Kedgeree

A Victorian era Anglo-Indian colonial breakfast dish (possibly invented in a Scottish regiment?). History is interesting.

Ingredients

• 8-12oz haddock, cod, or similar fillet
• 2 eggs
• 2 bay leaves
• 1c basmati rice
• 2tbsp butter
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 2 tsp fresh ginger, minced
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp ground mustard
• 2 tbsp madras curry powder
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2c cilantro, chopped
• 2 lemons, juiced
• salt
• plain yogurt

Place the fish in a pan and add a little water - not enough to cover, I think. Add the bay leaves, bring to a boil and cook about 5 minutes. Remove the fish and set to cool, at which time you can flake it apart. I think smoked fish might be a good alternative here (and more flavorful) so if you can get smoked cod, I'd say go for it.

Set up the rice cooking. If you use a rice cooker, do that. I use 1c rice and 1.25c water. If you use a pot, use those ratios, bring to a boil, simmer covered on low for 10 minutes, then set aside covered for 10 minutes. Done.

Meanwhile, set a small saucepan of water to boil. When it's boiling, add the eggs. Boil for 10 minutes, then remove and run under icy cold water to stop the cooking.

OK. Now, in a large-ish saute or similar, add the butter and onions. Cook until softened, then add the garlic and ginger. Cook another minute or two, then add the mustard and curry. Cook another couple minutes, then add the tomato and lemon juice.

When that's done, remove from heat. Add the rice to the onion / tomato mixture, along with the cilantro and the flaked fish, and toss to coat. Peel the hard-boiled eggs and cut into quarters. Top the dish with the hard-boiled eggs, then serve with a little yogurt.

Thoughts: This dish was a little too lemon-y for our taste, and it needed a bit more salt. The fish lost some flavor to the weird boiling process (leave it to the Brits, amirite?) but if we had smoked fish, that might have worked well. I think next time we go with one lemon, smoked fish, and more salt. That would make this a pretty damn good dish.

Disaster Index: 3/10

Cranberry Orange Scones

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar (plus 3 tbsp, if using fresh cranberries, which you should be doing)
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 tbsp cold unsalted butter, chopped into small pieces
• 1.25 cups chopped fresh cranberries (or dried, if you must)
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 tsp orange extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Line a large sheet with parchment or wax paper.
In a food processor, pulse the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, salt, and butter together until it resembles a coarse meal. Set aside in a large bowl.
In a small bowl, toss the chopped cranberries together with the 3 tbsp sugar until thoroughly coated. Stir into flour mixture.
In another small bowl, beat together the egg and egg yolk. Stir in the milk and the orange extract. Add the whole mess into the flour/cranberry mixture and work together with your hands until well-incorporated.
On a well-floured surface, and using well-floured hands, pat the dough into a 1" thickness. You'll probably have to add more flour. I swear, I had to add like, 2 more cups of flour to make this not sticky. Using a cookie cutter about 2" diameter, cut the dough out into rounds.
Place rounds on the cookie sheet and bake in oven for 15-20 minutes, or until golden.
Eat.

Thoughts: These came out a little flat (topologically, not flavor-wise). I'm not sure why -- maybe add some leavening? I don't know. I think these could have used more cranberry and more orange extract. Also, it was a great idea to use fresh cranberries; they add a really nice tartness that you can't get with dried cranberries. I'm wondering if we can use our griddle scone recipe as a base, and still add blueberries or cranberries. Would they cook sufficiently on the griddle? Stay tuned. Daniel really liked the texture. I wish they had been a little more fluffy and puffy, but what can you do?

Disaster Index: 3/10

Update: We tried the suggestions in "thoughts", using the Scottish scones as a base and using both blueberries AND cranberries. Much improved. 1/10. Would bake again.

Scottish Scones

I found this recipe on epicurious.com. I've modified it slightly. Who needs cream of tartar? Seriously.

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 cup well-shaken buttermilk
• 1 large egg, beaten

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Add the butter, and, with your finger tips, squish the butter into the flour mixture. By the time you're done, the mixture should resemble a coarse meal.
Stir in buttermilk and egg until soft dough forms. I had to add more flour to get it to be less sticky.
Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface, and cut dough into three equal parts.
Knead each piece 3-4 times, then shape into a 6-inch round (1/2 inch thick). Cut into 4 wedges.
Heat griddle over low heat, then add scones.
Cook undisturbed for 3 minutes over low heat.
Increase heat to medium-low and cook for another 3-5 minutes, until scones are puffy and undersides are golden brown.
Turn scones over and cook for another 6-8 minutes, until those sides are also golden brown. Adjust heat if necessary. Do not burn these.
Turn the scones on each of their edges for 1 minute, until the edges are golden brown.
Check the scones for done-ness.

Thoughts: These were absolutely fantastic. There is no need for us to try to find a better scone recipe. There is nothing that can match these. Also, they were done on a griddle, which is a fantastic way to do them. They were moist and fluffy on the inside and slightly crispy on the outside. I cannot sing the praises of these scones enough.

Disaster Index: 1/10

No-rise Scones

This is from Sundays at Moosewood.

Ingredients

• 1.5 tbsp butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups flour
• 1.5 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 450 F.
In mixing bowl, combine butter and flour with your hands, rubbing the lumps of butter between your fingers and thumbs. Add the sugar, salt, and raisins. Slowly stir in the milk, until a soft (but not sticky) dough has formed. DO NOT OVERKNEAD.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out into a 1/2 inch thickness and cut out 2-inch rounds. Place them on a buttered baking pan.
Bake for about 20 minutes, until just beginning to brown.
Eat while hot.

Thoughts: This was dreadful. There is no other way to say it. Dreadful. Why the hell would this recipe not call for baking powder? The little blurb before the recipe says "oh no, baking powder is so bitter. This way, you can savor the taste of the flour". Bullshit. No-rise scones are not worth it. They came out super flat (obviously) and so they probably cooked for too long. They were totally rubbery and over-cooked in the middle. Moving away from the cookbook's inadequacies, I also probably overkneaded the dough, though I sort of thought that if you don't have a leavening agent, you can't overknead. Perhaps I was mistaken.
There's nothing else to say. These totally sucked. I cooked the second batch at 10 minutes rather than 20 in order to attempt to remedy the over-cooked nature, but it didn't seem to help much. They were softer, but hardly more edible.
Fellow bakers, do not ever follow a scone recipe that does not call for baking powder. SO not worth it.

Disaster Index: 9/10

English Muffins

Based on Alton Brown's recipe. We never have powdered milk or shortening, so there are some substitutions. We'll see if it works out.

Ingredients

• 1tbsp sugar + a little
  
• 1tsp salt
  
• 2c unbleached white flour
  
• 2.25tsp yeast
  
• 1 + 1/3c warmed milk with
  
• 1tbsp butter melted into it
  

Put flour in a bowl, and whisk in the sugar, salt, and yeast. Warm the milk in the microwave and melt the butter into it. It should be warm enough that you can comfortably put your finger into it - you don't want it to be too hot or you will kill the yeast. Add the milk mixture to the flour and stir together. Cover and let sit for about half an hour.

When it's done sitting, heat a griddle to 300 degrees. Place metal rings such as cookie cutters or small cans with both ends cut off (cans like you get tuna or bamboo shoots in) on the griddle. Spray with PAM. Add batter to the rings (how much? I don't really know. It's trial and error. Maybe 1/8 cup.) and cover with something (like a cookie sheet). After 5 or 6 minutes, flip the ring and cook the other side of the muffin. Take them off and you're done.

Thoughts: Some of the english muffins (though not all) had a tendency to look a little underdone in the middle. This was because I used too much batter for the mold, but it was tough to tell when I was making them. Maybe I should systematize this. Otherwise, these turned out quite nice. Just make sure to split them with a fork rather than cutting them in half with a bread knife.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Fat Free Yogurt Scones

Ingredients
Dry:

• 1 c flour
  
• 2 tsp baking powder
  
• 1/6 c sugar
  
• pinch of salt
  
• raisins / craisins / currants / dried blueberries / whatever
  

Wet:

• 1/2 c fat free yogurt
  
• 1 egg
  

Preheat oven to 375. Mix the dry ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients. Combine, but don't over-mix. Spoon out into about six equal scones on a greased baking sheet. Bake 375 for about fifteen minutes, until just barely brown on top.

Thoughts:
I wanted some vaguely healthy scones. But Alton Brown's recipe called for sour cream, butter, and shortening. A lot of recipes use heavy cream or buttermilk in addition to as much butter as the batter will hold.

The fat gives the scone a flakier texture. So these scones will not be the usual scone texture. They're kind of cakey, but when you warm them up with butter and a little jam, they work perfectly for tea. If I want more fat next time, I could try whole fat yogurt instead of fat free. Emily suggests possibly adding oats to alter the texture, though I'm skeptical.

Disaster Index: 3/10 - They're not quite scones, but they're still pretty good.