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A New Love: Jacques Pépin's Fast Food
Talking Him Into It - Feeding The Guy
Another Change, and Two Summer Shortcakes
The First No-Cook Pasta Sauce of the Season
Christopher Kimball's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Weekend Cookbook Challenge: Christopher Kimball's Fudgy Brownies
I have a new love in my life. I stumble home from work at 9:30pm with no time to cook, hoping I still have a container of buffalo milk yogurt in the back of the fridge, fall on the couch, and watch Jaques Pépin cook. Everything he makes looks incredibly delicious, and I find myself thinking, "Why didn't I realize how much I want to eat mussels and saffron over pasta? Ooo, those strawberries are exactly what I want - nothing in the world could possibly be as good as they would be."
Of course, half the charm is Jacques himself, talking to me about just how to dunk my baguette into the watery, saffrony sauce, saying adorable things like, "I wouldn't want to put more wine into this, but I will add a little 'château sink'," in that lovely, soft French accent. Yes, I am head-over-heels for a man old enough to be my grandfather. Fortunately, so is The Guy, so we collapse together and plan the dinners we will make someday, when we have time to reacquaint ourselves with our kitchen. I've even started to talk him into getting me the book for my birthday (he thinks he should just get me the dvd set so I can drool over it night after night).
The show has a funny website, here, but it doesn't nearly do justice to the genius that is this particular PBS jewel. So if you can't find time to cook, look up your local PBS schedules and feed on the master and his food.
Posted by georgia at 10:27 PM | Comments (2) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
Given my totally crazy schedule and the hideous heat wave we suffered through a couple weeks ago, it should come as no surprise to anyone that I've been playing around with more no-cook pasta sauces. At first I thought I'd just stick to my regular tomatoes/onions/basil/mozzarella staple (above), but then one day when I went to the Co-op on my way home from work, I couldn't find any mozzarella. I sat in front of the cheese shelves for a few minutes, momentarily stymied. What would I use instead? I scanned the rows of tallegio, parmigiano-reggiano, and morbier, but in the end I wimped out and bought goat-cheese; it would be different, but there would be no surprises. I also bought some picholine olives to add to the mix.
I took everything home and made the sauce as usual, but when I opened the fridge to grab the olives I saw a bag of peaches that looked so good I just had to grab one. After confirming with The Guy that, no, he didn't want any peach in his pasta, I cut half of one into small pieces and added it to the sauce before pouring everything over pasta and crumbling the goat cheese on top.
How was it? It was fantastic! Something about the combination of the peach, the mild goat cheese, and the basil is pure summer.
I also tried another recipe that tastes like summer from the NY Times food section's new column about eating from the Greenmarket. I couldn't really remember exactly what the recipe consisted of, and the recipe was no longer on line, here is what I used:
Note: This recipe is amazing if you have really good, fragrant tomatoes and young, sweet corn, but wasn't nearly as memorable the second time I made it, with slightly "off" ingredients, it lost the wow-factor.
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved, mixed with olive oil and salt, and roasted in the oven for about 30 mins. 2 large fresh tomatoes (the kind that smell really good), cut into small chunks. 3 ears sweet corn kernels, cut off the cob (yes, raw). A few scallions, sliced lengthwise and finely chopped. A handful of fresh basil, sliced. Fresh mozzarella, cut into cubes.
Toss everything with warm pasta, olive oil, salt and pepper.
Posted by georgia at 11:07 PM | Comments (3) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
When I first met The Guy he didn't eat anything green. No, actually that's not fair of me, he did eat one kind of vegetable: haricot verts. Yes, that's right, the very expensive, very thin cousin of the green beans that most of us eat. He gushed about the wonderful qualities of his haricot verts every time I mentioned the need to add veggies to our meals until, one day, he got a job and started buying his own groceries. Then those little haricot verts started to look, well, a little less appetizing, even at Fairway prices. So we switched to green beans.
It took me almost a full year to get The Guy to try salads. It was like pulling teeth. "Please?" I'd ask, every time I bought a head of lettuce that I knew I couldn't finish before it went bad; "Maybe next time," he'd say. But to my great surprise, when he finally did try salad he loved it (only the way I make it, but that's a good thing). We had the same battle over greens like spinach and Chinese watercress with the same results - once he finally tried it he fell in love. And over time he started to trust me to feed him greens (and sushi and shellfish) that he would like. By the time we'd worked our way up to artichokes he didn't even take any cajoling - he just bit right in.
But then, last week, he balked at a food choice: sandwiches for dinner. With the temperatures in triple digits I didn't feel like turning on the oven or boiling water, so, after a little inspiration from a beautiful picture of a BLT from one of the recent issues of Bon Appétit, I suggested that we try BLTs for dinner. "For dinner?" he asked, with a look on his face that reminded me very suddenly of the look he used to have when I mentioned spinach. I tried to tell him how lovely the sandwich would be. "But we wouldn't have to cook much at all and we can add cheese and have a lovely sandwich with cheese and tomatoes and bacon." "Bacon?" he asked, a new look beginning to dawn on his face, "crunchy, fatty yummy bacon?" I paused a minute to consider if this was, in fact, what I wanted to talk exercise-challenged hubby into, but I had just begun to win the argument and I wasn't going to back down, so we had lovely sandwiches with crunchy, fatty bacon (and good tomatoes, good lettuce, whole-wheat challah and melted raclette).
And did he like it? Of course he did. He loved it. We even had it the next night. And we're going to have it again tomorrow night.
Posted by georgia at 08:42 PM | Comments (3) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
For the second time in two weeks I'm going to make a change to what I do on the blog. Last week I joined the editorial staff at Saveur, so to keep up with the blog while my life gets totally hectic (and not use any ideas that I might decide I want to use for work), I'm going to be changing the focus a little and writing more about my attempts to handle the stresses of cooking, keeping up the apartment and (occasionally) being a decent hostess while handling a job that will often keep me busy not just all day but all evening too.
But this doesn't mean I'm going to stop cooking! So for the first installment of the "new" blog entrees, a few notes about what I learned over the past couple weeks about making shortcakes. I tried two of the shortcake recipes from last month's magazines: the Two-Berry Shortcakes from Gourmet (in the picture) and the Peach and Blackberry Shortcakes with Blackberry Cream from Bon Appétit. The two recipes were very different - the first was billed as a "quick" recipe and was by far the faster of the two. The biscuits were easy to make and plop down on to the pan, whereas the biscuits for the second recipe required me to roll out a very sticky dough and cut out rounds. The extra work created a different kind of biscuit, nice and crunchy on the top in a way that reminded me of the top of a very good muffin, but, frankly wasn't so good that I'd do the extra work again. The second recipe also included a very time consuming blackberry cream (blackberries pureed with sugar and pushed through a sieve then whipped with cream) which, again, created a wonderful result, but was a little too much work to think about doing again. Next time maybe I can find some blackberry syrup, liqueur or jelly (or just stick with Gourmet's version and change the fruit).
Posted by georgia at 10:46 PM | Comments (5) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
So finally, at the very end of June, I gave up my healthy summer eating habits and let myself indulge in a couple of the desserts from Living and Bon Appétit. After flipping through the June issues, I was drawn to two desserts: Bon Appétit's Grilled Brown-Sugar Peaches with White Chocolate and Living's Peach-Raspberry Clafouti.
I started with the Grilled Brown-Sugar Peaches, a quick and easy dessert that was a snap to make after dinner one night. The combination of the white sugar, the cinnamon, and the pistachios was unexpected and interesting, and even though many of the ingredients are inherently sweet, they went very well with the early-summer peach, balancing their slightly tart flavor.
The clafouti was more of a production, with the extra step of poaching the peaches, but the only real difficult part was getting the peaches to break into halves and pitting them. Surprisingly, the harder peaches were easier to work with, because they broke from the pit whole instead of smushing, but it still involved using my thumb as a wedge to get the first half separated and then a nice sharp knife to cut the pit out of the second half. The final dessert wasn't as pretty as the pictures in the magazine, but it was absolutely delicious. It was eggy and infused with vanilla and had the most wonderful texture. The peaches, infused with the vanilla and the flavor of white wine, were fantastic, and I liked the whole thing so much that I ended up eating half of it within a few hours of taking it out of the oven. The poaches peaches on their own would make a great dessert too.
Both recipes are going to get a lot of use in my kitchen and both give me great ways to use all those early summer peaches that aren't quite sweet enough to be enjoyed on their own.
Posted by georgia at 11:35 PM | Comments (3) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
It's not quite the season for tomatoes yet, and there are no fragrant heirloom varieties available at the Greenmarket, but with the weather as warm as it is, I just couldn't wait any longer and went ahead and made no-cook pasta sauce anyway. I used the most summery-looking tomatoes I could find and dressed them up with more garlic and basil than usual and even added some finely mince thyme to make up for the lack of flavor in the tomatoes themselves. A little olive oil and some salt and pepper, and summer had arrived on my dining table.
In past years I haven't been particularly creative with my no-cook pasta sauces; they're always just a mix of tomatoes, aromatics and herbs left to swap juices for a few minutes while the water boils and the pasta cooks. (When I first started making them, four years ago, I followed the directions of a PBS cooking show and let them marinate for hours, but once I found the courage to deviate from these instructions - or maybe just got lazy - I found that they can be made right before dinner, making them simple as well as yummy.) I've never branched into all the summer flavors that could make a good no-cook sauce; in fact, I don't even make pesto. But this summer I'm feeling a little more extravagant. I think that anything that would make a good cold soup would probably also make a good cold pasta sauce, so over the next few weeks I'm hoping to try using strawberries, cantaloupe, mint, and anything else I can get my hands on as a base. It might not always turn out perfect, but I'm excited because no matter what happens it will be fast, it will be easy and, most importantly, it will taste like summer.
Posted by georgia at 11:28 PM | Comments (2) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
The other day I woke up with the urge to bake; it may have had something to do with the freelance writing piece I was avoiding, or maybe it was because The Guy was home for the day too and he loves cookies. Whatever it was, I had a strong urge to make chocolate chip cookies. After the wonderful success with Christopher Kimball's fudgy brownies I knew I would have to try his classic chocolate chip cookies. I was thrilled to find that this recipe, like the other one, didn't require an electric mixer or any ingredients I didn't already have (we had some Crisco in the cabinet from a while back; we don't use it often, but it stays good for a very long time, so it's good to have). Kimball's notes about the process of creating these cookies mention wanting cookies that puffed up and stayed moist inside while getting crunchy around the edges, and that's exactly what these did. He also wanted a cookie that wasn't so sweet that it sent you running for a cup of milk. For my taste they were still very sweet and went very well with a cold glass of milk, but then that's what a chocolate chip cookie is supposed to taste like.
The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie
1/4 cup Crisco
8 tbsp unsalted butter, softened but still firm
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg white
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups plus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
10 ounces chocolate chips
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Beat the Crisco and butter in a medium bowl with a wooden spoon until pretty smooth but with a few harder pieces (about 1 minute). Add the sugars and stir until well blended. Add the egg, egg white, and vanilla and beat until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to the batter and mix together until smooth. Add the chips and fold in.
2. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper. For large cookies, place heaping tablespoons of dough on the paper with 1.5 inches between the outer edges of the balls of dough. Shape the dough quickly with your hand so that each spoonful is compact and not too spread out.
3. Bake for about 12 minutes, or until tops are lightly browned. Rotate pan front to back halfway through baking; do not overcook.
4. Slide parchment paper onto wire racks to cool. Repeat as needed with fresh sheets of parchment paper.
(Note: don't overcook, or they'll be hard as rocks.)
Posted by georgia at 03:22 PM | Comments (0) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
This week we went a little grilled chicken crazy. Maybe it was the long solstice days or our weekend at Cape Cod; or maybe it was just that chicken is easy to make. We tried two grilled chicken recipes on our grill pan, one from Gourmet and one from Living. Both were good and tasted like summer and both were pretty easy to make. The Chipotle-Lime Grilled Chicken from Gourmet was great - the marinade was simple to make and the chicken really took on the flavors of the chipotle Tabasco and the lime juice. I made the mistake of pouring some of the marinade on the rice I made with it (the marinade is much too strong on its own), but the chicken itself was wonderful (The Guy especially liked it). We also made the Lemon-Thyme Chicken Paillards from Living. I was excited because it has specific instructions for using a grill pan instead of a barbeque, which I thought might make the whole process easier. The chicken took the light flavors of the lemon and thyme it was marinated in, but when we followed the instructions the chicken didn't cook all the way through, even though the pieces were very thin. We were able to get the pieces to cook all the way through after putting them back on the pan for a while, but by then then were fairly dry. I'm sure that by adjusting the cooking time we could get it right and it would be very good. So, which will we be most likely to use again? Well, the chipotle-lime chicken only marinated for fifteen minutes and the lemon-thyme chicken had to marinate for at least two hours...so what do you think?
Chipotle-Lime Grilled Chicken
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup olive oil
2.5 tbsp chipotle Tabasco
3/4 tsp salt
6 large skinless boneless chicken thighs
2 tsp mild honey
1. Prepare grill for cooking over direct heat with medium-hot charcoal
2. While coals are lighting, stir together lime juice, oil, Tabasco, and salt in a liquid-measuring cup. Put chicken in a large sealable bag and add 1/3 cup marinade (reserve remainder in cup). Seal bag, forcing out excess air, adn marinate chicken at room temperature, about 15 minutes. Stir honey into remaining marinade until dissolved to make sauce.
3. Grill chicken (discarding marindade in bag) on lightly oiled grill rack, covered only if using gas grill, turning chicken over occasionally and moving it to avoid flareups if necessary, until just cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes.
4. Brush both sides of chicken with some of reserved sauce, then continue to grill, turning over once, until lightly borwned, about 1 minute more. Serve chicken drizzled with remaining sauce.
Posted by georgia at 11:32 PM | Comments (2) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
When Sara and Alicat at The Weekend Cookbook Challenge announced that June's challenge was picnic food, my mind immediately went to desserts. I love to bring desserts to parties because The Guy and I never finish them unless we have some help, and I find that fewer people remember dessert at a picnic, so my contribution is always appreciated (the same goes for interesting drinks, like mint lemonade). And what better dessert for a picnic than brownies? They're transportable, they're classic, and, gosh darnit, people like them. After flipping through a few cookbooks, I decided on the Chewy, Fudgy Brownies from The Dessert Bible by Christopher Kimball for two reasons: One, in the four years we've owned this book, I've never used it (The Guy bought it), and two, it was the easiest recipe I found and I had all the ingredients on hand.
Christopher Kimball himself acknowledges that he prefers lighter brownies, but I love the fudgy ones, so I was excited about this recipe. It was a snap to make (no mixers, stand or hand-held), and almost nothing that could go wrong. The chocolate and butter melted quickly, the ingredients came together smoothly (no beating, folding or worrying involved), and looked shiny and gooey as it glopped into the pan - this is a batter that would be made by Willy Wonka, not Jacques Torres. The only problems I found were that when I went to cut them, two hours after taking them out of the oven, they were so sticky inside that they stuck to the knife and broke apart, and that the foil I had lined the pan with (per the instructions) was imbedded inside the brownies in some places. I let them sit a couple more hours and they became more managable (Kimball notes that these are especially good the day after you make them), and for the sake of simplicity I simply cut off the parts that seemed to have aluminum in them.
Chewy, Fudgy Brownies
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
10 tbsp. unsalted butter
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 and 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup walnuts, in pieces (optional - I didn't use them)
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8 X 8- inch baking pan with foil or parchment paper, or grease the pan with butter.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a microwave oven at 50 percent power for 2 minutes, or melt in a saucepan over very low heat. Whisk the eggs and vanilla together in a medium bowl. Add the melted chocolate mixture and whisk to combine (mixture with thicken considerably). Add all other ingredients and mix together with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon. The batter will be very thick and somewhat greasy-looking.
3. Scrape batter into baking pan (the batter will hang together like bread dough) and press into place with a large rubber spatula. Bake about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean when inserted into center. For chewier brownies, bake an additional 5 to 10 minutes. Let cool at least 2 hours in pan before removing, cutting and serving. (The brownies will continue cooking and become chewier as they cool.)
Posted by georgia at 03:42 PM | Comments (6) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
It started as a corn and marscapone ravioli we devoured at Al Di La, then turned into a lasagna we served to 100 people. When we wanted it for dinner without all the to do, we turned it into a linguine dish, and this weekend, when we wanted to serve it at a potluck, we turned it into a macaroni and cheese casserole. For each preparation we change the recipe a little bit - for the lasagna we use marscapone, the way the ravioli was made, for the linguine we throw the vegetables into a more traditional cream sauce with butter, cream and cheese, and for the macaroni I opted for the cheese we use for the cream sauce, a little creme fraiche, and a touch of cream, mixed it all together and baked it in a casserole dish. It was great, just like all the other combinations of these ingredients. Now if only I can find a few dozen more combinations like this...
Posted by georgia at 11:24 PM | Comments (1) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
Last week I pulled out the May issue of Everyday Food and tried all three of the recipes I had wanted to try: the Roasted Chicken with Ginger, Chile and Lime; the Gingered Sugar Snaps; and the pistachio crusted Chocolate-Covered Strawberries. I made the chicken without the pickled jalapeños, but it was almost surprisingly good anyway - the ginger and lime add a wonderful pungent flavor to the meat. The only problem was that almost all the spice was confined to the breasts, where it was easy to spread them under the skin. This left the other parts of the chicken with a lot less flavor. Next time I'll try to get every part of the chicken covered in the spices. The sugar snaps, on the other hand, were a disappointment. The flavor was nice, but even with the strings removed, the snaps remained really fibrous and hard to eat. I much prefer them raw and crunchy to warm and stringy, though if one cut them into smaller pieces and cooked them in the liquid longer, it might break down the fibers. The strawberries were perfect - The Guy likened them to nut-crusted ice cream bars, which was a pretty apt description, and noticed that they'd be really good with almonds. I think they might taste even better with almonds, but they wouldn't be nearly as pretty. My favorite thing about the strawberries was that after leaving them in the fridge for only 15 minutes, as per the instructions, they came out firm but not too hard, so the chocolate didn't crack apart and fall off as we ate them and we were able to enjoy chocolate with each bite of strawberry.
Posted by georgia at 11:35 PM | Comments (1) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
A few days ago The Guy and I had a birthday party to go to, and since I have less money than time right now, I thougth I'd make some cookies as gifts (after all, who doesn't like cookies?) The birthday party was for our friend Emily, and I wanted to make sure to give her cookies that were a little retro and a little cute and a little classic, just like she is. This gave me the perfect opportunity to play around with some of my favorite cookies and give them a fun twist. I started by making classic peanut butter cookies, which are nice and retro, then dipped them in melted chocolate to make them a little more grownup. I also made snickerdoodles, which were The Guy's childhood favorites. I thought about using cookie cutters to give them fun shapes, but that would have wasted good dough, so I used the cookie cutter in a different way - by dipping them in colored icing (a watery mix of powdered sugar, water and food-coloring) I made cute heart shapes on the tops of the cookies, which were a hit with everyone.
Posted by georgia at 03:30 PM | Comments (0) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
Standing in line at Whole Foods is torture. While you wait for the line to move imperceptibly forward you are treated to an array of dozens of kinds of flavored iced tea. Teany, Honest Tea, so many wonderful teas. But I'm not about to lose my place in line (or spend $4) just because pomegranate white tea is calling me. Instead I resolve to reward myself for my restraint by making my own flavored iced teas at home. Following the instructions from a number of sources (my new favorite tea book among them) I brew a cup of white tea with two bags of tea (steeping only 60 seconds, as instructed by the tin of Republic of Tea Pineapple Guava White Tea), sweeten it with only about a teaspoon of sugar so it won't be as sickly sweet as the store-bought alternatives, and pour it over a large glass full of ice cubes. Once the ice cubes start to melt and the liquid cools, I add a couple more ice cubes and drop in some strips of lemon zest for flavor (fresh mint or a couple fresh cranberries would be great too).
If the tea isn't quite sweet enough for you, just mix equal parts sugar and hot water to make a little simple syrup to stir in, or add a couple drops of pomegranate juice for sweetness, flavor and color.
Posted by georgia at 12:33 PM | Comments (0) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
Looking for something new (and quick) to do with chicken, I tried the Sticky Sesame Chicken Wings from Gourmet. They were nice and easy to make (The Guy was nice enough to use his butchering skills to trim the wings into "wingettes") and had a nice flavor to them. I think if I had marinated them longer than the recipe called for they would have been better, but I'd make them again the same way (though maybe not with organic chicken - it was just a little too fatty).
Posted by georgia at 11:42 PM | Comments (2) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
There are many reasons to love Chinatown (litchis by the pound, bubble milk tea, and ma po dou fu being just some of the many), but every time I stand in the sauces aisle at Kam Man grocery store I fall for it all over again. Why on earth would I be paying upwards of $5 for a bottle of soy sauce when I can get twice as much for half the price? And good sesame oil (the kind with actual flavor) for the same? So head to your local Asian market (and while you're there, don't forget the litchis).
Posted by georgia at 10:25 PM | Comments (1) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
I don't believe that the lack of a grill (or a yard to put it in for that matter) is reason to deprive myself of yummy recipes. So I tried the chimichurri recipe (parsley, shallots, lemon juice, etc.) from the Gaucho Grill article in Gourmet on a regular piece of pan-seared steak. And I'm glad I did - it was wonderful! It was flavorful and summery, good on the roasted potatoes, and a great change for a warm day. All it needed was a glass of that lemonade from last week.
Posted by georgia at 09:13 PM | Comments (1) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
Risotto al Limone, Limoncello, Lemon Custard - so many yummy recipes, all requiring lemon zest. Lots of it. So what do you do with the rest of the lemon once you've denuded it of all its lovely zest? I was asking myself this exact question last week after the lemon risotto. I thought about making Ceasar salad dressing to dip artichokes into or doing a recipe search with the words "lemon juice" or just making Living's cornish game hens again, despite the mediocre results the first time. Then it hit me - I could make lemonade. Why had it taken me this long to think of it? Was my childhood so far gone that I'd completely forgotten the sunny wonderfulness of lemon, sugar and water? I grabbed my forlorn zestless lemons and made myself a cup - and since I was using leftovers, I added a small handful of the mint that was leftover from the Pea Ravioli with Mint.
This beautiful glass of lemonade was made with the juice of three small organic lemons, just under three teaspoons sugar, three ice cubes, and about a cup of water. If adding mint, muddle it with a spoon for the best flavor. And don't forget, although a denuded lemon might get hard and look funny, it will still be fresh for days if kept in the fridge.
Posted by georgia at 10:05 PM | Comments (1) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
After a couple weeks of a kitchen slump (quesadillas and cereal) I finally broke out the new magazines and my knives.
The first thing on the menu was the Gratinéed Gnocchi with Spinach and Ricotta from Gourmet's Ten Minute Mains. As you can see, it was gorgeous, and we couldn't wait to dig into it. Unfortunately, the taste didn't quite live up to the visual aspect of the dish. It was fine, and the gnocchi (frozen, not dried, because that's what the co-op has) was lovely, but the whole thing lacked spice. I'm not a steamed spinach lover, so that might be the problem, but it would have benefited from some garlic and parmesan (and will next time I make it).
The next dish on the menu this week was the Risotto al Limone from Saveur. I'd been drooling over the picture for weeks, and I was happy with the way it turned out when I made it. Lemony but mild enough not to offend the non-lemon lovers of us (ie The Guy), it was a lovely starter. My only concern is that even after adding an additional scoop of water while cooking, the risotto was almost too al dente. I did halve the recipe, adding the water in 1/2 cup increments instead of full cups, so that may have changed things, but I'd still suggest testing the risotto before you move on to the cream part of the recipe.
Lastly, I pulled a couple of recipes from Living's What's for Dinner section: the Easy Pea Ravioli with Mint and Cornish Game Hens with Lemon and Herbs. The ravioli was an interesting process and kind of sloppy to make (toward the end I resorted to making "pea dumplings" with the wonton wrappers because it was just easier). Since I don't have round cookie cutters I cut them into squares which worked just fine. The end result tasted good, but once I added a little grated lemon zest and parmesan on top of them. For the Cornish Game Hens I substituted a chicken and turned the heat down to 400 degrees. The result was nice, but not as good as some of the other recipes I've tried recently.
Next week? Maybe some desserts...
Posted by georgia at 11:27 PM | Comments (1) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
Another weekend, another adventure with my new favorite book, Susan Hermann Loomis' On Rue Tatin. My friend Lily, who is equally enamored of the book, agreed to join me in a night of French food and film, and we cooked for a bunch of friends, making recipes exclusively from the book. The Apples Stuffed with Goat Cheese and Leeks were as much of a hit as the first time I made them, the Apple Roquefort, and Walnut Salad was lovely, the Braised Chicken in White Wine and Mustard was a huge success, and the Tiny Baked Potatoes with Cream were fantastic (when the store was out of chives, Lily opted for dill, and the result was wonderful). But the real treat of the night, at least in my mind, was Mamy Jacqueline's Chocolate Cake. I worried about the texture when I was making it, since the dense mix of chocolate, sugar, egg yolks and flour didn't seem like the ideal texture to fold into whipped egg whites, and I worried when I poured the batter into the pan and it seemed to barely cover the bottom (and I was even using a 9" pan instead of 9.5"). But when the cake was served, all my fears were put to rest. The cake was a lovely, thin treat of dense chocolate that was homey and sophisticated all at once, and as soon as people had finished their first slices they immediately asked if they could have more. This cake is going to take a place of honor in my repetoire as the adult's answer to the chocolate layer cakes of our youths - when I have kids it will not be something I make for their birthdays, but it is definitely something I will make for mine.
Mamy Jacqueline's Chocolate Cake
3/4 cup cake flour
Sea salt
7 ounces bitter chocolate (like Lindt 70%)
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs, separated
Confectioners' sugar
1. Butter and flour a 9.5 inch rounk cake pan. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Sift the flour and a generous pinch of salt onto a piece of parchment paper.
3. Melt the chocolate in the top of a double broiler over medium-high heat. Transfer the chocolate to a medium-size bowl and whisk in the butter until the mixture is smooth. Vigorously whisk in all but 1 tablespoon of the sugar, then add the egg yolks and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the flour mixture 1 tablespoon at a time until well combined.
4. In a large bowl whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they are foamy and begin to thicken. Add the remaining tablespoon of sugar and continue whisking until they form soft peaks. Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then turn it into the prepared baking pan and bake in the center of the oven until the cake springs back, 20 to 25 minutes.
5. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool to lukewarm in the pan, then turn it out onto a rack to cool thoroughly. To serve, sprinkle it with confectioners' sugar.
6 to 8 servings
Posted by georgia at 11:06 PM | Comments (1) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
The egg board likes to say that eggs are the perfect food, but I think quiche has them beat. Filled with protein, vegetables, and a few carbs, it's everything you need all wrapped up in an impressive package. So why don't we make them more often? Probably the crust. No one wants to spend the time making a crust from scratch, and store-bought crusts are not known for their taste and texture. So what's a rushed cook to do? Boil a potato, of course.
A few slices of boiled potato make a wonderful, fast crust that makes quiche-making a breeze. Just cut a soft potato in thin rounds, lie them in the bottom of a pan, smush them a little with a spoon to fill in the gaps, and pour the filling on top. What could be better than that? Well, maybe the fact that it allows you to make a kosher for Passover quiche.
We made a leek and brie quiche this weekend, with a very simple spur-of-the-moment recipe:
Leek and Brie Quiche with Potato Crust
3-4 potatoes
3 leeks (white and light-green parts only) rinsed, halved lengthwise and cut in 1/2 to 3/4 inch slices
Most of a wedge of brie, cut in small pieces (about 5/6th)
6 eggs
1 tablespoon butter
1. Clean potatoes and boil until fork goes all the way through.
2. Sautée leeks until whites turn translucent, about 6 minutes.
3. Slice potatoes (about 1/2 inch) and line bottom of 8"x8" baking pan with them. Smush potatoes with spoon to even out and fill in gaps.
4. Beat eggs in medium bowl and mix in brie and leeks.
5. Pour filling into pan and bake at 350 degrees until center is cooked 30-40 minutes (the center will rise slightly when done).
6. Serve with salad of mesclun and red wine vinaigrette.
Posted by georgia at 10:20 PM | Comments (4) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
Cape Cod can be short of a few things in the off-season, but it's definitely not short on kitchen supplies. Though I've been in The Cook Shop in Brewster before, I get excited every time I go in about just how many things they have crammed into their adorable shop. From ladles of every shape and size to a beautiful array of pastry tips to everything Oxo to a rainbow of colored sugars, they have everything you can imagine for your cooking adventures. Is there a cooking school somewhere in Brewster that I don't know about? They also have a wonderful collection of interesting foods like dozens of exotic mustards, jams, salsas, chocolate sauces, teas and exotic candies, most in flavors you've never even considered. I grabbed some tangerine oil to try in chocolate truffles, and it was hard not to get about 20 other things I was drooling over. How they manage to get so many things into such a small space (and where the locals are hiding all the cakes and candy they're making with them) is a mystery, but one I'll happily ignore if it means I can keep going back there every year.
Posted by georgia at 08:04 PM | Comments (0) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
This week started with the very simple Rigatoni with Tomato Sauce and Ricotta from Gourmet, moved to the bright Spring Vegetable Fricassee with Saffron Cream from Bon Appétit and then finished with a grand finale of Spring Greens with Orange-Fennel Vinaigrette and Dark Chocolate Torte with Spiked Blackberry Coulis from Bon Appétit's Passover feature.
The rigatoni was lovely and easy to make, with simple clear flavors that were just as wonderful cold for lunch as they had been the night before for dinner. The sauce, a combination of good (canned) tomatoes and fresh basil was simplicity itself to make, the dollop of ricotta on the side contrasted nicely with the tang of the tomatoes, and the pecorino grated over everything added the only depth the dish needed.
The vegetables in saffron cream were not nearly as simple either in method or taste, but they were lovely and a nice variation on our usual salads and braised leeks. The sauce soaked into rice nicely and the whole dish added flavor to the simple chicken I served it with. The only thing that would keep me from making it again is the simple fact that I don't really see the point to covering vegetables with tons of cream - it seems to defeat the purpose of eating the vegetables. If I did make it, however, I would leave out the peas. There's just something about peas that brings a dish down to the level of little kid food.
The real hit of the week, however, were the Passover dishes I made with my hostess Barbara. For second Seder we made the Spring Greens with Orange-Fennel Vinaigrette, in which I omitted the fennel (The Guy doesn't like it) and substituted a little lemon zest and some dried cranberries, which don't taste anything like fennel but pack the same kind of punch in a salad. We agreed at the end of the night that we liked it better this way - fennel would have been one taste too many (especially alongside brisket, turkey, kugel, matzoh, geffilte fish and melon). And for the end of the meal we made the chocolate tort I had been drooling over since the magazine first arrived at my door. The cake was surprisingly easy to make (just melt chocolate, whip eggs, and fold them together), and had the most wonderful fudgy texture that somehow wasn't too dense. The coulis (blackberry with allspice, bay leaf, cloves, wine, and cognac) was a wonderful complement to the chocolate, and added a great flavor to the chocolate glaze. A fantastic way to end the night (now I just need to find the alka-seltzer in Barbara's medicine cabinet....)
Posted by georgia at 11:03 PM | Comments (0) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
Rob Manuel at B3TA has come up with a wonderful thing: the technique for a perfect poached egg. For those of us who don't own a Williams-Sonoma poached egg pan, tossing raw eggs into boiling water usually produces a stringy, watery mess, but Manuel found that if you wrap the egg in cling-wrap, it produces a lovely sphere of an egg that cooks perfectly. To achieve this wonderous egg, line a cup with cling-wrap, crack the egg into the cup, and tie the wrap closed above the egg (leaving as little air as possible).
Drop the whole package into boiling water and poach for approx. 4 minutes, then remove and untie it, and unwrap the egg onto a plate (or a salad made of leftover dandelion greens, soft Danish blue cheese, and warm shallot and balsamic dressing).
Posted by georgia at 09:11 PM | Comments (3) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
I was very excited when I saw the recipes grouped under the heading "Spring Chickens" in Bon Appétit, especially the Mustard-Roasted Chicken with Warm Frisée Salad with Fingerlings and Bacon, because I have three nearly full bottles of different kinds of Dijon mustard in my fridge that I only use for salad dressings. I rushed out and bought the rest of the ingredients I needed, and only after realized that the recipe required me to marinate the chicken "at least 4 hours or overnight." I was so annoyed, because I'm really not exactly someone who preps dinner the night before, but I didn't want to waste any of the ingredients, so I did it anyway. The next night I made the rest of the dish while roasting the chicken, and sat down to a wonderful dinner. The mustard had given the chicken's skin a strong, rich flavor that blended perfectly with the warm friseée dandelion, potato and bacon salad and the balsamic vinegar dressing (which I subbed in for Sherry vinegar). While I'm not thrilled about the idea of prepping dinner the night before again, and I don't really like putting bacon in my salads, this is a meal that I can't wait to have again. It was even good cold for lunch the next day when the greens had wilted from sitting in the dressing over night. Really, surprisingly good.
Posted by georgia at 09:06 PM | Comments (0) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
Since we've got such great Spring artichokes coming into markets, I'm inspired to use my favorite artichoke recipe, which my mom adapted from a restaurant we used to love. Simply steam the (cleaned) artichokes 30- 40 minutes, depending on the size, then, holding them with tongs, cut them in half lengthwise and coat the cut sides with a mixture of olive oil, minced garlic, and salt and pepper. Grill them on both sides until they start to get golden-brown ridges (I use a grill pan), and serve them with melted butter, garlic aioli, or, better yet, my favorite Caesar dressing. Enjoy.
Posted by georgia at 10:43 PM | Comments (1) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
So there wasn't tons going on in my kitchen this week, but I did try the Pappa al Pomodoro (Bread and Tomato Soup) from Saveur's Florentine Trattoria story. It took a little longer to make than I would have liked, with the leek-cooking and the simmering and the soaking, but there was plenty of time while it was cooking to work on the rest of the meal and get started on clean-up, so it actually worked out very well. I had a problem with my leeks cooking faster than the recipe anticipated (and turning a little too brown on the edges), but I think that's probably the fault of my dinky little stove (it doesn't have the most responsive dials). I was also surprised by just how difficult it is to whisk together a big pot of soup and soft bread - I really need to work on my arm strength if I'm going to do this kind of thing on a regular basis.
The finished soup was lovely, but had a much milder flavor than most of the soups we usually eat, and neither I nor The Guy was thrilled with it. The next day, however, our friend Anna discovered that it was really good cold, and I played with grating parmesan into it, which made the soup a little more flavorful.
With the soup, I tried the Leek and Brie Bruschetta from Everyday Food, since I already had lots of bread and leeks on hand. It was very easy to make, though I did have the same problem with the leeks that I had making the soup, and tasted just as good as expected. We didn't have as much leeks as the recipe called for, so their flavor wasn't as strong, and the tomatoes had not even begun to brown by the time the cheese had melted, but it was the highlight of the meal none-the-less and something that I will make again soon (maybe even this weekend).
Posted by georgia at 10:39 AM | Comments (0) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
I was on the receiving end of some good tips from Tod Coleman, the new Food Editor at Saveur, formerly of Everyday Food, and I thought I'd pass them along:
I did not know this before, but apparently when your favorite Italian restaurant makes lasagna, they do not cook the noodles; they just put them in with the sauce and filling and stick the whole thing in the fridge, and by the time they're ready to cook it at night the noodles are soft. While I'm not usually in the habit of making dinner in the morning, I'll definitely keep this in mind for the next time I have a potluck to go to or a weekend party to cook for.
Tod, however, suggested another, faster way of cutting down on the hassle of making lasagna: while they were preparing for last month's issue of Everyday Food, he tried to take this principle and apply it in a smaller time frame. What they found (and included in the issue) was that if you just lay the noodles in very hot tap water while you prepare the rest of the filling, you can avoid the process of boiling water and having noodles stick to each other. I didn't try the lasagna in that issue, but I'll definitely try this technique.
Thanks, Tod.
Posted by georgia at 09:09 AM | Comments (1) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
Oooooooo... Check out this post from 101 Cookbooks today on Justin Spring's The Itty Bitty Kitchen Handbook. I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy. Until then I'll have to make do with the website, which offers tantalizing pictures and tips, and 101 Cookbook's review, which has nice long quotations from the book.
Posted by georgia at 06:40 PM | Comments (0) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
To return to the topic that occupied us a couple weeks ago (and continues to occupy most of us every night when we stand in our kitchens): Cooking for two is a continuing battle, but this half-sized casserole dish is my secret weapon. Instead of wasting food on a family size portion that we can never get through, I make a small tray of lasagna, enchiladas or chicken. It makes about four servings, which leaves us with just enough leftovers for lunch the next day. Now if only if cupcake tins (and cupcake recipes) came in twos.
Posted by georgia at 10:20 PM | Comments (4) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
Maybe it's the time of year, but I still haven't been bowled over by any of the recipes I've tried from this month's magazines (the Irish stuff from Saveur being the obvious exception). This week's recipes were all right, but not anything that I'd rush to make again. We started with the Fettuccine with Sausage and Kale from Gourmet's "Quick" section, which was very good for a few bites, and pretty easy to make, but not all that special (if you want to try it, remember that it's better with lots of extra pecorino - the three flavors go very well together). We also made the buttered polenta from Gourmet, which had a wonderful texture and was soothing to cook, but was not better than the creamy polenta made with a little milk that we had a couple weeks ago. I had also hoped to make the Maple Sugar Ragamuffins or the Maple Sugar Tartlet, which both looked promising, but the Pear and Dried-Cherry Custard Crisp from Bon Appétit was easier to add to the cooking schedule (and simpler to prepare), so I went with that instead. Unfortunately it was not as good as I had hoped after seeing the picture they had of it. The flavors didn't blend together successfully, and although the picture made it look like the fruit would be accompanied by a lovely smothering of custard, but there wasn't even enough to keep the fruit moist. Very unfortunate, especially since the custard itself, when you could get a bite, was wonderful, as was the crisp on top. Next time I'll use it with a different fruit and a larger ratio of the custard.
Posted by georgia at 11:43 PM | Comments (0) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
Last week I received this email from Jenny A: "I love to make Potato/cheese/broccoli/ham soup, but when I make it I make a ton! What is the safest way to can it, so I can have it when I want it?"
Though I'm not exactly a canning expert, I'm really interested in this question because it touches on the storage issues mentioned here a couple weeks ago, and on the themes in the NY Times article this week about the health department cracking down on sous vide cooking (not that we're trying anything that complicated in any of our kitchens). So, Jenny, to answer your question:
Canning requires a balance of acid and/or sugars that home cooks can easily achieve with jams or pickles. The sugars in pomagranate jelly and the vinegar in pickled green tomatoes keep the foods from going bad for a few months because they create extreme environments that are inhospitable to bacteria. Soups, on the other hand, and most of the foods we make at home, are going to be full of bacteria, and much more difficult to store and much less stable. This is why all the soups you find on market shelves have preservatives. There are some sites that give advice on canning soup, like this one, but they require a pressure cooker, and I can imagine that not all your results will be spectacular. The recipes also seem to require a certain balance of solids to liquids, so you'd have to modify your recipe.
The best way that I can think of to store soup, and the one recommended by almost all the websites I've read, is to do it the old-fashioned way and freeze it. I would recommend freezing it in single serving containers so that you can thaw only the amount you want to eat (it's not safe to reheat and freeze food a second time) and keeping it in small batches also helps it cook faster, which better prevents bacteria growth (the health department requires restaurants to store things in small batches for this reason). If you're worried about freezer burn, smooth some plastic wrap over the top of the soup, and don't forget, liquid expands when you freeze it, so don't fill your containers all the way or freeze soups in glass containers.
Posted by georgia at 11:34 PM | Comments (0) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
March may come in like a lion and go out like a lamb (and this week's weather certainly did), but this week's cooking came in with a whimper and went out with a bang. It started with the Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars from Everyday Food, which looked amazing in the magazine, but just didn't wow the mouth the way they wowed the eyes. Maybe if I made them with walnuts they might actually taste like something. Fortunately my experiments with the Irish food from Saveur went much better. I made the Colcannon (mashed potatoes with cabbage and leafy greens), which I served with some garlicky roast chicken, and we finished the meal with the Tipsy Puddings from the same issue. Though not for the faint of heart or the under-aged palate, they were really lovely, and a perfect end to the meal. And the following day the Colcannon leftovers turned into a really nice lunch of colcannon cakes, following the method in the Kitchen section of the magazine. Definitely recipes I'll use again.
Posted by georgia at 09:54 PM | Comments (2) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
What on earth is this? Why have you never seen one before? Why is there a Junior Achievement sticker on it? And how is it that Georgia can always open those jars so much faster than you can?
Welcome to the Jar Opener. All during my childhood I pulled it out of the kitchen drawer and used it anytime I needed to open something. At friends' houses I'd have to bang the jar lid against the counter or run it under hot water, but at my house it was as simple as opening a piece of tupperware. The only problem with the jar opener was that it was the only one of it's kind - at least the only one we could get our hands on. My grandmother also had one (she had given my mother the second one she had), but no one else we knew had one, and it they weren't available for sale anywhere. Apparently whatever company had made them had stopped or gone out of business. We combed garage sales and second-hand stores but to no avail. I eventually inherited the jar opener that belonged to my grandmother, but there aren't enough to share with my siblings, and I live in fear of the day that I lose it. Various companies make different kinds of jar openers, like this one and this one, but they're all complicated and bulky with multiple parts or electrical mechanisms. None of them have the simplicity and convenience of this little doodad, and I'll bet none of them work as well either. So if you see one of these lying around, grab it (and if you find out why there's a Junior Achievement sticker on it, let me know)!
Posted by georgia at 07:11 PM | Comments (2) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
This week was not a big cooking week (it was more of the going to Chinatown or ordering take-out kind of a week), but when I finally slowed down a little I did try the Edamame Corn Chowder from Everyday Food. Since the Park Slope Food Co-op doesn't exactly carry creamed corn, I had to improvise with frozen. I also added cream instead of half-and-half (partly to compensate for the corn issue and partly because we never have half-and-half but we use cream for baking and sauces) and Fines Herbes with salt and ground pepper instead of Italian seasoning, because why overcrowd an already crowded spice drawer? The soup was good, but not as good as it probably would have been with the softer creamed corn. Of course, the best idea might be to just use a good corn chowder recipe that I know I like and add the edamame in before it's done (though probably less than the 2 cups in this recipe). I would let it cook a little longer than it did in this recipe too, since the texture just wasn't as soft as I would like, and I would add the bacon back in a few minutes before it was done so that the flavors could all mix.
So that would be my ideal version of this soup, but it's a good idea in whatever form you decide to make it.
Posted by georgia at 10:19 PM | Comments (0) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
What's spoom? acerola? macédoine? And why are they on your menu? Enter The Food Lover's Companion, the little bible for foodies everywhere. With just a flick of the wrist (and a page), all your food questions can be answered. Of course, let's be realistic; how many times a year do you actually go to restaurants with ingredients you can't identify? Once? Less? And when you do, do you really want to be pulling out a book of definitions? Most of us won't even commit this faux pas in foreign countries where we don't speak the language. Well don't worry, you don't have to buy the book and schlep it around to get this fantastic resource; Epicurious.com has it online! So now when faced with the prospect of a challenging menu, you can just look it up ahead of time and query the words that give you a hard time. Or you can just order the thing that looks best, eat the food on your plate like a good foodie, and look up anything you really liked and want to know about when you get home.
Posted by georgia at 11:32 PM | Comments (2) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
Well, since I've already started in on the March reviews, I should probably finish up the Feb reviews. This week I finally got to the Feb copy of Living, though not to the lovely craft projects that I wanted to do. I'll hang on to the issue for those and for all the great desserts that I didn't get to try.
This week I started with the Quick Chicken Cacciatore from What's for Dinner, and served it with polenta. Unfortunately my local stores don't carry instant polenta, so I had to make it the hard way (taking notes from the March issue of Gourmet), but I did add some milk and butter and parmesan to the recipe, to mimic Martha's version. The meal was very good, especially the polenta with the sauce from the chicken on it. The chicken was nice, and an interesting variation from my usual recipes, but nothing to write home about (Mom, I guess that means you should stop reading now), and for something that calls itself "quick", it takes an awfully long time.
I also made the Little Lemon Soufflés, which looked like one of the quicker, cuter desserts in the issue. It was quick, and kind of fun to make, but as you can see from the pictures, they weren't exactly cute. The soufflés rose in funny directions and the lemons (Meyer lemons, as per the recipe) turned a very dark gold as they cooked. Looking at the picture in the magazine, I assume that the stylist had the kitchen bake a few dozen of these just to get the three they showed us, then did lots of color correction to get them as cute as they look.
Despite their ugliness they were lovely to eat, though, and The Guy especially liked them. Maybe next time I try them I'll make them in real ramekins, so it will be easier to salvage their appearences when they go lopsided.
Posted by georgia at 10:21 PM | Comments (2) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post
This was another Bon Appétit week, though with new job stuff taking up more time than I had anticipated it was not a big cooking week. I started with the White Chocolate Cupcakes with Candied Kumquats (if you're snowed in on a Sunday afternoon, why not bake?) and then made the Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Orange Cream (yay for my hand blender - see the soup picture here). Unfortunately these, like the other recipes I tried this week, were not as good as I expected them to be. The cupcakes were trying to be too many things at once (white chocolate, coconut milk and candied kumquats all together) and didn't live up to the hype. The coconut totally disappeared into the other flavors, and the cupcakes themselves didn't have the moist texture I was hoping for. Fortunately the wonderful icing and the candied kumquats almost totally made up for it. While I might not use the whole recipe again, I'll definitely use these two components. I especially love the kumquats - I've always loved them, just popped into my mouth as a little wake-up - and now I actually have something to do with them.
The soup had some of the same problems, but it somehow lacked the depth I was expecting. Though it had the zing of orange zest worked into the cream and the freshness of basil, the basic soup was kind of flat (and tasted entirely too much of jarred red peppers - though I don't know why that surprised me).
So what's going on? Have I lost my ability to pick recipes? I guess all I can do to find out is the same thing I always do after a bad week in the kitchen - just keep cooking.
Posted by georgia at 10:58 PM | Comments (2) | permalink | TrackBack | Email this post