Beer-and-Mustard Pulled Turkey

I don't know about you, but I don't think turkey should only be relegated to just Thanksgiving. It is delicious and healthy. I felt like busting out my pressure cooker and found this recipe:

http://www.thedailymeal.com/recipes/beer-and-mustard-pulled-turkey-recipe

It is like BBQ turkey, but less heavy.

1. Start by creating a dry brine by combining the following into a bowl:

• 2 teaspoons of ground coriander (if you didn't know, coriander comes from the same plant as cilantro. British call cilantro coriander. Mind blown.
• 1 teaspoon of dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper
• 0.5  teaspoons of garlic powder
• 0.5 teaspoons cayenne pepper

 
2. Rub the dry brine all over two skinless bone-in turkey thighs that each weigh between 1.25 and 1.5 pounds. I bought them skin on and removed the skin myself. Let the turkey brine in the fridge for up to 8 hours. Make sure to cover with plastic wrap.

 3. Pour 12 ounces of beer (the recipe recommended a dark porter, I used Guinness) in a pressure cooker. Place the thighs in the beer. Seal the pressure cooker and set the heat on high. Once high pressure has been achieved, reduce heat as low as possible, but maintain high pressure for 30 minutes.

4. Use the quick-release mechanism to open the pressure cooker.

5. Take the thighs out and shred. The turkey will be very delicate, so you may want to use a stiff spatula or a bunch of large wooden spoons to get them out. Let the turkey cool a little bit, then shred the turkey off the bones with forks or a knife.

6. While the turkey is cooling, scrape the brown bits from the side into the liquid and reduce the remaining beer liquid to half its volume (the volume after you took out the turkey) on medium heat.

7. Mix into the reduced beer liquid:

• 2  tablespoons  packed dark brown sugar
• 2  tablespoons  apple cider vinegar
• 1  tablespoon  whole-grain mustard
• 1  tablespoon  tomato paste

8. Cook for another minute. Mix in the turkey.

I ate the turkey in a wrap with healthy greek yogurt coleslaw. Enjoy!!!

 

 

S'mores (Graham Cracker) Ice Cream

S'mores (Graham Cracker) Ice Cream

Momofuku Milk Bar has some excellent ice cream recipes. Its graham cracker ice cream recipe tastes great, and stays nice and soft in the freezer unlike most homemade ice cream recipes. I added homemade chocolate ganache and store bought marshmallow fluff to turn this recipe into s'mores ice cream. Unfortunately you do need an ice cream maker and there are no legal web versions of the ice cream recipe. I will not include specific quantities of ingredients to appease copyright laws.

1.  You first need to make graham cracker crust. Preheat your oven to 250 degree Fahrenheit.

2. Combine crushed graham crackers, milk powder (dry milk), sugar, and salt. Also melt butter and mix it with some heavy cream.

3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients.

4. Place the wet graham cracker crumbs on a silpat or parchment line baking sheet and bake until it darkens a little. This should take about 15 minutes.

5. After the graham cracker crust finishes and cools, take half of it and pour milk over it. Let it set for 20 minutes or more. The milk will take the flavor. Save the other half for other recipes... like for the next blog post. There is also a little Easter egg for a future future blog post.

6. Filter out the graham cracker solids with a fine strainer. Throw away the solids... or put them in some greek yogurt.

6. Combine heavy cream, glucose, granulated white sugar, milk powder (dry non-fat milk), and salt. I used 75% of sugar the recipe asked for to take into account the additional add ins. The recipe usually comes out too sweet for most people. After tasting the results, I might even use 50% of the sugar for next time. Another note: Glucose is inverted syrup and a common additive in Milk Bar recipes. You can find it in specialty stores or Amazon. It is pricey, but it really helps keep the texture nice and soft. It is one of the most viscous cooking ingredients and is very difficult to handle. I use it because it is worth it.

7. Milk Bar's ice cream doesn't use egg yolks to get that smooth texture. It relies on something that flavored processed greek yogurt uses to get its texture, gelatin. You can use whatever type you'd like. Most professional bakers prefer gelatin sheets because they are easier to measure and use. It is hard to find in stores, but not that expensive on Amazon.

Warm up a little bit of the graham cracker milk. Bloom (wet) the gelatin sheets by placing it in cold water for a minute or two. You'll know when it is ready when it is soft. Don't let it bloom for too long because it will get too soft and you won't be able to take it out of the water. Squeeze out the excess water and whisk it into the warm milk.

It will dissolve without much effort.

8. Pour the gelatin milk mixture back in with the rest of the milk. Whisk in the rest of the mixture really well.

There will be some undissolved milk powder in the end, that is okay.

9. Refrigerate your ice cream liquid for as long as possible (1 hour would be nice).

10. Churn according to your ice cream maker's instructions. Make sure you pour the liquid in through a strainer first to take out any of the solid particles.

At the very end, swirl in some chocolate ganache (use this blog post as a guide), and marshmallow fluff. Be careful not to over-mix the ganache. You want ribbons of ganache, you don't want it to combine with the graham cracker ice cream.

My ice cream maker is not very good, so the ice cream has to be frozen for additional time in the freezer, even after it has churned. This particular time it did not freeze will in the ice cream maker after 35 minutes. Don't fret, the gelatin really ensures that it won't crystallize in the freezer. The results are amazing!

To make some of my friends happy, I stylized a scoop. What do you all think?

Stay tuned for another dessert recipe next week. It will be out of control.

Croquembouche

Croquembouche

You're probably asking yourself, what the heck is a croquembouche? It is basically a cream puff sculpture that is glued together with caramel. Traditionally, it is assembled into a tall cone, but mine was assembled into a pyramid to fit the carrying case. See the original recipe here: http://www.marthastewart.com/339829/croquembouche.

I broke up the creation of the croquembouche into three parts: Making the profiteroles (pastry puffs), making the pastry cream; and filling the profiteroles, making the caramel, and assembling the cream puffs.

Please refer to the original recipe and the Gougères blog post for how to make the profiteroles. The technique is very similar to making gourgeres. After I made the profiteroles, I froze them for a month before I actually used them. Breaking recipes into workable chunks really helps make complicated recipes less stressful.

Chocolate Pastry Cream

1. Start by measuring out your ingredients which includes:

• 6 large egg yolks. I had 4 egg yolks leftover from when I made S'mores Baked Alaska, which only needed 4 egg whites. I whisked the egg yolks with a teaspoon of sugar, then frozen them in a ziplock bag, which I defrosted when making the pastry cream. The baked Alaska was amazing. It had homemade chocolate cake, homemade graham cracker ice cream, and toasted meringue.

 

• 1/2 cup sugar(minus the teaspoon that was used for freezing the egg yolks)
• 1/2 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 2 cups milk
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 2 teaspoons instant espresso powder, mixed with 2 teaspoons hot water

2.  In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg yolks and slowly added the sugar. Beat on medium high until the egg yolks turns pale. It should almost resemble mayonnaise with a light yellow tinge. 

3. Scrape the edges of the bowl and beat in the flour. Make sure you scrape the edges of the bowl again.

This will really thicken up the mixture.

4. Scald your milk, which means bring it up to a boil. Be very careful, because the second the milk starts to scald, it will foam up.

5. With the mixer on low, pour in the milk (except for half a cup to save for later) a little at a time. If you put too much milk in at once, the egg will scramble. Keep pouring until all the milk is in. The mixture should be pretty runny. Don't worry, this is right.

6. Put the egg mixture into a clean pot and heat it on high. Whisk vigorously. Once the mixture thickens, turn off the heat. If the mixture seems too thick to use a piping bag, add the leftover milk.

7. Add in the butter one tablespoon at a time. Make sure you fully whisk in each butter addition, before you add more.

8. Dissolve the instant espresso into the hot water.

9. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate together with the espresso.

10. Whisk the chocolate into the pastry cream.

11. Let the pastry cream cool. If you want to leave it in the fridge, make sure you line the pastry cream with plastic wrap to prevent a thin film from forming.

 Caramel and Assembly

I didn't get a good picture of me filling the puffs, but I used a pastry bag fitting with a 1/4" round tip. This did not go as well as I thought. The puffs were brittle and tended to break. This could of been because I didn't let them come to room temperature when I took them out of the fridge or because I made them too small.

Making the caramel is really easy.

1. Combine:

• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons corn syrup
• 2/3 cup of water

in a heavy bottom saucepan. I halved the recipe because I didn't anticipate needing that much. It was a good call.

2. Turn the heat on high and once it reaches a boil, cover. When you make caramel, sugar crystals often form. When you cover the pan, the steam that forms comes down the side and help dissolve the crystals. Let it steam for a little bit then uncover.

3. Cook until the caramel turns amber. Don't take your eyes off the caramel. Burning caramel is easy.

4. Assemble! Sorry I don't have any good pictures, but simply dip each puff into the caramel, then attach it to the rest of the puffs. Once the puffs are all assembled, dip a fork into the caramel then lift the fork high above the puffs to create those characteristic caramel webs. You may need to reheat the caramel if it cools down too much.

Enjoy! This is a great snow day recipe!

Shakshuka

Shakshuka

I recently went to Israel and had the time of my life. Besides making tons of friends and feeding my spirituality, I fed my stomach too. Here is a look at some of the amazing food I had:

Bourekas

Halvah

Kubaneh

A whole Bedouin spread

Date bar and baklava

An Israeli Moroccan feast prepared by my birthright group (I worked on the spicy Moroccan fish)

And most of all Shakshuka

I don't think I achieved the same quality as the shakshuka I ate in Israel, but I will keep on trying. Here is the base recipe.

1. Chop all your veggis including: 

• 5 cloves of garlic (I used only 3 and it was not garlicky enough, may 6-7)
• 2-3 shallots (one of my shallots fell so I couldn't use it. You can also use an onion)
• 1.5 fresh tomatoes
• 0.5 red bell pepper
• 1 red chili pepper without the seeds

Also have the following ready:

• Smoked paprkia
• Salt & pepper
• Harissa
• Eggs
• 15 ounce can of crush tomatoes

 

2. Heat up a pan with a little olive oil.

3. Cook your garlic and shallots on medium high until they are translucent. Add some salt and pepper as well.

 

4. Add the rest of your veggis and the crushed tomatoes.

5. Season with 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika, a 1.5 tablespoons of harissa, and additional salt and pepper to taste. Make sure you try the sauce and approve it before you move on. Let the sauce cook for 5-10 minutes

6. Reduce the heat so that the sauce is at a simmer. Add the eggs one at a time. I like to crack the eggs one at a time into a ladle that has been pressed into the sauce. This gives me a chance to take out any shells that might have come off the eggs. If there are no shells, I then carefully turn the egg into the sauce.

7. Repeat with all the eggs.

 8. Cover and let the eggs cook for 5-10 minutes depending on what consistency you want. Enjoy!