Happy Belated National Chocolate Cake Day (Jan. 27, 2019)

I recently commented on Dolly’s “koolkosherkitchen” blog that her National Chocolate Cake Day post made me want to make/eat some chocolate cake and she responded with “So go for it – it only takes a minute!”.  Well, the recipe that I used took a bit longer than a minute but the resulting cake was rich and chocolatey and pretty easy to make.

Although the recipe title says it’s a cake for one, on reading the post you’ll see that she recommends splitting the batter among two mini pans. Do it. You’ll be glad you did cause the batter really puffs up. And make twice as much of the frosting using the link at the bottom of the page. I have one cup ramekins so that’s what I used to bake the cake in. If you don’t … use an empty tuna can that you’ve washed thoroughly. Remove the label.

Chocolate buttercream frosting

Pour yourself a big glass of cold milk and dig in.

REVIEW: It’s delicious.

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Sauerbraten at Last

ETA: Only five days late.

Since the beginning of December I’ve been a bit uninspired when it came to cooking, though I HAVE tried to do some new dishes, in the spirit of the season.

Now January’s here and I’ve been sick for the last week or so. It’s hanging in there and I suspect I’ll be coughing for at least another week. Today, we finally had our first real snow of the season, the northern edge of the storm that’s hitting the US right now, and, between not feeling well and not having paid attention to the weather forecasts, I’m short on staples (ie. milk, eggs, yogurt, salad greens) and stuck at home until my snow gets shovelled. PS: I’m dining well, if not imaginatively, out of my pantry so no worries, here.

Anyway, I thought I’d finally post that sauerbraten recipe I cobbled together. It hasn’t been proof read as well as I’d like but I just don’t have the energy to do more. Maybe later. (Of course I said that two weeks ago, too.)

Traditional Sauerbraten (German Pot Roast) – serves 3-4

2 pounds/1 kg eye of round roast

Marinade

1 large onion, chopped
1 cup red wine vinegar, or to taste
1 cup dry red wine
1 cup water
2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp white sugar
4 whole cloves, or more to taste
1 bay leaves, or more to taste

Searing the Roast

4 tsp all-purpose flour
salt and ground black pepper to taste
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Gravy

3-4 gingersnap cookies **
1 cup strained cooking liquid from above

** Or replace with dried ginger powder and flour

In a large sauce pan, combine the marinade ingredients and bring to a simmer. Turn off the heat and cool to room temperature. In a large bowl, pour over the meat. Cover and refrigerate for 3-5 days, turning the meat daily.

Remove the meat from the marinade and pat dry. Strain and keep the marinade.

Season flour to taste with salt and black pepper in a large bowl. Sprinkle flour mixture over beef.

Heat vegetable oil in a large Dutch oven or pot over medium heat; cook beef until brown on all sides, about 10 minutes total.

Pour 2 cups of the reserved marinade over the beef, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer until beef is tender, 3 1/2 to 4 hours. Remove beef to a platter, let rest covered with a sheet of foil for 15-20 minutes, and slice.

ALTERNATIVE: Transfer the Dutch oven to an oven preheated to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for 3-4 hrs until the sauerbraten is tender. Turn the roast over every hour.

Strain solids from the remaining liquid in the Dutch oven. Use one cup to make the sauerbraten gravy. Any extra liquid may be poured back over the sliced sauerbraten to keep the meat moist. Reheat the sliced meat in the microwave, or tightly covered in a container, in a 350 deg Fahrenheit oven, for about half an hour.

Sauerbraten Gravy

1 cup strained braising liquid
1/4 cup ground cookies

Break up the cookies and add to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until well crumbled.

Add the strained braising liquid to a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Add the ground cookie crumbs to the simmering liquid, whisking through, until the gravy is thickened, about 5-10 minutes.

Serve gravy over the sliced meat.

Pork Chile Verde and Cauli-Rice Bowl

It’s cold and gray and I’m bored so I made one of the easiest lunches or dinners that I’ve had in ages using leftover chile verde (green) enchilada sauce and cubed pork tenderloin.

Pork Chile Verde – serves 3-4

500 gm pork tenderloin, cubed
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups chile verde enchilada sauce
1 cup water, plus more as needed
salt and pepper, as needed

Garnish with grated cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese, sour cream, sliced green onion tops and diced avocado.

In a medium sized saute pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat.

Add the pork cubes and saute until lightly browned. Push the cubed pork to one side and add 1/2 cup of water to the saute pan, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom. Add the enchilada sauce and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat until the mixture just barely simmers and cover tightly with a lid.

Cook for 1 1/2 hours or until the pork is tender and breaks up into shreds when a fork is used. Check the pot every 15-20 minutes, scraping the bottom to make sure that the meat mixture doesn’t stick. Add more water as needed.

Serve over rice or cauli-flower rice. Additional sides include refried beans and flour tortillas.

Cauliflower Rice – 2 1/2 cups of frozen cauli-rice microwaved, squeezed dry in a towel and sauteed with 1 tbsp of olive oil or butter until lightly browned. I added about 1/4 cup of frozen green onion tops to the pan and sauteed it for about one minute before adding the cauli-rice.

Sourdough Bialys

The bialy is a small roll that, according to Wikipedia, is found in Polish and Ashkenazi Polish culture. It has many similarities to a bagel. Although it isn’t boiled after proofing, just baked, it still retains the dense chewiness and flavour found in that ubiquitous bread product.

I had planned on making the usual yeast based version but recently ran across a small jar of sourdough starter at the back of my fridge. I saw the layer of hooch on top, because I hadn’t fed it since the end of October, and decided to revive it. I should have taken a day or two to bring it back but, nine hours after feeding it with a mixture of whole wheat and  all purpose flour, it had doubled in volume, so I used the recipe found on the “Sourdough and Olives” website, and made a small batch of bialys.

For a topping I used some leftover sauteed onions mixed with a bit of olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper. A sprinkling of poppy seeds over the top, and I had a traditional bialy. When I ran out of topping for the last few bialys, I used a mixture of pizza sauce, grated mozzarella and julienned pepperoni sausage and made a tasty pizza bialy.

REVIEW: In spite of the less than optimal conditions for making these, including a starter that wasn’t as active as I would have liked, the results were delicious. The crust was thin and crunchy while the interior was chewy. The oven spring (baked at 480 deg F for 22 min) was amazing and I ended up with little volcanoes rather than the little frisbees I was expecting (hoping for). I would consider reducing the baking temperature on repeating the recipe or even use a fix that I found on another site … placing a sheet of parchment paper on top of the bialys and then covering with a second baking sheet to compress the rise for the first ten minutes of baking before continuing to bake them, uncovered for another ten to fifteen minutes.

Piping hot bialy ripped open to show the crumb

Bierocks/Runzas … First Attempt

I finally got a chance to make a batch of these sweet dough bread pockets using the recipe posted on The Frugal Hausfrau‘s blog. Besides using leftover shredded sauerbraten instead of ground beef and adding about half a cup of grated old cheddar cheese to the filling once it was cooled, I also tried an alternative shaping method. It didn’t make the assembly much faster although the seams didn’t open up as often.

Square runzas – half the dough rolled out about 1/4 inch thick, 10 inches by 15 inches in size, squared off and cut into six 5 inch by 5 inch squares
Round runzas – 85 gms of dough patted out to a circle that was about 4 inches in diameter

Review: The recipe estimated being able to make a dozen runzas but I ended up with fourteen, and still had filling left over, so I’d cut back on the amount of cabbage used from about four cups to 2 1/2-3 cups in the future. Making the filling the day before, so that it has a chance to cool, is also advised. On the whole though, the dough was simple to make and the results were quite tasty. My shaping, especially on the square runzas, needs work.

ETA (01/02/2019): If you don’t want to use ground beef, try ground chicken or turkey. Or even pork.

Sushi at Home – Purple Sushi Rice

Even if the only sushi fillings you have in your fridge are cream cheese (home made Boursin) and smoked salmon, you can turn your boring old Philadelphia roll into a dramatic visual by colouring your sushi rice and then using it to make an inside out roll.

The ingredient responsible for that change … red cabbage. Grate a fist sized wedge finely on your microplane zester, drain off the liquid, add a bit of lemon juice to the liquid to make the colour ‘pop’ and stir it into your cooked sushi rice. Easy peasy. (NOTE: My method involved adding 2 tbsp of seasoned rice vinegar to a generous handful of finely shredded red cabbage, pureeing it and then straining the resulting liquid into a cup or two of hot, freshly cooked sushi rice.)

Inside out Purple Philadelphia Roll

Onigirazu (sushi rice sandwich) with cream cheese, smoked salmon and red cabbage. Sliced avocado may also be added.

Colouring the Sushi Rice

Making the Inside Out Roll

Making the Onigirazu