Elegant Pita Pockets

M-J’s Pita Bread Recipe 

M-J's Pita Bread

Elegant Beetroot from the Home Garden

Beets, Beetroot, Betteraves, Betabel

This home-garden-grown baby beetroot was washed, steamed for five minutes, then dressed with olive oil and a few drops of balsamic vinegar. The root, bulb and leaves were consumed by your faithful editor. Grown in soil with only kitchen compost as a fertiliser, and no pesticides, this exquisite, nutritious beet was part of a health-promoting luncheon.

©M-J de Mesterton 

Elegant Home-Made Tortilla Chips

MAKE YOUR OWN ELEGANT TORTILLA CHIPS  Posted at 12:16 PM on November 27, 2009

MAKE YOUR OWN ELEGANT TORTILLA CHIPS You don’t have to throw out your tortillas if they are past their prime. Make them into tortilla chips, which will be very popular with your family and guests, as they are pleasingly different from those bought in the store. Take a stack of tortillas and dust between the layers with salt, pressing it into them. Then, pressing into it with a large knife, cut the stack of tortillas into quarters. Lower a handful-at-a-time of the uncooked chips into bubbling hot oil. For this light and crispy batch, I used a combination of soy oil, which is now sold as “vegetable oil”, and lard. Peanut or corn oil are also good for deep-frying tortillas.

When the chips themselves have developed bubbles and are slightly brown, it’s time to remove them from the pot with a runsible or slotted spoon. Drain them on paper towels, and dust with more salt if desired. The cooking oil may be strained, refrigerated and re-used for French fries, yams or potato chips. My recipe for Elegant Guacamole goes very well with these tortilla chips. So do sour cream or crème fraîche, and a mixture of sliced jalapeños with melted Cheddar cheese, baked on top of the chips for a few minutes in a hot oven.

 ©M-J de Mesterton 2009

 M-J de Mesterton’s Elegant Guacamole Dip: Find the Recipe on Elegant Cuisine and Elegant Cook.

Elegant Summer Squash, from Home Garden to Dinner Plate

Marrows or squash are very easy to grow. They make great soups, casseroles, and fried vegetable dishes.

Fried Summer Squash, from the Home-Garden Harvest

Fried Summer Squash

Liquid: Two beaten eggs, 1/4 cup of buttermilk, cayenne pepper, paprika, to taste

Dredging Ingredients: One cup of white flour

One half-cup of corn masa

One tablespoon of Lawry’s Seasoning Salt

Slice summer squash into discs. Dip these into the liquid. Dredge in flour mixture. Fry in vegetable, olive, corn or coconut oil. Remove with slotted spoon or tongs. Drain on paper towels.

©M-J de Mesterton 2010

M-J’s Elegant Burger Canapés

See Elegant Cook for M-J’s Recipe

M-J de Mesterton’s Cornish Pasties

Cornish Pasty Made by M-J de Mesterton

I’ve been making Cornish pasties since the age of 20. My mother wrote a book about the pasty and its history which was published in 1990, but my method and ingredients differ from hers. The following is  my pasty (pronounced “pass-tee”) recipe: I will not formally transcribe my recipe and method for making pasties, because  I never use measurements. I can tell you, however, that they are made with a short crust containing both butter and lard, water, a teaspoon of malt vinegar, and unbleached, plain white flour. Since salted butter is used in the dough, add just a dash of salt to it.  I add sea-salt and hand-milled pepper to the filling, which consists of  four ingredients, diced very finely: tri-tip steak, which is always well-marbled and never tough; ordinary, high-starch brown-skinned potatoes, turnips, butter bits, and white or Spanish onions. The finely-diced beef and vegetables are tossed together in a mixing bowl with the salt and pepper before being laid upon the dough, dotted with butter and enclosed. The edges are crimped, either on top or on the side of the pasty, and a couple of well-placed slits are made in the top to allow steam to escape. The final product is brushed with a beaten egg mixed with a teaspoon of cream. The pasties are then baked in a very hot oven for close to one hour. Once the pasties have cooled for about twenty minutes, serve with an oil-and-vinegar-dressed lettuce salad. Offer Cornish cream, Spanish or Mexican Crema, or sour cream as an optional condiment. The pasties depicted here, which I made,  are the optimum size for a meal; the dough for them was shaped into a ball about half the size of a woman’s closed hand, then was rolled out and cut around a 7″ luncheon plate.  Making giant pasties just isn’t elegant, nor is it traditionally Cornish. I also make miniature pasties for parties, by using a tin can or the bottom, inner ridge of the same luncheon plate as a cutting guide. These mini-pasties are easily eaten by hand with a cocktail napkin to catch any pastry-flakes. For a basic short-crust guide, please see my Elegant Apple Pie recipe.~~Recipe and Pasty Photos Copyright M-J de Mesterton

Cornish Pasty Made by M-J de Mesterton, Copyright 2009

M-J’s Savoury Fougasse

M-J de Mesterton's Savoury Fougasse, Copyright 2009

Fougasse is similar to the Italian bread known as foccaccia. Here is my recipe for a savoury version of the Provençal bread, which was named for the wild gasses created by its yeast-starter. It is different from the sweet, anise-and-orange-flavoured fougasses which are popular at Christmastide.This fougasse serves as an accompaniment to dinner or cheese:

Ingredients for the Yeast-Starter, or “Sponge”

• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 cup warm water (105–115°F)
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast (from a 1/4-oz package)
• 1/2 cup of unbleached white flour

Ingredients for the Dough

• 1 more teaspoon of sugar, or a teaspoon of honey if available
• 1 tablespoon of dried herbes de Provence
• 2/3 cup of lukewarm water
• One teaspoon of lemon juice
• 1/3 cup of extra-virgin olive oil, plus 2 tablespoons for brushing your pans and loaves
• 3 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus another half-cup on-hand for the counter, and kneading
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of flaked (Fleur de Sel) sea salt, Himalayan salt crystals, or coarse sea salt

Preparation of Savoury Fougasse
Make the Yeast-Starter:
Stir together sugar and warm water in a mixing bowl. Sprinkle in the yeast, and let stand for about five minutes, until bubbly. Using a whisk, incorporate the half-cup of unbleached white flour into this mixture. Let the starter rise, loosely covered with plastic wrap, 30 minutes.

To Make the Fougasse Dough:
Add sugar, salt, herbes de Provence, water,  lemon juice, 1/3 cup of olive oil, and 11/4 cups flour to the prepared starter, and beat the mixture until smooth. Mix in the remaining 2 cups of white, unbleached flour, 1/2 cup at a time, to form a soft dough.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, regularly sprinkling the dough’s surface with flour, until smooth and elastic (dough should still be a bit sticky), for about 8 minutes. Form this into a ball and transfer to large bowl with enough olive oil in it to coat the fougasse dough. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise at warm room temperature until doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Punch down the dough (do not knead), then, with a light hand, divide it into two sections. Flatten each one into an ovate leaf-shape (about 12 inches long and 1/4 inch thick), and then transfer them to baking sheets that have been brushed with olive oil.

With a very sharp knife, make 2-inch incisions at angles, alternating left-to-right, down the length of each oval “leaf,” cutting all the way through. Leave an inch at the outside edges as uncut area. Gently pull the incisions open with your fingers, so that they don’t close during baking. Let the dough rise for about 40 minutes.

Heat the oven to 375°F.
Brush the two fougasse loaves with olive oil, and sprinkle with your preferred salt. Bake until the fougasses are golden brown, and sound hollow when tapped—this should take approximately forty minutes. Remove fougasses from oven and place on a rack to cool. A French rule: never cut and eat bread until it has cooled to room-temperature.
RECIPE COPYRIGHT M-J de MESTERTON 2009

My Savoury Fougasse Dough Is Ideal for an Artisanal Pizza (Photo Shows Dough In the Rising Process)

Photo and Recipe Copyright M-J de Mesterton 2009

M-J's Pizza Provençale, Made with Her Fougasse Dough Recipe

Potée Lorraine

Potée Lorraine
Preparation time: three hours;

Serves approximately six people:

One cup of dried white beans

1 pound of cooking sausage (Italian sausage is fine),
Two pounds of pork shoulder or pork filet, using the smoked variety if available.

Eight ounces of bacon, chopped
One ripe, green cabbage
Four carrots, diced
Two turnips or one rutabaga, diced
Two leeks, white and light green parts chopped

Ten small potatoes
Two cups of trimmed green string beans
Two onions, one of them chopped and one of them left whole, spiked with 3 cloves
Two garlic cloves, ends cut-off and then crushed
One bouquet garni

Directions:
Soak the white beans overnight.

In a large cast-iron or other heavy pot, sautée the chopped bacon. Add the onion, chopped leeks, finely diced carrots and turnips. Stir-in the crushed garlic, and drop-in the bouquet garni.
Cover the pot and allow the vegetables to sweat for 15 min. Then add the pork shoulder and cover with water. Add salt, pepper, and the spiked onion.
Simmer for 1 hour.
Cut the cabbage into quarters, add it to the pot, discarding its core. Add some water or stock and leave to simmer for another hour and a half.

Add the sausage (pricked with a needle to ensure even cooking), green beans (peeled, washed and cut into long “sticks”) and the peeled potatoes.
Add water if needed and leave to cook for 30 more minutes. The total cooking time will be about 3 hours.
Place the white beans and other vegetables in a large, sturdy serving dish. Slice the meats and peeled sausage, and place them on top. Allow your guests to serve themselves.