Blood Orange and Cardamom Scones

I had not quite gotten my fill of scones after last week and decided I should get a bit more creative with my next batch.  Cardamom is a spice that I had only heard of fairly recently, thanks to my Great British Bake Off obsession.  Based on what had been said about the spice, I was not really chomping at the bit to use it.  It sounded like something that needed to be treated with care and that is not generally my style.  But, I decided it was time to put on my big girl pants and use an adult level spice.

The choice to use blood oranges was entirely last minute.  I was in the grocery store staring at the orange display.  On my left were the regular oranges, in the center were the organic oranges, and to my right the blood oranges.  I love blood oranges, mainly because of the color.  So there I am in the store looking at the options, looking at the prices, looking back at the options.  There is only the slightest difference in cost...that does it.  I throw caution to the wind and into my cart go the blood oranges.

I write "caution" with only the slightest bit of sarcasm.  It's not like I went from wanting to use an orange to instead choosing garlic.  We are still solidly inside the citrus category and remaining under the subheading orange.  I realize this, but I still felt a little like a rebel choosing to use the blood orange.

Thankfully, they did not disappoint me and hopefully they do not disappoint you either.

Blood Orange and Cardamom Scones

Ingredients:

2 c. flour

1/4 c. sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

5 Tbsp unsalted butter - cold
1 tsp. cardamom 

Grated peel from 1 blood orange

Juice of  1/2 a blood orange (should be about 1 tablespoon)

1/2 c. whole milk

1 egg

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Sift flour, sugar, and baking powder together.  Gently stir in the cardamom and grated blood orange.

Using a pastry cutter, cut in the butter until it forms coarse crumbles.  Add egg, milk, and blood orange juice.  Stir until liquid is just incorporated.

Look at that color, I love it!

You should notice that this batter will quickly absorb the liquids while still appearing on the dry side.  Do not fear and do not add more milk.  At this point you are going to turn out the dough onto a well floured surface.  Briefly knead dough (I counted to 15 to keep myself from over kneading) and form into a ball.

Squish the dough down a bit and cut into the desired shapes.  I went with triangles because that just how my scone game rolls.

Bake for about 15 minutes, until the scones are a nice and brown.  Cool on a wire rack.

These came out better than I could have imagined.  They had subtle hints of citrus and cardamom, nothing was over powering.  The best part?  The smell when they are warm.

I don't know how you all feel about the microwave, but I could not survive without mine.  Since I decided to be selfish and keep these all to myself, I was able to have scones for breakfast for a few days.  I microwaved them for about 20 seconds so that they would be just warm enough for butter to melt on top.  The smell was amazing and basically made the whole week for me.

Lemon Basil Scones

How can you not love a scone?  It's a biscuit, but fancy!  What's even better is that you most likely already have all the necessary ingredients sitting in your pantry and refrigerator.  Flour, sugar, baking powder, butter, and milk - those are the essentials.  Everything after that is the proverbial gravy and turns your average biscuit into a scone, like magic.

For this initial foray into the world of scones, I wanted something fresh and perfect for breakfast.  I did decide to go a bit non-traditional and made these with more milk.  This turned them into drop scones as opposed to a regular scone that would be kneaded, rolled out, and then cut into your desired shape.

Lemon Basil Scones

Ingredients:

2 c. flour

3 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

5 Tbsp unsalted butter - cold

1/2 c. fresh basil - chopped

Grated lemon peel from 2 lemons

Juice of 1 lemon

3/4 c. whole milk

1 egg

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Sift flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together.  Gently stir in the basil and grated lemon.  

Using a pastry cutter, cut in the butter until it forms coarse crumbles.  Add egg, milk, and lemon juice.

This is a actually a very wet dough, so turning it out onto a table, well floured or not, is a very bad idea.  Don't be like me.  What you see above was a real pain to clean up.  Instead, you will want to drop batter onto the baking sheet in amounts the approximate size you would like your scones.

Mmmmm, look at all the lovely fresh basil!

Bake for about 15 minutes, until the scones are nice and brown.  Cool on a wire rack.

They had a wonderful fresh citrus flavor with just a hint of sweetness.  Adding the lemon juice aids in creating an even lemon flavor throughout the scones with just a bit of additional zing from the lemon peel.  This was a great way to start my morning!

Potato Soup

I almost did not end up doing this recipe, the directions had me so baffled.  First, I need to boil diced potatoes...okay, got that part.  Then, next sentence, I am told to put them through a sieve.  Okay, so what you want me to do is drain the potatoes...got it.  Next sentence - add back to water the potatoes were cooked in.  What?!  In my head I had the image of me straining my potatoes in a colander.  This is by no means odd, we strain things all the time.  We do not, however, immediately re-add back to the cooking water.  What's the point of straining it in the first place?  I feel like there are a set of instructions that never quite made it to the page.

After I stared at the recipe long enough to make my brain hurt I flipped past it in disgust.  But then the desire to make a potato soup kept nagging at me.  I kept rereading that recipe over and over, stymied at those instructions.  Then I went searching around for other potato soup recipes on the great interweb and I found the word that made it all make sense - mashed.  Maria Luisa, you do not want me to sieve, you want me to rice!  I, however, did none of it.  Maria Luisa has not been privy to our conversations regarding my preference for chunky soup.  On this, and only this, will she be forgiven.  Therefore, I skipped the sieving.  However, if you would like something creamier, then by all means mash, sieve, or rice away.

I would also like to note that Maria Luisa does not add any suggestion regarding the fat content of the milk to be used.  Of course she also makes the usage of milk optional so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.  For this recipe you boil the potatoes, bacon, and onions in just a bit of water. Once the core of your soup is cooked you then increase the liquid content with either more water, milk, or broth.  She also tells you to add the liquid preheated.  Maria Maria Maria, Mamma Mia Maria...you are killing me.  How am I supposed to hold my head high and declare Italians to be the best cooks when you have somehow managed to publish your nonsense with a major publishing house?  My head hangs in shame as I type up my version of your wackiness.

Oh wait....I should actually get back to my commentary on the milk before moving on.  The milk selection really depends on what consistency you wish the "broth" to be.  Milk with a lower fat content (skim, 1%, or 2%) will be more watery.  If you want something a bit thicker choose whole milk.  Or, the other option is to split between whole milk and cream.  You need 2 1/2 cups of milk, so if you want something creamy but not heavy, I suggest 3/4 cup cream and the rest whole milk.

Now for the recipe...

Potato Soup

Zuppa di Patate

Ingredients:

3 slices of bacon - finely chopped

2 lbs. potatoes - peeled and diced

1 lg onion - finely sliced

2 c. water

2 1/2 c. broth or milk - warmed [I went with 1% milk]

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large sauce pot, place bacon, onion, potatoes, and water.  Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.  

Add in the hot milk and salt and pepper to taste.  Over a low heat, bring back up to a boil.  This will likely take at least 30 minutes.

This soup is about as basic as it gets, but it is great on a cold day when all you want is something simple and hot.  Cooking time could take over an hour, depending on how long it takes for the soup to get back up to its second boil.  Honestly though, if you are hungry and you just want this soup to be done, turn the heat up on the stovetop and it will cook faster.  Every bit of the recipe, at that point, is already cooked.  The only reason you do a slow boil is to increase the flavor meld.  Just turn the heat to high and be done with it.

Turkey Tetrazzini

Cooking always seems to be a test of my patience.  I want to turn up the heat and have my onions cooked already!  But this is counterproductive to the end goal.  You want tender and translucent not crispy and fried.  Things start to bubble too much, turn down the heat.  Don't think "nah, it'll be fine."  That's when things burn and your special birthday dinner home cooked meal turns into special birthday Chinese take-out.

I blame my lack of patience when cooking on my follow-through issues.  I have awesome ideas and always put in a lot of energy at the start.  It's the seeing it through to the end with that same level of enthusiasm that remains an elusive devil.  Looking around my living room, I count 5 unfinished craft projects.  Some of them are several years old...I am awful! 

With cooking though, you can't really pull the "oh I'm bored, let's move on to something else and then go back to this" excuse.  Probably because you'd end up starving or living on a lot of take-out. Though, maybe you live in an area with a lot of really amazing take-out, so I won't judge.  My downfall?  Less than a mile from my apartment and perfectly situated on the drive home is a grocery store with some of the best prepared foods I have ever eaten.  So, I remind myself, the food I am cooking is worth it.  And, between you and me, this turkey tetrazzini is most certainly worth the effort and the wait.

Turkey Tetrazzini

 

Ingredients:

 

3 c. stock - either chicken or turkey

4c. Cooked turkey

12 oz. sliced mushrooms (I did a combination of white and bella)

1 medium onion - chopped

1/2 c. flour

1 c. frozen chopped broccoli

1 c. frozen carrots

1 c. whole milk
1/2 c. sour cream

1/2 c. bread crumbs

1/2 c. parmesan cheese

1/2 c. butter

1 box farfalle noodles - cooked

2 tsp. nutmeg

 

Directions:

 

Cook the farfalle and set aside.  Preheat the oven to 350F.

 

In a 12 inch skillet, melt the butter and saute onions for about 7 minutes (remember the opening rant about tender and translucent).  Add the mushrooms and cook for an additional 10 minutes.  You want the mushrooms to cook down a bit and soften up nicely.

 Add the flour, mixing well to create a paste.  Add the milk then stock, mixing until the paste dissolves completely.  Mix in the sour cream and then simmer until thickened, approximately 15 minutes.  Add the nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.  Give it a little test but don't be scared by the nutmeg.  When you add the meat and veggies, it all evens out.  Add the turkey and vegetables.

Broccoli and carrots may seem like a weird addition since peas seem to be everyone else's vegetable of choice.  But, the essential elements to a traditional Tetrazzini are poultry, mushrooms, pasta, and parmesan cheese.  Everything added to that is just bonus points and I selected some tasty and colorful veggies as mine.

Give the sauce another taste to make sure you are happy and add in the pasta.  Now, I used a 12 inch skillet and the sauce did fit.  However....I knew for certain that the pasta would create a massive overload situation, so I added the sauce to the pasta that I had put back into its original pot after I strained it through a colander. 

Mmmmmm, I'm hungry already, but wait!  It gets better.  After you get this all nice and mixed up, place it into a 9 x 13 casserole dish.  At this point, mix the bread crumbs and parmesan cheese together and then sprinkle over the casserole.

Into the oven this guy goes, for 30 minutes.  It's ready when the topping has browned and the sauce is bubbly.

The sauce is wonderfully creamy without being too heavy.  This is a great comfort food for a cold day.  The nutmeg provides a nice addition and works well with all the other flavors.  The mushrooms hold up really well and add a nice hearty feel to the entire dish.  Enjoy!



Happy Birthday!

I could not let February 1st pass by without a little bit of fanfare. Today marks one year since I decided to start Sundays in the Kitchen and it has been an amazing experience.  I've challenged myself in the kitchen and tried new recipes.  This is something that I always strive to do, but I have enjoyed taking other people on the ride with me.

To commemorate this occasion, we are having cake!  However, this is not any cake.  When I was living in Moldova my host family would make blini, the Russian name for crêpes that are popular in Eastern Europe. On special occasions they would make them, rolling them into tubes with sour cherries inside and then layering with whipped cream. 

Full disclosure - my crêpe recipe is not the same as a traditional blin or blinchik recipe. But it works perfectly and I definitely enjoyed the mental escape, imagining myself back in my host family's kitchen watching everyone prep for a party.

Sour Cherry Blini

 

Ingredients:

 

6 eggs - beaten

1 1/2 c. water

1 1/2 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

1 jar pitted sour cherries - drained

1 c. heavy whipping cream

1 Tbsp sugar

 

Directions:

 

Beat together the eggs, water, flour, and salt.  Let stand for 5 minutes (you can preheat your cast iron skillet during this time).  In your greased 6 1/2 inch skillet, make crêpes.  Pour just enough batter into the skillet to cover it.  Flip as soon as the batter is set and cook the second size only for a few additional seconds.  Continue until the batter is gone.  You should be able to make about 40.

 

Assembly time!  Line up your crêpes, the sour cherries, and your serving dish.  In a large bowl, whip together the cream and sugar just until soft peaks begin to form.  Add to the assembly line.

 

Take a crêpe, place a few cherries on it, fold into a tube, and place onto the serving dish. 

 

 

 

Repeat until you have your first layer. 

 

 

 

Cover with a bit of whipped cream. 

 

 

Repeat until you have your cake.

 

 

Who's hungry?