Savory Biscotti

Mm, Biscotti.  Most of us probably think of a crisp cookie-like stick with chocolate on the bottom, accompanied by coffee (or tea for folks like me).  They're Italian, and my dad loves Italian food.  He's made traditional (almond) biscotti a couple times.  The first time our oven temperature wasn't registering properly, so it was an utter disaster.  Think black.  Ok, to be fair, there was only a little smoke, and the top wasn't totally burnt, so it still had a little bit of the sweet almond flavor.  It was a real bummer actually.  But since then he's had much better luck.  

Biscotti are twice-baked, which is really essential to the texture (and form).  You start by forming a wide, flat loaf and baking it until it is firm and set.  Then it is sliced cross-wise into the form we associate with biscotti, and baked again until it has that crisp, crunchy texture.  That's how biscotti has a smooth top and porous sides-- it's really slices of cookie-bread.  

The New York Times published a recipe a few years ago that used the same technique, but to a savory end, creating a cheddar biscuit loaf that is sliced and baked into biscotti form.  When it was my turn to bring snacks to a lab meeting last year, I decided to make it so that I had something salty to share.  It doesn't take too many ingredients, and I went ahead and added a few ingredients of my own.  Here's what I did:

Savory Cheddar Biscotti

2 eggs

1 C grated cheddar cheese

1 C and 2 Tbsp flour 

1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (or to taste)

1/4 tsp ground thyme

Preheat your oven to 350˚ F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Put the eggs and cheese in a food processor or blender.  Process until the mixture is yellow and thick.  Place the flour, powder, salt, pepper flakes, and thyme in a bowl, and add the mixture to it.  Stir until just combined, then turn out onto a floured board and knead until it holds together.  Form into a log about 8-10 inches long.  Place it on the lined baking sheet and flatten it.  

Bake until the loaf begins to brown and firm up, about 20-25 minutes, then remove from the oven.  Cut crosswise into half-inch slices.  Lay the slices flat on the baking sheet and bake about 15 minutes more until crisp and toasted.  Flip them and toast the other side.  Cool completely before serving or storing.

If you have a food processor, you can avoid dirtying a bowl.  Just add everything to the egg mixture in the processor and pulse a few times to combine.  Don't over-process.  Treat it a bit like pie dough, which will get tough if you keep working it.  That's what the original recipe suggests.  I adapted it to the bowl situation, since the closest thing I have to a food processor is a Magic Bullet.  And while it is a wonderful little device, it has its limits.  A full loaf's worth of dough would be such a limit.

After the first baking

I said I made this for my lab meeting.  I blew the lab away.  People were excited, they asked for the recipe, they joked that I'd have to be in charge of the food from there on out.  (Which could be good way to avoid presenting… )  I was pretty happy with the way the flavors came together.  The egg/cheddar puree mean the cheese flavor is distributed evenly throughout all the dough, rather than bits of cheese and blandish cracker.  I recommend a sharper cheddar for a stronger flavor.  My husband doesn't care for thyme, so he was a bit less than thrilled by that addition.  Which was fine, I wanted to take it all in to the meeting, not leave half of it at home!

You'll see in my photos that mine were quite round, rather than the long stick-shape we think of for biscotti.  If you want that shape, flatten the loaf a bit more.  But really, it doesn't matter the much, because you won't be dunking these yummies in coffee.  Although, you might try them with wine.  Cheers!

French Scotch Egg

Don't you love when you find something delightful and unexpected at the grocery store?  I stumbled across some ground free-raised veal at a really good price, and decided I had to give it a try.  I know a lot of people have problems with veal, and I also have some reservations, but free-raised calves are able to enjoy a normal life before their slaughter, which what is important to me.  Bonus: the meat from happy healthy babies is typically leaner.  The only problem with impulse-buying ethical veal is that I don't have very many veal recipes because I so seldom come across veal I would buy.  And ground veal further complicated it.  I found a lot of meatball recipes that called for a blend of veal and some other meat, but it was such a bummer to come across such a rare find and then blend it to make something more or less ordinary.  Then I found "croquettes de veau surprise" in Cooking in a Castle: La Cuisine dans un Château (written/compiled by William I. Kaufman, published by Bonanza Books, 1965).  For people (like me) who don't really speak French, that would be veal croquette surprise.  As I was running it past my husband, he looked at me and said, "Oh, it's a Scotch egg." So apparently the French enjoy it, but the Scots made it famous.  Maybe?  Either way:

Croquettes de Veau Surprise

6 eggs, hard-boiled

melted butter

dash cayenne
1 Tbsp finely chopped chives
6 pitted ripe olives
4 Tbsp butter
4 Tbsp flour
3/4 veal stock
Ground (or fresh-grated if you have it) nutmeg (to taste)
Ground thyme (to taste)
1 1/2 C minced cooked veal
1 tsp grated (or finely chopped) onion
1 tsp minced parsley
1 C dry breadcrumbs
1/4 C grated cheddar cheese
2 eggs, beaten

Halve the eggs the long way, and scoop out the yolks.  Mash the yolks with melted butter to make a paste.  Season to taste with cayenne and blend in chives.  Stuff the olives with the yolk mixture, then place them inside the egg halves.  Stuff the egg halves with the yolk mixture, too, and stick the eggs back together.

Make a roux of the butter and flour, then gradually add the veal stock, stirring so the mixture remains thick.  Season to taste with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and thyme.  Remove from heat, and add the veal, onion, and parsley.  Spread out in a wide dish and chill until firm.  (Spreading it out isn't strictly necessary, but gives it more surface area for the heat to escape from, decreasing the cooling time.)  Once firm, divide into 6 portions, and mold a portion around each egg.

Combine breadcrumbs and grated cheddar.  One at a time, roll the coated eggs in the breadcrumb mixture, dip them in the beaten eggs, and re-roll them in the breadcrumb mixture.

Deep-fry at 390˚F for 2 minutes until lightly browned.  Serve immediately, garnished with parsley if desired.

The trick to this recipe is timing.  Hard-boil the eggs a day before, or first thing in the morning, to make your life easier.  The recipe is arranged conceptually, form the inside to the outside, which is ultimately how you have to build it.  However, due to chill times, it actually makes sense to make up the veal and roux mixture before you start halving and stuffing eggs.  And be sure to leave yourself time to preheat the oil for frying, especially if you (like me) don't have a fryer, and have to carefully heat, take temperature, and adjust.  And although they're best fresh out of the oil (like everything fried), they'll be fine if you need to do them up one at a time, and hold them to serve.  Just try to keep them warm and covered, and place them on paper so the oil can drain off a bit.

These are filling-- the recipe suggests two per serving, but I think I only ate one.  Luckily, they actually save decently.  They're flavorful and fun, too, and the way they're constructed gives them wonderful textures.  The roux softens again during the heat, and the breadcrumbs become crispy, so you bite into crispness, then tenderness, and finally a firm egg.  My husband thought they were fantastic.  I think he ate most of the leftover eggs.