Daring Cooks Challenge: Nut Butters!

The Challenge:

"The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online."

At first glance, making nut butters don't seem like much of a challenge. Put nuts in a food processor, and blend them. Done. OK.

Second part of this month's challenge: use said nut butter in a savory recipe. Again, doesn't seem difficult. For my first challenge with the Daring Cooks, I was more than a little let down. I mean, Chicken Saté (a savory nut butter application) isn't exceptionally uncommon; most people I know have had it. Although some of the provided recipes looked delicious, and I was really looking forward to trying out a cashew-butter version of peanut (or sesame) noodles, I felt like this one was going to be a breeze.

Holy crap, was I wrong.

Under Construction

Hey there loyal readers!

As some of you have undoubtedly noticed, I am working on a new design for the site. Basically, I have decided to go self hosted for a project related to this blog, and self-hosting was just the right thing to do.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize a lot of the specifics required for making the switch (live and learn). Namely, I had to make some internal changes to nameservers and a whole bunch of computer mumbo jumbo that has rendered my direct URL kind of useless until I go live with my new design. I had been told I could continue to route traffic here to my Blogger blog while I worked on the redesign in the background, but that proved... complicated; international tech support, what can I say? When you outsource your customer service to another (non-native-English-speaking) country, things are going to get lost in translation - literally.

So for now, I will be continuing to work on my redesign over at my usual URL, but will continue to post here. I hope to have the redesign ready to launch within another week, but I'll make sure to keep you updated! Until then, just continue here, http://blissfullyunrefined.blogspot.com for current content!

For today, please enjoy this photo from the Hochheim Weinfest (going on now!)

Wine's Baby Picture

Recipe: Basic Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese

The time has finally come! Since it's taken 3 previous posts to get here, without further ado, I present my recipe for....

Basic Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese

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Servings: 4 Prep Time: 5 min Cook Time: 10 min

Here's what you need:

• 3 TB butter 
• 3 TB flour 
• 1 1/2 - 2 cups milk (whole is best) 
• 5-6 ounces of grated cheese(s) of your choice (to keep it traditional, I use one part gouda, one part muenster, 1 part sharp cheddar, appx. 1/2 cup each) 
• Salt and pepper to taste 
• Optional: 1/2 tsp nice, sharp mustard 
• 1 lb pasta 
• Optional: diced tomatoes

Here's what you do:

• Boil your water for your pasta, salt, and start the pasta cooking. Make your cheese sauce while your pasta is cooking (they should be finished about the same time) - drain and set aside when done, keeping warm if necessary. Note, this recipe does not go into the oven, so you want your pasta to be fully cooked. 

• Assemble your Mornay Sauce: 

• Make a roux with the butter and flour. Cook until just lightly golden and fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. 
• Gradually whisk your milk into the roux, and cook until thickened completely, 3-4 minutes 
• Add your cheese about 1/2 cup at a time, whisking until melted fully and incorporated, about 4-5 minutes. Once you've added all of your cheese, add the mustard if using, taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed 

• Add your hot pasta to the cheese sauce, and stir to coat. Garnish with chopped tomatoes if you'd like.

• That's it. Eat it and enjoy! 

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And so ends my Mac and Cheese Series. I hope you enjoyed it. Please, feel free to get creative with the blank canvas I've supplied here. If you want to get really crazy, feel free to try some of the following combinations:

-Fajita Mac: Add a little chili powder and lime zest to your Béchamel, then add your cheeses (Cheddar-Jack, Muenster, Gouda, cream cheese) and a TB or two of sour cream. You can then stir in sauteed onions, pepper, and fajita steak/chicken (great use of leftovers). Feel free to add a little beer as well.

-Swiss Fondue Mac: Add in a pinch of nutmeg and a splash of dry white wine to your Béchamel before incorporating your cheeses(Gruyère, Fontina, Emmenthaler). You can even add some sauteed veggies to complete the Fondue experience. (I've started looking to The Melting Pot for cheese combos)

-Crazy Awesome Mac: Right after adding your milk, throw in pinches of cinnamon or nutmeg, garlic powder, and yellow curry powder, along with about 2 tsp fresh thyme, and about 1 tsp of sambal (or hot sauce of your choice). Allow the herbs and spices to infuse into the milk, then add your cheese (Edamer and Muenster). Meanwhile, caramelize one small onion in a skillet; add about 1/2 cup cherry or grape tomatoes until they break open and start to caramelize. Add 1 minced clove of garlic, and cook 1 more minute. Stir the onion-tomato mixture into your cheese sauce along with 2-4 fl oz of ale, then add your pasta. Freaking awesome, let me tell you.

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And in case you missed it, the rest of the Mac & Cheese series that led up to this exciting finale:

Part I: Making a Roux

Part II: Intro to Mother Sauces & Béchamel

Part III: Cheesy Choices & Mornay

Wordless Wednesday: 7 June

Mainzer Johannisnacht

Fresh Cold-Coconut for a Euro ... the Ferris Wheel, and ...Well, I'm honestly not really sure...

Mac & Cheese Pt. III: Cheesy Choices & Mornay

Who doesn't love cheese? Ok, anyone with allergies, please don't answer - you'll skew my data!

We're up to Part III of my Stovetop Mac & Cheese Series - so close, you can almost taste it? ...ok, bad pun, I'll admit! We've gone over the bases upon which our cheesy sauce will be built: the roux, and how to use it to create a classic French Béchamel Sauce. I'll be wrapping up the sauce discussion shortly, but before you can finish your cheese sauce, you first have to make a crucial decision: "What kind of cheese?"

Most people will automatically jump straight to Cheddar. Not so fast! While Cheddar is, indeed, delicious (for me, the sharper the better!), the cheese world has so many options, why limit yourself? You need at least 3-4 cheeses to make a truly stellar and earth-shattering Mac and Cheese. But how do you know what to choose?

In my humble opinion, you need to carefully weigh two considerations: taste and texture. Some cheeses are great  melters, and add a creaminess that makes your tongue very happy indeed, but don't really lend a huge cheesy punch. Other cheese are flavor powerhouses, but can get gritty or add a funky texture to your noodles.

Kitchen Basics: Intro to Mother Sauces & Béchamel

"A well made sauce will make even an elephant or a grandfather palatable." -Grimod de la Reynière

I'm not so sure about that, but leave it to a Frenchman to come up with a great quote about sauce. The French worship sauce. And boy, can they make some good ones. There are five basic sauces in classical French cuisine, often called the Mother sauces due to being the most common and simple bases to most French sauces. The first 3 of the 5 sauces share a common makeup: your roux, and a liquid. The first four sauces listed were identified by Antoine Carême, and good ol' number five was later added by Escoffier.

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Here are your 5 "grandes sauces" as they call them in French:

1. Béchamel or White Sauce: So called because it consists of milk thickened with a white roux (one that has just had the raw flour flavor cooked out, but hasn't gotten any color). This forms the base of Mornay - i.e. cheese - sauce (hm, wonder where I'm going with this one), 

2. Velouté or Blonde Sauce: So called because it consists of a "white" stock - poultry, etc - thickened with a blonde roux (one that's gotten a hint of color, blonde, easy enough to figure out). Ever had Chicken Supreme? Or gravy on your Thanksgiving turkey? That was a Velouté based sauce my friend.

3. Espagnole or Brown Sauce: So called because it consists of a "brown" stock - think red meat, beef, veal, etc. - thickened with a brown roux (one that's been cooked to a nice deep brown color - really, the naming isn't rocket science). Demi-glace and Madeira Sauce are common derivatives. 

Also included are:

4. Hollandaise or Emulsion Sauces: also includes Mayonnaise. These are sauces that involve (you guessed it) an emulsion, usually involving fat and egg yolks. 

5. Tomate or Tomato Sauce: Although not necessarily French at first glance, it's still a good, basic sauce. You can thank Escoffier for tomato sauce's addition to the list.

Although these are all very important sauces in their own right, today we are going to focus on the first 3, with notes specifically for Béchamel Sauce, as Part II of my Stovetop Macaroni & Cheese series. (The process is basically identical for the Velouté and Espagnole Sauces, so there you go).

Kitchen Basics: Making a Roux

I have some quick net access today, so I am going to begin my promised series on Mac & Cheese.

There are three major components to a great stovetop macaroni and cheese: the béchamel sauce, the cheese, and the pasta.

We'll address the béchamel as a whole in my next post. Today, I'll cover the first (and in my opinion, most important) step to making this sauce: the roux.