Browsing the archives for the the cook’s book tag.

Sables Diamant Vanille

Domestic

This is yet another recipe from the culinary school cook book I borrowed from my neighbor. 2011 was The Year of the Cookie and I’m still posting cookies I made. Let’s also ignore that 2012 is officially The Year of Soup and I’ve yet to show you any of the soups I’ve made thus far. Ahem.

Much like the other recipes I’ve tried in this book, I felt like a more accomplished domestic goddess as I baked these cookies. There is just something about this book that makes me feel fancy. Julia Child fancy, almost. Almost. I put on my sassy cherry apron while making them to balance out the fancy with ridic to keep the grown-upness in my kitchen to a healthy minimum.

These cookies are so smooth and buttery, as Julia would say ‘it stops your heart just to look at them’.

Sables Diamant Vanille

Sables Diamant Vanille via The Cook’s Book

1 cup unsalted butter, room temp, cut in pieces
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups pastry flour
sanding sugar or sugar crystals

Sables Diamant Vanille
Sables Diamant Vanille
Place pieces of butter in your food processor and process until creamy.
Sables Diamant Vanille
Sables Diamant Vanille
Then add the sugar, vanilla and salt and process to blend it together.
Sables Diamant Vanille
Sables Diamant Vanille
Finally, add the flour and process to a smooth dough.
Sables Diamant Vanille
Shape it into a ball and divide that in three. Roll each ball of dough into a 2″ wide log. You may need to pop the dough in the fridge if it gets too soft (nobody likes it when the log goes soft on you). Ahem. Slice cookies from log.
Sables Diamant Vanille
Sables Diamant Vanille
Lay cookies on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and sprinkle with sanding sugar. Bake at 350F for about 20-25 minutes.
Sables Diamant Vanille
Voila! Look at you all fancy and French and shit. Go watch Marie Antoinette and eat them with wine.
Sables Diamant Vanille
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Salt Dough-Wrapped Roast

Domestic, Small Town

Today, I’m linking up with KD Buggie Boutique, Mom Blog Monday and Tough Cookie Mommy for Mingle Monday.

Don’t forget about our giveaway with Keeley Behling Studios! Like the Keeley Behling Studios Facebook page and leave a comment there about something in her Etsy shop to enter. It wouldn’t hurt if you liked the So Very Domestic Facebook page too. 😉

I mentioned a few days ago that I borrowed one of my neighbor’s pro cook books and that I was overcome with joy at the concept of baking and cooking my way through a book he used in culinary school?! Insert dramatic gasping here.

This recipe is from that book and it’s one of those recipes that was so weird I had to try it. I mean, I’ve been around a few kitchens in my day (omg who says that?!) and I’ve never seen this or even heard of it. It was super weird to wrap a roast in a big, heavy (but still pliable) sheet of pastry, but it turned out really well! It was extremely moist and juice. Easy to carve and the kids ate it up and asked for more – always a win in our house!

Salt Dough-Wrapped Roast

Salt Dough-Wrapped Roast via The Cook’s Book

1 cup fine table salt
3 cups coarse sea salt
7 cups flour
2 egg whites
2 1/2 cups lukewarm water
large handful of mixed thyme, rosemary, lavender flowers, and sage, chopped
cut of meat, your choice
+ egg wash (2 eggs + about 3 tablespoons water)

Salt Dough-Wrapped Roast
Salt Dough-Wrapped Roast
Mix all but the spices and water in a large bowl. Then stir in the spices.
Salt Dough-Wrapped Roast
Salt Dough-Wrapped Roast
Work the dough on a floured surface for a few minutes until it’s smooth. Then wrap it in plastic wrap and let it rest at least 2 hours before rolling it out to wrap your roast in. Season your roast as you normally would, I cut slits in it and poke small pieces of garlic inside. Once your roast is spiced up, wrap the salt dough around it.
Salt Dough-Wrapped Roast
Salt Dough-Wrapped Roast
Salt Dough-Wrapped Roast
Salt Dough-Wrapped Roast
Use an egg wash to secure the salt dough around the roast.
Salt Dough-Wrapped Roast
Salt Dough-Wrapped Roast
Bake at 400F for about an hour. Let it rest for about 20 minutes after coming out of the oven to it can finish cooking.
Salt Dough-Wrapped Roast
Salt Dough-Wrapped Roast
Then crack it open and toss out the crust.
Salt Dough-Wrapped Roast
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Fancy Fried Chicken with Bacon

Domestic, Small Town

Don’t forget about our giveaway with Keeley Behling Studios! Like the Keeley Behling Studios Facebook page and leave a comment there about something in her Etsy shop to enter. It wouldn’t hurt if you liked the So Very Domestic Facebook page too. 😉

When we bought our house last summer, imagine my overwhelming glee, yes, glee when I discovered we moved next door to a professional chef. I mean, what are the odds that a food blogger is going to move in next door to a pro chef? It’s a major bummer for me to report that he ended up moving a couple of months ago BUT we’re still friends so it’s all good in the hood. In the months that we lived next door to each other, though? So fun! He’d eat (and generally approve of) everything kitchen creation I brought over! His kids loved to tear it up in the kitchen with us (we have 3 kid each) and they were all really good sports about eating whatever I made. So sweet!

Anyhooooo, that little story brings us to these decadently fried chicken strips how, exactly? Well, as a professional chef, he has a heap ton of cook books from culinary school. Picture me standing there hearing about this for the first time. Cook books, yes, but cook books that are essentially text books for the kitchen?!?! OMG This book, The Cook’s Book, is huge. It has chapters on everything from sauces to Latin American cooking, from pasta & dumplings to Middle Eastern cooking and each chapter is written by a different well versed pro chef. This recipe is from the poultry & game birds chapter, written by Shaun Hill.

Fancy Fried Chicken with Bacon

Fried Chicken with Bacon via Cooks Book

2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
2 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
pinch cayenne pepper
2/3 cup buttermilk
4 thick-cut slices lean bacon
3 cups fresh white bread crumbs
sunflower oil for frying

Fancy Fried Chicken with Bacon
Fancy Fried Chicken with Bacon
First, slice your chicken into strips and then pound out between pieces of plastic wrap. Then mix the mustard with the salt, pepper and cayenne.
Fancy Fried Chicken with Bacon
Fancy Fried Chicken with Bacon
Brush the spicy mustard on each strip and place them in a bowl. Pour the buttermilk over them. Take care that all the pieces are coated.
Fancy Fried Chicken with Bacon
Fancy Fried Chicken with Bacon
Pour about 1/2″ of oil into a heavy frying pan and fry the bacon in it till crispy. Dry off the bacon with paper towels.
Fancy Fried Chicken with Bacon
Fancy Fried Chicken with Bacon
Crumble the bacon and toss it with the bread crumbs.
Fancy Fried Chicken with Bacon
Fancy Fried Chicken with Bacon
Coat each piece of buttermilk-soaked chicken in the bacon and bread crumb mixture and fry in more sunflower oil. If you need to, keep adding oil to have about 1/2″ in the pan all the time. They should take about 10 minutes per batch and depending on the size of your pan you’ll need a few batches.
Fancy Fried Chicken with Bacon
It looks so amazing with the bits of bacon poking out from the breading! Serve as a main to a meal or with a dip and a salad as lunch!
Fancy Fried Chicken with Bacon
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Fancy Hollandaise Sauce with Bacon and Cheddar Topped Biscuits

Domestic

Sometimes, I get up stuuuuuuupid early and make a fancy breakfast for the wee ones (and my husband if he wants but he almost never has breakfast). There is never any guarantee the children will actually eat whatever I felt like cooking at the crack of dawn. We have learned that while waffles, muffins, and other various sweet breakfast treats get all three of them going, hollandaise doesn’t cut it. I tried this on them last year and they weren’t into it, so I also made some chocolate chip muffins muffins for the littlest ones and some bacon and cheddar biscuits for the oldest, juuust in case and sure enough, they weren’t having it.

Dude. I can’t eat 1 cup of butter and 4 egg yolks. Can I? No, I’m pretty sure my heart would like, stop right there in protest. It’s so good though it’s hard to have around. Either make it for a group or take it to your neighbor’s house ASAP.

As per instructions in the book, I clarified the butter before I started and it was the first time I had done it. I was so pleased with myself! It’s one of those magic things in the kitchen that you don’t see the magic in until you actually do it. So, as you probably know, butter is butterfat, milk solids and water. When you clarify butter, you’re removing the milk solids and the water, leaving just the butterfat. It sounds, well, amazing but not something my doctor would approve of! Generally clarified butter is great for sautéing with because it burns at a much higher temperature than actual butter, but because it’s also crazy rich and flavorful, it’s very good for dishes where the butter flavor takes center stage.

Fancy Hollandaise Sauce with Bacon and Cheddar Topped Biscuits

Hollandaise Sauce – via Cooks Book

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon lightly crushed white peppers
4 egg yolks
1 cup unsalted butter
juice of 1/2 lemon
pinch of cayenne pepper

Fancy Hollandaise Sauce with Bacon and Cheddar Topped Biscuits
Fancy Hollandaise Sauce with Bacon and Cheddar Topped Biscuits
Fancy Hollandaise Sauce with Bacon and Cheddar Topped Biscuits
Fancy Hollandaise Sauce with Bacon and Cheddar Topped Biscuits
Start melting the butter over medium-low heat. The white goo at the top is the milk solids separating. As the milk solids bubble up, skim them off with a spoon until you’re left with the pure butterfat.
Fancy Hollandaise Sauce with Bacon and Cheddar Topped Biscuits
First (not pictured) mix vinegar, water and peppercorns in a small pot and bring to a bowl. Lower heat and simmer for 1 minute (should be reduced to 2 1/2 tablespoons). Remove it from heat and set aside. Now bring a small pot of water to almost a boil and set a heat proof bowl over it, slip your yolks into it and whisk, whisk, whisk. Whisk your little heart out.
Fancy Hollandaise Sauce with Bacon and Cheddar Topped Biscuits
Fancy Hollandaise Sauce with Bacon and Cheddar Topped Biscuits
Fancy Hollandaise Sauce with Bacon and Cheddar Topped Biscuits
Fancy Hollandaise Sauce with Bacon and Cheddar Topped Biscuits
Now, with the egg yolks whisked into submission, remove from heat and whisk in the butter. Theeeen whisk in the cooled vinegar mixture and then the lemon and cayenne.
Fancy Hollandaise Sauce with Bacon and Cheddar Topped Biscuits
Fancy Hollandaise Sauce with Bacon and Cheddar Topped Biscuits
Now sneak a taste with a crust of bread. The French always say ‘a crust a bread’, like a soft piece of bread isn’t worthy or something. If your sauce starts to separate, it’s totally a visual thing it will still be amazing, but if you need to fix it (or as The Cook’s Book says ‘returned to respectability’) by slowly whisking in a fresh egg yolk. Pour over a gently fried egg on an English muffin or biscuit.
Fancy Hollandaise Sauce with Bacon and Cheddar Topped Biscuits
Yummy grown up breakfast food on a weekday! No way!
Fancy Hollandaise Sauce with Bacon and Cheddar Topped Biscuits
These were for Wee One #1 and the kids next door. I made a bunch of biscuits the night before and just topped them with bacon and shredded cheddar. Then I popped them back in the oven for about 15 minutes to melt the cheese. They totally cleaned the platter!
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