Challah

My parents got me a wonderful present for Hanukkah this year. My mom and I got to attend a class at the Cambridge Culinary Institute. We choose the class "All you Knead (Bread Basics.)" It was such a wonderful time not only to spend the day together but to learn about bread making. We got to choose from a list of breads which one we wanted to attempt. As soon as we both saw challah on the list we knew that would be our bread of choice.


For my mom Challah is a daily occurrence, she eats it every morning for breakfast. For me Challah is a tradition passed from my grandmother to me. Every year my grandmother would make Challah for the high holidays, as she got older she could no longer make the bread, so I decided I would take over the task. The last few years I have been making the Challah, the same recipe that my grandmother made. I was never happy with how the bread came out. So I was really excited to learn about the bread, learn how to knead correctly and be able to make really good Challah for my family.


Challah

2 scant tbsp dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 large eggs
3 egg yolks
2 tsp salt
6 tbsp honey
1 cup hot potato water
1 cup mashed potatoes
6-7 cups all-purpose flour

Egg Wash

1 egg
1 egg white
2 tbsp milk

Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water, stir in the sugar to allow to activate. While the yeast is growing you should boil your peeled potatoes until soft. Drain the potatoes remembering to keep 1 cup of the potato water. Mash the potatoes until fairly smooth.


In a small bowl beat butter, eggs, yolks, salt, honey, hot potato water and mashed potatoes. (For the class we did everything by hand but you could easily mix this in a bowl with an electric mixer.) Cool the mixture to lukewarm. Add the yeast to this mixture. Beat in two cups of the flour and stir to combine. Add the rest of the flour until the dough is soft and formed.


Knead on a floured surface until dough is soft and springs back when you touch it. (Add more flour as necessary.)

Place into a well greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap place in a warm, wet environment and allow to double in size. This will take about 30 minute to an hour. Turn onto a floured surface and knead the dough for another five minutes. Slice into 12 even pieces. (You will end up with 2 good size challahs. For the class we made 4 smaller ones.) Roll each of the pieces into strands about 14 inches long, and braid 3 together. You will end up with 4 braids. Place two braids on top of each other (ending up with 2 total challahs.) Make sure to pinch the ends of the braids together.


Allow braids to sit until doubled in size again. Mix your egg wash together and brush over braids. Wait 5 minutes and repeat the wash. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 40-45 minutes, until golden brown.


The texture of this bread was very nice, however my mom and I agreed that it was a little lacking in the flavor department, so I think we are going to try this recipe again with a little tweaking.


Going to the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts was a great way to learn about food and baking and spend time with my mom. I would recommend anyone in the Boston area sign up for a course (or two!)

Breakfast for Dinner?

So it's Passover, 8 days of no bread, or more specifically oats, wheat, barley, rice, corn, soy, legumes, and basically everything else that's good. I'm a bit on the strict side when it comes to keeping passover, and not eating any of those foods or anything derived from those foods, including peanut butter and corn syrup. Yeah it's a difficult 8 days.

So besides being overwhelmed with family and helping my mom host the Seders I am sick. Very sick all weekend long. After a lot of matzo ball soup today I am finally feeling better, slightly. So I wanted to make some dinner for Ben and I, something easy and nice to say thank for him taking care of me the last few days. I decided since we were unable to have a Sunday Breakfast this week, that we would do Breakfast for Dinner tonight.


Omelets and Hash Browns it is. Since my hash browns are always mushy I went to a fellow blogger for help. I need to make sure that the potatoes are as dry as possible before cooking them.


This was my experiment in finally hopefully making crispy harsh browns and therefore making Ben fall in love with me for ever and ever. Or something like that...

My Omelet
4 Egg whites
1/2 red pepper chopped
5 or 6 chopped mushrooms
1 oz 50% reduced fat Cheddar Cheese

Ben's Omelet
3 Whole Eggs
1/2 red pepper chopped
5 or 6 chopped Mushrooms
1 small yellow Onion
1.5-2 oz reduced fat Cheddar Cheese


In a pan coated with Pam, sautee down the pepper, mushrooms and onions, for about 3 to 4 minutes until they have reduced over medium heat. They should not be mushy, but nicely cooked, add in scrambled eggs and let cook. Make sure you have a nicely grease pan or else your omelet will get stuck, flip if you can. If not cook on medium low heat until the bottom is browned and the top is cooked add in cheese and fold over in classic omelet style.

Hash Browns
2 small cooking potatoes
salt
pepper
1 Tbs olive oil


Grate the potatoes and get off as much liquid as you can before placing in satuee pan. Add salt and pepper, place in a sautee pan over medium to high heat that is coated with olive oil, make sure that the potatoes are not too thick in any place. Once in pan do not move until browned on one side. Then flip, let cook until brown again, serve and eat.


I also served a bit of matzah with this meal, to replace the bread, but it did no justice. The meal was great, but I needed a peice of toast. We also had a little trouble flipping our omelets, since I don't have huge sautee pans the omelets were a little on the thick side and needed to be flipped so we didn't get one of those diseases from eat raw food. It ended up a bit messier that I had anticipated, but turned out to be great. We sat outside on the summer like night and enjoyed our breakfasts for dinner together.

Potato Latkes the Wrong Way

You didn't think we could do it, did you. Potatoes, again. Oh but we were able to. I mean what's a Sunday without Sunday morning potatoes? As I've told you before, I generally wake up before Ben and lay in bed contemplating this weeks Sunday morning Potato experience. This week, I had just one red potato to use, well I mean I had more potatoes, but potato is just one part of Sunday morning breakfast (except last week when I was too lazy to stock up on groceries.) This week I tried to go above and beyond for Sunday morning. It included Red Potato Latkes, an Everything bagel, and good old scrambled eggs (plain and simple.)


Potato Latkes are a traditional Jewish food and I think each family has their own recipe. I know how to make MY mothers potato latkes, but this Sunday morning when I was only making one potato I had to tailor the recipe a little, because the quantity of potato was so small. Latkes are traditionally fried in vegetable oil and appear at a majority of the holidays but especially during Channukah where the celebration of oil burning for 8 nights is celebrated with fried foods. These are good as a side dish, main coarse (just add sour cream and sugar or applesauce) or as we found out this week as a Sunday morning addition.


The reason why these potatoes are titled the wrong way because the recipe is a little different, and I think made these latkes special, not necessarily better than traditional ones, but still good enough for Ben to gobble up and ask for more.

Potato Latkes the Wrong Way (small batch)
1 medium Red Potato
1 Egg Yolk
2-3 Tbsp All-Purpose Flour
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
1/8 tsp Garlic Salt
1/4 tsp dried Parsley

Grate entire potato on the thicker side of a hand grater. If you do it too small you'll end up with potato mush. You want it about the same side as if you were making hash browns. Add in yolk and flour and mix until you have a little bit of a bater with the potato, egg, flour mixture. Meanwhile in a sautee pan heat vegetable oil to medium high heat. Add seasonings to the potato mixture and stir to combine. Once oil has heated spoon potato into the pan and let cook until golden brown about 5 minutes or so. Flip and let the other side brown. Once finished on both size, about 10 minutes (depending on how big you make your latkes) let sit on a paper towel to drain any excess oil. You want the outside to be crunchy. Then eat!


Normally you would be making more than one potato and I would then recommend using the entire egg and additional flour (to make a smooth consistency.) I would also say that if you have a fry-a-lator or a deep set pan to fill with oil and really fry these potatoes instead of my quick-fix apartment style solution. You can add in a cut up sauteed onion to the mixture or any seasonings that you prefer. Its really a great recipe that you can tailor to the tastes you like. Red potatoes are not the traditional, either Yukon gold or Idaho potatoes are really what most people use. But use what you have and make it how you like.


So try it out. Its good the wrong way.

Roasted Garlic Parmesan Red Potato Fries

Another Sunday morning, means another take on potatoes. This Sunday morning I woke up, way earlier than Ben did and laid in bed thinking how can I revamp the usual Sunday morning potatoes. This week I had bought red potatoes which according to Ben are his favorite. I like them as well, they have a nicer flavor than just regular potatoes I think, and are generally a lot smaller and will cook up faster. Having no microwave (I know its been a rough few weeks to exist without one) I had to make these potatoes the old fashioned way...in the oven. So therefore it was actually good that I was up earlier than Ben becasue the usual 10 to 15 minutes it takes me with a microwave to make Sunday morning potatoes tripled to 45 minutes for these potatoes.


After a late night including a few drinks I was thinking what are the best flavor combinations to help that head ache and stomach turning feeling go away. Ben loves garlic and makes his own version of baked garlic fries, and I thought that flavor with a dusting of Parmesan cheese on top make just cure any hang over.


Roasted Garlic Parmesan Red Potato Fries
2 medium sized red potatoes
1 tsp dried garlic
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 tsp kosher salt
2 1/2 tbsp olive oil
2-3 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Wash and dry the red potatoes, then cut lengthwise into fries. Place on a baking sheet and coat with the olive oil. Make sure you toss the potatoes so that each one is coated, then dust the garlic powder and sprinkle just a bit of cayenne pepper over, this will add just a hint of a kick to the taste. Toss again, the easiest way to do this I found was just using my hands. Try and make sure that all of the fries are evenly coated with the spices and oil. Place in your oven for about 30 minutes. Make sure depending on the size of the potatoes or slices that you make to check on them becasue they could bake up a lot faster if smaller, or take longer if bigger. After about 30 minutes make sure to turn the potatoes so that both sides will crisp up on the baking sheet, then sprinkle kosher salt and Parmesan over the potatoes, place back in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes. Make sure you don't leave them in too long after the cheese is added, you just want to heat them with the cheese, and make sure the cheese has stuck to the potatoes by melting slightly.


Take off baking sheet and serve. :)

Sweet Sticky and Healthy?

Yams. Just think about it for a minute, besides candied yams at the holiday times, when was the last time you just baked up a yam, sprinkled a little kosher salt and pepper on it and ate it? Not recently? No well, go do it now. Tonight. As soon as possible.


Growing up I always thought I was eating sweet potatoes, well that what we called them, but they were yams, a better flavor, color and taste than sweet potatoes. I loved them. It was one of those things that I would always eat. My mom would tell you growing up I was not the easiest of kids to feed, but one thing I loved was anything sweet: candy, chocolate and YAMS!

This week while taking a trip to the supermarket to restock everything I passed by the potatoes, sweet potatoes, and yam section and realized it had been forever since I had made a yam, and instantly picked up a good size one and was on my way. Last night I wasn't sure what I wanted to eat and started snacking once I had gotten through the candy and the crackers and other snacks, I thought I should complete this snack filled dinner with a healthy snack. We all have those nights where it just feels better to snack all night than to make a full meal. Well add a yam to this, and it makes snacking for dinner nutritious as well. Yams are also a good substitute for a regular potato side dish. It just adds that extra something special to a boring chicken and potato meal, and makes a sticky sweet side to any meal.

Baked Yam

1 Yam (or however many for the number of people you need to feed)
kosher salt
pepper

Make sure you wash your yam and dry it to try and get off as much dirt as possible. Bake the Yam in a 375 to 400 degree oven, just like you would a baked potato. Depending on the size of the yam...they do tend to be a bit bigger than potatoes, let it bake for about 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 1/2 hours. Keep an eye on it. It should be very soft to touch when cooked fully. Once cooked slice in half sprinkle with kosher salt and a dusting of pepper (you can omit the pepper if you want the full taste of the yam to come through.) And eat! Yams are so good and they don't need anything to dress them up or show them up, turn them into something else. They are perfectly gooey and sweet and yummy all on their own.


So try this out, plain and simple, baked yams.

Sunday Morning Potatoes

Ben and I have a standing Sunday morning ritual. I make him breakfast, and I try to come up with new and original things every week. A couple of weeks ago I had some potatoes laying around and thought, how I can I make some easy breakfast potatoes (home -fries) without it taking an hour to cook the potatoes. I realized if I did the majority of the cooking of the potatoes in the microwave and then finished them in a pan so that the outsides could get crispy, it would cut the cooking time by a lot.



Home Fries
2 idaho potatoes
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Wash and dry the potatoes, just to get off any dirt that may be on the skin, poke potatoes with a fork so that it doesn't explode while cooking. Wrap potatoes in paper towels and place in microwave for 4 to 5 minutes, this depends on the size of your potatoes, just keep an eye on them.

Once the potatoes are cooked, take out of the microwave and cube, you can make them any size you want. Spray Pam or coat a pan with a little oil or butter, depending on what you have on hand, toss in cubed potatoes and sprinkle seasoning over the potatoes. Cook on medium to high heat until the outsides are golden and crispy, will be about 10 minutes.


This is a really healthy, tasty and easy alternative to heavier fried home fries or any other diner like potatoes.