Pork Loaf With Mushrooms And Pistachios

This pork sausage cooked in a water bath has ingredients similar to country pate but is not spreadable. It's very good at room temperature with crusty bread or as a filling for sandwiches. The seasoned coarsely ground pork is mixed with dried mushrooms and pistachios with a layer of chicken livers and strips of ham in the middle of the loaf. Really yummy.

Pork Loaf With Mushrooms And Pistachios
1½ pounds ground lean pork
½ pound pork fat, cut into small cubes
½ tablespoon kosher salt 
1/8 teaspoon pink salt
1 teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon garlic powder

1 shallot, finely minced

½ cup white wine
¼ cup brandy
½ cup small pieces dried wild mushrooms, rinsed well
½ cup pistachios
chicken livers
strips of ham

• In a medium bowl, mix well all the ingredients except livers and ham. Fry a teaspoon of the pork mixture, taste, and adjust seasoning. Transfer the mixture into a covered container and leave overnight in the refrigerator. 
• The next day, line a loaf pan with plastic film with a 4-inch overhang on both long sides. Spoon half of the meat mixture, tamp down with a spoon. Arrange the strips of ham right down the middle, leaving space in between. Fill the spaces with chicken livers. Spoon and press the rest of the meat on top. Cover with the film overhang. Cover the top of the pan tightly with aluminum foil. 
• Place the loaf pan in a Dutch oven, fill with hot tap water up to half an inch below the pan. Turn heat to low, cover, and cook slowly for 2 hours. (You may also bake it in a bain marie in a 300°F oven for 2½ hours. Do not line loaf pan with plastic film.)
• Remove pan from water bath and let cool for 1 to 2 hours. Remove the pork sausage from pan, slice and enjoy with plenty of crusty bread.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Old Man Winter got busy dumping wet snow in the Washington D.C area. We had a few inches last Tuesday which melted by Wednesday then it started snowing again mid-morning Friday and continued to snow all day Saturday until sundown. There's over 2 feet of the white stuff all over and the limbs of trees look like they are about to snap due to their heavy load. 

Just looking at it makes me want to slurp some hot soup. Not just any soup but the ones I used to have back in the Philippines, the chicken noodle soup that comes in packets [with tiny noodles and barely visible chicken pieces] that you boil in water. It's a good thing I have frozen bars of homemade chicken broth ready to be thawed for times like these. Homemade chicken stock tastes so much better than canned and probably will be healthier too if you defat it and don't add MSG and too much salt in it.

Chicken Stock
6 cups water
1 whole chicken, quartered and rinsed well
2 onions, quartered
4 carrots, cut into 4 pieces
3 celery sticks, halved
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon whole white or black peppercorns
2 teaspoons sea salt

• In a large Dutch oven, heat the water and chicken over high heat and let come to a full boil. Skim off all the foam that rise to the top and discard. Add the rest of the ingredients, bring to a boil, lower the heat to medium low, cover, and simmer for 2 hours. 
• Remove and transfer the chicken pieces into a container, cover, and refrigerate. When the chicken has cooled, debone them, discard the bones, and cube or shred the meat, set aside. 
• Strain the stock and discard the solids. Cover with plastic film and refrigerate overnight or until the fat solidifies. Remove the layer of fat on top and discard. Transfer stock into plastic containers together with some of the chicken meat and freeze. Transfer into vacuum bags and leave in the freezer until needed.

I used fideo noodles for the chicken noodle soup which are available at the International section of grocery stores. They are thinner than angel hair pasta and already cut into 1-inch long pieces. We usually eat soups in large coffee mugs which retains the heat of the soup much longer than shallow soup bowls.

Chicken Noodle Soup
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
1 cup cubed or shredded cooked chicken
½ cup chopped onion
1 cup carrots, thinly sliced or shredded
2 celery sticks, thinly sliced
¾ cup fideo noodles or angel hair pasta (cut into 1 inch pieces)
sea salt and ground white pepper, to taste

• In a Dutch oven over high heat, combine stock,  water, chicken, and onion, and let come to a boil. Cook on medium heat, covered, for 5 minutes. Add carrots, celery, and noodles. Simmer, uncovered, until vegetables and noodles are tender. Taste and add seasonings. Serve immediately.

And when mother nature hands you 2 feet of snow, you make snowballs for a massive snowball fight. Enjoy!

White Bread: BBAC#40

soft, fluffy, and yummy dinner rolls

The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge #40: White Bread Variation 3

There are 3 variations of the White Bread recipe and I chose variation 3 which uses a sponge although still a one-day bread. In making the sponge I discovered there's a typo. For the milk, I used the volume measurement, 1¼ cups which was not enough for the amount of bread flour because the sponge was a bit dry and stiff and clearly needed more liquid. I checked the weight measurement which is 12 ounces, or 1½ cups. You might want to correct your books if you haven't done so already.

This is an enriched white bread recipe with one egg yolk, a quarter cup of butter or vegetable oil, 3 tablespoons of sugar, and milk (I used buttermilk). This is one of the simplest and I think foolproof recipes to make into feather-light, soft, milky, tight-crumbed, and utterly delicious loaves and rolls. If you have family members who are stuck in white Wonder Bread in its bright red, white, blue, and yellow packages, and won't eat anything else, this recipe might win them over to home baked white bread.

I divided the dough in half, one half was shaped into 18 mini dinner rolls, each one weighed 1 ounce, and baked in a 7 x 11 x 2 inch pan. The other half of the dough was misshaped into 6 New England-style hot dog buns which I will fill  later with breaded deep fried oysters or seafood salad, yum.

7 x 11 x 2-inch pan is the perfect size for small dinner rolls

New England-style hot dog buns

Rating:
flavor 5
texture 5
visual appeal 5
ease of preparation 5
performance 5
worth 5
Total: 30
Average: 5

Chewy Peanut-Caramel Bars

If you love Snickers® bar, this cookie is for you. What's not to love? It has chewy caramel, loads of peanuts, and chocolate plus crunchy buttery cookie as a bonus. I baked half a recipe adapted from THE ALL-AMERICAN DESSERT BOOK by Nancy Baggett. I changed 2 things: I used bittersweet instead of semi-sweet chocolate chips and did not top the cookies with chopped peanuts. The cooled uncut slab looked like a giant flat-ish Snickers bar.

Chewy Peanut-Caramel Bars
adapted from THE ALL-AMERICAN DESSERT BOOK by Nancy Baggett
crust
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
2½ tablespoons sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks
5 tablespoons heavy (whipping) cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

topping
1½ cups light brown sugar
½ cup light corn syrup
½ cup heavy (whipping) cream
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups chopped unsalted peanuts
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1½ cups semi-sweet chocolate morsels

•  Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375° F. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking dish with aluminum foil and coat the foil with nonstick spray.
• TO MAKE THE CRUST:  In a food processor, process the flour, sugar, and salt to blend. Add the butter. Process in pulses until the butter is cut in and the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the cream and vanilla extract over the flour mixture. Process in pulses until the dough holds together, being careful not to overprocess. Very firmly press the mixture into the baking dish in an even layer. Prick the crust all over with fork. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until tinged with brown all over and slightly darker at the edges. Transfer to a wire rack.
• TO MAKE THE TOPPING: In a heavy 2-quart saucepan, stir together the brown sugar, corn syrup, cream, butter, and salt. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Stir in 2½ cups of the peanuts. Adjust the heat so that the mixture boils briskly. Cook, stirring frequently, for 2 and a half minutes. Immediately remove from the heat. Stir in the vanilla.
• Pour the topping over the crust, drizzling to cover the entire surface as evenly as possible. Spread out with a greased offset spatula, if necessary. Let cool and firm up for 20 minutes. Sprinkle the top with the chocolate morsels. Let stand for a few minutes longer, or until the chocolate is partially melted. Using an offset spatula, spread the melted chocolate over the topping. Sprinkle the top with the remaining ½ cup peanuts.

• Let cool completely. Remove the slab from the pan and transfer into a cutting board. Carefully peel off the foil. Cut into desired size (squares or rectangles).