Adobo Sauce, 5/10/09
I made this for my Mexican dinner. People loved it, but I think a little less cinnamon might have been in order. it's very deep and intense flavored.
Adobo Sauce-
5 dried guajillo chiles, stems, seeds and membranes removed and broken into large pieces
In a skillet or saucepan, heat 1 T. canola oil over med high heat. Add:
1/4 white spanish onion, sliced
1 small garlic clove
2 whole cloves
3 cinnamon sticks (6 inch) broken into thirds
12 black peppercorns
1/8 t. crushed cumin seeds
Stir until the onion is softened and dark golden brown-approx. 6 minutes. Add the chiles and cook 1 minute until they’re darkened on both sides.
Add 1 1/2 c. water. It should cover the ingredients halfway. Gently boil until reduced halfway- 5-8 minutes. Scrape into blender and puree. Pour through a mesh sieve and press down on the solids. Discard the solids. Store tightly covered in fridge for several weeks.
best sandwich ever
high quality french baguette (can be a day old), sliced in half length wise and then into single sandwiches (one baguette should yield four sandwiches)
1oz of Gruyere for sandwich
1 oz of prosciutto for sandwich
1 egg per sandwich
1 T honey mustard (I like the Rothchild's spicy honey mustard)
2 t butter per sandwich
Mix 1t butter per sandwich and mustard and spread on both sides of the bread. Broil for 1 to 2 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the remaining butter in skillet and fry over medium each egg, adding salt and pepper. Remove the bread from the broiler when bubbling and put on cheese and proscuitto. When egg is finished lay on top of meat. Fold and eat.
Fantastic!
Black Bottom Chocolate Banana Cream Pie, March 12, 2009
Black Bottom Banana Cream Pie
Crust Version 1
3 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
¼ cup unsalted butter, chopped
1 ½ cups chocolate wafer cookies (or 18 oreos without their filling)
Preheat oven to 350. Place the chocolate in a medium bowl. Melt the butter in the microwave for 30 seconds and pour over the chocolate. Let sit for a few minutes and stir until melted. Chop the cookies in the food processor until finely chopped. Add the melted chocolate/butter mixture to the cookie crumbs and mix until combined. Press the crust in a 9 inch pie dish and bake for about 9 minutes. Let cool.
Crust Version 2
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup butter, chopped
1 ¼ cup graham cracker crumbs (one package of graham crackers, minus one cracker)
Preheat oven to 375. Melt the butter in the microwave for 30 seconds. Grind graham crackers in a food processor. Add sugar and cocoa. Mix briefly. Add butter and mix. Press in 9 inch pie dish and up sides. Bake for 12 minutes. Let cool.
Vanilla Pastry Cream
1 ½ cups milk (2% or whole)
½ cup cream
(Or instead of milk and cream add 2 cups half and half)
2/3 cups sugar
3 large eggs
3 T flour
2 t vanilla extract
Bring milk and cream to a simmer. Whisk sugar, eggs and flour in a medium bowl until no lumps remain. Pour some of the hot milk mixture into the sugar mixture and then pour it back into the pan. Stir over medium low heat until the mixture starts to boil. Boil for one minute. Remove from the burner and stir in vanilla. If you see any lumps, press through the strainer. Put plastic right on the custard and refrigerate for 3-4 hours until cool.
Chocolate layer
½ cup whipping cream
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate chopped
2 T butter
½ t vanilla extract
Place the chopped chocolate in a small bowl. Heat the whipping cream in the microwave for 30 seconds. Stir, heat again. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let sit for a few minutes. Stir until chocolate is melted and add butter and vanilla. Save 4 T and pour remainder over cooled crust and refrigerate.
Whipping Cream
1 ½ cups whipping cream
1 T powdered sugar
½ t vanilla
Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Add sugar and vanilla and whip until stiff peaks form.
4 Bananas
When ready to serve, pour the custard into the chocolate covered crust. Slice pieces and plate them. Cut ½ banana over each piece, drizzle with ½ T chocolate and add a dollop of cream.
Minestrone, March 11, 2009
Today, I'm making minestrone from a recipe I cobbled together from other recipes and from the ingredients in my CSA box.
Total cooking time is 2 hrs. Prep work takes about 1/2 hour depending how long it takes to chop.
Chop 1 red onion, 2 carrots and 1 lb mushrooms and saute over medium to med-low heat in 1/2 cup olive oil in a large soup pan. This is the crucial step to making a really rich broth. Let the veggies cook, monitoring the temperature for at least 1/2 hour, until they are deeply caramelized but not burned. Move the veggies to the side of the pan and add 2T tomato paste, stirring gently for about 5 minutes until you no longer smell the fresh tomato smell. Then mix the whole thing together and add 1/2 t thyme and 1 t freshly ground black pepper.
Add 1 12oz can chopped tomatoes (I pour the tomatoes into a bowl and mash them by hand before I add them), 4 chopped potatoes, 1 bunch of chopped swiss chard, a Parmesan rind (if you have one) and 2 cups of white beans (I cook my own but you can used canned). Cover with broth (veggie if you want the soup to be veggie, chicken broth if you don't care) until the veggies are just covered and bring to a boil. Once the soup boils, turn town to med low and simmer for 1.5 hours. The soup should be rich and dense.
Boil 1/2 lb of pasta. I serve the pasta on top of each bowl of soup, stirring it in when I serve it to ensure that it doesn't get all mushy. Put the soup in a bowl, top with the pasta and shred some parm on top.
Sugar cookies, March 7, 2009
The cookie recipe came from Penzey's spice house magazine (but it very closely resembles the Betty Crocker Cookie book recipe that mixes cream of tarter and powdered sugar) for a very light, delicate cookie, that I must say, is a pain to frost because they crumble very easily. We mixed our own frosting colors to make the designs. Everyone loves the cookies though.
Indian Dinner, March 8, 2009
Made a pretty extensive Indian meal last night to host my husband's family. We started with several recipes from Food and Wine's Feb 09 issue: Three Lentil Dal and Cilantro Flecked corn fritters with chile-mint sauce. Then we borrowed from 1000 Indian Recipes: lamb biryani, p. 556 (which we've made before), spicy smashed potatoes with chaat masala, p. 252, Traditional south Indian Split Pigeon pea soup, p. 173, and chickpeas in traditional curry sauce, p. 379. We complimented the Indian with a salad of fresh greens from the CSA with quick boiled french green beans in a black olive vinagrette (which I made by taking the olive tapenade from our French Laundry meal and adding 1T olive oil and 1T red wine vinegar). The meal ended with sugar cookies (see above) and coffee crunch bars from Bon Appetit, feb. 09.
A word about the cookbook: this cookbook relies alot on blending spices, onions, etc. in the food processor and then frying them. My Indian mother in law never does this and I'm not sure how authentic this approach is (I do know it's a bit of work and a bunch of mess--I think I washed the food processor four times for this meal). What I don't know is if the meal would be significantly different if I didn't blend everything.
Everything, without exception, was good. We love the lamb Biryiani with deep lush softness of the meat from the yogurt (like a really well done Italian bolognese) and an array of intense spiciness with some heat. The spicy smashed potatoes are exceptional. I used a couple of Blue Peruvian potatoes I had and they really look strange and I used yukon gold potatoes (even though it called for russet). The potatoes practically melt in your mouth, the outside coated with a spicy crunch made from chaat masala. The Rasam was a great, warming way to start the meal. It's a mixture of yellow dal and tomatoes with lots of spices. It's a very watery soup, almost like a broth.
The food and wine recipes were actually quite easy. I used three types of dal that I happened to have (not the three the recipe called for) and it turned out great. It's a flavorful, thick dal. The corn fritters are a bit messy to form, but I dipped my hands in cold water as I was working and the batter didn't stick to my hands.
Everyone loved the coffee crunch bars and the cookies are beautiful (if, in my opinion, overwhelmingly sweet).
We had a sauvignon blanc, a Rhone and a Zin with dinner.
Double Apple Bread Pudding, Baking from my home to yours
Made this from Dorie Greenspan's award winning cookbook. The pudding was really good but I hope this recipe isn't indicative of others in the collection with lots and lots of steps that just seem to make more work and more dishes for the cook without noticable payout. Greenspan has you caramelize the apples (which is great) but then remove them from the pan onto a plate before you put them on the bread. Why can't they go from skillet to baking dish? Also, is the water bath really necessary for a bread pudding (I did it without the water bath)? And 5 yolks plus 3 eggs?! Too rich for me. But I guess if you want (I just did four eggs) something really super rich, that would work for you. I also just used French bread (not egg bread). The pudding is lush and creamy. I let it sit in the fridge for about 4 hours before baking and this did not seem to hurt it at all.
Red beans and rice 3/1/09
Red Beans & Rice Recipe
2 Tbsp bacon Fat (or olive oil)
combo of the following to equal 2 T (thyme, basil, oregano)
1 t paprika
1 Cup Onion, chopped
1/4 Cup Celery, Chopped
1 lb andouille sausage
or two cans of red beans, drained and rinsed
1 Tbsp Fresh Garlic, Minced
2 Cups Chicken Stock (You could certainly use water)
3 Fresh Bay Leaves
1 Tbsp Hot sauce (per serving)
Heat fat and add onion and celery (I know bell pepper is traditional in red beans and rice, but I don't like it). When it starts to brown, add the spices and garlic until it's aromatic. Pour in the beans, stock and bay leave and cook for at least two hours.
Serve over rice, pouring hot sauce as needed. This is simple and really tasty.
Breakfast tart, 3/1/09
Click on "breakfast tart" for the recipe to this great brunch idea. We made it this morning. It was easy and looks gorgeous, like something from a magazine (well, it IS something from a magazine). My mom did most of the work and it turned out great. YOu take puff pastry and after brushing with egg was you spread it with a paste of creme fraiche and gruyere (we substituted brie because we had some leftover from our French Laundry dinner). You top it with crispy bacon and bake for about 17 minutes. Then you crack the eggs on top and bake again for about 7 minutes. The three of us ate almost the whole thing!
Ottolenghi Puff Pastry Tarts
Wow! These little appetizer tarts are delicious. They consist of making a caramel and spooning it into muffin tins then topping it with almost fully cooked baby potatoes, sauteed shallots and goat cheese. Each muffin tin is covered with packaged puff pastry dough. The edges are tucked in like you do with Tarte Tatin. It could be used as an appetizer or first course but I could have made a meal of this dish. The recipe can be found on Ottolenghi.com in the recipe section. And just in case you are wondering, Ottolenghi is a restaurant in London with 4 locations. Their cookbook came out in the States in the Fall of 2008 and is currently sold out.
Potatoes with Spicy Chile Mojo
Cook 1.5 pounds of potatoes in about 2 inches of water and 1/2 cup salt until the water evaporates and the salt begins to crystalize on the potatoes. Make sure the potatoes are tender and set aside.
Sauce: Place 6 cloves garlic, 1 dried red chile, 2t sweet paprika, 3/4t dried oregano, 1t cumin (or cumin seeds), 1/2 t kosher salt into a mortar and pestle. Grind until thick and pasty. Slowly pour in 1/4cup olive oil, 3T red wine vinegar and 2T water. Toss with potatoes and serve.
Mission Figs with Goat Cheese
Follow this link for therecipe
Roasted Tomato and Pepper Gazpacho
4 large tomatoes
2 lbs of peppers (I used a mix of poblanos and Hungarian peppers--some hot, some not)
1 red onion, cut into 4 sections
squeeze of lime
2 T olive oil
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and finely chopped
1/2 cup yogurt with 1 T milk
Preheat the grill or broiler to highest heat. Broil or grill the peppers and tomatoes until the skins turn black, turning as needed. Remove each vegetable once it is charred. (On the grill, this will take a total of about 10 minutes)
Put vegetables on a plate and cover with a large bowl or put in a paper bag. When cool enough to handle, peel the vegetables being careful to do so over a food processing bowl so you don't lose the juices. Remove the stems and seeds from the peppers. Put all the vegetables in the processor and process until the mixture has the texture of salsa. Add a squeeze of lime, 2 T olive oil and about 1/2-1 cup water until it has the texture of a thick, chunky soup. Add salt to taste.
Serve sprinkled with cucumber and drizzled with yogurt/milk mix. It can be spicy if the peppers are spicy and more yogurt may be necessary. We served this in martini glasses.
Super Moist Banana Bread
1 cup chopped, toasted walnuts
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
11/2 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2t baking soda
1 t salt
1/2 t nutmeg
1 1/2t cinnamon
2 cups mushed up bananas
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup chocolate chips (I used mini)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray with non-stick spray two 8 or 9X 4 inch loaf pans.
In a large bowl, mix ingredients through cinnamon. Add the liquids and stir just until mix. Fold in the chocolate chips. Divide the batter into prepared pans. Cook for about 1 hour ( a little more for smaller pans) until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with light crumbs on it. Remove from oven, let cool in pan for at least 20 minutes. Turn out onto cooling rack. I freeze one loaf, wrapped in foil and stored in a freezer bag.
Stir Fry Whole Wheat Noodles Antonia Lofaso, Top Chef Season 4 bravotv.com
Does the title of this recipe sound like it would be a family favorite? Not to me, but it has surprisingly proved otherwise. It's been a huge hit with my immediate family (ages 8 to 43) and several friends and extended family. On the Top Chef series 4 on Bravotv, they claimed that the ingredients in this recipe cost less than $20. That's probably stretching the truth a bit, but the good news is, this recipe makes an enormous amount of pasta. There will most certainly be leftovers. Click here for a link to the recipe. Here's a quick synopsis: Cook whole wheat linguine (alternatively, use fresh Asian pasta from the produce department or use any dried pasta of your choice) Saute each of the following ingredients in sesame or canola oil one at a time: chopped onion, red bell pepper, chopped bok choy, edamame and sliced chicken. Combine all vegetables with teriyaki sauce (Soy Vey is our family favorite). Add noodles and top with chopped cilantro and shredded carrots. While cooking this recipe with my Aunt Martha, I learned from her that cooked carrots are actually healthier than raw, so to add a few more vitamins to this dish, steam or saute the carrots first. Another of Aunt Martha's ideas: Add sambal, spicy szechwan oil or other spicy sauce to give it some zing. This is definitely a week night dinner hit. You may not have won Top Chef this season, but you're our family's Top Chef, Antonia! mb
stuffed heirloom tomatoes williams sonoma, september 2008 catalog
As usual, it was 5:00 p.m. on a weekday and I had no idea what to make for dinner. I happened to be flipping through the Williams Sonoma catalog that had just come in the mail. The recipe for "Stuffed Heirloom Tomatoes" looked good and I had all but one ingredient in the house. It was easy to make and delicious. Here's the recipe: Saute a chopped yellow onion in olive oil. After 5 minutes, add 1/2 lb. diced mushrooms and 3 minced garlic cloves. Add 1 lb. mild Italian sausage pluc 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (or 1 lb. hot Italian sausage), breaking into small pieces as it cooks. Transfer to a medium bowl. Stir 1 T. minced fresh oregano, 2 c. bread crumbs and 3/4 c. grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese plus 1/4 c. minced fresh flat leaf parsley (optional). Scoop out seeds of 6-12 heirloom tomatoes. Season insides of tomatoes with salt and pepper and stuff with the filling. Drizzle with olive oil and bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 30 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. mb
Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Yesterday, I made these cookies from Everyday Food, Sept. 2008. They were easy, tasty and chewy as promised. I used dried cherries instead of raisins. I think I beat the butter too long though because they were super flat. I'm going to make these again tomorrow with less beating and see how they turn out. mv
Here's a recipe I do NOT recommend
Eggs on Potato chips, From sunset June 2008, p. 110
Okay, maybe most people would know better than to try this recipe. But it sounded so interesting, I had to give it a shot. Dismal failure. And, I followed all the recipe stipulations (just opened chips, high quality, etc.). The chips are just kind of chewy, soggy and sort of crunchy all at the same time and the onion mix with it is pretty tasteless. In any case, I will not repeat this one. mv
The Essence of Chocolate
What a great cookbook (so far anyway). We've tried several recipes with outstanding results, although there is one that we'd probably rate as more work than worth. The Chocolate Peanut Butter Gianduja is to die for if you are a rich chocolate/peanut butter fan (reese's peanut butter cup on steroids anyone?). The first time, we made this with vanilla wafers for a sweet, slightly crunchy version. The second time, we tried pretzels as the base and instead of just milk chocolate mixed both milk and semi-sweet. Salty, sweet, rich but with a bit of an off texture because of the pretzels. I think they need to be blended or food processed rather than just pounded. In any case, both recipes are keepers.
Chocolate Shortbread with Cacao Nibs and Sea Salt was melt in the mouth, with a deep dark richness.
Chocolate popsicles might have been more worth it if it wasn't so darn difficult to get them out of the popsicle holders (Martha! you need to design a better popsicle holder--see more on this in the gadgets section). These were light but rich, kind of like a really good chocolate cocoa, frozen but not the rich, creamy type, more the light, bright, deep chocolate taste type.
Our least favorite, while not bad by any stretch of the imagination, was the baked hot chocolate. One of those water bath recipes with lots of steps and mess and while tasty, just not worth the work. The chocolate is rich but not rich enough and the texture is a bit runny (maybe we needed to cook it longer?) mv
Mexican Kitchen, Rick Bayless
Love this cookbook, but boy the recipes are lots of work. we've been slowly working through the book and have developed some favorites while continuing to try new ones. A family favorite is Browned Vermicelli with Roasted Tomato, Zucchini and Aged Cheese. Even the kids like it. And it's a pretty forgiving dish. I've substituted tomato juice for broth, chipotle salsa for the chipotles and canned tomatoes for the fresh with equally stunning results.
Crusty Lentil Cakes with garlic and herbs are time consuming (you've got to let the lentils dry out before you form the cakes) and messy (half the cakes fell apart before I could get them in the skillet). But, the cakes that were frozen when I put them in the skillet held together and they were flavorful and light for a mex appetizer. Bayless recommends serving them with his essential roasted tomato-jalapeno salsa or essential quick cooked tomato-chipotle sauce. We chose the later. It was tasty but messy to prepare and a pre-packaged salsa might have worked just as well.
Essential sweet-and-smoky chipotle seasoning salsa is fantastically flavorful. I would like to eat it by the spoonful, but it is too spicy! It's lots of work though, starting with dried chipotle chiles, stemming, frying, soaking, blending!
Using the Chipotle seasoning salsa as a starting point, I made one of the American Home recipes, cheese spread for sandwiches. These were great. Once the salsa is made, the goat cheese/cream cheese spread is easy to make, flavorful and a great crowd pleaser. I'd like to try it on a bagel.
Robust Lentil Soup is another recipe from the American Home section, but I have to say this is one fo the few disappointments in the cookbook. It was too bland (this was probably my fault for using the essential simmered Guajillo salsa and not the recommended pasilla salsa!)
There are a couple of style things Bayless does in this book that make it a favorite. He goes into lengthy discussion of the ingredients that provides helpful guidelines for working with unfamiliar foods. And, more usefully, he provides sections for every recipe called "Simple Ideas from My American Home" that are quick and easy meals to make using the basic recipe. mv
Blackberry Crisp
Blackberries have a short but truly luscious season. There is nothing like picking the warm berries from the vine in my side yard except for, perhaps, eating them while still standing on the step stool (without washing even!). Even though it's hard to keep the berries around long enough for the few hours required to bake a crisp (my kids are able to consume pints within seconds), I managed to put one together this weekend. It was luscious. I augmented my 4 cups of blackberries with one cup of blueberries and the combination was great. The topping was a mixture of oatmeal, flour, sugars, cinnamon and butter, a recipe taken from Essential Baking, by Williams-Sonoma. mv
Pie Crust, Mom's recipe
This is my favorite pie crust recipe when I want something quick that I know will turn out. (I've probably tried 20-30 different pie crust recipes)
2 cups flour
scant 1/2t salt
2/3 cup shortening (cold if possible)
6T ice cold water
Mix flour and salt in medium bowl. Cut in half the shortening, then add the second half and cut it in. Mix in the water, one T at a time, with a fork until the dough starts to hold together. Form into two balls. Roll out each half between plastic wrap and gently lay one into pie plate. The second can be used for a top crust, a lattice crust or to bake on its own with sugar and cinnamon.
Sometimes my pie crust doesn't look so nice. That's okay. Just patch it up. If you are pre baking don't worry so much if you have a few tiny holes. Poke the crust all over with a fork before you pre bake (or use pie weights). Pre bake at 450 for 10-15 minutes until light brown.
If you don't need to prebake but you are pouring in a liquid filling, make sure you have no holes or tears in the crust. mv
Pie Crust, modified
This is my favorite recipe when I'm going for taste and flakiness and I have the time to make it again if I screw it up.
2 cups flour
scant 1/2 t salt
1/2 cup shortening (cold)
5 T butter (cold and chopped into small 1 T pieces)
6 T water
Follow directions above, working with the crust as little as possible. When you've got it rolled out, put it in the pie plate and then in the fridge for about 1/2 hour. Proceed as recipe indicates. mv
Brownies to die for
my current three favorite brownie recipes (after much tasting of at least 30+ recipes and blind tastings with friends and even trying a few recipes in competition with the Ghiradelli box brand which I think is the best box on the market).
3rd Deep chocolate brownies, gourmet 6/08, p. 128 (deep, chocolate but lack the intensity I'm looking for. Chocolate is a mixture of 8oz bittersweet and 1/3c cocoa but I think there is just too much flour and eggs in this recipe to be perfect)
2nd fudgy brownies from Essence of Chocolate, p. 81. These are great. Deep, dark, intense and chewy. Almost like fudge but not as sweet. Chocolate is 8oz bittersweet, but much less flour and eggs than the previous recipe. That's the picture to the left. I know I need a food stylist (and, by the way, what's up with parchment paper in every baking recipe? We used to do fine without it!)
1st salted fudge brownies, food and wine. I love the combination of salt and chocolate. Yum.
What I'd like is some combination of the 1st and 2nd, more chocolate and some salt. mv
