Kitchen Chick

Tomorrow is Paczki Day!

I've been in the clueless department this month, so in case any of you have been as crazy-busy to notice what time of year it is, I offer this Public Service Announcement:

Tomorrow is Fat Tuesday, which means it's Paczki Day!

I'll be picking up mine tomorrow from Copernicus, which brings theirs in from Canada. If you're ordering 3 dozen or more, you can call them at 734-222-9633 and they'll have them packed up and ready to go; otherwise, just show up at 617 S. Main St., Ann Arbor.

Amadeus makes their own fabulous paczki, but it may be too late to order from them. They haven't been answering their phone all day today. (They're probaby crazy-busy making those paczki!) 

Finally, some people are partial to Dom Bakeries.

Support a local business and make your co-workers happy, too: buy some paczki tomorrow!

Welsh Teacakes via Argentina

When I bought a cookbook on Argentinian cuisine, finding a recipe for Welsh teacakes was a rather unexpected surprise.  As it turns out, the southern coast of Argentina is home to a Welsh settlement that began in 1865. They settled in remote Patagonia, along the Chubut River. Today the Welsh-Argentinian population is around 20,000, but only some 1,500 speak Welsh.

Well, I had the ingredients, the recipe looked simple, and I was intrigued by a recipe that used a whole teaspoon of nutmeg, so I made them late one night. Oh, yum!

Traditionally, these teacakes are cooked on a flat iron plate hung over a peat fire.  We don't have that setup (and if any of you do, post pictures!) but a seasoned cast-iron pan on a gas range works just as well. In fact, though the recipe says to oil the griddle or skillet, I found that unnecessary to do in my cast iron pan.

Welsh Teacakes
from Argentina Cooks! by Shirley Lomax Brooks
My changes are in parentheses

2 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp powdered allspice
1 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C sugar
1/4 C butter
1/4 C lard or shortening (I've only made these with shortening)
1 egg
1/4 C milk
1/3 C dried currants

In a bowl, sift flour, baking powder, spices, salt, and sugar. (I put it all in a food processor and pulsed until mixed.) Cut the butter and lard into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or 2 knives. (Chop butter and shortening into pieces, add to processor, and pulse some more in the food processor until crumbly.)

Beat the egg into the milk and add to the flour mixture, blending well. (Add beaten egg and milk to processor and pulse some more until dough starts to come together. The dough will be somewhat crumbly when you turn it out.)

Gather dough together into a ball and roll it out on a floured surface until about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into two-inch rounds with cookie cutter or glass.

Head griddle until very hot. Cook teacakes on one side until brown, turn and cook on the other side until brown. Serve warm.

Serving suggestion: serve with clotted cream or butter and jam.

KC's Notes: I've made this recipe three times so far. The recipes claims to make 18-20, but I've found that if I actually roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thick, I get closer to 30 teacakes. We've been discussing doing a savory version with applewood bacon, but haven't tried it yet...

"À la Bonne Franquette"

Steve Rosoff (L) and Francis Glorie (R)

I thought for certain I would be lost when I walked into everyday cook for Francis Glorie's & Steve Rosoff's first class about French cuisine taught en français. In fact, my tongue froze up completely when Francis greeted me in French and I could only stammer an apology — in French — that I didn't speak French very well.

You don't need to speak French very well to have a lot of fun cooking and learning about French cuisine with Francis and Steve, but you do need to be able to understand enough spoken French to follow along and get the gist of what they are saying. If you can do that, though, you'll have a very enjoyable time cooking along side of these two guys as they talk you through the preparation of several courses while, at the same time, helping you brush up on your French culinary terms.

Francis is a private French chef and business executive. Steve teaches French at U of M and is a restaurant consultant and experienced cook. Over the course of the evening, they shared their love of food and French language and culture while showing how to prepare several amuses bouches.

We kicked off the evening with a short lecture on the history of French cuisine and some of the main characteristics of French cuisine from different regions (e.g. butter is heavily used in the North, duck fat in the Southwest, and olive oil in the South). Then we got cooking. After they show you what they want, they hand you a knife (or other implement of destruction...) and ask you to finish it. I'm fine with a knife, but a danger around a stove. Sure enough, after Steve handed me a ladle for the blini I managed to graze my wrist against the hot handle of the large griddle (and consequently spill my ladle contents in a messy blob). As burns go, it barely even turned pink. And the side benefit was getting to eat the blini mistake as a test subject.

And then there was the pâte aux choux... I got an arm workout incorporating eggs one at a time into the base until a soft elastic dough was produced. Once the pâte aux choux was ready, we stirred in grated gruyère, then dropped it in large spoonfuls on a baking tray, topped with a touch more gruyère, and baked until they rose into airy puffs. While I worked on these, my fellow student cleaned mussels and chopped confit de canard for a potato-duck appetizer.

I've never cooked mussels at home before, but watching Francis steam them and then build the sauce showed just how quick and easy it was to make a bowl full of delicious mussels (with enough sauce left over for mopping up with bread!).

On occasion they took pity on us less-than-fluent students and dropped in an English word here or there, but the conversation and instruction was conducted in French. At the end, the dishes were casually plated up and we sat down to eat and do a debrief in English. (Our chance to get answers for anything we didn't understand the first time around.)

The menu for the first class (alas, I did not write it down! so it's all by memory) included: gougère (gruyère puffs); frisée salad with bacon and goat cheese and a lovely dijon vinaigrette; little potato halves topped with duck confit; mini buckwheat blini topped with smoked salmon, a savory herb-flavored whipped cream, and salmon caviar; and mussels in a mild curry-white wine-cream sauce.

I highly recommend this, even — perhaps even more so — if you think your French is not all it should be. I strongly believe that the best way to improve your foreign language skills is jump into an immersive experience that pushes you to learn. It's hard to find immersive experiences locally, and this comes fairly close to being immersive.

And what better way is there to improve your French (at least your listening skills) than to spend a fun evening, with delightful company, learning about French cuisine?

UPCOMING CLASSES
Space is limited and pre-registration is required, so call to reserve.

Classe 1: Introduction (a repeat of the class I took)
Thursday, March 1, 6:30 - 8:30pm
(This class only: special introductory price $45)

Classe 2: Les Potages, les Fonds
Thursday, March 8, 6:30 - 8:00pm

Classe 3: Les Hors d'Oeuvres, la Charcuterie
Thursday, March 22, 6:30 - 8:30pm

Classe 4: Les Poissons, les Sauces
Thursday, April 5, 6:30 - 8:30pm

$75/class (or $65/class if you take all three)

For registration:
everyday cook
734.827.COOK
[email protected]

Copernicus - Polish Grocery in Ann Arbor

Elisabeth Magiera and Teresa Chajec, owners of Copernicus European Delicatessen

Breaking News... Ann Arbor has a new European grocery!

Thanks to a tip from a friend, Tuesday night we swung by the South Main Market to stop in at Copernicus European Delicatessen. We'd heard that they had paczki -- the real deal and not those jelly doughnuts pretending to be paczki -- from a bakery in Hamtramck (a Detroit-area city with a large Polish community). Coming from Hamtramck they had better be the real thing...

And they do have paczki. And the paczki are the real deal. And they have a whole lot more. Pierogi, breads, Polish meats (a truly dizzying array of Polish meats), canned goods, sweets... the place isn't huge, but the shelves are well-stocked. 

And, as it happens, Tuesday was their first day open. We went back Wednesday for pictures and to try some bread and sausages. The meats are made by a Polish butcher (as in, by people who came over from Poland themselves) in Chicago. The pazcki and some of the other pastries come from Hamtramck. Chajec and Magiera bake their own bread from dinner rolls to multi-grain loaves on premises.  Click on the photo to see a larger image.

In addition to a paczek, we tried a bread stuffed with a poppy seed filling (yum), an egg bread (also yum), and some small ciabatta bread rolls made on the premises (very nice, especially with butter). They are still experimenting with what breads their customers like best, and they're considering adding Russian black bread.

Joe sampled a number of the sausages and meats.  They're good, and different from what you usually see around.  He says more exploration is required.

The shelves are stocked with tinned fish and meats, pickled vegetables, seasonings and spices, pasta, and Polish chocolates and candies.  Click on the photo to see a larger image.

We picked up some pierogis, stuffed cabbage rolls, and a bottle of pickled vegetables as a side salad and had a quick Polish dinner. We'll do Copernicus in more detail once they've been open for a while, but we had to let you know!

Copernicus European Delicatessen
617 S. Main St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734-222-9633

Monday through Friday 9am - 8pm
Saturday 9am - 6pm
Sunday 11am - 4pm

Fabulous French Pastries at The Croissant Shop

Clockwise from the top: cinnamon roll, almond filled croissant, chocolate croissant, brioche, butter croissant.  Click on the photo for a larger (and even tastier) view.

Ann Arbor has a number of good bakeries, but it's also got a well-kept secret: The Croissant Shop, where CIA-trained (the culinary one) baker Kurt Boyd makes delicious French pastries for restaurants, cafés, bakeries, and caterers by hand. Its existence isn't secret — what's secret is that you don't have to be a restaurant to buy from The Croissant Shop.  You, too, can enjoy these gorgeous fresh pastries at great wholesale prices (that's to say, far less than what restaurants charge). It just requires a bit of advance planning.

We've actually known about this for some years, since before I even started Kitchen Chick. I would order them on occasion when we had house guests, but this holiday season we decided to treat ourselves and family.

The butter croissants were everything you expect a croissant to be. Buttery layers encased within a deliciate flaky outside. (They also make great croissant french toast. Carefully slice them horizontally and soak in whisked egg and milk. The outside crust doesn't absorb a ton of the egg, but the soft insides will soak it right up. We enjoyed them for Christmas Eve brunch dusted with some confectioners sugar and served with maple syrup.)

The almond croissants have a sweet almond filling and are dressed with a bit of glaze and ground almonds on top, and the chocolate ones have a streak of rich dark chocolate filling. Joe loved his brioche. He dived into it as soon we got home [well, actually as soon as she was done taking pictures — Joe] because these breads are best when fresh. It was light and rich, like a good brioche should be.

I really adore the cinnamon rolls. These are not the usual super-sugary, heavy rolls that sit like lead in your stomach. The dough is light and moist, the layers are filled with lots of cinnamon, the glaze delicate and delectable. These rolls really live up to the name of cinnamon rolls. I like to eat them in a deconstructionist manner — unrolling the pastry and eating each layer.

The Croissant Shop also sells pecan diamonds and pecan rolls, several kinds of baguettes and breads, savory-filled croissants, and mini-croissants and mini-filled pastries. We haven't tried those yet, but we will.

There is, of course, a catch: you can't just walk in and buy a couple croissants. You have to order at least 24 hours in advance (no later than 9:00am the previous day) and then you can go get your order on the morning of your pickup day.  He'll need to know the specific time you plan to be by. But these treats are well worth a little planning.

Pastries are best eaten the day you get them, but they'll keep for a day or so in the cardboard box, or you can try freezing them. Storing them in a tupperware will make the flaky crisp outsides go soft, but a few minutes in a toaster oven can help with that.

The Croissant Shop
3660 Plaza Dr # 1A
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
(734) 662-7424
Monday through Saturday

Fried Eggplant with honey, mint, and sesame seeds

I used to dislike eggplant for no other reason that as a kid I thought it was one of those foods one was supposed to dislike. Maybe I have a bad eggplant experience hiding in my past that I can't remember. That's okay — I feel no need to recover any such childhood memories of horror. But I do remember the first eggplant dish I fell in love with.

We were dining with friends at a Chinese restaurant in Pittsburgh some years back, and they insisted that we try the eggplant with pork. Slices of eggplant were split to make a pocket with a bit of ground pork stuffed inside and stir-fried with, if I remember right, black bean sauce. It was the dish that made me realize that eggplant was not the great dark evil fruit of yuckiness. It is a dish I still dream about.

In spite of that revelation, I did not start cooking eggplant myself until this year, when eggplant came as a part of our CSA farm share from Tantré Farms. Like many previously not-used-in-this-house-vegetables, it was cook it or lose it.

But I had a challenge to overcome: find eggplant dishes that even Joe would like.

It was something of a struggle. He has long voiced his dislike of eggplant. Fortunately for me, he'll try anything I cook at least once, and when I saw I was cooking eggplant tonight he said that he would taste it but, "Don't ask me to try brussel sprouts."

I promise, Joe, I will never cook brussel sprouts. (Do I get a ring to go with this promise? Oh wait, I already have one. Can I have another?)

When the eggplant was done, I asked him how he liked it. "It's pretty good," he said.

Yippie, I thought. That's sky-high praise for a normally despised food.

"Mostly because I couldn't taste the eggplant," he added.

Of course not. The eggplant was soaked in salted water. Not a bitter bite in the entire batch...

Well, and it was battered and deep-fried... (You know what they say: "if you don't like it deep-fried, you'll never like it at all..")

And dressed with honey, mint, and toasted sesame seeds.

Kinda hard to go wrong with that combination.

Fried Eggplant with Honey, Mint, and Sesame Seeds
Penelope Casas's La Cocina de Mama

One 1/2 pound eggplant, peeled and cut into 1/8 inch crosswise slices
1 1/8 tsp kosher or sea salt
1 1/2 Tbs sesame seeds
1/3 C flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 C. milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
mild olive oil for frying
1 1/2 to 2 Tbs honey
1 Tbs minced fresh mint leaves

Preheat oven to 350.

Soak eggplant in 2 cups water with 1 tsp of the salt for 30 minutes.

Scatter sesame seeds on a tray and lightly roast for 5-8 minutes.  (In truth, I skipped the oven bit and did this very quickly in a pan on the stove top, but you have to stir and watch the seeds constantly or they will burn.)  Set aside.

Drain eggplant and dry well on paper towels. In a small bowl mix together the flour, remaining 1/8 tsp salt, and baking power. Whisk in the milk and egg.

Pour the oil into a large skillet to a depth of at least 1/2 inch and heat until it quickly browns a cube of bread (approx. 375 F). Dip eggplant slices in batter, coating well, then place immediately in the oil. Cook for about 30 seconds on each side. Drain on paper towels.

Warm honey in a small saucepan or in a microwave. Drizzle lightly over the eggplant, sprinkle with the sesame seeds and mint. Serve right away.

I used long narrow Asian eggplants with thin skins, and so I didn't peel them. I think I would do this with larger eggplants in the future mainly because it will be easier to batter and fry larger slices. With so many coin-sized slices, getting them all battered and into the oil without clumping took a bit of time.

Fish Plaki

Hake fish cooked in a tomato-onion-lemon juice sauce served over wilted spinach. This tasty Greek recipe comes from one-pot, slow-pot, & clay-pot cooking. It requires a fair number of ingredients, but it's actually simple to make. I added the spinach.

Fish Plaki

1 1/4 C olive oil
2 onions, thinly sliced (I diced them out of preference)
3 lg. tomatoes, roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp chopped dill (or 1/3 tsp dried)
1 tsp chopped fresh mint
1 tsp choped fresh celery leaves
1 Tbs choped flat leaf parsley
1 1/4 C water
6 hake or cod steaks (I used fillets as that's what I could get at the time)
juice of 1 lemon
extra dill, mint, or parsley to garnish

1) Heat oil in heavy saute pan. Add onions and cook, stirring until pale golden. Add tomatoes, garlic, sugar, dill, mint, celery leaves, parsley, and water. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer uncovered for 25 minutes, or until liquid has reduced by 1/3.

2) Add the fish and cook gentley for 10-12 minutes until the fish is just cooked. Remove the pan from the heat and add the lemon juice. Cover and leave to stand for 20 minutes. Arrange fish on a plate and pour sauce over it. Garnish with herbs.

Paczki Day!

Three delectable paczki from Amadeus restaurant in Ann Arbor.

The sad truth in Ann Arbor is that the locally available paczkis are usually no different than the big jelly doughnuts seen the rest of the year. I've even seen chocolate covered jelly doughnuts passed off as paczki. Fortunately, we have Amadeus to save us from sickly sweet offerings found at most other local bakeries. Their paczkis are small tasty morsals filled with real fruit and custards with a cake-like dough that's an order of magnitude better than the usual bland jelly doughnut dough. Amadeus makes a variety of different fillings from the traditional plum filling to a yummy custard, but they only make a small number each year so reserve early. (Or plan on a trip to Detroit.)

Spanish Potato and Garlic Soup

I love the use of thyme in this soup. My note in the recipe margine says "careful with the potatoes — not too many, maybe more tomato". The recipe serves six, which means I'm sizing it down for two, so I probably mis-measured the first time. I was also a bit light with the potatoes, and the soup didn't thicken as much even with the cornstarch (but I like it this way).

Here's the original recipe. I think it's a bit light on the spices. I have also used diluted chicken stock when I didn't have any vegetable stock.

Spanish Potato and Garlic Soup
one-pot, slow-pot, & clay-pot cooking

2 Tbs olive oil
1 large onion, finely sliced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 large potato, halved and cut into thin slices
1 tsp paprika
14oz can of tomatoes, chopped and drained (or equivalent of fresh tomatoes, skinned and chopped)
1 tsp thyme, plus extra for garnish
3 3/4 cups vegetable stock
1 tsp cornstarch
salt and black pepper to taste

1) Heat oil in large, heavy pan.  Add onion, garlic, potatoes, and paprika and cook, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes or until the onions have softened but not browned.

2) Add chopped tomatoes, thyme, and vegetable stock.  Simmer for 15-20 minutes until the potatoes are cooked through.

3) In small bowl, mix cornstarch and a little water to make a paste.  Stir it into the soup.  Boil for about 5 minutes until the soup has thickened.

4) Use a wooden spoon to break up the potatoes slightly, then season to taste.  Garnish with extra thyme.

Joe's parents gave us a large clay pot, and I never knew how to use it until I got this cookbook. It has a nice variety of recipes spanning several cuisines. Though the name's a bit misleading as you'll often need more than one pot to put together a complete dinner.