Freeze those egg whites!

I always cringed a little every time I saw an egg white slide down the kitchen sink into the drain. I have a couple recipes I use fairly regularly that call for egg yolks only, and I really don't like just letting the whites go to waste. I remember Alton Brown telling me that I could freeze an egg white in an ice cube tray, pop it out once frozen, and store it in a zip lock bag in the freezer to use whenever I needed an egg white or two...or twelve. It was an interesting concept, so I gave it a try.

As I was making a batch of mayonnaise, I separating the yolk from the albumen, and put the aforementioned albumen in a section of an ice cube tray. Once it was frozen, I couldn't get it to release from the tray, so I just left it and put subsequent egg whites in the tray as well. I think I should have put plastic wrap in the tray first in order to get the frozen egg white out more easily. Nevertheless, I decided to just wait until I accumulated twelve egg whites so I could make an angel food cake.

Since I don't really use just egg whites for anything other than angel food cake, I figured this method would work just fine. As it turned out, twelve egg whites pretty much filled the entire ice cube tray.

When I was ready to make the angel food cake, I simply placed the egg whites in the refrigerator and waited for them to thaw. I was nervous to see how they looked when they thawed, and was relieved to find that they looked like regular egg whites. My next bout of nervousness came when it was time to whip the egg whites into a foam. Would I get the volume I needed by using the frozen egg whites? Would I be able to achieve medium peaks?

Yes! The once frozen egg whites performed marvelously and I ended up with a perfectly delicious angel food cake. In my opinion, homemade and from scratch is the only way to go with this delicate dessert.

I've continued to keep egg whites in my freezer and am thrilled when I get a full ice cube tray because I know an angel food cake is soon to follow.

By the way, I use Alton Brown's angel food cake recipe. You can find it here. Notice that is yet another application in which you can use cream of tartar.

Philly Cheese Steak

Philly cheese steaks, baby! A new Friday night favorite. It all started a couple years ago after Ang and Michael got back from a trip from New Hampshire. On their way home, they stopped in Philadelphia specifically to have an authentic Philly cheese steak sandwich. After hearing of their plans, I asked them to bring me one, and they obliged. Even reheated, it was really tasty, and I wanted to recreate it at home.

I did some research online and found that most people use top round or ribeye for the meat. I first used top round because it was cheaper, but found it too be a bit tough for my liking. The ribeye has a lot better flavor, and is much more tender. I start off by freezing the ribeyes and then use the slicing attachment of my food processor to get the meat in thin strips. This method works really well and is such a wonderful time saver.

If it's nice outside, I'll grill the meat by putting my cast iron griddle directly on the coals. This gets the griddle extremely hot and I get a good sear on the meat. If I'm cooking indoors, I just use my 12 inch cast iron skillet to cook the meat. I do prefer the outside grilling method, though.

I also make a provolone cheese sauce for the sandwiches. I start off with a béchamel sauce and then add a boat load of provolone. The cheese sauce is absolutely awesome! I also use sliced green bell pepper, red bell pepper, and onion, and cook them with the meat. All of these components make for a delicious sandwich. They certainly know what they're doing in Philadelphia.

I've finally got a method down that produces consistently good results, and I think if Michael had his way, we would have these every Friday night!

Crème Fraîche

I have been intrigued by crème fraîche for some time. I've seen it used to finish many recipes, sweet and savory alike; though I never saw it in any store. I remember seeing a short segment on Food Network about how to make crème fraîche from scratch and it looked really easy. For some reason, I think it was Alton Brown doing the segment, but I wasn't really paying attention, and I never saw it again.

The ease of the process stuck with me, and it was in the back of my mind to try it for some time. I recently got on the internet in search of a crème fraîche recipe. I found several, and they each were basically the same. I settled on a recipe from the Joy of Baking website because it had a pretty picture and detailed instructions.

Indeed, the process was quite simple. Crème fraîche is basically heavy whipping cream and a little buttermilk left to sit at room temperature for about 24 hours; and it thickens all on it's own. It was amazing to see the crème fraîche take form, though I think I could have let my sit longer so it could thicken even more. I think I was just nervous about it sitting out too long.


Plus, the recipe called for pasteurized heavy whipping cream, as ultra pasteurized would take longer to thicken. Sure enough, I looked, and I had purchased ultra pasteurized. Lesson learned. All in all, the crème fraîche had good flavor, and I enjoyed it on some french toast with some fresh blueberries and powdered sugar. It was a lot like sour cream, only I got to make it myself, so it was a lot more fun and satisfying. I do plan on making it again, hopefully with better execution. Not bad for a first attempt, though.

Printable Recipe

Snickerdoodles

One of my favorite cookies. Soft and chewy on the inside, delightfully crispy on the edges. They are a lot like a sugar cookie, but better...much better. The main difference is the use of cinnamon and cream of tartar in the recipe. The cinnamon is perfectly balanced with the cream of tartar to give the cookies their sweet, spicy flavor. I have to make them sparingly, though, because they don't last long in my house.

I remember snickerdoodles from my childhood. When I started baking them, I had an old handwritten recipe that only had the list of ingredients, so I had to figure out at what temperature to bake them, and for how long. I ended up baking them at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until the edges were just golden brown and the tops of the cookies starts to crack.

A few months ago, I was going through some old family recipes and found the complete snickerdoodle recipe. I was delighted to see that the recipe was the same as the one I was using, and I was using the correct baking temperature of 350 degrees. I still do not know where the recipe came from, so I am unable to give any source information.

I highly recommend this recipe. If you decide to try it, be sure not to leave out the cream of tartar, as it is integral to give this cookie it's signature texture and flavor. Cream of tartar can also be used to help stabilize and give more volume to beaten egg whites, so it has more than one culinary use. It's a nice addition to anyone's pantry; just as this recipe is a nice addition to anyone's cookie arsenal. Enjoy!

Snickerdoodles

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

2 sticks of room temperature unsalted butter

1½ cups sugar

2 eggs

2¾ cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon vanilla

Cinnamon and sugar to coat

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350˚.

Cream butter and sugar together. While mixing, add eggs one at a time, then add vanilla. Once the batter is smooth, add the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt and continue mixing until everything is well incorporated.

Roll balls of dough about the size of a walnut then roll them in the cinnamon sugar to coat. Place on a cookie sheet two inches apart. Sprinkle each cookie with additional cinnamon before baking if desired.

Bake at 350˚ for 10 minutes. Cool for 2 minutes and then remove to a rack.

Precisely Pizza

Pizza. It's in my blood. Nonna made excellent pizza, my mom makes excellent pizza, and I do my best to follow in their footsteps. They set the bar pretty high, and I am happy that I was able to learn from the best.

I remember eating Nonna's pizza when I was little. The whole wheat crust was light and fluffy, there was not too much cheese, and the topping I remember most is black olives. I always loved eating the edges because the cheese went all the way to outside and it was a little crispy where the cheese met the pan.

My moms pizza isn't quite the same as Nonna's, but still delicious nonetheless. My mom's pizza crust is thicker and she loads it up with cheese. I have to say the cheese on my mom's pizza is the best, I don't know what she does to make it taste so good. There is really nothing like it.

As for my pizza, I like to think it is a cross between Nonna's and my mom's. My crust is more like Nonna's, except I use bread flour instead of whole wheat, and my toppings and the amount of cheese I use us more like my mom's, except not quite as much cheese. I love making pizza; whenever we don't know what to have for dinner, I usually just make a pizza.

I've become better at it over the years and haven't really made any changes to my technique for the past year or so. My favorite toppings are pepperoni, mushroom, and black olives, and I usually opt for a thicker crust. Though, I've started making the crust a little thinner on occasion. Sometimes, I even like to go really thin and bake the pizza's on a pizza stone. Now that's good pizza.

We don't really do frozen pizza or delivery anymore because it usually ends in disappointment. I am lucky to have grown up on homemade pizza, making everything from scratch. When done right, I really can't think of a more satisfying meal.

Fish & Chips

One of the highlights of visiting Louisville is dining at The Irish Rover. I've posted about it before in regards to finding their elusive soda bread recipe, but I wanted to highlight the real reason we all want to go there every time we visit my dad...the fish and chips. I've wanted to post about this meal in the past, but I also wanted a picture. Feeling odd about toting a camera into the restaurant, I never was brave enough to get that snapshot I wanted.

I recently procured a new cell phone complete with a really nice built in camera. I felt that I could be sneaky enough to get the picture without being too obvious.

Upon ordering the fish and chips, I was soon presented with a 7-8 oz. portion of lightly battered Icelandic cod, a generous portion of pub chips, and a tartar sauce that was out of this world. The Icelandic cod is really the star on the plate, as it should be. Battered and deep fried to perfection, the white fish is moist, tender, flaky, and perfectly complimented with a squeeze of lemon and a dash of malt vinegar.

Restraining myself not to dig right in, I slowly pulled out my phone, set it to the camera setting, and got a pretty good photo.


It was even better than it looks, and I think it looks pretty delicious. I have not found fish and chips that can compare to those of The Irish Rover. It is always a treat to go there when we are in Louisville.

Ricotta Cheese

Sometimes the simplest things in life are the most enjoyable; I find this to be especially true with cooking as well. There are so many simple techniques and applications that go by the wayside in favor of 'instant' and 'convenient' products; when a lot of times, making these foods from scratch is 'instant' or 'convenient'. I thrive on discovering these 'new to me' culinary treasures, and I love adding to my arsenal.

Marshmallows and peanut butter are the main things I make from scratch that I once thought to be complex to prepare. However, both are simple applications and far superior in taste to their mass market counterparts. My interest was peaked one evening while watching "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" when a restaurant owner added a little lemon juice to some hot milk; gave it a couple of stirs, and had a batch of ricotta cheese.

Talk about simple. I had to try it myself. I got on the internet to see what the exact ingredients were, and was able to find a recipe. Not having tried it before, I waited until our cousins dinner in December to give it a shot. Eva and I had a gallon of milk in a dutch oven and heated it to 200 degrees and added 3 ounces of lemon juice. We gave it a stir, and right before our eyes, the curd separated from the whey. We drained it in some cheese cloth, and we had our ricotta cheese for the lasagna. It was a real treat.

A couple weeks ago, I made some more ricotta cheese. This time, I was making calzones and cannoli's. Angela and I tried making cannoli's before, but the filling was way too loose, almost liquid. I used store bought ricotta, and I later read that it needed to be drained before using it. I thought home-made ricotta would be perfect for the cannoli's so I decided to give the recipe another try. This time, I used two gallons of milk since I needed the ricotta for both the calzones and cannoli. So, I started by heating the milk in my stock pot.

I then added six ounces of lemon juice and stirred it all together. Almost instantly, the reaction occurred.

I then poured the whole batch into some cheesecloth and let it drain until the ricotta was the consistency I was looking for.

The calzones were gone before I was able to take a picture. They were by far my best batch yet. As for the cannoli's, they turned out remarkably well this time around. We made our shells from scratch, too, and the filling was just divine. I am so glad I found out about home-made ricotta cheese! I'm even more excited about what new simple culinary treasure awaits.

The Cream Puff

I posted about pastry cream a few months ago and my excitement upon discovering that Alton Brown included his own pastry cream recipe in Good Eats: The Early Years. Well, I finally got around to trying this new application and found it to be an intriguing culinary adventure; one that I look forward to taking again and again.

The first hurdle to overcome was making the pâte à choux; something I had never attempted. I felt confident, though, since I was armed with detailed instructions from AB's book, as well as a recent viewing of Choux Shine fresh in my mind. With high spirits, I began working on the new challenge I laid out for myself.

To my delight, the pâte à choux was quite easy to make. I made both eclair (long) and cream puff (round) shapes from the dough. The cream puff shapes turned out better with a bigger cavity inside. I wasn't able to get much lift out the eclair shape, and I still don't know what I did wrong. The cream puffs were perfectly shaped, and even though AB suggested filling them with ice cream or turkey salad, I decided to use pastry cream.

The pastry cream was a cinch to make, too. The cream came out thick, rick and velvety smooth without a single lump to be found, unlike to many of my attempts with other recipes. I filled the puffs with the cream, melted some chocolate, drizzled it on top, and my cream puffs were complete. They were a hit both in taste and presentation. I couldn't be happier with the way they turned out. Thanks again for the pastry cream recipe, Alton!

Brown Sugar

I learned a handy culinary trick during the recent "Good Eats" episode, Pantry Raid X: Dark Side of the Cane. Alton Brown taught me how to make my own brown sugar. He explained that, anymore, brown sugar is just refined white sugar with molasses added to it; and if you have white sugar and molasses in your pantry, you can make your own brown sugar. You can view the recipe here.

I had some brown sugar on hand when I watched the episode, so I didn't try making my own right away. When I ran out of the store bought kind, I was anxious to make my own. Preferring not to use my food processor to make it, for fear of Valerie chastising me for having to clean it, I just put some sugar in a bowl, added some molasses and started mixing.

I just eyeballed how much molasses to add, and I used my fingers to mix it after starting with a fork. It was nice because I was able to adjust how dark I wanted the sugar. My hands got pretty messy in the process, but it was well worth it. Curious on how it tasted by itself, I gave it a try. It was the best brown sugar, I have ever tasted! Plus, it was nice and moist and not a bit lumpy.

The recipes I have used the brown sugar in have also turned out extraordinarily well. I see no reason that I will ever have to purchase brown sugar again. It is also nice because I am able to adjust how much I make at one time. Since I don't use brown sugar all that often, I don't have to worry about it drying out because I can make it in small batches.

If you don't have any molasses on hand, go get some. For this application alone, it is well worth it. For all who may be baking Christmas cookies in the coming days, I would highly recommend trying this application for making brown sugar, if the recipe calls for it, of course. Just a little piece of holiday cooking advice from your friend here at latent chestnut.

Parmigiano-Reggiano

It's no secret that I am a fan of pasta; and I seem to have passed my love of it to my son. When I was young, my grandparents always had freshly grated Parmesan cheese for us to add to our pasta. For whatever reason, I always passed on adding it; I just preferred my pasta without it. I remember everyone else piling on the grated cheese by the spoonful while I was content to eat mine plain. It wasn't until years later that I would appreciate the cheese and savor every tasty bite.

As I've mentioned before, pasta with a little Parmigiano-Reggiano and olive oil might just be my favorite thing to eat. Ari is following right along in my footsteps, though I think he may like the Parmigiano-Reggiano better than the pasta itself, as evidenced by the chunk he bit off the wedge in the above picture.

Whenever we have pasta, we have to watch him to make sure he doesn't eat all the cheese. We usually keep the cheese on the table with a grater, but have had to leave it in the kitchen as of late because the boy just can't get enough. I guess there are worse foods he could be hooked on, but that cheese is so pricey, we like to use it in moderation. But hey, at least he has good taste.

Baking bug bites big time

Yes, I have been bitten by the baking bug yet again. I have a lot of recipes I want to try running around in my head, and I'm ready to get to work in the kitchen. So, what's the problem? Well, the majority of what I want to make are desserts, and with so few mouths to feed in my house I don't want the fridge to be full of sweets, with not many takers. I don't want anything to go to waste. Plus, when I cook, I get more pleasure seeing others enjoy my food, than I do eating it myself most of the time. Here is the list of items I want to make:

Sweet:
Chocolate meringue pie
Strawberry custard pie
German chocolate cake
Coconut Cake
Pâte à choux - to make cream puffs or eclairs
Chocolate mousse

Savory:
Coq au vin
Chicken salad
Fried gizzards (yes, really)

I have never tried to make any of these and I am intrigued by all of them. Where do I begin?

Comfort food

I have been under the weather the past couple of days with a pesky stomach bug. I didn't really eat anything during my battle, but when I was finally ready to test the waters, I couldn't help but pull a box of ditalini out of the cabinet and dump it in some boiling water.

I threw in some olive oil, salt, pepper, and a little parmesan cheese, and I had a meal fit for a king. It was just what I needed and my stomach was not a bit upset after eating. The ditalini went so well that night, I whipped up some alphabet soup the next day.

Pizza anyone?

Last Friday we took on an ambitious endeavor. We decided to do brick oven pizza's and let each person choose his or her own toppings for their own pizza. It was quite a feat ans we ended up with a lot of pizza left over, but it sure was fun. As you can see, we had eight different kinds of pizza, the likes of which included:

Mozzarella and provolone
Sausage and pepperoni
Pepperoni and pepperocini peppers
Sausage, mushrooms, and black olives
Sausage, mushrooms, olives, and anchovies
Artichoke hearts, mushrooms, olives, and anchovies
Mozzarella, provolone, Gouda, and blue cheese
Sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, black olives, and bacon

It was a wonderful evening and everyone got to take some left over pizza home to enjoy. Just another Friday night at our house. What a blast! Food, family and fun...what more can you ask for?