Merry Christmas! - French Baguettes and Spinach Stuffed Squash

I hope everyone is enjoying the Holidays.  It's been extremely busy for me, long hours at work, as well as multiple Christmas parties.  It's a pretty exhausting time.

I promised to post recipes from last weekend's Christmas party.  I'm not going to be able to post all of them, because I didn't cook all of the dishes (we had many contributors to the dinner), but I will post two- French baguettes and spinach stuffed squash.

Also, I received the half sphere molds for the yogurt charolettes for the French Laundry blueberry soup, so I will be posting that recipe in the very near future.  I will be taking off work the first week of January, and I plan to do quite a bit of cooking and writing during that time.

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French Baguettes

4 cups white bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 1/3 cups warm water (100-110 degrees F)
Olive oil

Stir the flour and salt together in a large bowl, then add the yeast.  Make a well in the center and add the water.  Make sure the water is warm (100-110 degrees F), too hot or cold and it can kill the yeast.

Mix together the ingredients with a spoon until the dough starts to stick together, then knead the dough with your hands until it leaves the sides of the bowl and comes together.  To prevent dough from sticking to your hands too much, rub flour on them before touching the dough.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface (clean counter or large cutting board) and knead it for several minutes until it is smooth.  Be careful not too work the dough too much.  The less you work it, the lighter it will be.

Cover the inside of a large bowl with a thin layer of oil, shape the dough into a ball, and place in the bowl.  Cover the bowl with a damp towel or plastic wrap, and place in a warm area for roughly an hour, until it is nearly doubled in size.  I like to warm my oven up to about 175 degrees F, then turn it off about a half hour prior.  This will keep it relatively warm, and is a good place to keep the dough so it can rise. 

After an hour or so, turn the dough out onto your cleaned, lightly floured work surface again, and knead it briefly.  Cut it in half and shape the pieces into two balls.  With your hands, work each piece into a rough rectangle measuring 7-8 inches long by 2-3 inches wide.  Roll each piece lengthwise, folding it roughly 3 times into it starts to take the shape of a baguette.  Place the dough on a cookie sheet, cover with a damp cloth of plastic wrap, and place in a warm place to rise for 10-15 minutes.  You will need to do this twice more, each time repeating the folding and rising.

The final time you fold the dough, stretch it to approximately 12-14 inches in length., and fold it into the shape of a baguette  Cut deep slits in the top of the loaf.  Let the dough sit for another half hour in a warm place.

Heat the oven to 450 degrees F.  Place the loaves in the oven, as well as another cookie sheet with water in it on the rack below the loaves.  The water will help keep the crust of the bread from becoming too crispy.  Bake for 15-18 minutes.  Remove from oven, cool on wire racks, and brush with olive oil.

I like to keep the loaves in tin foil when not serving them.

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Spinach Stuffed Squash

4 large yellow squash

1 1/2  teaspoon salt

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 small onion, chopped

2 (10 oz) package frozen chopped spinach, cooked and well drained

1 cup sour cream

2 teaspoon red wine vinegar

1/4 cup fine, dry bread crumbs

1 tablespoon cold butter, cut up

Combine squash, 1/2 teaspoon salt and water to cover in a large pot.  Bring to a boil and cook until tender, 10-20 minutes.  Remove the squash from the water and allow them to cool.

Cut the squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Drizzle the cut sides of squash with 2 tablespoons melted butter.  Sprinkle with 2 tablespoon Parmesan, 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper.

Pour remaining 2 teaspoon melted butter in a large skillet over medium high heat and add onions.  Sauté the onions until tender, roughly 4-5 minutes.

Stir in cooked spinach, sour cream, red wine vinegar and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Spoon spinach mixture evenly into squash halves. Place squash in a 13” x 9” baking dish. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and remaining 6 tablespoons cheese and cold butter. 

Bake 350 degrees F for 15 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Sorry, I don't have pictures of the stuffed squash.  But try out the recipe, I'm sure you'll like the results.

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Also, I'm very happy to have received several awesome food related Christmas presents:  A food grinder attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer, a cast iron dutch oven, The Flavor Bible and Culinary Artistry, both by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page, and a massive, Wusthof 10" chef's knife with an extra wide blade.  I can't tell you how awesome this knife is.  It cuts through anything like butter, and is HEAVY.

Here it is next to a regular 8" chef's knife for comparison.

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Well that's it for today.  Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas everyone!

Slight delay..

There's been a delay in posting Cream of Blueberry Soup with Charlottes.  I ordered gelatin sheets and half sphere molds weekend before last and just now received the gelatin sheets.  I still have yet to receive the molds, and the tracking number for the shipment is not working.  I know everyone is just quivering in anticipation, but until I get the molds, there's nothing I can do about it.

However, this weekend I will be hosting a Christmas dinner/party, and the menu will feature a lot of different dishes and desserts.  After the party I will be posting those, along with several other recipes from the menu.  Maybe I'll even include pictures from the party.  So stay tuned, there will be a lot coming this weekend.

Roast Chicken on a Bed of Vegetables and Homemade Mac and Cheese

You might have noticed things look a little different here than they did during my last post.  I'm working on a little redesign to make it look a bit neater and cleaner around here.  Also, kudos to my roommate Michael for designing me a new logo.

Well, the Cream of Blueberry Soup is on hold at the moment.  I'm going to try to get it done this week, but I am having a little difficulty finding gelatin sheets and the hemisphere molds needed for the yogurt charlottes.  I will probably have to end up ordering the items online.

So rather than post nothing at all this weekend, I'm posting a recipe from dinner last night.  Michael and his girlfriend Laura joined me for a meal that included roast chicken on a bed of vegetables and some homemade macaroni and cheese (it was Michael's reward for the new logo).  You might remember my first post, which was roasted chicken.  Well, this takes roast chicken and turns it up a notch.  This recipe is based upon the recipe Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables from Ad Hoc.

I neglected to take pictures of the process, but luckily Michael was able to snap of couple shots of the finished product.

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Roast Chicken on a Bed of Vegetables

3.5 lb chicken
1 1/2 cup carrots
2.5 lbs red potatoes
2 leeks (white and light green parts only)
Half of a white or yellow onion
Thyme
4-5 cloves garlic
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
4 tablespoons butter
Extra virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.

Peel and chop up the carrots, and cut the potatoes into chunks.  Chopped the root end off the leeks, and cut off the long dark green ends as well.  Chop the leeks and place them in a strainer, and rinse them.  Leeks can often contain dirt within their many layers, so I find it is best to wash them after you chop them, as it is easier to remove the dirt.  Cut the onion in whatever way you choose (I prefer larger chunks, but if you prefer smaller ones, that will work fine with this dish).  Put all of the vegetables in a bowl, and toss with olive oil and salt and pepper, and then spread them out on a skillet.  I used a large cast iron skillet for this recipe, but you can also use a baking dish, it just needs to be deep enough to keep the juices from the chicken in so the vegetables can roast in the juice. 

 Clean the chicken- remove the giblets, rinse it, and pat it dry with paper towels.  Also, make sure the chicken is up to room temperature.  Guess what happens when you add several pounds of cold meat to a hot oven?  The temperature goes down drastically.  So let it sit to at least room temperature before you put it in.

A quick note- if you rinse the chicken off in the sink, be sure you go back and sterilize the sink and surface around it afterward.  You definitely don't want your kitchen to be harboring germs from the raw chicken.

I removed the wishbone from the chicken using a paring knife prior to doing anything else to it.  You don't have to, but it makes it easier to carve once it is done. 

Salt and pepper the cavity of the bird, add the garlic cloves, and several sprigs of thyme, using your hand to try to spread the spices and herbs around inside of it.  Truss the chicken.  Salt and pepper the outside of the chicken, and cover it with a light layer of olive olive.  Chop up several springs of thyme and sprinkle it across the top of the chicken.

Make a bed within the vegetables in the pan to place the chicken in.  Top the chicken with several pats of butter (healthy, I know), and place it in the oven for 20 minutes.  If you use a bird over 4 lbs, you might want to leave it at that temperature for 25 minutes.

After the 20 minutes, reduce the temperature to 400 degrees F (yes, you leave the chicken in the oven while the temperature is reducing).  Cook the chicken at that temperature for around 45 minutes, or until the temperature in the thickest parts of the chicken register at 165 degrees, or the juices run clear if you poke the thighs with a knife.

Remove the chicken and vegetables and let them rest for 10-15 minutes before carving.

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Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

1 lb (16 oz) sharp cheddar (grated)
1/4 lb Monterrey Jack (grated)
2 cups half and half
4 tablespoons butter
Sea salt
1 1/2 lb elbow macaroni pasta

Boil the macaroni in salted water until it is the desired texture, and drain the water.

Using a saucepan over medium-low heat, add the half and half and butter.  Allow the butter to melt, add the salt, and then add the cheese, a bit at a time, slowly stirring the entire time so that no cheese sticks to the pan.  Once all the cheese has been melted and combined, pour the cheese mixture over the macaroni and stir to divide it evenly, and serve.

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I'm doing my best to get the items needed for the Cream of Blueberry Soup with Yogurt Charlottes.  Hopefully I will have that recipe up later this coming week.

In the mean time, you can follow me using your Google account (press the follow button on the right side of the page).  Alternatively, feel free to share any of my posts on Facebook or Twitter.