07.30.08
Posted in Cake, Chocolate, Dessert, Foodblog Events, Nuts, Grains & Legumes at 12:07 am by julie
I love being a Daring Baker. Every month I get to try out a new recipe, often one I would never have chosen myself—either because it has an intimidating number of steps, or requires a technical skill I haven’t yet mastered, or perhaps because it involves texture and flavor combinations I wouldn’t seek out. These past few months since my son was born, I have particularly looked forward to my Daring Bakers challenges because they are one of the few things I still make time to do for myself (even if everyone I know benefits from the finished products also). That also means that part of the monthly challenge becomes simply finding that time, around the needs of a 4-month old baby.
This month’s challenge was a filbert gateau with praline buttercream, from Great Cakes
by Carol Walter, a gorgeous ganache-glazed hazelnut confection with ribbons of satiny buttercream. I decided right away that I wanted to make it to share with my in-laws, who were coming to visit us (but mostly Nolan) around the middle of the month. Their methods of event planning always keep us on our toes, and we didn’t know exactly when they would be arriving until the day before their flight, so I couldn’t start prepping the cake in advance. Luckily, they took a detour to visit more family in Coeur d’Alene, so I had a chance to go out and find hazelnuts, and then make the cake in an evening marathon with just the finishing touches to take care of the next morning.
This cake is chock full of hazelnuts. They are grown in Oregon, but it’s the wrong season for them, so they were a little hard to track down. Bulk bins are my friend. The first order of business was to get them skinned and toasted. I had quite enough of hazelnut skin stabbing under my fingernails when I made that sublime gianduja gelato a few months ago, so I tried a different method this time: blanching them in baking soda water, supposedly a foolproof technique. I don’t know if my hazelnuts were just being unusually stubborn, but I blanched them twice, attacked them with my vegetable scrubber (it will never be the same!) and still ended up spending about an hour scraping skin off each nut with my fingernails. It may not have been literally painful, but the clean-up afterwards was a real bear. I officially hate skinning hazelnuts.
The cake batter came together with Nolan’s assistance. In other words, once I got the toasted nuts out of the oven, I wore him in a sling while I worked. He did great most of the time, watching everything very intently, but started getting warm and cranky right about the time I was folding the sifted nut meal into the aerated batter. I ended up popping them in the oven at top speed, and after a bottle of milk, Nolan spent the rest of the evening napping like a little angel.
A few notes about the cake layers: The recipe requires you to sift the mixture of nut meal, cake flour and cornstarch through a mesh strainer to catch any stray chunks of hazelnut. By the time I was done sifting, I had about half a cup of coarse meal resembling sand caught in the strainer. Rather than let it go to waste, I incorporated it into my praline.
Also, the recipe calls for a 10″ cake split into three layers. That prospect was pretty scary, and I didn’t own a 10″ pan, but I honestly intended to purchase one and go through with it. I ran out of time to get to the kitchen store, however, so in the end I split the batter between two 9″ pans, and cut each of those in half for a total of 4 layers. As per the instructions, I just greased and floured my pans, and my cakes both wanted to stick on the bottoms. I know a few people had related incidents that led to huge holes in their cakes; one of mine nearly broke when it released at a bad moment, but I got away with just a minor crack. Parchment-lining the cake pans might be wise for this recipe.
Once Nolan was ensconced in the bedroom for the night, it was safe to proceed with the more dangerous element of this cake—the praline. This recipe uses the dry method to make caramel, which no longer worries me thanks to the milk chocolate-caramel tart from last August.
I popped the resulting hazelnut brittle in the fridge to chill while working on the buttercream. This particular Swiss buttercream comes together in the opposite manner of the one we used for our yule logs: the meringue is prepared first, and while the butter creams, you fling sticky dollops of meringue into it until—if all goes to plan—you end up with glorious, smooth, light buttercream. While I was still beating the meringue, the praline had hardened and was sent into the food processor for several minutes, until it had been ground into a paste with a packable consistency akin to brown sugar. Incidentally, this praline recipe makes more paste than you will need for the gateau; I highly recommend using some of the leftovers in these ricotta pancakes. Yum!
Here is where I’m not sure if my technique was off or if the recipe is flawed. As smooth as my praline paste appeared to be, when stirred into the buttercream, it tended to form little clumps. No amount of whipping improved the graininess, but since my buttercream didn’t break, I was still reasonably satisfied. The slight praline crunch did give it a certain charm, and the flavor was magnificent.
Before collapsing into bed at 1:30am, I managed to slice and assemble my layers. I used a vanilla-scented soaking syrup and remembered to add whipped cream on top of the buttercream layers, little difference though it would turn out to make. The assembled layers set up in the refrigerator overnight, and the next morning, after breakfast with my in-laws, I trimmed the edges of the cake as best I could and glazed it with apricot preserves to seal in the crumbs.
Next came the ganache. I used Scharffenberger 70% because I had it on hand, supplemented with less than an ounce of bittersweet Ghirardelli chips. I still don’t have an offset spatula (something else I had intended to get at the kitchen store), so I used a chef’s knife to smooth the top of the cake and a small spreader for the sides. I didn’t quite achieve a mirror finish, but it was still glossy and luscious, and many willing fingers assisted with the clean-up of the ganache that dripped under the cake.
I had some reserved buttercream to use for decorating my cake. Remembering how uncooperative buttercream can be when cold, I made sure to give it plenty of time to come back toward room temperature before attempting to pipe it. While I waited, I decided to make some caramelized hazelnuts for garnish. All I did was caramelize some sugar, skewer the hazelnuts with toothpicks (not on their seam), twirl them quickly through the caramel, and then stab the toothpick into the bottom of my mesh strainer. I kept the strainer on top of a deep bowl to catch the drips, and that was that. Not quite as fun, but nearly as effective as Tartelette’s apple-on-the-dishwasher trick in its own way, I’d like to think.
The scariest part of this cake was easily the piping. I’ve never piped frosting in my life, although I bought a basic set of tips back in December. I picked out the leaf tip from the batch and dove in, buttercream still on the solid side. That changed quickly as it started melting from the heat of my hands and squishing out the top of the bag. Turns out my leaf tip is a pretty small one, and the chunks of praline paste kept clogging it up, leading to some seriously thick and thin sections as the frosting backed up and then splooshed out all at once. If I had been smart, I would have reserved some unflavored buttercream for decorating before adding the praline paste. Ah well! In any event, I clearly need MUCH more practice with piping, and probably some different tips. Maybe I should go buy a can of frosting just to practice with… Anyway, it could have been worse, and the caramelized hazelnuts were a nice touch, I thought.
The cake was delicious, with a definite hazelnut flavor. I personally think that the Scharffenberger chocolate tasted a little too fruity for the hazelnuts; something a little more bitter would be more to my taste, or some Valrhona Noisette Noir Gianduja would fit this cake like a glove. I couldn’t taste the apricot or the whipped cream at all, and I left out the liqueurs called for, but didn’t miss any of those. I also didn’t let the cake sit at room temperature for more than about half an hour after it set, but our house was warm and the buttercream had already started softening in that time, and would have turned to mush if I’d waited longer (plus, we were hungry!).
There have been lots of comparisons by other Daring Bakers between this month’s challenge and April’s Opera Cake, since both included syrup-brushed layers of nut-based genoise and buttercream, with a finishing glaze. Many seem to prefer this cake to the opera cake because it is less sweet, but that never bothered me because of my extreme sweet tooth. I actually loved the mousse element of the opera cake and enjoyed the pina colada flavoring I chose for it, so the two cakes are about on par in my estimation. If this gateau had a more balanced chocolate-hazelnut/gianduja flavor, however, it would win hands down.
Thanks to Chris of Mele Cotte for choosing this interesting and delicious recipe, and be sure to check out all of the hundreds of more professionally decorated gateaux than mine on the Daring Bakers’ blogroll.
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07.27.08
Posted in Cuisines, Dinner, Foodblog Events, Italian, Nuts, Grains & Legumes, Pastas at 8:37 am by julie
I was shocked and saddened earlier this week to learn that Sher of What Did You Eat? had passed away. I was a regular reader and admirer of Sher’s blog: she was a regular participant in many foodblogging events, including Daring Bakers, Weekend Herb Blogging, and Presto Pasta Nights, and her recipes were always really tempting. I admired her rescue and rehabilitation of wildlife, and enjoyed reading about the misadventures of her kitties.
The foodblogging community is honoring Sher today, and I decided to post a recipe featuring fava beans in her memory. Sher was a big fava fan, growing, harvesting, and cooking impressive amounts of the beans for the past several years. I went with pasta, but it was two days in the making, because Nolan was cranky from his 4-month vaccinations and didn’t give me much opportunity for cooking—I had just enough time to peel, blanch and shell my big bag of beans one evening before he woke up and spent about three hours fussing. The beans went in the fridge until the next night, when I used them to make a velvety green fava sauce for fettuccine, enriched with a bit of cream and ricotta, and accented with salty crumbles of bacon and feta. I like to think Sher would approve.
In further tribute to Sher, this will be my entry for Presto Pasta Nights #74, hosted this week by its lovely founder, Ruth of Once Upon a Feast.
Fava Fettuccine with Feta and Bacon
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1-1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 C chicken stock
salt and freshly ground pepper
2 C shelled, blanched and peeled fava beans
1/4 C ricotta
1/3 C heavy cream
3/4 lb dried fettuccine
Feta for garnish
Crumbled bacon for garnish
Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat until hot. Add the garlic and saute briefly until light brown. Stir in the oregano, then add the stock. Bring to a boil, season with salt and pepper, and add 1-1/2 cups of the fava beans. Simmer to blend the flavors, about 3 minutes, or until the beans are tender. Meanwhile, boil water for pasta and cook fettuccine according to package directions.
Remove from the heat, add the ricotta and cream, and use a stick blender to puree until smooth. Return the sauce to the pan and add the remaining favas. Warm through and taste for seasoning. Drain pasta, reserving about a cup of pasta water, and toss with the sauce. If necessary, add some pasta water to the sauce to loosen it. Serve topped with feta and crumbled bacon.
3. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil and add salt. Add the pasta and cook until al dente, about 12 minutes. Drain, reserving about 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water. Pour the pasta into a warm serving bowl and add the sauce. Toss well and thin with the pasta water, if necessary, until the sauce is glossy and not sticky. Serve immediately and grate the cheese over the top at the table.
4. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil over the pasta. Just before serving, ladle a little hot pasta water into the bowl for a couple minutes to warm it up. Drain the water before filling the bowl with the pasta.
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07.23.08
Posted in Dinner, Pastas, Veggies at 10:33 pm by julie
I vividly remember my one childhood experience with beets. I have no idea what else we had for supper that night, but there were three slices of canned beets on my plate, and my mom wouldn’t let me leave the table until I ate them. Several hours later, she downgraded that order to one bite, and I finally got to get up. I’m not sure why she was so insistent, because I don’t think she cares for beets herself. They certainly never appeared on our dinner plates again.
Why I picked up a bunch of chubby little red beets at the farmer’s market last week, I’m still not quite sure. But I tucked them and their sprightly greens into my backpack with numerous other purchases—including a tub of local goat cheese, knowing its affinity with beets—and brought them home. Everyone seems to say that the best way to tackle fresh beets, first of all, is to roast them, so I knew that was item one on the agenda. Because it was already shaping up to be a hot day, I took a page from Lidia Bastianich and roasted them at 400F for about 45 minutes with a quarter-inch of water in the bottom of the pan to help get them started. Although they seemed fork-tender to me, I may not have cooked them quite long enough, because their skins didn’t slip right off as I had been led to expect; I ended up using a paring knife to finish the job.
Because the strong flavor of beets is something I wanted to work up to slowly, and because I wanted to use the greens as well, I chose my recipe very carefully: fresh beet fettuccine with sauteed greens and a simple creamy goat cheese sauce. Reserving the 3 smallest beets to toss with the pasta, I pureed the rest in my food processor with a splash of balsamic vinegar to lubricate them. For my pasta dough, I adapted Marcella Hazan’s recipe for spinach pasta, muttering apologies under my breath (she clearly disapproves of other flavored pastas); I think I ended up adding about 3 tablespoons of my puree, which retained some small slivers of beet, to the dough before it came together in all its magenta glory. It rolled out with absolutely no problems, and once I had the onions and beet greens sauteeing for the condiment, I ran it through the cutter and dropped it in boiling water.
Beets are shockingly beautiful root vegetables, I have to give them that. The cooked pasta lost some of its vibrant color to the cooking water, but remained respectably pink, particularly once the cut beets joined them. Despite my scrutiny, I was not able to discern any beety flavor to the fettuccine itself—probably Marcella’s reason for disdaining colored pastas as not adding to the eating experience. The color alone made me really happy, though, and who knows, maybe it retained some nutritional value as well. I liked the sauce for its creamy tang and simplicity, and the beet greens tasted much like the more familiar chard. I even ate a bite (note the singular) of roasted beet without coercion, but I’m still not convinced I will ever like them. I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt in the future, though, because I do think I undercooked them slightly. I just need some time to muster up the courage again.
Beet Fettuccine with Greens and Goat Cheese
1 bunch beet greens (from about 8 beets)
3-4 small beets, roasted, peeled, and quartered
Salt
1/2 C olive oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced vertically
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 T balsamic vinegar
1 lb fresh beet fettuccine (see below)
Freshly ground black pepper
6 oz soft goat cheese (chevre)
3 oz grated Parmesan cheese
Wash the beet greens thoroughly, removing the thick part of the stems (save for another recipe, or cut into 2″ sections and blanch for 3 minutes in the pasta water) and chop coarsely. Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta and add 2 teaspoons salt.
In a large saute pan over medium heat, warm the olive oil and add the onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until soft. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute. Add vinegar, and cook for 1 minute, stirring to break up the brown bits. Add the beet greens and stir several minutes, until wilted; finally, add the roasted beet wedges to warm through.
Cook the pasta until done, just a few minutes for fresh fettuccine. Using tongs or a spider, transfer the pasta to the saute pan with the vegetables, allowing some pasta water to come along for the ride (reserve extra in case you need it to loosen the sauce later). Toss gently with the tongs to mix, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add half of both of the cheeses to the pasta. Stir through, spooning a few more tablespoons of the pasta water over the cheeses if necessary to warm them and make them saucy. Add remaining cheese and toss; serve immediately.
Source: Adapted from The Oregonian.
Fresh Beet Pasta
1 1/2 C flour
2 extra-large eggs
Roasted beet puree to bring dough together (about 3 T)
Place flour and eggs in the bowl of a standing mixer and beat using the paddle attachment until it begins to come together; while the mixer runs, add beet puree a tablespoon at a time, until dough comes together as a ball. Switch to the dough hook and knead for several minutes, until smooth and elastic. Allow dough to rest for 15 minutes before rolling out and cutting, either by hand or with a pasta roller.
Source: Adapted from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, by Marcella Hazan.
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07.17.08
Posted in Breakfast, Dinner, Eggs, Fish, Leftovers, Seafood, Sides at 6:07 pm by julie
So it’s salmon season in the Pacific Northwest, and we are starting to see whole wild salmons appearing in the supermarket. Last week when we were at the grocery store, I talked Jeremy out of getting one, just for sheer size. But a few days later, he made a trip to Costco, and somehow a 3.5lb wild sockeye (sans head) jumped into the car and followed him home.
I roasted it pretty simply seasoned in a foil pouch, on a bed of parsley and dill and stuffed with dill, lemon, and spring onions. I also poured in some clam juice and fresh lemon juice, then sealed it all up and cooked it at 375F for about 40 minutes. It came out flaky and very flavorful, with that firm meaty flesh you just don’t get from farmed Atlantic salmon. Jeremy performed filleting duties while I made my favorite quick sauce for fish, based on this recipe: green onion sliced thin and sauteed until tender in a tablespoon of butter, then simmered in white wine until it has nearly boiled off.
To go with the fish, I made lemon-scallion rice in the rice cooker, according to Simply Ming: Just add a few sliced scallions and some fresh lemon juice and zest to your rice and water before starting the cooker, and hit Start. I think the lemon juice gave the rice an extra-sticky texture, but it had good flavor, and married nicely with the lemony fish.
Needless to say, we had leftover salmon coming out our ears. I’ve already done salmon croquettes, and it is definitely too warm right now for chowder. So I found a few new recipes to add to my arsenal, a simple salmon frittata with corn, peppers and Gruyere, and a dilly salmon-potato hash with shiitake mushrooms.
For the frittata, I used the general recipe here, using frozen corn and diced frozen peppers, and subbing scallions for onions and of course leftover salmon for canned. It was very tasty, but I think if I make it again with salmon, I’ll use lots of red peppers and forget the corn.
The hash worked out nicely because I just happened to have a small bag of shiitakes that needed to be eaten before they dried out. I didn’t have any sour cream, though, so I took the chance and used some Greek yogurt instead. We couldn’t tell the difference. Nolan woke up just as I was finishing it, so the pic was taken one-handed, and I forgot I had meant to top the hash with some fried or poached eggs, but it stood alone just fine.
Salmon Hash
6 T olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 C shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and quartered
1 tsp garlic, one clove peeled and finely chopped
3 C potatoes, cooked and peeled
1-1/4 lb salmon, cooked or smoked, skinned, boned and flaked
1/2 C Greek yogurt, full-fat
1 T lemon juice
2 T fresh dill, chopped
Sea salt to taste
Freshly ground pepper to taste
Place 1/2 of the oil in a heavy skillet over high heat, and when hot, add the onion and saute until slightly crunchy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the mushroom, and cook until just wilted, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute. Remove to a mixing bowl and set aside.
In the same skillet, add the remaining oil, bring to medium heat, and add the potatoes. Cook until the edges are just crisp, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and mix with the reserved onions, and add salmon, yogurt, lemon juice, and dill. Season to taste with the salt and pepper, and mix well, but do not pack the mixture.
Return the mixture to a skillet, and cook over medium heat, tossing to prevent the hash from sticking. Remove to a warm plate, and serve. Garnish the hash with anything you like best, from sour cream to poached eggs.
Source: Adapted from The Buffet Book, by Carole Peck (available online here)
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07.14.08
Posted in Dinner, Meats, Pastas, Poultry at 11:56 am by julie
Every time Jeremy comes with me to the farmer’s market, we go home with bags of wild mushrooms from a stand called Rainforest Mushrooms. Usually we get the variety pack, which includes small bags of oysters, shiitakes, and maitakes for $10. And every time I get them home, I scratch my head and try to figure out how to make them edible for me. Although my tolerance of mushrooms has greatly increased in the past two years, I still tend to avoid them: Even without tasting them, the earthy aroma that wafts up as they hit the heat still turns my stomach a little bit, and it takes great fortitude to keep cooking. So when we bring them home, I gravitate toward cooking the same few recipes that I know I’ll like (mushroom bisque and orecchiette duxelles, I’m looking at you!).
This time around, I hit on a new recipe for chicken breasts with wild mushrooms, marjoram and a thin Marsala cream sauce. I ended up adapting the recipe a bit on the fly: butterflying the chicken breasts a bit for quicker cooking, adding sage to the marjoram, and subbing out sherry for the Marsala. I decided to serve it over pasta, and after stirring the mushrooms back into the sauce, I tossed half of that mixture over the hot pasta to soak in a bit while letting the chicken breasts reheat in the remainder. The chicken, which were part of my freezer-clearing project, were on the dry side, but the mushroomy pasta was wonderfully balanced and very savory. I’ve rewritten the recipe below as I would make it again, as a full-fledged pasta dish with bite-sized pieces of chicken, easier to eat with a babe in arms.
Chicken and Wild Mushrooms in Sherry Cream Sauce
2 large skinless boneless chicken breast halves, cut into cubes
1 tsp dried marjoram, divided
1 tsp dried sage, divided
2 T butter, divided
2 T olive oil, divided
6 oz assorted wild mushrooms (I used oyster and maitake), thickly sliced
1/2 C sliced shallots
3/4 cup low-salt chicken broth
1/2 cup whipping cream
3 T dry sherry
1/2 lb rotini pasta
Toss cubed chicken with salt, pepper, and 1/2 tsp each marjoram and sage. Melt 1 tablespoon butter with 1 tablespoon oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken to skillet and sauté until just cooked through. Transfer chicken to bowl, and cover to keep warm. Melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter with1 tablespoon oil in same skillet. Add mushrooms and shallots, and remaining marjoram and sage. Sauté until mushrooms are brown and tender, about 6 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to bowl with the chicken.
Combine broth, cream, and sherry, in same skillet; boil until thickened and reduced to 1/2 cup, about 5 minutes. Season sauce with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, boil water and cook pasta according to package directions; drain and return to low heat when sauce has reduced. Stir chicken, mushrooms and sauce through the pasta, and keep on low heat for a few minutes to allow some of the sauce to be absorbed and the chicken and mushrooms to reheat a bit.
Source: Adapted from Epicurious.
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07.12.08
Posted in Cuisines, Dinner, Dips & Spreads, Greek, Leftovers, Seafood, Shrimp at 2:39 pm by julie
I’ve never been too enamored with cooking magazines, other than perhaps Cooking Light, but I was offered a free subscription to Bon Appetit from Amazon.com a few months back, so I said what the heck. It’s alright so far, but I’m not overly impressed, and I haven’t gone out of my way to make any of the recipes.
The other night we tried a recipe for shrimp skewers with tzatziki and spinach from the most recent issue. As I had hoped, it was a fast, tasty meal—hard to go wrong with those flavors, and most of the ingredients are ones I always have on hand. Not only that, but it made a lovely and fairly healthy plate of food. The problem came when we sat down to actually eat, though: it was impossible for us to eat this neatly. Of course Jeremy was eating over WoW, and Nolan was awake at the time, so I had to hold him with one arm and eat with the other. But there were the skewers and tails to deal with, and the tzatziki, while delicious, was too thick to scoop up easily either with a bite of shrimp or a forkful of spinach.
I found myself wishing I had just removed the tails from the shrimp up front and sauteed them in a little oil and garlic, then tucked them in a pita with the spinach, feta and tzatziki. The portability and one-handed operation of a pocket sandwich would have been more than worth an extra trip to the grocery store or a few hours spent waiting for pita dough to rise. Considering all the other pluses to this recipe, it may happen yet.
Incidentally, I couldn’t bear to toss out the leftover tzatziki, but had nothing to eat it with. So for lunch the next day, I mixed a can of tuna with a few tablespoons of strained tzatziki, a bit of mayo and some feta cheese. It made one of the best tuna sandwiches I’ve had in quite a while.
Shrimp Skewers with Tzatziki, Spinach and Feta
1 C Greek yogurt
1 C 1/4″-cubes English hothouse cucumber
3 T chopped fresh dill
2 T fresh lemon juice
2 T chopped shallots
1 tsp chopped garlic
Olive oil
1 lb uncooked large shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 C baby spinach
3/4 C crumbled feta cheese
Mix yogurt, cucumber, dill, lemon juice, garlic and shallot in small bowl; season generously with salt and pepper and chill until ready to serve.
Prepare grill with oil. Thread shrimp equally onto 4 skewers and brush with olive oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill just until shrimp are opaque in the center, about 3 minutes per side. Divide spinach between 4 plates, and drizzle lightly with lemon juice and olive oil. Top each with one shrimp skewer, a dollop of tzatziki, and a sprinkle of feta.
Source: Slightly adapted from Bon Appetit, August 2008 (p. 45)—and will be more firmly adapted next time.
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07.09.08
Posted in American, Cuisines, Dinner, Eggs, French, Lunch, Salads at 9:53 am by julie
We had a good 4th of July weekend. For me, that constitutes getting to leave the house a glorious three times, including trips to the grocery store and farmer’s market. Nolan had never been to either place, and he was quite a champ, looking around quietly from his sling while we shopped. At the grocery store, we picked up fixings for an all-American sort of dinner: New York strip steaks, baby spinach for a classic salad with hot bacon vinaigrette, and (at Jeremy’s request) Boston baked beans. The steaks were coated in a mixture of oil and clarified butter and seasoned aggressively with salt and pepper, then cooked to a perfect medium on our cast iron grill. The salad was a tasty complement, with crisp bacon, sweet shallot, and hard-boiled egg.
At the farmer’s market the next day, our score included white asparagus, three kinds of wild mushrooms, dinosaur kale, and a big head of frisee lettuce. I would have liked to get more, but I couldn’t carry much with the baby, and Jeremy had his hands full with Freyja, who was in rare form trying to keep our little herd together. (Every time I went into a booth to buy something, she whined something fierce. Everyone stared at her, and several people commented on how protective she was being of me. She just wouldn’t let me out of her sight.) Anyway, I decided to use the frisee to make us another classic salad with eggs and bacon for lunch that day: a bistro salad with poached eggs and a sherry vinaigrette. Its similarity to the spinach salad was not lost on me, but the overall effect was quite different, mostly due to the extreme bitterness of the frisee. Tasty as it was, I think I prefer this salad in its fried egg sandwich incarnation, which cuts down on the volume of frisee.
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07.08.08
Posted in Cuisines, Dinner, Nuts, Grains & Legumes, Seafood, Shrimp, Sides at 11:48 am by julie
I’ve been working hard to build a stash of extra breastmilk in our freezer for Nolan. I don’t produce much more than he eats on a daily basis (especially not this past week, while he was having an extreme growth spurt and eating nearly double his usual amount), but since April I have been able to freeze at least one bag of milk most days. It’s an accomplishment I am extremely proud of, but it is also quickly starting to overwhelm our little refrigerator freezer. Every time I open the freezer door, there is a landslide of frozen meat and veggies.
Until I can talk Jeremy into getting us a little chest freezer, my goal is to use up—or chuck, since while stashing bags of milk at the back of the shelves, I excavated a few unidentifiable freezer-burned items that have been there time out of mind—the food I’ve got in my freezer. (Probably just to replace it with more, what can I say? I particularly find the resealable bags of frozen veggies handy: broccoli, green beans, peas, corn, spinach and peppers.)
I started out with this Cuban-inspired dish, which uses frozen shrimp and peppers. I like to keep frozen shrimp on hand because they thaw quickly for last-minute dinners, and you avoid all that tedious deveining. I actually had this meal in mind some time ago, but didn’t think I had any coconut milk… turns out it was just buried in the back of the pantry. Because the shrimp only requires a small amount of milk, I used the rest in a really easy recipe for coconut rice I’ve made before, and it complimented the spicy shrimp and peppers nicely.
Enchilado de Camerones
1 T olive oil
1 C chopped onion
1/2 C chopped red bell pepper (I used a frozen blend of peppers)
1/2 C chopped green bell pepper
1/2 to 1 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp salt
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 C light coconut milk
2 T chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 2 minutes. Add bell peppers, crushed red pepper, salt, and garlic; sauté 4 minutes. Add tomatoes; cook 6 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates, stirring frequently.
Stir in shrimp, and cook 4 minutes or until shrimp are done, stirring frequently. Remove shrimp mixture from heat, and stir in coconut milk. Sprinkle with cilantro if desired. Serve with coconut rice.
Source: Cooking Light
Coconut Rice
2 C uncooked basmati rice
1 1/2 C light coconut milk
1 1/2 C water
1/4 tsp salt
1 C chopped green onions (optional)
Rinse rice with cold water; drain. Combine rice, coconut milk, 1 1/2 cups water, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat; stir once. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes until liquid is absorbed. Let stand 10 minutes; stir in onions.
Source: Cooking Light
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07.07.08
Posted in Fish, Seafood, Soups at 11:04 am by julie
All of my complaints about our cool summer weather must have been heard, because—as I mentioned in my Danish braid post for the Daring Bakers—the heat caught up with us last weekend. And what better way to celebrate the start of the summer weather than by making fish soup? Well, maybe hot soup and hot weather don’t go so well together, but at least these two meals were light on fat and prep time, and didn’t require the use of the oven.
The first version I tried out owes another little nod to Emeril, who introduced me to the idea of fish cooked in court bouillion a few weeks back. (Court bouillion—seemingly pronounced coo boo-yone—is a light vegetable broth usually containing a mirepoix and an acid element, like white wine or lemon juice.) I chose a recipe from Epicurious and made the broth during one of Nolan’s naps, using my last half-onion and some use-it-or-lose-it leeks. It percolated on low heat until Jeremy was ready for dinner, at which point I dropped in my chunks of wild halibut fillet. Nolan chose this moment to wake up screaming, of course, so I ended up eating my dinner at top speed while trying vainly not to burn my tongue. I may not have been able to give it a fair shake, but the flavors were really too subtle for me (read: bland) and I ended up adding quite a good pinch of salt to my plate to make it more palatable. Jeremy seemed to like it, mostly on the above-stated grounds of lightness.
The next night, after watching an oddly serendipitous episode of Good Eats that featured fish poached in court bouillion, I decided to transform our leftover halibut and broth into a simple chowder. Using a slotted spoon, I removed the fish and most of the vegetables from the broth, the latter going in a saucepan to simmer with two small cubed potatoes. When the potato was tender, I again employed the slotted spoon to rescue some of the potatoes for texture before pureeing the soup with my hand blender. The reserved potatoes, veggies and halibut (broken into bite-sized chunks) went back into this thickened soup base to warm through, along with a sprinkle of Old Bay seasoning. We ended up with a completely different soup than what we started with—hearty but very light, and still virtually fat-free. And just to round out that whole Food Network/halibut soup thread, the episode of The Middleman I put on over dinner turned out to feature none other than the Chairman from Iron Chef America!
Halibut au Court Bouillion/ Halibut Chowder
For court bouillion:
1/4 C dry white wine
5 C water
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
2 small leeks, chopped, white and pale green parts only
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp black pepper
a pinch ground cloves
1 tsp salt
1 T olive oil
12 oz halibut fillet, cut into portion-sized pieces
Cooked rice
For chowder:
2 medium red- or yellow-skinned potatoes, cubed
1/4 tsp Old Bay seasoning (optional)
For court bouillion: In a 4- to 6-quart heavy saucepan bring wine and water to a boil with onion, carrot, leek, spices and salt and simmer 20 minutes. Add oil and halibut and poach fish at a bare simmer, covered, until just cooked through, 5 to 6 minutes. Place some rice into shallow bowls; transfer fish with a slotted spoon onto rice, and spoon court bouillon over fish. Sprinkle fish with fresh coriander and garnish with lemon wedges, if desired.
For chowder: From leftover court bouillion, strain the fish and most of the vegetables out of the liquid, and reserve in a bowl. Place the broth and remaining vegetables over medium heat in a saucepan. Add the potatoes and simmer until they are cooked, then remove half of them to the bowl with the fish. Use a stick blender to puree the potatoes, broth and vegetables in the saucepan, then return to the heat and add the reserved potatoes, veggies and halibut (flake the latter into bite-sized chunks) to warm through. Season to taste, with Old Bay if desired.
Source: Adapted from Epicurious.
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07.01.08
Posted in American, Cuisines, Dinner, Meats, Sausage at 9:47 pm by julie
Now that I am officially a stay-at-home mom, I’ve been watching a lot more television than I used to, particularly when I have an armload of fussy baby who doesn’t want to be put down. That means a lot of Food Network, and sadly, it appears that Nolan particularly finds Emeril Lagasse fascinating. Give me that Louisiana Cookin’ guy instead any day (anyone else remember that show from PBS?).
All the days of Emeril seems to be sinking in, though, at least a little, because I started craving red beans and rice, even though I’ve never had it before. I picked out a rather basic version of this dish to make and can’t vouch for its authenticity, but it was a delicious and very easy meal made from ingredients I typically have on hand, and gave me several days of leftovers for lunch.
And in a nod to the origins of my interest in red beans and rice, I made up a little bit of Emeril’s own “essence” spice blend (an incredibly poor choice of words, in my opinion) to use as my Creole seasoning.
Red Beans and Rice
2 T olive oil
1 lb kielbasa, sliced into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 (14 1/2-oz) can kidney beans
1 C canned low-salt chicken broth
1 tsp Creole or Cajun seasoning or 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 C cooked rice
Heat olive oil in heavy large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add sausage, onion and garlic and sauté until onion is brown, about 15 minutes. Mix in kidney beans with their juices, broth and Creole seasoning. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer until flavors are blended and mixture is very thick, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes.
Divide cooked rice among large shallow soup bowls. Spoon bean mixture over rice and serve.
Source: Slightly adapted from Epicurious.
Essence of Emeril
2 1/2 T paprika
2 T salt
2 T garlic powder
1 T black pepper
1 T onion powder
1 T cayenne pepper
1 T dried oregano
1 T dried thyme
Mix all spices together; makes about 2/3 cup. (I just used vaguely proportional dashes of each spice because I didn’t need so much.)
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