#nycbento

Baking skills are social skills!

I had planned to make calzones (Italian hand pies made with pizza dough) on New Year's Day. I made the dough two days before and left it to proof in the fridge (pizza dough loves long, cold fermentation).

Once I had the dough, the rest was a kind of provident disposal process: This leftover ricotta, that leftover spinach, these remnants of grated cheeses, those leftover mushrooms and a package of ham bits (sung to "partriiiiidge in a pair tree").

I put the ricotta and spinach in strainers - I saved the exuded liquid because I've discovered new doughs love that stuff in the levain. The grated cheese got picked through and combined, the ham and mushroom got chopped in smaller pieces, the spinach got chopped and mixed with the ricotta, adding salt, pepper, Aleppo pepper and a few scrapes of nutmeg, because dairy loves nutmeg like carrots love ginger.

In the interim I started up a simple marinara for dipping (canned tomatoes and one leftover fresh chopped plum tomato simmered in a bit of olive oil with garlic, tomato paste, Calabrian chili peppers for a little kick and herbs)

Each dough bit was about 190 g, on a lightly floured surface (the dough is moist), I patted and rolled it to about the size of a medium plate (8-9"). On one half, lay down melty cheese, then ham and mushroom, ricotta/spinach, then more melty cheese.

Fold over and close up (I did it with the same edging as I'd use for empanadas)

At this point my upstairs neighbor texted - I had asked him if he wanted a black and white cookie, now I offered a calzone as well. He was with his girlfriend, so it became a feast and ego boost - she is on a keto diet, but my baking (particularly pretzels) is her cheat.

Though Chef John at Food Wishes specified an egg wash, that doesn't square with anything I've seen in a pizzeria, so I snipped three vents with kitchen shears, brushing the calzone with olive oil and dusted with a last leftover bit of grana padano cheese.

I put these plump babies on parchment to control spills (and it made them a LOT easier to transfer). Baking was less time than I thought, (about 20 minutes at 450 F until the crust browned and I saw the filling bubble through the vents) I let them cool for at least 45 minutes to set the filling, and then rewarmed then in a low oven before serving.

I thought some of the cheese (particularly the last of the Cotija) was a tiny bit funky in the filling, but my friends loved it. The dipping sauce was perfect with it.

My market had ground pork on sale.  This innocent item set off a chain reaction of dumplings in my kitchen.  Having frozen dumpling wrappers threw gasoline on the fire.

I made the gyoza yesterday.  Commercial wrappers are quite inexpensive, reliable and shave several hours off the process.  They have a familiar texture and taste, if less character than homemade, but they're worth keeping in the freezer.

I've never made siu mai before, but it uses the same wrappers - in fact both recipes used all filling and wrappers up with no waste.  They're easier to form once you get the hang of it, though it does take getting the hang of it.

Dumpling night part 2:

Khinkali have a very low hydration dough, similar to Japanese noodles. The reason for this stiff, low moisture, high protein, low fat dough is to create a strong watertight casing for a loose, wet meat filling. Like Chinese soup dumplings, you add liquid to ground meat to create "soup" - I stole the Chinese technique of using jellied pork stock (The Georgians usually use water).

The dough is a pain to knead, but the recommendations to do low hydration doughs, such as noodles, in a food processor, works. A stand mixer doesn't fully incorporate the liquid without you stopping the machine and scraping and kneading the bowl. A dough mixer does a bit better, but a food processor (with the dough hook, not the metal one) does it best: run the water in a thin stream through the feed tube while pulsing. I may try this approach for another low hydration dough: bagels.

This dough takes too much elbow grease for the kids so their mother and I sat at the dining room table and made them - she got each dough ball into a thin disc, I got them thin to the right diameter and shaped.