Smoked Sausage Jambalaya with Bayou Fried Chicken for Fat Tuesday

As with all the best moments in life, Mardi Gras came and went in a blink. Ephemeral as a set of beads flying through the air from one outstretched hand to another. KP and I had a marvelous time with Mondo Kayo and our friends, the Wisemans, who came down from Minnesota. A Mondo Kayo krewe member told me on my first Mardi Gras, “Rachel, in life you cannot simply watch the parade—you must be the parade.” The beautiful thing about Mardi Gras in New Orleans is how the whole city on one given day stops and expands; there really does seem to be room for everyone to be the parade at once.

I created this tropical hoop skirted dress and also KP’s beaded hula skirt on a banana costume. Both KP and I were honored with the job of “driving” (pedaling) our parade floats and launching a few confetti canons.

I present here the best jambalaya recipe I have yet come across in honor of this Cajun holiday.

Smoked Sausage Jambalaya with Bayou Fried Chicken

Adapted from Louisiana Cooking

¼ cup olive oil

1 yellow onion, minced

3 stalks celery, minced

1 green bell pepper, seeded and minced

1 jalapeño, seeded and minced

1 poblano pepper, minced

3-6 cloves garlic, minced

3 teaspoons kosher salt, divided

1¼ teaspoons cayenne, divided

1 pound Cajun smoked sausage, halved and sliced

4 cups chicken broth

3-4 lbs of fried chicken

4 dried bay leaves

1 teaspoon hot sauce

1 teaspoon Worchestershire sauce

2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning

2 teaspoons ground white pepper

2 teaspoons paprika

2 cups parboiled rice

¼ cup sliced green onion

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

Instructions

In a large Dutch oven, add ¼ cup oil, and heat over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, bell pepper, jalapeño, poblano pepper, garlic, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon cayenne. Cook, stirring often, until vegetables are caramelized, about  20 minutes, scraping browned bits from pan with a wooden spoon.

Add the smoked sausage and cook, stirring often, for 10 to 15 minutes, scraping browned bits from pan with a wooden spoon.

Add chicken broth, remaining  1 teaspoon salt, and remaining  ¼ teaspoon cayenne. Add the fried chicken and bay leaves, and simmer 15 to 20 minutes. Remove chicken, and set aside until cool enough to handle. Shred fried chicken meat, discarding skin and bones. Add the chicken meat back into the pan. Add hot sauce, Worcestershire, Cajun seasoning, white pepper, and paprika.

Add rice, and cook, stirring, for  2 to 3 minutes. Cover and cook over medium heat until the rice is tender and the liquid has been absorbed, about 30 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Remove the bay leaves. Stir in green onion and parsley.

Mini Chocolate Cream Meringue Tarts for Mardi Gras

Happy Mardi Gras! A time when an entire city wanders amongst themselves seeming to hum “What a Wonderful World” in raucous harmony. We are so delighted to be back in New Orleans to enjoy firsthand the magical experience. Because we are Midcity-ites, we had a huge party to celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of Endymion. So many beads, so many beads. Keeping with my chocolate commitment, I busted out these bite-size treasures. Party-stopping-finger-licking good.

I found the recipe in an advertisement for the Louisiana Egg Commission (worst website I’ve ever seen), falsely claiming this dish takes “ten minutes” to prepare. Oh contraire—try 45 min to an hour. But the chocolate was creamy and the meringue so attractive. My chickens caught their first beads at Endymion and were seen fighting over them in the backyard. They are the sponsors of this post, thanks ladies for getting back into the spring swing of things there in the coop. Even Betty is laying her green eggs again. Thanks for mooning the camera, Bet. The groundhogs here in New Orleans never, never see their shadow. Spring is here, y’all.

Mini Chocolate Cream Meringue Tarts

Adapted from the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry “Louisiana Egg Commission”

1 ¼ cups granulated sugar, divided

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa

¼ cup cornstarch

1/8 tsp salt

2 cups nonfat milk

3 large eggs, separated

1 tsp vanilla

¼ tsp cream of tartar

45 mini phyllo shells (or 18-20 puff pastry shells)

Preheat oven to 350. Combine one cup of sugar, the cocoa, cornstarch and salt in medium saucepan. Whisk in combined milk and egg yolks. Cook over medium-low heat until mixture thickens and darkens, whisking constantly. Boil for one minute. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Meanwhile, bake phyllo shells for 3 minutes or until slightly crisp. Cool on wire rack.

Fill each shell with about 1 tbsp chocolate filling.

Beat the egg whites in a mixer on high speed until foamy. Stir in cream of tartar. Gradually add remaining ¼ cup of the sugar, and beat until stiff peaks form. Spread meringue over the top of each tart, making sure to seal the edges.

Bake tarts on baking sheets 5 to 7 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm or refrigerate.

I had featured these tarts on the porch buffet for our Endymion festivities.

Also have on proud display the shoe I caught at the Muses parade. Record year.

Stay tuned for KP’s epic banana with a bead hulu skirt costume, rolling in Mondo Kayo tomorrow. #ThanksMomforteachingmehowtosew.

Black and White Moon Pie

For this week’s chocolate challenge, a genius hybrid. I’ve taken two classic confections, the Seinfeld race-relations Black and White Cookie, and the popular edible Mardi Gras parade throw, the Moon Pie, and created a delicious masterpiece just in time for the Oshun and Cleopatra parades last night.

Ooh these are good! And yes, KP and I have been binge-watching Seinfeld in our spare hours—the complete series was on sale last month, and we were inspired to buy it for research purposes for the Chocolate Babka post. So worth it. For the Black and White cookie, while Seinfeld’s cookie broke his no-vomit streak, these are sure to put you on a cookie munching streak. KP caught a moon pie last night off a Cleopatra float, and it tasted stale compared to these fresh homemade renditions.

Black and White Moon Pie

Adapted from the genius at Glazed and Confused, New Orleans food blog

This will make about 16 cookies, if you cut 2-inch rounds

1 cup butter, softened

¾ cup light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, divided

2¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 egg white, room temperature

Pinch of cream of tartar

Pinch of salt

¾ cup light corn syrup

½ cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

6-8 ounces white chocolate, chopped

¾ teaspoon plus ¼ teaspoon coconut oil, divided

4 ounces semisweet baking chocolate with a handful of chocolate chip morsels, chopped

Preheat oven to 350°. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add butter and brown sugar; beat at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of bowl, and add egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix until combined. Sift in flour, and mix on low speed until the mixture just comes together. It will be very soft and sticky dough. Handle with flour. Nibble as you must.

On a floured surface, divide dough in half, and roll out to about 1/8 to ¼ inch-thickness. With a 2-inch round cutter or a small glass, cut circles and transfer to parchment-lined rimmed baking sheets.

Reroll scraps. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes. Bake until golden around the edges, 13-15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, add egg white, cream of tartar, and salt, and beat at medium-high speed until stiff peaks form. In a small saucepan, heat corn syrup over medium heat until a candy thermometer registers 240°. This is super tricky. Add hot corn syrup to egg white mixture, and continue beating on medium-low until thick and glossy. Add confectioners’ sugar and remaining 1 tablespoon vanilla, and mix until just combined. Using a spoon, place a dollop of marshmallow cream between two cookies. Repeat with remaining cookies.

Freeze cookies for 10 minutes. At this point, I needed to take a break because candy making (so many steps and temperature changes!) wears me out and so I put the cookies to stay cool in the fridge and went to bed. Apparently, this is fine, because my cookies turned out great.

Whenever you have the will to cook again, in a small bowl, add white chocolate and ¾ teaspoon coconut oil. Microwave in 30-second increments until melted and smooth, stirring in between. Coat cookies half way in white chocolate, and freeze until set, 10 to 15 minutes.

Microwave and melt semisweet chocolate with chocolate chips and remaining ¼ teaspoon coconut oil for dipping the other half. Place on parchment to set.

Sing the song of the most charming homeless schizophrenic character played by Tracy Morgan song about doo doo pies. And enjoy your moon pie. While I don’t agree with Trump on most things, I do agree we should make America Great Again–Thanks, Carnival for doing just that.

Buckwheat Chocolate Torte

It’s my birthday week! Among my favorite gifts rolling in was this generous box of bittersweet chocolate baking bars from Sarris Chocolates, to whom I dedicate this post.

I decided to use the bars to bake a healthy chocolate torte with buckwheat. Gluten-free dessert that tastes amazing! Such a success. Last time I tried to make a torte, it was torture (see the Sachertorte fiasco). This recipe was a cinch. The buckwheat and almond flour create the perfect light-textured matrix to suspend the chocolate. Tastes like heaven with a scoop of praline ice cream, too. Thank you, Sarris!

Buckwheat Chocolate Torte

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1/4 cup blanched almonds

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (72 percent cacao), coarsely chopped

1/3 cup buckwheat flour

1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 large eggs, room temperature

3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan. Line with parchment. Spread almonds in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake, stirring occasionally, until fragrant and golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Let cool completely. Meanwhile, in a heatproof bowl set over (not in) a pan of simmering water, melt butter and chocolate together. Let cool.

In a food processor, process almonds until coarse. Add buckwheat flour, salt, and cinnamon; process until fine.

In a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk eggs and brown sugar on high speed until thick and pale, about 6 minutes.

Fold in chocolate mixture, then flour mixture. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake until cake is puffed and a tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.

Let cool 10 minutes on a wire rack. Release sides of pan and remove cake; let cool completely on rack. Serve, with ice cream. Get out your maracas. Feliz Cumpleanos a Mi.

King Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Filling

The Mardi Gras season is here! For this week’s chocolate dish, I have elected to bake a king cake with chocolate filling, a traditional Mardi Gras dessert. For most of the rest of the country, the seasonal party-energy build up is around the Christmas and New Year holiday, but for New Orleans, Yuletide is but a pre-funk. How quickly the holly and ivy get exchanged for purple, green and yellow banners, the Santa hats for masquerade masks. Laissez le bon temps roulez!

King Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Filling

Adapted from Louisiana Cooking

cake

1 cup sourdough starter

¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided

½ cup whole milk

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 egg yolk

3 cups all-purpose flour

3⁄4 teaspoon kosher salt

½ cup butter, softened

filling

½ cup chocolate chips

8 oz cream cheese

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 TB cinnamon

topping

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

¼ cup whole buttermilk

Mardi Gras sprinkles

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine sourdough, milk, vanilla, eggs, egg yolk, and sugar. Beat at low speed until thoroughly combined, about 1 minute.

Turn mixer off, and add flour and salt. Mix at medium speed until dough just comes together. Mix at high speed for 4 minutes. Add butter, and continue mixing until dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, about 6 minutes. Remove bowl from mixer. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand until doubled in size, 1 ½ to 2 hours.

Punch down dough, and turn it out onto a well-floured surface. Using a floured rolling pin, roll the dough into an 18-inch circle, about ¼-inch thick. Cut a ½-inch hole in the center of the circle, and pull with your fingers to widen.

Place dollops of filling evenly around circle halfway between outer edge and inner hole.

Drape outside edges over filling and continue rolling outside inward until filling is covered, widening inner hole as needed, until dough covers the seam.

Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper; cover with plastic wrap and let stand for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°. Uncover cake, and bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Let cool completely. In a small bowl, whisk together confectioners’ sugar and buttermilk until smooth. Transfer cake to a cutting board or serving platter; spread buttermilk glaze evenly over top of cake and sprinkle evenly with Mardi Gras Sugar.

Grandmothers Beyond Borders Ugandan Curry

Whilst assembling the mouth-watering queue of fancy chocolate recipes for 2016, and, alongwith, a cadre of fantastic bean to bar supporters and sponsors (thank you in advance!), I am also still making non-chocolate food. The following is a recipe that had me intrigued at its title, “Grandmothers Beyond Borders”—who knew there was such an enterprise? The organization is dedicated to Mary, a grandmother in Uganda who lost 14 of her children and grandchildren to genocide and the AIDS epidemic and who now raises 10 orphaned grandchildren as her own. This organization is primarily grandmother led (!!) and raises funds to support Ugandan matriarchs’ healthcare costs and to support the general wellbeing of these women who have risen up to take on unimaginable work in their later years. I hope you will go to their website to support these strong women.

This is a recipe from the grandmothers themselves! It was featured in an article in Penzeys Spices catalogue. Incredible flavor. Reminiscent of chimichurri rice, but also has an Indian food zing. Make sure you caramelize those onions until they are well done (which is usually 30+ minutes). My photograph does not do justice to how appetizing this dish is, because…I was in a hurry to eat it.

Ugandan Chicken Curry

Adapted from Penzey’s “Grandmothers Beyond Borders Taste of Uganda” recipe

2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 lemon, cut in pieces

1-2 tsp. salt

2 TB. minced fresh ginger

2 TB. olive or vegetable oil

3 medium yellow onions, finely chopped

1-2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed

2 TB. chopped fresh cilantro

1 tsp. cornstarch

1 Cup water

1 8-oz. can tomato sauce

1 blade fresh lemon grass, gently crushed so it stays in one piece or 1/2 tsp. LEMON GRASS

3 TB. coconut butter or 1 TB. coconut oil (coconut butter is denser and less fatty and sometimes hard to find; it would be by the almond and sunflower butter)

1 large carrot, diced

1/2 Cup green peas (fresh or frozen)

Spice Mix:

1/2 tsp. THYME

1 TB. SWEET CURRY POWDER

1 tsp. TURMERIC

1/2 tsp. GARAM MASALA

1/2 tsp. GROUND CUMIN

1/2 tsp. GROUND BLACK PEPPER

1/2 tsp. GROUND WHITE PEPPER

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. CAYENNE PEPPER

Rub the chicken with the lemon pieces. Place the chicken in a large bowl and sprinkle with salt and ginger. Cover and place in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes. In a small bowl, combine all of the ingredients for the Spice Mix. Stir to combine and set aside.

Preheat oven to 300°. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook until slightly brown and transparent. Reduce the heat to low and add the garlic and cilantro. Mix the cornstarch with the water and tomato sauce. Add to the skillet along with the Spice Mix. Let simmer for 20 minutes over medium-low heat. Place the chicken in a casserole dish. Add the coconut butter/oil, lemon grass, carrots and peas. Pour the curry sauce over the chicken. Bake at 300° for 30 minutes. Reduce the heat to 250° for another 45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and very tender. Serve with boiled potatoes or basmati rice.

Chocolate Babka

JERRY: That’s the last Babka. They got the last Babka!

ELAINE: I know. They’re going in first with the last Babka.

JERRY: That was our Babka.

ELAINE: You can’t beat a Babka.

JERRY: We should have had that Babka.

ELAINE: They’re going to be heroes.

JERRY: What are we going to do now? If we can’t get the Babka the whole thing’s useless.

God forbid you ever find yourself in a situation like Jerry Seinfeld and Elaine Bennis in the episode “The Dinner Party,” but should you find yourself short a chocolate babka in life, they aren’t too hard to make! This is my first Babka and it turned out just mah-velous. Remember that I have resolved in this new year to prepare one chocolate baked delicacy per week. This is Chocolate Wonder #2! Inspired by both the Seinfeld episode and the front cover of this month’s Food and Wine magazine.

And, just in case you get sold “a hair with a cake around it,” I might make cinnamon babka for my next trick.

Chocolate Babka

adapted from food and wine

dough

4 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons fine sea salt

1 cup whole milk, warmed

1 cup sourdough starter

1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk

1 stick plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons, at room temperature

filling

9 ounces milk chocolate, finely chopped

3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cubed

1 1/2 cups finely ground chocolate wafer cookies

3 tablespoons honey

glaze

12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

4 ounces milk chocolate, finely chopped

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cubed

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Make the Dough In a medium bowl, whisk the flour with the sugar and salt. In a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the milk with the yeast and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add the egg and egg yolk and sprinkle the dry ingredients on top. Mix at low speed for 2 minutes. Scrape down the side of the bowl and mix at medium speed until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated and the dough is smooth, about 5 minutes. Add all of the butter at once and mix at low speed until it is fully incorporated and a tacky dough forms, about 3 minutes; scrape down the side of the bowl as needed during mixing. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough stand at room temperature for 1 hour.

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and coat the paper generously with nonstick baking spray. Scrape the dough out onto the parchment paper and cut the dough in half. Pat each piece into a neat square. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Make the filling In a large heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, melt both chocolates with the butter, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Let cool to room temperature, then stir in the cookie crumbs and honey.

Coat two 9-by-4-inch loaf pans with nonstick baking spray and line with parchment paper, allowing 2 inches of overhang on each of the long sides. Roll out each square of dough to a 16-inch square.

Using an offset spatula, spread all but 1/2 cup of the filling in an even layer over the dough squares to within 1/2 inch of the edges.

Starting at the long edge nearest you, tightly roll up each dough square jelly roll–style into a tight log.

Using a sharp knife, cut the logs in half crosswise. Using an offset spatula, spread 1/4 cup of the reserved filling on the top and sides of 2 of the halves.

Set the other halves on top in the opposite direction to form a cross.

Twist to form spirals and transfer to the prepared pans. Cover the loaves with a towel and let stand in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375°. Bake the loaves in the center of the oven for about 45 minutes, until puffed and well browned. Let cool slightly, then use the parchment paper to lift the babkas out of the pans and onto a rack set over a baking sheet. Discard the paper.

Make the glaze In a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, melt both chocolates with the butter; stir until smooth. Stir in the corn syrup.

Spread the glaze on top of the warm babkas and let stand until set, about 30 minutes.

Just heavenly. I brought this to work and was told I graduated from residency. kidding, but close. I could stand in the kitchen eating this in a reverie for hours.

Blitz Kuche, Lightning for a New Year

Happy New Year!!!! While the UN has announced this as the year of the Pulse (grain legumes), I unilaterally declare this to be the year of Chocolate. My New Years Resolution this year is to make one new chocolate dish per week. Why? Because I got a new cookbook from my mother in law featuring 85 chocolate recipes and the photography in that elegant book drove my limbic system berzerk. But also because of the undeniable health benefits chocolate confers, including lowered blood pressure and improved cerebral blood flow—both of which I need on my side for the remainder of intern year. Ahem. So stock up on baking bars and cacao nibs and the like, and bake along with me to sweeten up your 2016.

This is a recipe that comes from someone’s Jewish Viennese great grandmother, Flam. There was a lovely article in Penzey’s catalog about this woman and her great granddaughter Gaye who continues to make this lavish chocolate cake and remember her ancestors, therein “giving herself worth.” She invokes a Hebrew phrase tikkun olam for “repairing the world” with simple things like memory of loved ones and their recipes. This sentiment, to me, captures what cooking is, or should be, about. Time spent preparing simple elements into dishes which serve as something like metonymy to connect those who ate these very elements before us and those who will enjoy them today. I don’t know what is intended by the Hebrew phrase, but my concept for how food repairs the world is that it repairs what connects us to others, our families and the memory of them. Memory and meaning are certainly the best sorts of sauce, impossible to create but so easy to evoke.

Blitz Kuchen means lightning cake in German, because it is so fast to make. Thus, I start the year of Chocolate with a lightning bolt jolt of the heavenly cacao.

Blitz Kuche

Adapted from Penzeys

3 Cups flour

2 Cups sugar

2/3 Cup cocoa powder

1 tsp. instant espresso powder (Starbucks VIA is good)

1 TB. baking soda

1 tiny pinch salt

1 tsp. pure vanilla

3/4 Cup olive oil

1 TB. Apple cider vinegar

2 Cups water

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 9×13 pan with parchment paper, leaving some paper up over the sides to make removing the cake from the pan much easier. We cut a piece for the bottom and then three strips going up the sides, plus we greased and floured the sides so the cake would not stick to any spots not covered in paper. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, espresso powder, baking soda and salt. Mix until well blended. Stir in the vanilla, oil and vinegar just briefly. Add the water and mix well with a wooden spoon or fork. Do not beat with a mixer or over-stir or it will make the cake rubbery. Pour the batter into the pan and bake at 350° for about 50 minutes or until the center is risen and springs back to the touch. Allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 20-30 minutes. You may also frost it, serve it with a dollop of whipped cream, and/or add chopped walnuts, chopped dried cherries or chocolate chips.

And so the haikus of 2015 come to a close. And the year of chocolate ensues.

Haiku #363 Dec 29^th

Hard to be Eeyore

When your blusteriest day

is blusher than spring.

Haiku #364 Dec 30^th

Don’t you worry bout

Me, baby. I always break

Even. Odd enough.

Haiku #365 Dec 31^st

Love smells of all this:

Firecracker smoke, bubbles, and

Roquefort fondue. Cheers.

Toasted Millet Porridge Bread

Memory lived not in initial possession but in the freed hands, pardoned and freed, and in the heart that can empty but fill again, in the patterns restored by dreams. … The last thing Laurel saw, before they whirled into speed, was the twinkling of their hands, the many small and unknown hands, wishing her goodbye. Eudora Welty, The Optimist’s Daughter.

She is hypnotic, Ms. Welty, in her prose. I bid you read this book that you too may be struck at the catharsis of how Laurel lets go of things. A primer in grief, but also, perhaps, a manual for the New Year’s edge—the time when we all look around ourselves and wonder with a tinge of disgust but also with fondness “how do I find myself now?” A mirror reckoning. A closet reckoning. An inner reckoning. A time of deconstruction, and, necessarily, reconstruction. I’m rubbing my palms together in preparations for a new resolution. Goodbye haiku and hello—surprise.

This bread here brought me back to Poland, a place I would gladly return! Hearty, massive loaves. And porridge just sounds so cozy and northern and krakowian.

Toasted Millet Porridge Bread

Adapted from Tartine Bread Book No 3

Millet 150g

All purpose flour 500g

Wheat flour 500g

Wheat germ 70g

Water 750g

Sourdough starter 150g

Fine sea salt 15 g

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread millet on a baking sheet and toast until browned and aromatic, 20 minutes or so. Transfer to a bowl and add 2 cups of cold water and let soak overnight. The next day, transfer millet and soaking liquid to a skillet and bring to a boil. Cover, and simmer for 40 minutes until the millet has absorbed all the liquid. Fluff with a fork once removed from heat and let cool.

Follow the master method (here) to make the dough.

Roll the dough in raw millet to coat for proofing. Place in bannetons, millet side down/seam-side up for final rises. Bake at 450-500 in Dutch ovens. Makes two loaves.

Haiku #356 Dec 22^nd

The middle seat is

Caught in the cross between the

Reach outward and in.

Haiku #357 Dec 23^rd

Pepparkoker and

Krumkake and salmon dish

Oh my! Tradition!

Haiku #358 Dec 24^th

Smorgasbord harkens

Me back to a time I missed

Because I am not.

Haiku #359 Dec 25^th

Choreography

Of the holidays—a waltz

Along the west coast.

Haiku #360 Dec 26^th

Oh the games we play:

Whispered words, Ticket to Ride,

Spinning in circles.

Haiku #361 Dec 27^th

It is memory

That is the somnambulist

Flashing light at dark.

Haiku #362 Dec 28^th

Still a fire-orange

Rim on the sky, tomorrow’s

Mighty undertow.

Kentucky Hot Brown for the Holidays

Ha-llo from the other si—yide!!! Hooray, it’s the holidays for me now! Just finished my ICU rotation and slept for 12-14 hours (not including the 5 hour post-call nap I took on our friends’ couch during their Star Wars movie marathon party). Still puffy around the eyeballs, but my neurons seem to be all tweeting in their proper directions now. Getting my optics on last minute present purchases, holiday dinners and figuring out where in heck all our loved ones live this year. Love to you all–the annual poems are on their way, I hope! It has been a challenging and fulfilling first half of intern year. Here was the fortune cookie message I cracked open the night before my most recent boards exam–and I think its the best sentiment a cookie has ever given me. Keep on all ye weary, there shall be rest.

Still have turkey in the freezer after Thanksgiving? I thought so! Hey, make this open-face sandwich immediately. Ah-mazing sandwich. Grilled cheese has nothing on this, you must try Broiled Cheese. KP and I had these two nights in a row. I would have gone a whole week if I hadn’t been on the other side of my troubled consciousness (in CCU, where all the what ifs have ceased to be ifs).

Kentucky Hot Brown

Adapted from Food and Wine

Sauce:

2 1/4 cups whole milk

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups shredded sharp white cheddar cheese (6 ounces)

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Few dashes of hot sauce

Kosher salt

Pepper

Sandwiches:

16 slices of thick-cut bacon

2 tomatoes, cut into eight 1/4-inch-thick slices

1 tablespoon canola oil

Kosher salt

Pepper

Eight 1/2-inch-thick slices of day-old bread (great way to use staling bread)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces

2 pounds roast turkey breast, sliced 1/4 inch thick

1 1/2 cups shredded sharp white cheddar cheese (4 1/2 ounces)

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Chopped chives and chopped parsley, for garnish

Make the sauce In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a simmer. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Add the flour and whisk over moderate heat for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the hot milk and bring to a boil. Cook, whisking, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in both cheeses until melted. Stir in the nutmeg and hot sauce and season with salt and pepper.

Make the sandwiches Preheat the oven to 425°. Arrange the bacon on a rack set over a baking sheet. Cook until golden and crisp, about 30 minutes.

Preheat the broiler. Arrange the tomato slices on a baking sheet, drizzle with the oil and season with salt and pepper. Broil 6 inches from the heat until lightly charred, 1 to 2 minutes per side; keep warm.

Arrange the bread on a foil-lined baking sheet and spread each slice with 1/2 tablespoon of the butter; season with salt and pepper. Broil until lightly toasted, about 2 minutes. Flip the bread and toast for 1 minute.

Top each toast with some turkey and a slice of tomato. Spoon the sauce on top and sprinkle on both cheeses. Broil until the cheese is melted and golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer the sandwiches to plates and top with the bacon. Garnish with chopped chives and parsley and serve hot.

Haiku #348 December 14^th

It’s time to sit down

and write myself a letter

of encouragement.

Haiku #349 December 15^th

The haiku train is

running out of coal, and thus

out of steam—chug ah.

Haiku #350 December 16^th

Either I am new,

or unfit. I cannot keep

tears out of my work.

Haiku #351 December 17^th

Finally, to me

it happens. I won the game.

No patients pre-call.

Haiku #352 December 18^th

You know that feeling

when you don’t know what’s wrong, well

get used to it, love.

Haiku #353 December 19^th

Last night on the job

before the holidays, let

it be silent night.

Haiku #354 December 20^th

Buttermilk drops dance

In my head while the call phone

Rumbles in the sheets.

Haiku #355 December 21^st

Bustle is only

a verb because it rhymes with

hustle. The clinger.

Smoked Sausage Jambalaya with Bayou Fried Chicken for Fat Tuesday

Like this:

Mini Chocolate Cream Meringue Tarts for Mardi Gras

Like this:

Buckwheat Chocolate Torte

Like this:

King Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Filling

Like this:

Grandmothers Beyond Borders Ugandan Curry

Like this:

Chocolate Babka

Like this:

Blitz Kuche, Lightning for a New Year

Like this:

Toasted Millet Porridge Bread

Like this:

Kentucky Hot Brown for the Holidays

Like this:

share it if you love it

Like this:

share it if you love it

Like this:

share it if you love it

Like this:

share it if you love it

Like this:

share it if you love it

Like this:

share it if you love it

Like this:

share it if you love it

Like this:

share it if you love it

Like this:

share it if you love it

Like this:

share it if you love it

Like this: