Weekend cooking

Vegetable Soup update

I made some more soup. Here's how to serve it with a bit of crème fraîche and parsley. The white side is yogurt, more about that later in the post.

And with some baguette, and eggplant salad, here's my all-vegetable lunch.


Yogurt

I woke up at 4am on Friday, and couldn't go back to sleep, so I made yogurt, which turned out to be much easier than I expected. All you need to do is mix a live culture (existing yogurt, from the supermarket) with milk, and keep it warm for a while. I only made a little bit, this being the first time. I took full fat milk, and warmed it up over low heat. I didn't boil it, but it was getting close, the point was to kill all the live bacteria that are in the milk, so that the yogurt culture will have no competition. I let that sit for a while until it was lukewarm, and I could easily hold the pot with my hand, and then I dissolved two full spoons of existing yogurt in it. I got that from the supermarket. Then I put the whole thing in a bowl and in the oven, in the very lowest possible setting, so that it'd be kept around body temperature, or a few degrees more. I let it there for 4 hours, and then moved it in the fridge. Done! My own yogurt.

Being Greek, I prefer strained yogurt, so I strained my yogurt through a cheesecloth. I hanged it to strain, collecting the whey in a bowl underneath and went to work. I stayed at work until late in the afternoon, so it was way too strained when I got home, it looked like a cheese, too solid. So I mixed a little of the whey back in, to make it more like yogurt, and saved it in the fridge. It tastes normal. I didn't throw away the whey either. Why waste protein? I made some bread, and added the whey in the dough instead of water. In theory, the extra protein should make the dough more elastic, but it wasn't that much, so I don't know if it makes a difference. We'll see how the bread comes out.

At first, (thinking it'd be similar to making a bread starter) I thought you could somehow harvest yogurt culture from the air, but it's not like normal yeast. You can't get yogurt culture from nature, it has to be from someone that makes yogurt, I found out. The reason is that people have been making yogurt for a very long time (some millenia), and the original bacteria used have evolved to adapt and can only feed on lactose, no other sugars. So nowadays they are not found in nature, only in man-made yogurt. Creationists, no yogurt for you!

Tarte Tatin

Some time ago I was looking for french food recipes over the net and came across this one, which is a cool idea. Instead of putting the dough first, and then the filling for the tart, you can put the dough on the filling, cook it, and then flip on a plate. I had gotten some apples from the farmer's market, and on Friday I thought about making an apple tart, or "tarte aux pommes." I made the dough, filled up the tart-pan for a normal tart, and there was some dough left. Thus, I decided to try out this idea, and make a Tarte Tatin with the apples instead. The catch here is that you need a frying pan that can also get in the oven. What better occasion to try out the cast-iron frying pan that I got last week, I just hope the oven doesn't hurt the "seasoning" of the iron.

Parenthesis.
Apparently, with cast iron cooking utensils, you need to "train" them at first. At least that's what the manual said (yes, a frying pan that came with a manual). The pan should be oiled at all times, so I oil it after washing it with a napkin, and I re-wash the oil away before using it every time. One should do this for a while, and after a few times the cast iron becomes "seasoned" and you can use it and store it normally.
End of parenthesis.

I made the dough for tart. First, rub the flour with butter.

Then add one yolk, a bit of water (not too much 1-2 spoons) and mix.

Then I used a big jar (for lack of a rolling pin) to make it flat.

Finally, I put it in the tart-pan, punched holes with a fork, and put it in the fridge. Here you can see the leftover dough I used for Tarte Tatin.

Back to the Tarte Tatin. Preheat the oven, I have no idea in what temperature, I used a 5 on my oven's non-linear scale to 8. Peel and chop the apples, each apple in half, each half in three. I coated the pieces with lemon, so that the first pieces wouldn't oxidize and go black until I was done with all the apples.
Put some butter in the pan, melt it, take it away from the flame, and sprinkle 2-3 spoons of sugar on the butter. Then put the apples in. Return to a low flame and caramel-fry the apples until the sugar is caramelized (brown, not too dark) and the apples are also slightly caramelized (but not too much, they shouldn't be done).

Take away from the flame, and let sit for 5 minutes. Roll the tart-dough on the frying pan, and push it down near the sides, around the apples. I did that quickly so I wouldn't burn my fingers.

Then I put the whole thing in the oven, and waited. About half an hour later, I took it out, and flipped it on a plate.

The dough had hardened (as it wasn't touching any liquids) and was biscuit-y, and the caramel was running thick, downwards on the apples, which looks quite appetizing.

It makes for a nice "show-off" dessert, and it's easy too. Some apples were left stuck on the frying pan, and I used a spatula to put them back on the tart, and also to scrape off the extra caramel from the pan. It'll be nice with vanilla ice-cream. I'm keeping this recipe.

While waiting for the Tarte Tatin, I made the filling for the other tart, which was the reason for having leftover dough in the first place. I didn't have many apples left after the impromptu Tarte Tatin so I decided to make two kinds of fillings to make up for the loss. I chopped the two apples left into small bits, and put them in a saucepan.

I added a spoonful of honey.

This was a strong honey, too sweet, made from lavender(!). It is white, and doesn't look a lot like normal honey, but it smells unbelievably. Unfortunately it's too sweet, so next time I'll use half or less than what I used now. I added a bit of cinnamon, a drop of lemon, and set the pot over a low flame. After a while the apples were soft, and caramelized but not like with sugar, it wasn't as burnt. The apples gave out their juice, which mixed with the honey and gave a thick sauce. It smelled nice, but the lavender honey dominated the apples, unfortunately.

In a separate pot I put pieces of lemon. I used the whole lemon, chopped, similar to the apple. I wanted the yellow color from the skin, and the sour taste from the inside.

Unfortunately, I didn't add only those two, I added the whole thing, which also includes the white, bitter part between the peel and the juice. This made it a little too bitter, but I'll know better next time. So, I boiled the chopped lemon in water with a bit of sugar for quite a while, until the liquid was yellow and a little thick. I used a sieve to take out the lemon pieces, and threw them away. I then mixed flour and corn starch in a bowl with cold water and poured it in the hot lemon-liquid to thicken it more.

I emptied the two saucepans on the cold dough, across from each other, and smoothed them to resemble a yin-yang shape.

I thought that the two sauces had similar colors, and it wouldn't show, plus I was just having fun with it, so I decided to stress the separating s-shaped line. I needed something dark to draw that line between the yin and the yang, and chocolate is the closest thing to Zen I can think of! I tried scraping a piece of chocolate with a knife, and using the bits to draw an "S" between the two sauces, but it wasn't very successful. Next time I should have some ganache, and use agarnish-thing (not sure how it's called) or an empty ketchup/mustard bottle to draw a thin, continuous chocolate line.

OK, I stopped fooling around at that point and put it in the (preheated) oven. After about half an hour I took it out and let it cool down overnight.

The next morning I put it in the fridge, and Saturday afternoon I had a piece. It was OK, but, sadly, not exactly what I was going for. The dough was good, but the apple side had too much honey, and the lemon side was a bit bitter. Oh well, lesson learned. At least the apple Tarte Tatin was good. I feel like trying again, but I still have a lot left, there's only so much I can eat, and I don't want to throw it away. I need a roommate to help with the eating, any volunteers? Thano, help!

Samedi soir: sauce au poivre
I was experimenting with a beef and pepper sauce today.

Sauter l' oignon en trois cuillères d' huile d' olive, epuis ajouter le beuf, coupé en petits pièces, et aussi demi cuillère de poivre gris. Stir, or shake the pan, until slightly browned, and add the cognac/brandy. I tilted the pan a bit and the brandy caught fire, satisfying the pyromaniac in me. It doesn't make a difference in taste, it only adds to the effect. Then I added two glasses of water,
and one cup of chicken broth (the one that I have left). I capped the pan and let it simmer for about an hour (depending on how tender your meat is, this could be less), until it reduced a lot, becoming a thick sauce with bits of meat. I wanted more sauce, so I sprinkled half a spoon of flour on it, and mixed. Then I added the rest of the chicken broth (about half a cup) and it thickened fast. I mixed in 2 spoonfuls of crème fraîche, and I got a grey-brown thick sauce with
bits of meat, that smelled and looked good. I had a bit with bread (the bread I made using the whey from the yogurt, it was good) for dinner, but I think it'd be best served alongside a risotto, or on a base of basmati or maybe couscous (without crème fraîche for couscous). I could filter the bits of meat out of it, and then maybe use it to escort a steak, I think. Mushrooms would be fantastic in
this sauce but I didn't have any, unfortunately. I should get some from the farmer's market next time, I think this is the best season too, it's quite humid, and still not too cold. They have a big variety, but I don't know enough about mushrooms yet to know the right ones.

Variation: Then I got too decadent, and chopped a bit of raclette cheese (emmental would also be nice) in small pieces, and added them to the pan, where it melted. Sinful. I think this variation would be best on pasta, probably linguini or fresh papardele. I'll save this recipe for cold winter days...