Gruyere Popovers

Wonderful, right? I was so proud of myself for pulling this off using a muffin tin. I saw pictures of different attempts, and most of the popovers either didn't rise, or only rose about 1/2 inch.

I have quite a bit of milk left in the fridge, and I honestly thought that this would use up most of it. Nope. I think I need to make some kind of curd or cream some time soon.

Surprisingly, I don't have a smart story about popovers. I've never made popovers before, and neither has my mother. So, I got nothin'.

I found this recipe on Bon Appetit. I've been cooking a lot of recipes from there nowadays. I feel a little odd. Anyway, the recipe is fairly simple. Not a lot of fuss. That's why I liked it in the first place.

Gruyere Popovers (adapted from bon appetit)

2 cups of flour

1 1/4 tsp of salt

2 cups of whole milk

4 large eggs

1 1/2 cups of grated Gruyere

A little bit of butter

1. Place two 12-cup muffin pans and one 6-cup muffin pans in the oven. Preheat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 
2. Sift flour and salt into a medium bowl. Then, heat the milk over medium heat until it reaches about 125 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs. Then, gradually whisk in the warm milk. Whisk in the flour mixture just until everything is combined. The batter may still be slightly lumpy. Please avoid over mixing!
4. Remove the hot muffin pans from the oven, and brush every other cup with butter (generously). If you don't bake the popovers in every other cup, they won't rise properly. So, please just wash a couple of extra pans. It's worth it.
5. Use a measuring cup to pour 1/4 cup of batter into the greased muffin cups. You should have exactly the amount of batter to make 16 popovers. Then, top each of the popovers with 1 1/2 tbs of cheese. Bake them for about 40 minutes. DO NOT PEEK. They'll deflate. Once they are done, remove from the pan immediately to cool.

As you can see, I was lazy. I did not get out an extra pan. And, see? Half of them didn't rise properly. So, trust me; I know what I'm talking about. As far the taste, they were all great. They're like huge profiteroles. Except cheesy. And, I had an urge to sop up some sort of sauce with it. Is that wrong?

I did have one problem, though.

I had cut the recipe in half and made only eight popovers. Seven of them turned out like that--bottomless. I only got one perfect popover out of eight. So, to get a dozen perfect ones, I would've had to make... 96?

Look at that one perfect popover. It even has an ass. If any of you know what I did, or didn't do, that caused this, please put it in a comment. Sharing is caring.

In search of future projects and lumpia (Indonesian spring rolls)

It was not a very happening day yesterday. I got home from work and had a serious hankering for grilled cheese. So, I made myself some. With lots of butter. Yum.

When evening came, I made myself some dinner (left over fried chicken and gratin) and began to rummage through my mother's stash of cookbooks. It was interesting. I found Chinese cookbooks. That are in Chinese. Huh. I set those aside. 

Then, I found a book solely about cupcakes. I thanked God. I'm not much of a cupcake baker. I mean, I try. And, recently, I failed miserably; I tried to make Bakerella's sweet potato and bourbon cupcakes. Did not work out at all. But, in my defense, I didn't start out baking cupcakes and cookies with my mom like other normal kids. I made food.

Later that night, I flipped through Burnt Lumpia's posts. Have you heard of him? 'Cause you absolutely should. His posts are wonderful. I love how he incorporates his Filipino upbringing in his food and in his blog.
Anyway, I got home this afternoon from a failed attempt to see Transformers 3 (it was sold out. I'm failing a lot these days). And, I made some lumpia.

Lumpia is the Indonesian word--and apparently, also the Filipino word--for spring rolls. Not the Vietnamese kind (you know, the one wrapped in rice paper and isn't cooked?), but the Chinese kind. A bajillion (yes, that is an exact number) years ago, Chinese immigrants settled in Indonesia and the Philippines, bringing this wonderful food. The Hokkien (a group of Chinese dialects) word for spring roll is lunpia. Under Dutch rule (cause it might as well have been), the word evolved to lumpia.

If you look carefully in the first picture, I did kind of burn one of them, the one with the busted end, in honor of Burnt Lumpia. Don't worry. It's still great; I ate it just now. Unfortunately, I can't disclose the recipe for these lumpia. Sorry. It's kind of a family thing. My mother would flip her shit.

I can, however, tell you a couple of general ingredients. As you probably know, the wrapper is store-bought. Do not, I repeat, do not get the white spring roll skin. Those are for Vietnamese spring rolls. Get the ones that say "spring roll pastry". The filling contains shrimp, bamboo shoots, and Indonesian sweet soy sauce (we use this A LOT). It's called kecap manis. Kecap sounds a lot like ketchup. So, when my family first got here, there was a lot of confusion. Anyway, this type of filling originated from Semarang, the capital city of Central Java. It's traditionally eaten with a thick brown gravy, but I was lazy.

So, I had some sweet and spicy chili sauce with it. Still awesome. Yum.
I now have a pretty uneventful evening ahead of me. I have stuff I need to prep for work. I guess I'll reluctantly do that. meh.

Gratin Dauphinois with Sweet Potatoes

I LOVE SWEET POTATOES.
They're good and good for you. Did you know that? It's especially rich in beta carotene, providing 377% of your daily vitamin A needs per serving. And, since my eyesight is horrible with a capital h, I'm totally stoked.

So, by show of hand, how many of you follow La Tartine Gourmande? If you're not raising your hand right now, shame on you. I love Bea. She is an amazing cook and photographer.
Her food always look stunning. Hell, she can put dirt in a bowl with sprinkles on it and it'd look amazing. Anyway, I saw her post for Gratin Dauphinois maybe a week ago, and I've literally been dreaming about it.
The original recipe called for potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pink turnips. But, I couldn't find any turnips at my local grocery store, so I settled for just potatoes and sweet potatoes. It's still awesome.

Gratin Dauphinois with Sweet Potatoes (original recipe here)

2 garlic cloves, halved
1 tbs of butter
1 cup of milk
1 cup of heavy cream
1 twig of fresh thyme, or 1 tsp of dried thyme
about 1 pound of potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
1 medium-large sweet potato, peeled and thinly sliced
salt and pepper
pinch of nutmeg
1 oz. of Swiss Emmental or Gruyere (I think they're more readily available than Comte.)

1. Rub a 12 x 8.5 baking dish with two halves of one garlic clove. Then, butter it generously.
2. Slice the halves of garlic and put at the bottom of the baking dish.
3. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. Heat milk, cream, the remaining garlic, and thyme. Bring to a simmer and stop the heat. Let it infuse for 30 minutes and reheat.
5. Tightly arrange the potatoes and sweet potatoes in alternating order.
6. Strain the milk and cream mixture over the potatoes. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Keep in mind that in this step, you are seasoning the whole thing. Top with shredded cheese, and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour. Let it cool before serving.

I know that this is supposed to be a side dish, but I had it for dinner. Love the sweetness with the salty, cheesy crust. I also have a bunch of potato slices leftover. I might just make some chips with them tomorrow.

Tomato and Spinach Pizza

People look at me weird when I tell them that my favorite pizza does not have tomato sauce on it. Oh, and it doesn't have meat on it either. I love tomato and spinach alfredo pizza. When people think of good pizza, they generally think of red sauce, mozzarella cheese, and some basil on top--in other words, pizza Margherita. Don't get me wrong; it's great! But, when I think of good pizza, I think of white sauce, thick tomato slices, perfectly cooked spinach, and cheese.

One of my friends came over that day, and I decided to make everything from scratch. I'm so proud of myself. I used a really easy dough recipe I found here, and the pizza turned out so good. The crust was crispy, and the dough was so easy to work with. I shocked myself.