted weights, started on knish fillings. L, who gave the knish lecture in the early summer who inspired me, came over for dinner to taste my knishes. Overwhelmingly positive feedback, and she & B got along like a house on fire, but I know they're not perfect yet, but coming along.


TODAY'S COOKING
Knishes: Potato, broc-ched-potato, spinach-potato & mushroom potato.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Hit the spot. Milk, greek yogurt, banana, grapes, blueberries, mango, cherries, vanilla extract, flax. Forgot salt, still pretty good.

LUNCH: 1:15pm, large green salad, falafels, small spinach knish, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 

DINNER: 5:45pm, 4 halves of 4 different knishes, seltzer, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, peanuts & chocoalte chips, corn chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Knish 4.0

Woke up late, as Edie was up in the middle of the night in need of milk and comfort. Lifted weights finally, and then went out to an amazing meal with a friend I haven't seen in about a year. Took care of some shopping on the way home, took a conference call on the bus in regards to the class I'm teaching this fall, and when I got home busted out about 40 individual knishes and one sweet knish loaf.


TODAY'S COOKING
Knishes: Three trays of potato, spinach-potato, broccoli-cheddar-potato, kasha-mushroom and cabbage. Rolling out the dough, shaping the knish, baked at 425 for about 30 minutes seems to fit. Upon tasting the broccoli, made me wonder if baking the potato instead of boiling was a good choice -- the potato seemed a bit lumpy, not as smooth as I'd like. Gotta eat more to make an executive decision.

I also made a chocolate cheese loaf. Winged it, based on a brownie recipe. Melted a stick of butter with about a cup of unsweetened chocolate. Turned off heat, cup of sugar, 16 ounce of farmers cheese, scrapings of 3 vanilla beans, pinch of salt, 4 whisked eggs. Tasted, not chocolaty enough, added about a 1/2 cup of dutched coco, definitely amped up the chocolate. Put in a loaf pan lined with the potato dough, covered totally, brushed with a milk and egg wash. Baked at 375 for about 40 minutes. It expanded a little and cracked the top, will have to account for that if I do this recipe again.


Cured Salmon: Put up a side of fish for brunch this Saturday. About 2.5 pound side, in a dish wrapped in plastic, dill, parsley, cilantro, brown sugar, a lot of salt, creme de cassis, all under about 20 lbs of pressure. Will flip in Friday morning.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, prosciutto wrapped cabbage, lobster finger sandwich, shot of tomato broth, assorted rolls with lardo, pork sausage lump with lentils and stewed veg, raw & poached seafood in a spicy tomato water, chocolaty thingy with olive oil gelato, various petite fours, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went to Del Posto, very very impressed, the most I've been impressed with a restaurant in a long time. I try to avoid being an amateur restaurant critic here, and especially an amateur critic talking about such a known star like Batali, but I gotta say something. The room was beautiful and understated, the main aural component was a live piano player tinkling in the background, the service was attentive but not overbearing. The food was pretty much perfect from the get go. A few nice touches, like lardo (rendered pork fat) along with the butter for the bread was fun. The broth of my entree was achingly perfect -- I sometimes get annoyed with restaurants because I feel I can make the same exact dish for a lot less money at home, or I can do it a lot better, but this broth -- it was the perfect balance of fresh vegetal notes, salt, acid and spice -- any one of those notes would have made this soup taste anywhere from humdrum to just nasty, but this was balanced, perfectly, complex, wonderful. Two other good things -- it was just enough food to feel very satiated but not stuffed, and because it was lunch during the week, all three courses, and all the in between amuse bouches and petite fours, were $29 all in! I really expected it to be closer to double that, and I feel like the combo of food, service and atmosphere justified it. Gottta take my wifey there ASAP.

PM SNACK: 7pm, bite of cabbage knish, small broccoli-cheddar-potato knish, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, small bowl of health salad, potato chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK 11pm, pumpernickel pretzels with nutella, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Potato Memories

While cooking today, I had a strong food memory pounce on me, unexpectedly. As an experiment, instead of boiling peeled potatoes, I baked them whole for 2 and half hours, then split them while hot to let out steam before discarding the skins and sending the flesh through the food mill. The smell of the steam coming out of the over-baked potatoes sent me back....

It was in the kitchen of the house I grew up on Staten Island. My mom was making some sort of chicken or lamb chop, along with mashed potatoes. This evening was a little unusual, because my mom had a friend over from work, it was her assistant or secretary, maybe one and the same. My brother was there, too. For some reason, I told my mom that I wanted baked potatoes, not mashed potatoes. I didn't have some big preference for one or the other, but for some reason I insisted that THAT was what I wanted. She took one of the potatoes she was going to peel, boil and mash, and placed it in the oven. Being that dinner was 2 hours out, this was probably the longest that Mom would ever bake a potato. I remember when we sat down at the table, she was just finishing cooking but my potato was the first thing to come out. I cut it in half and a fragrant poof of potato steam came out of the spud, giving a wonderful scent all over the kitchen. Mom's friend said, "That's the potato yeast", and I could see her staring hungrily at my potato. I started eating it immediately, I think I was 4 or 5 and had no great desire to be polite or classy. I did know that I enjoyed my baked potato more than anyone enjoyed the mashed.

I was not a big pain in the ass when it came to food and special meals, but I guess getting my mom to bend to my will in front of one of her professional friends was some how exciting.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Knishes: Prep for potato, sweet potato, cabbage, kasha, spinach, broccoli cheddar and the dough.  Dough needs to rest upwards of a day. Baked 5lbs of potato, caramelized 5 lbs of chopped onion. Found I didn't have enough potato, so got more potato from today's CSA, peeled and boiled them and used them for the broccoli and spinach fillings. Cooked up a cup of kasha, added the sauteed onion as well as garlicky sauteed mushroom. Sauteed 1/4 of a cabbage with a little vinegar, salt and sugar.

Heath Salad: Used 3/4 of a head to make the standard recipe, definitely need more raw veg in me soon.

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, good granola in organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:45pm, breaded tilapia, 2 ears of boiled corn, can of grape soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, large green salad, potato chips, frozen pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
I was going to have gnocchi for dinner, but for whatever reason, boiling them from frozen turned them into a homogeneous mush. When I boiled them the day I made them, they retained their shape. Oh well.

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Knish 3.0: Kasha, Broccoli Cheddar

B claims that our favorite brand of Greek yogurt's fat-free version is just as tasty, if not more so, than their full fat version.This flies in the face of human biology, as our bodies are programmed to seek out certain things, sugar, salt and above all fat. It's why these things make food taste good. Remove one, two or three of them, and things just don't taste right. I suspect B's sense of femininity and body image has something to do with fooling herself into this yogurt deception, but what do I know.

I bring this up because I noticed I used plain AP white flour in my knish dough today. Otherwise, I've been eating almost exclusively whole grain breads, whether made at home, at the falafel joint yesterday, the brown rice in my rice n' beans and rice n' lentils, the pita chips I buy for my family, the pretzels, and on and on. I think I became conscious of whole-grain products years ago as a health measure, but I do believe I like the taste of (most) whole grain products more than their refined grain counterparts (one glaring exception -- any grain product from the sweet side of life, from cookies to pancakes, are kinda ick. An exception to that exception - graham crackers) Am I Betsying myself into thinking this actually tastes better? I don't think so. Whole grain is WHOLE, it's not removing fat or sugar or salt, it simply is not removing the bran (fiber) of the bigger grain. This actually does bring some flavor, a certain nuttiness in some grains, a rich leafy undertone in others.

I gotta make another stab at graham crackers, replace the molasses with more brown sugar...

On a side note, not as sore as I hoped from yesterday's upper body weight lifting. Think next week to go from 3 to two times a week full body, with more reps across the board.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Knishes: As I went along, I kept thinking about how to do this x10. That's a lot of potatoes to peel and chop and boil, that's a lot of onions to cry over while dicing and slowly caramelizing. Made double batch of dough, used half of it, the other half for some sort of sweet knishes later in the week. Cranked the oven to 425 this time (recipe calls for 375) and checked occasionally -- 28 minutes gave some nice browning to the tops. I think I may even go hotter next time. Potato knishes came out good, I'm happy with the potato-onion balance, and dough has a nice thinness to it. Needed a little more salt and a healthy dose of freshly ground black pepper would help, too. The kasha was good, cooked with water, a little butter and salt, a little pepper, and sauteed fresh mushrooms with a little garlic. Needed a little more salt. After it cooked, I mixed in two eggs, which helped firm up the mix in the final knish -- it had a little bit of firmness when bitten, instead of just crumbling. I also made a handful of broc-cheddar knishes. A cup of broccoli quick-steamed, chopped, and mixed with equal amounts potato mixture and shredded mild cheddar (left over from burrito making.) They came out rather attractive, and the cheese gave a nice saltiness to it.

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, toasted pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese, onion and tomato, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, breaded tilapia, 2 bean burritos, pickle, large green salad, watermelon, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5 

DINNER 1: 5:30pm, broccoli cheddar knish, kasha knish, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5 
Broc-ched knish better than expected. It is very American, and has a sheen of health to it, I think this could be popular.



DINNER 2: 7:15pm, hot dog, a little lime sorbet, peanuts & chocolate chips, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, watermelon, whole wheat pita chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Pancake desire

Did not lift weights this morning, I was considering it because I skipped it to bike ride yesterday, but I feel pleasantly sore/achy this morning, so might as well enjoy the recovery part. I chose to ride up a hillier route on the ride, and I'm happy to feel it this morning. Spent a nice mellow day with Edie, got some cooking done through out the day.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Mediterranean salad: CSA feta, onion, carrot and dill, can of white beans, 8oz cooked orzo, olive oil, a dash of red wine vinegar. Hmmm. Feta supplies enough salt, but it needs something. Maybe a squeeze of lemon? Let it sit for a day, we'll see. With a cold salad, it won't be too crazy to add an ingredient a little later.

Knish filling: Round 2.5, as I only used half the dough on the first round the day before last. Cooked another 5lbs of potatoes and caramelized 3 lbs of onions. Mixed more potato into the spinach left overs. Cooked up the other half of the cabbage, a little heavier on the vinegar, tastes more like a traditional quick kraut, nice.

Pancakes: Used industrial buttermilk, went a little too heavy on the salt, threw in some cinnamon to mix it up a little.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, toasted bagel with cream cheese, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:15pm, potato knish, cabbage knish, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Really in love with this dough. Microwaved from refrigerator 1 minute, not bad, not ideal, but not bad.

DINNER: 5:30pm, pancakes, 2 ears of boiled corn, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Bought the corn on the way home from the Grand Street farmer's market, looked really good. Was considering chard and zucchini for dinner, but it just didn't appeal to me in the moment, and thought it would be good to have pancakes on hand for the Edles.


EVENING SNACK: 7:45pm, watermelon

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, wholewheat pretzels with nutella, some baked ziti, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5 
Hoped to avoid snacks with the watermelon, but I just got hungry. Residual from the previous day's bike ride, I assume.

Go Mediterranean

On my day with Edie, we took the big bike and did a full food shop in the morning, got cooking on some knish experiments through her nap, and hung out with a parent friend in the afternoon before B got home.

CSA haul: carrots, Swiss chard, zucchini, dill, onion, garlic, feta cheese, peaches. Everything except the chard and fruit can go into a Mediterranean salad with orzo pasta and white beans, I guess.

TODAY'S COOKING
Granola: Used the olive oil recipe as a base, used 2 cups of mixed cashews & slivered almonds on top of the pepitas. 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup of agave for sweeteners. Came out a little over roasted but pretty good.

Knishes: The knish experiments continue. Three fillings, all using onion cut into large dice and sauteed with vegetable shortening for a period of a few hours, a nice caramelized sheen. Boiled 5 lbs of peeled chopped eastern potatoes to tender, ran them through a food mill, a bit of salt. Four cups of it went into a new dough recipe, which also had shortening, eggs, salt and flour. Sauteed half a head of shredded cabbage with a little sugar, vinegar and salt. When slightly soft, mixed in some onions and a little mashed potato. Simmered a pot of chopped spinach to soft, added salt and a lump of potatoes. After letting the dough rest in the fridge for three or four hours, rolled out half of it to make about 16 smallish hand-sized knishes.

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, organic cornflakes with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12:15pm, sardine & avocado on 12-grain toast, 2 ears of boiled corn with butter & salt, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:15pm, 3 homemade burritos with homemade tortilla chips, cookies & creme ice cream, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Knish 2: Electric Boogaloo

After getting up at 4 in the morning, had no problem conking out by 11, but woke up late, close to 9 when B was leaving. Certain upper body muscles are sore, a good thing, I was warmed up for the weights after riding 40 miles yesterday. Took the morning easy, put Edie in the backpack and brought in my road bike to the local shop for a few tweaks. After an hour or so in the playground, Edie had no problem getting to nap while I enjoyed myself in the kitchen.

Kitchen enjoyment rolled on into the evening. As Edie was eating pasta and I was cooking rice and a simple vegetable stir fry, just kinda fell into knish-making, like I didn't have enough going on already. It's nice sometimes to do 5 things at once, and all of them -- dinner, knishes, baby -- all seem to come out well.

TODAY'S COOKING
Pork Loin: Heated up the grill pan, opened the window and gave it 2 minutes on each side, twice, and stuck it with an instant read to be assured of the doneness. Let it go to 135 before putting it in a foil pouch with some held marinade for 10 minutes. Came out pretty perfect, very slightly pink in the middle, juicy as all git-out. One of the rare meals I've made for myself that I'd be happy to pay $25 (plus another $5 for dessert) in a restaurant. Food cost about $12 for this serving, so at 50% food cost that is kinda bad (you should have a 25% food cost or less to really be OK) but I was also paying retail for my inventory...

I wonder if Edie will dig it. Gonna slice it thin for her.

Brown rice & stir fry veg: Added salt to the brown rice in the cooker straight from the box, something I would yell at my students for doing. Came out WAY too salty. Picked up a zucchini, onion and scallion from the local farmers market to add to my CSA Swiss Chard. Despite the salt, ate it and have enough for one more meal. Kinda want to toss it, we'll see how I feel tomorrow.

Cheese knish: While stir frying and cooking rice, saw the lump of knish dough that had to be used or thrown out. B has farmer's cheese, so I looked up a recipe for a basic cheese filling in the Encyclopedia of Jewish Cooking. Very simple, just farmers cheese, cream cheese, egg yolks, vanilla and salt. Lined a loaf pan with the dough and slapped the filling in, covered it up and baked under golden. Innards are a little too moist for my comfort but still pretty good, a good starting point for improvement.

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, 4 tiny pancakes
 I think I need to make some iced tea soon.

PM SNACK: 12pm, health salad, pickle, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, pork loin, 2 small knishes, sauteed spinach, chocolate ice cream, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:15pm, brown rice with stir fried veg, slice of cheese knish, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5