Me vs. the Honey

I don’t know if you have heard this, but I learned last year that consuming local (to you) honey can drastically reduce allergy symptoms.  I have suffered from seasonal allergies all my life and, fortunately for me, modern drugs takes care of most of my problems.  This, however is not the case for my oldest, who suffers so badly from seasonal allergies that he ends up spending most of each spring indoors with a box of tissues as his constant companion.  We have tried just about everything over the counter and prescription and nothing has worked satisfactorily.  So, when I heard about the honey thing, I went right away and bought the biggest jug of local honey that I could find.  Supposedly, the honey helps your body create antibodies to the pollen that is local to your area which acts to reduce your allergic reaction.

Unfortunately, I cannot really speak to the effectiveness of this treatment because over the winter, my nice jug of clear, liquid, honey turned into a brick of solid honey that I could not access.  See?

This picture was taken After the husband had added some water to try to loosen it up.  It was really a solid brick beforehand.  Really, there was no way of getting this stuff out.  The spout was too small to get any utensil in other than a chopstick and no amount of squeezing or shaking could move it.  The husband joked that the only way to get to the honey was to cut off the top of the jug with a light saber.  Ha!

This jug of honey and I have been eying each other for a long time.  I have actually been avoiding recipes that call for honey because I really could not get a drop out of that jug.  And to think I was overjoyed to find such a big jug!  It would be accurate to say that bitterness has been growing in my heart towards this honey.

I did some research and found that heat could loosen up the honey, but as soon as it cooled, it would be hard as a brick again.  Maybe I was being unreasonable, but I felt betrayed by my honey.  I mean, I was depending on it to help my child and it let me down when I really needed it.  Even if I could get some honey out, it would be grainy and hard.  Who wants to spread grainy honey on their toast?

Well, I will tell you now, I am not one to be done in by a jug of honey.   I decided to take care of that jug once and for all.  So, yesterday, I pulled out a recipe that called for a lot of honey (12 ounces) and I tripled it to use up the entire jug.  To get the honey out, I had to pour hot water in it and shake the jug.  Luckily, the recipe calls for water, so I just took the water it called for and poured it little by little into the jug until I got it all out.  After mixing up the batter and throwing it into the oven for about an hour, I had these.

Pain d’epices.

It’s probably enough to last a lifetime…well, at least several months.  The good thing is, we love this bread.  It is basically a quick bread made with honey as its only sweetener and lots of spices.  It’s pretty low in fat and has some rye flour in it, which gives it a nice hearty texture.  It is really good spread with butter and eaten with a cup of tea. I am hoping that the health properties of the honey have not been compromised by baking it.  But, just in case, I am going to get some more local honey to drizzle on top of the bread.  This time, though, I think I’ll get a smaller jug.

If you want to make some of your own pain d’epices, you can find the recipe here.  It’s a pretty quick and easy recipe and easy to multiply.  The recipe calls for a 9 inch by 5 inch pan and I had 8.5 by 4.5.  There seemed to be a LOT of batter, so I made a mini loaf to go with each large pan.  It worked out well and I didn’t have to worry about the pans overflowing.

Get Them While They’re Hot

It’s Easter week and, in our house, this means Hot Cross Buns.

In years past, I have made these with varying degrees of success.  One year, I think I killed the yeast and they didn’t rise at all.  This year, I decided to switch recipes and I used one from a new to me cookbook, Home Baked Comfort.  The recipe is for loaves, but can easily be made into rolls.  I prefer the rolls.  There is something so pleasing about an individual roll sitting on your plate.  It seems to smile at you and invite you to eat it all up!

Anyway, I doubled the recipe, as per usual, and that made for a lot of dough, especially since I tossed in all the extras from my sourdough feeding that day.   It came together really easily, though, and looked great.  I added a handful each of chopped candied orange peel and grapefruit peel and used golden raising and dried cranberries in addition to the currants called for in the recipe.

The dough rose and performed as expected.  Before baking, I brushed them with egg white and sprinkled them with citrus sugar that I had shaken off the candied peel.  A lot of recipes call for a pastry cross to be put on top and I have never done that since my boys really love that sugary icing.  If I am honest, I think the pastry is too fussy for me and I also love that icing!  They looked wonderful coming out of the oven!

I ate one right away and it was lovely, all warm and soft and citrusy.  They were almost as good several days later.  Ever since I started throwing in my sourdough starter leftovers into my ordinary bread doughs, I have noticed that they stay soft longer.  And, since they are straight doughs that use yeast and don’t get long rising times, the sourdough does not have a chance to change the flavor of the final product.  So, I get two great benefits from adding the sourdough starter:  not wasting the sourdough and a better keeping bread–win! win!

A double batch of the recipe makes 40-48 rolls.  I made the recipe twice– that’s how much we loved them (yes, I made 88 hot cross buns in the space of two weeks.  You would too if you had a taste of these!).  This is the first recipe that I have made from the cookbook, and after this success, I look forward to trying some more.  This will now be our go to recipe for hot cross buns from now on.  If you want to try a recipe, here is one that is similar to the one I used.  The recipe I used is not published anywhere on the internet that I can find, so I cannot share it with you, but I think it is worth the price for this recipe alone!

Go Make This Stew Now

It has been really, really cold here the past couple of days.  I’m not complaining.  We have actually had a really mild fall and winter.  Last week we even had some days that were in the upper 50s.  However, the temperature yesterday morning when we got up was 12 degrees, I think, and the temperatures never got above freezing.  The wind has also been whipping around and we even had a brief shower of snow.  Unfortunately, there is no accumulation, so no snow day for the boys.

One good thing is that this kind of weather puts me in the mood to make some soup.  We started on Sunday with the traditional Korean rice cake soup for New Year’s Day.  Then, Tuesday, I made this scrumptious stew.

Pork and Pumpkin Stew.

Since we started buying our meat by the whole or half animal, I have been looking for new recipes featuring pork or beef.  I came across this recipe on the Williams-Sonoma website and was intrigued by all the great reviews it got.  There’s nothing too surprising about the combination of pork and pumpkin, nor the addition of spices or applesauce.  It was the vinegar that got my attention.  It reminded me of my favorite ratatouille recipe, which has a splash of vinegar at the end and gives the dish a special flavor that you would not expect.  Vinegar seems to heighten the sweetness in a dish and strangely also makes the dish seem richer.

almost ready to go in the oven

It took me over an hour to prep this stew.  This is partly because my pork shoulder was bone-in and still  partly frozen.  I also had to peel and cut up two acorn squash, which is quite a chore with my small and kinda weak hands.  Plus, I doubled the recipe, which doubles the work.  If you buy your meat boneless and buy some winter squash that is already cut up, you will have just a fraction of the prep that I had.   The bonus is that once the stew is prepped and in the oven, all you have to do is pull it out and enjoy it 3 hours later.  And, since stew always tastes better the next day, we enjoyed it again the next night and there are two quarts leftover that went into the freezer for a future, busier day.  Yum!

I made a few changes to the original recipe, so I have included my revised version here.  If you want to see the original recipe, just go here.  I served the stew with noodles instead of mashed potatoes as the recipe suggested because not everyone in my family likes mashed potatoes.  However, once I tasted it, I could see how some creamy mashed potatoes would make a good contrast to the stew–plus it would be more effective at soaking up all the yummy juices.

Also, I think the sauteed kale is also a great accompaniment.  I used dinosaur aka lacinato kale.  This kale does not have to be cooked forever.  I just sliced it into half inch strips and sauteed it with some olive oil, garlic, and a little crushed red pepper.  I loved the texture of the kale next to the softly cooked squash.  It also makes the dish look pretty.

Next, I have my sites on making this seafood stew.

PORK and WINTER SQUASH STEW

• 4 lb. boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch cubes
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 3-4 Tbs. olive oil
• 2 yellow onions, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tsp. minced fresh ginger
•  1 Tbs. tomato paste
• 1.5 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/4-1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 3 Tbs. cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes with juices
• 2 whole, small, peeled pumpkin or winter squash, such as kabocha or acorn, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1 tsp. dried, rubbed sage
• 5 cups chicken stock
• Mashed potatoes or noodles for serving
• Sautéed lacinato kale for serving

Directions:

Preheat an oven to 325°F.

Season the pork with salt and black pepper. In a 3 1/2-quart Dutch oven over medium-high heat, warm 2 Tbs. of the olive oil. Working in batches, brown the pork on all sides, 8 to 10 minutes per batch. Transfer to a plate.

Reduce the heat to medium and warm the remaining 1 Tbs. olive oil. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the garlic, ginger, tomato paste, cinnamon, coriander, nutmeg, cloves and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the vinegar, applesauce, tomatoes with their juices, pumpkin, sage, stock and pork. Bring to a boil and season with salt and pepper. Cover and transfer the pot to the oven and cook until the pork is fork-tender, 3 to 3 1/2 hours.

Skim the fat off the sauce. Serve the stew over mashed potatoes and pass sautéed broccoli rabe alongside.   Makes about 4 quarts of stew to feed at least 12.

3 for 1

Yes, I know. I am behind in my word of the day for the holidays. Some of these were tough and it was also a busy weekend.

I– Illuminated

Lights are everywhere now. I love how they cheer up the night.

J–Joy

The oldest has finally taken off the training wheels and is whizzing around everywhere. Joy=Speed around here now.

K–Kugelhopf

A traditional Alsacian Christmas treat. I doubled this recipe from David Lebovitz, but the loaves were a bit small. I would probably bake it all in one pan next time, if there is one. This is the fourth recipe I have tried over the years, and so far, it is the one I like the best. I have a couple more recipes to try, so the search continues. Maybe it would help, if I actually took a trip to France and tasted the real thing!

But even if I never make it to France to taste the real thing, I have a feeling that I will keep making this. It’s a cross between a bread and a cake, but it’s not too sweet. I replaced about a third of the raisins called for in the original recipe for my rum-soaked fruit mix and it was really yummy. I have never been a huge fan of dark raisins, so the variety of fruit perked it up considerably for me. It’s perfect for breakfast with a cup of tea or coffee.

Tomorrow, I’ll be back with more baking. The oldest just said to me that he thought I might be overdoing the baking. Is there such a thing this time of year?

Make it Extra Fruity

In preparation for the holidays, we have been stocking up on stuff. Extra stuff. To sustain all these celebrations, all the baking that needs to happen, and the giving away of stuff, we have to get extra stuff. Such as molasses. We have 7 jars in the house now. Hopefully that will be enough. I have also been buying extra dried fruit, since it seems like everything I want to make has some sort of dried fruit. This brings me to what I am doing today.

Last week, I said I might tell you more about my adventures in fruitcake. I am afraid I might have misled you a little there. My history of fruitcake boils down to five events. I will list them in chronological order for you.

1995: The husband and I were newlyweds. We had very little money, but wanted to show our appreciation to some dear family members who were generous at our wedding. We decided to make fruitcake and send them as Christmas gifts. We had never made fruitcake before and I am pretty sure neither one of us had ever even really eaten fruitcake before. This did not deter us. It was supposed to be a festive treat and whatever we made had to be better than what you could get in the store, right? Actually, we discovered that we were correct. It was good. I remember it being kinda dry and crumbly, though.

2000: Flash forward five years. Even though our first fruitcake adventure was a success, we did not do it again. In fact, I only mention this year because we got a fruitcake as a gift for Christmas. It was, ummm…I can’t say anymore. I’ll just say that there is a reason for all those fruitcake jokes out there.

2003 or 4?: I don’t remember what year it was, but this was another one of those years when we got a fruitcake as a gift. This time, though, it was from a friend who bought it from a local bakery. The fruitcake was supposed to be the best in town. And you know what? It was really good and even my kid liked it.

2008?: A friend of mine told me about a fruitcake recipe she got from a family member. She even brought me a piece to try. It was delicious! Well, I asked for the recipe, but I think it might have been a family secret.

2009: Rose Levy Berenbaum comes out with a new baking book. In it, she has a recipe for fruitcake baked in a wreath shaped pan. I did not have the pan, but decided to try it and it was pretty good! This is also the year that I start making my own candied orange, lemon, and grapefruit peel. This, I think is really what transported me into fruitcake heaven. That candied fruit in the store is not an adequate substitute. I cannot figure out why anyone would want to buy it. This is also the year that I make stollen for the first time. This is like a German fruitcake and I will talk more about that another time, maybe.

Well, today I am making fruitcake using a new to me recipe by Alton Brown. You can find it here. I started with my rum-soaked fruit that I talked about before.

(See our Amaryllis in the back? Isn’t it coming along nicely?) This recipe is different from the others I have tried because you simmer the fruit first. Then, you add all the rest of the ingredients. I did grind my spices fresh in an old coffee grinder, as he suggested. One change I did make was to bake my cakes in four mini loaf pans. It was only supposed to bake an hour (for a big loaf), but for my four minis, it took an hour plus another 15 minutes to come up to the 200 degrees he specifies in the recipe. I have to say, this looks really promising.

But, as you probably know, fruitcake is supposed to age. Actually, I am a little late, as he says it tastes really good after aging for 2 months. We will probably stagger our tastings, since I made small loaves. The first will be eaten on Christmas eve, maybe, if we can wait that long!

By the way, in case you couldn’t tell, today’s word is Fruitcake.