Spaghetti Carbonara - SOOO EASY!

CRAVING FULFILLED! I've been craving spaghetti carbonara for ages and I finally got around to making it. The great things about spaghetti carbonara is the sauce is based on scrambled eggs and pasta water as opposed to cream. Given that J is lactose intolerant, this makes a great pasta dish for both of us (as I can put tons of parmigiano reggiano on my plate of carbonara separately). The other great thing about spaghetti carbonara is how totally easy it is to make. Perfect for a cold night after work.

Here's how I did it:

1 pound of pasta
lots of salt
5 slices of bacon (or an equivalent amount of pancetta or guanciale if you want to be totally traditional
3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
pinch of nutmeg
1 cup of parmigiano reggiano

Fry bacon (or any cured meat thereof) until fairly crispy and fat is completely rendered. Add the garlic and turn off the heat. Bring water to a boil and add enough salt until the water tastes "as salty as the Mediterranean," which is to say, pretty salty. Cook spaghetti according to instructions. When spaghetti is close to being done, take about half a cup of salty water out and reserve. During that time, heat up the bacon mixture. Drain the pasta and add to the bacon. Toss thoroughly with the pepper and nutmeg and turn off the heat. Add eggs and toss furiously so the eggs turn into a creamy sauce but don't solidify and coagulate. Add about two or three tablespoons of the pasta water and toss thoroughly again to make the mixture creamier. If the mixture is still too thick, add a bit more pasta water. Sprinkle lots of the parmigiano reggiano on top and toss again. Add even more cheese. Enjoy.

For the sister - Tortilla Soup

When my sister and her boyfriend came to visit us a few months ago, I decided to greet them with a warm bowl of Tortilla Soup. Tortilla soup is one of the most interesting things I make because the corn tortillas give the soup a unique texture and a warm corn flavor. This is based on the Barefoot Contessa recipe but I added a few more Mexican touches of my own.

Tortilla Soup

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 carrots chopped
1 stalk of celery chopped
2 poblano peppers chopped
1 red bell pepper chopped
1 jalepeno pepper, finely chopped (optional)
2 tablespoons of chili powder
1 teaspoon of cumin

1 can of pureed or diced tomatoes
1 cup of corn (frozen or canned)

6 cups of chicken stock
2 cups of pre-cooked chicken, shredded (what I do is buy whole chicken breasts, sear them on both sides and then bake in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes)
8 corn tortillas sliced in 1-inch slices

Throw the first set of ingredients into a large pot and saute until the vegetables have softened and the onions are translucent, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add the next two ingredients and saute another 10 minutes. Add the last set of ingredients, bring the whole thing to a boil and then quickly lower the heat to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally until the tortillas have completely disintegrated. Serve with avocado, cilantro and sour cream.

Apparently it's all gyoza all the time

So yes I love me some gyoza. It was your typical weeknight where neither of us could figure out what we wanted to have for dinner. One thing we kept on coming back to was some crab we picked up at Trader Joe's. I highly recommend getting the Trader Joe's crab because it's like half the price of what you get in the regular grocery store. So yes we tried to think of a good use for the crab. Crab and pasta? Crab salad? Nothing was really popping out at us until I saw the gyoza skins and decided to make crab potstickers. Very good decision. They turned out perfectly. We were both worried about how much liquid the filling was giving off but the filling ended up handing together quite well. Here's what we did.

Finely mince

1 tablespoon of ginger
2 cloves of garlic
2 jalepeno peppers (deseeded)
1/2 a medium onion
1/4 of a red bell pepper (or two or three red chilies)

I just throw the whole mess in a food processor myself. Then in a tablespoon of oil, cook the whole mixture until the liquid has evarporated and the mush is tender. Let cool and add that to and mixture of:

1 1/2 cups of crabmeat
1/4 cup of breadcrumbs
1 egg

Mix thoroughly. Put a scant tablespoon of the mixture onto the gyoza, brush one side with an egg wash and seal. In a nonstick skillet, pan fry the potstickers in enough oil to coat the skillet. Flip them over, and let them fry another minute and the add 1/4 cup of water and cover. Let the mixture cook under low heat for about 5 minutes. And then you have crab potstickers!

There's shortcuts and there's shortcuts

I hate to sound blasphemous but Nigella Express really irritates me. I watch it week after week hoping it will get better and it just gets more annoying. In the grand scheme of what's on the Food Network, it's clearly more satisfying and entertaining that most of what's out there. However, I am grading on a curve here and I am comparing Nigella Express to the divine Nigella Bites, the fabulous Forever Summer, and even the decent and not annoying, Nigella Feasts.

It seems the Nigella overall demeanor and the demeanor of her guests has a rehearsed quality to it. While the dinner scene don't do that forced gushing about the food that Barefoot Contessa is notorious for. The way they talk seem a lot less natural and spontaneous than in her previous series. I also compare that to Jaime Oliver's new show where his delivery just seems a a little messier and therefore a lot more natural. He'll be like "the pepper is the friend of the garlic while the basil is best friends to them all" and somehow it doesn't come off as twee in the least. I think it does help that whoever styles him goes for a deliberately tousled look. When I compare the two shows, a sheen of perfection has settle on Nigella Express while Jaime at Home has an enthusiastic spontaneous energy. And the thing is, some of the stuff he does do, like throwing vegetable scraps directly from his outdoor table into a flower bed, would be really annoying if it didn't seem like Jaime did that sort of thing all the time.

The previous shows were built on a reliable premise - Nigella likes to cook. She may not always have time to cook (i.e. the TV Dinners episode of Nigella Bites) but she doesn't see cooking as this horrible chore. The thing that seems to be missing in Express is that cooking is enjoyable. There are times you really want to just make something that takes all afternoon. At least I do. Sure she took some shortcuts (using boullion cubes and frozen peas), but they weren't shortcuts that compromised the flavor of the dishes and they weren't being used to avoid cooking. however on Nigella Express, she liberally uses bottled lime juice and seriously that stuff has nothing to do with what you squeeze out of the fruit. It's sad because Nigella has been a voice of intelligence, balancing the utter insanity of Martha Stewart perfectionism with the complete the Sandra Lee levels of expediency. I am sad that she's leaning towards the Sandra Lee side of things.

One shortcut I am very happy to use is gyoza skins as ravioli. Ever since New Year's when I made dumplings with round gyoza skins, I have been dying to use them as ravioli. Two Saturdays ago, I went on a riot of cooking, got some peeled, chopped butternut squash from Trader Joe's and made butternut squash ravioli with brown butter sauce. It's probably one of the most successful dish I have ever made. The ravioli froze beautifully and tasted sublime. Here's what I did:

Butternut squash ravioli
1 package of round gyoza skins (these are round and slightly thicker than won ton skins)
1 package of peeled and chopped butternut squash
1/4 cup of dried breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons of fresh breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts, pecans or hazelnuts
1 clove of garlic
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
1 egg, beaten
4 tablespoons butter

Roast the squash in the oven for half and hour at 425 degrees. Let cool. Blend the rest of the ingredients in a food processor. Add the squash and puree until smooth but not baby food. Put about a tablespoon of the filling onto the gyoza and brush half of the gyoza with the beaten egg. Seal and press out any air. Repeat. A lot. If not using immediately, freeze on a cookie sheet and then put the frozen ravioli in a ziplock bag.

To serve, boil in salt water until they float to the surface. Cook butter until browned. You can add toasted chopped walnuts or a few sage leaves to the butter. Toss the butter and ravioli together and top with shaved parmesan.

I've done the dumpling route. I've done the butternut squash route. What else can I fill these gyoza skins with?

Loafin' around

For a long time, J didn't like meatloaf. I made a vegetarian version with Gimme Lean log o' meat and I converted J back to the dark side. The great thing about meatloaf is that it is a clear-out-your-fridge dish that is fairly forgiving. The key pieces that make meatloaf, meatloaf are: the meat (obviously), breadcrumbs, eggs, Worchestershire sauce. from there you can go the Italian route (grated parmesan, basil, etc), southwest (jalepeno, cilantro, cumin) or even Asian (shitake mushrooms, soy sauce, spring onions).

So last Thursday we had a bunch of stuff lying around - ground chicken, Mexican chorizo, sun dried tomatoes, and bacon. All of it went into a satisfying meatloaf. Along with the meatloaf, we threw some sweet potatoes in the oven and it made for a nice winter meal. The sweet potatoes only needed a bit of butter and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Here's what we did with our Thursday night meatloaf:

1 lb of ground chicken
2 links of Mexican chorizo
1 egg
1/4 cup of dried breadcrumbs
1/4 cup of fresh breadcrumbs
12 onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce
1 tablespoon hot sauce (we used JT Pappy Florida Gator Sauce)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
5 sundried tomatoes, finely chopped
6 slices of bacon
ketchup

Throw everything except for the bacon and ketchup into a bowl and mix well with your hands (seriously it's the only way to do it). In a greased pan, form the meat mixture into a nice loaf shape. Lay the raw slices of bacon on the loaf lengthwise and then smear the ketchup all over the top of the bacon covered meatloaf. Bake at 375 degrees in the middle rack of the oven for 45 minutes. Slice and enjoy.

Leftovers make great meatloaf sandwiches.

A few cooking things

So Friday, I had this urge for both finger foods and vegetables. Go figure. As a result I made pigs in blankets, broccoli slaw, and bacon wrapped dates. That was like the best dinner ever. The pigs in blankets were of the crescent roll-lil' smokie variety and the broccoli slaw was a bag of broccoli slaw (yes you can find it in the bag o' salad part of your grocery store), dried cranberries, and toasted walnuts with a nice balsamic vinaigrette. The true kicker was the too easy to be true bacon wrapped dates. Basically, take a few dates and take out the seed which makes a remarkably neat hole for you to fill. I filled in with a 1/4 inch chunk of pecorino romano. then you just wrap the whole shebang in 1/3 of a slice of bacon (cut widthwise), secure with a toothpick and bake at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes. I found that the bacon needed some time in a hot frying pan to fully render out the fat. The end product was a Jaleo worthy meld of sweet and salty.

The other thing I made this weekend was an amaretto cake. While we were grocery shopping, we looked wistfully at all of the expensive holiday cakes soaked in rum, or frangelico or amaretto. For some reason they were not on sale and therefore, prohibitively expensive. I decided to make my own. I figure I'd find a recipe somewhere. In all of my cookbooks there wasn't really a cake that fit my needs so I made one up. I adapted the Barefoot Contessa lemon cake since it was a cake that required soaking the cake in a lemon syrup. I substituted amaretto everywhere the recipe asked for lemon. It made two cakes. One of which I iced and sliced immediately and the other I put in the freezer. The first was lovely, but the syrup really didn't soak through. I then took the second out of the freezer, poked a zillion holes in hte loaf and made another batch of syrup to soak the cake. We're still finishing the first loaf so I'll report later on whether the second loaf had the requisite soaking.

BTW, the homemade gyoza for New Years turned out PERFECTLY! I made it before the holidays and froze them. They boiled to perfection and none of them exploded in the pot. The key is using round gyoza skins and NOT won ton skins which are much thinner. The gyoza would also be perfect for ravioli.

Tales from Christmas 2007 - the Croquembouche

Sorry for the radio silence. We're out in the great state of Texas with J's family. I have been reading J's mother's scrapbooks like they were the rosetta stone. I love reading personal history (perhaps that's why I read so many blogs).

As with any other family, food is a big part of Christmas with te J family. Because J's sister had to have an early dinner with her in-laws, the J family Christmas celebration was an early brunch, complete with two spirited boys in football uniforms.

It always amazes me how organized J's mother is about making big meals. The night before, the table was set, all of the food was prepared and in the freezer The only thing to do was to reheat. One the menu was:

Sunday brunch egg casserole (complete with Jimmy Dean sausage)
Cheese grits
Citrus salad
Little smokies (made because J's nephew recently had pigs in blanket and only ate the pig)
Sausage balls (sausage mixed with bisquick)
Mini blueberry muffins
Cheese pennies
Cream puffs rolled in powdered sugar
Pumpkin brean with chocolate chips
Cranberry danishes (I made)
A HUUUUUUGE assortment of cookies and candy

And finally, a croquembouche. J's brother recently has gotten into cooking and is pretty ambitious about what he'd like to make. A croquembouche really intrigued J's brother and J is as adventurous a cook as he is an eater. So Christmas Eve, we made the vanilla pastry cream (quite delicious) and the cream puffs (or choux). The pastry cream went without a hitch but hell's bells the cream puffs bedeviled us. You see, choux paste is a very old recipe with very easy proportions. The basic recipe (which I got from Mastering the Art of French Cooking) goes like this:

1 stick of butter
1 cup of water
1 cup of flour
4 eggs
1 teaspoon of sugar
1/4 teaspoon of salt

You melt the butter in the water, bring to a vigorous simmer and dump the flour in all at once. Stir until the paste gathers together and is hard to stir. I like to stir in on low heat to make sure the flour incorporates. Many recipes say t take it off the heat once you add the flour. Once the paste is made, add the four eggs either big stirring even more vigorously (and building your forearms) or dumping the paste into a food processor and incorporating the eggs that way. Once done, quickly dump tablespoonfuls of the paste into an old ratty cookie sheet that is completely uninsulated. A pastry bag would be helpful here to pipe the dough and made sure the surface is smooth. Bake for around 20 minutes until the choux are puffed and golden.

That's how it SHOULD have worked but for some reason, the first batch of dough we ended up with turned into a batter. I grilled J over and over about our measurements and decided the dump the whole thing and start over. Luckily, the next batch was a sucuess. That night we filled the choux with the pastry cream and set them in the freezer.

In the morning we made the caramel sauce and the melted sugar to bind the whole shebang together. The melt sugar consisted of sugar, water and corn syrup heated to 320 degrees. on there we dipped one side of the choux in the sugar and stuck it onto another cream puff. Once we had a nicering of choux, we pour the caramel sauce on top. We had enough pastry to make a very nice castle wall with cream puff turrets. A little less than the big tower of cream puffs, but I pointed out, we only had 11 people for brunch. The best part though was dipping a few forks in the melted sugar and making spun sugar that glistened around the castle wall. it was nice collaboration between J, j's brother and me. And while I won't kid anyone about it being a pain in the ass to make, we all had a good time making it.

It's All Nigella All the Time

That's because I used a Barnes and Noble gift certificate to buy How to Be a Domestic Goddess, Nigella's baking book. Like every other Nigella book, it's an out and out great read. I've been salivating to make something from the book and I decided to go all out and making something really complicated - Danish. This would be a complicated recipe what with all of the butter and the rollng, but while there were many steps involving many hours of rising, no one step was all too complicated. It turned out wonderfully - buttery, flaky, and absolutely delicious. There isn't too much sugar in the dough itself so you could just as easily put in a savory filling like ham and cheese or spinach and feta. I used two types of fillings - cranberry jam (from the same book) and raspberries and blackberries. I found the berries were too wet and a bit too tart. The danish needed something more sugary.

Here's the recipe:

1/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup milk at room temperature
1 large egg at room temperature
2 1/4 cups of all purpose or bread flour
1 package of yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup of butter cold, and cut into thin slices.

Pur the water and milk into a measuring cup and add the egg, beating with a fork to mix. Put to one side in a warm place. Put the flour yeast, salt, and sugar in the processor, and give one quick whizz to mix. Add the cold slices of butter and process briefly until the butter is cut up to visible chunks around 1/2 to 1/4 of an inch. Empty the contents of of the food processor into a large bowl and quickly add the contents of the cup of liquid. Use your hands or a rubber spatula to fold the ingredients together, but don't overdo it: expect to have a gooey mess with some butter lumps pebbling it. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator at least overnight or up to 4 days.

After having it sit overnight, take the dough out of the fridge and let it got to room temperature and roll out to a 20 inch square. Fold the dough into thirds like a business letter, turning it afterward so that the closed fold is on your left, like the spine of a book. Roll out again to a 20 inch square and releat the steps above 3 times. Cut the dough in half and fold up each half to a manageable size and wrap both pieces in plastic wrap. Let sit in the refrigerator at least 30 minutes and up to 4 days. To make the Danish, cut each dough into eight squares.

To make specialized danishes, Nigella offers two recipes, one with a homemade almond paste and a cheese one with ricotta. I decided to use the cranberry jam and the mixed fruit. Jam or a thick fruit compote is ideal. There are two ways to put together the danish. One is to put the filling in the middle diagonally and then fold two edges towards the middle. The other way is to plop a heaping spoonful of the filling directly into the middle of the square and fold all the corners towards the middle to keep the square shape. Either way, let the Danishes rise in a warm place for an hour and a half. Brush with an egg wash made from a beaten egg and 2 tablespoons of milk. Then bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes until golden. Let cool and drizzle a glaze made with 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1-2 tablespoons of warm water.

One final thing. Is anyone watching Battle of the Choirs? It's twelve kinds of awesome. And the superstar of the show is Nick Lachey and his choir. As someone who sang in a choir for eight years, I love that he actually wants the choir to sing as a choir and not just a singer with some backup singers. But boo Blake Shelton whose choir kind of blows.

Late night inspiration

Ok. It sounds like the Nigella Christmas specials are happening all December! Wheee! I loved the last one (which I will be recapping) mainly because it has scenes set in Salzburg, land of Mozart and the Von Trapps. And if anyone doubts that I didn't hit the Sound of Music Tour while I was in Salzburg and I didn't force my friend to do the Sixteen Going on Seventeen Dance at the the gazebo, you obviously don't know me at all.

Anywhoo, I was in bed reading Feasts when I got to the chapter on cranberries where the easiest jam recipe ever appears. As most of who've made cranberry sauce know, cranberries have a LOT of pectin. That's why the cranberry sauce sets up so well. Therefore, the only ingredients you really need for cranberry jam are cranberries and sugar. So at 11:15pm, I raced out of bed, got the bags of cranberries that were lingering in our freezer form Thanksgiving and made the jam. It's 2 minutes of prep, 7 minutes of cooking, and 15 minutes of cooling. That's it.

Here's the recipe as I did it.

4 cups of fresh cranberries
1 3/4 cups of sugar
I added the zest and the juice of one orange and the juice of one lime (they were hanging around!)

Put a little dessert plate in the freezer. In a large saucepan, toss all the ingredients together and simmer until the sugar dissolves. Once the sugar dissolves, turn the heat up to a boil and let the jam heat vigorously for 7 minutes. Test the jam by putting a half a teaspoon of jam onto the frozen dessert plate. if you run your finger trough the drop of jam and the track your finger made is still there (because hopefully the liquid is thick enough not to ooze back), then the jam is ready. As you all know I can't be bothered sterilize jars so I put enough jam for a week in a jar that goes in the fridge and the rest of the jam goes in tupperware in the freezer.

I highly recommend this recipe. It is very forgiving and open to add-ins (ginger!). I just had some this morning on a brioche roll and it was heaven on a bun!

Fried Pies!

Ok. I just had a moment of inspiration. The Thanksgiving meal that I am going to is probably going to be utterly mindblowing and elegant. Seriously, it has a TASTING menu. No event I have ever thrown has had a tasting menu.

Along with my pear tart tatin, I will be making.... FRIED PIES!

This is straight out of the Paula Deen playbook (or should I say cook book). I am rolling out canned biscuit dough with a premade (by me!) apple pie filling. With fried pies, because the cooking time is so fast, you need to precook the filling. When I've done it in the past, I've made a half recipe of pie filling (four apples, 1/4 cup of cranberries) and sauteed the mixture in a shallow pan for about 5 minutes until the apples have soften and the flour in the mixture has thickened the juices. After that, put about two tablespoons of the mixture in a biscuit that's been rolled to 1/4 inch thick; fold the dough over the filling and crimp with a fork. Fry in 2 inches of regular vegetable oil until golden brown on both sides. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Chicken Stew

The end of our fall Saturday was homemade chicken stew served atop mashed potatoes. Sensing that fall was upon us, I roasted a chicken last week. With the carcass, I made homemade chicken stock. With the leftover chicken meat in the freezer and the chicken stock, I made the perfect fall chicken stew. I served it on top of mashed potatoes but you could just as easily serve it with egg noodles, put chunks of potatoes in the stew, make dumplings for chicken and dumplings or put it some rice.

Fall chicken stew (think of this as a guideline)

3 pounds of chicken meat (already cooked)
- this can be two breasts, a breast, 2 thigh and leg meat or any other combination

The vegetables chopped in large chunks
2 carrots
1 large onion
2 stalks of celery
1 clove of garlic

optional vegetables
three large yukon gold potatoes
1 parsnip
1/2 a rutabaga
1/2 sweet potato
1 cup of frozen peas

The herbs
1 teaspoon of thyme
1 tablespoon parsley

Enough chicken stock and white wine to cover (about 4 cups)

The Thickener
1 tablespoon room temperature butter and 1 tablespoon of flour

Chop the chicken meat into large chunks. Set aside. Saute the onion in a large pot for about ten minutes until softened and a little translucent. Add the rest of the vegetables and saute for another 15 minutes. Add herbs along with salt and pepper to taste. Add the chicken stock and simmer for about 20 minutes or until vegetables get soft but not completely mushy. Add the cooked chicken and simmer for another 10 minutes. This step is where you would add uncooked rice or dumplings for chicken and dumplings. If you do add dumplings, avoid the next step. Mush the butter and flour together until you get a smooth paste. Add the paste to the stew and stir vigorously to avoid lumps. Let the stew thicken and serve on top of whatever starch you want.

Kinda Like Creme Brulee

Hey Stef, here's a dessert for you!

Ok, every since Nigella did it with pineapple, I kind of have an unabashed love for grilled fruit. Since then, Giada did it and then Ina did it so now I have to do it. Last night, I grilled peaches and nectarines on the grill pan and the result was heaven on a plate. Not only that, it was the fruity approximation of creme brulee because I smashed the halves in sugar before I stuck them on the grill pan. The sugar hardened to a nice brulee.

Here the guidelines.

Heat a grill pan to low (until water dances on the grill pan). Take 2 peaches or 2 nectarines or a combination thereof. Cut both in half lengthwise. Pour about a tablespoon of sugar on a small dessert plate (vanilla sugar is divine for this). Dip of the cut-side of the fruit into the sugar. Put on the grill pan and let grill for about 10 minutes. turn the heat to medium and grill 5 minutes more. If the fruit is still a little hard, stick in the oven (preferably the toaster oven so as not to heat the entire house) for another 10 minutes until the fruit is soft. Bash some hard amaretti cookies on top. Add some thickened Greek yoghurt if you are into such things (as I am). Enjoy guilt free.

Finally, a Recipe

Between recapping NFNS (thanks for all the comments!), work - preparing for a Convention in Hawaii, and the New York trip, I haven't had much time to do any recipes. This past Saturday, J and I had a wonderfully relaxing al fresco dinner in the backyard of the Timily's. The Timily's brought some refreshing rose wine and made a German potato salad that was light and refreshing (it contained sugar snap peas, and fried ham!). Our contribution was a two-way pizza. One half was a basic pizza margarhita with fresh tomatoes and basil from the CSA and topped with mozzarella and (surprise!) cheddar cheese. On the other side was my famous (among a certain group of my friends) Thai eggplant pizza. Inexplicably, I hadn't made it since J and I got together. It really is divine. Once again, think of this as guidelines and not necessarily a recipe. It all depends on how much eggplant you have and how big your pizza crust is.

Thai Eggplant pizza
1 large or 4 small Japanese eggplants
1/4 cup of soy sauce
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 tablespoon chopped ginger
2 tablespoons Thai Sweet Chili sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 ball of pizza dough (homemade or otherwise)
1 1/2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese
Additions - sliced onions, scallions, slices of grilled chicken, shitake mushrooms

slice the eggplant into 1 inch slices. Throw them in a bowl or ziploc bag with the next 6 ingredients. Let sit for at least an hour. Roll out the dough to 1/2 inch thick. Put a layer of the cheese enough to the cover the dough with a 1 inch border. Cove that with the eggplant and additions. Spoon a little of the marinade on for moisture. Bake at 425 degrees (this is cooler than usual because the eggplant needs time to cook) for at least 20 minutes.

A bit o'healthy eating

Getting a bin of vegetables each week has really made me up my game in the healthy eating department. I eat a mixing bowl-sized salad at least four times a week. On top of that I've been really conscious about getting nibbly little vegetables at the farm like baby carrots (REAL baby carrots as opposed to the stuff that was whittled away from big carrots that is sold at th supermarket) and sugar snap peas and radishes. with the right dip, I can plow through my entire share of little nibblies in one sitting.

My ideal dip is an herb yogurt one that is made of Greek yogurt but Greek yogurt is hard to find so I buy regular nonfat yogurt and let it sit overnight on top of a colander lined with a paper towel. I should count this as #11 on the things I learned from the Frugal Gourmet because he did this on his show. Barefoot Contessa also uses this technique for her orange yogurt. Straining it overnight gives the yogurt the consistency of marscapone cheese and makes it a perfect dip. Simply add any fresh herbs you want - basil, mint, dill, oregano, and parsley - along with lemon juice, a touch of salt and pepper, and a teeny weeny bit of olive oil. it holds up well and tastes great.

The Long Awaited Mango Mousse Tart

Ok. It's been a while but it's been that kind of week that required me to COMMUTE to Tyson's Corner from the other side of the DC diamond. I've never been so exhausted in my life. How do people do it? Because seriously, I was having a nervous breakdown every evening for the two days I had to make the 7 am commute.

Anyway, I said I would post the mango mousse tart recipe. This comes from Martha Stewart Living. The recipe calls for either eight round molds (like they use to plate things in restaurants or an 8-inch springform pan. I ended up using a 10-inch tart pan. It worked perfectly fine.

For the crust:
1 ounce salted, dry-roasted macadamia nuts (1/4 cup)
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

For the mousse
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1 envelope unflavored gelatin (1 scant tablespoon)
- Whole Foods did not have any unflavored gelatin so I substituted 2 tablespoons of organic orange jello and it worked perfectly fine.
2 firm but ripe mangoes
(each 1 pound)
1/2 cup of sugar
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar

1. Preheat over to 250 degrees. Lightly coat ring molds or pan with cooking spray. Place on a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
2. Make the crust: pulse macadamia nuts and sugar in a food processor until finely ground. In a bowl, combine nuts, flour and butter with a fork until mixture resembles a coarse meal. Press into pan or molds. Bake for 12 minutes until golden brown. Let cool.
3. Make the mousse: Pour orange juice into a small saucepan. Sprinkle with gelatin and let stand until softened, about 5 minutes. Heat over low heat, stirring until dissolved. Remove from heat.
4. Cut 1/4 of the mango into 1/4 inch thick slices for garnish (halve large slices). Coarsely chop remaining mangoes. In a blender, puree chopped mangoes, sugar, and lemon juice until smooth. With machine running, add gelatin mixture in a slow and steady stream until combined. Transfer to a bowl.
5. Beat cream until soft peaks form. Add powdered sugar and beat until soft peaks return. Whisk 1/3 of the whipped cream into the mango mixture. Gently fold the remaining whipped cream.
6. Pour into molds/pan until 3/4 full and cover with plastic wrap. Freeze until firm (at least 4 hours and up to a week).
7. While the recipe says to let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes before serving. I found it's soft enough to serve straight from the freezer.

Receive accolades with a degree of modesty. Inwardly exult.

Weekend o' Food - Part 2

Saturday night I put together the most coherent menu I've ever made. Momma D requested that we make a meal for her and she belongs to a Gourmet club at her retirement community so the bar was set high. J and I wanted to make a meal that was over the top. It all started with the mango mousse recipe in Martha Stewart Living (the color issue). With a mango mousse and a macadamia nut crust, this was THE recipe. Light, refreshing and indulgent. It lived up to its promise of being extremely easy to make and crazy good. I am giving it its own entry but rest assured, its amazing. I decided to class it up a notch by making Nigella Lawson's macadamia nut brittle. This brittle is so easy I didn't use a recipe, I just roughly chopped macadamia nuts, melted sugar until it became a light amber and poured the sugar on top of the chopped nuts sitting on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Don't worry about using a candy thermometer or any such nonsense, just melt the sugar and watch it like a hawk. If I were to do proportions it would be 1/2 cup of macadamia nuts to 1 cup of sugar.

So with the mango mousse tart as the centerpiece, I built a menu around that. With a tropical theme, I went Iron Chefish with macadamia nut crusted chicken breast with a mango-pineapple salsa. As a side dish, I would make a napa cabbage slaw with a sesame dressing. I got my inspiration from Cafe Asia's divine Asian coleslaw. And in a huge bit of inspiration from Kylie Kwong, I made Asian brined cucumber. The true fun of the evening was actually PLATING the meal. I am fairly indifferent about presentation but Saturday night, I went all out. I used our nice square Asian plates and matching napkins. For once, the food looked as good as it tasted.

Here's the recipes:

Macadamia Crusted Chicken with Pineapple-Mango salsa
6 Chicken breasts pounded (you can find pre-pounded ones at Whole Foods)
2 cups of homemade breadcrumbs (it makes for a coarser crumb)
1 cup ground macadamia nuts
2 eggs

Mix breadcrumbs and ground nuts in a bowl. Dredge chicken breasts in the egg and then dredge in the breadcrumb mixture. Let site for 5 minutes. Heat up a skillet with thin layer of vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, pan fry the chicken for 3 minutes a side. Don't worry about not cooking it through. Place the cooked chicken on a greased baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.

Pineapple mango salsa
1 cup of chopped FRESH pineapple (I have to be a purist about that)
1 cup of chopped fresh mango
2 finely diced jalepeno
1 scallion finely chopped
1 tablespoon of fish sauce
Juice of 1 lime
Pinch of sugar
1/2 teaspoon Chinese chili paste
1 clove of garlic, minced

Throw everything into a bowl and mix. Let sit for at least a half an hour.

Asian Salad with Sesame Dressing

1 head of Napa cabbage finely shredded
2 large carrots, grated
1 scallion, chopped

For the dressing
1/2 cup of tahini
1/4 cup of peanut butter
1/2 cup of rice wine vinegar (or lime juice)
2 tablespoons sweet Thai Chili Sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce or fish sauce
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
1/4 cup of vegetable or peanut oil
1/4 cup of water
2 tablespoons of chopped ginger
3 cloves of garlic

Throw everything into a blender and blend until smooth. Add more water if the texture is too thick. Toss with the vegetables.

Asian Brined Cucumber
1 English hothouse cucumber with the seeds scooped out (just a preference as I hate seeds), thinly sliced
1 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of rice wine

Throw everything into a bowl and toss together until sugar and salt dissolves. Let sit for at least 15 minutes and then pour out the liquid (actually the liquid with some peanut oil is a great salad dressing)

Magical San Antonio Flan Cake

This is an adaptation of the San Antonio Chocolate-Cajeta Cake from Robb Walsh's Tex-Mex Cookbook. We thought chocolate would be too heavy and wouldn't compliment the scented vanilla of the flan.

1 box of yellow cake mix
1 10.9 ounce jar of dulce de leche
1 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 14 ounce can of whole milk (use evaporated milk can to measure)
1 8-ounce package of cream cheese
1 teaspoons vanilla
8 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a large baking pan in the oven and add enough water to come 2 inches up the sides of a large Bundt pan. Lightly grease and flour the Bundt pan. (ok my suggestion is to use either lard (eek!) or margarine for this. Cooking spray doesn't cling to the pan enough). Prepare the cake batter according to directions on the box. Pour the dulce de leche into the Bundt pan, turning the pan to coat as much of the inside as possible. Pour the cake batter into the Bundt pan.

Pour the milks, cream cheese, vanilla and eggs into a blender and blend well.

Pour the milk mixture very slowly around the top of the cake. Cover the Bundt pan with foil and set in the water-filled pan in the oven.

Bake the cake for 2 hours. Remove from the oven and let cool for 1 hour. Place a large cake plate on top of the pan and invert. The flan mysteriously migrates while baking and will come out on top of the cake when it is unmolded. Refrigerate before serving. Marvel at the magic of gravity.

A Tale of Two Chicken Pot Pies

My mother in law makes this awesome chicken pot pie that she gives to new neighbors and people with family in the hospital. She's slightly ashamed to have me eat it because it consists of chopped cooked chicken breasts, Pillsbury pie crust, and a can of Veg-all (canned mixed vegetables) and a can of cream of chicken soup. She obviously hasn't heard of my torte in a box recipe (make a box of Rice a Roni, a box of Hamburger Helper, and a box of Mac 'n cheese. Layer in a loaf pan and bake until warm and bubbly).

Inspired by my Mother-In-Law's chicken pot pie and far to lazy to go to the store to get ingredients, I decided to make my own version. Everything was homemade and it tasted crazy good, especially considerin the cold snap we've been going through. When I say homemade, I mean homemade, I made my own stock. Here's a couple of tips on stock making. Usually when I make stock it's because I have roasted a chicken and wanted to use up the carcass. This time I felt too lazy to roast a chicken and had earlier bought chicken backs and necks at Safeway. It made equally tasty stock! Also, I had a head of celery going bad and threw a whole bunch of it in. Surprisingly enough, celery makes a HUUUUGE difference.

Here's what I put in stock:

2 pounds of chicken backs and necks
4 stalks of celery (with the inside leaves if possible)
2 carrots
2 onions quartered
8 cloves of garlic, whole
1 tablespoon of salt
enough water to cover the whole mess

Anyway with that awesome based the pie was a snap.

The Pot Pie
1 recipe double crust pie crust (look in the archives)
2 chicken breasts, 2 chicken thighs cooked and coasrely chopped (I perfer roasting them because I am completely incompetent at poaching - Sorry Jon at Ihatebroccoli)
2 carrots, diced
1 onion diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 stalks of celery, diced
1 cup of frozen peas (this is by no means an exact measurement, I just pour the bag of peas in until I get the amount I like)
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
1 1/2 cups of chicken stock

In the butter, saute the carrots, onions, celery, and garlic until the carrots and celery are translucent. Add the flour and stir so that the flour coats everything. Add the
stock and stir until the stock is thickened. Added the chicken and peas and simmer until the mixture is warm and bubbling, about 10 minutes. Roll out pie crust for the top and bottom layers. Place bottom layer on the pie pan and add the chicken filling. Place the top layer on top and crimp the sides together. Cut slits on the top crust to release steam. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes until crust is a light golden brown.

Croutons!!!

I know there are some major Panera haters out there but J and I love Panera. We were there for dinner the other day before grocery shopping and talked about how we needed to eat more vegetables. One easy way to do that is salad, which we actually love eating when we think about it. I am going to admit something slightly shameful but we love Good Seasons Italian dressing packets. A million leaves of lettuce are rolling over in their graves but I love the flavor and texture of the Good Seasons shake your own salad dressing. Made with a mixture of cider vinegar and olive oil instead of the distilled white and vegetable oil, it's really divine. But to encourage salad eating even more, I decided to make some homemade croutons. Panera was selling its honey oat bread for a reasonable $2.69, on par with the multigrain breads at the supermarket. I bought one and had it sliced for sandwiches (it sits in our freezer) and the other I left whole for croutons. Homemade croutons give me a serious salad craving. You basically slice the bread into 3/4 inch slices, cut the crusts off (breadcrumbs!) and then slice them into cubes. Toss with a touch of olive oil, salt, pepper, and any herbs you find appealling and then throw it in the oven 350 degrees for 15 minutes to crisp up. I must have had a mixing bowl size serving of salad and loved every minute. I am slightly afraid of making panzanella because that just seems a way to minimize the vegetables and just have giant croutons.

On the tv front, I've been emailing the divine Stef about Top Chef. As I've said before this season was pretty unwatchable towards the end. I came into the finale knowing that Ilan was the winner thanks to some unintended spoiling at the Food and Wine website. Even without that knowledge, the outcome felt like a forgone conclusion once Marcel left the fish in the other kitchen. As I as telling stef, kitchen management is a key factor in the decision and Marcel left himself wide open. On the actual food I agreed with the judges that Ilan was the more competent chef FOR NOW but that Marcel had more potential. Here's to next season being one I can recap.

Double Vanilla White Chocolate Mousse

"The creamy whipped things you make are always so good." Said in complete deadpan by the son of a co-worker who ate my double vanilla white chocolate mousse. So two years ago J gave me about 20 vanilla pods, of which I used three. Like a fine wine you wait and wait and wait to use only to find it's been stored in the basement NEAR THE HEATER and now taste like crap, I held off on using my precious pods until they became hardened. Luckily, I remembered from Barefoot Contessa that you can soak vanilla pods in vodka to soften them and make vanilla extract. So right after Christmas, I bought a lovely decorative bottle and soaked eight vanilla pods in about 1/4 cup of vodka. One month later I have a soften vanilla pods and homemade vanilla extract.

Friday, there was a after-work party at J's place of business and I made smoked salmon dip with lots of dill and goat cheese instead of cream cheese and the double vanilla white chocolate mousse. Ok folks, mousses are the easiest things to make. The basic steps? Melt chocolate, whip cream, fold. For CHOCOLATE chocolate mousses, you may addd egg yolks and whipped egg whites but for this mousse it was back to basics.

Here's the recipe:

8 oz (1/2 pound) good white chocolate
2 cups of whipping cream (1 1/2 cup for the whipped cream, 1/2 cup for the chocolate ganache)
Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla pod
1 tablespoon of good vanilla

Over a double boiler (in my case a bowl suspended over a pot of simmering water) melt the chocolate with 1/2 cup of the whipping cream. Add the vanilla seeds and the extract. Whisk until smooth and take off the heat to let it come to room temperature, whisking ocassionally to keep smooth. In the meantime whip cream until it reach smooth (but not completely stiff) peaks. When the chocolate is room temperature, fold in 1/3 of the whipped cream and then fold in the rest. Cover and stick in the fridge for at least 2 hours but overnight is ideal.

I find them best served in this little clear plastic wine glasses but if you wanted to go all out serve the mousse in a martini glass.