The Evolving Epicurean

Paella and Tapas

2012-01-30T18:03:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend we went up to Seattle to visit my family and see my uncles, who both normally live in Southern California and I rarely get to see. Since it was a special occasion, my mom made a paella, and I made three different tapas.

This weekend also marked an important anniversary in our family, the passing of my uncle Tavi. While it's always a difficult thing to remember losing someone you care so deeply for and who is still sorely missed, it seemed appropriate to be enjoying such a lovely meal with family. My uncle Tavi was one of the first who ignited my passion for cooking and for all things Spain. His wife is from Spain and they were kind enough to welcome me into their family at various points in my study abroad in Spain in college, as well as during my travels post-graduation.

I'll let the food speak for itself this time around.

Camarones al ajillo (garlic shrimp)

Tortilla Espanola (potato and egg "omelette")

From the top clockwise: tortilla, manchego cheese, veggie platter, almejas con chorizo (clams with chorizo), and camarones al ajillo (garlic shrimp)

The two chefs for the night...cooking with my mami

Mom making her should-be-famous paella

Piece de resistance

One of the greatest gifts my uncle gave me was the reminder to live, laugh, and love. They didn't have a lot of money, but some of my best memories are from the weeks I spent with that family. We always ate well and had a great time. And isn't that what sharing a meal is all about?

I'll post the most raved about recipe (besides the paella, of course) for your enjoyment. This may seem like a lot of garlic, but it's really not excessive. My version was adjusted due to a lack of olive oil--I had to use garlic infused olive oil, so I changed a few things to accommodate the extra flavor. Obviously, you don't need to do this. Also, if anyone in the Portland area is going to make this, let me know because I have a huge bag of dried New Mexico chiles that will probably sit in my cabinet until the next time I make this.

Spanish-style garlic shrimp

Cook's Illustrated
January 2008
14 medium garlic cloves, peeled
1 pound large shrimp, peeled, deveined, and tails removed
8 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 bay leaf 1 (2-inch) piece
mild dried chile, such as New Mexico, roughly broken, seeds included
1 1/2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves

1. Mince 2 garlic cloves with chef's knife or garlic press. Toss minced garlic with shrimp, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and salt in medium bowl. Let shrimp marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes
2. Meanwhile, using flat side of chef's knife, smash 4 garlic cloves. Heat smashed garlic with remaining 6 tablespoons olive oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until garlic is light golden brown, 4 to 7 minutes. Remove pan from heat and allow oil to cool to room temperature. Using slotted spoon, remove smashed garlic from skillet and discard.
3. Thinly slice remaining 8 cloves garlic. Return skillet to low heat and add sliced garlic, bay leaf, and chile. Cook, stirring occasionally, until garlic is tender but not browned, 4 to 7 minutes. (If garlic has not begun to sizzle after 3 minutes, increase heat to medium-low.) Increase heat to medium-low; add shrimp with marinade to pan in single layer. Cook shrimp, undisturbed, until oil starts to gently bubble, about 2 minutes. Using tongs, flip shrimp and continue to cook until almost cooked through, about 2 minutes longer. Increase heat to high and add sherry vinegar and parsley. Cook, stirring constantly, until shrimp are cooked through and oil is bubbling vigorously, 15 to 20 seconds. Serve immediately.

Chili and Cornbread

2012-01-23T19:18:00.000-08:00

These little hybrid delights finally have me convinced cornbread can be good

I don't like cornbread. There, I said it. It feels good to get that off my chest. It's either dry and crumbly with little to no flavor or overly sweet and cakey, making a poor excuse for a side to a delicious chili or BBQ. So what do I pair with the white chicken chili I planned for our last (tear) football Sunday?

I received a free copy of Cook's Country in the mail last week and saw this recipe for Old-Fashioned Corn Muffins. It cited the same complaints as I had--too cakey, too sweet. This 19-century inspired recipe uses yeast to leaven the batter and a lot less butter and sugar (ok, stick with me here). The result? A nicely balanced, rustic and satisfyingly corn-flavored dinner muffin. I understand they also make some great toast. I will report back on that one.

Next up was our lighter white bean and chicken chili. We got back from a fabulous trip from Bend last weekend with three of our favorite couples, who are all fabulous cooks. Needless to say with that build up, we ate well. Too well. I'm trying to make our menus, even the weekend ones, a little healthier. So, look for more meatless and health-conscious posts in the near future...we're also saving money like mad.

I found this Lighter Chicken Chili recipe on Cooksillustrated.com, but it was also available in The Best Light Recipes cookbook from the America's Test Kitchen. The recipe is suggestive of almost a chicken pozole, only not using any tomatillos or hominy (although that is a suggested substitute for the cannellini beans). I opted for the written recipe since I wanted to up our protein content.

While the "chili" turned out to be more of a soup, despite simmering for the maximum time, the depth of flavor and satisfaction of eating make you forget it's technically a light soup. In fact, I can't imagine it being heavier. As a bonus, you can make it as spicy or as mild as you like by removing or keeping the ribs and/or seeds of the chiles. We errored on the mild side and topped it off with a dollop of lowfat plain yogurt and avocado. Perfect for our last (sniff) Sunday of football at home for the next six months. Next year, Broncos. Next year.

Added bonus: we bought two whole chickens and used the breasts for this soup, and saved the legs to make a hoisin-glazed chicken for dinner later this week--healthy and budget friendly!

Old-Fashioned Corn Muffins
Cook's Country magazine

1 cup whole or lowfat milk, heated to 110 degrees
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 1/2 teaspoons rapid-rise yeast
1 large egg
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup finely ground cornmeal (although I used medium ground and it was fine)
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt

1. Warm oven. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 200 degrees. When oven reaches 200 degrees, turn it off. Grease 12-cup muffin tin.
2. Mix batter. Whisk milk, butter and yeast in large liquid measuring cup until yeast dissolves, then whisk in egg. In bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment*, mix 1/2 cup flour, cornmeal, brown sugar, and salt until combined. With mixer on low, add milk mixture in steady stream and mix until dough comes together, about 1 minute. Gradually add remaining flour until incorporated. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until batter is thick and elastic, about 3 minutes.
3. Let rise. Using greased 1/4-cup measure, transfer batter to muffin cups. Cover loosely with greased plastic wrap and place in turned-off oven until batter reaches rims of muffins cups, about 1 hour.
4. Bake muffins. Remove muffin tin from oven and heat oven to 375 degrees. Discard plastic and bake muffins until golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool in tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack. Serve. (Muffins can be stored in airtight container at room temperature for 3 days).

Make ahead: Filled muffin tin can be refrigerated, covered, for 24 hours. Let batter sit at room temperature for 1 hour before proceeding to step 4.

*Note: I didn't use my stand mixer and was able to do this step with a hand mixer, although you want to be sure yours has enough power to not poop out on you because the batter does get quite elastic.

Light Chicken Chili
The Best Light Recipe

Serves 8
3 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (2 whole breasts, split)
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
3 poblano chiles , stemmed, seeded, and chopped medium
3 Anaheim chile peppers (medium), stemmed, seeded, and chopped medium
2 medium jalapeño chiles , one medium and one small, seeds and ribs removed and set aside, flesh minced
2 medium onions, minced
2 tablespoons ground cumin
6 medium cloves garlic, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 2 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons ground oregano
8 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (from 2 to 3 limes)
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro
4 scallions, sliced thin

1. Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking. Sear the chicken, skin side down, until browned, about 4 minutes. Flip the chicken and sear on the second side until browned, about 4 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate and discard the skin.
2. Add all of the chiles except the small jalapeño, the onions, garlic, cumin, oregano, and 1 teaspoon salt in a large Dutch oven. Cover and cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, until the vegetables are softened, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer half of the chile mixture to a clean plate; set aside.
3. Stir in the broth, chicken, and beans. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is fully cooked, abut 20 minutes. Using tongs, transfer the chicken to a large plate. Continue to simmer the chili, uncovered, until it has thickened, 35 to 40 minutes.
4. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred the chicken into bite-sized pieces, discarding the bones. Stir the shredded chicken, reserved chile mixture, lime juice, cilantro, scallions, and small jalapeño into the chili. Season with salt and pepper to taste. If the chili is too thick, stir in additional water to thin it out. (The chili can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days.)
PER 1 1/2-CUP SERVING: Cal 320; Fat 4.5 g; Sat fat .5 g; Chol 80 mg; Carb 28g; Protein 39 g; Fiber 9 g; Sodium 1240 mg

Grown-up Mac and Cheese

2012-01-09T19:14:00.000-08:00

Get the recipe

I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but around here, we ~~like~~ love our mac and cheese. (Ahem... see here and here...oh, and here) So when our beloved Broncos were playing their first playoff game in six years, I decided we needed a themed meal. I made some delicious orange and blue snacks for the game, and bleu cheese mac and cheese for dinner. Of course, I managed to pick a recipe that used extra sharp cheddar (white) and bleu cheese really isn't all that blue. Oh well, it was the thought that counted.

I strayed from my usual habit of using an America's Test Kitchen recipe and ventured down the Food Network path. It's a dangerous decision, I know, however I do tend to like Ina Garten recipes. I had to make some adjustments along the way, though...something I'm not used to anymore since 99% of the recipes I get from ATK are so perfect. I hardly have to think about it. I realized while I was processing the bread for the breadcrumbs that there was no fat included--how were they ever going to brown and crisp properly? In retrospect, I also wish I had added just a touch of hot sauce, and noticed prior to combining my cheese sauce with the pasta that the dish was only written to serve two. This is after I had cooked a full pound of pasta. So I made some very quick decisions and added a little more milk, boiled it a little longer to make it thicker, and shredded a little more cheese. Thank goodness I always have more cheese than I need!

A little spicy chicken sausage and broccoli balanced out the richness of the cheeses

Regardless of my small issues, the dish turned out beautifully. I really liked the combination of cheeses. It was rich and nutty, but with a nice bite from the extra sharp and bleu cheeses. The thick cut bacon I bought from our local German deli was a very nice touch, as was the bit of fresh basil in the breadcrumbs. I'll tinker with it a bit more, but I'll definitely add this to my list of favorites in the mac and cheese category.

Oh and...GO BRONCOS!!!!

Thai-style Chicken with Basil

2012-01-09T07:29:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you, but I get bored easily with chicken breasts. My beloved could eat them pretty much most days, but within a few meals, I'm over even the cheesiest of chicken. I have noticed that lately the only Asian-style dish I throw into our weekly meals has been stir fry. While it's a great standby and a good way to use tofu when it goes on sale, that gets old, too. So when chicken breasts went on sale last week, I had to come up with something a little more entertaining. Enter the Thai-style chicken with basil. I first saw this recipe in Cook's Illustrated a couple of years ago and figured with that much fish sauce and chile peppers, it must be good! The only downside is the amount of basil needed deters me from making it more often. At $2.99/bag (or $1.19/ounce in bulk), the two cups this dish calls for can make it less than budget-friendly. Hence why I'm only making it when chicken goes on sale for a couple bucks off per pound.

This is actually a very easy dish, but it feels like it's a special meal. I also pointed out to Shawn that it's probably one of the healthiest dishes I've ever made for a Saturday night.

Start by sauteeing the aromatics

Much of the chopping work done is in the food processor--yet another reason to love this dish

Cooking doesn't take long so pay attention

Adding in even MORE basil

Wait until wilted

Time to serve

Given the exotic nature of this dish, I figured I needed something somewhat interesting to complement the flavor of the chicken. I served this dish with some simple brown rice made with a teaspoon of coconut oil to help cool the fire for the Thai chiles. Oh...and frozen green beans. Can't forget the greens!

Thai-style chicken with basil
Cook's Illustrated

Serves 4

Since tolerance for spiciness can vary, we’ve kept our recipe relatively mild. Sweetness without sufficient heat can become cloying, so we also cut back the sugar. For a very mild version of the dish, remove the seeds and ribs from the chiles. If fresh Thai chiles are unavailable, substitute 2 serranos or 1 medium jalapeño. In Thailand, crushed red pepper and sugar are passed at the table, along with extra fish sauce and white vinegar, so the dish can be adjusted to suit individual taste. Serve with steamed rice and vegetables, if desired.

Ingredients
2 cups fresh basil leaves, tightly packed
3 medium garlic cloves, peeled
6 green or red Thai chiles , stemmed (see note)
2 tablespoons fish sauce, plus extra for serving (see note)
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon white vinegar, plus extra for serving (see note)
1 tablespoon sugar, plus extra for serving (see note)
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 2-inch pieces
3 medium shallots, peeled and thinly sliced (about 3/4 cup)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Red pepper flakes, for serving (see note)

Instructions
1. Process 1 cup basil leaves, garlic, and chiles in food processor until finely chopped, 6 to 10 one-second pulses, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula once during processing. Transfer 1 tablespoon basil mixture to small bowl and stir in 1 tablespoon fish sauce, oyster sauce, vinegar, and sugar; set aside. Transfer remaining basil mixture to 12-inch heavy-bottomed nonstick skillet. Do not wash food processor bowl.
2. Pulse chicken and 1 tablespoon fish sauce in food processor until meat is chopped into -approximate 1/4-inch pieces, six to eight 1-second pulses. Transfer to medium bowl and refrigerate 15 minutes.
3. Stir shallots and oil into basil mixture in skillet. Heat over medium-low heat (mixture should start to sizzle after about 11/2 minutes; if it doesn’t, adjust heat accordingly), stirring constantly, until garlic and shallots are golden brown, 5 to 8 minutes.
4. Add chicken, increase heat to medium, and cook, stirring and breaking up chicken with potato masher or rubber spatula, until only traces of pink remain, 2 to 4 minutes. Add reserved basil-fish sauce mixture and continue to cook, stirring constantly until chicken is no longer pink, about 1 minute. Stir in remaining cup basil leaves and cook, stirring constantly, until basil is wilted, 30 to 60 seconds. Serve immediately, passing extra fish sauce, sugar, red pepper flakes, and vinegar separately.

Birthday Cassoulet

2011-12-19T17:24:00.000-08:00

Last night we celebrated our good friend's birthday with a nice Sunday dinner. He works a lot and despite my best efforts, I rarely get to give him a nice home cooked meal. Since he has great taste in food and has eaten at many of the fine dining restaurants in Portland, I decided some French comfort food was in order.

A few months ago, I made my first cassoulet for our friends as a thank you for ~~transferring~~ saving all of our files from our dead PC to the new iMac. They had had it in Paris and remembered it fondly as one of their best meals while in Europe. Determined to make it as authentically as I could (without making my own duck confit...that's the next challenge), I went to Cook's Illustrated first for a recipe and found this one (subscription required) that came very close without the duck. It calls for French garlic sausage, which I eventually found at Pastaworks. I decided not to be scared off by the price and thank goodness I wasn't. It makes ALL the difference in this rustic yet flavorful dish. I can't even imagine using any other kind of sausage. It wouldn't do it justice. Even in reheating it, the sausage was just as tender and perfect as straight out of the oven. If you decide to make anything even similar, trust me, it's worth seeking out. And by seeking out, I mean, just get it. I have dreams about eating this sausage. I'm not kidding.

First real meal in my new Dutch oven. I also planned in "Mellie time" this time around and managed to serve dinner at a reasonable (American) hour of 7pm.

To go along with our hearty dinner, I opted for just a salad. Paired with simplified version of cassoulet, again on cooksillustrated.com, was a recipe for greens with olive dressing and warmed goat cheese rounds.

Really hard to slice this goat cheese, but luckily it's easy to form back into rounds before pressing the bread crumbs on.

The bitterness of the radicchio and spiciness of the arugula went nicely with bite from cured black olives, but finished very cleanly with the goat cheese. Since there's not a lot of bread crumbs or spices on the goat cheese, it didn't feel overwhelming with the strong flavors coming from our main dish. We opted to open our last (tear) bottle of Gregory Graham Syrah. It went perfectly, but it was hard to part with that last bottle. Sigh...guess we'll just have to order another case...

I bought some simple blood orange sorbet for dessert, but no one could even fathom stuffing even that into our bellies. I felt like it was my birthday!

Holiday Cookies

2011-12-15T10:21:00.000-08:00

I love the holidays if only for the food. We get the best of the best--ginger, pumpkin, chocolate, molasses--everything that says warmth. Oh yeah, and that's just the dessert side of things. While I don't have the sweet tooth I once had, I still greatly enjoy spending a whole day baking cookies. I took last Friday off to get started on my long list of cookies to be made. Shawn gave me a look when I showed him the eight varieties I planned to make in one day, and I reassured him that I had a plan. A cookie plan. Needless to say, given the great number of refrigerator cookies I had planned, they all didn't get made. Not even close. I still had a great time.

Ginger shortbread--my first time attempting shortbread

The sometimes infamous "crack" almonds

Mexican Wedding cookies, Russian teacakes, walnut crescents...whatever you call them, they're delicious

Vanilla pretzel sables

Chocolate and vanilla spiral sables

On the left, chocolate covered crackers and peanut butter, on the right, chocolate dipped macaroons

I got tired of dipping, so I went freestyle the rest of the batch

I am pretty proud of all my cookie accomplishments this year. I tackled a lot of butter cookies, which are sometimes a little fussy to bake. But trust me, I tasted them all and they are good. Admittedly, I hate coconut macaroons, but the ones shown above are not bad. The only sweetener is the sweetened coconut, so they don't have that sickly sugary taste I'm used to with coconut macaroons. My favorite is definitely the vanilla pretzel, though.

What are your favorite holiday cookies? I got some nice responses on Facebook when I asked and that's how some of these ended up on my cookie plan, and then were gifted to those who requested them. Let me know...you might just get lucky, too!

I'll be back soon with a more cohesive entry, but I felt the need to share my baking adventures and let my few readers know I'm still alive. Until then...MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Easy Winter Vegetable Soup

2011-12-06T07:56:00.001-08:00

It's already feeling like winter, even though we're still a couple weeks away. The weather has been very crisp and clear--quite a treat for us in Portland since we're usually in the middle of a month-long stretch of rain at this time of year. With the holidays approaching, our calendar is filling up and I have less time for long-cooking Sunday meals. Kale was on sale, though, and I had to get in one of my favorite soups--kale and white bean soup. I know I've already posted a similar soup before, but this one is so easy, quick and filling, I had to share the latest rendition. And there are really limitless combinations...I happened to have an extra potato hanging around, so I chopped it up and threw it in. There are so many warm, earthy flavors. I just love it.

Winter Vegetable Soup
Serves 6-8

1 T olive oil
3-4 slices of bacon, chopped
1 bunch of kale, stems removed and leaves cut into 1-inch pieces
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
2-3 carrots, peeled and chopped
2-3 stalks of celery, chopped
1 small russet potato, chopped
1 t dried thyme (or couple sprigs of fresh thyme)
2 cans white beans, rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes, rinsed
4 cups chicken broth
4 cups water
Parmesan cheese

Heat olive oil over medium heat in Dutch oven or stock pot and add bacon. Cook until bacon has rendered fat and is crisp. Remove bacon from pot and set aside on paper towel lined plate.

Add shallot, carrots, celery, and thyme and cook until softened, but not browned (about 10 minutes), stirring occasionally. Add garlic and pepper flakes and cook until fragrant (about 30 seconds). Add kale and cook until just covered with oil. Add potatoes, rinsed beans and tomatoes, bacon, broth and water, bring to a boil. Once boiling, bring down to low heat, partially cover and simmer for about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add thinly sliced parmesan and serve.

Thanksgiving Wrap Up

2011-11-25T09:34:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving this year differed greatly from last year's Spanish extravaganza in that we went "normal" and had turkey and all the fixings. I also did not get to have my family down to visit or get to go home to be with them, which was a bummer, but luckily our friends took us in and we prepared quite the feast.

To start, Stacey and Chris did some lovely appetizers of meat, cheese, veggies, and dip, to which I added my deviled eggs. Here's where my slightly-off dishes began. I was so busy on Sunday prepping everything I could in advance of the big day, I didn't carefully time my hard boiled eggs. Fearing the green-tinted yolk syndrome, I dunked them into the ice bath a little too soon and had to discard quite a bit of the yolk. Everyone liked how tangy they were, but I enjoy a little more creamy structure to my deviled eggs.

Like I mentioned, I spent a lot of time prepping myself on Sunday, and again on Wednesday, for the big day since I knew Stacey would be busy cooking the turkey and many of her other wonderful side dishes. While it turned out to be a time saver, unfortunately almost all of my dishes turned out to be just short of perfection. I know what you're thinking, "I'm sure it was fine! It still tasted good, right?" Well, yes, for the most part. But I've made almost all of these things before and had them turn out so tastebud-meltingly good (yep, that's a term now), that anything short of that felt like a disappointment.

From bottom left clockwise: cauliflower gratin, butterhorn rolls, cornbread andouille sausage stuffing, brussel sprouts with garlic and pine nuts

The highlight of my part of the meal had to the butterhorn rolls. I am shocked and amazed that Shawn and I didn't dive right into them when they were still warm and the intoxicating smell was filling the car on the way there, but somehow we resisted. Too bad too...I bet they would have been divine. Lucky for us, we have 5 of them sitting in the freezer for a future date.

Overall, it was a lovely Thanksgiving with great friends who know how to cook a mean turkey and sides. I am eternally grateful to be able to spend Thanksgiving with our friends who are like family to us.

Easy Roast Beef

2011-11-22T08:49:00.001-08:00

It was a busy Sunday in our little house while I prepped all that I could for our Turkey Day potluck at Chris and Stacey's. I managed to fit in a warm Sunday dinner for us and testing out a recipe (not pictured) for Cook's Illustrated (yes, I'm that cool...ok, it's open to anyone, but I still feel cool). I used a bottom round
roast, even though Cook's Illustrated warned against using one due to the difficulty in carving it. Given that most of the CI recipes are written for ideal conditions, I didn't worry too much about using an "inferior" cut of meat. Lucky for me it turned out perfectly, despite a terrible meat thermometer and having to do some guessing on when a smaller roast would be done. I served this lovely roast with horseradish cream sauce, green beans (ahem, my one shortcut for the day...they were frozen), and a recipe from the Best Light Recipes, barley and mushroom risotto. What a delicious dinner, and well deserved after a day of making two types of rolls, cornbread, boiling eggs, and this meal.

Much more to come after the big day!

Best French Onion Soup

2011-11-13T15:40:00.001-08:00

Fall is finally here in Portland. The leaves have changed, but we've had less rain than usual, so we have been enjoying the colors for much longer than usual (no complaints). The rain is starting up again and with that, the need for more comfort food. I made this French onion soup years ago when Cook's Illustrated first published it in January of 2008. We were so blown away, I knew I'd make it again. Why I waited this long? I'm not sure. But fortunately for me, gruyere and baguettes went on sale, so it seemed natural to finally make it again.

It was also date night, so I tried to set a nice table with my grandmother's tablecloth and a nice antipasti

What sets this recipe apart from many is that you deglaze the pot two to three times. I did three, for good measure. The first couple of hours of cooking is left to the oven, so it's not terribly time intensive until you hit the third hour. I integrated two cups of onions I had saved (in the freezer) from my birthday BBQ after the first step of softening the onions, so I used fewer onions than the recipe calls for. Below is a progression from after the onions come out of the oven. By this time, they have been cooking for over two hours. You can see how important the deglazing process is for creating a deep, rich flavor.

I was a little nervous adding in foreign onions that had been simmered in beer and below pork sausages in a previous life, but they managed to cook down pretty well. I added more liquid to account for the extra onions. I figured it couldn't really hurt. Luckily for me, it didn't.

The darkening process from oven through three rounds of deglazing (from left to right)

After the pot is deglazed, the final addition is a half cup of sherry, let that simmer off, then add the liquids and herbs, and let simmer for a half hour until all the flavors have integrated.

In the meantime, you can make your croutons to float on the soup. If you only have regular soup bowls, not lovely broiler safe ones, you add the cheese to your croutons and stick in the broiler until bubbly, then set them afloat on a sea of deeply caramelized onion soup.

Bubbly cheese makes everything better

The soup post-simmer

This is definitely becoming one of my favorite cold weather dishes. It's so simple, but so delicious. All it takes is a little patience and a whole bunch of onions.

It's recommended to splurge on some good Gruyere in this case, otherwise you'll lose out on that nutty, rich flavor

Best French Onion Soup
Published January 1, 2008. From Cook's Illustrated.
SERVES 6
Sweet onions, such as Vidalia or Walla Walla, will make this recipe overly sweet. Be patient when caramelizing the onions in step 2; the entire process takes 45 to 60 minutes. Use broiler-safe crocks and keep the rim of the bowls 4 to 5 inches from the heating element to obtain a proper gratinée of melted, bubbly cheese. If using ordinary soup bowls, sprinkle the toasted bread slices with Gruyère and return them to the broiler until the cheese melts, then float them on top of the soup. We prefer Swanson Certified Organic Free Range Chicken Broth and Pacific Beef Broth. For the best flavor, make the soup a day or 2 in advance. Alternatively, the onions can be prepared through step 1, cooled in the pot, and refrigerated for up to 3 days before proceeding with the recipe.

INGREDIENTS
Soup
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces
6 large yellow onions (about 4 pounds), halved and cut pole to pole into 1/4-inch-thick slices
Table salt
2 cups water, plus extra for deglazing
1/2 cup dry sherry
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups beef broth
6 sprigs fresh thyme, tied with kitchen twine
1 bay leaf
Ground black pepper
Cheese Croutons
1 small baguette, cut into 1/2-inch slices
8 ounces shredded Gruyère cheese (about 2 1/2 cups)

INSTRUCTIONS
1. For the soup: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Generously spray inside of heavy-bottomed large (at least 7-quart) Dutch oven with nonstick cooking spray. Place butter in pot and add onions and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, covered, 1 hour (onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume). Remove pot from oven and stir onions, scraping bottom and sides of pot. Return pot to oven with lid slightly ajar and continue to cook until onions are very soft and golden brown, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours longer, stirring onions and scraping bottom and sides of pot after 1 hour.

2. Carefully remove pot from oven and place over medium-high heat. Using oven mitts to handle pot, cook onions, stirring frequently and scraping bottom and sides of pot, until liquid evaporates and onions brown, 15 to 20 minutes, reducing heat to medium if onions are browning too quickly. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until pot bottom is coated with dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes, adjusting heat as necessary. (Scrape any fond that collects on spoon back into onions.) Stir in 1/4 cup water, scraping pot bottom to loosen crust, and cook until water evaporates and pot bottom has formed another dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes. Repeat process of deglazing 2 or 3 more times, until onions are very dark brown. Stir in sherry and cook, stirring frequently, until sherry evaporates, about 5 minutes.

3. Stir in broths, 2 cups water, thyme, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, scraping up any final bits of browned crust on bottom and sides of pot. Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 30 minutes. Remove and discard herbs, then season with salt and pepper.

4. For the croutons: While soup simmers, arrange baguette slices in single layer on baking sheet and bake in 400-degree oven until bread is dry, crisp, and golden at edges, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

5. To serve: Adjust oven rack 6 inches from broiler element and heat broiler. Set individual broiler-safe crocks on baking sheet and fill each with about 1 3/4 cups soup. Top each bowl with 1 or 2 baguette slices (do not overlap slices) and sprinkle evenly with Gruyère. Broil until cheese is melted and bubbly around edges, 3 to 5 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Light(ish) Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-11-09T20:03:00.000-08:00

The other night I was bored. Shawn had gone off to write (his usual post-dinner routine), and although I had just made a delicious chili dinner, I still had some kitchen time left in me. When I get this baking kick on a random night, I normally don't have all the ingredients I need to make anything. I'm either missing chocolate chips, or oatmeal, or whatever...but this time I checked and had just enough to make oatmeal cookies from the Best Light Recipe cookbook from America's Test Kitchen. So I thought.

I got started with the process of mixing my dry ingredients, creamed my sugars and was getting ready to add the next ingredient, vanilla, when it struck me. I used all my vanilla for the Cookie Monster cupcakes and hadn't bought anymore. Here I am with almost all of my ingredients ready to go, without one pretty major ingredient. I scour my cabinets for something similar to vanilla, but come up empty-handed. With a bit of a wince and my fingers crossed, I add about a tablespoon of cognac I have left from another recipe and a touch of almond extract. I was using almonds and nuts in the cookies already--it could only help, right?

I left the sugar mixture sitting for a few minutes while figuring out my flavoring problem and inadvertently used a technique from the Test Kitchen's perfect chocolate chip cookies (the recipe I used for Cookie Monster's favorite treat). I let the sugar mixture sit, letting it dissolve more, then whipped it again. The result? A more caramelized and richer cookie.

I finished chopping up my ingredients, threw it all together, and baked as directed, crossing my fingers the whole time the almond extract wouldn't overwhelm everything and the cognac would hold up against all the other flavors.

The results were spectacular. I didn't overbake them and ended up with a chewy cookie with a nice crunch along the edge and perfect caramelized flavor. I love happy accidents.

Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then move to a wire rack (or eat them while still warm and gooey)

All the extra goodies I added ended up making a few more than 24 cookies, as written

Lighter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
by America's Test Kitchen
[substitutions noted in brackets]

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
3/4 cup (3 3/4 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour [I used 2 oz all-purpose & 1 3/4 oz whole wheat flour]
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted & cooled
1 large egg
1 Tbsp vanilla extract [1 Tbsp cognac, dash of almond extract]
1 cup packed (7 oz) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup raisins [1 packet of raw TJ's trail mix chopped, 1/4 c chopped white chocolate, 1/4 c semi-sweet chocolate chips]

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Whisk the oats, flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk the butter, egg, and vanilla together. Stir in the brown sugar until smooth, smearing any remaining clumps of sugar against the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula. [Let sit for a few minutes, whisk again, let sit again, then whisk again.] Stir in the oat mixture and raisins until thoroughly combined.

3. Working with a level tablespoon of dough each time, roll the dough into 1-inch balls. (If the dough is too soft to roll, refrigerate until firm.) Place the balls on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2 1/2 inches apart (you will fit 12 on each baking sheet). [My recipe produced a bit more dough due to the extra goodies I added, so it's more like 28 cookies on mine.]

4. Bake the cookies, one tray at a time, until the edges are light golden and the centers are just set, 11 to 13 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through baking (do not overbake). Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then serve warm, or transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. Bake the second tray while the first tray cools.

Per cookie: Cal 90; Fat 2.5 g; Sat fat 1.5 g; Chol 15 mg; Carb 16 g; Protein 1 g; Fiber 1 g; Sodium 30 mg.

New York Travels

2011-10-24T18:38:00.000-07:00

I have been a little quiet around here since last week we had an amazing vacation to New York--both the city and upstate, to see my in-laws. Obviously, we ate well in NYC:

Bouchon from Le Bouchon...we also had a ham and cheese croissant, but obviously I couldn't resist it long enough to take a picture

Pizza in Little Italy

No, that's not a cigar, that's my first cannoli

Spicy pork soup at Wo Hop in Chinatown

Steamed dumplings

Pork and snow peas

Bagel and lox from 72nd Street Bagel

Sides for our enormous sandwich (the smaller pickles tasted like poo)

Corned beef and pastrami (we had to split it if we were going to ever dinner)

While in upstate, we were treated to a lovely home-cooked meal when we arrived. I wish I had taken a picture of the Italian feast! We had chicken parmesan, which by now you should know Shawn adores, and lasagna. It was very nice after a weekend of eating out to get a homemade meal.

We also went out with a big group of family friends for wing night. $4.50 for a dozen wings? Yes, please! Only thing missing was better beer, but you can't win 'em all.

Since Shawn's parents always come to visit in the summer (or in last year's case, in October for our wedding), I never get to cook anything for them. We either grill or go out since it's too hot outside to cook. I took advantage of the cooler weather and made them a Mexican meal, given that there's not a lot of authentic Mexican food in upstate New York. I opted for chile verde and lucked out that their grocery store carried tomatillos. Given more time, I would have made tortillas, too, since the only options were Mission flour tortillas and a brand called Chi Chi's (not even going there).

Chile verde with beans, rice, and a little coleslaw, of sorts

With plenty of leftovers, I took over breakfast the next morning and made huevos rancheros.

It was a fun and seemingly quick visit, but we have lots of wonderful memories. It was such a delight to get to celebrate our first anniversary in a new city and then with our family. We love you!

October 16, 2010...the day I married my best friend and the man of my dreams, and got to join this great family

Mediterranean Feast

2011-10-10T18:34:00.000-07:00

This post is going to be short and sweet. We are 4 days from leaving for New York (both the city and upstate), and my time is a little limited. I wanted to share some pictures and recipes from my most recent experiment. My favorite guinea pig Michael and his partner came over for a long-awaited Sunday dinner. They are nice enough to be watching our kitties while we're away, so I wanted to make something worth their while.

Michael was the original guest at my weekly Sunday dinners and it's been awhile since we dined together. Per our old tradition, I tried out something new on him. I recently came across this kale and tomato salad recipe and decided I needed to make it again. I also had a couple of pounds of ground beef in the freezer that needed to be used before we went away. I'm a little sick of our usual ground beef recipes (taco meat, meat sauce, etc), so I put my thinking cap on and came up with a dish that I've had at Ya Hala before and have very fond memories of--sheikh el mahshi. It is a stuffed eggplant dish using ground beef (or lamb), pine nuts, onions, and spices. I did a little adjusting using what I had on hand. They whole thing is covered in tomato sauce, then baked until tender.

Being that it's fall now, I had to make bread, of course. I used the America's Test Kitchen recipe for easy grilled flatbread, a favorite of Michael's, and rounded it out with some simple roasted cauliflower.

While this dish is more traditionally stuffed eggplant, the lack of small eggplants at the store forced me
to layer like a lasagna

Flatbread has risen

Sometimes the simplest things in life...forgot the feta, though

Right after coming out of the oven

Honestly, I could have taken a prettier picture (like before tearing into my flatbread, as shown here), but I was hungry and it looked so good I forgot

Like I mentioned in the above caption, while this is traditionally stuffed, I didn't see any small eggplants to use for stuffing. I like the way it came out being layered like a lasagna. Before layering, I dried the eggplant out a bit in the oven so there wouldn't be excess moisture. I might pan fry it next time.

Sheik el Mahshi...sorta

Here's my adapted recipe (from about a million I found on the Internet) for those of us not lucky enough to have a Lebanese guide to this dish...

Filling
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
About 3 T pine nuts
1-2 t cinnamon
1-2 t coriander
salt and pepper to taste (don't overdo it since you'll be covering in tomato sauce)

Eggplants (about 2 medium), sliced into 1/4 discs
1 can of good tomato sauce (I prefer Muir Glen organic)
Fresh oregano (again, not traditional, but I had it and thought it would taste good)

Oil

Heat a teaspoon of oil in a large saute pan until hot, add onion and saute until almost translucent. Add pine nuts and cook until starting to brown slightly. Add ground beef and cook until no longer pink. At this point, I drained off the excess fat, but depending on what you used, you may not need to. Return to pan, add cinnamon, coriander, salt and pepper and cook until completed coated. Remove from heat.

While meat is resting, layer slices of eggplants on broiler pan (or wire rack rested on pan), and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes. Using a baking dish large enough for your eggplant, add some oil to the bottom of the pan to coat, then layer the eggplant on the bottom. Once you have few gaps left, scoop about 3/4 of the ground beef mixture onto the eggplant and distribute evenly. Layer the remaining slices of eggplant on top of the meat mixture and pour the can of tomato sauce over the top, spreading evenly. I rinsed my can out with a little white wine because, why not? Scoop the remaining meat mixture in the middle of the dish, cover with foil, and bake at 375 for about 15*20 minutes. After 15-20 minutes the eggplant should be getting soft, so remove the foil and continue to bake uncovered for another 15-20 minutes, or until the eggplant is tender, but still firm and the flavors have combined. Let set for about 10-15 minutes, sprinkle with the fresh oregano and serve with brown rice, or bulgur wheat, and plain yogurt.

The Saga of the Cookie Monster Cupcakes

2011-10-03T18:04:00.000-07:00

I'm never working with blue frosting again. At least not with a piping bag. Below is a picture of the prototype of my sister's 40th birthday Cookie Monster cupcakes. She saw them on Facebook months ago and asked if I could make them. "Sure!" I said with so much naive enthusiasm. After consulting with some fellow bakers on Twitter, I decided to go with a buttercream frosting. I had never made buttercream, but how hard could it be?

They look so innocent

The frosting itself is very easy, thanks to a great recipe in my America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. It is a little time consuming, but the product turns out so well, it's well worth the time. I added the blue food coloring (a combo of regular blue and neon blue for that extra Muppet-esque blue) along with the vanilla, figuring it wouldn't break any of the fat at that point. I was right! Woo hoo! Score one for me! And despite getting blue dye all over the place, it wasn't as hard as I thought. I experimented with the cupcake a couple times settling on a yellow cake recipe that I threw some confetti topping into and made, essentially, funfetti cupcakes (by the way, I think the first batch of white cake I made with the star shaped confetti turned out the best, but I didn't have time to go get more).

For the experiment cookies, I made thin, crispy chocolate chip cookies because they looked small enough (pictured in Cookie Monster's mouth above), but I used WAY too much dough and they ended up being more than a mouth full for our blue friend. I'm really glad I had the practice and really wish I hadn't changed my cookie plan.

Of course the day I plan to bake my new batch of cookies, it turned out to be our last 80+ degree day in Portland. I made the dough for the Cook's Illustrated perfect chocolate chip cookie (and they are perfect), wrapped it up and decided to bake it on Saturday, the day of the party.

Fast forward to Saturday. Why, oh why, must I always leave just barely enough time to accomplish a task? I went out with my mom and sister for some last-minute party items and didn't get back to the house until a little after noon. The party was at 4. I started with the cookies and had to experiment on the baking time and temperature of the oven since I was making them about a third of the size recommended. After one batch, I perfected it and moved on to making the cake while the cookies baked. The cake turned out well, even with forgetting my scale (best.way.ever to measure), and having to multiply odd cup measurements by 1.5. So, chocolate chip cookies - check! Cupcakes - check! Just had to finish defrosting the frosting from being in the refrigerator, make the eyes with the white chocolate discs and chocolate chips, let everything cool, then it was go time. I still had a couple hours, but had to give up the kitchen to mom, who was making some amazing Mexican food for us that night.

Getting my cake ingredients ready while cookies bake

Have to get the sprinkles well integrated, but hurry before they bleed too much and you overwork the batter

My mountain of cookies...sister says I should work for Nabisco...hoping that's a compliment

Eyes without a face...

Cupcake assembly line

Just about ready to frost--don't want Cookie Monster's face to melt

Shawn expertly stuffed these way-too-thick cookies in the cupcakes without breaking them too much

It's finally time to frost, I get my piping bag ready and filled with a cup or so of blue frosting. I quickly realize that this frosting will be getting everywhere and after dying my right hand a nice bright blue, end up putting some gloves on to finish the task.

Did you know buttercream melts fast when it's warm? Um...duh. I knew that, but didn't really consider that the huge trays of beans my mom was frying and pots of rice she was making was going to considerably warm up the kitchen. So, it was a race to dot the cupcakes with little shaggy blue frosting "hair" before it turned into big blue globs of melted butter and sugar.

The race to the finish line...already starting to glob

Almost done (sorry for the blurry picture)

I'm going to spare you the meltdown (pun intended) that ensued...after the frosting had a few trips back into the refrigerator, I finally managed to finish decorating, minus the eyes. We took the trays of cupcakes outside and let them sit there for a few minutes to cool down so the frosting would set up a little more and I could stick in the eyes, which was done frantically as people were arriving. I broke a few in the process because, unlike the frosting, the eyes didn't stick together as well out in the cold. Sigh.

We added some crumbled up cookies to his face to make it look like he was gorging himself, much like I would be on these suckers...they are perfect

Happy 40th, Gina!

At the end of the night, I had one happy sister...and a lot of guests with blue tongues. However, it will still be a cold day in hell before I work with blue frosting. I guess that would be a good thing if I was going to make them.

Quick Update

2011-09-26T17:15:00.000-07:00

The weather is finally starting to change to fall here in the Pacific NW and with it comes more nights of things like beef stew (below, made for Sunday dinner) and baking.

A fall favorite: America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook Beef Stew

I spent most of Friday night making some homemade funfetti cupcakes and turning a regular, boring old cupcake into the one and only Cookie Monster. It has taken a lot of thought and practice to get it just right, but I think I've figured it out. I will have a post all about the cupcakes later this week. Stay tuned!

Happy Fall!!!

Our Favorite Things

2011-09-19T18:11:00.000-07:00

No, it's not raindrops on roses (although whiskers on kittens are pretty darn cute). However, this weekend I treated our household to our favorite dinners. Mine being sour cream enchiladas, Shawn's being chicken parmesan.

Saturday night we had our new friends Kim and Brian over for dinner for the first time. Kim is an awesome travel blogger who I met by mere coincidence after reading a guest post on another fantastic travel blog I read in its entirety during a two-week temp job. Since Kim is a fellow Portlander, I sent a fateful email wishing her the best as she and her husband prepare for long-term travel, and received a response suggesting a beer sometime (another shared love of ours). The rest is now history. Thankfully they love Mexican food, as well, and so the menu was set. I won't bore you describing the whole process here (see recipe below), but trust me, it's messy. It used to be a lot messier back in the days before I was able to roll an enchilada one-handed, but regardless, it still requires sticking most of that one hand in a bowl full of sour cream and buttermilk. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Part of the lineup

Be careful not to let them sit too long in the sour cream/buttermilk mixture or the tortilla will rip when you try to roll it

That is YEARS of practice in the works

Before baking...already looks good enough to eat

So worth waiting for, though....

Sunday night, after our gluttonous, but fun, evening of Mexican food and beer, I went a little lighter. And by a little lighter, I mean little. I used the America's Test Kitchen recipe for lighter chicken parmesan, but let's face it--you're still throwing a pile of cheese on breaded chicken. It's not exactly the healthiest meal I've ever made. At least it's baked.

Nice and bubbly right from the oven with a little basil from our garden

After preparing both the light and not-so-light fried version of the same dish, I honestly have to say I prefer the light version. It's just a little less greasy, the outside stays nice and crunchy and I barely notice the lower fat cheese. I probably add a lot more than is recommended, but it has to still be better for me. Right? Right??

Abuelita's Sour Cream Enchiladas
Makes 1 dozen

Ingredients
1 dozen corn tortillas (Mission thin style work the best here)
Corn oil (enough to fill pan to about 1/2")
2 cans of whole green chiles (mild)
1 16-oz container of sour cream
1 pint buttermilk
8 oz Monterey jack cheese
8 oz queso fresco (feta will work in place of queso fresco, but find the mildest version you can)
1 onion, minced

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large, shallow bowl, combine sour cream and buttermilk until smooth. Open and drain cans of chiles; tear into thin strips and leave on plate for easy access for assembly. Shred jack cheese and crumble queso fresco into medium bowl. Combine both cheeses with minced onion. Set aside. Set up an assembly line of the sour cream mixture, 9x12 baking dish, cheese mixture and chiles.

Heat corn oil over medium heat until shimmering. Take care to pull each of the tortillas apart before starting (you'll need to move fast once you start). Dip the first tortilla in the oil and heat until it is just soft. Using tongs, pull the tortilla from the oil letting the excess drip off and place into the sour cream mixture. With your free hand (or someone's help), coat the tortilla completely with mixture. Place in one edge of the pan, put a handful of cheese mixture in the middle (take care to distribute evenly), then a chile strip, roll, and repeat with the remaining tortillas. You should have leftover chiles. Warning: after hot oil has been dripping into your sour cream mixture, it may be quite hot. Be careful!

Once you have a tightly packed tray, pour remaining sour cream mixture over enchiladas. If you have any cheese leftover, sprinkle on top. Lay the remaining chiles on each of the enchiladas before baking (this will help you to figure out where one ends and another begins).

Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the foil and continue to bake until bubbly and slightly browned on top, about 15-20 minutes. Let rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Lighter Chicken Parmesan
Courtesy of America's Test Kitchen Best Light Recipes
SERVES 6
If you are tight on time, you can substitute 2 cups of your favorite plain tomato sauce for the Simple Tomato Sauce. Two cups of fresh bread crumbs can be substituted for the panko (they will shrink as they toast). Because these cutlets are breaded, we found that one cutlet per person was plenty—but try to buy the largest chicken breasts you can to ensure good-sized portions.

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups panko (Japanese-style bread crumbs)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 ounce grated Parmesan cheese (about 1/2 cup), plus extra for serving
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
3 large egg whites
1 tablespoon water
Vegetable cooking spray
3 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 8 ounces each), trimmed of excess fat and sliced into cutlets
2 cups tomato sauce, warmed
3 ounces shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (about 3/4 cup)
1 tablespoon minced fresh basil

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 475 degrees. Combine the bread crumbs and oil in a 12-inch skillet and toast over medium heat, stirring often, until golden, about 10 minutes. Spread the bread crumbs in a shallow dish and cool slightly; when cool, stir in the Parmesan.
2. In a second shallow dish, combine the flour, garlic powder, 1 tablespoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper together. In a third shallow dish, whisk the egg whites and water together.
3. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil, place a wire rack on top, and spray the rack with vegetable oil spray. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, then season with salt and pepper. Lightly dredge the cutlets in the flour, shaking off the excess, then dip into the egg whites, and finally coat with the bread crumbs, Press on the bread crumbs to make sure they adhere. Lay the chicken on the wire rack.
4. Spray the tops of the chicken with vegetable oil spray. Bake until the meat is no longer pink in the center and feels firm when pressed with a finger, about 15 minutes.
5. Remove the chicken from the oven. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the sauce onto the center of each cutlet and top the sauce with 2 tablespoons of the mozzarella. Return the chicken to the oven and continue to bake until the cheese has melted, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with the basil and serve, passing the remaining sauce and Parmesan separately.

Cal 310; Fat 8 g; Sat fat 2.5 g; Chol 75 mg; Carb 20 g; Protein 38 g; Fiber 1 g; Sodium 790 mg

Cultured Butter

2011-08-23T20:15:00.000-07:00

My new work schedule has made me very productive in the evenings. I started culturing the cream for my butter project on Sunday afternoon, and actually had enough time to make it on a Monday evening--even after hitting the grocery store, going for a run, making dinner, and prepping Tuesday night's dinner. I'm amazed at how much I'm able to get done these days.

I saw this post for making cultured butter on the America's Test Kitchen Feed website and knew I had to try it. Since the recipe yields about 2 cups of buttermilk and I am making a blackberry buttermilk cake for my birthday this weekend, I thought I should get started soon.

First step is to culture the cream. I started with one pint of Strauss Creamery Organic Heavy Cream--delicious, but at $3.99/pint plus the $1.50 bottle deposit for the sweet little glass container, I had to stop there. I supplemented with locally made Alpenrose Heavy Cream for a total of one quart of heavy cream. To that, I added 1/3 cup of Nancy's organic plain yogurt (nice and tangy!) and shook vigorously. Um...a little too vigorously for my poorly sealed container. He he. We had a little spillage right away. Then it's just the waiting game. I covered the container with a kitchen towel and left it out to sit in our very warm house (thanks for showing up Portland summer) for a little under 24 hours.

I held my breath as I uncovered the container and smelled to see if it was rancid. Heavy cream, no matter the brand, is expensive. If I detected even a hint of rancidity, I would have been screwed. Lucky me, it was fine, and thick like yogurt, which is what I was looking for.

Next step was to chill it for about 2 hours. Perfect! That allowed me to go out for my run and make dinner. This time, I managed to properly seal the container.

After dinner clean up was done, I pulled the cream out, poured it into my stand mixer with the whisk attachments, and set it on its way to becoming butter. A small downside to not having a nicer stand mixer--the bowl moves on mine, not the whisks. That meant the plastic wrap I covered my bowl and mixer with to reduce the splattering mess all over my kitchen was useless. Toward the end after getting buttermilk everywhere, I ended up throwing a Target bag over the whole thing. It worked, but I couldn't really see the progress, so it was a short-lived solution.

Three pieces of plastic wrap, a Target bag, and many wipes later, I had my yellow butter chunks. Now it was time to strain it with the cheesecloth.

Patiently wait a minute for the buttermilk to drain through the cheesecloth and strainer below it into a bowl below. Or, if you're me, use a spatula to push the stuff through all the layers you thought you needed. Eventually, you get this:

And this:

Now, I kind of cheated here and used a picture of the final product in the bowl instead of showing the mess that was doing 6 ice water washes over this butter to wash out the excess buttermilk (it can make it go bad faster). However, if you're touching this much butter and liquid, you really don't want to pick up your camera. Trust me.

After squeezing out the last of the water, you can form three little logs into wax or parchment paper.

And voila! Homemade butter. I opted to leave it unsalted as I prefer it that way and figured anyone who wanted salted butter can just add a little on top.

Get the recipe: Cultured Butter

Camping Food, Part III

2011-08-22T18:25:00.000-07:00

This part three of a three-part series about the greatest summer food of all: the stuff you cook by the campfire...or in this case, over the campfire. It is also my post for the America Test Kitchen's Dish It Your Way challenge. Every other week they give a dish or ingredient and two weeks for bloggers to make the dish and write about in their blogs. At the end, the social media team reviews them, posts links to the competing blogs, and picks a winner for an online subscription to Cook's Country. Wish me luck!

We spent this past weekend in Bend to celebrate Shawn's birthday (don't worry honey, I won't tell everyone how old you are). Since time and menus were running out for me to make the next dish for the second to last food blogger Dish It Your Way challenge, I had to combine efforts and make mac and cheese in the great outdoors. Shawn was really disappointed by the way. Oh wait, not at all.

This post was supposed to start with the story of eating my grandmother's delicious homemade mac and cheese as a child, never having been exposed to the boxed kind until I was at least 13 years old. I still remember my first experience making it for some kids I was babysitting and grimacing at the excessive amount of liquid and bright orange color. But I digress. That's how the story was supposed to go, but sadly my aunt didn't get me the recipe in time and once she did send it, I found out it was a baked mac and it would been difficult to do camping anyway. I eventually found out that her recipe is actually from a cookbook published by a restaurant in Bend. Go figure. So, back to the story of how it actually went.

As some of you may remember, my friend Eve-Maridy and I have already done the mac and cheese smackdown: baked vs. stovetop. And, as we all learned, there was no clear winner except for those of us eating it. I have nothing against stovetop, I just like the crunch of the baked. However, given the circumstances, creamy was the clear choice for camping. I opted to go with the Cook's Illustrated version to ensure it came out perfectly.

I have to admit, I love cooking with my campstove. It's definitely been one of the best investments we've made for camping. It's like having a gas range--an appliance I desperately miss in our home.

The lineup from left to right...butter, evaporated milk, shredded sharp Tillamook cheese, macaroni, egg mixture

Instead of toasting breadcrumbs in advance, I melted a little butter and sauteed Cheez-its. That's right, we're fancy.

Because I had to cook something over the campfire, I decided to get some sausages and broccolini to serve on the side (or on top if you're Shawn). Shawn took care of the cooking the sausages over the fire, and I made a little foil packet with the broccolini that I set over the grate to cook for about 10-15 minutes.

Broccolini cut in half and given a generous dousing of oil, salt and pepper.

Master sausage griller at work.

The egg mixture goes in after the butter.

Next come most of the cheese.

Gradually adding the rest of the evaporated milk and cheese while it bubbles away helps to avoid that gloppy, grainy texture some stovetop macs suffer from.

All the fans waiting for the star's arrival.

Shawn likes to pile all his together.

Mine need a little more space.

And there you have it. Don't be fooled--this looks like a side dish on my plate, but it truly was the star of this meal. Grandma may not have passed this recipe down for generations, but you can bet I will.

Creamy Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese
Published by Cooksillustrated.com

INGREDIENTS
Toasted Bread Crumbs
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs from French or Italian bread
Pinch table salt
1 1/2tablespoons unsalted butter , melted

Creamy Macaroni and Cheese
2 large eggs
1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
2 teaspoons table salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dry mustard , dissolved in 1 teaspoon water
1/2 pound elbow macaroni
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
12 ounces sharp cheddar cheese , American cheese, or Monterey Jack cheese, grated (about 3 cups)

INSTRUCTIONS

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix bread crumb ingredients together in small baking pan. Bake until golden brown and crisp, 15 to 20 minutes; set aside.
Meanwhile, mix eggs, 1 cup of the evaporated milk, pepper sauce, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, pepper, and mustard mixture in small bowl; set aside.
Meanwhile, heat 2 quarts water to boil in large heavy-bottomed saucepan or Dutch oven. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of the salt and macaroni; cook until almost tender, but still a little firm to the bite. Drain and return to pan over low heat. Add butter; toss to melt.
Pour egg mixture over buttered noodles along with three-quarters of the cheese; stir until thoroughly combined and cheese starts to melt. Gradually add remaining milk and cheese, stirring constantly, until mixture is hot and creamy, about 5 minutes. Serve immediately topped with toasted bread crumbs.

Tuna Pasta (not tuna casserole)

2011-08-17T18:19:00.000-07:00

I do my best to plan all of our meals the weekend before so we aren't tempted to go out and spend money. Once in awhile I over plan what we need, such was the case a couple of weeks ago when we had more leftovers from the BBQ than I expected. We were supposed to just have simple tuna melts, so holding off on using the tuna was easy. It came to make the shopping list last week and I figured in our cans of tuna to our meal plans, of course, to save some money.

This month has been very expensive with two trips and both of our birthdays, so we could use any boost to our budget possible. Tuna melts just didn't sound that exciting, though. And Shawn doesn't like tuna casserole--yes, that's right. I like tuna casserole. My mom always made a good tuna casserole and I don't care what anyone thinks. He's generally not a fish guy, but I got him to agree to let me make a tuna-based sauce for pasta this week. I thought the Italian influence would make up for any doubts he had about the pasta. Borrowing some ideas from Lidia's Italy, I set off on my course.

This week we've started to reap the rewards from the meager planting I did out in the garden this summer. It's been a late start for summer in the Pacific Northwest, so a lot of vegetables are only now starting to pop up. We're getting quite a few lemon cucumbers and my green beans are starting to come in, and for this dish I used the beet greens from the beets I just pulled and used to make a Mexican-influenced beet salad. It's such a shame to watch good greens go to waste. I used some previous ones in a scramble with prosciutto and brie a couple of weeks ago. With all the flavors happening in this dish, you really don't notice them much, but at least we're getting some more vitamins.

Now, let's talk tuna. The $.69 can of Chicken of the Sea isn't going to do it here. Lidia recommends buying the good stuff--the Italian tuna packed in olive oil. I was hoping for this dish to be a more-or-less budget meal, so that wasn't going to happen. We generally buy a better brand of tuna that is wild caught and such, and I try to buy it on sale, so each of my cans cost about $2.50. If you consider how high in protein and low in fat tuna is, it's not a bad deal. This sauce is going to go a long way, too.

Not being a big fan of capers, I opted for some leftover olives we had from a antipasti night we had a couple weeks ago

Beet greens all chopped up and ready to go

First, add about 1/4 cup of olive oil to a pan to heat up over low to medium heat. Add red pepper flakes and sliced garlic. When it starts to smell of garlic, add the beet greens.

I didn't let the greens cook until tender since they would be getting more simmering time. After they turn bright greens, throw in the olives for a quick swirl in the pan.

Add hand-crushed plum tomatoes and its juice to the pan and bring to a light boil. Turn down to simmer until some of the liquid has evaporated. Add your rinsed tuna (I used two 6 oz cans).

After adding the tuna, you might have to break it up a little with the back of your spoon. I didn't finish simmering off a lot of the liquid since I made it the night before we were to use it. I like my pasta sauce to be a little thicker, so simmer until it has reached the consistency you prefer.

I toasted the pasta and made it more in the style of risotto to get a little more robust flavor to go with this very hearty sauce

Shawn, the non-fish eater, even said he liked it and doesn't mind eating it again tomorrow for leftovers. And there you have it! A way to get a non-fish eater to eat fish.

Baconfest

2011-08-08T08:17:00.000-07:00

Starting with crumbled blue cheese, I molded it and the bacon I fried up that morning into little patties. I figured we'd need it to hold some shape if we were to get the same effect as the sliced cheese. The bacon, by the way, came from my current favorite little German deli, Edelweiss. Portlanders--make an effort to go there. There's such a selection of European goodies and house made meats and salads.

Because you don't want the cheese to fall out, you have to make a small patty around your cheese first to hold it in. This is a Cook's Country method that I've found to work fabulously.

The patty on the left is just the start. This little burger is going to grow up to be a big boy when you mold the other half of the meat around the little guy. They grow up so fast, don't they?

Of course you can't just leave it that thick or your burger would be black before the inside melted. A little liberal patting gets these back down to a (ahem) reasonable size.

All the lovely accoutrements: lettuce, Walla Walla sweet onions, Bubbie's pickles, and tomato.

I didn't name this post "Baconfest" for nothing. Our friends made stuffed jalapenos wrapped in bacon and grilled them. Although they can create a bit of a grease fire if you're not careful and at times they burn like heck, they are quite tasty.

Our friends who hosted also made some tasty ribs. Did I mention there were 6 of us? Yeah, we went a little overboard.

And that besides the fact that our rib-making friend is a chef, his wife is also a ridiculously good baker? She made ciabatta rolls for our burgers.

I had to throw this view in. Mt. Hood at sunset from their deck.

Tower'o'Burger. And you can't see it, but off to the left of that enormous burger is a delicious salad with fruit, nuts, blue cheese, and of course, more bacon.

Although using the blue cheese doesn't create that same lava flow of cheese as with the cheddar, it was just as good to find bit of bacon and cheese in most bites. That is, if you could get your mouth around it.

Seriously, why wouldn't we have dessert? Stacey made these yummy little roasted blueberry cupcake treats. No, no bacon in these guys. [shudders at the thought]

If you can't tell, we love love LOVE burgers in any way, shape or form, but the Jucy Lucy has been topping our list all summer. And as many ways there are to make a great burger, the REAL secret of a great burger is....[this would be the point in the scene if this were a movie or book where I would have a heart attack or someone would shoot me and I couldn't reveal the secret to a great burger. Lucky for you, this is just a blog]...the secret is great meat. It starts and ends with quality beef. I am fortunate enough to have a great meat counter at our local grocery store, but if you don't, make an effort to go find yourself a good butcher or meat counter where you know you're getting the best meat. No amount of delicious toppings can hide poor quality.

Camping Food, Part II

2011-08-01T19:33:00.000-07:00

This part two of a three-part series about the greatest summer food of all: the stuff you cook by the campfire...or in this case, over the campfire.

This weekend we spent two ~~peaceful and quiet~~ days at the ocean. What was supposed to be a short retreat to one of my all-time favorite locations, ended up being another entry in the Shawn and Carmel Adventure book. We arrived at our beach campsite only to discover that every.last.person. there owned at least one ATV. And when they weren't disturbing the peace of the ocean with their engines, they were tinkering away on them, and in the case of our neighbors, talking loudly and playing club music. Needless to say, we didn't spend too much time at our site. We retreated to another beach and the pub.

First up was a stop at Pelican Pub and Brewery in Pacific City for some delicious microbrews and dinner.

Doryman Dark beer, a bowl of clam chowder to share, and Surfer's Summer Ale

Being at the beach, I had to get seafood.

And of course that seafood was oysters...Oyster Po Boy with cajun remoulade

Saturday actually began our camp food adventures. I brought my griddle with me this time. I first fried up bacon for our BLTs (later) and then used the bacon great to start the potatoes. After throwing a bit of water on to speed up the cooking process, I added chopped red bell pepper (forgot the onion--d'oh!), cubed ham, then finally the eggs once it was all browned to perfection. Top with a little cheese, and breakfast is ready. We're calling this one the Boulder scramble.

Apparently I thought I was cooking for 20

We spent the day sitting on the beach at Tierra Del Mar enjoying perfect views and weather, as well as some much-needed quiet time. Although pretty busy, the sounds of the ocean won out over any other noise. After a long walk up and down the beach, we enjoyed a cold BLT lunch with a little glass of rose for me and PBR for Shawn.

Our "Miles from Ordinary" Portland style--with a PBR and New Seasons

For dinner, I finally won and got to roast hot dogs over the fire. Hot dogs are definitely one of my guilty pleasures, but I still won't eat the nasty who-knows-what-this-is-made-of kind. We went to Edelweiss Deli near our house where they make pretty much everything from scratch. In fact, that's where our bacon for the BLTs above came from. Shawn was ok with these hot dogs since he's been traumatized from visiting a hot dog factory earlier in life and refuses to eat them usually. Ironically enough after making the past statements, we also had a cheap can of chili to go with the hot dogs. We're not perfect. For buns, I used a par baked baguette from Fred Meyer, wrapped them in foil and set them over the grate to finish baking. We topped our dogs with the house made mustard from Edelweiss and sharp Tillamook cheddar cheese.

Messy goodness

Shawn made a special request for macaroni salad as a side dish. So, Thursday I go to get my recipe out of the Test Kitchen's Family Cookbook only to discover the one page I need is gone.* I have a lot of recipes floating around, but when I'm done with one from that book, I always put it back. Shocked, I had to deal with it and find an alternate or do it from memory. I opted for a combo. I started with this recipe from the Food Network for All American Macaroni Salad and improvised the rest. Their recipe didn't have hard boiled eggs in it. Seriously? What is mac salad without eggs? Blasphemy.

What I have deemed, The Beer Pelicans

In the end, we had a wonderful weekend despite some hiccups and discovered a new beach town to visit. Pacific City has to be one of the most beautiful and fun places I've been to in a long time. And although the beers and food at the Pelican Pub were a little spendy, I will definitely return, if only for
the Doryman Dark and the view.

Mel's Improvised Mac Salad
Adapted from Food Network

1 box elbow macaroni, cooked, rinsed, and drained3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1/2 cup diced celery
1/4 cup minced red onion or Walla Walla sweet onion if in season
1 tablespoon minced flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup prepared mayonnaise
2 teaspoons good mustard
1 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons cider vinegar
3 tablespoons sour cream
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

In a large bowl combine the celery, onion, parsley. In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, mustard, sugar, vinegar, sour cream and salt. Stir ingredients together, then add well drained macaroni. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

*This is worth a mention...I tweeted that I had lost the recipe and the Test Kitchen was nice enough to respond and offer to send me the recipe via email, which they did about 2 hours later. Upstanding folks they are.

My Hundredth Post!

2011-07-24T14:44:00.000-07:00

Until September, I will writing some posts for America Test Kitchen's Dish It Your Way challenge. Every other week they give a dish or ingredient and two weeks for bloggers to make the dish and write about in their blogs. At the end, the social media team reviews them, posts links to the competing blogs, and picks a winner for an online subscription to Cook's Country. Wish me luck!

How fitting is it that for my 100th (!!) post I get to write about an America's Test Kitchen recipe and enter it into the Dish It Your Way challenge?? Before I get started, let me just say it's been so much fun writing this blog and getting the very kind feedback from friends, family, and even the strangers who actually read what I write. This just started as a way for me to practice writing and keep myself accountable for challenging my culinary skills. So, thank you!

The latest challenge for Dish It Your Way is salmon. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I've been completely spoiled with some of the best salmon in the world. I've even had the privilege of getting fresh Alaskan salmon in my youth when a friend's uncle would go fishing for a couple weeks up there and bring us fresh and home-smoked salmon (this is where my bagel, cream cheese, and any-kind-of-salmon combo obsession comes from). Since the husband isn't so fond of fish, I had to think of an appropriate time and place to cook with salmon.

My girlfriends and I like to try to get together for a girls night every month or two and experiment with new, fun appetizers. I thought they would be a fitting audience. This month we also experimented with new martini recipes, too. The first thing that came to mind when I thought of salmon and appetizers was salmon cakes. Cooksillustrated.com offered two recipes--one that is more like a crab cake with a base of egg and bread, and one that was more straightforward salmon. I went with the latter because I really wanted the salmon to stand out. Lucky for me the store was having a sale on wild Alaskan salmon since you need over a pound of it for this recipe (the downside to having the salmon stand out so much).

Start by mixing your non-salmon ingredients together.

Chop the salmon in smaller pieces and briefly pulse in the food processor, working in three batches.

Gently mix the salmon together with your base.

Form small patties with your salmon mixture. Since I was using mine as an appetizer, my patties were smaller.

Coat with more panko crumbs.

Patties all ready to be fried.

Enjoy a beverage while oil is heating...vodka pomegranate Arnold Palmer

Rosemary and olive gin martini (that was mine)

Fry the patties on each side for about two minutes.

Served with greens, lemon wedges, and dill aioli.

Chopping the salmon a bit helps with the cohesion, as well as keeping it flaky.

The girls look satisfied with my dish.

I used the dill from my garden to make a dill aioli to serve with the salmon cakes, but I don't think I used enough dill. I like a much stronger dill flavor. Oh well...now I have an excuse to make them again!

Easy Salmon Cakes
From Cooksillustrated.com
If buying a skin-on salmon fillet, purchase 1 1/3 pounds of fish. This will yield 1 1/4 pounds of fish after skinning. When processing the salmon it is OK to have some pieces that are larger than 1/4 inch. It is important to avoid overprocessing the fish. Serve the salmon cakes with lemon wedges and/or tartar sauce.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons plus 3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
4 teaspoons lemon juice
1 scallion, sliced thin
1 small shallot, minced
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
pinch cayenne pepper
1 (1 1/4 pound) skinless salmon fillet, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Instructions

1. Combine 3 tablespoons panko, parsley, mayonnaise, lemon juice, scallion, shallot, mustard, salt, pepper, and cayenne in bowl. Working in 3 batches, pulse salmon in food processor until coarsely chopped into 1/4-inch pieces, about 2 pulses, transferring each batch to bowl with panko mixture. Gently mix until uniformly combined.*

2. Place remaining 3/4 cup panko in pie plate. Using 1/3-cup measure, scoop level amount of salmon mixture and transfer to baking sheet; repeat to make 8 cakes. Carefully coat each cake in bread crumbs, gently patting into disk measuring 2 3/4 inches in diameter and 1 inch high. Return coated cakes to baking sheet.

3. Heat oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Place salmon cakes in skillet and cook without moving until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Carefully flip cakes and cook until second side is golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer cakes to paper towel–lined plate to drain 1 minute. Serve.

*I made this mixture a day ahead since we were cooking at my friend's house. It worked just fine, but I refreshed the mixture with a little bit of panko the next day before forming the patties to make sure it wasn't too gummy from sitting together overnight.

Camping Food: Part I

2011-07-17T19:11:00.000-07:00

This part one of a three-part series about the greatest summer food of all: the stuff you cook by the campfire...or in this case, over the campfire.

The first of our camping trips this summer brought us to Tucker Park, about six miles south of Hood River, Oregon. I found the park by doing some Internet research on lesser-known camping spots and found an Oregonian article from 2008 profiling just such areas. Granted, three years after the article was written it was bound to have increased in popularity, but I figured it was worth a shot. We had been searching for a campsite we could reserve for so long without any luck, I was willing to take the risk.

Like any other weekend, my first thoughts of planning went straight to the food. We started with Shawn's favorite: foil packet dinners. I first heard of these potato-ham concoctions at one of my first overnight trips while I was away at sleep away camp in fourth or fifth grade. Back then it was probably pre-shredded potato and deli ham provided to us by the CYO kitchen. Nowadays, we've gotten ever-so-slightly more sophisticated. I actually shred my own organic potato, use Tillamook sharp cheddar cheese, and (admittedly) buy cubed ham. I know, I know....I don't even want to start to think about what happened to that poor pig when they slaughtered him. Anyway...we learned our lesson about using the proper foil and not overstuffing a packet years ago when we first made them at Olallie Lake. Undercooked potato on top, burnt and stuck to the foil potato on the bottom. Ick.

Using nonstick foil and adding a little butter helps the end product not stick to the foil. For our packets, we using potato, ham, green onions and salt and pepper.

Our cooking source for the night.

Do NOT overstuff these or you'll end up with some nasty raw potato.

Add enough layers to keep the insides from burning.

A nice, hot fire is key...and if you don't have a grate to put over the fire, that's ok, it's cool to stick them right on the fire. Just make sure you use enough layers so it doesn't burn through the foil.


While in the past I've put cubes of cheese right into the packets, this time I bought shredded cheese, added it after they were done and just let it sit for a minute until it melted.

Of course after a great meal and some beers, it was necessary to make my famous s'mores. Not sure if they've actually become famous yet, but I have some fans.

The key to perfect s'mores? Lots of patience toasting the marshmallows and putting the graham cracker and chocolate near the fire to melt the chocolate before adding the perfect marshmallow.

Pardon my unwashed hair...enjoying my creation.

Next camping trip is at the beach. Shawn has promised that I can cook hot dogs over the fire even though he doesn't love hot dogs. What a guy.

Fourth of July BBQ

2011-07-05T11:46:00.000-07:00

Until September, I will writing some posts for America Test Kitchen's Dish It Your Way challenge. Every other week they give a dish or ingredient and two weeks for bloggers to make the dish and write about in their blogs. At the end, the social media team reviews them, posts links to the competing blogs, and picks a winner for an online subscription to Cook's Country. Wish me luck!

Summer has finally arrived here in Portland and the arrival of the good weather means beer festivals, camping, and of course, more cooking on the BBQ. Shawn and I took advantage of the 80 degree weather and tried our hand at smoking ribs on the grill. The idea for ribs all came from my desire to enter the "Dish It Your Way" challenge from the America's Test Kitchen folks. As soon as I heard about this challenge, I knew I had to enter. Who loves the Test Kitchen more than I do? I even have a label for Test Kitchen posts, for goodness sakes. The week 3 challenge calls for potato salad posts, so ribs seemed like a fitting main dish.

At first the process seemed a bit daunting: making my own rub, two hours on the grill and then another hour sitting, AND making my own barbecue sauce...are you kidding me? But after we broke it down, it wasn't so bad. The instructions and illustrations from Cook's Illustrated always make things just a wee bit easier. The ribs require a little patience--much easier to have when your refrigerator is stocked with good Oregon beers. This is Oregon Craft Beer month after all!

Secret to perfectly cooked ribs...great rub and lots of patience.

I improvised a bit on the barbeque sauce and made the basic sauce and jazzed it up
with a few of the ingredients for the tangy and sweet sauce.

And what goes better with ribs than a nice potato salad? I have been playing around with an idea for blue cheese potato salad in my head for awhile and finally got around to making it. Since we were already having pork, I decided to skip the bacon idea I had fearing it would get too rich, and instead focused on increasing the blue cheese flavor and adding thyme to the mix. It's a pretty simple recipe using red potatoes and basically the ingredients for a blue cheese dressing. It went very well with the ribs, giving our mouths a chance to cool off from all the spices I threw into the sauce. Perhaps I got a bit too liberal with the Sriracha...

Served in the funky fish bowl Kara gave us.

Use your thyme wisely--it takes a lot to stand up to the strong flavor of the cheese

Have to take advantage of the limited asparagus season!

And there you have it...summer is here, Portland. Take advantage while you can!

Blue cheese and thyme potato salad

1 1/2 lbs. red potatoes (new potatoes would be ideal, but regular red potatoes work as well)

4-5 oz crumbled blue cheese

1 small shallot, minced
1 small garlic clove, minced

1/4 cup sour cream (lowfat works)

1-2 T mayonnaise

White wine vinegar

Green onions, sliced (green part only)

Fresh thyme leaves, minced

Cut potatoes into equivalent, bite-sized pieces and boil gently until cooked through, but not falling apart. While potatoes are cooking, combine half the blue cheese crumbles, sour cream, mayonnaise, shallots, garlic, and a splash of white wine vinegar, making sure to mash the blue cheese into the sauce. If it seems a little too thick, adjust with sour cream and vinegar. Add about 3/4 green onions and mix until just combined.

After the the potatoes are cooked through, drain, place in a large bowl, and toss with enough white wine vinegar to lightly coat the potatoes. Let the potatoes cool in the bowl at room temperature for about 20 minutes.

After the potatoes have cooled, combine gently with already made blue cheese sauce. Toss in the rest of the blue cheese crumbles and top with green onions.

At this point, if you wanted to add bacon, you could throw some fried up bacon bits on top.

Pizza Night

2011-06-20T14:10:00.000-07:00

When I was staying with my family in Spain, every Friday night we would make pizzas and watch a movie. It was my small contribution for them generously letting me stay at their house and corrupt my teenage cousins. Anyway, my uncle would make pizza dough and I would take the cousins to go load up on delicious toppings at the market. My specialty, the Carmel special, basically just had everything on it. Saturday night, with a busy week ahead, we decided to have a little pizza/movie night at home. It was another drizzly day in Portland, so instead of the plan to grill the pizzas, we ended up just doing them inside. I also forgot to make dough, so we bought a couple pounds from Trader Joe's. Their dough is actually pretty good and a good deal at around $1/lb.

Our toppings, starting at the top (clockwise): fontina cheese, fresh tomatoes,
sage, jamon serrano, mozzarella, and sauteed mushrooms

From farthest to closest: plain cheese, mushroom/fontina/sage,
jamon serrano/fresh tomato/arugula

Cheese...ready for its close up. Made with a combo of the plain and whole wheat dough.
Little fresh basil from the garden on top.

Sauteeing the mushrooms beforehand rids them of excess moisture ensuring the crust stays crisp during baking

Although we put the arugula on at the end, I stuck it back in the oven to stay warm for seconds.
The wilted arugula was delicious, as well. I can see it going in for a minute at
the end of baking to char it a bit for an even more pleasantly bitter addition.

Trio of fresh pizza

This has nothing to do with the pizza, but it's the salad I made the next day with the rest of the arugula.

All that paired with a delicious bottle of Barbera from Rosa D'Oro, made for a delightful evening. We watched The Social Network, and although it was entertaining and pretty interesting, I'm not sure why it was nominated for so many awards (other than the soundtrack, which was well done). Oh well, at least the food and wine was great!

Farmers Market Inspired Weekend

2011-06-14T08:31:00.000-07:00

This Saturday, Shawn and I finally took the time to head down to the PSU Farmers Market, which I believe is the largest in Portland. It was a somewhat drizzly morning being that it was the Grand Floral Parade for the Rose Festival, of course it had to be! It worked to our advantage as it wasn't too crowded when we arrived a half hour after it opened. First things first--we had to get food. Shawn opted for the chile and potato filled breakfast burrito from Enchanted Sun Breakfast Burritos. It was a tough decision for me, but ultimately I had to pick the egg, cheese, and fried chicken (?!) biscuit sandwich from Pine State Biscuits. I've been dying to go there and when opportunity presented itself, who was I to say no? And it was as good as everyone says it is. Next time, I'm going for the McIsley, though (Fried chicken with pickles, mustard and honey). Yes, please!

Ridiculous.

Our real purpose at the market was to find rhubarb, maybe some of our weekly veggies, and definitely some starts for our garden since my poor little starts all died when they weren't able to be planted at the time they were ready (Portland weather FAIL). Apparently Shawn is not much of a fan of my Farmers Market wandering, just like he is not a fan of my grocery store wandering. After a little perusing, I finally found my rhubarb and settled on a genovese basil plant, dill, two types of tomatoes (one called "Mr. Stripey"...tee hee), and a lemon cucumber plant. The rest of the afternoon was spent weeding and planting. I also transplanted the mysterious carrots that have appeared in the beds, and some seeds that didn't need to be started indoors. Busy day and hopefully we'll see the fruits of my labors this summer.

Now those are some nice egg yolks!

Sunday morning I ended up skipping the run I had planned to go on with friends and instead made us breakfast (worked late Saturday night and 9-mile run was planned for 7am...ugh). It turned out to be a kind of hash with sausage from the market, shallots, spinach, mushrooms, and tomatoes.

Needing something slightly more healthy than the previously planned biscuits and gravy,
this hash kept me energized for most of my 9 miles.

For dinner, I planned to do a Mediterranean rub on grilled chicken drumsticks. We had a little buttermilk coleslaw on the side, and what fits naturally with coleslaw and chicken? Biscuits of course! I eventually got to indulge my addiction to carbs and fat with my super simple drop biscuits. I swear I'll never buy that packaged crap again.

I think I could've called this post "Biscuit weekend" instead.

As for the rhubarb, I had many ideas, but finally settled on a combination dessert of a tart with oatmeal crisp topping. I wish I had done two things differently: toasted the oats beforehand and cooked the tart crust a little longer. It came out delicious and I'd definitely make something like it again, but I would like a little more of buttery crunch from both the crust and the topping. I used a combination of recipes and ideas, though, so it was bound to need some tweaking.

Love that fluted crust!

Rhubarb Tart with Crunchy Oatmeal Crust

Tart Pastry (Pâte Sucrée)
Cook's Illustrated

1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (6 1/4 ounces)
2/3 cup confectioners' sugar (about 2 3/4 ounces)
1/4 teaspoon table salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), very cold, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1. For the tart pastry: Whisk together yolk, cream, and vanilla in small bowl. Combine flour, sugar, and salt in food processor with four 1-second pulses. Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture; pulse to cut butter into flour until mixture resembles coarse meal, about twenty 1-second pulses. With machine running, add egg mixture and process until dough comes together, about 12 seconds. Turn dough onto sheet of plastic wrap and press into 6-inch disk; wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 48 hours.

2. Remove dough from refrigerator (if refrigerated longer than 1 hour, let stand at room temperature until malleable). Unwrap and roll out between lightly floured large sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap to 11-inch round. (If dough becomes soft and sticky, slip onto baking sheet and refrigerate until workable.) Transfer dough to tart pan by rolling dough loosely over rolling pin and unrolling over 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Working around circumference of pan, ease dough into pan by gently lifting dough with one hand while pressing dough into corners and sides of pan with other hand. Press dough into fluted sides of pan, patching breaks or cracks if necessary. (If some edges are too thin, reinforce sides by folding excess dough back on itself.) Run rolling pin over top of tart pan to remove excess dough. Set dough-lined tart pan on baking sheet or large plate and freeze 30 minutes. (Frozen dough-lined tart pan can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and frozen up to 1 month.)

3. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Set dough-lined tart pan on baking sheet; lightly spray one side of 18-inch square heavy-duty extra-wide foil with nonstick cooking spray. Press foil greased side down inside frozen tart shell, folding excess foil over edge of pan; fill with metal or ceramic pie weights. Bake until pastry appears dry and pale gold under foil and edges have just begun to color, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating halfway through baking. Remove from oven and carefully remove foil and weights by gathering edges of foil and pulling up and out. Return baking sheet with tart shell to oven and bake until sides are medium golden brown, about 5 minutes; set on wire rack to cool.

Rhubarb Filling
Epicurious.com

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
3 3 x 1/2-inch strips lemon peel (yellow part only)
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
2 pounds fresh rhubarb, trimmed, cut diagonally into 1/2-inch-thick pieces (about 6 cups)

Combine sugar and water in heavy large skillet over low heat. Stir until sugar dissolves. Add lemon peel and cinnamon stick. Increase heat and bring to boil. Add rhubarb and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover pan and simmer until rhubarb is just beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat. Let stand covered until rhubarb is tender, about 15 minutes. Uncover and cool completely.
Using slotted spoon, remove rhubarb from cooking liquid and arrange in concentric circles in crust. Strain cooking liquid into heavy small saucepan. Boil liquid until reduced to 1/4 cup, about 5 minutes. Cool syrup completely. Spoon syrup over rhubarb. (Can be prepared 6 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.)*

Oatmeal Topping

Combine about 1 cup of oats with about a 1/4 cup brown sugar, a little cinnamon and a few tablespoons of unsalted butter (cold). Mash together until pretty uniform and top rhubarb. Bake the whole dish on a cookie sheet until bubbly and top is crisp--about a half hour at 350 degrees.

*I omitted this last step of spooning over the rhubarb since I was baking it again and didn't want too much liquid. I reserved the extra sauce and have been using it over yogurt instead.

Absurdly Decadent Cupcakes

2011-05-31T14:45:00.000-07:00

How is is possible to make a chocolate ganache cupcake even more sinfully delicious? Just add salted caramel and potato chips. Yes, potato chips. I was reading an email from Portland Monthly about Portland's microbakery and noticed these little treats. I had to make them, oh yes, I had to make them.

I started with the Cook's Illustrated recipe for chocolate ganache cupcakes.

Fresh out of the oven

A close-up of just how moist and chocolatey these suckers are

Then took a handful of Lay's Wavy potato chips and dipped them in the chocolate buttercream frosting I made (ran out of pure chocolate), and threw on a sprinkle of kosher salt for good measure.

Good idea to let these cool on wax paper so you don't lose the chocolate

Then I made a classic caramel with some salt in my other liquids (seen above), which was then finished off with some grey sea salt I discovered after putting salt on the chips. Sigh...my cabinets will never be completely organized.

Don't take your caramel off the stove before it turns a nice,
deep amber color or it'll lack the depth of flavor you want

Once cooled, I then frosted my cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting.

Before they go completely overboard

I jammed in the potato chips. I put in some non-frosted ones for good measure.

Little cupcakes waiting for the caramel storm

Drizzle the caramel over the cupcakes once it has cooled down a bit and serve!

Probably a good idea to do this over the wax paper or something you can throw away

This is just absurd...but delicious.

Even two days after baking these, the cupcakes are still moist

For those of you not able to purchase one at Sugarcube in Portland, here are the recipes I used.

Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes with Ganache Filling

From Cooksillustrated.com
Use a high quality bittersweet or semisweet chocolate for this recipe, such as one of the test kitchen's favorite baking chocolates, Callebaut Intense Dark Chocolate L-60-40NV or Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Bar. Though we highly recommend the ganache filling, you can omit it for a more traditional cupcake. The cupcakes can be made up to 24 hours in advance and stored unfrosted in an airtight container.

INGREDIENTS
Ganache Filling
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate , chopped fine (see note)
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar
Chocolate Cupcakes
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate , chopped fine (see note)
1/3 cup (1 ounce) Dutch-processed cocoa
3/4 cup hot coffee
3/4 cup (4 1/8 ounces) bread flour
3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 recipe Frosting

INSTRUCTIONS
1. FOR GANACHE FILLING: Place chocolate, cream, and confectioners sugar in medium microwave-safe bowl. Heat in microwave on high power until mixture is warm to touch, 20 to 30 seconds. Whisk until smooth; transfer bowl to refrigerator and let stand until just chilled, no longer than 30 minutes.
2. FOR CUPCAKES: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard-size muffin pan with baking-cup liners. Place chocolate and cocoa in medium bowl. Pour hot coffee over mixture and whisk until smooth. Set in refrigerator to cool completely, about 20 minutes. Whisk flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.
3. Whisk oil, eggs, vinegar, and vanilla into cooled chocolate-cocoa mixture until smooth. Add flour mixture and whisk until smooth.
4. Divide batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Place one slightly rounded teaspoon ganache filling on top of each cupcake. Bake until cupcakes are set and just firm to touch, 17 to 19 minutes. Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from muffin pan and set on wire rack. Cool to room temperature before frosting, about 1 hour.
5. TO FROST: Mound 2 to 3 tablespoons frosting on center of each cupcake. Using small icing spatula or butter knife, spread frosting to edge of cupcake, leaving slight mound in center.

Easy Caramel Sauce*
From Cooksillustrated.com

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1/8 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice from 1 lemon
1 teaspoon high quality salt

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Place water in heavy-bottomed 2-quart saucepan; pour sugar in center of pan, taking care not to let sugar crystals adhere to sides of pan. Cover and bring mixture to boil over high heat; once boiling, uncover and continue to boil until syrup is thick and straw-colored (syrup should register 300 degrees on candy thermometer), about 7 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and continue to cook until syrup is deep amber (syrup should register 350 degrees on candy thermometer), about 1 to 2 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, bring cream and salt to simmer in small saucepan over high heat (if cream boils before sugar reaches deep amber color, remove cream from heat and cover to keep warm).
3. Remove sugar syrup from heat; very carefully pour about one quarter of hot cream into it (mixture will bubble vigorously), and let bubbling subside. Add remaining cream, vanilla, and lemon juice; whisk until sauce is smooth. (Sauce can be cooled and refrigerated in airtight container for up to 2 weeks.)

*I halved this recipe and had more than enough to cover the cupcakes. Make sure to use the smallest pot you have or the water will evaporate too fast.

The Mac and Cheese Off

2011-05-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

The gloves came off last weekend and a showdown was had the Rice house...Baked mac versus Stovetop mac. Which would prevail?

I used Steve's Famous Macaroni and Cheese for the baked version, and Eve-Maridy found a creamy stovetop mac from the Food Network's Alton Brown. Since we had the showdown on a Friday right after work and baked mac can take some time, I prepared mine up until the baking part and stuck it in the freezer. I also made breadcrumbs out of leftover Little T focaccia we had from earlier in the week and integrated the chili powder that way.

Eve-Maridy's creamy mac

My baked mac

Two things were discovered from this challenge. One--the two types of mac are WAY too different to really declare a clear champion. Mine with its crispy crust and four types of cheese were nothing like her super creamy, sharp cheddar goodness...each bite made me want to pick a different winner. Two--despite my effort to bring the partially made dish of mac to room temperature before sticking it in the hot oven, there were some cold parts in the middle. The top was divine--so bubbly, melty, and crunchy. The middle made me cringe. It was by far NOT my best work (sorry Steve-o). So, I suggest not only letting it come as close to room temperature as possible, but also covering it with aluminum foil for the first 20 minutes of baking, then removing the foil for an additional 20-25 minutes until crisp. Sad it wasn't my best effort, but it was still a delicious night with great friends!

Creamy and baked coexisting peacefully

To top it all off, I made a skillet apple pie (now THAT turned out perfectly), and we watched Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (filmed right here in Portland, Oregon!).

Skillet apple pie right out of the oven

Even better with some ice cream

Perfect ending to a great night

Skillet Apple Pie

by Cook's Illustrated

SERVES 6 TO 8
If your skillet is not heatproof, precook the apples and stir in the cider mixture as instructed, then transfer the apples to a 13- by 9-inch baking dish. Roll out the dough to a 13- by 9-inch rectangle and bake it as instructed. If you do not have apple cider, reduced apple juice may be used as a substitute—simmer 1 cup apple juice in a small saucepan over medium heat until reduced to 1/2 cup (about 10 minutes). Serve the pie warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Use a combination of sweet, crisp apples such as Golden Delicious and firm, tart apples such as Cortland or Empire.

INGREDIENTS
Crust
1cup unbleached all-purpose flour (5 ounces), plus more for dusting work surface
1tablespoon sugar
1/2teaspoon table salt
2tablespoons vegetable shortening , chilled
6tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter , cut into 1/4-inch pieces
3–4tablespoons ice water
Filling
1/2cup apple cider (see note)
1/3cup maple syrup
2tablespoons fresh lemon juice from 1 lemon
2teaspoons cornstarch
1/8teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
2tablespoons unsalted butter
2 1/2pounds sweet apples and tart apples (about 5 medium), peeled, cored, halved, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges (see note)
1 egg white , lightly beaten
2teaspoons sugar

INSTRUCTIONS
1. FOR THE CRUST: Pulse flour, sugar, and salt in food processor until combined. Add shortening and process until mixture has texture of coarse sand, about ten 1-second pulses. Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture and process until mixture is pale yellow and resembles coarse crumbs, with butter bits no larger than small peas, about ten 1-second pulses. Transfer mixture to medium bowl.
2. Sprinkle 3 tablespoons ice water over mixture. With blade of rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix. Press down on dough with broad side of spatula until dough sticks together, adding up to 1 tablespoon more ice water if dough does not come
together. Turn dough out onto sheet of plastic wrap and flatten into 4-inch disk. Wrap dough and refrigerate 30 minutes, or up to 2 days, before rolling out. (If dough is refrigerated longer than 1 hour, let stand at room temperature until malleable.)
3. FOR THE FILLING: Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position (between 7 and 9 inches from heating element) and heat oven to 500 degrees. Whisk cider, syrup, lemon juice, cornstarch, and cinnamon (if using) together in medium bowl until smooth. Heat butter in 12-inch heatproof skillet over medium-high heat. When foaming subsides, add apples and cook, stirring 2 or 3 times until apples begin to caramelize, about 5 minutes. (Do not fully cook apples.) Remove pan from heat, add cider mixture, and gently stir until apples are well coated. Set aside to cool slightly.
4. TO ASSEMBLE AND BAKE: Roll out dough on lightly floured work surface, or between 2 large sheets of plastic wrap, to 11-inch circle. Roll dough loosely around rolling pin and unroll over apple filling. Brush dough with egg white and sprinkle with sugar. With sharp knife, gently cut dough into 6 pieces by making 1 vertical cut followed by 2 evenly spaced horizontal cuts (perpendicular to first cut). Bake until apples are tender and crust is a deep golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let cool 15 minutes; serve.

Beef Rolls with PICKLES!

2011-05-17T18:47:00.000-07:00

Since last week I had such success with a Lidia recipe, I thought I'd try another one this week. Since New Seasons has taken down their online shopping tool (boo) that I used to plan our shopping trip each week, I have had to play it safe with our shopping list, as well as make more decisions in the grocery store (dangerous). I saw this recipe for beef rolls with mustard and vegetables on Lidia's Italy months ago and immediately fell in food lust. However, unless the stars align and I'm magically in the middle of planning our meals on Sunday afternoon (never happens) when I watch her show, I forget about it and go on lusting in the back of my brain where the index of all the recipes I want to try are filed. I managed to recall the information as I mapped out our dinners for the week and made plans for it to be our Sunday meal.

These rolls are pretty simple to make once you get past the meat cutting part. A butcher I am not. Here is a short compilation of the rookie mistakes I made....

Cutting the meat with the grain
D'oh! I knew I was supposed to cut against, but got so disheveled when trying to figure out how to approach the big slab of beef that I am pretty sure I cut with it. Not the end of the world, but it did make things a little tougher than they should've been.

Not drying off the meat enough
I didn't really do much to prepare it to be browned, like take a paper towel to each one and make sure it was nice and dry.

Overcrowding the pan
Another d'oh! I noticed that they were looking a little big to all fit in my usual pan (you need a lid for this one as they simmer on the stovetop for over an hour), so I pulled out the gigantic dutch oven...except it wasn't big enough. Instead of doing them in batches and then nestling them all in for the final simmer, I pushed it and tried to brown them all at once. Problem with this, for those who didn't know not to crowd the pan, is that it lowers the temperature of the oil too much thus making it hard to brown your meat.

Despite my little errors, they still turned out pretty good. At first taste, it has a beef stew-type flavor, but then you get the tang of the pickle and mustard and it ends on a completely different note. I will probably try to make this again and hopefully avoid my rookie mistakes.

Best thing about this recipe...gets better with time. I had leftovers for lunch today and it was so much more flavorful and tender than when I first made it.

Mmm...meat

Vegetables all cut up and my recipe ready to go

Ready for rolling

Secure with a toothpick....and try not to use colored ones (the only ones we had) because they tend to leave a little decoration behind


Light dusting of flour--make sure to shake off excess flour

Steamy...too steamy. Overcrowded pans lead to less than perfectly browned meat

Had to cook my veggies separate, but still scraped up all the browned goodness

Finished product! Serve with something that can sop up that delicious gravy. I was supposed to make spaetzle, but got lazy. Ciabatta from New Seasons works too

Beef Rolls with Mustard and Vegetables*
(Involtini di Manzo alla Senape)
by Lidia Bastianich

2½ pound boneless bottom-round rump roast
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons German style mustard
2 large stalks celery, cut in 2x4 inch sticks
2 medium carrots, cut in 2x4 inch sticks
12 small dill pickles, (about 2 inches long)
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 large onion, sliced (about 2 cups)
2 bay leaves, preferably fresh
1 cup white wine
4 cups light stock, (chicken, turkey, or vegetable broth)

Lay one hand open on the top of the roast to hold it in place. With a sharp chef 's knife, begin slicing the meat on a slant, cutting across the grain, and continue with parallel angled cuts every 1/2 inch or so, slicing the meat chunk into a dozen thin scallops. As you slice, press down lightly with your top hand, creating resistance, so you can feel the blade moving and keep the slices evenly thick.

Flatten the slices into scallops one at a time. Place each one between sheets of wax paper or plastic wrap and pound it with the toothed face of a meat mallet, tenderizing and spreading it into a narrow oval, about 6 by 3 inches. When all are pounded, season the scallops with salt, about 1/2 teaspoon in all, and spread a thin layer of mustard on the top surfaces.

Starting at the short end of each scallop, pile three celery sticks, three carrot sticks, and a pickle in a bundle. Roll up the meat, enclosing the vegetables, and secure it with toothpicks. When all the rolls are formed, season with the remaining salt. Spread the flour on a plate, and dredge the involtini, lightly coating them.

Pour the olive oil in the pan, and set it over medium-high heat. Shake excess flour from the rolls, lay them in the pan in one layer, and cook, rotating and moving them around, until browned all over. Push the rolls to the side of the pan, and scatter the onion slices and any remaining carrot and celery sticks on the pan bottom. Drop in the bay leaves, and cook the vegetables, stirring occasionally, until they're beginning to brown and soften, about 5 minutes.

Turn the heat to high, pour in the white wine, and let it heat and bubble until almost completely evaporated. Pour in just enough broth to cover the involtini, and bring it to a boil. Set the cover ajar, and adjust the heat to keep the liquid simmering. Cook for an hour and 15 minutes, or until the beef is tender and the sauce has reduced to a consistency you like.Turn off the heat, take out the toothpicks, and remove the involtini to a warm platter. Ladle some of the pan sauce over the involtini, pour the rest into a bowl for passing at the table, and serve while hot.

*This recipe does not specify the amount of oil to be used for cooking the rolls. I used about 1/4 cup and that was a little much. Use enough to coat the bottom of your pan generously.

Mother's Day Dinner

2011-05-10T19:50:00.000-07:00

Past Mother's Days when I couldn't be home to celebrate with my mom, I had a tradition of celebrating with two of my friends whose mothers have passed away. I don't know how it got started, but it was nice to spend some time cooking for people I loved on a day set aside to honor the women who have done so much for us. This past Mother's Day we re-started the tradition (minus one friend and adding another) and I finally made a recipe from one of my favorite TV cooks, Lidia Bastianich.

There are about a million recipes I want to try and narrowing it down seemed like an already-impossible task. Since whole fryers were on sale, I started there. With about 20 chicken recipes listed, it was tough to pick one, but finally settled on Pollo Scarpariello. The recipe calls for two small fryers--about 2.5 lbs. each. Well, the smallest fryer at New Seasons was four lbs, so I went with it and supplemented with six more drumsticks. On the side we had simple risotto and lemon and pine nut green beans.

Brown chicken skin side down first

After browning all the chicken and sausage, add the (10!) minced cloves of garlic

Add your pickled cherry peppers, vinegar and white wine and scrape up those beautiful browned bits!

Add all of your meats, pour that sauce over and stick in the oven for 10 minutes

Add 1/4 cup of fresh, chopped parsley to the sauce, then pour over the chicken and serve

Sides of lemon and pine nut green beans and simple risotto

I think Lidia would be proud

Pollo Scarpariello
by Lidia Bastianich
(serves 6 VERY hungry people)

2 small fryer chickens, (about 2 1/2 pounds each)
salt
freshly ground pepper
¼ cup olive oil, or as needed
½ pound sweet Italian sausage, cut into 1-inch pieces*
10 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped fine
4 pickled cherry peppers, cut in half and stemmed**
¼ cup red wine vinegar
½ cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken stock, or canned reduced-sodium chicken broth
¼ cup Italian parsley, freshly chopped

Cut each chicken into 12 pieces. Wash and pat the chicken pieces dry, then season them generously with salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 475 degrees F. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large skillet. Add as many pieces of chicken, skin side down and starting with the leg, thigh and wing pieces, to the skillet as fit without touching. Cook the chicken, turning as necessary, until golden brown on all sides, about 8 minutes. Remove the chicken pieces as they brown and drain them briefly on paper towels. Place the drained chicken pieces in a roasting pan large enough to hold all of them in a single layer. Repeat with the remaining chicken, adding more oil to the pan as necessary and adjusting the heat to prevent the bits that stick to the pan from overbrowning. As room becomes available in the skillet after all the chicken has been added, tuck in pieces of sausage and cook, turning until browned on all sides.

Remove all chicken and sausage from the pan, add the garlic and cook until golden, being careful not to burn it. Scatter the cherry peppers into the skillet, season with salt and pepper and stir for a minute. Pour in the vinegar and bring to boil, scraping the browned bits that stick to the skillet into the liquid and cook until the vinegar is reduced by half. Add the white wine, bring to a boil and boil until reduced by half, about 3 minutes.

Pour in the stock and bring to a boil. Pour the sauce over the chicken in the roasting pan and stir to coat. Place the chicken in the oven and roast, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thick and sticky, like molasses, about 10 minutes. If the sauce is still too thin, place the roasting pan directly over medium-high heat on the stovetop and cook, stirring, until it is reduced, about a minute or two. Once the sauce is thickened, toss in parsley and serve.

*The store didn't have sweet Italian sausage in casing, so I got the bulk and rolled them up into little meatballs. They were quite tasty that way and got nice and brown.
**I found the pickled cherry peppers in the bulk antipasti section at the store with the cheese. Although the recipe only asks for four of them, I totally would have put more in if I had known how delicious they would be!

The Great Burger Debate

2011-05-06T12:12:00.000-07:00

Last Friday Shawn and I finally checked out Foster Burger in SE Portland. I've been hearing about this place for ages and now that we live in SE, there's no excuse. I admittedly went into with very high expectations. I'm no expert, but I definitely know a good burger when I taste one. Overall, I was very satisfied and it was a tasty burger. Although enticed by the special Asian-themed burger of the day that was described to us as coming out looking like a Japanese pagoda, I had to go with the classic Foster burger for my first time. As I told Shawn, to me it was a really well-made version of a McDonald's type hamburger. Not that they are even in the same universe as far as quality, but it was a classic American hamburger right down to the creamy Thousand Island-esque sauce, although served on a brioche bun. Overall a good experience and we'll probably go back again at some point to try one of the specials (and get a shake this time!), but definitely not my favorite.

Pause burger, courtesy of Portland Hamburgers blog

Which brings me back to our all-time favorite burger at Pause. Granted I'm now a little biased, but there was a time when I had never been there and had no expectations. The in-house ground meat makes a difference, but I think it's the consistency in cooking it that seems to set it apart. The meat is flavorful and when you ask for a medium burger, you get a medium burger (medium rare in Shawn's case). There's nothing too fancy about it, but it just tastes good. I have yet to try the burger at Gruner, but I'm sure it's going to live up to its reputation given that everything else there has for me so far.

Which restaurant makes your favorite burger? What makes it so special?

Orange Jicama Salad

2011-04-22T15:22:00.000-07:00

Pardon my absence...there is no excuse.

This week I was over at my friend's house to cook dinner for her family, which included her mother-in-law and husband, as well as her adorable and entertaining 92 year old grandpa. I wanted something easy to bring over that I could prepare in advance and she wanted a theme meal. Since I already had a huge pot of beans cooked and another equally large pot of Spanish rice, I went with Cook's Illustrated Lighter Chicken Enchiladas. That alone would have been enough, but I wanted something to break up the richness of the meal, so I went in search of a good accompaniment and happened up this jicama salad (I got inspired by my cousin who mentioned on Facebook that she was making a jicama salad last week). I had to omit the fresh jalapeno from the main dish, but made a side one for those of us who like spice. Good thing, too, because I managed to pick out a very hot jalapeno.

Just as refreshing and delicious as it looks. I used Cara Cara oranges (I think!), which have a beautiful red-orange flesh and really add a pop of extra color to this dish. They are less acidic, as well.

In my version, I omitted the scallions that should top it because we had one person who is sensitive to uncooked onions. I really don't see a need for them, to be honest. This salad could stand alone as a side dish or even be good with some grilled steak--like a nice flank steak. Oh boy, I can't wait for summer grilling! I also must say, this salad keeps pretty well for a couple of days, although it will lack the crunch of a freshly prepared salad.

Orange Jicama Salad with Sweet and Spicy Peppers

from Cook's Illustrated

3 medium oranges (peel with knife to the flesh and cut into bite-sized pieces)

3 tablespoons lime juice from 2 to 3 limes
1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin , toasted in small dry skillet until fragrant, about 30 seconds
Table salt
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium jicama (about 1 pound), peeled and cut into 2-inch-long matchsticks (about 4 cups)
1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/8-inch-wide strips (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 medium jalapeño chiles, quartered lengthwise, seeded, then cut crosswise into 1/8-inch-thick slices
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped coarse
3 medium scallions, green parts sliced thin on bias

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Place orange pieces in nonreactive mesh strainer set over bowl; let stand to drain excess juice. Meanwhile, whisk lime juice, mustard, cumin, and ¼ teaspoon salt in large bowl until combined. Whisking constantly, gradually add oil.

2. Toss jícama and red bell pepper with 1/8 teaspoon salt in medium bowl until combined. Add jícama mixture, oranges, jalapeños, cilantro, and scallions to bowl with dressing and toss well to combine. Divide among individual plates, drizzle with any dressing in bowl, and serve immediately.

A Very French Sunday

2011-03-01T14:27:00.000-08:00

Continuing on the French theme....
We just made a big purchase (with help from my mom) of a brand new iMac recently since my little rebuilt computer finally bit the dust. Our good friend, Tobias, just happens to be a computer ~~nerd~~ genius, and came over to transfer all my files and do a bunch of other good stuff to it. Yep, I'm obviously a technical genius as well. Anyway, his wife happens to be my best-friend-fellow-foodie Eve-Maridy, so we had to turn it into a food event, not just dinner with friends.

Having remembered her disappointment that Tasty'n'Sons did not do a traditional cassoulet when we went a few weeks ago (although I'm sure it's amazing), I decided to try it out myself. I went with the Cook's Illustrated version, of course, because they had a shorter version and they are just usually reliable. They do provide a longer version that involves making your own duck confit, however, due to time and budgetary restraints, I figured this would be authentic enough.

I have another complaint Test Kitchen...you know how your Family Cookbook has those lovely prep time and total time additions in the beginning? Those would be nice on every recipe. Due to last week's coq au vin mis-read, I made sure to read this recipe multiple times before making it so I wouldn't miss an important step. Didn't seem to matter. I didn't see all the steps at the end and how much time they took. If I would've followed the recipe as written, we would've been eating at 9pm. How very French of us! But my husband is usually in bed at that hour, so I had to make some adjustments. Luckily I brined the beans overnight and they were done early. I had to remove more liquid than I wanted (it killed me throwing out that delicious broth) and I broiled the breadcrumbs so they got nice and crisp in a shorter amount of time. All in all, it turned out fabulously...good enough that Mr. Sweettooth Tobias took a second serving!

The process takes several hours, including simmering, baking with the lid, baking without the lid, baking with the breadcurmbs with the lid on, then baking with breadcrumbs with the lid off, then letting it set...

Served with a piece of pain d'epi from Pearl Bakery (thanks Emy!)

As I mentioned above, Tobias has a bit of a sweet tooth, so I had to make something fabulous for dessert. I fortunately enough made dessert before I left for my long run, so it was ready on time. Going with my French theme (and the menu off of cooksillustrated.com...ha ha), I went with a dark chocolate mousse. With all the warnings of underwhipping and overwhipping, I got a little nervous. I'm a terribly folder, too. But, I narrowly avoided all the whipping issues and they came out a huge success!

Dark chocolate mousse with homemade whipped cream and shavings of 70% cacao chocolate.

Yeah, I'd say that's about the right consistency.

How it's supposed to be done...

Cassoulet
Published November 1, 2009. From Cook's Illustrated.

Note: if you can find the French garlic sausage, I highly recommend it. It is so flavorful and really brings this dish to the next level. If you're in the Portland area, you can get both the sausage (housemade) and salt pork (frozen) at Pastaworks on Hawthorne.

Serves 8 to 10

Ingredients
Table salt
1 pound dried cannellini beans (about 2 cups), rinsed and picked over
2 medium celery ribs
1 bay leaf
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 1/2 pounds fresh French garlic sausage (see note)
4 ounces salt pork , rinsed of excess salt
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 pounds pork shoulder , cut into 1-inch chunks
1 large onion , chopped fine (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 medium carrots , peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice (about 1 cup)
4 medium cloves garlic , minced or pressed through garlic press (about 4 teaspoons)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
Ground black pepper
4 large slices high-quality white sandwich bread , torn into rough pieces
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves

Instructions
1. Dissolve 2 tablespoons salt in 3 quarts cold water in large bowl or container. Add beans and soak at room temperature, 8 to 24 hours. Drain and rinse well.

2. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Using kitchen twine, tie together celery, bay leaf, and thyme. Place sausage and salt pork in medium saucepan and add cold water to cover by 1 inch; bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to simmer and cook 5 minutes. Transfer sausages to cutting board, allow to cool slightly, then cut into 1-inch pieces. Remove salt pork from water; set aside.

3. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until beginning to smoke. Add sausage pieces and brown on all sides, 8 to 12 minutes total. Transfer to medium bowl. Add pork shoulder and brown on all sides, 8 to 12 minutes total. Add onion and carrots; cook, stirring constantly, until onion is translucent, about 2 minutes. Add garlic and tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, 30 seconds. Return sausage to Dutch oven; add white wine, using wooden spoon to scrape browned bits from bottom of pan. Cook until slightly reduced, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomatoes, celery bundle, and reserved salt pork.

4. Stir in broth and beans, pressing beans into even layer. If any beans are completely exposed, add up to 1 cup water to submerge (beans may still break surface of liquid). Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. Cover pot, transfer to oven, and cook until beans are tender, about 1 1/2 hours. Remove celery bundle and salt pork and discard. (Alternatively, dice salt pork and return to casserole.) Using large spoon, skim fat from surface and discard. Season with salt and pepper. Increase oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake, uncovered, 20 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, pulse bread and remaining 2 tablespoons oil in food processor until crumbs are no larger than 1/8 inch, 8 to ten 1-second pulses. Transfer to medium bowl, add parsley, and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

6. Sprinkle 1/2 cup bread-crumb mixture evenly over casserole; bake, covered, 15 minutes. Remove lid and bake 15 minutes longer. Sprinkle remaining bread-crumb mixture over top of casserole and bake until topping is golden brown, about 30 minutes. Let rest 15 minutes before serving.

Dark Chocolate Mousse
Published January 1, 2006.

Makes 3 1/2 cups (6 to 8 servings)
Note: Use very good chocolate

Ingredients
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate , chopped fine
2 tablespoons cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-processed)
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
5 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon brandy
2 large eggs, separated
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon table salt
1 cup heavy cream , plus 2 additional tablespoons (chilled)

Instructions
1. Melt chocolate, cocoa powder, espresso powder, water, and brandy in medium heatproof bowl set over saucepan filled with 1 inch of barely simmering water, stirring frequently until smooth. Remove from heat.

2. Whisk egg yolks, 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar, and salt in medium bowl until mixture lightens in color and thickens slightly, about 30 seconds. Pour melted chocolate into egg mixture and whisk until combined. Let cool until just warmer than room temperature, 3 to 5 minutes.

3. In clean bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat egg whites at medium-low speed until frothy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar, increase mixer speed to medium-high, and beat until soft peaks form when whisk is lifted, about 1 minute. Detach whisk and bowl from mixer and whisk last few strokes by hand, making sure to scrape any unbeaten whites from bottom of bowl. Using whisk, stir about one-quarter of beaten egg whites into chocolate mixture to lighten it; gently fold in remaining egg whites with rubber spatula until a few white streaks remain.

4. In now-empty bowl, whip heavy cream at medium speed until it begins to thicken, about 30 seconds. Increase speed to high and whip until soft peaks form when whisk is lifted, about 15 seconds more. Using rubber spatula, fold whipped cream into mousse until no white streaks remain. Spoon into 6 to 8 individual serving dishes or goblets. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until set and firm, at least 2 hours. (The mousse may be covered and refrigerated for up to 24 hours.)

Coq Au Vin

2011-02-23T14:00:00.000-08:00

My mom came to visit this weekend and since she and Shawn had Monday off (I did not), we decided to make a nice Sunday dinner in honor of her visit. As you may have noticed, I like to shop the sales at New Seasons. Whole chicken legs were on sale and after some searching through Cook's Illustrated, I settled on a classic recipe I'd never attempted--coq au vin. Although there is another recipe on the cooksillustrated.com website for a so-called modern version that cuts the time in half, it used boneless, skinless chicken thighs--much more expensive than the legs.

Serve over egg noodles--this is supposed to serve only 4. Um...4 giants?

After spending 2 1/2 hours in the kitchen Sunday afternoon and picking out chicken skin from the dish, I can understand the updated recipe. I also made a seemingly large error right in the beginning. The instructions said to simmer the wine and chicken broth together until it is reduced to 4 cups. Well, earlier in the same step, it says to generously season the chicken legs. Set aside. See, those two little words get lost in the page of instructions that went along with the recipe! Cook's Illustrated--would it kill you to add a step? This is not the first time I've missed something like that. I thought it was odd to be boiling the chicken, but it was my first time making it and I was trying to install Office onto our new iMac (eeee!) at the same time. Lesson learned...

Shawn and mom waiting for me to stop taking pictures and dish it out already. Notice the beautiful tablecloth my aunt sent us for our wedding (made by my grandmother).

Those French really know how to cook...just keep adding butter. Look how shiny!

Coq Au Vin
If you have the time to blanch and skin them, fresh pearl onions are terrific. Simply cut an “x” in the root end, blanch them in boiling water for 30 seconds, remove them with a slotted spoon, and refresh them in a bowl of ice water. Then slice off the very tip of the roots with a paring knife and squeeze the onions gently from the blossom end. They will pop right out of their skins.

Ingredients
4 chicken leg quarters (about 3 pounds), carefully trimmed of all fat, cleaned, dried, and thighs and drumsticks separated
1 bottle fruity, smooth, medium-bodied red wine (750ML), such as Oregon Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, or a light Rhone valley wine
2 1/2 cups chicken stock or low-sodium canned chicken broth
6 ounces bacon (preferably thick-cut), cut crosswise into 1/4-inch pieces
6 - 7 tablespoons unsalted butter , at room temperature
1 large carrot , roughly chopped
1 large onion , roughly chopped
2 medium shallots , peeled and quartered
2 medium cloves garlic , skin on and smashed
1 teaspoon dried thyme
10 parsley stems
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 teaspoons tomato paste
24 frozen pearl onions (evenly sized), thawed, or fresh pearl onions
1/2 pound white mushrooms (small), washed and halved if medium sized, quartered if large
2 - 3 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves

Instructions
1. Generously sprinkle chicken pieces with salt and ground black pepper; set aside. Bring red wine and chicken stock to boil in large, heavy saucepan; reduce heat to medium-high and simmer until reduced to about 4 cups, about 20 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, fry bacon in large Dutch oven or deep, heavy-bottomed sauté pan over medium heat until fat has rendered and bacon is golden brown, about 5 minutes. Remove bacon with slotted spoon to paper towel-lined plate to drain; set aside. Heat 1 tablespoon butter with rendered bacon fat; add carrot, onion, shallots, and garlic and sauté until lightly browned, 10 to 15 minutes. Following illustration 1 below, press vegetables against side of pan with slotted spoon to squeeze out as much fat as possible; transfer vegetables to pan with reduced wine mixture (off heat) and discard all but 1 tablespoon fat from Dutch oven or sauté pan.

3. Return Dutch oven or sauté pan to burner over medium-high heat and add another 1 tablespoon butter. When butter is melted, add chicken (in batches if necessary to avoid overcrowding) and cook until well browned all over, turning once or twice during cooking, 12 to 16 minutes. Remove chicken to a plate; set aside. Pour off all fat from Dutch oven or sauté pan; return to heat and add wine-vegetable mixture. Bring to boil, scraping up browned bits from bottom of pan with wooden spoon (see illustration 2, below). Add browned chicken, bouquet garni (thyme, parsley, and bay leaf tied together), and tomato paste to boiling wine mixture; return to boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer gently, partially covered. Turn chicken once during cooking, until tender and infused with wine flavor, 45 to 60 minutes.

4. While chicken and sauce are cooking, heat another 2 tablespoons butter in medium skillet over medium-low heat. Add pearl onions and cook, stirring occasionally and reducing heat if butter starts to brown too fast, until lightly browned and almost cooked through, 5 to 8 minutes. Add mushrooms, season with salt, cover, increase heat to medium, and cook until mushrooms release their liquid, about 5 minutes. Remove cover, increase heat to high, and boil until liquid evaporates and onions and mushrooms are golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes more. Transfer onions and mushrooms to plate with bacon; set aside.

5. When the chicken is cooked, transfer to serving bowl or platter; cover with aluminum foil to keep warm. Following illustration 3, below, strain sauce through fine mesh sieve set over large measuring cup, pressing on solids with wooden spoon to release as much liquid as possible; sauce should measure 2 to 3 cups. Return sauce to pan; skim as much fat as possible off surface. Counting 1 tablespoon each of butter and flour for each cup of sauce, mash 2 to 3 tablespoons each butter and flour in small bowl or plate to make a beurre manié, as shown in illustration 4. Bring sauce to boil and whisk in beurre manié until smooth. Add reserved chicken, bacon, onions and mushrooms; adjust seasoning with salt and ground black pepper to taste, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer very gently to warm through and blend flavors, about 5 minutes. Check seasoning one more time and adjust with additional salt and ground black pepper if necessary; add parsley. Transfer chicken to serving platter; pour sauce over chicken. Serve immediately.

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

2011-02-17T14:36:00.000-08:00

What's better for a cold, winter night than soup? I've been getting a little tired of the old standby soups and have had a couple of cans of coconut milk sitting in the cupboard for a while, so I went in search of a coconut milk-based soup. I found one on Cooksillustrated.com, but it felt like too much work (sorry Test Kitchen, but you didn't feel worth it this time). After a little searching on Epicurious, I found something easy and that didn't require a lot of extra ingredients. The serrano chiles also helped clear out any remaining ickiness from my cold.

Makes great leftovers! If you use noodles, be careful that they don't absorb too much liquid
(like rice noodles) or you'll end up with mush if you try to use as leftovers.

The only unfortunate part about this recipe is that it seems to have left out an ingredient....like say 75% of the liquid... My gut reaction was of disbelief that the only liquid was the coconut milk (14 oz.) and the fish sauce (5 T). That seems pretty thick and not enough to cover the chicken. Turned out I wasn't the only one with that feeling--there were plenty of reviews recommending the addition of chicken broth. I didn't have any chicken broth on hand, but did have some "chicken" broth powder that I mixed up with a quart of water. Definitely made a difference. I also reduced the fish sauce, on other people's recommendations, to 3 T--didn't want it to overwhelm the coconut flavor. It's also very important that you do a good job crushing the lemongrass and make sure to make big enough slices of ginger that you can fish them out before serving. Shawn wasn't terribly happy to chew on a big chunk of ginger.

Coconut Chicken Soup
Epicurious (with revisions)

1 quart low sodium chicken broth
One 14-ounce can coconut milk
6 thin slices fresh galangal or 4 slices fresh ginger
2 lemongrass stalks, tough outer portion removed tender portion only, chopped and crushed in mortar
5 fresh kaffir lime leaves, torn inhalf, or 1 tablespoon grated lime zest
3/4 pound boneless and skinless chicken breast, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce
2 tablespoons palm sugar or granulated sugar
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon Thai red curry paste
1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro (fresh coriander)
25 fresh green bird's-eye chiles or 15 fresh green Thai chiles or 8 green serrano chiles, crushed in a mortar with the pestle

1. In a large pot, combine 1 cup of the coconut milk with the galangal, lemongrass, and lime zest and bring to a boil. Add the chicken, fish sauce, and sugar, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer until the chicken is white and firm, about 4 minutes. Add the remaining coconut milk and heat to just below boiling, about 3 minutes. Stir in red curry paste and noodles, if using.

2. Divide the lime juice and a touch more curry paste into individual serving bowls and ladle the soup over them. Garnish each bowl with the cilantro and crushed chile peppers. Serve immediately.

This soup is open to interpretation given that it's not really a tom kha gai recipe. I added cellophane noodles since we had half a package in the cupboard; other reviews recommended adding shiitake mushrooms. Overall, it was a very satisfying meal and got me out of my soup funk.

Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-02-03T19:29:00.000-08:00

This weekend was our annual group trip to Mt. Hood. We had a record number this year of 10 people and a shorter weekend than usual, so meals were divided up further. We tacked on to Michael's delicious dinner of lamb and polenta lasagna (weighing in at about 8 lbs, not counting the pan!) and made caesar salad, bread, and dessert. But who cares about salad?? Let's get on to the dessert.

Since I knew we'd be out in the cold, snowy weather (ha ha...right), I thought we needed a warm dessert. And what's better than a warm chocolate chip cookie? So I went scouring the internet for a great chocolate chip and sea salt recipe and found an article from the NY Times about the perfect chocolate chip cookie. The article is actually pretty interesting if you're into that sort of thing, so I recommend reading it if you have time. I found a lot of other salted chocolate chip cookie recipes that were thin and crisp--they have their place too--but for a heaping scoop of ice cream and some Holy Kakow, you need a big, soft cookie.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Published: July 9, 2008 in NY Times
Adapted from Jacques Torres
Time: 45 minutes (for 1 6-cookie batch), plus at least 24 hours’ chilling

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour*
1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (Carmel's note: did not use disks and it turned out fine...the cacao content is VERY important, though)
Sea salt (Carmel's 2nd note: I bought a small amount of grey sea salt from the bulk spices section of New Seasons--economical and delicious!)

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. 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 pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. 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.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 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.

Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.

*Given the very specific measurements of flour in this recipe, I highly recommend using a food scale if you have one.
**I don't have a paddle attachment for my (ahem) economical stand mixer, but a hand mixer works just fine. But be patient as creaming the sugars and butter may take a few extra minutes.

A Salute to My Tio

2011-01-27T21:25:00.000-08:00

As we near the anniversary of my favorite uncle's passing, I feel the need to pay tribute to one of the greatest gifts he gave me--an unyielding passion for the kitchen and everything it represents.

I had the great fortune of spending a semester abroad in Spain when I was in college, and before I started school, my friend Mary and I spent a week with my family on the east coast of Spain. Although I barely knew them at the time and they didn't have a lot of room or fortune, they shared everything they had--love, passion, and good stories--to make the transition a bit easier.

For those of you who knew my uncle Tavi, you knew that besides having a story (and joke, usually) for everything, he also knew his way around the kitchen. I think my perfectionist personality gave me a tendency toward baking, but my time in his kitchen gave me a new appreciation and fire for cooking. He was hard on me at times, but he helped me let go and enjoy it finally. One time in particular was when learning "Spanish" way of cooking a fried egg (throwing scalding hot oil over the top). I kept getting splashed with hot oil and was complaining (odd, I know) and he looks at me and says, "you wanna cook? Suck it up." Pretty much. I'm not attaining those abuelita hands by wearing oven mitts.

Video of his tutorial in the Spanish kitchen.

So, here's to you, uncle Tavi. Your kitchen lessons often turned into life lessons and for that, I am eternally grateful.

Caramelized Vegetable Soup....a love story

2011-01-22T19:57:00.000-08:00

When I first starting making Sunday dinners, I would browse through pretty much any magazine my mother would hand down to me for something perfect to suit the weather (this was well before the time I had internet steadily or my many America's Test Kitchen cookbooks). She received Bon Appetit from a friend of ours every year for Christmas and never had time to cook anything out of it, so I got the majority of them. One winter day I asked Michael what he wanted for dinner and received a quick reply of potato leek soup. I had never made nor tasted potato leek soup at that point, so I set about trying to find a recipe (remember...no internet readily available). When I happened upon this recipe I saw that it had my two main ingredients: potatoes and leeks. Never mind the fact that is not even close to what everyone knows is potato leek soup. Nonetheless, I made it and received the highest praise one can receive for a blended soup: "there's NO cream in this??" said incredulously. Nope. Not a drop and unbelievably, it's also entirely vegan. Wait...did I just admit that one of my favorite winter recipes is (gulp)....vegan?! This town really has done a number on me. Ha ha.

Potato Soup with Caramelized Vegetables

8 servings

6 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups chopped onions
2 cups chopped leeks (white and pale green parts only)
2 cups chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrots
1 12-oz russet potato, peeled, cut into ½ inch cubes
6 cups water
1 teaspoon salt

Heat oil in heavy large pot over high heat. Add onions, leeks, celery, and carrots; sauté until most vegetables are deep brown, about 20 minutes. Add potato, 6 cups water, and salt and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium; cover and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Working in batches, puree soup in blender. Pour soup back into pot and season to taste with salt and pepper*. Bring soup to simmer.

Cleaning and chopping all those veggies probably takes the bulk of your time in making this dish.

I left the lid partially on during caramelizing the vegetables to procure more of the moisture out. Near the end, I left it off mostly and kept scraping up the yummy fond forming on the bottom.

Adequately caramelized vegetables take some time, but it's so worth it.

After adding the water, I put a bit of "chicken" broth powder and some turmeric to boost the earthy flavor and just because it's really good for you.

After the potato is soft, you puree it (easiest with an immersion blender, but you can work in batches through a blender...be careful!). Serve with good sopping bread and wine, of course!

*This recipe originally called for the soup to be strained, but I really prefer not to do that--you get rid of all the good fiber from the vegetables and are left with less of a main dish, in my opinion.

New Toy!

2011-01-22T15:14:00.000-08:00

My friends got me a beautiful new cast iron skillet for a birthday present (after a little mishap with the original cast iron skillet they got me) and it was finally delivered just before Christmas. One use and I'm already in love.

I used it to make indoor grilled steak to use in tacos. I love using a cheap piece of meat, like London Broil, and turning into a seemingly decadent treat. It's really all in the way you cook it. Well, ok, I did do some tenderizing with a fork, but mostly, just cooked it to perfection using a preheated skillet and a very hot oven.

Throw some lime juice on at the end and there you have it...perfectly cooked and economical steak for the perfect taco. Yes, I realize now I should have taken a picture of said tacos.

Perfect Pot Roast

2011-01-10T16:01:00.000-08:00

The forecast for morning snow flurries and a cold Sunday afternoon inspired this Sunday dinner's menu. That and the $2.99/lb chuck roast at New Seasons (ever the bargain shopper...). This was the perfect meal to have after a cold and long 7-mile run--most of the work was done, just had to whip up a couple sides to go with it.

Steps to a perfect pot roast...

Separate the roast by the seam and cut away large knobs of fat. Salt and let the roasts sit (untied) for about an hour at room temp. Before using, tie with twine into little loaves so they cook evenly.

Melt a couple tablespoons of butter in a large Dutch oven. Throw 2 thinly sliced onions in to caramelize. After they are soft and starting to brown, add 1 chopped carrot and 1 chopped celery stalk. Add a couple of minced cloves of garlic, and then...

Add a cup of beef broth (thanks Stacey for the homemade broth!), half a cup of dry red wine, tablespoon of tomato paste, a bay leaf, and a sprig of thyme. Bring to a simmer.

Nestle those little loaves of cow yumminess in the liquid, cover with a large piece of foil and snugly tuck them in for the 3 1/2 to 4 hours of cooking time in a 300 degree oven. Top with the lid. Halfway through the cooking time, rotate the pot.

Yep, that's done. Yum.

And yes, I could barely pick it up without it falling apart.

A lovely Sunday dinner table set for four, complete with matching yellow plates (thanks CA mom!)

Not a bad way to end the weekend.

I made buttermilk mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli to go with it. I also made the gravy from the liquid and vegetables in the pot roast. Just separate the fat, add the veggies to a blender, put the defatted liquid in blender, add enough beef broth to bring content up to 3 cups and blend. Add to a medium size saucepan, and bring to a simmer. Add another 1/4 cup of the red wine, some more fresh thyme and a splash of balsalmic vinegar to brighten it up. I'm getting pretty good at this American cuisine stuff...well, thanks to Cook's Illustrated.

NYE Baking Extravaganza!

2011-01-03T11:11:00.000-08:00

Happy 2011!

For New Year's Eve this year, we decided to have our friends over rather than going out spending tons of money trying to figure out the place to be at midnight. Too much stress...So, we had a party. Not at all stressful. Ha ha. For some reason, I wanted to add to that and start a couple of projects for the next day. Shawn requested that our first meal of 2011 be beef stew, as he's been craving it for a few weeks now and it seemed like a good do-nothing kind of day meal. Clearly I needed to make a loaf of no-knead bread.

And since we're trying to be conservative with our budget, but I still wanted a good breakfast on Saturday, I made my first attempt at English muffins. This was all on top of the other snacks I was making for that evening. Surprisingly, I had about an hour free before anyone arrived. I must be getting better at this planning thing.

America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book English muffins

1 recipe for American sandwich bread
Cornmeal

First you have to make the bread and let it do its rising thing (boring pics I've posted a bajillion times). Then you roll the bread into a 12-inch log and cut into 12 equal pieces. Working with one piece at a time, work each one carefully into small rolls. Spray with vegetable oil, cover with plastic on cornmeal-dusted pan and do some more waiting.

Here we are....waiting. After they have doubled in size again, flatten each into about 3/4" disk, and sprinkle liberally with more cornmeal. Cover with plastic and heat up your skillet.

Woo hoo! We're finally grilling. Takes 3-6 minutes for the first side. They should be deep brown (not burnt) before flipping.

You have to keep pressing them down so they don't become little domes. I think I messed this part up and pressed down too much, because there was a serious lack of nooks and crannies.

Right after they come off the grill (each batch, not the whole lot), put them in a 350 degree oven. Now, I know I messed this part up. I waited too long and I think that was part of their demise.

So, they weren't what I expected. I know a couple of things I did wrong now and will try again sometime soon. They tasted good, but just had more of a bread feel than English muffin feel. Oh well, live and learn.

Christmas Recap

2011-01-03T10:47:00.000-08:00

The holiday of eating is officially over. I'm finally writing about my Christmas dinner, and actually have a New Year post...I'm probably the busiest unemployed person I know. Anyway, without further ado, our Cook's Illustrated Christmas Feast.

Cornbread and sausage stuffing

Definitely the most popular dish of the night: cauliflower gratin

Simple roasted green beans (something healthy!)

That's me attempting to cut the ham the way Cook's Illustrated recommends. Worked well until I gave up.

Tangy and delicious buttermilk mashed potatoes

Yep, that's a feast (grandma's macaroni and cheese is also featured). This is also my one and only picture of the amazing mustard vermouth pan sauce I made to accompany the ham.

Chocolate tart (before the refrigeration)

Apple upside down lemon-thyme cake (similar to a tarte tatin in method, but with a cake underneath instead of crust)

Most of the dinner went pretty smoothly. It all came out hot and on time. The only hiccup I had was reading the very lengthy directions on the cornbread stuffing. I sat there with my cream mixture and broth still sitting out of the dish wondering what in the heck happened. I somehow missed that step that said to let the broth and cream soak into the dried cornbread. Oops! Well, it fortunately turned out just fine, as you can see.

The cauliflower gratin was the hit of the night--who doesn't love creamy, cheese goodness topped with crispy breadcrumbs?? Although, if you ask my grandma, the chocolate tart was the best. A woman who normally doesn't eat much and isn't a huge fan of chocolate managed to sneak more than half of my mom's dessert while we were all talking.

Happy Holidays everyone!

The Christmas dinner prep has begun...

2010-12-23T12:08:00.000-08:00

Cornbread for my cornbread and sausage stuffing...

Sorry so blurry...

On the menu for Christmas Day

Spiral cut ham with mustard vermouth sauce
Cornbread and sausage stuffing
Cauliflower gratin
Roasted green beans
Buttermilk mashed potatoes
Grandma's mac and cheese (provided by Grandma, of course)
Apple upside down cake
Chocolate tart

I've got a lot of cooking to do since mom is still recovering from her shoulder surgery. Wish me luck!

My First Risotto

2010-12-13T10:56:00.000-08:00

Yes, somehow this amateur chef somehow has never made a risotto until this weekend. Something about it always made me a little nervous. But, I figured, if I can conquer my fear of yeast and make bread, by golly I can make risotto.

My grocery shopping list is usually built around sales at New Seasons and the need to use up ingredients from past menus. I had a large bag of shredded cabbage that needed a use, so I looked up recipes on CooksIllustrated.com (my new obsession) and found Risotto with Cabbage & Country Ham.

Start olive oil over med-high heat, add diced onion & 4 oz prosciutto (or similar cured ham) and lower heat to medium. Cook until onion has softened.

Add shredded cabbage and cover. Stirring occasionally, continue to cook until soft and starting to brown.

Add 2 cups of arborio rice and watered-down chicken broth. Let rice absorb liquid.

When rice has absorbed first bath of liquid, add 1/2 cup dry white wine (used Argyle chardonnay...would recommend something cheaper, but I forgot to buy something else, so had to use the good stuff). Let rice absorb wine. Add the rest of your liquid (about 2 cups left at this point) 1/2 cup at a time until rice is tender and no longer crunchy.

My favorite part! Add the 1/2 cup grated parmesan. Fold in and season with salt and a little pepper.

Serve hot with additional parmesan for flavor.

I'm a big fan of cabbage but I got a few weird looks when I said I was making risotto with cabbage in it. Honestly, you can barely taste it. It does add a little extra texture, but not in a bad way. I am having the leftovers for lunch and couldn't be more excited. Now that I've gotten over my little fear, I think it's time to move on to my favorite risotto: mushroom.

Post-Thanksgiving Meal

2010-11-30T09:56:00.000-08:00

Oddly enough, the day after Thanksgiving was when we decided to make a more traditional meal for the family. My brother-in-law's mom is a buyer for a food distributor and they routinely get big packages of food, in this case a pork roast. Or so we thought. After planning out the meal, herb-crusted pork roast, and prepping my herb paste and fresh bread crumbs, I open the package and find out they are cuts of pork. Oops! Oh well, I made a couple of adjustments and made them into rolls. Unfortunately, I did not forgo the breadcrumbs right away and ended up with a mess of fried bread at the bottom of my pan that I had to scrape off.

To accompany the pork, I made fluffy mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts with pine nuts and garlic, and for those not sprout-inclined, green beans blanched, then quickly sauteed in the leftover garlic oil.

Brussel sprouts are finally gone! Sort of...there were some leftovers of this dish, too. Potatoes put through the ricer make for extra fluffy and creamy potatoes.

Pork rolls resting after being browned on the stovetop, then put on a rack in the oven for 20 minutes.

Pork Rolls (adapted from Cook's Illustrated recipe)

Heat oven to 325 degrees.

Herb paste
1/3 cup parsley
2 T freshly minced thyme
1 T fresh minced rosemary
6 T grated parmesan (I used parmigiano reggiano)
3 T olive oil
Salt
Pepper
-Process until smooth, about 12-15 1-second pulses

To make the rolls
Depending on the type of pork you have, the meat may be flat enough to roll. I pounded mine out just a little bit to be able to roll it up easily. Some were easier than others. Dry off the cutlets then spread a generous amount of paste in the middle, roll and secure with twine. Some pieces may take 2 or 3 ties. You could also use toothpicks depending on the size of the cuts.

[Now, here's where I made my mistake. I put some paste on the outside of the rolls and attempted to put the breadcrumbs on them. First of all, that was the wrong move in the recipe itself, secondly, my gut was telling me that it was all going to fall off...but I did it anyway. Lesson learned. What you really want to do...]

Heat a couple of tablespoons in a pan over medium-high heat. Place the rolls in the oil and brown on all sides. In the meantime, have a cookie sheet lined with foil and a wire rack placed over it ready. Once the rolls have been browned, transfer to the wire rack and allow to bake in the 325 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Times may vary depending on the thickness of your meat. You want an internal temperature of about 150 degrees.

A Very Spanish Thanksgiving

2010-11-28T15:12:00.000-08:00

For our first Thanksgiving as Mr. and Mrs., we decided to go a little untraditional with Thanksgiving and give it a Spanish theme. We also ended up throwing it at someone else's house since I was housesitting for the weekend. As much as I wanted to celebrate in our own home, especially since we just moved in less than 6 months ago, who could pass up the chance to use a 6-burner gas range and two ovens?? I certainly couldn't. I'm going to let the pictures do the talking since there is so much to share.

Attempt #2 (?) at the caramel. Stupid epicurious.com recipe gave odd directions on how to make caramel, a way that was completely different than how I've made it in the past and look what happened...


...that's a cup's worth of sugar burnt onto the bottom of my pan from attempt #1. I eventually moved on from these directions 2 cups of sugar waste and 1 2nd degree burn later.


Using the Test Kitchen method and one I'm more familiar with, the 3rd time was a charm. Using 1/2 cup water and 1 cup of sugar, bring to a boil and simmer on medium-high heat until sugar is dissolved, careful not to let any of the sugar hit the sides of the pan as it goes in. Reduce the heat to medium-low when it starts to turn golden brown and stir slowly until a lovely shade of amber.

That's more like it.

The pumpkin flan right after coming out of the oven.

I added a few things to the spiced pumpkin seeds to adjust for the season. Shawn was such a fan, he thought they were a tapa, not just topping for the flan.

Toasting the pumpkin seeds in a little bit of grapeseed oil until they puffed.

My best attempt at burning the skin of the red pepper for making the sofrito for the paella. It sucks not having a gas range sometimes. Ok, all the time. Ideally, you should burn the skin until black, then wrap in a paper towel, wrap again in a dish towel and then into a plastic bag to sweat it so the skin comes off easily. Mine came off less than easily. Imagine that.

After peeling the pepper, I minced it and added to the minced onion that had softened in a bit of olive oil over medium-high heat, along with minced, peeled tomatoes (about 1/2 cup), and minced garlic. Mincing is important--can you tell? Let that soften up and absorb much of the moisture.

Just about done. You can skip seasoning this much as it will be going into the paella, which will be seasoned later.

A guest is featured here on the blog. Michael made some amazing sherry chicken livers.

Sauteeing the onions and pancetta. Yum.

Chicken livers hot off the stove. He brought some mini toasts to pick it up, but we had to upgrade to the slices of Little T baguette...just couldn't get quite enough on the little toasts.

New Seasons called these Segovia style mushrooms. I just called them delicious. Very simple recipe, but very good. Yesterday we combined the leftovers livers and mushrooms into the Cuisinart, hit the button, and ended up with some incredible pate.

My first tarte tatin. My brother and sister hate pumpkin and always insist on an apple dessert. I decided it was important to keep it in the European family, so I made this French tart. I couldn't find a good pot holder in the foreign kitchen, so it got a little crisper on top than I would have liked, but it was good.

Flipped over--not quite as pretty as the picture, but definitely tasty. I am going to try a different strategy with the apples next time I make this dish. I think I could have smooshed in more.

Not much cooking in this picture, but had to get a shot of some of the great tapas we had before the main event. Spanish tortilla in the background, Little T baguettes, and apples, manchego and olives. The garlic-paprika aioli I made for the tortillas went fast.

The paella and costra innards before they went in.

My mama does it a little differently than most. Her paella starts with cooking the chicken, then sauteeing the rice before adding the chorizo. Either way, it turned out great.

As with risotto and most rice dishes, make sure your stock is hot before adding to the dish. I made a quick fish stock, then added the saffron before adding to the paella pan.

Made almost simultaneously...the costra. A very similar rice dish to the paella, but made with meat and scrambled egg is added mid-way through cooking. I'm used to there being more egg, but the basic concept is there.

The finished paella and costra resting before we dig in. I think I bought a little too much shellfish.

And to top off a fantastic day of eating, 3 desserts for 12 people. From the top, tarte tatin, pumpkin flan with spiced pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin cheesecake.

What are your Thanksgiving traditions? Do you do anything to mix it up every year? We may change the type of food at times, but we stuck with a few traditions--a puzzle (care of my brother this year), great food, wine and conversation. I am very grateful for such a wonderful day with my family and friends. I hope your day was just as spectacular!

Gumbo & Burns

2010-11-11T12:30:00.000-08:00

I spent this past weekend up in Seattle helping to get my mom ready for her shoulder surgery and spending some time with her and my family. Since surgery and medications are usually pretty rough for mom and I knew she wouldn't be eating anything very exciting for a few days (hello clear liquids and soft foods!), I wanted to make a special "last meal" for her. Given that our lovely fall weather has officially hit, I thought a soup would be nice, but wanted something with a little more kick, so I chose to make gumbo.

This was my first attempt with gumbo, but armed with my Cooksillustrated.com membership (thanks to my aunt Patty), I felt confident I could make it. It starts with a dark roux of vegetable oil and flour. I should really heed the warnings of my recipes. The first line of the recipe says, "Making a dark roux can be dangerous." Yes, the temperature reaches 400 degrees and higher and you are constantly stirring for 20 minutes. I did use a spoon with a long handle, but it didn't matter--I still got 3 pretty good burns. As my uncle used to tell me as I was attempting the Spanish way of making huevos fritos (fried eggs made by splashing hot oil over the top), "You wanna cook? Suck it up!" So, I did...until the pain got the best of me and I had to put my sister's hands at risk.

Luckily, in the end, all turned out well. And in re-reading this just now, I see that I shouldn't have made the shrimp stock at the same time as the roux...oops!

Simmering everything together until it gets a little thicker to hold up the rice

Add a good heap of white rice to serve, sprinkle parsley for good measure

Creole-Style Shrimp and Sausage Gumbo (www.cooksillustrated.com)
Serves 6 to 8. Published May 1, 1999.

Making a dark roux can be dangerous. The mixture reaches temperatures in excess of 400 degrees. Therefore, use a deep pot for cooking the roux and long-handled utensils for stirring it, being careful not to splash it on yourself. One secret to smooth gumbo is adding shrimp stock that is neither too hot nor too cold. For a stock that is at the right temperature when the roux is done, start preparing it before the vegetables and other ingredients, strain it, and then give it a head start on cooling by immediately adding ice water and clam juice. So that your constant stirring of the roux will not be interrupted, start the roux only after you've made the stock. Alternatively, you can make the stock well ahead of time and bring it back to room temperature before using it. Gumbo is traditionally served over white rice.

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds small shrimp (51 to 60 count), shelled, and deveined (if desired), shells reserved
1 cup clam juice (one 8-ounce bottle)
3 1/2 cups ice water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (preferably bleached)
2 medium onions ,chopped fine
1 medium red bell pepper ,chopped fine
1 medium rib celery ,chopped fine
6 medium cloves garlic ,minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 bay leaves
3/4 pound smoked sausage , such as andouille or kielbasa, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
4 medium scallions , white and green parts sliced thin
Ground black pepper

Instructions
1. Bring reserved shrimp shells and 4 1/2 cups water to boil in stockpot or large saucepan over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer 20 minutes. Strain stock and add clam juice and ice water (you should have about 2 quarts of tepid stock, 100 to 110 degrees); discard shells. Set stock mixture aside.

2. Heat oil in Dutch oven or large, heavy-bottomed sauce-pan over medium-high heat until it registers 200 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and stir in flour gradually with wooden spatula or spoon, working out any small lumps. Continue stirring constantly, reaching into corners of pan, until mixture has a toasty aroma and is deep reddish brown, about the color of an old copper penny or between the colors of milk chocolate and dark chocolate, about 20 minutes. (The roux will thin as it cooks; if it begins to smoke, remove from heat and stir constantly to cool slightly.)

3. Add onion, bell pepper, celery, garlic, thyme, salt, and cayenne; cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables soften, 8 to 10 minutes. Add 1 quart reserved stock mixture in slow, steady stream, stirring vigorously. Stir in remaining quart stock mixture. Increase heat to high; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, skim off foam on surface, add bay leaves, and simmer uncovered, skimming foam as it rises to the surface, about 30 minutes.

4. Stir in sausage; continue simmering to blend flavors, about 30 minutes longer. Stir in shrimp; simmer until cooked through, about 5 minutes longer. Off heat, stir in parsley and scallions, adjust seasonings to taste with salt, ground black pepper, and cayenne; serve.

Savory Fall Stew

2010-11-01T21:39:00.000-07:00

The return of Sunday dinner! I had to make something autumnal and filling for handing out candy to the kiddos. This is seriously the perfect fall stew...for me at least. My friend and fellow foodie, Eve-Maridy, made this recipe for us for the first time for our annual Fall Fest this past October. After a very rainy day out at the Pumpkin Patch, it really hit the spot. Lots of fall vegetables make up the bulk of this dish, but the hot Italian sausage gives it an extra kick you don't see in a lot of stews. Surprisingly, it's a Martha Stewart dish. I'm not much of a fan of hers, but she makes some good stuff.

The challenge with this dish is in the preparation. Pearl onions are a pain to peel, so I recommend taking a garbage bowl (or, in our case, a compost bowl), a knife, and your onions, and plopping yourself in front of the TV for a bit. By the way, I'm Not There, the Bob Dylan documentary, is pretty good...at least from the 15 minutes I saw of it. Fennel, carrots, and parsnips are all pretty easy to prep, but the butternut squash is still a thorn in my side. I even looked up some techniques on peeling it, and you need a special peeler. Who has a serrated peeler on hand?? It was even more fun after the part that I peeled started to sweat, so it became slippery. But, armed with my $.99 knife from Fubonn, my regular peeler, and a lot of patience, I managed to peel the sucker. The results...


Recipe calls for cippolini, but pearl onions do the trick for half the price

Bundle of herbs from our garden (thank you previous tenants!)

Best part about this dish? I got to buy this sucker at New Seasons. I love me some brussel sprouts!

So worth the wait...and beautiful in our new yellow bowls!

Get the recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/savory-fall-stew.

Happy Belated Halloween!

Baked Eggs Brunch

2010-10-31T13:30:00.000-07:00

Last night we went out for Halloween with our friends to do karaoke at the Bear Paw Inn. A cold conversation the previous Saturday night waiting outside in the rain to see Quasi at Satyricon actually evolved into an plan. Me, Shawn, and our friends Stacey & Chris ended up dressing up as characters from one of our favorite TV shoes, Twin Peaks. Shawn was Agent Cooper, I was Audrey Horne, Stacey was the Log Lady, and Chris was our favorite creepy character, Bob. For having thought it up only a week prior and going shopping the day of, we did pretty well!

Me and Shawn as two of our favorite Twin Peaks characters

I needed an easy breakfast to make for the day after the fun. We've also been in a bit of a breakfast rut of breakfast meat and eggs. Boring. My friend Emy directed me to this baked eggs recipe and I must say, it was both easy and delicious.

To save money, I got the bacon ends and pieces since I would be cutting it up anyway. $.78 sounded like a good price to me! I also decided not to use cream since I didn't have any on hand and didn't want to spend the money. I sprinkled some feta over the eggs before baking--I highly recommend it. I also didn't have another ramekin, so I just used my Le Creuset baking dish. I probably could have taken them out a minute earlier, but I hate runny whites, so I left it in a little longer. I'm guessing that it was not using the ramekins that caused the longer cooking time for my eggs.

Carefully remove the individual servings, it will be slippery!

Baked Eggs with Bacon and Spinach (from Epicurious.com)

6 slices applewood-smoked bacon
1 5-ounce bag baby spinach
2 whole wheat or sourdough English muffins, split horizontally, well toasted (IMPORTANT!)
4 large eggs
4 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 400°F. Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat until crisp; transfer to paper towels. Pour off drippings from skillet; reserve drippings. Add spinach to pan, sprinkle with pepper, and toss over medium heat, 1 minute. Transfer to strainer set over bowl to drain. Brush four 1-cup ramekins with drippings. Crumble bacon.

Place 1 toasted English muffin half, split side up, in each ramekin. Divide spinach among ramekins, then sprinkle bacon over, dividing equally. With back of spoon, shape well in center of each ramekin. Gently crack 1 egg into well in each ramekin, keeping yolk intact. Drizzle 1 tablespoon cream over each egg. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake eggs until whites are just set but yolks are still runny, 14 to 16 minutes.

Game Day Snack: Mushroom Dip

2010-10-27T21:45:00.000-07:00

After a very relaxing and fun honeymoon, Shawn and I decided to spend our entire Sunday basically on the couch, watching football. Ok, in reality, it's not much different than most of our Sundays during football season. But I digress. New Seasons had a great sale on mushrooms, so I decided to stock up and make us a special dip for our Sunday of laziness. Instead of getting my usual variety pack, which they were out of, I used a mixed of crimini mushrooms and a small package of oyster mushrooms. You can really choose whatever you like, but do yourself a favor and at least get criminis.

I rarely alter a recipe on my first attempt making it. I feel that a recipe was constructed the way it was for a reason, so I want to give it a fair shot before trying to make it better (a pet peeve of mine when I scroll through the reviews of recipes on Epicurious.com, again I digress...). However, this time, having some extra yummy ingredients laying around, I made an exception.

We had a couple of pieces of prosciutto from our in-room picnic at The Allison during our honeymoon, so I diced those up and fried them until crispy and set aside. I added my butter to the bit of grease left over from the prosciutto and sauteed the onions first. Once those become nice and golden brown, add the sliced mushrooms. After the mushrooms had some time to soak up the butter and other flavors, I added a splash of the open bottle of Argyle Chardonnay, let that cook off, then added a pinch of dried thyme, the bleu cheese, and red pepper flakes. I put all that into a serving dish and topped it off with the crispy prosciutto and more sliced green onion.

Wait to add mushrooms until onions are golden brown (not quite there yet)

Mushrooms go in

Did I mention that I halved the recipe??

Serve with crusty bread (and more cheese!) for the most delicious game day snack imaginable

New Seasons Mushroom Dip (Recipe as printed)
3 1/2 Tbls butter
2 yellow onions, minced
2 green onions, minced
1 lb mushrooms, any variety, cleaned and sliced
1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)

In large skillet over medium-low heat, melt butter. Add onions and saute until golden brown, about 7-10 minutes. Stir in mushrooms and continue to cook until tender, another 6-8 minutes. Decrease heat to low and stir in cheese, salt and red pepper flakes (if using) and continue to cook, stirring frequently until cheese is thoroughly combined an even consistency is achieved.

Getting Ready for a Spanish Thanksgiving

2010-10-27T14:28:00.000-07:00

I just bought a cazuela for our upcoming Spanish Thanksgiving (thanks to Kara and Emy and the Williams Sonoma gift card they gave me). Now I'm just trying to decide which tapas recipes to use and where I'm going to cook everything! So far all I have on the menu is paella and stuffed mussels. Can't wait to experiment!

Wedding Project

2010-10-21T15:09:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I became Mrs. Montgomery. It was a spectacular weekend full of good friends and family, great food, and plenty of delicious wine. A couple of days before the wedding after the majority of our family had arrived, we had a little get together at our house so that everyone could meet and relax a bit before the wedding madness began.

Since Shawn's niece was visiting as well, and I know that hanging out with a bunch of adults all weekend can get a little boring, I thought of a fun project we could do together--make a 3-layer Rice Krispie treat cake for the rehearsal dinner.

7 recipes of Rice Krispie treats later, it was complete.

The bottom layer got a nice chocolate filling

Maddy is a master at stirring marshmallows

It was difficult to find something big enough to build it on, so we flipped it out onto wax paper and my sister and I carefully slid it onto the upside tray

Almost complete...

Dark chocolate covered almonds did the trick

A little decoration

The hubby and I cutting the cake with the biggest knife known to man

Serious Slacking

2010-09-22T13:15:00.000-07:00

I swear I'm still alive and breathing. My last post was the beginning of August and that makes me sad. I have good excuses (job changing mania, settling into the house, tests, wedding planning...), but really, there's no excuse for this long of an absence.

I have been cooking, but not as much as I'd like. Long story short, I made a big career move earlier this year and worked toward becoming a personal trainer. I studied for my test, passed it in August, and have recently decided to go back to marketing work. It's a long story, but basically, I have little to no time for anything but working these days. So, combine all that with my wedding being 3 weeks away (WOOT!)...we've been eating a lot of quick meals.

However, I do want to share some pictures of the bounty that is the garden I inherited when we moved into our new house in SE Portland. We have been enjoying delicious tomatoes from the garden at most meals. There were plenty of zucchini about a month ago...then I killed them all by letting the weeds and flowering of other plants take over. There's another reason I need to work less than 60 hours a week...

Beautiful raised beds of oregano, thyme, peas, lettuce (or what used to be lettuce), parsley, and carrots


Hang on little tomato!

Are we an heirloom? Me thinks we are.

I made at least a couple of dishes this summer. Here's proof!

Near perfect calzone--great way to use leftovers!

S'more pie (care of Smitten Kitchen) that I made for our Friday the 13th movie marathon

And a quick picture of one of our fabulous dishes from Toro Bravo. We used a gift certificate I had to celebrate Shawn's birthday last month. Of course, even with the gift certificate, we managed to go a little crazy. It was so worth it, though.

Manchego & paprika fritters with salsa roja

Sadly, I did not take a picture of the near-perfect roast chicken I made last weekend and the creamed mushrooms that accompanied them. Oh mushrooms...how I love you. I received a birthday present from my grandma (oh yeah, I also turned 30 in all that) of a cookbook put together by Seattle public television KCTS. I had a chicken and knew I wanted to roast it, so I checked my new cookbook for an accompanying dish, and lo and behold, there were the mushrooms. I ended up throwing on some sauteed bread crumbs to make it similar to the dish we had a the Gruner preview dinner (creamed mushrooms and buckwheat spaetzle topped with breadcrumbs). I'm going to say it was a hit as Michael was literally sopping up the last of the sauce with his piece of Ken's bread.

I'm hoping to post more often from now on. With fall upon us, I'll definitely be getting back to bread baking and more soups. Until then, wish me luck with the rest of wedding planning--I'm going to need it.

Vietnamese Noodles & Beef

2010-08-01T19:18:00.000-07:00

Your long-lost food blogger has returned. This has been a crazy month or so. Besides my career change and wedding planning, we also had to move. I can honestly report that it has turned out to be a move for the better. Our new house is fabulous and is complete with a ready-made vegetable garden. I'll get to that in a future post. I have yet to take pictures of all the beautiful plants I have growing back there. We've been feasting on fresh lettuce, zucchini, and soon...tomatoes! My favorite summer treat.

For now, you'll have to be satisfied reading about the delicious, easy, and healthy Sunday dinner I made: Vietnamese-style noodles with grilled beef.

Another delicious meal provided by Mr. Webber

Needing something to do with half a package of leftover whole wheat capellini and steaks on sale at New Seasons, I ended up with this recipe from Epicurious. I ended up reducing the amount of sugar by 1 tsp., but basically kept it the same. Since we were firing up the old grill, I decided we should also make use of it and grill the bell pepper that accompanies the noodles, as well as some onion. It made a delicious accompaniment. In the end, I wish I had reduced the amount of mint a bit, as well, but it was delicious even with that. Very refreshing and, minus the rather hefty sodium content that is expected with many Asian cuisines, a pretty healthy meal.