Thanksgiving menu
Category: Jen's kitchenThanksgiving is just a week away! I’m sure I am not alone in wondering where the year went. The boys’ school lets out for the summer on December 14th, so we are busy with end-of-the-year exams and projects. Everyone is ready for long break.
Despite the summer heat, we do celebrate Thanksgiving with an oven-roasted turkey, which we eat outside on the terrace to escape the heat in the kitchen. I will NOT be roasting a farm-raised turkey, but will opt for a commercially raised (and cleaned) bird. Last year’s porcini stuffing was so popular that I’ll be using it again–especially considering that we received well over three kilos of dried wild mushrooms from our neighbors in Cauquenes this year. I’ll probably double the amount of mushrooms in the recipe to help make a dent in our supply. I’ll buy baguettes from La Chocolatine when I go to Santiago this week, so that they will be stale for the stuffing next week.
Some of the soaking liquid from the mushrooms will go into the gravy, to help create a deep, rich flavor. Our side dishes will include garlic mashed potatoes, asparagus (it’s spring here, so asparagus is in season), and a wilted spinach salad. I’ll also make a faux cranberry sauce using dried cranberries. It’s not quite the same, but it works well in a pinch.
For dessert, my family tradition is to have three pies. When I was growing up, the pies were always apple, pumpkin, and mincemeat. I’ve had to adapt the list to the southern seasons (and I really don’t care for mincemeat), so now we do apricot, mixed berry, and pumpkin (actually butternut squash, since pumpkins aren’t grown here). If you have egg allergies in your family, don’t despair: you can still make a very good egg-free pumpkin pie.
Sandwich bread
Category: Jen's kitchenAbout a year ago, I started making all our bread at home. I had decided to try to eliminate most of the food preservatives from our diet, with the exception of processed meats (which we mainly use for sandwiches). Once I started reading food labels, I was surprised to discover how extensive the use of preservatives is. Bread, in particular, had so many unrecognizable ingredients that I had to sit down at the computer with a plastic bread bag in hand. What I discovered surprised me. Bread in Chile contains up to five different preservatives, two of which are not allowed in the European Union, Australia, and Canada (see note below the recipes). Right then, I decided to master the skill of making light, airy sandwich bread.
After much experimentation, I discovered a few key tricks. First, don’t skimp on the kneading. I use my electric mixer since I make bread once or twice a week. Keep the setting on low, and knead the bread for 15 minutes. Second, don’t add too much flour. I had previously tended to make a fairly stiff dough, but experimentation showed that a lighter, stickier dough makes a lighter loaf. The dough should stick around the bottom of the mixing bowl when you’re kneading it. If it completely clumps around the dough hook and moves freely around the bowl, it’s too dry. Third, give it time to rise. Let it more than double in bulk on the first rise (a tall bowl is best for this, so that the dough rises up rather than out), and let it completely fill the loaf pan on the second rise. (This can also help compensate for a dry, heavy dough if you happen to add too much flour, which I still do on occasion).
This whole wheat bread is my master recipe. I vary it from week to week, making oat, rye, or white bread. If I happen to make ricotta cheese (actually paneer), then I use the whey instead of milk as the liquid in the bread (I freeze the whey in 2 cup units to have it ready to defrost and use). If I’m out of milk, I mix up 2 cups of powdered. Sometimes I add 2 – 3 tablespoons honey for a noticeable honey character, or I might use ground flaxseed instead of bran. You get the idea.
Finally, I generally use one loaf straight away and then freeze the second for later. That way I can alternate different breads or make several loaves on the weekend to use over the next couple of weeks. To freeze, I wrap the loaves in foil. I don’t like using plastic because it quickly takes on a freezer-burn character. To minimize waste, I reuse the foil several times.
Whole wheat sandwich bread
1/2 cup warm water
Pinch sugar
1 tablespoon yeast
2 cups milk or whey
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 to 2 tablespoons honey
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat bran
1 tablespoon salt
4 1/2 to 5 1/2 cups white flour
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine 1/2 cup water, sugar, and yeast. Let stand until the yeast softens and begins to bubble (about five minutes).
Melt the butter and honey together, then set aside to cool. If I’m in a hurry, I’ll add some of the milk to the hot butter to cool it down.
When the yeast is proofed, add the milk, butter, honey, whole wheat flour, bran, salt, and 3 cups of the white flour to the bowl of the electric mixture. (I usually add the salt on top of the flours to avoid killing the yeast with the salt.) Mix with the paddle attachment on medium speed for one minute, until the dough is smooth and satiny. Switch to the dough hook and add one cup of the remaining white flour. Once the flour is incorporated into the dough, knead on the lowest or next-to-lowest speed for 1o minutes. Add as much of the remaining one cup of flour as necessary to bring the dough to the desired texture (it should still stick to the bowl at the base). Continue kneading for five more minutes.
Place the dough in a well-oiled bowl. (I like to use a tall bowl, so that the dough rises up rather than out.) Turn the dough once to coat with oil, cover with a damp cloth, and let rise in a warm, dry place until doubled in bulk (about an hour).
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead briefly, then divide in two equal pieces. To shape the loaves, roll tightly into a log, pull the ends around to the seam side, and pinch the end and long seams tightly. Place the loaves seam-side down in greased loaf pans. Squeeze the loaves in the middle to create a slight bone shape. (The loaves always rise more in the middle than the ends, so making the dough slightly thinner in the middle will give you a more evenly shaped loaf.) Cover the loave lightly with a damp towel and let rise until it completely fills the pan (about an hour to an hour and a half).
Half an hour before baking, preheat the oven to 350 F. If you like, brush the loaves with melted butter. Bake the loaves for about 40 minutes, until they are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom (you have to slip one out of the pan to test it). Immediately remove the loaves from the pans and transfer on a baking rack. Cool completely before slicing.
Variations
For white bread, eliminate the whole wheat flour and the wheat bran. Use a total of about 6 cups white flour plus 1/4 cup potato flour. The potato flour improves the texture of the white bread and helps keep it moist. (Potato flour, which is not the same as potato starch, is not available in Chile, so I don’t always have it in the pantry. The white bread is fine without it, but I prefer to use it if I can.)
For rye bread, use 2 cups rye flour, 1/4 cup bran, and 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 cups white flour.
For oat bread, combine 1 cup oats, 1 cup whole wheat flour, and 1/2 cup oat bran in a food processor and grind into a fine flour. Reduce the white flour in the master recipe to 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 cups.
Note: The five preservatives are as follows:
—Azodicarbonamide: A bleaching agent; banned in the EU and Australia because of a connection to asthma and allergies.
—Potassium bromate: Used to strengthen flour and increase rise; banned in the EU, Canada, and other countries as a possible carcinogen.
—TBHQ (tertiary butylhydroquinone): Enhances storage life, especially of fats and oils; not banned anywhere, but some studies suggest that high exposure could be carcinogenic.
—Calcium propionate: Inhibits molds.
—Potassium sorbate: Inhibits molds and yeasts. (This is the one that started my campaign to eliminate preservatives. It’s considered safe, but it’s used in the production of cheap, sweet wines to prevent refermenation, and Ed can taste it in a lot of foods.)
Chocolate-mint or Chocolate-pecan cookies
Category: Jen's kitchenWhen one of the kids recently had a craving for chocolate and mint, I experimented with chocolate and candy canes to make these cookies. They were just what we needed! I later decided to try them with spearmint extract instead of peppermint–and I was nearly finished with the dough before I discovered that we were out of spearmint extract. What to do with the half-made chocolate cookie dough? I found some pecans in the freezer, and the result was perhaps even better than the original mint version.
A couple of tips. First, creaming butter implies more than simply beating the butter briefly until it is smooth. When you take the time to beat the butter and sugar for the full 8 to 10 minutes as recommended, you beat air into the butter, which contributes to lighter, airier cookies. Second, cookies bake best when they are all the same size and when they are approximately the size intended in the recipe. I used to just drop dollops of dough onto the cookie sheet, but I would end up with some underdone cookies and some burnt ones. I have had much better luck measuring out the dough more precisely–either using my kitchen scale or just dividing the dough into, say, thirds if the recipe is for three dozen cookies (as below), then dividing each third into quarters and using each quarter to make three cookies. It’s a little more time consuming, but it produces more uniform, perfectly baked cookies.
Chocolate-mint cookies
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
60 grams dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
125 grams (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar (plus additional sugar for finishing)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/3 cup crushed candy canes (about 65 grams)
Preheat the oven to 350 F (175 C).
Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler and set aside to cool.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and then cream the butter on high for 8 to 10 minutes, stopping every now and then to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg, vanilla, and peppermint extract and beat for another minute. Add the chocolate and mix well, scraping down the sides of the bowl to thoroughly blend the ingredients. Finally, add the flour and mix until just combined.
Divide the dough into thirds and use each third to make one dozen cookies. Roll the dough for each cookie into a ball, then roll the ball in sugar to coat. Place the cookies about two inches apart on a greased cookie sheet and bake for about 12 minutes. After removing them from the oven, wait for a minute or so before transferring the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Chocolate-pecan cookies
In the above recipe, eliminate the peppermint extract and crushed candy canes. Add 1/2 cup chopped pecans to the dough along with the flour mixture.
Tomatoes stuffed with chèvre and garlic
Category: Jen's kitchenI love making little packets of food–wontons, ravioli, chili relleno, pies, pastries… My secret ambition is to retire to Italy so I can join the ranks of grandmothers in the back room of a small restaurant, stuffing tortellini to my heart’s content. So it was no surprise earlier this week when I threw together these stuffed tomatoes for a quick midweek dinner entree. They are surprisingly easy to make, and they hold up well to being made ahead of time, so you don’t have to rush around the kitchen at the last minute. They are a little rich, given the chèvre, so I would suggest pairing them with a lighter meal such as simply grilled chicken and grilled veggies. For a meatless dinner, try serving them with fried polenta. You could cook and chill the polenta ahead of time too, so that you only had to fry the polenta and plate up a green salad while the tomatoes were roasting in the oven.
Tomatoes stuffed with chèvre and garlic
Use medium-sized, firm tomatoes (about 180 grams or 6.5 oz)
For each tomato:
1 tablespoon soft chèvre
1 tablespoon roasted garlic (see note)
1 tablespoon bread crumbs (from a stale baguette)
1/2 tablespoon chopped basil
salt and pepper
To prepare the tomatoes, cut out the core at the stem end, leaving the tomato intact. Carefully scrape out the seeds (use your pinkie if necessary, to avoid tearing the tomato). Rinse the tomato. I filled mine with water and then measured the water to check the size of the cavity (a quarter cup). Season the inside lightly with salt, then set upside down to drain while you prepare the filling.
Combine the chèvre, garlic, bread crumbs, basil, and freshly grated pepper in a small bowl. Mash with a fork and stir until smooth. Gently spoon the filling into the tomato cavity–you don’t want to pack it in, but you need to press it lightly to completely fill the tomato. Lightly pat a layer of breadcrumbs on top of the exposed filling. Wipe the tomatoes clean and place them in a well-oiled baking dish. You can bake them immediately, let them sit on the counter for up to an hour or so, or chill to bake later. If you chill them, let them come to room temperature before baking. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C) and bake for about 20 minutes, until the tomatoes are soft but not collapsing.
To roast garlic: Gently rub off the outer paper of a head of garlic, keeping the head intact. Place in a small dish, drizzle lightly with olive oil, add a few tablespoons of water, and cover tightly with foil. Roast in a moderate oven (around 350 F) for 45 minutes to an hour. Let cool. To remove the garlic, pull the head apart and press the end of the clove to pop the garlic out the other end. (It sometimes helps to slit the skin of the clove, if it doesn’t tear when you break apart the head.) You should have about two tablespoons of roasted garlic per medium-sized head.
Lemon scones
Category: Jen's kitchenBreakfast is one of my favorite meals to prepare. I love being the first one up, love having the cool, dark house to myself while everyone else is still asleep, love enjoying my first cup of coffee in peace. I’ll often bake biscuits to serve with the bacon and eggs, as they are so easy to to throw together. Scones are just as easy, but they contain more butter, as well as cream and sometimes egg, so I tend to save them for the weekends. These lemon scones are my favorites.
I also use these for strawberry shortcakes, which are traditionally served on a biscuit rather than on the sponge cakes that are so often sold for that purpose. Scones are basically a “short” biscuit (i.e., they have more butter in the dough), so they work really well for this simple summer dessert. Just sprinkle some sliced strawberries with sugar and let them macerate for half an hour. Cut open a cool scone, spoon the berries on both halves, and top with whipped cream.
Lemon scones
2 1/4 cups flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon lemon zest (removed with a zester and chopped)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (125 grams) unsalted butter
1/3 cup crème fraîche or heavy cream
1/3 cup milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
For the glaze:
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Preheat the oven to 375 F (180 C). If you have a pizza stone, heat it with the oven; otherwise lightly grease a baking sheet. Mix the sugar and lemon juice for the glaze and set aside.
Combine the flour, sugar, lemon zest, baking powder, and salt. Cut the butter into eight or ten pieces; combine with the flour mixture by rubbing the butter and flour between your fingers until it is broken down into roughly pea-sized bits. Make a well in the flour. Combine the creme fraiche, milk, and lemon juice. Pour about two-thirds of the liquid into the well, and use a fork to quickly mix. Add the remaining liquid to the drier part, then briefly knead ten times to bring the dough together into a smooth ball. Do not overwork the dough (or your scones will be tough).
Divide the dough in two and pat each half into a six inch round. Cut the rounds pizza-style into six scones. Brush the tops with the lemon glaze. Transfer the scones to either the hot pizza stone or the baking sheet, keeping the pieces together so that the sides loosely touch. Bake for about fifteen minutes, until they are lightly golden and don’t look doughy in the center (when viewed from the side). Let cool for a few minutes before serving. (I usually move them straight from the oven to a dish-towel-lined wooden bowl. They are ready to serve by the time everyone gets to the table–but then, my family is kind of slow to come to the table when called.)
Makes 12 scones.
Hazelnut tapenade
Category: Jen's kitchenTapenade is one of my favorite hors d’oeuvres. What’s not to love? You can make it well ahead of time, it’s made from ingredients I normally keep in my pantry, and it’s intensely flavored with olives, garlic, capers, anchovies (all favorites of mine). As it turns out, the anchovies are problematic for some. We have a very good friend who has an aversion to fish of any kind. When he recently came for a visit, I came up with this anchovy-free version of tapenade, using hazelnuts to add depth and texture.
ETA: If you are in Chile, be sure to look for “avellanas europeas,” as the so-called Chilean hazelnuts are not at all the same. The Tostaduría Talca on Tobalaba between Pocuro and Bilbao carries the right kind.
Hazelnut tapenade
180 grams pitted green olives, rinsed
1/2 cup whole hazelnuts (about 70 grams)
8 sun-dried tomatoes (packed in oil), patted dry
1/2 cup (packed) fresh basil leaves (about 30 grams)
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon capers, rinsed
Olive oil
Process the hazelnuts in a food processor until finely ground. Add everything else and process until smooth, using as much olive oil as necessary to achieve a light paste. Serve at room temperature on crostini, sliced baguette or crackers.
Exports to UK and Romania
Category: Aconcagua winemakingThis week has been absolutely crazy! We’ve sold wine to clients in the UK and Romania, and for some time now we’ve been planning the physical export of the wine. After weeks of waiting and generally being on hold, everything came together this week for both orders. This translated into a lot of running around for me. The customs agent needs documents from the lab, the lab and the customs agent both need information from the forwarding agent, and the forwarding agent speaks a language I don’t understand (I call it shipper-ese). But thanks to our wonderful (and patient) customs agent, our wonderful (and flexible) bottler, and our wonderful (and cooperative) lab tech, the wine is on its way! Now I just need to catch up on everything that was put on the back burner in the meantime.
