Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Shortbread with Lemon Curd and Whipped Cream

So for my April Fools dinner club, I made these shortbread cookies with lemon curd, whipped cream and citrus marmalade, from Bon Appetit.

When you read this recipe in the magazine, the title says Citrus Marmalade, but the marmalade recipe is actually separate, on the next page. This is a critical misstep on BA's part, for I completely forgot about the marmalade until I'd bought all of the ingredients and made the lemon curd. Then I noticed the marmalade recipe and swore. Loudly.

Then I regrouped and bought some Bonne Maman orange marmalade. It worked fine. Actually, it was a little too tart for my taste. So the next time I made this recipe, I added some orange zest to the whipped cream and it tasted great.

So when you get to the marmalade recipe below, keep in mind that I have no idea if it's good. I mean, it looks good. It sounds good. But I haven't made it yet, so I have no idea. Plus, it sounds really time-consuming.

I made the lemon curd two nights before dinner club, the cookies the night before, and the whipped cream right before serving. The lemon curd is super easy and goes great with any kind of berries. Everyone loves lemon curd.

From Bon Appetit

Meyer Lemon Curd

2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup fresh Meyer lemon juice or regular fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon (packed) finely grated Meyer lemon peel or regular lemon peel
1/4 teaspoon (generous) coarse kosher salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes

Biscuits

1 3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
2 teaspoons (packed) finely grated Meyer lemon peel or regular lemon peel
3 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons chilled heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon raw sugar

Topping

1 cup chilled heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
Mixed Citrus "Marmalade" (see recipe)
Powdered sugar

Meyer Lemon Curd

Whisk eggs, egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice, lemon peel, and coarse salt in medium metal bowl to blend well. Set bowl over saucepan of simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch water). Whisk constantly until mixture thickens and instant-read thermometer inserted into mixture registers 170°F to 172°F, 5 to 6 minutes (do not allow to boil). Remove bowl from over water. Whisk butter into curd, 2 to 3 cubes at a time, allowing butter to melt before adding more and whisking until curd is smooth. Press plastic wrap directly onto surface of curd and refrigerate overnight.

Biscuits

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and coarse salt in medium bowl to blend well. Stir in lemon peel. Add butter cubes and rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 1 cup cream and stir just until dough begins to clump together. Gather dough together. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and press out to 7-inch round (about 1 inch thick). Using 2 1/4-inch-diameter cookie cutter dipped into flour, cut out rounds. Reshape dough scraps and cut out additional dough rounds for total of 8.
Transfer biscuits to prepared baking sheet, spacing 1 inch apart. Brush top of biscuits with remaining 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream; sprinkle with raw sugar. Bake until biscuits are golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer biscuits to rack and cool completely.

Topping

Using electric mixer, beat 1 cup cream and 2 tablespoons sugar in medium bowl until peaks form.
Cut biscuits horizontally in half. Place bottom half of each biscuit on plate. Top each with 1 heaping tablespoon lemon curd, then generous spoonful of Mixed Citrus "Marmalade." Top with whipped cream topping. Cover each with top half of biscuit. Dust shortcakes with powdered sugar.

Mixed Citrus "Marmalade"

15 medium kumquats
2 cups sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
30 very thin Meyer lemon slices or regular lemon slices (about 1/16 inch thick; from about 2 to 3 medium)
2 tablespoons fresh Meyer lemon juice or regular fresh lemon juice
6 blood oranges

Cut ends off kumquats, then cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds, removing seeds. Place kumquat slices in medium saucepan; pour enough cold water over to cover by 2 inches. Bring to boil over medium-high heat. Immediately remove from heat; strain. Return kumquat slices to pan; repeat blanching 2 more times. Transfer kumquat slices to medium bowl. Combine 2 cups sugar and 1 cup water in same saucepan. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add bean. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves, then bring to boil, brushing down pan sides with wet pastry brush. Add kumquat slices; press gently to submerge. Reduce heat so that mixture barely simmers. Cover surface with parchment round. Cook without stirring until kumquats are translucent, 15 to 18 minutes. Remove from heat; let stand 15 minutes.
Using slotted spoon, transfer kumquat slices to medium bowl. Add lemon slices and lemon juice to syrup in pan, pressing to submerge. Bring to boil. Reduce heat so that syrup barely simmers. Cover surface with parchment round. Cook without stirring until lemon slices are translucent, occasionally pressing on parchment to submerge slices, 40 to 45 minutes. Remove from heat; let stand 15 minutes. Transfer lemon slices to cutting board; cut each into quarters. Add lemon quarters and syrup to bowl with kumquat slices. DO AHEAD Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover; chill.
Cut off peel and white pith from blood oranges. Working over bowl to catch juices and using small knife, cut between membranes to release segments. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.
Drain syrup from kumquat-lemon mixture, reserving syrup. Drain orange segments. Combine fruit in medium bowl, adding some syrup if mixture is dry.

Tada! I have plenty leftover, so please come to my house and eat some so I will stop eating this for breakfast!

Friday, April 2, 2010

French Onion Soup

So, remember when we made all the veal stock? We had to cook something with is, and John loves French onion soup, so we made French onion soup.

This recipe is from the same cookbook as the veal stock, Staff Meals. There were some weird things about this recipe. I'm going to give you the recipe and then tell you what I would change.

French Onion Soup by Staff Meals

2 tbs unsalted butter
1 tbs canola or other vegetable oil
5 large onions, peeled and sliced lengthwise (about 5 cups)
1/2 cup port
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup brandy
1/2 tsp sugar
8 cups veal stock, beef stock or chicken stock
Coarse salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
Crisp croutons and parmesan for garnish

Combine the butter and oil in a medium-large stockpot and heat over low heat. Add the onions and cook, uncovered, until brown but not crisp, about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Increase the heat to medium high and cook the onions, uncovered, stirring often, to further brown and caramelize them, 5 to 10 minutes more.
Stir in the port, white wine, and brandy and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook, uncovered, until reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Add the sugar and stock and bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Cook the soup for 1 hour to allow the flavors to blend. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Serve. Top with croutons and parmesan.

OK, so the recipe didn't work out quite like it was supposed to. The onions didn't brown enough in the time allotted, because there were a lot of them in that pot. We wound up using two pots to brown them and it took us about 60 minutes, not 30. Also, we topped our with French bread and gruyere and broiled them for a minute in individual soup bowls, like they do in restaurants.

The onions had a lot of liquid in them, which I think prevented them from browning properly. My advice would be to brown them for a few minutes in a big skillet so they can cook evenly, just to cook some of the liquid off first. Then, transfer them to a pot to slowly brown some more.

I forgot to take a photo of the finished product, but it looked kind of like this:

And now we have 21 cups of veal stock remaining. What should we make next?

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Veal Stock

Hey, remember waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in November, when John got that sauce book and veal bones and the ENORMOUS pot and we said we were going to make stock? Ha, that totally didn't happen in anytime soon. We had holidays and marathons and weddings to go to and restaurants to patron and TV shows to watch and dogs to adopt. We had lives, people. LIVES.

But people kept reminding us that we hadn't made the stock yet, even though we said we would. We felt a little bad about that. John tried to get his mother to make it for us (actually, she volunteered). But I insisted we do it. It's our veal bones, our book, our huge pot. We should do it.

So we did! We didn't use the Saucier's Apprentice recipe. Rather, we used one out of Staff Meals, our first real cookbook. Because we loved Staff Meals so much, we got the Chanterelle cookbook to use as our guestbook at our wedding. I've always wanted to go to Chanterelle, but we missed our opportunity, since they closed last year.

But this is a post about stock, not restaurants. This recipe takes a good 8 hours, minimum. But the good part is that it will sit for 6 hours, undisturbed, simmering away on your stove. At some point in the simmering, take a peek and skim the fat off. If it's like my stock, you'll want to do more than skim. There was a good 2 cups worth of fat on the top of it.

We're going to make french onion soup, also from Staff Meals, later this week to try out the stock. And here's a tip: don't get too fussy with the vegetables. They're going to get strained out, so you're adding them for the flavor, not their looks. And I didn't have a big roasting pan, so I used 3 glass casseroles. They worked fine.

About the time - We started at 10 am and just finished doing the dishes and freezing the stock at 10 pm. Sure, we did other stuff between then - I went to the store, John went to poker, we ate dinner, played with the dogs, watched Desperate Housewives. But this is not a short recipe. Make sure you have a day to do this before embarking on this adventure. And make sure you have a enough tupperware to contain it all.

Beefed-Up Veal Stock

10 lbs veal bones, preferably with some meat left one
1- to 2-lb piece beef shin
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
3 large onions, unpeeled, cut into large chunks
4 carrots, unpeeled, cut into large chunks
3 heads of garlic, cut in half through the cloves
12-15 quarts of water

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Place the veal bones and beef in a large, flameproof roasting pan and drizzle with oil. Place the pan in the oven and roast the bones for 25 minutes, turning them halfway. Add the onions, carrots, and garlic, distributing the vegetables evenly amongst the bones. Continue to roast until nicely browned by not burned, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Transfer the bones and vegetables to a large stockpot. Discard the fat in the pan and add 4 cups of water. Place over high heat and deglaze the roasting pan, scraping up the browned bits. Pour the liquid from the roasting pan over the bones and add enough of the remaining water to cover them well.
Bring the liquid to a boil over high heat, skimming the surface as the foam rises to the top. Then reduce the heat to low and simmer, partially covered, for 6 hours, skimming occasionally and adding water if it evaporates enough to uncover the bones.
Remove the bones and the meat and strain the stock through a fine-mesh sieve. At this point the meat and vegetables won't have much flavor, but if you're a fan of overboiled food, by all means nibble away; otherwise, discard them.
Let the stock cool before transferring it to storage containers. The stock will keep, covered, in the fridge for up to 4 days, and in the freezer for 6 months. Skim the fat off the top before proceeding with recipe.

Bones and veggies.

So we wound up with 29 cups of stock, in the end. Here's what it looks like:

Yeah. It doesn't look totally impressive, because it's just stock. But it's a lot of stock! And I'm sure you'll be impressed when I blog about my French onion soup. Later this week. Once I've had a nap.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Vegetable Curry

Maybe you love curry. Maybe you don't. Even if you don't, I bet you'll like this curry. Regardless, it's a great recipe. And good for you, what with all the kale and sweet potatoes in it.

But before we begin, I gotta talk a bit about how I'm a really efficient cook. Like, I read through the recipe and figure out how much I gotta chop first before I can start cooking. I consolidate pots and pans, I wash the collander while the water's boiling. I'm good.

So let me help you out here. You're gonna need to chop and measure all of the ingredients up to the lime juice. There's a lot of fine chopping and mincing in there, and things are cooked in rapid succession until you get to the lime juice. Also, the ginger, garlic, jalapeno and scallion can go in one bowl, sweet potatoes and bell pepper in the second bowl, zucchini in the third bowl. You can reuse those bowls for the kale, because you can destem the kale during the 20-minute simmering in step 2. You can also chop up the cilantro then too, and start the grill and cook the pork.

And! The coconut water and sour cream are used to cut calories. But the thought of having to halve and drain god knows how many coconuts to get 2 cups of coconut water filled me with dread. So I just bought 2 cans of coconut milk and called it a day. I also used way more sweet potatoes, so I needed the extra milk to portion it. Also, I used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, because I like the tang.

OK, now for the recipe.

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Vegetable Curry
from Food & Wine

Ingredients

2 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced jalapeño
2 tablespoons minced scallion, plus 2 tablespoons thinly sliced scallion
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch-wide strips
1 small sweet potato (about 5 ounces), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced crosswise 1/2 inch thick
1 1/2 teaspoons Thai red curry paste
2 cups pure coconut water
3 tablespoons lime juice
2 cups coarsely shredded stemmed kale
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons full-fat sour cream
4 center-cut pork tenderloin medallions (about 4 ounces each), pounded to a 1-inch thickness

Directions

In a large, deep skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil. Add the ginger, garlic, jalapeño and minced scallion and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until fragrant, 3 minutes. Add the bell pepper and sweet potato, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring frequently, until barely softened, 3 minutes. Add the zucchini and curry paste and stir to coat the vegetables with the curry.
Add the coconut water and lime juice and simmer over moderate heat until the sweet potatoes are nearly tender and the liquid is reduced by half, about 20 minutes. Stir in the kale and cilantro and cook just until the kale is wilted. Add the sour cream and season with salt and pepper.
Light a grill or preheat a grill pan. Rub the pork with the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of oil and season with salt and pepper; grill over moderate heat, turning, until cooked through, 12 to 15 minutes. Let the pork rest for 5 minutes, then slice and arrange on plates with the vegetable curry alongside. Garnish with the sliced scallions and serve.

Notes

One Serving

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Meatballs with Pappardelle

For Christmas, John got Ad Hoc by Thomas Keller. It's a bear of a book, but fun to look at and read. It's full of staples and comfort foods. But the foods in this book take a long time. A really long time.

The first thing we made from this book was braised short ribs and celery root with melted onions. I didn't blog about it because 1) I forgot to take pics and 2) it took a damn long time. Like, all day.

Almost every recipe in this book has a component with a recipe on another page. So you're flipping back and forth between different pages in this book and cooking and cursing and mincing and perhaps stepping on the puppy, because he's so small and gets underfoot.

I've got nothing against the slow food movement, I just thought I'd warn you that this dish takes a long time. I started cooking at 3pm. We ate at 8pm. There were a few things I changed here, and things that you can cook simultaneously. I would advise you make the tomato sauce first, since it's in the oven for a long time. Or you can make the sauce days before. It keeps for up to a week in the fridge.

Sachet

1 bay leaf
3 thyme sprigs
10 black peppercorns
1 garlic clove, smashed and peeled

Cut a rectangle of cheesecloth. Lay the spices on the cheesecloth and fold over. Tie with kitchen twine.

Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce

2 tbs canola oil
1 cup finely chopped yellow onion
1 cup minced leeks (white and pale green parts only)
1 cup finely chopped fennel
1 tbs plus 1 tsp minced garlic
Kosher salt
2 tbs light brown sugar
2 tbs red wine vinegar
Two 28-32 oz cans San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes
1 Sachet (above)
Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine oil, onion, leeks, fennel and garlic in large Dutch oven and sprinkle with salt. Put in oven and cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until vegetables are tender and beginning to caramelize.
Stir in the brown sugar and vinegar and return to oven for another 20 minutes, until liquid is absorbed. Remove from oven.
Meanwhile, drain the canned tomatoes and remove the seeds. Coarsely chop half of the tomatoes. Puree the other half.
Add the tomatoes to the vegetables along with the sachet, season with salt and pepper to taste, and return to oven for 1.5 hours, stirring every 30 minutes. The sauce should be thick and have a full, rich flavor. Sauce should be thick. The sauce will be very very thick. You might be tempted to thin it out, but don't. It tastes awesome.
Discard the sachet and let the sauce cool to room temperature.

Fried Oregano Sprigs

In a small pot, heat an inch of canola or peanut oil until 350 degrees. Drop the oregano sprigs in the oil. After a few seconds, remove the sprigs and drain on a paper towel.

Meatballs with Pappardelle

2 tbs canola oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 tsp minced garlic
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
12 oz boneless beef sirloin
12 oz boneless beef chuck
8 oz pork butt
8 oz boneless veal shoulder or top round (We didn't use any of these meats. Since we don't have a meat grinder, we bought ground chuck, ground sirloin, ground pork and ground veal)
1/4 cup bread crumbs
3 tbs chopped flat leaf parsley, divided
1 large egg
4 oz fresh mozzarella
1 pound pappardelle
4 tbs unsalted butter, melted
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Oven-Roasted Tomato Sauce (above)
Fried Oregano Sprigs (above)

Heat the canola oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, season with salt and pepper, and reduce heat. Cook gently for about 20 minutes, to soften the vegetables without browning them. Remove from heat and set aside.
Meanwhile, trim any sinew from the meat. Cut all of the meat into 1 inch pieces and place in a bowl. Toss with 1 tbs of salt.
Set up a meat grinder with a 3/8 inch die. Fill a large bowl with ice water and nestle a smaller bowl into it to catch the ground meat. Grind the meat, alternating the types of meat. Change the die to 3/16 inch and run the meat through again.
Add the onion and garlic, bread crumbs, 2 tbs of the parsley, and the egg to the meat and mix gently to incorporate evenly (do not overwork).
Divide mixture into 12 equal balls, using a scant 1/2 cup for each. We wound up with 9 meatballs.
Cut the cheese into 12 cubes, about 3/4 inch. Shape the meatballs, stuffing a cube of cheese into the center of each one.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Set a cooling rack over a baking sheet.
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil for the pasta.
Put the meatballs on the cooling rack and bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until cooked through but still juicy. Remove from the oven and let rest on the rack for a few minutes before serving.
Meanwhile, cook the pappardelle. Drain and put in a large bowl. Toss with the melted butter, the remaining 1 tbs of parsley, and the lemon juice.
Spoon the tomato sauce into a gratin dish or shallow serving dish. Top with the meatballs and garnish with the oregano. Serve the pappardelle on the side.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Banh Mi

Do you like sandwiches? And spicy food? Hey, me too! Let's be cool Internet friends!

The January issue of Bon Appetit featured two of my favorite foodstuffs: meatballs and sriracha. Sriracha, if you've never encountered it, is a hot chili sauce. Meatballs are balls of meat. But you probably knew that one.

Every week, we plan out what we're going to eat for dinner every day. This week, John had us making a meatball soup, but I said fuck that noise. I wanted a meatball sandwich.

So we made banh mis! Banh miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis! So goooooooooooooooooooood! So spicyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! You will need to drink so much miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilk!

Lemme just preface this recipe by saying that it takes a long time. Not a tremondously long time, but I used my MLK holiday to first make the mayo, then the slaw, then form the meatballs. There's a lot of chopping in this recipe. Be prepared. And then cook it, and be full. Oh, and the mayo is incredibly spicy. I had to drink 3 glasses of milk while I ate this sandwich.

Pork Meatball Banh Mi

Hot Chili Mayo

2/3 cup mayonnaise
2 green onions, finely chopped
1 tablespoon hot chili sauce (such as sriracha)*

Meatballs

1 pound ground pork
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 green onions, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fish sauce (such as nam pla or nuoc nam)
1 tablespoon hot chili sauce (such as sriracha)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

Sandwiches

2 cups coarsely grated carrots
2 cups coarsely grated peeled daikon (Japanese white radish)**
1/4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1 tablespoon Asian sesame oil
4 10-inch-long individual baguettes or four 10-inch-long pieces French-bread baguette (cut from 2 baguettes)
Thinly sliced jalapeño chiles
16 large fresh cilantro sprigs

*Available in the Asian foods section of many supermarkets and at Asian markets.
**Available at some supermarkets and at Asian markets.

Preparation

hot chili mayo

Stir all ingredients in small bowl. Season with salt. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.

meatballs

Line rimmed baking sheet with plastic wrap. Gently mix all ingredients in large bowl. Using moistened hands and scant tablespoonful for each, roll meat mixture into 1-inch meatballs. Arrange on baking sheet. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.

sandwiches

Toss first 5 ingredients in medium bowl. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour, tossing occasionally.
Preheat oven to 300°F. Heat sesame oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of meatballs. Sauté until brown and cooked through, turning meatballs often and lowering heat if browning too quickly, about 15 minutes. Transfer meatballs to another rimmed baking sheet. Place in oven. Repeat with remaining meatballs.
Cut each baguette or baguette piece horizontally in half. Pull out enough bread from each bread half to leave 1/2-inch-thick shell. Spread hot chili mayo over each bread shell. Arrange jalapeños, then cilantro, in bottom halves. Fill each with 1/4 of meatballs. Drain pickled vegetables; place atop meatballs. Press on baguette tops.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Easy Sesame Chicken

Everyone has those dishes that are easy, delicious, and company-worthy. This is one of my dishes. It doesn't take a really long time to cook. You probably have most of those things in your house already (honey, chicken, onions, rice). If you do it well (and I will tell you what you need to do to do it well), this dish is a hit. Many people love this dish when I make it. And it will look like the photo above, which I did not take. I'm not that good of a photographer.

Sesame Chicken
Ingredients
1/2 cup of flour
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp crushed red pepper (or more or less, depending on how hot you like it. I like it mildly spicy)
2-4 chicken breasts
Sesame oil
Vegetable oil
1 yellow onion
*1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
*1/2 cup honey
sesame seeds
1 green bell pepper
1 bunch green onions
Any other veggies you want (broccoli, carrots, bok choy, etc)
*These are for the sauce. You can use more or less, but keep the ratio 1 to 1. The original recipe called for 2 tablespoons of each, which wasn't enough for me. 1/2 cup will make it saucy but not too sweet.

1. Put the chicken in a plastic Ziploc back and pound it. It doesn't matter how thin you cut it, this is more about making it a uniform thickness so all of the chicken cooks evenly and at the same time. Cut it into small chunks.
2. Mix the flour, sesame seeds, pepper, salt, and red pepper in a bowl. Set aside.
3. Heat 3 tbs of vegetable oil. Add to it enough sesame oil to 1/2"-1" deep in the pan. Heat all of the oil on high.
4. Coat the chicken in the flour mixture. Get it really coated, because some of the flour will fall off in the frying process. Once the oil is thoroughly heated, brown the chicken. You want it golden to medium brown. Not too light in color though, you want it crispy. Once browned, remove the chicken.
5. Saute the onions and peppers and veggies until done. I like mine a little firm still, but if you like them soft cook them as long as you want. They will cook a little more in the next step, but not much.
6. Add the chicken back to the pan. In a separate bowl, mix the teriyaki sauce, honey, and some sesame seeds together. Add the sauce to the pan. Toss more sesame seeds on top. Toss in green onions.

Voila! Sesame chicken!

NOTE: This is a really flexible recipe. Feel free to use more or less oil, or less sauce. Use any veggies you want, squash, zucchini, broccoli, onions, bell peppers, carrots. Any kind of firm veggie, because it'll cook well and take on the flavor of the sauce. If you like more sesame flavor, use more sesame oil and more sesame seeds. If you like it really spicy, go crazy with the red pepper. It's a recipe that you can tweak to your own liking.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

The Recipe Dilemma

My name is Lauren, and I collect recipes.

There, I've said it. That feels better.

I subscribe to Bon Appetit, Food + Wine, and Real Simple (which isn't a food mag, but does have lots of "mom" recipes. They aren't always great, but they easy and the time is usually accurate). I read Serious Eats. I get email newsletters every day from Allrecipes and MyRecipes. I get newsletters every week from Chow and Epicurious. I have about a dozen cookbooks. I save recipes online, print them out, write them down, tear them out of magazines. I used to print them out and tape them on index cards.

In short, I have recipes everywhere. This makes it hard to keep track of recipes we've tried, recipes we like, recipes we want to cook again. We're constantly saying things like, "where's that salmon recipe we made that time?" "do you know what was in that steak sauce?" It's annoying that we don't have a centralized system.

Until now! Behold, our recipe book!

I tore out all of the recipes that we have tried and want to try, and I taped them to white paper and inserted them in plastic sheets. They are organized thusly: meat, seafood, sides, sauces, sandwiches/pizzas, desserts.

It's not a foolproof system, but until I actually break down and buy this, it'll have to do.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Cheddar Dogs with Cider-Braised Leeks and Apples

If you don't like hot dogs, then you can leave my blog right now. And never come back. (Just kidding.) (Not really. I like hot dogs a lot.)

I grew up loving hot dogs and I ate them with ketchup and sweet pickle relish. I think I got this from my mom, who loves hot dogs so much, I bought her one of those hot dog and bun cookers for Mother's Day one year. She loved it.

I'm an adult now, which means I'm supposed to like adult things, like PBS, historical fiction, and talking about retirement plans. Well, fuck that noise. I don't like those things. But I do like adult toppings my hot dogs.

This recipe is from Bon Appetit in an article about hot dog toppings from around the world. We had a really hard time deciding which one to pick.

This recipe is pretty simple. You cut up and cook leeks and apples. Then you add some stuff, including hard apple cider. Then you top the hot dogs with dijon mustard, cheddar cheese and the topping. Delicious!

From Bon Appetit

Cheddar Dogs with Cider-Braised Leeks and Apples

Leeks and apples simmered in cider add a hint of sweetness—a nice contrast to the sharp melted cheddar. If you can find oblong pretzel rolls at your market, they'll make an ideal accompaniment to these English-style hot dogs.

Makes 6

By Andrew Schloss

Photograph by Kenji Toma

July 2009

Ingredients

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
2 cups (generous) thinly sliced leeks (white and pale green parts only)
1 apple, peeled, cored, diced
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
Pinch of ground allspice
Coarse kosher salt
1 1/2 cups hard apple cider or 1 1/4 cups apple cider and 1/4 cup bourbon
6 grilled hot dog buns or brioche-style oblong rolls
Dijon mustard
6 grilled all-beef hot dogs
2 oz sharp cheddar cheese, coarsely grated (1/2 cup packed)

Preparation

Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add leeks and apple. Cover; cook until tender, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Mix in caraway and allspice; season with coarse salt and pepper. Add hard cider; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, uncovered, until most of liquid is cooked away, about 16 minutes.
Arrange buns or rolls on plates. Spread each with mustard, then top with grilled hot dogs. Sprinkle dogs with cheese and top with leek mixture.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Chocolate Cake with Ganache and Praline Topping

John wanted to make this cake for dinner club and I told him that if he wanted it, he had to make it. But guess who made it? Me! I am overcoming my fear of cakes. This was a pretty easy cake to make.

Ingredients. Lots of sugar, butter, and heavy cream.

Batter, pre-cooked. Please resist the urge to lick spoons.

Cake. Cool it completely on the rack. It was really moist and delicious on its own, but even better with the ganache and praline topping. Oh, the praline topping, so delicious.

Um, there were some other steps in there, but I didn't take pictures of them, evidently. So here's the finished product. So: chocolate cake, ganache, praline topping, raspberries and blueberries. The berries were John's idea.

Oh yeah. That's the stuff. Do you see the pecans? Kate and Sam taught us how to make out with raspberries. That was different.

What's that? You want to know if it was as delicious as it looks? It was. In fact, it was 137,000 times more delicious than it looks.

From Bon Appetit

Cake

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes, room temperature
1/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup boiling water
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ganache

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Praline

3/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup pecans, toasted, chopped

Cake

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 9-inch cake pan with nonstick spray. Line with parchment. Spray parchment. Dust with flour, tapping out any excess.
Place butter and cocoa powder in medium bowl. Pour 1/2 cup boiling water over; stir. Let stand 2 minutes; whisk until blended. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and coarse salt in another medium bowl. Whisk buttermilk, egg, and vanilla in large bowl. Gradually whisk cocoa mixture into buttermilk mixture; whisk until smooth. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, whisking to blend between additions (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Run knife around pan edges to release cake. Invert onto rack; remove pan and parchment. Cool completely.

Ganache

Place chocolate and cream in microwave-safe bowl. Heat in microwave in 15-second intervals, stirring occasionally, until melted and smooth. Stir in butter. Let stand until spreadable, about 30 minutes. Spread over top and sides of cake. Transfer cake to plate. Chill 2 hours and up to 1 day.

Praline

Stir first 3 ingredients in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat until butter melts. Boil 1 minute without stirring. Remove from heat; whisk in sugar and vanilla. Add pecans; stir just to incorporate. Quickly pour praline over cake. Spread just to edges (topping sets quickly). DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover with cake dome. Store at room temperature.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Gingerbread Molasses Cake with Mascarpone Cream

As much as I love pie, I don't seem to make a lot of it. I mostly stick to things like tarts and cobblers and crumbles, things with lots of fruit in them. Things that you can screw up and still rescue.

Cakes though - cakes scare me. You have to be precise and whip things and cut things and gah! Scary! I'm not a precise measurer, and you have to measure precisely with cakes.

On Saturday, we went to a wine party and everyone was asked to bring a dessert. So I looked through our recent food magazines (Bon Appetit and Food & Wine) for an easy dessert. I found this one, which wasn't too complicated.

First, you make the cake. Pretty simple.

Then, you make the orange confit, which is decorative. Honestly, I think the cake is fine without the confit. I didn't cook this as long as it said to (only 20 minutes) because the syrup began to thicken. The confit was crusted with syrup and I had to rinse it off. So, you can do without it, I say. This is the water and sugar getting angry before it simmered down and became thick syrup.

Here's the cake baking. It rose dramatically and then fell in the center.

Here's the finished product. My handheld mixer burned out, so I whipped the cream by hand. Didn't take long. I smoothed out the dip in the center with the magic of cream. I also added about three times as much orange zest to the cream because it tasted like plain cream to me. I wanted it to be zestier.

All in all, pretty good. The cake was a little dry, even though I took it out about 10 minutes before. The icing melted a little on the drive over to the party, but this is San Antonio, where everything is crazy hot. Can't be helped.

Enjoy!

Cake

(from Food and Wine)

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons canola oil
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons molasses
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons honey
2 eggs
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
3/4 cup boiling water

Orange Confit

1 orange, zest peeled with a vegetable peeler and sliced lengthwise into 1/8-inch strips
4 cups water
1/2 cup sugar

Mascarpone Cream

1 cup mascarpone, at room temperature
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
Pinch of salt

Directions

Make the Cake: Preheat the oven to 350°. Spray a 9-inch square baking pan with vegetable cooking spray. In a large bowl, combine the flour with the ground ginger, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk the canola oil with the brown sugar, molasses, honey, eggs and lemon zest until smooth. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until combined. Whisk in the boiling water. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 1 hour and 10 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Set the pan on a rack and let the cake cool completely, about 2 hours.
Meanwhile, Make the Orange Confit: In a medium saucepan, combine the strips of orange zest with the water and sugar. Bring to a boil and cook over high heat until syrupy and the orange zest is soft, about 30 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the orange confit to a plate; discard the syrup.
Make the Mascarpone Cream: In a large bowl, using an electric mixer at medium speed, beat the mascarpone with the cream, orange zest, confectioners’ sugar and salt until soft peaks form.
Cut the molasses-gingerbread cake into squares and transfer to plates. Dollop the mascarpone cream on top, garnish with the orange confit and serve.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Holy guacamole!

I love guacamole. Avocados are one of my favorite things to eat. I recently started making this guacamole, and it is so good.

2 large avocados
2 Roma tomatoes
cilantro
1 red onion
2 limes
fine sea salt

Dice the avocados, tomatoes and onion. Roughly chop half a bunch of cilantro and combine with veggies in a non-metal bowl. (Metal makes the avocados brown) Squeeze the juice from the limes over the mix. Toss together, sprinkling with sea salt. Eat!

Pages

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Meyer Lemon Shortcakes with Meyer Lemon Curd and Mixed Citrus "Marmalade"

Biscuits

Topping

Meyer Lemon Curd

Biscuits

Topping

Mixed Citrus "Marmalade"

Friday, April 2, 2010

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Ingredients

Notes

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Meatballs

Sandwiches

Preparation

hot chili mayo

meatballs

sandwiches

Monday, November 9, 2009

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Cheddar Dogs with Cider-Braised Leeks and Apples

Ingredients

Preparation

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Chocolate Cake with Ganache and Praline Topping

Ganache

Praline

Cake

Ganache

Praline

Monday, June 22, 2009

Cake

(from Food and Wine)

Orange Confit

Mascarpone Cream

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

LinkWithin