Saturday, December 20, 2008

Sounds Good: Maple Snickerdoodles

This is a fabulous recipe I have from my days up in Vermont:


Maple Snickerdoodles, don't be cheap, get the real Vermont maple not some High Fructose garbage. You'll taste the difference. 

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 cup margarine, softened
3 cups white sugar
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons REAL maple syrup (NOT GARBAGE)
2 egg
1/2 cup maple sugar 

Preheat oven to 350 F

You're gonna need 2 large bowls for this recipe (makes a lot of cookies) and a small bowl (1 cup of white sugar and 1/2 cup Maple sugar)

1st Bowl:

Flour, baking powder/Soda and cinnamon 

2nd Bowl: Softened Margarine gets lightly whipped with 2 cups of Sugar until well mixed and fluffy. Mix eggs, and Maple until incorporated. 

Gradually incorporate 1st Bowl into 2nd. 


Now if you've ever made snickerdoodles you know what to do: Make little golf ball size balls and roll em in the sugar. 

UNGREASED COOKIE SHEET

Cook for about 10 minutes. They will be a bit gooey because of maple let em cool a good 10 minutes on racks before you snack on em! 

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

More Q & A from Mormon Apologetics

I cut and paste this question and Answer from www.mormonapologetics.org because it is an important question and most people don't have a clue about cooking pork:
I love this thread! Great idea Matthew. I have a question about cooking pork. When my wife and I make pork loin or pork roast, it is tender and delicious. But when we have pork loin chops they are pretty tough. Maybe we are using the wrong recipes. I don't know. But I'd love to figure out how to make a great pork loin chop.
Well I suck at defending mormonism, might as well help feed the people who can! Do you have a cast iron pan?? This is the secret to great pork. Also, again, DON'T OVER COOK! Pork is DONE at 150ish. Better at 145. Don't temp or stick pork with anything until it has been caramelized on both sides. Use tongs not a fork. Also avoid using butter to cook it with. Use an oil with a high smoke point like Sunflower oil (450F before it starts to burn). Burning is bad. Marinading also does a world of difference, it adds flavor and moisture. I posted earlier about pork loin. If you use a cast Iron pan you can also deglaze the pan after you're done cooking it with a white wine and make awesome gravy with the flavors.

I love a well marinated cooked pork loin! Some nice glaze or sauce on top TASTY!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Question and Answers from Mormon Apologetics.org

Occasionally I get emails from people on this board about Food, Cooking and recipes. Does anyone else have questions, curiosities, or even better a recipe you'd like to share???

Chef Matthew

From Lucas_S:
Sure, I've got one. I recently roasted a few chickens for dinner for myself and a few friends, and decided to use the leftover bones and skin to make stock. All the leftover chicken parts went into a stock pot, followed by about a gallon and a half of water, an onion, a few carrots, a few stalks of celery, some peppercorns, and some fresh basil. I brought this all to a boil, then let it simmer until I thought it tasted good, which ended up being about 6 hours. I strained everything out, and then reduced it a bit further, and put some of it away in the freezer for later use, but kept the bulk of it in the fridge to make soup the next day.

Now, I understand that a certain amount of stiffening happens when stock gets cold because of the gelatin released from whatever bones you're using, but this stuff basically turned to jello. Despite being gross looking, it made really good red beans and rice. Is there any way to keep the stock from stiffening up so much?
From Chef Matthew:
Once you reduce it further it started to become glace, which is even better than stock, the flavors are more concentrated. There is 0 problem freezing stock/glace. One of my favorite chefs said she bought a fridge/freezer unit that made ice cubes so she didn't need ice cube trays anymore. So she nows them for her glace (reduced stock). She then pops a block of iced glace out when she wants to make an "instant" sauce. A great time saver. 

I would suggest if you don't like it so stiff to use it more quickly, or don't freeze it. It will keep in the fridge for about a week. However, the more you reduce it, the more concentrated it becomes, thus more jello like. However in my opinion, the better it is. 


If you can get a hold of a local butcher, try to get cow/veal NECK bones. They may cost you a bit more, but they make fabulous veal/beef stock because of all the marrow/gelatin in the neck bones. 

From LDSTORONTO: 

Yes! I'm a fairly decent 'dad' cook, but something that has eluded me for as long as I've been cooking is roast chicken. Every time I make a roasted chicken, the bird comes out looking great, but the breast meat is too dry. I've tried covering it, uncovering it, even cooking it breast-side down. So my question - How do I make a juicy roast chicken?

Thanks!

H.
From Chef Matthew:

Ever have a dry turkey at thanksgiving? Most people cook their poultry to the ungodly temperature of 185 F. YUCK! While everyone says you're supposed to cook poultry to 165 most don't know you should pull it from the oven at 155. There is a thing called "carry over cooking". The protein keeps cooking even though it has been pulled from the heating source because it's still very hot. You need to pull the chicken earlier and let it "rest". Or allow the molecules to settle. I cooked a boneless turkey I got from the Church welfare system tonight for dinner and my wife was amazed at how much juice came out when I cut into it. The reason, I only cooked it till the internal temp was about 155 with the oven at 350 F. Then I let it sit on the counter for 15 minutes before I cut into it. It was freakin tasty with potatoes and gravy! I only regret I didn't take photos to show you. Maybe next time....

Monday, December 1, 2008

Sounds Good: Buttermilk Homemade Rolls

Buttermilk Quick Hot Rolls
 
2 C lukewarm buttermilk
8 TB melted shortening or butter
3/4 C sugar
1 tsp. salt
3 tsp. baking powder
2 eggs, well-beaten
2 yeast packages, softened in 1/3 C lukewarm water
1/2 tsp. baking soda
6+ C flour
 
Mix the above ingredients together. Knead lightly. Let dough rest for 10 minutes. Roll, shape dough in desired-shaped rolls. Let rise approx. 1 hour. Bake @ 350 degrees for approx. 15 minutes. Makes about 3-4 dozen rools depending on the size of the roll.
 

A wonderful homemade buttermilk rolls recipe made for years by my Mother

Enjoy it!