Apple Pie & Whole Wheat Apple Muffins

Goodness, how did I get so behind? It's a full week after Halloween and I'm still posting about what we ate last Friday! Almost done though - maybe because we just ate so much.

Janice had gone apple picking the week before, so we were planning on making apple pie from scratch. I also found a delicious looking whole wheat apple muffin recipe, so we figured, hey, why not??




To be honest, the apple pie wasn't as good as it looked. I think it was something about the pie crust recipe, the type of flour, the way we did it? Who knows - but it looks good in pictures doesn't it?



But the muffins were delicious. Healthy tasting with the whole wheat, light, fluffy, warm - perfect. We made full size ones and mini-muffins. Mini muffins take about 5 minutes less time. It was actually better than the whole wheat apple bread I made before. I think I will try the muffin recipe as bread and see how it is. And even though the pie was a bit of a disappointment, anything w/ Ciao Bella Vanilla Bean Gelato is delicious.




Whole Wheat Apple Muffins
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

1 cup (4 ounces) whole wheat flour
1 cup (4 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup (8 ounces) buttermilk or yogurt
2 large apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Grease and flour an 18 cup muffin tin and set aside.

Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and add the granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add the egg and mix well; stop once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.Mix in the buttermilk gently. (If you over-mix, the buttermilk will cause the mixture to curdle.) Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the apple chunks.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, sprinkling the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar on top. Bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 400°F, and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

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Famous NYTimes No-Knead Bread

Excellent bread is just far too easy to come by in New York City to warrant baking your own bread. Even though this was super easy, I was hoping it would be enlightening, hoping it would fill my home with the smell of freshly baked bread, hoping it would bring that extra magic touch to dinner.

Don't get me wrong, it was fun, cool to watch and decently good, but the house smelled like short ribs w/ a whiff of baking bread here and there, I spilled yeast and wheat bran everywhere, and the only one who really LOVED the bread was Jon, aka Linus for the evening. Cool to do it once, but next time I'm hitting up GrandDaisy and getting my favorite olive loaf. Yum.

"Shaggy" dough

After 18 hours of resting

Baking w/ lid on

Baking w/ lid off

Done!


No-Knead Bread
NYTimes November 8, 2006
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.
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Daniel Boulud's Braised Short Ribs

So this is what we actually ate for Halloween. I did all the prepwork the day before, so it made the day of much less stressful, and much more fun. Everything made from scratch - from the bread to the apple pie. And all of it delish.

Our Halloween Menu:
NYTimes No-Knead Bread
Daniel Boulud's Braised Short Ribs
Roasted Delicata Squash & Brussel Sprouts
Sauteed Mushrooms
Homemade Apple Pie
Whole Wheat Apple Muffins
Ciao Bella Gelato (okay, that was storebought)

The best part was watching the short ribs transform into the melt-in-your-mouth-falling-off-the-bone deliciousness. I burned off alcohol from three bottles of good wine for the first time, which definitely satisfied the pyro- in me, I beautifully browned the short ribs in my Le Creuset the size a small baby (9quart size!), and I watched the whole thing simmer simmer simmer in the oven. I've decided that oven-braising is much more effective than stovetop braising. Much better heat distribution.

Watch the transformation:
First, you flour and brown the short ribs...

While simultaneously heating and burning off the alcohol. Do you see the blue flames?!

Put the meat aside.

Prepare veggie goodness.


Veggie goodness needs to brown a bit + some tomato paste. Tomato paste lasts forever by the way. The tube I used was from over 6 months ago. Amazing.

Add the wine (and 3 quarts of beef broth)! Bring to a boil.

Simmer in oven for 2-2.5 hours, skimming for fat every 30 minutes.

Refrigerate overnight to separate fat and get best flavor. Simmer down sauce the next day - and voila, there you have it!


Daniel Boulud's Short Ribs Braised in Red Wine

3 bottles dry red wine
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
8 short ribs, trimmed of excess fat
Salt and crushed black peppercorns
Flour, for dredging
8 large shallots, peeled, trimmed, split, rinsed and dried
2 medium-sized carrots, peeled, trimmed and cut into 1-inch lengths
2 ribs of celery, peeled, trimmed and cut into 1-inch lengths
1 medium-sized leek (white and light-green parts), coarsely chopped, washed and dried
10 cloves of garlic, peeled
6 sprigs flat-leaf parsley
2 bay leaves and 2 thyme sprigs
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 quarts unsalted beef broth
Freshly ground white pepper

1. Pour the wine into a large saucepan set over medium heat. When the wine is hot, carefully set it aflame. Let the flames die out, then increase the heat so that the wine boils; allow it to boil until it cooks down by half. Remove from the heat.

2. Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350°F.

3. Warm the oil in a large, heavy, ovenproof pot over medium-high heat. Season the ribs all over with salt and the crushed pepper. Dust half of the ribs with about 1 tablespoon flour. Then, when the oil is hot, slip the ribs into the pot and sear 4 to 5 minutes on each side, until well-browned. Transfer the ribs to a plate. Repeat with remaining ribs. Remove all but 1 tablespoon of the fat from the pot, lower the heat under the pot to medium and toss in the vegetables and herbs. Brown the vegetables lightly, 5 to 7 minutes, then stir in the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute.

4. Add the wine, ribs and broth to the pot. Bring to a boil, cover tightly and place in the oven to braise for 2 1/2 hours or until the ribs are very tender. Every 30 minutes, skim and discard fat from the surface. (It's best to make the recipe to this point, cool and chill the ribs and broth in the pan overnight; scrape off the fat the next day. Rewarm before continuing.)

5. Carefully transfer the meat to a platter; keep warm. Boil the pan liquid until it has reduced to 1 quart. Season with salt and white pepper and pass through a fine strainer; discard the solids. (The ribs and sauce can be combined and kept covered in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days. Reheat gently, basting frequently, on top of the stove or in a 350°F oven.)

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Happy Halloween!

So this is not dinner for tonight, but it did seem like a fitting post for today. We got back from Maine and I was lobster-ed out and sugar-ed out and craving home-cooked Chinese food. It was decided that the afternoon activity was to walk to Chinatown and buy groceries for a quiet evening in and watching 'Brothers & Sisters.' Bizarrely enough, when we got back to NYC around 4pm, I was hungry again! We happened to run into Jon on the street, which was perfect, bc I wanted a Vietnamese sandwich, and Jon knew exactly where to get them. We all went to Nicky's in the East Village and shared a pork chop banh mi. Yum yum.



After our little snack detour, we finally made it down to Chinatown. I knew I wanted to make soup, and I knew I wanted copious amounts of vegetables. But as we were walking down Grand, live lobsters caught our eye bc we'd been discussing all weekend long how cheap they were by the lb in Maine, if you bought them at markets vs eating them at restaurants. Lo and behold, they were only about $4.99/lb in NYC too. But more importantly, we saw these little guys.



It put the perfect touch on my menu for the evening.

Boiled live crustacean guys
Chicken Feet Soup
Xian Gan Rou Si - Bean Curd and Shredded Pork(?)
Lots of Chinese Veggies

It was cathartic to cook and soothing to have the house smell of warm chinese cooking. The live crayfish (or whatever they were) were squirming all the way home and almost dead, but still moving, when finally dropped into the boiling water - and looked lovely when cooked.





They were a pain to eat, and I probably won't get them again, but a fun experiment nonetheless.

I also had extra chicken feet from the soup, so I decided to throw together some chicken feet stew. It turned out pretty well, but both Stan and I were afraid of the fat content so only ate a few each. The rest remained as decoration. And the rest of our meal was actually pretty simple - nothing scary about it, just basic, home-cooked yumminess.





Stewed Chicken Feet

12 chicken feet
3 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine
3 slices ginger
2 cups water
2 fresh red chili peppers, chopped
spoonful of brown sugar

Combine all ingredients and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Easy, huh?

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Maine Day 3: Breakfast - Kingsleigh Inn B&B

Doesn't this look like dessert??


Breakfast on the last day was two courses again - all sweet this time. The inn alternates between sweet & savory breakfasts every other day - I'd have to say that when it's all sweet, it is serious sugar overload. And for those of you that know me, you know how much I love sweets. I love all things sweet: dessert, ice cream, cake, chocolate you name it. So if I'm sugared out, you know there was a lot going on.

To start, there was homemade granola and freshly baked muffins again. Sunday's muffins were Pumpkin and Blueberry. Pumpkin is Stan's favorite and there were only three left when we got downstairs so I quickly snatched two - one for him at the table, one for him to take on the road. Aren't I thoughtful?



Pears poached in red wine was the first course, banana stuffed french toast course two. I hate to be critical, but I've had better stuffed french toast. For example, the banana stuffed french toast at Public is significantly better than what we had. Rather than using one giant slice of brioche toast, dipping, frying and then stuffing in a little brioche pocket - I think here Dana made a little sandwich: two slices of brioche, cream cheese, chocolate & bananas in-between, and then pan-fries the whole thing. As a result, the toast is not really french toast through and through - the insides of the pieces of toast were not very french - and the cream cheese just makes it a bit heavy. But enough whining on my part, it was still beautiful to look at and pretty darn good.

I could not eat anymore sugar for a good 24 hours after that. We left for the airport shortly thereafter, only to arrive in NYC 1hr delayed, but met w/ gorgeous weather and sunshine. And in need of immediate detox and seriously craving some homemade chinese food. (more..)

Maine Day 2: Dinner - Red Sky Restaurant

This may not look like much, but it is the yummiest crusty bread I've had for a really long time. And I use superlatives sparingly. Served super warm and freshly baked, with salted butter you could just eat and eat and eat it. Which is basically what I did.

After lunch we decided to go back to the National Park and explore some more. We walked on a "Nature Trail" around a pretty pond/lake - I think it was Jordan Pond. It was so nice to be outdoors - quiet, still, turning leaves - I wish we could go back. There were apple trees right around the pond and I picked one. At first Stanley wouldn't let me eat it bc he thought it would be poisonous. It was delicious.

For dinner we wanted to go to Town Hill Bistro, a small local restaurant in the neighboring West Eden Common in the Village of Town Hill (doesn't that sound convoluted?), but they were fully booked. Can you believe that? So instead we went to Red Sky, a restaurant right around the corner from our B&B that our innkeepers recommended and that we'd heard good things about in a "New Yorker's Guide To Bar Harbor." It was so yum. We had delicious wines to match, and the service was great.

Wine:
White - Honig Sauvignon Blanc - Napa Valley, CA
Red - Chateau Montelena Zinfandel - Calistoga, CA


Stan and I shared Maine Peekytoe Crabcakes, and the 1 ½ lb. Lobster, shucked and sautéed with zucchini and served over mushroom risotto or something like that. They bake their bread in house, serve local fare, and have a phenomenal (and phenomenally priced) wine list. We also had Roasted Quail with quinoa crust and cranberry sauce to start, but my pictures were so abysmal I deleted them.


Oh, and of course I had dessert. We ordered "James’ Gingerbread" (which bizarrely looks like meat in the picture below) served toasted with caramel sauce and cream cheese whipped cream spiked with apple brandy. I don't know who James is, but it was delicious, huge, and perfectly toasted and spiced. And of course I had to try Mt. Desert Island ice cream.



See our friendly, yet slightly bizarre, waiter.
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Maine Day 2: Lunch - Thirsty Whale Tavern

My first lobster roll ever. After a filling breakfast, we wandered the small town of Soutwest Harbor, Maine, where we were staying. Since it took us a whole 25 minutes to cover the three blocks that housed the general store, a few restaurants, the post office, and a few tourist shops, we then ventured the 14 miles to Bar Harbor, the main town on the island. It was a quiet Saturday morning, and little did we know, almost half the shops and restaurants had already closed for the season. But more importantly, most of the lobster pounds were closed for the season too. What to do?!

There were a few shops still open, and the shopkeepers were kind enough to point us in the direction of exactly what we were looking for: good and reasonably priced lobster rolls. The other benefit of being there the last weekend of the season was that everything in any store that was open was on sale - I got a nice little Patagonia guy for 30% off, but I digress.



We ended up at the Thirsty Whale Tavern, a cute local pub serving all the Maine basics. My first lobster roll experience was all I expected - delicious. But to be honest, the bread was so buttered I was almost afraid. But I guess that's what makes it good. The lobster wasn't drenched in mayo, and served w/ a creamy corn chowder with lobster chunks, yum. Local beer to match was the perfect touch.
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Maine Day 2: Breakfast - Kingleigh Inn B&B

I forgot my camera, so waiting on Kai and Gina to get back and will post then. Don't click on the "More" link, it's just retarded code that I don't know/have the time to fix. (more..)

Maine Day 1: Dinner - Cafe Dry Dock & Inn

After hiking Precipice Trail, apparently the most "well-known" and "most challenging" hiking trail in Acadia National Park, we were exhausted. I was absolutely not mentally prepared to scale a 1,000 foot vertical climb "recommended for physically fit and experienced hikers who have no fear of heights." Let's just say at some point, I was really tired, didn't think I could make climb up any more rocks, but was too scared of looking down to go anywhere else but up. But it was quite an accomplishment. See the picture below to see how high up we went, and how far down had to come again.

And so our reward? Lobsters!!

We checked into our B&B, in the super-cute small town of Southwest Harbor, and ventured to dinner a whole two doors down. We had dinner at Cafe Dry Dock, a small & simple casual restaurant serving fresh seafood. I was famished, and we quickly got down to business. Mussels to share (smothered w/ garlic and carrots, and I think some cream and white wine) went fast, and lobsters for each of us. Simple and delicious.

The only bizarre moment was when the waitress told us that Stella Artois was a local Bar Harbor beer. Huh?



Here is Stan making kissy face with his lobster.


Here is the mountain we climbed. Serious.

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Maine Day 1: Lunch - Crazy Dave's Pit BBQ

We spent the weekend in Mt. Desert Island, Maine. We saw fall foliage, ate a ton of food, and hiked through Acadia National Park. There are lots of things to write about, lots of food to go through. So I'll simply start with Day 1 and make it through our trip meal by meal.


We landed in Bangor, Maine right on time. I was psyched to get out of the city. As much as I love NYC, the constant barrage of smells, sounds, and ppl can really get to you sometimes. I was really looking forward to leaving the homeless compound in front of my building, the non-stop ambulances blaring down 3rd Ave, and the rabid dogs meant to guard the construction next door.

We had an hour drive ahead of us, and it was about 1pm. I was (unsurprisingly) hungry, but everyone else wanted to wait until we got to town, bc getting a hike in the afternoon seemed more important to the rest of my group than filling our tummies. Then, as we were driving from Bangor, through Ellsworth, and towards Bar Harbor, a food truck caught our eye. Crazy Dave's Pit BBQ! It was definitely worth a stop.





Stan and I shared the pulled pork sandwich, beef brisket sandwich, and the corn chowder. Kai and Gina did the same. The pulled pork was yummy, beef brisket a little dry, even though it was so fatty(!), and the corn chowder was delicious. The chowder had little bacon fat surprises all throughout, it was awesome. Overall, I'm sure it the BBQ would pale in comparison to something you could get in the South, but delicious nonetheless. The meat could have used a little more flavor and a bit more kick, but hey, this guy smoked all his meat in this crazy smoker right outside the truck (see smoker picture below). It's amazing what ppl can do on the side of the road.

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Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

Janice and I had our own little tour of Chinatown last night. We had beef noodle soup at Super Taste, got beef, pork & squid congee for Jon (who had his nose broken yesterday for his deviated septum) at Big Wong's, pearl tea at Tearrific, and then ice cream at Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. Aren't Chinese ppl so creative with their store names? Super Taste, for super tasting noodles! Tearrific, bc it's terrrrific!

Also, Chinese ppl have no shame. We were walking down the street and some funny man was singing Chinese opera at the top of his lungs. Can you imagine if some normal looking dude in his mid-40s was walking down Bleecker busting out non-sensical foreign tunes? But what I love most about Chinese is their raw appreciation for cheap, no-nonsense, yummy food.


I had never been to Chinatown Ice Cream Factory before, but they have some pretty neat flavors. They had a seasonal pumpkin pie flavor, which really did taste exactly like pumpkin pie, but the color was a tad bit too artificial for me to feel comfortable with it. Stan has said his favorite was Almond Cookie, so I got a pint of that to take home for him. And it's also Janice's favorite, so it was two for one. But other ones to try next time?

Pandan - a Malaysian leaf used to flavor savoury and sweet dishes
Chocolate Pandan - chocolate + the leaf?
Dan Ta - chinese egg tart
Durian - stinky fruit
Taro, Black Sesame, Avocado, Wasabi... and the list goes on.

Almond cookie was delicious. Stanley had three mini-cups at home. :) Is this not the funniest logo you've ever seen for ice cream??

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