99% Cacao Dark Chocolate

Homemade Vanilla: An Easy-To-Make Christmas Gift

2011-10-12T08:38:00.002-05:00

I love giving a gift that reflects something about the giver. It helps solidify that connection, the reason for the friendship, whatever it is you have in common with the giver. This year I’m giving my closest friends and family homemade vanilla – something they can use all year long. Since I love being in the kitchen and try to make everything I cook or bake from scratch, this gift seems to be the perfect gift for my family and friends.

Regular readers of my blog will know that I’m big on making things homemade, for many reasons, one of which is because you can control what goes into your food. This vanilla is great because there are no added sugars. The finished vanilla is simply split good-quality vanilla beans steeped in vodka over a period of time – simple. Many grocery store vanillas have added sugar and are using God-only-knows-what variety of vanilla beans, and the flavor and quality just isn’t the same.

The other great thing about this vanilla is that the bottle is “never-ending.” As it is used up, the bottle can be topped off with more vodka. Just let it sit several weeks before it is used, and it is as good as new. Give the bottles an occasional shake as they sit.

Oh, and the little flecks of what kind of looks like dirt…those are just the beans inside the pods. Totally edible, totally delicious – that’s where all the flavor comes from. Don’t worry if some of the flecks make it into your food – that’s a good thing.

If you’re going to make this in quantity as Christmas presents for several people, you’ll find that you will probably need to purchase most of your supplies online – it will be most cost-effective that way. I bought four-ounce bottles with caps included from Specialty Bottle. The shipping cost more than the bottles did, but it was still cheaper than sourcing the bottles locally. Plus, unlike the bottles I found locally, the ones from Specialty Bottle came with caps, so I didn't have to track down a separate source for the lids. Also of note, they do sell little shrink-wrap seals for the lids. I didn’t buy any, but if you want to make your vanilla for sale to the general public, you can buy the seals from the same source as well.

I bought my vanilla beans from Beanilla Trading Company, also an online company. I was initially only going to buy the Madagascar variety of beans, but saw they had a sale on the Bourbon variety so I grabbed a small package of those beans to see how they differ from the

Madagascar

variety. (Incidentally, the Bourbon vanilla bean name has nothing to do with bourbon the alcohol.) It looks like they also sell empty glass bottles on their website, you may or may not be able to get a better deal through them (they didn't carry them at the time I made my purchase).

The Beanilla website and packaging says Madagascar beans are “Rich, smooth, and creamy. Madagascar vanilla has a distinctly sweet and buttery aroma. This is the most popular variety of vanilla in the world. Perfect for any recipe.”

The package for the Bourbon beans says, “Nutty chocolate and raison (sic). A hint of tobacco. One of the smoothest, most popular forms of vanilla in the world.”

In both cases, I would agree with their descriptions! The Madagascar variety definitely smells sweeter than the Bourbon variety does. I was trying to describe the difference to someone, and the best way I could do so was to say, the Madagascar variety smells very feminine, while the Bourbon variety smells very masculine. Sort of a strange way to describe it, but that’s the first thing that came to my mind.

As far as the flavor goes, the Madagascar variety seems more “normal” to me, and probably to most people too, because it is the type used in most high-end grocery store vanillas. The bourbon kind is certainly good too, but I find that when I’m baking, I reach for the Madagascar variety more frequently, simply because its the flavor the general public is used to.

When considering the quantity of beans to purchase, I made my vanilla with 2.5 beans per four-ounce bottle. You can probably use slightly more or less without a problem, but I don’t think I’d use too much less or you’ll miss out on the vanilla flavor.

For the vodka, I bought a 1.75 liter bottle of Svedka brand vodka from my grocery store. Of the brands of vodka that were available in that quantity at my grocery store, its price point seemed to be middle of the road, neither excessively expensive for a project like this, nor so inexpensive it’d taste totally terrible. I figured, like wine, don’t use something you wouldn’t drink…and a taste test proved it would be satisfactory enough for vanilla-making purposes. The 1.75 liter bottle was more than enough to make fourteen four-ounce bottles of vanilla – and there are still a few inches in the bottom of the bottle for future taste testing purposes.

In addition to the beans, bottles, bottle caps, and vodka, you'll also need a pair of kitchen scissors and a funnel for this project.

Homemade Vanilla Extract

2.5 vanilla beans per four-ounce bottle

Four ounces of vodka per four-ounce bottle

Use scissors to cut each vanilla bean in half. Then snip up the length of each half of the bean, cutting it almost in half – almost splitting the bean, making a big V shape out of each bean half.

Stuff five V-shaped bean halves into each bottle.

Use a funnel to pour vodka over the beans, filling the bottle.

Cap the bottle, and store it in a cool dark place for about six weeks. Approximately two weeks in, give the bottles a little shake. As the bottles sit, the liquid will turn dark – normal vanilla extract color – and you’ll know its ready for use! The picture below shows how dark the vanilla gets after just a few weeks' time.

To use, give the bottle a little shake, then just pour off the amount of liquid you need, leaving the beans in the bottle. You can start to use the vanilla extract in recipes as early as several weeks in, but the longer the vanilla sits, the better the flavor gets. As the level of the liquid goes down, add more vodka to the bottle and wait a few weeks before using it until the extract has reached the proper vanilla-brown color. (By the way, vodka keeps indefinitely, so even if you’re not a vodka drinker, you don’t have to worry about it going bad if you want to buy a bottle just for this purpose.)

Labeling the Bottles

To help identify what was inside my bottles, and to help instruct the recipients of my Christmas gifts, I made little labels for each bottle. You’re welcome to copy them if you want, or make your own.

Printable Madagascar Bottle Labels (PDF)

Printable Bourbon Bottle Labels (PDF)

For the longest-lasting labels, I suggest printing them on a laser printer (not an inkjet – the ink would run if it got wet). I also wanted to have the top surface of the label laminated (but not the back, because then it wouldn’t stick to the bottle very easily). So, I printed my labels, cut them out, and “laminated” the top surface using a large piece of clear packing tape. Once the tape was trimmed down, it made a nice shiny surface.

Since I printed my labels on regular paper, not label/sticker stock, I needed a way to attach the labels to the bottle. I guess I could have taped my labels to the bottle, but instead I pulled out my scrapbooking supplies and used my Xyron glue runner to apply permanent glue to the back sides of the labels. So far they are sticking sufficiently well to the bottles, and its been about a year since I first did this project.

To add a bit of decoration to each bottle, I tied a chocolate and tan ribbon to the neck of each bottle. They were cute without being excessively cutesy, and festive enough to give as Christmas gifts without being too Christmasy (after all, the bottles are going to be used throughout the entire year).

It's been about a year since I first did this project, and the jars of vanilla I kept for myself are still working out great for me. I tend to use quite a bit of vanilla because I bake pretty frequently, and this is a much more cost-effective way for me to use high-quality vanilla than constantly buying expensive vanilla extract from a grocery or cooking supply store.

October or November is the perfect time of the year to get started on this project. Whether you give your vanilla away as Christmas presents, or just plan to use it in your holiday baking, vanilla started in October or November will be perfect, delicious, and more than ready for use by the end of December!

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Simple Vanilla Drop Sugar Cookies (or Whoopee Pies?!)

2011-10-10T11:22:00.002-05:00

Although I love the simple vanilla flavor of sugar cookies, I hardly ever make them. I think its because they’re a little pesky to make – they usually require lots of refrigeration time. The dough must be rolled out on the countertop, and regular readers of this blog will recall from photographs that my kitchen countertop is tiled – its not the usual smooth Formica or granite or whatever surface it is that most people have in their kitchen. The textured tile countertop makes it basically impossible to roll out cookies. (Don't ever put a tile countertop in your kitchen.)

If I want to make cut-out sugar cookies, I have to haul the dough and cutters and cookie sheets over to a family member’s house, invade their kitchen, and make them there. Consequently, I usually only bother with sugar cookies once or twice a year, generally only around a holiday, and make cut-out shapes of Christmas trees and angels or Easter bunnies and tulips over at my Dad’s house with my sisters.

To satisfy my sugar cookie fix during the rest of the year, I’m always looking for a good soft drop sugar cookie recipe. This one works pretty well – no refrigeration required, and the fact that I don’t have a smooth countertop is irrelevant. The mixing process is easy enough your kids can put the recipe together. Unlike most sugar cookie recipes, you don’t need to plan to make the cookies four hours ahead to allow ample time for refrigeration. The cookies are simply dropped onto the cookie sheet with a cookie scoop. The addition of sour cream gives the cookies great flavor, and keeps them ultra soft, as long as they don’t get excessively overbaked. They taste good either frosted or unfrosted.

My mom found the first version of this recipe’s ingredient list and baking times somewhere, it apparently came from compilation cookbook put together by Beta Sigma Phi, “The Millennium Cookbook.” She might have made a few modifications on her end (the recipe was originally supposed to be a roll-out sugar cookie recipe, but my mom found it to be way too soft to easily roll out). We thought it might make a good drop cookie recipe, and thus I began experimentation in my kitchen.

Turns out, the resulting unbaked “dough” IS really soft – its really more like a thick cake batter than it is like any other cookie dough I’ve ever made.

I have no idea how anyone could possibly roll the dough out without making a huge mess - multiple cups of flour would need to be dusted onto the countertop during the rolling process, and the cookies wouldn’t be nearly as tender with the addition of all that extra flour. The original recipe concept seemed so difficult and inconsistent – the drop cookie method as I’ve written it below is definitely the way to go.

During experimentation, I discovered these cookies work pretty well as the cake portion of a whoopee pie. Since the cookies are vanilla and are not strongly flavored, they pair well with a tangy lemon curd filling. I’ve included an easy-to-make lemon curd filling recipe below the cookie recipe in case you want to try that out. It uses good-quality store-bought lemon curd, and therefore is way less complicated to make than it would be if you were to make the lemon curd yourself.

Soft Vanilla “Drop” Sugar Cookies

Makes about 4 dozen cookies, depending on how big your cookie scoop is

1 cup butter

1-1/2 cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

Finely grated zest from one small lemon

4 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

One 8-oz. container sour cream (3/4 cup)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Using a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the vanilla, eggs, and lemon zest; mix until well-combined.

While the mixer is running, in a separate medium bowl, blend together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

Mix half of the flour mixture into the butter mixture until batter is well-combined. Then mix in half of the sour cream until the batter is uniform. Add the remaining flour mixture, and once it has been mixed in thoroughly, add the remaining sour cream, and mix until the batter is combined.

Cover your cookie sheets with aluminum foil. Use a cookie scoop to drop heaping tablespoons of batter onto the sheet, spacing them several inches apart as they will spread slightly. (My cookie scoop dropped .75 ounces of dough with each scoop.)

Bake the cookies at 350 for 11-13 minutes. The cookies will look pillowy and should only be barely browned.

Let the baked cookies rest on the warm cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring the sheet of foil to a wire cooling rack. The cookies will be too soft to remove from the foil at this time, but will firm up as they continue to cool. Once the cookies have cooled completely, remove them from the foil. They may need to continue to sit on the racks a bit longer until they are firm enough to move to storage containers.

The cooled cookies can be frosted, filled-and-sandwiched into whoopee pies, or just enjoyed plain.

Easy Lemon Curd Filling

in case you want to make whoopee pies out of the cookies

2 cups unwhipped heavy whipping cream

2 Tbsp sugar

1 cup prepared lemon curd, I used storebought Dickinson's brand

In a medium bowl, whip the cream and sugar on high speed until soft peaks form. Set aside.

Put the lemon curd in a small bowl (I like to use a 2-cup glass measuring cup). Spoon in about 1/2 cup of the whipped cream.

Stir vigorously to incorporate the lemon curd into the cream. It may not be entirely lump-free but stir it until it is mostly smooth.

Transfer the lemon mixture into the bowl containing the remaining whipped cream. Use a spatula to gently fold the lemon mixture into the cream. Don’t overmix it, just fold it until the color is uniformly lemon yellow.

Pair up your cookies - match them up so you have similarly-shaped pairs, so your finished product looks better.

Dollop the lemon cream mixture onto one of each of the cookie pairs, then sandwich them together.

Since this filling recipe contains cream, you’ll need to refrigerate the cookies if you aren’t planning to serve them right away. The cream is quite soft at room temperature, but is more firm at refrigerator temperature, and is quite delicious served either way. I think I preferred the refrigerator temperature personally, but that’s just me. They will last about a week in the fridge (if you haven’t eaten them all first!).

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Buttered Pasta

2011-05-24T11:19:00.001-05:00

I have a weakness for uniquely-shaped pasta. I could buy a box or bag of pasta every time I go to the grocery store. I have an entire cabinet devoted to pasta storage, and even though I already have every shape imaginable, I can’t resist picking more up any time I see something that looks interesting.

To feed my pasta-buying addiction, I visit “The Hill” neighborhood here in St. Louis, the old Italian neighborhood with lots of wonderful restaurants and several fun little grocery stores where good-quality tomatoes, olive oil, wine, and balsamic vinegar are the norm. The pasta selection is outstanding, of course, and you can get a lot of neat shapes I’ve never seen anywhere else, all imported directly from Italy.

I made this pasta dish with the last half of a bag of fusilli col buco, which is a long, hollow, corkscrew-shaped pasta. It’s thick and chewy and works great in a dish like this, with simple accompaniments, where the pasta really stars. Bucatini (the straight version of what I used) would work great: it has the same chewy texture but is a little harder to eat gracefully because it is just a little too thick to swirl around your fork. If you cannot find either specialty pasta, you can use fettuccini or linguine – something thick and chewy, not thin.

Although these subtly flavored, buttery noodles are a great side dish to go with any Italian entrée, they are the perfect accompaniment to something delicately-flavored like Chicken Piccata, because the noodles and their sauce will not overpower the Piccata sauce. They’re fast and easy to make, and don’t require a lot of expensive ingredients. There’s just a touch of garlic in them, but it, and the butter, salt, and pepper is all secondary to the pasta.

If you have any leftover noodles, take them to work for lunch – they reheat well in the microwave.

Buttered Pasta
Serves 4 as a side dish (smaller portions)

8 oz pasta
5 oz fresh spinach (least expensive if you buy it from the loose spinach bin, not the prebagged/prewashed kind)
1 loosely-packed cup Italian parsley
4 Tbsp butter
Salt and freshly-ground black pepper
Freshly grated nutmeg
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/3 cup snipped green onions

In a large pot (one that has a lid), cook the pasta, uncovered, according to the package directions. Do not overcook the pasta!

Wash and dry the spinach. If the spinach leaves are particularly large, you may wish to roughly chop the spinach. Set it aside.

Chop the parsley – I find the easiest way to do this is to just stick my scissors into the measuring cup and snip away until its all uniformly chopped.

Once the pasta has cooked, drain it and set it aside. In the empty pasta pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add a pinch of salt, a generous quantity of freshly-ground black pepper, and some freshly grated nutmeg (I usually do equal quantities of black pepper and nutmeg).

Turn the heat to medium-low. Return the pasta to the pot; add the green onions, spinach, and parsley, and stir to incorporate everything. Taste the pasta and adjust the seasonings…you may need more salt. Cover the pot (still on medium-low heat), and wait several minutes until the spinach has wilted slightly, stirring the pasta once or twice to give it all a chance to cook.

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Vanilla Buttermilk Cupcakes with Vanilla American Buttercream Frosting

2011-01-06T19:36:00.001-06:00

The day after New Year’s Eve is a great day for a lazy day – most people probably need a little bit of recovery time after their New Year’s Eve festivities, so no one really expects anything other than just that. Assuming you’re not working, you can sleep in, be unmotivated to accomplish much of anything, lounge around the house, take a nap, watch TV, and think of nothing of any importance.

So, being as the day I baked this recipe did happen to be the day after New Year’s Eve, and being as I had it off from work, I took full advantage of the opportunity for a lazy day, and slept most of the morning, surfed the internet, spent the day in my PJ’s, and just plain took the day off. The most complicated thing I thought of was whether or not I should take a nap (I initially decided against it since I slept in that morning and didn’t want to screw up my sleeping schedule for later that night, but then decided I was tired and a nap was definitely in order.). I also thought about what I might want to make for the blog next.

I initially thought of cookies, but I guessed that most people are rather cookied-out now that we’re at the close of the holiday season. (Posting any kind of cookie in January seems a little unfashionably late.) Then my mind moved to cupcakes. I haven’t made cupcakes in a long time – not since the last time I made my knockoff Hostess cream-filled cupcakes. Those are delicious, but I decided they were too much work for my low brainpower day…however something a little less difficult would be perfect – like a classic vanilla cupcake with a swirly crown of frosting.

These cupcakes are super easy to make, so they are perfect if you’re having a lazy day like I was, or if your kids want to bake and you want to give them a recipe that is simple and uncomplicated. The recipe is no more difficult to make than a batch of cookies (they actually kind of taste like sugar cookies in cupcake form), and it is made with things I almost always have in my fridge and pantry. The recipe does call for both cake flour and all-purpose flour, and you should definitely use both as the recipe is written or you’ll end up with a cake that is too dry and dense. The only ingredient that might be slightly more unique is buttermilk. I always keep a container of dry powdered buttermilk in my fridge for recipes such as this (it takes a very long time for it to go bad, so I recommend you do the same even if you hardly ever use it). If you don’t have that in your fridge, the chances are better that you might have some milk in there, and hopefully you have some vinegar somewhere around your house, so you can do the old fake buttermilk (vinegar-in-milk) trick in lieu of actual buttermilk. (I’ve included the directions for this substitution in the recipe ingredients list.)

Note that one reason the recipe is so simple is because there are no egg whites to whip. The lack of whipped egg whites means the cakes aren’t going to be as light and airy and perfect in texture as a cake with whipped whites included. Sometimes I'm willing to sacrifice a bit of texture in favor of simplicity…sometimes I'm not. If you’re just looking for a quick and easy cupcake recipe and don’t require perfection in the sponge cake world, these cupcakes will definitely fit the bill. What I'm hinting at is, while these cupcakes aren't bad, nor are they going to be the cornerstone recipe of the next cupcake boutique shop. But they are nice, easy-to-make, simple, unassuming cupcakes.

This recipe originally came from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes cookbook. While the cupcake recipe was pretty good given the limitations I’ve described above, I wasn’t satisfied with the quality of the frosting recipe that accompanied the cupcakes in the cookbook. It didn’t make enough frosting, was excessively dense, buttery and greasy, and just wasn’t very good. The frosting was so bad that I tossed it and made something different - much better tasting. You should make the frosting I’ve posted below, or whatever your favorite buttercream frosting happens to be, instead of the frosting recipe written in the cookbook.

Vanilla Buttermilk Cupcakes

Makes about 42 standard-sized cupcakes, more or less, depending on how full you fill the tins. The original recipe claimed a yield of 36 cupcakes, but I got 48 out of the batch...

3 cups cake flour

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

2-1/4 tsp baking powder

1-1/2 tsp coarse salt

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp unsalted butter (that’s 2-1/4 sticks), room temperature

2-1/4 cups sugar

5 whole eggs, plus 3 egg yolks

2 cups buttermilk (or use dry buttermilk according to the package instructions, or substitute fake buttermilk: place 2 Tbsp vinegar in a 2-cup liquid measure. Add milk to fill up the measure to 2 cups)

2 tsp vanilla extract

frosting and sprinkles, to decorate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line standard muffin tins with liners. (I got these neat Wilton cupcake liners for 99 cents from Hobby Lobby!)

In a medium bowl, whisk together both flours, the baking soda, baking powder, and the salt. Set the bowl aside.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time (both the whole eggs and the egg yolks), beating until they are completely incorporated between each addition. You may need to scrape down the sides of the bowl a few times as you work.

Add the flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and beating until combined after each.

Beat in the vanilla.

The finished batter is thinner than the above photo (it shows the batter mid-way through the mixing process). Divide the batter between the cupcake liners, filling each 2/3 to 3/4 full.

Bake about 18-20 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Turn the cupcakes out onto racks and cool completely before frosting. The cupcakes will taste best when they’re served the same day they are baked.

(Oops, one cupcake liner was kind of bent in! You know what that means? Taste test cupcake!!)

Vanilla “American” Buttercream Frosting

Makes 6 cups, which is about 58 ounces of frosting. And there's a reason I gave you the yield of the frosting in ounces:

If you intend to frost your cupcakes with “cupcake shop”-style swirly tops (using a piping bag and a Wilton #2110 (1M) tip), this makes just enough to top 42 cupcakes assuming you use no more than 1.4 oz of frosting per cupcake.

If you intend to frost your cupcakes using the “smear with a knife” method, you can probably just make a half batch of this recipe, because my experience is that you’ll use much less frosting per cupcake (usually about half, so no more than .7 oz of frosting per cupcake), and therefore won’t need as much frosting to get the job done. If you anticipate you’ll have a heavy hand with the frosting, you might want to make 2/3 or 3/4 of a batch of frosting.

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

6 Tbsp shortening

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

12 cups powdered sugar (about 3.2 pounds)

3/4 cup milk

Beat the butter, shortening, vanilla, and salt on medium-high speed until everything is well incorporated. Meanwhile, I suggest that you measure the powdered sugar into a new, separate mixing bowl. (Doing so means you wont have to keep track of how many cups of sugar have been added to the frosting as you’re making it.) Similarly, its easier to make the frosting if you have the milk measured into a liquid measuring cup with a spout.

After the butter has been fully mixed, the powdered sugar and milk should be added to the butter mixture a little bit at a time, alternating between the two. I turn the mixer to low (or powdered sugar will be everywhere!) and use the pouring shield to drop in 1 cup of sugar. I wait until the sugar has been incorporated into the butter mixture, then add a splash of milk, about 1 tablespoon for each addition. Once the milk has been incorporated, I add another cup of sugar, wait for it to mix in, then add another tablespoon of milk, and so forth, until all of the sugar and milk has been added to the frosting. It takes time to make the frosting, but you’ll have smooth, airy, lump-free frosting when you make it this way.

After the ingredients are all mixed in, beat the frosting on high speed until it is creamy and smooth. It should be spreadable and pipeable, but you may need to adjust the consistency with a small addition of powdered sugar (sift it over the surface, then mix it in) or an additional drop or two of milk.

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Chicken Picatta

2010-12-27T11:08:00.002-06:00

Want to know a secret I use to help with portion control? This particular recipe involves chicken, but my little secret also works well with pork chops or even steaks. And although I have mentioned it before on this blog, I only devoted a few sentences to it, so it is worth mentioning again. Whenever possible, I slice my chicken breasts in half horizontally, like this:

The end result: Two roughly equal-sized pieces of meat. One serving of meat has become two. Yes, they are thinner servings, but because the cut still looks (from the top) like it’s the same sized piece of meat, your brain is fooled into thinking you’re eating the same quantity of meat even though you’ve reduced the size by 50%. Sometimes, if I’m feeling particularly hungry and one cutlet just isn’t going to be enough, I’ll make both halves and have “seconds” (which still really isn’t overeating). Or, I’ll just add some pasta or a salad to the menu to help fill me up. Slicing the meat in half is also a great way to stretch your food dollar – you’ll get twice as many servings out of one package of chicken breasts.

This recipe is another super easy one to make. It is delicious served with a bit of buttered noodles, something that is a rather neutral (but still delicious) side dish. (The acidity in a tomato sauce would compete with the lemons, and a cream sauce would be too heavy and would mask the bright flavor of the Piccata sauce. The buttery noodles complement rather than compete with the lemon-caper flavor.)

You can substitute veal for the chicken, if you like. A veal cutlet might take slightly less time to cook than a chicken cutlet (and neither option takes particularly long to cook because both are very thin) so be prepared to pull it out of the pan pretty quickly. There are no other changes to the recipe ingredients or preparation, so its easy to make the substitution.

When choosing a wine to use for this dish, pick something you’d drink (NOT a grocery store “cooking wine”). Choose something dry, and not particularly sweet, because the sweet flavor will be further concentrated during the cooking process. I usually use pinot grigio because that’s usually what I keep in the house, but you could also use a sauvignon blanc or any other dry white wine. Plan to serve the remainder of the bottle with dinner, then you’re not opening a huge bottle of wine for one small recipe quantity.

The recipe has one ingredient in it that you may or may not be familiar with: capers. My grocery store usually stocks these in the same aisle as the pickles, olives, mustard, and other condiments. Capers look like this:

…and you should not omit them from this dish. I know they seem unusual if you’ve never had them, but give them a shot because they are necessary to produce the proper flavor for the sauce (otherwise its not “piccata,” its just a lemon and butter sauce). Capers will keep in your refrigerator for a very long time, so don’t worry about them going bad before you can use them up. Before you add them to the dish, capers should be rinsed under cool water because they are packed in a salty brine. I put the necessary quantity in a little sieve and run them under the tap for a few seconds.

Chicken Piccata

Serves 4

salt & pepper

4 thin, boneless, skinless chicken breast cutlets (cut from two breast halves, see the photo above)

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp capers, rinsed & drained

1-1/2 cups dry white wine

juice of two smallish lemons

2 Tbsp butter

1/4 cup unwhipped heavy cream (not coffee creamer), or you can use half-and-half if you're out

Sprinkle salt and pepper over the surface of the chicken cutlets. In a deep skillet, over medium-high heat, sauté the cutlets in the olive oil, turning once, until they are lightly browned on both sides and the chicken is just barely cooked through. (Don’t overcook the chicken - err on the side of slightly less done because later we’ll return the chicken to the pan to reheat it.) Remove the chicken and set it aside. Reduce the heat under the pan to medium.

(Anyone who says you cannot brown in a nonstick pan hasn't tried these nonstick pans. They're awesome. Love my Anolon Advanced cookware.)

While the chicken is cooking, place your capers in a small sieve and rinse them under cool running water. Drain them, then give them a rough chop. Set the chopped capers aside for later.

Add the wine and lemon juice to the same skillet, stirring to scrape up any browned bits. It will probably be bubbly and noisy when you add the liquid – keep stirring the pan! Cook the liquid for several minutes over medium heat until it has reduced by about half.

Reduce the heat to low. Add the butter, rinsed capers, and the cream or half-and-half. Stir to incorporate the ingredients and melt the butter. Once the dairy products have been added to the pan, take care to avoid allowing it to boil (you may need to reduce the heat further).

Return the cooked chicken to the pan and heat it through, just long enough to bring the chicken back up to the proper serving temperature.

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Strawberry Shortcake (with Angel Food Cake)

2010-04-21T21:18:00.008-05:00

Strawberry shortcake is sort of the epitome of summertime desserts. The sweet-but-slightly-tart berries, swirls of whipped cream, and yummy shortcake make for one delicious dessert. (And it has fruit in it, so it’s good for you, right?)

There are several schools of thought on the proper base for strawberry shortcake. Some people like it served with sweetened biscuits. Some like it with sponge cake. Some like it with pound cake. Those are all good, but my favorite way to serve strawberry shortcake is with angel food cake.

This particular angel food cake recipe comes from Betty Crocker, circa the 1960’s. Yeah, the cookbook is a little outdated, but this recipe is a keeper...unlike some of the other ones in the book. There are a bunch of angel food cake variations on the same page, and they all require gelatin and something called “dessert topping mix” Fortunately this recipe steers clear of all of that. It is a standard angel food cake recipe, tried-and-true, and I’ve made this exact cake for many birthdays, a few graduation parties, and on many, many other occasions over the years.

If you don’t have an angel food cake pan and are planning to buy one, you should select your pan carefully.

An angel food cake pan should NOT be nonstick. (Angel food cake keeps itself risen by climbing up and sticking to the sides of the pan, and a nonstick pan prevents this from happening. The cake won’t have the proper height and the texture will suffer if the pan is nonstick.)
For almost all of my baking, I prefer light-colored pans because it keeps the food from over-browning. Angel food cake is no exception: try to find a light-colored pan.
The pan doesn’t need to be insulated or have any other fancy technology.
It does, however, need to have a way to stand upside down during the cooling process. My angel food cake pan has a tall central tube and little aluminum feet sticking off the top of the pan, which hold the cake off the countertop when the pan is inverted. This will cool the cake properly, but for even better air circulation, I stick a coke bottle in the central tube and turn the pan over balanced on the bottle (you’ll see pictures below). So, you’ll need either a pan that has feet, or you’ll need to come up with a way to invert it without smashing the cake. A wine bottle works too.
The best pans are two-part pans. Angel food cake needs to be cut out of its pan, and its basically impossible to do that with a one-piece pan. (That’s why they started making the one-piece pans nonstick, but we already went over why nonstick is a bad idea…) The one-piece pans work well for other things (pound cake!) but not well for angel food cake.

It’s really hard to find a good angel food cake pan at the kitchen store. Most properly-shaped pans are nonstick or made of dark-colored aluminum, neither of which I want. Last time I needed another angel food cake pan (before the days of the internet), I hit up the garage sales until I found an old one for a buck. The pan can be dinged up slightly and it won’t hurt anything. It’s not supposed to be a water-tight pan (properly-made angel food cake batter isn’t runny and shouldn’t leak through the pan), so don’t worry if the bottom doesn’t fit absolutely flat into the sides of the pan. Now that we are in the days of internet shopping, you can buy a new one from Amazon that meets all the specifications I’ve mentioned and it should work just as well as all of my Garage Sale Specials have worked for me.

Angel Food Cake
Makes one cake 10” in diameter and 4” tall

1 cup cake flour
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
12 egg whites (about 1-1/2 cups)
1-1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1-1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and 3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp granulated sugar. Set the mixture aside.

In a large mixer bowl, use the wire whip attachment to beat together the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt until foamy.

While this is happening, measure 3/4 cup granulated sugar into a spouted cup similar to this one:

With the mixer on the highest speed, slowly shake in a very small stream of granulated sugar into the egg white mixture. Continue to add the sugar very slowly as the mixer is whipping the whites. Do not dump in large quantities of sugar at once. As the whites whip up, they will increase in volume. The goal is to shake all of the sugar into the egg whites in about the same amount of time it takes for the whites to be beaten to the “stiff peak” stage. You’ll know the whites are “stiff peaks” when you lift the beater out of the bowl and the whites hold shape and don’t slump back down into the mixture. But, use caution to avoid over whipping the whites – they’ll become chunky and that’s not what we’re looking for either.

Properly whipped egg whites are smooth and stand up like this:

Once you’ve finished beating the egg whites, take the bowl off of the mixer. The rest of the steps must be mixed by hand or you’ll deflate the batter. I like to use a large flat rubber spatula, but before I owned that particular piece of kitchen equipment, I used to use a flat wooden spoon with nearly-as-good results. Whatever you use, you’ll need to have something with a fairly long handle because in case you haven't noticed, there’s a lot of volume in that bowl now.

Add the vanilla and almond extracts. Use your rubber spatula or flat spoon to gently fold them into the egg whites. Don’t stir the batter or you’ll deflate it. Fold it. (I wish I had a video camera – I’d demonstrate it…sorry.) To fold, cut the spatula down the center of the egg whites, then run it along the bottom of the bowl, up the side, and down into the center again. Rotate the bowl and repeat the motion.

Sprinkle approximately 1/4 of the flour mixture over the surface of the flour. Fold it gently into the egg white mixture just until the flour mixture disappears into the batter. Add another fourth of the flour mixture and repeat the folding-and-adding process until you’ve folded all of the flour mixture into the egg whites.

Spoon the batter into an ungreased angel food cake pan, 10” x 4.” Tap your rubber spatula straight down through the batter to help remove any air bubbles from the cake.

Bake the cake approximately 30-35 minutes. How can you tell when angel food cake is done baking? The top should be lightly browned. “Betty" tells you it should “spring back when touched lightly with a finger,” whatever that means. Here’s how I tell: as the cake bakes, the top surface cracks, exposing lighter-colored cake interior. When that lighter colored section of the cake is dry and no longer sticky, the cake is properly baked. I use the point of a knife or my fingernail to scrape just a tiny bit of crumb out of one of the lighter areas and see if it is still moist and sticky or if it is dry. If it’s still sticky, give it another 3 to 5 minutes in the oven. The top will be nicely browned and any peaked areas will be an even deeper, nearly-toasty brown.

As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, the pan must be inverted or the cake will sink. As I mentioned above, I use the coke bottle cooling method, but if your pan has feet, you can simply turn it upside down. The cake must be entirely cooled before it is removed from the pan. If you come back to your cake in fifteen minutes and find it has fallen out all over the countertop, you under baked it and didn’t give it enough time in the oven. Take notes for next time and try again. I promise, if it’s completely baked, and if you used the proper pan, it won’t fall out despite the fact that it's sitting upside down.

A side story… Once, earlier in my baking days, I decided I wanted to make lots of angel food cake for a party. I baked a whole bunch of these cakes in sort of an assembly line, one cake after another. I was running out of countertop space in my kitchen and had nowhere to cool the cakes. So I looked around my small apartment for somewhere else to balance my coke-bottle-cake-pan setup for an hour or so, and saw the flat surface of my bedroom dresser. Unfortunately I was in such a rush to get these cakes baked, I slightly under baked the cake – but I was new enough to baking that I didn’t realize it at the time. After I thought the cake had a sufficient amount of time to cool, I went back to my bedroom to bring it back to the kitchen…and found cake EVERYWHERE. (Since it was under baked, it fell out of the pan.) What a mess! Cake all over the top-of-the-dresser knick-knacks! Cake all over my clothes! Cake on the carpet! Cake all over the cat (who was very interested in it). And because it was under baked, it was sticky and sugary and very messy to clean up - and the last thing I wanted to do while running around making last-minute preparations for a party. Lesson learned: be sure the cake is completely baked. Don’t get in a hurry to get it out of the oven!

While the cake is cooling, you can prepare the strawberries for the shortcake:

Macerated Strawberries

16 ounces strawberries, tops discarded, fruit sliced
2 to 3 Tbsp of granulated sugar
1 to 2 tsp best-quality balsamic vinegar

The measurements above are somewhat approximate because the amount of sugar necessary will depend on how sweet your strawberries are. I recommend mixing the smaller quantity of sugar and vinegar in with the berries first. Let it all sit for about 20 minutes, then taste it and adjust the flavoring as necessary. (You can always add more sugar and vinegar, but you cannot take it out!) I like them on the tart side, but you might like them sweeter than even what I’ve written above.

After the cake has cooled completely, the cake will need to be cut out of the pan. You’ll need a long serrated knife. First, holding the knife vertically, cut around the outside edge of the cake. Use a sawing motion with the knife. Then cut around the center tube in the pan. If you miss a spot, the cake will rip when you try to remove the pan, so be sure you are thorough in your cutting.

As long as you haven’t missed any spots, if you lift up on the center tube, you should be able to ease the side of the pan away from the cake.

Hold the cake pan by the center tube. Place the knife horizontally and cut between the bottom of the cake and the base of the pan. Rotate the pan as you work so you get all areas of the pan. Double check to be sure your center tube is thoroughly cut free.

Once everything has been cut away from the pan, invert the cake onto a plate or a wire rack – the center piece should come right out.

(I turned mine out onto a rack, then flipped it over onto a plate because I thought the crackly top was prettier than the squared off bottom was.)

Immediately prior to serving, whip the cream

1 cup heavy whipping cream, more or less
1 Tbsp granulated sugar

Place the cream and sugar in a small bowl - one large enough to accommodate a hand mixer. Use a hand mixer to beat the cream on high speed until soft peaks form.

Assemble the strawberry shortcake from the angel food cake, berries, and whipping cream. Yum!

A note: Angel food cake tastes best when it's served the same day it's baked. If you must store it for another day, loosely cover it or put it under a cake dome. Since the cake is mostly sugar and egg whites, it breaks down quickly if it gets moist, so it won't last too long, especially in a humid environment. It doesn't last too long in my household anyway because it tastes pretty good...

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Homemade Barbeque Sauce

2010-03-14T12:44:00.009-05:00

In anticipation of better weather (and in protest of our current not-winter-anymore-but-not-quite-spring-either weather), I've started grilling outdoors. We have a nice covered porch which makes it easy to use the grill even if it's raining. Barbequed chicken is pretty easy to make outdoors because it doesn't require much babysitting. The chicken is brushed with sauce and is placed on the grill. After a few minutes, it is flipped once, brushed with more sauce, but is otherwise left alone while it cooks. Pretty simple.

Homemade barbeque sauce is really easy to make. Onions are browned in butter (olive oil can be substituted for a somewhat healthier sauce…but the butter tastes better), then everything else is added and simmered over medium heat. There’s not much to it.

One thing that's great about this sauce: you can make it ahead and freeze it. You can also make it in larger quantities.

Homemade Barbeque Sauce (for chicken)
Makes about 3 cups of sauce

1 small onion, finely chopped (a mini food processor works well!)
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice (2 large lemons yielded the proper amount of juice)
1/2 cup dry red wine (I used a Malbec on this particular occasion, but I usually make it with Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz)
Several shakes (to taste) of Tabasco or similar hot sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup spicy mustard
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ancho chili powder (another type will also suffice if you don’t have ancho)
1 cup water

Place the chopped onions and the butter in a medium skillet. Spread out the onions so they cover the bottom of the pan. Turn the heat to medium-low and allow the onions to brown slowly. The moisture will begin to cook out of the pan and the onions will begin to brown at the edges. Avoid stirring the pan until this starts to happen. The pan looks like this when it’s time to stir (see the browned edges?):

Stir the onions and allow them to continue to brown slightly longer, so they are evenly browned. Transfer the browned onions to a medium saucepan and add the remaining ingredients.

Simmer the sauce over medium heat, stirring often, to reduce the sauce by approximately one third.

I usually serve this sauce with grilled chicken. I pour a small amount of the sauce over the chicken pieces as a marinade. The remaining sauce is saved to mop the chicken as it is grilling. (Remember, should any of the reserved basting sauce come into contact with raw meat, be sure to return the sauce to a boil before using it to baste cooked chicken!)

The chicken in these pictures is served with my Bacon and Spinach Couscous. It’s really yummy – give it a try.

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Bacon and Spinach Couscous

2010-03-10T16:06:00.006-06:00

I’ve been in search of a new couscous recipe. I love my cranberry and spinach couscous recipe, but I make it so often that I’d like to try something different for a change of pace.

This couscous recipe is full of flavor and is easy to make. It’s especially easy if you have a mini food-processor (you can use it to cut up the onion and garlic). The couscous is flavored by bacon, has a touch of sweetness due to applesauce, and is embellished with a bit of cheddar cheese. The combination of flavors results in a pretty tasty side dish.

As with my other favorite couscous recipe, this recipe also uses Israeli couscous, a.k.a. pearl couscous. It is larger in size than regular couscous and the resulting texture and taste is completely different. If you think you don’t like couscous and the only kind you’ve tried is the standard small-size couscous, you should give this type of couscous a try. Here’s what the two types of couscous look like – you can see that there’s quite a difference in size between the two.

Bacon and Spinach Couscous
Serves 3-4 as a side dish

4 thickly-sliced strips of bacon
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 ounces mushrooms, roughly chopped (I splurged and used morels because they were available at the grocery store, but you can use baby portabellas with good results)
1 cup Israeli (pearl) couscous
1 tbsp grainy Dijon mustard
1/4 cup unflavored applesauce
1-1/2 cups chicken stock
3 ounces baby spinach, roughly chopped
3/4 cup shredded white cheddar cheese

You’ll need a deep, wide sauté pan that has a lid. If your frying pan has a lid, that should work.

First, dice the bacon. Place it in your deep sauté pan and cook it over medium heat until the fat has started to render but the bacon is still not crisp. Caution: don’t let the bacon crisp up just yet! Give it a stir every now and then.

While the bacon is cooking, chop the onion and garlic. I like to put them together into a mini food processor because it’s easy!

As I've indicated above, we don’t want to let the bacon crisp up just yet. Once the bacon has released fat into the pan (but before it turns crisp), carefully pour or spoon out as much fat as you can. You can discard it or save it for another purpose. Add the chopped onion and garlic to the pan. Continue to cook over medium heat several minutes until the onions begin to brown – the bacon will start to brown too, and that’s fine. Just give it a stir periodically to keep it from sticking and burning.

While the onion mixture is cooking, chop your mushrooms; stir them into the pan.

Pour in the couscous and stir to combine. Continue to cook over medium heat while you complete the next step…

In a small bowl (I like to use a 2-cup liquid measure), stir together the mustard, applesauce, and chicken stock. Pour the mixture into the pan – stir it to combine the ingredients. Bring it to a simmer over medium heat.

Once the liquid begins to simmer, cover it with the lid. Reduce the heat to low and cook it for 10 minutes, or until the couscous has absorbed the liquid.

While the couscous cooks, roughly chop the spinach and set it aside. Grate the cheese and set it aside.

Once the couscous has completed its cooking time, remove the lid. Stir in the spinach (you may need to stir it in two additions – it seems like a lot of spinach, but it will wilt down to practically nothing). Sprinkle the cheese over the couscous; stir it in to combine it and melt it.

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Butterscotch Pudding with Salted Whipped Cream

2010-02-28T18:21:00.005-06:00

I’ve been on a butterscotch kick lately. It all started with the brown butter blondies I made awhile back – their butter-and-brown sugar flavor profile has had me thinking about butterscotch desserts ever since. A few weeks later, I made a butterscotch sauce to top some ice cream sundaes I served when we had family over to visit. Then I experimented with butterscotch pudding on Super Bowl Sunday, but felt the recipe wasn’t quite there yet, so it didn’t get blogged.

After I had a butterscotch sundae at Ted Drewes last night, I felt sufficiently inspired to try out another butterscotch pudding recipe. I found a different recipe from one of my favorite dessert cookbooks (one you’ve seen before), Diner Desserts, by Tish Boyle. Like every other recipe I’ve made out of that cookbook, it didn’t disappoint me.

Despite the inclusion of the word “scotch” in the name “butterscotch,” there actually isn’t supposed to be any scotch in traditionally-made butterscotch. (If you want, you can add a tablespoon of scotch and make less-traditional butterscotch pudding, but for the most authentic pudding, it should be left out.)

“Real” butterscotch flavor is created by butter and brown sugar. Therefore, any butterscotch-flavored dessert is necessarily going to be rather sweet. To counter all that sugar, the pudding tastes great with a little bit of extra salt. I suggest topping the pudding with salted whipped cream. You could skip the whipped cream and sprinkle a pinch of sea salt directly on top of each of your puddings just before serving them.

When I’m making pudding, I like to set out all of my ingredients in advance. Making pudding isn’t too difficult, but it requires that you whisk the mixture almost constantly, so you can’t take time to set the whisk down and fuss over the next ingredient.

Butterscotch Pudding with Salted Whipped Cream
6 servings

Pudding ingredients:
3 large egg yolks
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups whole milk
1 cup half-and-half
1 Tbsp scotch – optional (see above)

Salted Whipped Cream ingredients:
1/2 cup whipping cream
A generous pinch of kosher salt

First, make the pudding. It needs time to chill in your refrigerator prior to serving it, so start it at least three or four hours in advance.

I start by preparing my ingredients. Place the egg yolks in a medium bowl. Use a fork to whisk them together and set the bowl aside for later. You’ll need a one-cup scoop later, so set the scoop near the egg yolks so you’ll have it handy.

Measure out your butter. Go ahead and cut it into tablespoons. Set the butter aside. Keep your bottle of vanilla (and the scotch, if you’re going to use it) nearby because you’ll need to add it when you add the butter.

You’ll need six small dishes for your pudding. Locate them and set them nearby.

In a medium saucepan, off of the heat, stir together the cornstarch, sugar, and salt. The mixture should look very sandy.

Gradually whisk in the milk and the half-and-half. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, whisking constantly. (As you’re whisking, the consistency will change from a liquid to a thick pudding.) Once the mixture begins to bubble, remove it from the heat.

Using the one-cup scoop you set aside earlier, ladle out approximately one cup of the milk/sugar mixture into the whisked egg yolks. Vigorously whisk the egg yolk mixture to combine everything, then transfer the egg yolk mixture back to the remaining milk/sugar mixture in the saucepan. Keep whisking everything until it is combined.

(If you don’t whisk constantly, your eggs can cook improperly and leave chunks in your pudding. If this should happen, don’t get too upset, you can pass the pudding through a sieve later. The pudding won’t have the exact same texture, but it’ll still be very edible. But try to keep whisking constantly to avoid the chunks!)

Return the pudding to medium heat - keep whisking - until the mixture comes back to a boil. Continue to boil, whisking constantly, for one minute. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the butter pieces until they are completely melted. Whisk in the vanilla and the scotch, if you’re using it. If you need to strain your pudding, do so now.

Pour the pudding into your serving dishes. Cover the dishes with plastic wrap, pressing the wrap directly onto the surface of the pudding, and refrigerate it for several hours, until it is well-chilled.

Just prior to serving the pudding, make the salted whipped cream:

Place the whipping cream and the salt in a medium bowl. Whip on high speed until soft peaks form. Spoon or pipe the whipped cream onto your pudding.

Lemon-Sage Cornish Game Hens with Porcini Tomato Sauce

2010-02-24T18:35:00.004-06:00

There are several good reasons you should try this chicken recipe. For one, its pretty easy to make, considering it involves whole chickens. (When I first started learning to cook, whole birds seemed kind of intimidating to me…but the truth is, whole birds sound a whole lot more complicated than they actually are. And this particular recipe is fairly easy.)

The second reason you should make this recipe is that it tastes quite good. The chicken is baked at a high temperature, so the skin becomes nice and crispy while the chicken stays juicy and tasty. Lemons are stuffed in the chicken – they give a bright but subtle counterpoint to the umami flavor present in the mushroom tomato sauce.

This recipe is made with Cornish game hens (sometimes known as "rock" hens...they're basically just smaller-sized whole chickens). In my household, one large Cornish game hen will serve two people…but we’re used to moderately-sized portions. If you have big eaters, or if you want to have leftovers, you might want to allow one small hen per person.

Lemon-Sage Cornish Game Hens with Porcini Tomato Sauce
Serves up to 4

Chicken Ingredients:
Two to four 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 pound Cornish game hens (see the note above)
For each hen, you'll need...
1 medium lemon
2 large fresh sage sprigs (left whole), plus 1 Tbsp chopped fresh sage
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Sauce Ingredients (makes enough for four servings)
2 Tbsp olive oil
3/4 cup hot water
1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
one 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, with juices

First, prepare the chicken:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. You’ll need a roasting pan large enough to hold the birds.

Remove the giblets. (They’re usually contained in a little plastic baggie stuck inside the chicken cavity, but sometimes they’re just loose inside the bird.) They can be discarded or saved for another use. Rinse the chicken (inside and out). Pick off any stray feathers or any giant clumps of fat. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels.

Cut each lemon in half. Save half of each lemon (we’ll squeeze it on the meat later). Cut the remaining lemon halves into rough wedges. Stuff the lemon wedges and the two large sage sprigs inside the cavity of each bird. Put the stuffed birds in your roasting pan. I like to roast them breast-side-down, because the juices from the bird will help keep the meat moist and flavorful.

Drizzle one tablespoon of olive oil over each bird. Squeeze the juice from the remaining lemon halves over each bird. Sprinkle each bird with a generous pinch of salt and several generous turns of freshly-ground black pepper. Scatter 1 tablespoon of chopped sage over each bird.

Roast the birds at 450 degrees F until they are cooked through and the juices run clear when thickest part of thigh is pierced. (It should take approximately 45-50 minutes.) Transfer the birds to a platter (or a cutting surface if you want to cut them in half – use heavy-duty kitchen scissors to snip them in half); tent them with foil to keep them warm. Reserve the pan drippings.

While birds are roasting, start the sauce...and...

...I highly recommend that you serve this with creamy polenta…that's what the chicken is served with in the photo at the top of this post. Follow your polenta package directions to make a creamy polenta. If you decide to make polenta, you’ll probably want to start it now, as it probably takes awhile to make…

Combine 3/4 cup of hot tap water and the porcini mushrooms in a small bowl. Let them stand until the mushrooms soften, about 30 minutes. Remove the mushrooms from the soaking liquid, reserving the soaking liquid. Roughly chop the mushrooms; set the mushrooms and the soaking liquid aside.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh sage and the garlic; sauté them until they are fragrant, about one minute. Add the tomatoes, the chopped mushrooms, and the mushroom soaking liquid. Bring the sauce to a simmer – it can simmer on low heat until the birds are done roasting.

Once birds are done roasting, pour the pan drippings into a small measuring cup. Skim the fat off of the top, then stir the remaining drippings into the tomato mixture. Simmer the tomato mixture two minutes to blend the flavors. Serve the chicken with the sauce.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

2010-02-15T16:02:00.003-06:00

I love reading the newspaper. There’s something satisfying about paging through the inky newsprint, sipping on a cup of hot cocoa, catching up on the latest national news, soaking up the details in the local stories, and comparing the weather forecast to reality. I always save the best for last: the comics (Calvin and Hobbes, I miss you!). The same section has the Sudoku puzzle…I love solving those. There’s a certain comforting feeling about tangible print media that cannot be recreated by online news sources.

My absolute favorite section is, of course, the food and cooking section (too bad it only comes once a week!). I love reading about local restaurants, getting ideas for recipes, and looking through the grocery advertisements. I’ve always been a recipe clipper – you’ll never know when you find a recipe that’s a keeper!

This recipe is one of those clipped-out-of-a-newspaper keepers. It was printed when I was ten years old (there are expired coupons for Chex cereal on the back of it!). My mom had this recipe clipping taped to the inside back cover of one of our favorite cookie cookbooks.

I remember wanting to make the cookies often as a child, partially because I have always loved the combination of chocolate and peanut butter, and partially because the cookies in the accompanying picture had these cute little green and white Christmas trees piped on them – they looked fun to eat. The name they gave the cookies was “Magic Peanut Butter Middles,” a name I always thought fell short (the “Magic” part seemed cool to a ten-year-old, but “Middles”?? Really?? Ok, I guess the name I came up with isn't much better...) Despite the writers’ (and my) halfhearted attempt at a creative title, the cookies were always a hit with me and my sister. Biting into what looks like just a plain old chocolate cookie and finding a delicious, creamy peanut butter filling is fun when you’re ten! (It’s still fun now!)

The recipe is very hands-on, so it’s a little messy, but the method is easy enough that my sister and I made them together when we were young. You might enjoy making these with your kids.

Be sure you use “kid's” peanut butter, not the all-natural kind that you have to stir up before using. (The Jif/Skippy/Peter Pan/whatever kinds contain solid fats, and the cookie recipe presumably was written and tested with that fat composition in mind because it specifically recommends Skippy brand original creamy peanut butter.) Or, try the natural kind and report back on how it turns out…I have never tried using natural peanut butter in this particular recipe, but I have tried Jif brand original creamy peanut butter, and I can say that it works well.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Makes 18 cookies

First, start the cookie dough:

Cookie Dough Ingredients
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup “kid's” peanut butter (not the “natural” kind)
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, and baking soda - blend it well. Set it aside.

In a large bowl (I use my stand mixer, but always did this with a wooden spoon when I was a kid), beat together the sugar, brown sugar, butter, and 1/4 cup peanut butter until it is light and fluffy and well-combined. Add the vanilla and egg; beat well.

While the stand mixer is combining the above ingredients, I start mixing together the filling:

Filling Ingredients
1/2 cup “kid's” peanut butter (not the “natural” kind)
1/2 cup powdered sugar

In a medium bowl, combine the 1/2 cup peanut butter and the powdered sugar. It starts out with a rough texture…

…but will come together if you just keep stirring.

Roll the filling into 18 one-inch balls. (Yes, there’s more than 18 here…I made a bigger batch.) Set them aside.

(When I was a kid, I just used my hands, but now that I have better kitchen tools, I use a mini ice cream scoop like this one…

…so much easier! Less mess! It’s exactly one inch in diameter, so it’s the perfect size.)

Back to finishing the cookie dough:

Stir the cocoa mixture into the large bowl containing the creamed butter/sugar mixture until the ingredients are all blended together.

Now start shaping the cookies:

Take a heaping tablespoon-or-so of dough (about the size of a ping pong ball)…

…and use your fingertips to sort of flatten it into a little cupped circle of dough. Put one of the peanut butter balls in the center…

Shape the chocolate dough around the peanut butter to entirely encase it. Roll it around in your hands to make a smooth ball. Place the shaped dough about 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet (the original recipe calls for an ungreased sheet, but I always use parchment paper on my sheets for easier cleanup).

Use the bottom of a drinking glass dipped in granulated sugar to flatten the cookie balls to approximately 1/4-inch thick. (Don’t be too skimpy with the sugar or it’ll all disappear into the cookies as they’re baking.)

Bake at 375 degrees F for 7 to 9 minutes, or until the cookies are barely set and slightly cracked. They should still be soft – do not overbake them or they will be dry.

Leave the baked cookies on the warm cookie sheet for only a few minutes, just until they are firm enough to transfer to wire racks for cooling.

These cookies are soft inside, but have a nice exterior texture due to the sugar on top. With all the peanut butter in these cookies, you’ll definitely need to enjoy these with a tall glass of cold milk! Yum!

Chicken Strips with Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce

2010-01-31T15:58:00.002-06:00

It’s always more fun to eat food when you can dip it into a sauce or condiment. I guess that’s why hand-held, dip-able things like chicken nuggets are always on children’s menus at fast food restaurants. (If its fun to eat, kids will ask for it, right? Sales!)

Of course, they’re on the grown-up McMenu too, because you definitely don’t have to be a kid to enjoy using your hands to eat food. Since I do not usually include foods with the prefix “Mc” in my meal plan (but still like eating chicken strips), I just periodically make them at home.

Although my chicken strips are not quite as speedy as running through a drive-thru, they’re not too difficult to make and they taste much better. Plus, you know exactly what you’re putting into your homemade chicken strips. They’re much lower in sodium and they’re not deep fried, so they’re better for you.

Look for panko in the Asian foods aisle of your grocery store. If you cannot find it, you can substitute regular unseasoned bread crumbs, but you’ll have the best, crispiest texture with panko.

If you’re looking for something to serve at a Super Bowl party next weekend, give these chicken strips a try! The honey mustard sauce tastes good with other things, too – I accidentally discovered asparagus spears are delicious when dipped in the sauce.

First make the dipping sauce:

Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
Makes about 3/4 cup

1/4 cup light mayonnaise
2 Tbsp honey
1/3 cup Dijon mustard
A pinch of kosher salt
1/4 tsp garlic hot sauce, or to taste

Mix all of the ingredients. Taste the sauce and adjust the spicy/sweet/tangy ingredients as necessary. Refrigerate the sauce until serving time.

Then make the chicken:

Homemade Chicken Strips
Serves 4 as an appetizer (add a few side dishes to serve it as an entrée)

2 chicken breast halves
1 cup all-purpose flour
A pinch of salt
A pinch of pepper
2 eggs
2 Tbsp water
Approximately 2 cups panko crumbs
Olive oil, for panfrying

Slice the chicken breasts in half horizontally into two flat, thin pieces.

Then cut the chicken into “fingers.”

You will need three small bowls (cereal bowls, pie pans, small mixing bowls, whatever…all work well). In one bowl, place the flour, salt, and pepper. Stir it with a fork to combine the ingredients. In the second bowl, whisk together the eggs and water.

In the third bowl, place the panko. Since panko is kind of expensive, you might want to start with a smaller quantity and add more to the bowl only as you need it. I start with one cup and add a little more as I work, for a total usage of approximately two cups.

Bread the chicken:

When I bread meat, I usually use tongs. It is kind of messy. If you get flour and eggs on your hands, you’ll have a gluey mess that is difficult to wash off. Tongs are much easier to clean – if they get too gluey, just use a utensil to scrape the yuck off.

Each piece of chicken should be dipped first into the flour…

…then into the egg wash, and then into the panko.

Be sure you have coated all parts of the chicken each time you dip – that’s especially important with the egg and the panko. Use the flat part of the tongs to pat the panko crumbs firmly onto the chicken pieces.

I transfer the breaded chicken to a rack set over a piece of waxed paper (to catch the crumbs) until its time to start cooking.

Once you’ve breaded a fair amount of chicken, you can start to cook it while you continue to bread the remaining meat.

To cook the chicken:

In a large nonstick skillet, heat a few teaspoons of olive oil over medium-high heat. Lay in several strips of chicken, enough to cover the bottom of the pan – but don’t let the chicken pieces touch each other. Cook the chicken for several minutes on each side until the breading is golden brown and the chicken is cooked through. Continue with the remaining chicken (you will probably need to add additional oil as you work). I drain my chicken pieces on paper towels after they’re cooked.

Serve the chicken with honey mustard sauce. Yum!

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Pineapple Ginger Sauce, served with Grilled Pineapple

2010-01-30T12:50:00.001-06:00

Have you ever had grilled pineapple? If you haven't had it, try it! It will totally change your opinion of pineapple. The heat causes the sugars to caramelize slightly, resulting in a deeper flavor, and the grill marks look pretty against the yellow fruit.

Not only does pineapple taste great grilled, but it also makes a great marinade ingredient due to a certain naturally-occurring enzyme. The recipe written here is a fruity pineapple marinade, spiked with ginger and a little garlic. It pairs really well with pork tenderloin, and works great on the grill.

If you’ve never bought or cut up a whole pineapple before, don’t worry, I have provided you with instructions! Give it a try!

How to choose a pineapple at the grocery store:

Pineapples don’t continue to ripen after they’ve been picked, so you’ll want to choose the ripest pineapple available from your grocer. Unless you live in or near Florida and have other locally-grown options available to you, you’re probably buying a pineapple imported from Hawaii. (I guess that statement is only true if you live in the United States…I’m not sure what the pineapple availability is elsewhere.)

Since Hawaiian pineapples are the ripest when they have a bright golden color, pick the pineapple that has the most gold on its skin (but not a mottled brown color, because too much brown = rotten!). Some green skin coloration is ok, but the greener the skin is, the less ripe the pineapple was when it was picked.

The spiky leaves should be stiff and green (again, not brown). Grab the base of the bunch of leaves – it should wiggle slightly…not too much wiggle, but not totally stiff either. One more thing to check: the pineapple was once attached to its plant on the underside of the fruit. Turn the fruit over and look to be sure the place where it was attached to the plant hasn’t turned moldy.

Now that you have your pineapple, you're ready to start making...

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Pineapple Ginger Sauce, served with Grilled Pineapple
Serves 4

1 fresh pineapple
1/3 cup hoisin sauce
4 tsp peeled, grated fresh ginger
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1-1/2 pounds pork tenderloin, trimmed of any fat
1 tsp soy sauce
2/3 cup chicken stock

First, cut up the pineapple:

Chop off and discard the leafy crown. A lot of people cut off the bottom of the pineapple at this point, but I usually leave it on because its roughness provides more stability on your cutting board (cut pineapple is slippery!). If its really uneven, though, you might prefer to cut it off. Cut off and discard all of the skin from the sides of the pineapple. If you missed any “eyes” or seeds, cut them out too.

If you haven’t yet, slice off and discard the bottom of the pineapple. With the pineapple standing on its end, cut straight down just next to the core.

Set aside the coreless piece. Mirror the exact same cut on the other side of the core so you have two large coreless pieces and one rectangular piece which still contains the core. Cut off the pineapple on either side of the core. The core is too tough for me to want to eat, so I usually just discard it (although I do know a guy who puts lots of salt on it and eats it anyway…).

You should be left with two smaller pieces of pineapple and two larger slabs of pineapple. Cut the larger slabs of pineapple into 1/2-inch slices. Set these aside – they’ll be grilled later.

The two smaller pieces of pineapple can be cut into chunks – place them in a small food processor. Process the pineapple to make chunky juice. Transfer approximately half of it to a small saucepan and reserve it for later – this will become a sauce to be served with the meat. The rest will be used to create a marinade.

Then, marinate your meat:

The remaining processed pineapple can be transferred to a gallon-sized food storage bag (or whatever vessel you’re going to use to marinate your meat). Add 3 Tbsp hoisin sauce, 2 tsp grated fresh ginger, the minced garlic, the mustard, and the trimmed pork tenderloin. Seal the bag and smash it around a bit to incorporate the ingredients and coat the pork. Let the pork sit a minimum of 15 minutes. (Obviously longer is fine, you can even put this together in the morning before you go to work.)

Then make the sauce:

Near the end of the marinating time, prepare the sauce: In the small saucepan with the reserved processed pineapple, combine 2 Tbsp hoisin sauce, 2 tsp grated fresh ginger, the soy sauce, and the chicken stock. Set the sauce aside until its time to grill the meat.

About grilling big pieces of meat:

When I’m grilling a piece of meat this big, I do several things. One is that I use medium indirect heat. I have a three-burner gas grill. I turn the two outer burners up to medium or medium-high, and the middle burner on low. The pork is placed over the middle low-heat burner.

I also use a heat-safe thermometer. They’re not too expensive to buy from the kitchen section of your grocery store. You just put it in the meat and leave it there during the entire cooking time. The thermometer beeps when it reaches the proper temperature. Easy, and totally worth the nominal cost. Go buy one while your meat’s marinating. (Just remember, use a hot pad to remove it when you’re done with it…it’s hot. Yes, that’s personal experience talking. Doh!)

Grill the pork tenderloin over medium indirect heat, with the grill covered, turning it once, until it reaches 155 degrees internally. The exact time varies (there’s a lot of variables), but count on around 20 minutes.

While the meat is grilling:

While the meat is cooking, bring the sauce to a simmer over medium heat, then turn it to low heat until serving time. The sauce will thicken as it bubbles – if necessary, add another splash of chicken stock if the pan gets too dry. I pour a few tablespoons of the sauce over the meat at the halfway point of the grilling time – just after turning it over. (Careful, don’t contaminate the sauce with raw meat…and if you do, bring it back up to a boil before serving it.)

Half-way through the pork's cooking time, add the reserved pineapple slices to the warmer part of the grill. Cook them over medium direct heat, turning them once, until the pineapple is soft and warm, with nice grill marks on each side. Each side should take just a few minutes at the most. When they’re done, you can move them to a cooler spot on the grill, or transfer them to a plate and cover them with foil to keep them warm.

When the meat has reached 155 degrees internally, remove it from the heat and cover it with aluminum foil. Let it rest for about five minutes before slicing it (the temperature will rise to 160 as it rests).

To serve, thinly slice the pork into medallions. Serve it alongside the grilled pineapple slices, topped with the sauce. I like to serve this meal with rice…it’s a great way to soak up the sauce!

Sesame Noodle Salad

2010-01-24T22:08:00.003-06:00

Last summer my blogger friend E. Lee of Bacon Concentrate blogged about a beautiful pasta salad. Her salad was so pretty and colorful, it immediately caught my eye on her blog. She was kind enough to allow me to use it in today's post. The great thing about this salad is that you can customize the salad based on what you like to eat, or what is fresh and available at your grocery store. I followed her lead and used yellow bell peppers, carrots, and purple cabbage – the color combination looks great!

Usually when I make her pasta salad recipe, I plan to take it to work for lunch. One batch makes quite a bit (it uses an entire box of spaghetti), so I have more than enough to take to work for the entire week (with plenty to share with any interested coworkers!).

And although it’s the middle of winter where I live right now, I am looking forward to making this next summer to take along on a picnic or a camping trip. The salad is served cold so it’s easy to eat at a picnic, and there’s no mayonnaise in it, so it’s easy to store in your cooler without worrying about the mayo going bad.

E. Lee suggests – and I 100% agree – that you should be sure to use sesame oil in this dish. Do Not Substitute Another Type of Oil! If you have an Asian grocery store around, they should carry sesame oil. I have also seen it in the Asian foods aisle at my regular supermarket, but it’s a little more expensive there. My regular supermarket also has American sesame oil, which is sold in the same location as the olive oils. American sesame oil is lighter in color and is not quite as flavorful as Asian sesame oil. Because sesame oil has such a distinctive flavor, if you cannot find the Asian sesame oil, it would be better to use American sesame oil than to substitute another type of oil.

The same goes for the peanut oil used to stir-fry the components of the dish. It produces a great, distinctive flavor and has superb frying characteristics (it can be heated to a very hot temperature before it burns). Don’t substitute something else in its place.

Specialty oils keep in your refrigerator for a very long time. (Sometimes the oil will partially solidify if it is refrigerated: just let it sit out on your counter for 10 minutes before you use it…or if you forget to let it come to room temperature, use a clean chopstick to reach inside the bottle to give it a stir and loosen things up.)

Whenever I make any kind of pasta salad, I always lay my cooked pasta out to dry while I prepare the rest of the ingredients. The salad dressing will cling to the dried pasta better than it will cling to wet pasta, resulting in a better pasta salad. If you don’t have time, you can skip this step, but for best results, make time to let the pasta dry for at least a short while.

Sesame Noodle Salad
Serves 8

1 pound spaghetti pasta (use whole wheat for a healthier pasta salad)
2 green onions, green parts thinly sliced into matchsticks and white parts finely chopped (see the pictures below before you start cutting anything)
2 carrots, thinly sliced into matchsticks
1 yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
About 1/4 of a head of purple cabbage, thinly sliced
4 ounces shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro
2 Tbsp finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
A few Tablespoons of peanut oil, for stir frying
4 tsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp Asian hot sauce, more or less to taste
1/2 cup coarsely chopped roasted peanuts
Toasted sesame seeds (optional, for garnish)

First, start the pasta:

Break the length of the spaghetti in half. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Once the pasta has cooked, drain it thoroughly and spread it out to dry on a double-thickness of paper towels.

While the pasta is cooking, start chopping up the veggies:

Nearly every cut vegetable should be cut into a long skinny shape mimicking the size/length of the pasta. (If you elect to make this recipe with pasta that is smaller in size, like farfalle, cut the ingredients into shorter matchsticks to match the length of the pasta.)

Chop the green onions: slice white and light green portions into rounds, and the hollow, dark green tops into matchsticks. Keep the matchsticks separate from the rounds.

Cut the carrots, bell pepper, cabbage, mushrooms, and cilantro. Keep each ingredient separate from the others and set them all aside individually.

Finely chop the ginger and garlic; place them both in a large frying pan or wok. Add the white/light green portions of the green onions and about a teaspoon of peanut oil; stir-fry over medium-high heat until the ingredients are fragrant and the onions begin to soften. Transfer the ginger mixture to a small mixing bowl and set it aside. Reserve the pan for the next step.

Add the carrots to the empty pan; stir-fry over medium-high heat until they are crisp tender (as you work, you may need to add a little more peanut oil to the pan). Transfer them to a large mixing bowl. Repeat this process with the yellow bell pepper, then with the purple cabbage, then with the mushrooms, adding each cooked ingredients to the bowl with the carrots. Add the uncooked green portions of the green onions to the same bowl.

Finish the dressing:

In the small mixing bowl containing the ginger mixture, add the sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar, and hot sauce; whisk with a fork to combine the ingredients

Put it all together:

Add about half of the pasta to the cooked vegetables. Drizzle about half of the dressing evenly over the pasta, then use a large spoon to stir the veggies into the pasta.

Add the rest of the pasta, the cilantro, and the peanuts. Drizzle the remaining dressing on top; continue to stir to incorporate all of the ingredients.

Garnish the pasta salad with the toasted sesame seeds. Serve the salad cold or at room temperature.

Thanks to E. Lee at Bacon Concentrate for the recipe inspiration!

Big Batch Tomato Sauce

2010-01-11T16:51:00.002-06:00

One food I’m kind of picky about is tomato sauce. I usually am disappointed in restaurant tomato sauces – they’re usually too sugary, or they have that overstewed-tomato flavor. I prefer a tomato sauce that is fragrant with onions, sweetened primarily by fresh vegetables, and minimally cooked to have the freshest flavor possible.

I like to make my tomato sauce in fairly large quantities. I divide the sauce up and freeze it in small portions so I have it ready when I make a recipe that requires it – no canned or jarred store-bought sauces needed. This recipe will make approximately six cups. You could double the recipe if you really want to make a large batch of sauce.

The sauce will need to be pureed. You can accomplish this in a food processor or blender, or you can use what I think works the best: an immersible stick blender. I’m so bad about hand washing a regular blender (all those parts!) and my food processor isn’t entirely liquid-tight (ouch – hot tomatoes!), so I just drop the stick blender into the sauce and give it all a whirl.

This sauce can be used in many things – baked pastas like lasagna or manicotti, served with veal or chicken parmesan, or used to top spaghetti. It can serve as the starting point for several types of flavor profiles. Spicy sausage or shredded basil could be added. A few tablespoons of cream and some parmesan cheese could be used to enrich the sauce. Roasted garlic could be stirred in. The sauce is intentionally left simple and unembellished so you can flavor a few cups of the sauce at a time without committing all six cups to the same flavor profile.

The best thing about this sauce is that it’s quite simple to make. I usually make the sauce with good-quality canned diced tomatoes because the quality of store-bought tomatoes is usually too unpredictable. Do not use canned crushed tomatoes because they tend to be too pasty in texture. If you happen to be making this sauce during prime tomato season, by all means, use fresh tomatoes (peeled, seeded, and roughly chopped).

Big Batch Tomato Sauce
Makes approximately 6 cups of sauce

2 cups chopped yellow onions (one Very Giant Onion yielded two cups for me – but your mileage may vary because like I said, it was GIANT)
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups chopped carrots (cut them into 1/4-inch thick slices; this was about six medium-sized carrots for me)
1 cup chopped celery (cut it into 1/4-inch thick slices; this was about four stalks of celery for me)
Three 14.5-ounce cans diced tomatoes (and their juices - do not drain! This works out to be approximately 5 cups of tomatoes.)
1 tsp coarse kosher salt
1 Tbsp sugar

Begin by chopping your onions. Place them in a stockpot (mine is 8 quarts). Add the olive oil and cook over medium-high heat until the onions begin to brown – stir them periodically.

While the onions are cooking, chop your carrots and celery. Set them aside until the onions have browned.

Once the onions have begun to brown, stir in the carrots and celery. Reduce the heat to medium and add the tomatoes, salt, and sugar. (Do not confuse the salt and sugar measurements or you’ll be sorry…)

Simmer the tomato mixture, uncovered, over medium heat until the carrots are tender, approximately 20 minutes. Stir the sauce periodically; taste it and adjust the salt/sugar as appropriate.

Once the carrots are tender, puree the sauce. As I mentioned above, I like to use a stick blender, but you could also puree it in a regular blender or in batches in a food processor.

The sauce is ready to use or freeze. I divide my sauce between two-cup (or smaller) containers. Once the sauce has cooled to room temperature, the containers go in the freezer. After the sauce has frozen, I run the sealed container under warm water for a few minutes so I can pop out the “ice cube” of frozen sauce. The sauce cubes go into a large freezer bag for long-term storage.

Tortellini in Cream Sauce

2010-01-11T06:04:00.002-06:00

One of St. Louis’ great neighborhoods is called The Hill – it’s kind of a little Italy. Nestled between the cute little homes are lots of Italian restaurants, several great Italian grocery stores, bakeries, and even an Italian deli. One of St. Louis’ favorite restaurants, Cunetto House of Pasta, is on The Hill. Amongst many other delicious entrees, they have an outstanding tortellini and cream sauce dish: tortellini, mushrooms, peas, and prosciutto enveloped in a velvety cream, butter, and parmesan sauce. It is quite good. If I lived closer, I’d eat supper there all the time.

Since it is at least a 45 minute drive to get to The Hill, I have my own version of tortellini and cream sauce that I can make at home. It is surprisingly quick and easy – so easy it can easily be made on a weeknight. My version isn’t an exact copy of their dish, but it tastes good enough that the difference doesn’t matter to me. It is not exactly health food, but it is One Good Cream Sauce, worth ignoring the calories and eating it every once in awhile. To help with portion control, the recipe I’ve posted here makes enough for a smallish main dish.

There are several keys to success with this recipe: One – have everything ready to go before you start to make the sauce. (You can prepare everything while your pasta water is coming to a boil.) You don’t want to be scrambling to grate cheese while your butter overheats. Two – don’t omit the nutmeg – its just a pinch – and please use freshly grated nutmeg! Three – when you select your cheese, please don't use the powdery stuff in the green container. This is a dish where real Parmigiano Reggiano makes a difference.

Tortellini in Cream Sauce
Serves 4 as a smallish main course

1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (I use the medium sized holes on my box grater)
2 ounces prosciutto
3 Tbsp unsalted butter
1-1/4 cups heavy cream (unwhipped heavy whipping cream, not coffee creamer)
freshly grated nutmeg
freshly ground black pepper
4 cups frozen packaged fully-cooked tortellini
1-1/2 cups frozen peas

Fill a large saucepan or small stockpot with water, bring it to a boil. (This will be your pasta water.) While the water is coming to a boil, prep the rest of your ingredients:

Grate the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, set it aside. Finely chop the prosciutto, set it aside. Locate your butter, measure the cream, and get the nutmeg and pepper out so you’re ready to go.

Once your pasta water is boiling, stir in the frozen tortellini. Watch the pot closely; as soon as the tortellini begin to boil (and it wont take long – just a couple of minutes), add the frozen peas.

Again, watch the pot closely; as soon as the pasta mixture begins to boil, remove it from the heat, drain it, and set it aside.

Add the butter to the empty pot – melt it over medium heat. Add the nutmeg and the black pepper; stir the butter mixture a few times until the spices have heated and are aromatic. Stir in the prosciutto; heat it through. Stir in the cream and heat it through, stirring constantly. Add the grated cheese, then return the cooked pasta to the pot. Gently stir the pasta to melt the cheese and coat the pasta evenly. Serve hot. The longer the sauce sits, the thicker the sauce will get.

A note for vegetarians: The sauce is nearly vegetarian – except the prosciutto. If you omit the meat, you might want to add a little bit of salt to the sauce. (The prosciutto is very salty; you’ll need to make up for its absence.)

A note for those who don’t want to use cream: You can cut back on the fat slightly by substituting half-and-half for the heavy cream. The sauce won’t be quite as thick and will not taste quite as good, but you might feel its worth the reduction in calories and fat.

White Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies, with Simple Hot Cocoa

2010-01-07T18:48:00.030-06:00

Today was a snow day for me. It doesn’t snow too often in St. Louis – usually just a few times each winter. So when we have four inches of accumulation, most schools and many businesses go ahead and call off. I was given the day off! Great! Besides, it was really one of those days where you might as well just stay indoors curled up in a blanket, sip on a hot chocolate, and enjoy a good book…and I had off from work and didn’t have to go anywhere, so that’s exactly what I did.

I knew I wanted to bake something today. With the beautiful – but cold – blanket of sparkly white snow just outside my kitchen window, I wanted to make something that would heat my kitchen up and ward off the chill. I also didn’t want to have to go to the store to collect ingredients – it was just too cold outside! Fortunately, I had all the ingredients at home for oatmeal cookies…

And, I’ve been craving oatmeal cookies lately. My version is a soft and moist cookie, spiced with a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg. They are studded with sweet Lambert dried cherries, compliments of my mom’s summer cherry harvest (thanks, Mom!). White chocolate chips are folded into the dough – they give a creamy flavor counterpoint to the sweet cherries.

White Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies
Makes about 3 dozen cookies

1-3/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 lb (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1-3/4 cups dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
2-1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c dried cherries, either sweet or tart will work, but I used sweet, because that is what I had on hand
3-1/2 cups oatmeal (not instant!)
1 c white chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cover your cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, use a whisk or a fork to mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set this aside. (I tend to measure my nutmeg and cinnamon generously, like the next picture…)

Place the butter and brown sugar in a clean large bowl, preferably one that goes to a stand mixer. Beat the butter and brown sugar together until it is well-incorporated. Add the eggs and vanilla, and beat until a smooth batter has formed.

While the batter is beating, roughly chop the cherries to approximately the size of a raisin. Set them aside.

Once the butter mixture is smooth and well-mixed, add the flour mixture, stirring only until the ingredients are combined.

Add the oatmeal, cherries, and white chocolate chips. Stir until all ingredients are incorporated. (The batter is very stiff – this is definitely a recipe that is easier to make in a stand mixer.)

Use a small ice cream scoop to portion out 1.5-ounce balls of dough, approximately the sized of a ping pong ball. Place the cookie dough balls about two inches apart on a cookie sheet covered with a sheet of parchment paper or a Silpat.

Bake at 350 degrees until the cookies are pillowy and are almost firm to the touch, 6 to 9 minutes. They should appear slightly underbaked. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them sit on their cookie sheet, undisturbed, for five minutes. Transfer the parchment paper to a cooling rack and let the cookies sit on the paper until they are firm enough to transfer directly to the cooling rack.

What goes better with cookies on a cold winter day than…hot cocoa! Its super easy to make and tastes so much better than the stuff that comes from a packet. I don’t own a microwave, so I just make mine on the stovetop, but if your kitchen is so equipped, you could zap your milk long enough to heat it just until its steaming hot.

I have several small mixing bowls, so I mix each drink’s cocoa individually, that way I don’t have to worry about evenly portioning the cocoa mixture. I just use a fork to stir up each bowl of cocoa.

Simple Hot Cocoa
For each drink, you’ll need:

1 cup of milk
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
1-1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder
A teeny, tiny pinch of salt

Scald the milk over medium heat. (That is, heat it over medium heat, but don’t let it boil. It should be steamy and warm, but not bubbling.)

While the milk is heating, in a small bowl, combine the granulated sugar, cocoa powder, nutmeg, and salt. Whisk it together with a fork until it is well-incorporated and all of the large cocoa chunks have been disintegrated into powder. Pour the cocoa mixture into the bottom of your mug; top with the warm milk and stir to incorporate.

If you’re feeling particularly decadent, top your hot chocolate with whipped cream and a drizzle of homemade caramel sauce.

Triple Layer White Cake With Raspberry Filling

2009-11-14T06:23:00.000-06:00

My sister recently had a birthday, so we spent last weekend celebrating. I was lucky enough to be invited to join her and her friends at a tapas-style fusion restaurant, Mosaic. One word: yum. Our group tried nearly everything on the hot tapas menu, plus a few items from the cold tapas menu. Just about everything was outstanding. (If you’re in St. Louis and enjoy tapas-style food, give them a try. Go for the quail, potato gnocchi, tuna tartare, scallops, or the mussles…those were my favorites.)

For dessert, her boyfriend surprised her with a plate of beautiful cupcakes from The Cupcakery. Their cupcakes are simply delicious – tender cake with perfectly-sweetened frosting. (“Yum” works here too!) We had a great time celebrating together - thanks for inviting me along, sis!

The next evening we had a birthday celebration with just our family. I knew I wanted to make my sister a white cake since that’s her favorite flavor, but the cupcakes from the previous night were also white cake, and I didn’t want to have Round Two of exactly the same basic flavors. So, to mix things up a bit, I decided I’d layer the cake with raspberry filling and frost the outside with a totally different kind of frosting than what was on the cupcakes – I used a billowy marshmallow-flavored frosting.

Only problem was, I’ve never made a raspberry filling for a cake. (Well, I have used raspberry jam in certain applications before, but I needed something that would hold up to the weight of a three-layer cake.) I found a recipe for blackberry mousse filling on a cooking forum online, and it looked like several people tried it and thought it was decent enough, and people even indicated they had made it with raspberries instead of blackberries, and I was kind of short on time, so I gave it a shot. It was pretty good, but not exactly what I was looking for. Actually, it was almost too dense – at least, it was too dense when paired with the light-textured billowy frosting I used on the rest of the cake. That said, I think it’d be great when paired with a regular American-style buttercream or any other densely-textured frosting. It did make for a pretty presentation, though, and it was not too bad, so I’ll include it here. And more likely than not I’ll make it again, but next time I will probably omit the whipped egg white – that should make the texture less dense.

The cake and frosting I used came from one of my favorite cookbooks – one you’ve seen on this blog before – Diner Desserts, by Tish Boyle. I keep turning to this cookbook for great made-from-scratch desserts. I’m not sure how much I paid for the cookbook, but it was worth every penny. I haven’t changed the recipe much – it is really good exactly as it is. Some of the text I rewrote here to make it easier to understand (I hope!). And I added the raspberry filling.

As I was debating on how to transport the cake (its at least a 40-minute drive, even with decent traffic), I decided I’d bring the cake unassembled to my sister’s house. I finished the last steps of the filling and frosting there. I was afraid the cake would slide apart and be ruined if I tried to bring it already assembled (the frosting is really very light textured, and I was not sure exactly how the raspberry filling would hold up since I had never made it before). So I left the cooled cakes on their wire racks, covered each loosely with freezer paper (it has a coating of some kind of plasticy material that helps keep food from sticking), and stacked it all up in a cardboard tray left over from a case of bottled water. It worked out pretty well. The cakes did not stick to the freezer paper and everything arrived intact.

Triple Layer White Cake
Makes one three-layer cake 8 inches in diameter

2 cups cake flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
9 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 cup whole milk

To make the white cake, position two baking racks near the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Grease the bottom and sides of three 8-inch round cake pans. Cut out three rounds of parchment paper slightly smaller than the internal diameter of the bottom of the pans (test then to be sure they fit).

Grease the empty cake pans, then place a round of parchment paper in the bottom of the pan. Grease the paper. Dust the sides of the pan with flour and tap out the excess. (I’ll admit, I forgot this step…it all still worked out in the end, but it would have been easier to get the cake to come out of the pan if I had remembered…)

In a medium bowl, sift together the cake flour and baking powder. Stir them together with a whisk. Set them aside.

In an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, in a large clean bowl, beat the butter on medium-high speed until smooth, about one minute. On medium speed, gradually beat in 1 1/4 cups of the granulated sugar. Increase the speed to high and beat until well combined, about two minutes. Add the lemon zest, vanilla, salt, and three of the egg whites. Scarpe down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and beat the mixture on medium high speed until light and fluffy, about two minutes. Add the sifted dry ingredients in three additions alternately with the milk in three additions. (Three? Ok, at least split it into two (there’s hardly enough volume to easily split it into thirds), and I believe the best results are obtained if you work it out so an addition of dry ingredients goes in the bowl last. Not sure if there’s any logical reason as to why that’s better, but that’s how I’ve always done it.) Scrape down the bowl and beat until smooth, about 1 minute.

You’ll need to beat egg whites next. If you’re using a stand mixer and have no secondary hand-mixer or extra stand mixer bowl, transfer the batter to another large bowl, set it aside, and thoroughly wash the empty stand mixer bowl. (Any residual butter in the bowl will prevent the egg whites from properly whipping.) Or you can do what I did and just whip the egg whites in a new bowl with my electric hand-mixer.

In a large, clean bowl, beat the remaining six egg whites on medium-low speed until foamy. Increase the speed to medium-high and gradually beat in the remaining 1/4 cup of granulated sugar. Continue to beat until the whites are stiff, but not dry. Using a large rubber spatula, fold about 1/3 of the egg whites into the reserved batter. Then gently fold the remaining egg whites into the batter. Avoid overmixing and deflating the batter - Fold only until the whites are incorporated. It will look sort of foamy like this:

Scrape the batter into the prepared pans.

Bake the cakes for 15-20 minutes (mine took more like 25-30, but you might want to check them earlier…). The cakes are done when the tops spring back when they are touched, and a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean. (Note From First-Hand Experience: do not use a knife point…the toothpick makes a much smaller, less-noticable hole!)

While the cakes are baking, start the raspberry filling. (If you elect to skip the berry filling, the white frosting as written will likely yield enough to frost and fill the cakes, as long as you don’t go overboard in piling on the filling.)

Once the cakes are done baking, cool them in their pans on wire racks for 30 minutes. Invert the cakes onto the racks, peel off the paper, and cool completely.

Raspberry Filling
Makes enough to frost the tops of two 8” cake layers

2 tsp unflavored gelatin
6 Tbsp cold water
2 cups frozen raspberries
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 egg whites (probably optional...)
1-1/2 cups heavy cream

In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over 2 tablespoons of the water. Let it stand until the gelatin has softened, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a food processor, puree the raspberries with the remaining 4 tablespoons of water.

Use the back of a spoon to press the raspberry puree through a fine-mesh sieve. Collect the strained puree in a small saucepan – there should be about 1 1/2 cups. Add the sugar and stir over medium heat until the berry puree is warm and the sugar is dissolved.

Stir in the softened gelatin until it has dissolved. Let the mixture cool.

In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the egg white until firm peaks form. (By the way, this is the step I’d probably omit in the future…but I haven’t actually tried it myself, so I’m not quite sure how it’d turn out! Try it at your own risk...) Using a rubber spatula, fold the egg white into the cooled berry puree until no streaks of white remain.

In another medium bowl, beat the heavy cream until it holds soft peaks. Fold the whipped cream into the berry mixture and refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour. Once the filling has chilled, it is ready to use.

While the berry puree and the cakes are cooling, you can make the fluffy white frosting.

Fluffy White Frosting
Makes enough to frost the exterior of a three-layer 8” cake (and then some)

5 large egg whites
1-3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
2 tsp vanilla extract

To make the fluffy white frosting, you’ll need to fashion a double boiler out of a pan of simmering water and a large mixing bowl. You’ll need to use an electric hand-mixer, so the stand mixer is out. Note that you’ll need to select an electric hand-mixer that is up to the task: you’ll need to use it for nearly 15 minutes straight. I burnt out the motor of my first hand-mixer while making this frosting, but the upside was that I had a great excuse to buy a great heavy-duty one which has successfully whipped the frosting on several occasions since then.

Fill a medium saucepan with several inches of water. Take a large, deep bowl and place it over the saucepan to see if the water touches the bottom of the bowl. It shouldn’t – and if it does, dump out some of the water. Turn the heat onto medium-high. You may need to adjust the heat as you work – you’re looking to maintain a simmer in the water, but not a boil, and again, the water level shouldn't touch the bottom of the bowl.

In the large bowl, combine the egg whites, sugar, water, and cream of tartar. With the handheld mixer, beat the mixture until foamy, about one minute.

With the bowl set in the saucepan of simmering water, beat constantly on medium speed until the mixture reaches 160 degrees. This will take approximately seven minutes. Use caution – don’t let the mixer cord melt or catch on fire or cause some other terrible situation!

Once the mixture has reached 160 degrees, remove the bowl from the heat. Add the vanilla and beat the frosting on high speed until it holds stiff peaks. This will take approximately seven more minutes. The frosting is now ready to use.

To prepare to assemble the cake, I start by placing two-inch wide strips of waxed paper on the edges of the serving plate. Place a cake round on the plate. Adjust the strips as necessary: the waxed paper should be placed in such a way that it catches any drips or smears of frosting, protecting the plate and keeping it clean while the cake is being frosted.

Top the bottom layer of the cake with half of the raspberry filling. Stack another layer of cake on top of the cake, then frost it with the remaining raspberry filling.

Finish by stacking the third layer on top. If necessary, insert skewers vertically into the stacked cake to help stabilize the layers (cut the skewers to the height of the cake). Using a large offset metal spatula, spread the fluffy white frosting around the sides and top of the cake, piling it up in dramatic swirls. Pull out the waxed paper strips and serve the cake immediately or refrigerate and bring it to room temperature before serving.

If you decide to add the egg to the raspberry filling, be mindful of its presence: the cake should be eaten shortly after the filling is prepared. I don’t think I’d eat it after the first day, but that’s just me. The fluffy white filling keeps slightly better, but not well enough to make the cake too far in advance. I’d recommend assembling the cake the same day you plan to eat it. (If you must do something in advance, bake the cake in advance and freeze the layers. Thaw them in their wrappers before you use them!)

Brown Butter Blondies

2009-11-07T12:38:00.001-06:00

I seem to gravitate towards baking bar cookies in the Fall. For some reason I tend to make more comfort food during the Fall season, and the rough-edged, rustic look and flavor of a bar cookie is the perfect sweet ending to a savory home-cooked meal like a pot roast and mashed potatoes.

To me, the ultimate bar cookie is definitely a brownie – fudgy or otherwise. I enjoy them so much that I definitely make those year around. But at certain times of the year – Fall especially – I start craving blondies: brownies without the chocolate.

Yes, it may seem wrong to remove the chocolate from a brownie, but believe me, one taste of these slightly-savory-yet-sweet blondies, and you’ll be hooked. I have a batch in the oven right now, and the smell is simply heavenly. I browned the butter and toasted the walnuts before mixing the batter, and the butter and nuts baking up with the salted brown sugar batter smells amazing.

Speaking of nuts – I think the amount of nuts in this recipe is perfect. I’m not a huge nuts-in-my-brownies fan, though. (In a regular brownie recipe, I usually just omit them altogether.) But the quarter cup of nuts in this recipe is just enough to provide a great walnutty flavor, plus a little crunch and texture, without being overly chunky. If you’re not a big fan of nuts, I encourage you to leave them in anyway – just chop them on the smaller side. (By the way, any extra nuts from a partially-used bag will stay fresh much longer if you freeze them!)

The browned butter and dark brown sugar makes a beautiful dark golden-colored blondie. In fact, its so deeply colored for a blondie, it almost looks like a light-colored brownie. Don’t be confused by the pictures shown here – I promise there’s no chocolate present in that pan!

Brown Butter Blondies
Makes 16 two-inch bar cookies

4 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease an 8” square baking pan.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, stirring often, until the butter is foamy and the solids are beginning to brown. Use caution during this step – it takes awhile for the butter to begin to brown, but once it starts changing color, it goes from beautifully browned to burnt in what seems like point-six seconds. As soon as the butter solids have started to brown (the foam will stay light colored), remove it from the heat and pour it into a medium mixing bowl.

Meanwhile, in a small skillet over medium-high heat, toast the nuts until they become lightly browned, shaking or stirring the pan frequently to prevent burnt spots. Turn the nuts out onto a small cutting board and chop the biggest pieces to create uniform pea-sized nuts. Set the nuts aside.

Add the brown sugar to the browned butter; mix to combine. Add the egg and vanilla and mix it until it is incorporated. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt, and mix it until it is nearly combined – white streaks of flour should remain. The dough will seem overly dry. Add the chopped toasted nuts and mix them in until the remaining flour streaks are incorporated and the nuts are evenly distributed. The batter is very crumbly – much more like cookie dough than like a liquidy batter.

Scrape the batter into the greased pan and use your fingers to pat it into the corners of the pan, distributing the batter as evenly as possible.

Bake at 375 degrees F. for 20-22 minutes or until the blondies are golden brown. Let them cool on a rack, then cut them into two-inch squares.

Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-11-01T16:25:00.007-06:00

I know it’s still a little early to talk Christmas (I don’t like seeing the Santa Claus and Christmas tree decorations in stores while I'm shopping for a Halloween costume either), but today is November 1, and if you are the type who likes to hand-make your Christmas cards, you’ve got to start thinking about them kind of early. If you’re hand-making cards this year, if you haven’t already started on them, you’ll need to start soon.

I love to make handmade greeting cards. If I had all the time in the world, I’d hand make all my Christmas cards, and I’d write personalized notes inside each one. In recent years, I haven’t had time to do all of that...life has just been too crazy busy lately.

Several years ago I felt particularly ambitious. I decided it would be cute to make little Christmas cards with an original recipe included. Fortunately I decided this early enough in the year that I had time to pull it all together.

I chose to feature a cookie recipe primarily because of space limitations. Cookie recipes are usually pretty straightforward: cream the fat and sugar, add the wet ingredients, then stir in the dry ingredients, followed by anything chunky like chocolate chips or nuts. There are usually not a lot of complex instructions to write out (no primer on whipping egg whites, for example), so the recipe is short enough in length that it doesn’t take up much physical space on a small index card.

Another reason I chose a cookie recipe: baking cookies is a classic Christmas activity for my family. My sister and I make batches upon batches every year. A cookie recipe enclosed in a Christmas card just seemed to “fit.”

So, I needed a good recipe – chocolate, of course. I came up with this triple-chocolate cookie recipe. I tested and retested it several times in my kitchen because I have several great cooks spread throughout my family, and I didn’t want to give them something that would end up flopping in their kitchen. (I think I even asked my mom to test the recipe in her kitchen, too.) After a little bit of adjustment here and there, the recipe was ready to go. Now I just needed a way to present the recipe, and a greeting card to go along with it.

I thought long and hard about exactly what the Christmas card should look like. I have always liked the retro look of polka dots, and since the cookies were chocolate, a chocolate-colored card with some kind of polka-dotted paper seemed to fit the bill. But I couldn’t find any polka dotted paper that was just right (all the dots were either too large or too small for what I envisioned).

Rather than settle for something less satisfactory, I ended up designing my own polka-dotted paper in Photoshop. I printed it out on my color laser printer, deckled the edges, and wrapped it around chocolate brown cardstock I got for free from Archiver’s (if you shop there often, you’ll know they have those great Free Cardstock! coupons). Bonus, the Christmas cards didn’t cost too much to make!

I baked up one last batch of cookies and shot a few pictures, one of which I Photoshopped alongside an as-abbreviated-as-possible version of the recipe. I used brown papercrafting rivets to attach the printouts to the front and back sides of recipe card-sized cardstock. Voila, my recipe card insert to my Christmas greeting card.

Unfortunately it’s been several years since I did this project, so I don’t have any of the finished cards left. (Silly me, I mailed them all.) If you were one of the recipients of those cards, and still have it floating around somewhere, let me know so I can borrow it and take a picture of it! Therefore, as of right now, I have no pictures, so you’ll just have to imagine the card in your brain. Aside from what I’ve already described, it was cute, but pretty basic: just a fold-over card with a place to write a Christmas greeting. The thickness of the cardstock protected the enclosed recipe card from the mail sorting machines at the Post Office.

For your viewing pleasure, I do have the file of the polka dot paper saved (I made two color variations).

I also still have the Photoshop files I used to do the card layout.

If you’re not into making a zillion Christmas cards but want a nice hostess gift for someone, you could make up a batch of the cookies, type up or handwrite a cute recipe card, and package it all in a cute Christmas tin.

Or just forget the crafty stuff and make the cookies anyway! Yum!

Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 2 dozen cookies

4 ounces 70% cacao dark chocolate (In my most recent batch, I used Lindt, but I have made it with both Scharffen-Berger 70% and with Baker's brand chocolate.)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp unsulphured molasses
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 egg
1/2 cup cocoa
1/8 tsp salt
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
12 ounces semi-sweet mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Roughly chop the chocolate.

In the top half of a double boiler, melt the chocolate, stirring frequently. Do not heat the chocolate excessively. Set it aside and allow it to cool slightly.

In a clean large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Add the melted and cooled chocolate, molasses, vanilla and egg, and beat until combined.

Add the cocoa, salt, flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Stir to thoroughly combine all ingredients. The dough will be stiff and might seem overly dry, but will hold shape when pressed together. Add the chocolate chips; stir to distribute evenly throughout the dough.

Press dough together into ping pong ball-sized spheres on a cookie sheet lined with foil or parchment paper, spacing them several inches apart. Each ball of dough should weigh approximately 1.5 ounces.

Bake 10-12 minutes. Whatever you do, DON’T overbake the cookies! They will still be soft – almost too soft - when they are done.

Cool the cookies five minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring the foil/parchment to a wire rack. As the cookies firm up, they can be transferred directly to the rack to complete the cooling process. Store them in an airtight container.

Creamy Homemade Stovetop Macaroni & Cheese

2009-09-29T09:51:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite comfort foods of all time is macaroni and cheese. When I was younger, still in high school or college, and didn't yet have any culinary skill to speak of, I only made generic “imitation blue box” macaroni (“generic” due to funding limitations and a general distaste for the Kraft company, and “blue box” due to a lack of culinary skill). Now-a-days, I usually make my mac & cheese homemade, but occasionally I’ll bust out a blue box (I like Annie's brand) if I’m having a particularly bad day and just need a quick, inexpensive, and fast meal. I like it served alongside barbecued sausage. I know Mom, it’s not exactly a healthy meal, so I don’t eat it very often!

I do love macaroni and cheese. I get excited when I see it on the menu at sandwich shops, but most of the time it’s a let-down once I’ve tasted it: it’s usually not all that great. It always seems to be too runny, too gritty, or the cheese sauce tastes too much like the flour used to thicken it. I want a silky, smooth textured sauce over perfectly al dente macaroni – pasta that hasn’t been cooking all afternoon in a giant sheet pan. The sauce shouldn’t be too thick, and nor should the pasta be swimming in it – there should be just enough sauce to coat the pasta.

So, like I said, I’m often disappointed.

I found this recipe in “The Best American Classics,” which is a Cooks Illustrated cookbook. I have a couple of their cookbooks, and while I don’t always agree with what their opinion of “best” may be (“best” is so subjective!), I do agree with them in this case…well, mostly. I’ve written my changes into the version you’ll find here.

This recipe is made on the stovetop. It’s almost as simple as blue-box macaroni (it does require a bit more stirring), yet it tastes so much better. There’s no long baking time involved, so like the boxed variety, you can make it on the spur of the moment. It makes more than a family-sized blue box, so I always have leftovers to take to work.

Speaking of leftovers, the best way to reheat any kind of macaroni and cheese is in a saucepan over medium-low heat, with a splash of milk or other dairy added to help recreate the sauce. I usually don’t put that much effort into reheating lunch at work, so I just stick it in the microwave and eat it even though the texture of the sauce has changed slightly. (It still has great flavor, though!)

The original recipe is written to include a toasted bread crumb topping, but I never bother with it. I like mine topped with chopped tomatoes instead. Not only is it better for you, but the sweet juicy tomatoes are a nice counterpart to the salty, cheesy pasta.

Creamy Homemade Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese
Serves 6-8, unless you are a big macaroni eater, in which case it might yield closer to 4 servings.

1 can evaporated milk
2 large eggs
1/4 tsp hot pepper sauce (like Tabasco sauce)
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/2 pound macaroni
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
12 ounces sharp cheddar (I used Tilamook Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar)
1 cup chopped tomato (either 1 cup of sliced "baby" tomatoes, or 1 chopped "regular" tomato should be about the right amount)

In a two-cup liquid measure, use a fork to whisk together 1 cup of evaporated milk, the eggs, hot pepper sauce, 1 tsp of salt, and the dry mustard. Set it aside.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to package directions. Use a large pot, and if you have a nonstick one, use it. (Tip: select a pot that’s slightly larger than what I used in these pictures, because I thought the pot was too small once I got to the last few steps. Oops!). Cook the macaroni only until barely al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, grate the cheese. For this much cheese, I use the shredding (grating) disc in my food processor.

Once the pasta has cooked, drain it and return it to the pot. Add the butter and stir over medium heat until it has melted.

Pour the egg mixture over the buttered noodles. Sprinkle about half of the cheese over the pasta. Stir constantly over medium-low heat until the sauce thickens and the mixture is hot and creamy, about five minutes. Yes, it’s a lot of stirring, but you’ve got to do it in order to properly cook the eggs. Don’t let the mixture boil; if the pan starts sizzling when you’re stirring, it’s too hot. (Remember, medium-low heat!) In general, if it seems runny, you haven’t cooked/stirred it long enough. Keep the heat on medium-low and keep stirring, and it should end up just fine.

As you near the end of the five-minute stirring time, add the rest of the cheese and the remaining evaporated milk. Stir it just long enough to incorporate everything and melt the cheese. Taste it, and sprinkle the remaining teaspoon of salt over the pasta (or salt to taste, because cheeses vary in saltiness). Stir to incorporate the salt, then taste it again just to be sure things aren't too salty.

Serve immediately, topped with a handful of chopped tomatoes.

I mentioned earlier that I liked mine served with sausage… I love bratwurst, but it’s sooo unhealthy that I rarely serve them. I have found an alternative that I’ve been enjoying lately: chicken sausage!

Costco carries an andouille chicken sausage (sorry, the exact brand is not listed online, but it probably doesn’t matter because the available brands and flavors vary by location anyway. Over the years, I’ve tried several different brands of chicken sausage from both Midwestern American and Western Canadian Costcos, and I liked both of the varieties available from both regions, so maybe your nearest Costco has a brand you’d like).

I also found a different chicken sausage at my local grocery store: Al Fresco brand Sweet Apple Chicken Sausage (it has Maple Syrup in it – yum!). They have several other interesting-sounding flavors, which I haven’t yet tried. It’s more expensive than buying in bulk at Costco, but truthfully, I think it tastes better. (Maybe I just liked it because of the maple syrup. Me?!?!)

By the way, the sausage in the picture at the beginning of this post is the Costco andouille sausage.

Oh, and if you want to slightly lower the carbs in the dish (it is pasta, after all!), you could omit the bun, slice up the grilled sausage, and serve it mixed into the macaroni.

Mini Dobos Tortes - the August Daring Baker's Challenge

2009-09-20T11:32:00.003-05:00

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

I know, I know, it’s not August anymore. It’s actually past time to do the September challenge already. Obviously I am really late this month! Between school, work, life, family, and the million-and-two other activities that seem to take up my week…you know how it is.

One thing about this torte: it’s not incredibly difficult to make, but it takes a fair amount of time to complete the entire process. (Don’t start this on a Sunday night if you’ve got to get up early for work on Monday morning!) Fortunately, the recipe can be broken down into several individual components, which makes things easier to manage. I made the individual cake layers one day and finished the rest of the cake components and assembly the next day.

The torte recipe was originally written to make one five-layer 9” cake. I like making individually-sized desserts, so I scaled the cake down and made several mini Dobos Tortes. And, I felt the layers would be more visually appealing if they were thinner, so I made twice as many layers that were half as thick. (Those decisions were a large part of what made the cakes so labor-intensive…it would have gone a lot faster if I would have only had to frost and stack five layers instead of 30.)

Before you get started, you’ll need a few specific pieces of equipment. You’ll need some cookie sheets that are decent enough quality that they won’t warp when they heat up – mine are the thicker insulated type, and they worked perfectly. Also, I’d highly recommend that you use two offset spatulas: one large one for spreading the cake batter, and one small one for frosting the miniature cakes. (I don’t own a small offset spatula, so I used a small butter knife serving utensil from my silverware…it worked, but a small offset spatula would have worked even better.) Also, stock up on parchment paper…you’ll need quite a bit of it…and you might want to have some less expensive waxed paper on hand for some of the steps that don’t involve baking. You will also need a circular cookie cutter. I used a 3-1/16” cutter; whatever size you select will be the size of the diameter of the finished cakes. And, while we’re on the topic of equipment, if you have a double boiler, get it out. If not, don’t run out and buy one just for this purpose - you can improvise with a bowl set over a pan of simmering water.

Mini Dobos Tortes
Makes 3 or 4 cakes, depending on how tall you want to stack them

Make the sponge cake layers first, as they need to be cooled prior to assembly. If necessary, they can also be stored the longest out of any of the components – just stack the cakes up between sheets of waxed paper and store them in an airtight container.

6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1-1/3 cups (162g) confectioner's (icing) sugar, divided
1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (112g) sifted cake flour
A pinch of salt

Position a rack at the top of your oven; preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, using clean beaters, (use your stand mixer and the wire whip if you have one) beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in 2/3 cup (81g) of confectioner's sugar until the whites form stiff, shiny peaks.

While the egg whites are whipping, begin the next step: In a separate large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, 2/3 cup (81g) of the confectioner's sugar, and the vanilla. Whisk until the mixture is thick and pale yellow.

Using a large rubber spatula, stir about 1/4 of the beaten whites into the egg yolk mixture. Then, gently fold in the remainder of the beaten egg whites, leaving a few wisps of white visible.

Scatter the pinch of salt evenly over the surface of the egg mixture. Then, sift half the flour over the egg mixture. Gently fold it in; repeat with the remaining flour. (The only sifter I own qualifies as a decorative antique, so I just use my fine mesh sieve to shake the flour over the cake batter.)

Line a cookie sheet with a large piece of parchment paper. Using an offset spatula, spread about 200g of batter over the surface of the parchment paper into a big rectangle. (If you don’t have a scale to weigh the batter, don’t worry, just start with about 1 cup of batter and work up. Actually, I didn’t bother weighing the batter every time; I only weighed it so I could give you an idea of the approximate amount of batter you should use.) Spread the batter out into a large rectangle, approximately 12x15 inches. The length and width of the rectangle is not as important as the thickness of the batter: the batter should be spread out to somewhere between 1/8” and 3/16” thick (1/4” is thicker than I wanted my cakes to be). Try to make it as uniform in thickness and as smooth as possible. But, caution: if you can see the parchment paper through the batter, it’s too thin.

Bake the cake on the top rack until the top of the cake is lightly browned and the cake springs back when you touch it, 4 to 6 minutes. I found the baking time really varied depending on whether or not my gas oven happened to be actively working to heat the oven during the time the cake was inside…there’s a pretty good variation in temperature there that’s not normally noticeable over a 20 or 30 minute bake time. In short, keep an eye on the cakes – they’re so thin that they can overbake in a matter of a minute.

Once the cake has baked, slide the parchment and cake together off the cookie sheet. Let it sit flat on a heatproof countertop for a minute until the cake has cooled slightly: it should still be warm, but it should have cooled enough that you can handle it. (Don’t let it cool too long, or the cake will become too crisp and will break during the next step.) Rest a piece of parchment paper on top of the cake and flip the entire cake over, upside down. Peel the parchment paper off of the underside of the cake. Replace the same parchment paper back on the cake, then flip it all back over. Remove and save the top parchment paper – if it’s not too dirty you can reuse it. (These steps of flipping and peeling paper off will greatly aid in removing the cake during the next step.)

Use a round 3” cookie cutter to cut circles out of the baked cake. I pushed the cutter into the cake, pulled the cake circle and cutter away from the cake as one unit (with the cake still stuck inside the cutter, I mean).

Then I pushed the blade of a flat spatula against the outside of the circular cookie cutter, which trimmed the ragged edges off of the cake.

Once I pushed the circle out of the cookie cutter, I had perfect little cake circles. The cake would gum up the cookie cutter after 3 or 4 cuts, so I just used my fingernail to scrape the cake residue off of the blade.

I got 35 circles out of the entire recipe. While I was cutting out cake circles, I stacked up some of the scraps to gauge their thickness, and decided I wanted my cakes to be 10 layers thick. So my yield is three 10-layer cakes, with a few extra circles to account for breakage during assembly. You could also make four 8-layer cakes.

Set the cut circles out on a cooling rack. Don’t let the edges touch or they’ll stick together. You’ll notice that the one side of the cake is stickier than the other side – don’t let the cakes rest on their sticky side.

The cakes can be made ahead up to this point. Once the cakes have cooled completely, you can stack the cakes between layers of parchment paper. Store in an airtight container or wrap the stacks well. If you’re only storing the cakes overnight, they can be left at room temperature. If you refrigerate the cakes, let them come to room temperature before you attempt to unwrap them.

The next step is the chocolate buttercream. Although it can be stored at room temperature overnight, I made mine the same day I served it.

Chocolate Buttercream

4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup (200g) caster (ultrafine or superfine white) sugar
4oz (110g) 70% cacao dark chocolate, finely chopped
2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons (250g) unsalted butter, at room temperature.

First, prepare a double-boiler: fill the bottom half of a double boiler about 1/3 of the way with water and bring it to a boil. Once it begins to boil, back the heat down so it is at a simmer.

Meanwhile, off the heat, in the top half of the double boiler, whisk together the eggs and sugar until they pale and thicken. Once the water is at a simmer, fit the top half of the pan onto the bottom half and continue whisking the egg mixture over the heat another 2 to 3 minutes. Whisk constantly. The mixture will continue to thicken and will become somewhat foamy. Whisk in the finely chopped chocolate and cook, stirring, for another 2 to 3 minutes more.

Scrape the chocolate mixture into a mixing bowl and leave to cool to room temperature. (If you have a stand mixer, use its bowl!)

Once the chocolate mixture has completely cooled to room temperature, beat in the softened butter on high speed, one a small piece (about 2 tablespoons/30g) at a time. For best results, use a stand mixer or an electric hand mixer. Once the butter has been completely added, continue beating the mixture until you end up with a thick, velvety chocolate buttercream. (There is a period in the mixing process where it looks very soupy and nothing like buttercream. Keep beating, it will come together eventually. Don’t give up.)

The next step is to begin assembling the Dobos tortes.

If you haven’t already done so, count your cake layers and decide how many cakes you’ll make. Choose several of the least wrinkled, most evenly baked, best-looking cake layers from the selection of mini cakes you baked earlier. These layers will be the topmost layer on your finished tortes, so you’ll need one layer per finished cake. You might want to grab an extra one or two to account for potential breakage. Set the good cake layers aside from the others; save them for later.

I assembled my cakes directly on their serving plates. To keep the plates clean, I cut up little strips of waxed paper and put them under the edges of the cake. Once they were entirely iced, I pulled the strips out. Voila, clean plates. I recommend you do that.

Place a small dab of frosting on the center of your serving plate. Top with one cake layer – press it flat to create a good foundation for your cake. Thinly ice the top of the layer, then top with another layer and repeat the icing/stacking process until all of the layers are iced and stacked except for the top cake layers you set aside earlier (leave those off for now, they will be added later). As you’re working, take care to build the cake up as evenly as possible to avoid a “leaning tower of Dobos.” If your tortes start to lean, toothpicks inserted vertically might help. Keep your icing thin and your “tower” will probably be just fine.

Once the layers are stacked (except for those reserved layers), frost the top and sides of the torte. Set the frosted tortes aside.

The last step is the decorative sugar toppings. It is best to make sugar topping and any other decorations as close as possible to serving time. They should be made the same day they will be served and should be kept in a cool, DRY place (not a refrigerator – it’s too moist). If you absolutely must store the sugar decorations, store them in an airtight container with a packet of desiccant enclosed. Don’t place sugar decorations directly on top of the cake until immediately prior to serving, or moisture from the cake and frosting will harm the sugar.

If you’ve never worked with sugar, you might be surprised to learn that working with sugar is actually very easy. It is kind of messy, so use waxed paper or newspaper to keep it from getting all over your countertop. I encourage you to try it out…the candied hazelnuts are much easier than you might think, and are very impressive-looking. They taste pretty good too.

Candied Hazelnuts and Cake Tops

The reserved unfrosted, unstacked mini Dobos torte cake layers
6-8 whole hazelnuts (or, whatever the quantity you need to top your cakes, plus a few extras to account for breakage), for the candied hazelnuts
6-8 additional hazelnuts, to be chopped for the side of the cakes
1 cup sugar
12 tablespoons (180 ml) water

First, the setup for the candied cake tops: Use newspaper or waxed paper to cover your countertops. Over a piece of waxed paper, place a wire cooling rack. Place the unfrosted, unstacked cake layers on the cooling rack. Set them out so they don’t touch each other, and leave a decently sized gap between them. For best results, use a cooling rack with larger gaps.

Toast all of the hazelnuts in a dry skillet over medium heat until they barely begin to change color. Don’t let them burn. Turn them out onto a paper towel; let them cool slightly until you can handle them. Divide them back into two portions: those to be candied and those to be chopped.

We’ll get set up to candy the hazelnuts next. You’ll need to devise a way to suspend the hazelnuts. I suggest you come up with something similar to what I did: I used an open cabinet which hangs overtop my countertop. I stuck a skewer into each hazelnut and weighed the skewer down with small but heavy plates. I covered my countertop with waxed paper. Get everything ready to go.

Gently insert a skewer partway into each hazelnut. Don’t insert it too far, or you’ll break the hazelnut into pieces. (That’s why you have a few extra to account for breakage. If you break one, swap it out with one from the reserved pile of nuts to be chopped for the sides of the cakes.)

Next, make the candy syrup. Once your syrup has cooked, you’ll need to move quickly so go ahead and read ahead in the recipe before you begin…so you know what’s coming…

Stir the sugar and water together in a small saucepan – nonstick will give you the easiest cleanup later. Bring to a boil over a medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved into a smooth syrup, turn the heat up to high and boil without stirring, swirling the pan by the handle occasionally and washing down any sugar crystals on the sides of the pan with a wet brush until the syrup has turned into an amber-colored caramel. (We’re boiling until we reach approximately 340 degrees F. Caution: Your thermometer must be clean and dry every time you insert it in the sugar syrup. Another caution: Although it takes awhile to cook from the first step to the perfect stage of golden, it will change from a beautiful caramel color to burnt in a matter of seconds, so don’t let your guard down - stay on top of it!)

Once the syrup has turned to caramel, immediately pour a thin layer over the top of each cake. Work quickly – the longer the syrup is in the pan, the more it will continue to cook due to residual heat. Also, try to conserve the syrup as you pour – you will still need to use part of it to dip the hazelnuts. Depending on how good you are at metering out the syrup, it might just be easiest to plan on making two batches of syrup. Another tip: try to avoid overpouring because an excessive amount of syrup will “glue” the cakes to the cooling rack (that’s why you have extra cakes – in case some break as you attempt to remove them from the rack.) Don’t try to remove the cakes just yet because you need to dip the hazelnuts while the syrup is still hot...

After you’ve poured the syrup over the cakes, immediately begin dipping the skewered hazelnuts. Gently dip each one into the pan, then suspend it so the excess syrup drips off of it in a long string.

Some of it will break off and collect on the waxed paper. You can gather this excess up into a loose “birds nest” and save it to use as a cake decoration, too.

Note: Avoid getting any moisture in the syrup or it will seize up into a gritty unattractive mess. If that happens, or if you run out of syrup, you’ll need to caramelize more sugar…

The candied nuts and cake pieces need time to cool to firm up. Meanwhile, chop the reserved, uncandied hazelnuts. Gently press the chopped nuts onto the sides of the frosted cakes.

The sugar syrup on both the cake tops and the hazelnuts should harden up fairly quickly. (If they don’t firm up into brittle sugar pieces, you didn’t cook the sugar syrup long enough.) Once they are completely firm, you can gently handle them. Try to avoid touching them any more than necessary because you could leave fingerprints or moisture marks on the sugar. Use scissors to trim the hazelnut “drips” to your preferred length – you can leave them long and dramatic or you can trim them to several inches if you prefer. Gently twist the skewers out of the hazelnuts. Remove the candied cake pieces from the cooling rack – you might need to turn the rack upside down and pop the pieces off from the underside if the sugar was poured on too thickly.

Immediately prior to serving, top the Dobos tortes with a piece of candied cake. Garnish with the candied hazelnuts. Serve immediately.

Cornmeal and Jelly Muffins

2009-09-20T10:43:00.001-05:00

I love Saturday mornings. I don’t usually sleep in – I have learned that keeping a consistent daily schedule makes it easier to get up on weekday mornings. Not everyone else in my house has the same theory though, so I usually have a few hours to myself before anyone else wakes up. I occupy my time in the early morning by going for a nice long bike ride, or by making something special for breakfast, or sometimes both!

Depending on what I have in my kitchen, I’ll often make pancakes, waffles, French toast, or something similar, especially if I have weekend house guests. If it’s just me eating breakfast, I’ll often make a quick veggie omelet or chop up some fresh fruit. Sometimes I’ll make up some biscuits and jam, and recently I made some boysenberry jam-filled cornmeal muffins.

These muffins can be made with any color of cornmeal. I used blue cornmeal, but if you don’t have blue cornmeal, just use the more common yellow variety. They taste the same. You can fill the muffins with your favorite kind of jam. I used storebought jam because it’s what I had in my fridge, but it would be delicious with a homemade pan jam (let it cool before you use it!).

Cornmeal Jelly Muffins
Makes 12 muffins

1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cornmeal (I used a blue variety)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten
Approximately 3/4 cup jelly or jam, your choice of flavor

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Grease 12 muffin cups, or line the tins with paper.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a 2-cup liquid measure, add the milk and vegetable oil. Drop in the egg, and whisk it together with a fork to combine the ingredients. Pour the mixture into the dry ingredients and mix only until the dry ingredients are all moistened. Fill the muffin tins 2/3 of the way full.

Spoon approximately 1 Tbsp of jelly or jam on top of each unbaked muffin. (The jelly will sink in during the baking process.)

Bake 15-20 minutes, or until they are golden brown. They may take a few minutes longer than you are used to due to the jelly centers. You can use a toothpick to test the muffin – no raw batter should cling to the toothpick when they are done. The jelly will be soft and liquidy.

When the muffins are done, turn them out to cool. Caution, the jelly is very hot. Don’t attempt to eat the muffins until they have cooled, or you risk burning your mouth.

If you want the muffins to be less messy than what’s shown in the pictures here, bake them inside muffin papers or use slightly less jam.

Thank you Kris!

2009-08-23T12:19:00.024-05:00

99% Cacao Dark Chocolate has recently received its first-ever blog award – the One Lovely Blog Award – from Kris at Bake In Paris! I am so excited and honored to receive my first award! Thank you for passing it along to me, Kris! You made my day!

Now it is my turn to choose the next recipients of the award. Because I am relatively new to blogging and I have a minimum amount of free time to surf the internet, the list of blogs I regularly follow is kind of short. I wish I had more time to read through a longer list of blogs, but such is life... Meanwhile, here’s some of my favorites - I am now declaring them the next winners:

The first blog I ever added to my feed reader was Definitely Not Martha...The Daily Struggles of the Domestic Un-Goddess. Leslie doesn’t post as often as she used to (she has a relatively new addition to her family), but whenever she does post, it’s always worth a read. Make her parsnip soup – oh it is GOOD! I served it in bread bowls last Thanksgiving. It is now in the rotation and will be on the Thanksgiving menu this year. Yum!

Then there’s Fairy Mi's blog. I believe the blog is called The Cookie Fairy, but because her blog is entirely written in Hebrew, I can’t understand a word of it without using Google Translate. Don't let that stop you from visiting, because her photos and ideas are mouthwatering. She’s a fellow member of the Daring Kitchen, and her pretty version of our Bakewell Tart challenge is what drew me to her blog.

For more inspiration in the cookie department, I read Bridget's blog, Bake at 350. She makes the cutest cookies ever. She also gives step-by-step decorating instructions so you can recreate the frosting designs at home. Well, for me, it would be an attempt to recreate the designs – I’m not that great with a pastry bag. I want to be better at cake and cookie decorating, though, so her blog is inspiring to me.

And speaking of inspiration, check out 17 and Baking. Elissa is only seventeen years old. Yes, seventeen. Her style of writing is so engaging and her photos are gorgeous – her blog makes me want to drop what I’m doing, run into the kitchen, and bake one of her cakes. I wish I had a friend like her when I was in high school. Elissa’s won this award before…but I couldn’t help but recognize her again.

I always enjoy reading Amanda’s blog Is This Thing On?. Some of her posts are food-related, and some are about her daily life. (I love her sense of humor.) I originally found her blog because she’s another Daring Kitchen member, and because she likes to bake cupcakes. I’m hooked.

Another blog I always enjoy reading is E. Lee’s blog, Bacon Concentrate. I thought I loved bacon, but then I saw that she once made a bacon cheesecake...'nuf said. She’s got some great recipes that don't contain bacon, too. In fact, she’s given me permission to post my version of her Sesame Noodle Salad on my blog...its delicious! Besides that particular recipe, she recently threw a Hawaiian Luau-themed birthday party, and pretty much everything she made for that event is now on my To Make list.

Thanks again, Kris, for passing the One Lovely Blog Award on to me!

Pasta with Sausage, Spinach, and White Beans

2009-08-19T20:42:00.004-05:00

Do you pack a lunch to take to work or school each day? I go through stages: for awhile I'll be really good about packing my PB&J and applesauce, but after awhile I get kind of tired of the same old same old and end up eating takeout. I do better when I have leftovers packed up from the previous night's dinner.

So, when I plan what I'm going to eat for dinner, I try to choose something that I know will leave enough leftovers for me to take to lunch the next day (or two).

For my family of three, this recipe fits the bill.

This meal serves about six people, depending on how big your servings are. That's way more than what I need to feed the three mouths I currently have in my house, but that just means I have plenty of leftovers to eat throughout the rest of the week. We just packaged up leftovers from tonight's dinner and have enough for at least four lunches! It reheats pretty well in the microwave or on the stovetop, and I can't wait for lunch tomorrow!

And if you don't need quite that much food all at once, the recipe can easily be halved, or simply reduced slightly.

I like this meal because it's easy enough to make on a weeknight and it tastes great due to the spicy Italian sausage - buy a type that is labeled "hot" for the best flavor!

You'll need a large, deep skillet to make this dish.

Pasta with Sausage, Spinach, and White Beans
Serves about 6

3 links hot Italian sausage, casing removed
8 ounces bow-tie pasta (the pictures show mini farfalle)
5 tomatoes (you could substitute one 14.5-ounce can of diced tomatoes if your fresh tomato availability is nil)
1 medium onion, chopped (I give it a whir in the mini food processor)
2 carrots, peeled and chopped (I make little carrot sticks about the length of the pasta - you could use an equal amount of baby carrots sliced into sticks)
4 ounces portabella mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 Tbsp heavy cream (approximately...I just eyeball it)
6 ounces fresh baby spinach, roughly chopped if the pieces are particularly large
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
One 14.5-ounce can Great Northern white beans, rinsed and drained

In a deep, large skillet, over medium heat, fry sausage, stirring and breaking it up as it cooks. When the sausage is mostly-cooked, but is still slightly pink on the inside, remove it from the pan to a plate lined with a paper towel, leaving the fat in the pan - set the pan aside. This picture shows the sausage at the proper level of doneness: mostly browned on the outside but still pink on the interior. (No worries, we’ll finish cooking the sausage later.)

Bring a separate large pot of water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook according to the package directions. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, if you like (and I highly recommend it), peel the tomatoes. If you don’t have one yet, I suggest you invest in one of these gadgets:

…a soft-skin serrated peeler! Besides being good at peeling tomatoes, they do an excellent job of peeling kiwis, peaches, and the skin off your fingers (so be careful!). They’re dishwasher safe, and happen to be ergonomic: they are pretty comfortable to use if you have a big peeling task ahead of you. Buy one, and while you’re at it, buy one of their standard peelers too. Your hands will thank you next time you peel a potato.

If you don’t have a nifty soft-skin peeler, you’ll need to peel the tomatoes using the boiling water method: Cut a shallow X into the bottom of each tomato. Plunge them first in boiling water for about ten or fifteen seconds, then rinse them under cold water to stop any cooking. The skins should come off more easily than they would otherwise (start peeling from the X). (A soft-skin peeler is much easier – no boiling water to deal with and one less pot to wash!)

(If its wintertime and your supermarket has terrible tomatoes, go ahead and use canned diced tomatoes. No peeling or chopping necessary...)

Once you’ve peeled the tomatoes, roughly chop them and divide them into two approximately equal portions. Set both portions aside.

Add the onions to the leftover fat in the large skillet you used for the sausage. Cook on medium-high heat until onions just begin to soften. Stir in the carrots, mushrooms, and half of the chopped tomatoes and cook a few minutes longer until carrots are crisp-tender.

Stir in the chicken stock, reserved sausage, and the spinach, and allow the mixture to simmer for a few minutes to reduce the liquid slightly. If you have a lid for your skillet, cover it for a minute to help cook the spinach more evenly. No lid? Don't worry, just stir it frequently until the spinach is all evenly wilted.

Add the cream, chopped parsley, and reserved cooked pasta. Stir to incorporate the ingredients. Once the sausage has cooked through, gently fold in the beans and the remaining tomatoes. Heat through, then serve immediately.

Better Than Church Lady Banana Bread

2009-08-16T09:07:00.003-05:00

I had a banana left over from July’s Daring Cooks challenge…and what do you do when you have one leftover banana?

Make blueberry banana bread, of course!

And, actually, you don’t need to have a mushy, old, brown, yucky banana sitting around to make delicious banana bread. If you are short an old banana, but happen to have a fully-ripe (all-yellow, no-green) banana on hand, toss it in your mini food processor and whirl it into banana mush. Although the taste and texture of the bread is slightly better if you use an older, hand-mashed banana, this substitute works perfectly well in a pinch, and chances are no one will even notice the difference unless they have a chance to taste it side-by-side. So don’t let the lack of an overripe banana stop you from making banana bread.

After looking through a few of my cookbooks, I decided to modify a recipe from one of those church-lady compilation fundraising cookbooks. You know, those cookbooks where the ladies of a church submit their favorite tried-and-true recipe to a committee, who organizes them all, types them up, and sends the finished product in to some small publishing company for printing and binding. This particular cookbook is probably at least 25 years old – and before the days of computers, these cookbooks were a pretty big production!

Sometimes these types of cookbooks are hit-or-miss – I guess it depends on how much the parishioners like to cook. This book was from a small, rural community, was printed at a time when made-from-scratch cooking was the norm, and as it turns out, the cookbook has a few goodies in it. I’ll admit, I might be biased – my mom helped out with the production of this particular cookbook and most of the recipes I make from it are ones she submitted herself.

However, this particular recipe wasn’t one of hers – it was simply a standard banana bread recipe, which I picked specifically because it only called for one banana - that’s all I had on hand! As usual, I made a few changes to the recipe: I added berries, reduced the nuts, and rewrote it to make it easier to follow and more logical.

I like blueberry banana nut bread the best, but you can also make cranberry banana nut bread. You could probably substitute just about any moist fruit for the blueberries...raspberries, diced oranges, strawberries...

Better Than Church Lady Banana Bread
Makes one 8.5” loaf

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1 3/4 sifted cake flour (I used White Lily brand All-Purpose flour and it worked fine)
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 c blueberries (or cranberries)
1 Tbsp all purpose flour
1 Tbsp granulated sugar (ONLY if you use cranberries…if you use blueberries, omit this)
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 roughly mashed-up, slightly overripe banana

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8.5x4.5x3” loaf pan. I think the crust tastes best when the bread is baked in a light-colored pan, not a dark nonstick pan.

In a small skillet, toast the walnuts over medium-high heat until they begin to brown, stirring occasionally. Remove them from the pan; set them aside to cool. Chop any of the larger pieces (the nuts shouldn’t be any bigger than a small blueberry).

In a medium bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.

In a small bowl, toss the blueberries or cranberries together with the 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour (and the 1 Tbsp granulated sugar, if you are using cranberries) until the berries are evenly coated. Set the berries aside.

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy and well-combined. Beat in the two eggs. Stir in the mashed banana. (It’s not necessary to totally mash the banana into mush – leave some chunks in the batter!)

Gently fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture, stirring only until the flour is nearly mixed in. There should still be flour on the sides of the bowl.

Add the floured berries and the toasted walnuts, folding them into the batter only until they are evenly distributed and the remaining flour has been incorporated. Do not overmix the batter.

Spread the batter into the greased pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes, or until the bread tests clean when a toothpick is inserted into the center of the bread. Cool the bread inside the pan until you can’t stand to wait anymore (at least wait until you can handle the bread without a hot pad!).

Turn the bread out to a wire rack to cool to room temperature (or eat it!).

The original recipe recommends waiting a day before eating the bread (to let the flavors meld) but I can hardly wait that long! I think the bread tastes best when it is cut into thick, still-warm slices and topped with firm, cold, unsalted butter bits – the warm bread contrasts nicely with the sweet, cool butter. Yum!

Pretty cranberry bread:

Homemade Marshmallow - Part of the July Daring Baker's Challenge

2009-08-03T17:46:00.008-05:00

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of Food Network.com.

I have been struggling with how to write this post. I don’t like to sugarcoat my writing to give a false impression of glowing success in the kitchen, but nor do I want to be a total downer when something didn’t turn out quite right.

To be totally frank, I thought the recipes weren’t written very well. Definitely great ideas, but it’s obvious that the Food Network didn’t take enough time to test and rewrite either of these recipes. I was hoping I’d have time to test and retest to give you a better recipe, but with that backache problem I had earlier in the month, I just ran out of time. (I actually made the cookies before my back acted up, but once the back went out, that was it for the month. I barely got through the Daring Cook's challenge, and as you can see by the lack of other posts, I wasn’t able to make much of anything else either. Although my back has mostly healed by now, I’m late on this post because I’ve been out of town for a week.)

I’m not entirely ruling out “baker’s error” on my part...but I see that a number of other Daring Bakers had similar results, so I’m less likely to think the problems I identified were due to our Bakers’ own mistakes. I was also very cautious to follow the recipes exactly (especially once I identified several red flags). But, maybe they didn't turn out because of something I did - there were a number of other Daring Bakers who were happy with their results.

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The Milan cookies were two thin cookies sandwiched together by a ganache filling, mimicking the appearance of the Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies. I was really excited to make these cookies, as the Pepperidge Farm version (specifically the mint flavor) are one of my favorite types of store-bought cookies. I love their crisp, buttery texture, and couldn’t wait to try them at home.

Unfortunately, the Food Network version didn’t taste anywhere close to the Pepperidge Farm version. Nor did they taste better (I don’t mind improving on something already delicious, but these cookies didn’t fit the bill). They were chewy and gummy regardless of their baking time (no, they weren’t underdone, I tried quite a few trays with a wide variety of baking times). The recipe called for an insane amount of lemon and vanilla extract (2 Tbsp each – that’s 1/4 cup total!), thus the dough reeked of cheap alcohol and didn’t taste any better. The baked, unassembled cookie reminded me more of a poorly-executed tuile cookie than the Milano cookies I’ve bought from the grocery store. The recipe’s suggested yield was inaccurate and the cookie size recommended in the original recipe was not authentic.

So, I am not including the recipe here because I don’t post things on this blog that I’m not reasonably confident about. (My rule of thumb is, if I wouldn’t serve it to houseguests, I’m not posting it on here. And if I can’t give a friend the link to the recipe and expect her to be able to recreate it herself, it’s not going on the blog.) You can click on over to the host’s blog or over to Food Network if you are dying to try the cookies out...

I will give you a photo – they looked good enough, they just didn’t taste good.

I did make multiple flavors of filling - shown from left to right are white chocolate/butterscotch, chocolate/orange zest, plain chocolate, chocolate/white chocolate, chocolate/mint, and a few duplicates: another straight chocolate, and another chocolate/butterscotch. The filling tasted good – it was simply basic chocolate ganache variations.

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The marshmallow cookies were composed of three parts: a cookie base, which was topped with a homemade marshmallow “kiss,” all of which was dipped in a chocolate coating. My opinion of this recipe is varied: The “base” component of the cookie was dry and tasteless, and the recipe yielded twelve dozen cookies even though it indicated a yield of only two dozen. The marshmallow topping yielded enough to make four dozen cookies (that’s still twice as much as the suggested yield, but definitely not nearly enough to cover all of the cookies). And the chocolate coating yielded exactly the amount suggested in the original recipe: two dozen cookies. However, it was sticky and wet at room temperature, and bloomed as it sat to dry. Even after I popped the cookies in the refrigerator to set the chocolate up firm, the chocolate still did not have an appealing texture or appearance, and it melted once it was returned to room temperature. Tempering the chocolate would have solved these problems – and as I made a second batch of chocolate coating, that’s exactly what I did, with much better results.

Despite all the issues these cookie recipes presented, the marshmallow component was absolutely delicious, and it was a fun challenge - I’m glad I tried it, as I rarely make candy. I won’t give you the recipe for the entire completed cookie on this blog, but I will give you the marshmallow recipe, and you should make the marshmallow soon! Use it to top your favorite crispy sugar cookie recipe, or try a homemade graham cracker cookie, or a crunchy chocolate cookie, anything. Then dip it all in tempered chocolate, and you’ll have a delicious final product that’s similar to the intent of the original recipe. Or use the marshmallow to make homemade s’mores – toast them over your charcoal or gas grill if you don’t have plans to be near an open fire. You can pipe marshmallow “kisses” directly onto a piece of parchment paper dusted liberally with cornstarch.

I wouldn’t recommend that you double the marshmallow recipe because there’s a small window of time where it’s firm enough to not be overly runny, but soft enough to pipe into your desired shape. If you make too much marshmallow up at once, you won’t be able to pipe them all out before things set up and become too firm.

Another recommendation: I made my first batch of marshmallow with a stand mixer with the wire whip attachment. The second batch was made with a hand mixer with the standard beater attachment. Both worked well enough, but the best results were obtained with the stand mixer/wire whip setup - so if it’s available to you, use it!

Homemade Marshmallow
Makes enough to top four dozen 1.5” cookies
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup (168.76 grams/5.95oz) sugar
1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
2 tablespoons cold water
2 egg whites, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 Tbsp cocoa powder (optional)

In a medium non-stick saucepan, combine the water, corn syrup and sugar. Bring it to a boil until it reaches the “soft-ball” stage, or 235 degrees on a candy thermometer.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let it dissolve. It will turn into a glob of gelatin – if there is still dry gelatin, give it a quick stir to ensure all of it has a chance to dissolve.

Once the syrup is at the “soft-ball” stage, remove the pan from the heat, add the gelatin, and mix. The pan will sizzle and bubble and glop up a bit, not too dissimilar from how it does when you make homemade caramel. Keep stirring and it will all smooth out. Note that in this picture, which was from my second batch of marshmallow, I ended up cooking the syrup a too long. (Sigh…distractions!) So it’s a little more golden than your results should be. It didn’t end up being a problem – the marshmallows still tasted great. And I was planning on making chocolate marshmallows for my second batch anyway, so the golden color didn’t matter once the cocoa was added.

In a large mixing bowl, whip the whites until soft peaks form. If in doubt, whip slightly more rather than slightly less – but don’t whip it so long that your whites are at a stiff-peak stage just yet.

With the mixer off, scrape the still-warm syrup into the whites.

Add the vanilla. If you want to make chocolate marshmallows, flip the mixer back on high for a few seconds to begin to incorporate the liquid, then turn it back off and sift 3 Tbsp cocoa powder over the whites. Next, whether you’re making plain marshmallows or chocolate ones, continue to whip the marshmallow mixture on high speed until it is stiff.

Transfer the marshmallow mixture to a large pastry bag fitted with a wide tip – a large star Wilton #2110 (1M) makes a pretty shape. A large plain circle will work too. Don’t overfill the bag. I twist the top of the bag tightly closed and rest the pastry bag upside-down on itself in a tall liquid measuring cup so it won’t leak out of the top or bottom. Let the marshmallow mixture cool until it sets up enough to maintain an attractive shape during piping.

The marshmallow stuff sets up pretty quickly. Work fast because once it gets too firm you won’t be able to scrape it up or pipe it out nymore. But you can’t use it immediately – it does need to cool slightly or it will be too runny to hold shape. Pipe it onto cookies or graham crackers, or whatever your desired use is. Let the piped marshmallow dry until it is firm to the touch before you try to do anything else with it.

The syrup is difficult to clean up. Use dishwasher-safe implements and a non-stick pan. My non-stick pans won’t go in my dishwasher, so here’s how I clean them out: Fill the dirty pan about half-way with water. Put it on high heat and use a wooden spoon or other no-scratch utensil to scrape the sides and bottom of the pan as it heats up. As the pan gets warm, the sugar will dissolve into the water and rinse away. It might take a couple of tries to get the pan entirely sugar-free. The pan can then be washed by your usual method.

If you’re going to use a chocolate coating, I highly recommend that you take the time to temper the chocolate. It’s one of those things that sounds complicated, but is really super easy as long as you have a thermometer.

Tempered chocolate has a prettier appearance and won’t “bloom” (the lighter brown spotty swirls you sometimes see on chocolate). If you want some advice and background information on tempering chocolate, read Michael Chu’s article, Tempering Chocolate. I always use the Seed Method, which he describes at the point where the pictures begin. Remember, different types of chocolate temper at different temperatures, so be sure to adjust accordingly (broad suggestions on temperature ranges are included further down his article).

For what could potentially produce the best results, check out your chocolate manufacturer’s website, there’s a good chance they will list the exact temperature that should be used when tempering their brand of chocolate. In my case, since Scharffen Berger chocolate is what’s most readily available where I live, I have always referred to their website for tempering instructions when working with their brand of chocolate. However, they apparently changed their website recently – actually, it was three days ago, as of the time of this writing. Their new site doesn’t list tempering instructions, but their old site (which may or may not work by the time you read this) recommended the following instructions:

To temper chocolate, first chop up the chocolate you want to temper. Save a few chunks for later in the process. Then, melt all but the few chunks of chocolate over a double boiler to 110 degrees. By melting chocolate to 110 degrees F, you dissolve all crystals and start from scratch.

Take the chocolate off the heat. Add the chunks of chocolate you held back and, stirring, let it cool to about 80 degrees F.

Reheat the chocolate using a flash method over the hot water in the double boiler. Heat it 3 to 5 seconds at a time, take it off the heat, put it back on, rather than just sitting the bowl back on top of the hot water, until the mixture reaches 91 degrees F.

(During that last reheat step, I stir the chocolate five strokes while it's over the heat, then five strokes off the heat (then repeat). I think it's easiest when I get into that 1-2-3-4-5, 1-2-3-4-5 rhythm.)

I find it easiest to coat the cookies using two forks. I put the coated cookies on a wire rack to allow any excess coating to drip off, then transfer them to parchment or waxed paper until they can completely firm up.

Although the cookies were dry tasting, they were cute!

The cookies below were made according to the original recipe, with untempered dark chocolate.

Tilapia and Green Beans, with Home-Dried Powders - the July Daring Cooks Challenge

2009-07-19T13:03:00.007-05:00

This month’s Daring Cooks recipe was pretty unusual – at least, compared to what I usually cook for my family. The July challenge recipe was hosted by Sketchy, of Sketchy’s Kitchen. He chose a skate recipe from the Alinea Cookbook, which is to be served with “powdered traditional flavors” – more on exactly what that means in a minute.

First, the original recipe called for skate, a creature similar in appearance to a stingray. Many Daring Cooks chose to substitute other types of seafood because skate is on the “avoid” list. (According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and other similar websites, skates have been overfished, and most are caught by a method that results in high levels of accidental catch of other fish. The fishing method also results in substantial damage to the seafloor.)

So, I substituted US farmed Tilapia for the skate, and thought the results were delicious. I suggest you do the same! (Please check out the rest of the list and try to make good seafood choices when you prepare seafood in the future!)

Besides the controversial main ingredient, the recipe brings up another interesting topic. For one, it touches on molecular gastronomy, a modern method of cooking that I have not, until now, had a chance to experience. This version of MG involves home-drying an assortment of foods to be pulverized into flavorful powders. Thus, the flavors of the dish are intense and very concentrated. The powders are served alongside the main course – seafood poached in a velvety butter sauce – and the fish is dipped into the assortment of powders as it is eaten. The result is really a taste explosion in your mouth – it’s delicious. Definitely something I’m not used to eating, though!

The recipe does require some special equipment. Best results will be achieved if you own a dehydrator. Some Daring Cooks were able to duplicate the results in a microwave. It’s also possible to use an oven set on a very low temperature – but it takes a very long time. You’ll also need some way to grind the dehydrated foods. Many people used coffee grinders or a mortar and pestle. I used a food processor and sifted the powders through a fine mesh strainer.

I wasn’t certain if I was going to be able to complete this month’s challenge. For one, I don’t own a dehydrator or a microwave. Nor do I have a coffee grinder or a mortar and pestle. And, it’s been 90+ degrees nearly every day lately, so I wasn’t too excited about running my oven all day to complete the challenge. To top it all off, I have had a problem with my back lately, so I have been moving around more slowly than usual.

However, my mother owns an awesome dehydrator and I was able to talk her into shipping some dehydrated food to me. (Thanks, Mom!) In addition to her contributions, I dried some of the thinnest of the required ingredients in my oven, purchased some already-dried items from the grocery store, and pulled a few spices out of my pantry to come up with the rest of the ingredients. Sorry, with this bad back, that was the best I could do!

I’m glad I did what I could to put together the challenge. Like I said, the food was so flavorful and delicious. Definitely different, and definitely outside of my usual comfort zone of cooking – but that’s why I joined the Daring Kitchen. If you’ve got a dehydrator and haven’t tried a recipe like this yet, give it a shot. It’s really not too difficult at all.

The version I’m posting here reflects the changes I made to the original recipe. There were a few ingredients I was unable to source, so I left them out of this post. Check out Sketchy’s blog if you want to see how the challenge recipe was originally written for us. His blog also includes instructions for using a microwave or an oven to dry the powders.

Tilapia and Green Beans, with Home-Dried Powders
Serves 4

1 red onion, trimmed and thinly sliced
30 grams capers (in brine, not oil-packed)
1 cup fresh Italian parsley (left intact)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro (left intact)
1 ounce dried lemon peel (I used the brand Melissa’s, which is sweetened)
3 Tbsp dried instant milk powder
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 lb butter (4 sticks)
300 grams fresh green beans
Salt, to taste
4 tilapia fillets
2 bananas (neither overripe nor underripe)
Juice of 1 lemon

Optional
Pink peppercorns
Ground white pepper
Sweet Hungarian paprika
Any other ground flavoring you have or want to make that you think will match the flavors of the dish

First, the onions and capers need to be dehydrated and ground. Special thanks to my Mom, who dried these for me using her dehydrator. See Sketchy’s blog if you want to try a different dehydration method.

Dry the red onion slices in a dehydrator at 135 degrees until they are brittle, about twelve hours.

Use a food processor, mortar and pestle, or coffee grinder to grind the brittle onions. Pass the ground onions through a fine strainer and store the powder in an airtight container.

Rinse the capers under water. Use a towel to remove as much water as possible. Dry the capers at 135 degrees until dry, about 12 hours. Use a clean grinding implement to grind the capers. Pass them through a fine strainer and store the powder in an airtight container.

The parsley and cilantro also need to be dried, but they don’t take nearly as long. I used my oven to dry these. You can use a dehydrator if you’ve got one.
Preheat the oven to the lowest setting possible (mine only goes down to 200 degrees, so that’s what I used). Cover a cookie sheet with a piece of parchment paper. Bring some water to a boil in a small saucepan. Blanch the cilantro and parsley in the boiling water for one second, then transfer them to ice water to stop the cooking process. (You don’t have to keep the two herbs from mixing.) Pat the herbs dry with paper towels. Lay the cooled cilantro and parsley out on the parchment paper as flat as possible. Don’t let the leaves touch one another, or they won’t dry properly.

Dry the herbs in the oven, turning them over once, until they are brittle. At 200 degrees, I left them in for 15 minutes on each side. Nearly all of the pieces were sufficiently dried, except for the thickest stems and a few clumps of leaves I missed. I just crunched them up a little bit, picked out the couple of pieces that weren’t brittle enough, and ground the rest up. Use a clean grinding implement to grind up the cilantro and parsley (again, you can mix it together, no need to keep it separate).

Pass the ground herbs through a fine strainer and store the powder in an airtight container.

In a clean bowl of a food processor, grind the lemon peel until it is as small as possible. (It won’t pulverize like the other dried things will, but it’ll do. It will bring an interesting variation in texture to the final dish.) Store it in an airtight container.

In a small skillet, toast the dried milk powder over medium heat, stirring occasionally. (Be cautious not to burn it!) Turn it out into a small bowl and allow it to come to room temperature. Mix the brown sugar into the cooled milk powder. Store it in an airtight container.

The recipe may be made ahead to this point.

Before we start cooking fish and green beans, we’ll first make a beurre monte, a buttery liquid we’ll use for poaching. Heat 60 grams of water in a large saucepan to a boil. Meanwhile, cut the butter into rough cubes (approximately 1 Tbsp each). Once the water has reached a boil, turn the heat down to low. Stir in one cube of butter at a time, waiting to add the next cube until the last one has melted. Keep this liquid heated, but do not allow it to exceed 195 degrees F.

Now we’ll divide up the beurre monte. Three-fourths of the finished beurre monte will stay in the large saucepan over low heat. One fourth of the finished beurre monte should be transferred to a medium saucepan over low heat. After you've divided it up, add water to the each beurre monte to double it’s volume – this doesn’t have to be exact and can be “eyeballed” up the side of the pan. Or, if you’re more comfortable doing so, you can pour each portion of butter sauce into a liquid measuring cup and add an equivalent amount of water. Again, keep the liquids heated, but not above 195 degrees.

Decorate your serving plates:
The powders are to be plated alongside the fish, swirled in a decorative fashion. Since my back was causing problems and I wasn’t physically up for a lengthy trial-and-error process, I plated the powders on several smaller plates. (Much easier, because if you screw it up, you’re not out a whole plate of multiple powders.) You can check out other Daring Cooks' photos for more plating ideas.

I plated crushed pink peppercorns and ground white pepper (both storebought), garnished with whole pink peppercorns

the ground red onion and capers, garnished with a chip of dried red onion,

ground white pepper and sweet Hungarian paprika (also storebought), garnished with several chips of dried pineapple (another dried item my mom shipped - and they were delicious, but wouldn’t pulverize well enough to use in this recipe),

and the powdered parsley/cilantro and the sweetened lemon peel, garnished with a few of the larger, unground pieces of peel,

It is much easier to decorate the empty plates now, rather than waiting until after the fish is cooked. Otherwise the fish will get cold while you fumble with the various powders. Just be sure you leave room for the fish later!

We’re ready to start cooking:
Cut the green beans diagonally into bite-sized pieces. Add them to the smaller portion of beurre monte. Turn the heat to medium and poach the beans until they are done to your liking. Taste the beans and season them with salt.

While the beans are poaching, turn the heat of the larger saucepan up to medium. Add the tilapia fillets (you might need to do this in batches) and poach, turning once, until the fish turns white and easily flakes apart. (That should only take a few minutes on each side.) Be careful to avoid overhandling the fish, or it might fall apart. After you’ve removed the cooked fish, season it with salt.

Meanwhile, thinly slice two bananas diagonally. Squeeze the lemon juice over them to prevent browning. Fan several banana slices on each serving plate. Top the bananas with the drained green beans. Top the beans with a fish fillet. Sprinkle the milk powder/brown sugar mixture on top of the fish.

Serve the fish piping hot. Encourage your eaters to dip the fish in the various powders, experimenting with different flavor combinations. My favorite was definitely the capers and the red onions!

Simple Biscuits and Jam

2009-07-12T12:00:00.004-05:00

Homemade biscuits are so easy, I never can understand why anyone would want to make them out of Bisquick. These biscuits are tender and soft. They don’t call for butter, so they’re the perfect neutral base for homemade jam. You can easily add a bit of sugar to them to make biscuits for strawberry shortcake.

I served these for breakfast this morning with some homemade blueberry jam, following the same small-batch blueberry pan jam recipe I used for the June Daring Bakers Bakewell Tarts challenge.

Simple Baking Powder Biscuits
Makes 5 to 6 biscuits

2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Cover a cookie sheet with a piece of aluminum foil or parchment paper (or you can grease the sheet if you’d prefer).

Mix together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add the shortening and use a knife, fork, or pastry blender to cut in the shortening until small pea-sized pieces are left. The appearance should be very similar to this picture, from the crust for the Bakewell Tarts I made for the June Daring Bakers challenge.

If you’re making homemade pan jam, start it now. Let it slowly simmer while you finish the biscuit dough.

Pour in the milk, and use a fork to mix the dough only until it is barely combined. The dough will appear rough and ragged and some dry bits will be left in the bowl. Do not overmix the dough.

Shape the dough into five or six freeform biscuits and place on the cookie sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until lightly browned, fluffy, and just barely done in the center.

If you’d like to make these as dessert biscuits for strawberry shortcake, add 2 Tbsp of sugar to the dry ingredients in the first mixing step.

Strawberry Pecan Pork

2009-07-04T20:07:00.003-05:00

I have recently rediscovered pecans. I didn’t think I cared for them much (pecan pie still doesn’t do anything for me), but after eating them on top of a strawberry poppyseed salad at a certain lunchtime restaurant here in town, I have been enjoying their nutty, crunchy taste.

This recipe not only makes use of pecans, but it also makes use of some of the two giant trays of strawberries I bought at the store today. (We’ll be having strawberries in *everything* until I get those things cut up and frozen…)

This recipe involves coating pork chops in ground pecans. I use three small cereal bowls to hold the flour, egg, and pecans. If your cereal bowls are too deep, it might be easier for you to use pie tins. You could also use large zip lock bags – that has worked well for me in the past, particularly when I’ve made pecan-encrusted pork for large groups.

Strawberry Pecan Pork
Serves 4
2 cups pecans, chopped
3 cups strawberries, hulls removed
1 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
Approximately 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
1 egg
4 thin-cut boneless pork chops
1 to 2 Tbsp olive oil

In a small skillet, lightly toast the pecans over medium heat until they become fragrant and just barely begin to brown. Reserve a few tablespoons of the nuts to use as a garnish. Turn the rest of the toasted nuts out into the small work bowl of a food processor; reserve the small skillet. Process the nuts until finely ground – but not so much that they turn into nut butter.

While the nuts are toasting, slice the strawberries into chunks. Place the sliced strawberries in the empty small skillet. Add the brown sugar and balsamic vinegar. Don't start cooking the strawberries yet - just set the skillet aside until you’re ready to start the cooking process.

You will need three small cereal bowls or similar vessels. Place the flour and a pinch of salt in one bowl. In the second small bowl, lightly beat the egg and 2 Tbsp of water. Place the ground pecans in the third small bowl. Place a wire rack (like what you’d use to cool cookies) over a large plate – this will be the holding spot for the encrusted pork.

Use a pair of tongs to dip a pork chop into the flour mixture. Turn it, patting flour onto it to be sure it is evenly coated. Shake off any excess flour and transfer the meat to the egg mixture. Use the tongs to push the pork into the egg mixture, covering the entire piece. Allow any excess egg mixture to run off, then transfer the pork into the pecans. Gently pat the pecans onto the surface of the pork, coating the surface evenly. Transfer the encrusted pork to the wire rack. Repeat with the remaining pieces of pork. (Use tongs or something similar - try not to use your fingers – you’ll be picking gluey pecan bits out of your fingernails for hours.)

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the pork, cooking it in batches if necessary. Handle the pork as infrequently as possible, or you’ll risk damaging the pecan coating. Panfry over medium high heat until the pork is cooked through, turning it only once. The cooking time will vary depending on the thickness of the meat, but you can expect 3 to 5 minutes per side.

After you flip the pork and begin to cook it on it’s second side, place the skillet with the strawberries over medium heat. Give them a stir every so often. They should soften up and begin to release their juices – it will just take a few minutes. Once they begin to soften, turn the heat down to low.

After the pork has finished cooking, transfer it to a serving plate, reserving the large skillet. If it’s cool in your kitchen, you might want to tent the pork with foil to keep it warm. Turn the heat off of both pans.

Transfer the strawberry mixture to the still-hot large skillet, reserving the small skillet. The liquid in the strawberries will start to deglaze the pan. (It will bubble up, so use caution!) Add a quick splash of water – maybe 1/4 cup at the most – just enough to keep the strawberry mixture from totally boiling down and burning. Stir the strawberries, scraping the bottom of the pan to deglaze any browned bits. (This all just takes a few seconds.) Once the browned bits are incorporated into the strawberry sauce, transfer the strawberries and sauce back into the small pan where it is cooler – again, this will keep the strawberries from burning.

Serve the pork topped with the strawberries and sauce. Garnish with the reserved nuts. I served it alongside some asparagus, too, because that’s one of my favorite veggies!

Grilled Pork Chops with Paprika Rub

2009-07-03T19:46:00.004-05:00

This spice rub is so easy to make and it tastes great. The prep is quick, but it does need time to sit in the refrigerator to let the meat take on the flavors. I usually make it in my mini food processor so I don't have to cut up the garlic - especially if I'm multiplying this recipe to feed a lot of people.

A lot of my weeknight meals are inspired by recipes in Everyday Food magazine…this is modified from their July/August 2009 issue.

Grilled Pork Chops with Paprika Rub
Serves 4

4 cloves garlic
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp coarse salt
2 tsp sweet Hungarian paprika
½ tsp hot Hungarian paprika (cayenne pepper will work if you don’t have hot paprika)
½ tsp ground black pepper
4 bone-in pork chops

Place all of the ingredients except the pork in a small food processor bowl. Process until the garlic is finely chopped and the ingredients are all incorporated. Scrape the mixture into a gallon-sized thick plastic bag.

Add pork chops to the bag. Seal the bag up, squeezing out any excess air, and gently knead the bag to coat the meat with the spice rub. Refrigerate at least one hour, up to overnight.

Grill over medium-high heat until pork is cooked through. Cooking times will vary depending on the thickness of your pork, but you’re probably looking at 3 to 5 minutes per side. Pork is considered “medium” when the center is at 160 degrees F – don’t overcook it or it’ll be dry and tough.

If you’re not into pork, try this on beef. This past Father’s Day, I served this spice rub on ribeye steaks and it was a hit. I’m sure it’d be good on chicken too.

If you’re looking for something to take along on a camping trip, toss this together in a thick baggie and freeze it before you leave home. Stick the baggie in a watertight container and let it sit in the ice in your cooler, thawing little by little over the course of your camping trip until it’s soft enough to successfully grill over your campfire. It’ll be delicious, I guarantee!

Bakewell Tarts (er…Puddings?) - the June Daring Bakers Challenge

2009-06-27T18:50:00.006-05:00

This month’s Daring Bakers challenge introduced me to something I’ve never tried making before. I guess that’s part of why I joined the group!

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Apparently there’s a long-standing debate as to whether this type of dessert is classified as a “pudding” or as a “tart.” I am no expert on desserts from the UK, but to me, it appears to be more of a tart… Anyway, whatever it’s called, it turns out it tastes pretty good! It’s definitely a taste and texture I’m not used to, but I could get used to it pretty quickly. It also seems to be more of a breakfast or tea item rather than a dessert to complete a 4-course dinner – at least, that’s how it’d fit into my own menu lineup if I were to make it frequently.

This dessert/tart/pudding consists of a sweetened shortcrust pastry spread with a thin layer of jam, topped with frangipane, an almond-scented, cake-like layer, baked in a tart pan. We were required to make homemade crust and frangipane, and encouraged to make our own jam for the filling. Here's a closeup of the layers, so you have an idea of what it's supposed to look like:

I decided to make smaller-sized tartlets so I could experiment with a variety of jam flavors. The recipes shown here will make enough to fill six 4” tartlet pans.

While we’re on the topic of equipment, you’ll need to get out your kitchen scale! (Sorry, the original recipe was provided to the Daring Bakers in weight measurement only.)

I made two pan jams following the guidance of one of our co-hosts, Jasmine. She suggested trying a fruit-to-sugar ratio of 10:1 (for 100 grams of fruit, start with 10 grams of sugar, adjust it later if you want it sweeter). That should work for many varieties of berries, and I can say that it does work for both blueberries and strawberries, because that’s the flavors of jam I made!

Bakewell Tarts
Makes six 4” tartlets

Make the jam first – it needs to cool before it can be used. Note that each of the recipes listed below makes enough jam for HALF of the tartlets. You could also use store-bought jam. I admit: I did try one tartlet with store-bought raspberry jam and another tartlet with store-bought blackberry jam. (I like variety.) But that homemade blueberry jam won them all out - it is amazingly good and very simple! Give it a try!

Blueberry Jam
Makes enough jam for three tartlets – double this if you want them ALL blueberry flavored!

150g blueberries
15g sugar
A squeeze of lemon juice

In a medium-sized saucepan (nonstick is best), mix the fruit and the sugar over medium heat. Stir together, mashing the fruit with the back of your spoon. The mixture will become liquidy. Taste it and add more sugar if you want. Cook over medium heat, stirring and mashing frequently, for five minutes. Add the lemon juice – just a quick, small squeeze. Continue to stir and cook for another five or ten minutes depending upon how thick you want the jam. Pour it out into a small bowl and refrigerate it until it’s time to use it.

Strawberry Jam
Makes enough jam for three tartlets – double this if you want them ALL strawberry flavored!

160g strawberries, hulled and sliced into small pieces
16g sugar
A squeeze of lemon juice

In a medium-sized saucepan (nonstick is best), mix the fruit and the sugar over medium heat.

Stir together, mashing the fruit with the back of your spoon. The mixture will become liquidy. Taste it and add more sugar if you want. Cook over medium heat, stirring and mashing frequently, for five minutes. Add the lemon juice – just a quick, small squeeze. Continue to stir and cook for another five or ten minutes depending upon how thick you want the jam. Pour it out into a small bowl and refrigerate it until it’s time to use it.

Next, make the Crust. It also needs to chill.

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry
225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (1/2 tsp) salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 egg yolks
2.5ml (1/2 tsp) almond extract
15 to 30ml (1 to 2 Tbsp) cold water

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar and salt. Using the large holes on a box grater, grate the butter into the flour mixture.

Using your finger tips and working very quickly, or using a pastry blender, rub/cut the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs. Set aside.

Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract. Use a fork to quickly mix the egg mixture into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

Form the dough into a disc, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Meanwhile, make the frangipane.

Frangipane
125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
3 eggs
5ml (1 tsp) almond extract
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Cream the butter and sugar together until the mixture is light yellow in color and is very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle – that’s fine. After all three eggs are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides again. Add the ground nuts and the flour; mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow color. This can be refrigerated until it’s time to use it.

On to assembly!

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut the dough into six equal-sized pieces. Keep the portions you’re not using immediately in the refrigerator. This dough has a lot of fat in it so it is difficult to roll out if it gets too warm - it becomes very sticky. The easiest way to roll it out is to do so with the dough sandwiched in between two sheets of waxed paper. (Parchment will work too, but that’s more expensive!)

Roll out a small circle about six inches in diameter. Peel off one sheet of waxed paper. Fold the sheet in half, sticky side inside (we’re reusing the waxed paper for a quick moment, and the sticky side will just make a goopy mess if it is facing out). Gently replace the folded piece of waxed paper back on your dough circle.

Flip the whole dough/paper assembly over and peel off the other piece of waxed paper. Fold it in half and save it too – we’ll use it again in a second. Place your tart pan upside down on top of the dough.

Invert the dough/pan and peel off the folded sheet of waxed paper.

If at any time you’re having lots of difficulty getting the papers to peel off, pop it all in the fridge for a couple of minutes. Do note that it will most likely be sticky, and residual dough will probably be left behind on the paper. If you end up having any holes, you can patch them up in a minute.

Use your knuckles to ease the dough down into the bottom of the pan.

Allow any excess dough to overhang the edge of the tart pan. Reuse that second sticky-side-in sheet of folded waxed paper from earlier: gently place it on top of the tart pan. Use your rolling pin to press down on top of the waxed paper and pan.

The effect: the pan acts as a “cookie cutter” and trims the dough for you – you’ll be left with perfect pretty edges.

Discard the goopy waxed paper and pick away the excess dough. Patch any holes using these scraps if necessary.

Yes, you do go through a lot of waxed paper - but by folding it in half you’re reusing it (well, for a while at least…that helps some). Yes, you COULD roll it out without the paper on a well-floured surface – but excessive quantities of flour will make your crust tough. The waxed paper method is easier and tastes better. And, trust me, you do NOT want to pick this sticky, buttery dough off of your countertop. (Especially if you have my impractical tiled countertop!)

Repeat the above steps to get the remaining five dough balls into your tart pans. As you finish each pan, pop them into your freezer for a few minutes. If you run out of room in the freezer, rotate them into the fridge.

Spread about 1 tablespoon of jam inside each chilled tart shell. Cover the bottom of the crust evenly. The jam layer should be rather thin, just enough to coat the bottom.

Top each tart with a scoop of frangipane, spreading it to the edges of the crust. The frangipane layer should fill up the remaining volume of the pan, and will be approximately equal in height to the tart crust.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, until the tops are puffy and a tanned golden brown. Do not underbake!

Allow the tarts to cool on the counter slightly – if you cut into them too early, the jam will run out. I waited until the tarts were cool enough that I could handle them without fear of being burnt – they were still slightly warm on the inside but were nicely set. Perfect!

Chocolate Cream Pie

2009-06-25T08:17:00.005-05:00

Here’s an easy pudding pie recipe you can make next time you have company over. It looks good without being overly pretentious, tastes delicious, and most of the prep can be done earlier in the day. (Actually, the pie requires time to chill, so you will NEED to make it ahead of time.) I’ve made this twice recently for dinner parties, and both times it was really well received.

This recipe largely comes from Diner Desserts, by Tish Boyle, a cookbook I’ve found is one of my favorites despite its somewhat narrow genre of recipes.

For easy serving and pretty presentation, I make this in a 9” fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. (The idea of a pan with a removable bottom is one of the best ideas ever!) It’s so much easier to get the individual slices out of the pie.

Chocolate Cream Pie
Makes 1 9" pie

Make the crust first, it needs to cool slightly.
Crust
16 ounces chocolate/cream sandwich cookies, like Oreos or a similar knock-off
8 Tbsp butter, melted

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9” tart pan with a removable bottom (a 9” pie pan will work if you don’t have a tart pan). Pam spray works well.

The easiest way to make the crust is to use a food processor to crush the cookies and mix in the melted butter. If you don’t have a food processor, you can smash the cookies sealed in a thick plastic zip-lock bag with a rolling pin – it will take longer and the results won’t be as even, but it will work.

Place the cookies in the work bowl of a food processor, pulse repeatedly to crush the cookies. With the processor running, drizzle the melted butter through the feed tube; process to incorporate. Scrape the crumbs out of the bowl into the prepared tart/pie pan. Use your fingers and a spoon to shape the crust up the sides of the pan; flatten the center part evenly into the pan.

Bake the crust for 8 minutes, until it has set. Let the crust cool on a wire rack. (Use caution when moving the pan around so you don’t inadvertently push up on the removable bottom and break the crust.)

Pudding
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup half-and-half
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 cup granulated sugar
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, like 99% cacao
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, whisk together the cornstarch, cocoa powder, and salt. Whisk in about 2 tablespoons of the half-and-half until it is a smooth paste. If it lumps up in the whisk, that’s fine, just shake it all out.

Whisk in the remaining half-and-half; keep whisking until the mixture looks kind of like chocolate milk. Set the bowl aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, sugar, and chocolate. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly with a whisk, until the chocolate has completely melted. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk about a 1/2 cup of the hot chocolate mixture into the half-and-half mixture.

Whisk this mixture into the remaining chocolate mixture in the saucepan. Return the pan to the heat an cook over medium high heat, whisking constantly. When the mixture begins to bubble, continue to cook, whisking constantly, for one minute.

Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the butter and then the vanilla. Scrape the pudding into the cooled tart shell. Cover the pie with plastic wrap, pressing it directly onto the surface of the pudding, and refrigerate the pie until thoroughly chilled, at least four hours.

Whipped Cream Topping
I usually wait until just before serving the pie to make the whipped cream topping. Then the cream is at it's maximum volume at serving time - looks the prettiest!
2 cups heavy cream
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Mini chocolate chips, for garnish

Using an electric mixer, beat the cream and sugar on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Beat in the vanilla.

There’s several options to apply the cream to the pie. You can simply scoop it on, using a rubber spatula to create swirly billows of whipped cream. Or, you can pipe it on with a pastry bag. In my photos I used a Wilton #364 tip fitted onto a pastry bag and made little stars over the top of the pie.

More recently, I purchased a Wilton #2110 (1M) tip (which takes the large size coupler) and piped big stars on the top of the pie. I preferred the appearance of the larger #2110 (1M), but didn’t have a chance to take any photos...so I guess you’ll have to take my word on it... At any rate, either will work, just get the whipped cream on the pie.

Once you’ve topped the pie with the whipped cream, garnish it with mini-sized chocolate chips.

I was featured in The Daring Kitchen On-The-Spot

2009-06-21T08:26:00.004-05:00

Guess what - I was featured on the Daring Kitchen website, in a section called "On-The-Spot." If you want to read more about me, head on over to the Daring Kitchen and check it out! Thanks to our founders, Lis of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice, for featuring me!

Chinese Potsticker Dumplings - The Daring Cooks June Challenge

2009-06-14T18:28:00.009-05:00

I first learned how to make Chinese dumplings during a college-sponsored trip to China nearly ten years ago. I participated in a study abroad program and spent the better part of a summer travelling around China with 12 classmates and two teachers. It was a great experience – one of our teachers was born in rural China so he took us to all of the places he used to go to as a child and young adult. Thus, it was a better experience than what I imagine most tourists’ visits might be like – less emphasis on the commercialized tourist-oriented sites and more emphasis on actually learning about Chinese culture. We stayed in our host college’s dormitories and our daily activities were more like those of a Chinese college student’s rather than those of an American tourist.

One day our Chinese friends taught us how to make dumplings – we were taught that the Mandarin Chinese word was jiao tze. We watched as they expertly rolled out each dumpling skin into a perfect circle (our attempts were not nearly as beautiful nor as efficiently done!). They filled their dumplings with a pork and cabbage mixture, and in the blink of an eye, pleated each dumpling into a perfectly ridged half-moon shape. They also demonstrated a different shape of dumpling – I don’t remember what the Mandarin word to describe them was, but the English translation was Beggar’s Purses, and they painstakingly tied thin threads of Chinese scallions around the tops of each dumpling. Beautiful – but not something I’d want to do for a weeknight supper! The dumplings were all placed in a bamboo steamer to gently steam the dumplings.

After returning to the US, I searched for and found a recipe that was fairly close to what I remembered eating in China, and have been making steamed dumplings on a regular basis ever since then.

I was excited when I learned that the Daring Cooks June Challenge was Chinese dumplings and potstickers, hosted by Jen from use real butter. Since I have never made potstickers, I decided to try making them instead of following my usual method of steaming the dumplings. Their crispy bottoms are a delicious contrast from the soft texture of the rest of the dumpling wrapper.

I actually made steamed dumplings about a week prior to the announcement of June’s challenge recipe, but I did not make homemade dumpling wrappers. The only stipulation of this month’s challenge recipe was that we make our own homemade dumpling wrappers. Therefore, my previous effort would not “count” towards fulfilling the Daring Cook’s challenge. However, I have included a few photos from that endeavor because they illustrate steaming the dumplings, and the method is the same regardless of the type of dumpling skin used.

You could use storebought wrappers – again, the method is the same, except you will require a small amount of water as “glue” – dab it on the edges of the skins before you start to fold the wrappers. But I encourage you to give the homemade wrappers a shot – they taste much better!

Dumpling Wrappers
Yields 25-50 dumplings, depending on how large you make each wrapper
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup warm water (as hot as your tap will go)
Flour for work surface

Note: Depending on how large your food processor is, you might need to mix this in two batches. A Kitchen Aid 12 cup processor can do it in one batch. Use your judgement based on that... Place the flour in the work bowl of a food processor with the dough blade. Run the processor and pour the warm water in until incorporated. Knead the dough with the food processor for several minutes until the dough travels around the bowl with the blade. (You may need to add additional flour or water to achieve the proper results.) The dough should be firm and silky to the touch and not sticky. [Note: it’s better to have a moist dough and have to incorporate more flour than to have a dry and pilling dough and have to incorporate more water).

Cover the dough with a damp towel for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make your filling. I have provided you with two choices – each option makes enough to fill one batch of dumpling wrappers.

Pork and Cabbage Filling
1/2 lb napa cabbage
3/4 lb unseasoned coarsely ground pork
1 Tbsp finely minced ginger
1/4 cup coarsely chopped green and white scallions
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp coarse kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Chop the cabbage until it is pea-sized. Place in a large bowl. Add the ground pork and sprinkle the remaining ingredients on top. Stir until well blended – but don’t overstir it and create mush.

Veal, Fire-Roasted Corn, and Red Pepper Filling
2 ears corn – do not shuck – leave the husks on!
2 red bell peppers
6-8 large shitake mushroom caps
1 lb ground veal
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1 Tbsp ginger, minced
3 ounces spinach, finely chopped
4 tsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp coarse kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
2 tsp brown sugar

Preheat your grill to obtain medium-high heat. Run the corn – husks and all – under cool water. Grill, turning as necessary, until the husks have blackened and the corn is tender, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, quarter the bell peppers. Discard the seeds and ribs. Grill until the skin is blackened and the peppers are tender, 5-8 minutes.

During the last five minutes of grilling time, grill the shitake mushroom caps on the coolest part of the grill until they are tender, about 5 minutes.

Allow the grilled vegetables to cool slightly. Pull the husks and silks back off of the corn – but do not remove the husks from the corncob. Carefully cut the corn kernels off of the corn cobs. The easiest way to do this is to cut off the last inch of the tip of the corncob opposite of the stalk, creating a flat end. Place the end flat on your cutting board and use a large, sharp knife to carefully cut straight down the cob, using the husks/stalk as a handle. CUT CAREFULLY! Place the corn kernels in a large bowl.

Carefully use your fingertips or a knife to remove the skins from the red peppers. Roughly chop the peppers and the mushrooms, and add them to the corn. Add the remaining filling ingredients and stir to combine. Don’t overstir or you’ll end up with mush.

A note for vegetarians: I think this filling recipe would be a great starting point to create a meatless dumpling. I'd suggest increasing the mushroom quantity and possibly adding some firm tofu (panfried before finely dicing for a little added flavor?)

To roll out the wrappers and fill the dough:

Take the dough and form a flattened dome. Cut into strips about 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide. Shape the strips into rounded long cylinders. On a floured surface, cut the strips into either 1/2-ounce or 1-ounce pieces (larger dumplings are easier to make if you’re a dumpling newbie). The recipe will yield approximately 50 dumplings if you use a 1/2-ounce size, or approximately 25 dumplings if your wrappers weigh 1 ounce each. Keep the waiting dough underneath a cloth to prevent it from drying out.

To roll out the wrappers, knead a dough piece in your hands for a few minutes until it is smooth.

Press your palm down on each piece to form a flat circle. With a straight (not tapered) rolling pin, roll out a circular wrapper from each flat disc. (I recommend using a thick dowel rod, or in absence of that, even a round, unsharpened pencil will work as a rolling pin - that's what I used in my pictures. A larger, standard-sized pastry rolling pin is too bulky to use. Take care not to roll out the skins too thinly or the dumplings might break - about 1/16th inch.

Leave the centers slightly thicker than the edges. Your wrappers will be between three and four inches in diameter.

Place 1/2 ounce to 1 ounce of filling in the center of each wrapper (depending on the size of your wrapper).

There’s lots of different ways to pleat a dumpling. Here’s the way I was taught in China. Create the top of the dumpling by pinching the dough together at the top, leaving the sides open.

Make three or four pleats along one side of the dough by folding the dough up, one pleat at a time, and pressing it flat.

Work from the center of the dumpling out towards the right to complete one side, then return to the center and work out towards the left to create the other side of pleats.

One side of the dumpling should have pleats, the other side should remain flat – this gives the dumpling its crescent shape. The dumpling should rest upright on a flat bottom, with a crescent ridge of pleats pointing up.

This month’s Daring Cooks host, Jen, uses a very similar pleating method to mine – you might want to check her website out to see how she does it.

You could also create a beggar’s purse by pleating in a circular fashion around the entire circumference of the dough. Some of the filling should be visible out of the top. Press in slightly to create an area where you can later tie a thread of scallion around the dumpling. They kind of look like little volcanoes! (I’m sure I have not refined the technique nearly as well as my Chinese classmates, who showed me how to make these ten years ago, have!)

Place the shaped and filled dumplings on a nonstick surface, such as a piece of parchment paper, until you are ready to cook the dumplings. If you desire, you can freeze the dumplings at this point and cook them from frozen later.

Choose a cooking method:

To make potstickers:

In a large nonstick sauté pan with high sides and a lid, heat 2 Tbsp oil over medium-high heat, uncovered. Add the dumplings – do not let them touch. Let them cook uncovered for approximately 2 minutes – long enough to begin to brown the bottoms of the dumplings.

Add 1/2 cup of water (careful, the pan will spatter) and immediately put the lid on the pan. Cook covered until the water has boiled away, then uncover and reduce the heat to medium-low. Let the dumplings cook another 2 minutes and then remove them from the heat and serve with dipping sauce.

To make steamed dumplings:

Line a steamer. I usually use a piece of parchment paper with a few holes poked through it. You could also use a single layer of cabbage leaves. Place the dumplings in the steamer basket – don’t let them touch one another.

Place the steamer over boiling water and cover – let them steam for about six minutes. Serve with dipping sauce.

Dipping Sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp white vinegar or unseasoned Chinese rice vinegar
2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp Asian chili sauce (or more to taste)
1 tsp white sugar
2 Tbsp thinly cut green and white scallion rings

Stir to combine all ingredients. Serve at room temperature.

Homemade Hostess-Style Cupcakes

2009-06-13T04:55:00.002-05:00

I love Hostess cupcakes. I rarely eat them anymore, but when I was a kid, my dad would occasionally buy them for me and my sister as a special treat. I would eat them upside down, saving the frosting for last, with special emphasis on attempting to preserve the line of white squiggly frosting for the very end.

I’ve always wanted to try making homemade Hostess-style cupcakes, but never have had the opportunity. I guess I just needed the right excuse to make them: an invitation to an early summer barbeque. So, I decided to give the cupcakes a shot!

Wow. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat a store-bought Hostess cupcake again. These are so much better.

I used a certain layer cake recipe which I know from previous experience has a tendency to bake up rather flat. I filled the cupcakes with a marshmallow-tasting frosting, glazed the tops with semi-sweet ganache, and used leftover filling to create the squiggles on top. The cake and filling recipes came from Diner Desserts, by Tish Boyle, although the original recipes were not written with homemade hostess cupcakes in mind – they are components of a regular layer cake.

The end result of this little experiment: tender and moist chocolate cupcakes, with perfect creamy centers, and cute squiggly tops.

Chocolate Cupcakes
Makes 24 cupcakes

2-1/4 cups granulated sugar
1-3/4 cups cake flour
1-1/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
2-1/4 tsp baking soda
1-1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 large whole eggs
1 large egg yolk (save the white for the filling)
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
9 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1-1/2 cups buttermilk
3/4 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place 24 cupcake liners in muffin tins. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, cake flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until well incorporated. Set aside.

In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk together the whole eggs, egg yolk, vanilla, buttermilk, and milk. Whisk in the melted butter. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir only until barely combined and smooth.

Use a ladle to spoon batter into the muffin tins, filling approximately 2/3 full. (Note: I actually probably filled mine slightly too high in the picture below. They ended up rising out of the muffin tins, and it wasn't the end of the world, but they were a little more difficult to remove from the tins.)

Bake 23-28 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake tests clean. Cool the cupcakes in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks to finish cooling completely. The cupcakes will be very flat - even slightly dipped in the center. That's fine, because we're going to fill them later.

While the cupcakes are cooling, start the ganache:

Chocolate Ganache Glaze
Before determining the quantity of ingredients to buy, see the note a couple of paragraphs below...
18 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla extract

Place the chocolate chips in a medium mixing bowl and set aside. In a deep saucepan, warm the cream over medium-high heat until it barely comes to a boil. As soon as it comes to a boil, pour it over the chocolate chips and let it sit undisturbed for five minutes. After five minutes has passed, whisk the mixture until it becomes a uniformly chocolate-colored liquid. Let the mixture cool slightly, stirring occasionally to keep it from hardening. We’re looking for a thick liquid glaze, not a stiff frosting texture.

Note: You may need to make more glaze depending on how generous you are in glazing the cupcakes later. If you discover you need more, make a half recipe, and pour the whisked glaze into a pie pan to get the glaze to cool more rapidly.

While the ganache glaze is cooling, start the filling:

Filling
3 egg whites
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
3 Tbsp water
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the filling, you will need a good-quality electric hand mixer. You’ll have to have the mixer running non-stop for about 15 minutes straight, so don’t use anything too old that might break in the midst of your mixing session. Yes, this is personal experience talking. Once I made this recipe using an old mixer and by the end of the mixing process, I burnt the motor out and ruined the mixer. Hey, it was an excuse to get a new hand mixer! You will also need a thermometer that goes to 160 degrees F.

My pictures show a double batch of filling, so your quantities will be less than what is shown.

In a large deep bowl, combine the egg whites, sugar, water, and cream of tarter with a handheld electric mixer. Beat until foamy, about 1 minute.

Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Beat constantly on low speed until the mixture reaches 160 degrees F, about 7 minutes.

Remove the bowl from the heat, add the vanilla, and beat it on high speed until it holds stiff peaks, about 7 minutes.

Cupcake Assembly

Fit a pastry (frosting) bag with a relatively wide, round-shaped tip. I used Wilton #364 because it is the largest diameter tip I own, and although it happens to have small teeth, it doesn’t matter. You could use anything of a relatively similar size as long as it’s a round tip and not a flat tip. You'll end up needing two different tips for this recipe; here's what I used. The one on my fingertip is #364.

Fill the pastry bag with the white filling.

Use a chopstick, skinny dowel rod, skewer, or similar stick-like object to poke a hole in the center of each cupcake. Insert the pastry bag in the hole and squeeze a few teaspoons of filling into the cupcake, until it barely begins to bulge. Be cautious to avoid overfilling them – too much filling means it’s too difficult to eat without a fork. When you're done filling the cupcakes, save the pastry bag – we’ll use it again.

Place the cupcakes on a wire rack set over a piece of waxed paper or some other sanitary surface that is easy to clean up. (You’re creating a drip rack to catch extra glaze.) Use a small ladle to spoon chocolate ganache over each cupcake. Push the glaze to the edges so the surfaces are smooth and evenly covered with a thin layer of ganache. Let any excess drip off the sides. You can reuse the glaze, or make more if you need more.

Refrigerate glazed cupcakes for a few minutes to set up the ganache.

Change the tip on your pastry bag to a small circular tip, such as Wilton #3. Pipe the squiggly “cursive e” design on the top of each cupcake.

Cupcakes should be refrigerated for storage, and should be eaten within the next few days.

Paprikás Csirke, with Galuska (Hungarian Chicken and Dumplings)

2009-06-07T09:37:00.006-05:00

Chicken and dumplings are perfect together. They fall under the category of “comfort food” for many people – myself included. There’s a million variations. Maybe you remember a layer of flavorful herb biscuit dumplings floating on a sea of thick chicken soup, or a large tangy buttermilk biscuit dumpling served alongside slow-cooked braised chicken. Or maybe you like tender strips of chicken nestled in thick, ribbon-cut noodle-style dumplings, or maybe you enjoy Italian gnocchi and chicken enveloped in a spicy marinara sauce.

Here is yet another variation I enjoy: chicken in a paprika sauce, enriched with tangy sour cream – Hungarian comfort food.

I taught my sister-in-law how to make this recipe, so we work on it together. She is in charge of the chicken and its sauce, and I am in charge of making the galuska. To increase our speed and efficiency, she also fishes the cooked galuska out of the water for me. We can throw this meal together in no time when the two of us work on it collectively. This is a really easy meal to make, but there’s a lot going on at once, so it is definitely easier when you’ve got a helper around. I like to serve this with broccoli, which nicely soaks up the paprika-flavored sauce. (Everything’s better with paprika!)

Paprikás Csirke (Chicken Paprika), with Galuska (dumplings)
Serves 4

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves or chicken thighs
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, peeled & chopped
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika (or more, to taste)
1 tsp hot Hungarian paprika
1 to 1-1/2 cups chicken stock
3/4 cup fat-free sour cream

Wash chicken and pat dry. Trim any fat away as necessary, and set the chicken aside. I usually use breasts, and usually cut them into bite-sized pieces to shorten the cooking time.

In a large, deep skillet with a lid, heat vegetable oil, uncovered over medium-high heat. Add chopped onion and cook uncovered until onions are translucent and cooked through.

Meanwhile, begin the Galuska recipe by heating a pot of water to a boil and mixing the dough:

Galuska (Dumplings)
1 Tbsp butter, softened
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 tsp salt
2 cups flour
Water, for boiling Galuska

In a medium mixing bowl, beat butter, egg, milk, salt, and 1-1/2 cups flour until smooth. Add additional flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until the mixture is the consistency of sticky cookie dough. If dough gets too stiff, add a little more milk. The dough should be sticky, but not so moist as to be liquidy. It should hold its shape when spooned.

In a large saucepan or small stockpot, bring water to a boil. Using a small teaspoon, scoop up a small amount of dough, approximately 1/2 to 1 teaspoon; use a second spoon to shape the dough into a somewhat spherical shape, and scrape the dough off into the boiling water. Add several more pieces of dough, stirring frequently to keep dough from sticking.

Boil the Galuska until they rise to the surface – 2 to 3 minutes each. Use a slotted spoon to scoop the floating dumplings out; drain them in a colander and set them aside. As you remove cooked pieces, continue to add dough to the boiling water until all of the dough is used up.

While the dumplings are cooking, continue to prepare the chicken:

If using chicken thighs or similarly thick pieces of meat, sprinkle the onion mixture with salt and both paprikas; add 1 cup of chicken stock to moisten pan. Stir the onion mixture, then add the chicken pieces, reduce the heat to medium, cover the pan, and allow it to simmer while you continue preparation of Galuska. Turn the chicken as necessary during preparation to ensure meat is evenly cooked. Keep an eye on the sauce in the pan, and as the pan begins to dry up, add 1/4 cup of chicken stock at a time to remoisten and deglaze pan. Skip to the final step below...

If using smaller pieces of chicken, sprinkle the onion mixture with salt and both paprikas; add 1/4 cup of chicken stock to moisten pan. Stir the onion mixture, reduce the heat to medium, and allow the sauce to simmer while you continue preparation of Galuska. Once liquid is reduced and the pan begins to dry up, add the chicken pieces and 1/2 cup of chicken stock. Allow the chicken to cook, turning as necessary to ensure chicken is evenly cooked. Keep an eye on the sauce in the pan, and as the pan begins to dry up again, add 1/4 cup of chicken stock at a time to remoisten and deglaze pan. If chicken pieces complete their cooking process before you are finished with the Galuska, turn heat down to low to keep warm and slow the cooking process. Continue with final step below...

Final Step: Once Galuska are prepared and cooked, add the sour cream to the chicken/onion mixture. Stir well to incorporate; heat on medium-low heat only until sour cream is heated through. Do not allow sauce to boil excessively. Fold cooked and drained Galuska into sauce; stir to coat all pieces with sauce. Taste and add additional paprika as necessary.

Steak Tacos, Red Pepper and Corn Salsa, Homemade Refried Beans, and Guacamole

2009-06-06T11:47:00.006-05:00

Craving steak tacos?

Thinly-sliced, lime-and-cilantro-flavored steak
Fire-roasted red pepper and corn salsa
Spicy jalapeno pinto beans
Cool and refreshing guacamole

I know I am!

Let's get cooking! Many of the ingredients can be prepared ahead of time. Some items can be cooked ahead and simply reheated, or kept warm over a low grill (that’s what I do at home when I’m just cooking for the family), or in a slow oven (that works well if you’re cooking on a larger scale). I have written the recipes below as if I’m serving them to my family immediately.

All quantities below will serve four people

Steak Marinade
1 lb flank steak, left unsliced
Juice of 2 limes
3 cloves garlic, ran through a garlic press, or chopped
½ of a jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed, chopped (more or less to taste)
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
¼ cup olive oil
½ tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp ground paprika

Place the flank steak in a resealable container or heavy zip-lock bag. Add the remaining marinade ingredients and let rest for several hours, or as long as overnight. Turn/shake the bag occasionally to coat everything evenly.

Meanwhile, start the salsa – it needs to go on the grill first.

Fire-roasted Red Pepper and Corn Salsa
2 red peppers, seeds and ribs removed, cut into thirds
1 onion, peeled and quartered
1 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
2 ears corn, shucked, but with as much of the stems left intact as possible.
One 16-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp fresh flat-leaved Italian parsley, chopped
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

Prepare your grill to obtain medium to medium-low heat.

Place the red peppers in a medium bowl. Add the onion, separating each quarter into individual pieces. Drizzle olive oil over the onion mixture; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to coat all pieces.

Carefully place the onion mixture on your grill (you might experience a brief flare-up due to the olive oil). Put the shucked corn on the grill at this time, too. Grill over medium to medium-low heat, turning often, until the skin of the peppers starts to blister and the vegetables are cooked through and lightly charred. (Yes, charred skin is ok!)

If you’re making the homemade refried beans, start the first step of that recipe while you’re waiting for the peppers and corn to grill. Depending on how fast you are, you might also find this is also a good time to mix up guacamole.

Remove the cooked veggies to a flat working surface, such as a heat-resistant cutting board. Allow the vegetables to cool slightly, then carefully use your fingers or a knife to remove the skins of the peppers and any other excessively charred portions of the vegetables. Roughly chop the peppers and onions, then place them in a large bowl.

Carefully cut the corn kernels off of the corn cobs. The easiest way to do this is to cut off the last inch of the tip of the corncob opposite of the stalk, creating a flat end. Place the end flat on your cutting board and use a large, sharp knife to carefully cut straight down the cob. Oh, and if you left the stalk on the end of the corncob, you’ve got yourself a nice handle that usually works out pretty well. CUT CAREFULLY! Did I mention that you should be careful while cutting that corn off? Hey, you could also go out and buy a gadget that accomplishes this task for you…but I’ve never tried it so I can’t comment on its real-world practicality. Once you get those corn kernels off of that cob, add the kernels to the onion mixture.

Add the rinsed and drained black beans, cumin, parsley, and cilantro to the onion mixture and gently stir to incorporate everything. If you’re not ready to serve the salsa yet, I recommend putting it into a foil packet and placing it in a cooler spot on your grill. It can be moved to a warmer spot and reheated right before serving. Although I prefer the salsa served warm, it is good either hot or cold, so you could refrigerate it if you didn’t want to mess around with trying to keep it warm.

Homemade Refried Beans
1 onion, processed or chopped into small pieces
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed, finely chopped
One 16-ounce can pinto beans, undrained
2 Tbsp fresh flat-leaved Italian parsley, chopped
1 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tomato, roughly chopped

Step one: (which I recommend you complete while you’re waiting for your veggies to grill if you’re making the salsa…) Place the chopped onion and olive oil in a large frying pan with deep sides. Over medium-low heat, cook the onion until it begins to brown, stirring occasionally. If your heat is low enough, this shouldn’t require too much babysitting, so go back up and finish that salsa…

The rest of the recipe: (This only needs to heat through…so you can do this last step right before serving time.) Add the chopped jalapeno and undrained pinto beans to the pan. Use a potato masher or the back of a spatula to mash and stir up the beans. I mash about half of the beans for a variation in texture. Stir in the parsley, cilantro, and tomatoes.

For the tacos
Lettuce
Tomato, chopped
Grated cheese (I usually use Colby-jack)
Soft tortilla shells (I usually use something from the La Tortilla Factory lineup – they’re a little healthier than most tortilla options I’ve seen)

Guacamole
2 ripe avocados, halved and pitted.
Salt and pepper
Juice of ½ to 1 lime (to taste)

Use a large spoon to scoop the avocado flesh out of the skins. Add salt, pepper, and lime juice to taste. I don’t have a large mortar/pestle, so I just use a big wooden spoon to mash it all up until it’s smooth.

Once you’ve got everything above done, grill up that steak! Prepare your grill to obtain medium high heat. Flank steak is best served rare or medium-rare. Times will vary, but if you're grilling over medium-high heat, you’re probably looking at three or four minutes on each side. Spoon a little of that leftover marinade over the meat as it’s cooking (you boiled that marinade first to avoid those germies, didn’t you?).

Flank steak has a really obvious striated appearance. Thinly slice the cooked steak perpendicular ACROSS the stripes, NOT parallel to the stripes.

Assemble those tacos and eat! (These tacos are so filling, I find rice and tortilla chips aren’t necessary.)

Oh, and if you're a vegetarian, just omit the meat. The beans would be great spooned into the tacos, or try grilling up some marinated portabellas...

Homemade Caramel Sauce

2009-06-02T21:53:00.005-05:00

If you need a good dessert sauce to top ice cream or other sweet treats, try homemade caramel sauce. It's rich and delicious and I highly recommend it. It's not low in carbs, but it sure is tasty.

I made this caramel sauce to top my Daring Bakers apple strudel recipe. This recipe makes slightly more than one cup. This is a Martha Stewart recipe, and my notes are in [brackets].

Caramel Sauce
Makes approximately one cup

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

Pour 1/2 cup water into a deep, heavy-bottom saucepan; add sugar. Cook over medium heat, gently stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved. [I used my heavy nonstick saucepan and didn’t have any problems with it sticking or burning. The sugar mixture will be a foamy white liquid.]

Continue to cook, without stirring, until syrup comes to a boil, washing down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush two or three times to prevent crystals from forming. Let syrup boil, gently swirling pan occasionally, until it has almost turned medium amber. [Since I used that heavy nonstick saucepan, and since I’m gloriously lazy, I didn’t bother with washing the sides of the pot down, and I had no crystallization in my sauce. Don't let the sugar get too dark, it will continue to cook slightly due to residual heat.]

Remove from heat, and carefully pour in cream (caramel will bubble). Add vanilla and salt, and stir with a clean wooden spoon until caramel is smooth. [Caution, the sugar is REALLY HOT and it will splatter if you’re too aggressive with your stirring. It will get sticky and lumpy immediately – stir it constantly and it will smooth itself out. Once it is smooth, stir in the vanilla and salt, then pour the sauce out of the hot saucepan to prevent the sugar from continuing to cook. Serve warm.]

Sauce will keep in the refrigerator for three weeks. Reheat in a saucepan or microwave; stir in 1 tablespoon of heavy cream.

Serve on top of ice cream, or over apple strudel.

Apple Strudel - The Daring Bakers May Challenge

2009-05-27T19:52:00.007-05:00

As I previously mentioned, I joined a group called The Daring Kitchen: I am now a Daring Baker! I’ve wanted to join them for a very long time – almost the entire time they’ve existed! But time constraints kept me from pursuing it…until now.

I am really glad I joined this month, because the challenge recipe is something I have always wanted to make, but never have until now. The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

The rules of The Daring Kitchen require you to follow the recipe pretty much exactly (substitutions allowed in case of allergy/diet/religion/etc., but you’re supposed to stick to the overall recipe as much as possible). The hosts can decide to allow certain substitutions. In this case, we were required to follow the strudel dough recipe as exactly as possible, but we were allowed to be creative with filling and shaping the dough.

I made a double-batch of dough because I wanted to have plenty of dough for practice. I then divided it into thirds. In the future, I’d still make a double batch, because I probably still need more practice! The recipe below is a double batch already, so you don’t need to double it unless you want LOTS of practice!

I made apple filling for the first and second portions of my dough. Most apple strudel filling recipes call for raisins and nuts, and I’m not particularly into that, so I left them out. If you’re into that, you can try the apple filling suggested in the original recipe.

Also, although the original recipe calls for the dough to be kneaded by hand, I needed to use my stand mixer to perform that task. Regular visitors to this blog have certainly noticed by now my ugly “country blue” tiled countertop...not a favorable surface for kneading dough. (If you’re ever thinking about installing a tiled countertop in your kitchen, DON’T! Mine came with the house. And once funding becomes available, it be ripped out and replaced.)

The first step is to make the strudel dough, since it needs to rest for an extended period of time.

Double Batch Strudel Dough
Adapted from “Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague” by Rick Rodgers
Makes two large strudel or three smaller strudel

2 2/3 cups (400 g) unbleached flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
14 tablespoons (210 ml) water, plus more if needed
4 tablespoons (60 ml) vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough
1 teaspoon cider vinegar

Combine the flour and salt in a stand-mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment. Mix the water, oil and vinegar in a measuring cup. Add the water/oil mixture to the flour with the mixer on low speed. You will get a soft dough. Make sure it is not too dry or too wet, add a little more water or flour if necessary. It should be soft and slightly sticky. Knead the dough in the mixer for about five minutes.

Shape the dough into a ball and transfer it to a plate. Oil the top of the dough ball lightly. Cover the ball tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to stand as long as possible, at least 30-90 minutes. (Mine stood for about seven hours before I started rolling and stretching the dough.)

It would be best if you have a work area that you can walk around on all sides like a 36 inch (90 cm) round table or a work surface of 23 x 38 inches (60 x 100 cm). Cover your working area with cotton tablecloth, dust it with flour and rub it into the fabric.

If you’re making two strudel, cut the dough ball in half. Put half in the middle of the tablecloth and use a rolling pin to roll it out as much as you can, turning the dough frequently to avoid sticking.

Pick the dough up by holding it by an edge. This way the weight of the dough and gravity can help stretching it as it hangs. Using the back of your hands to gently stretch and pull the dough. If you hold it by your fingertips, you will poke through the dough.

You can also use your forearms to support it.

The dough will become too large to hold. Put it on your work surface. If it hangs off the edge, that’s fine, and even preferable. Place your hands underneath the dough, and stretch and pull the dough thinner using the backs of your hands. Stretch and pull the dough until it's about 2 feet (60 cm) wide and 3 feet (90 cm) long (that's if you're using half of the dough), it will be tissue-thin by this time. (My dough is smaller because I used about a third of it instead of half of it.) Cut away the thick dough around the edges with scissors or a sharp knife. The dough is now ready to be filled.

Regardless of what kind of filling you make, you’ll need toasted breadcrumbs and melted butter:

3 Tbsp butter, plus 8 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 cups (350 ml) fresh bread crumbs, finely processed

In a medium skillet, heat 3 Tbsp butter. Add the fresh bread crumbs and stir to toast. Allow to cool before using in strudel.

In a small saucepan or in the microwave, heat 8 Tbsp butter to melt. Set aside to cool slightly.

The next step is to prepare your filling. The following recipe is what I used for my apple filling. It should yield enough filling to fill an entire double batch of dough:

Apple Strudel Filling
Makes enough to fill a double batch of dough

2 large apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced to about 1/8-inch thick
Juice of half of a lemon
1 Tbsp flour
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp granulated sugar

Mix the apples, lemon juice, and flour together. Set the remaining ingredients aside, as they should be sprinkled on top of the apples as you’re filling the strudel dough.

With the third portion of dough I made rhubarb strudel. Since I just needed enough for one small strudel, I only made a little bit, but the recipe below will probably make enough to fill a double batch of dough if you really like rhubarb!

Rhubarb Strudel Filling
Makes enough to fill a double batch of dough

2 cups diced rhubarb, red portions only
1 Tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Sprinkle ingredients on strudel dough individually.

My experience with rhubarb is pretty limited. I never have particularly cared for it...until I tried this rhubarb strudel! Wow, I think I like it even better than the apple variety! Now I feel inspired to try rhubarb in other things!

Once your filling ingredients are prepped, you’re ready to fill the rolled and stretched strudel dough.

First, preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Place a piece of parchment paper on a large baking sheet.

To fill the dough, first brush a thin coat of melted butter over the strudel dough. Then sprinkle bread crumbs evenly over the surface.

Place your filling ingredients to one side of the dough, sprinkling with the sugar and spices as appropriate for your filling. Leave approximately an inch margin around the sides closest to the edge.

When rolling the dough into a log, use the tablecloth to manipulate the dough. If you handle it with your fingertips, you will puncture the dough.

First, use the tablecloth to fold over the edges along the two sides (length) of the dough.

Then, use the tablecloth to nudge the filling over itself to roll up the dough into a log.

Use the tablecloth as a sling to transport the strudel if it is necessary to carry it from one work surface to another. Roll the dough out of the tablecloth onto your parchment-papered baking sheet. If the strudel is too large for the baking sheet, curve it into a horseshoe shape to make it fit.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes, depending on the size of your strudel and the thickness of your ingredients. The dough should be golden brown and crispy, any leaking juices should be bubbly, and the filling ingredients should be tender. (My smaller strudels were done at 20, 23, and 27 minutes, depending on their size. Larger strudels might take a little longer.)

Once the strudel is done, slide a wire cooling rack under the parchment paper and remove the strudel from the warm cookie sheet. Allow the strudel to cool completely before serving. Slice with a sharp serrated knife.

I made a caramel sauce to top the baked apple strudel, and sprinkled it with powdered sugar just before serving time.

The rhubarb strudel:

Mint Chocolate Cheesecake

2009-05-21T16:28:00.003-05:00

I never did care much for cheesecake. – at least, not the kind that is made out of Philly cream cheese. Sometimes I’ll be at a restaurant and inadvertently order cheesecake, masqueraded as a chocolate torte, a cake, or a mousse cake, whatever. I tend to dislike cheesecake so much that I usually just pick the crust off the bottom of it and give the remaining filling to my husband.

I know, I know, I can’t think of a single other person who doesn’t like cheesecake either.

Consequently, I hardly ever make it. In fact, I’ve made it maybe twice in my life.

But, I recently joined The Daring Kitchen (until recently known as The Daring Bakers). I won’t be able to post the results of my first challenge recipe (which isn’t cheesecake) until May 27. So, to tide you over until then, I made last month’s challenge, which WAS cheesecake.

I decided I really wanted to make it because I rarely make cheesecake (might as well improve my baking skills), and because maybe, just maybe, I’ll actually like it. The Daring Kitchen is all about doing something new and different, so I am going to do just that.

What kind of cheesecake should I make? That’s a no-brainer. In effort to increase the chances that my results will be something I would actually enjoy eating, the cheesecake will be chocolate.

What about the crust? While I do like the standard-issue graham cracker crust, I almost always prefer something chocolaty (you can never have too much of a good thing).

Fortunately, Girl Scout Cookie season ended just a few months ago. I always buy extra boxes of their chocolate mint cookies for exactly this kind of purpose. (Have you ever had cookies & cream ice cream made with crushed mint chocolate Girl Scout cookies? Try it sometime. It’s surprisingly amazing.) At any rate, I happened to have a box of cookies left! They became my crust.

The original recipe was written as a vanilla cheesecake. I added melted 62% cacao Scharffen Berger chocolate and a few tablespoons of crème de menthe (the clear variety) to the cake batter, and used nearly an entire box of Girl Scout cookies as the crust. Although I saved six cookies in case I decided I wanted to use them as garnish, I forgot about the cookies when it came time to garnish the cheesecake...oh well.

Turns out cheesecake is really easy to make! The hardest part is being patient - it takes nearly an hour to bake, plus an hour of resting time inside the oven, plus time to cool to room temperature on your countertop, plus time to chill in the refrigerator. If you don't rush things and use the hot water bath described below, your cheesecake won't crack.

Thanks to Abbey and Jenny, I now have made a cheesecake I actually like! Thanks for converting me, ladies!

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. You can find the original recipe at either of their blogs. The version below includes my modifications

Mint Chocolate Cheesecake
Makes one 9-inch cheesecake

8 ounces 62% cacao chocolate, roughly chopped
180 g crushed chocolate mint girl scout cookies, or oreos
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) at room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
2 Tbsp crème de menthe liqueur

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath. Wrap the bottom/sides of a 9-inch springform pan with aluminum foil, keeping the foil watertight.

Place pan inside a larger roasting pan and set aside.

In the top of a double boiler set over simmering water, melt the chocolate, stirring frequently. Once the chocolate has melted, remove it from the heat and set it aside.

In a food processor, finely process the cookies and sugar. Add the melted butter and vanilla and process to combine the ingredients. Press into the prepared springform pan, being careful to avoid ripping the aluminum foil. Return the pan to the roasting pan and set it aside.

Combine chocolate, cream cheese, and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream and crème de menthe and blend until smooth and creamy.

Scrape the batter into the prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into the roasting pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan.

Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

"Pineapple Mint" Chicken

2009-05-17T07:04:00.001-05:00

A friend of mine was surfing the internet recently and found this recipe for Mojito Chicken, by Guy Fieri of Food Network fame. We agreed the recipe needed a few changes (Baking marinated chicken? Obviously it should be GRILLED!) but we both thought the basic idea sounded good. My friend apparently went home and made the recipe for his family, although I’m not sure what kind of changes he made to it. He did mention he cut back on the amount of mint suggested in Guy’s original recipe, and I know he grilled the chicken.

I studied the original recipe further, read the accompanying reviews, and came to the conclusion that the recipe was probably too salty, too minty for my taste, and was a lot more elaborate than necessary.

I made one other conclusion: regular grocery store mint just wasn’t going to cut it. I never much cared for the strong mint flavor of the stuff the grocer carries, anyway.

The last time I was at the greenhouse/nursery, I saw some interesting varieties of herbs, including a variety of mint called “Pineapple Mint.” It’s beautiful, as far as herbs go, and has fuzzy stems, with ivory and green leaves. True to its name, its leaves have the unmistakable aroma of freshly-cut pineapple. I initially passed on the plant because I was already over budget as it was. But when I saw this recipe and thought of the possibilities presented by Mojito Chicken, I immediately knew I’d have to go back and buy the Pineapple Mint plant for the sole purpose of trying it with this recipe.

$3.50 well spent. Delicious. Not overwhelmingly minty, just right.

I’d totally recommend picking up some of this plant if you ever see it around!

So, I ended up modifying quite a bit of the original recipe – same basic flavors, but different quantities and different method. It’s a lot easier now – mix up some ingredients and wait for the marinade to do its magic. There's no pineapple in the recipe because there wasn't any in Guy Fieri's original recipe, so the recipe title is only a reference to the variety of mint I used.

Usually when I’m grilling chicken breast halves, I slice them horizontally into two flat, thin pieces. They cook more evenly (no dried out, overcooked edges or undercooked centers!). If you have a long, thin, sharp boning knife, give it a try. (Carefully! Don’t cut yourself!) You can use a chef’s knife too, but a boning knife is easier because there's less knife surface area to stick to the meat. This also helps with portion control...it looks like you're eating a full half of a breast, but you're not.

“Pineapple Mint” Chicken
Serves 4-6

2 to 4 halves chicken breast
3 large cloves garlic, pressed or finely chopped
1 large shallot, finely chopped
1/4 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp fresh oregano, finely snipped
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 Tbsp fresh Pineapple Mint, or another mint variety
2 oranges, juiced
1 lime, juiced
1/4 cup rum (If you’re anti-rum, you could sub it out for chicken stock, but the taste won’t be the same.)
1/4 cup olive oil

Place the chicken pieces in a dish or heavy plastic bag – something you can use to hold them while they marinate.

In a medium bowl, mix together remaining ingredients. Pour over chicken. Allow chicken to marinate at least two hours, up to eight hours.

Grill chicken over medium-high heat only until chicken is no longer pink. Turn once. While chicken is grilling, bring the leftover marinade to a boil (kill the germs!). Spoon boiled marinade over chicken as it is grilling.

I served this with a fruit salad (pineapple, strawberries, blackberries, and bananas!) and grilled asparagus and bell peppers. Simple and delicious!

Herbs - My Kitchen "Garden"

2009-05-16T13:51:00.005-05:00

I happen to NOT have much of a green thumb. Not that I maybe couldn’t learn how to garden, but I am not sure I’d have time available to keep up with a garden. But I do like fresh herbs, and I am too cheap to buy them from the grocery store every time I want to make dinner.

So I compromise.

I pick up these cute little plugs of already-started plants from my local greenhouse. The hard part – getting the things to grow in the first place – is already done. Now I just have to try not to kill them.

I put these little guys into pots, not into the ground, because I am not a fan of weeding.

When comparing my costs to the cost of buying herbs at the grocer, as long as I get two meals’ worth of yield out of each plant, I come out ahead financially.

The other advantage of growing your own herbs is that you are no longer limited to making an entrée that involves only whatever herbs the grocer happens to have in stock.

Here’s a sample of what I’m trying to keep alive this summer:

Purple Sage
I tried this last year for the first time, and it really boosted the flavor of my Brown Butter Pasta Sauce recipe. So far, this year’s is just as good!

Purple Basil
I love basil, and I especially like experimenting with something other than comparatively boring green basil! The purple basil is so pretty! Last year’s purple basil didn’t fare too well, so I’m hoping this year’s will last a little longer.

Italian Parsley
I can’t cook without parsley!

Chocolate Mint
This is an awesome plant. It really and truly tastes like a York Peppermint Patty! I’m not usually a huge mint fan, but I keep this one around so I can use it as garnish on chocolate desserts! And it’s a great conversation piece.

Rosemary
Another staple in my kitchen. I love using this in marinades, or using the branches as skewers for kebobs. Although, this year I bought Creeping Rosemary, and it doesn’t look like the stems will work as skewers because they’re a lot more flexible than regular rosemary.

Cilantro
Fresh cilantro really makes Mexican food outstanding!

Thyme
Another great herb, so many uses! This one goes right along with rosemary in many of my marinades!

Oregano
So much more than just a pizza herb!

French Tarragon
Unfortunately last year's plant died before I could do anything with it. I'm hoping for better results this year!

Lemon Basil
This makes killer pesto! I can’t wait until these babies are full enough to make pesto sauce without totally decimating the plant! Last year I bought Lime Basil because they were out of lemon, and while it was good, the flavor just wasn’t the same. Plus, Lemon Pesto leaves grow larger, and are easier to harvest.

Speaking of harvesting leaves, here's some tips for those of you that are beginning herb gardeners:

Don’t strip the stem bare (if you really must take all the leaves off of a stem, snip the stem off, don’t just pick the leaves off). If you're snipping part of the stem off, cut above new growth, leaving it behind to replace what you just took off. In the Lemon Basil photo shown below, you'd be cutting at the blue line. Or, on many herbs, there are often larger leaves that have grown just underneath where the newest leaves are growing. You can take those larger leaves off too. Cut at the pink lines in the photo below. But, leave behind the new growth - in this photo, that's the two stems in between the blue and pink lines..

If you pick more than you need, stand the herbs up in a cup of water in your fridge. Or, if they’re too small to “stand,” wrap them up in a moist paper towel and use them up in tomorrow’s supper.

To channel your plant’s efforts into new plant growth, pick off any flowers that start to grow. It takes awhile for the buds to look like actual flowers, but as soon as you see a fuzzy green bud, pinch it off. I circled the bud in red in the photo below.

Now, I need a tip from YOU! A cute little rabbit has made a home under the tree in my backyard. I don't mind having him there, but he keeps nibbling away at my plants! How can I convince him that this isn't his own personal buffet? A fence isn't really feasible because the pots are set on my porch steps, a high traffic area. And I don't really want to spray the plants with a bunch of chemicals I don't want to eat myself.

Oh, apparently I already managed to kill one of the plants. I bought a curly-leaved purple basil variety, and it didn't last long. I didn't even get a picture of it! Actually, in all honesty, I think the rabbit ate it, because the plant is just clean gone.