Beef Cornish Pasties

This recipe comes largely from my grandmother who was born and raised in Pelkie in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Her parents (and many of her siblings) were Finnish immigrants. Although pasties are from Cornwall, England, they apparently became popularized in the U.S. by Finnish miners who worked alongside Cornish miners in the U.P. You can pretty much put anything in a pasty and the recipe I am going to provide is the traditional way we would have it. Pork, lamb, venison, rabbit, and other game meat work well. I've never used chicken in it though. If you do, you'll have to let me know how it is. My family eats it one of two ways. (1) With ketchup (gross!) and (2) with beef gravy. I actually made a chimichurri aoili that works WONDERFULLY with it and adds complexity and herbaceousness to the dish. Just don't tell my grandma... she'll claw out of the grave and strangle me if she knew. 

Pasty Filling

Ingredients:
About a 1 1/2 pounds of skirt steak, lamb, or pork. (If you use ground beef, lamb, pork, etc.,, I can’t vouch for the results)
1-2 large potatoes
Large onion
Small Rutabega or turnip (1/2 amount of rutabega as potato)
1 carrot
Fresh Parsley (A few tablespoons, finely chopped)
Salt (tablespoon+) and Pepper

Instructions:
Finely dice EVERYTHING. Put meat in separate bowl. Put all veggies in a bowl and salt and pepper both liberally.

Pasty Dough

Ingredients:
1 pound Flour
1 stick butter (Cold)
3 oz of Lard (Cold)
Teaspoon of salt
Ice Cold Water (A cup or so)

Instructions:
Combine all but the water and mix with a pastry blender until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Try not to handle the dough too much. Slowly add water, a tablespoon or so at a time and mix with a knife until the dough starts coming together. You may have to add several tablespoons. Try not to add too much water. Dough is done when the dough pulls all the flour from the bowl and it is not sticky or too dry. If dry, add water. If sticky, add flour.

Take pieces of dough and roll into 8" to 9" circles. Add a few tablespoons of meat and veggies and a dab of butter. Using an egg wash, brush, egg wash on edge of pastry and fold in half. Poke a couple holes in top of pastry and brush with egg wash. Fold in the Cornish style or use a fork to press seam down. Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 400 for 45 minutes.

**You can also bake them for 400 degrees, remove them, let them cool, then wrap in aluminum foil and freeze. Reheat at 350 for 30 minutes.

Beef Gravy

Ingredients and Method:

1/4 C. Butter (1/2 stick)
1/4 C. Flour

Stir constantly and heat in saucepan until it combines together and forms a thick roux. Then add the following:

1 1/2 C. Beef Stock
1/2 small onion or 1 shallot finely minced
Salt and Pepper to Taste

Heat until boiling and thickened. Stirring constantly.

Chimmichurri Aoili

Ingredients:

1/2 cup roughly chopped parsley

6 cloves garlic roughly chopped

6 Tbs red wine vinegar

4 TBS oregano- leaves only

1 tsp crushed red pepper- can increase if you like things spicier

A generous 1/3 cup chopped shallot

1 tsp salt

1 cup olive oil

Mayo

Instructions

Add all the ingredients to your jar except the olive oil. Add about half the oil and begin to blend. Once the mix is coming together, add the rest of the olive oil. This ensures you chop up the herbs well Let the sauce stand for at least 20 minutes before using to let the flavors combine.

Mix 2 parts sauce to 1 part mayo for a creamier aioli. The sauce should keep well in the fridge for around a week

Lamb and Beef Kofta with Yellow Saffron Rice

Kofta brings me happiness. Its herbaceous and comforting and it's how I judge any Lebanese restaurant. In a perfect and cheaper world, kofta would be made with all lamb, but I find the mix of lamb and beef to be a happy medium in both flavor and impact on my pocketbook. Although this is ideally prepared on a skewer over a charcoal grill, I'm sadly without a grill, so I use a heavy skillet. The yellow saffron rice is a perfect accompaniment, and the saffron is able to shine through subtly. Seven spice can be a battle to find, especially if you live in rural Ohio like me, thankfully, you can make your own and I included that recipe as well so you will never be without. Sumac can also be a challenge, but some lemon zest will work in a pinch. Here's the recipe for all three.

Lamb and Beef Kofta

Ingredients: 
1/4 cup of FRESH parsley, finely chopped.
A half of a small onion, finely minced, about a quarter cup.
1 heaping teaspoon of sumac (use lemon zest if you cannot find)
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
2 heaping teaspoons of 7 Spice (Recipe below if needed)
1/4 heaping teaspoon of pepper
1 teaspoon of salt
1 pound of 85/15 ground beef
1 pound of ground lamb
Olive oil for frying

Directions:
Combine all the ingredients into a bowl and mix very well with your hands until it is all combined. Form into long sausage shapes about 4 to 5 inches long and roughly the thickness of a bratwurst. Heat a large skillet with a tablespoon of olive oil. Once hot, add the kofta. Unless you have the largest frying pan in the world, you'll have to do this in batches. When placed in the pan, the pan should start sizzling. If not, your oil was too cold. Cook about 2 to 3 minutes a side. Flip, and cook another 2 to 3 minutes. If you prefer a more well-done kofta, add another minute or two per side. Serve with hummus, pita, and the yellow saffron rice.

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Yellow Saffron Rice

Ingredients:
1/4 teaspoon of turmeric
2 cups of chicken stock
5 saffron threads (DO NOT SUBSTITUTE!)
1 cup uncooked basmati rice
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon of salt
Some finely chopped parsley (for garnish)

Directions:
Add turmeric, chicken stock, and saffron in a large pot and bring to a boil. Add the rice, oil, and the salt. Stir well. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, remove from the heat and let sit, STILL COVERED, for another 15 minutes. Uncover, add the chopped parsley, if desired, and mix well.

Note: I don't always do this, but sometimes I like to add some sauteed carrots and onion to this as well. If you desire this as well, saute 1/4 cup of finely minced carrot and onion with a teaspoon or two of olive oil in the skillet. Once the onion is transluscent, you can continue with the recipe as normal.

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7 Spice

Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons of black pepper
2 Tablespoons of paprika
2 Tablespoons of ground cumin
1 Tablespoon of ground coriander
1 Tablespoon of ground cloves
1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ground cardamom

Directions:
Add all ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Store in an airtight container.

Pierogi

I grew up in the Metro Detroit area and I have family in Hamtramck (pronounced HAM-TRAM-ICK), once one of the largest populations of Polish people in Michigan. So my family grew up eating pierogi. What I love about these recipes is that the dough comes together very easily and is not a frustrating mess. However, pierogi are time consuming due to the folding. Get a small assembly line ready and go to town. The dough makes enough filling for 32 decent-sized pierogi. Even a chubby hubby like me was satisfied at eating seven. You don't need to make every filling. Make one first and then try the others. I've even seen sweet fillings like sweet cheese and blueberry. When making a new pierogi filling, the key is to make sure the filling is a bit dry and not TOO wet. These were the best fillings and dough I have found. I cannot take any credit for this recipe. The fillings come from different locations. I included their ingredients so you can see them in one place, but you will have to go to their blog to get the directions. It didn't feel right to copy and paste their work into mine. The exception being Cook's Country which is behind a firewall so linking would not work. I am giving them credit here. 

Pierogis
Potato and Cheese Filling (Cook's Country)

1 pound russet potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/2 inch thick
Salt and pepper
4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese , shredded (1 cup)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Sauerkraut and Mushroom (Spruce Eats)
1 quart sauerkraut (chopped, rinsed, and drained)
2 tablespoons butter
1 small onion (finely chopped)
8 ounces button mushrooms (finely chopped)
1/4 teaspoon salt (or to taste, remembering that the kraut is salty)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Optional: 1 egg (hard-cooked, finely chopped)
2 tablespoons sour cream

Meat and Onion Filling (Cold Weather Comfort)
1 Pound Ground Beef
1 Onion Chopped
1 Cup Beef Broth
Salt
Pepper

Dough (Cooks Country)
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Salt
1 cup sour cream
1 large egg plus 1 large yolk

Topping
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large onion, chopped fine
1/2 teaspoon salt
Sour cream

Potato and Cheese Filling Directions: 

Place your sliced potatoes into a large pot or saucepan along with 1 tablespoon of salt (Yes, that much!) and cover with water by an inch or so. Over medium-high heat, bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and cook at a vigorous simmer, about 15 minutes. Drain your potatoes. While still hot, mix the potatoes, cheddar, butter, and salt/pepper to taste. I like to do this in the stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Let the mixture cool slightly before  transferring to a bowl, covering, and chilling in the fridge for at least an hour or up to 24 hours! 

Saukerkraut and Mushroom Filling:https://www.thespruceeats.com/polish-sauerkraut-mushroom-pierogi-recipe-1137065

Meat and Onion Filling:https://www.coldweathercomfort.com/polish-meat-pierogi/

Dough:

Whisk in the flour, baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of salt together in a clean bowl of a hand mixer. Add sour cream and egg and yolk. Fit the mixer with a dough hook and knead on medium high speed for 8 minutes. It really does take 8 minutes. When you start mixing this up, it will look dry and seem that it will not come together. It will! Trust in the process! Once it is together, you can put it in a bowl, cover, and put in the fridge until you are ready for it. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly dust with flour. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured counter into an 18 inch circle about 1/8-inch thick. Using a 3 inch biscuit cutter or glass, cut as many circles as you can. Repeating the rolling and cutting until you have all the dough cut out. 

Take a tablespoon of the filling of your choice (and I actually measure this out!) and put it on the center of one of your dough rounds you cut. Fold them to a half moon shape making sure the filling does not get sealed between the dough. This will cause the pierogi to burst when boiling. The best way I found to seal the pierogi is to bring the the opposite sides of the pierogi together. Now the dough is sealed in the middle and you have an opening on either side. Then seal the pierogi going from the center out. If you start with the edge, I find that you'll push filling out the other side. Once firmly sealed, use a fork to make a decorative crimp and seal it further. At this point, you can refrigerate them for up to three hours until you are ready to boil them, or you can freeze them! If you are freezing them, put them in a single layer on a cookie sheet, freeze them on the cookie sheet, and once solid, transfer them to a plastic bag or container of your choice. When cooking them, just add five minutes or so to the cooking time. 

Topping:
Melt butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the onion and salt and cook until the onions start to caramelize, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Cooking the Pierogi:

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Add a tablespoon of salt and half the pierogi. Cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from the water using a slotted spoon and add to the pan with the onions. Repeat with the other half of the pierogi and add to the pan with the onions as well. Add a few tablespoons of the cooking water to the pierogi in the skillet with the onions. Cook gently over medium-low heat until the onion mixture is warmed through and is sticking to the pierogi. Serve with sour cream.

Potato Chip Cookies

When I started this blog, I started it before my last semester of my MAcc program. This last semester I am taking a course on social media and social media analysis. One of the requirements of this course was to try to become an influencer on either Instagram or Twitter. As a result, I've been able to coordinate some postings with this blog! Unfortunately, both summer classes I am taking consist of many projects and it's been easier to post pictures of cakes I have done than it is to put in recipes. So today, I am trying to remedy that.

My mom would make these when I was a kid. Growing up in the Detroit-area, we had plenty of access to Better Made Potato Chips. These chips work well because they are very greasy and quite salty. I recently used a kettle-style potato chip and found that to be a bit better. In honesty, any PLAIN potato chip will do. Don't use BBQ and complain to me that it tasted like hot garbage. These cookies are perfect! Deliciously salty and ever so lightly greasy from the chips. Think of them as the pecan sandies' fun sister.

Potato Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

8 ounces (1 cup) of unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar; more for shaping

1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

8 ounces (scant 2 cups) of all purpose flour

2 ounces (1/2 cup) of finely chopped pecans

1/2 cup of finely crushed potato chips

1/2 teaspoon of salt* (SEE NOTE!)

*(If your potato chips are not that salty, feel free to add this. If you are using salted butter or your brand of potato chips are quite salty, SKIP THIS)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350-degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Beat the butter and the sugar together until creamy and well blended, scraping the bowl as needed. I prefer to use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment for this, but if you're a masochist, feel free to do this by hand. Add the vanilla and beat again until well combined. Add the flour, pecans, potato chips, and salt (if you're using). Mix until well blended together.

Put some sugar into a shallow bowl and set aside. Roll your cookies into 1.5 inch balls. Roll the cookies in the sugar and set on the baking sheet. Using a greased glass or cookie stamp dipped in sugar, press the cookies down until they are about a 1/4 inch thick. Bake the cookies until they look dry on top. This may take 10 to 12 minutes. If you are using a brand-new shiny pan, you may need to cook the cookies an extra minute or two since shiny metal pans tend to reflect heat more than well-used pans. Once removed from the oven, let the cookies continue cooking on the cookie sheet for another 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Kardemummabullar (Swedish Cardamom Buns)

My brother, Jerry, is a pastry chef at a four-star hotel/restaurant. Due to the Cornoavirus, he's been able to play around with pastry recipes at work. This recipe (and picture) is his and he graciously let me share it with everyone. I apologize that everything is by weight, but when you're a pastry chef and you have to scale the recipe many times over, weight is the way to go. If you don't have a scale, my husband and I love our Oxo Digital Scale. I promise I do not make a dime off of them. It weighs in both ounces and grams, lights up, and the digital dashboard pulls out to accommodate big bowls. Making this treat is not easy. Anything my brother gives me is never easy. It is, however, worth it! For those not in the know, these are Swedish cardamon rolls. They are complex in flavor and are both sweet and slightly floral due to the cardamom. They are a perfect with a cup of tea or coffee. As my brother likes to say, "they are like a hug from grandma."

Kardemummabullar (Swedish Cardamom Buns)

Ingredients:
Dough
484 g Milk
8 g Yeast
142 g Butter, Softened
50 g Sugar
4 g Cardamom, Ground
870 g Bread Flour
9 g Kosher Salt

Filling
113 g Butter, softened
67 g Sugar
8 g Cardamom, Ground
3 g Salt

Glaze
70 g Sugar
35 g Water
4 g Vanilla paste

Pearl sugar or coarse sugar for top
Yields: 12 large buns

Directions:
1. Put milk in a saucepan with butter and cardamom. Heat until butter starts to melt then remove from heat and stir until butter is melted.

2. Add sugar to milk mixture and stir to dissolve. Once cooled below 85 degrees F add yeast and allow to sit for 5 minutes

3. Add milk mixture to mixing bowl. Add bread flour than kosher salt. Mix for 10 minutes on low/medium speed.

4. Place in a greased bowl and cover. Allow to rise for 1 - 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in size.

5. While dough is rising make your filling by combining all ingredients into a bowl and mixing to form a paste.

6. Once dough has risen, place on well floured surface and roll into a large rectangle. Smear filling all over.

7. Fold into thirds as if you were folding an envelop. Cut 12 equal sized pieces of dough. Then cut each piece down the center leaving an uncut portion at the top. This will look like two really long legs.

8. Gently pull then Spin and twist the dough around your fingers, tucking the extra on the bottom. SEE VIDEO BELOW FOR EXAMPLE!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0g8hyUGcvk

9. Cover and allow to proof for another 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until doubled in size.

10. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 18-25 minutes.

11. While buns are cooking combine glaze ingredients into a sauce pan and bring to a boil. take off heat
.
12. Brush buns with syrup glaze once they come out of the oven. Decorate with coarse or pearl sugar on top.