Christmas Countdown Day 8: 8 Maids a Milking

I really lamed out with Christmas Countdown Day 8 - sorry! I had wanted to do something nice like chocolate souffles with vanilla ice cream because maids a milking reminded me of cows and I wanted to capture the black and white theme (as well as the milk aspect), but...I ran out of time. So I went with...

Oreos in milk.

Lame, I know. I had wanted them on ice cream but by the time I got around to this, I was too tired to even eat ice cream...

I chose mini oreos for this because, well, they're way cuter than normal oreos. And also you can throw multiple cookies into a glass of milk and eat them with a spoon!

Ok, I know this day 8 post is just terrible. But I swear I had an excuse! It was the night before I was planning to head home for Christmas, so I had lots to do, including making these...

Christmas cookies (and white chocolate and peppermint coated pretzels)! I know it's no excuse, but I really wanted to make these and spread Christmas cheer around to my friends and coworkers - which (I think) I did, so...success for the spirit of my Christmas Countdown, even though these cookies had absolutely no part in my Christmas Countdown!

Christmas Countdown Day 7: 7 Swans a Swimming

I was really looking forward to Christmas Countdown Day 7 because it would finally be my last day of poultry/fowl/bird gifts! Granted, my original plan had been to make a simple vanilla creme brulee and place chocolate swans atop the creme brulee, but then I realized I could just make a chicken pot pie (chicken "swimming" in the creamy pot pie mixture!). When I invited friends over to partake in day 7 of this countdown, most people thought the dish was inspired by "11 pipers piping" and felt that I was really stretching it for swans a swimming...but in my head it works perfectly, so chicken pot pie it is!

I took a lot of shortcuts with this recipe and went for frozen prepared pie crusts and puff pastry sheets. Normally, I also use rotisserie chicken for my pot pies, but for this batch, I went for plain old chicken thighs! But if you have the chance to use rotisserie chicken, I highly recommend you go that route - it's delicious!

I began the process by sauteeing diced onions in melted butter then tossing in my cubes of chicken thighs (I am very partial to dark meat). Once the chicken was sufficiently cooked, I tossed in my cubes of potatoes, carrots, celery, and sliced mushrooms and let cook for a few minutes. I then added in stock (I used duck stock, which I had prepared a while back from my Turducken) and seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic salt, and chicken bouillon powder. I then let this all stew for about 15 minutes on medium-high heat.

While the filling was stewing, I preheated the oven to 425 F and prepped my deep dish pie crusts and puff pastry sheets. I had defrosted the puff pastry sheets in the refrigerator overnight and let the pie crust defrost on the counter for about 10 minutes. I unrolled my puff pastry sheets (which was actually a rather difficult task - if you over-defrost the puff pastry, it gets really sticky) and pricked holes on the bottom of my pie crusts. 

After letting the vegetables cook and soften for 15 minutes, I added in ~1/3 cup flour, ~3/4 cup milk...and then additional stock (as needed) to reach a desired consistency. Mix well until the filling thickens and then remove from heat and pour into the pie crusts. At the very last minute, I second guessed myself and added more stock because I was afraid the filling was too thick and would somehow dry out while baking...but that was a mistake - oh well! Just know that if your filling is too runny, a) it's still edible and b) if you refrigerate, the filling will set nicely in the fridge and will be less runny the next day. 

Once the filling was all poured in, I placed a single puff pastry sheet on top of the pie and sealed the pot pie shut! I also poked little slits in the top of the puff pastry to let steam escape from the pie while baking.

I folded up the edges of my puff pastry (instead of cutting the excess pastry off) because...well I like puff pastry! I placed the pies on a baking sheet to allow for easy removal from the oven and popped the pies into the oven for 30 minutes (or until the puff pastry is golden brown). Enjoy!

Christmas Countdown Day 6: 6 Geese a Laying

For Christmas countdown day 6, I decided to take the challenge of...roasting a goose! I've had roasted goose before, usually for major holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas, and I always remembered it being absolutely delicious - like an entire bird of dark meat with an amazing layer of delectable skin. And I've heard that the high fat content in geese help keep the meat more tender, so I was excited to face this roast goose challenge!

Surprisingly, you cannot easily find geese in New York City, and I simply do not know why. Whole Foods does sell a limited number of frozen geese, but they sell them at $10/lb, which I simply was not willing to pay for this challenge! After trekking around to Citarella, Trader Joe's, Dean & Deluca, and Dickson's Farmstand Meats, I was just about ready to give up, until I magically found a goose at Hong Kong Supermarket in Chinatown...for about $5 per lb. I quickly scooped one up and lugged it home.

To brine the goose, I chose to take a more Asian approach and create a brine of dried star anise, soy sauce, orange juice, salt, pepper, and water. After an overnight brine, I plopped the goose onto my roasting pan, wrapped foil around the ends of the drumsticks and wings (to prevent them from burning too quickly), filled the bottom of the roasting pan with some water, and threw the bird into a 350 F oven. I then decided to take the existing brine and reduce it and use to baste the goose. But naturally the brine required some tweaking (because it was kind of bland...) so I added a little more soy sauce, a lot of brown sugar, and a little bit of honey. I then brined the goose every 20 minutes (in retrospect, probably a bad idea - I'm guessing I shouldn't have opened the oven quite so much) until the goose reached a temperature of 170 F, which for my 10 lb goose, took around 2 hrs and 45 mins.

The goose was flavorful, but not quite as good as my dad makes it...and the meat was significantly more dry. Thankfully, goose on its own has a delicious flavor (at least much more so than turkey), but I still wish I had managed to cook a slightly more moist goose. At the very least, I think a little bit of gravy could have really helped the slices of meat that had little to no skin attached...but I just really did not feel like throwing together a gravy at that point. I still think goose is a worthwhile substitute for turkey at Thanksgiving/Christmas/etc, but I do not think I will be roasting another one again - or at least not until I learn how to not overcook my poultry...

Christmas Countdown Day 5: 5 Golden Rings

To be honest, I was quite excited for 5 golden rings. And for good reason too - think about how much emphasis is placed on this gift in the song?? All week, I had ambitiously worked on planning 5 golden ring-inspired recipes to produce for day 5 of my Christmas countdown, but when I looked at how much food I have been cooking and eating for the past few days (as well as thought about how much I will have to cook and eat for the next few days), I decided to just stick with one recipe.

And for my one recipe, I went with something that I knew would be delicious - rum cake (in the shape of rings, of course).

This recipe was actually taken from Allrecipes: Golden Rum Cake Recipe (I know, I said I wouldn't use a recipe...), but in all fairness, this was a recipe I had used long, long ago. I made some minor tweaks, but still kept the spirit of the original recipe intact.

My first major change was that I did not make a giant Bundt cake and instead poured the batter into a donut pan to produce what I had hoped would be beautiful golden rings. But after baking, I quickly remembered that whenever I make rum cake, the cakes have a nasty habit of sinking, so I knew I would not emerge with beautiful golden rings. But cake is cake, regardless of how it looks, so I went forward with it!

Just to note a few of the tweaks I made to the recipe (in case you're curious and want to try my version out):

• Left out the walnuts (because I don't like them)
• Used 1/2 cup of milk instead of 1/2 cup of water
• Replaced 1/2 cup of vegetable oil with 1/2 cup of melted (and cooled) butter
• Used Malibu Coconut Rum instead of dark rum (to get that delicious coconut-y flavor!)

Also, when I poured the rum into the glaze (after removing it from heat and pouring into a separate bowl), I noticed the glaze instantly began to congeal and form these unsightly clumps. So I simply poured the whole mixture back into a pan and reheated on the stove until it was one uniform mixture again. And I even reaped the benefit of slightly burning off some of the alcohol flavor (great for those who are not partial to alcohol!).

Clearly the rings were not beautiful, especially since they did not separate from the pan (oops), but I figured I had to at least show them so that I could check "5 golden rings" off of my list. On a more positive note, the cupcakes turned out better...

Christmas Countdown Day 4: Four Colly/Calling Birds

I still cannot figure out if the gift was meant to be 4 calling or 4 colly birds, but either way, I know that these birds are not meant to be eaten, so I took a more loose interpretation. For my Christmas countdown day 4, I prepared...Roasted Cornish Hens with Wild Rice Stuffing!

For the record, I have never eaten or prepared cornish hens (or wild rice stuffing), so this was a new experience for me (much like many of the dishes prepared in my Christmas countdown). I chose to take a rather simple approach to these birds and roast them in a very simple manner, though with a new twist - I've never roasted a stuffed bird before!

I first prepared the wild rice stuffing, cooking the rice on the stove according to the directions on the bag. Once ready, I added in 2 tbsp of butter, diced onion and mushroom and sauteed with a dash of salt and sage. To top it off, I added about 1/4 cup chicken stock, let mix for a moment, and then removed from heat. (Note:  amounts may have varied, as I actually did not really measure anything.)

To prepare the cornish hens, I washed the birds both inside the cavity and outside then placed them in a shallow roasting pan. I slathered a mixture of salt, pepper, and garlic salt along the skin of the hens, along with butter (about 1.5 tbsp per bird). To finish, I spooned the wild rice stuffing into the cavity and popped the birds into a pre-heated 350 F oven.

For some reason, I decided I would let the birds roast for an hour before checking on them. Once an hour had elapsed, I inserted the thermometer slightly into the birds and noticed it was still at 150 F, so I threw them back into the oven for another 30 minutes. But when I next removed the birds from the oven (and actually shoved the thermometer into the cavity of the hen), the thermometer skyrocketed past 200 F! Clearly the birds were well cooked, but I just cannot pinpoint at which moment in time the birds were done - perhaps it was 1 hr 15 mins in, or maybe it was even before the 1 hr mark (since I had improperly measured the temperature) - who knows. All I knew was that it was time to eat!

Though the breast meat was not as moist as it could have been, for a bird that was significantly overcooked, the meat was still quite tender! The skin was crisp and flavorful and the meat was surprisingly still juicy. The wild rice stuffing was incredibly fragrant and the flavors of the butter (ESPECIALLY the butter), onion, mushroom, and wild rice fused together delectably.

If you've never tried before, I would highly recommend you try at least once to roast cornish hens - it's easy, delicious, and these mini birds are quite cute!

Christmas Countdown Day 3: Three French Hens

So today something suddenly snapped and I found myself in the Christmas spirit - yay! Unfortunately, all this really means is I start spending money on Christmas-y things that are surely not very practical and I listen to hours and hours of Christmas music, but whatever - as long as I'm happy! :)

Feeling once again motivated to continue this countdown, for today's challenge of 3 french hens, I chose to conquer...coq au vin! Now the silly thing about this challenge is that not only do I not know how to make coq au vin, I've never even had it before! But no worries - I took the name and just went with it.

...and also I perused a few recipes online, but they seemed to take way too long so I just went my own route.

I didn't have any bacon, pork belly, or pork lard on hand, so I chose to just melt 3 tbsp of butter in a pan and throw in some onions and shallots. Once caramelized, I added in my chicken thighs and let them cook for about 10 minutes. During those 10 minutes, I prepared my tomatoes, celery, and mushrooms.

After adding in the vegetables, I added a dash of salt, pepper, rosemary, and thyme and let the combo stew on medium heat for about 20 minutes. I then poured in 2 cups of pinot noir (and drank the rest of the bottle!), tasted, and realized it was missing a little something. So I added in 5 cloves of diced garlic, 2 tbsp of brown sugar, and another 1/2 tsp of garlic powder...just in case...and let stew for 30 minutes.

After letting the sauce reduce (if not already reduced, heat on high for about 10 minutes), I threw everything into the oven at 350 F for about 45 minutes. If you have any onion or mushrooms left, toss them into the pan!

After finished baking, remove from the oven and serve. Bon appetit!

Christmas Countdown Day 2: Two Turtle Doves

After yesterday's disappointment, I was rather excited to face today's challenge: 2 Turtle Doves! Why you may ask? Because for today's experiment, I chose to interpret turtle doves not as a savory dish of poultry, but instead as candy turtles coated with Dove chocolates! Much to my surprise, I also woke up slightly more excited for the holidays - I guess this countdown really is working?

...but then as I hopped into the subway with Christmas music playing through my headphones, I felt a slight tinge of shame, as if I were listening to Christmas music in July. Not wanting to completely extinguish my slight burst of holiday spirit, I headed towards Dunkin Donuts in search of a Christmas-themed coffee or donut and found...nothing! To be fair, there was one donut glazed with green frosting but...really, nothing else? Not even one peppermint drink or one chocolate peppermint donut? Sigh, New York City - where is your Christmas spirit??

On another completely random side note, I headed to the Food Emporium in Union Square after work to pick up the ingredients for today's project and discovered that this particular store is absolutely awesome - it's almost as well-stocked as a suburban grocery store; I even found Twinkies!

So back to the turtle doves. Ok, I hate to say it, but I failed again. I was so excited for what was sure to be a guaranteed success too - mixing pecans with caramel and coating them in chocolate: how hard can it be?? The most difficult part of this recipe was the caramel, but considering that I've made caramels many times in the past (especially around holiday season), I thought I had nothing to worry about. Boy was I wrong! But on a slightly more positive note, the end result wasn't quite as bad as it could have been; I merely ended up with chocolate covered pecan TOFFEE bites instead of caramel. In fact, I suppose this result could be considered a success given that I prefer toffee over caramel and have always wanted to make toffee but never quite got around to it!

To kick off the process, I tossed about 2 cups of pecans onto a baking sheet and toasted them in the oven at 375 F for 10 minutes because...well toasted pecans just sounded like a nice addition. Toasting the pecans definitely gave them a richer, toasty flavor as well as a more crisp texture, but honestly I could have gone either way, especially since I've never really liked pecans (except in pecan pie!).

Making the caramel seemed (keyword: SEEMED) fairly straightforward: I melted 5 tbsp butter, approx 1 tsp sea salt, and 1 cup heavy cream in a saucepan until it boiled (ok, I got distracted and let it boil for a few minutes) and set aside. In a separate pot, I combined 1.5 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup dark corn syrup (would have preferred light corn syrup, but lo and behold, I ran out), and 1/4 cup water, stirring over heat until the sugar melted and then letting it continue to boil (without stirring) until it turned a nice caramelized brown color.

I then poured the butter/cream mixture (which actually had formed a rather gross skin on top, so I ran the mix through a sieve) into the caramel, clipped a candy thermometer to the side of the pot, and began stirring away at the crazy bubbles! However, I did make one slight deviation - I removed the caramel from heat so that I could take the pecans out of the oven...and take pictures. I'm not sure how big of an effect removing from heat had, but it did take a little longer before the mixture started bubbling.

After much stirring, the mixture began to slowly rise in temperature and once it broke the 240 F barrier, the temperature shot up - so watch your thermometer carefully! Also make sure to always keep the stove's heat constant (at high, if you're able to really pay attention and stir frequently) and not switch back and forth between medium and high heat, even if you are getting impatient; switching back and forth has dire effects on your caramel's temperature. Lastly, make sure your candy thermometer is properly set up so that it's actually in the liquid...in fact, better that it be touching the bottom of the pan than floating in the air because if your caramel gets too hot, it will turn to toffee! And since the caramel inside candy turtles is supposed to be chewy, I really don't think it can hurt to remove the caramel from heat before it even reaches 248 F...though I don't actually know because I've never tried.

I then mixed the nuts into the caramel mixture and started to spoon clusters of nuts and caramel onto wax paper, letting the clusters harden at room temperature for an hour (or two hours if you've succeeded in producing a chewy caramel). However, a few notes: 1) work FAST, the caramel hardens quickly even if you have successfully made caramel and not toffee 2) use parchment paper and oil it because your caramel will definitely stick to wax paper and very possibly plain parchment paper as well.

I chose to mix together both milk and dark chocolate because I was hoping to capture that delicate balance between chocolate being too sweet and too...not sweet, but after tasting the finished good, I realized it really does not matter - just pick one. I unwrapped the chocolates (about half of each bag), poured them into a bowl, and began heating in the microwave on half power for one minute intervals, stirring in between until the chocolate was fully melted. Once melted, I took each cluster and dipped them in the chocolate, making sure to coat evenly around the cluster, and placed onto a sheet of parchment paper to cool.

Honestly, these "turtle doves" taste fine - they taste like toffee with pecan bits coated in chocolate. And now I am inspired to actually make toffee to hand out as holiday treats. Yay for inspiration!

And because these are Dove chocolates, I absolutely had to read the message on each of the wrappers I had opened. The very first wrapper I picked up told me to "slow down" - this could have been great advice while making today's caramel!

Excited and worried for tomorrow's experiment: 3 French Hens. As a disclaimer, I have never cooked nor have I even tasted what I wish to make tomorrow, so it will actually be a lot more difficult for me to proclaim day 3's project a failure (I hope)!