Category Archives: milk

Jack is Cooking Pannekoeken with Apples

Posted on by under apples, butter, cinnamon, flour, milk, nutmeg, rum, sugar

Well Hello Internet!

Pancakes are one of my favorite things, in fact just last night i had a fantastic dream about blueberry pancakes, filled to the brim with blueberries in a way that is only possible in a dream.  This is a recipe for apple pancakes, called Pannekoeken due to its Dutch nature.  It would be possible to make this with almost any fruit, the spices can be adjusted accordingly.

Fresh out of the oven

The first time i ate a pancake like this was in Amsterdam, and have always wanted to make them at home.  It is almost easier than regular pancakes, but it involves the oven.  The batter is very different from american pancakes, and is basically just a sweet version of yorkshire pudding – or a popover.

delicious caramelized apples

You will need a skillet that can go on the stove, and in a hot oven.  Cast Iron is good, or something that is all metal and won’t melt.  Nothing with a rubber grip basically.

Here’s what you will need:

4 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk

1 apple of your choice
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon dark rum

Preheat oven to 450°

1.  In a bowl, mix the eggs, flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and milk together.  Whisk until its bubbly, cover and let it sit for about 15-20 minutes

2.  Cut the apple into slices.  if you want you can remove the skin, but i left it on.

3.  Melt the butter in the skillet over medium heat.  Throw in the brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla.  Stir until its bubbly, and the sugar has started to caramelize a little.  Cover with the apples, so the apples are evenly distributed over the sugary butter.  Toss the rum in, careful not to let it ignite.  (you could if you want to, and have a little Flambé action going on!)

4.  Pour the batter over all the apples, but do not stir.  Let it cook for about 30 seconds on top of the stove, and then put it in the oven for 15 minutes.  Do not open the oven at all during these 15 minutes, or it will deflate.

5.  Turn the oven down to 350° and let it bake for another 5 minutes.  Remove from the oven and enjoy immediately!  You can eat this with syrup if you like, but the sweetness of the apples due to the caramelization is enough on its own, and it is extremely delicious on it’s own.

a perfect saturday breakfast

Jack is Cooking Endives au Jambon

Posted on by under béchamel, butter, Endive, flour, gruyere, ham, milk, nutmeg, pepper, salt

Well Hello Internet!

I was in the store the other day (the kind that sells food), and although it is not endive season the endives looked particularly delicious.  So i thought i would make Endives Au Jambon, which is a classic french dish (i presume) comprised of Endives wrapped in Ham, bathed in béchamel and topped with cheese baked in an oven.  There are two ways to do this – the quickest way to do it is to just blanche the Endives, before wrapping them in ham and baking them.  The Second way is to butter braise them which takes a little longer but is extra especially delicious – in a buttery Julia Child kind of way.  So i suggest the latter.  It’s very easy to do, and all you need are endives, ham, cheese, flour, milk, and butter.  oh and some lemon juice.  and some salt and pepper.  and some nutmeg…

Heres exactly what you will need:

5 or 6 Endives (2 per person)
5 or 6 slices of ham (1 per endive)

4 tablespoons of butter
juice of one half lemon
3 tablespoons of flour
2 cups of milk
salt and pepper
a pinch of ground nutmeg
1/4 cup water

1/2 pound gruyere cheese (grated)

You will also need 1 heavy bottomed pot, 1 small pot, and a casserole dish.

The First thing to do is to butter braise the Endives.  To do this we can follow Julia Child’s recipe which is this:
(preheat oven to 325°)

Rub 2 tablespoons of butter in the bottom of a heavy pan (like a Creuset).  Take the Endives (which have been washed) and place them in the pan.  I like to rub them around in the pan to get them coated in the butter.  add some salt and pepper, the lemon juice, and the 1/4 cup of water.  Cover the pot and on the stove slowly boil for 10 minutes.

Endives Braising in Butter

After 10 minutes, uncover the pot and turn the heat all the way up and boil for another 10 minutes – until there is only 1 – 2 tablespoons of liquid left in the pot.  At this point take some waxed paper, and put on top of the endives – this will keep them from burning in the oven.  Place them in the oven for 30 minutes.

After about 20 minutes it is time to
make the Bechamel for the next stage.  To make the béchamel place 2 tablespoons of butter in a pan on the stove.  When the butter melts add in 3
tablespoons of flour.  you will have a yellowish paste.  with whisk in hand add the milk in slowly – 1/4 cup at a time – continuously whisking.  You don’t want to have any lumps, so make sure that all the lumps disappear before you add the next 1/4 cup of milk.  (NEVER STOP WHISKING!) once all the milk is in, and it has come to a boil you will have a nice thick sauce.  at this point add the salt and pepper, and a generous pinch of nutmeg.

By this point the Endives will be Ready so take them out of the oven.  Turn the oven up to 450°

After Coming out of the Oven

Get your casserole dish out, and pour some of the béchamel into the bottom of it.  (about half).
Next with some tongs, carefully take each Endive and roll it up in a piece of ham
Ready to Roll

After rolling, place each roll into the casserole dish on top of the béchamel sauce.  once you have all of the rolled up Endives in the dish, pour the rest of the béchamel over them and top with the gruyere cheese.

After Cheesing

Place back in the oven at 450° for 30 minutes and cook until the cheese has gone all bubbly and brown.  If you want you can also place it in the broiler at the very end to give the cheese a nice browning.

Here it is after emerging from the oven:

Nice gooey melted Cheese

Close-up

And that’s about it!  its good served with a green vegetable of your choice!  i used sautéed mustard greens. 

Jack is Cooking Quiche

Posted on by under eggs, leeks, milk, pancetta, quiche, spinach

Well Hello Internet!

Over the weekend to practice for my quiche endeavors i made one at home.  in fact tonight i have made another quiche!  this one is better than both the ones i made before!  the first one i made was lacking a certain technique we learned in the class.  the one we made in the class was ok, but was a little plain, and the quality of the cheese was not superb.  but the one tonight combined the best of both!  im on a quiche roll!

anyways quiches are pretty easy to make, and they sure are delicious!

you can make them with pretty much anything but the basics for a quiche lorraine are

eggs
milk
salt
pepper
a pinch of nutmeg
cream
bacon
and gruyere cheese

and of course a crust

i have been making my own pastry crust, but that’s a whole other post.  so to keep things simple i reccoment just buying a frozen pastry crust.  and make sure its not a desert pastry crust because those tend to be sweeter.  if it is not cooked yet bake the crust first.  until it is a little golden.  (a clever trick here is to line the crust with parchment paper and fill the crust with rice, or beans.  this stops the bottom of the crust from bubbling up and breaking!!)

for this quiche that i made i went a little fancier, and i used this:

2 eggs
100 ml of heavy cream
100 ml of milk
salt
pepper
paprika
50 grams of pancetta
leeks
spinach
30 grams of goat cheese
60 grams of gruyere cheese

so first! blind b
cook the bacon and the leeks and the spinach.  after they are cooked set them aside.  grate the gruyere cheese finely.  and slice up the goat cheese.  hold all this on the side

in a bowl, whisk the eggs.  add in the milk and the cream, and whisk them all together.  add the salt and pepper, and paprika, and if you have a little nutmeg put a sprinkling of nutmeg in.  don’t put all that much salt in because the pancetta and the gruyere are naturally salty.  this is the custard

then take your pastry crust, and crumble the goat cheese evenly in it. then sprinkle the gruyere cheese over this.  on top of this spread out the cooked bacon spinach and leeks.

next!  take the custard and using a strainer (if you have one, its not totally essential) slowly pour the custard over the all the other ingredients, careful not to let it spill over the sides of the crust.

then bake it for 25 minutes at 275° or 350° or until the custard is set.  you can tell its set because a knife will come out cleanly, yet it will still be slightly jiggly if you shake it.  like jello!

personally i like it a little brown on the top so i stuck it under the broiler for 1 minute after just to give it a nice browning on top.

and ta-da!  quiche!:

Jack is Cooking French Toast

Posted on by under bread, cinnamon, eggs, milk, vanilla
Well Hello Internet!
The other morning i made French Toast for breakfast.  it is super easy to make!  here’s what you’ll need:
Eggs (2 for 4 or 5 pieces)
milk
vanilla
cinammon
bread (preferably a little stale)
now then there are probably precise measurements that you are supposed to use, but i kind of do it by eyeball.  the way i like to do this, is to crack the eggs onto a plate.  but don’t mix them yet.  then i pour some milk onto the plate until the milk makes a full circle around the eggs.  then i put what i imagine to be a teaspoon of vanilla.  the cinnamon, i put enough to put a dusting over the yellow of each egg.  then i take a fork and whisk it all together.
after that take the bread and let it soak in the egg mixture.  if the bread is less stale it will absorb it all pretty quick, so you don’t have to do it for so long.  the more stale the bread, the longer you should soak.
in a frying pan melt some butter.  once its nice and melted put the bread in and start to fry it!
When the bread gets nice and golden on the bottom its time to flip!
when its golden on the other side its done!
i like to put a little butter on top and lots of maple syrup.  i LOVE maple syrup.  with pancakes and french toast and waffles i like them to be swimming in maple syrup.  
mmm mmm delicious!

Jack is Cooking a Peanut Butter Rice Casserole Thing

Posted on by under carrot, coconut milk, garlic, ginger, green onions, milk, peanut butter, red pepper, rice, sweet potato

Well Hello Internet!

tonight for dinner, i have made a delicious Rice Casserole thing.  im not really sure what you would call it. but its got rice, and vegetables, and peanut butter in it, and its really really good!  the other really awesome thing about this is that it all happens in one pot, or pan, so the cleanup is very minimal.

Heres what i used:
2 tablespoons oil
2 green onions
1 cup of rice
1/2 cup of stock
1 slice of ham (totally optional)
1/2 to 1 whole red pepper
2/3 cup of milk (you can also use coconut milk, which makes this even more delicious)
2-4 cloves garlic
2 inches of ginger
1/2 teaspoon sriracha sauce
salt
3 tablespoons of peanut butter
1 small can of chopped tomato
1 large sweet potato, or a few small ones
1 carrot
baby bok choy

heres everything all chopped up and ready to go:

so the first step, is to mix the peanut butter, the milk, the garlic, and the sriracha sauce together in a bowl.

then in the casserole pan (or dutch oven)

put the oil.  then the onions.  then the rice:

then add the stock:
lay the slice of ham on top of this. ( i recommend slicing some holes in the ham so that the milk mixture while incorporate with the rice mixture below)  on top of the ham put the peppers and the ginger:
Pour the milk and PB mixture over this.  then put the carrot, the tomato, and then sweet potato over that:
Finally, put the Bok Choy over everything, and drizzle some spicy sesame oil on it:
Cover with tinfoil and bake in the oven at 450° for 45 minutes
take out and enjoy!
keep the leftovers in the fridge.  its even better the next day!
mmm mmm delicious.