Beth Cato's Blog, page 159

I have a thing for Scottish shortbread. It brings to mind some of my fondest childhood memories: attending the annual Central California Scottish Highland Games at Coombs Riverbend Ranch. It always took place the second Saturday in September. The ranch was a speck of paradise hidden in the golden California foothills just outside of Fresno. Back in the '80s, the access road was a rickety dirt trail best suited for beaten-up trucks hauling hay. It would wind into the hills, and then you'd round a corner and suddenly there was a green oasis below along the river.



Even if it was a hundred-degrees, it was cool down there beneath the shade of those gnarled century-old oaks. The muskiness of frying oil drifted on the breeze, along with the wail of bagpipes and the grunts of caber-tossers. There was clan row--a genealogist's delight--and many vendors peddling books and Celtic music and most anything with a tangential connection to Britain, Scotland, or Ireland--including Walker's Shortbread.

Oh, those little red shortbread boxes--opening up those was the ultimate treat after a banger or pasty for lunch. That buttery taste on the tongue is melded in memory with bagpipes and happiness.

I've had a go-to shortbread recipe for years, but I'm still on the look-out for interesting variations. Since I have a small stockpile of espresso powder, this recipe caught my eye. I mean, come on--shortbread, plus chocolate plus coffee? Also, I was intrigued by how this is made. You form the dough within a gallon disposable bag. I was willing to give it a go, and I'm glad I did. It created tasty little shortbread bites and is well worth sharing.

Come on, give it a try. Maybe you'll hear some bagpipes.

Espresso Chocolate Chip Shortbread
Found on Use Real Butter; originally from Smitten Kitchen.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp instant espresso powder
1 tbsp boiling water
8 oz. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped OR 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

Dissolve espresso powder in boiling water. Set aside to cool to tepid.

Beat butter and confectioners’ sugar together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is very smooth. Beat in vanilla and espresso, then reduce mixer speed to low and add flour, mixing only until it disappears into the dough. Don’t overwork the dough. Fold in the chocolate with a sturdy spatula.

Using the spatula, transfer dough to a gallon-size zip-loc bag. Put bag on a flat surface, leaving the top open, and roll the dough into a 9 x 10 1/2 inch rectangle that’s 1/4 inch thick. As you roll, turn the bag occasionally and lift the plastic from the dough so it doesn’t cause creases. When you get the right size and thickness, seal the bag, pressing out as much air as possible, and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours, or for up to 2 days.

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

Put the plastic bag on a cutting board and slit it open. Turn the firm dough out onto the board (discard the bag) and, using a ruler as a guide and a sharp knife, cut the dough into 1 1/2-inch squares. Transfer the squares to the baking sheets.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. The shortbread will be very pale. Transfer the cookies to a rack. Cool the cookies to room temperature before serving. Makes about 3 dozen.

OM NOM NOM!

"An outline is crucial. It saves so much time. When you write suspense, you have to know where you're going because you have to drop little hints along the way. With the outline, I always know where the story is going. So before I ever write, I prepare an outline of 40 to 50 pages." ~ John Grisham

Things that suck:
a migraine

Things that are awesome:
Excedrin Migraine (caffeine! wheeeeeeee!)
Friends visiting from Canada
Multiple publications to report

Clearly, the awesomeness outweighs the awful.

"Blue Tag Sale," my tale of a granddaughter, grandmother, and their love of thrift stores, is now online over at Buzzy Mag. This is one of the publications I'm most excited about this year because I love this story so much. All story-babies are not created equal, and yeah, this is one I'm partial to.

This week also brought my first podcast story! "Pest Control" was published at Every Day Fiction at the end of July, and is now available in audio form read by Folly Blaine. It's a silly story, and I'm thrilled at how Folly read it. The goth girl voice kills me. If you give it a listen, please give it a star rating, too!

I'm a Californian born and raised, but my dad is from rural Alabama. Therefore, I grew up with good ol' southern foods around, like corn bread, biscuits and gravy, and fried okra. My dad even grew okra for a few years. I have early memories of helping my mom wash off the okra in the sink. It's certainly a peculiar vegetable: prickly and firm, and then when cut, all snotty and slimy. Who would think something that disgusting could become so delicious?

Frying. It's like southern magic.

My husband also has southern roots, via New Mexico--his paternal grandparents are from central Arkansas. He also has a deep and abiding affection for fried okra. But as I've mentioned before, we're trying to eat healthier and include vegetables with every meal. Okra is certainly a vegetable, but the whole deep-fried thing is problematic.

Therefore, I really perked up when I saw baked okra recipes floating around on Pinterest. Would they be as good as "the real thing?" I have to say, we were both pleasantly surprised. The texture and crunch is just as good when okra is baked, and we really didn't miss the oily taste. This is definitely a cooking method we'll repeat in the future.



Oven Fried Okra

Found on Cookin' Cowgirl.

Ingredients:
16 oz bag frozen sliced okra, thawed
1 tsp Cajun or creole seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 cup yellow corn meal
Canola/olive oil spray
1 gallon storage bag

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Turn the zip-lock bag inside out and apply the canola or olive oil spray all over.

Pour the okra in the bag along with the seasoning and garlic salt. Seal bag and shake vigorously. Let rest for 10 minutes.

Add the cornmeal to the bag and shake up again--come on, let the rage of the day come out! This is therapeutic. Let the okra rest 10 more minutes. Pour okra onto a foil covered baking sheet and spread out evenly. Spray the okra with oil again.

Bake for 20 minutes, remove from oven, flip okra over, lightly spray again and return to oven for 20 more minutes. That's it!

OM NOM NOM!

"I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story." ~Tom Clancy

If only it were easy to "keep things simple..."

My story "Cartographer's Ink" is available to read at Daily Science Fiction as of today; it went out on their email list last Friday. I've gotten wonderful responses to it. That's rewarding with any story, but in this case it's especially meaningful because of how long I spent trying to get this %$#@ thing right.

A quick Google search for "Cartographer's Ink" says it all. The bottom result page leads back to this very blog, on an entry dated October 2nd, 2009:

My brain was hijacked by a story idea. I've had the main character in my head for over six months, but no story for the guy. Last night I was on the elliptical machine, and the storyline popped into my head, just like that. I finished up my workout and sat down at the computer, still soaked with sweat, and typed out the first few paragraphs to about 300 words. After I showered, I wrote out my full story notes, long-hand, so I wouldn't forget it overnight.

I finished up the rough draft today. "Cartographer's Ink," 3,500 words.

The seeds for the story go back even farther.

The opening concept of a meandering river changing the border of a kingdom was something that I wanted to write about since 1999. I was 19. I was a geography geek and took every course offered at my community college. My cultural geography class touched on the issue of the Colorado River as the border between California and Arizona. The idea stuck in my head that in a fantasy world, that shifting river would be a major point of contention.

But at that point, I had stopped reading fantasy because I was told I would burn in hell and that it wasn't "real literature" anyway. I stopped writing outside of homework, as well.

Then early on in 2009, I was chatting online with my friend Rachel and encouraging her to write. (Yeah, I still nag her on the subject.) We were playing around with a story generator online and it popped out something about a cartographer and a dancer.

"I have an idea for the dancer!" said Rachel.

"I have an idea for the cartographer!" I said, and thought back to that old story idea.

Six months later, I finally had a rough draft. That's when the real effort and heartbreak began. I submitted "Cartographer's Ink" to several pro markets. To my delight, I had a revise and resubmit request! I followed all their suggestions, waited anxiously for a month, and then finally had a reply.

Rejection.

I sobbed. Full, body-heaving sobs.

I didn't have the heart to submit it anywhere for months. It hurt to even think about the story. I finally posted it on OWW for critiques. Sent it out again. Posted it on OWW again. Had more rejection. Stopped submitting for months. I finally posted it on Codex for critique last fall. I revised yet again, sucked in a deep breath, and sent the story out for 7th time.

Acceptance.

Rough draft: October 2nd, 2009
Publication: August 24th, 2012

This is the story that grew along with my writing ability. Seeing "Cartographer's Ink" published--seeing people enjoy it--means more to me than I can express.

I did it. I finally got it right.

Repeat after me: Good food should not be confined to one time of year. Love gingerbread? Make it in June! Love cornbread dressing? Be a rebel! Don't wait till Thanksgiving or Christmas!

This same thing is true for Irish-inspired goods. Good grief! If it's tasty, don't confine it to March. Celebrate all year long!

This recipe is especially worth celebrating because it's soft, tender, and awesome. I tried another soda bread recipe a few years ago and it almost made me swear off that type of bread entirely. It was so DRY. Not even copious amounts of butter could compensate for that Sahara of bread.

This bread, on the other hand, is so soft and yummy it doesn't even need butter. Oh, it WANTS butter. There's a difference.

I also opted for a non-raisin bread to suit the other tastes in my household, but you can always add raisins or currants.




Irish Soda Bread
From A Bird in the Kitchen, which adapted the recipe from Cook's Illustrated.

3 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
4 tablespoons butter, divided
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (you can make your own)

Preheat oven to 400-degrees.

Whisk together all of the dry ingredients. Work 3 tablespoons of butter into mixture with a pastry blender or your fingertips until it resembles coarse crumbs; just as with making pie crust, you want those bits of butter in there.

Add the buttermilk and stir until just combined. Knead in the bowl until the dough just starts to come together and is still craggy and bumpy, adding more buttermilk if necessary. Don't over-knead or the bread will be tough and dense.

Tuck the ends under to form a ball and place in a skillet or Dutch oven. Bake, uncovered, for 40-45 minutes or until internal temperature registers 180⁰F.

Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter and brush onto the loaf. Let cool to room temperature.

OM NOM NOM.

"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all." ~ J. K. Rowling

I've noticed that acceptances and rejections come in waves, as do publications. This week is a good one; the next will be the first week in September.

My poem "The Unicorn" is over in The Pedestal Magazine. This is my first pro genre poetry publication. This is kinda funny, since Pedestal was also my first pro fiction publication.

Then on Friday, my story "Cartographer's Ink" will be published through Daily Science Fiction's email list. If you'd like to read it on Friday or over the weekend, you can sign up for their list over here. My story will be on their website a week from Friday, August 31st.

I am always on the look-out for recipes that include my secret weapon: espresso powder.



"What's so special about espresso powder?" you ask. Well, in brownie batters, it's like Robin is to Batman. It's the sidekick that never gets the credit or glory, looks goofy in tights, but saves the day... well, every day. See, I don't like drinking coffee, but I love the flavor embodied by espresso powder. You might say it provides a certain OOMPH! BAM! POW!



Okay, I'll stop.

I will add that I'm biased towards King Arthur Flour's espresso powder, probably because I'm something of a King Arthur Flour fangirl.

In this particular recipe, espresso powder is used to add a crisp coffee taste to coffee cake-style muffins. These are delicious and tender, and a bit messy because of that crumble topping, but you'll want to wet a finger and eat up every crumb.

BAM! KAPOW!



Coffee Coffee Cake Muffins

Recipe from Joy the Baker.

Makes 12 muffins.

Muffin base
10 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons whole milk
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder mixed with 1 1/2 tablespoons warm water

For the Topping
3 Tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pan with paper or foil liners.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until little brown bits appear in the pan. Monitor it as the butter browns completely. Remove from heat.

In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, and vanilla. Add the brown butter and stir to combine.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add milk and butter mixture all at once, and stir gently to combine.

Divide half of the batter among muffin cups. Stir the espresso and water mixture into the remaining batter in the bowl. Add the espresso batter onto each of the muffin cups, smoothing it to make sure the pale batter is covered.

For the topping, combine all of the ingredients in a bowl, and with fingers or a fork, mix until the mix is crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over the batter in the cups.

Bake until a wooden pick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes. Watch them--don't over-bake! Use a fork to gentle pry them up and set them on a rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

OM NOM NOM.