Weekly Update: So far in July 2023
Are we done with Chicken Salad?
In the past 2 weeks, Chef Ryan and I made the final batch of the classic chicken salad. The recipe ended up including a garlic aioli (egg white, oil, lemon juice, salt, white pepper, and garlic), chicken, cucumbers, parsley, lemon zest, allulose, horseradish, black pepper, and salt. We worked on finalizing the amount of each of these ingredients to create the optimal chicken salad.
I only have a few more weeks working with Molly Kimball, and Chef Ryan before I have to return to school. I have loved working with them!
Enchiladas + Pizza = Perfection
In my family, every week each person has to make dinner one night. In the past 2 weeks, I have made pizza and beef enchiladas.
For the pizza, my goal was to make a fluffy thick crust with garlic Italian seasoning. I made the dough from scratch, used store-bought sauce, and used a combination of mozzarella and parmesan cheese. This dough had a lot of rise when it was baked and it turned out extremely fluffy. I would definitely use this recipe again.
The dinner I made this week was beef enchiladas. I mixed two recipes together to make this because I loved the Magnolia Table Beef Enchilada recipe, but I also used parts of a beef enchilada recipe from recipetineats. In the enchiladas, I put ground chuck (seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika, and onion powder), onion, beans, and mozzarella in a flour tortilla from Whole Foods. For the sauce on top, I combined olive oil, flour, chicken broth, tomato sauce, salt, and pepper. I poured this sauce over all the enchiladas and topped it with more mozzarella. I would highly recommend making this meal!
Sourdough Bagels – Fail or Success?
Over the past couple of weeks, I have been creating a sourdough starter. A sourdough starter is basically yeast that is created through “feeding” and “discarding” a mixture of flour and water every day. It creates its own bacteria that bubbles and becomes alive. This is my second time creating a sourdough starter and making baked goods with it. Last summer I made sourdough bagels that tasted good but didn't have a lot of lift, so they just turned out flat. This summer I decided to try and redeem myself. I used a recipe from Ballerina Farm. Unfortunately, the bagels turned out very similar to last summer. They had very little height but tasted good. I am not quite sure what I am doing wrong yet, but I look forward to trying a different recipe in the future.
