Madison House Chef

When In Doubt … Make Sandwich Rolls

I’m on a quest to make good bread – not just bread, but good bread.  Bread with depth of flavor, good crumb and texture, a golden crust and a soft chewy center. It’s a lot to ask, I realize, but I’m game for a quest.

I first thought that I had enough experience with foccacia and such that I could start in the middle of my pursuit and try to make Scottish baps for bacon rolls. Not! I won’t even post the recipe that I used because I’ve boggled it so badly.

 

New School Year Bento

Madeleine has a new bento (sent from Japan) this year – blue with a lucky white bunny.  Today’s lunch (bottom photo) was a peanut butter sandwich, walnuts, cheese, whole grain crackers in the large section (pictured), plus a variety of other things, including our homemade granola bars, in the other compartment.  The first photo is the lunch I just packed – a garden of pasta with shaved parmesan dotted with little cheesy flowers accompanied by a mini flower shaped cheese sandwich on homemade white bread. 

Sunday Pizza Photos

 

If it’s Sunday, it’s pizza day in our household. Here are a few recent pizza pies to come out of the oven.

Three cheese: fresh mozzarella, blue cheese, and part skim mozzarella.

 

Homemade Pecan Pie (just like Mom makes)

For his birthday this year, I asked Ken “what kind of cake would you like?”  I anticipated that the answer would be Cherry Chip.  No problem, I was prepared with all I needed to make it.  But, to my surprise he responded, “I’d like pie; pecan pie.” 

And thus, Happy Birthday – we celebrate this year with a pie.

By the way, this is a SECRET recipe, and such a good recipe that the chef at the ranch asked my mom to make it for the hunters’ dessert.  

Thai Red Curry with Salmon (with photos)

For our main meal today, my husband, Ken prepared this full flavored Thai dish from the BBC GoodFood website; this recipe was first published in Sept. 2007 in BBC GoodFood magazine.  It’s easy to make and filled with satisfying taste, texture and aroma.  

The original recipe calls for green beans, but we opted for asparagus since it looked very good at the grocery and the addition of red pepper likewise was due to good looking produce.  This merely goes to show the versatility of red curry.

Herb Stuffed Pork Tenderloin (with photos)

This recipe is an adaptation from an old cookbook titled Low-Fat and Luscious (an old BHGardens book).  This tenderloin is quite easy to prepare.

Marvelously, this pleasing herb stuffed loin is also both low fat and low calorie.  The entire assembled tenderloin is 810 calories.  If the pork is to serve 4, then that’s only 200 calories per serving. 

Ode to a Bacon Roll

Thanks to today’s “Guest Writer” – the illustrious, pizza chef, Ken.

‘While not usually given over to rhapsodizing on the ineffable qualities of breakfast foods, it is hard not to find some room to do so when you actually discover the perfect take-away masterpiece of simplicity.  To wit, the humble Bacon Roll.

When you think about it, this is ten different shades of spouting foolishness about a smoked, salt-laden, pork product shoved rather unceremoniously onto a rather indifferent roll of bread.  How could one possibly get all in a dither about something so basic, banal, and well, not particularly good for you?

Bacon and Sharp Cheddar Cheese Muffins

These savory muffins are inspired by Cheddar, pancetta, and spring onion muffins in the August 2010 Delicious magazine that I picked up when we were in the UK. The concept, combined with the magic of Michael Ruhlman’s book Ratio, has created this new MHC muffin. 

I’ve been looking for new options for the lunchboxes / bentos for this coming year, and this may well be part of the rotation, especially because they can be frozen.  I like make ahead foods; it makes preparing bentos that much easier.

Ultra Thin Pizza Crust

This afternoon Ken made the most exquisite pizza.  The crust was wafer thin, no thinner, with a snap and a crunch that well surpasses any ‘gourmet’ pizza I’ve ever eaten, bar none. It was almost cracker like, yet with a taste of yeast and a ‘breadiness’ of any traditional crust and it was not the least bit dry.

Look at how incredibly thin the crust is.  Amazing.

CIA Basic Pizza Dough

Ken has incorporated fresh herbs into this dough; he does this during the kneading process.

This is the recipe for basic pizza dough that Ken uses for all of his pizza’s, both thick and chewy crust and thin, thinner, and very thin and crispy version.

The credit for the dough is 100% property of The Culinary Institute of America, The Professional Chef’s Techniques of Healthy Cooking, 2nd edition.

I’ll add Ken’s notes and words of wisdom following the complete recipe.**

Box Tops for Education

Madeleine’s school (St. Matthew’s Episcopal School) will be saving Box Tops for Education again this year. Perhaps you have seen them on cereal, Ziploc products, Kleenex boxes, Bisquick, cake mixes, butter, yogurt and a whole host of other food and paper good products.  If you come across any box tops as you are discarding or recycling packaging, Madeleine would be very happy to receive them from you and to take them to school again this year as the school collects them to be redeemed for educational supplies, school equipment, supplies, and playground equipment. Thanks!

Shrimp Scampi, Low(er) Fat (One Protein-Three Meals)

Shrimp was on sale this week at the local HEB and looked pretty good, thus one of our primary proteins this week will be brown gulf shrimp.  The flavor of gulf shrimp is unmatched; I couldn’t imagine going back to white or tiger shrimp (not to mention the fact that white/tiger shrimp are no longer good, healthy, sustainable seafood sources… that’s another topic).  Gulf shrimp taste like… well, the sea.  Maybe, it’s that they actually have taste other than ‘fishy.’

What to make with shrimp … one of our all time favorites is Shrimp Scampi.

Blogging My Refrigerator

What’s in YOUR refrigerator?

Freshly Hand Ground Beef Burger (with photos) … the story of a meat grinder

When I was a little girl I remember going to my maternal grandparents’ house and seeing meat being ground for sausage. I didn’t like sausage at the time and thus my focus was directed not to what was being made, but on how it was prepared.  What I remember was a large, silver, wood handled, heavy tool – a shiny grinder.  This fine mechanism was heavy enough that it needed to be clamped to a big white wooden stool.  Most of the time I could only watch, but on occasion I’d get a turn at the handle; what a strenuous task!

Fast forward a few years (okay, quite a few).  I am now the proud owner of that same heavy tool. 

Mini Blueberry Muffins

Today’s baking takes my favorite Sugar Topped Blueberry Muffins recipe and breaks it down into even smaller portions making for a great little sweet with coffee at breakfast, or as a snack.  By using the mini muffin pans, each muffin comes out to about 50 calories – that’s a load of fresh fruit flavor filled muffin for the calories.

When spooning the batter into the muffin tins, fill them a scant 2/3 full and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the tops become golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

I’m excited that I found actual Michigan blueberries in the grocery; they were extra plump!

~Enjoy!

Catch of the Day – Trout with Garlic, Chili and Rosemary (with photos)

BBCGoodFood’s recipe (August 2010) for Bream cooked en papillote with garlic, chili and rosemary inspired our Catch of the Day Saturday meal. Here’s our variation on this delightfully flavorful fish dish.