08.03.08
Posted in American, Chocolate, Cookies & Candies, Cuisines, Dessert at 2:12 pm by julie
I don’t often follow, or even really notice, food fads. For instance, I completely missed out on that whole molten chocolate cake craze until this past June. I made a batch of Dorie Greenspan’s Korova cookies for Christmas in 2005, without a clue that they would become popular enough to rename World Peace Cookies in her Baking book of 2006—maybe I was actually ahead of the curve on that one. And I’ve never yet made a loaf of no-knead bread, popularized by the New York Times article, though I do mean to try it at some point.
The current foodblog fashion trend was also set by the Times, and this was one I couldn’t resist for long: big, chewy, golden brown chocolate chip cookies adapted from a recipe by Jacques Torres. Even though my heart will always lie with David Lebovitz’s low-and-slow recipe, I can’t help but try out other variations.
The Torres cookies are good ones indeed, and I can see what all the fuss is about. They have that classic flavor, with tons of bittersweet chocolate and just the right balance of buttery crunch and chewy innards. I divided my dough between two baking days (after about 24 and 72 hours, respectively), some plain and some sprinkled with fleur de sel. I didn’t have quite enough cake flour, so about an ounce of that was subbed with all-purpose. I used a 1/3 cup measure for a total of 2 dozen cookies, and baked some for 19 minutes, the rest for 16.
What we thought: While warm, all I could taste was chocolate (I used Ghirardelli bittersweet chips). Once they had cooled, all the cookies stayed soft in the center, though we both preferred the texture of the 16-minute cookies, which looked very underdone coming out of the oven. I liked the salt-sprinkled cookies more than Jeremy did, since he isn’t a huge salt fan, but since I also like dipping my cookies in milk, and salt + milk = yuck, I ended up leaving the salt off all the 72-hour cookies for that purpose.
I like the advance prep aspect of this recipe, since I could make the dough while Nolan was napping and then bake at my next opportunity, but the cold dough was a pain to work with. If I use this recipe again, I’m going to portion the dough before chilling it, and then let it rest as 1/3-cup pucks, stacked in a container between sheets of waxed paper. I’m still not entirely convinced they were worth the extra trouble of waiting for the dough to rest 36 hours, however; a more scientific comparison might be in order, baking off both freshly made and well-rested batches of dough. 
Either way, you can hardly go wrong with fresh chocolate chip cookies, so I understand the wave of popularity!
Jacques Torres’ Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 C minus 2 T (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
1 2/3 C (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 C) unsalted butter
1 1/4 C (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 C plus 2 T (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 lb bittersweet chocolate disks or chips, at least 60 percent cacao content
Sea salt
Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate in and incorporate gently. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.
Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet. Sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 16 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin, or cooled, with a big glass of milk. Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.
Source: New York Times
Permalink
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.
Permalink
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.)
Permalink
06.24.08
Posted in American, Cuisines, Dinner, Meats, Pork and Ham at 10:21 am by julie
Finally it is starting to feel a bit like summer around here! About time, too, since it is the end of June…
Even though I have very little time for cooking of late, I’ve made a few dishes that are definitely going on our hit parade. This easy braised pork dish is one of them: it requires very little prep time, and the result is an outstanding balance of savory, salty, sweet and spicy, with a touch of heat and a luxurious mouth-feel. You will want to serve it over rice to soak up all that lovely sauce—even more so with the reheated leftovers!
I didn’t have any Chinese five-spice, which I have had miserable luck tracking down in grocery stores, so I made my own makeshift blend based on Pim’s recommendations. Needing so little, I just did pinches of freshly grated star anise, ground cassia, coarsely crushed sichuan peppercorns, ground cumin, clove, and coriander, but I will certainly make a larger amount with whole toasted spices, if I ever get a spice grinder.
Hawaiian-Style Braised Pork Ribs
3 1/2 lb boneless country-style pork spareribs, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
3 T vegetable oil
6 garlic cloves, chopped
2 T chopped peeled fresh ginger
12 oz low-salt chicken broth
1/3 C soy sauce
1 T dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp dried crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
1 1/2 T cornstarch
Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper. Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add 1/3 of pork to pot and sauté until brown, about 6 minutes; transfer to bowl. Repeat with remaining pork. Add garlic and ginger to pot; sauté 1 minute. Return pork and any juices to pot. Add broth, soy sauce, sugar, crushed red pepper, and five-spice powder; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until pork is very tender, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Scoop out about half a cup of braising liquid and whisk it together with cornstarch in a cup to dissolve; mix back into pork. Simmer until gravy thickens slightly, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes. Season with pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool slightly and chill. Rewarm over low heat.)
Source: Slightly adapted from Epicurious.
Update 7/27/08: Jeremy brought home 6.5 pounds of boneless pork ribs from Costco yesterday, so I made a double batch of this braised pork for dinner (and many many leftovers) tonight. I got some Chinese 5-spice from Penzey’s recently, and used a quarter teaspoon of that and added cumin, coriander and Szechuan peppercorns to it for my personal blend. I also used chicken stock that I made last night from a rotisserie chicken carcass. It came out beautifully, just like the first time, and I served it with stir-fried red cabbage from the accompanying Epicurious recipe, adding a bit of garlic to the ginger.
Permalink
06.15.08
Posted in American, Cuisines, Dessert, Fruits, Pies & Tarts at 9:27 am by julie
For a while there, it was starting to feel like we already had our summer this year: exactly one weekend of 100F weather about two weeks ago in the midst of a neverending torrent of cool, grey, windy, rainy days. It’s June, for heaven’s sake! At last it is starting to warm up a little. Anyway, we had a surplus of apples in the house, so in honor of the faux-fall weather, I made some apple dumplings for dessert last week.
This is a combination of recipes that works well for me. I generally make the full batch and freeze the extra apples before baking, so we can have apple dumplings on demand for a while. In this instance, I only had time to prep 2 apples before Nolan started fussing, so I refrigerated the dough overnight and used it the next evening for another two apples. It is a soft dough because of the shortening, and didn’t even require warming up to room temperature before I could roll it out. I used gala apples because that’s what we had, and they worked nicely in this context, but I typically use Granny Smiths. I also prefer to serve this with vanilla ice cream, but we didn’t have any.
Apple Dumplings
1 C AP flour
1 C white whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 C shortening
1/2 C milk
6 apples, peeled and cored
Lemon juice
Cinnamon sugar
Brown sugar
Unsalted butter
1 1/2 C water
1 1/2 C sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3 T butter
In a food processor, combine the flours, salt and BP. Add the shortening, and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs; add the milk all at once and pulse just until the dough forms a ball. On a liberally floured surface, roll out the dough into a rectangle about 1/4″ thickness; cut into 6 squares large enough to completely enclose an apple.
Dip an apple in lemon juice, then roll in cinnamon sugar. Place in the center of a square of dough, and stuff its core with alternating spoons of brown sugar and little cubes of butter, packing it down until you run out of room. Gently pull the dough up around the apple and seal it, trying to avoid leaving any holes that the juices could run out from. They are supposed to be homey and rustic-looking, so patch away if you need to. Place in a small glass or stoneware casserole or pie pan large enough to hold all the apples you want to bake. Repeat with the remaining apples. (If you don’t want to bake and eat all the apples in one sitting, you can wrap each extra one in aluminum foil at this point and freeze them.)
Preheat the oven to 375F. In a small saucepan over medium high heat, bring the sugar, water, cinnamon and nutmeg to a boil. Remove from the heat, add the butter, and swirl to melt. Pour the sugar syrup over the apples, and bake at 375F for 35 minutes, or until the apples are tender when you insert a knife. As they come out of the oven, spoon the caramelized sugar syrup over the apples’ crusts before it cools. Serve with vanilla ice cream if desired.
If you froze some of your apples, you can bake them off right from the frozen state. Just remove them from the foil, stick them in a dish and cover them with freshly made sugar syrup, and bake them for a few extra minutes, until the apples are tender.
Permalink
03.20.08
Posted in American, Beef, Cuisines, Dinner, Meats at 4:09 pm by julie
We got a huge packet of beef chuck roast for making pot roast late last week, with the intention of making it for dinner on Saturday, and freezing all the leftovers for future meal insurance. Problem is, since last Thursday, our schedule has been pretty packed: dinner with friends on Thursday and Saturday, my mom’s arrival and our last childbirth prep class on Sunday. I thought I could squeeze the roast in on Monday night, even if we didn’t have time to eat it until the next day, but even though I seasoned and wrapped the meat before work in the morning, a doctor’s appointment and an evening vacuum-shopping trip (we got a pretty purple Dyson that laughs in the face of dog hair mountains) ate up all my time and we ended up with fast food instead. It couldn’t wait anymore, though, so on Tuesday, even though my aunt came down from Portland for a visit and I had one last ante-partum meeting with my doula, I made sure to get the roast going as soon as I came home from work.
I had quite a bit of tomato juice to use up, so I did a Yankee-style pot roast based on this recipe, originally taken from a Barefoot Contessa cookbook. I pretty much just used the ingredients as a guide and didn’t measure anything out. Rather than letting the meat sit at room temperature for an hour, I seasoned and wrapped it in the fridge for what ended up being a day and a half. Once it was seared and the veggies were sauteed, I poured on that tomato juice and had enough to nearly cover the meat. It went in a 350F oven for 3.5 hours, and I flipped the meat every so often to keep an eye on things. Once it was done, I removed and roughly shredded the meat—which required no more than gently poking at it with my tongs—and pureed the veggies and remaining braising liquid with my stick blender. I’d considered adding potatoes to the pot in the last hour or so, but didn’t want to fish them out of the liquid again for that last step, and mashed potatoes were perfectly satisfactory. The meat was fork-tender, succulent and flavorful, and I thought the gravy was fantastic, but then I’ve always been a gravy girl. We’ve got another meal or two stashed away in the freezer now, and while it was in the oven, I was able to take care of everything else that was on my plate for the night: that’s why I love braising!
Contessa’s Yankee Pot Roast
5 to 5 1/2 lb. pot roast or brisket, washed and patted dry
2 T kosher salt
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
4 large garlic cloves, finely minced
2 tsp dried oregano
About 1 cup flour for dredging
2 T olive oil
4 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
4 stalks celery, roughly chopped
2 yellow onions, peeled and sliced
2 tsp sweet paprika
3 bay leaves
Tomato juice to cover (at least 32-40oz)
In a small bowl, mix the salt, black pepper, garlic and dried oregano. Rub all of this mixture all over the roast. Cover tightly in plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for an hour (or overnight in the fridge).
Preheat oven to 350F.
Unwrap the roast and sprinkle the flour all over the roast, patting away any excess. Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed dutch oven over medium high heat. When hot, add the roast and sear for several minutes per side, until you have a golden crust on the roast. Immediately remove meat from pan and set aside; add the carrots, celery, onions, paprika and bay leaves. Saute until the onion is translucent, then place the seared roast on top of the veggies. Pour tomato juice over everything until it comes up nearly level with the top of the meat, and cover tightly with lid.
Braise for 3 1/2 hours or until meat is tender and falling apart. Gently remove the roast to a serving platter and tent with foil. Remove the bay leaves from the braising liquid and use a blender or immersion blender to puree into a smooth gravy. If desired, pass mixture through a sieve. In the meantime, slice meat across the grain or pull into serving-sized chunks; serve slices of meat with the sauce and some sort of starch and green veggies.
Source: Adapted from Armida Cooks.
Permalink
03.10.08
Posted in American, Cuisines, Dinner, Italian, Lunch, Pastas, Quick Breads, Soups at 1:49 pm by julie
These are some meals I made a while back. For some reason I hadn’t gotten around to posting them, so I’ve decided to consolidate a bit, just to do some cyber-cleaning and get them out of the Drafts queue. First up is a pot of soup I made to use up the last few vegetables in the crisper prior to a grocery trip. We were entirely out of onions, which removed most recipes as options: what I did have access to at the time was one tiny carrot, some elderly celery (I never manage to use up all my celery before it goes limp; it’s just not one of my favorites), part of a Napa cabbage, and some leek tops that I had been saving to use for stock (for this meal, I stripped off the dark green outsides and used the lighter insides). With the addition of some diced pancetta and garlic, a cubed baking potato, a box of chicken stock, and a can each of tomatoes and kidney beans, it actually manifested into a respectable pot of soup.
Minestrone
1 can kidney beans, low sodium
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 lb pancetta or sliced lean bacon, chopped
1/3 C olive oil
1 C leek, pale parts only, rinsed and chopped
1 large carrot, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 rib of celery, cut into 1/2-inch dice
3 garlic cloves, chopped fine
1/2 lb boiling potatoes
4 C shredded green cabbage (preferably Savoy)
1 14.5-ounce can tomatoes, chopped coarse and drained well
4 C chicken broth (preferably low-salt)
In a heavy kettle cook the pancetta in the oil over moderate heat, stirring, until it is crisp and pale golden, add the leek, and cook the mixture, stirring, until the leek is softened. Add the carrot, celery and garlic and cook the mixture, stirring, for 4 minutes. Add the potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch dice, and cook the mixture, stirring, for 4 minutes. Add the cabbage and cook, stirring, until the cabbage is wilted. Add the tomatoes and broth and simmer the soup, covered, for about an hour.
Drain the beans and stir into the soup. Simmer the soup, uncovered, for 15 minutes, and season it with salt and pepper. The soup may be made 3 days in advance and kept covered and chilled. Reheat the soup, thinning it with water as desired.
Source: Freely adapted from Epicurious.
Jeremy always likes some sort of bread or biscuit with his soup—really, who doesn’t?—so I made corny corn muffins to go with it. I’d never made the recipe before and actually wanted to follow it, but I nearly had to physically constrain my hands from adding cheddar cheese to it. It just sounded really good, and maybe I’ll try that out next time. They were delicious and easy to make, so there will definitely be a next time. The only adjustment I’ll admit to was the use of buttermilk powder rather than the fresh stuff, out of necessity.
Corniest Corn Muffins
1 C AP flour
1 C yellow cornmeal, preferably stone-ground
6 T sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 C buttermilk (I used dry buttermilk and water)
3 T unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 T corn oil (I used olive oil)
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 C corn kernels–fresh, frozen or canned
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400F.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, soda, and salt. In a large glass measuring cup, whisk the buttermilk, melted butter, oil, egg, and yolk together until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and use a rubber spatula to gently but quickly stir. Don’t worry about being thorough–lumps are to be expected. Stir in the corn kernels. Divide the batter evenly among the 12 cups of a silicone muffin pan.
Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack to cool for several minutes before removing from the mold.
Source: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan (p. 4).
Once the soup was all eaten up, we still had a few corn muffins leftover. As yummy as they were when fresh, stale cornbread just isn’t that great, but I hated to just throw them away. City Bakery to the rescue! From somewhere in the depths of my mind, I dredged up a recollection that City Bakery’s recipe for macaroni and cheese called for a cornbread crumb topping. I followed their proportions, but made a few slight adjustments for our personal mac and cheese tastes: pancetta added to the roux; a combination of sharp cheddar, gruyere, parmesan and pecorino cheese grated together in the Cuisinart; and a splash of Worcestershire added to the cheese sauce. It tasted great, but was rather fattier than our usual recipe (not that mac and cheese is ever health food) so I made sure to serve it with lots of broccoli. The original recipe is written out below, as I was unable to find the online source when I went back to look for it.
City Bakery Macaroni and Cheese
6 T butter, plus extra for the pan
1/4 C corn bread crumbs (or more, depending upon pan size)
1 pound elbow macaroni
1 qt whole milk
6 T flour
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 1/4 C (5 ounces) grated Gruyere cheese, divided use
1 1/4 C cheddar cheese, divided use
1 1/4 C (5 ounces) grated Grana Padano or parmesan cheese, divided use
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter a 3 1/2-quart deep baking dish or a 13-by-9-by-2-inch baking pan. Spread the crumbs in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake until golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Set aside.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the macaroni until al dente, 8 to 10 minutes, drain, and place in a large bowl. (To prepare up to a day ahead, mix in a small amount of canola oil, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to use.)
Bring the milk to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the 6 tablespoons of butter, add the flour, and mix well with a wooden spoon or spatula. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Whisk in the hot milk and continue whisking until smooth. Raise the heat to medium and cook, stirring continuously, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the spoon. Season with salt and pepper and strain through a fine strainer.
Add the sauce to the cooked macaroni. Add 1 cup each of the Gruyere, cheddar and Grana Padano, and mix well. Taste, and season with salt and pepper if necessary. Pour the macaroni mixture into the baking dish and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Sprinkle the toasted corn bread crumbs evenly over the casserole and cover with foil.
Bake on the middle shelf until heated through, about 20 minutes; remove foil and continue baking until the top is golden brown, an additional 10 minutes. Allow to stand for 10 minutes before serving.
Permalink
03.07.08
Posted in American, Cuisines, Dinner, Greek, Seafood at 11:35 pm by julie
We’ve been eating lots of fish around here lately. I keep wanting salmon, but all we keep finding is farmed Atlantic salmon, and that’s just a no-go since we’ve been spoiled by wild Pacific Northwest salmon. So Pacific cod and farmed tilapia have been on the menu instead.
While unsuccessfully trying to track down a recipe for Greek lamb chops (the very same I just wrote about the other day) in my Food and Wine of Greece cookbook, I instead came across psari plaki, a baked fish recipe first called to my attention by Barbara of Tigers and Strawberries. I was intrigued and decided to give it a go, with a few adjustments for what I had on hand, namely half an onion, some scallions, and canned tomatoes. It was pretty tasty, but I am still tempted to try Barbara’s variation, which calls for slices of lemon and appeared to pack a bigger punch flavor-wise. I served it with some garlic-olive oil couscous, tossing a handful or two of torn baby spinach leaves into that as it steamed, as a way to sneak a few more veggies into the meal.
Once the cod was eaten up, we promptly went back out and bought an even bigger package of tilapia fillets, which turned out to be fodder for a good three meals. For a start, I did a simple pan-saute with a mushroom-mustard sauce and served with pancetta peas (courtesy Marcella) and a wild rice blend. This was a quickie meal, which I am really appreciating at the moment. Jeremy liked it a lot, and tried to come back for seconds, but I stuck his plate in the dishwasher while he was feeding the pup her dinner. Oops. (I blame it on preggo-brain. At least I didn’t put his dirty plate in the fridge and the leftovers in the dishwasher… yet.)
Tilapia in Mustard Cream Sauce
I pretty much followed the recipe this time, though I made sure to really oil my skillet because I know how delicate fish can stick to the stainless. I used rehydrated chopped mushrooms for convenience, and whole grain mustard because I just like it better. It made the most sense to me to finish cooking the tilapia—which didn’t take long at all—and remove it before adding the broth and mushrooms to start the sauce, so that’s what I did. This sauce could certainly be used with chicken also, or even pork, I would imagine.
4 (6-ounce) tilapia fillets
1/2 tsp chopped fresh thyme
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
Cooking spray
3/4 Cfat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 oz portobello mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 T whipping cream
2 T Dijon mustard
Sprinkle fish with thyme, pepper, and salt. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add fish; cook 1 minute on each side. Add broth, and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Add mushrooms; cook, uncovered, 1 minute or until mushrooms are tender. Remove fish from pan; keep warm.
Add cream and mustard to pan; stir with a whisk until well combined. Cook 1 minute or until thoroughly heated. Serve sauce over fish.
Source: Adapted from Epicurious.
We still had like 2 pounds of fish to eat up after that, and of all things, Jeremy requested fish sticks for dinner the next night. I based mine on a straightforward recipe from Eating Well. I must admit we ate slightly less “well,” however, because I used fresh pugliese bread crumbs instead of whole wheat ones and omitted the whole wheat cereal flakes. I dredged them in whole wheat flour, at least. I also used my own blend of spices, but no longer recall what all I threw in. Remember, as you’re dredging, to keep one hand for dry operations and one for wet—it cuts down on the need to scrub gooey crumb build-up from your fingers! To go with the fish sticks, I microwaved some small russets and made twice-baked potatoes with bacon, cheddar and broccoli. They went in the oven just before the fish and completed our finger-food dinner nicely, especially since they served as a vehicle for vegetables.
Tilapia Fish Sticks
Canola oil cooking spray
1 C whole-wheat dry breadcrumbs (see Shopping Tip) or 1/2 cup plain dry breadcrumbs
1 C whole-grain cereal flakes
1 tsp lemon pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C all-purpose flour
2 large egg whites, beaten
1 lb tilapia fillets, cut into 1/2-by-3-inch strips
Preheat oven to 450°F. Set a wire rack on a baking sheet; coat well with cooking spray. Place breadcrumbs, cereal flakes, lemon pepper, garlic powder, paprika and salt in a food processor or blender and process until finely ground. Transfer to a shallow dish.
Place flour in a second shallow dish and egg whites in a third shallow dish. Dredge each strip of fish in the flour, dip it in the egg and then coat all sides with the breadcrumb mixture. Place on the prepared rack. Coat both sides of the breaded fish with cooking spray.
Bake until the fish is cooked through and the breading is golden brown and crisp, about 10 minutes.
Source: Loosely adapted from Eating Well.
Permalink
01.11.08
Posted in American, Beef, Cuisines, Dinner, Meats at 11:52 pm by julie
I’m starting to get sort of anxious about the fact that everything I’ve been writing about lately is either brown or white or both. We really do eat other colors of food, I promise. I made pork-fried rice on Tuesday, and I think it ended up having more vegetables in it than pork or rice, but there wasn’t exactly a recipe associated with that meal, just me chopping stuff and dumping it all in the wok.
I’m afraid today’s post is just more of the same brown and white, but gosh darn it, meatloaf just sounded really good, and I can’t even remember the last time I made it. Actually, I think I partially made it this week in backlash against what I thought was a pretty horrifying recipe for bacon-cheeseburger meatloaf that I watched Paula Deen make recently. To me it felt like one of those trainwrecks you can’t take your eyes off of, but then I saw the Food Network’s Top 100 Recipes list for 2007, and it’s right up there at #7. Go figure.
Meatloaf is one of those things I would never order in a restaurant or experiment with in the kitchen because the texture and seasonings have to be just so—meaning, exactly like the one my mom made when I was growing up. Jeremy seems to like it too (though he thinks the cooked loaf looks like braiiiiins), and leftovers make great meatloaf sandwiches.
My Mom’s Meatloaf
1 lb ground beef (or equal parts ground beef, pork and veal)
1 1/2 slices soft bread, crumbled
1/2 C milk
1 egg
2 T minced onion
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp each pepper, dry mustard, garlic salt and celery salt
1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Preheat oven to 350F. Moisten crumbled bread with the milk, then quickly mix together all ingredients with your hands until homogenous. For tender meatloaf, do not overwork. Shape into a loaf in a shallow baking pan, and spread a thin layer of ketchup over the top, if desired. Bake for 1 hour or until done.
Permalink
12.17.07
Posted in American, Chocolate, Cuisines, Dessert at 10:36 pm by julie
This week’s posts will be all about the Christmas cookies. I haven’t heard any bad news from the doctor’s office about my glucose test last Wednesday, so I’ve forged ahead with the holiday baking. Yesterday was dedicated to baking piles of cookies for Jeremy and I to share with our co-workers before vacation starts.
I was decision-challenged this year when it came time to choose recipes. Jeremy’s only request was a pan of oatmeal carmelitas that we don’t have to share, so that’s at the top of the list when the current stock runs low. In the meantime, I ended up going back to some old favorites that many people will be familiar with, including more chocolatey goodness than I had intended.
Today I’m sharing a recipe for buckeyes, a chocolate-dipped ball of peanut-buttery heaven. It seems only natural that they should be one of my favorites since both of my parents are from Ohio. Strangely, though, I’ve never tried my hand at making them until now. They are very easy to do if you make sure the balls are well-chilled before attempting to dip them in the melted chocolate. I ordered a 2-teaspoon cookie scoop for them, but it was backordered until January, so when it comes, I’ll just have to use it for truffles or something instead… poor us!
Buckeyes
3/4 C creamy peanut butter (I used natural peanut butter with no detriments)
1/4 C butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 - 2 C sifted confectioners sugar
6 oz semi sweet chocolate chips (about half a bag)
1 T shortening
Line a baking sheet with waxed paper; set aside.
In a medium bowl, use your hands to knead together peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and confectioners’ sugar until it forms a stiff, uniform dough. Since the amount of sugar needed may vary a bit based on warmth and humidity, you may want to add the first cup at once, and then a quarter or half cup at a time until it reaches a good consistency: firm, rollable, and neither crumbly nor sticky. Shape the dough into balls using about 2 teaspoons of dough for each ball. As I mentioned, a small cookie scoop would be very helpful here. Place on prepared pan, and refrigerate until firm.
Melt shortening and chocolate together in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth; remove from heat.
Remove balls from refrigerator. Insert a wooden toothpick into a ball, and dip into melted chocolate, leaving a small circle of bare filling visible on top. (I found that angling my pan so the chocolate was all pooling on one side helped facilitate this. Work quickly so the balls stay chilled, as they fall off the toothpick into a lake of chocolate if they are too soft and warm.) Return to wax paper, chocolate side down, and remove toothpick. Repeat with remaining balls. If the toothpick holes bother you, it is the work of a moment to smudge the peanut butter smooth again. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to set the chocolate. Try not to eat them all at once.
Source: Slightly adapted from From My Kitchen to Yours
Permalink
« Previous entries