Good Friday

Photo credit: Crestock / Davidgn

The Cafe is closed today as we observe Good Friday. May God touch our hearts as we turn our eyes to the cross, to the loving sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and remember what He has done for each of us.

Hot Cross Buns and Happy Easter!

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I thought I'd share an old (old, old, old) favorite today. I thought maybe someone (Ruthy?) had done this post before but since I don't see it in the labels, I'm going to assume I AM THE FIRST. Don't correct me if I'm wrong!

  So, it's Good Friday (technically Holy Saturday by the time you read this) and hot cross buns are a tradition in our family. You can read about the history of it here. There are some funny superstitions, too, like the belief that they won't go moldy. (I can't check that one since they're already gone, but I'll be a skeptic and say that's false.) Also, some believe that you should keep one on hand for medicinal purposes. Hmmmm, now that I think about it penicillin is a mold, right? Just perhaps someone was cured from a moldy hot cross bun in olden times? Probably not, but a fun theory.

 So, this is what you'll need:

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast 
• 1/3 cup  butter, melted
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour 
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 cup currants
• 1 egg beaten, for the top before baking.

  Combine milk and water in a pan and heat to just steaming. let it cool a bit and sprinkle on the yeast and a bit of the sugar. 

 

 Whisk the butter, eggs, and vanilla together. (Hey, it's looking at me!)

 Wait ten minutes while the yeast gets all happy and has a little yeast party. Add the egg and butter to this mix.

  Mix the flour, sugar, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon (we ran out! Crisis!), ginger together and make a well in the flour. Add the liquid mixture and stir until it's all sticky. Add the currants and mix well.

 Turn the whole thing onto a floured surface and kneed until elastic, about seven minutes. Then put it in a greased bowl, in a warm place, and let it double in size. This usually takes about an hour but it only took 40 minutes so I decided to call it good.

 Form into small balls and place in greased pans. Let them rise again. Do some dishes, some laundry, put the kids in the bath, return a few phone calls, iron church clothes, and track down the puppy who got out of the fence and is wandering the neighborhood.
Or not. You could always just sit down and read for a while. That's always an option.
 When they're nice and puffy, put them into a preheated 375F oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes. Your whole house will smell like EASTER.
 (I forgot to take a pic after forming them into balls, so here's a picture of my oven!)

 The icing should be nice and soft. Or whatever. I'm just making it up at this point. Let's just say, icing goes on the buns in the shape of a cross.

 Awwwww. MMMMMMM.....

 I love the blend of nutmeg and ginger and cinnamon.

 Our favorite part?? The eating!!! My oldest is giving me the "Are you really taking a picture of me right now? You didn't even let me brush my hair!"

 Happy Easter everyone! 

  

 

 

Simply Saturday Fish Fry!

Duh.

I forgot it was Saturday.

Because I had off yesterday.

And we did our Good Friday fish fry dinner.

Prepared by moi.

BUT...

I wasn't thinking about today being Saturday. I was thinking about Easter.

Planning.

Cleaning (oh my stars.... lament... lament...)

Painting. Maybe.

And getting music ready for tonight's vigil Mass...

For Holy Saturday.

OH MY STARS!!!! IT'S SATURDAY AND I'M MANNING THE CAFE!!!

So I'm going to show you fish fry, Rochester style, delicious!

Here is fresh haddock:

Now haddock is a North Atlantic white fish. It's not available everywhere.

More's the pity.

And we always, always, always always breaded the haddock using flour, then beaten egg, thinned with 1/3 as much water, and then dredged in fresh bread crumbs.

(I use my Cuisinart to make bread crumbs whenever I've got bread on the verge of being wasted. Old rolls... Heels.... crusts.... bagels (not sweet or seasoned).

And then I pop it into a gallon freezer bag and I always have fresh bread crumbs on hand.

Julia Child taught me about using fresh bread crumbs years ago.

Possibly decades.

Make that absolutely decades.

How did I get so old, so quickly????

Anyway, we tried beer batter last night:

INGREDIENTS:

2 Cups flour

12 ounces beer

2 tsp. salt

Mix together. Dip fish into batter. Drop into deep fat fryer. Cook until dark gold.

OH. MY. STARS.

This was restaurant quality deliciousness. 

My one regret???

WHY DIDN'T I REALIZE HOW EASY BEER BATTER WAS BEFORE?

Duh.

I did discover two things. That if you drop the fish (using tongs) into the oil with a basket in place, the batter cooks into the grooves of the basket.

So I removed the baskets from the fish fryer.

I use the big Presto fryer for the fish.

And a smaller one for the french fries. But not much smaller.

And I kept the basket in the one for the French Fry fryer.

And the coleslaw?

Freshly made. Very old world Brit Fish-n-chips.

I think they may possibly have Western NY fish fries in heaven.

I am not absolutely certain of that last fact.

Bless you all and may God our father in heaven and on Earth grant you peace and health this blessed Easter Resurrection Sunday....

A holy day indeed!