Beer Bread

Generally, making bread is a concept that frightens me slightly.  I can do quick breads with little anxiety, but a real, add-the-yeast-knead-the-dough bread seems difficult.  Thus, imagine my delight when at a church picnic last summer, one of our friends introduced us to beer bread.  It's stupid easy, but lighter and more bread-like than most quick breads (which to me are more muffin-like).  Regardless, these are still more of a breakfast bread than a sandwich bread (though, I imagine it depends on the beer, too).

As a bonus, it's easy to change up the flavors by using a different beer.  Boom - instant seasonal bread.  Our friend makes hers with Miller Light, but because we're beer snobs, I rejected that option.  In the fall, I made ours with Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale (delicious, nutmeggy tones), and in the winter, I used New Holland's The Poet Oatmeal Stout (a rich, hearty flavor).  I'm about to see what Bell's Oberon will do, and will keep you posted.

3 cups self-rising flour, sifted
1/2 cup sugar
12 ounces beer (your choice)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Butter a loaf pan and set aside. 

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and beer, and mix well (don't over do it, though).  Pour into the loaf pan and bake for one hour, or until tester comes out clean.  Cool and enjoy.

Awesome Cornbread

At our wedding, we had some amazing cornbread muffins. Since then, Jess and I have been craving cornbread of the same caliber - soft, moist, sweet, and not gritty.

Today I may have stumbled upon the solution. Last week we tried the recipe off the back of the cornmeal bag. Blech. Gritty. Dry. NOT what we wanted. We looked at Alton Brown's recipe (in his I'm just here for more food book), picked up a few hints, and then modified his even further. The result was outstanding. It was very cakey- not very gritty.... and nice and sweet (though to get to the level of sweetness of the muffins at my wedding, we'd need even more sugar!)

Ingredients:
3/4 c buttermilk
3/4 c cornmeal
1/2 c cakeflour (you could also use all-purpose flour, just use about a tablespoon less).
2 Tblspn butter, melted
pinch salt
1/3 c sugar (1/2 cup if you want it to be sweeter- more like a dessert muffin)
1/4 c vegetable oil
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 egg, beaten

Add 3/4 cup buttermilk and 3/4 cup fine cornmeal to a mixing bowl. (If you need to, blend or food process your cornmeal to get it finer - this will help keep it from being gritty).

Let your buttermilk/cornmeal mixture reast for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425.

To the soggy cornmeal mixture, add the beaten egg, the oil, and the butter. Whisk it all together.

Add the sugar, then the dry ingredients.

Once everything is mixed well, PAM a 7" round cake pan... or double this recipe and use a 9" round, or use a bunch of muffin tins... who cares. The 7" round should be checked at 15 minutes, and will probably need another 3-5 minutes. We settled at 20 minutes for a beautiful golden brown. It yielded what would have been about 8 muffins, and they were DELICIOUS!!!! I'd have taken a picture, but... there aren't any left!

10 minute cooking school meets 50 minute movie deadline

When I was in the 4th grade, I got my first set of glasses. When I left the doctor's office I was astonished to see individual leaves on trees and little bumps in the sidewalk. I didn't really think about how the world was supposed to look. Last night I had another eye opening experience, thanks to youtube, Troublemaker Studios, and Robert Rodriguez's "10 Minute Cooking School."

With a movie showtime hanging over my head, I and a friend tried to squeeze this meal's square peg into a 1 hour 10 minute "prep + cook + enjoy" round hole (later we discovered it was more like an oblique spheroid, so it nearly fit).

You will never buy store bought tortillas again. I promise you.

Robert Rodriguez's Homemade Tortillas

2 cups flour
1/4 cup fat (either butter or lard, in his video he uses 1/8 cup of each)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup warm water

Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, and butter (this is what I used) in a mixing bowl. Mix.
The powder will get a little clumpy, but not terribly so. After the ingredients are mixed, slowly start adding the water until it gets doughy. Fool around with this, as I still haven't gotten it quite down.

When the dough looks like it's going to hold a shape, start pulling small handfuls out to roll into golf ball sized bits. Roll them up and set them down for a few. This made about 1 dozen little balls for me. If they aren't sticking together well enough, get your hands wet while rolling them.

Now it's time to start on your filling as these sit.

Mrs. Renfro's Salsa meets Mr. K's chicken

1 jar Mrs. Renfro's jalapeno salsa (green)
1 lb chicken
freshly ground black pepper
chili flakes
1 cup rice

You can get the same effect but making your own salsa (or just adding some diced tomatoes, and spices to the rice - but I was short on time). Cut up your chicken into bite sized pieces, pepper them, add a little salt, and toss them all in a pot with your cup of rice and about 2 cups of water. Turn to high heat. You folks know what's going to happen here. When the water boils, add anywhere from 6-8 oz. of the salsa to the rice + chicken mixture. Cover, reduce heat to low, and set a timer for 20 minutes. Now let's get those tortillas goin'.

Your flour balls have sat long enough, time to roll those suckers out. Get a clean flat surface, some flour, and a rolling pin (don't have a rolling pin? Neither do I. Wash off a beer bottle and cover the outside with flour - it works just as well). Get a griddle or large skillet heated up (med-high heat).

Squish the flour balls into discs and lightly dust both sides with flour. Also, make sure you throw a little flour down on your surface - you don't want them sticking. Roll them out into flat tortilla shapes and set aside. If your griddle is ready, grease it up with some butter and toss them on. You want them to get brown on both sides, RR says "watch them bubble up, that means your baking powder is working. Flatten them out and flip. When they're done toss them in a tortilla holder and cover them up."

I just used paper towel and a 9 x9 cake pan; worked fine.

Your tortillas should be done, your chicken and rice should be finished, all you need now is to throw a little cheese or sour cream on there and you have yourself a quick, decent meal. It was pretty fantastic. We even made it to the movie on time.

What's really great about the tortillas is that they are surprisingly easy to make and they taste noticeably better than their store-bought counterparts (mostly the texture, they aren't rubbery at all). I can't wait to try homemade hardshell tacos with these guys.