Best Hummus

Best Hummus is one of a family of recipes that runs the gamut from starts-with-dried-beans-soaked-overnight to its-ok-to-sub-peanut butter-for tahini. It falls somewhere in the middle. You use a can of garbanzo beans (confusingly also labeled chickpeas sometimes), and you must buy the tahini. Even though tahini falls in the pricier range, the good news is you only use a little bit for each batch of hummus, and it lasts in the refrigerator for a really long time. Nobody who owns a food processor should be buying pre-made hummus at the store. A blender would probably work as well, but in full disclosure I’ve never actually tried that myself. Hummus recipes are honestly a dime a dozen on the Internet. Most have very similar ingredients, as they should. It’s just a matter of choosing one as a starting point and then figuring out what you like.

We enjoy a fair amount of acid in our food so when I make this hummus, I use some extra lemon juice, maybe as much as a tablespoon and a half extra. I also mix in about a half teaspoon or so of paprika instead of the “pinch” to sprinkle on top, and throw in maybe a half teaspoon of salt. I’m not sure why this particular recipe doesn’t call for salt; it probably should. Making hummus is just a matter of experimenting with the basic ingredients and deciding what appeals to your palate and to that of those for whom you cook. When it’s delicious, it’s done!

Hummus can be enjoyed with warmed pita bread, pita chips, crackers, pretzels and crudite’. Fair warning, once you start making it yourself, you can never go back to the dense pre-made store-bought kind. With a lusciously smooth and creamy texture and flavors that you can customize to suit your own style, there is simply nothing available in the refrigerator aisle of your grocery store that comes close.

Thai Chicken Pizza

Thai Chicken Pizza started out as our attempt to copy a popular local restaurant’s offering by the same name. Twenty years later, I can say honestly that ours is better. A bold claim maybe, but I dare you to try this and tell me I’m wrong. Making pizza is a fairly forgiving enterprise once you have the dough ready. All of the amounts are approximate; what you need will be affected by how big your pizza is.

Ingredients

1/2 recipe Forno Bravo Pizza Dough, allowed to come to room temperature (about 2 hours)
2/3 C Thai Peanut Sauce
1 carrot, peeled & grated
1 full half of a chicken breast, roasted and diced (from a 6-pound–precooked weight–chicken)
1/3 C peanuts, shelled, roasted & salted
2 green onions, white & green, thinly sliced
1/4 C fresh cilantro, chopped
1 C fresh bean sprouts

Directions

Preheat your oven with a pizza stone in it (in the bottom third of the oven) to 550 degrees.

Lay a sheet of parchment paper onto your pizza peel (we learned this trick from watching Girl Meets Farm).

Using your fingers, gently press the dough into a circle on a floured countertop. A floured pastry cloth can make this process easier, but isn’t essential. Create a rim by pressing your fingertips firmly down onto the dough, about 1″ from the edge, all around the circle. Pick up the dough with both hands and stretch into a 14″ circle (or no bigger than your stone–ours is 15″). Set it down onto the parchment-covered peel.

Using a spoon, spread out the Thai Peanut Sauce, and then sprinkle on the carrot, chicken, peanuts and green onions.

Slide the pizza off the peel and onto the stone. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and crispy. Using the peel, rotate the pizza once halfway through. Use the peel to remove the pizza from the oven.

Slice into 12 slices with a pizza cutter. Sprinkle with the cilantro and bean sprouts. Serve immediately. Serves 4 people.

Wiener Wraps

Wiener Wraps beg the question when is a hot dog a hot dog and when it is a wiener? I grew up attending wiener roasts in my grandparents’ backyard, a tradition which continues today in my mom’s backyard. Likewise, one of our favorite childhood meals was Wiener Wraps, always made with Pillsbury dough from the grocery store. Yet we also have macaroni and cheese and hot dogs. Not once have I ever had macaroni and cheese and wieners. Whether you call them wieners or hot dogs in whatever context, making good Wiener Wraps from homemade dough has been the project of a few years. I think we now have finally nailed it! We used My Favorite White Bread Recipe, cut in half, as the dough. I am going to reproduce the recipe here because cutting it in half requires some fairly significant mathematical gymnastics.

In my instructions I call for sesame seeds and flaky salt. My husband has a fairly extensive salt collection so in the photo above, I used Black Lava Sea Salt from Hawaii and regular white sesame seeds. Use whatever you have on hand: kosher salt, black sesame seeds, poppyseeds would all be nice additions.

We make rolls fairly often so we have designated a shallow, rectangular cardboard box with the flaps cut off to protect formed rolls while they are rising. It fits nicely over the baking sheet. If you don’t have such a thing, or can’t create such a thing, just use a tea towel.

For the hot dogs I use Nathan’s beef hot dogs and for the cheese I use Tillamook cheddar slices. Use whatever hot dogs and cheese you like and are available to you.

Ingredients

2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
1/4 C + 1/8 C warm water (to combine with yeast)
1/4 tsp granulated sugar (to combine with yeast)

1 1/3 C warm water (for secondary combination)
1/8 C granulated sugar (for secondary combination)
2 1/2 C all-purpose flour (for secondary combination)
1 1/2 Tbs unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
1 1/2 tsp table salt

2 C all-purpose flour for final mixture

olive oil (for the bowl)
8 hot dogs
4 (1 oz) slices of cheddar cheese
1 egg + 1 Tbs water (for egg wash)
sesame seeds (optional)
flaky salt (optional)

Directions

In a liquid measuring cup, combine the yeast and the first measurement of warm water and granulated sugar and let sit for 6 minutes, or until the yeast has bloomed. Once bloomed, transfer to the bowl of a Kitchen Aid and add the second measurements of water, sugar, and flour, with the butter and salt. Using a dough hook, run on low or medium-low until combined, and then add the final measurement of flour, one spoonful at a time. Turn out onto a clean countertop and knead until the dough is smooth and soft, about 10 minutes.

Grease a large bowl with olive oil and place the dough inside, turning the dough over so it is completely coated. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

Turn the dough out onto a floured countertop or pastry cloth. Gently press into a rectangle with your fingertips, and then use a rolling pin to achieve a large rectangle that is about 13″ by 15.” Place the hot dogs on the rectangle, spread out and equidistant from one another. Use a pizza cutter to cut around the hot dogs. The goal is to have the same amount of dough to surround each hot dog. Cut the cheese slices into fourths and place two of the fourths on top of each hot dog, lengthwise. To form the wraps, fold the ends in, and pull the side of the dough nearest to you up and over the hot dog, taking care to keep the cheese pressed to the hot dog to keep it inside the dough. Pinch the seam closed with your fingers. Place on a metal baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Cover with a cardboard box or a tea towel and let rise for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Beat the egg with a fork and add 1 Tbs of water. Use a pastry brush to brush the resulting egg wash all over the wraps. Be gentle, you don’t want to lose the airiness you have created. If desired, sprinkle with sesame seeds and flaky salt. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the dough is lightly browned.

Easy Macaroni and Cheeze

Easy Macaroni and Cheeze has been a mainstay on our menu plan for years now. It makes it into the rotation at least once a month. We’re not vegan, so we almost always add sliced hot dogs or sausages, usually cooked off in a skillet before we add it to the pasta. We like the sauce as written, but after years of making it, we find we do like it a bit wetter. As a result, we increase the amount of water to 1 1/2 cups, increase the amount of milk to 1 1/2 cups, and increase the amount of cornstarch to 4 teaspoons. We’ve used a variety of milks with great success (even goat’s milk!). Like the author, we do like it with additional turmeric so have increased that to a whole teaspoon instead of a half. That said, we enjoy it both as written and as I’ve just described. The kids love it, although I’ll admit that they were well used to this before they ever tried the kind out of a box. Look for the nutritional yeast in the organic bulk section of your grocery store; that’s where I usually find it.

How to Hard-Boil an Egg

How to Hard-Boil an Egg is something that I do weekly, 12 eggs at a time. I like a hard boiled egg with my breakfast, and my daughter always takes one in her lunch. It seems like a crazy simple thing to post about, but then I can remember not knowing how to hard boil an egg. It required a phone call to Mom, which resulted in wishy-washy instructions since Mom, bless her heart, never seems to know exactly how she does things and for how many minutes (I had the same experience trying to learn to make spaghetti with meat sauce over the phone). I never did figure out how to add raw eggs to boiling water without cracking every shell and burning myself numerous times so I was delighted when I learned this method, which I have used for several years now.

I have learned to use a bigger pot with plenty of water because I end up with fewer cracked shells that way. Additionally, I have learned to use the biggest burner on my stove because my smaller burners take too long to bring the water to a boil, and the resulting eggs are dry and overcooked.

As far as doneness goes, I love a moist, soft yolk, which is what you get in 10 minutes, but I often do 11 or 12 minutes because my daughter likes them more “well done.” The beauty of it is that you can experiment with what you like, a minute less or a minute more, and arrive at an egg that is perfect for you.

Classic Cold Soba

Classic Cold Soba makes a great summer dinner as the noodles are served room temperature or even cold. We like to serve the noodles with sliced leftover roast pork, such as leftover Spiced Pork Tenderloin with Maple Chipotle Sauce. Steamed Edamame makes a nice accompaniment as well. To find the soba noodles, the dashi kombu and the bonito flakes that the recipe requires, you will probably have to venture to an Asian grocery. Once you have them though, they last a long time. We now buy these ingredients in fairly large quantities and always have them on hand. For convenience, I am reproducing the recipe we use here. However, this information has been gleaned from two different sources and combined into one. The first source is norecipes.com and the second is seriouseats.com. I quickly tired of paging through multiple page documents every time I wanted to make this, and so here is a more user-friendly version.

Ingredients

For the Dashi:

2 C cold water
6 g dashi kombu (a kind of flat seaweed)
15 g bonito flakes

For the Dipping Sauce:

1 1/2 C prepared Dashi
1/2 C Soy Sauce
1/2 C Mirin
1/4 tsp granulated sugar

For the Noodles:

1 package soba noodles
Large pot of water, salted liberally

Directions

In a small saucepan, combine the cold water and the dashi kombu. On medium heat, bring to a near boil. Remove the dashi kombu. Take off the heat, and add in the bonito flakes. Steep for two minutes. Strain in a strainer lined with a coffee liner or a paper towel.

Measure the dashi to 1 1/2 cups. Rinse out the saucepan and return the dashi to the saucepan. Add the soy sauce, mirin and granulated sugar. On medium heat, bring to a gentle boil. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Bring the large pot of liberally salted water to a rolling boil. Add the soba noodles, stir once, and boil for 5 minutes. Noodles should be tender when done. Remove from the boiling water and put straight into cold water until ready to serve.

Serve noodles with individual bowls of dipping sauce.

Leftover noodles and sauce will keep a few days in the refrigerator, but you should store them in separate containers.

Stovetop Popped Popcorn

I can clearly remember the years before we got our first air-pop popcorn machine. Mom would heat oil in a pot, add the kernels, and then as it popped she would shake the hell out of it over the burner. Sometimes it burned. To this day, I’m not sure why. Over the years, I have managed to perfect my system for stovetop popped popcorn, and I rarely if ever burn it. My best guess is that Mom wasn’t using enough oil. My discovery is that if you use enough oil, then you don’t need butter at all.

Unfortunately, my stovetop popped popcorn recipe isn’t really a recipe. I think maybe that’s ok. Amounts are going to depend on the size of your pot. In my experience, you want a pot that has higher sides, but a smaller bottom area, basically, taller than it is wide. This is because if you have a really wide-bottomed pot, your popcorn will pop out and over the sides before it is fully done popping. So, a pot that is taller than it is wide is optimum, preferably with a glass lid so you can see what is going on, although this isn’t absolutely necessary.

Once you have found your pan, coat the bottom LIBERALLY with vegetable oil. Give it what you think it needs, and then give it an extra glug. Yes, this amounts to an extra hundred calories or so, but it will taste so good that you don’t need butter. Put 3 kernels in the pot with the oil, lid on, and turn heat up to HIGH. Wait until the kernels start to sizzle, and then coat the bottom of the pot with kernels. Put the lid back on. Turn the heat down a few notches; you want the kernels to fry a bit. Give the pot a few shakes. Once it starts to pop, crank the heat back to high, tilt the lid slightly to let out some steam and then shake the pot back and forth over the burner, keeping the kernels moving on the bottom. When the popping slows down, 1 or 2 seconds between pops, turn the heat off, turn popcorn out into a large bowl, and sprinkle liberally with salt, stirring as you go.

In my experience, not all popcorns are created equal. My favorite is Amish Country Popcorn, medium white hulless, but Ovrille Redenbacher’s is a close second, and perhaps more widely available.

I recently used this method, using the Amish Country Popcorn, for a close friend and she came just shy of saying it was the best popcorn she had ever had.

Baked Brie

Baked Brie is usually either baked covered in puff pastry dough, or baked naked and drizzled with honey. We cover ours in pie dough. It’s simple to do, we can make it ourselves, and if we’ve had the foresight to pick up a small wheel of brie (which we often do) this becomes party of a pantry meal. My 12-year-old insists that when she goes away to college, sometimes she can see this being her dinner (maybe with some fruit, hopefully). We like to do this occasionally as a part of our weekly Snack Plate tradition.

Ingredients

1 4 – 6oz wheel of brie cheese
1/2 recipe of Wesson Oil Pie Crust

Directions

Make the Wesson Oil Pie Crust as directed. Roll out the resulting ball of dough between two sheets of wax paper. Keep rolling until the dough is as thin as you can get it.

With a sharp knife, cut off most of the rind from the cheese. Brie rind is edible, so you can skip this step, but leaving the rind on will prevent the cheese from getting as gooey as you might want it.

Remove the top layer of wax paper covering the dough. Place the entire wheel of cheese on one end of the dough. Using the wax paper to support the delicate dough, flip the other end of the dough over on top of the cheese. Gently press down from the top where the dough meets the cheese. Cut off the extra dough with a sharp knife. Using a fork, crimp the edges of the dough together to create a seal.

Bake in an oven-safe ramekin or on an oven-safe plate at 400 degrees for 15 – 20 minutes. Serve with crackers and fruit either as an appetizer, or as a part of Snack Plate.

Classic English Toad in the Hole

The Toad in the Hole that I grew up with was an egg fried inside a slice of bread with a circle cut out of the center. This is different. Classic English Toad-in-the-Hole is chewy, eggy, slightly sweet batter surrounding sausages, traditionally English bangers. If you’ve ever had a popover, the taste and texture is similar. We have a favorite neighborhood butcher who makes their own sausages as our source for the bangers. You can really use whatever kind of sausage you like and that is readily available to you. My kids don’t care for the bangers, so we usually throw in some traditional breakfast sausage as well. We just have to remember where we put which kind of sausage in the pan. For lazy weekends at home, or brunches with company, this is a recipe that I intend to use forever.

Banana Walnut Oatmeal

Banana Walnut Oatmeal is my go-to “home alone for breakfast on a weekend” recipe. My husband tolerates oatmeal if it appears suddenly, but he doesn’t seek it out; he’d rather have muffins. The kids won’t touch it. I have always liked it, even plain, but this simple recipe takes it up another notch from just warm and comforting to downright tasty. The addition of the maple syrup and the banana give it a balanced sweetness without adding any extra processed sugar. I make this recipe pretty much as written, although I don’t measure the nuts; I just use a small-ish handful, give them a chop and mix them in to the whole batch. If, like me, you are cooking this for just yourself, the second serving that this makes will reheat well the next day.