Chef Patti Anastasia
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Table Talk » Recipes ArchivesFebruary 7, 2010Pulled Pork Nachos - CWWYHC Super Bowl EditionTom asked me to make Buffalo Chicken Wontons to take with us to a Superbowl party, but I knew I didn't have enough time this weekend to make them. Yesterday we celebrated my parents' 54th anniversary and I made pot roast and veggies for that. Plus we were gone all day on Saturday to attend that party. While I was rummaging through the freezer to see what we had to use up in the Cook With What You Have Challenge, I found two quart bags of pulled pork. And at the end of January, I tagged this Serious Eats post about Pulled Pork Nachos. Perfect, a Superbowl party dish that would also help me use up pulled pork from the freezer and a bottle of barbecue sauce from the pantry. I decided to make the nachos using Tostitos Scoops to make them easy to eat. Add in some Cabot Seriously Sharp Cheddar Cheese and I had an almost instant party munchie that helped me pare down my pantry. The recipe is simple, line two baking sheets with heavy duty foil. Arrange Tostitos Scoops on the baking sheets. Put a spoonful of pulled pork in each Scoop. Top with a squirt of barbecue sauce, then sprinkle with shredded cheese. To make two large baking sheets of nachos, I used 1 bag of Tostistos Scoops, 4-6 cups of pulled pork, about 1 cup barbecue sauce, and two 8-ounce bags of shredded cheese. I assembled them at home, then tightly covered them with foil. Once we got to the party, I removed the foil and baked them at 350F for about 12 minutes. The folks at the party gobbled them up. Since the pulled pork was already made, it took only about 15 minutes to assemble these. So if you have some pulled pork in your freezer, try some Pulled Pork Nachos. Continue reading "Pulled Pork Nachos - CWWYHC Super Bowl Edition" » Quick Tip: Oven-Poaching Boneless Chicken BreastsOven-poaching is a fool-proof way to poach chicken breasts for chicken salads and other recipes. What I like about this method is that it is essentially hands-free. Once the chicken is in the oven, there's no adjusting the temperature to make sure the temperature is not too high or too low. This video uses bay leaves, peppercorns, and lemon slices, but you can change the seasoning to match your dish. For example, when I am poaching chicken for a southwestern dish, I'll add peppercorns, chili powder, and lime slices. For a Thai dish, I add ginger, garlic, and kaffir lime leaves. The next time you need poached chicken, try this method.
January 29, 2010Pizza and Pudding - Cook With What You Have Challenge Day 13Tonight was the second Friday in my Cook With What You Have Challenge. Friday is pizza night so of course I made pizza with the help of my friend Pat. She did all the dirty work tonight, including washing all of the dishes. Thanks Pat! I made two small pizzas. One pizza was topped with hot Italian chicken sausage from the freezer. For the other, I roasted two red peppers from the fridge and an onion from the pantry. I use Pastene Ground Peeled Tomatoes for the sauce and tonight I opened my last can of them. I used half of the can, the rest will go into the freezer for next week's pizza, then I'll be out of the tomatoes needed for pizza. Oh no. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. I've been craving something creamy and chocolately, so this afternoon I started looking for recipes for homemade chocolate pudding. I found this recipe for Best Chocolate Pudding on the Smitten Kitchen blog. I had everything needed but milk. But that problem was easily solved by the cans of coconut milk in the pantry. The pudding was smooth, rich, and creamy; the coconut milk flavor was there, under the chocolate, it was subtle, not overpowering. We both gobbled it up.
Pat and I had pizza, played BananaGrams, then savored our chocolate pudding. A lovely evening. January 28, 2010Shrimp Tikka Masala - Cook with What You Have Challenge Day 12My goal tonight was to use a partial bag of frozen shrimp. As I was thinking about the frozen shrimp, I remembered this recipe for Shrimp Tikka Masala that I had bookmarked earlier this month. Perfect. It would also allow me to use some yogurt I had in the fridge. And the ever-present onions, garlic, and ginger. My pantry, fridge, and freezer also provided everything I needed for jasmine rice and for an Indian-Spiced Spinach Madeleine. I made one substitution in the Shrimp Tikka Masala recipe. I used ketchup instead of tomato paste because there is no tomato paste in my pantry. Spinach Madeleine is my go-to recipe for creamed spinach, but I change it up to complement whatever cuisine I am cooking. For this Indian version, I used about 4 ounces of light cream cheese instead of the jalapeno cheese. I also start this recipe by sauteing a chopped onion or a few shallots. Tonight I used onion. You don't need 1/4 cup of butter for this recipe. I use 2 tablespoons of oil or butter. I seasoned the spinach with garam masala and a pinch of crushed red pepper instead of Worcestershire sauce and celery seed. Another great meal from the pantry. I'll definitely make the Shrimp Tikka Masala again.
January 26, 2010Quinoa-Stuffed Poblano PeppersI'm posting this recipe because my friend Jaime requested it. Every time I make these stuffed peppers, they are a big hit. Poblano peppers are a relatively mild chile pepper that originated in the State of Puebla, Mexico. When poblano peppers are dried, they are called ancho chiles. Poblanos tend to be mild, but they can be hot. I like to roast them before stuffing. I usually roast and peel them when I use them in recipes, but when I peeled them to use in this recipe, they lost their structure and were hard to stuff. Roasting without peeling works well in this recipe. If you can't find poblano peppers, you can use bell peppers and then add more jalapeno to the stuffing mixture for a bit more heat.
Continue reading "Quinoa-Stuffed Poblano Peppers" » January 24, 2010Cook with What You Have Challenge - Days 7 & 8 Veggie Broth, Potato Soup, Black Rice Curried MeatloafSaturday was day 7 of my Cook with What You Have Challenge. I started the day making Baked Oatmeal, then shopped for vegetables and dairy. Potatoes seem to be multiplying in my pantry, so I decided to use some of them by making Irish Potato Soup, a creamy, but cream-free, potato soup. I wanted to make it with vegetable broth rather than chicken broth, and had added vegetable broth to my shopping list, but before I left for the store, I was thumbing through Mark Bittman's Food Matters, and saw a vegetable broth recipe. I had everything I needed to make Bittman's vegetable broth, so I took the broth off my list and made it Saturday afternoon. My first ever vegetable broth. I took Bittman's advice and sauted the vegetables. I also left the skins on the onions to add more color to the broth. The resultant broth was delicious, and I used up two onions, a few cloves of garlic, 2 potatoes, a few stalks of celery, and some sad looking carrots. I had dinner out: Thai food. Before going out, we made Thai mango pudding, using some unflavored gelatin and coconut milk from the pantry. On Sunday, Day 8, I used some of the potatoes, an onion, a bunch of shallots (because I didn't have any leeks), a few stalks of celery, and about half of the veggie broth to make the Irish Potato Soup. The recipe calls for 1/4 of butter, I used 1 tablepoon of olive oil. Sunday's dinner was Black Rice Curried Meatloaf with roasted potatoes and cauliflower. The meatloaf recipe allowed me to use up the open jar of mango chutney in the fridge and to use some black rice in the pantry. Other than the zucchini in the meatloaf I had everything I needed to make this meal. This time I made mini meatloaves. I tossed the potatoes with some garam masala. This time around, Tom gave the meatloaf two thumbs up. The recipe made six mini meatloaves, three of them will go in the freezer. January 21, 2010Cook with What You Have Challenge - Day 5 Rice Salad & Fennel-Pepper Lamb ChopsTonight's Cook with What You Have Challenge dinner is something I'm calling Mediterranean Rice Salad and Fennel-Pepper Lamb Rib Chops. I love lamb rib chops, but they are pricey, so whenever I see them reduced for quick sale, I grab them and either cook them that day or vacuum seal and freeze them. I had one package in the freezer and since I'm dining alone this week, it's the perfect time to use them. One of my favorite rubs for lamb is Fennel-Black Pepper Rub that I make by grinding 2 tablespoons fennel seeds, 1 tablespoon black pepper, and 1 1/2 tablespoons coriander seeds in a spice grinder, then adding 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon garlic powder. I sprinkled the lamb chops with the rub, let them sit for 30 minutes, then broiled them for 2 minutes on each side. For the rice salad, I cooked some brown rice using this method from Saveur. Then it was time to find Mediterranean ingredients in the fridge and panty. A partial jar of pesto, a jar of marinated artichoke hearts, a jar of roasted red peppers, more(!) pine nuts, some picholine olives, and a splash of sherry vinegar. I didn't add any olive oil because even when drained, the artichoke hearts brought enough oil to the salad. Another delicious pantry dinner. My only regret is that I forgot that I have fresh parsley in the fridge. The salad would have benefited from some chopped fresh parsley, both in presentation and taste. I'll add some parsley when I have the rice salad for lunch tomorrow.
For this meal, I used a package of lamb chops from the freezer, finished an open jar of pesto, used a jar of marinated artichokes and a jar of roasted red peppers from the pantry, finished an open package of pine nuts from the fridge, and made a good dent in an open jar of picholine olives Continue reading "Cook with What You Have Challenge - Day 5 Rice Salad & Fennel-Pepper Lamb Chops" » January 20, 2010Cook With What You Have Challenge - Day 4 Israeli Couscous w/Butternut Squash & Steak KabobsWednesday's Cook With What You Have Challenge dinner was whole wheat Israeli couscous and roasted butternut squash and a beef kabob. The squash was from my weekend produce run, everything else was from the pantry. I had planned on cooking some lamb rib chops from the freezer, but I had a handful of beef cubes left over from yesterday's cook date, so I decided to use those tonight and will use the lamb chops tomorrow. The butternut squash is cut up small and roasted, I used leeks and parsley that were cook date leftovers in the Israeli couscous. Also some pine nuts that have been hanging out in the fridge for a while. The couscous is also seasoned with a cinnamon stick from my spice pantry. I've made this dish before, but not with leeks. They made it extra delicious. The beef was not the best cut for kabobs, so when I got home yesterday, I tossed it in a marinade of sherry vinegar, olive oil, and Garlic Saltburst (a delicious seasoning made from garlic, salt, lemon, and sumac, a gift from my friend Sandy) to tenderize and season them. Cooked to medium-rare, the beef was tasty. I'll be having the Israeli couscous and butternut squash for lunch tomorrow.
January 19, 2010Cook With What You Have Challenge - Day 3 Salmon & Lemon-Dijon LentilsI started the day with more baked oatmeal and fruit. Lunch was yesterday's Spicy Cellantini, Beans, and Spinach. The crushed red pepper provided a nice bite to this dish. After snowblowing the driveway for an hour or so, I had an afternoon snack of So Delicious Coconut Milk Minis (yup, I had two, maybe they are too good). For dinner tonight, I cooked up some lentils to make lemon-dijon lentils to go with my salmon and roasted asparagus. I normally take the easy route and use canned lentils for this meal, but I've had a package of French green lentils in my pantry forever. It was time to use them! I cooked 1 cup of the lentils, the package said that would give me 2 cups of cooked lentils, which was perfect, but they cooked up to more like 3 cups, so after dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow, I still have more dried lentils and I have another serving of lemon-dijon lentils (another lunch). Maybe some lentil soup next week? For the lemon-dijon lentils, I chopped up a few carrots that were hanging around in the fridge, the rest of the red pepper from Sunday's cake cakes, and some scallions. I usually use some red onion in the lentils, but I don't have a cut red onion, and I have a bag of scallions. These veggies get sauteed in olive oil, then tossed with the lentils. The dressing is dijon mustard (yay, I finished an open jar), lemon zest and juice, olive oil, dill, and black pepper. I added all the dressing ingredients to the mustard jar, put the cover on the jar, and shook it to combine everything. The asparagus and salmon went on a baking sheet and I drizzled a bit of the dressing on the salmon and roasted them at 400F for 8 minutes. Even with cooking the lentils, dinner took only 30 minutes to make start to finish. And it was delicious.
Tomorrow's lunch will be Lemon-Dijon Lentils and Asparagus. (You'll start to notice a pattern, my dinner side dishes are vegan and become the next day's lunch.) Continue reading "Cook With What You Have Challenge - Day 3 Salmon & Lemon-Dijon Lentils" » January 18, 2010Cook With What You Have Challenge - Day 2 Pasta, Beans & GreensFor Day 2 of the Cook with What You Have Challenge, my goal was to create a dinner that would work as a vegan lunch for tomorrow. I decided on Spicy Cellantini, Beans, and Spinach. Breakfast this morning was baked oatmeal that I made last night from pantry ingredients: rolled oats, apples, raisins, walnuts, cinnamon, ginger, and hemp milk. The oatmeal makes 6 servings and will be my breakfasts for the week. This morning when I had it, I spread a little bit of peanut butter on it because after breakfast I had a lot of wet heavy snow waiting for me to shovel. Lunch was a veggie burger with some avocado slices. (I need to find a vegan veggie burger that doesn't contain soy! Any suggestions? I know, I can make them, but I haven't had time to do that yet.) The inspiration for tonight's recipe is a recipe I have for Spicy Rigatoni with Beans and Greens. It has sauteed onion and garlic, canned diced tomatoes, spinach, white beans, sage, and crushed red pepper. A simple but delicious sounding dish. And an opportunity to finish the end of a box of cellantini pasta, a bag of baby spinach, a can of tomatoes, and a can of small red beans. No formal recipe here. The cellantini box had 5 ounces of pasta in it. Perfect for two servings, so I cooked that up and drained it. Sauteed a chopped onion and minced garlic (3 cloves) and some crushed red pepper. Can you believe that I have only one 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes in the house? Well, I didn't want all that liquid in this dish, so I spooned about of the tomatoes and juice into the pan, then drained the rest of the juice before adding the rest of the tomatoes to the can. In went the baby spinach, on went the cover and the spinach cooked until wilted. Added the beans, seasoned with salt and pepper, some dried basil, and a bit more crushed red pepper. The whole thing took about 20 minutes to cook, including cooking the pasta. Not the prettiest dish, but it was quite tasty. For dinner, I sprinkled some parmesan cheese on it. But it is so flavorful that I know I won't miss that sprinkle of parmesan cheese tomorrow when I have it for lunch.
Continue reading "Cook With What You Have Challenge - Day 2 Pasta, Beans & Greens" » January 17, 2010Cook With What You Have Challenge - Day 1 Cajun Crab CakesMy friend and fellow personal chef Tami over at Garden, Grocery, and Gadget Girl issued a Cook with What You've Got challenge for the week of January 18. The purpose of the challenge is that rather than buying more food for the week, you cook with the food that is already in your fridge, freezer, and pantry. The challenge has some leeway and you can buy fresh produce, milk, etc. But the goal is buy as few groceries. Tami also challenged us to donate the difference between to what we normally spend on a week's groceries and what we spent on produce for this week to an organization providing relief to Haiti. The challenge officially starts on Monday, but I started today. On Friday, I poked around in my fridge, pantry, and freezer and saw what I had on hand and thought about what I wanted to use up this week. I made some basic plans for meals and decided on the vegetables that I wanted to go with those meals. Grocery shopping on Friday took less than 15 minutes. I bought 15 items, 14 of them from the produce department, the 15th item was was hemp milk. Yesterday we made a donation to Doctors Without Borders. The challenge starts with taking pictures of your food supplies. Here are mine.
As you can see, I have a lot to work with. But, for me, there is a twist. I'm eating vegan before 6pm as an experiment to reduce my meat and dairy consumption. So, I'm not going to be making a dent in that freezer full of organic beef (we bought 1/4 of a organically raised cow in October). Continue reading "Cook With What You Have Challenge - Day 1 Cajun Crab Cakes" » January 10, 2010Gluten-free Goodness: Sloppy Joes in a Hash Brown CrustMost kids like Sloppy Joes, and Jayne is no exception, except Jayne can't eat gluten or eggs, so the bun part of Sloppy Joes is a challenge for her. Most of the tasty gluten-free buns we've found have eggs. I was on a mission to come up with a way to make Sloppy Joes for Jayne. I had two inspirations for what I came up with: Sloppy Joe Spaghetti Cups from Joe at Culinary in the Country and Hash Brown Quiche from Amy Casey at Dinners for a Year and Beyond. I could have made Joe's spaghetti cup with gluten-free spaghetti, but Jayne loves potatoes and a solution that doesn't use dairy except for butter was more appropriate for her family.
Continue reading "Gluten-free Goodness: Sloppy Joes in a Hash Brown Crust" » December 20, 2009Orange Chicken and Cheesey Potato GoodnessLooking for something delicious for dinner? Put Amy Casey's Roasted Orange and Thyme Chicken Thighs and Crispy Parmesan Potatoes on your menu. You'll love them. We did. These recipes are featured on Amy's Top 10 Recipes on Dinners for a Year and Beyond. Both recipes are easy and delicious. (I cooked both the chicken and potatoes at 375F so I could cook them at the same time.) December 7, 2009Yes, Virginia you can make delicious gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan trufflesI've been making chocolate truffles for years. This year I decided to attempt to try my hand at gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan truffles. My go to recipe is simple, three ingredients: heavy cream, bittersweet chocolate, and butter. Taking the dairy out of it was a lot easier than I thought it would. Coconut milk (regular, not light) has a viscosity similar to cream. I often replace butter with Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks. Vegan chocolate is easy to find, gluten-free chocolate is easy to find, but organic and vegan chocolate, not so easy. Lots of choices for semi-sweet chocolate, not so many choices for bittersweet chocolate. Endangered Species Organic Smooth Dark Chocolate (70% cocoa content) is certified gluten-free, vegan, and kosher. Hurrah! Continue reading "Yes, Virginia you can make delicious gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan truffles" » November 1, 2009Asian Grandmothers' SecretsToday I used the last of my Thai basil to make this Thai Basil Pork. The recipe was featured in the Boston Globe on 10/28/2009 in a review of The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook. Last spring, a delicious spicy basil pork dish that I had at The Chatta Box inspired me to grow Thai basil in my Aerogarden. I became obsessed with Thai basil. Early in the summer, a friend told me that she bought some Thai Basil plants at her local Walmart. I'm not a fan of Walmart, but I was willing to break my no Walmart rule when Thai Basil plants were involved. My local store had five plants, I bought all five. They didn't like the cold weather we had at the beginning of the summer, but after a few weeks, they started producing a bumper crop of Thai basil. We enjoyed lots of delicious meals featuring Thai basil because the more I harvested it, the more it grew. When frost started threatening in mid September, I put the huge pot of Thai basil in my little red wagon so I could easily put it in the garage at night and bring it out on warmer days. I've been nursing it along for the past month. Tonight's dinner was the Thai basil's final hurrah. I cheated on the Asian grandmothers, but just a little bit. First, the recipe uses ground pork and the ground pork that I can get is very high in fat. So I bought pork tenderloin, trimmed it, cut it into chunks, and ground it in the food processor. This works great when you want lean ground pork. The recipe also called for Thai chilies, which I didn't have. I used a heaping tablespoon of Thai chili paste. And I tossed in about five julienned kaffir lime leaves, just because I'm crazy about the flavor of kaffir lime limes. I served the Thai Basil Pork with jasmine rice and roasted carrots tossed with a dressing of fish sauce, sesame oil, powdered galangal, and brown sugar. The grandmothers' Thai Basil Pork was easy and delicious. Perfect for a busy night.
July 7, 2009Life's a bowl of roasted cherriesAs soon as I see the pick-your-own strawberry signs go up around town, I start dreaming of local cherries. Until about 10 years ago, I had no idea that cherries grew in Londonderry, but one day I stumbled upon the fact that we have two orchards in town where we can pick cherries: Sunnycrest Farm and Elwood Orchards. I've wanted to keep it a secret, but it is too good to not share. Sweet cherries have long been my favorite fruit. When I was a kid, the first cherry sales at the grocery stores seemed to coincide with the end of school. My mom also loves cherries. We celebrated the start of summer with my mom buying a huge amount of cherries; everyone sat around the table and munched on them until our fingers were stained red. It was one of the few times when we didn't have to observe normal table manners. While waiting not-so-patiently for cherry picking to start, I started thinking about cherry shortcake, probably because it was strawberry season and strawberry shortcake was mentioned everywhere. Strawberry shortcake is good, but I was fixated on cherry shortcake. Another thing that was on my mind was Cherry Garcia ice cream, cherries and chocolate. Yum. The next thing I knew, I was making a Cherry Garcia-inspired Cherry Shortcake. Roasting cherries is so easy and results in absolute deliciousness. Plus an added benefit is that the cherries are really easy to pit once roasted.
Oops, I forgot to take a picture of the pitted roasted cherries. Roasted Cherries 7 cups cherries, stemmed but not pitted Preheat oven to 400F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Place cherries on baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat. Bake for 35 minutes. The cherries will soften and start to split. Remove the pan from the oven and set aside for 20-30 minutes to let the cherries cool. Once the cherries are cool, you can easily squeeze the pits from the cherries. Again, wear gloves, or your fingers will be stained. Scrape the cherry juice and the cherries from the pan into a bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to use. Actually, you can use any amount of cherries. Just toss them with a bit of olive oil. You'll end up with about 1/3 to 1/4 the volume of cherries that you start with. It was hard to resist eating them, but I really wanted cherry shortcake.
Continue reading "Life's a bowl of roasted cherries" » June 27, 2009Pink slip lemonade mimosa
The end of Pink Slip Lemonade month is quickly approaching. How about one more pink slip lemonade cocktail to close out the month? This Pink Slip Lemonade Mimosa will put a sparkle in your day. It's simple: pink lemonade, sparkling wine or champagne, a splash of raspberry liquor, and a few raspberries to garnish. I used Freixenet Cordon Negro Brut. Pink lemonade is quite sweet and I wanted to be sure that I didn't create an overly sweet drink. Freixenet Cordon Negro Brut is a little less sweet than Cordon Negro Extra Dry. If you prefer a sweeter drink, use the Extra Dry. To make a Pink Slip Lemonade Mimosa, mix equal parts of pink lemonade and sparkling wine (I mixed 3-4 ounces of each per drink), add a splash of raspberry liquer, and garnish with a few fresh raspberries. It can't get easier than that. Get together with a bunch of friends, sip Pink Slip Lemonade Mimosas and brainstorm about your next career. I vote for breaking free of traditional employment and starting your own business. June 19, 2009Local strawberries + lemons = berrylicious pink slip lemonadeI'm having lots of fun developing recipes for The Career Change Financial Planner blog's Pink Slip Lemonade month. Since local strawberries are abundant right now, this week's recipe is a berrylicious pink slip lemonade. My strawberries came from my favorite local farm: Sunnycrest Farm. It was hard to not eat them on the way home.
Besides the strawberries, you need 4-6 lemons, 1/2 cup sugar, and water. That's all. Oh, and a blender. I got to use my 50+ year old Oster blender. It's one of my prized possessions. My parents got it as a wedding gift in 1956. My mom gave it to me when I went to college.
Toss some lemon juice and strawberries in the blender. Strain that mixture. Add some sugar and water. And you have Berrylicious Pink Slip Lemonade.
Berrylicious Pink Slip Lemonade 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, 4-6 lemons In a blender, puree the lemon juice and strawberries. Strain berry mixture through fine mesh strainer. Combine berry mixture and sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add water and stir to combine. Pour into a pitcher and refrigerate until ready to serve. Garnish with lemon slices, if desired.
June 14, 2009Potato, cauliflower, and chickpea curry for EliseThis post is for my twitter friend Elise (@Studio99Nashua). She requested this recipe after I tweeted about it last week. This recipe was inspired by a recipe published in the Boston Globe Sunday magazine. My big change was that I added the chickpeas to add protein to the dish. This isn't the most beautiful dish, but it is tasty.
Potato, Cauliflower, and Chickpea Curry 1 14-ounce can coconut milk -- I've made this with either regular or light coconut milk In a food processor, puree the coconut milk and diced tomatoes and their juice. Set aside. (Note, I use my immersion blender for this step.) In a large Dutch oven or casserole, heat the olive oil over medium heat for 2 minutes. Add the onion and ginger, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt, and cook, stirring often, until the onion becomes translucent, about 8 minutes. Add the curry powder and cumin and cook for 30 seconds. Add the potatoes and cook, stirring a few times, for 3-5 minutes. Add coconut milk mixture and and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Add cauliflower and chickpeas; simmer, covered, until the potatoes and cauliflower are tender, 10-15 minutes longer. Stir in the peas, 1/4 cup of cilantro, and half of the lime juice. Simmer 3 minutes. Adjust seasoning with salt, pepper, and lime juice. Sprinkle with the remaining cilantro and serve with steamed basmati rice. June 10, 2009How about some pink slip lemonade iced tea?Did you make some Pink Slip Lemonade Martinis last weekend? I did and I have some pink lemonade to use up, so I created this Pink Slip Lemonade Iced Tea to share with you. Make a batch and sip it while catching up with all the new posts on the Career Change Financial Planner blog.
Pink Slip Lemonade Iced Tea 6 green tea bags, regular or decaffeinated Put the tea bags in a large glass measuring cups or a heatproof pitcher. Pour 3 cups boiling water over the tea bags. Cover and let steep for 10 minutes. Remove and discard the tea bags. Let the tea cool to room temperature. Add the pink lemonade to the tea. Stir to combine. Chill and serve over ice. Garnish with lemon slices if desired. June 4, 2009When life gives you lemons have a pink slip lemonade martiniMy friend Sherrill St. Germain inspired my career change from technical writer to personal chef. I worked with Sherrill at Silknet/KANA. Sherrill got laid off a year or so before I did and she did something that changed my life: she reinvented herself as a financial planner. Sherrill is the founder and principal of New Means Financial Planning. Life gave her lemons and she made pink slip lemonade. Later when KANA gave me a pink slip, with Sherrill as a role model, I made pink slip lemonade and started Anastasia's Table. Sherrill is a career change expert; if you dream of changing your career, Sherrill can help you work out the financial details. June is Pink Slip Lemonade month on Sherrill's The Career Change Financial Planner blog. As part of Pink Slip Lemonade month, Sherrill asked me to share some Pink Slip Lemonade recipes with you. One of the first things you might need when you get a pink slip is a stiff drink. So, my first Pink Slip Lemonade recipe is a Pink Slip Lemonade Martini. There will be more Pink Slip Lemonade recipes during the month.
Pink Slip Lemonade Martini 4 fluid ounces vodka Combine ingredients in a shaker filled with ice. Shake well and strain into well chilled martini glasses. Garnish with fresh raspberries.
May 18, 2009It's always a good day for brunchLast fall I clipped a recipe for Individual Ham-Crusted Quiches with Leek and Smoked Cheese from the Boston Sunday Globe magazine. All that was missing was a brunch to make them for. That brunch finally materialized last weekend. The recipe is simple, arrange ham slices in muffin cups, bake the muffins cups to crisp up the ham, saute leeks and red bell pepper, cool that mixture, grate some smoked cheese, mix eggs, half and half, the veggies, and cheese. Spoon into ham cups, and bake. Easy, delicious. If you've ever cooked with leeks, you know that they can be loaded with sand. My tip for working with leeks is always cut them up and then soak them in a large bowl of water. The chopped leeks float to the top, the fine sand floats to the bottom. DO NOT remove the leeks from the water by pouring them into a colander or you'll add that fine sand back into the leeks. Use your hands or a slotted spoon to remove the leeks from the water. Regardless of how clean the leeks seem, I always do this and I'm always amazed by how much fine sand is left at the bottom of the bowl after I remove the leeks.
Once the leeks are soaking, I arranged the ham in the muffin cups. I used Hormel Natural Choice Ham. I picked it because it is a no-nitrate ham. The slices are small, larger ham slices would have worked better. Once baked, the ham slices shrink and the small ham slices shrunk a little more than I wanted them to. When I make these again, I'm going to try them with prosciutto. Here's the ham arranged in the cups before baking and after baking.
While the ham baked, I sauteed the leeks and red peppers. To cool them quickly, I scraped them into a shallow bowl and set that bowl in a bowl of ice water.
While the leeks cooled, I grated the cheese. Then I mixed the eggs, half and half, salt, and pepper, and the cheese with the leeks and red peppers.
Next, that mixture was spooned into the ham cups.
Into the oven... After cooling in the pan for a few minutes...
These mini quiches were delicious. And easy to make. I'll definitely make them again. Everyone loved them. The vegetable and cheese combinations are endless. Continue reading "It's always a good day for brunch" » March 23, 2009Polenta, the lazy wayNo picture today, polenta isn't very photogenic. This post is for Wendy at Celiacs in the House. She recently tried a few different methods of making polenta and I wanted to share this method with her. I'm not sure of the origin of this recipe, I got it from my friend Jan. I've made stovetop polenta using instant polenta, and it's fast and easy, but the volcanos of hot polenta that I experienced when I made it are a bit too scary for me. Traditional stovetop polenta requires a lot of attention, not for me. I like this method, it requires just one stir halfway through the cooking. Perfect for when you want to focus on other dishes or you just want something easy. This version uses marjoram and Parmesan cheese, but try it with your favorite herbs and cheeses. If you have some half and half or cream, try it with that instead of the milk. 4 1/2 cups water Preheat oven to 425. In a baking dish, whisk together water, cornmeal, salt, and pepper. Cover, and bake 30 minutes, stirring halfway though. Remove from oven, and add milk, butter and marjoram. Also add Parmesan if using. Whisk briskly until smooth. Serve immediately. March 6, 2009I could eat this every day for the rest of my lifeMy name is Patti and I am an Israeli couscous addict. There are worse things to be addicted to. My latest Israeli couscous recipe find combines the little pearls of yumminess with roasted butternut squash, toasted pine nuts, golden raisins, parsley, lemon, and cinnamon. Too good to be true. I came across a recipe for Cinnamon and Lemon Pearl Couscous and Roasted Butternut Squash while searching for a side dish to pair with Salmon with North African Flavors.. Thanks to Forks.ca for this great recipe.
There are a lot of steps to this recipe, but all of them are easy and don''t take very long. You start by roasting small cubes of butternut squash. OK, so cutting up a butternut squash can be time consuming. The store where I shop always has peeled butternut squash halves. They also have cubed butternut squash, but the pieces aren't uniform so they don't roast evenly and have to be cut again. I find that the precut butternut squash cubes are often a bit squirrely around the edges. The peeled halves seem fresher and I can cut them into whatever size pieces I need for my recipe. While the squash is roasting, you can cook the Israeli couscous and saute the onion. At least I can. This recipe called for cooking the Israeli couscous like pasta in a pot of boiling salted water with a cinnamon stick. That makes sense since Israeli couscous is a form of pasta, but this was the first time that I've cooked it that way. I've always cooked it by sauteing it in a small amount of butter or olive oil, then adding liquid, bringing it to a boil, then simmering for 10 minutes until the liquid is absorbed. I think next time I make this recipe, I'll cook it that way because I think the couscous picks up more flavor from the cinnamon stick when cooked with a small amount of water. I'm curious to see if cooking it using the absorption method will result in more cinnamon infused into the couscous. Once the squash, onion, and couscous are cooked, toss them together with lemon juice and zest, parsley, toasted pine nuts, golden raisins, ground cinnamon, and salt and pepper. And dig in! When I made this for Tuesday's client, I made some extra servings for me. I added some chickpeas to it and had it for lunch for a few days. With chickpeas, it becomes a hearty vegetarian main dish. OK, so I ate it for breakfast yesterday too. I said I was addicted. I wasn't kidding. P.S. I'm going to try this with quinoa. I think a quinoa version of this recipe will be delicious too. And perfect for my gluten-free clients. Continue reading "I could eat this every day for the rest of my life" » February 22, 2009Strawberry Tartare ReduxHere I am talking about Strawberry Tartare for the second time in a week. That's because it is really that good. This time, I have the recipe for you. Last night we got together with some friends for an evening of great food. Five couples, one appetizer, three stews, three breads, many bottles of wine, one dessert, a bottle of port, and lots of laughs. Last Friday, as soon as I tasted Marcy's Strawberry Tartare, I knew that I wanted to make it for "the gang". And as luck would have it, we had a dinner scheduled for last night. Our dinners always have a theme and last night was soup and stew night. I was going to make Brazilian Seafood Stew, but we didn't have an appetizer or dessert on our menu so I ditched the stew in favor of an appetizer of Strawberry Tartare and a dessert of Molten Chocolate Cakes (more about them coming soon). Marcy served it on Chinese soup spoons and I used to have some, but they went to Goodwill long before it became fashionable to serve small bites on them. But, I have a set of these mini martini glasses, so that's what I used. The recipe makes about 16 tablespoons of tartare. I was serving 10 and wanted each serving to be about 3 tablespoons, so I doubled it. I also used grapeseed oil, because my walnut oil was rancid. Yikes, rancid walnut oil smells horrible. You'll notice that one serving doesn't have goat cheese, that's because one member of our group doesn't like goat cheese. She enjoyed it thoroughly without the goat cheese. If you don't like goat cheese, but like blue cheese, try it with blue cheese. Now I have a another good reason to look forward to our local strawberry season.
Strawberry Tartare 1 cup finely diced strawberries In a small bowl, combine all ingredients except goat cheese and stir to combine. Let the tartare sit at room temperature for one hour for the flavors to marry. Strain mixture through a fine mesh sieve. Discard liquid. Place in Chinese spoons or mini glasses and garnish with goat cheese crumbles. Serve immediately.
February 14, 2009Valentine's Day dinner at our houseTonight's Valentine's Day dinner was simple and delicious. I wanted fish, so I picked Braised Cod Puttanesca from Fine Cooking. Tom loves Israeli couscous, so I picked Toasted Israeli Couscous with Pine Nuts and Parsley from Epicurious. And a tossed salad. One beauty of this meal was that it took less than 30 minutes to make. I don't want to spend the rest of the evening writing this blog post, so I'll just link to the recipes. Toasted Israeli Couscous with Pine Nuts and Parsley: I halved the recipe, even halved, it makes a ton, but we both love this stuff, so leftovers are welcome. I used just 1 tablepoon of butter. Braised Cod Puttanesca: The recipe calls for red snapper, but I used cod. I cooked 3 cod fillets (leftovers for lunch for me!), but didn't scale down the sauce ingredients. What about dessert you ask? Well, we're full right now, but if we want dessert later, it will be Warm, Soft Chocolate Cakes by Jean-George Vongerichten and Mark Bittman. I'll use the Bitten suggestion of dusting the pans with cocoa powder rather than sugar. (And if you use the cocoa powder and chose a gluten-free chocolate, these cakes are gluten-free.) The cakes will take just a few minutes to mix, and are done in 12 minutes.
January 28, 2009Crunchy cheddar oat biscuits for Maxine and RufusThe house is filled with the aroma of the Crunchy Cheddar Oat Dog Biscuits that I just baked for Maxine and Rufus, the sweet Papillons who rule the roost at the home of tomorrow's client. They are silly and make me laugh, so every so often I thank them for the way that they entertain me with a batch of homemade dog biscuits. Homemade dog biscuits are very easy to make. And my dog friends think they are worth making. The recipe is an adaptation from Culinary in the Country. I made three very minor changes to Joe's recipe. I melted the butter because I didn't want to wait to soften it. I left out the sugar. And I used two Savory Choice broth concentrate sticks instead of the instant chicken bouillon.
Continue reading "Crunchy cheddar oat biscuits for Maxine and Rufus" » November 20, 2008Crockpot Barbecued Pulled PorkLots of people love their crockpots. That hasn't been the case for me, but I'm trying to make friends with my crockpot again because it sure is nice to come home to a warm, cooked meal. I started working on this new friendship by buying a new crockpot. A few weeks ago I bought a SmartPot. It turns itself to warm after the cooking time that you set. I think that a major reason why I wasn't happy with my crockpot meals is that they cooked too long. Yesterday's crockpot test was pulled pork. It's based on a recipe from Emeril Lagasse. First you rub the pork with a spice mixture, then cook it in the crockpot with a splash of cider vinegar. After the pork is cooked, you shred it and add a barbecue sauce. Simple. The original recipe called for boneless pork butt; I used a boneless 7-rib pork roast. I didn't want to mess with it in the morning, so I mixed together the spice rub, coated the pork roast, wrapped it in plastic wrap and refrigerated it overnight.
In the morning, I poured a splash of cider vinegar into the crockpot, added the pork, and set the crockpot to cook on low for 8 hours. When I got home about 9 hours later, the crockpot was on warm and the house smelled wonderful. I lifted the lid and I was a bit surprised by what I saw. The roast was sitting there all in one piece looking browned and sort of dry. It looked kind of like a little brick. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't what I saw. My first thought was "oh crap, I need to find something else for dinner". Rather than grabbing the camera to take a picture of the cooked pork, I grabbed a fork to see if it would shred. Well, the second that the fork touched the pork, it fell apart. That was a huge relief. I tasted it and it tasted flavorful and moist. Yay, I don't have to rethink my dinner plans!
The next step is to stir in barbecue sauce. I mixed the sauce the night before when I prepped the pork, so all I had to do was pour it into the crockpot and stir it up.
Not the prettiest meal, but it was tasty. I wasn't in the mood for a sandwich, so I had mine with a Cheddar-Green Onion Muffin and lima beans. When Tom got home, he had a sandwich. I wish I had thought to make some coleslaw to go with it.
Continue reading "Crockpot Barbecued Pulled Pork " » November 4, 2008Living Without's BouleBeautiful loaves of gluten-free and dairy-free bread grace the cover of the current issue of Living Without magazine. Bread like this cries out to be made.
Most of my gluten-free clients miss bread and are looking for breads that they can eat and that are tasty. Yesterday was the day to test out one of breads from this issue of Living Without. I picked out the French baguette recipe because it is dairy-free and egg-free. Most of my gluten-free clients are also allergic to dairy and eggs. I don't have a baguette pan so I opted to make the boule version of the French baguette. This bread uses Living Without's high-protein flour blend. This blend was developed for baked goods that require elasticity. It starts with a bean flour, either chickpea flour or soy flour. Since most of my gluten-free clients are allergic to soy, I used chickpea (garbanzo) flour. The next decision to make about the flour blend is potato starch, arrowroot starch, or cornstarch. Some of my gluten-free clients are allergic to corn and I didn't have arrowroot starch on hand, so I went with potato starch. The final decision is brown rice flour or white rice flour. Brown rice flour wins because I have some and it is slightly more nutritious than white rice flour. Toss in some tapioca starch and I'm good to go with the flour blend. For the bread, first I sift the flour blend, xanthan gum, salt, and sugar into the bowl of the mixer. Then add the yeast and herbs. The recipe calls for dried herbs (rosemary or dill), but I decide to use fresh rosemary so I head out to the herb garden and snip a few sprigs. Here's the sifted flour, yeast, and rosemary in the mixer bowl. Don't skip the step of sifting the flour. These flours tend to clump, especially the chickpea flour. I always sift it to remove the clumps. I don't have a sifter; I use a fine mesh strainer to sift flours.
Next, blend the olive oil and warm water into the dry ingredients and mix on high speed for 4 minutes. Rather than plain olive oil, I decided to use some rosemary-infused olive oil. Here's the dough after mixing.
The dough is transferred to the prepared pan. I used an 8-inch spring form pan. The instructions in the original recipe don't say so, but it is much easier to move the dough from the mixing bowl to the pan if you wet the spatula. I used sweet rice flour to dust the top of the dough. I picked sweet rice flour because it is very fine.
The dough rises for 30 minutes, or until doubled. Then the oven is preheated to 400F. Here's the dough ready to go in the oven. I'm very impatient. I let it rise for just 30 minutes. I considered using the proofing setting on my oven, but decided not to. In retrospect, I think I should have let the bread rise a little longer. I don't think it was quite doubled.
The bread bakes until it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom and it registers 200-220F on an instant-read thermometer. I've never used a thermometer to test bread for doneness. After 30 minutes, the bread didn't sound hollow, so I tested it with a thermometer. It was 185F. I put it back in the oven for an additional 10 minutes. Ten minutes later, it was 200F. I decided to cook it for 5 minutes longer (a total of 45 minutes) and it was 208F when it came out of the oven. After cooling for 10 minutes, I removed the collar from the springform pan.
As you can see, it's a pretty nice looking loaf of bread. So now the torturous part starts. Cutting bread when it is very hot is not a good idea. So I let it sit for about 30 minutes to cool. I was dying to cut the loaf and see what it was like. Finally, the bread is cool enough to cut. And to taste!
The bread smells great. The texture is springy. It's not as light and airy as the boule pictured on the magazine cover, but it tastes very good. I'm wondering if I should have mixed it longer or if I should have baked it longer. I'm 99% sure that I should have let it rise longer. I've experimented with a lot of gluten-free bread recipes, some good, some really bad. This one is probably one of the best that I've made. I snacked on a still-warm slice. Then I toasted a small slice to see what it was like toasted. Quite good. I cut off a chunk and put it in the freezer so I can see what it is like after freezing. Then I wrapped the remaining half loaf of bread up to take to today's client so they can try it. I didn't see my client today, but before I left I called her at work and told her about the bread experiment that I left for her. She was looking forward to trying it. I can't wait to hear her feedback. I'm looking forward to experimenting more with this recipe. I think I need to buy a baguette pan.
Continue reading "Living Without's Boule " » October 5, 2008Socca (farinata) gluten-free goodnessI've been promising my friend Marcy that I'd post this recipe. We made it together a few weeks ago when we had a cooking play date. Socca is a chickpea flour flatbread. The recipe that I used is from Mark Bittman. He originally published the Socca recipe in October 2005, which was before I was following him. But his blog revisited the recipe in May 2008, which is when it caught my attention. I'm always on the lookout for gluten-free breads to make for my gluten-free clients and friends, so I put this on my to try list. Also, my dad loves chickpeas, so I want to make this for him soon. It's a very simple peasant bread. Great for an appetizer. And very easy to make. All you need is some chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour, water, olive oil, salt, black pepper, an onion, and some fresh rosemary. Oh and a cast iron skillet. I use Bob's Red Mill Garbanzo Bean Flour. You can also find chickpea flour at Indian markets or natural food stores. You can even make your own garbanzo bean flour by lightly roast dried garbanzo beans, then grinding them in a blender until mixture has the consistency of flour. Chickpea flour tends to clump, so you need to make sure that you sift or whisk the flour to break up any clumps. Bittman says that the onions and rosemary are optional. Marcy and I made the socca with and without the onions. We preferred it with the onions. Bitman also recommends a healthy dose of black pepper, you want the sharpness of the black pepper when you bite into the bread. For the onion, we used a red onion because I just love red onions. This recipe can be adapted in many ways. Bittman's May 2008 blog entry discusses making it with other types of flour, including buckwheat flour. I also found this recipe on Epicurious for a version with sage, olives, and onions. That sounds like a great combination. Socca Continue reading "Socca (farinata) gluten-free goodness" » September 7, 2008Peppered Pork with Blue Cheese PlumsCooking Light's Peppered Pork with Blue Cheese Plums is a huge hit at home and with my friends. The recipe calls for grilling, but I've adapted it to the stovetop and oven. This is definitely a company-worthy dish. And it's very simple to make. The first task is to grind fresh rosemary, fennel seeds, and coriander seeds in a spice blender. I use this one from KitchenAid. I bought mine at the local Target. The thing that I like about this grinder is that the bowl with the blade is a separate piece and can be thoroughly washed. So that every time you grind something, you can clean out all the reside. It's even dishwasher safe. After you grind the rosemary and spices, you add some salt and pepper. Next, I spray the pork with olive oil spray, rub the spice mixture on the pork tenderloin, then wrap them in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for a few hours. Here's where I deviate from the original recipe. Rather than cooking the pork on the grill, I sear it on all sides in grill pan or heavy skillet. Spray the pan with olive oil spray and heat it over medium heat. When the pan is hot, add the pork tenderloin and cook it for 2-3 minutes until the spice crust is seared, then turn it 90 degrees, sear that side for 2-3 minutes, repeat until all sides of the pork tenderloin are seared. At this point, I remove the pork from the grill pan and set it in a deep baking pan, a 13x9 pan is deep enough. Insert a probe thermometer into the pork tenderloin, making sure to insert it lengthwise into the tenderloin while keeping the probe in the center of the tenderloin. I add 1 cup of white wine to the pan and bake the tenderloin at 350F until the internal temperature reaches 145F-150F. The wine in the pan creates a nice pan juice while keeping the tenderloin moist. When the pork reaches 145F-150F, turn the oven off and remove the tenderloin from the oven. Tent with foil and let rest for 5-10 minutes before slicing. Meanwhile, slice the plums in half and remove the pits. Lightly spray the cut side of the plums with olive oil spray. When the pork reaches 140F, heat the grill pan over medium heat and add the plums, cut side down and sear them for 3-4 minutes. Remove the grill pan from the heat, turn the plum over so that they are resting on the round side. When you remove the pork from the oven and turn the oven off, put the grill pan in the oven and let the plums cook while the pork is resting. Remove the plums from the oven and place a spoonful of blue cheese on the plums. Serve the plums with the sliced pork.
Continue reading "Peppered Pork with Blue Cheese Plums" » August 8, 2008Friday night is pizza nightI switched over to a new whole wheat pizza dough. I was using a recipe from Eating Well, but recently, I wasn't happy with how the fast-rising yeast was working. The yeast wasn't incorporating well into the dough and the dough wasn't rising well. A new jar of fast-rising yeast didn't solve the problem so I went looking for a new recipe. I found this whole wheat dough recipe on AllRecipes and so far I've been very happy with the new dough. It uses regular yeast and takes about 45 minutes to rise, but the dough is lighter and rises more reliably. Even though the recipe says to mix it by hand, I mix it in the food processor. Tonight I added about 2 tablespoons of Penzeys' Tuscan Sunset blend to the flour. These days I'm adding a splash of balsamic vinegar to the Pastene ground peeled tomatoes that I use for the sauce.
August 6, 2008Latest Fancy Burger: Chicken Satay BurgersOur latest "fancy" burger is a Chicken Satay Burger, based on a recipe from Cooking Light. In addition to increasing the seasonings used in the recipe, I used boneless chicken thighs rather than boneless chicken breasts. Even though the chicken breast version got great reviews, I was concerned that it would be dry. I wanted a nice juicy burger. Rather than using store-bought ground chicken, I always make my own ground chicken using my food processor. This way I know that it contains only lean chicken meat. Making your own ground chicken requires that you pulse the chicken only a few times. Be careful here, you don't want to overprocess the chicken and turn it into mush; 4-5 quick pulses is all you need. This time, I opted to cook the burgers inside using my stovetop grill pan. But they are also perfect for grilling outside. I had my burger on a bed of Fine Cooking's Shredded Carrots with Jalapeno, Lime, and Cilantro. Tom had his on a toasted bun with the carrot salad on the side. We both loved these and we're thoroughly enjoying this summer's exploration of "fancy" burgers. We're both pleased to discover that extra burgers reheat well for a quick lunch.
Continue reading "Latest Fancy Burger: Chicken Satay Burgers" » August 3, 2008Zucchini Ribbon SaladA recent issue of Fine Cooking included a feature on no-cook side dishes. The Zucchini and Yellow Squash Ribbons with Daikon, Oregano, and Basil recipe in this article has inspired a series of squash ribbon salads. The zucchini, yellow squash, and daikon radish version in Fine Cooking is superb, but unless I request it a few days ahead, I can't get daikon at the store I normally shop at. And it seems crazy to use anything other than local ingredients in this simple salad made to beat the summer heat. I don't grow zucchini or yellow squash in my garden. I'm one of the few gardeners who buys zucchini and yellow squash. My favorite farm is bursting with zucchini and yellow squash and we are doing our part to eat lots of it.
This simple salad starts with a vegetable peeler. I've only made it using a Y-peeler, but I'm sure that it will work with a swivel peeler. The squash is cut into ribbons using the peeler. Then it tossed with some lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, and chopped fresh herbs. Or you can use vinegar instead of the lemon juice. This recipe is very flexible, it will work with whatever suits your fancy. I've been using different herbs from my herb garden. Parsley, thyme, rosemary, oregano, basil, and mint. You can give it an Asian twist by using rice vinegar instead of the lemon juice and using a 1 tablespoon of dark sesame oil and 5 tablespoons of olive or vegetable (I prefer safflower) oil. Add a sprinkling of either white or black sesame seeds instead of the herbs. Or a Southwestern twist by using lime juice and lime zest instead of the lemon juice and zest. Use cilantro for the herb. And maybe even stir in a pinch of cumin or chili powder. How about Carribean? Use lime juice or orange juice, cilantro, and add a pinch of jerk seasoning. Continue reading "Zucchini Ribbon Salad" » July 16, 2008Sweet Onion Bread PuddingLast week when I was planning menus, I came across this Onion Bread Pudding from Cooking Light. It came up in a search for southern side dishes. I was looking for something to pair with Creole Cod. I've never had a savory bread pudding and it sounded good, so I decided to add it my client's menu to go with their cod. Of course, I had to tweak it. The first problem was that I needed it to be no more than 3 Weight Watcher POINTS per serving. The original recipe is made in an 8x8 pan, serves 4, and weighs in at 8 POINTS per serving. My first task was to reduce the serving size. One quarter of an 8x8 pan is a huge serving, so cutting cutting the serving size in half was not unreasonable. OK, so that got it to 4 POINTS per serving. I decided to use a whole grain bread rather than french bread and nonfat milk instead of 2% milk. I also wanted to add more onion. Those changes brought it down to 3 PTS per serving. The recipe calls for slicing the onions into 1/4-inch slices and cooking the onion slices, while keeping them intact. The intact onion slices are placed over the bread mixture and topped with cheese. Cooking the onions while trying to keep the slices intact seemed like too much work to me. I decided to slice the onions and caramelize them, then add half of the onions into the bread pudding mixture and spread the other half on top of the bread pudding. For the whole grain bread, I used one of my favorite loaves from the supermarket bakery. I trimmed off the crusts and cubed the bread. I also let it sit for 30 minutes to let the bread absorb the milk and eggs before baking it. It filled the house with a wonderful aroma while it baked. This is a pretty bad picture of it. I just got a new digital camera and I haven't had time to figure out the best settings for food photos.
Continue reading "Sweet Onion Bread Pudding" » June 12, 2008As eaten by Oprah: Mar-a-Lago BurgerI have no idea what Oprah eats, but one of my clients saw this Mar-a-Lago Turkey Burger recipe featured on an Oprah show and asked me if I could put it on the menu for her next cook date. Well that cook date was today. I've always been a fan of traditional burgers, but have developed a recent fascination with other types of burgers. The Mar-a-Lago burger is made with ground turkey and is seasoned with diced Granny Smith apple, mango chutney, diced celery, scallions, chipotle tabasco sauce, lemon zest and juice, and chopped parsley. The recipe on the Oprah site calls for ground turkey breast, but I used ground turkey. I was making this for the first time for a client and I needed to ensure that the burger would be nice and juicy. Maybe I'll try it at home with ground turkey breast. The burgers were very juicy made with ground turkey. I'm not so sure about making it with ground turkey breast. The diced apple has a lot of moisture and the recipe instructs you to refrigerate the burgers for two hours before cooking. It also uses 4 pounds of ground turkey to make eight 8-ounce burgers. At my store, ground turkey comes in 1 1/4 pound packages, so I used three packages for a total of 3 3/4 pounds of ground turkey. Using 3 3/4 pounds of ground turkey, I made 10 enormous burgers. I mixed and formed the burgers shortly after I arrived at my client's home and set them in the refrigerator to chill. They probably chilled for three hours. I cooked them on the stovetop rather than grilling them on a charcoal or gas grill.
The Oprah site has a recipe for Mar-a-Lago Pear Chutney to serve with them, but I opted to skip that and just use some of the Major Grey's chutney that is mixed in with the burger. Hmm, mango chutney has been making a lot of appearances in my cooking.
This is a tasty burger. The green apple adds moisture and little bit of tartness, the mango chutney adds a little heat and a little sweetness. As Tom would say "it's a keeper." After I made these, I started wondering about using cilantro instead of parsley. Next time! Continue reading "As eaten by Oprah: Mar-a-Lago Burger" » June 10, 2008Broiled Salmon Fillets with Curried Chutney SauceI selected this recipe for Salmon with Curried Chutney Sauce so I could use up the mango chutney that was leftover from last week's Black Rice Curried Meatloaf. Wow, this dish was so quick and easy to make and it was delicious. Tom raved about it and it will be a big hit with some of my clients. I didn't get a picture of the salmon because it was almost 9pm by the time we had dinner (but my kitchen sink no longer drips, thanks Tom!) and we were both starving. I didn't remember about taking a picture until after we started eating. So here's the picture from Cooking Light.
I made some very minor changes to the original recipe. Instead of sprinkling the salmon with just salt and pepper, I used salt, pepper, and a teaspoon of curry powder. I used Penzey's Sweet Curry Powder. I sprinkled the curry powder on the fish, then lightly rubbed it into the flesh. It gave the cooked salmon a little more flavor and a lovely yellow color from the turmeric in the curry powder. I also baked the salmon rather than broiling it. I wanted to serve this with garlicky roasted green beans and I wanted the oven on for as briefly as possible, so I roasted the green beans and salmon at the same time. Continue reading "Broiled Salmon Fillets with Curried Chutney Sauce" » May 24, 2008On the grill this weekend: Spanish pork burgersI knew that Tom would want burgers at least once this weekend and this Spanish Pork Burger from Eating Well caught my eye. The ground pork that my grocery store carries has 22 grams of fat per 4 ounces. Yikes! No way am I going to use that. Pork tenderloin has 3 grams of fat per 4 ounces. That sure sounds better, huh? So rather than buying a pound of store-ground pork, I bought a 1-pound pork tenderloin and ground it in my food processor. This got me thinking that it's time to think about buying the meat grinder attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer. The food processor does a decent job of making ground meat, but it is very easy to go from ground to mush. The meat grinder attachment would solve this problem. The Spanish Pork Burger is flavored with chopped caramelized onions, smoked Spanish paprika, chopped green olives, and garlic. The onions do a great job of keeping the burger moist. It's served with more of the caramelized onions, a lemon-saffron mayo, and roasted red peppers. The original recipe calls for Piquillo peppers, but I couldn't find them, so I used roasted red peppers. This burger takes a little while longer to make than a traditional burger, but it is well worth the time. While the onions caramelized. I made a quick Spanish-flavored carrot salad by shredding about a pound of carrots, a small onion, and a large clove of garlic in the food processor. I tossed in about 2 tablespoons of chopped Spanish olives, about 2 teaspoons of dried thyme, 3 tablespoons of sherry vinegar, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and salt and pepper. Rather than chopping the caramelized onions by hand, I tossed the onions, garlic, and Spanish olives into the food processor and then scraped them into a mixing bowl. I cut the pork tenderloin into small chunks before grinding it in the food processor. I get the best results with making ground meat in the food processor when I take the time to chop the meat first. I added some smoked Spanish paprika, salt, and pepper, mixed everything together, and formed it into 4 patties. The mixture is soft, but it held together perfectly. As soon as the burgers went on the grill, I mixed the lemon-saffron mayo. I love saffron and I wish I had warmed the lemon juice and soaked the saffron in the warm lemon juice rather than just mixing the saffron into the mayo, and then adding the lemon zest and juice. Next time. I cooked the burgers for 5 minutes, then flipped them and cooked them for another 5 minutes. I missed the instruction about adding the Manchego cheese and cooking for another minute to melt the cheese, so we had unmelted cheese on our burgers. I assembled the burgers by first putting some of the caramelized onions on the bun, then the burger, then the cheese, then more onions, the mayo, and topped with roasted red peppers, and the bun top. We loved these. The flavors went together perfectly and a pork burger was a delicious change. The pork tenderloin cooked up beautifully. It was lean, but moist and delicious.
Continue reading "On the grill this weekend: Spanish pork burgers" » May 16, 2008A delicious way to eat your antioxidantsThe members of the Cooking Light Great Food community brought these Fig and Ginger Truffles to my attention. The recipe is from Ellie Krieger, a chef and registered dietitian with a show called Healthy Appetite on the Food Network. Combine dried figs, crystallized ginger, honey, and cinnamon, then dip in chocolate. Delicious and full of antioxidants. A perfect gift for a friend's birthday. My usual truffles have a chocolate ganache center. The fig and ginger truffles are completely different. The figs, ginger, honey, and cinnamon are whirled together in the food processor, then formed into balls. I put the balls in the refrigerator for an hour to make them easier to dip. Before taking the balls out of the refrigerator to dip them, I decided to temper the dipping chocolate. The recipe calls for 2 1/2 ounces of dark chocolate. I knew that I would be able to dip the balls with that amount of chocolate. It's easier to work with a larger amount of chocolate, and if I have extra chocolate, I mold it into a bar for nibbling. I've been using with different methods of tempering chocolate. This time I used the stovetop method described in Making Artisan Chocolates. Although this recipe doesn't call for tempering the chocolate, I like to temper it so that the truffles can be stored at room temperature and the chocolate will not bloom. I tempered about a pound of chocolate and used a little more than half of it to dip the truffle centers.
Continue reading "A delicious way to eat your antioxidants" » March 25, 2008Baking for Jayne: Gluten-Free and Vegan Chocolate Chip CookiesJayne has Celiac disease, is allergic to soy and eggs and is sensitive to dairy. All of the food that I prepare for her and her family is gluten-free, soy-free, egg-free, and uses limited dairy. Lately, I've been making a dessert or other treat for Jayne. Today, thanks to Karina of Karina's Kitchen, I made gluten-free and vegan chocolate chip cookies for Jayne. I've tried a few gluten-free chocolate chip cookie recipes and Karina's recipe beats all of them. The first test was the cookie dough. Of course, I had to try the unbaked dough. One good thing about vegan cookie dough is that you don't have to concern yourself with the food safety issue of raw eggs in the dough. Yum, this dough is delicious. It wasn't grainy/gritty like many gluten-free recipes.
The dough is chilled for one hour before you make the cookies. You roll the dough into balls, then flatten them slightly before baking. I used a heaping tablespoon of dough to form the cookies.
After 12-15 minutes, you have beautiful and delicious cookies. The cookies came out of the oven right after my client came home for lunch. We all tried them and everyone loved them. At one point, Jayne's mother asked me to move the cookies away from her so she wouldn't eat them all.
Don't you just love how the third cookie from the left in the second row from the bottom has a face? Karina's recipe is delicious. If you know someone who is gluten-free and doesn't eat eggs, be sure to make these cookies for them.
March 23, 2008Crispy Potato Cakes RevisitedBack in September, I posted this recipe for Crispy Potato Cakes. This is an updated version of that recipe. The original recipe called for grating potatoes, soaking them in water, squeezing them dry, then mixing with cornstarch, green onions, and seasoning. I've done some Cooks Illustrated-style experimenting with the recipe because I wanted to see if could find a faster way to make these without affecting the quality. To me, the changes are an improvement. They take less time to make and I like the new potato cakes even better. Test 2: Frozen Hashed Browns -- Since shredding the potatoes in the food processor worked so well, I decided to try using frozen hashed brown potatoes. I used Alexia Foods Organic Hashed Browns. To defrost the potatoes, I simply opened the bags and spread the potatoes out on a baking sheet and let them sit at room temperature for 1/2 hour. The defrosted potatoes didn't have very much moisture in them, so I decided to skip the soaking and squeezing steps. I tossed the defrosted potatoes with the cornstarch, scallions, and spices. This time, I also experimenting with forming the potato cakes freehand. I filled the measuring cup with 1/2 cup of potatoes and tipped the cup over onto the foil-lined baking sheet. I found that I didn't really need the 3-inch ring to form the potato cakes. The potatoes are moist enough to hold together. I pressed them lightly to slightly flatten them. Eliminating the ring saves a little bit of time. These were baked at 425F for 20 minutes, then flipped and baked for 15 minutes longer. They weren't quite crispy enough after 15 minutes, so I baked them for five more minutes. Ultimately, the baking time depends on how crispy you like them. The potato cakes made using the frozen hashed browns were delicious and took significantly less time to make. This method is the winner in my book.
Continue reading "Crispy Potato Cakes Revisited" » March 19, 2008Hit of the Day: Sweet Orange SalmonOf the dishes that I made today, my favorite was Sweet Orange Salmon. The salmon is rubbed with a mixture of brown sugar, chili powder, orange zest, cumin, paprika, coriander, and black pepper. I let the salmon "marinate" with the rub for 30 minutes before broiling it. The sweet and spicy rub caramelized beautifully under the broiler. I paired the salmon with roasted sesame zucchini and yellow squash.
Continue reading "Hit of the Day: Sweet Orange Salmon" » March 8, 2008My New Go-To Shrimp CocktailFine Cooking does it again with a scrumptious recipe for shrimp cocktail. Every time I've made this Garlic-Roasted Shrimp Cocktail, it's been gobbled up and I've had requests for the recipe. While it's tempting to start with precooked shrimp for shrimp cocktail, if you do, you'll save some time, but you'll sacrifice taste and texture. Traditionally, the shrimp for shrimp cocktail are poached. In this version, the shrimp are roasted. To me, it's easier than poaching and produces tastier shrimp. The shrimp are peeled and tossed with some salt, pepper, olive oil, and minced garlic. They are quickly roasted at 450ºF. That's it. The cocktail sauce is spiked with red onion, minced jalepeno, and horseradish. This is so easy and so delicous. Try it the next time you serve shrimp cocktail.
Continue reading "My New Go-To Shrimp Cocktail" » February 4, 2008Fast (and Healthy) Pork Chops with Apples and ThymeI write a column called Fast (and Healthy) for Applaud, a local women's magazine. The column provides a quick and healthful recipe and some information about the health benefits of ingredients used in the recipe. This article appeared in the Winter 2008 issue. In the fall, I like to use local apples in my cooking. Apples not only taste delicious, they provide many health benefits. I’m sure that you’ve made apple desserts, but apples can also be a part of a fast and healthy dinner. Apples are an excellent source of dietary fiber, which helps aid digestion and promotes weight loss. When you snack on an apple, you are getting five grams of fiber, virtually no fat, and no cholesterol. Apples are delicious snacks that are good for you. When you snack on apples, it’s a good idea to eat apples with their skin. Almost half of the vitamin C content is just underneath the skin. The fiber and phytonutrients in apples have been shown to help in lowering cholesterol. Studies indicate that two apples a day reduced the damaging effects of LDL cholesterol, the “bad” cholesterol. Apples can help fight cancer. Studies have linked apples with reduced cancer risk in several studies. A Mayo Clinic study indicates that quercetin, a flavonoid in apples, helps prevent the growth of prostate cancer cells. A Cornell University study indicates that phytochemicals in the skin of an apple inhibited the reproduction of colon cancer cells by 43 percent. The National Cancer Institute has reported that foods containing flavonoids like those found in apples may reduce the risk of lung cancer by as much as 50 percent. So grab some apples and let’s make dinner.
Continue reading "Fast (and Healthy) Pork Chops with Apples and Thyme" » January 6, 2008Grains of Paradise and Autumn Blend LentilsI'm on a mission to try some of the interesting new ingredients that I've bought, but haven't made time to use. This lentil soup uses two items that have been sitting on my new ingredient shelf for a while: Grains of Paradise and an Autumn lentil blend. I bought the Grains of Paradise at A Market Natural Foods, a local natural foods store. The Autumn lentil blend came from Sid Wainer & Sons, a purveyor of specialty produce and speciality foods located in New Bedford, MA. Grains of Paradise have a peppery taste, with a fruity flavor like coriander and an aroma that reminds me of cardamom. I'm going to add some to my pepper mill the next time I fill it. The Autumn lentil blend was a rainbow of autumn colors. It would have been wiser to use them in dish that wasn't blended, but they've been on my shelf for a while, so in the pot they went. My lentil soup recipe is a slight modification of a recipe from Alton Brown. Of course I had to make a few modifications. I didn't have any celery, so I added some extra onion and carrots, and 1/2 teaspoon of ground celery seed. Soup needs garlic, in goes three cloves of minced garlic. Tomatoes are dreadful at this time of year, so I knew that I'd be using canned diced tomatoes. When I opened the cabinet to get the tomatoes, a can of fire-roasted tomatoes said "pick me". Oh, and I didn't bother finely chopping the vegetables because the soup gets blended with an immersion blender before serving.
Continue reading "Grains of Paradise and Autumn Blend Lentils" » December 21, 2007Eat Your Veggies in a BurgerMy favorite veggie burger is an adaptation of Eating Well's Mediterranean Burgers. Their recipe uses millet, which is hard for me to find, so I adapted it to use quinoa, one of my favorite grains. I knew that these veggies burgers would appeal to some of my clients, so I streamlined the recipe to make it easier and faster to prepare. Except for using quinoa instead of millet, I didn't make many changes to the ingredients. Rather than pan-frying them, which is time-consuming, I bake them so that I can cook them all at the same time and not have to watch them carefully while they cook. The burgers are packed with the hearty, whole-grain goodness of quinoa, along with spinach, onions, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, and feta cheese. A great way to eat your veggies. These veggie burgers are served with Olive Ketchup. This yummy condiment is so easy and the perfect topping for these burgers.
In September, a client asked for these veggie burgers. They've requested them over and over again since they first tried them. These veggie burgers freeze very well. I vacuum seal the burgers and the olive ketchup separately and advise my clients to defrost, but not heat the olive ketchup. You can heat the burgers in the microwave, in a frying pan on the stovetop, or in the oven. Since the olive ketchup takes just a few minutes to make, you could make a small batch whenever you serve the burgers. Grr, there is no photo today because I just discovered that I didn't have a memory card in my camera when I took pictures of the veggie burger. You can get an idea of what the veggie burgers look like by looking at the picture on the Eating Well site. I puree the spinach in my version, so my burgers are green throughout, not brown flecked with spinach. Note to self, always check to see if there is a memory card in the camera before you start taking pictures. The next time I make these I'll come back here and update this post with a photo. Continue reading "Eat Your Veggies in a Burger" » December 9, 2007Whole Wheat Cheese Danish Biscuits for Maxine and RufusI recently got a "birth announcement" from one of my clients. They had welcomed Rufus, a 4 year old Papillon into their family. They've been looking for a friend for their Maxine for about a year and are delighted to have found Rufus. When I got the announcement, I was looking at Joe's blog and he had made some treats for his dogs. He inspired me to look at his collection of dog treat recipes and make something for Maxine and Rufus. The Whole Wheat Cheese Danish Biscuits caught my eye and I had everything that I needed to make them. I made one slight change to the ingredients. Joe uses canola oil. I use safflower oil. The technique is the same, except that I kneaded the dough in the mixing bowl (a trick my mom uses when she makes pizza dough) and to make cleanup easier, I lay out a large sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil on the counter whenever I work with dough. If the foil shifts around, use freezer tape to tape it to the counter top. Maxine and Rufus are very small dogs, so I used a 1-inch star cutter to cut out the cookies. The cookies bake for 20 minutes, then you turn off the oven and leave them for 2 hours. These cookies are flavored with vanilla and they filled the house with the delicious smell of vanilla. When I added in the vanilla, I was thinking that I should really be using bacon extract! I have plans to make these biscuits for more of my dog friends. Instead of the vanilla, I want to try Savory Choice Beef Broth Concentrate Maxine and Rufus loved them! That's Maxine on the right and Rufus on the left.
Continue reading "Whole Wheat Cheese Danish Biscuits for Maxine and Rufus" » December 2, 2007Pumpkin Oatmeal for BreakfastOatmeal is so good for you, but I don't like the consistency of oatmeal cooked as a hot breakfast cereal. I want to add oatmeal to my breakfast, so I adapted my friend Marcy's recipe for baked oatmeal in the hope of making an oatmeal dish that I would like. With baked oatmeal, you get all the goodness of oatmeal, but the consistency is that of a dense bar. I made a few changes to Marcy's recipe; the most significant change was adding some pumpkin puree. Now I love oatmeal. Baked oatmeal that is! I've been making a batch of it on Sunday to have for breakfast during the week. I have a piece of baked oatmeal with some fruit. Sometimes I have it with an ounce or two of Hormel® Natural Choice® ham, which is a nitrate-free ham. Baked oatmeal is not the most photogenic food, but here it is. Baked Oatmeal with Pumpkin
Continue reading "Pumpkin Oatmeal for Breakfast" » November 27, 2007My Post-Thanksgiving TurkeyI grew up in Plymouth, MA and my family still lives there. If you grew up in the land of the first Thanksgiving, that is where you go for Thanksgiving. My mom cooks the turkey and most of the dinner. That means we don't get a lot of luscious turkey leftovers. So this year, rather than raiding mom's turkey leftovers, I roasted a turkey breast a few days after Thanksgiving. My friend Kris shared this Herb-Roasted Turkey Breast with Pan Gravy that she had made for her Thanksgiving dinner and gave it rave reviews. Ah, I found the starting point for my turkey breast. The recipe from Rachael Ray calls for boned turkey breast halves. I decided to skip splitting and boning my whole turkey breast. I added a bit of garlic to the herb rub. And I used a few more bay leaves, and since I didn't have any apple cider, I decided to use white wine and turkey broth in the gravy. I wanted lots of gravy, so I also added 1 cup of white wine to the roasting pan. I also made some Stuffing Muffins, but I don't have a recipe for them because stuffing is something that I make by adding this and that. The base for the stuffing muffins is whole wheat bread that I dried in the oven. They have celery, onion, sage, sweet Italian sausage, turkey broth, butter, and white wine, but I have no idea how much of each. Speaking of turkey broth, I use Savory Choice Turkey Broth Concentrate. Herb-Roasted Turkey Breast and Stuffing Muffins
Continue reading "My Post-Thanksgiving Turkey" » November 25, 2007Pumpkin Chiffon Cup PiesI love pumpkin, but I am not a fan of traditional pumpkin pie. It's the texture of the custardy filling more than the flavor that I dislike. Last month I found a recipe for pumpkin chiffon tarts in the October issue of Martha Stewart Living. What first appealed to me is that the recipe is for individual tarts. I'm a sucker for individual desserts. I'll happily make mini pies, but I have no interest in making a normal pie. The Martha recipe had a gingersnap crust and a fluffy pumpkin filling, of course I would like it. As soon as I saw this recipe, I knew that I wanted to make it for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is the perfect time for both pumpkin and mini desserts. Although the recipe called for using six 5-inch pie tins, I decided to use a cupcake pan so they would truly be mini pies. I decided not to use sugar in the crust and to use maple sugar in the filling. I also used nonfat milk instead of the whole milk that the recipe called for. Cooling the filling in an ice bath helped reduce the cooling time. Whisking the filling after chilling it improved its texture. Unfortunately, Martha's recipe is not online, so I can't link to it so you can compare it to my version. I made them on Thanksgiving Eve, and after watching Pushing Daisies later that night, I named them Pumpkin Chiffon Cup Pies. (If you aren't watching Pushing Daisies, you should be. In the 11/21 episode, Chuck decided to create cup pies, mini pies baked in cupcake pans.) Pumpkin Chiffon Cup Pie
The recipe looks more complicated than it is. It took about 20 minutes to make the crusts and 30 minutes to make the filling. This is the perfect recipe to make the night before you want to serve them. Continue reading "Pumpkin Chiffon Cup Pies" » November 11, 2007Cinnamon Apple CoffeecakeI don't enjoy baking, but I really don't like cleaning and since my husband Tom happily does most of the cleaning and laundry, I try to thank him by making him muffins, coffeecakes and other breakfast treats. A cinnamon apple coffeecake in Cooking Light's November issue caught my eye. It sounded both tasty and easy to make, which is definitely important to me. I decided to try the recipe using King Arthur 100% White Whole Wheat Flour. And some of the reviewers on the Cooking Light site said that they wished it had more apple, so I added more. I used 1 1/2 apples because my apples were very large. Plus, I wanted a snack, so I snacked on 1/2 of an apple while I made this. I also reduced the sugar from 1 cup to 3/4 cup. This is a great recipe for me since it went together in no time and uses ingredients that I always have. Tom had it for breakfast this morning and loved it. Cinnamon Apple Coffeecake Continue reading "Cinnamon Apple Coffeecake" » November 4, 2007Weeknight SaviorI always have canned diced tomatoes, capers, white wine, shallots, and garlic in my pantry. These ingredients pair well with chicken breasts to make a quick weeknight dinner. I've added this recipe to my list of Weeknight Saviors, recipes that I can make out of the pantry when I need a quick weeknight dinner. I love the sharp and salty flavor of capers and it just takes a few capers to perk up a sauce. This dish is delicious served over pasta and can be made in the time that it takes to cook your pasta. Toss some green beans with minced garlic and a tablespoon of olive oil and roast at 400 for 8-10 minutes and you'll have dinner ready in less than 30 minutes. Continue reading "Weeknight Savior" » October 21, 2007Oven-Baked Brown RiceLast week I had a client menu that had a lot of stovetop dishes, including brown and wild rice. The oven wasn't very busy that day, so I decided to try oven-baked brown rice. I've read about it, but have never tried it. I went to the Cook's Illustrated web site to see what they had to say about baking brown rice. Their recipe was simple and turned out perfectly. During the week, I like to have cooked brown rice and other grains in the refrigerator so that I can just grab them and use them for our dinners. I'll be making a pan of oven-baked brown rice and wild rice every weekend to use during the week. It takes an hour to cook, but once it is in the oven, you don't have to pay any attention to it. Rice isn't very photogenic, but here it is. Continue reading "Oven-Baked Brown Rice" » October 13, 2007Country Captain ChickenI miss my Sunday mornings with Sheryl Julian and Julie Riven, but I'm enjoying the recipes of Adam Ried, their replacement. Adam Ried's recent recipe for Country Captain Chicken caught my eye. I've seen lots of recipes for this dish, but have never been enticed to try any of them. Ried's addition of fresh mango intrigued me. While cooking the chicken on the bone results in deeper flavor, I wanted to decrease the cooking time, so I opted to use boneless, skinless chicken thighs. They cook quickly and most of the people I cook for prefer boneless meats and poultry. We loved the flavor of this dish. The raisins and mango in the stew and the apple garnish are the perfect complement to the heat of the curry and cayenne.
Continue reading "Country Captain Chicken" » October 7, 2007Lemon Cupcakes and More No-Knead BreadRecently, I was discussing whoopie pies with some of my personal chef buddies. The discussion of whoopie pies reminded me of the filled chocolate cupcakes that my mom made because mom used her whoopie pie filling to fill the chocolate cupcakes. When I mentioned this, my friend Rachel said that her mom made lemon-filled lemon cupcakes. I love all things lemon and asked Rachel for her mom's recipe. I got my love of lemon from both my mom and dad, and decided to make these cupcakes for his 84th birthday celebration on Saturday. Rachel's mom filled her cupcakes with lemon pudding, but I decided to fill them with homemade lemon curd. I'm much better at cooking than I am at baking, but the cupcakes came out beautifully. I even forgot to set the timer when I put them in the oven, but managed to cook them just the right amount of time. This summer, my friend Marcy did a cupcake demonstration for us and her presentation gave me the confidence to cook the cupcakes perfectly even though I had no idea how long they had been in the oven before I realized that I forgot the timer. My mom always cut a cone out of the cupcakes, filled the hole with filling, then put the cone in the filling. My sister Marcia showed me how to cut the cones in half and set them in the filling so they look like butterflies. Her husband's family always makes their filled cupcakes this way and calls them butterfly cupcakes. I've also been wanting to try the No-Knead Bread with a mixture of whole wheat and white flour, and decided to make bread for our family dinner. I made two loaves of bread, one 50/50 whole wheat and white flour and one all white flour. I used a small amount (1/3 cup) of semolina flour as part of the while flour in both loaves. Continue reading "Lemon Cupcakes and More No-Knead Bread" » September 29, 2007Crispy Potato CakesNOTE: See revised recipe I'm bored with making the same old potato side dishes and my search for new potato recipes led me to a Cooking Light recipe for Crispy Potato Hash Browns. The technique used in this recipe interested me. You combine grated potatoes with cornstarch, form them into "cakes" using a 3-inch biscuit cutter, then bake them in a 475º oven. The online reviews for the recipe were good, and they sounded like a good side dish for the meatloaf I was making for one of my clients this week, so I put them on the menu. Some side benefits of this recipe is that it is gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free, and it has just a trace of fat. I don't have a 3-inch biscuit cutter, but I am a whiz with aluminum foil, so I made a 3-inch ring form with foil. Take a 2 foot long strip of foil, fold it in half the long way, then continue to fold it in half the long way until you have a strip that is about an inch wide. Then twist the strip into a rope. Fold the twisted strip in half and form it into a 3-inch diameter loop. You'll get something that looks like this.
The potatoes are grated, then soaked in cold water for 5 minutes. The comments for the recipe indicated that the box grater gives much better results than grating in the food processor, so stick with the box grater. It doesn't take long to grate the potatoes. I didn't have a salad spinner to spin dry the potatoes. I set them in a colander and used a clean towel to press down on them until I couldn't squeeze out any more water. It worked perfectly for me. Even with the hand grating, the recipe was quick and easy to prep and the results were very tasty. I renamed these to Crispy Potato Cakes because that is what they are. I see myself adding different herbs and spices to them to pair them with different dishes. How about some chili powder or cayenne pepper for a spicy potato cake? Or fresh thyme. Or curry powder. The possibilities are endless. Continue reading "Crispy Potato Cakes " » August 5, 2007Finally, it's not too hot to cookThis past week was brutally hot. I was completely wilted at the end of each workday. Everything we ate for dinner last week was grilled because after hot days in other people's kitchen's I couldn't bear to turn on my stove. This morning we woke up to a cool, dry day. One of my first thoughts was "hooray, I can use the stove again!" I had some ground turkey that I needed to cook, so I made Taco Stuffed Peppers. I was planning to save these for my lunches this week and to bake some chicken for dinner, but Tom smelled the taco meat mixture cooking and asked if we could have them for dinner tonight. We'll have the chicken tomorrow. Continue reading "Finally, it's not too hot to cook" » July 15, 2007Local BlueberriesWhen I was a kid, every summer included a family outing to pick blueberries. We even had one of those enormous wood-sided station wagon, which was perfect for our family outings. My grandmother joined us and sat in the shade with a cooler of drinks and snacks for us kids when we got tired of picking. Our goal for the day was to fill a 20 quart blue enameled pot. Armed with coffee cans with string loops around our necks so we could use both hands to pick, we'd venture off into the blueberry fields. To this day, one of my favorite sounds is the plunk plunk plunk that blueberries make when they land at the bottom of any empty picking container. The picking containers at Sunnycrest Farm are plastic. But the blueberries still make a wonderful sound when they hit the empty container. And since the farm is just a few miles from my house, you'll find me there almost every week until the blueberry season is over. Their blueberry bushes are tall and easy to pick from, and for me, it's relaxing to be among the blueberry bushes filling my bucket. During July and August, we eat a lot of blueberries. There's always a bowl of blueberries in the refrigerator to snack on. This morning I made one of my favorite blueberry coffeecakes.
Continue reading "Local Blueberries" » July 13, 2007Spicy Basque-Style ChickenAnother weeknight winner from Cooking Light. The Spicy Basque-Style Chicken from the June 2007 issue was my test kitchen recipe this week. It's quick, easy, and full of flavor. In the time it takes to cook the rice to accompany it, you'll have dinner on the table.
Spicy Basque-Style Chicken, Saffron Rice, Roasted Asparagus I forgot to buy green olives, so I used capers. I really liked the dish with capers and will keep that change. The bottled minced garlic was replaced with fresh minced garlic. When I made this, I added the prosciutto, but I thought the prosciutto got lost in the dish so I omitted it from the final recipe. I get my smoked Spanish paprika from Penzeys. I've been buying herbs and spices from Penzeys for over 20 years. When I first started ordering from them, their catalog was a newsprint catalog; it was long before they had a web site and retail stores. Smoked Spanish paprika adds a smoky spicy flavor. Try it, you'll love it. Good paprika is nothing like grocery store paprika. When you buy Penzeys' Smoked Spanish Paprika, add some Hungarian sweet paprika and Hungarian half-sharp paprika to your order. You'll never buy grocery store paprika again. Continue reading "Spicy Basque-Style Chicken" » July 8, 2007Salmon for SupperThis super speedy recipe is perfect for a weeknight meal. It's based on Cooking Light's Broiled Tilapia with Thai Coconut Curry Sauce. I don't care for the texture of tilapia, so I made it with salmon. Red curry paste can be quite hot, so I add 1/2 teaspoon at a time until the heat level of the dish is right for us. In this dish, 1 teaspoon of red curry paste gave us the perfect heat level. We love ginger and garlic, so I used more than the original recipe called for. Adding more brown sugar can temper the heat of this dish if you unwittingly add too much curry paste. I also made just two portions of salmon, but the full amount of sauce. I served this with Brown Basmati Rice with Edamame. I use the pasta method to cook brown rice, then toss in the edamame for a minute once the rice is cooked to the desired tenderness, about 25 minutes. The extra sauce was much hotter the next day when I had it for lunch served over the leftover brown rice with edamame.
Continue reading "Salmon for Supper" » June 30, 2007Cherry HeavenYesterday I picked 12 pounds of cherries at my favorite farm: 8 pounds of sweet cherries and 4 pounds of sour cherries. For me, the day that I pick cherries is the official start of summer. I usually pick only sweet cherries, but after hearing Jeremy Jackson talk about his Little Meatballs with Cherry Sauce, I've been waiting for sour cherries to be ready to pick. When I got the announcement that the theme for the June meeting of the Massachusetts chapter of Personal Chefs Network was picnics, I selected this recipe to make for our meeting. Last night I pitted a pound of cherries for the recipe (not a whole lot of fun) so I could make the recipe in the morning. I made the meatballs this morning with some minor modifications to the recipe. The lamb meatballs filled the house with a wonderful aroma. My husband Tom came looking for lunch when I took the meatballs out of the oven. He had his before I added them to the cherry sauce. This isn't a great picture because I was in a hurry when I plated them and took the picture. There were 10 hungry personal chefs waiting to dig into them.
The bright and sharp flavor of the sour cherries is a perfect match for the lamb meatballs. Tomorrow I'll pit the rest of the sour cherries and freeze them. Then I'll be looking for more savory recipes that use sour cherries. My reward for pitting them will be a big bowl of sweet cherries. Continue reading "Cherry Heaven" » June 10, 2007Pizza NightMy mom made pizza every Friday night and still does. Some of my earliest cooking memories are helping her make pizza. When I got home from school, she would let me help her make the dough. After the dough had risen, I'd help her form the pizzas and bake them. I loved punching down the dough! Pizza that you make yourself always tastes wonderful. These days, I use Eating Well's Whole Wheat Pizza Dough recipe for my dough. It goes together very quickly in the food processor, uses a 50/50 mix of whole wheat and all-purpose flour, and is ready to use in 20 minutes because it uses quick-rising yeast. This dough is also easy to roll out. I roll it onto parchment paper then place the parchment paper on my pizza stone. My mom's pizza hails from before I was born. Her dough recipe comes from a Fleischmann's cookbook, but her toppings come from a bar and grill in Malden, MA that my parents frequented when they lived in Everett, MA. In 1959, when my family moved to Peabody, MA, my mom asked the pizza guy if he would share his secrets because she loved his pizza. She's been making his pizza every since. One of the surprising things is the sauce. It is simply Pastene ground peeled tomatoes. Pure tomatoes, nothing else. His cheese was a mixture of cheddar and mozzarella, but my mom switched to all cheddar after consulting with my dad's cousin Rose, who owned a pizza parlor in Falmouth, MA. Although I don't use my mom's dough recipe, I do use Pastene ground peeled tomatoes for the sauce. Just spread them lightly over the rolled out dough. Not too much sauce. At Christmas, a friend gave me some fair trade Sonoran oregano from the Seri Indians. I've reserved this oregano for my pizzas. So, I crumble some of the Sonoran oregano on top of the sauce. Then spread grated cheddar cheese over the pizza. I sometimes add other cheeses, like parmesan or provolone. My husband Tom loves sausage pizza, so that is what we usually have. He grew up on pizza from Stan's Chitch's Cafe in Bound Brook, NJ. What's different about Chitch's sausage pizza is that the sausage is ground and covers the entire pie. When we visit Tom's family in NJ, we always go to Chitch's for pizza. If you like thin-crust pizza, it is the best that there is. For our pizzas, I bake hot Italian chicken sausages and then grind them in the food processor. I sprinkle a bit more of the oregano over the top of the sausage. I don't have time to make my mom's pizza dough, but with the Eating Well dough recipe, it is easy to keep our family tradition of homemade pizza.
June 9, 2007Herbed Cheese Eggplant RollsA few months ago, a client left me her well-loved copy of The Victory Garden Cookbook and asked me if I could make a recipe for eggplant rolls from this book. The eggplant rolls are stuffed with a seasoned ground beef recipe. My client wanted me to make these with the ground beef filling from the recipe and also with a cheese filling. They love my cheese-filled eggplant rolls and have requested them for the past few months. This week was no exception.
2 large eggplants Wash eggplant, but do not peel. Remove the cap and stem end. Cut into thin slices, no thicker than 1/4". For 6 servings, you need 12 slices. Arrange the eggplant slices in a colander, sprinkling salt between the layers. Let eggplant drain for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, combine the farmers cheese, parmesan cheese, parsley, garlic, oregano, and 2 eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Place about 1/2 cup flour on a plate. You'll use this to coat the eggplant slices. Add more flour as needed. Pat the eggplant slices dry. Beat the remaining eggs with 2 tablespoons water. Dip the eggplant sliced into the eggs, then into flour. In a large saute pan, heat 2 tablespoons oil. Shake the excess flour from the eggplant slices and cook 2-3 eggplants slices until browned on each side, about 2 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels. Repeat with remaining eggplant slices, adding more oil to the pan as needed. Preheat oven to 350. Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil. Spread a thin layer of marinara sauce on the baking sheet. Lay an eggplant slice on a cutting board or plate. Place a large spoonful of the cheese mixture on the eggplant slice. Using a fork, spread the cheese mixture over the eggplant in a thin layer. Roll the eggplant over the filling like a jelly roll. Place the eggplant roll on the baking sheet, seam side down. . Repeat with remaining eggplant slices. Spread 2 tablespoons marinara sauce on each eggplant roll. Notes: To make these gluten-free I used Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Baking Flour and a gluten-free marinara sauce such as Muir Glen. Friendship Farmers Cheese is a low-lactose cheese and works wonderfully as a replacement for ricotta cheese.
May 25, 2007Jamaican Jerk Chicken ThighsIt's a great night for grilling. Summer slammed into NH and it hit 90 today. This Jamaican Jerk Chicken recipe is a favorite. I've been making this recipe for about 15 years, but I don't remember where it came from. I've tweaked it a bit over the years. The marinade is great with chicken or pork. Don't be intimidated by the long ingredient list. It's mostly spices and it goes together very quickly. Make it mild or hot by adjusting the amount of cayenne and minced chile pepper. The herbs in my AeroGarden were starting to take over the world, so I gave them all a good haircut and tossed the chopped herbs with basmati rice. I used a big bunch of herbs that included basil, cilantro, parsley, thyme, mint, oregano, and chives. Our salad included a few radishes that I pulled from the garden. They are still pretty small, but I just couldn't wait any longer to try a few.
Jamaican Jerk Chicken 1 tablespoon ground allspice Combine allspice, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, thyme, and brown sugar. Mix thoroughly. Whisk in orange juice, vinegars, and soy sauce. Add the scallions, garlic, ginger, and chile pepper. Stir to combine. Marinate chicken thighs in jerk marinade for at least 1 hour. Drain chicken and discard marinade. Grill over medium heat, 5-7 minutes on each side or until until temperature is 165F. May 12, 2007Bacon-Wrapped BBQ Chicken-Cheese RollsThis recipe for Bacon-Wrapped BBQ Chicken-Cheese Rolls was inspired by Jayne, who asked me to make her chicken with barbecue sauce, bacon, and cheese.
The chicken rolls are shown with Mini Cornbread Puddings from Everyday Food, March 2007. (Note, the Mini Cornbread Puddings are not gluten-free.) Jayne's mother and sister sampled the chicken rolls when they came home for lunch and they both loved them. I used a homemade barbecue sauce because I prefer it and also Jayne has many food allergies, but you could use your favorite bottled barbecue sauce. |
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to give them a beefy flavor.
