The Pillsbury Crescent Adventure

I had wanted to try these easy bake crescent rolls for months. I love crescent rolls. Here at home we can buy them pre-packaged in cling-wrapped batches of 20 or have serving ladies pluck them from their displays on the bakery shelves and hand them to you – for a price, of course! From hors d'oeuvre size to those as big as your hand, they’re eaten plain or baked with cheese and ham or created into sandwiches packed with turkey, tuna or chicken salad (with the obligatory lettuce and tomato).

Obviously, I do have recipes for crescent rolls, but they are time consuming. However, on my recent trip to the grocery I decided to jump in with both feet and purchase these. (By the way, don’t you just love the commercials featuring the little Pillsbury Doughboy? I just love that sound he makes when you rub his belly… “hoo-hoo”… but I digress.)

Now you know me; before I even attempt to use things like this, I read the instructions, then re-read… and re-re-read. Then I do as the packet or box says and realise that the instructions don’t always correspond to what I call “Trini Conditions,” which are how our climate and cookware behave with many foreign products.  With that said, there are a few main things you should know about we Trinidadians and Tobagonians when it comes to food…

1) Our chicken must be browned…

2) We don’t like our meat “rare”...

3) Seasoning isn’t just salt and black pepper…

4) Baked pastries must not be pale when they come out the oven.

So, with number four echoing in my head, I wondered how my Pillsbury adventure would play out in my tiny kitchen…

I extracted the cylinder of Pillsbury crescent roll dough from the fridge…

Had a hard time busting it open because the pull tab just tore off instead of sliding down the side. Ended up stabbing it with my knife, only to have dough pour out like toothpaste, hahaa! One good whack on the counter cured that, though.

Unrolling these things are not easy, so don’t laugh at the display here. :-)

So, after preparing my hot dog sausages and (extra) cheese, I put them on the bottom edge of the pastry, then rolled them up, one by one.

Transferred them to an ungreased sheet pan.

For the Halcie touch, I sprinkled on some Italian seasoning. Nice!

Baked them up for about 15 minutes or so… didn’t take them out until I was happy with the colour and saw that they were nice and flaky. (Notice how the cheese seeped out and caked up on the pan... of course, I ate those!)

Selected a couple for me and a couple for my boy. My daughter tried a couple as well, but without the sausage, lol!

The rest went to the fridge for another day.

Sampled. One word… DELICIOUS!! Recipe? Sure.

Hal’s Sausage Crescents

1 package Pillsbury Crescents (yields 8)

4 hot dog sausages, cut into halves to make 8 pieces

4 three inch slices of cheese, cut into two (extra cheese was in mine as you saw)

Italian Seasoning for sprinkling.

Method

1. Open, unroll and separate the crescents.
2. One by one, place a sausage half and a piece of cheese at the bottom end of the crescent and roll it up like a little package. (You can seal the edges if you like by pinching them together.)
3. Place on an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 375°F for 15 minutes (or slightly longer) until puffed, golden brown and flaky to the touch.
4. Let cool for about 5 minutes, then enjoy!

I realise that I deviated from the standard baking time (as is the norm with me). The package directions say 11 minutes, which is not nearly enough time, since they were still a bit uncooked and pale. Go to about 15 to 18 minutes tops and you’ll be rewarded for your trouble. Eating them was a pleasure. So soft and pillowy… going to repeat the recipe with different fillings in future, that’s a promise.

Off to rest the brain and later, work on my cookbook. Thinning it out, actually… but not to worry. It’s all about marketing, packaging, etc. If it helps, I’ve already chosen my cover pic, which features the ingredients for popular side dish, which will be in an upcoming blog post, so stay tuned! I know you are all anxious for the completed product – as am I – and I do not want to disappoint. As my Granny always said, “Good things come to those who wait!”

Till next posting, be safe, take care, and doh forget to mind de pot! Ah gorn! :-)

A Quick Strawberry Vaps!

As a rule, I try not to type when I’m eating sweet things. But, I’m taking a huge risk tonight as I indulge in the results of one of my many vaps while my tongue continues to curl and caress a remaining bite of ripe, chocolate covered strawberry in my mouth.

No, I didn’t order them from somewhere fancy. I made them myself. No recipe. No instructions. Just a vaps, spurred by the memories of seeing – not eating – chocolate covered strawberries on television and being advertised online.

The strawberries sitting in my fridge were not meant to be eaten right away, either; I was saving them to make strawberry muffins. But, in rearranging the contents of the fridge after sharing some leftovers for dinner, I found a little bit of bittersweet chocolate chips from the last set of chocolate muffins I had made – months ago, I might add – and started wondering what I could do with them until I purchased more cocoa to make said muffins again.

They were less than a handful, about a 1/3 of a cup at most, and still tasty. My tub of strawberries beckoned… ‘Just take a few and try a thing, Halcie…’

So, I washed a handful and drained them…

Next, I put the chocolate chips in a microwaveable bowl and put them to heat for a full minute. I started stirring them while the bowl was still warm…

Then I put them back in and heated them at 15 second intervals until they were nicely melted.

The next step was to pat the strawberries dry…

And dip them in one by one.

Of course, not all of them came out as cute as this one, but I tried!

Arranged them on some wax paper on a plate…

Which went into the refrigerator to chill for a bit.

Out they came!

So Delicious! (Yup, I took a bite out of the bigger one instead!)

That was truly one of the more tasty vaps I’ve had, or experienced. Wanna try them yourself? Here's my vaps recipe.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

8 to 10 strawberries

1/3 to ½ cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips

Wash your strawberries and drain off the excess water.

Put the chocolate chips into a microwaveable bowl and heat for 60 seconds.

Remove from the microwave and start stirring them while the bowl is still warm.

Put them back in the microwave and heat at 15 second intervals, stirring after each until the chocolate is melted.

Blot any excess water off the strawberries and dip them halfway into the melted chocolate. (You can use a spoon to slather the chocolate over them if necessary.)

Cover a plate with wax paper and then place each dipped strawberry on it.

Put them in the fridge for about ½ an hour, or until the chocolate has firmed up.

Enjoy at your leisure!

I’ll admit this was definitely worth the effort. The taste was just as I imagined too, darkly sweet at first from the chocolate, then the strawberry taste mingles with the dark and spikes it with tart sweetness… yum! No wonder people crave this combination so much! 

Well, I definitely plan on doing more chocolate experiments with pears, bananas and other fruit, but for now, I will just relax and indulge…

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I still have enough left over to make my strawberry muffins!

Take care, my friends, and like I always say, doh forget to mind de pot! :-)

Saaaaaaalt Fish...

Carnival is in the air. There are so many local foods associated with the season, from potato pies to rotis (and we can’t forget the unofficial “official” food of T&T, a nice tasty pigeon peas pelau) but I don’t think that none can beat the perfect breakfast of Salt fish Bujol (sometimes spelled as Brulejol) and… well… anything!

Back in the day, salt fish (made by salting and preserving cod) was often referred to as a poor man’s food, but as anyone can now attest, it has now become “Mr.” Salt fish, meaning that the price has risen to give it 'status' among other high priced foods. Today you can find salted shark and pollock in abundance. However, as all Trinidadians know, it’s taken quite a few knocks because the very word is synonymous with the slang for a woman’s ahem … nether regions…

Still, this is one of those breakfasts that many pay through the nose to enjoy at a local food stand or café, where it’s served up in a hot roast or fried bake or sada roti and splashed with ketchup and peppersauce.  I thank God that my late Granny had a flair for making all kinds of things with salted fish, including cod puffs and salt fish stew, and her specialty, scrambled eggs and salt fish.

No one however, can take away my happy memories of my Granny and her long handled blue enamel potspoon, which I can still hear knocking around her Pyrex dish as she’d mix up the saltfish buljol before handing me a plate with a handful of Crix from the biscuit drum. Eaten with a nice fried bake and drunk with a warm cup of sweet tea or coffee is my favourite way to start a weekend morn, and it’s even better enjoyed when a couple slices of ripe zaboca (avocado) join the party.

Many people think that a good Saltfish Buljol is a complicated thing to make, but as you will soon realise, it’s as easy as the famous double entendre calypso by the Mighty Sparrow… sing it with me now… “Saaaaaaalt Fish… it sweeter than meat, when is time to eat, baby… all saltfish sweet!” 

First, you get your salt fish and place it in some water. Put it on a medium high flame and let it boil for 10 minutes – that will get most of the salt out of it.

Cut up a few blades of chive…

Then slice a medium onion, cut up two tomatoes and also a couple of pimento peppers. The pimentoes are optional; I just happen to love them in my buljol!

By the time you’re through doing that, your salt fish should be boiling.

Strain it off in your rice strainer or colander and let it cool a bit. Taste a piece of it to make sure that enough salt has come out, or your buljol will be ‘brinejol’.

(If it’s still too salty, boil again for about 5 minutes.)

Now you can do this part with your hands, but I need mine for the photos, hence the two forks. Just use them (or your fingers) to shred the salt fish nicely.

Add the onions and pimento and mix them in.

Next comes the chive…

Followed by the tomato.

Give it all a good stir; see how it’s starting to look like the finished product? But we’re not done yet!

Now for the “must have” magic ingredient… olive oil. I should note that I’ve tried making a salt fish buljol with other kinds of oil, but the taste never comes out the same.

(This next step can be pretty dangerous, so I must tell you that this is OPTIONAL. You don’t have to do this, but this is how I saw my Granny do it, so I’ve continued the tradition.)

Heat the olive oil in a potspoon over your stove’s flame until is starts to shimmer.

Next, pour it onto the salt fish, you’ll hear it give a nice sizzle… However, DO NOT use the same potspoon you used to heat the oil to stir, otherwise the fish will stick to it.

If you have it, add in a little minced habanero for a bit of heat, then stir it up and let it sit for a few minutes so the flavours can meld together… and there you have it! Your very own bowl of salt fish buljol!

Curious? Here’s the full recipe!

Salt fish Buljol.

A 250 g pack of salted fish (shark, cod or pollock)

1 medium onion, sliced thinly

2 bulbs chive, chopped

2 pimento peppers, chopped (optional)

2 medium sized tomatoes, chopped

1 potspoonful (or 1½ tablespoons) olive oil (you have the option to warm it up)

A 1 inch piece of yellow habanero pepper, minced fine (optional)

Method:

Boil the salted fish for about 10 minutes and then drain in a colander or rice strainer. (Taste for saltiness. If still too salty, boil for another 5 minutes.)

Shred it with your fingers, then add in the onion, pimento, chives and tomatoes and stir.

Add in the olive oil (you can choose to heat it up on an open flame in a potspoon) and stir with a fresh spoon.

Add in the minced habanero (optional) and stir again. Let it sit for a few minutes for the flavours to meld together.

Serve on some warm sada roti, fried or roast bake or with some Crix.

 

And thus ends my salt fish buljol sojourn. Keep in mind that there are as many versions of buljol as there are lovers of the dish, and you will come across a few variations that have garlic, chadon beni, sweet peppers or even grated carrot. All are fine in their own right, because for some it’s a matter of preference. This recipe, however, is as easy as it gets. Have fun trying it and let me know how it comes out. Don’t forget to leave me a word or two, and as I always say, doh forget to mind de pot!  Take care!  :-)