Recipes from Cooking with Doyle Moore on Focus 580

January 2, 2008:  New Year's Resolutions About Cooking

It’s the beginning of a new year, what are your resolutions about what to try in the kitchen?  What is new to you that you like?.

WALNUT AND BROWN SUGAR RUGELACH

Doyle was making things for Christmas Eve and wanted something sweet, but without too much sugar.  He found a recipe from Martha Stewart for walnut and brown sugar rugelach.  They’re small, so you’re not eating a whole lot when you eat one.  He reduced some of the sugar using Splenda brown sugar mix.  The dough is made of:

• ½ pound of butter

• 8 oz. of cream sugar

• 2 cups of flour

• some powdered sugar

It’s very much like a shortbread with a lot of butter; and powdered sugar.  You pat it into two disks, and cut each like a pie into 16 wedges.  Coat the dough with the walnut-brown sugar fillings, and roll up from the wide end to the point.  It cooks up into a very short bread (it will crumble), similar to Mexican wedding cookies or Russian tea cookies. 

RED LENTIL-CAULIFLOWER CURRY

A caller from Champaign reported on a recipe she found in a new great vegan cookbook, Veganomicon. 

• 3 tablespoons grapeseed or peanut oil

• 1 large onion, chopped

• 1 large chile pepper (jalapeno or serrano), minced

• 2 large shallots

• 1 (½ -inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated

• 1 large parsnip, peeled and chopped

• 2 tsp. curry powder

• ½ tsp. turmeric

• ½ tsp. ground cinnamon

• ½ tsp. ground cumin

• ½ tsp. ground coriander

• 1½ cups red lentils, sorted and rinsed

• 4 cups vegetable broth or water

• 1½ - 2 pounds cauliflower trimmed and sliced into small florets

• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

• 2 Tbsp. lime juice

• 1½ tsp. salt

Have all ingredients chopped and readily at hand.  In a large stockpot, heat the oil over medium heat.  Sauté the onion and shallots until tender and translucent, 5-7 minutes.  Add the grated ginger and chile, and sauté for 1 minute.  Add the spices and briskly stir-fry for 30 seconds, then add the parsnip and stir-fry for another minute.

Slowly pour in the vegetable broth, then stir in the lentils.  Cover the pot, raise the heat to high, boil for 1 minute.  Give the mixture a stir, then cover the pot and lower the heat to medium-low.  Allow the lentils to simmer for 10-12 minutes.  They should turn light yellow and look mushy.

Add the cauliflower florets, stirring to coat with the lentils.  Partially cover and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, until the cauliflower is tender but not completely falling apart.  Remove from the heat and stir in chopped cilantro, lime juice, and salt.

Allow the curry to sit, covered, for about 15 minutes before serving to allow the flavors to melt and the mixture to cool slightly.

Yummy!  I have served this with baked pita crisps, and also with rice!

From Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero (Marlowe & Co., 2007; ISBN 156924264X).

TIPS ABOUT USING INDIAN SPICES

A caller from Urbana adds this information:  If you grind your own coriander and cumin, it makes a difference.  Toast the seeds lightly in a dry skillet before grinding; the taste is nutty rather than raw.  If you have a recipe that calls for whole coriander or cumin, heat them in the pan before adding other ingredients. 

A caller from Champaign wanted to clarify the use of spices for Indian cooking.  We grind our cumin and coriander, we keep the spices fresh.  Normally you place the fresh ground cumin, coriander and curry in the hot oil and then add the food, but if you roast the spices and then grind them, that’s used to flavor the foods at the very end.  Cumin can be used whole (good together with black mustard seeds): you put it into hot oil, let the oil spatter, then add the vegetables – that adds yet another flavor.  Be careful with turmeric – use it sparingly or else it gets bitter; and if you spatter it on your clothes or the counter, it will never come out!  It stains everything. 

FOOLPROOF PIE DOUGH

Doyle likes making savory pies, and for years has been content to have Pillsbury make the crust.  But he’d like to make his own crust if he could find a recipe that would work.  In a recent Cooks Illustrated magazine, http://www.cooksillustrated.com/, he found this recipe for “fool-proof” pie dough.  It’s not complicated, it’s straightforward, but it is peculiar!  The recipe uses vodka in place of some of the water; vodka is 40% ethanol, 60% water, therefore you cut down the amount of water used; water forms a gluten with the flour and makes the dough tough, but gluten will not form in alcohol.  The result is a dough that is flaky and tender and rolls out without cracking or peeling.  For a double crust:

• ¼ cup cold vodka

• ¼ cup ice water

• 2 ½ cups flour

• 1 tsp. salt

• 2 Tbsp. sugar

• 1½ sticks cold, unsalted butter, cut into ¼-inch slices

• ½ cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces

Mix all of the fat and half of the flour in a food processor until it just looks like cottage cheese.  Then add the rest of the flour.  Dump it all into a bowl and sprinkle the vodka and water over it.  Use a folding technique with a spatula until all of the moisture gets worked into it.  Form the dough into two balls, flatten into a disc, and place in the refrigerator for 45 minutes before use in your pie.

ANOTHER FOOLPROOF PIE CRUST

A caller from Urbana offers this foolproof pie crust from her mother (who ran an apple orchard) that is very tender.  What makes it different is the egg and some cider vinegar.  This recipe is for two 9-10 inch pies, top and bottom:

• 3 cups flour

• 1 tsp. salt

Cut in

• 1 cup shortening

Mix together:

• 1 egg beaten

• 1 Tbsp. cider vinegar

• 5 Tbsp. cold water

Blend that into the flour mixture.

The dough will keep for a few days in the refrigerator, and you can also freeze it.  If you make one pie, take the remaining dough, form into two patties and freeze for use when you need it. 

Doyle thinks the addition of the egg and vinegar is very Scottish.

AUSTRIAN APPLE STRUDEL

A caller from Urbana is a fan of apple pie, but can’t eat it too much because of the fat in the pastry.  He is also a fan of Austrian apple strudel, but had been intimidated from making the dough, which is a pulled dough which needs to be paper-thin.  But a year ago he saw a demonstration and learned how to do it.  It’s just

• 2 cups flour (all-purpose is fine)

• ½ cup warm water

• 1 egg

• 1 Tbsp. canola oil

Mix it in a mixer with a dough hook for 15 minutes.  Put it in a small bowl coated with oil and coat the top with oil, and let it rest for any amount of time.  The dough is very soft and elastic, like a rubber band.  Using a board that is 24 x 32 inches, covered with a white floured cloth, just start pulling the dough to fit the board.  The filling is just 3 pounds of apples with ½ cup sugar.  For an American twist, he adds dried cranberries soaked in rum.  Start on the long side and use the cloth to start rolling it up, you end up with about three layers of the pastry.  Because it’s so long, he shapes it into a horseshoe to fit into the oven (on a baking sheet). 

Note that the pastry wrapping the apple filling is almost fat-free. 

SUGAR-FREE CRUSTLESS PUMPKIN PIE

A caller from Champaign found this recipe for sugar-free and crustless pumpkin pie on a flyer at the IGA and modified it somewhat:

• 1 12-oz can non-fat evaporated milk

• ½  cup granulated sugar substitute (Splenda)

• ¼ cup brown sugar Splenda mix or 1 Tbsp. molasses

• ½ tsp. ground ginger

• 1 tsp. cinnamon

• 2 eggs

• 1 can pumpkin (2 cups of fresh cooked pumpkin)

• ½ tsp. allspice

• ¼ tsp. cloves

• ¼ tsp. nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 425°.  Mix the sugars and spices.  Beat the eggs in a bowl and stir in the pumpkin and sugar and spice, and then the evaporated milk.  Bake in a well-greased 9-inch glass or ceramic pie dish for 15 minutes.   Then turn down the oven to 350° and bake an additional 45-50 minutes.