ABLR 2: Poor Boy Stroganoff and Caramel Dumplings

It's been a lazy weekend, perfect for getting together with friends and cooking and eating. Yesterday a friend made Ina Garten's Fresh Pea Soup for dinner and it was the perfect dish for a nice, spring evening. I'm adding it to my binder of favorite recipes.

Today The Geek and I have been at our respective computers, working (him) and puttering (me) all day long. We took a break to have a yummy udon and sushi lunch at one of our favorite haunts and then I took a VERY LONG nap. (Lazy weekends are also perfect for long naps.)

We've also been snacking on goodies and before I knew it, it was 630 p.m. and neither of us was particularly hungry. Also, sometimes The Geek forgets to eat (HOW ON EARTH DOES ONE DO THAT?) and so I like to leave his fridge stocked up with leftovers when I am not going to see him for a few days. I've been wanting to try the "Poor Boy Stroganoff" in my America's Best Lost Recipes cookbook and so I went ahead and made it with plans to leave most of it behind.

What do the words "Beef Stroganoff" bring to mind for you? For me, it's chunks of beef in a creamy white sauce with a ton of sour cream served over egg noodles. But every recipe on the Cook's Illustrated family of sites involves tomatoes and red wine and The Geek says that is how he has always eaten it. A quick wikipedia search revealed that, while stroganoff with the tomato/red wine sauce is how the dish originated in Russia, it is the British that generally serve it with the creamy white sauce. WHEW! Nice to know I'm not crazy afterall!

Stroganoff is also apparently usually made with beef tenderloin which is a very expensive cut of meat. This recipe is made with ground beef, thus the "Poor Boy" moniker. The Test Kitchen decided to make it as a hearty casserole rather than a sauce poured over noodles, and we decided we like it this way too. 

Recently another friend introduced me to packaged salad mixes that are now available in most megamart grocery stores. These bags of salad, which run about $4 and makes about 4 small side salads, include everything you need to make a yummy salad, such as greens, dressing, dried fruit, and nuts or other crunchy toppings. Normally I wouldn't buy these packaged mixes when I'm at home - I prefer to make things from scratch, which is way more economical - but at The Geek's house, they are perfect and convenient. I picked up a bag of pear gorgonzola salad but decided we weren't going to eat it tonight since neither of us were too hungry. I'm looking forward to sharing that with the kids tomorrow evening.

A second recipe that I tried earlier this week was for Caramel Dumplings. The concept is simple: make a caramel sauce and then bake the dough in it so that you infuse the dumplings with caramel flavor and you have a lovely sauce to spoon over. A few weeks ago I made the Cook's Illustrated recipe for Burnt Sugar Ice Cream and absolutely loved it and so I was eager to try this as well.

You can see from this photo why these are considered dumplings and not biscuits. The dough is dropped into the syrup much in the same way that dumplings are dropped into chicken soup.




Sadly, I can't say I loved this. The dumplings didn't have much flavor - they certainly weren't "infused" with caramel - and the sauce ended up being a little thick so it didn't pour well. (That was my fault - I reduced the caramel syrup even though the recipe did not include instructions to do so.) The kids both loved the biscuits though and happily ate them with ice cream.

Busy Mom Modifications and Tips

• The dumplings are best eaten fresh from the oven, when the sauce is warm and runny.
• I find that pasta casserole dishes turn out best if you seriously undercook the pasta. Then when you bake the casserole, the noodles will absorb some of the sauce and take on a richer, deeper flavor. Plus they won't be so mushy after baking.
• I haven't tried this but I imagine the casserole can be assembled and frozen for baking at a later time.
• Summer will be here soon and I am always reluctant to run the oven when it's hot out. This dish is definitely worth making again but I think I'll explore the skillet and slow-cooker versions next time.

The Results

• The Geek and I both loved the Stroganoff.
• Kids loved the Caramel Dumpling but I didn't think they had much flavor.

Ratings

• Difficulty: Both are easy to make although you need an oven-safe skillet for the Caramel Dumplings
• Time to prepare:
• Poor Boy Stroganoff: 20 minutes prep time, 20 minutes baking time
• Caramel Dumplings: 5 minutes prep time, 30 minutes baking time, 10 minutes cooling time
• Prognosis: I'm willing to make both these dishes again

My Shopping List

• For the stroganoff, I just happened to have everything on hand for the sauce but some of the more unlikely ingredients included ground beef, red wine and sour cream and I had to buy the egg noodles.
• I had everything for the caramel biscuits.

America's Best Lost Recipes 1: Brooklyn Cheese Puffs and Amish Pickled Beets and Eggs

I am a huge fan of Cook's Illustrated and their brands, America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country. Recently I happened on their cookbook, "America's Best Lost Recipes: 121 Kitchen-Tested Heirloom Recipes Too Good to Forget," and I knew I had to buy it. In this day and age, when almost every cookbook seems to include the words "Just 3 ingredients" or "15 Minute Meals" in the title, the idea of cooking food from back when people actually cooked is very appealing to me. And if the the book doesn't grab you philosophically, the recipes - along with charming stories and delectable photos - inside definitely will.

Some of the recipes you'll find inside:

• Amish Pickled Beets and Eggs
• Grandpa Cooley's Angry Deviled Eggs (called this because Grandpa Cooley hated kids, including his own grandkids, so he loaded the Deviled Eggs with horseradish)
• Poor Boy Stroganoff
• Mile High Bologna Pie
• Fluffies and Bops (variations of pancakes)
• Naked Ladies with Their Legs Crossed (Spiced Crullers)
• Monkey Bread
• Caramel Biscuits (biscuits baked in a caramel sauce)
• Joe Froggers (Salty, chewy, molasses rum cookies)

An added bonus of cooking from this book is that many of the recipes came from depression-era days when pantries were stocked with the most basic staples and not much else. I found that most of the things I wanted to try called for ingredients I already keep on hand.

My daughter loves cheese and so "Brooklyn Cheese Puffs" was the first recipe I tried. I don't exactly know how to describe them... The words FANTASTICALLY DELICIOUS come to mind when you pop one of these chewy, cheesy balls into your mouth while it is still piping hot, fresh from the oven. Thanks to the ricotta and a minimal amount of flour, they are not so much 'biscuit-like' but rather just a little bit chewy. And salty. And cheesy. MMMMM...

We ate them along with our dinner of spaghetti and meatballs and crudite, but they would make a yummy hor d'oeuvre or appetizer as well.

My second choice was something I made for purely selfish reasons: "Amish Pickled Beets and Eggs." Selfish since I am the only one in the house that eats beets. This recipe starts with canned beets and couldn't be easier. You jazz up the beet juice with some sugar, cider vinegar, bay leaves and cloves and then let the eggs sit for 1-2 days. The result is a surprisingly zippy, yummy, flavorful pickled egg.

Busy Mom Modifications and Tips

• Both these dishes were super easy to make, although you have to plan some in advance. The Cheese Puffs have to sit in the freezer for at least 30 minutes before baking and the pickled eggs should sit for 24 -48 hours in order for the marinade to fully penetrate
• There is a benefit to freezing the cheese puff dough before you bake them. While it extends the cooking time if you are planning on eating them at the same time you make them, it is a blessing if you like to stock your freezer with homemade "convenience" items like I do. They are perfect for parties, unexpected guests, or a quick snack.

The Results

• The cheese puffs were delicious and both kids gobbled them down.
• I really like the pickled eggs, as does The Geek, who is also a beet-lover.

Ratings

• Difficulty: Both are easy
• Time to prepare:
  
  • About an hour for the cheese puffs, including freezer and baking time.
  • Fifteen minutes plus 1-2 days pickling time for the eggs
• Prognosis: I will be making both these dishes again

My Shopping List

• Sharp cheddar cheese and ricotta
• Canned beets

A New Experiment: Cooking from Cookbooks

My mother has been back east, visiting my sister, for the past month. In her absence my food hoarding has gone unchecked and I have taken over one of her refrigerators and one of her freezers. Time to get cooking and get the stores back down to their one-fridge/freezer quantities before she gets back.

Despite my resolve to only have one bookshelf of cookbooks, I have recently acquired several new books and my collection is now spilling over into a second bookcase. Some were gifts or recommendations from friends but most were impulse buys thanks to the myriad of cooking shows and podcasts that I now watch or listen to regularly. I've also discovered that I can have almost unlimited cookbooks via my iPad, but e-cookbooks are decidedly less satisfying than their physical counterparts. There's nothing quite like seeing the books lined up on my shelf, pulling one out, leafing through the sections, turning to where the book naturally falls open from frequent use, pages warped from splattered ingredients.

Once in a while, I'll pull a cookbook from the shelf and make only recipes from that book for a week or two. I think I'm going to go with that plan for a while. It will give me a chance to explore some of my recent acquisitions, re-visit old favorites, and hopefully introduce my friends to some gems you may not be familiar with.