Madhu Knits and Cooks

Fried Cheese Wontons - Gluttonous Delight at Home!

That's right friends, I've figured out how to make one of my restaurant favorites at home.  Deep-fried cheese wontons - a gluttonous delight if there has ever been one.  

When I first made these treats, I sprayed them with olive oil and baked them at 425 degrees for 10 minutes.  Unfortunately, while they were good, they were slightly underwhelming.  So my second attempt involved deep frying these bite-size morsels, which resulted in a much tastier albeit unhealthier version.  

I still need to do more to punch up the flavor, and I fear that may require adding a ton of salt a la restaurants.  I'll report back as a I continue to perfect this recipe, but below is how I currently have made these deep fried delights (basically a mash-up of the Pioneer Woman and All Recipes approaches).

Ingredients (4 - 6 appetizer portions)

• 4 oz. of light cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1.5 tsp. Sriracha
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Splash of soy sauce
• Additional salt and pepper to taste
• Egg roll wrappers (Nasoya brand), cut into 4 rectangular pieces or round / square dumpling wrappers
• Small bowl of water

Directions

•  Heat 1/2 inch of vegetable oil in a small pot or dutch oven, on low-medium heat, aiming for approx. 340 - 350 degrees

• As the oil heats, mix together all of the ingredients (sans dumpling wrappers).  Taste to adjust seasonings as needed.

• After the filled is mixed, prepare the dumpling skins for wrapping.  Either cut larger egg roll wrappers (the only thing I could find at the grocery store) into four smaller pieces or use dumpling-sized wrappers.

• Then take a 1 - 1.5 tsp. spoonful of filling and put in the middle of the wrapper.  I settled on the "square flower" dumpling wrapping approach after these somewhat failed attempts with the other shapes below:

• Ok, back to the approach I found fastest and simplest.  Place the mixture in the middle (or maybe slightly off-center like below, ha!).  Then using a pastry brush or your finger, liberally brunch water along the edges of the dumpling wrapper.  

• Bring two opposite corners toward each other and press the sides together.  It's important to have enough water and moisture along the edges of the wrappers so they can easily press together.

• Then bring one of the other corners to the middle and seal to the middle top folds.  Repeat with the remaining side, and then seal up the open sides until you reach the outer ends of the wonton.  Repeat process with additional wrappers until you have used up all of the mixture.

• Before frying, check your oil temperature to make sure it's in that 340 - 350 degree range, or check temp. by frying a piece of the wonton wrappers.

• Add the filled wontons to the oil - I found it's ok to crowd them in if you are using a heavy-bottomed pot - and fry until browned or about 1 minute.  If you don't have enough oil in the pot to fry the tops of the wontons, just flip them over to fry for approx. 20 seconds until the tops get browned (thank you YouTube for this tip!).

• Cool on some paper towel-lined plates for approx. 5 - 10 minutes, and then serve immediately!

Moist Chocolate Cake with Ganache Topping - Instant Crowd-Pleaser

A few weeks back, I decided to whip up a cake for a cooking party at a friends' house.  I wanted a moist chocolate cake with a simple frosting, and ultimately settled on a ganache topping - my husband's favorite.  I decided to try a new cake recipe for this effort, and found the King Arthur Flour Moist Chocolate Cake recipe.  

While the cake lived up to its billing, I have to admit I wasn't a huge fan of its flavor.  It wasn't that chocolate-y (though the ganache added a nice heavy chocolate flavor to the finisher cake), and the flavors didn't quite meld to my liking (was it my older cake flour?).  That being said, everyone else loved the cake, so maybe the issue is me?

The recipe itself was otherwise fairly standard - sift (or in my case, whisk with a fork) the dry ingredients together, and then combine with wet ingredients.

The volume of liquid made it much easier to use a spatula instead of the hand mixer to blend the ingredients, so I ultimately used that approach instead of getting bits of batter spraying everywhere from the mixer.  I then poured the batter into a prepared pan, and baked for 32 minutes.

As the cake cooled, I made the ganache using a KAF recipe (surprise, surprise).  I used 6 oz. of Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate and approx. 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chips, which ended up being the perfect amount for a 9 x 13 cake.  I also followed their approach of using a bit of light corn syrup to get a smooth, shiny consistency, and was really pleased with the results.  Will certainly be a feature of my future ganache makings!

Hot Bread Kitchen's Nan-e Barbari - a Simple Iranian Bread

I've had my eye on the Hot Bread Kitchen Nan-e Barbari recipe for some time, but interestingly not because of my frequent visits to the Hot Bread Kitchen stand at one of our local farmers markets.  Instead, it was a delightfully pictured Nan-e Barbari email that King Arthur Flour sent out that initially attracted me to this bread.  

While my pictures won't do justice to the KAF images, it was a solid bread to construct on a recent weekend day.  The bread requires only two relatively short rises, and is out of the oven in 15 minutes.  It also is a good way to use up the jar of nigella seeds in my cupboard that I otherwise don't really know what to do with.

The flavor and texture are also great out of the oven, with the crusty exterior and baked seasonings making up for the lack of flavor in the bread itself.  As the bread aged over the week, it got harder and harder to eat - just mushy, dense, and bland.  

I'd recommend this bread as a subtle complement to a spicy soup or Middle Eastern meal - but just out of the oven, consumed day of, or the pizza form that KAF recommends.  Otherwise, I think a longer rise bread with more yeast flavor would be a better accompaniment to main courses.

To the recipe itself - combine the ingredients and knead into a smooth ball.

Cover and let rise for an hour or until almost doubled in size.

If you followed the recipe proportions, you divide this ball into two and shape the balls into logs.  I halved the recipe, so just had to shape one log to then rest and rise for approx. 30 minutes.

As the log(s) is rising, you prepared a simple sugar glaze to brush on the final dough.

Then shape the logs, spread on the glaze, and add the sesame and nigella seeds.  Bake for approx. 15 minutes (my pizza stone wasn't clean, so I used a baking sheet), and serve as soon as the bread slightly cools!

The Best Homemade Biscuit Recipe I've Encountered - CI's Ultimate Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits

After many a biscuit attempt (dropped and cut), I think I've found the winner of recipes.  Enter Cook's Illustrated, with not their Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits recipe, but instead their Ultimate Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits recipe.  True to the title, it produced an "ultimate" biscuit - super buttery, great texture, and beautiful coloring.  I brought these to a summer barbecue (not exactly barbecue fare), but they flew like hotcakes even while room temperature.  

These biscuits need no accompaniment - their flavor is perfect as is.  I may hold many brunches these fall just to have the excuse to make them weekly :-)

I followed the CI recipe exactly.  First, I faux-sifted the dry ingredients with a fork (ok, so maybe I didn't follow the recipe exactly).  And then I added grated, frozen butter - a technique CI calls for in scones, which leads to fantastic results as well.

After adding the buttermilk to the dough, I then started the five rolling and folding processes to get those flaky layers.  True to the CI recipe description, with each roll and fold, the dough got smoother and smoother.

I then let the dough rest for 30 minutes in the fridge before cutting.  CI described that approach as helping the biscuits stay upright, and not falling over, in the oven.

And then cutting and to the oven the biscuits went - check out those nascent raw layers!

Out of the oven, sheer perfection.  Great layers, great color, and unparalleled flavor.  I may need to get up at 5am tomorrow to make them before work tomorrow - that's how wonderful my memory of these biscuits is!

KAF Farmhouse Buttermilk Cake - Simple Coffee Cake for Weekend Mornings

When baking a lot of biscuits and cakes, you may find yourself in a situation I experience a few times a year - too much milk or buttermilk on hand.  

Remedy?  More baking!

For my most recent buttermilk surplus, I turned to King Arthur Flour and their Farmhouse Buttermilk Cake recipe.  The recipe couldn't be easier, particularly with the slight modifications I made.

Following the reader reviews, I added in 1 tsp. of cinnamon to the batter and ended up omitting the nut topping entirely (I am allergic to nuts) instead of improvising another crumble topping.  The result was a flavorful, coffee-cake like dessert that I'll be making in the future for brunch, afternoon tea, and other simple get togethers.

The construction is fairly simple - blend wet ingredients, and then add dry.

Pour into a lightly greased pan and bake.  I kept roughly the original recipe baking times, even though I omitted the nut topping.

When I took the cake out of the oven, the lovely cinnamon aroma was too much for my husband to handle and the end result is pictured below :-)

 I look forward to making this cake again!