Baklava

I thought Baklava to be the elusive snow leopard or giant squid of the baking world.  Insert Richard Atennborough's voice "Baklava, while delicious, is impossible for a common cook to bake, and cannot be reproduced in any palatable form by anyone except dedicated greek grandmothers..." 

It was my pinnacle, my white whale.  Then I tried making it.  <headsmack> It's not that hard.  The Greeks and Turks have us all bamboozled.  This recipe adapted from a you tube video, Robin makes Baklava.  Thanks to Robin!

 

Ingredients:

1 package of phyllo dough, defrosted (2 hours at room temp or overnight in the fridge)
NOTE: One box contains two rolls, I use one roll per recipe and make a 9X13 pan.
3 cups of raw nuts of your choice, I used a mixture of walnuts, almonds and pecans
1/2 to 1 cup butter, melted
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
Pinch of ground cloves

Syrup:
1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Make the syrup first by adding the water and sugar to a sauce pan over medium high heat. Stir until sugar has dissolved. Add the honey.   Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Let syrup cool completely, even setting it in the refrigerator if necessary.

Place the nut mixture on a cookie sheet in a single layer and then bake for 8 to 15 minutes at 350 degrees F. or until the nuts are a golden brown. Be careful not to burn the nuts.

 

Let the nuts cool completely and then place in a food processor until they are ground up. Do not over grind and make paste.

Pour the nuts into a bowl and add the cinnamon and cloves and stir to combine.

Now to assemble the baklava.

Unroll the phyllo dough. Cut the dough with scissors if necessary to fit the baking dish. Count and remove 10 sheets of the dough, then cover the remaining phyllo dough with a very slightly damp towel so it doesn't dry out as you work with a portion of it.

Brush the bottom and sides of the baking dish with butter. Don't over-do it in the butter department as it will make the baklava soggy.

Then lay 10 pieces of phyllo dough, one at a time in the dish. Lightly butter each piece of dough after you place it in the dish.

After the 10th piece of dough, 4-6 tablespoons of the nut mixture to the layer. Spread the nuts out with your hands to cover the layer.  (I had enough dough to do three nut layers, so portion out as you wish).

Then add 3 more pieces of phyllo dough, one at a time, buttering each piece as you place it in the dish. Then add another layer of nuts.

Alternate between 3 layers of dough to one layer of nuts until all the nuts are used.

Finish with remaining sheets of phyllo dough for the top. Butter the last piece on top too. Then cut the baklava into squares or diamonds before baking in the oven.

Bake for 40 to 55 minutes or until it is golden brown.  (mine was about 45 minutes in a glass pan).

Once you remove the baklava from the oven, pour the cooled honey mixture over the top. Let it sit for at least 4 hours before eating. Store on your counter, uncovered.

Tips:

Remember to butter each dough layer lightly with melted butter.
Cut the baklava before baking. It's just easier.
Roast the nuts, do not skip this step.
Make sure to cool the syrup completely and add it to the hot out of the oven baklava.

Chicken Enchiladas

A recipe from our awesome friend Johnny, who passed away.  One of Trent’s and Johnny’s  friends requested the recipe, so here goes.  Hope Johnny doesn’t mind, I’m sure he doesn’t.  Love you, buddy!

Disposable foil baking pans, rectangle, at least two

1 whole chicken, unwrapped, giblets out, washed. You can also use boneless skinless breasts or thighs

1 tsp salt

Water to cover chicken in a crock pot

One 16 oz. container sour cream

2 to 3 cans cream of chicken soup

1 can diced chiles AND/OR one can diced jalapenos, strained (see below)

Flour Tortillas, burrito size

Cans of Enchilada sauce to brand taste and quantity (see below)

Shredded Mexican blend cheese, one bag to two bags

NOTE: The green chiles add flavor and are delicious.  One time I bought the wrong thing, much to the dismay of the man, I got diced jalapenos.  What a fortunate mistake!  It had heat, flavor, etc.  I now add BOTH to ours, because we like HOT.

Sorry for the in-exact-ness of this recipe.  The thing is, you just don’t know how much chicken you are going to yield from your selected yummy fryer.  So…here goes:

Place the chicken in the crock pot and add the water to cover along with the teaspoon or so of salt.  Cook the daylights out of that chicken, 6 hours at least, preferably 8 hours on low.  By then, that thing is falling apart just begging to be in this recipe.

When it’s done, remove the meat from the bones, clean it WELL of all skin, bone, gristle, and anything un-yummy, that all needs to go to the “Thank You For Coming” can.  Shred the good chicken either with a fork or *bazinga* I just tried it with my handmixer the other day on a tip, and it worked like magic.  Shred-er-roni, fast.

Mix the shredded chicken in a large bowl with the sour cream and 2 cans chicken soup, add the strained green chiles or jalapenos or both and mix well.  In-exact-ness alert:  If it’s not creamy enough add another half can of soup.  It should still look firm and chunky with chicken but not like it’s battling itself for moisture.  A nice, stirrable concoction, but not too runny. 

Fill your flour tortillas with a few or more than a few tablespoons of the chicken filling and roll.  Place them seam side down in the unprepared (naked) disposable foil pans.  Fill the pan with a single layer of enchilada rolls.  You might need two pans.

Another in-exact-ness here….enchilada sauce.  Use your favorite.  We like Las Palmas, the big cans (available at Winco, probably at Walmart).  We would use at least one large can per pan of tortilla rolled enchiladas.  We make a regular pan and a spicy pan, using the regular and spicy enchilada sauces.  Make sure each tortilla roll gets a good soaking of enchilada sauce.  If in doubt, pour more out.  Yum.

Cover the whole enchilada (that’s a joke) with shredded cheese and bake 30-45 mins at 350 degrees, basically to bubbling and cheese melted deliciousness.

You can freeze any unbaked pans for later, make sure they are tightly protected in bags or with foil, we do both.  .  Make sure they are covered with foil for baking.  It takes longer for them to bake, but bake  from frozen at 350, and just make sure it all gets well heated through, taking the foil off at the end to melt the cheese, and keep testing the middle ones .  Yummo.

Catering: Mini Cream Cheese and Cheddar Biscuits with Spicy Sausage Gravy

Mini Cream Cheese and Cheddar Biscuits and Spicy Sausage Gravy

(adapted from iamafoodblog.com)

Makes between 24 and 30 mini biscuits or 10-12 regular biscuits

2 cups flour

1 Tbsp Baking Powder

1 tsp soda

½ tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

4 Tbsp sliced green onion

4 Tbsp cold butter, cut into pieces

8 Tbsp cold cream cheese, cut into pieces

Slightly more than ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese

12 Tbsp Milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Mix flour, baking powder, soda, salt, pepper and green onion.  Cut in the butter with pastry blender until there are a few pea-sized pieces.  Cut in the cream cheese the same way.  Add cheddar.  Add the milk and stir until just combined.  Turn out onto a floured surface and work the dough until just able to cut biscuits.  Cut with a 1” biscuit cutter.

Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet, bake 8-10 minutes.

For full sized biscuits:  Oven temp 425, bake for 15-17 minutes.

Spicy Sausage Gravy

Fry a one pound chub of Jimmy Dean Hot Sausage into crumbles.  Add at least ½ cup flour and 2 Tbsp butter to the pan and cook until the raw flour smell is out.  Add about 4-6 cups milk, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer to desire thickness, salt and pepper to taste.

Notes: Used the Pampered Chef 1" flower shape cutter, worked well. The biscuits can be made ahead and warmed.  The gravy is easy enough to make on site and keep in a sauce server or crock pot, stands up well with frequent stirring.

Filled Raisin (MM) Cookies

Heaven.  Heaven on a cookie sheet, if you like raisin filled cookies.  Use a jar of the mince fruit I canned :)

2 cups shortening
2 cups sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
4 eggs
2 Tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla
6 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Cream together shortening and sugars.  Add eggs, milk, and vanilla.  Mix in a seperate bowl: flour, soda and salt.  Add to wet mixture and mix to combine.  Seperate into 5 or six equal parts and form into rolls in wax paper.  Freeze until solid (ish) about 30 minutes.  Slice into 3/8" slices, and place one layer on a baking sheet.  Fill with 1 tsp mince fruit, and then cover mince with another slice of cookie dough.  Do NOT flatten, press, or seal.  They will bake and seal in the oven for you.  Bake 375 Degrees  for 10 minutes.

**Note:  I did this recipe and these cookies were fantastic.  But I made the rolls too big and only came out with about two dozen cookies that had to be baked a bit longer.  I will make my rolled dough cylinders smaller next time.

Minced Fruit (Credit Brett Jensen and Family) (They called it Mincemeat)

I was never a mincemeat fan until THIS....THIS is DELICIOUS!  I'm going to try making baklava this year with it, it's SO delicious.  Mincemeat has no meat in it.  It's just fruits and spices, cooked to delicious sticky satisfaction, and it's so good.

2 pints chopped green tomatoes
3 pints chopped tart apples, peeled.
2 lbs. raisins
1/2 cup vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)
6 cups sugar
4 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground allspice

Run green tomatoes, apples, and raisins through a meat grinder or food processor.  Mix everything in recipe together in a large pot.  Bring to a boil and simmer several hours until it's thick.  Mine took about 6-8 hours.  Made a dozen pints.  I filled hot sterilized jars with the very hot mince, and inverted them to promote seal.  Only one didn't seal, used that for the cookies I'm posting next!  

Pork Chops Supreme

Trent's new favorite pork chops.  Baked in a sauce that is kind of sweet, really tangy, and really good.  Best of all:  Really EASY!  I think you could do this in a crock pot as well, can't see why not.  I wouldn't try cooking the rice with it though, you'd have to really adjust the liquid and I'm not sure how you'd do that.

Pork chops, enough to cover the bottom of your cooking pot with a lid (how I ever lived without the Food Network cast iron enameled dutch oven that I got from Shea, I don't know.)

1 1/2 cups tomato ketchup
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 onion sliced (or substitute about 2 heaping tablespoons dried minced onion, Trent actually like that better)
Lemon slices if you have them

Place chops (I prefer pork sirloin boneless) in a single layer in your pot.
Season chops with salt and pepper, place onion slices on top of chops
In a bowl, mix the ketchup, brown sugar and Worcestershire.
Pour this sauce over the top of the chops.

Cover and bake for 1 hour, then take the lid off and bake another 30 minutes. Serve over rice.  I start my rice cooker when I take the lid off the chops, then my rice is done about the same time as the chops.

Best with fried zucchini or corn on the cob!