Last 25 Recipes

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Dutch Baby, Baby!

About a year and a half ago, I was up really late at night just flipping channels and landed on a network called "Create TV." Create is a PBS station that only shows TV programs that deal with DIY stuff like cooking, crafts, and home repair. I became obsessed with this channel. For a long time it was always on at our house. And what got me so obsessed was America's Test Kitchen and Cooks Country. These two shows inspire me every time I watch. I watched it so much that our little boy (who is 7 months now) can recognize the theme song and loves to sit and watch it with me. I had to get their cookbook, so Laura got me their America's Test Kitchen: The Complete TV Show Cookbook  that has all of the recipes from all 11 seasons of their show. We have been going through the recipes and every single one turns out to be our favorite. So you will probably see a lot of their recipe's, with our own little tweaks, show up on this blog. But I have to say, you need to watch their show, it's definitely one of the best cooking shows out there.

But one day I watched them make whats called a Dutch Baby. I have always known these as German Pancakes, but theirs looked so much more amazing than any German pancake I had ever been served. So we had to try it. The recipe is super easy, super quick, and tastes incredible. Perfect for those lazy Saturday mornings or when you want to have breakfast for dinner.

Dutch Baby
Adapted from Cook's Country by America's Test Kitchen

1-2 Tb vegetable oil
1 C flour
1/4 C cornstarch
a few scrapes of Lemon zest
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 1/4 c milk (they prefer skim milk but we used 1% and it was just as good)
1 Tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
Powdered sugar
Maple syrup
Whipped cream

Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees.  Brush the oil on the bottom and sides of an oven-proof skillet. Place the oiled skillet into the heated oven for 10 minutes.

Combine flour, cornstarch, lemon zest and salt in a large bowl. Whisk eggs then add the milk, butter, and vanilla and whisk until incorporated.  This is important: whisk about half of the egg mixture into the flour mixture until smooth. This will prevent any lumpiness. Once smooth, add the rest of the egg mixture.

Pull out the hot skillet from oven and carefully pour the batter into the skillet.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until edges are crispy and golden brown. Remove from oven and slide the dutch baby onto a cutting board. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with your favorite french toast toppings. I really like the classic maple syrup and whipped cream, where Laura likes berries. The recipe also recommends just squeezing lemons on it.

Friday, July 6, 2012

4th of July Soda Grilled Brats

This Fourth of July I was having the biggest craving for bratwurst. Gross! is how my wife reacted when I told her. I've always had a fond love for bratwursts. They always bring me back to when my family would visit Leavenworth, WA, a small Germany alpine town  tucked in the mountains just outside of Seattle. If you get a chance, I highly recommend visiting. Every time we would go, we would stop at this small sausage shack and get an authentic German Brat. I haven't had one in years so I felt that we had to try it this year. Someone mentioned to Laura's mom that the best way to cook brats is to boil them in beer or some sort of soda. It gave me the idea to par-cook the sausages in the liquid, then take them to the grill and finish them off. I also wanted to see if there was a difference between cooking them in Coke or Sprite. So we did two batches. The coke ones were good but I preferred the Sprite ones, they were amazing and super juicy! Even Laura agreed they were pretty good. Here's the recipe:

Soda Grilled Bratwursts

6-8 Bratwursts (I prefer the natural casing ones but sometimes they are hard to find. I think we got ours at costco)
2 cans of Sprite (or Coke)
Buns and toppings

So this is super simple. Just put the sprite in a pot and get it boiling. Place the brats in the soda and let it boil for about 5 minutes until they are really plump and grey. Take them out of the soda and put them on a grill preheated to med-high. Grill until golden brown and crispy, about 6-8 minutes turning occasionally.

This was so simple and easy, I think I'm going to make it a Fourth of July tradition.