Category Archives: I Cook

It’s Easy to Make Butter

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It’s almost time again for the Eat Real Festival in Oakland. I went last year and wish I could have gone on all three days. This festival has something for everyone. There’s a lot of good eats and demonstrations at the festival, you really should give them a visit.

One of my walk-aways from last year was how to make butter. Dang it’s so easy! Why hadn’t I been making butter all along?

Here we go, follow closely now…

Step 1: Fill a mason jar half way with heavy whipping cream.

Step 2: Shake, shake, shake!

Step 3: After 5 minutes, go ahead and take a peek. It looks like whip cream, now get back to shaking!

Step 4: After 7 – 10 minutes you have butter! You could have it now, but I like to shake it some more.

Step 5: after 10 – 15 minutes of shaking, you’ll have a smooth ball of butter.

Ok, some of those steps really aren’t steps. I suppose it comes down to two step steps: fill jar halfway and shake!

Like I said, I learned this last year at the eat real festival; they provided the jars, cream, and music with a good beat to shake, shake, shake.

Making your own butter can be a fun thing to do during Holiday Dinners, just a thought.

Oh, almost forgot to mention, you’ll have buttermilk as a byproduct. It’s some good stuff, so go ahead and give it a swig.

The eat real festival is September 21 – 23, 2012.

 

Joey Little liked this post

More Porchetta!

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Picture of the Day – April 26, 2012

After after having porchetta from the roli roti truck, I had to make my own. I have a habit of over doing it and this was no exception, there’s about 16 pounds of pork here.

Instead of a pork loin, I picked up a pork shoulder, deboned it and slathered it with orange marmalade. I made the marmalade with oranges from a little orange tree in my backyard. The marmalade was actually rather bitter, but it mellowed after roasting for about about six hours. Yeah, it took a while cook.

What do you wrap around five pounds of pork? Let me think, how about 11 pounds of pork belly! I really don’t remember all what I used for the dry rub, but I’m sure it was the usual suspects, salt, pepper, oregano, parsley and garlic. Are you still marveling over that slab of belly? Me too. Hey, wouldn’t that make for some awesome bacon? 

Grilled Steaks

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Picture of the Day – April 23, 2012

To go along with the roasted jalapeños yesterday, I grilled up a steak. Who doesn’t love a grilled steak? Let me share with you a few tips to a delicious tasting, gorgeous looking steak. I usually prep my steaks about a hour ahead of time. Take it out of the package and dab it dry with some paper towels. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on both sides and set on top of a cookie cooling rack…yup, a cooling rack. I want the air to circulate around the steak to give it a nice dry layer, get to room temperature and allow the salt and pepper to create a layer of seasoning. Why do you want the steaks to be dry? You want your steaks dry so they’ll get grill marks, if the steak is wet then it’ll just steam on the grill and not get those marks. While the steaks are drying, get working on the grill, you want your grill to be clean and hot! Before you put your steaks on, you’ll want to coat the grill with a little cooking oil. Now that the steaks are dry, the grill is clean, hot and oiled it’s time to toss them on. I prefer my steaks cooked no more than medium rear which means a one inch thick steak will only spend about 8 – 10 minutes on my grill. I see a lot go people shuffling their steaks around the grill and all I can say is Stop It! Put your steak on the grill and let it sit for two minutes and then rotate it 90 degrees, on the same side, and let sit for two more minutes, this will give it those beautiful grill marks. Now let’s say the steak doesn’t want to move after two minutes, give it 30 seconds more and it should release allowing you to rotate it. Do not rip it off the grill; if you’re having too much trouble then your grill might not have been hot enough. Remember the key is to get the grill hot, clean and oiled. Where was I? Oh yes, now it’s time flip it over and repeat. Two minutes and then rotate, cook two more minutes and the hit up the steak with some more salt and pepper and if you have a fancy olive oil, give it a quick brush, but watch out for the flare up. Give it a try, be patient and you’ll have beautiful looking steaks.

Roasted Jalapeños and Potatoes

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Picture of the Day – April 22, 2012

Ever since the Taco Festival last weekend I’ve had a craving for roasted jalapeños and tonight I satisfied that craving. But I didn’t just roast jalapeños alone, I went ahead and tossed in some fingerling potatoes. It’s real easy to do: I sliced up three red jalapeños and four green jalapeños, you can do how ever many you want. I also kept the seeds but if you don’t want too much kick then you might want to remove them. Be careful not to touch your face after slicing the peppers, it could burn a little. I used a one pound bag of fingerlings and cut them in half, long ways. I tossed the jalapeños and potatoes together with some olive oil, how much oil? Just enough to give it a glistening coating. Then I seasoned with salt and pepper. Oh, I should have mention that you’ll want to preheat your oven to 450. I placed a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and spread it all out in a single layer. I use parchment paper because it makes cleaning up easier. After about 15 minutes I gave everything a stir and roasted for another 15 minutes after which they were done. While the jalapeños and potatoes were roasting, I grilled up a couple steaks. I’d also been craving steaks…

Let’s make some Chocolate Guinness Stout Whoopie Pies!

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It’s time again to make Guinness Whoopie Pies.

I adapted a Chocolate Whoopee Pie recipe from joyofbaking.com, there’s a lot of really good stuff there. Go check them out…but, after you finish reading my blog.

I made two changes to the recipe, otherwise it remained the same. The first change was that I used Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder. I know! Is that cool or what?! I had no idea that they made this; It was like a chocolaty beacon on the shelf, I just had to get some. The other change was instead of using espresso, I used Guinness Stout!

We have three major steps to making the Whoopie Pies: mix the dry ingredients, mix the wet ingredients, mix them together and then make the filling…okay, that four steps. Oh, wait, you also have to cream the butter, so we’re up to five major steps,

Measure out all your dry ingredients. When I measure my dry ingredients I like to dump them on top of parchment paper.

The dry ingredients need to be sifted and it easy to pick it up as a roll and pass through the sifter. Otherwise I would have to use another bowl.

Once sifted, give a quick stir with a whisk to combine and you’ll end up with a velvety looking mix.

Now it’s time for the wet ingredients. Oh, make sure the Guinness is at room temperature before mixing it with the buttermilk.

Let’s see, we have our dry ingredients, our wet ingredients, so now we have to cream the butter with sugar and an egg. I of course used a fresh egg from one of my chickens.

Now you’re ready to combine all three. Dump about a third of the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl, followed by a third of the wet and beat at a medium speed until nicely mixed. Repeat back and forth until it’s all in the mixing bowl and all mixed.

Now remember we’re making Whoopie Pies, so the batter is going to be rich and thick.

Grab a Tablespoon and just plop some on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.

You’ll want to smooth them out a little, so just wet your finger a give ‘em a swab or two.

This recipe will make about 15 Whoopie Pies, which means you’ll be baking 30 halves. Bake in oven at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes.

While the cookies are baking or cooling, make your filling. I used a cream cheese filling recipe that was really for a Red Velvet Whoopie Pie; also from joyofbaking.com. I didn’t change anything from that recipe. I made those Red Velvet Whoopie Pies a while back and oh man! Are they good!

Cream together the butter and cream cheese add the vanilla and start adding the powdered sugar one cup at a time. You don’t want to burn out your blender. Once your filling is ready, load up a pastry bag or use a storage bag and cut off the corner and start squeezing.

Only do half and top them off!

Enjoy!

Chocolate Guinness Stout Whoopie Pies

Print recipe
Serves 15
Website Adapted from Joy of Baking

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cups Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cups butter
  • 3/4 cups granulated white sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup buttermilk
  • 1/2 cup Guinness Stout

Directions

Dry Ingredients
Sift together the flour, dark cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and the salt.
Wet Ingredients
Just add some Guinness Stout to the buttermilk. Make sure the stout is at room temperature.
Cream the butter
Beat the butter and sugar until the mix is light and creamy. Then add the egg and the vanilla extract and beat until well incorporated.
Put it together
Mix the wet and dry with the creamed butter at a slow speed. Alternate back and forth until it’s all mixed in.
Almost done!
Bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes; the tops should be a springy when light touched. Let cool and squeeze on the filling. Remember, you only have to do half. Top them off and enjoy!

Cream Cheese Filling

Print recipe
Website Joy of Baking

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 8oz cream cheese (room temperature)
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

This is easy: just cream together the butter and cream cheese, add the vanilla then the powdered sugar, one cup at a time.

 

Tales From My Belly liked this post

I Love Roasted Potatoes and They’re Easy!

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I like using small potatoes; they cook quicker and are bite sized bits of goodness.

The preparation is rather basic; just add salt, fresh ground black pepper and toss with olive oil.

How much? Just be generous, make sure there’s a nice coating of oil and add enough seasoning that you can see it.

I prefer a cast iron skillet and I do preheat it. Speaking of preheating, I set my oven to 425 degrees.

Depending on the size, they’ll cook anywhere from 20 – 30 minutes. If you like, after about 15 minute, open the oven and give the pan a shake and let some of the potatoes roll over and get crispy brown on the other side. Don’t bother trying to get them all to roll over; you’ll lose too much heat from the oven. Besides, the variation in color makes the potatoes more appetizing.

As a final touch I like to sprinkle a little chili salt on them for a little extra kick.

Just look at that!