Searching4Zen

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  • My Go To Pizza Dough

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    Ingredients 390 grams bread flour (about 2 ¾ cups) ¼ ounce active dry yeast (about 2 ½ teaspoons or 8 grams) 2 teaspoons sea salt ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil (45 grams) 1 cup warm water (for 70% hydration use 270 grams, for 65% use 250 grams and for 60% use 230 grams) 2 […]

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  • Skillet Garlic Butter Herb Steak and Potatoes

    35 minutes
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    Ingredients 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 tablespoon butter 1 pound yukon gold potatoes, sliced about ½ inch in thickness 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 teaspoon thyme, chopped 1 teaspoon rosemary, chopped 1 teaspoon oregano, chopped 2 lean New York Steak strip steaks salt and pepper Garlic Butter Compound: ¼ cup softened butter 3 garlic cloves, […]

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  • Classic Shrimp Scampi

    15 minutes
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    Author’s Notes Scampi are tiny, lobster-like crustaceans with pale pink shells (also called langoustines). Italian cooks in the United States swapped shrimp for scampi, but kept both names. Thus the dish was born, along with inevitable variations. This classic recipe makes a simple garlic, white wine and butter sauce that goes well with a pile […]

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  • Toasted Coconut Ice Cream

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    Ingredients 1 cup sugar 2 ½ tsp. cornstarch Pinch salt 1 cup whole milk ¾ cup whipping or heavy cream, I would substitute cream of coconut instead 2 large egg yolks ½ cup chilled evaporated milk, I would substitute powered milk 1 cup chilled unsweetened canned coconut milk ¼ cup sweetened coconut flakes, toasted; more […]

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  • Caramelized Banana Pudding

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    Ingredients ¾ cup plus 2 Tbsp. sugar, divided 1 tsp. ground cinnamon, divided 6 medium bananas (yellow but not yet browning) 3 Tbsp. cornstarch ¼ tsp. kosher salt 2½ cups half-and-half, divided 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter 1½ tsp. vanilla extract 1½ cups sour cream 15 graham crackers Instructions Place rack in bottom third of oven; […]

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  • Grilled Chicken Sandwich with Caesar-ish Dressing

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    Ingredients 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce 2 garlic cloves, finely grated, for me I doubled this amount 2 Tbsp. plus 2 tsp. fresh lemon juice 2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper, plus more ⅓ cup plus 2 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for grill 6 Tbsp. mayonnaise ¼ cup chopped cornichons […]

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  • Cream Cheese Ice Cream

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    Author’s Note While cream cheese ice cream has a lovely tang that goes with, um, everything, you’ll want to make this ice cream for its texture. Dense, rich cream cheese replaces some of the cream in this recipe. In doing so, you replace the water in the cream with so much milk protein that the […]

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  • Salted Crème Fraîche Caramel Ice Cream

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    Author’s Note Salted caramel is a new standard, and there is hardly an ice cream shop without their spin on this flavor. This version is finished with crème fraîche, which adds a bright dimension to the wonderfully deep flavor of the caramelized sugars. This recipe also features a dry caramel, whereby the sugar is added […]

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  • Creamy Vanilla Ice Cream

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    Ingredients 1 batch of Basic Custard Base I whole vanilla bean or 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract Instructions Follow the instructions as laid out in the Basic Custard Base Ice Cream except for the following changes if you are using a whole vanilla bean: After you have boiled the dairy and sugars (step 2) you Infuse the […]

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  • Basic Custard Base for Ice Cream

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    This basic custard base is my adaption of the blank slate custard ice cream as proposed by Dana Cree the author of “Hello, My Name is Ice Cream: The Art and Science of the Scoop“. Her book, which I strongly recommend, provides a lot of the science and reasoning as to why this base is […]

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