Hamburger

Mixed meat patty prepared earlier and frozen waaaaaay back here.

*  1 +1/2 cup water

*  2 +1/2 cup A/P flour

*  1 level teaspoon commercial dry yeast

*  3/4 teaspoon sea salt

Unattractive bubbles formed directly underneath the outer skin of the miniature loaves. These would expand wildly during baking producing something akin to an airplane hangar between the crust and the crumb, so they were punctured with a pin and deflated. The buns were painted with butter to keep the surface moist long enough to benefit from oven-rise, if there would be any before the surface caramelized, to aid in browning, and to produce an attractive sheen. Ordinarily I would have painted them with olive oil, but I intend to use the bread for something else later were olive oil is inappropriate. 

Boeuf Bourguignon

Burgundian, Burgundy.

From La Central a nearby restaurant in Denver. Here, a reduced Burgundy wine (usually) with parsley, thyme, butter and onions. But in actuality would most likely include:

*  lardons of bacon

*  olive oil

*  lean stewing beef, most likely beef shoulder

*  carrot

*  onion (often pearl onion, but not here)

*  S/P

*  a few tablespoons flour

*  a few cups red wine, Burgundy, of course, Beaujoulais, Cotes du Rhone, etc.

*  a few cups beef broth

*  tomato paste

*  garlic

*  herb bouquet

*  mushrooms

Make like a stew, brown the meat in the rendered pork fat. Deglaze with wine. Sear vegetables separately and add after the meat tenderizes but before it completely cooks. 

As you can see, this version has shell pasta in place of pearl onion, at first I thougtht they might be little potatoes and that would have been fine with me, and that should tell you there is no point to being beholden to any specific set of directions, unless of course you are short on imagination or free will. 

The chocolate soufflé tonight taught me something about soufflés. This one was much lighter than anything I had ever produced myself, as if it were mostly meringue with very little else. There was chocolate within, including areas of light chocolate-flavored bread, but not much. Extra chocolate sauce was served on the side, basically a tiny dish of ganache. See? on the side instead of within the soufflé itself. 

Dinner rolls

The idea was for hamburger buns. The dough for each individual bun was stretched as a squarish pizza, folded in thirds, then stretched again, folded again in the rotated position, then again, so three stretches, and three stacks of three layers each, so nine internal layers. The layers were wet so they would conjoin during the second rise.  This resulted in dinner rolls slightly taller than perfectly appropriate for hamburger buns, but once a chap has some height on 'is buns it's difficult to go smashing them down then innit. 

Plus I've been called out for dinner tonight and I mustn't disappoint. So we'll just have these for something else and give the hamburger buns another go tomorrow. 

For a tiny batch. 

3/4 cup hot tap water

1 + 1/2 C A/P flour and WW flour combined approx 3/4 A/P to 1/4 WW. This is an estimation. In reality, the flour was added by the tablespoon until the water no longer took it up and the resulting dough was not a sticky mess in my hands. 

1/2 teaspoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast. This is a lot of yeast for this amount of dough, but I don't care. I thought I was in a hurry.

1/3 teaspoon salt added during folding

1/8 cup olive oil to paint the surface

The dough was kneaded entirely by hand, that is, it never touched the work surface until it was completely finished kneading. It was stretched out as a pizza then folded back into a wad, then stretched again repeatedly. The ball is shown on the work surface right at the point it is finished being kneaded and in the bowl for comparison with how much it rose.  

Due to the 1/4 WW flour, these rolls are slightly heavier than ordinary dinner rolls. They could work for hamburger buns just fine, but those hamburgers would then be more akin to sliders than to a customary hamburger. 

I must add, when I lifted the top off the improvised proofing box the aroma that struck my nose was that incredible slightly astringent alcoholic scent that one associates with fermentation. I think that is so amazing with such a tiny batch of proofing dough. It assures me that these rolls are going to taste great even though they were ripped out quickly, as far a bread goes. 

Oh, I almost forgot because I am rushing for dinner; these buns were baked on pizza stones with clay roaster portions for lids, either the top of the clay roaster or the bottom, it didn't matter which. Two roaster halves fit upturned on the square pizza stone but only one fit on the round pizza stone, so it worked out perfectly  for this batch, otherwise the oven would have had to preform double duty. It doesn't really matter that much because they do bake rather quickly anyway. 

Tiny biscuits

These are the tiny biscuits made yesterday for the pigeon peas.  They were wrapped in the aluminum foil that they were baked on and sealed but when the bundle was opened this morning I saw they had become completely dry. I thought, "Ew, hard. Fine, I'll just toss these." But, instead I popped one in my mouth and it veritably dissolved into buttery powder with the most amazingly light mouth-feel of any biscuit I've ever eaten. They had turned overnight by drying into what Americans would call a cookie, although still slightly more savory than sweet. The Italian herbs included in the dough were still evident. These are, quite frankly, the most interesting stale biscuits I've ever eaten. They would be perfect to dip into coffee or to float on a soup. They deserve their own post. 

These biscuits are about as big as an 'O' you could make with your thumb and index finger. 

For a small batch.

1/2 cup A/P flour, no need to concern yourself about sifting

1 tablespoon cold butter rubbed into the flour

1 teaspoon mixed Italian herbs

1/2  teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 grind pepper

1 level teaspoon baking powder (a lot for this amount of dough)

1/4 cup approx. heavy cream or milk.

Bake on high heat until brown. 

I think I'm going to love these with all my heart for now on. Maybe I should get a baking pan or two specifically for mini balls so they can be perfect little balls instead of flat-bottom balls. 

Steak, pigeon peas

Steak fried the usual way for just a few minutes on each side in a cast-iron pan with the burner set to medium high. 

The idea was to make tiny biscuits and float them on a heavily sauced pile of beans. The tiny biscuits turned out a little larger than intended, but Boy, they sure are good. This is so easy to pull off, I urge you to give it a go some time, like NOW, just so you can see for yourself what a snap it is to produce wonderful homemade biscuits for your family, your better half, your significant other, your main squeeze, some bird or bloke you picked up you'd like to impress, yourself, your dog. 

* 1/2 cup flour

* two pats cold butter

* 1/2 teaspoon sugar

* 1/8 teaspoon salt

* 1 grind pepper

* 1/2 teaspoon mixed Italian herbs

* 1 level teaspoon baking powder. (this is a lot of baking powder for this mass of dough)

* aprox. 1/4 cup heavy cream or milk drizzled in to bring the dough together. 

I should say the liquid part is a bit of a trick. The baking powder needs liquid to activate but not so much that it's a goopy mess. Just do the best you can to form little balls. Pour some cream or milk into the bowl used for the dough and roll the balls in the cream or milk to coat them all over for a final touch, or not. These could have been smaller or they could have been larger, any size will work. I used the countertop toaster oven (actually a combination microwave convection oven)

Aren't they adorable? They taste really really really really (4 reallys) good.

Pigeon peas. I never  made pigeon peas before and I hesitated because the picture of green pea-like beans put me off. I imagined something like lima beans. Gandules does not mean pigeon in Spanish. The word for pigeon in Spanish is pichón, or paloma, which is the word I learned for "dove." La gandul is colloquial for lazy, loafer, and idler, and botanically the word for pigeon pea. It's usually made with rice, but I just recently made beans with rice so I wanted to do something different.

I almost didn't show this picture ↓ because it's basically sludge with bumps. A simple roux sauce was started with garlic powder, curry, and cayenne, S/P. Beef stock and cream were added to the desired viscosity. Then finally the beans. 

Okay, here's the thing. I got this t-bone steak for nearly half price. Check it out, Check-It-Outers, and behold the amazing price reduction. It didn't occur to me until I opened the package that the bottom tip is cut straight off, the whole bottom third, in fact. I didn't notice until I tore into it that the tenderloin portion had a bone in it where one usually does not find a bone, and a mean streak of fat running through both sides that are ordinarily clear of such streaks. Still, it was more like a porterhouse than a standard t-bone, but the likes of which I have never seen before, and without its finial tip.  I tried not to hold all that against it while I savagely tore into it like an unmannered beast, but I did then realize why the thing was reduced. And they're gonna have to wake up PRET•ty ear•ly in the mor•ning to pull this one off on ol' Chip again.