'Frittata' is one of those words that's just a ton of fun to say. Frittata fri-tta-ta frittata. Anyway. From a busy cook's point of view, they're also easy to prepare and relatively fast. This makes the trusty frittata my go-to for situations where I'm cooking for people who aren't me, but I really don't have time for a huge fuss.
There are probably a million variations on this recipe, but this particular incarnation takes its cues from the fact that potatoes are maybe my single favorite food in the world. I love them in all their conventional guises, and quite a few rather unconventional ones. For example, I go nuts for calzones and pizzas with potatoes on them, which is actually where the inspiration for putting them in a frittata came from. I had my first potato calzone from a delivery place called DP Dough, which probably saved my life on a few occasions in college where I studied right through several mealtimes in a row and needed to find a place that delivered at three in the morning. And lo! there it was. Wonderful potato calzones to the rescue. With that kind of introduction to potatoes in strange places, I proceeded over the years to add them to everything from tortelini to tacos, often with delightful results. This is one such recipe.
Potato-Bell Pepper Frittata
1 lb russet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
2 red or orange bell peppers, julienned
2 cups onion, diced
1 tbsp dill
1 tbsp thyme
3 whole eggs
5 egg whites
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
(Optional) 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese to top
(Optional) Salsa to garnish
In a medium skillet, add a dash of olive oil and the potatoes. Saute for 10 minutes over medium heat then add the onions and the bell peppers. Continue to saute until the onions are translucent and the peppers have intensified slightly in color.
In a large bowl, beat both whole eggs and egg whites together until fluffy. Add the dill, thyme, salt and pepper and beat again. Pour the egg mixture into the skillet with the potatoes and onions. Cook 5-7 minutes over medium-high heat. The goal is to cook the eggs through, so that the inversion step will be possible. If the frittata is not at least lightly cooked through (no runny whites on top), the next step will be nothing but a mess.
To flip the frittata, turn it out onto a plate, then slide it back into the skillet for another 5 minutes or so to finish it. This is the point that you would add the cheese in a layer on top to melt, if that's your thing. Serve with salsa for dipping. Frittatas actually are pretty good cold or reheated, so they'll keep for a few days in the fridge if needed.
Servings: 4-6
Showing posts with label main dishes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label main dishes. Show all posts
Monday, January 12, 2009
Bacon and Egg Pastries
One of the most popular trends I noticed while browsing cookbooks for ideas over the holidays was the use of muffin tins to craft individual servings. This isn't a new idea per se, but I saw it far more commonly than in the past. This was one of my favorites of the individual-serving recipes. It's surprisingly easy to make, and the final product gets a touch of cuteness from the idea of miniature tarts.
If you're into gilding the lily, you can use pie crust stamps to add leaves or whatnot as decoration, which will make these really look like something that might have come from a professional bakery. Just use the stamps to make shapes out of the dough left over from shaping the pastry crusts, and bake these extras for the last 10 or so minutes of the pastries' baking time. The decorations then get added to the tops of the finished pastries as soon as they come out of the oven. If you're really, really into going overboard, the bacon in this recipe can be switched for crabmeat (only use fresh, the fake stuff would be gross) for that uber-sophisticated touch.
Bacon and Egg Pastries
1 recipe Simple Pie Crust
6 slices bacon, cooked
6 large eggs
3 tsp dijon or whole grain mustard
3 tsp fresh basil, chopped
(Optional) 1 cup Cheddar Cheese, grated
Salt
Pepper
Begin by preheating the oven to 350F.
Using an upended bowl as a guide, cut out six circles of pie dough about five inches in diameter each. Spray a muffin tin thoroughly with non-stick spray, and line the cups with dough. Remember, the pie dough will shrink as it bakes, so be sure not to get it too thin, and to leave enough around the edges so the pastries won't end up short.
Spoon 1/2 tsp of mustard into each pastry, and crumble one slice of bacon into each. Break an egg into a separate cup and add the yolk to one of the pastries. Spoon in enough of the white to fill the pastry 2/3 full, and repeat until all the pastries have been filled. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp of basil on top of each pastry, and season all of them with salt and pepper. Brush edges of each crust with left-over egg white. Finish by sprinkling cheddar on top if desired.
Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes. Allow pastries to rest for 2-3 minutes after removal from oven before carefully removing them from the muffin tin to serve.
Servings: 6
If you're into gilding the lily, you can use pie crust stamps to add leaves or whatnot as decoration, which will make these really look like something that might have come from a professional bakery. Just use the stamps to make shapes out of the dough left over from shaping the pastry crusts, and bake these extras for the last 10 or so minutes of the pastries' baking time. The decorations then get added to the tops of the finished pastries as soon as they come out of the oven. If you're really, really into going overboard, the bacon in this recipe can be switched for crabmeat (only use fresh, the fake stuff would be gross) for that uber-sophisticated touch.
Bacon and Egg Pastries
1 recipe Simple Pie Crust
6 slices bacon, cooked
6 large eggs
3 tsp dijon or whole grain mustard
3 tsp fresh basil, chopped
(Optional) 1 cup Cheddar Cheese, grated
Salt
Pepper
Begin by preheating the oven to 350F.
Using an upended bowl as a guide, cut out six circles of pie dough about five inches in diameter each. Spray a muffin tin thoroughly with non-stick spray, and line the cups with dough. Remember, the pie dough will shrink as it bakes, so be sure not to get it too thin, and to leave enough around the edges so the pastries won't end up short.
Spoon 1/2 tsp of mustard into each pastry, and crumble one slice of bacon into each. Break an egg into a separate cup and add the yolk to one of the pastries. Spoon in enough of the white to fill the pastry 2/3 full, and repeat until all the pastries have been filled. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp of basil on top of each pastry, and season all of them with salt and pepper. Brush edges of each crust with left-over egg white. Finish by sprinkling cheddar on top if desired.
Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes. Allow pastries to rest for 2-3 minutes after removal from oven before carefully removing them from the muffin tin to serve.
Servings: 6
Monday, October 27, 2008
Cabbage Soup
I'm catching up on stuff I've made over the past week or so, hence the number of recipe posts tonight.
I still have half a pot of this soup in the fridge, because it makes a big pot of soup. And I used to hate cabbage, so you'd think I wouldn't be too thrilled at the idea of a giant pot of cabbage soup in my fridge. But I couldn't be happier. I think cabbage soup has had a rough time of it. Some evil diet company seized on the idea way back when, and ever since people have associated it with self-torture, when in reality it's anything but. Cabbage soup originally started out as a way to make the tough cabbage stems into something tender and wonderful, and it still suits that purpose remarkably well.
In a way, this is one of my 'trash' soups: made of a little of this and a little of that, just whatever I had lying around in the fridge when I went to make soup. But in other ways, it's a very converted effort at a particular purpose. Because I don't ordinarily have cabbage sitting around my my fridge (remember how I said I hated it?). I had to buy cabbage especially for this soup, and I was glad I did. It's a very green soup, very fresh, and perfect for fall. It's warm and comforting, without being heavy or tough to digest. Best of all, it turned cabbage from something slimy and gross into something delicate and sweet, something that practically melts on your tongue and dances beautifully with the peppery undertone in the broth here. I love cabbage like this, and that's something I never thought I'd say.
Cabbage Soup
1 medium or large napa cabbage, washed
4 medium sized leeks, washed
1 bunch celery
1 large sweet onion (Videlia or mayan sweet)
1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
80 oz chicken stock or chicken broth
1 1/2 tbsp Better Than Boullion
Pepper
Salt
Begin by chopping the onion and adding it to a very large soup pot, along with the butter. Turn the pot on over medium heat, and let the butter melt and begin to caramelize the onion. While this is happening, chop your leeks. When the onion achieves a light brown color and smells sweet and tender, add the leeks and stir to coat them in the butter. Let the leeks soften and wilt while you chop the celery. Add the celery one stem at a time as you get it chopped, and let it be softening as you go.
Once the celery is all chopped and has had a chance to soften just a little with the other veggies, add your broth or stock to the pot. Chop your cabbage into quarters, then chop each quarter into thin ribbons and add these to the soup. Finish by adding the Better Than Boullion, and a generous dash of pepper. Tasting the soup is the best guide to how much pepper, but I tend to go heavy on this, because the pepper amps up the vegetable-y flavours in the soup and adds pizzazz. Bring the whole pot to a boil (it's probably a very full pot after all this, so keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't bubble over), then cover it, turn it down to a simmer, and let it cook for a hour or so. Once the cabbage is melting-soft and the flavours have had a chance to meld and get to know each other, dish it out into serving bowls and eat.
Servings: 10-12, maybe more
I still have half a pot of this soup in the fridge, because it makes a big pot of soup. And I used to hate cabbage, so you'd think I wouldn't be too thrilled at the idea of a giant pot of cabbage soup in my fridge. But I couldn't be happier. I think cabbage soup has had a rough time of it. Some evil diet company seized on the idea way back when, and ever since people have associated it with self-torture, when in reality it's anything but. Cabbage soup originally started out as a way to make the tough cabbage stems into something tender and wonderful, and it still suits that purpose remarkably well.
In a way, this is one of my 'trash' soups: made of a little of this and a little of that, just whatever I had lying around in the fridge when I went to make soup. But in other ways, it's a very converted effort at a particular purpose. Because I don't ordinarily have cabbage sitting around my my fridge (remember how I said I hated it?). I had to buy cabbage especially for this soup, and I was glad I did. It's a very green soup, very fresh, and perfect for fall. It's warm and comforting, without being heavy or tough to digest. Best of all, it turned cabbage from something slimy and gross into something delicate and sweet, something that practically melts on your tongue and dances beautifully with the peppery undertone in the broth here. I love cabbage like this, and that's something I never thought I'd say.
Cabbage Soup
1 medium or large napa cabbage, washed
4 medium sized leeks, washed
1 bunch celery
1 large sweet onion (Videlia or mayan sweet)
1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
80 oz chicken stock or chicken broth
1 1/2 tbsp Better Than Boullion
Pepper
Salt
Begin by chopping the onion and adding it to a very large soup pot, along with the butter. Turn the pot on over medium heat, and let the butter melt and begin to caramelize the onion. While this is happening, chop your leeks. When the onion achieves a light brown color and smells sweet and tender, add the leeks and stir to coat them in the butter. Let the leeks soften and wilt while you chop the celery. Add the celery one stem at a time as you get it chopped, and let it be softening as you go.
Once the celery is all chopped and has had a chance to soften just a little with the other veggies, add your broth or stock to the pot. Chop your cabbage into quarters, then chop each quarter into thin ribbons and add these to the soup. Finish by adding the Better Than Boullion, and a generous dash of pepper. Tasting the soup is the best guide to how much pepper, but I tend to go heavy on this, because the pepper amps up the vegetable-y flavours in the soup and adds pizzazz. Bring the whole pot to a boil (it's probably a very full pot after all this, so keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't bubble over), then cover it, turn it down to a simmer, and let it cook for a hour or so. Once the cabbage is melting-soft and the flavours have had a chance to meld and get to know each other, dish it out into serving bowls and eat.
Servings: 10-12, maybe more
Hash Browns
I had these for supper tonight.
Sometimes I just want starch. I posted my easy potato chip recipe when I was on one of these starch binges, and now I'm posting one of my other favorite things to do to an innocent potato. I just can't leave well enough alone.
The thing about hash browns is that they're addictive. They're also kind of ubiquitous: appropriate for breakfast, lunch, supper, or a midnight snack. They go well with cheese, sour cream, even yogurt. Sometime I'll crack an egg on top of them as they finish cooking, to better imitate the throw-it-all-together-and-fry aesthetic of the greasy spoon diners of my youth. Because that's what hash browns are, at their heart: they're a throwback to the days when I was very little, and my dad would take me to breakfast bars run by ancient old short-order cooks who knew all the customers' names by heart, and who knew what you were ordering before you'd sat down at your regular stool. They remind me of giant flat-top griddles with a coffee-pot that lived on one corner of them, a row of hamburger molds across the back for shaping the fried eggs, and a trough across the front for all the scraps and scrapings, so someone could take them home to their pigs at the end of the morning shift.
Hash browns are meant to be greasy, crispy, and satisfying, and these are. Almost. I generally try not to murder my arteries, so I cut out most of the grease by using non-stick pans. They aren't made on a flat-top griddle, because all I've got it my home stove, but they are crispy and satisfying. I'm no ancient short-order cook, so I haven't quite mastered the authentic je ne sais quoi that comes with wielding a spatula for fifty years in front of one of those griddles. But they're still damn good, and they're fast comfort food for me.
Hash Browns
1 russett potato
1/2 tsp olive oil
Cheddar cheese
Salt
Pepper
Optional: Eggs for frying
Use the food processor to grate the potato. Take the potato-bits, and press them between two layers of paper towels to dry them out a bit. If your towels are soaked and the potato still seems really wet, you may want to repeat this process a few times.
Once you've dried your potato appropriately, set a large saute pan over a burner on medium high. Add the potato gratings in piles (I usually do four or five medium-sized piles per potato). Depending on the size of your pan, you may not be able to do the whole thing at once: the goal is to keep the piles pretty well separate from each other, so that they don't steam each other as they cook. Use a spatula to smoosh the piles flat, into hash brown shaped pancakes. Salt these to taste. Let them cook for about two minutes, then add the olive oil and swirl the pan to get it under all the hash browns. Let the hash browns continue to cook, smushing them to the pan occasionally to help them sear, until the pan-side of the hash browns is a deep golden color. By this time you should be able to flip them without them falling apart, so flip them each, and cook the other side in the same manner until it too is deep crispy brown.
Remove the hash browns to a plate, and grate cheddar cheese on top of them to finish them off.
Alternate way to finish off hash browns: once you've completely crisped both sides of your hash brown, crack an egg over the top of it and fry the egg on and into the hash brown. You get an egg that's really satisfyingly crunchy, and if you add cheese on top of the egg, it's kind of the perfect breakfast all in one little pile.
Servings: 1-2, depending mostly on the size of your potato
Sometimes I just want starch. I posted my easy potato chip recipe when I was on one of these starch binges, and now I'm posting one of my other favorite things to do to an innocent potato. I just can't leave well enough alone.
The thing about hash browns is that they're addictive. They're also kind of ubiquitous: appropriate for breakfast, lunch, supper, or a midnight snack. They go well with cheese, sour cream, even yogurt. Sometime I'll crack an egg on top of them as they finish cooking, to better imitate the throw-it-all-together-and-fry aesthetic of the greasy spoon diners of my youth. Because that's what hash browns are, at their heart: they're a throwback to the days when I was very little, and my dad would take me to breakfast bars run by ancient old short-order cooks who knew all the customers' names by heart, and who knew what you were ordering before you'd sat down at your regular stool. They remind me of giant flat-top griddles with a coffee-pot that lived on one corner of them, a row of hamburger molds across the back for shaping the fried eggs, and a trough across the front for all the scraps and scrapings, so someone could take them home to their pigs at the end of the morning shift.
Hash browns are meant to be greasy, crispy, and satisfying, and these are. Almost. I generally try not to murder my arteries, so I cut out most of the grease by using non-stick pans. They aren't made on a flat-top griddle, because all I've got it my home stove, but they are crispy and satisfying. I'm no ancient short-order cook, so I haven't quite mastered the authentic je ne sais quoi that comes with wielding a spatula for fifty years in front of one of those griddles. But they're still damn good, and they're fast comfort food for me.
Hash Browns
1 russett potato
1/2 tsp olive oil
Cheddar cheese
Salt
Pepper
Optional: Eggs for frying
Use the food processor to grate the potato. Take the potato-bits, and press them between two layers of paper towels to dry them out a bit. If your towels are soaked and the potato still seems really wet, you may want to repeat this process a few times.
Once you've dried your potato appropriately, set a large saute pan over a burner on medium high. Add the potato gratings in piles (I usually do four or five medium-sized piles per potato). Depending on the size of your pan, you may not be able to do the whole thing at once: the goal is to keep the piles pretty well separate from each other, so that they don't steam each other as they cook. Use a spatula to smoosh the piles flat, into hash brown shaped pancakes. Salt these to taste. Let them cook for about two minutes, then add the olive oil and swirl the pan to get it under all the hash browns. Let the hash browns continue to cook, smushing them to the pan occasionally to help them sear, until the pan-side of the hash browns is a deep golden color. By this time you should be able to flip them without them falling apart, so flip them each, and cook the other side in the same manner until it too is deep crispy brown.
Remove the hash browns to a plate, and grate cheddar cheese on top of them to finish them off.
Alternate way to finish off hash browns: once you've completely crisped both sides of your hash brown, crack an egg over the top of it and fry the egg on and into the hash brown. You get an egg that's really satisfyingly crunchy, and if you add cheese on top of the egg, it's kind of the perfect breakfast all in one little pile.
Servings: 1-2, depending mostly on the size of your potato
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Roast Chicken
Once upon a time, I dared myself to eat for $15 a week. I wasn't entirely sure when I decided to try it that it could be done, but it turns out that it's not so hard. The secret? Roast chicken.
A small whole chicken (3-4 pounds, a fryer hen) is ridiculously economical meat. I can get them at my local store for about $4.50. Roasted, they're enough to feed me dinner for three or four days, and they produce really useful byproducts: namely chicken stock and leftover bits of meat that I use for chicken salads. I've already given my chicken noodle soup recipe, and I'm somewhat shocked that I didn't give my roast recipe at that time, but since today I roasted a hen and it turned out beautifully, it's clearly time to remedy that oversight.
A good roast chicken is lovely to behold. Golden brown and juicy, I've always thought it's an almost formal-looking dish: a Thanksgiving turkey in miniature. Roasted properly, it's also lovely to taste, with a perfect moist-but-not-too-moist texture and a delicately herb infused flavour that I find difficult to achieve by any other method. Combine these succulent selling points with the fact that a single roast chicken easily can be stretched into meals for a week (two or three nights of plain chicken and some veggies, two or three nights of chicken noodle soup, two or three nights of hot chicken salad), it's a bird that more cooks should learn to lean on.
This method for roasting was cobbled together from various sources, most memorably the Zuni Cafe Cookbook's famous bird, and Barbara Kafka's Julia Child Cookbook Award-winning method.
Roast Chicken
1 whole chicken (3-4 lbs is perfect, but up to 6 lbs is fine)
Salt (1 tbsp per 4 lbs of bird)
Baking soda (use the same amount of baking soda as you do salt, so if you've got a 4 lb bird, use 1 tbsp of each)
1/2 cup fresh rosemary
1/2 cup fresh thyme
Begin the day before you plan to actually cook the bird. Extract the giblets and neck from the body of the bird (save these in a pot nearby and use them to make stock), and rinse the whole thing thoroughly. Using paper towels, dry the chicken completely both inside and out. Use your fingers to loosen the skin over the breast and thighs. Mix the salt and baking soda together, and rub the mixture evenly over the bird. Sit the salted-and-sodaed bird on a rack and put it back in the fridge to wait until the next day. I know that a lot of cooks aren't big on prep that needs to take place the day before, but let me tell you, this is worth it. It's essential. The salt soaks into the bird and gives it amazing flavour, and the baking soda dries out the skin so you get the coveted crisp, crackly skin that cookbook covers envy. Plus it cuts way down on the prep time for the day you cook the bird.
Once you've refrigerated your chicken, it's time to make stock. Fill a soup pot with water and toss in the giblets and neck. Add a handfull of baby carrots, some of the tough stems of brocolli, the dark green tops of leeks that you never use, etc. Boil this for a few hours, then strain it through cheesecloth and skim the fat off the top. Save the fat as seasoning if you like, but certainly save the stock. You can use it with leftover bits of the chicken meat to make soup.
The next day, begin by preheating your oven to 450F. Remove chicken and rack from the fridge, and turn the chicken over so that the breast is pointed down towards the rack. Using a sharp knife, cut a few slits across the bottom of the chicken (the side currently facing up). This will allow the fat to drain off more effectively, and will help you achieve the perfect skin. Stuff your herbs into the cavity of the upside down chicken, then place chicken and rack in a roasting pan, and stick it in the oven for 25 minutes. Remove it from the oven, and use two spatulas to turn it over so that the breast faces the top. I advise spatulas in lieu of tongs, because tongs have the anoying tendency to rip the skin, which is not the desired result. Spatulas are gentler. Once you've flipped your bird so that the breast side is facing up, sprinkle pepper on top and replace the ckicken in the oven for another 25 minutes, or until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 140F. Raise the oven temperature to 500F, and cook for another 15 minutes, or until the internal temperature hits 165F. Remove the bird from the oven, and allow it to cool for 10 minutes before cutting it so that the juices get a chance to redistribute themselves.
A note about cooking at 500F: this temperature is high enough to burn all the dripped bits out of the bottom of your oven. As such, you may want to run your stove-top fan, and keep an eye on the bird to see if you need to open a window, because it may smoke a little. i've never yet had a bird catch fire, so I'm convinced this method is very safe, but because you're essentially cleaning the bottom of your oven by doing this, you may get smoke from some of the drips heating up.
Servings: 6-8, plus stock.
A small whole chicken (3-4 pounds, a fryer hen) is ridiculously economical meat. I can get them at my local store for about $4.50. Roasted, they're enough to feed me dinner for three or four days, and they produce really useful byproducts: namely chicken stock and leftover bits of meat that I use for chicken salads. I've already given my chicken noodle soup recipe, and I'm somewhat shocked that I didn't give my roast recipe at that time, but since today I roasted a hen and it turned out beautifully, it's clearly time to remedy that oversight.
A good roast chicken is lovely to behold. Golden brown and juicy, I've always thought it's an almost formal-looking dish: a Thanksgiving turkey in miniature. Roasted properly, it's also lovely to taste, with a perfect moist-but-not-too-moist texture and a delicately herb infused flavour that I find difficult to achieve by any other method. Combine these succulent selling points with the fact that a single roast chicken easily can be stretched into meals for a week (two or three nights of plain chicken and some veggies, two or three nights of chicken noodle soup, two or three nights of hot chicken salad), it's a bird that more cooks should learn to lean on.
This method for roasting was cobbled together from various sources, most memorably the Zuni Cafe Cookbook's famous bird, and Barbara Kafka's Julia Child Cookbook Award-winning method.
Roast Chicken
1 whole chicken (3-4 lbs is perfect, but up to 6 lbs is fine)
Salt (1 tbsp per 4 lbs of bird)
Baking soda (use the same amount of baking soda as you do salt, so if you've got a 4 lb bird, use 1 tbsp of each)
1/2 cup fresh rosemary
1/2 cup fresh thyme
Begin the day before you plan to actually cook the bird. Extract the giblets and neck from the body of the bird (save these in a pot nearby and use them to make stock), and rinse the whole thing thoroughly. Using paper towels, dry the chicken completely both inside and out. Use your fingers to loosen the skin over the breast and thighs. Mix the salt and baking soda together, and rub the mixture evenly over the bird. Sit the salted-and-sodaed bird on a rack and put it back in the fridge to wait until the next day. I know that a lot of cooks aren't big on prep that needs to take place the day before, but let me tell you, this is worth it. It's essential. The salt soaks into the bird and gives it amazing flavour, and the baking soda dries out the skin so you get the coveted crisp, crackly skin that cookbook covers envy. Plus it cuts way down on the prep time for the day you cook the bird.
Once you've refrigerated your chicken, it's time to make stock. Fill a soup pot with water and toss in the giblets and neck. Add a handfull of baby carrots, some of the tough stems of brocolli, the dark green tops of leeks that you never use, etc. Boil this for a few hours, then strain it through cheesecloth and skim the fat off the top. Save the fat as seasoning if you like, but certainly save the stock. You can use it with leftover bits of the chicken meat to make soup.
The next day, begin by preheating your oven to 450F. Remove chicken and rack from the fridge, and turn the chicken over so that the breast is pointed down towards the rack. Using a sharp knife, cut a few slits across the bottom of the chicken (the side currently facing up). This will allow the fat to drain off more effectively, and will help you achieve the perfect skin. Stuff your herbs into the cavity of the upside down chicken, then place chicken and rack in a roasting pan, and stick it in the oven for 25 minutes. Remove it from the oven, and use two spatulas to turn it over so that the breast faces the top. I advise spatulas in lieu of tongs, because tongs have the anoying tendency to rip the skin, which is not the desired result. Spatulas are gentler. Once you've flipped your bird so that the breast side is facing up, sprinkle pepper on top and replace the ckicken in the oven for another 25 minutes, or until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 140F. Raise the oven temperature to 500F, and cook for another 15 minutes, or until the internal temperature hits 165F. Remove the bird from the oven, and allow it to cool for 10 minutes before cutting it so that the juices get a chance to redistribute themselves.
A note about cooking at 500F: this temperature is high enough to burn all the dripped bits out of the bottom of your oven. As such, you may want to run your stove-top fan, and keep an eye on the bird to see if you need to open a window, because it may smoke a little. i've never yet had a bird catch fire, so I'm convinced this method is very safe, but because you're essentially cleaning the bottom of your oven by doing this, you may get smoke from some of the drips heating up.
Servings: 6-8, plus stock.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Southern Egg Rolls with Peach-Red Pepper Chutney
A few months back, my parents went on vacation to Charleston, South Carolina and ate at a restaurant there called Magnolias, which is famous for its 'Southern Fusion' cuisine: southern-style takes on dishes from all over the world. Dad came back raving about the appetizer he'd had, a southern-style egg roll with a peach chutney on top. The idea sounded intriguing: substitute collard greens for the cabbage in an egg roll, and use Southern staple meats (chicken, ham, tasso). The chutney sounded amazing, and the ingredients in the egg roll didn't sound difficult. But I'm not one for frying, so I forgot about the egg rolls for a while.
Fast forward to three weeks ago. I was browsing through the cookbooks at my local Books-a-million. I'd been captivated by the plating in a cookbook by Morimoto (yes, the Iron Chef), and I still want to try the recipe for vegan mac-and-cheese in a Moosewood cookbook. But while browsing the regional cuisines shelf, I noticed that Magnolias had put out a cookbook, and lo and behold, there in a place of honor was the recipe for the egg rolls. "Well, that looks easy," I thought. "It's all ingredients I should be able to find around here, and none of the techniques look tough." But I still wasn't a fan of frying. So the egg rolls kind of percolated in the back of my mind for a few weeks, and today when I went grocery shopping, I swore to try them before the season for peaches went out. The key to my change of heart was a blog recipe I found for baked egg rolls, a genius invention that eliminated all the downsides I had been worrying about with this recipe.
They were amazing. They're very very good, a combination of chewy and crisp, earthy and light, with a dash of sweetness from the chutney holding everything together and making it sing. Seriously, don't make this without the chutney. It is the je ne sais quoi that makes this recipe work. I'll be making these again and again, not just for dad, but because I think I'm in love too.
Southern Egg Rolls with Peach-Red Pepper Chutney
Egg Rolls:
1/2 minced large vidalia onion
2-3 cloves minced garlic
1/2 lb chicken breast, cut into thin strips
1 lb kale or collard greens, uncooked (I use kale, but I'll try collards next time, because I think their stronger flavour will pair well with the chutney)
10 egg roll wrappers
1 tbsp cornstarch
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Begin by preheating the oven to 425F.
Wash the greens thoroughly, and wilt them in a saucepan over medium-high heat with a teeny dash of olive oil, just enough to keep them from sticking to the pan. When they're wilted, slide them out of the pan and onto a cutting board, then chop them into thin, short ribbons. Once they've been chopped, slide them onto folded paper towels, place another folded paper towel on top, and press as much moisture as you can out of the greens. Then transfer them to a colander and use your paper towels to mash them against the sides of the colander, to get even more moisture out. Leave them in the colander to drain while you finish the rest of the filling preparations. Sprinkle some salt over the draining greens to help them remove water, and to season them.
Mince the onion and slide it into the saucepan to saute over medium-high heat. When the onion is just beginning to brown, add the garlic and cook until the onion has caramelized. Reserve the onion and garlic in a medium-sized bowl, and use the same saucepan to cook the chicken, again, using only a teeny dash of olive oil to keep it from sticking. When the chicken is done all the way through and slightly browned, slide it out of the pan and onto the cutting board, where you can chop it into bite-sized strips. Add it to the onion and garlic, then dump in the greens. Use your hands to mix these ingredients thoroughly.
At this point, all the egg roll fillings are finished and you're ready to roll your wrappers. Do not begin rolling, however, until you've started your chutney over heat. Go chop all the stuff for that, then come back to this. Ready? Good.
Set a paper towel over your cutting board to help keep it dry. In a small dish, mix the tbsp of cornstarch with an equal amount of water, and stir until it has no lumps. Place an egg roll wrapper on the towel with one corner facing down, so that it looks like a diamond instead of a square. Brush the edges with the cornstarch mixture, to help them stick. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, scoop out a heaping 1/4 cup of filling and place it in the middle of the diamond. Arrange the filling into a thick horizontal line between the right and left corner of the diamond. Fold the bottom corner of the diamond upwards, to form a sort of pouch over the filling. Fold the right and left corners each a small way in, just enough to cover the filling (so that the roll takes on a long, thinnish shape). Finish by rolling the egg roll towards the top. Repeat until you've use all your filling (I usually get between seven and ten egg rolls out of this, depending on how much greens I'm using).
Take a baking sheet, and spray it with non-stick spray. Place the egg rolls evenly on the sheet, seam side down, and then spray the tops with the non-stick spray. Bake for 6-7 minutes on one side, then turn them over, spray the other side with cooking spray, and bake for 6-7 more minutes to finish. Serve while hot, with chutney on the side for dipping.
Because they're baked instead of fried, these tend to reheat pretty well in a toaster oven for lunch the next day, if you manage to have leftovers.
Servings: 2-3 if you use them as a meal like I do and everyone eats several, or 8-10 if you use them as appetizers and everyone eats only one.
Peach-Red Pepper Chutney
1 large, or two small peaches, peeled and minced (If you're using frozen peaches, go for about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 vidalia onion, minced
1/2 red bell pepper, minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
Slightly less than 1/4 cup light brown sugar (I use a 1/4 cup measuring cup, but don't quite fill it all the way)
Slightly less than 1/4 cup regular sugar
2 tbsp cider vinegar
Add all ingredients together in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until they're mixed. Turn the heat down to medium-low (on my stove, this is a very thin boil) and cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chutney thickens and achieves a syrupy consistency. While it's cooking, go roll your egg rolls and let those cook. At first, the chutney will get more liquidy instead of less, since the sugar will encourage the peaches to release their juices, but eventually it will thicken back up. Use it immediately, or cool it to room temperature and refrigerate. It should keep 2-3 weeks in the fridge.
Note: If you're using fresh peaches, go for slightly underripe ones. The ones your grocery store sells are probably perfect. If you use fully ripe ones, they'll lose their consistency during cooking and get mushy.
Servings: see above, with the egg rolls.
Fast forward to three weeks ago. I was browsing through the cookbooks at my local Books-a-million. I'd been captivated by the plating in a cookbook by Morimoto (yes, the Iron Chef), and I still want to try the recipe for vegan mac-and-cheese in a Moosewood cookbook. But while browsing the regional cuisines shelf, I noticed that Magnolias had put out a cookbook, and lo and behold, there in a place of honor was the recipe for the egg rolls. "Well, that looks easy," I thought. "It's all ingredients I should be able to find around here, and none of the techniques look tough." But I still wasn't a fan of frying. So the egg rolls kind of percolated in the back of my mind for a few weeks, and today when I went grocery shopping, I swore to try them before the season for peaches went out. The key to my change of heart was a blog recipe I found for baked egg rolls, a genius invention that eliminated all the downsides I had been worrying about with this recipe.
They were amazing. They're very very good, a combination of chewy and crisp, earthy and light, with a dash of sweetness from the chutney holding everything together and making it sing. Seriously, don't make this without the chutney. It is the je ne sais quoi that makes this recipe work. I'll be making these again and again, not just for dad, but because I think I'm in love too.
Southern Egg Rolls with Peach-Red Pepper Chutney
Egg Rolls:
1/2 minced large vidalia onion
2-3 cloves minced garlic
1/2 lb chicken breast, cut into thin strips
1 lb kale or collard greens, uncooked (I use kale, but I'll try collards next time, because I think their stronger flavour will pair well with the chutney)
10 egg roll wrappers
1 tbsp cornstarch
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Begin by preheating the oven to 425F.
Wash the greens thoroughly, and wilt them in a saucepan over medium-high heat with a teeny dash of olive oil, just enough to keep them from sticking to the pan. When they're wilted, slide them out of the pan and onto a cutting board, then chop them into thin, short ribbons. Once they've been chopped, slide them onto folded paper towels, place another folded paper towel on top, and press as much moisture as you can out of the greens. Then transfer them to a colander and use your paper towels to mash them against the sides of the colander, to get even more moisture out. Leave them in the colander to drain while you finish the rest of the filling preparations. Sprinkle some salt over the draining greens to help them remove water, and to season them.
Mince the onion and slide it into the saucepan to saute over medium-high heat. When the onion is just beginning to brown, add the garlic and cook until the onion has caramelized. Reserve the onion and garlic in a medium-sized bowl, and use the same saucepan to cook the chicken, again, using only a teeny dash of olive oil to keep it from sticking. When the chicken is done all the way through and slightly browned, slide it out of the pan and onto the cutting board, where you can chop it into bite-sized strips. Add it to the onion and garlic, then dump in the greens. Use your hands to mix these ingredients thoroughly.
At this point, all the egg roll fillings are finished and you're ready to roll your wrappers. Do not begin rolling, however, until you've started your chutney over heat. Go chop all the stuff for that, then come back to this. Ready? Good.
Set a paper towel over your cutting board to help keep it dry. In a small dish, mix the tbsp of cornstarch with an equal amount of water, and stir until it has no lumps. Place an egg roll wrapper on the towel with one corner facing down, so that it looks like a diamond instead of a square. Brush the edges with the cornstarch mixture, to help them stick. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, scoop out a heaping 1/4 cup of filling and place it in the middle of the diamond. Arrange the filling into a thick horizontal line between the right and left corner of the diamond. Fold the bottom corner of the diamond upwards, to form a sort of pouch over the filling. Fold the right and left corners each a small way in, just enough to cover the filling (so that the roll takes on a long, thinnish shape). Finish by rolling the egg roll towards the top. Repeat until you've use all your filling (I usually get between seven and ten egg rolls out of this, depending on how much greens I'm using).
Take a baking sheet, and spray it with non-stick spray. Place the egg rolls evenly on the sheet, seam side down, and then spray the tops with the non-stick spray. Bake for 6-7 minutes on one side, then turn them over, spray the other side with cooking spray, and bake for 6-7 more minutes to finish. Serve while hot, with chutney on the side for dipping.
Because they're baked instead of fried, these tend to reheat pretty well in a toaster oven for lunch the next day, if you manage to have leftovers.
Servings: 2-3 if you use them as a meal like I do and everyone eats several, or 8-10 if you use them as appetizers and everyone eats only one.
Peach-Red Pepper Chutney
1 large, or two small peaches, peeled and minced (If you're using frozen peaches, go for about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 vidalia onion, minced
1/2 red bell pepper, minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
Slightly less than 1/4 cup light brown sugar (I use a 1/4 cup measuring cup, but don't quite fill it all the way)
Slightly less than 1/4 cup regular sugar
2 tbsp cider vinegar
Add all ingredients together in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until they're mixed. Turn the heat down to medium-low (on my stove, this is a very thin boil) and cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chutney thickens and achieves a syrupy consistency. While it's cooking, go roll your egg rolls and let those cook. At first, the chutney will get more liquidy instead of less, since the sugar will encourage the peaches to release their juices, but eventually it will thicken back up. Use it immediately, or cool it to room temperature and refrigerate. It should keep 2-3 weeks in the fridge.
Note: If you're using fresh peaches, go for slightly underripe ones. The ones your grocery store sells are probably perfect. If you use fully ripe ones, they'll lose their consistency during cooking and get mushy.
Servings: see above, with the egg rolls.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Lemon Dill Tilapia
After a productive August, September has been so drab. The two recipes I've given are good, but it's only two. Sigh. Perhaps I shouldn't set my goals so high. When you're like me and eat leftovers for literally a week after you cook, seven recipes in a month is an accomplishment.
Anyway, here's a recipe I tried recently and liked. The best thing about this is that while it tastes good and is remarkably forgiving (I left it in the oven for seven minutes longer than it should be, oops!), it only takes about three minutes to make. If you're slow about chopping things. The toughest part about this is remembering to set the fish out to thaw beforehand. Also, conveniently, this recipe doesn't produce enough leftovers to last for weeks. I'll only be eating it for a few days, and it's good enough that leftovers won't be a chore at all.
The actual fish is very good. I don't poach things often, but this is poached in dill-infused lemon juice and parchment, and the texture is wonderful. The flavour is very lemony, but while it's strong, I didn't find it overwhelming. In fact, I liked it more than usual, because I'm not a big fan of 'fishy' tasting fish. I like my fish delicate and sweet, or steaky, like young flounder for the former or salmon for the latter. Tilapia is just not my favorite fish, even if it's cheap. This recipe doesn't talk down to the tilapia, but it also doesn't let the tilapia run away with the show.
Lemon-dill Tilapia
1 1/2 lemons, sliced
2 tilapia fillets (To buy fresh tilapia, look for fillets that are reddish, not brownish. Brownish means old.)
10 -15 baby carrots, chopped into little circles
2 tbsp fresh dill
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp unsalted butter
Salt
Pepper
Thaw the fish first, if frozen. Preheat the oven to 375F.
Cut parchment paper into two 13x9 rectangles. Don't worry about the dimensions much, you just need enough to be able to wrap a fillet in each. Place three lemon slices in the center of each rectangle, and sit a fillet on top of them. Sprinkle salt and pepper over each fillet. Add the remaining lemon slices to the top of each fillet, and sprinkle both fillets evenly with carrots, dill, and paprika. Top each fillet with 1/2 tbsp butter. Fold the parchment over the fish, and tuck the ends of each parchment packet under to keep it closed. Sit both parchment packets on a baking sheet to eliminate any mess in the oven.
Bake at 375F for 20 - 25 minutes or until the fish is done. The timing on this is really forgiving, you won't get overdone fish even if you leave it in for a half hour. Serve immediately.
Servings: 2-3
Anyway, here's a recipe I tried recently and liked. The best thing about this is that while it tastes good and is remarkably forgiving (I left it in the oven for seven minutes longer than it should be, oops!), it only takes about three minutes to make. If you're slow about chopping things. The toughest part about this is remembering to set the fish out to thaw beforehand. Also, conveniently, this recipe doesn't produce enough leftovers to last for weeks. I'll only be eating it for a few days, and it's good enough that leftovers won't be a chore at all.
The actual fish is very good. I don't poach things often, but this is poached in dill-infused lemon juice and parchment, and the texture is wonderful. The flavour is very lemony, but while it's strong, I didn't find it overwhelming. In fact, I liked it more than usual, because I'm not a big fan of 'fishy' tasting fish. I like my fish delicate and sweet, or steaky, like young flounder for the former or salmon for the latter. Tilapia is just not my favorite fish, even if it's cheap. This recipe doesn't talk down to the tilapia, but it also doesn't let the tilapia run away with the show.
Lemon-dill Tilapia
1 1/2 lemons, sliced
2 tilapia fillets (To buy fresh tilapia, look for fillets that are reddish, not brownish. Brownish means old.)
10 -15 baby carrots, chopped into little circles
2 tbsp fresh dill
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp unsalted butter
Salt
Pepper
Thaw the fish first, if frozen. Preheat the oven to 375F.
Cut parchment paper into two 13x9 rectangles. Don't worry about the dimensions much, you just need enough to be able to wrap a fillet in each. Place three lemon slices in the center of each rectangle, and sit a fillet on top of them. Sprinkle salt and pepper over each fillet. Add the remaining lemon slices to the top of each fillet, and sprinkle both fillets evenly with carrots, dill, and paprika. Top each fillet with 1/2 tbsp butter. Fold the parchment over the fish, and tuck the ends of each parchment packet under to keep it closed. Sit both parchment packets on a baking sheet to eliminate any mess in the oven.
Bake at 375F for 20 - 25 minutes or until the fish is done. The timing on this is really forgiving, you won't get overdone fish even if you leave it in for a half hour. Serve immediately.
Servings: 2-3
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Ithaca Potato-Cheese Soup
After August was a productive month, September has been sadly the opposite. It's mostly the fault of a huge batch of Mexican Minestrone I made fairly early in the month. I didn't like it enough to post here, but there was so much of it that I haven't cooked anything much since, because I had to eat the leftovers. I hate it when that happens: a recipe turns out to produce more than you think it will, but doesn't taste as good as you'd hoped, so that you're stuck eating the sub-par remains for longer than you'd like. Anyway, it's gone now, and to celebrate (because I deserved a reward after all that), I made this soup instead. I can't really believe I hadn't put it on here yet; it's one of my fall staples (I guess I haven't been writing this for a year yet, so maybe I'm just coming around to my fall recipes).
I lived in Ithaca, NY for years, a town best known to many culinary afficiandoes as the home of the Moosewood Restaurant, perhaps the most famous exclusively vegetarian restaurant in the world. I ate at the Moosewood on a semi-regular basis, and loved it: the fun, unpretentious atmosphere; the generally knowledgeable and always friendly waitstaff; and most of all, the appreciation for genuinely delicious vegetarian cooking. The Moosewood always cooked balls-to-the-wall, with no apologies for their vegetarian ethos and no sacrifices on the flavour end for health.
Naturally (much like the Zuni cafe), I felt compelled to attempt to replicate some of their recipes for myself. Luckily (again, like Zuni), the Moosewood publishes a Beard-winning cookbook to help me. The funny thing was, as I began to look over their recipes, I saw places where some of my favorites could be streamlined: butter cut out and portioning easily extended with no cuts in the flavour or quality of the recipe. So naturally, I fiddled. You saw that coming, didn't you?
This is the result, a guiltless take on the Moosewood's Potato-Cheese soup par excellence. I've managed to cut the calories nearly in half, with the help of non-stick cookware and cornstarch, so that this version has fewer calories than, say, a Lean Pocket, and tastes about a million times better. Like the Moosewood's famous incarnation of its predecessor, it's still decadently creamy, and it still practically melts in your mouth. Much like the Root Soup that was one of my very first recipes on this blog, this soup takes advantage of the fact that boiled starches puree into something altogether blissful: velvetty smooth and full of deep, earthy flavour. Then, this soup goes one further and adds cheese to the mix, one of my favorite foods! When I was a kid, I would insist on Mother re-crisping my potato skins and adding cheddar to the top of them, just because those two tastes were clearly meant to go together. This soup is a very grown-up, very good-for-you spin on the exact same concept. I always feel like I'm getting away with something when I eat it. Or maybe I'm getting away to somewhere. It takes me back to fall days in Ithaca, when the gorges roared outside my open window and the leaves melted into a riot of colors. Those were laughing days, joyful days, some of the best days of my life. This is a soup that tastes like that.
Ithaca Potato-Cheese Soup
1 tbsp unsalted butter
2 cups onions, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 russet potatoes, skin on, chopped into 1 inch cubes (Or, and this is even better, you can substitute 1 1/4 lb fingerling potatoes instead. If you can get them fresh, just out of the ground, or especially if you grow your own, the flavour is AMAZING)
1 carrot, chopped
4 cups water or vegetable stock (go with the stock if you can. It adds a little je ne sais quoi)
1 tsp dill (or more, to taste)
1 1/2 cups skim milk
4 ounces of light cream cheese
1 cup sharp or extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated (Find the best quality cheese that you can. You want a ton of flavour from it, since the stronger its personality, the more you'll feel it in the soup. I generally go for a local, farm-aged cheese here that far outstrips the generic supermarket brands. Trust me, it's worth the extra money)
Salt
Pepper
Optional: 1 tsp ancho chile powder, or more to taste
In a large non-stick soup pot, sauté the onions and garlic in the butter over medium-high heat until the onions are translucent. You may not even need the full tablespoon of butter: I usually use only the bare minimum here, to keep things from drying out too much. Add the potatoes and carrots, then the stock or water and dill and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft all the way through. Test one with a fork to make sure.
Puree the vegetables with the cream cheese and milk in a food processor. Work slowly, and only fill the food processor 1/3 full each time (hot foods can explode out it if you fill it too full!). Return the soup to the soup pot after it's been pureed. Taste the soup, and season appropriately with salt and pepper. If you're feeling adventurous, add a dash of ancho chile pepper (I use 1 tsp, then taste it and add more as needed) for a piquant Southwestern spin on this soup. Stir in the cheddar cheese and reheat gently, stirring until the cheddar is melted and incorporated smoothly into the soup.
Serve immediately, and garnish each cup or bowl with chopped fresh parsley or chives if you're serving guests.
Servings: 6-8
I lived in Ithaca, NY for years, a town best known to many culinary afficiandoes as the home of the Moosewood Restaurant, perhaps the most famous exclusively vegetarian restaurant in the world. I ate at the Moosewood on a semi-regular basis, and loved it: the fun, unpretentious atmosphere; the generally knowledgeable and always friendly waitstaff; and most of all, the appreciation for genuinely delicious vegetarian cooking. The Moosewood always cooked balls-to-the-wall, with no apologies for their vegetarian ethos and no sacrifices on the flavour end for health.
Naturally (much like the Zuni cafe), I felt compelled to attempt to replicate some of their recipes for myself. Luckily (again, like Zuni), the Moosewood publishes a Beard-winning cookbook to help me. The funny thing was, as I began to look over their recipes, I saw places where some of my favorites could be streamlined: butter cut out and portioning easily extended with no cuts in the flavour or quality of the recipe. So naturally, I fiddled. You saw that coming, didn't you?
This is the result, a guiltless take on the Moosewood's Potato-Cheese soup par excellence. I've managed to cut the calories nearly in half, with the help of non-stick cookware and cornstarch, so that this version has fewer calories than, say, a Lean Pocket, and tastes about a million times better. Like the Moosewood's famous incarnation of its predecessor, it's still decadently creamy, and it still practically melts in your mouth. Much like the Root Soup that was one of my very first recipes on this blog, this soup takes advantage of the fact that boiled starches puree into something altogether blissful: velvetty smooth and full of deep, earthy flavour. Then, this soup goes one further and adds cheese to the mix, one of my favorite foods! When I was a kid, I would insist on Mother re-crisping my potato skins and adding cheddar to the top of them, just because those two tastes were clearly meant to go together. This soup is a very grown-up, very good-for-you spin on the exact same concept. I always feel like I'm getting away with something when I eat it. Or maybe I'm getting away to somewhere. It takes me back to fall days in Ithaca, when the gorges roared outside my open window and the leaves melted into a riot of colors. Those were laughing days, joyful days, some of the best days of my life. This is a soup that tastes like that.
Ithaca Potato-Cheese Soup
1 tbsp unsalted butter
2 cups onions, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 russet potatoes, skin on, chopped into 1 inch cubes (Or, and this is even better, you can substitute 1 1/4 lb fingerling potatoes instead. If you can get them fresh, just out of the ground, or especially if you grow your own, the flavour is AMAZING)
1 carrot, chopped
4 cups water or vegetable stock (go with the stock if you can. It adds a little je ne sais quoi)
1 tsp dill (or more, to taste)
1 1/2 cups skim milk
4 ounces of light cream cheese
1 cup sharp or extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated (Find the best quality cheese that you can. You want a ton of flavour from it, since the stronger its personality, the more you'll feel it in the soup. I generally go for a local, farm-aged cheese here that far outstrips the generic supermarket brands. Trust me, it's worth the extra money)
Salt
Pepper
Optional: 1 tsp ancho chile powder, or more to taste
In a large non-stick soup pot, sauté the onions and garlic in the butter over medium-high heat until the onions are translucent. You may not even need the full tablespoon of butter: I usually use only the bare minimum here, to keep things from drying out too much. Add the potatoes and carrots, then the stock or water and dill and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft all the way through. Test one with a fork to make sure.
Puree the vegetables with the cream cheese and milk in a food processor. Work slowly, and only fill the food processor 1/3 full each time (hot foods can explode out it if you fill it too full!). Return the soup to the soup pot after it's been pureed. Taste the soup, and season appropriately with salt and pepper. If you're feeling adventurous, add a dash of ancho chile pepper (I use 1 tsp, then taste it and add more as needed) for a piquant Southwestern spin on this soup. Stir in the cheddar cheese and reheat gently, stirring until the cheddar is melted and incorporated smoothly into the soup.
Serve immediately, and garnish each cup or bowl with chopped fresh parsley or chives if you're serving guests.
Servings: 6-8
Friday, August 29, 2008
Cashew Chicken Curry
Wow, August has been a productive month for me. Maybe I'm making up for all the recipes I didn't post over the rest of the summer. No doubt I'll slack off again soon, as school has begun. But for today, here's a new one that I think I'll be returning to frequently.
I love curries. There's a Thai place about fifteen minutes away that makes an excellent chicken curry, and I've always liked their stuff. Unfortunately, my own attempts at curry had never quite seemed right. Until I (on my current low-cal kick) stumbled across a WeightWatchers recipe that promised to taste great, and seemed pretty healthy to boot. Me being me, I took it and twisted it, adding my own stuff and changing proportions.
It was fabulous. This was curry the way I liked it, and now I can make it at home in large quantities. Because this recipe certainly makes a very large quantity! I'll be eating curry for supper for the rest of the week, but I don't mind. It has a whole lot of my favorite stuff in it (Cashews! I love cashews!), and it's just the right amount of heat with an underlying hint of sweetness. I'm betting this one goes into regular rotation on my menu.
This recipe could very easily be made vegetarian by just leaving out the chicken. It has enough veggies in it that it will still seem chunky and full. You could also substitute tofu cubes for the chicken. This is an especially good recipe for tofu, since the tofu absorbs the curry flavour deliciously during the recipe's simmering time. I've made it both ways, and it's good any way you choose.
Cashew Chicken Curry
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 large sweet onion, diced
1 thumb fresh ginger, peeled and minced
2 large cloves garlic, minced (or three smaller cloves)
1-3 tbsp red curry paste
1 tsp cumin
1 lb chicken tenders, cut into bite sized pieces (chicken breasts work too, whatever you've got on hand)
28 oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 lb baby carrots, chopped
8 oz baby bella mushrooms, torn into chunks
1 tbsp fresh oregano
2 tbsp fresh thyme
1 tbsp fresh rosemary
1/4 cup very finely chopped cashews (think dust), plus extra cashews for sprinkling over the top
1 cup nonfat vanilla yogurt
1 can coconut milk (14 oz)
1/2 lb frozen peas
Salt
Pepper
In a large soup pot or dutch oven, melt 1 tbsp of butter over medium-high heat. Add the onions, garlic, and ginger, and saute until the onions are translucent but haven't yet begun to brown. Add the chicken, and keep a close eye on your pot (especially if you're using a soup pot instead of a dutch oven) to make sure that nothing sticks. Add the other tbsp of butter if necessary to prevent stickage. Stirring frequently, let the chicken pieces cook all the way through. Add the tomatoes, the carrots, and the mushrooms. Stir to make sure everything gets mixed together, and bring to a simmer. Add in the curry paste, the cumin, the oregano, the thyme, and the rosemary. Stir until the curry paste has completely dissolved in the liquids from the tomatoes. Taste it, then add salt and pepper as necessary.
A word on the curry paste: I personally used three very heaping teaspoons, and the resulting curry was only barely spicy. My roommate, who is sensitive to hot foods and dislikes them, pronounced it perfect. The key when first adding the curry is to remember that you will later be adding the coconut milk and the yogurt, both of which will cut down the spicy flavor, and you will be serving over rice, which will also mitigate the spicyness. So to get appropriately spicy curry, you actually need to make it hotter than you think you will enjoy at this step. It'll tone down later, trust me. But add more curry (at least a heaping teaspoon more, and even more than that if you really like things hot) than you think you need here, or you'll end up surprised by the mildness at the end. Do not be shy.
Bring the whole thing to a boil, then turn the heat down, cover the pot and let the mixture simmer for 25-30 min. It can go as long as 45 min if you get caught up doing something else, this simmering is not exact science. When you're ready, remove the cover and dump in the frozen peas, then turn the heat back up under the pot to bring it to a simmer again. Add the cashews, the yogurt, and the can of coconut milk, then stir. If you like your curry a little thicker, you can let it reduce for a few minutes, stirring slowly, but I usually just eat mine as is. Serve over rice, topped generously with cashew halves for crunch.
Servings: 8-10. This makes a pretty large pot. Curries are really good for leftovers, though, since the flavors blend and actually improve over time. You might like it better the second day than the first!
I love curries. There's a Thai place about fifteen minutes away that makes an excellent chicken curry, and I've always liked their stuff. Unfortunately, my own attempts at curry had never quite seemed right. Until I (on my current low-cal kick) stumbled across a WeightWatchers recipe that promised to taste great, and seemed pretty healthy to boot. Me being me, I took it and twisted it, adding my own stuff and changing proportions.
It was fabulous. This was curry the way I liked it, and now I can make it at home in large quantities. Because this recipe certainly makes a very large quantity! I'll be eating curry for supper for the rest of the week, but I don't mind. It has a whole lot of my favorite stuff in it (Cashews! I love cashews!), and it's just the right amount of heat with an underlying hint of sweetness. I'm betting this one goes into regular rotation on my menu.
This recipe could very easily be made vegetarian by just leaving out the chicken. It has enough veggies in it that it will still seem chunky and full. You could also substitute tofu cubes for the chicken. This is an especially good recipe for tofu, since the tofu absorbs the curry flavour deliciously during the recipe's simmering time. I've made it both ways, and it's good any way you choose.
Cashew Chicken Curry
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 large sweet onion, diced
1 thumb fresh ginger, peeled and minced
2 large cloves garlic, minced (or three smaller cloves)
1-3 tbsp red curry paste
1 tsp cumin
1 lb chicken tenders, cut into bite sized pieces (chicken breasts work too, whatever you've got on hand)
28 oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 lb baby carrots, chopped
8 oz baby bella mushrooms, torn into chunks
1 tbsp fresh oregano
2 tbsp fresh thyme
1 tbsp fresh rosemary
1/4 cup very finely chopped cashews (think dust), plus extra cashews for sprinkling over the top
1 cup nonfat vanilla yogurt
1 can coconut milk (14 oz)
1/2 lb frozen peas
Salt
Pepper
In a large soup pot or dutch oven, melt 1 tbsp of butter over medium-high heat. Add the onions, garlic, and ginger, and saute until the onions are translucent but haven't yet begun to brown. Add the chicken, and keep a close eye on your pot (especially if you're using a soup pot instead of a dutch oven) to make sure that nothing sticks. Add the other tbsp of butter if necessary to prevent stickage. Stirring frequently, let the chicken pieces cook all the way through. Add the tomatoes, the carrots, and the mushrooms. Stir to make sure everything gets mixed together, and bring to a simmer. Add in the curry paste, the cumin, the oregano, the thyme, and the rosemary. Stir until the curry paste has completely dissolved in the liquids from the tomatoes. Taste it, then add salt and pepper as necessary.
A word on the curry paste: I personally used three very heaping teaspoons, and the resulting curry was only barely spicy. My roommate, who is sensitive to hot foods and dislikes them, pronounced it perfect. The key when first adding the curry is to remember that you will later be adding the coconut milk and the yogurt, both of which will cut down the spicy flavor, and you will be serving over rice, which will also mitigate the spicyness. So to get appropriately spicy curry, you actually need to make it hotter than you think you will enjoy at this step. It'll tone down later, trust me. But add more curry (at least a heaping teaspoon more, and even more than that if you really like things hot) than you think you need here, or you'll end up surprised by the mildness at the end. Do not be shy.
Bring the whole thing to a boil, then turn the heat down, cover the pot and let the mixture simmer for 25-30 min. It can go as long as 45 min if you get caught up doing something else, this simmering is not exact science. When you're ready, remove the cover and dump in the frozen peas, then turn the heat back up under the pot to bring it to a simmer again. Add the cashews, the yogurt, and the can of coconut milk, then stir. If you like your curry a little thicker, you can let it reduce for a few minutes, stirring slowly, but I usually just eat mine as is. Serve over rice, topped generously with cashew halves for crunch.
Servings: 8-10. This makes a pretty large pot. Curries are really good for leftovers, though, since the flavors blend and actually improve over time. You might like it better the second day than the first!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Hot Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
When I was a kid, there was a running contest in our house: the kid who could find the hottest hot sauce and bring a sample of it home for my father would win $5. Your hot sauce would be diligently compared to the previous reigning winner, and it quickly became very difficult to find a sauce that would make the grade. My father loved spicy foods. (For the record, the current winner is a "psycho" grade sauce from a restaurant in Orlando, Florida. We brought it home in a styrofoam cup, but almost immediately had to transfer it to a plastic bottle because the sauce ate through the cup.)
I personally never caught the hot foods bug, though. To this day, while I love my curries well enough, I've never gone in for the burn-your-mouth southwestern style of cooking. Mexico can keep its chipotles and habaneros, I certainly don't like them.
But today I decided to try a recipe that promised to jazz up hummus, and I like hummus enough that I was willing to be jazzed. Even if it involved peppers. To make it even more promising, the hummus in question would let me make use of the red and yellow bell peppers that my tiny kitchen garden has just started to produce. I was sold. Bring on the hummus.
And it turns out, I like it! So here's the recipe, one of the rare and elusive hot food recipes from Joye.
Hot Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
1 can chickpeas (15 oz), drained
2 red bell peppers (I use peppers from my garden, so I use 4 very small peppers)
1 tsp chipotle in adobo (more if you like it really spicy, leave it out if you hate heat in your food)
3 cloves garlic, chopped into chunks
2 tbsp parsley
1 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp basil
1 tsp paprika
¼ medium onion, rough chopped
2 tsp cumin
3 tbsp lemon juice
Nonstick grilling spray (olive oil spray also works)
(Optional) 1 cup shredded parmesan, loosely packed
Pepper
Salt
Remove the seeds from the bell peppers. Spray a nonstick pan with grilling spray and sit it over medium-high heat. Lay the bell peppers in the pan skin-side-down, and roast them until the skin develops black spots. While the peppers are roasting, chop the onion and garlic. When the peppers are done, chop them into chunks to make it easier on your food processor. Add all the ingredients except the salt and pepper (and the cheese, if you're using it) to the food processor, and process until smooth. Taste and season (warning: season carefully, because a little salt goes a long way in hummus. Be conservative about your salt additions). If you need more moisture, add water, or if you like your hummus a little smoother, add a hint of olive oil to smooth it out. This is the point to dump in the cheese if that's your thing. Process again to mix in the new additions, taste, and serve. It’s good warm, room temp, or cool. I serve with carrots or snow peas for dipping, but toasted pita triangles are good too.
Servings: 10-15. This makes a LOT more than you’d think it does. One can of chickpeas goes a long way.
I personally never caught the hot foods bug, though. To this day, while I love my curries well enough, I've never gone in for the burn-your-mouth southwestern style of cooking. Mexico can keep its chipotles and habaneros, I certainly don't like them.
But today I decided to try a recipe that promised to jazz up hummus, and I like hummus enough that I was willing to be jazzed. Even if it involved peppers. To make it even more promising, the hummus in question would let me make use of the red and yellow bell peppers that my tiny kitchen garden has just started to produce. I was sold. Bring on the hummus.
And it turns out, I like it! So here's the recipe, one of the rare and elusive hot food recipes from Joye.
Hot Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
1 can chickpeas (15 oz), drained
2 red bell peppers (I use peppers from my garden, so I use 4 very small peppers)
1 tsp chipotle in adobo (more if you like it really spicy, leave it out if you hate heat in your food)
3 cloves garlic, chopped into chunks
2 tbsp parsley
1 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp basil
1 tsp paprika
¼ medium onion, rough chopped
2 tsp cumin
3 tbsp lemon juice
Nonstick grilling spray (olive oil spray also works)
(Optional) 1 cup shredded parmesan, loosely packed
Pepper
Salt
Remove the seeds from the bell peppers. Spray a nonstick pan with grilling spray and sit it over medium-high heat. Lay the bell peppers in the pan skin-side-down, and roast them until the skin develops black spots. While the peppers are roasting, chop the onion and garlic. When the peppers are done, chop them into chunks to make it easier on your food processor. Add all the ingredients except the salt and pepper (and the cheese, if you're using it) to the food processor, and process until smooth. Taste and season (warning: season carefully, because a little salt goes a long way in hummus. Be conservative about your salt additions). If you need more moisture, add water, or if you like your hummus a little smoother, add a hint of olive oil to smooth it out. This is the point to dump in the cheese if that's your thing. Process again to mix in the new additions, taste, and serve. It’s good warm, room temp, or cool. I serve with carrots or snow peas for dipping, but toasted pita triangles are good too.
Servings: 10-15. This makes a LOT more than you’d think it does. One can of chickpeas goes a long way.
Baba Ghanouj
I’ve been on a dip streak lately, so one I’m posting a recipe for baba ghanouj (that spelling… every person I meet spells this dip differently!) that I adapted from a college friend of mine. She was in the hospitality school at our university to become a chef, and our dorm served as her willing guinea pigs. This is a version of her recipe, cut back a little on the lemon juice and with the addition of the mint. What can I say, I like mint. I also like almonds, so even though it’s probably heresy to any actual middle eastern person, I sometimes chop those and add them too. Added bonus: this dip is both absurdly low-cal, and vegan. I've been trying to eat less meat lately (meat is expensive!), so a veggie-only dip is good for me.
Baba Ghanouj
1 eggplant
3 cloves garlic
1/8 cup lemon juice (Give or take. I usually just fill a ¼ cup measure about half full, so it’s never exact.)
1 heaping tbsp tahini
1 tsp ground cumin
(Optional) ½ tsp fresh mint (my plant is peppermint, so I use that, but it doesn’t matter)
(Optional) ¼ cup finely chopped almonds (the “finely” here is important. Your food processor will NOT appreciate large pieces of almonds.)
Salt
Pepper
Preheat the oven to 430F and slice the eggplant into ½ inch thick slices. Spray a baking tray with nonstick grilling spray (the grilling spray takes more heat; normal nonstick spray will burn) and arrange the eggplant in a single layer on the tray. For extra reassurance, you can spray both sides of each eggplant slice with the grilling spray too. Bake the eggplant for 30-40 minutes or until the middle of all the slices have sunk down and turned softly brown. Remove the eggplant from the oven and use a paring knife to peel each slice. Chop the garlic into chunks. Dump the slices into a food processor and add the lemon juice, tahini, cumin, salt, pepper, and any other additives you may like to the processor as well. Process until smooth (this may take a while, especially for the eggplant seeds), scraping down the sides of the processor once or twice to make sure that all the bits get chopped up. Serve chilled or room temperature, with veggies or toasted pita slices. I like carrots and sweet peas for dipping, but supposedly broccoli, cauliflower, and celery are good too.
Servings: 8-10
Baba Ghanouj
1 eggplant
3 cloves garlic
1/8 cup lemon juice (Give or take. I usually just fill a ¼ cup measure about half full, so it’s never exact.)
1 heaping tbsp tahini
1 tsp ground cumin
(Optional) ½ tsp fresh mint (my plant is peppermint, so I use that, but it doesn’t matter)
(Optional) ¼ cup finely chopped almonds (the “finely” here is important. Your food processor will NOT appreciate large pieces of almonds.)
Salt
Pepper
Preheat the oven to 430F and slice the eggplant into ½ inch thick slices. Spray a baking tray with nonstick grilling spray (the grilling spray takes more heat; normal nonstick spray will burn) and arrange the eggplant in a single layer on the tray. For extra reassurance, you can spray both sides of each eggplant slice with the grilling spray too. Bake the eggplant for 30-40 minutes or until the middle of all the slices have sunk down and turned softly brown. Remove the eggplant from the oven and use a paring knife to peel each slice. Chop the garlic into chunks. Dump the slices into a food processor and add the lemon juice, tahini, cumin, salt, pepper, and any other additives you may like to the processor as well. Process until smooth (this may take a while, especially for the eggplant seeds), scraping down the sides of the processor once or twice to make sure that all the bits get chopped up. Serve chilled or room temperature, with veggies or toasted pita slices. I like carrots and sweet peas for dipping, but supposedly broccoli, cauliflower, and celery are good too.
Servings: 8-10
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Chicken noodle soup
I had roasted a chicken, and had plenty of left-over chicken bits that I needed to do something with. To be precise, I had half a breast, a thigh, a wing, and a leg. The obvious solution was to make chicken soup.
This is best if you think a little bit ahead of time when you're prepping your chicken. If you're sectioning the chicken (I always do a ten-piece section, but to each his own), take the backbone and giblets and boil them in a large pot of water with some veggie bits (save the ends of your leeks, maybe toss in some baby carrots, whatever you've got and don't really need) and spices for a couple of hours to make stock. That will save you money, since you won't have to buy stock, and it'll taste better anyway. If you aren't sectioning your chicken, just use boxed stock.
What type of noodles you use is also up to you. I used the 'dumpling' noodles that come in large bags, since they were on sale. But any type of pasta is good, so just throw in whatever you've got on hand.
Chicken Noodle Soup
1/2 medium sweet onion (or 1/4 large onion), diced
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 leek
15-30 baby carrots, sliced into little circles
2 ribs celery, diced
Chicken, torn into bit-sized chunks (I never measure how much chicken I use, since it's mainly determined by how much I've got left over. It doesn't really matter, just use what you've got)
Stock (Again, I never measure this, since it's mainly determined by whether I made stock when I sectioned the chicken. Just have enough to fill the pot to a comfortable level, about 2 qts)
1 cube chicken boullion
Fresh thyme and oregano, wrapped together into a little sachet
1/2 tsp ground sage
Noodles
Begin by melting the butter over medium heat in a large soup pot. When it's melted, add the onion, and let the onion soften for 5 minutes or so. While the onion is cooking, slice the leek by cutting off the end and the dark leaves, then slicing it length-wise once and into 1/4 inch thick semicircles. When the onion has turned translucent and is right on the edge starting to caramelize, add the leek and stir until the leek has softened up.
When the onion and leek are done, add your stock to the pot and dump in your chicken and carrots. Add your spice sachet (I sometimes just use a twist-tie to make a little bundle, if I'm out of cheesecloth) and the two boullion cubes. The boullion is in fact optional, but I find it gives a little more dimension to the stock.
Bring the pot to a boil, and then cover it and reduce the heat on the burner to low to let it simmer for 30-45 minutes. More time won't hurt it, but I wouldn't try to do this any quicker. The soup tastes better when it has time for its flavors to meld.
Ten minutes before you intend to serve it, boil the pasta in salted water. It's important that you only add the noodles to the soup right before you serve it, otherwise they get soggy and lose their texture. If you intend to keep the soup for several days and serve leftovers, just keep the noodles in a separate container of their own, and pick out a handful to add to your bowls just before you rewarm the soup. Remove and discard the herb sachet, then serve with crusty bread.
Servings: Variable, depending on how much of the chicken, stock, and noodles you use. I usually do large batches that are about 12 servings, but it could easily be cut to 4 or 6.
This is best if you think a little bit ahead of time when you're prepping your chicken. If you're sectioning the chicken (I always do a ten-piece section, but to each his own), take the backbone and giblets and boil them in a large pot of water with some veggie bits (save the ends of your leeks, maybe toss in some baby carrots, whatever you've got and don't really need) and spices for a couple of hours to make stock. That will save you money, since you won't have to buy stock, and it'll taste better anyway. If you aren't sectioning your chicken, just use boxed stock.
What type of noodles you use is also up to you. I used the 'dumpling' noodles that come in large bags, since they were on sale. But any type of pasta is good, so just throw in whatever you've got on hand.
Chicken Noodle Soup
1/2 medium sweet onion (or 1/4 large onion), diced
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 leek
15-30 baby carrots, sliced into little circles
2 ribs celery, diced
Chicken, torn into bit-sized chunks (I never measure how much chicken I use, since it's mainly determined by how much I've got left over. It doesn't really matter, just use what you've got)
Stock (Again, I never measure this, since it's mainly determined by whether I made stock when I sectioned the chicken. Just have enough to fill the pot to a comfortable level, about 2 qts)
1 cube chicken boullion
Fresh thyme and oregano, wrapped together into a little sachet
1/2 tsp ground sage
Noodles
Begin by melting the butter over medium heat in a large soup pot. When it's melted, add the onion, and let the onion soften for 5 minutes or so. While the onion is cooking, slice the leek by cutting off the end and the dark leaves, then slicing it length-wise once and into 1/4 inch thick semicircles. When the onion has turned translucent and is right on the edge starting to caramelize, add the leek and stir until the leek has softened up.
When the onion and leek are done, add your stock to the pot and dump in your chicken and carrots. Add your spice sachet (I sometimes just use a twist-tie to make a little bundle, if I'm out of cheesecloth) and the two boullion cubes. The boullion is in fact optional, but I find it gives a little more dimension to the stock.
Bring the pot to a boil, and then cover it and reduce the heat on the burner to low to let it simmer for 30-45 minutes. More time won't hurt it, but I wouldn't try to do this any quicker. The soup tastes better when it has time for its flavors to meld.
Ten minutes before you intend to serve it, boil the pasta in salted water. It's important that you only add the noodles to the soup right before you serve it, otherwise they get soggy and lose their texture. If you intend to keep the soup for several days and serve leftovers, just keep the noodles in a separate container of their own, and pick out a handful to add to your bowls just before you rewarm the soup. Remove and discard the herb sachet, then serve with crusty bread.
Servings: Variable, depending on how much of the chicken, stock, and noodles you use. I usually do large batches that are about 12 servings, but it could easily be cut to 4 or 6.
Low-cal Spaghetti Bolognese
I've been cutting back on calories lately, which has affected my cooking output. I've been making a lot of ultra low-cal food in fairly large batches, which means I don't get to try new things as often as I might like.
Part of eating low-cal, for me at least, has been finding ways to adapt my kitchen staples to my desire to eat healthier. This recipe is good example. It was actually born out of thrift rather than a need to cut calories. I was shopping for the stuff to make spaghetti sauce, since I was having my nephews over and I know spaghetti is something they'll eat (they're very picky). Ground beef has been getting so expensive lately, though, and on that day it was over $3.50 for the low-fat kind, for less than a pound of meat! Ridiculous. I noticed, though, that the ground turkey was $2.75 for a pound and a quarter, and I remembered those fabulous turkey meatballs I discovered a few months ago. Clearly the gods intended for me to use ground turkey instead of ground beef.
Thus this recipe, which combines some stuff I had laying around in my pantry and fridge with the turkey to produce a spaghetti sauce that would make my mother proud. It doesn't give up an ounce of taste to my usual spaghetti recipe, but it gives up about 300 calories. And that's enough for a guiltless cookie after dinner! Practical cooking at its best.
Low-cal Spaghetti Bolognese
1.25 lbs ground turkey
1/2 medium sweet onion (or 1/4 of a large one), diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 15 oz can stewed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
Chicken stock (or veggie, or even beef, whichever floats your boat)
7-8ish mushrooms, sliced
2 stalks fresh oregano, chopped
1 stalk fresh rosemary, chopped
Pepper
I do this whole recipe in an electric frying pan, and it turns out to be the only thing I have to wash. You could probably do it in a large saucepan over a stovetop just as easily though. Just make sure the saucepan has a lid or something to cover it, so that it doesn't lose too much moisture while it simmers.
Start by dumping the ground turkey into the frying pan, and turning it on to 300F. Let the turkey get a pretty decent start on cooking, and use a spatula to stir it around and break it up into bite-sized chunks as it cooks. You can dice your onion and mince your garlic while this is going on, just keep an eye on the turkey as you do to make sure it doesn't stick to the pan. When the turkey starts to render what little fat it contains, dump in your diced onions and garlic. Stir the onions and the meat around while the meat finishes cooking and the onion softens to translucent. It should smell really good.
When the meat is done all the way through and the onion is translucent, dump in the whole can of stewed tomatoes, juices and all. Use your spatula to chop the tomatoes up into smallish pieces (they come whole in the can, and you want them to be bite-sized). Don't trash the can that the tomatoes came in, instead fill it half up with whatever stock you're using and add that to the mix. Next dump in the can of tomato paste, and stir the whole thing around for a few minutes. The tomato paste should initially be very thick in an otherwise watery mixture, but as you stir, it should combine more thoroughly to form a still-slightly-watery mixture. Cover this, turn the pan down to a simmer, and let it sit for a minute while you wash and slice your mushrooms, and chop your spices. Just dump those into the pan as soon as you get them done, so the mushrooms can begin to soften and the spices can start to assimilate more harmoniously into the mix. Stir everything once more to make sure the spices are evenly distributed.
Taste the mixture when you've added everything, and season with pepper as appropriate. It shouldn't need salt (at least, I don't think it does), which keeps it fairly low-sodium as well. Re-cover your pan and let it simmer for between 30 and 45 minutes. Towards the end of the simmering period, dump some pasta into a pot of salted boiling water so you'll have something to put the sauce on. Ten minutes before you intend to eat it, check the sauce. It should have thickened up, but if it's still a little watery you can leave the lid off the pan for the last ten minutes of simmering, which should bring the texture up to par.
Serve hot on top of pasta. Whole wheat pasta goes especially well with this, since it continues the healthy theme and tastes better than refined-flour pasta anyway.
Servings: 6-8, or as many as 10 if you're me and don't eat much per serving.
Part of eating low-cal, for me at least, has been finding ways to adapt my kitchen staples to my desire to eat healthier. This recipe is good example. It was actually born out of thrift rather than a need to cut calories. I was shopping for the stuff to make spaghetti sauce, since I was having my nephews over and I know spaghetti is something they'll eat (they're very picky). Ground beef has been getting so expensive lately, though, and on that day it was over $3.50 for the low-fat kind, for less than a pound of meat! Ridiculous. I noticed, though, that the ground turkey was $2.75 for a pound and a quarter, and I remembered those fabulous turkey meatballs I discovered a few months ago. Clearly the gods intended for me to use ground turkey instead of ground beef.
Thus this recipe, which combines some stuff I had laying around in my pantry and fridge with the turkey to produce a spaghetti sauce that would make my mother proud. It doesn't give up an ounce of taste to my usual spaghetti recipe, but it gives up about 300 calories. And that's enough for a guiltless cookie after dinner! Practical cooking at its best.
Low-cal Spaghetti Bolognese
1.25 lbs ground turkey
1/2 medium sweet onion (or 1/4 of a large one), diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 15 oz can stewed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
Chicken stock (or veggie, or even beef, whichever floats your boat)
7-8ish mushrooms, sliced
2 stalks fresh oregano, chopped
1 stalk fresh rosemary, chopped
Pepper
I do this whole recipe in an electric frying pan, and it turns out to be the only thing I have to wash. You could probably do it in a large saucepan over a stovetop just as easily though. Just make sure the saucepan has a lid or something to cover it, so that it doesn't lose too much moisture while it simmers.
Start by dumping the ground turkey into the frying pan, and turning it on to 300F. Let the turkey get a pretty decent start on cooking, and use a spatula to stir it around and break it up into bite-sized chunks as it cooks. You can dice your onion and mince your garlic while this is going on, just keep an eye on the turkey as you do to make sure it doesn't stick to the pan. When the turkey starts to render what little fat it contains, dump in your diced onions and garlic. Stir the onions and the meat around while the meat finishes cooking and the onion softens to translucent. It should smell really good.
When the meat is done all the way through and the onion is translucent, dump in the whole can of stewed tomatoes, juices and all. Use your spatula to chop the tomatoes up into smallish pieces (they come whole in the can, and you want them to be bite-sized). Don't trash the can that the tomatoes came in, instead fill it half up with whatever stock you're using and add that to the mix. Next dump in the can of tomato paste, and stir the whole thing around for a few minutes. The tomato paste should initially be very thick in an otherwise watery mixture, but as you stir, it should combine more thoroughly to form a still-slightly-watery mixture. Cover this, turn the pan down to a simmer, and let it sit for a minute while you wash and slice your mushrooms, and chop your spices. Just dump those into the pan as soon as you get them done, so the mushrooms can begin to soften and the spices can start to assimilate more harmoniously into the mix. Stir everything once more to make sure the spices are evenly distributed.
Taste the mixture when you've added everything, and season with pepper as appropriate. It shouldn't need salt (at least, I don't think it does), which keeps it fairly low-sodium as well. Re-cover your pan and let it simmer for between 30 and 45 minutes. Towards the end of the simmering period, dump some pasta into a pot of salted boiling water so you'll have something to put the sauce on. Ten minutes before you intend to eat it, check the sauce. It should have thickened up, but if it's still a little watery you can leave the lid off the pan for the last ten minutes of simmering, which should bring the texture up to par.
Serve hot on top of pasta. Whole wheat pasta goes especially well with this, since it continues the healthy theme and tastes better than refined-flour pasta anyway.
Servings: 6-8, or as many as 10 if you're me and don't eat much per serving.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Meat and Mushrooms
This is a good way to dress up cheap meat cuts. It's another of those recipes that came together when I discovered a few ingredients in my kitchen, and needed a way to use them. In this case, I had a package of cube steak in my freezer, and some mushrooms in the crisper that needed to be eaten before too many more days passed. Sounded like the perfect start to a meal. Add pasta, onion, garlic, some herbs, and a nice sauce, and viola, supper.
This doesn't take as long as I thought it might, so it's not bad for weeknights, but it's nice enough that I would serve it to company without blinking twice. It's also pretty forgiving: you could probably use just about any cut of beef and it would work fine. I would recommend hamburger steaks if that's what you've got on hand, or you could dress it up by using one of the nicer cuts. I bet you could even use NY strips and melt some provolone over the top for a neat date night meal that wouldn't require much stress.
Steak and Mushrooms
1/2 lb pasta (it doesn't really matter what pasta you use here. I used vermicelli, but to each her own)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 lb cube steak (Or whatever beef cut you've got on hand. This would probably even work with chicken.)
1/2 vidalia onion
3 cloves garlic
1/2 lb (8 oz) mushrooms
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tsp worchestershire sauce
1/2 cup beef stock plus 1 tbsp beef stock, separate
1 tsp cornstarch
Optional: fresh-cut rosemary and thyme
Salt
Pepper
Begin boiling water for the pasta. When the water boils, add a dash of salt and the pasta to it. Keep and eye on this while you're doing the other things, and drain the pasta when it's cooked to al dente.
Start by cooking the meat as appropriate for whatever cut you're using. Salt and pepper the meat on both sides. Pour in 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil, and lay your cube steaks in a pan over medium-high heat. Turn after 3-4 minutes, and cook the other side until they're done. If you're not using cube steaks, cook whatever meat you're using until it's appropriately done. Remove the meat from the pan to a plate, and let it sit for a while to absorb its own juices.
While the meat is cooking, dice the onion and mince the garlic. Wash the mushrooms, and slice them into 1/4 inch thick slices. When the meat has been removed from the pan, add the onion and garlic, and cook until the onion is lightly browned. If you need more olive oil to keep the onion from sticking, add more, but be sparing. You probably won't need the whole 3 tbsp I've allotted. You may need to turn the heat down a little to keep things from cooking too quickly here, you want this to go slowly enough that the mushrooms will have time to saute before the onions caramelize to a pulp.
When the onion is slightly browned and the garlic has begun to turn translucent, add the mushrooms and let the whole thing cook for a while. When the mushrooms have sauted themselves soft, add the balsamic vinegar and let that cook for a minute or so to get the strong vinegary taste out. Then add the worchestershire sauce, and 1/2 cup of the beef stock. Stir, and let the whole thing simmer. If you're using the rosemary and thyme, chop those finely and add them now. Add the meat back into the pan with the sauce, as well as any juices that might have seeped out as the meat was settling, so that the meat can start to absorb some of the flavour of the sauce.
In a separate cup, mix the remaining tbsp of beef stock and the tsp of corstarch together, then add those to the pan with the mushroom mixture. Let the sauce simmer for another 3 minutes or so, to mix everything together and give the starch a chance to thicken it a little. Taste it, and add salt and pepper as appropriate. Serve over the pasta.
Servings: 4-6
This doesn't take as long as I thought it might, so it's not bad for weeknights, but it's nice enough that I would serve it to company without blinking twice. It's also pretty forgiving: you could probably use just about any cut of beef and it would work fine. I would recommend hamburger steaks if that's what you've got on hand, or you could dress it up by using one of the nicer cuts. I bet you could even use NY strips and melt some provolone over the top for a neat date night meal that wouldn't require much stress.
Steak and Mushrooms
1/2 lb pasta (it doesn't really matter what pasta you use here. I used vermicelli, but to each her own)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 lb cube steak (Or whatever beef cut you've got on hand. This would probably even work with chicken.)
1/2 vidalia onion
3 cloves garlic
1/2 lb (8 oz) mushrooms
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tsp worchestershire sauce
1/2 cup beef stock plus 1 tbsp beef stock, separate
1 tsp cornstarch
Optional: fresh-cut rosemary and thyme
Salt
Pepper
Begin boiling water for the pasta. When the water boils, add a dash of salt and the pasta to it. Keep and eye on this while you're doing the other things, and drain the pasta when it's cooked to al dente.
Start by cooking the meat as appropriate for whatever cut you're using. Salt and pepper the meat on both sides. Pour in 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil, and lay your cube steaks in a pan over medium-high heat. Turn after 3-4 minutes, and cook the other side until they're done. If you're not using cube steaks, cook whatever meat you're using until it's appropriately done. Remove the meat from the pan to a plate, and let it sit for a while to absorb its own juices.
While the meat is cooking, dice the onion and mince the garlic. Wash the mushrooms, and slice them into 1/4 inch thick slices. When the meat has been removed from the pan, add the onion and garlic, and cook until the onion is lightly browned. If you need more olive oil to keep the onion from sticking, add more, but be sparing. You probably won't need the whole 3 tbsp I've allotted. You may need to turn the heat down a little to keep things from cooking too quickly here, you want this to go slowly enough that the mushrooms will have time to saute before the onions caramelize to a pulp.
When the onion is slightly browned and the garlic has begun to turn translucent, add the mushrooms and let the whole thing cook for a while. When the mushrooms have sauted themselves soft, add the balsamic vinegar and let that cook for a minute or so to get the strong vinegary taste out. Then add the worchestershire sauce, and 1/2 cup of the beef stock. Stir, and let the whole thing simmer. If you're using the rosemary and thyme, chop those finely and add them now. Add the meat back into the pan with the sauce, as well as any juices that might have seeped out as the meat was settling, so that the meat can start to absorb some of the flavour of the sauce.
In a separate cup, mix the remaining tbsp of beef stock and the tsp of corstarch together, then add those to the pan with the mushroom mixture. Let the sauce simmer for another 3 minutes or so, to mix everything together and give the starch a chance to thicken it a little. Taste it, and add salt and pepper as appropriate. Serve over the pasta.
Servings: 4-6
Friday, June 20, 2008
Turkey Meatballs
Holy crap, these are good! I'd never tried cooking with ground turkey before, but when I noticed at my grocery that it's both cheaper and healthier than ground beef, I thought I'd give it a go. Orangette provided a recipe for me to riff on, and I was ready to cook.
And oh man, these are fabulous. Even my red-meat-and-potatoes parents loved these. They're fast, easy, and delicious. What more could I ask of a first experiment with turkey? I think I'll be using it more often.
Turkey Meatballs
1 lb ground turkey meat
1 medium onion, diced
2 eggs
2 tbsp fresh basil, shredded
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup plain fine bread crumbs
1/2 tsp salt
Pepper
Cumin (a few shakes. I probably used 1/2 tsp, all told)
Olive oil
Mix everything except the olive oil together in a large bowl. Use your hands and get it all gooey, but try to avoid overmixing, since that just makes the turkey tougher. Make little balls about an inch wide (lean towards the smaller here; larger take too long to cook and the bottoms might get burnt) out of the mix. Heat a thin film of olive oil to just over medium heat, and saute your meatballs in batches so they don't get too crowded (too close together and they steam instead of sauteing, which ruins the consistency). Turn them as they color on the bottom so that all sides get evenly cooked. When they're done (check one with a fork if in doubt), drain them on a plate with a paper towel to catch any excess oil.
And oh man, these are fabulous. Even my red-meat-and-potatoes parents loved these. They're fast, easy, and delicious. What more could I ask of a first experiment with turkey? I think I'll be using it more often.
Turkey Meatballs
1 lb ground turkey meat
1 medium onion, diced
2 eggs
2 tbsp fresh basil, shredded
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup plain fine bread crumbs
1/2 tsp salt
Pepper
Cumin (a few shakes. I probably used 1/2 tsp, all told)
Olive oil
Mix everything except the olive oil together in a large bowl. Use your hands and get it all gooey, but try to avoid overmixing, since that just makes the turkey tougher. Make little balls about an inch wide (lean towards the smaller here; larger take too long to cook and the bottoms might get burnt) out of the mix. Heat a thin film of olive oil to just over medium heat, and saute your meatballs in batches so they don't get too crowded (too close together and they steam instead of sauteing, which ruins the consistency). Turn them as they color on the bottom so that all sides get evenly cooked. When they're done (check one with a fork if in doubt), drain them on a plate with a paper towel to catch any excess oil.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Shrimp, Squash, and Asparagus Linguine
This is a quick dish that I made last week when I was at a loss for dinner ideas. It turned out really good, so I thought I'd jot it down for future reference.
Now, I don't usually cook with shrimp. Especially recently, when all food seems expensive, but meats and particularly seafood seem very expensive. But for this one I forgive myself. A pound of cooked medium cocktail shrimp was $13, but that will stretch for at least three meals, and I comfort myself with the knowledge that this will give me something a little special in my repertoire for the next few weeks at less than $4.50 a meal, which seems more reasonable.
This recipe was also a good excuse for me to use a new birthday present: a mandoline. This is basically an inclined plane with a blade embedded in it, which you can adjust to make various thicknesses of slice. You just slide your veggie (or item-to-be-sliced) across it, and it very quickly renders thin, perfectly uniform slices. I love it. It's no substitute for real skill with a knife, of course, but in cases where you need things thin and fast, it's perfect.
This pasta was very good, by the way. I'm a big linguine fan, I like it better than spaghetti, and this is a simple way to really let the fresh summer vegetables that are just coming into season shine. Despite the presence of the shrimp, it's the asparagus and squash that really make this dish, and a simple cream sauce sets them all off perfectly. This tastes like something you'd pay a good bit for at a restaurant, but it comes together in about 20 minutes, and the hardest thing about it is making sure the pasta is al dente. Perfect for those nights when you want to cook, but don't need a huge production in the kitchen.
Shrimp, Squash, and Asparagus Linguine
1/3 lb linguine (whole grain is good if you can find it)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 scallion
1/2 bunch slender green asparagus, washed with tough ends snapped off
2 medium squash, washed
2 cloves garlic
1/3 lb shrimp (I used 1/3 of a frozen bag of already-cooked, but you could use fresh if you wanted)
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp chopped chives
Salt
Pepper
Start by putting water on to boil for the pasta. Toss a palmful of salt in there with it to season the pasta, and add noodles when it starts to boil.
While your pasta is doing you thing, slice the veggies. I used my new mandoline on the squash, which made the slicing fun and novel, but a knife would be fine. Just go for thin slices. Slice the asparagus into bite-sized pieces. If you're using frozen shrimp, run water over them for a few minutes to defrost them, and remove the tails. Dice the garlic finely. Slice the scallion thinly.
In a large saute pan, pour in the olive oil and add the squash. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let the squash cook over medium-high heat for 3 or 4 minutes, then add the garlic and scallion. Let that cook another 2 or three minutes, until the scallion is starting to turn translucent. The squash should be starting to get soft by this point. Add a little more olive oil if you need to so that nothing sticks. Add the shrimp and asparagus. Let that cook for another 2-3 minutes. The asparagus should be just starting to get bright green and a little softer, and the shrimp should be heated through.
By this point, the pasta should be done. Dump 1/2 cup or so of the pasta water into the saute pan with your veggies and shrimp, then drain the rest of the pasta and add it to the saute pan while it's still hot. Add the cream and the chives. Stir it all around a little, and reduce the heat to medium-low. Let it simmer, stirring so that the cream doesn't stick, until the sauce thickens up appropriately. If you want to speed that process along, add a few pinches of cornstarch to the sauce, and stir vigorously to incorporate it. When it's been simmering for about 5 minutes, you should see the sauce really start to stick to the pasta, and it's done. Taste it, then add salt and pepper to season to taste. Remove from heat, and serve immediately.
Servings: 4
Now, I don't usually cook with shrimp. Especially recently, when all food seems expensive, but meats and particularly seafood seem very expensive. But for this one I forgive myself. A pound of cooked medium cocktail shrimp was $13, but that will stretch for at least three meals, and I comfort myself with the knowledge that this will give me something a little special in my repertoire for the next few weeks at less than $4.50 a meal, which seems more reasonable.
This recipe was also a good excuse for me to use a new birthday present: a mandoline. This is basically an inclined plane with a blade embedded in it, which you can adjust to make various thicknesses of slice. You just slide your veggie (or item-to-be-sliced) across it, and it very quickly renders thin, perfectly uniform slices. I love it. It's no substitute for real skill with a knife, of course, but in cases where you need things thin and fast, it's perfect.
This pasta was very good, by the way. I'm a big linguine fan, I like it better than spaghetti, and this is a simple way to really let the fresh summer vegetables that are just coming into season shine. Despite the presence of the shrimp, it's the asparagus and squash that really make this dish, and a simple cream sauce sets them all off perfectly. This tastes like something you'd pay a good bit for at a restaurant, but it comes together in about 20 minutes, and the hardest thing about it is making sure the pasta is al dente. Perfect for those nights when you want to cook, but don't need a huge production in the kitchen.
Shrimp, Squash, and Asparagus Linguine
1/3 lb linguine (whole grain is good if you can find it)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 scallion
1/2 bunch slender green asparagus, washed with tough ends snapped off
2 medium squash, washed
2 cloves garlic
1/3 lb shrimp (I used 1/3 of a frozen bag of already-cooked, but you could use fresh if you wanted)
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp chopped chives
Salt
Pepper
Start by putting water on to boil for the pasta. Toss a palmful of salt in there with it to season the pasta, and add noodles when it starts to boil.
While your pasta is doing you thing, slice the veggies. I used my new mandoline on the squash, which made the slicing fun and novel, but a knife would be fine. Just go for thin slices. Slice the asparagus into bite-sized pieces. If you're using frozen shrimp, run water over them for a few minutes to defrost them, and remove the tails. Dice the garlic finely. Slice the scallion thinly.
In a large saute pan, pour in the olive oil and add the squash. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let the squash cook over medium-high heat for 3 or 4 minutes, then add the garlic and scallion. Let that cook another 2 or three minutes, until the scallion is starting to turn translucent. The squash should be starting to get soft by this point. Add a little more olive oil if you need to so that nothing sticks. Add the shrimp and asparagus. Let that cook for another 2-3 minutes. The asparagus should be just starting to get bright green and a little softer, and the shrimp should be heated through.
By this point, the pasta should be done. Dump 1/2 cup or so of the pasta water into the saute pan with your veggies and shrimp, then drain the rest of the pasta and add it to the saute pan while it's still hot. Add the cream and the chives. Stir it all around a little, and reduce the heat to medium-low. Let it simmer, stirring so that the cream doesn't stick, until the sauce thickens up appropriately. If you want to speed that process along, add a few pinches of cornstarch to the sauce, and stir vigorously to incorporate it. When it's been simmering for about 5 minutes, you should see the sauce really start to stick to the pasta, and it's done. Taste it, then add salt and pepper to season to taste. Remove from heat, and serve immediately.
Servings: 4
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Quiche
This recipe is designed for a deep-dish quiche. I use a deep pie dish when I make my crust, and that gives me enough room to just barely manage to fit all the filling in. A shallower dish would still make a good quiche, but you'd have some egg mix left over, and you'd miss out on the unique texture the custard in the quiche takes on when you get it to a certain thickness.
Quiche
1 Simple Pie Crust, set and cooled to room temperature
Filling Ingredients, cooked until ready (i.e.: if you want your quiche to be a mushroom and onion quiche, you would need to saute the mushrooms and onions. For ham, you'd need to cook the ham)
5 eggs
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
2 tsp salt
Pepper to taste (a little less than 1/4 tsp is generally what I use)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
Approx. 3 cups coarse grated cheese, loosely packed (I like a mixture of cheddar and Jarlsberg for this)
Preheat the oven to 325F.
Begin by scalding the cream and milk. Heat them in a pot over medium heat until a thin film forms on top of the mixture, then remove them and let them sit for 10 or so minutes to cool (if they're too warm they'll cook the eggs when you try to mix them).
In a large mixing bowl, combine the eggs, milk mix, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and vanilla. Whisk as quickly as you can for three minutes. The goal here is to produce a fluffy quiche by incorporating as much air into the egg mix as possible. Let the egg mix rest for a few minutes, and saute your filling. When the filling is finished with its saute, collect the egg mix, the pie-dish with the crust, the cheese, and the filling in one location.
Assemble your quiche. Sprinkle about half the cheese evenly over the bottom of the crust. Top this with about half your filling ingredients. Whisk the egg mixture vigorously for another two minutes or so, then pour in enough of the egg mixture fill the crust half-way. Sprinkle most of the remaining cheese in another layer, followed by all the remaining filling ingredients. Pour on enough egg mixture to completely fill the crust. You may not use all the egg mixture, but get as much of it in as you can. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the whole thing.
Carefully put your quiche in the oven, on a rack in the center. Bake the quiche for 7 minutes. The fillings and egg mixture should settle and deflate a little, so pull it out and fill it back up to the top with any of the remaining egg mixture. Again, you may not use all of it, depending on things like the thickness of your crust and the depth of your pie-dish. Slide the filled quiche back into the oven, and cook for another 1 hr and 15 minutes. The quiche is finished when the top is an even, deep golden color, and the center is set relatively firmly (it should only jiggle a very little when you wiggle the dish).
When the quiche is finished, remove it from the oven and sit it on a cooling rack for 15 or 20 minutes. It will deflate a little, this is to be expected. Serve warm, or (if you're making this in advance) refrigerate and serve chilled later.
My Favorite Filling Ingredients, and how to prepare them:
- Shitake mushrooms (approx 10 large mushrooms) and red bell pepper (1 pepper): Wash the mushrooms and remove the woody stems. Slice the mushrooms into 1/4 inch strips. Remove the seeds from the bell pepper, and slice it into quarters lengthwise. Slice each of the quarters into 1/4 inch thick strips, then cut these long strips into more bite-sized pieces (aim for the pepper pieces to be the same size as the mushroom strips). Saute the mushrooms in 3 tbsp olive oil for 5 minutes (or until soft), then add the peppers and saute for another 3 minutes.
Servings: 8-10
Quiche
1 Simple Pie Crust, set and cooled to room temperature
Filling Ingredients, cooked until ready (i.e.: if you want your quiche to be a mushroom and onion quiche, you would need to saute the mushrooms and onions. For ham, you'd need to cook the ham)
5 eggs
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
2 tsp salt
Pepper to taste (a little less than 1/4 tsp is generally what I use)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
Approx. 3 cups coarse grated cheese, loosely packed (I like a mixture of cheddar and Jarlsberg for this)
Preheat the oven to 325F.
Begin by scalding the cream and milk. Heat them in a pot over medium heat until a thin film forms on top of the mixture, then remove them and let them sit for 10 or so minutes to cool (if they're too warm they'll cook the eggs when you try to mix them).
In a large mixing bowl, combine the eggs, milk mix, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and vanilla. Whisk as quickly as you can for three minutes. The goal here is to produce a fluffy quiche by incorporating as much air into the egg mix as possible. Let the egg mix rest for a few minutes, and saute your filling. When the filling is finished with its saute, collect the egg mix, the pie-dish with the crust, the cheese, and the filling in one location.
Assemble your quiche. Sprinkle about half the cheese evenly over the bottom of the crust. Top this with about half your filling ingredients. Whisk the egg mixture vigorously for another two minutes or so, then pour in enough of the egg mixture fill the crust half-way. Sprinkle most of the remaining cheese in another layer, followed by all the remaining filling ingredients. Pour on enough egg mixture to completely fill the crust. You may not use all the egg mixture, but get as much of it in as you can. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the whole thing.
Carefully put your quiche in the oven, on a rack in the center. Bake the quiche for 7 minutes. The fillings and egg mixture should settle and deflate a little, so pull it out and fill it back up to the top with any of the remaining egg mixture. Again, you may not use all of it, depending on things like the thickness of your crust and the depth of your pie-dish. Slide the filled quiche back into the oven, and cook for another 1 hr and 15 minutes. The quiche is finished when the top is an even, deep golden color, and the center is set relatively firmly (it should only jiggle a very little when you wiggle the dish).
When the quiche is finished, remove it from the oven and sit it on a cooling rack for 15 or 20 minutes. It will deflate a little, this is to be expected. Serve warm, or (if you're making this in advance) refrigerate and serve chilled later.
My Favorite Filling Ingredients, and how to prepare them:
- Shitake mushrooms (approx 10 large mushrooms) and red bell pepper (1 pepper): Wash the mushrooms and remove the woody stems. Slice the mushrooms into 1/4 inch strips. Remove the seeds from the bell pepper, and slice it into quarters lengthwise. Slice each of the quarters into 1/4 inch thick strips, then cut these long strips into more bite-sized pieces (aim for the pepper pieces to be the same size as the mushroom strips). Saute the mushrooms in 3 tbsp olive oil for 5 minutes (or until soft), then add the peppers and saute for another 3 minutes.
Servings: 8-10
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Parmesan-Crusted Salmon Ceasar Salad
Boy, I wrote that title and thought, 'Wow, it makes this salad sound fancy!' And to some degree, it is. This is a classy dish that just screams summer to me. Fresh, crunchy lettuce, plump little tomatoes, a tangy twist on classic Caesar dressing, and salmon pieces wrapped in a delicate Parmesan-breadcrumb crust make this a light, healthy meal that leaves you full but not stuffed. I don't think I've ever eaten a restaurant salad that left me with the same feeling of full flavour, but healthy calorie-count.
I'm not usually a salad person, but I had some lettuce languishing in my fridge after making burgers and gougeres, so one day when I needed something clean and light I thought I'd try to gussy it up into something that even my non-salad-eating self would like. Most of my original recipes happen this way, I think: I'll look into the fridge and think "Oh, that needs to be used before it goes bad. What sort of thing could I do with it that doesn't require a trip to the grocery store?" Laziness and thrift are the mothers of my culinary invention.
This particular gem was inspired by the lettuce I needed to use, and the fact that I'd frozen a salmon steak earlier in the month, so I had some salmon on hand. I'd thought about using chicken originally (and you could probably substitute chicken for salmon here and still have a great salad), but I didn't have any chicken on hand. It was late in the week, and I needed to get to the grocery. So salmon it was, and I think it ended up being a fortuitous choice. Chicken, while a nice all-purpose meat, can't rival salmon for both clean, healthy flavor and a certain classiness that salmon conveys. Salmon has long been my go-to meat when I need to feel like I'm being good, when I feel like I've eaten to much fried or cream-heavy stuff for a few days. Salmon is a palate cleanser, and pairing it with the refreshing salad makes for a really healthy, sort of Zen meal.
I will definitely make this one again, and I foresee it becoming a staple in my summer repertoire. As long as there are fresh veggies and swimsuit figures to consider, this salad is a great way for me to feel like I'm doing something good for myself, as well as good for my tastebuds!
Parmesan-Crusted Salmon Caesar Salad
For the dressing:
1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar
A scant 1/2 cup olive oil
About 1/2 - 1 tbsp finely chopped cooked salmon (I just microwave a small chunk off the salmon I'm about to cook anyway, then mince it with a sharp knife)
3 loves garlic, very finely chopped
1 egg
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 cups lightly packed Parmesan or Parmegiano-Reggiano, finely grated
Salt
Pepper
For the salmon nuggets:
1 lb salmon fillet (salmon steaks don't work so well for this, and fillets are cheaper anyway)
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan
1/2 cup plain or Italian fine, dry breadcrumbs
1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 eggs
3 tbsp olive or vegetable oil
Salt
Pepper
For the salad (use your favorites here, obviously, but here's what I used):
Romaine lettuce
15 cherry tomatoes, halved
15 baby carrots, sliced into small circles
2 eggs, boiled and sliced into quarters
1 cucumber, sliced into circles
Begin by making the dressing. Combine the vinegar, oil, minced salmon, a pinch of salt, and a sprinkling of pepper in a small mixing bowl and whisk thoroughly. Add the egg and a few sprinkles of the cheese, whisk those in, and taste it. Add more salt or pepper as necessary. Add the lemon juice, and whisk that in. Taste it again, first by itself, then on a piece of your lettuce. Adjust the dressing to suit the taste of the lettuce -- if the lettuce is very sweet, it may be fine as is, but if the lettuce is a little old or minerally, you may want to add more lemon juice to pull out brightness, more garlic to spike up the fresh flavour a little if the lettuce is bland, or a pinch of sugar to mitigate the acid in the dressing if the lettuce runs toward the minerally. I usually just go with whatever my instinct is, and use a combination of the above techniques to achieve a balanced taste. The key is to add things slowly, so that you don't ruin the dressing. When in doubt, spoon a small amount into another cup, adjust that and taste it until you've got it right, then adjust the rest when you know what needs to be done. When you've got the dressing to your taste, whisk it once more for good measure and stick it in the fridge to chill out while you do the rest of the salad.
Next, make the salmon nuggets. Use a very sharp knife to remove the skin from your salmon fillet. Next, salt and pepper the fillet on both sides, then cut it into nugget-sized chunks. 1 - 1 1/2 inch squares is usually what I go for. In a small mixing bowl, mix together the Parmesan, breadcrumbs, parsley, 1/2 tsp pepper, and 3/4 tsp salt. Stir this until completely combined. In a separate bowl, beat the egg lightly.
Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Dredge the salmon chunks in the egg, then coat them in the breadcrumb mixture. Set them in the pan to cook, turning them occasionally so that all side of the breadcrumbs get browned. Cook until salmon is done through (about 2 minutes per side, in my experience), then remove the chunks to a paper towel and allow them to drain. Not all of the chunks will fit in the saucepan at once (you don't want them to crowd each other overmuch, it will interfere with their browning process), so you'll probably have to do these in a few batches. When the salmon nuggets are finished, they can be put in an oven or toaster on 200F to keep warm while you prep the rest of the salad.
The final step is salad preparation. Assemble your lettuce into the bowl, and retrieve your dressing from the fridge. Drizzle the dressing very lightly over the lettuce, then toss to ensure that all lettuce pieces are covered in a thin film of dressing. Dust the whole thing with the remaining cheese (remember how you only used a few sprinkles earlier?), coating each piece of lettuce in a 'dust' of grated cheese. Add whatever other salad toppings you're using (tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, croutons, etc), and pour any remaining cheese over the top. Place the salmon nuggets on top of the salad, and serve the remaining dressing alongside for people to spoon over the salad as they please.
Servings: 2-3, depending mostly on how much salmon everyone like to eat
I'm not usually a salad person, but I had some lettuce languishing in my fridge after making burgers and gougeres, so one day when I needed something clean and light I thought I'd try to gussy it up into something that even my non-salad-eating self would like. Most of my original recipes happen this way, I think: I'll look into the fridge and think "Oh, that needs to be used before it goes bad. What sort of thing could I do with it that doesn't require a trip to the grocery store?" Laziness and thrift are the mothers of my culinary invention.
This particular gem was inspired by the lettuce I needed to use, and the fact that I'd frozen a salmon steak earlier in the month, so I had some salmon on hand. I'd thought about using chicken originally (and you could probably substitute chicken for salmon here and still have a great salad), but I didn't have any chicken on hand. It was late in the week, and I needed to get to the grocery. So salmon it was, and I think it ended up being a fortuitous choice. Chicken, while a nice all-purpose meat, can't rival salmon for both clean, healthy flavor and a certain classiness that salmon conveys. Salmon has long been my go-to meat when I need to feel like I'm being good, when I feel like I've eaten to much fried or cream-heavy stuff for a few days. Salmon is a palate cleanser, and pairing it with the refreshing salad makes for a really healthy, sort of Zen meal.
I will definitely make this one again, and I foresee it becoming a staple in my summer repertoire. As long as there are fresh veggies and swimsuit figures to consider, this salad is a great way for me to feel like I'm doing something good for myself, as well as good for my tastebuds!
Parmesan-Crusted Salmon Caesar Salad
For the dressing:
1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar
A scant 1/2 cup olive oil
About 1/2 - 1 tbsp finely chopped cooked salmon (I just microwave a small chunk off the salmon I'm about to cook anyway, then mince it with a sharp knife)
3 loves garlic, very finely chopped
1 egg
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 cups lightly packed Parmesan or Parmegiano-Reggiano, finely grated
Salt
Pepper
For the salmon nuggets:
1 lb salmon fillet (salmon steaks don't work so well for this, and fillets are cheaper anyway)
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan
1/2 cup plain or Italian fine, dry breadcrumbs
1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 eggs
3 tbsp olive or vegetable oil
Salt
Pepper
For the salad (use your favorites here, obviously, but here's what I used):
Romaine lettuce
15 cherry tomatoes, halved
15 baby carrots, sliced into small circles
2 eggs, boiled and sliced into quarters
1 cucumber, sliced into circles
Begin by making the dressing. Combine the vinegar, oil, minced salmon, a pinch of salt, and a sprinkling of pepper in a small mixing bowl and whisk thoroughly. Add the egg and a few sprinkles of the cheese, whisk those in, and taste it. Add more salt or pepper as necessary. Add the lemon juice, and whisk that in. Taste it again, first by itself, then on a piece of your lettuce. Adjust the dressing to suit the taste of the lettuce -- if the lettuce is very sweet, it may be fine as is, but if the lettuce is a little old or minerally, you may want to add more lemon juice to pull out brightness, more garlic to spike up the fresh flavour a little if the lettuce is bland, or a pinch of sugar to mitigate the acid in the dressing if the lettuce runs toward the minerally. I usually just go with whatever my instinct is, and use a combination of the above techniques to achieve a balanced taste. The key is to add things slowly, so that you don't ruin the dressing. When in doubt, spoon a small amount into another cup, adjust that and taste it until you've got it right, then adjust the rest when you know what needs to be done. When you've got the dressing to your taste, whisk it once more for good measure and stick it in the fridge to chill out while you do the rest of the salad.
Next, make the salmon nuggets. Use a very sharp knife to remove the skin from your salmon fillet. Next, salt and pepper the fillet on both sides, then cut it into nugget-sized chunks. 1 - 1 1/2 inch squares is usually what I go for. In a small mixing bowl, mix together the Parmesan, breadcrumbs, parsley, 1/2 tsp pepper, and 3/4 tsp salt. Stir this until completely combined. In a separate bowl, beat the egg lightly.
Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Dredge the salmon chunks in the egg, then coat them in the breadcrumb mixture. Set them in the pan to cook, turning them occasionally so that all side of the breadcrumbs get browned. Cook until salmon is done through (about 2 minutes per side, in my experience), then remove the chunks to a paper towel and allow them to drain. Not all of the chunks will fit in the saucepan at once (you don't want them to crowd each other overmuch, it will interfere with their browning process), so you'll probably have to do these in a few batches. When the salmon nuggets are finished, they can be put in an oven or toaster on 200F to keep warm while you prep the rest of the salad.
The final step is salad preparation. Assemble your lettuce into the bowl, and retrieve your dressing from the fridge. Drizzle the dressing very lightly over the lettuce, then toss to ensure that all lettuce pieces are covered in a thin film of dressing. Dust the whole thing with the remaining cheese (remember how you only used a few sprinkles earlier?), coating each piece of lettuce in a 'dust' of grated cheese. Add whatever other salad toppings you're using (tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, croutons, etc), and pour any remaining cheese over the top. Place the salmon nuggets on top of the salad, and serve the remaining dressing alongside for people to spoon over the salad as they please.
Servings: 2-3, depending mostly on how much salmon everyone like to eat
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Tomato-Egg Florentine Casserole
This is a pretty simple dish that tastes like comfort food to me, and uses stuff I almost always have on hand. The recipe is a liberal adaptation of one I got from Orangette here, and which she credits as her take on a recipe published in the Splendid Table Weeknight Kitchen. The Splendid Table recipe, in turn, was adapted from a recipe by the great Jacques Pepin in his home cook's staple, Jacques Pepin Fast Food My Way. So this little dish took a convoluted route to my table. It's sort of like playing Six Degrees to Kevin Bacon with food. I'd like to see the original Pepin recipe now, since I'm betting my version in no way resembles his with this many sources between us.
Strange pedigree aside, the dish tastes good, and that's what's important, right? It works in a 'great tastes that go together great' kind of way. The classic Florentine combination of pasta, tomato, and spinach gets a pick-me-up from the flavour of egg and a crust of Gruyere. I haven't tried it this way yet, but I'd bet you could throw some gently sauted artichoke hearts in here too and it would be delicious. It's a forgiving kind of dish like that. Or, if you don't have the spinach, leave that out and it still works. That's how comfort food goes: it's for those days when the last thing you need is something going wrong in the kitchen.
Tomato-Egg Florentine Casserole
5 large eggs
2 handfuls (1-1 1/2 cups) short-cut pasta. I like rotini, but it doesn't really matter as long as you're not using spaghetti or something long like that.
1 tbsp olive oil
2 medium yellow onions, roughly diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 tsp dried thyme (don't get the fresh stuff, the spice-rack version works great)
1 14 oz can whole tomatoes, undrained
1/8 lb spinach (or half of the 1/4 bags my grocery carries)
1 cup grated gruyere
Salt
Pepper
Begin by putting the raw eggs in a pot, running enough water in the pot to cover them, then sitting them over medium-high heat until the water boils. When it boils, set a timer for 9 minutes, then remove the pot from the heat and carefully drain the hot water out. Run cold water over the eggs, drain that, run more cold water over the eggs, and throw in a handful of ice chips to cool the water further. Let the eggs sit there and cool while you work on the rest of the recipe.
While the eggs are coming to a boil, put another pot on to boil with water for the pasta. Salt the water, and when it boils (this should be approximately the same time as the eggs coming to boil) add the pasta. Cook the pasta for about five minutes, then drain it. You want the pasta slightly underdone, since it will absorb some juice when you bake the whole casserole.
While the pasta and eggs are cooking, set the oven to preheat to 400F.
Add the onions and olive oil to a large sauce pan, and cook over medium heat until the onions turn soft and translucent. Add the garlic and let that saute for about two minutes (I usually take the eggs and pasta off during this stage), then add the tomatoes and their juices. Use the side of your spatula or a wooden spoon to break apart the tomatoes into manageable pieces, and simmer the tomato-onion mixture for another two minutes. Add the thyme, and taste the mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring the whole tomato mixture to a boil, then remove it from the heat. Gently fold in the spinach (you may need to do this in handfuls since the spinach takes up a lot of space before it wilts.
Now it's time to assemble the casserole. You should have the tomato-onion-spinach mixture, the cooled eggs, and the drained pasta. Grab the dish that you'll be using to bake the casserole. I use a souffle dish with tall sides, but a shorter and wider square casserole dish would probably work just as well. Slice the eggs into quarter wedges, and place them in the bottom of the dish. Pour the pasta into the same pan as the tomato-spinach mixture, and stir briefly to mix that all up. Pour the tomato-spinach-pasta mix over the eggs. On top of everything, sprinkle your cheese. I like to be generous with the cheese, and usually use more than the cup I've called for here.
Once the casserole is assembled, stick it in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Next, crack the oven door and turn on the broiler on high for 4 minutes, to put a nice crust on the cheese. Serve immediately.
Servings: 6-8
Strange pedigree aside, the dish tastes good, and that's what's important, right? It works in a 'great tastes that go together great' kind of way. The classic Florentine combination of pasta, tomato, and spinach gets a pick-me-up from the flavour of egg and a crust of Gruyere. I haven't tried it this way yet, but I'd bet you could throw some gently sauted artichoke hearts in here too and it would be delicious. It's a forgiving kind of dish like that. Or, if you don't have the spinach, leave that out and it still works. That's how comfort food goes: it's for those days when the last thing you need is something going wrong in the kitchen.
Tomato-Egg Florentine Casserole
5 large eggs
2 handfuls (1-1 1/2 cups) short-cut pasta. I like rotini, but it doesn't really matter as long as you're not using spaghetti or something long like that.
1 tbsp olive oil
2 medium yellow onions, roughly diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 tsp dried thyme (don't get the fresh stuff, the spice-rack version works great)
1 14 oz can whole tomatoes, undrained
1/8 lb spinach (or half of the 1/4 bags my grocery carries)
1 cup grated gruyere
Salt
Pepper
Begin by putting the raw eggs in a pot, running enough water in the pot to cover them, then sitting them over medium-high heat until the water boils. When it boils, set a timer for 9 minutes, then remove the pot from the heat and carefully drain the hot water out. Run cold water over the eggs, drain that, run more cold water over the eggs, and throw in a handful of ice chips to cool the water further. Let the eggs sit there and cool while you work on the rest of the recipe.
While the eggs are coming to a boil, put another pot on to boil with water for the pasta. Salt the water, and when it boils (this should be approximately the same time as the eggs coming to boil) add the pasta. Cook the pasta for about five minutes, then drain it. You want the pasta slightly underdone, since it will absorb some juice when you bake the whole casserole.
While the pasta and eggs are cooking, set the oven to preheat to 400F.
Add the onions and olive oil to a large sauce pan, and cook over medium heat until the onions turn soft and translucent. Add the garlic and let that saute for about two minutes (I usually take the eggs and pasta off during this stage), then add the tomatoes and their juices. Use the side of your spatula or a wooden spoon to break apart the tomatoes into manageable pieces, and simmer the tomato-onion mixture for another two minutes. Add the thyme, and taste the mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring the whole tomato mixture to a boil, then remove it from the heat. Gently fold in the spinach (you may need to do this in handfuls since the spinach takes up a lot of space before it wilts.
Now it's time to assemble the casserole. You should have the tomato-onion-spinach mixture, the cooled eggs, and the drained pasta. Grab the dish that you'll be using to bake the casserole. I use a souffle dish with tall sides, but a shorter and wider square casserole dish would probably work just as well. Slice the eggs into quarter wedges, and place them in the bottom of the dish. Pour the pasta into the same pan as the tomato-spinach mixture, and stir briefly to mix that all up. Pour the tomato-spinach-pasta mix over the eggs. On top of everything, sprinkle your cheese. I like to be generous with the cheese, and usually use more than the cup I've called for here.
Once the casserole is assembled, stick it in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Next, crack the oven door and turn on the broiler on high for 4 minutes, to put a nice crust on the cheese. Serve immediately.
Servings: 6-8
Friday, April 18, 2008
Steamed Artichokes in Lemon Butter Sauce
I'm almost embarrassed to be posting this recipe, since it's not really even a recipe. It's just directions about how to cook an artichoke, which until recently I'd never done. But the last few weeks, I've been eating artichokes pretty frequently. They're just coming into season now: round and green and prickly. A single artichoke is more than enough for a meal for me, and it makes me feel like I'm being healthy (even though it's probably enough butter to negate any healthiness the artichoke may bring). They're also fun. I will always like veggies that I can eat with my fingers and not feel like I'm being uncouth. They're interactive food, and they're easier to interact with than, say, shrimp or oysters. All the fun, none of the hassle.
Steamed Artichokes in Lemon Butter Sauce
1 artichoke (pick your artichokes by how heavy they are, with tightly knit leaves)
2 tbsp butter
4 tbsp lemon or lime juice
1/2 cup white wine (just eyeball it)
Salt
Pepper
Steam the artichoke by cutting off the stem close as close to the artichoke as possible. Next, cut off the tip of the artichoke; the bits that are nothing but prickly and are at the end opposite the stem. This may be difficult; I usually use a serrated knife, and even then I may require kitchen shears to get the last few stubborn leaves off. A chef's knife (even a very sharp chef's knife) really doesn't cuts it when it comes to artichoke tips. Anyway, saw that off.
Boil a couple inches of water in a pot, and set a vegetable steamer on top of it. If you don't have a vegetable steamer (as I didn't for a long time), use an aluminum pie plate, turned upside down to sit in the water, and with lots of holes poked in the bottom to let the steam through. Set the artichoke tip-side down in the steamer, cover it, and let it steam over a low boil for 40 minutes or so. I wouldn't go over that, because over-steaming leaches out the flavours.
Towards the end of the steaming process, simmer the wine in a small saucepan, over medium heat, and melt the butter into it. Stir in the lemon juice, and let the whole thing simmer for a minute or so. Taste it, then add salt and pepper to taste. Mine always needs quite a bit of salt. I add a little more than I think it needs and it turns out perfect, because artichokes taste really good with salt.
Serve without utensils, and pull the artichoke leaves one by one off the artichoke. Dip them in the sauce, and eat the meat off the underside of the leaves. When you get to the heart, cut out the feathery bits to leave only the base of the heart. That too can be eaten with the sauce.
Servings: 1
(Also? 20th recipe, whoo!)
Steamed Artichokes in Lemon Butter Sauce
1 artichoke (pick your artichokes by how heavy they are, with tightly knit leaves)
2 tbsp butter
4 tbsp lemon or lime juice
1/2 cup white wine (just eyeball it)
Salt
Pepper
Steam the artichoke by cutting off the stem close as close to the artichoke as possible. Next, cut off the tip of the artichoke; the bits that are nothing but prickly and are at the end opposite the stem. This may be difficult; I usually use a serrated knife, and even then I may require kitchen shears to get the last few stubborn leaves off. A chef's knife (even a very sharp chef's knife) really doesn't cuts it when it comes to artichoke tips. Anyway, saw that off.
Boil a couple inches of water in a pot, and set a vegetable steamer on top of it. If you don't have a vegetable steamer (as I didn't for a long time), use an aluminum pie plate, turned upside down to sit in the water, and with lots of holes poked in the bottom to let the steam through. Set the artichoke tip-side down in the steamer, cover it, and let it steam over a low boil for 40 minutes or so. I wouldn't go over that, because over-steaming leaches out the flavours.
Towards the end of the steaming process, simmer the wine in a small saucepan, over medium heat, and melt the butter into it. Stir in the lemon juice, and let the whole thing simmer for a minute or so. Taste it, then add salt and pepper to taste. Mine always needs quite a bit of salt. I add a little more than I think it needs and it turns out perfect, because artichokes taste really good with salt.
Serve without utensils, and pull the artichoke leaves one by one off the artichoke. Dip them in the sauce, and eat the meat off the underside of the leaves. When you get to the heart, cut out the feathery bits to leave only the base of the heart. That too can be eaten with the sauce.
Servings: 1
(Also? 20th recipe, whoo!)
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