Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Dining with the Bloggers - April 6th



So what exactly is the relationship between Mr. R. and Miss A.? Will Mr. R. take Caryn on the upcoming shoot and where will it be? But most of all, who is Mr. R. and is Caryn really his personal chef??? If you don't know what I'm talking about, you haven't had the pleasure of reading Delicious! Delicious!, Caryn's lovely and entertaining food blog. Caryn says that only the food is real, but one can't help but wonder...

I have to thank Barrett for pointing me in the direction of this blog. Although I had noticed the name of it somewhere, it wasn't until Barrett included it in a recent Posts of the Week that I actually visited it. I was immediately hooked. Each post is a brief scene written as a screenplay and includes a gorgeous photograph. Most are also accompanied by a recipe. So if you aren't already up on Caryn's adventures, you must start from the beginning and catch up! This week, the recipe that caught my eye was the one that had brought me there - Bierocks.

Bierocks are rolls filled with a meat and cabbage mixture. For a yeast bread, this was surprisingly quick and easy to make. The dough is mixed and kneaded in the mixer, though I kneaded it a little by hand at the end. The dough was easy to handle and stuffing the rolls was a snap. I used ground pork for the filling and decided to add a pinch of red pepper flakes and some fennel seeds. I ate my first bierock warm from the oven - it was heaven! The bread was fluffy and slightly sweet and combined with the pork and cabbage filling it made a perfectly yummy little sandwich. It wasn't until I reread Caryn's post just now that I noticed the mention of serving these with mustard, so I'll have to try that next time. I have frozen most of them and plan to use them for bag lunches in the near future. I really like this idea of making filled rolls - they're delicious and make such convenient little packages.

Oops, almost forgot to mention - the theme this week is "lunchbox", so stop by Zarah's and see what she has packed for you!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Cathy,
I've made these same bierocks (well, I followed the original recipe in Cooking Light, not Caryn's adaption) several times by now. They are always a big hit! I love to serve them with soup whenever I have anyone coming over for lunch. (Cookies or brownies for dessert...which I'm sure you can appreciate :) And, do try them with mustard...heavenly!

Cathy said...

Hi Alice - I haven't shared them with anyone yet, but I'm not at all surprised that they were a hit! I've been imagining all sorts of possible stuffings for them too (but then I guess they would no longer be bierocks).

Do you reheat them or eat leftovers at room temperature? Or maybe you've never had leftovers? ;-)

Niki said...

You know, I was just about to write a post directing readers to Delicious Delicious, as I've just found it and am hooked as well! But you beat me to it! Her photos are excellent too, aren't they?

Anonymous said...

I do reheat the leftovers. The Cooking Light article gave instructions to thaw in the fridge overnight and then bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes to reheat them. You freeze them individually wrapped in foil, and pack in an airtight ziplock, so they can go straight into the oven when thawed. You could probably do it straight from freezer to oven, but just bake longer. They freeze amazingly well...when I do have them for lunch with guests, I always make them ahead, freeze, thaw, then reheat as people arrive.

Cathy said...

Niki - I'm sorry!! I love her photos as well - the whole blog is so well done!

Alice - Thanks so much for the reheating tips! I used to keep Cooking Light back issues for quite a while, but I'm running out of space for that sort of thing and recently discarded that issue. I didn't wrap mine in foil, but think I'll do that now - I'm sure that will ward off the dreaded freezer burn!

Nic said...

Oh yum, Cathy. I've been wanting to make these since I saw Caryn's post. Not I'm even more tempted!

Anonymous said...

As far as Cooking Light back issues...I have to admit what a huge nerd I am. I just had my back issues professionally bound. I had been just collecting the annuals, but I missed all of the great photos in the actual magazines. So my own personal library now contains each issue starting with September 2003...all bound, 4 months per volume...I probably shouldn't be admitting this, huh. I'm still debating whether or not to have some of my other magazines bound. Since most of them have squared off edges, however, they seem to look just fine in magazine racks.

Cathy said...

Hi Nic - try them, try them!! They're so good and not at all difficult to make.

Hi Alice - I think that sound like a great solution! It probably makes your magazines more accessible and definitely makes them more durable. Then the only problem is shelf space...

By the way, I'll be heating up a bierock for lunch today and having it with mustard. Thanks again for the reheating tips!

Anonymous said...

I've made Bierocks for years. I wrap them in Stretchtight and freeze the leftovers. They reheat wonderfully in the microwave in about a minute when cooking one. You just wait for the plastic wrap to inflate to know it is done. Open the microwave immediately & cut a huge whole in the Stretchtight so it won't deflate & shrivel the bierock up. Waching the plastic baloon to twice the size of the bierock is the perfect timer, without making the dough rubbery. At least my grandmother's recipe.

Cathy said...

Hi anon - that's a great tip! I found Alice's instructions worked really well, but there are bound to be times when I forget to take one out of the freezer the night before. Thanks!