Stork Club Cocktail

I made this Stork Club Cocktail to celebrate the opening of the final season of Mad Men, which begins April 5. I've been watching the show since the beginning, and have so enjoyed the historical stories in the background.

The setting is a Madison Avenue advertising agency. The series begins in 1960, and ends in 1969. Many of us "of a certain age" know what pivotal years those were.

For those of you who haven't indulged in watching the show, the themes include drinking at work, alcoholism, smoking, adultery, sexism, and racism. Fun, right? It's actually a pretty amazing period piece.

If you haven't watched the show yet, I highly recommend binge watching it this week in preparation for the final half of the final season.

The Stork Club was described by Walter Winchell as New York's "New Yorkiest" place. Don Draper, the show's main character, visited the Stork Club in Season 2, Episode 7, with his former model wife Betty to celebrate a client's new television show. The relationships in the episode are, as they say, "complicated."

This cocktail was supposedly enjoyed by New York City's rich and famous.

To honor the period, I also made the daiquiri featured in Season 3, Episode 3. Evidently it was President Kennedy's favorite cocktail, and became all the rage. It consists of 1 1/2 ounces of white rum and 2 tsps of limeade concentrate.

The stack of coasters on the right are my mom's crystal horoscope coasters. How 60s is that?

Stork Club Cocktail

Ingredients

Dash of lime juice

Juice of half of an orange 

Dash of triple sec

1 1/2 ounces of gin

Dash of Angostura bitters

Instructions

1. Add all of the ingredients to an ice filled shaker.
2. Shake, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

This cocktail is from The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook.

The book is filled with retro recipes, including cocktails, appetizers, salads, main courses, and desserts. Besides the great retro cocktails, some of my favorites include deviled eggs, rumaki, the wedge salad, and beef Wellington.

Check out the Mad Men Finale Party for more ideas!

Toasted Oats Bread

This granary style loaf is super soft and perfect for sandwiches. The flavor is faintly whole wheat, and slightly sweet. This might be the perfect way to introduce whole wheat to white bread lovers.

No Knead Ciabatta

This No Knead Ciabatta Bread is so easy to make. You stir the flour, water, salt, and yeast together in a bowl before you go to bed, and shape and bake the loaves in the morning. It's pretty incredible.

The most difficult part of making this bread is getting used to working with super wet dough. The trick is to use a wet bench knife and wet hands... and just go with it. Have faith. It works.

The overnight rise is a wonderful way of developing flavor and the gluten in the dough. The technique is pretty effortless.

This recipe calls for a pizza stone and some sort of cover for the bread while baking. If you don't have a baking stone, a baking sheet should work well.

No Knead Ciabatta

Ingredients

400 grams (3 cups) bread flour

8 grams (1 1/4 tsp) table salt

1/4 tsp instant yeast

1 1/2 C cool water

Instructions

1. Mix all of the ingredients in a medium bowl for about a minute. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 12 to 18 hours, until more than doubled and bubbly on the dough's surface. 
2. Flour your work surface and scrape the dough out onto it. 
3. With wet hands and a wet dough scraper, shape the dough into a 14 inch square. 
4. Using the wet dough scraper and your wet hands, fold the dough over itself, and then over itself again, so you have a 7 inch square. 
5. Cover the dough with oiled plastic wrap, and let it rise for 60 to 90 minutes, until almost doubled. 
6. Preheat the oven, with a baking stone on the center rack, to 475 degrees F. 
7. When the dough is ready, slice it in half with a bench knife and place each piece, stretched out, on a parchment lined peel. Dust with flour. 
8. Transfer the dough pieces to the stone, and cover with a large disposable foil pan or roasting pan cover. 
9. Bake, covered, for 20 minutes. Uncover, and bake for an additional 10 to 20 minutes, until the bread reaches an internal temperature of 200 to 210 degrees F. 
10. Cool on a wire rack. 

Questions about alternative ways to make this bread? Just ask.

Recipe adapted from My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method.

Stir-Fried Napa Cabbage with Prosciutto | Wok Wednesdays

This Stir-Fried Napa Cabbage with Prosciutto was so simple to make. Napa cabbage, ginger, chicken broth, corn starch, Chinese rice wine, salt, sugar, and prosciutto. After you've chopped and prepped the ingredients, the dish only takes a couple of minutes to prepare, and the cabbage is "crisp-tender."

The Wok Wednesday group is stir frying this dish from Grace Young's Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge. It is a take on the Chinese American dish made with Smithfield country ham, which is similar to a famous Chinese ham. Grace's mother preferred using prosciutto, because it doesn't require soaking to remove extra salt.

The recipe can be found on page 199 of the book. If you'd like to Wok along, check out our recipe schedule and Facebook page. Grace Young is a regular visitor and advisor to us all.

Potato Leek Pie

Potato Leek Pie! With a puff pastry crust and Gruyere cheese. I had a slice for lunch, but I think it would also be perfect for a Sunday brunch or a meatless dinner.

It's Secret Recipe Club time again, and this time I was assigned Christie's blog, A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures. She has an amazingly extensive collection of recipes on her blog, and I had quite a few picked out to consider for this month's post... until she posted this potato pie recipe just two weeks ago. Thank you Christie. I needed this potato pie in my life!

According to Christie, the kitchen is her zen place, to which I can totally relate. She's also been on Emeril Live!! How cool is that? Please visit her site for lots of tasty looking recipes.

This Potato Leek Pie is really, really good. It's kind of like potatoes au gratin, but with a puff pastry crust and sautéed leeks.... and Gruyere. The best cheese ever.

Leftovers of this pie are also delicious.. in fact, maybe even better than when freshly baked. The crust is extra crispy the second time around. If you are planning a brunch, you can bake this in advance and refrigerate it. Once you are ready to serve the potato pie, slice it and reheat the slices in the oven at 350 degrees F on a foil lined baking sheet, preferably with convection heat.

This pie disappeared pretty quickly in our house.

Potato Leek Pie

Ingredients

One sheet of frozen puff pastry, defrosted, or make your own as I did here

1 tsp butter

1 C thinly sliced leeks

2 pounds of Russet potatoes

3/4 C half and half

1 large egg

1 T chopped fresh thyme

1 heaping tsp garlic salt

1 tsp black pepper

1 C coarsely grated Gruyere cheese

Instructions

1. Line a deep dish pie pan or nine inch springform pan with the puff pastry. Cut off the corners and patch the sides that are missing crust so that you have a round pastry crust. 
2. Saute the leeks in the butter over medium heat for about five minutes. 
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
4. Peel the potatoes and slice them very thinly by hand, with a V-slicer,  or with a mandoline. 
5. Whisk the half and half with the egg. 
6. Layer 1/3 of the potato slices in the pie pan. Top with 1/3 of the leeks. Sprinkle with 1/3 of the thyme and 1/3 of the garlic salt and pepper mixture. Top with 1/3 of the cheese.
7. Repeat with the potatoes, leeks, thyme, salt and pepper, and cheese. 
8. Layer with the final third of the potatoes, leeks, thyme, garlic salt, and pepper. Pour the half and half/egg mixture over the potatoes and top with the final third of the cheese. 
9. Bake for 60 to 75 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Vanilla, Currant, and White Chocolate Cookies

Can you believe that these Vanilla, Currant, and White Chocolate Cookies are made with bread flour? How cool is that? I'm not sure I understand the chemistry? Maybe it's because the dough is refrigerated for 48 hours before baking? Did you notice that I just ended every sentence with a question mark? So Californian.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

This vanilla bean ice cream was made at the request of my oldest grandson. When his birthday was coming up, I asked him to tell me his favorite kind of cake. He immediately figured out my modus operandi, and told me he wanted vanilla ice cream for his birthday.

That I can do!

While vanilla ice cream might be sort of, "vanilla." this ice cream is extra special. It's flecked with vanilla seeds too, which gives it an extra amazing specialness.

It would be delicious on a piece of pie.

It's also awesome with a birthday candle in it.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Ingredients

2 cups whole milk

1 tbsp plus 1 tsp cornstarch

3 tbsp cream cheese, softened

1/8 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

2/3 cups sugar

2 tbsp corn syrup

1 vanilla bean, split with the seeds scraped out and reserved

Instructions

1. Mix about 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch to make a slurry. 
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the cream cheese and the salt.
3. Fill a very large bowl with ice and water and set aside. 
4. Combine the rest of the milk, cream, sugar, corn syrup, vanilla bean, and vanilla seeds in a four quart saucepan. Bring to a boil, and cook for four minutes. 
5. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch and milk mixture.
6. Bring the mixture back to a boil, and cook, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula for one minute, until slightly thickened. Remove from the heat. 
7. Slowly whisk the milk mixture into the cream cheese mixture until thoroughly combined. 
8. Pour the mixture into a one gallon freezer zip lock bag and submerge it into the ice and water mixture. Let stand for 30 minutes. Add more ice if necessary. 
9. Remove the vanilla bean from the mixture, and freeze it in your ice cream freezer according to the manufacturer's instructions. 
10. Once the ice cream has thickened, scrape it into a container and freeze overnight. 

Serve! 

Recipe adapted from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home

Beef Chow Fun | Wok Wednesdays

Beef Chow Fun is a Cantonese noodle dish with haw fun, noodles made in broad sheets from a rice batter that is steamed on lightly oiled sheet pans. They are sold at room temperature on the day they are made, and are best used the same day. I know this to be true because I read it in Grace Young's Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge: The Ultimate Guide to Mastery, with Authentic Recipes and Stories.

I wasn't able to find the haw fun uncut, but my local Asian market had packages of fresh cut noodles. Score! I was so happy to find them, that I immediately bought them and ran to my car to head home, satisfied that I had hunted down the coveted ingredient. Then I realized I forgot the bean sprouts. Doh!!

When you are in an Asian shopping center on the weekend in southern California, parking is at a premium. Sometimes I'd just rather not go. I felt terrible walking to my car, deceiving the woman slowly following me into thinking I'd be leaving my prized parking space. I apologized profusely with many self deprecating gestures, she smiled (no Fried Green Tomatoes moment, fortunately), and I ran back into the store to pick up a bag of sprouts. I also decided to hit the soy sauce aisle (yes, a whole aisle) to pick up a bottle of Pearl River Bridge dark soy sauce. The section was empty but for two bottles! Even though I didn't really need them, I scooped them up like they were gasoline in the Jimmy Carter era!

Step one: Assemble all of your ingredients. Flank steak, soy, cornstarch, sesame oil, fresh broad rice noodles, oyster sauce, Shao Hsing rice wine, ginger, garlic, fermented black beans (if you can't find them, try a tablespoon of black bean garlic sauce), bean sprouts, scallions, and white pepper.

Step two: wash and dry the bean sprouts.

Step three: Painstakingly separate a pound of haw fun into a snowy pile of noodles. It's a fun job for kids!

Step three: Mise en place.

The beef is marinated in the soy, corn starch, and sesame oil. The ginger and garlic are minced. The fermented beans are smashed, and the wine and oyster sauce are mixed together.

First you briefly stir fry the garlic and ginger, then you sear the marinated meat, add the the fermented beans, stir a bit, and then remove the mixture from the wok. At this point, you cook the noodles.

There was a lot of chatter on the Wok Wednesdays Facebook page about how the noodles stick, and indeed, mine did too, but not too badly. Mei Chau, whose amazing Malaysian style shrimp recipe knocked my socks off, weighed in on how to avoid too much sticking by stirring the noodles.

(By the way, it wasn't a big deal to get the stuck noodles off of the wok. A five minute soak in hot water was all it took. Woo hoo!)

Once the noodles are a bit crusty, you add the meat back in, as well as the bean sprouts and scallions and stir. Dinner for two!

Verdict? We devoured it. I really loved the added crunch from the bean sprouts.

P.S. In the book, the scallions are shredded rather than sliced. I also added some crushed red pepper to my half.

And we have steam!!!

To find the recipe, check out Grace Young's wonderful cookbook. The recipes are authentic and delicious. I've been at it for about two years, and it's an amazing adventure.

Multigrain and Seed Bread Extraordinaire

This Multigrain and Seed Bread Extraordinaire is a variation of one of my all time favorite breads. The dough is great for rolls, traditional sandwich loaves, and boules. It starts with a cornmeal, oats, wheat bran, flax meal, and flax seed soaker that you mix the day before. 

Little Lemon Loaf

This little lemon loaf is about as lemony as a lemon loaf can be. It's loaded with lemon zest and lemon juice. It also gets its yellow color enhanced by yellow corn meal.

This cake is so citrusy and refreshing. AND, I was able to use lemons from my very prolific Meyer lemon tree. Woo hoo!

I made this cake twice. First I made it with coarse cornmeal, but the grittiness of the cornmeal distracted me from the tastiness of the cake. The second time, I ground the cornmeal in my food processor. Much better (for me). If you like a "bite" to your lemon loaf, there is no need to grind the cornmeal.

This cake stays fresh and moist for a long time, and the lemon flavor is very pronounced. The cake is not overly sweet, so you can actually serve it for breakfast with jam. Cake for breakfast? I'm in!

The Avid Bakers Challenge for this month was to make this Lemon Loaf from Scientifically Sweet. Some of my Avid Baker pals glazed their loaves. Others dipped theirs in chocolate. Do check them out. They look seriously tasty.

Little Lemon Loaf

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups (5 1/3 ounces) all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/3 cup yellow cornmeal, left "as is" or finely ground in a food processor or blender

2 large room temperature eggs

1 large room temperature egg yolk

1 T lemon zest

1/4 tsp salt

2/3 C granulated sugar

1/3 C vegetable oil

1/4 C lemon juice

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. Spray a 9 inch by 5 inch loaf pan with spray oil. Line it from side to side with parchment paper, with an overhang on each side. Spray the paper with spray oil. 
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and corn meal. 
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer, using the whisk attachment, beat the eggs and egg yolk, lemon zest, and the salt on medium high for about a minute. Continue beating while gradually adding in the sugar. Increase the speed to high and beat for five minutes. The mixture will be very pale. 
5. Combine the oil and lemon juice in a small bowl or measuring cup and mix with a fork. 
6. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the mixer and fold it in. 
7. Add half of the oil/lemon juice mixture and fold the batter. 
8. Add the second third of the flour mixture and fold just until incorporated. 
9. Continue with the second half of the oil/lemon mixture and then the final third of the flour mixture until just incorporated. 
10. Pour the mixture into a 9 inch by 5 inch loaf pan, smooth the top, and bake for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean. 
11. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. 

Italian Margarita

My new favorite cocktail is this Italian Margarita. 

It is a combination of tequila and lime, with a combination of Italian liqueurs (Aperol and Luxardo) to substitute for the triple sec. 

Aperol is an Italian light herbal aperitif with a light alcohol content. 

Luxardo cherry liqueur has been produced in Italy since the early nineteenth century. 

The resulting cocktail is fruity fresh, with a little bit of bitterness, but not too much. It's very easy to drink, yet herbal and not overly sweet. 

For another Italian twist on a margarita, try the limoncello margarita too! 

Italian Margarita

Ingredients

1 1/2 ounces tequila blanco
1 ounce Aperol
!/2 ounce cherry liqueur, such as Luxardo
The juice of a lime
Lemon twist to garnish

Instructions

1. Add the tequila, Aperol, cherry liqueur, and lime juice to an ice filled shaker. 
2. Shake the ingredients for about 30 to 60 seconds, until fully chilled. 
3. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 
4. Garnish with a lemon twist. 

Enjoy!

Pane di Genzano

Pane Casareccio di Genzano

Pane di Genzano is a wonderful soft country bread, ideal for a picnic with cheese and salami. The bread comes from a town in the province of Rome, located about 20 miles south of the city of Rome, in the Lazio region of Italy. It is the only bread in Italy that has been given the IGP, Indicazione Geografica Protetta. This certification, usually reserved for cheese or wine, means that no bread may be called Pane di Genzano unless it has been produced within the geographic region.

Kouign Amann

Kouign Amann is a buttery flaky pastry made with a yeasted dough. The process to make the the dough is very similar to making croissant dough, with the big difference being the final shaping and the addition of sugar between the final layers.

The shatteringly crisp layers are so delicious. I immediately ate two about 15 minutes after they emerged from the oven.

Kouign Amann originated in the region of Brittany (Bretagne), on the northwestern corner of France. It was an independent kingdom up until the 16th century, until it became part of France. The name Kouign Amann reflects the original Breton words for butter and cake.

I learned about the Celtic heritage of that particular region of France the first time we visited Dublin. We were in a restaurant and our waiter sounded French, so we asked him if he was from France. His answer, "No, I'm from Brittany." This Breton was very proud of his heritage!

These little pastries take a few hours to make, most of that time being hands off to allow the dough to chill in the refrigerator between turns. If time is an issue, you can make and chill your dough overnight and do your turns in the morning, or you can complete all of the laminating in one day, and then chill your shaped Kouign Amann overnight, to be baked in the morning. This is what I did, and had fresh Kouign Amann for Sunday breakfast.

"Turns" you ask? That is the process of laminating the dough with a thin layer of butter. A butter block is wrapped with the dough, and then the dough is rolled out and folded in thirds four times, creating thin layers of dough separated by thin layers of butter. If I've done my math correctly, there are about 80 layers of butter in this dough. The trick is to keep everything cold, but not so cold that the butter cracks.

Because there is such a manageable amount of dough, this is the perfect recipe to try laminating for the first time. Give it a try! Even if your butter gets lumpy or peeks through, press on. The results are amazing.

Kouign Amann Recipe

Ingredients

300 to 340 grams unbleached all purpose flour

5 g instant yeast

3/4 tsp salt

200 ml warm (90 to 95 degrees F) water

25 g unsalted butter, melted

250 g cold unsalted butter (about 2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons)

100 g caster sugar (finely ground sugar, you can do this in a mini food processor)

Instructions

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add 300 grams of flour, yeast, salt, water, and melted butter, and hand stir with the dough hook to wet all of the ingredients. 
2. Knead on low for two minutes. Check the hydration of the dough. It should be tacky but not overly sticky. 300 grams of flour was fine for me. Be careful not to add too much flour. 
3. Knead on medium for 6 minutes.
4. Scrape the dough out of the mixer, and form it into a ball. Place it in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise for one hour.
5. In the meantime, create the butter block. Roll the butter between two pieces of parchment into a 5 1/2 inch square. Wrap with plastic wrap and chill.
6. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into an 8 inch square. Place the chilled butter block in the middle, on an angle (so the points are in the middle of each "side" of the dough), and fold the corners of the dough over it like an envelope to enclose the butter completely. 
7. Roll the dough/butter envelope into a 6 inch by 18 inch rectangle. Fold the bottom third of the dough over the middle third of the dough. Fold the top third of the dough over that, as if folding a letter. You should have a square. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. 
8. Repeat this process two more times, refrigerating the dough for 30 minutes between each turn. 
9. After the last chilling of the dough, roll it into a 6 inch by 18 inch rectangle. Sprinkle the dough with sugar and then fold it into thirds again. Quickly roll the dough into a 16 by 12 inch rectangle. Sprinkle the dough with the caster sugar, and cut it into 12 squares.
10. Butter a 12 cavity muffin tin. Gather the squares up by their four corners and place them in the buttered muffin tins. Press the corners together. Sprinkle with more caster sugar. At this point, you can either refrigerate the pastries overnight, or bake them immediately. 
11. Cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let sit until slightly puffy, about 30 minutes. If you have refrigerated them, let them sit for about an hour to an hour and a half at room temperature before baking. 
12. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until golden brown. Tent with foil (check at about the 15 minute mark) if they are getting too brown too early. 
13. Remove them from the oven and wait just a couple of minutes before turning them out onto a cooling rack. Let cool about 10 minutes (if you can!), and then serve.
14. To save for later, individually wrap each completely cooled Kouign Amann with plastic, and place them in a freezer bag. When you are ready to eat one, defrost it, and then place them in a 350 degree F oven for about 5 minutes. 

Recipe sightly adapted from Notitie van Lien, who chose this recipe for the Bread Baking Babes this month. Check out her site for links to the other Babes' posts of this bread. She slightly adapted this from Paul Hollywood. I am baking along as a Buddy.