Help me pick a menuuuuuuu
May. 14th, 2009 10:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarea
Well, it will be a miracle if the kalamata olive loaf comes out well. Things were going very smoothly at first. When I got home last night the starter hadn't bubbled up much, so I waited a few more hours. That did the trick, it rose quite a bit in that time and was bubbly and active and ready to use. Mixing the dough went fine ... the resulting dough was a bit tacky but manageable. I put it in my proofing box at 9pm to ferment until it doubled, which I was hoping would happen super fast (say, by midnight). Unfortunately at midnight it had only risen a little, so I decided to leave it in the box overnight ... after all, it had taken the starter the whole day to get going, and I would be getting up really early for a morning meeting, so I could work on it then.
BIG MISTAKE. At 6am my alarm went off, and I considered staying in bed (as I always do), but somehow found the will to drag myself out. I thought about taking a shower before doing anything with the bread, but decided I didn't want it to overproof. Well, TOO LATE. When I checked on it, it had risen well over the bowl (a much larger bowl that I had originally thought about using, even), spilled over the sides, and was trying to make a break for it. -.- Grrrrr. So not only did I have a bunch of dough to clean up on the floor, but the dough was overproofed ... which made it extremely wet and sticky and totally unmanageable.
I made the error of not flouring my kneading surface before dumping the gooey dough out, which made it stick to EVERYTHING. I was so frustrated. I ended up having to use maybe another cup of flour (possibly more) to get half of it under control (sort of), shaped, and into its container. I had learned my lesson for the second one, so I floured the surface and got that one ready with minimal extra flour. Now they're both in the fridge doing a cold retardation process, and will be ready to bake tonight at around 10pm-ish. The question is whether one will be better than the other due to not having as much extra flour -- I won't be able to know without actually cutting into them, and since I'm planning to give my cousin one, it's going to be a risk. I'd rather give her the good one, assuming one is better, but I won't know which that is. Sigh.
This is the second time recently that I've had to work with overly wet dough. The first time was a recipe that made a decent bread, but the dough was so unmanageable that I won't be making it again. This time, the stickiness could be due to my overproofing it, so I won't give up on it just yet. However Rose Levy Berenbaum's method has never given me such problems, so maybe I should just stick to that one (but it takes soooooo long).
Trader Joe's is no longer selling King Arthur flour!! This is a bummer for me because they always sold it at the lowest price of anywhere I've found. They've replaced it with their own TJ brand of flour. I'm sure it'll work fine (I'm going to give it a try) and it's cheaper, but still, I don't know, I like my KA. However I've always had to buy bread flour elsewhere, because TJ only sells whole wheat and all purpose.
My cousin has STILL not replied about which dinner plan she prefers. ARGH. The reason I don't just make a decision is because of her pain in the ass husband, who's a vegetarian, so I feel like I need to make something that he will eat, or can contrive to eat (say, eating just the pasta if I make a chicken and pasta dish) ... and yet, if he's fine with taking care of his own meal and eating a turnip or whatever he does, then I can make something that is a very meat-focused main course. They've said that I can make something with meat in it if I wish since he never makes it for my cousin (and she's recently had a baby so she could use the protein) -- which, am I supposed to take that to mean make something with meat in addition to something we can all eat, or make something with meat for her and me, and he'll figure something out on his own? Honestly, is a little clarity too much to ask for?
So, in the absence of her input, what option do you guys think I should go with??
1) Chicken Friand – This is a delicious and fairly rich dish. Basically it’s puff pastry (I don’t trust myself to make foolproof pastry dough yet so it would be storebought – just the pastry sheets) stuffed with a mixture of chicken, mushrooms, mushroom gravy made with chicken broth, cream, rosemary, etc. This could be made vegetarian by using vegetable broth instead of chicken, and stuffing only with mushrooms instead of both mushrooms and chicken. (Only thing with this one is, she's kind of a food snob and I don't know how she'd feel about storebought puff pastry.)
2) Indian fare. I could make a vegetarian dish like aloo gobi and also a chicken one like chicken makhani or something. I’ve also recently attempted to make homemade naan and it came out well so we could have that along with some homemade raita. (They LOVE Indian food -- the only problem is that they enjoy it so much it's possible they've had it fairly recently and might not want to have it again so close in succession.)
3) Chicken Carbonara – This would be a little more difficult to make both meat and vegetarian versions, as it would require two pans, one with the chicken and bacon, the other without, but it’s not that big a deal.
4) Broccoli Fettucini Alfredo – This is vegetarian. I could serve it with a simple roasted pork tenderloin on the side. This and the chicken carbonara would be good with some salad fixings.
5) Coq au Vin – The classic French dish. I like Martha Stewart’s recipe for this best, it’s delicious. Only problem with this one is that there’s really no vegetarian option, as the others have.
What would you do if you were me? I'm leaning toward #1 or #2 I think, though at times I'm like, I should make #5 just to spite her husband.
Edit: Okay, she's gotten back to me. She would like Indian food and cheesecake. I've now created an itinerary for Friday and Saturday, planned down to the minute, because it's going to require that to make sure everything gets done on time. I'm going to make the cheesecake Friday evening, because it requires no less than 6 hours in the oven (most of it cooling off), plus time in the fridge.
BIG MISTAKE. At 6am my alarm went off, and I considered staying in bed (as I always do), but somehow found the will to drag myself out. I thought about taking a shower before doing anything with the bread, but decided I didn't want it to overproof. Well, TOO LATE. When I checked on it, it had risen well over the bowl (a much larger bowl that I had originally thought about using, even), spilled over the sides, and was trying to make a break for it. -.- Grrrrr. So not only did I have a bunch of dough to clean up on the floor, but the dough was overproofed ... which made it extremely wet and sticky and totally unmanageable.
I made the error of not flouring my kneading surface before dumping the gooey dough out, which made it stick to EVERYTHING. I was so frustrated. I ended up having to use maybe another cup of flour (possibly more) to get half of it under control (sort of), shaped, and into its container. I had learned my lesson for the second one, so I floured the surface and got that one ready with minimal extra flour. Now they're both in the fridge doing a cold retardation process, and will be ready to bake tonight at around 10pm-ish. The question is whether one will be better than the other due to not having as much extra flour -- I won't be able to know without actually cutting into them, and since I'm planning to give my cousin one, it's going to be a risk. I'd rather give her the good one, assuming one is better, but I won't know which that is. Sigh.
This is the second time recently that I've had to work with overly wet dough. The first time was a recipe that made a decent bread, but the dough was so unmanageable that I won't be making it again. This time, the stickiness could be due to my overproofing it, so I won't give up on it just yet. However Rose Levy Berenbaum's method has never given me such problems, so maybe I should just stick to that one (but it takes soooooo long).
Trader Joe's is no longer selling King Arthur flour!! This is a bummer for me because they always sold it at the lowest price of anywhere I've found. They've replaced it with their own TJ brand of flour. I'm sure it'll work fine (I'm going to give it a try) and it's cheaper, but still, I don't know, I like my KA. However I've always had to buy bread flour elsewhere, because TJ only sells whole wheat and all purpose.
My cousin has STILL not replied about which dinner plan she prefers. ARGH. The reason I don't just make a decision is because of her pain in the ass husband, who's a vegetarian, so I feel like I need to make something that he will eat, or can contrive to eat (say, eating just the pasta if I make a chicken and pasta dish) ... and yet, if he's fine with taking care of his own meal and eating a turnip or whatever he does, then I can make something that is a very meat-focused main course. They've said that I can make something with meat in it if I wish since he never makes it for my cousin (and she's recently had a baby so she could use the protein) -- which, am I supposed to take that to mean make something with meat in addition to something we can all eat, or make something with meat for her and me, and he'll figure something out on his own? Honestly, is a little clarity too much to ask for?
So, in the absence of her input, what option do you guys think I should go with??
1) Chicken Friand – This is a delicious and fairly rich dish. Basically it’s puff pastry (I don’t trust myself to make foolproof pastry dough yet so it would be storebought – just the pastry sheets) stuffed with a mixture of chicken, mushrooms, mushroom gravy made with chicken broth, cream, rosemary, etc. This could be made vegetarian by using vegetable broth instead of chicken, and stuffing only with mushrooms instead of both mushrooms and chicken. (Only thing with this one is, she's kind of a food snob and I don't know how she'd feel about storebought puff pastry.)
2) Indian fare. I could make a vegetarian dish like aloo gobi and also a chicken one like chicken makhani or something. I’ve also recently attempted to make homemade naan and it came out well so we could have that along with some homemade raita. (They LOVE Indian food -- the only problem is that they enjoy it so much it's possible they've had it fairly recently and might not want to have it again so close in succession.)
3) Chicken Carbonara – This would be a little more difficult to make both meat and vegetarian versions, as it would require two pans, one with the chicken and bacon, the other without, but it’s not that big a deal.
4) Broccoli Fettucini Alfredo – This is vegetarian. I could serve it with a simple roasted pork tenderloin on the side. This and the chicken carbonara would be good with some salad fixings.
5) Coq au Vin – The classic French dish. I like Martha Stewart’s recipe for this best, it’s delicious. Only problem with this one is that there’s really no vegetarian option, as the others have.
What would you do if you were me? I'm leaning toward #1 or #2 I think, though at times I'm like, I should make #5 just to spite her husband.
Edit: Okay, she's gotten back to me. She would like Indian food and cheesecake. I've now created an itinerary for Friday and Saturday, planned down to the minute, because it's going to require that to make sure everything gets done on time. I'm going to make the cheesecake Friday evening, because it requires no less than 6 hours in the oven (most of it cooling off), plus time in the fridge.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 06:51 pm (UTC)No idea on what to serve your snooty cousin and her veggie hubbie. *g* Maybe ask if they've had Indian recently?
no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 06:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 07:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 07:30 pm (UTC)However, a little background to the dinner ... I offered to stop by to see them and help with what they needed, as she gave birth just a few weeks ago and there's going to be a small lull between when her husband's mom leaves (she's been here the last 2 weeks or so) and when my mom and aunt arrive. I haven't done that much for them, other than the day of the birth and the day after, and now knowing that my aunt got me those really expensive diamond earrings for helping my cousin, I feel guilt compelled to do more.
She replied to my initial email asking if I can help with anything to say that it would be great if I could come over for dinner one night and cook for them, as they're feeling rather sleep deprived. Since I like cooking I'm happy to do this ... except for the aforementioned PITA-ness of her husband being a vegetarian, and because I know her personal preferences about food (really, the former is more annoying than the latter). So it's not so much that she is saying make this or don't make that -- it's that *I* want to make something I know she will like/enjoy, since I'm doing it at all. She didn't say it had to be fancy or anything, but again because it's an offer I made, and since it doesn't happen THAT often, and since I'm trying to help them out due to the recent birth, I want to make it nice.
So while she probably would have a problem with store-bought pastry, the chicken friand option was a suggestion I made, not one made by her. She would be fine with something else, maybe something even simpler, that didn't require it, you know? The problem is, I don't know for sure that she would have a problem with it, and I kind of want to make it because it's yummy, it's easy to make it both vegetarian and not, and it wasn't that difficult to make the first time.
Anyway, I hope that clears it up a bit. It's definitely annoying because I know she has certain preferences that are harder to work around than others, but it's not like I've told her I want to make one thing and despite my kind offer she's trying to be a pain about it.
The BIGGEST irritation right now is that she hasn't gotten back to me on which option appeals to her most, because I'd like to start getting the grocery shopping etc. out of the way. However with a 3-week-old baby and 2 little girls under 4 years old in the house, I don't exactly blame her for not being on email all the time like me, lol.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-15 03:43 am (UTC)That's really cool you're doing that for them, but yeah, seriously annoying that she isn't giving you the details you need.
*day improved when I got beautiful flowers delivered from a partner and his domestic partner in Colorado who I'd helped with some stuff at work; two days earlier, they'd emailed the CEO about how much they appreciated me. It's been a good week at work. :-)
no subject
Date: 2009-05-15 06:18 am (UTC)Yay re: flowers! And deserved appreciation! Major grats!