Homemade Harissa

Over the past year or more I have been reading more and more about harissa.  I never had tasted it, but figured it should be something that I should try.  I have found dozens upon dozens of recipes using harissa as one of the ingredients, but it wasn't until I was reading At Home in the Whole Food Kitchen, that I actually came across a recipe for it.  I was so thankful to actually have a recipe which to base the flavors off of that I knew I would have to make it.  Besides, it contains all things that I already have in my pantry so why would I go and buy something which I could make in a few minutes at home with ingredients I already had on hand.  At any rate, it is a simple spice mixture to make and delicious and as spicy as you want it to be.

Homemade Harissa
Makes about 1/3 cup

1 tablespoons cumin seeds
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
3/4 tablespoon ground coriander
2 teaspoon ground paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more if you like it spicy)
2 garlic cloves, minced finely
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Warm a small skillet over medium heat and toast the cumin and coriander seeds.  This will take about 2 minutes.  Stir constantly until fragrant.  Transfer seeds to a grinder and grind into a powder.  Add add ingredients to a bowl and stir until smooth.  This makes 1/3 cup and will keep in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for about 2 months.  You can also reduce the amount of olive oil to make it more of a paste if that is what you need in your recipe.

English Muffins

A while ago I struggled to get yeast to work with me.  It seemed that yeast was never going to cooperate, so I let it go.  My French bread tasted good, but just didn't have the airy deliciousness it should have.  Other breads didn't quite rise they way they should.  So I dropped yeast and yeast created items from my cooking and concentrated on cooking.  Then I decided I would try some simpler breads...first was Irish soda bread.  That turned out great; it was easy and tasty.  I thought maybe I should attempt yeast again.  I even made my own sourdough starter from scratch which basically takes natural yeast from the air, so you don't even need to buy any.  I continued to bake with yeast and things suddenly worked out.  I learned that bread and yeast can be very forgiving if you just are patient and watch how things are processing.  I still have mistakes here and there, but overall it just works out better now.

So, last weekend I decided I wanted to make English muffins.  I found a recipe from a book I have from the library, Huckleberry.  I had seen Huckleberry in a store a few weeks back, but thought that I wouldn't buy it for myself as I have a lot of baking books.  I did buy it for a friend as I knew she would like the things in there.  Once it arrived, I only took a morning to look through it before I shipped it to her.  Then, I kept thinking about those polka dot pages and decided to borrow it from the library, so I could spend more time reading through it to decide if I really wanted to own it.  The pictures are beautiful.  I couldn't get past the English muffin recipe, so I decide that I must make them.  They turned out beautifully and tomorrow my co-workers are going to get the benefit of me liking to spend time in my kitchen.

English Muffins
3 cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
3 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
3 1/2 tablespoons honey
6 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 1/2 teaspoons salt
2/3 cup cornmeal

Warm 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk in the microwave, just until lukewarm (and a finger placed in it doesn't feel cold).  Be sure it doesn't get warmer than about 110 F or else the yeast will die.  Place 1 1/2 cups of the buttermilk in a kitchen aid bowl along with the 2 tablespoons of yeast.  Whisk to combine.  Add the warm buttermilk and whisk again to blend.  Add the butter, honey, flour, sugar and salt.  Mix on low speed with a dough hook for about a minute.  Once the dough has come together, turn the speed to medium and work the work for 1-2 additional minutes or until it is smooth.  Transfer the dough to a greased bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour.

Remove dough from the refrigerator.  Sprinkle 1/3 cup of the cornmeal onto a clean work surface.  Dump the dough onto it.  Sprinkle the top with additional cornmeal.  Pat into a circle about an inch thick.  Sprinkle the remaining cornmeal onto a cookie sheet.  Cur into 3 inch rounds.  Be efficient as you cannot use any unused dough (due to the cornmeal being mixed in).  Arrange the muffins on a cookie sheet and let rise at room temperature for an hour.  (At this point you can also refrigerate and then let them rise at room temperature for an hour the next morning.)

About 30 minutes before you want to bake, preheat your oven to 350 F.  Heat a cast iron pan or griddle over medium high heat.  Drop the English muffins into the pan and cook for about 1 minute per side until each side is golden brown.

Return the muffins to the cookie sheet and immediately bake for about 10 minutes.  They should be light and fluffy when removed from the pan.  If you have more than one sheet bake it as soon as the last muffin comes off the pan.  Makes about a dozen.

(Note: I didn't want to waste the dough, so I did combine the dough into two additional muffins, but the insides had cornmeal throughout the dough, so was not the typical English muffin, but they baked up nicely.)  These will keep up to 3 days at room temperature.

Quiche Lorraine

If you haven't tried Quiche Lorraine, you really should.  My husband is not a big fan of quiches, but they are something that has always struck a cord.  They remind me of Easter Sunday where sometimes the maker knew what they were doing and it turned out well, but the other times the quiche was wet and leaky and just not so good.  (Those were more the mass produced for a large group of people.)  Quiche Lorraine is different though because it isn't a thick quiche, so the flavors of whatever you put in it - in this case crisp bacon and a bit of cheese - really comes through without having to weed through all the eggy batter to figure out what the flavor should be.

Another good memory of Quiche Lorraine was on a visit to Germany.  My parents had an exchange student whose family I was visiting.  They live on the boarder with France.  One of the many delicious meals I ate with the family included a Quiche Lorraine.  It was quickly put together and it helped feed the family gathering we were at one afternoon.

I was reading through Homemade by Clodagh McKenna which is where I stumbled across her version of Quiche Lorraine.  This is based off her recipe.

Quiche Lorraine  (serves about 8)
Pastry:
1 1/2 cups flour
pinch of salt
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1 egg, slightly beaten

Filling:
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
bacon - I used thick cut bacon, about 5 -6 pieces fried (about a cup), broken or cut into pieces
4 eggs beaten
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup cream
salt and pepper to taste

Pastry: sift the flour and salt into a bowl.  Rub in the cold butter until you have a small crumbly texture.  Add the egg and and bring the mixture together to form a dough.  (Add water if the mixture is too dry.)  Wrap in plastic and place in the refrigerator for half an hour.  Remove from the refrigerator and roll out the dough into a big round.  Butter a tart pan and place the dough on it.  Chill again until the filling ingredients are ready.

Preheat the oven to 375F.  Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place parchment and dough weights in the center.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Remove the pie weights and parchment and return the pie shell to the oven for another 3-5 minutes.  Reduce the oven temperature to 325F.  Sprinkle the cheese onto the bottom of the pie shell.  Sprinkle the bacon bits on top of the cheese.  Combine the eggs, milk and cream and whisk.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Pour the mixture over the bacon and cheese.  Trim the pastry.  Bake for 30-40 minutes or until set.  Remove from the oven and let cool.  This will allow the pastry to set a bit more as it cools.  Slice and serve.