Tunisian Tuna Bricks

I made this quick meal from a cookbook we just got in at the library, Comfort Pie. Since I'm in charge of that area I look at all the books that come in, and was surprised to find a recipe in this locally published book that used harissa. As the title of the book suggests, there is not a lot of healthy cooking contained in the pages, and this recipe is no exception. A fried pastry was not something I was willing to take up, and I couldn't find any brick pastry, but regular pyhllo dough baked in the oven worked as well.

Ingredients:
1 can tuna in water
2-3 tsp harrisa
eggs
red onion
red bell pepper
lemon
corriander
cumin
salt and pepper
cilantro
Phyllo dough sheets


The tuna is drained and mixed with the harissa paste, cumin, coriander, and salt and pepper to taste. I chopped half a red pepper and about a fourth of a good sized red onion and the good parts left from a sad looking bunch of cilantro I found in the back of the fridge. This went into the tuna mixture. The recipe called for more onion, cilantro, and pepper to be made into a salad, but I didn't have much cilantro. I added some lemon juice to the tuna for flavor.

 Part of the tuna is portioned onto two sheets of phyllo dough and a well made in the center and an egg yolk with a little of the white is placed in the center of the tuna. Then the top of the phyllo is wrapped around and folded up and sealed with water. I sprayed the top with some cooking spray and placed the packets in an oven that had been preheated to 375 degrees.

 I cooked it for about 10 minutes and check it, and then let it cook for about 5 minutes more. It probably could have gone a few minutes more, but I was hungry!

The Verdict: There was a nice balance of flavors and textures with the spice from the harissa, the fatty egg yolk, the crunchy phyllo exterior. It was not as light as some of the things I cook, but it was very satisfying and the phyllo actually was the perfect amount of "bread" to tuna salad. I was worried about how the egg would work in it, but I love a runny egg yolk, and this made a nice sauce for the tuna. I re-heated the second one in a sauce pan that was really hot--it got the phyllo extra crispy and was just as good. I still have some of the tuna left, so I plan on making a few more later!

Diet Books--Peanut Butter Dream Bars

So I have a whole bunch of cookbooks in my collection that promise to help you cook yourself skinny, and since I'm always looking for healthy recipes so I can keep my girlish figure I wanted to give some a try. This dessert sounded delicious and easy, and perfect to pack for work to have as an afternoon snack. I love the combo of peanut butter and chocolate, so I thought this would be perfect. What I didn't scrutinize was the amounts of each ingredient the recipe called for to reach the enviable amount of 150 some odd calories per bar. Let's say to create something like what was pictured took a few more ingredients than was listed.

Ingredients:
1/2 c 100 calorie Oreo Thins
1/2 c Old-fashioned Rolled Oats
1/3 c confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbs whipped light butter melted then chilled
1/4 c creamy natural reduced sodium peanut butter
1 1/2 oz greek yogurt cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbs semi sweet chocolate chips (this is doubled from the original)

I actually bought a loaf pan--for this and for the bread I've started to make, and for this dish it is lined with wax paper.

So the recipe says low calorie thin chocolate wafers--not sure what they were thinking of, and the only low calorie option I saw were these 100 calorie packs. So I used 3 packages--ground them fine in the blender. Then combined the resulting powder with the oats, the powdered sugar, and 1/4 tsp salt. Once that was mixed, I added the melted butter and stirred it to make sure all of the dry ingredients were moistened, then mixed in a tablespoon of peanut butter.

That went into the wax paper prepared pan, and is spread thin across the bottom to make a crust. It is a pretty thin layer in the loaf pan I had, and was a struggle to get it across the whole pan. Once that was down, the pan went into the fridge to chill for about 10 minutes.

While that chilled, the cream cheese was supposed to be beat with an electric mixer. That is the approximately two tablespoons of cream cheese are supposed to be whipped with a beater--only it is such a small amount that it mostly just spread it around a lot. Not really helpful or useful. It is supposed to get smooth and fluffy--only there is so little I abandoned the beater and mixed it with my spoon. Once it was smooth, I added the rest of the peanut butter, vanilla, and salt and tried to get it smooth and fluffy with the beater--but it still wasn't much for the beater to work with, so I used the spoon. It was supposed to double in size, but didn't really work so well. By the time I'd finished this, the first layer was chilled enough to spread the peanut butter on top. It actually was the layer that covered the best--the only one that there was actually enough to cover the whole pan bottom. That went into the freezer for 10 minutes to get firm

Once that was out, I went to spread the melted chocolate chips on top. Unfortunately it didn't cover even half of the pan, and I ended up melting more to cover the whole thing. Partially this was because the frozen layer made the chocolate freeze up, but mostly it was because there just wasn't enough chocolate. This is a re-occurring theme in this recipe. In order to get the calorie count down low they didn't add enough of each ingredients to cover the whole pan. This is sort of ironic because the portion size is really big--I'd rather have more of each item in each bite, then a ton of sad bites.

Once the chocolate was spread, it went in the fridge until it was all set. Then I cut it into 8 slices--as the recipe suggested. The chocolate shattered, and didn't stick well to the layer below it. Once I saw how big the slices were I cut them in half again, to make 16 portions. With the peanut butter and butter, it is plenty rich in the half sized bite.



The Verdict: The flavor combination is great, but the texture was off. I think if I were to make this again, I'd not grind the wafers as small and not freeze it in between the peanut butter layer and the chocolate layer. As it is the top is crunchy chocolate and the bottom is chewy and soft--where it should be more crunchy. Still it is a peanut buttery dream flavor--like a little candy treat!

Yogurt Harissa Marinated Chicken and Veg

 So once I made that lovely pot of harissa I wanted to find ways to use it, so I found a way to add it to one of my very favorite dishes roasted veg and chicken. I ate masses of roasted veg and chicken the entire time I was losing weight, though usually I did more of a southwest flavor. The thing I love about this is that you can have a lovely large portion of veggies with a little protein and the whole thing can be eaten in a whole bunch of ways over the course of the week.

Ingredients:

1 giant eggplant
3 medium/small zucchini
1 medium yellow onion
2 bunches of asparagus
1 1/2 cups butternut squash
8 oz baby bella mushrooms
2 large chicken breasts
2 small chicken thighs, skin and bone removed.

Marinade 

2 cups greek yogurt
3 tablespoons harrisa
lemon zest and lemon juice
1 cup cilantro chopped
1 tsp ras al haunot
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander ground
salt and pepper




This is a pretty basic recipe. Mix the harissa with the yogurt, spices, and lemon. Chop the chicken and veggies and toss them all in the yogurt marinade. I did do the chicken earlier than the veggies and did it separately because I didn't want the veggies to break down or spend as much time with the chicken juices. I stuck them all in the fridge for a couple of hours until I was ready to eat.





I put all the veggies on sheet pans lined with foil and stuck them in a 395 degree oven. I cooked them for 10 minutes and then added the chicken and asparagus I had reserved (since it doesn't need as long to cook), and cooked for another 20 minutes, or until the chicken looked done.

The Verdict: This simple dish has so much flavor from the harrisa, the lemon, and all the spices--the chicken is incredibly tender and moist, and the veggies are good cold or hot. I served it with a wedge of my crusty 4 grain bread, and have been eating it all week. I made enough for lunches and dinners, and have yet to get sick of the incredible flavors and textures. The eggplant is really flavorful, and the squashes are tender, and it is just one of those easy dishes that tastes so much better than the amount of effort it takes to prepare--plus it is super healthy!

Bread Attempt #2

So while contemplating my first bread attempt, with its long and relatively specific and complicated directions, I pulled another book (this one still in the library's collection) called Artisan Breads Every Day to compare the techniques. This is another long process with low kneading requirements. I don't have a stand mixer and my sister's is broken, so I wanted to give this a try to see how it compares. Partially because I wanted to make a whole wheat bread, and this book had one I had all the ingredients for in my house (I didn't have to borrow any ingredients from my sister, but I did anyways. It is good that she doesn't read this blog!)


This makes two loaves, but I'm already making another loaf, so I divided it in half. Hopefully that doesn't screw up the bread.

Ingredients:
14 oz whole wheat flour
.25 oz kosher salt
3/4 tbs agave nectar (thanks Emily!)
1/2 tbs yeast
11 oz lukewarm water
1 tbs vegetable oil


The dry ingredients are added together--including the sugar, but not the yeast (I may have done that at first and had to redo this!), and mixed to combine. The yeast is combined with the lukewarm water and the agave nectar--stirred until they are combined and the yeast has dissolved. Then the oil is added and whisked. The wet mixture is then added to the dry ingredients until the flour is all moistened.



At this point the dough is set aside for the flour to fully absorb the moisture, 5 minutes--I may have lost track of time, but came back and got on. I don't have a stand mixer, but I have a hand one with a dough hook, so I employed it for this next step. The dough is supposed to be stirred for 4 minutes at medium low speed increasing to medium high for the last 30 seconds--my dough was pretty dry so I added two tablespoons of water one at a time while I stirred. This was pretty hard for me--even with the mixer it was a lot of work.

After the dough was stirred enough I dumped it on a lightly floured surface and begun the fold and stretch part. Basically you pull from the bottom of the ball towards yourself and then wrap around to the other side, do that from each side, wrapping it. Then it goes into an oiled bowl and sits for 10 minutes at room temperature and then the same dump, pull, stretch, and wrap. This is repeated 3 additional times with 10 minutes in between.


After the final time, it goes into an oiled bowl, is covered well with plastic wrap, and goes into the fridge at least overnight, but for as much as 4 days. It does a lot of raising in the fridge--not only was it visibly bigger, but big bubbles appeared on the top. I pulled it out around 1 pm, after about 20 or so hours later.

Normally it would be divided into two loaves, but I'd split the recipe in half. So I dumped it on a floured surface and formed a loaf by pulling the edges towards the center. The book had some nice illustrations to demonstrate how to do this. I'm not sure I did it right but it is supposed to be a homestyle hearth loaf, not a fancy shaped loaf. I placed it on a sheet of parchment paper with cornmeal on bottom on top of an inverted sheet pan. It is covered with an oiled plastic sheet and let rise for about 3 hours until it had doubled or more. I kind of lost track of time, so I'm not sure how long it was, but you can see how much bigger it is.
The oven requires a specific set up for this type of bread--different from the last one, but a similar principle. The idea is to create a heated place to put the bread, rather than just put the pan in a preheated oven. So this is trying to recreate your stone hearth of yore or brick oven. I didn't have any kind of pizza stone, tile, or stone anything. But my sister had this heavy duty stoneware casserole that I borrowed--I'm dog sitting and she told me to make myself at home so I did. It goes into a 500 degree oven, along with a sheet pan. The two racks are moved to the bottom two slots, and pre-heat for at least 40 minutes. They need to be really hot to create the right environment to cook the bread.

About 15 minutes before it needs to cook, I took off the plastic and cut two parallel cuts in the bread dough and let it relax.  Then it is transferred into the prepared oven. This was pretty tricky with the casserole as opposed to a pizza stone or other flat stone. So the loaf got distorted, and since it was so hot it really started to bake right away. I poured a cup of very hot water into the sheet pan below, and reduced the oven's temperature to 425 and cooked for 15 minutes and then turned the pan and cooked for another 15 minutes. It had browned very well so I pulled it out and let it rest for 15 minutes before tearing into it.

The Verdict: This is a nice soft intensely wheaty bread. The wheat is perhaps a little bitter--it could use more agave or honey or sugar to balance out the amount of wheat. That said, it has a really nice crumb, with a lovely texture. I'm actually surprised at how soft and moist it is considering it isn't enriched. The crust isn't too hard, but goes well with the soft interior. I will try this again, increasing the sugar and maybe cutting the whole wheat with some white flour to moderate the taste--or adding some flavor counterpoint.

Kneadlessly Simple--my first loaf of bread

I'll admit to being a breadlover--while I don't pair every main course with a carb, I just love a good bread, and so does my family. We used to joke that we could eat our fill out of the bread bowl at family dinners and not even need an entree. But I can't say that we ate a lot of homemade bread growing up--besides the good old bread machine. I have to say I didn't love the texture of the crust on it, though it never stopped me from eating it. So in my quest to learn to cook, baking bread seemed like a skill I would naturally love to develop. I even had a book in my collection that made it sound easy, so I'm giving it a try.

The book I'm baking from is called Kneadlessly Simple and promises Fabulous, Fuss-Free, no-knead breads. While it says simple and easy, this is no quick recipe where you toss a few things together and have results right away. Rather it is putting things together and letting time do its business. Lots of hurry up and wait.

Ingredients:
3 cups unbleached bread flour
1/2 c yellow cornmeal, plus some for garnish
1/2 c old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 c whole wheat bread flour (the original called for rye, which I didn't have)
1 tbs granulated sugar
2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp fast rising yeast
2 c ice water
cooking spray

Baking like this is a lot of science, so I broke out the scale to get exact measurements--I borrowed the bread flour from my sister--if she was not out of town I'd get her to try some of the bread. Mix dry ingredients thoroughly--including the sugar and yeast--and then add the cold water. I added it slowly to try and get the dry ingredients moistened slowly, since the flour seemed to absorb as much water as it could and was kind of difficult to get all of the flour mixture moistened. The dough was, as the recipe indicated, quite stiff. The dough is sprayed with the cooking oil, covered, and stuck in the fridge for 3 to 10 hours.

The book says two rises--but there are really three in the book. First is when it rises in the fridge--which it does quite a bit, and then in a cool place for 12-18 hours, and then a regular raise in a warm place. These three rises are supposed to substitute for kneading, with the flavor developing as well. The idea is that while this takes more than 24 hours to make, most of it can be done while you sleep or at work.


Anyway, around 8 at night, I pulled the dough out of the fridge and set it on the counter top to raise. I lowered the temp in the house to a cool 66 degrees, so the bread would have a nice slow time rising. I covered it with plastic wrap and sprayed the top with oil.





         In the morning the dough had doubled, and you could see an incredible array of bubbles and air pockets along the side of the bowl. I liked being able to see the dough in the clear bowl--science in action! I let it work for a few more hours, not starting the second rise until after my water aerobics.

So with an oiled rubber spatula I lifted from the corners and folded it into the center to deflate it and begin the second raise. I turned the heat back up and let that rise for two and a half hours. About twenty minutes before it was to go into the oven, I put my dutch oven in the oven and preheated both to 450. The book suggests dropping water in to make sure it is hot enough--it got sizzling!

The dough is dumped into the screaming hot pan--which is easier said than done. It turned out somewhat inelegantly in the pan and it was so hot it started cooking right away and couldn't be shifted. I used a pair of scissors to cut a circle in the top of the bread, sprinkled the top with water, and sprinkled it with cornmeal.

I lowered the temperature of the oven to 425, and the bread goes into the oven with the lid on for 50 minutes. During that time the whole house begun smelling deliciously of baking bread. At 50 minutes cooking, the lid comes off and it bakes for another 15 minutes, or until the thermometer reads between 210-212. I have to say mine didn't get quite that high, even though I let it bake the 15 minutes and then the extra 5 minutes it recommended. The top was getting really brown, and I was worried about burning it. I pulled it out and let it sit in the pot for a good 15 minutes, and then tore into it and had a big chunk with my beef and vegetable tagine.

The Verdict: This is a crusty bread with a surprisingly moist interior. I expected such a lean bread to be drier, but it is deliciously tender, with a really crunchy crust. There is a good amount of flavor developed here from the long rising and the four grains. I have to admit I want to eat this whole loaf in one sitting--but it is so good warm and delicious out of the oven. I am pretty proud of my very first loaf of bread--it is a big step above being just edible!