Surprising though it may be, when I first started my blog at the end of June, I didn’t realize there was such a large world of food blogging out there. As I stumbled upon Tastespotting and other food sites, I was impressed to see a plethora of beautiful danish braids. When I discovered that those bloggers were part of a group of bakers who undertake a monthly baking challenge, I was sold. As I’ve mentioned before, baking was my first love – long before I discovered other forms of cooking. The idea of trying new and interesting baking recipes that I would probably never attempt on my own was exciting, to say the least. So I signed up, and when I saw the August challenge, I was delighted. We would be baking eclairs! It was a chance to make pastry cream, a personal favorite, try the somewhat infamous pate a choux, and attempt a dairy-free version for J.
Archive for August, 2008
Last summer the females in my family experienced a dream come true – a cooking tour of Tuscany. The males came along for the ride, too, I should mention. We spent a few days in Rome before heading to a villa in Tuscany, where the owner and instructor took us to incredible restaurants in tiny, picturesque towns, brought in chefs and wine makers to give us demos, and led us through some hands-on cooking classes.
While there we learned to make a traditional Tuscan pasta called pici. Called poor man’s pasta, it looks a bit like a thick spaghetti and is traditionally made with nothing more than flour and water, although the chef who taught us added an egg. It is usually served in a garlic tomato sauce called aglione, hence the completed dish is called pici all’aglione.
Though it is certainly not meant for a quick weeknight meal, the fact that the pasta is hand rolled and is meant to be slightly irregular in shape makes it a lot easier than a filled or shaped pasta. We’ve made it with J.’s family several times now at the beach and it’s always a hit. They have a great butcher block island that is perfect to roll the pasta on.
I don’t have permission to copy the recipe here, so I’m going to use pictures and summarize the process for you. It really is hard to mess up – the worst that can happen is that you’ll end up with tough pasta and after a little practice that is easy to fix. In bocca al lupo! (Good luck!)
As you can probably tell by the steep decline in posts this week, school is back in session. We spent our last free weekend at the beach, where we soaked up as much sun as was possible through the clouds, took walks in the sultry heat, watched an assortment of our favorite Olympic events, and ate lots of great food, which I’ll post about later. On the drive back we dropped by a produce stand off I-40 and picked up peaches, tomatoes, and watermelon. I’ve missed the farmer’s market six weeks straight and it’s been killing me. For our first full week at home in quite a while I needed some good fruits and veggies, so the roadside stand would have to do. Since I was juggling being back at work and having family in town (my little brother just started college down the road!) I decided that our bounty of tomatoes would make a great no-cook meal of gazpacho. This is the recipe my mom uses and it’s another one that’s perfect in my eyes, so no amount of cajoling could get me to try anything else. We serve our gazpacho with toppings of sour cream, chunks of fresh vegetables, and croutons. It’s got a very garlicky bite, so cut back on the garlic if that’s not your thing. We love it.
In a past life, I lived much more of a flexitarian lifestyle. Now, meat seems to dominate our meal planning, but I still try to slip in a few vegetarian meals here and there, at least for myself. This salad, for example. Of course, arranging the toppings in lines like that bumped up the looks factor, but that was not the original purpose. It was designed to keep the chicken on one side (for Jeff) and the corn on the other side (for me).
So when it comes to planning a vegetarian meal, I frequently look to legumes. Black beans are a superfood – cheap and nutritious, full of fiber, protein, and antioxidants – an excellent base for a vegetarian meal. And who doesn’t love them when they’re all smashed up, mixed with goodies, and sauteed?
Cheese is another food I can’t live without. Since Jeff doesn’t eat it, I’m always looking for opportunities to use it outside of our dinners for two. On a few occasions when he has been away for dinner I’ve halved this recipe and made it in ramekins. Not only does it make a great dinner with a salad, I then have the makings of lunch for the next two days. This weekend, though, I was home in FL. Several members of my family love cheese even more than I do, so I made this for them. Yes, it only looks good for a few minutes but it didn’t last much longer than that anyway!
Classic Cheese Souffle
Serves 4-6
2 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup whole milk
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pinch of ground nutmeg
4 large egg yolks
5 large egg whites
1 cup (packed) coarsely grated Gruyère cheese
(about 4 ounces)
Position rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 400F. Butter 6-cup (1 1/2-quart) soufflé dish. Add Parmesan cheese and tilt dish, coating bottom and sides. Warm milk in heavy small saucepan over medium-low heat until steaming.
Meanwhile, melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and whisk until mixture begins to foam and loses raw taste, about 3 minutes (do not allow mixture to brown). Remove saucepan from heat; let stand 1 minute. Pour in warm milk, whisking until smooth. Return to heatand cook, whisking constantly until very thick, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat; whisk in paprika, salt, and nutmeg. Add egg yolks 1 at a time, whisking to blend after each addition. Scrape soufflé base into large bowl. Cool to lukewarm. DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 hours ahead. Cover and let stand at room temperature.
Using electric mixer, beat egg whites in another large bowl until stiff but not dry. Fold 1/4 of whites into lukewarm or room temperature soufflé base to lighten. Fold in remaining whites in 2 additions while gradually sprinkling in Gruyère cheese. Transfer batter to prepared dish.
Place dish in oven and immediately reduce oven temperature to 375F. Bake until soufflé is puffed and golden brown on top and center moves only slightly when dish is shaken gently, about 25 minutes (do not open oven door during first 20 minutes). Serve immediately.
This recipe is from the author of a very well-known food blog, Orangette. She modified it from a recipe by Julia Child. It was published in Bon Appetit.
Yes, I know. The sauce is pink. Very pink. My mom makes a delicious hazelnut chicken with an orange cream sauce. This recipe is very similar but does not use any dairy in the sauce, so I was interested in trying it. The honey mustard – mint – mayo wet coating was a nice change from the traditional egg. Next time I will chop my hazelnuts finer so they adhere better during the saute. Otherwise, a tasty, unique, and easy meal. We served with sauteed spinach and squash instead of over baby greens.
Hazelnut-Crusted Chicken with Raspberry Sauce
Serves 4
Raspberry sauce:
3/4 cup lightly packed fresh raspberries (about 3 1/2 ounces)
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup safflower oil
3 to 6 teaspoons water (optional)
Chicken:
1 cup chopped hazelnuts (about 4 1/2 ounces)
3/4 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) or plain dried breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
3 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper, divided
1/3 cup honey mustard
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
4 large skinless boneless chicken breast halves, butterflied
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
3 tablespoons peanut oil
4 cups baby salad greens
1/2 cup fresh raspberries
For raspberry sauce:
Puree raspberries, white wine vinegar, and sugar in blender until smooth. With blender running, gradually add safflower oil. Add water by teaspoonfuls as needed to thin to desired consistency. Season raspberry sauce to taste with salt and pepper.
For chicken:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix hazelnuts, panko, 1 tablespoon coarse salt, and 2 teaspoons pepper in shallow bowl. Mix honey mustard, mint leaves, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, remaining 1 teaspoon coarse salt, and remaining 1 teaspoon pepper in bowl. Add chicken; coat.
Dip chicken pieces, 1 at a time, into crumb-nut mixture, coating both sides and pressing to adhere. Transfer coated chicken pieces to baking sheet.
Divide equal amounts of butter and peanut oil between 2 large nonstick skillets; heat over medium-high heat. Add 2 chicken pieces to each skillet; reduce heat to medium and cook until chicken is light brown, about 4 minutes per side. Place chicken on rimmed baking sheet; transfer to oven. Roast chicken until cooked through, about 15 minutes.
Divide salad greens among 4 plates; top with chicken. Garnish with fresh raspberries and serve raspberry sauce alongside.
From Bon Appetit
I’m always on the hunt for a good granola recipe. I’ve tried many, such as this one, this one, one from a Sarah Foster cookbook (Foster’s granola is the ultimate in my book), and several recipes from friends. None of them quite cut it, so I’m still hunting. I tried again with this recipe because I wanted to give a little something to a friend and thought granola would be a good treat. It was the best recipe I’ve tried so far, although still not perfect. I think I’d try messing around with the juices next time; it tasted too orange-y to me. Nonetheless, it was more than adequate, and certainly better than most store-bought granola!
Granola with Coconut and Dried Fruit
Makes about 10 cups
5 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup pecan pieces
1 cup sliced almonds
3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 cup unsweetened apple juice
6 tbsp. vegetable oil
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups assorted dried fruit (such as cranberries, golden raisins, tart cherries, and chopped apricots)
Preheat oven to 300F. Spray 2 rimmed baking sheets with nonstick spray. Mix oats, pecans, almonds, coconut, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Bring orange juice, apple juice, oil, and syrup to boil in small saucepan. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Drizzle orange juice mixture over dry ingredients; toss to coat. Divide granola between prepared sheets, spreading evenly.
Bake granola until golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 50 minutes. Divide fruit between sheets and toss to coat; bake granola 10 minutes longer. Cool completely.
From Bon Appetit
Olives will always hold a place on my top 5 favorite foods list. I’ve loved them for as long as I can remember. It began when, as kids, my sister and I would sneak black olives out of the can, place them on our fingers and dance around showing off our “olive hands.” We’d eat them off our fingers one by one and then beg for more. Of special interest was the fact that the brand of olives – Lindsay’s – shared a name with my sister and was even spelled the same way.
Since then the love has grown a bit more sophisticated but I’d still gobble plain black olives from a can any day. So as you can imagine, this pasta recipe got clipped pretty quickly as I flipped through the July/August Cook’s Illustrated. It was actually much better than I expected looking at the simple list of ingredients. MUCH better. The sauce looked wimpy but actually coated the pasta really well. Jeff’s favorite part was the breadcrumbs. Mine? I’ll give you one guess…
I made quite a few changes to this recipe, which I’m sure the folks over at Cook’s Illustrated wouldn’t really appreciate, given that they test their recipes over and over until they are perfect. Well. I omitted the anchovies and sun-dried tomatoes to accommodate our tastes. I was happy with breadcrumbs made from some sunflower bread we had… we’re lucky we had bread in the house at all and white sandwich bread does not ever make it into our shopping cart. I used whole-wheat regular-sized rigatoni and we loved it in this recipe, which isn’t always the case with whole-wheat pasta. Buon appetito!
Pasta with Olives, Garlic, and Herbs
Serves 4-6
5 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
6 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 tbsp. minced anchovy fillets (4-6 fillets)
1 tbsp. tomato paste
1/4-1/2 tsp. hot red pepper flakes
1/4 cup drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, rinsed, patted dry, and cut into thin strips
1 cup pitted kalamata olives, rinsed and coarsely chopped
2 large slices white sandwich bread (about 3 oz.) torn into quarters
1 3/4 tsp. table salt
1 lb. mezze rigatoni or farfalle
2 oz. finely grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 cup)
3 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley leaves
1 1/2 cups lightly packed fresh basil leaves, roughly torn
ground black pepper
1 lemon, cut into wedges
Combine 3 tbsp. olive oil, 1 tbsp. garlic, anchovies, tomato paste, red pepper flakes, sun-dried tomatoes, and olives in medium bowl. Set aside.
Pulse bread in food processor until coarsely ground, about 16 one-second pulses. Heat remaining 2 tbsp. oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add breadcrumbs and cook, stirring frequently, until beginning to brown, 4-6 minutes. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, until garlic is fragrant and breadcrumbs are dark golden brown, 1-2 minutes longer. Transfer to plate to cool. Wipe out skillet with paper towels.
Meanwhile, bring 4 quarts of water to a boil in Dutch oven over high heat. Add rigatoni and remaining 1 1/2 tsp. salt. While pasta is cooking, return now-empty skillet to medium heat and add olive mixture. Cook until olive mixture has turned rusty red, 4-6 minutes. Remove 3/4 cup pasta cooking water from pot and add to skillet. Bring to simmer and cook for 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat while pasta finishes cooking.
When pasta is just shy of al dente, drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of pasta cooking water, and transfer back to Dutch oven. Add olive mixture to pasta and toss over medium heat until pasta absorbs most of liquid, about 2 minutes. Stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan. Adjust consistency of sauce with reserved pasta water (Sauce should cling to pasta but not be too loose or runny.) Remove pot from heat and stir in parsley and basil; adjust seasoning with pepper. Serve, passing lemon wedges, remaining Parmesan, and bread crumbs separately.
From Cook’s Illustrated
