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Showing posts from November, 2012

Apricot Scones

            Canterbury Apricot Scones ******* I asked the village baker, Jeffrey Sweezy, for this recipe and he wrote it down for me on a scrap of paper! He’s was the baker at the little bakery in Canterbury Shaker Village, New Hampshire when we were there, fall of 2000. Makes 24 (cut recipe in half—makes a lot) 6 C flour 2 TBL Baking powder 1 tsp soda 1 tsp salt 1 C sugar ½ lb Butter, cut in small pieces (or you can grate frozen cubes of butter into the flour mixture with the large holes on your grater OR pulse 15 times in food processor) * 2 C buttermilk 1 to 1 ½ C apricot pie filling, or apricot jam.**   Stir or sift together flour, baking powder, soda, salt and sugar. Cut in butter by hand with pastry blender. Stir buttermilk in gently. Do not over mix.  Treat this dough gently as you would for baking powder biscuits or muffins.  Add more liquid if needed to get dough to stick together.  Knead gently 10 times to make

Farinata Chickpea Flatbread

Farinata Genovese:   Ligurian Chickpea Flatbread *******  This is the thicker version of the previous Socca recipe.  In Argentina and Uruguay (where many thousands of Ligurian people emigrated between the 19th and the 20th centuries) farinata is known as fainá , similar to the original Genoese name fainâ.  In Argentina it is often eaten on top of pizza (a caballo, i.e. horseback).   It is also eaten smothered  with Dulce De Leche or Jam/Jelly. 1 C chickpea flour 1 ¾ C water ¾ tsp sea salt (½ tsp table salt) 1 tsp, at ground Black Pepper 5 TBL olive oil, divided Optional spices:  amchoor, ground coriander, ground cumin, cayenne, garlic powder, etc. To the batter stir in any of the following (or not): Chopped tomatoes ½ large onion, sliced Chopped green onions Chopped cilantro 1.  Sift chickpea flour into a bowl. Add salt, then slowly add the water, whisking to eliminate lumps. Stir in 2 tablespoons olive oil. Cover, and let sit f

Socca (Chickpea Crêpes)

Socca (Chickpea Crêpes)                                                                  ******* Serves 4 (about 8 crêpes) Chickpea flour crêpes originated in Genoa, Italy. It goes by different names in different parts of the world.  This popular thin crêpe version, common in Nice, France, is called “socca”, and is served piping hot on pieces of paper (it’s basically a Niçoise pancake). A thicker version is called “farinata” in Genoa, Italy.   It is a workingman’s morning snack, usually baked in brick ovens in pizza pans.   I n Tuscany it is called “cecina”. I’d love to go to Nice just to find whose socca I prefer: Chez Pipo on Bavastro Street (a more authentic area of the port—fewer tourists), or Vieux Nice or René Socca. You can keep the batter for up to 4 days in the refrigerator for instant snack making, or for a quick dinner crêpe. It is usually eaten plain as a side, but you can also use it to wrap warmed shredded meats or stews. 1 C chickp

Hawaiian Cornbread

Hawaiian Corn Bread                                                  ******* This is a lot like the corn bread at Marie Callender's Restaurant.  Ama made it a lot as we were growing up. It’s sweet and cake-like. ¾ C yellow cornmeal 2 ¼ C white flour ¾ C sugar 3 tsp baking powder ½ tsp salt * 1 C milk ¾ C butter, melted and cooled (I use 1/2 c.) 3 eggs, beaten 1.  Preheat oven to 400º.  Grease and flour 9x13 pan. 2.  Blend dry ingredients.  Mix wet ingredients and add to dry.  Stir only enough to blend thoroughly.  Scrape into greased 9x13 pan. 3.  Bake at 400º F for 20 minutes. * How to incorporate butter into cold milk (so that it doesn’t get lumpy):  separate eggs and stir yolks into butter.  Then stir whites into milk, then combine with yolks.

Baking Powder Biscuits

Ama’s Baking Powder Biscuits ******* Sunday dinner!  These were a tradition most Sunday’s at our house when my mother, Ama Shirley, made Pot Roast, Potatoes and English Mustard. 4 C flour 2 tsp baking powder 1 ½ tsp salt ½ tsp baking soda ½ - ¾ C shortening (organic palm oil) 1 ½ C buttermilk Preheat oven to 450ºF. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl.  Cut in shortening to dry ingredients with a pastry cutter until pea-sized lumps remain.  Add buttermilk and incorporate with the tines of a fork* (see below).  Gently press the entire mass into a ball.  Put dough onto floured countertop.  Press and pat out to ¾-inch thick and cut with 2-inch round cutter.  Bake on ungreased baking sheet for15 minutes. *Don’t over-mix!  The flaky layers will be destroyed.  To the liquid ingredients, add about half of the liquid to all of the dry ingredients, and gently pull and fold the dry ingredients into the liquid with t