Among other things. Wow, you guys are in for a treat! It's been a busy cooking day in our house. Sunday is Mohamed's day off and he thought he'd get in on the new recipe action. He's a great cook and of course I love to sit back and let him do his magic.
Today for lunch he made a ground fish tajine. Now that may not seem very appealing to some of you, but it's pretty common over here to grind fish just like you would beef or turkey. He brought 2 pounds of fresh sardines home from the market and ground them in our blender! A tajine is both a meal and the pot you cook it in. The pot is a thick bottomed clay dish with a cone shaped lid. It's pretty much the same as a dutch oven except you serve and eat out of it too!
Most tajines start with a base of onion, oil, garlic and spices, then you can do pretty much anything on top. Mohamed added a layer of carrots (my fave in tajine) and potato, then added the ground fish. On top of the fish he added red and green peppers, more carrots and garlic, tomatoes and sliced lemon. Sprinkle some fresh parsley and cilantro on top and let it cook! After about an hour, we ate it with bread. Yumm!
It was rainy today as well, so while Mohamed napped in the afternoon I thought I'd tackle Vanilla Bean Buttermilk Cupcakes with Nutella Buttercream from Krissy's Creations. I've been looking forward to making these since I found them a few weeks ago.
Getting the batter together was pretty standard. I usually use oil when I bake, but the recipe called for butter (a lot of it) instead and I thought I'd give it a go. While I love the moistness the oil gives, the butter ended up giving a slight crunch around the edges that I liked. The buttermilk gave a lovely thickness to the batter- yum!
While the cupcakes baked, I tackled the Nutella Buttercream. This was a bit more time consuming because the hand mixer that I purchased (for $10, you get what you pay for!) had a hard time blending such thick ingredients. I kept having to stop, empty out the mixers and go again. The effort was worth it, this buttercream is delicious!
After the cupcakes cooled, Mohamed added the buttercream and I topped them with a sprinkling of grated dark chocolate.
The verdict- Nutella really does make this buttercream to-die-for. I was almost sick with all of my tasting. The cupcakes themselves were very good, but not knock your socks off delicious. I think next time I'd add more vanilla for a stronger flavor (or search for the vanilla bean paste that she recommends). I might also substitute some of the butter for oil to get the moistness that I like.
Whew! Now on to the main event. I neglected to read the recipe for the Roman Style Pizza until 8pm. This wouldn't be a problem except the dough needs to rise for 90 minutes. Oops! It's gonna be a late dinner. I kneaded the dough and set it aside before moving on to the tomatoes. Simple enough, you just put them on a baking sheet; add oil, salt and pepper; and pop them in the oven! 12 minutes later you have roasted cherry tomatoes.
Once the dough rose to double its size, I stretched half of it onto my baking sheet. Unfortunately I have no pizza stone, so ours isn't quite as authentic as I hoped. Oh well. Then the dough had to sit another 15 minutes before I added the toppings. *Note- this is the first place I went wrong! The recipe calls for you to put the pizza in the oven on top of a heated pizza stone. I don't have one, so I should have put the dough in the oven to cook for a few minutes pre-toppings. Live and learn...
(The crust was super yummy, but ended up soggy in the middle due to the lack of pizza stone)
Ready for toppings!
Adding the toppings was where my second mistake occurred. Maybe it was late, maybe I was tired from the cupcakes. Whatever it was, I wasn't thinking very critically. These tomatoes were too big and full of juice. When I do this again (and I will) I'll halve the tomatoes and dump the juice and seeds. These tomatoes with the soft center dough did not get us the crispy crust that we desired.
The end result- Sure looks good right? The crust around the edges was delicious. I also loved the parmesan/mozzarella combination. It was just those darn juicy tomatoes...
The verdict- Loved the crust, cheese and basil. Tomatoes were just too juicy, but I don't think that's the recipe's fault. Also, I should have realized that without the hot pizza stone the crust wasn't going to bake properly. Ugh. Mohamed agreed and ended up removing all of his tomatoes. I will make this again and next time I'll do it right! I may add a little caramelized onion too...
Find the complete recipe here: Roman Style Pizza with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes.
For day four we move to Saveur for a Tunisian dish- T'fina Pkaila (Beef rib and Meatball stew) Should be fun! EEEK! No spinach, so I'll be doing Fettuccine with Sausage, Sage and Crispy Garlic instead. Look for T'fina Pkaila on day five!
Photo by Todd Coleman for Saveur
2 comments:
What about smashing the tomatoes, salting them and pressing them between two plates for an hour; then drain off the juice? Kenn
Indeed that could work, although I think just slicing them and dumping the juice would have made a huge difference. Perhaps this will be your next recipe to try Mr. Norris?
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