Strawberry fields and fruit leather

It's strawberry season so my husband and I decided to go pick strawberries at a small farm in Carnation, WA since a) they're sweeter and more delicious than anything you can buy in the store and b) they're $1/pound. I didn't really think about the fact that I'm 8+ months pregnant and bending down to pick berries can only happen for so long before I get sore, tired, and cranky. We picked the perfect day to go, so being in the sun made bending down to pick berries not seem so bad. We must have been super speedy, or we must not have eaten as many of the berries we picked as the people around us, because we had 14 pounds in about a half hour.

I knew I wanted to freeze most of the berries, but I also wanted to try out some new recipes: strawberry crumb bars and strawberry fruit leather. The crumb bars turned out ok, but I want to try making some changes, so I'll post that recipe later. The fruit leather turned out great! It wasn't difficult to make, but it took a long time. However, the result was a thick, strawberry-y fruit leather that reminded me of the natural kind you can buy for $0.50+ each. I want to try this recipe with other fruit... I'm thinking peach fruit leather sounds good when peaches are in season in our area.

I didn't make any changes to the recipe I found on Epicurious. I was initially concerned about the amount of sugar, thinking it would taste too sweet when it was finished, but it turned out great! I may try making it again with less sugar just to see how it turns out, but I was definitely satisfied with the result this time.

You definitely need some sort of pan liner, such as a Silpat, to prevent the hot strawberry mixture from sticking. Parchment paper is helpful as well to remove the fruit leather from the Silpat.

 

Strawberry Fruit Leather (from www.epicurious.com)

Ingredients

1 1/2 lb strawberries, halved (4 1/2 cups)

3/4 cup sugar

Equipment

17- by 12-inch nonstick bakeware liner such as a Silpat

parchment paper

a large offset spatula

Purée strawberries with sugar in a blender until smooth, then strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a large heavy saucepan.

Bring purée to a boil, then simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally (more frequently toward end), until thick enough to mound slightly and reduced to 1 to 11/4 cups, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 200°F with rack in middle. Line a large baking sheet with nonstick liner.

Pour hot purée onto liner and spread thinly (as evenly as possible) into a 15- by 10-inch rectangle using spatula. Dry purée in oven until it feels drier (it shouldn't stick to your fingers) but is still slightly tacky, 2 to 3 hours.

Cool on liner on a rack until completely dry, at least 3 hours and up to 24. I left it out for 24 hours just to make sure it wasn't too sticky.

Place a sheet of parchment paper over leather, then peel leather off liner, slice using a knife or pizza cutter, and roll up in parchment.

The Best Fried Chicken and Biscuits

My hubby loves fried chicken. Growing up, his dad used to make it he says "all the time." I've had his dad's fried chicken tenders and they are delicious, but not his nor my husbands previous attempts at fried chicken can compare to this. We have had this twice in the past month and even talked about having this fried chicken for Thanksgiving this year instead of turkey! It is much more labor intensive than I usually like, but SO worth it! The recipe comes from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home cookbook, named after his restaurant in the Napa Valley that we have had the opportunity to visit a few times. He is an expert and making simple dishes absolutely fantastic. Everything we've eaten there is the best version of that dish we've ever had. Check out the restaurant's website at Adhocrestaurant.com.

The brine that the chicken sits in for 12 hours is not your typical brine - it contains not just salt, but honey, lemons, herbs, and garlic. The chicken is moist and flavorful and the coating is crunchy and complex in flavor. The cayenne adds something to the coating that makes you just want to keep eating it. It is perfectly salty and not too greasy. Basically, if it were good for you, I would want to eat it a few times a week for dinner!

To make this, you need to make the brine the night before, chill the brine, then brine the chicken for 12 hours. The chicken needs to come to room temperature (about 1 1/2 hours) before you dredge it and fry it. We used a dutch oven (for even heat distribution) on an electric stove to fry ours, and although it tasted great, there were spots that were darker than others due to the uneven cooking. The best option would be a deep fryer, but if not, a big dutch oven on a gas stove works well too.

Thomas Keller's biscuits are amazing too, but I'll have to share that recipe another day.

The key is to start with the dark meat at an oil temperature of 320 degrees F, cooking the thighs for a specific amount of time as well as the legs. Then you turn up the heat so the oil reaches 340 degrees F, cooking the breasts and wings each for a specific amount of time. All the pieces will be golden brown, crunchy, and cooked through.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken (adapted from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home cookbook)

Chicken Brine

3 small or 2 large lemons, halved

6 bay leaves

1/2 bunch thyme (about 1/2 ounce)

1/4 cup honey

1/2 head garlic, halved so all the cloves are exposed

2 Tbl black peppercorns

1 cup (5ounces) kosher salt

1 gallon water

Combine all the ingredients in a large pot, cover, and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute, stirring to dissolve the salt. Remove from the heat and cool completely, then chill before using. Brine can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Fried Chicken

One 3 to 3 1/2 pound chicken or about the same weight in chicken parts (bone-in, skin-on)

Peanut or canola oil for frying

2 cups buttermilk

Salt and pepper (freshly ground is best)

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 Tbl garlic powder

2 Tbl onion podwer

2 teaspoons paprika

2 teaspoons cayenne

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Cut the chicken into 10 pieces: 2 legs, 2 thighs, 4 breast quarters, and 2 wings. Pour the brine into a container large enough to hold the chicken pieces, add in the chicken, and refrigerate for 12 hours (no longer or the chicken may become too salty).

Remove chicken from brine and discard brine. Rinse chicken under cold water, removing any herbs sticking to the skin. Pat dry with paper towels and let rest at room temperature for 1 1/2 hours or until chicken is room temperature.

Fill a large pot with oil up to no more than 1/3 of the way up the sides of the pot (at least 2 inches of oil) and heat to 320 degrees F. Set cooling rack over a baking sheet. Line a second baking sheet with parchment paper.

Meanwhile, combine all the coating ingredients in a large bowl (flour, garlic and onion powders, paprika, cayenne, salt, pepper). Set up a dipping station: the chicken pieces, one bowl of coating, the bowl of buttermilk, the second bowl of coating, and the parchment-lined baking sheet.

Just before frying, dip the chicken thighs into the first bowl of coating, turning to coat and patting off the excess; dip them into the buttermilk, allowing the excess to run back into the bowl; then dip them into the second bowl of coating. Transfer to parchment-lined pan.

Carefully lower the thighs into the hot oil. Adjust the heat as necessary to return the oil to the proper temperature. Fry for 2 minutes, then carefully move the chicken pieces around in the oil and continue to fry, monitoring the oil temperature and turning the pieces as necessary for even cooking, for 11 to 12 minutes, until the chicken is a deep golden brown, cooked through, and very crisp. Meanwhile, coat the chicken drumsticks and transfer to the parchment-lined baking sheet.

Transfer the cooked thighs to the cooling rack skin side up and let rest while you fry the remaining chicken. (Or, you can put the chicken, on the cooling rack, in a 220 degree F oven while you fry the other pieces to keep it warm. You can keep adding the cooked chicken to the pan while you fry the remaining pieces.) Make sure the oil is at the correct temperature, and cook the chicken drumsticks. When drumsticks are done, lean them meat side up against the thighs to drain.

Turn up the heat and heat the oil to 340 degrees F. Meanwhile, coat the chicken breasts and wings. Carefully lower the breasts into the hot oil and fry for 7 minutes, or until golden brown, cooked through, and crisp. Transfer to the rack skin side up. Cook the wings for 6 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through. Transfer the wings to the rack and turn off the heat.

(If you're not sure about any of the chicken being cooked completely, you can always use a meat thermometer to make sure it is 165 degrees F internally.)

Arrange the chicken on a serving platter and serve while hot! We love the room temperature and even cold fried chicken too. Basically, you can't go wrong with this recipe. Enjoy!

 

I can't believe there's no butter!

I helped throw a shower for a friend of mine and I was in charge of bringing the desserts. My friend can’t eat any dairy, but the only thing I could think of that didn’t contain butter was meringues and biscotti. My meringues never turn out very well, and biscotti sounded ok, but I wanted something that sounded really good. Then I remembered making chocolate crinkle cookies in high school. One of my friends from high school, now my sister-in-law, made chocolate crinkles often and I remembered her recipe using oil instead of butter. I looked around online to try to find a recipe that had good reviews and I came across one from Simplyrecipes.com. It sounded good, had good reviews, and in my mind only required one alteration: more salt. The recipe called for ½ teaspoon salt, but since I usually use salted butter in my baking and there was no butter in this recipe, I knew I would need more salt. A whole teaspoon more, in fact. And it turned out perfectly salty so that the chocolate flavor really came out.

Besides the 4+ hours the dough needs to chill in the refrigerator, these are some of the easiest cookies ever. I didn’t use a mixer at all, although you can if you’d like. They can be mixed by hand since there is only oil and no butter to incorporate. The messy part is rolling them into balls before dunking in powdered sugar, but otherwise, only one bowl to wash.

My brother-in-law tasted these cookies and said they were like a cloud. I think he said this because they are so soft and moist. They are nice and thick, which my husband liked, and I loved the chocolate flavor. They are delicious in the morning with a cup of coffee or mixed into ice cream since they have a brownie-like consistency. Everyone at the shower loved them and asked for the recipe. I think this is a keeper!

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies (adapted from www.simplyrecipes.com)

Yield: Makes approximately 36 cookies.

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon espresso powder (optional – I left it out)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (though you can do this with a wooden spoon, too) beat together the cocoa powder, white sugar, and vegetable oil until it comes together into a shiny, gritty, black dough of sorts.

 Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing for 30 seconds each. Add the vanilla and beat in thoroughly.

Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and espresso powder if using. Stir into the chocolate mixture on low speed until just combined. Do not overbeat. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill the dough for four hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat. Place the confectioner's sugar in a wide bowl. Using a rounded teaspoon get clumps of the chilled dough and roll them into 1-inch (2.5 cm) sized balls using your hands. Roll the balls in the confectioner's sugar and place on the cookie sheets (you should be able to get about 12 on each sheet). Bake for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool a minute or two on the sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.