Vanishing Sally Lunn Buns!

Oh look, more basil! I feel like it's basil week over in wamozart12's kitchen.

I have to say, these buns were ridiculously good. Like, wow. I saw them on tastespotting a while ago, and realized they came from a blog I actually read regularly (who got it from another blog I read regularly, who got it from Williams Sonoma's recipe collection, which I love and use often). Anyway, I saw them and I laughed at the comment that Sally Lunn buns are southern challah, but after I made them... they're right. They are southern challah.

Probably the real reason I made them is because I was going to Disney World the following weekend, and the first full day we'd be there, we were planning to have tea at the Grand Floridian Garden View Lounge, something we do each and every year. They serve Sally Lunn Buns. The only other place I know of that serves SLBs is Gadsby's Tavern in Alexandria, VA, a restaurant we always go to the first night of our stay in Washington, DC in July (this year, since Clint and I went alone and stayed in the city instead of in Alexandria, I had to miss out on this tradition :( ). But woohoo, SLBs without having to travel far? Sounds good!

This was an interesting bread, very unlike other breads I've made. I was a little concerned I'd screwed up. However, because they turned out close to perfect, I think I did everything correctly. The issue that worried me was: this is super duper sticky dough. Like, you have no hope of kneading it. It's like cookie dough. Fortunately, you're not supposed to knead it. And when you go to bake it, you scoop out the dough instead of cutting it into rolls. Iiinteresting.

Herbed Sally Lunn Buns
from Annie's Eats, also seen on Pink Parsley, originally from Williams Sonoma
4 eggs
2 t salt
2 scant T active dry yeast
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup warm milk
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), melted
4 cups bread flour
½ cup chopped fresh herbs (basil for me, but I think thyme, rosemary, sage, dill, etc would be delicious)

In a small bowl, combine the yeast, milk and about half the sugar (I measured out the sugar in 1 1/3 cup measuring cup, dumped a little into the yeast, and set the half-full cup aside til I needed the rest). Set it aside for a few minutes to wake up (while you get the other ingredients out).
Meanwhile, beat the eggs and salt in the bowl of your mixer for about 5 minutes, til they're fluffy. Beat in the melted butter and add the yeast mixture and the rest of the sugar.

Add the flour (I added it all at once). Mix to combine- I used the paddle attachment for this.

Once everything's combined,
add in the chopped herbs. Here were my chopped herbs:
I also had a few sprigs (or whatever unit it is) of chives from my garden.

Once everything's mixed together fairly well, cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap and let rise for about 2-3 hours.

Then, grease 24-30 muffin cups (depending on how big you want these- I did 18, and the rolls were bigger than my fist, which I thought was too big.). Scoop out dough (with an ice cream scoop was easiest for me, a regular serving spoon would also work) and fill the muffin cups. Poke a bit as needed to smooth out the dough balls. Cover loosely with plastic wrap again and let rise for about 45-60 min.

Make an egg wash (1 egg (or egg white or yolk if you have an extra on hand) beaten with 1T milk) and brush over the tops of the rolls. For a pretty presentation, press an herb leaf onto each roll (I skipped this). Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 25-30 minutes.

Serve warm with herb butter (recipe below). Store extras in tupperware or a ziploc bag, but they'll taste stale after a few days- they're still good, just not as good.


Basil butter
inspired by various recipes from google searches

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 cloves garlic, minced
2T finely chopped/minced herbs (I used basil)
1t salt (or more or less to taste, I like my spreading butter salty)

Combine all together, beat thoroughly. Serve with herb SLBs or however you like your butter. Store in tupperware in the fridge.

Basil Ice Cream

Hey everybody, look! It's another use for basil!

I know, basil ice cream probably seems a bit odd, but it's actually really good (far better than the strawberry balsamic ice cream I made a few years ago- strawberry balsamic sorbet, yes, mixing balsamic and dairy, no.) As you can probably guess, I made this because I had more basil than I knew what to do with.

This ice cream had a nice vanilla taste but with the bite of basil. The basil wasn't overpowering, and it actually complements the sweet really nicely- maybe that's why basil and heirloom tomatoes are such a perfect combination?

Basil Ice Cream
from The City Sisters
4 cups 2% milk (original recipe called for whole)
6 T fresh basil, roughly chopped
1 cup sugar
pinch salt
8 egg yolks
1 cup light cream (the original recipe called for heavy, and I actually intended to use my favorite ff1/2&1/2, but I grabbed the wrong carton. I actually had no idea I had light cream)

In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, basil, half the sugar and salt. Stir to dissolve the sugar and bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat (once it's started to boil) and let steep for 30-60 minutes. Then transfer to a blender and puree.

Meanwhile, combine the remaining 1/2cup of sugar with egg yolks in a bowl and whisk vigorously for a few minutes, until the mixture is a light yellow. Combine the egg and basil/milk mixture together, whisk to fully combine, and put back in the saucepan, over low heat. Stir often with a wooden spoon, and heat until the mixture coats the back of the spoon and reaches 175F (or you can go with either of those indicators). Don't let it boil! Also, watch that it doesn't get too hot and the eggs scramble.

Transfer the custard to a bowl and chill (either in an ice bath for a little while, or for a few hours in the fridge).

Once it's cool, strain through a mesh sieve (which... I didn't. I forgot) and stir in the cream. Transfer to an ice cream maker and make ice cream!

I think I need to make basil sorbet next time, and use it as a palate cleanser course during a fancy dinner party. I think the dairy would cancel all palate-cleansing properties of the herb, and could be like an early dessert course.

Attack of the killer tomatoes!

Does anyone else remember that show? It was so weird. It also came about when I was 10 or 11, so perhaps I was simply growing up and it was actually a decent show.

Regardless, I had a ton of tomatoes that needed to be used, or else my kitchen was going to get ugly.

So I dried them! Super easy, very delicious.

Oven-dried tomatoes
taken from Cooks Like a Champion

Roma tomatoes (I had about 3lbs)
salt
olive oil
fresh herbs (I used basil, because I also had a ton of that, but any herbs you have would work great)

Wash tomatoes, slice in half and place skin-side down on a foil-lined and sprayed cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil (I was pretty stingy with the olive oil but I even wish I'd used less), sprinkle with salt and place the herbs so that each tomato has an herb on it.

Bake at 170F for a day. I baked for 6 hours, then took a 3 hour break to cook dinner, cooked 5 more hours, then cooked 5 more hours the next day. The original recipe suggested 8-12 hours, but this wasn't nearly enough for me.

Store in a sealed container in the fridge. (or freezer)

Use roma (plum) tomatoes for this. I threw in a few smaller round CSA tomatoes, just to use them up, and I had to give up on drying them, they were simply too thick to dry as much as the Romas did.

But now I have to find a good way to use roma tomatoes. Perhaps risotto, or on a salad?

CSA #14

Week 14 was kind of a big week, CSA-wise.

We got a big bunch of basil, and some curly parsley.We got this, which made me say, "why did we get Queen Anne's Lace?" Ha, no, it's dill.
Some great flowers

3 pears, a yellow squash, a green bell pepper, another little black hot pepper, and garlic
2 leeks, some chard and some romaine-like lettuce.
4 lbs of great-looking tomatoes!
and some salad greens
So, what did I do with it all?

The basil was used in 3 ways, which I hope to tell you about this week. Oven-dried tomatoes, delicious basil Sally Lunn buns, and basil ice cream. I froze the parsley and dill for later.

The lettuce and greens turned into salad. The leeks, squash, peppers, pears and garlic are waiting, but I think the pears will turn into an apple pear pie or crisp.

The tomatoes were combined with 2.5lbs of tomatoes from my cousin's garden and some became oven-dried tomatoes, some went into a pork posole (which is simmering on the stove right now) and the rest became this really tasty tomato soup, half of which we froze, and half of which never even made it to the freezer, since my husband, unbeknownst to me, really likes tomato soup. I totally thought this was my soup, but I'll just have to make more!
Roasted Tomato Soup
adapted from Cook Like a Champion

When I made this, half of the tomatoes were actually roasted using Molly Wizenberg's recipe, which is to halve the tomatoes, sprinkle with cumin and roast at 200F for 6 hours.

1.5lbs Molly Wizenberg-roasted tomatoes, see above
1.5lbs fresh tomatoes, halved
6 cloves garlic, peeled
1 medium onion, quartered
olive oil
salt and pepper for seasoning
4 cups (1 quart) chicken stock (I used 2 cups homemade chicken stock and 2 cups water)
2 bay leaves
pinch of chipotle pepper flakes
1/4 cup basil leaves, chopped
1/2 cup fat free 1/2&1/2

Roast the fresh tomatoes: place skin side down on a foil-lined (easy clean-up), sprayed cookie sheet, arrange onions and garlic among tomatoes. Drizzle all with olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Roast at 450F for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, transfer to a large pot and add stock, bay leaves and pepper flakes (I added the Molly Wizenberg tomatoes here).

Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and simmer for about 20 minutes. Add basil leaves and cool. Remove bay leaves and puree soup in a blender. Return to the pot and heat through.

If serving now, stir in 1/2&1/2. (I let the soup cool in the fridge overnight and then planned to freeze the next day, but Clint got to it first.) I added a splash of 1/2&1/2 when heating up each serving to eat.

I've made things with roasted tomatoes before, and the roasted flavor can sometimes really overpower the rest of the dish. That doesn't happen with this soup. It's fresh-tasting but has a little extra zing from the roasted tomatoes. This soup is great garnished with some garlic croutons, or eaten with a slice of toasted rye bread.

CSA #13

Wow, I'm behind! When I got my snazzy new computer, which has its own little SD card slot, so I don't have to mess around with extra cords, I thought I'd upload my photos instantly and blog promptly and often. But... life still gets in the way. And I still have to upload all the photos to photobucket, which is slow on our DSL.

Anyway, on September 8th, week #13 of the CSA, we received the following:
3 onions, celery (first time for that!) beets, red leaf lettuce, tomatoes,

8oz spinach, purslane,
flowers, a big bunch of basil, 3 pears, and (not pictured, not sure what happened to that photo!) a big green stripey squash, 2 small yellow squashes, 2 cucumbers, a small black hot pepper, a green bell pepper, and 3 pears.

What did I do with it all? The tomatoes turned into one last batch of salsa (using 2 habeneros, but I wish I'd also added in some jalapenos and/or chipotle- it was a decent amount of spicy (could have been hotter) but the spiciness was very 1 dimensional and uninteresting.). The lettuce became lots and lots of salad, as did the cucumbers, some of the basil turned into salad dressing (which was pretty good, although rather heavy on the mustard flavor), and the squashes got steamed and were eaten plain.

The beets turned into the beet puree I mentioned in the last post, and I unfortunately failed at saving the greens :(, I just didn't act quickly enough.

I sauteed the spinach for dinner just last night (for the most part, the food from our CSA has a much longer shelf life than grocery store veggies- once we figured out how to properly store it! The carrots are the only thing that don't last as well, a couple weeks in the crisper turn them very floppy. However, these are the most carroty-tasting carrots I have ever had, so the shorter shelf life is worth it.).

Sauteed Spinach
Ina Garten's Recipe, reduced for our 8oz of spinach

8oz spinach, washed
1T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
1/2t salt
3-4 grinds black pepper

Wash the spinach, dry it a little, it doesn't need to be super dry. In a large pot, heat the olive oil and garlic over medium-high heat, cook for a few minutes but don't let the garlic brown. Add the spinach, salt and pepper, stir and cover pot. Cook 2 minutes, then uncover and cook 2 minutes more. Serve immediately. Optional: add a dash of lemon juice and a pat of butter when transferring to serving bowl (we didn't, it was fine without).

Ever wonder how much spinach reduces?
Before:
After:
And that was supposed to serve 3 people. Oops! I should have added in some chard or beet greens.