A mistake I made, was to not use any cream or sour cream, but just 1% milk. That made the whole thing far too thin, so in order to make it set, I had to cook it for almost 1:30 hours, rather than the 45-55 minutes recommended. That created an unsightly, overly browned surface, but worst of all, it made the crust get almost rock hard. This is a little ironic, but mostly just annoying, seeing that last time, I had problems because I didn't pre-cook the crust enough to make it set and become flaky. So now I ended up with a non-flaky, bone hard crust. Damn annoying how I somehow manage to stumble into every possible trap, for such a simple dish.
Of course, I'll get it perfect next time. Or the time after that...
Update — quiche crust tends to soften up a lot, as leftovers. You can't expect anything too crunchy or crispy, but this was still absolutely excellent. Just look at all that lovely smoked salmon:
Kjøttkaker, yeah. I've made so many of these suckers, only to add the incorrect accoutrement, viz cranberries. I mean, cranberries are good enough for the Thanksgiving turkey, so I offer no appologies here. But damnit — screw cranberries! Lingonberries' where it's at. Or at least that'd be what you'd believe, if Felix' natural treat from the Swedish forests is your thing. Uh, hang on, is IKEA a furniture store — or a cult?
Well, nevermind about all that. I'm telling you, lingonberries are nice. Especially when used in the proper context. And this is one of 'em.
What question do you hate being asked?
Uh, I dunno. Question of the Day?
I started with a recipe for some Tandoori shrimp, and added cauliflower (my aim is to always use vegetables for a meal. Next in order of importance is protein, and if I'm worried that there isn't enough between those two, to fill people up — and if there's time, then I'll add some starch), although I decided to swap the shrimp out for some nice tilapia. Then, I decided to use the Gordon Ramsay tandoori paste that I've used several times on salmon, rather than actually use the recipe I originally picked. And then I had a brain fart and decided to use the same paste on the cauliflower.
Using this tandoori paste on cauliflower isn't inherently a bad idea — but why on earth would I use it on both the protein and the veggies, when I have nothing else? D'oh. So I decided to add some rice. If nothing else, just to have some different color on the plate. And a different flavor.
Well, marinating things in a paste is a problem because so much of it sticks to the marinated object. And there's a LOT of things to stick to, on cauliflower florets. Furthermore, the paste didn't penetrate very far. I took one of the fish fillets, and some of the cauliflower, and washed the marinade off prior to grilling, and there was very little taste left.
I'll definitely do this again, but just by brushing things with the paste prior to grilling, rather than trying to marinade it. Which is great, because marinating things take time. But next time, I certainly won't use the same stuff on both the fish and the veggies.
I like the idea of cooking for special occasions. Paddy day, Cinco de Mayo, Shitkicker day, etc. But this was completely accidental. When I saw a picture of a cookie called Hamantash, I lazily assumed it was Japanese (I know a tiny bit about the Japanese writing systems, and as I glanced at the name, I thought it was something that fit the phonetic rules, and thus was a word that could be spelled with the Kanas. Best of all, I was wrong, heheh). Apart from panko-crusted things, or tempura, I've never done much Japanese cookery, even though I like that food a lot. So I figured I'd try these Japanese cookies. It didn't turn out too good, but I like to include my failures in this blog too. Gotta learn from your failures.
As it turns out, these things are actually Jewish cookies, in celebration of Xerxes trying to do something awful to the ancient Hebrews, but failing. It's called the Purim festival, and it's actually just a coincidence that I ended up making them round about the right time for it — obviously, I stumbled upon some time-relevant site somewhere.
Now, I'm only including the recipe for the record — for the love of Elohim, don't try to cook this stuff. It wasn't just that it was bad; it was a lot of effort. Mind you, someone who's experienced with this could probably knock it out in no time.
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups flour
7 oz margarine
4 teaspoons sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
Directions
1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl
2. Refrigerate for 2 hours
3. Roll out, cut into 3" circles
4. Add filling (apricot preserve) and, fold up into a triangle shape.
5. Bake at 375° for 15 minutes or until golden brown
I started out with this basic recipe and from this non-Kosher, non-traditional recipe, I added an extra two teaspoons of sugar, and one teaspoon of vanilla extract. Still, the dough was flavorless. Also, it was too dry, which made the first trial cookie crack at the edges when baked — letting all the filling (in this case, grape jam) run out.
For my second test cookie, I heated the dough up and added two tablespoons of sugar and quarter cup of pink grapefruit juice and mixed it together. This was too much liquid. After chilling it again, it stuck to everything when I tried to roll it out. I only managed to carve it off the board with a thin knife — not a practical solution for making lots of cookies (and if I'm gonna go through with the hassle of making cookies, I want some return on my investment, dagnabbit).
The worst thing is, this sucker cracked open also!
So, seeing that there was still no perceptible sweetness or flavor of vanilla, I added another half cup of flower, one teaspoon of vanilla extract and a quarter cup of sugar. Also, I picked some apricot preserve for the filling this time — I hadn't noticed that I had this, which is why I opted for the grape filling. Apricot is one of several traditional fillings, and it was much better.
At this point, I had achieved some magical equilibrium between wet and dry that made it impossible to roll out thinly enough, yet it stuck to everything. So I ended up with much thicker cookies than before. The one good thing about it was that this prevented them from cracking open.
But then this happened: they didn't so much crack as they open up like happy little flowers:
Out of the eleven cookies I made from this final attempt, just two stuck together in the shape they should have (well okay, not really):
Still, I really like the general idea of this recipe. But the dough needs more flavoring. Also, just doing them plain flat, well that's a good idea too. I've seen plenty of cookies like that.
But most of all, I got what I think is a truly great idea... I once had a strange, but fantastic pizza from the California Pizza Kitchen: topped with caramelized pears and blue cheese. Well, I can do this as a starter! I'll do some standard, faux puff pastry, cut them into circles just like these cookies, and then, with the back of a spoon, press the dough down everywhere except for the edges. Place thinly sliced, caramelized pears in the indented area and top with blue cheese. I seriously cannot wait to try this out. After all this hassle, this could seriously be a silver lining that makes it all well worth.
*And yeah, that's a Monty Python thing. If you accuse me of antisemitism, I shall be forced to challenge you to the Fish-Slapping Dance — and I use pike!
I thought of adding garlic to the sauce, but that seemed a little obvious to me, so I didn't. That was a mistake. Also, I should have added far more parsley, because that stuff really has a nice flavor. It's not just for decoration.
The main ingredient is cauliflower (that might be the "Kol" part of the name, but I don't now fer sure). It's a vegetarian dish. Cauliflower really is a great vegetable. Not that you can go wrong with onions, garlic, Jalapeños, turmeric, tomatoes and cilantro, though. Great stuff.
