Recipes « (y)our food choices™

Ah, those crazy Brits with their oddball named desserts. Spotted Dick is not a genital disease as one might imagine, but an English “pudding” made of suet, raw beef or mutton fat. And while we were in London we did our best to find, er, spot a Spotted Dick. We found it on a couple of menus but just couldn’t bring ourselves to actually order the pudding without a childish snicker. We felt like it would be inappropriate to order it from a female server and even with a male waiter we just couldn’t bring ourselves to actually say it to him, gay or straight. I mean, come on, how do you ask someone for a spotted dick without blushing and giggling? You just can’t.

Maybe it was something in the air in Paris that gave us the nerve to order a brioche spotted dick, or, maybe it was because I made Steve go into the lovely little Marais shop without me. Either way, we tasted our first spotted dick from a Paris patisserie, but it wasn’t the traditional English dessert. This was a chocolate chip brioche in the shape of a penis. A few blocks away from our vacation rental was a cute little boulanger and patisserie called Legay Choc. Legay is the last name of the two brothers who own the bakery, and as chance would have it, one of them is, in fact, gay. The shop is filled with delicious pastries, breads, and sandwiches, but the thing that brings customers, and oglers, into their shop is their brioche “Spotted Dicks.” As you step in, you’re welcomed with a basket full of the phallic chocolate chip wonders. They look so tempting, who could resist such a playful temptation? These fat tasty loaves aren’t just a gimmick, the brioche holds its own against the best boulangeries in Paris, and San Francisco. After each of us pulled off a “testicle” and tasted it for ourselves we can attest to the sweet, lip-smacking tenderness of these chewy morsels. Needless to say, we thoroughly enjoyed each and every bite, and it left us wanting more.

Now that we’re back in the US we’re on a quest to make the British version of Spotted Dick. The challenge we face is finding suet. We need a very small amount of this exotic fat for the recipe. Who really needs five pounds of beef fat in their freezer when the recipe only asks for 3.75 ounces? Five pounds of extra is a lot of beef fat for Spotted Dick. We know there are recipes out there that substitute butter for suet, but in our opinion, that’s just cheating. If you can find suet at your local butcher shop we suggest you give it a try. And, if you know of a butcher shop in San Francisco that sells suet in small amounts let us know. We’d really like to give the authentic recipe a try.

So we decided to go for the Parisian version of Spotted dick a la Lagay Choc. It does call for a lot of butter, but at least we can find good butter easily. The brioche recipe is Nancy Silverston’s from the cookbook, Baking with Julia, with the addition of chocolate chips. Nancy, we hope you’re not offended that we use your brioche recipe, we just think it’s the best.

Yes, it’s juvenile, and yes, it is gay, but that describes us–gay and juvenile. If you can’t afford a trip to Europe and you’re hankering for a spotted dick without a visit to the doctor for a shot of penicillin, try one of these two recipes. It might end up being your favorite dessert or, at the very least, might add a little spice to your sweet tooth life. And, as it’s done for us, may arouse your baking appetite.

Enjoy!

Spotted Dick – British Version

[Adapted from epicurious.com]

The long sausage shape has been changed and instead calls for a pudding mold, so this version is acceptable to serve in mixed company and with children. Just don’t tell them the real name of the dessert, unless you want snickers and giggles throughout dessert.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold finely chopped rendered beef suet (4 oz)
8 tablespoons whole milk
1/2 cup mixed currants and golden raisins or other assorted dried fruit
1/2 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon zest

Custard Sauce (your favorite version)

Fill a large heavy pot (at least 8 inches across by 6 inches deep, with a tight-fitting lid) with 1 1/2 inches water. Make a platform for pudding by setting metal cookie cutters or egg-poaching rings in bottom of pot.

Pulse together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a food processor. Add suet and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Transfer mixture to a bowl. Drizzle evenly with milk and stir with a fork until incorporated. Knead fruit and zest into dough until a slightly sticky and form into a ball. Put into well-buttered pudding mold and flatten top. Top dough with a round of buttered wax paper, buttered side down, and cover top of mold with heavy-duty foil, crimping tightly around edge.

Bring water in pot to a boil and set mold on platform. Steam pudding, covered, over simmering water 1 1/2 to 2 hours (add more boiling water to pot if necessary), or until golden and puffed. Transfer pudding in mold to a rack and let stand 5 minutes. Discard foil and wax paper and run a thin knife around edge of pudding. Invert a plate over mold, then invert pudding onto plate.

Serve immediately with your favorite custard sauce.

A view into Legay Choc. To the right you’ll see a tray full of spotted dicks.

Spotted Dick – Parisian Version a la LaGay Choc

Note: This is chef and baker Nancy Silverton’s brioche recipe as it appears in the book Baking with Julia. All credit to Chef Silverton for the recipe that follows, with the exception of the addition of chocolate chips and the shaping of the loaves. The accompanying photographs are all ours.

Brioche Recipe

The Sponge

1/3 cup warm whole milk (100°F to 110°F)
2¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
1 large egg
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Put milk, yeast, egg, and 1 cup of flour in bowl of heavy-duty mixer. Mix ingredients together with spatula or spoon until blended. Sprinkle remaining cup of flour over sponge to cover. Set sponge aside to rest uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes. The flour coating should start to crack by the end of the resting time. This is a good sign things are going as they should.

The Dough

1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 ½ cups (approximate) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 ½ sticks (6 oz.) unsalted butter, at room temperature [Note: ALWAYS use unsalted butter!]
¾ cup chocolate chips (optional)
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water, for egg wash

Add sugar, salt, eggs and 1 cup of flour to the sponge. Attach bowl to mixer and, using the dough hook, mix on low for a minute or two, just until the ingredients look like they’re coming together. With the mixer on, sprinkle in ½ cup more flour. When the flour is incorporated, increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for about 15 minutes, stopping to scrape down the hood and bowl as needed. During the mixing period, the dough should come together, wrap itself around the hook, and slap the sides of the bowl. If, after 7 to 10 minutes, you don’t have a cohesive, slapping dough, add up to 3 tablespoons more flour. Continue to beat, giving the dough a full 15 minutes in the mixer. Long mixing gives the brioche its fine texture.

Incorporating the Butter

In order to incorporate the butter into the dough, you must work the butter until it is the same consistency as the dough. According to Julia, “you can bash the butter into submission with a rolling pin or give it kinder and gentler handling by using a dough scraper to smear it bit by bit across a smooth work surface.” (Can’t you just see her whacking away at a lump of cold butter with her rolling pin?) When it’s ready, the butter will be smooth, soft, and still cool. It should not be warm, oily, or greasy. Add the softened butter, a few tablespoons at a time, to the dough with the mixer on medium-low. If the dough looks like it’s falling apart, don’t worry about it. It’s supposed to. Once all the butter is incorporated, raise mixer speed to medium-high for a minute, then reduce the speed to medium and beat the dough for about 5 minutes. The dough should begin to make a slapping sound again as it comes together. If the dough isn’t coming together after a couple of minutes, add up to one more tablespoon of flour. When finished, the dough should be cool, soft and a little sticky.

First Rise

Transfer the dough to a very large buttered bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let it rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, 2 to 2 ½ hours.

Second Rise

Deflate the dough by placing your fingers under it, lifting a section of dough, and then letting it fall back into the bowl. Work your way around the circumference of the dough, lifting and releasing. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough overnight, or for at least 4 to 6 hours, during which time it will continue to rise and may double in size again. After chilling, the dough is ready for use.

Shaping the loaves (4 small loaves or 2 large ones)

Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. If you’re using chocolate chips knead them into the cool dough before shaping. Divide the dough into two, or four equal parts. With each part separate so there are two smaller “balls” and one larger piece of dough. Roll larger dough into a sausage shape and place the two smaller balls on each side, like a penis. Place on the parchment paper leaving enough space for each penis loaf to rise with touching. Repeat with remaining dough.

Final Rise

Cover the pans with buttered wax paper (or plastic wrap) and a kitchen towel. Allow to rise at room temperature for about 2 hours, or until doubled in size.

Baking

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly brush the brioche loaves with egg wash, careful not to drip the wash on the parchment paper. Bake the brioche loaves for about 30 minutes, or until they are golden brown. If the loaves are browning too quickly cover them loosely with a piece of aluminum foil, tented. Cool to room temperature on a rack.

We suspect that just about every food culture on the planet includes something that everyone would recognize as a sandwich. How could it be otherwise? Layered food between two slices of bread makes such good sense and, in its simplest form, a sandwich is the modest layering of flavors with very little fuss. Since plenty of culinary traditions obsess over the sandwich there are lots of complex, crazy sandwiches out there–Ike’s in San Francisco comes to mind. It’d be an impossible, if fun, feat to taste all Ike has to offer, but we do our best to scarf as many of them as possible when the line isn’t around the block.

Ike’s sandwiches; 52. Napoleon Complex and 5. Nacho Boy.

There’s also some favorites of ours that only taste their best when they are eaten in their home location. From the legendary Central Grocery’s Muffuletta in New Orleans to the Cuban sandwiches (or pan con lechon) in Tampa’s Ybor City to the Vietnamese pate banh mi at the soon-to-open Spice Kit in San Francisco, we’ve tucked into some amazing sandwich joints over the years. But, we have a long way to go in exploring all the great sandwiches in the US. We’ve been hankering for a lobster roll for some time know and need to figure out a good reason to head to Maine.

At home, nothing says quick and easy like a sandwich. Cheese, a little Prosciutto or bacon, maybe eggs, tuna, or last night’s chicken and every imaginable combination of condiments form the foundation of too many lunches and suppers to count.

Panini

A few years ago there seemed to be a craze in the city that has yet to fade. Grilled cheese sandwiches were becoming passé. A new sandwich was hitting the city and this one had grill marks all over it. The panini sandwich was everywhere. Sandwich shops, restaurants, and home kitchens in every corner of the City seemed to have a press or two to make this fancy grilled sandwich. The first panini we ate was at Tartine bakery and we quickly went out looking for a sandwich press. We found one on craigslist.com for $10 and we have used it over and over again. We don’t use it as often as we once did thanks to the the toaster oven we purchased a while back, mostly out of convenience, but when we do pull out the sandwich press we have a few standards that have become favorites of our family and friends.

If you’re not up to making your own bread, Trader Joe’s sells a great rustic pain pascal they sell by the half loaf. You’ll need to slice it yourself but that’s simple enough to do. If you have problems with getting things even you can always use your favorite loaf of presliced rustic bread. Just do us a favor and please don’t use Wonder bread. We quit eating that stuff after the age of seven.

Proscuitto and cheese panini

Ham and Cheese
Dijon Mustard
2-3 slices of Proscuitto
1 ounce of grated Guerye cheese
olive oil

Preheat the panini maker. Spread the Dijon mustard on one or both pieces of bread. Add the Proscuitto and then the grated cheese on one slice of bread. Top with the other slice of bread, mustard side down. Drizzle a little olive oil on top of the bread. Flip the sandwich on to the panini maker, olive oil side down, then drizzle a little more olive oil on the dry side. Close the sandwich press and grilled for 5-7 minutes depending on the sandwich maker.

Chocolate
4 ounces good quality dark chocolate bar
(or a good slathering of Nutella, or both)
room tempeture butter

Preheat the panini maker. Add the chocolate, or Nutella, to one slice of bread. Break up the chocolate so there is just one layer of it and it’s not too close to the edge. Top with the other piece of bread. Spread the butter on one side of the sandwich, flip it onto the panini maker and then spread more butter on the other side of the sandwich. Lower the grill press and cook for 5-7 minutes.

Ground Almond and Parmessan Cheese
¼ cup ground almond meal
1 ounce grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons or more olive oil
zest of ½ of a lemon
pinch of salt

Mix the almond meal, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, lemon, and salt together in a small bowl. Add more olive oil if the mixture looks too dry. Spread the mixture on one piece of bread then top with the other piece. Place on the panini maker and lower the grill on to it. Grill for 5-7 minutes.

Fruit and Cheese

Sometimes you’ll make something over and over before realizing “Hey, there’s a recipe here!” More importantly, others might want to share in one of life’s simple joys. We’ve been having a love affair with a certain Irish cheddar and apricot sandwich for at least a year now with no end in sight. We love it so much that we’ll purchase a couple of pounds of the cheese from Costco about once a month. The taste of this cheddar is great with Jam’s Blenheim apricot preserves and our homemade bread. It’s one of the simplest things to make and, as we’ve recently found out, a favorite of several co-worker’s mothers in Steve’s office. Perhaps this is an old sandwich combination that needs to make a come back. Give it a try and let us know what you think.

Goat cheese, peach, and basil on a baguette.

Another wonderful fruit and cheese sandwich happened by accident as Jason was scurrying about the apartment getting ready for work the other day. With a half of a baguette on top of the fridge from the day before, a couple of peaches that were almost past their prime, and a large tube of goat cheese that had been recently opened, and a big bushy basil plant in the window, Jason assembled a wonderful sandwich. He split the baguette, then spread the goat cheese on one side of the loaf, peeled and sliced the peaches and placed them on top of the goat cheese. Tearing the basil leaves and sprinkling on a grind or two of fresh black pepper was all it took to finish it off. The sandwiched looked beautiful and tasted fantastic.

Carmelized onions and brie on seeded baguette.

Caramelized Onions and Brie

1 lb yellow onion, halved then sliced into 1/8th inch thick semi-circles
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Heat skillet and olive oil over medium high heat. Add sliced onions and sprinkle with salt and pepper, tossing to coat. Reduce heat and cook onions on low for about an hour to 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally to scrape up brown bits. When onions have reduced and are caramel brown, add balsamic vinegar. Continue to cook on low for 2-3 minutes until vinegar has been incorporated. Remove from heat and cool. To build the sandwich, slice brie into ¼ inch pieces and place on one side of split baguette in a single layer. Smear caramelized onions on the other side of the baguette.

We’ll add more blogs about our love of sandwiches later on, for now, try these quick and easy recipes.

Enjoy!