I had one of the best Monday's in a long time yesterday. Although that could be because we're leaving town tomorrow and so yesterday was technically like a Thursday...
First of all, it was a beautiful, 80-degree day here in the City yesterday, which is like a nice hot breath of fresh air. I'm tired of freezing my ass off in July. I know, I complain when it doesn't rain enough, and then I complain when it's not hot enough. I'm a big, fat whiny baby. I think my problem is that I want it to be Portland here, and it's just not. But anyways, the warm day set me off on the right foot.
I've been wanting to make a Pugliese loaf of bread for a long time, but it takes a starter that you have to let sit for 8-10 hours, and I always forget to do that until it's way too late. This morning, I remembered and mixed it all up before I left the house. Wow - I never remember stuff like that. So when I got home after work, it was nicely fermented and ready to make the bread dough. I opened every window in the apartment and let the warm, summery air and the perfect breeze stream through. Oh it was glorious. I washed a huge load of dishes (that have been sitting there glowering at me for about a week) which felt liberating, as I could actually see the countertops again. What I wouldn't give for the luxury of a dishwasher these days. All of you all who have a dishwasher, go give it a big hug right now.
Then I mixed up the Pugliese and kneaded for 8-10 lovely minutes of meditation on the beautiful dappled sunlight coming through the trees right outside the kitchen window. If you are under the impression that kneading bread dough is chore, give it a try - it's really quite a nice experience. It's so cool to feel the dough submit to the kneading and become smooth, and pliable, like a soft clay, under your fingers. I love it. After putting the pugliese in my bread bowl to rise, I loaded up the weeks and weeks of laundry that was stacked up and headed to the laundrymat. Laundry is one of my least favorite things to do, but sometimes you just have to face the music.
Once the laundry was rolling, I hopped on the 30 Stockton down to the Marina market to pick up some eggs for my Butterscotch Pots de Creme (a custard/pudding type dessert) that I had decided to make for dessert. I also snuck a cheap Chardonnay into my basket...I hit the same 30 (after it had turned around) to take me home, popped the laundry into the dryers and got home just as the Pugliese was perfectly risen.
I formed the Pugliese into two loaves and set it aside to rise again, whipped up the Pots de Creme and put them in the oven to cook, then took a quick break to watch the last half of an episode of The Wire (my new favorite show). By the time that was over, I had caught my breath sufficiently and headed down to get the clean laundry.
Everything was clicking along like clockwork until I checked on the pots de creme and they weren't quite cooked enough. So, that threw things off schedule a little bit. I was supposed to come home with the laundry, take out the pots de creme and throw the bread in, so this is where things went a little bit awry. So, I made myself a salad in the meantime, and mixed up a vinaigrette. Then it was time for the pots de creme to come out of the oven.
At this point, it was getting close to 9:30 and I had plans to make homemade noodles for dinner still, and the bread to cook. A normal person probably would have scrapped the homemade noodles and done something else, but I was really feeling in the groove last night, so I decided to go ahead with it anyways. So I got the pasta machine all set up, and whirred up the pasta dough in the food processor. That was the easy part. I realize, in hindsight, that my dough needed quite a bit more flour. But when I first started feeding it through the pasta roller, I hadn't yet realized this, and it stuck. It stuck big time. So I added a little bit more flour and kept forcing it through and it worked, for the rolling part. Then I went to try and cut it on the spaghetti cutter, and this is when I realized a cardinal rule for making your own pasta - the dough must be very dry. Or it sticks in the cutters, comes out in a giant clump, and is basically useless. So, being an extremely brilliant person, my next bright idea was to feed another pasta sheet through the cutters to push out the dough from the first pasta sheet. Unfortunately, this second sheet of dough was no dryer than the first sheet and so, surprise surprise, it stuck in the cutters as well. So now, instead of one ruined sheet of pasta, I had two ruined sheets, and we were closing in on 10:00.
So, I did what any smart person would do, I deduced that I wasn't saavy enough to use the spaghetti cutters, and switched to the bigger, easier fettucine cutter. Which worked. By 10:15, I finally had all the fettucine cut, and realized that I had forgotten to put a pot of water on to boil it in. So, the pot went on, the bread came out of the oven to cool, and I actually had some time to clean up the giant cloud of flour that had enveloped the entire kitchen, and covered the kitchen table. By 10:30, when Neil walked in the door, the pasta was finally finished and tossed with olive oil, parmesan cheese and parsley, the Pugliese was ready, the wine was poured and the pots de creme were waiting patiently in the fridge. It's just very European to eat dinner at 10:30 at night, right?
So, in the end it felt like a very productive day. Dishes done = check, laundry done = check, bread baked = check, noodles made = check, pots de creme baked = check, down time/tv time = check. Altogether I felt very successful, even if Neil did tell me when he got home that he doesn't really care for butterscotch. I thought they were absolutely delicious and so therefore will share the recipe with you all. It's kind of like butterscotch pudding, but tastes nothing like those terrible little tubs of pudding I used to eat as a kid. It's creamy and melts in your mouth. Got it from my favorite cooking blog, Orangette...
Here is the link, if you want to read the original blog:
http://orangette.blogspot.com/2008/01/pots-of-gold.html
And, for the record, I didn't use the fancy sugars that she talks about. I used plain brown sugar, and raw cane sugar. I also forgot to put the aluminum foil over the tops before baking, and they still turned out fine. And, finally, I don't have a light-colored saucepan, so I just tilted the pan and put a white plastic spoon into the liquid to test the color against that.
Butterscotch Pots de Crème
Adapted from M.J. Adams and Gourmet, October 2003
This custard gets its deep, warm flavor from the presence of two special sugars: muscovado and demerara. It may sound fiddly to call for fancy sugars for a simple little custard like this, but trust me: they really seal the deal. They’re the axis on which the whole thin spins. And if you live in a moderate- to good-sized town, they should be fairly easy to find. Here in Seattle, I’ve bought them at gourmet stores like Whole Foods, but this weekend I even saw them at Ballard Market, my neighborhood grocery. I like the brand India Tree.One more thing: for the water-and-demerara step, be sure to use a light-colored saucepan. If your pan is made of something dark, like this, it will be darn near impossible to see the color of the mixture as it caramelizes.
1 ½ cups heavy cream
6 Tbsp. dark muscovado sugar
¼ tsp. salt
6 Tbsp. water
2 Tbsp. demerara sugar
4 large egg yolks
½ tsp. vanilla extract
Set an oven rack in the middle position, and preheat the oven to 300°F.
In a small heavy saucepan, combine cream, muscovado sugar, and salt. Place over medium heat and bring just to a simmer, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat.
Meanwhile, combine water and demerara sugar in a medium (2-quart) heavy saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until browned and bubbly, about 5 minutes. (To gauge the color of the mixture, it may help to tilt the pan a little, so that the liquid pools on one side.) Remove from the heat and carefully add the cream mixture, whisking until combined.
In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks and vanilla. Add hot cream mixture in a thin stream, whisking constantly. Set a fine-mesh sieve over a 1-quart glass measuring cup, and pour the custard through the sieve. Skim off any foam with a spoon.
Divide the custard among four (4-ounce) ramekins or other oven-safe vessels. (I used teacups, just because they’re pretty. Stoneware and porcelain are safe in the oven at this temperature.) Select a baking dish, one large enough to hold the ramekins without any of them touching. (I used a 9” x 13.”) Fold a dish towel to line the bottom of the baking dish; this will protect the delicate custards from touching the hot bottom of the pan. Arrange the ramekins in the pan. Seal the top of each ramekin with a piece of aluminum foil to prevent a skin from forming as they bake.
Slide the pan into the oven, and immediately pour hot tap water into the pan to reach halfway up the side of the ramekins. Bake until the custards are set around the edges but still jiggle lightly in the centers when shaken, like firm gelatin, about 40 minutes. (You’ll have to move the foil to see this.) Using tongs, transfer the ramekins to a rack. Discard foil tops and cool to room temperature. The custards will continue to set as they cool. Refrigerate for a couple of hours, or until you’re ready to serve them.Serve plain or topped with a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream.
Note: These are best on the first day, but they’ll keep, covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated, for up to two days. The texture slowly declines and they develop a thin skin on top, but it certainly didn’t stop us from eating them.Yield: 4 servings
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