Big, Bold, Beautiful Food

Super Bowl: Black Bean Salad and Other Fare

2012-01-29T08:01:00.000-08:00

Something miraculous happened the other day. My recluse husband said, "Your social tendencies are rubbing off on me. I think we should have a pre-Super Bowl party."

This was shocking, particularly since Mark had to endure three holiday parties at our house in one week this past December. I thought it was brilliant to have three parties of 30-50 people each. What a challenge for a foodie as myself to pull this off -- and not take a day off of work. We could see everyone in our circles. And I could prep for three parties all at once.

It worked. And apparently in more ways than one, since my husband is now actually suggesting a party.

So here I am, thinking through the menu.

Mexican-inspired chicken wings are a must. Every time I make these, they fly from the plate.

With some Frank's red hot sauce and butter, they are easily transformed to buffalo wings, another crowd favorite.

Chili, of course. I have a reputation to uphold.

I also have six pounds of Italian sausage from the famed Arthur Avenue in the Bronx for sausage and peppers.

My husband would be completely happy to not see a vegetarian dish in sight, but black bean salad would be perfect. Marinated in a vinaigrette and paired with crunchy cucumbers and juicy tomatoes, it goes well with just about any standard Super Bowl fare you can throw at it.

Plus, it comes together in minutes, and you don't need a recipe.

Black Bean Salad

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

Your favorite vinaigrette

Hothouse cucumber, diced (this is the long cucumber that comes wrapped in plastic)

Grape tomatoes, cut in 1/4s

Kosher salt and pepper to taste

Optional: diced red onion, minced garlic, chopped cilantro or parsley

Put black beans in a bowl. Add cucumber, tomatoes, vinaigrette, salt and pepper to your liking. If you like, add onion, garlic, and chopped fresh herbs. Let marinate for an hour and serve (no need to refrigerate).

Before serving, taste and adjust seasonings.

Enjoy!

Sarajevo Moussaka with Mushrooms and Zucchini

2012-01-22T07:30:00.000-08:00

My house is full of die-hard carnivores. They turn up their noses at anything that is meat-free.

But this weekend, Ulrike, a German exchange student who is a vegetarian, came to stay with us. What to do?

Ask my friend Julia, that's what. She's an awesome person and cook, and in typical Julia-fashion, she answered me without missing a beat: "Make the Sarajevo Moussaka from the Sundays at Moosewood Cookbook. It's got mushrooms and zucchini, and it's topped with a feta-egg mixture. She will love it!"

I found an online version and went from there. Like any layered dish, making this takes time. But with the snow falling outside, all I wanted to do was stay inside and cook. I made the tomato sauce, starting with sauteed onions and garlic, and then using a 29 oz. can of crushed tomatoes, white wine, veggie broth, and some leftover pesto I had in the freezer. I roasted zucchini slices in a 450 degree (F) oven until they were lightly browned. I sauteed the mushrooms and onions and finished them with some white wine and soy sauce. Finally, I parboiled the no-boil lasagna noodles until they were flexible.

With our mise en place complete, Ulrike came in and helped put the moussaka together.

Getting ready to layer the moussaka.

Ulrike put down the first layer of tomato sauce and then a layer of noodles. Since our casserole was an oval shape, she cut pieces of noodle to fit. Then we put down half the zucchini and one cup of the mushrooms, and added some more sauce. We laid down the next layer of noodles in a different direction than the first layer to give the moussaka structure. Two more layers and we were done.

Ulrike then whisked the eggs, feta, and some fresh parsley together and topped the moussaka:

After an hour and ten minutes in a 350 degree (F) oven, it came out looking like this:

It's a tad dark. I should have covered it with foil when it was browned enough, probably around 45 minutes, but I got caught up in watching 30 Rock, which I had dvr-ed. What can I say? I am human.

Finally, we let it rest for 15 minutes, tented with foil, so that the moussaka could set. When you let it set, it cuts very nicely.

As Julia predicted, Ulrike did indeed love the moussaka. She kept saying, "This is so good. This is so good." My carnivore husband even tried it and liked it.

Which made this carnivore very, very happy.

My tips:

1) Parboil the noodles. Even though the noodles I used are no-boil lasagna noodles, I still like to blanche them in heavily salted and boiling water for a couple minutes until they are flexible. The benefits are many: 1) you don't have to worry about them not fully cooking through in the oven, 2) when they are flexible, you can cut noodles to fit into the pan, and 3) cooking them in heavily salted water means the noodles are seasoned, and you don't need to worry about your dish being bland.

2) Criss-cross the noodles when layering. Layering the noodles in different directions adds structural integrity to the moussaka structure. When you cut it, it stays in nice pieces.

3) Let the moussaka rest for 15 minutes, so that it will set. When it comes time to cut slices, the slices will stay together. Tent it with foil, so it stays warm.

Sarajevo Moussaka with Mushrooms and Zucchini

I loosely followed this online recipe from Food and Wine, which is a variation of the original recipe in the Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant Cookbook. I cut the ingredients in half to make a moussaka for 4 people, except for the tomato sauce as I wanted to make sure I had enough to layer the casserole, and I wanted some to serve at table-side. I made my own version of the tomato sauce as well. I'm sure you could use your favorite jarred sauce if you don't want to make your own sauce. Just make sure you have around 3 cups of sauce.

Please note that if you want to do this from start to finish, it will take about two hours of prep and cooking time.

To use throughout the recipe:

Olive oil

2 medium onions, chopped

Fresh parsley, chopped (optional)

Kosher salt and pepper

Tomato Sauce

1/4 of the chopped onions

1 clove garlic, minced

1 29 oz. can crushed tomatoes

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 cup vegetable broth

2 tbs. finely chopped basil or 2 tbs. pesto

Mushroom Mixture

1 lb. sliced mushrooms

3/4 of the chopped onions

1 tbs. soy sauce

1/4 cup white wine

1 tbs. finely chopped dill (I used 1 tsp. dried oregano as a substitute)

Zucchini

1 lb. zucchini, sliced cross-wise in 1/2 inch slices

Olive oil

Kosher salt and pepper

Noodles

12 no-boil lasagna noodles (I used Barilla brand)

Egg-feta Topping

3 eggs, whisked

1/2 pound crumbled feta cheese

Turn the oven to 450 degrees (F).

Put sliced zucchini in a large bowl and toss in enough olive oil so that each piece is lightly coated with oil. Place on a non-stick baking sheet (I line mine with a Silpat) and lightly sprinkle each piece with kosher salt and pepper. Set aside until oven is preheated.

Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. When hot (hover your hand above the skillet and when you can only do it a few seconds, it's hot enough), add a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Swirl the oil around and add 1/4 of the chopped onions. Turn down the heat to medium-low. Add salt and pepper to season. Cook for five minutes until softened, stirring occasionally. Add the white wine, tomatoes, and veggie broth. Simmer uncovered about 15-20 minutes. Stir in the basil or pesto, and some chopped parsley (optional). Taste, adding salt and pepper as necessary. It should not be a thick sauce but a loose sauce, as some of the liquid will be absorbed by the noodles when cooking. If it seems really thick, add a little more water or veggie broth.

If the oven is preheated now, put the zucchini in the oven. Cook for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned. When done, remove from the oven and set aside. Turn oven off if you're not going to cook the moussaka right away or turn it down to 350 degrees (F) if you are.

Fill a large pot with water and heat to boil. Mostly cover, so that it comes to a boil more quickly.

While the water is heating, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1/4 cup of olive oil and swirl around. Add mushrooms and onions. Turn down the heat to medium. Cook for about 10 minutes or until the onions are translucent and the mushrooms are browned. Add wine and soy sauce and cook a few minutes until the liquid has reduced. Add the dill or oregano, and salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary. Turn off heat and set aside.

When the water is boiling, add a generous amount of kosher salt. I usually taste the water to make sure it's salty enough, as you want the water to season the noodles. Add the noodles, but don't walk away! Move the noodles around in the water, so they don't stick together, and when they are flexible, pull them out. This takes just a couple minutes. Lay them out individually on a Silpat or non-stick foil.

Now it's time to layer the moussaka. It's easier if you divide your zucchini in 1/2 and put them in separate bowls, and divide your mushrooms in thirds and put them in separate bowls.

Here are the layers (listed as if you were looking at the casserole from the side, so start from the bottom of the list and work your way up)

Feta-egg mixture

Tomato sauce (1/2 cup)

____________________________________

Last noodle layer (2 Barilla no boil noodles)

Rest of the mushrooms (1 cup)

Tomato sauce (1/4 cup)

____________________________________

1 layer of noodles going in the other direction from the first ones (2 Barilla no boil noodles, plus 1/2 of one to fit the edges)

Tomato sauce (1/4 cup)

1 layer of mushrooms (use 1/3 of the mushrooms (1 cup))

1 layer of zucchini (use 1/2 the zucchini)

____________________________________

1 layer of noodles going in the other direction from the first ones (2 Barilla no boil noodles, plus 1/2 of one to fit the edges)

Tomato sauce (1/4 cup)

____________________________________

1 layer of noodles going in the other direction from the first ones (2 Barilla no boil noodles, plus 1/2 of one to fit the edges)

Tomato sauce (1/4 cup)

1 layer of mushrooms (use 1/3 of the mushrooms (1 cup))

1 layer of zucchini (use 1/2 the zucchini)

__________________________________

1 layer of noodles (don't overlap if possible; 2 Barilla no boil noodles, plus 1/2 of one to fit the edges)

Tomato sauce (1/2 cup)

Bottom of casserole pan

Whisk eggs, feta, and some chopped parsley (optional; for color) together and lay on top of the casserole. Put the casserole in the 350 degree (F) oven and cook for 45 minutes until lightly browned. Cover and cook another 15 minutes.

Take the moussaka out of the oven and tent with foil. Let it rest for 15 minutes before cutting.

Serve with a simple green salad. Delicious!

Rogan Josh

2011-08-17T11:53:00.000-07:00

After a summer of salads and grilled meats, I wanted something soul-satisfying and deeply flavored. "Rogan josh," my brain whispered.

I am not an expert in Indian food -- check out Chef Prasad if you want the real deal -- but I have had friends teach me the technique of frying spices in oil, so their flavors bloom. I use this technique when I make beef chili too; it really makes a difference. Try it out if you've never used this technique before.

For the rogan josh, I used beef chuck instead of the more traditional lamb, and I used Penzey's rogan josh seasoning. I am addicted to Penzey's spices. While I could have just used the spice mix, I threw in some fresh garlic, fresh ginger, a cinnamon stick, and some cardamom pods. When they hit the oil, the most amazing warm smells fill the kitchen.

To finish the dish, I threw in fresh diced tomatoes and fresh cilantro for some brightness and served it with chickpea crepes and roasted cauliflower. Delicious (and low carb!).

Rogan Josh
1 lb. beef chuck or lamb
1 cinnamon stick (3-4 inches)
3 cardamom pods
1 1/2 inches ginger, peeled and cut into 4 slices or "coins"
2 bay leaves
1 onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, smashed
1 jalapeno, diced (remove seeds and rinds if you want less heat)
2 tbs. Penzey's Rogan Josh seasoning
Few tbs. of yoghurt (or cream or coconut oil)
Salt and pepper
Water
Fresh tomatoes
Fresh cilantro

Heat dutch oven or pressure cooker over medium-high heat until hot. Add several tbs. of oil.

Sear meat in batches on all sides, making sure the cubes don't touch each other and that the pot is not overcrowded (otherwise, the meat will kick off liquid and sweat). Sprinkle the meat with salt and pepper as you cook it. Set browned meat on a plate as you cook the other batches. Add more oil if necessary while you are browning.

Once you're done browning the meat, add more oil if necessary, turn the heat down to medium and add the cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and bay leaves. Fry in the oil for 30 seconds. Add onions, garlic, and jalapenos. Cook for five minutes or until the onions are translucent and browned, stirring occasionally.

Add 2 tbs. of Penzey's seasoning and a little salt and pepper to the onions. Stir until seasoning is incorporated. Add back beef and it's juices. Stir and cook for another minute. Add a spoonful of yogurt and mix to incorporate. Add two more spoonfuls, incorporating each time. (Don't add the yogurt all at once as it won't mix in well and could separate.)

Add 1 cup or more of water to cover, and pressure cook for 30 minutes or cook for 1 1/2 hours in a regular dutch oven or until beef is tender. If you use a pressure cooker, let it simmer after you take off the cover, so that the sauce reduces to a level you like (soupy, stewy, or dryer).

Stir in fresh tomatoes and taste. Adjust seasonings as needed.

Top with fresh chopped cilantro and serve. (Note: let people know they should remove the ginger coins and cardamom pods if they come upon them.)

Leftover Maven: Grilled Flatbread with Sirloin, Caramelized Onions, Tomatoes, and Arugula Salad

2011-07-06T17:20:00.000-07:00

I've heard that most Americans celebrate Independence Day with hamburgers and hot dogs. Nothing says it's July 4th for us like grilled sirloin tips, chicken breasts, potatoes, rice pilaf, Uncle John's bread, Aunt Ann's fruit salad, and Cousin Karen's chocolate chip cookies. These are perennial favorites at the annual family party.

It's always fun the next day to poke around the kitchen to see what's left and make something new. This time around, we had some leftover sirloin tips, a bag of pizza dough, three slices of provolone cheese, and some young arugula and other salad greens from my brother-in-law's garden. Score!

I split the dough in three and made flatbread pizzas. While the dough rested, I caramelized onions, roasted tomatoes (you have to try these!) on the grill, sliced the beef, rinsed the arugula, and a made a balsamic-olive oil dressing with a pinch of sugar to soften the slight bitterness of the arugula.

I cooked the flatbread pizzas on the grill on both sides, topped them with the tomatoes, onions, beef, and provolone and placed them back on the grill so the cheese could melt. Topped with dressed arugula and cut into slices, these "leftovers" were delectable.

I'm definitely going to make these again. Delish!

Note: These would be even easier to make with store-bought naan bread or even pita bread sliced in half. Roast beef would be an easy substitute for the sirloin tips as well. A great appetizer or meal.

Kale Chips

2011-06-17T17:38:00.000-07:00

Kale chips are all the rage these days. Who knew something so good for you could actually taste like something sinful?

Kale is a superfood, full of beta-carotene and folic acid, Vitamin C, and Vitamin K. It's also a low-carb and high protein vegetable.

Tossed in heart-healthy olive oil and generously sprinkled with kosher salt, kale is an excellent replacement for potato chips when you have a craving for something crispy and salty.

Note that the kale will really shrink down during baking, so if you're in the grocery store and you think you could never eat that big bunch of kale, think again. Enjoy!

Kale Chips

Kale

Olive oil

Kosher salt

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Take of lower stems and tear kale into smaller pieces (maybe 2-3 pieces per kale leaf). Rinse and dry in salad spinner or using dishtowels. Put in a bowl and toss with olive oil and a generous sprinkling of salt (think potato chip salty).

Lay out on a baking sheet, put in the oven, and cook for about 20 minutes or until the kale is dry and crisp.

Use several baking sheets if you have a lot of kale.

Basil-Zucchini Pesto Turkey Patties

2011-06-07T15:16:00.000-07:00

Liz the nutritionist put me on a Candida diet earlier this week. Like other diets, this diet shuns carbs, sugars, and processed foods in favor of proteins, lots of vegetables, nuts, and low-sugar fruits.

Liz recommended that I have cooked turkey patties on hand, so that if I got hungry, I would have something readily available. I don't think I've ever eaten a turkey burger in my life. I don't much like turkey, but I decided to try to make a turkey burger that would pass muster.

Poultry-based burgers can be dry. When I make chicken meatballs, I use bread, milk, and egg to keep them moist, but under the diet, I cannot use bread, milk or cheese.

I decided to try a riff on a cheeseless pesto, and add onion and zucchini. Onion and zucchini have a lot of moisture, and I thought the addition to the meatballs would keep them turning into hockey pucks. I also added a little fresh lemon zest for a bright note.

Success! The turkey burgers were moist and flavorful. Great for a snack or for a meal.

Note: A Cuisinart or other food processor makes quick work of making the pesto.

Serving ideas: Serve with a salad. Make meatballs to put in tomato sauce or glaze with honey-dijon sauce and serve as appetizers. Make burgers. Put on skewers, grill on serve with a cucumber yogurt sauce as part of a mezze platter.

Basil-Zucchini Pesto Turkey Patties

1 1/2 pounds of ground turkey or chicken

"Pesto"
1 cup shredded zucchini (1/2 zucchini)
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
1 cup basil leaves, firmly packed
1/4 cup parsley leaves, firmly packed
2 handfuls walnuts or pine nuts
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
Pepper
1/8-1/2 tsp. Lemon zest, grated (optional)
1/3 cup olive oil

In Cuisinart, shred zucchini first. Take out of bowl and set to the side. Put onion, garlic, basil, parsley, nuts salt, Italian seasoning, freshly ground pepper and lemon zest. Pulse until finely chopped. Add in zucchini.

Pulse while adding olive oil through the top until it's a paste, and pesto mixture is sticking on the sides of the bowl.

Put ground turkey in a bowl and evenly distribute the pesto throughout the meat. Mixing with your hands is the easiest.

Make into patties and place on a baking sheet. I made them into 2 oz. patties, using a large scooper, but you can make them any size (meatballs, turkey burgers, etc.).

Heat of skillet to medium-high and add a little olive oil when it's hot. Turn down the heat and add the patties. Cook until cooked on the edges and opaque in the center. Flip over a cook a couple more minutes. Depending on the thickness of your patties, they will take shorter or longer to cook. The patties I made took 2-3 minutes per side, but if you're not sure, cook a test one and break it open to make sure it's cooked and your timing is good. Then you can cook the rest.

You can also cook these on the grill. If you made meatballs, you can cook them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, turning them every ten minutes. Again, this depends on the size of your meatballs, so you should check them to see if they cook faster.

Beef Brisket on the Gas Grill

2011-05-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

I think brisket is one of the best meats on the grill. Cooked low and slow over hardwood charcoal and hickory wood, it takes on the flavor of wood and smoke and its meat becomes succulently tender and unforgettable.

My smoker of choice is the Big Green Egg (brisket on the Big Green Egg recipe here), but today I used our Weber Genesis gas grill. While we lost some of the smoke flavor, this brisket was mind-blowingly good. It's completely worth making, particularly if you are more familiar with or want the convenience of your gas grill.

The recipe is below, but here are some general tips that work for me:

1) When you get your brisket, ask the butcher not to trim it. Score the fat in a crosshatch pattern before seasoning. Cook fat side up. The fat bastes the meat while it's cooking, and that's a good thing.

2) Dry rub all the way! I use Penzey's BBQ 3000 seasoning, but any mixed rub will do. Generously season (don't be shy!) and massage it into the meat. I probably use a couple tbs. or more of rub. If I don't have any rub, I will generously season the brisket with paprika, a little chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, kosher salt, pepper, and brown sugar. I don't even bother mixing the rub together. I just sprinkle the spices in different layers.

3) If you think of it, dry rub the meat the night before, put it in a Ziploc bag, and let it season overnight. If you don't remember, no worries. Just dry rub before cooking and go.

4) Even if you're using a gas grill, some smoke is nice. Take a couple handfuls of hickory chips and soak in water for 30 minutes. Place drained chips in a foil pouch, poke holes in the top and follow your grill's instructions on where to put the pouch so that it will smoke. On our Weber, we put the packet under the grill grate and on top of one of the flavorizer bars that is lit. You can replace the pouch every hour with a new pouch if you want. We didn't bother this time around, and the brisket was still fantastic.

5) Get the grill to an even temp of 275 degrees. On our Weber, we turn the outermost left and right burners on and place the brisket, fat side up, in the center of the grill. The heat acts like a convection oven and the brisket, b/c no direct heat is under it, slowly browns and burnishes without burning. You don't even need to flip it. If your grill doesn't work this way, you need to watch it. You may want to cook it uncovered the first hour as the wood chips are smoking, and then if you think it's in danger of burning, wrap it in foil and cook it the rest of the way.

6) Get a meat thermometer. The meat is ready when it's an internal temp of 197 degrees. We have one of those meat thermometers that has a probe that goes into the meat and into the oven/grill, and the thermometer can sit on the counter and continuously show the temp. It's very convenient.

7) Be prepared to have your time thrown off. The first time I made this brisket, it took 4-5 hours to get to temp. This time around, it took around 7 hours to get to temp. Maybe it's a difference between the Big Green Egg and the Weber, but there shouldn't be a difference if I'm cooking at the same temperature. It's a mystery. By the way, if you want to cook it at a higher temp, say 300 or 325 degrees, it will take less time. It'll still be great.

8) When the brisket is done, wrap it in foil and let it rest for 30 minutes. Cut in thin slices against the grain.

9) Prepare to go to heaven when you put the brisket in your mouth!

Postscript: It's a few weeks later, and I'm cooking another brisket, but since I'm trying to get the brisket to cook faster (okay, I'm last minute), I put it in a foil packet with some beer to see what happens. I found this link after the fact, and I guess this is a variation on the "Texas crutch." This is an informative article, so I recommend reading it if you're interested in cooking brisket.

Beef Brisket on the Gas Grill

3-6 lb. beef brisket, untrimmed of fat

Penzey's BBQ 3000 seasoning or other mixed rub

Hickory chips

Meat thermometer

4-7 hours worth of time on the grill

Preferably the day before, score the fat layer on the brisket in a crosshatch pattern. Generously season both sides of the brisket with dry rib rub and massage it into the meat. I probably use a couple tbs. or more of rub. If you're doing this the night before, put it in a Ziploc bag, and let it season overnight. If you are doing this the day of, place the seasoned meat on a plate or baking sheet and leave on the counter while you're doing your next steps (another 30 minutes). It's all right, even preferable, for the meat to come to room temperature.

Put a couple handful of hickory chips in a bowl with water and soak for 30 minutes. After they have soaked, put the drained chips onto a piece of foil and make it into a packet. Poke holes in the top with a fork, so that the smoke can come out.

While the chips are soaking, get your grill ready. If your grates are not clean, heat the grill up to high and then scrape the grates clean with your grill scraper. Turn off the burners and let cool down.

When you're ready to go, put the foil packet of chips where it is recommended for your grill for smoking. We have a Weber and put it on top of a flavorizer bar that will be turned on. Turn on outer left and right burners and leave the center burners off. Adjust heat until you have a 275 degree temperature with the lid closed.

When the grill is to temp, place the brisket on the center grate, fat side up. Close the grill lid and adjust temp until it's at 275 degrees.

Cook for about 5 hours, although it could take longer. The meat is ready when it's an internal temp of 197 degrees.

When the brisket is done, wrap it in foil and let it rest for 30 minutes. Cut in thin slices against the grain.

Serve plain or with BBQ sauce.

Enjoy!

Brussel Sprout Chips

2011-05-28T15:05:00.000-07:00

It's 4 pm, and I am starving. I shouldn't be hungry as in the the last few hours I have eaten an orange, blueberries, a handful of nuts, and some watermelon. I have drunk some berry tea and several glasses of water.

This is what happens to me on Day 1 of a diet. The feeling of deprivation.

I was in the kitchen looking for what I could eat on this Candida Diet the nutritionist put me on, and I found it right there in the fridge. Brussel sprouts!

Roasted until crisp, they taste just as good as potato chips. But with a lot more vitamins and no carbs. If you like potato chips or kale chips, try these out.

Brussel Sprout Chips

Brussel Sprouts

Olive oil

Kosher salt

Pepper or red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Rinse brussel sprouts. Cut stem off brussel sprout, almost 1/3 up the brussel sprout and enough to loosen the leaves. Discarding any discolored leaves, separate the rest of the leaves as much as you can and then cut the remaining little ball in 1/2. Place on a Silpat-lined baking sheet. Continue with the rest of the sprouts until you are done.

Drizzle sprouts with olive oil and sprinkle generously with kosher salt (you want them potato chip salty). Toss together until the sprouts are evenly coated and spread out on the baking sheet. Top with a few grinds of black pepper or sprinkle with a few red pepper flakes.

Bake for 10 minutes and check. If there are any browned and crispy leaves, pull them out. Toss with tongs or a spatula, redistributing the leaves so they cook evenly. Check every few minutes and take out any more crisped leaves, tossing and redistributing again. Repeat until the centers are browned and fork-tender.

This can take another 10 minutes or more.

Yeast Free Diet Recipe: Roasted Cauliflower

2011-05-28T06:36:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in so long. Work has kept me busy these past few months. I miss all my blog friends; I hope I have not been forgotten.

I'm starting a new journey today. In order to enjoy better health, I met with Liz, a friend and nutritionist, and she has put me on a yeast-free diet. If you saw Liz, with her bright eyes, glowing skin, and trim figure, you would go on this diet too.

Have you ever heard tried this diet?

I googled online when I got home to find out more, and this diet is focused on controlling yeast in the body. Rampant yeast, encouraged by a diet of starch, sugar, and yes, yeast, throws the body's systems out of balance and wreaks havoc, causing syptoms like headaches, fatigue, leaky gut syndrome and more.

The first phase of the program is about 10 days, and you must stay strict to the guidelines as your goal is to kill off the overgrowth of yeast by starving it. No carbs, sugar, fermented foods (vinegar, mustard, alcohol, ketchup, soy sauce, etc.), dairy, funghi, peanuts and pistachios, dried fruits, and high-sugar fruits like bananas, pineapples, cherries and mangos.

While my first reaction was this diet would really put a damper on my summer cooking, I think I'd rather take it on as a challenge to make great food that fits the restrictions. The first is an oldie but goodie for me: roasted cauliflower.

Wish me luck!

Roasted Cauliflower

1 head cauliflower

A few tbs. olive oil

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

Kosher salt

Freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Separate the head into florets and cut the florets into thinner pieces. You can cut them as thick or thin as you like -- you'll just have to adjust the cooking time as the thicker they are, the longer they will take to brown and vice versa.

I like to put the cut florets into a big bowl, so I can toss the cauliflower well with olive, garlic, kosher salt, and pepper. I use my hands to toss the cauliflower, so I know everything is well-coated and the garlic is distributed. Then I put the cauliflower onto a Silpat-covered baking sheet. The other way to do it is to to put the cauliflower onto the baking sheet, generously drizzle with olive oil, kosher salt, pepper, and garlic, and mix it around directly on the baking sheet. Your choice.

Put the baking sheet into the oven and after 10 minutes, flip the cauliflower over, turning occasionally from there on in. If after 20 minutes, the cauliflower is browned to your liking, take it out. If you want to cook the cauliflower longer, go ahead. They're really yummy when they're browned and almost charred.

Enjoy!

Rewind: Mexican-Inspired Chicken Wings

2011-05-06T19:04:00.000-07:00

I first posted this recipe last August, but since everyone loves these chicken wings, it's time to post them again. If you're looking for an easy and winning chicken wing recipe for a weeknight supper or a party, this is it. Hands down.

I served these wings this week for a Cinco de Mayo party for my school, and they were gone in the blink of an eye. Even though I *way* overcooked them -- blame it on my penchant for talking to guests and completely forgetting they were in the oven -- people devoured them and were asking who made the wings.

In addition to being crispy, delectable wings, they are full proof. You can't beat that!

Mexican-Inspired Chicken Wings

2 packs chicken wings or drum sticks,
1 1/2 tablespoons lime or lemon juice (or a mixture)
4 tablespoons olive oil,
2 teaspoons Penzeys Fajita Seasoning
1 teaspoon chili powder,
4 grinds of pepper,
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt,
1 teaspoon sugar

Directions

Take the chicken and all the other chicken wing ingedients and put them in a plastic Zip-loc bag.

Put the bag in the fridge and let it marinate for 2 hours to over night.

Take out the chicken and place it on a cookie sheet(s), preferably not touching each other, and bake for 20 minutes at 425 degrees.

Check the chicken wings and switch racks if you have 2 trays and bake for another 25 minutes until the skin is lightly browned.

You can cook them over an hour to get them really crispy.

Enjoy!

Kulinarya Vegetable Challenge: Bok Choy & Shiitake Mushroom Sotanghon

2011-03-21T17:40:00.000-07:00

For this month's Kulinarya challenge, Erika of Ivoryhut picked vegetables.

I was never one of those kids whose mother admonished, "Eat your vegetables!" And no, it wasn't because I dove into the green stuff with gusto.

My mom didn't nag me, because she didn't eat vegetables herself. She is a strict carni-, black coffee-, and orange soda-vore. And she doesn't cook either.

This leaves me in a bit of a quandary. Make a Filipino vegetable dish? I don't think I know one.

So I made my own vegetable dish with veggies I happened to have in the fridge: baby bok choy and sliced shiitake mushrooms. I sauteed them with garlic and ginger, a little rice wine and a shot of oyster sauce. I served them over sotanghon, bean thread noodles, which I soaked in hot chicken broth until they were tender.

Does that count? I hope so. If not, it was good chow anyway.

*****

If you’re interested in joining our Kulinarya Cooking Club and participating in its monthly challenges, please visit http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/kulinarya, and become a fan on our Facebook page. Kulinarya was started by a group of Filipino foodies (Kath, Trisha and Trissa) living in Sydney, who are passionate about Filipino culture and its colorful cuisine. You don't have to be a Filipino or have a food blog to join, and you can participate as much or as little as your time and interest allows. Everyone is welcome.

Double-fried French Fries

2011-03-05T17:53:00.000-08:00

Who doesn't love a good french fry? The secret to crispy fries is a double fry. The first fry blanches the fries and cooks them through at a lower oil temperature. The second fry is to crisp and brown the fries at a higher temperature. A generous sprinkling of salt, and you're good to go!

Double-fried French Fries

Russet potatoes (1 big potato can feed 1-2 people, depending on how much they love fries)

Kosher salt

Oil (Peanut is best for frying,but canola or vegetable oils work just fine

Preheat oil to 325 degrees.

Peel and cut potatoes lengthwise into 1/4 inch sticks. Put cut potatoes in a bowl of water, so they don't brown as you cut the rest of the fries.

When you're ready to fry, drain the potatoes and dry them off really well.

Cook fries in batches. Add fries to the oil, so that you have enough fries but they have plenty of room to move around. If your oil is too full of cold fries, the temperature will drop down too far, and you'll have greasy fries. Cook fries for 4-5 minutes and remove to spread out on paper towels. Cook the remaining fries and repeat until done.

Increase oil temperature to 375 degrees.

Cook fries in batches again, this time until crispy and browned, a couple minutes more. Place on paper towels and salt generously. Serve.

Swedish Meatballs

2011-02-22T16:55:00.000-08:00

I've had the most terrible recurrent craving for Swedish meatballs.

The first time I had these was when I was a kid in the 1970s. My mom would go load up on oodles of frozen food at what really were dingy food warehouses -- pre-Sam's Club and Costco -- and she would buy Swedish meatballs to serve at her parties. The frozen meatballs would go ding! ding! ding! into the steam tray and we would squeeze some preservative-laden sauce out of sealed plastic bags into the tray. A few hours later the meatballs would be warmed through and covered in the slightly gloppy sauce, beckoning me with their salty and slighty tangy aroma.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was in my 20s and out in the workforce. I did the Firm tapes for 2 hours a day, and Stouffers' Lean Cuisine Swedish meatballs were my favorite weekly lunch item. At the time, my palate, loaded down with fat free this and that, thought the meatballs tasted dandy.

Fast forward 20 years and here I was with a Swedish meatball craving. I went to the store, bought some Stouffers, and eagerly heated it up in the microwave. I ripped open the plastic, forked a meatball, closed my eyes in anticipation, and took a bite.

Eww.

All I could taste were chemicals, and the meatballs were stringy and springy. I threw the rest away.

You would think that would have been the demise of the craving, but no, two weeks later, Swedish meatballs were rolling around in my brain again.

This time I was smart. I went to the store and bought meatloaf mix, a mixture of beef, pork, and veal. I made meatballs from scratch, mixing the meat with fresh white bread crumbs soaked in milk, eggs, onions, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and allspice. I rolled and rolled and rolled the little balls and then browned them on all sides in a skillet, and took them out and set them aside. Now these were meatballs, tender and light.

To the drippings in the skillet, I added some flour to make a roux, cooked it for a few minutes to take away any floury aftertaste, and then slowly added beef broth until I had a sauce. I added the meatballs back and simmered them for 10 minutes so they were cooked through. To finish off the meatballs, I folded in some sour cream, tasted and adjusted the salt and pepper, and added some parsley.

All natural. All delicious.

I didn't write down what I did, but no worries. For some Swedish meatball recipes, check out the recipe at Simply Recipes and Alton Brown's recipe on the Food Network site.

I do have some tips for making meatballs without a recipe that is based on ratios. For 1 lb. of meat, use

1 tsp. kosher salt. This should nicely season your meatballs.
1 egg
2 slices white bread, no crust, made into breadcrumbs.
If you want the meatballs super soft, make a panade by soaking the bread crumbs in about 1/4-1/3 cup milk.
So that I can eyeball seasonings, what I normally do is spread the meat on a Silpat or cookie sheet. This way, it's almost like seasoning your food at the table . I distribute salt, pepper, any additional spices, parsley, breadcrumbs, cheese on the top of the meat, and I can easily see how much meat I have in relation to other ingredients. I then put everything in a bowl, add an egg and some liquid (if I didn't make a panade) and incorporate everything together.
I cook a sample of meatball meat before I roll all the meatballs. That way I can taste it and adjust seasonings.

I found the Swedish meatballs were even better the next day. I love leftovers!

Caramelized Tomatoes

2011-02-20T13:38:00.000-08:00

If I had to pick a few choice recipes for you to try on this blog, caramelized tomatoes would be one of them. Caramelized tomatoes are sublime -- once you've tasted their concentrated, toasty flavor, you might never go back to regular tomatoes.

In addition to eating them like candy because they are so addictive on their own, they are wonderful served with crackers and cheese, used in pasta dishes and soup -- I threw them in some beef barley soup this week -- and in sandwiches, as I did here with caramelized onions and gouda cheese on baguette. Honestly, making these caramelized tomatoes is like winning the lottery, as they open doors to a wealth of dishes. The sky's the limit!

I first made these tomatoes at my friend Christine's house. We house sat there last summer when we were between houses. I was pretty freaked out to have sold our house and not have anywhere to go, but staying at Christine's house turned out to be the best thing that could ever happen. In addition to being a lovely, comfortable, and comforting home because of the gracious spirit of the people who live there, Christine's house has a prolific vegetable garden, Gifted with dozens of cherry tomatoes every week, I had a chance to try this recipe for caramelized tomatoes at the blog Tigers & Strawberries.

Within 40 minutes, I had the most delicious tomatoes, soft yet crispy, roasted yet fresh with garden flavor. Sunlight in a bottle, or rather tantalizing, little red bowls. I hope you try them!

Caramelized Tomatoes
adapted from the recipe at Tigers & Strawberries

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

I used cherry tomatoes here, but you can do plum, grape, or regular tomatoes. Core if necessary, taking out the leafy stem. Cut in half and squeeze and/or scrape the seeds and liquid out with your fingers.

Put the cut tomatoes in a bowl.

When done cutting, toss the tomatoes with olive oil, making sure all tomatoes are lightly covered with oil. They shouldn't be drowning in oil, but there shouldn't be so little oil that they will dry out in the oven.

Lay all of your tomato halves or slices cut side up on a baking sheet (you can cover the bottom of the sheet with non-stick foil or silpats for easy clean up).

Put them in the oven.

Leave them in the oven for thirty minutes and then check them. If they are a bit shrunken and drying a bit with some toasty dark bits on the edges, they are ready for you to sprinkle on the sugar. If they still seem a bit too juicy and there is no darkening, give them another ten minutes in the oven.

If they are ready, take them out of the oven. Sprinkle a little bit of sugar evenly over the tomatoes. At this time, if you want to add herbs, either fresh or dried, this is the time.

Put the tomatoes back into the oven and let them cook for another five to ten minutes or so.

Remove from the oven, and allow to cool until you can handle them–they should still be warm, but not blisteringly hot–and remove them from the baking sheets and set them on a tray or in a bowl, depending on how you want to use them.

Any syrupy juice that you have on the baking sheets, scrape out and drizzle over the tomatoes.

You can store them in the fridge for up to a week, and you can freeze them for later use.

Kulinarya Cooking Club February Aphrodisiac Challenge: Wontons with Spicy Soy-Sesame Sauce

2011-02-19T20:59:00.000-08:00

In honor of Valentine's Day, the Kulinarya Cooking Club was challenged by KCC member Pia to make a Filipino dish with an aphrodisiac.

My response is a variation on Pancit Molo, which is essentially Filipino wonton soup. In this case, I simmered pre-made Chinese wontons in chicken broth infused with grated GINGER -- ding! ding! the love ingredient -- for ten minutes. When cooked, I transferred them to a bowl with just a little of the broth, spooned a little spicy soy mixture over them, and served them with minced scallions. Wet, hot, slippery, and stimulating on the tongue ... do I need to say more?

[I am blushing after I wrote that. We Catholic school girls normally don't talk this way!]

Want to know more about aphrodisiacs? Here are some links:

http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/Articles/Nutrition-Health-Food-Labeling-646/aphrodisiac-foods.aspx
http://www.livestrong.com/article/309945-what-fruits-are-considered-aphrodisiacs/
http://www.fuelthemind.com/health/nutrition/nutrition_articles/aphrodisiac_foods_article.html

Quick Wontons with Spicy Soy-Sesame Sauce

Premade wontons (as many as you want)

Chicken stock

Fresh ginger

Soy mix: 2 tbs. soy sauce, 1 tbs. rice vinegar, 1 tbs. sugar, dash of spicy sesame oil or to taste

Bring chicken stock to a boil -- you should have enough stock that the wontons can simmer freely and not be too crowded. Take a knob of ginger, cut the end off and shave off some of the outer skin near the end, maybe 1/4-1/2 an inch. Using a grater (I use a Microplane), grate some ginger into the broth. How much? This is up to you. Grate the ginger several times, up and down, up and down, and up and down, and then tap the grater on the edge of the sauce pan, to drop the grated ginger into the pan. Do that one more time. Taste the broth. If you want more ginger, grate some more in.

Add the wontons, and when the broth comes up to a boil, turn down the heat until it's at a gentle simmer so that the wontons don't break apart. Follow the directions on the wonton package and cook them until they're done.

While the wontons are cooking, mix your dumpling sauce out of the soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, and spicy sesame oil.

Using a slotted spoon, put the wontons in a bowl or on a plate with curved sides. Spoon some chicken broth over the wontons. Spoon some dumpling sauce over the wontons. Sprinkle with some minced scallions.

Serve to the object of your desire. Happy Valentine's Day!

Momofuku Octo-Vin Sauce (with Scallions)

2011-02-19T12:11:00.000-08:00

David Chang of Momofuku fame says repeatedly in his cookbook that he has no idea how he got famous, that he and his crew were just a bunch of hacks, and that he was embarrassed about all the hoopla about his food.

I understand what he means. If you look at his recipes, they are simple in ingredients. Many of them use the same ingredients as a way of economizing and repurposing things in a small restaurant kitchen. Many of them use techniques where food is prepared in advance and can be finished off in minutes for hungry diners.

That's exactly why David is brilliant. His food is enduring and familiar, but it's also fresh and exciting. It's down to earth yet on the edge. How can that be? I haven't quite got a handle on it yet. I am still in awe that sauces like this Octo-vin sauce can be so surprisingly good, even though I've combined these same ingredients countless times before I ever heard of David Chang.

His sauce normally doesn't have scallions, but since I had his ginger scallion sauce on hand, I just used that instead of the ginger suggested in the recipe. I tossed some chicken wings in the sauce, and I bet it would be good with dumplings, on steak in place of chimichurri sauce, on seafood, and grilled or steamed vegetables. Throw in some orange juice, and I know it would be a lovely marinade. The more I think about it, this sauce as a base for other sauces opens up many possibilities.

I hope you try it. It will become a foundation sauce for you.

Octo-Vin Sauce

Note: If you have ginger scallion sauce on hand, you can substitute that for the ginger below. Also, if you don't have fresh chili pepper, you can use a little red crushed pepper, hot sesame oil, cayenne, and/or ichimi togarashi to taste. David Chang cautions to cut the ginger and garlic fine, so the texture is right to the palate.

2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
2 tablespoons chopped peeled fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon finely chopped fresh chili pepper
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup light soy sauce
2 tablespoons canola, vegetable or grapeseed oil
1/4 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

freshly ground black pepper

Mix ingredients together.

Momofuku Ginger Scallion Sauce

2011-02-17T03:53:00.000-08:00

This ginger scallion sauce from the Momofuku cookbook, a great cookbook, is so versatile that you'll use it in everything -- on noodles, vegetables, soup, foods hot and cold. I teach an Asian cooking class, and this is going on the list to make!

Ginger Scallion Sauce
Makes about 3 cups

2½ cups thinly sliced scallions (greens and whites; from 1 to 2 large bunches)
½ cup finely minced peeled fresh ginger
¼ cup grapeseed or other neutral oil
1½ tsp usukuchi (light soy sauce)
¾ tsp sherry vinegar
¾ tsp kosher salt, or more to taste

Mix all the ingredients together and let sit for 15-20 minutes before using. It’ll keep in the fridge for about a week.

Leftover Maven: Mushroom Stroganoff

2011-02-09T18:38:00.000-08:00

My friends Kate and Julia are vegetarians, and I admire them. I wish I could leave meat behind. But as my daughter Christina says, beef and bacon tastes too good!

I endeavor, however, to eat less meat, and I appreciate people like Mark Bittman who has promoted eating less meat and movements like Meatless Monday.

I had some leftover caramelized onions and mushrooms from Super Bowl Sunday, and I thought they would be great in a stroganoff. I heated them in a skillet, added some broth, worcestershire sauce, paprika, and sour cream. With egg noodles, it was delectable, and I didn't miss the meat at all. And it only took 10 minutes!

What Did You Make for Super Bowl Sunday?

2011-02-06T18:37:00.000-08:00

Super Bowl Sunday is a major cook- and eat-fest for a lot of people. Wings, chili, ribs, pizza, bratwurst, chips, lots of Mex or Tex-mex food, and tons of dips, cold or hot. In other words, classic American chow.

I wasn't that interested in cooking after mounting several Snow Day Challenges, where my friend Julia and I were posting 7-8 dishes in a 24-hour period. This past Friday, my husband picked up takeout, and I was happy as a clam not to turn on the stove or wash any pots.

On Saturday, I sat around in my pajamas all day and devoured a book instead of food. It was divine.

Then today, Sunday, came, as did the requests. Can we make salsa? Boy, I'd like some wings. Geez, I'd really like to not eat meat. (By the way, the last person was me.)

I ended up going to the grocery store, firing up the stove and oven, and generating some Super Bowl-worthy dishes. My family was happy. And so was I. How can you not be when you hear, "Wow, Mom, that was outstanding."? I am a sucker for compliments.

Super Bowl 2011 Dish #1: Honey mustard spareribs smoked over oak on my indoor smoker. I dry rubbed the rubs with salt, pepper, paprika, and a little ground chipotle. Then I mixed together a couple spoonfuls of dijon mustard with a couple spoonfuls of honey, and a splash of apple cider vinegar, and rubbed that onto the ribs. I smoked the ribs for an hour in my indoor smoker. Then I wrapped them in foil with a little beer and transferred them to a 325 degree oven to cook a couple hours until they were tender. A few minutes under the broiler and they were done. My family is not really a sauce family, so I served the sauce on the side (equal amounts honey and mustard with a splash of vinegar).

Super Bowl 2011 Dish #2: Chicken Bites with Buffalo Wing Sauce. The grocery store was cleaned out of chicken wings, so I bought boneless chicken thighs. I cut them into bite-size pieces and tossed them in melted butter and a little mustard. I then breaded them with panko, put them on a baking sheet, sprayed them with olive oil spray, and baked them in a 400 degree oven until they were browned -- 20-30 minutes. I served them with buffalo wing sauce on the side (almost equal parts melted butter and Frank's Red Hot Sauce with a little more hot sauce and a shot of vinegar).

Super Bowl 2011 Dish #3: Pita pizzas with Boursin Cheese, caramelized onions, and sauteed mushrooms. In this heavy meat-eating house, these turned out to be the favorite! I caramelized onions and then sauteed mushrooms in the same pan with shallots, garlic, a dash of wine, balsamic vinegar, and dried thyme. Salt and pepper of course. I split pita bread in 1/2, spread Boursin cheese on the bread and topped them with the onions, mushrooms, and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese. Then I threw them under the broiler until they were toasty and cut them into wedges. Very flavorful and yummy.

Super Bowl 2011 Dish #4: Red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. My daughter Christina made these yesterday, and yes, the frosting is also homemade. I'll be posting this recipe soon.

Super Bowl 2011 Dish #5: Nutella on baguette slices with banana and toffee bits. These were in honor of World Nutella Day (2/4/11). Delish!

What did you make for Super Bowl Sunday?

Dimple's Jamaican Chicken with Rum BBQ Sauce (using Momofuku Technique)

2011-02-05T13:50:00.000-08:00

We've had a lot of snow days this winter -- 7 so far. Last week, my friend Julia started the Snow Day Challenge. The challenge is to not make a panic run to the grocery store but to cook something creative with what you have in your pantries.

Julia is no slouch, so we kept throwing down dishes and posting them on Facebook. On the first SDC, I made seven dishes, and Julia made eight, including her finale which involved mixing leftover bottles of red wine to fill her drinking glass. I declared her the winner on that one, and on her banana cake which involved using a random frozen banana she found in the freezer.

The past two days was SDC 2.0 as we got snow and then ice. These wings were dish #7. With this round, I decided I was going to make things I hadn't made before or use a new technique. With the wings, I decided to use David Chang's technique at Momofuku for fried chicken, which involves steaming the chicken first and then a quick fry. I steamed the wings in my indoor smoker/steamer for 20 minutes.

It's a great technique for prepping wings in advance, such as for the Super Bowl or other party, and I'm sure you could finish them off on the grill instead of deep frying them.

As for the recipe, I found a recipe in Steve Raichlen's cookbook, , which is a great cookbook by the way. It's for Dimple's Jamaican chicken.

Here's a link to Steve Raichlen' cooking forum and a reader making this recipe.

Dimple's Barbequed Chicken Wings and Rum BBQ Sauce

adapted from Steve Raichlen's The Barbeque Bible and Momofuku Cookbook fried chicken technique

(Note: Give yourself advance time -- 12-24 hours to marinate the chicken.)

1 dozen chicken wingettes (1 pack) or more

Marinade:

1 bunch scallions, both white and green parts, trimmed and finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 to 1 Scotch bonnet chile, seeded and finely chopped, or 1/2 to 1 tp. Scotch bonnet-based hot sauce (or your pick of chile or hot sauce; I used Sriracha.)

1 tbs. sweet paprika

1 tsp. fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp. dried thyme

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

2 tbs. soy sauce (or more if you're using chicken wings or chicken parts)

1 tbs. vegetable oil.

BBQ Sauce (I made 1/2)

1 cup ketchup

1/3 cup soy sauce

4 scallions, both white and green parts, trimmed and minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbs. minced, peeled fresh ginger

1/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1/4 cup white vinegar

2 tbs. dark rum, or more to taste

Combine the marinade ingredients in a bowl or in a Ziploc bag if you're using chicken wings. You can puree the ingredients together if you want a richer flavor. Set aside.

Rinse chicken wings. Put them in the Ziploc bag with the marinade ingredients and "smush" the bag, distributing the ingredients evenly over the wings; if there's not enough liquid to distribute, add more soy sauce. Refrigerate for 12-24 hours, turning the bag over several times.

Make BBQ sauce by combining ingredients except for the rum in a saucepan and simmering for 10-15 minutes, until thick and richly flavored. Add rum during the last two minute, taste for seasoning and adding more rum if necessary. Remove from heat. You should have about 2 cups.

Steam wings (I have a Cameron's indoor smoker which I also use as a steamer) for 20 minutes. When done, dry off on paper towels.

Heat oil to 375 degrees and dry for 4 minutes or until nice and crispy. Serve with BBQ sauce.

Enjoy!

Christine's Cheese Souffle

2011-02-02T06:00:00.000-08:00

Souffles are out of my normal culinary reportoire, which is firmly esconced in the countries of the Pacific with a good touch of Americana. I made individual chocolate souffles once to satisy a craving of my craving-driven daughter Christina, so I understand the appeal of their silky interiors and light, crispy shells. Somehow flavor is magnified in those hundreds of trapped air bubbles.

I made this as part of a Snow Day Challenge, started by my friend Julia, who's been featured here before. The challenge is to not make a panic run to the grocery store but to cook something creative with what you have in your pantries. My friend Christine shared this recipe as a good one to make with pantry staples such as butter, flour, milk, eggs, and cheese.

I made 1/2 the recipe, used gouda and parmesan cheeses, and divided the batter among four individual ramekins -- it took only ten minutes in a 400 degree oven, and I had these lovely, fluffy, cheesey clouds of goodness. I ate my souffle with a sliced granny smith apple, and it was divine.

If you wanted to read up on souffles and souffle technique, go to 101 Cookbooks.

Christine's Cheese Souffle
Adapted from the Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters
Serves 4

6 T Butter
3 T Flour
1 C Milk
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
Pinch Cayenne pepper
4 Eggs - separated
¾ C Grated Gruyere or Cheddar
¼ C Grated Parmesan
Grated Parmesan & Bread Crumbs for dusting dish

1 Thyme sprig

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2) Generously butter 1-quart soufflé dish or 8 4-oz ramekins with 1 T butter and sprinkle with bread crumbs and grated parmesan
3) Melt remaining 5 T butter in heavy saucepan over medium heat
4) Stir in flour and cook for 2 minutes
5) Whisk in milk little by little, whisking thoroughly between additions
6) Season béchamel sauce with salt, pepper, cayenne and leaves from one thyme sprig
7) Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool slightly
8) Stir egg yolks into sauce and add cheeses
9) Whip egg whites into moist firm peaks
10) Stir 1/3 of whites into soufflé base, then gently fold remaining whites taking care not to deflate them
11) Pour mixture into prepared dish
12) Bake 35-40 minutes for large dish (or 10 minutes at 400 for individual dishes,) until puffed and golden but still soft in the center and jiggly when shaken gently

Chicken Wings with Momofuku Tare Sauce

2011-02-01T12:16:00.000-08:00

It's chicken wing week here at BBB Food. I may look really organized, posting Super Bowl recipes in advance. Or I may just be catering to my family's chicken wing cravings.

Or maybe I'm succumbing to my current obsession with the Momofuku Cookbook and had some Momofuku tare to slather on some wings. You will never know, will you? It's a mind-bender situation like that movie Inception, which I just saw on pay-per-view.

Speaking of, do you think Leonardo DiCaprio's character was in or out of the dream at the end of the movie? Hmmm...

Tare is the Japanese basting sauce which is used for yakitori (grilled chicken skewers) and as a seasoning for Tokyo-style ramen. It's made of roasted chicken bones, mirin, sake, and soy sauce, which is then simmered down and concentrated into a potent sauce. You don't need much. A little goes a long way.

If you find the sauce too salty for your palate, you can add honey or sugar to amp up the sweet tones.

Chicken Wings with Momofuku Tare Sauce

Chicken wingettes, as many as you want (we made 2 packs of chicken wingettes)

Brine (8 cups water, 2/3 cup kosher salt, 2/3 cup sugar)
Tare sauce below (soy sauce, mirin, sake, sugar, chicken bones)

If you don't buy the wingettes but full chicken wings, cut off the wingtip and separate the drumstick and the wing , or the "two-bone" as my daughter calls it. If you're not really sure how to cut up wings, watch this handy dandy video.

Make the brine in a large bowl or pot, letting the sugar and salt dissolve. Add the wings and let brine in the fridge for 1-3 hours.

When you're ready to cook the wings, preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Take out bowl/pot of chicken from the fridge and rinse chicken well (I mean really well -- I dump them out into a clean sink and rinse them with the faucet sprayer. Dry on paper towels and then place on a baking sheet or baking sheets if you have a lot of wings. I use Silpats, so the chicken doesn't stick to the baking sheet, but one could also use non-stick aluminum foil or teflon baking sheets. Sprinkle with fresh ground pepper and put on the middle rack of the oven.

The wings will take 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes, depending on their size and how crispy you like them.

Cook for 30 minutes and then flip over. The wings will start to brown in the second half of their cooking time. You can flip them occasionally, so they brown on both sides. If your oven doesn't heat evenly and you notice some wings are browning faster than others, you can rotate the baking sheet(s) as well.

When they are crispy to your liking, take them out and brush lightly with tare sauce. Turn on the broiler and place the wings under the broiler (top or second rack) until charred (not burned) -- make sure not to leave the oven and watch until the wings are browned to your liking. Alternately, you can brush the wings with sauce and "grill" them in a hot skillet.

Browning on one side is good enough. Serve and enjoy!

Momofuku Tare

from the Momofuku Cookbook

(Note: if you don't have chicken, make it without; you only have to bring it to a boil for a few minutes to cook off the alcohol, and it should be fine. I often use cooked leftover bones from chicken. I brown them on the stovetop and then continue with the recipe.)

2-3 chicken backs, or the bones and their immediately attendant flesh and skin reserved from butchering one chicken
1 cup sake
1 cup mirin
2 cups usukuchi

Heat the oven to 450 degrees.

Cut the chicken back into 3 pieces or any other chicken you're using into smaller pieces as more surface area creates more browning which causes more flavor.

Spread the bones out into a wide 12-14 inch heatproof saute pan or skillet and put in the oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Check on the bones after 40 minutes to make sure they are browning and not burning. You want deeply browned bones and the fond -- the fatty liquid caramelizing on the bottom of the pan -- to be very dark but not blackened (flecks of black here and there, or at the edges of the pool are fine, but charred fond is bitter and would have to be discarded). Watch as the bones color, and pull them out when they're perfectly browned.

When the bones are browned, remove the pan from the oven (with a mitt!) and put it on the stovetop. Pour a splash of sake onto the pan and put the pan over a burner and turn the heat to medium-high. Once the sake starts to bubble, scrape up the fond from the bottom of the pan.

Once the fond is free from the bottom of the pan, add the remaining sake, mirin, and soy sauce to the pan. Turn the heat to high. When the liquid comes to a boil, lower the heat so that it barely simmers. Cook for 1 hour. It will reduce somewhat, the flavors will meld, and the tare will thicken ever so slightly.

Strain the bones out and season the liquid with 5-6 turns of black pepper. The tare can be used right away or cooled and stored, covered, in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

Shredded Brussel Sprouts with Candied Walnuts

2011-01-29T14:29:00.000-08:00

I used to hate brussel sprouts until my uncle-in-law, John Lemek, made these for Thanksgiving one year. Shredded, quick-sauteed, and simply seasoned with sugar and cider vinegar, these brussel sprouts are bright and lively -- a far cry from the sulphuric boiled brussel sprouts I had had in the past. Best of all is the addition of crunchy and sweet candied nuts, which add texture and flavor.

I've lightened up John's version considerably, as his used almost a stick of butter if I recall correctly. Here I use a tbs. of oil and agave nectar to replace the sugar. Agave nectar is good for those who can't have white sugar due to dietary restrictions (agave nectar, which comes from a cactus, has a very low gycemic index and it's an all natural sweetener).

For the brussel sprouts, the seasoning is equal parts sugar and apple cider vinegar. If you decide you want more of that flavor in your brussel sprouts, just add more sugar and apple cider in equal parts. I usually start with 2 spoonfuls of each, but it's delicious with more too.

Candied Nuts
A handful of pecans or walnuts, chopped
Butter and/or oil
agave nectar (or sugar)
A package of brussel sprouts, rinsed and any wilted leaves pulled off and discarded
2 tbs. agave nectar of sugar
2 tbs. apple cider
Salt and pepper to taste

To make candied nuts, heat small skillet over medium heat until hot. Add nuts and stir around until you start smelling a nice toasted smell. Turn down heat and add a little butter or oil to coat the nuts. Sprinkle the nuts with sugar or agave nectar and keep stirring until the sugar dissolves and the nuts are coated with a glaze. Pour onto a plate and let cool.

Trim the bottoms off the brussel sprouts in cut in 1/2 through the core. Lay flat and slice the brussel sprouts very thinly, shredding them.

Heat a skillet large enough to accomodate the brussel sprouts over medium high heat. Add a tbs. of oil and then a little butter for flavor (or just use oil). Add the brussel sprouts and saute for a few minutes until the color turns a bright green and the sprouts start wilting. Add salt and pepper, and agave nectar/sugar and vinegar. Stir, taste, and adjust seasoning. When properly cooked, the brussel sprouts will be tender but not overly soft.

Turn off heat, mix in nuts, and serve.

Will You Take the Snow Day Food Challenge?

2011-01-27T04:39:00.000-08:00

Our cars after last night's storm

In my neck of the woods, we have been pummeled by snow storms. After a noon release from school yesterday, I asked my friend and co-worker, Julia, if she thought the roads were passable enough to go to the grocery store on the way home from work. Julia said, "Why go to the grocery store? Let's go home, be creative, and cook from what we have available."

Thus the Julia Gabriele Snow Day Challenge was born.

After spreading the news on Facebook and email, we both started foraging in our kitchens. We sent each other pictures of our work in progress, including Julia sending me a picture of a giant frozen turkey carcass in water looking like it was trying to escape out of the Le Crueset pot. Priceless! She wrote, "It's called 'progressive broth'...I'll simmer it until it fits, pick the meat off, add more parts, do it again.....I'm just not sure what this is going to be yet ..."

As for me, I found all sorts of things to cook too -- frozen meats, tons of pantry items, and some fresh vegetables. I even had an extra 1/2 gallon of milk in the fridge. Why go to the store indeed?

Here are what some of Julia and my friends said in response to the challenge:

Christine: I find myself in this situation frequently and usually rely on something from the freezer to get me going - I almost always have pork tenderloin and some chicken breasts I can defrost. If that's bare, I'll create some kind of soup with whatever vegetables, small pasta, beans, and leftovers are on hand. If I have time, I make biscuits or popovers to go with it, and everyone thinks I planned all day. Otherwise eggs in some form - souffle, quiche, frittata.

Tracey: Fried Rice or Stir Fry. I take whatever veggies are in my fridge, I always have rice and eggs on hand, and then put them together with spices. If I have chicken (or beef), I will add that as well. Big favorite of the kids.

Bonnie: Risotto is good if you have stock in the freezer. I almost always have broccoli or broccoli rabe in the fridge, so pasta with oil, garlic and broccoli is always easy, hot pepper flakes, parmesan, glass of red...

Heather: I did not plan ahead for dinner last night and had to use what was in my fridge and pantry. Linguine with zucchini sauteed in olive oil with diced onion, mushrooms and garlic. Parmesan cheese was then added.

Jane: When you have the luxury of having a snow day with no children at home the menu can go in a whole different direction. Popcorn, smoked oysters, omelettes, dark chocolate ... wine?

Laurie: I can't go into a store and just buy a few things. As a result, I always have a freezer full of STUFF! This reminds me of a Pierre Franey article in the NY Times. Anyway, he stalked random people in the Food Emporium in NYC and asked about 5 people if he could go home with them and prepare a meal with whatever they already had at home or in their baskets. It was hilarious. I especially remember one guy who had stale bread and a can of tuna... and maybe some beer :)

Elisabeth: For tonight, Barefoot Contessa spaghetti and meatballs, rocket salad If we're home tomorrow, crab cakes and wedge salad plus some baking- a carrot cake. Our fall back meal is always omelettes which my husband actually makes- it's his "thing."

Kate: Tonight I made spinach souffle and angel biscuits.

Lora: Wow, I am really not worthy. I went to the grocery store and got more food for the pantry and made good old fashioned spaghetti (trying to feed a large crowd of 12 kids) and served it with lots of wine for the cooks! [Note: With 12 kids over, I'd be going to the grocery store too!]

Did you notice that wine seems to be a requisite pantry item?

Julia ended up making grilled polenta with a rosemary asiago olive oil drizzle and bolognese topping, chicken quesadillas with salsa and cilantro cream sauce, and a banana cake with chocolate sauce and ice cream ("I was short one banana but found a small bag of freeze dried bananas...pretty random..no idea why I have freeze dried bananas but I'm glad I did for our snow day challenge!!")

Here's what I made yesterday:

Cajun-style dirty rice with cooked Italian sausage I found in the fridge, Uncle Ben's rice, a green bell pepper, and leftover caramelized onions. A wonderfully, flavorful dish made even better with lots of hot sauce! This type of dish was a favorite of mine and my husband before we had children and he went carb-free. Here's a recipe of this type of dish that I posted before.

Roasted cauliflower, hands down our most favorite way of preparing this vegetable. Regina, a friend of my daughter and a notoriously picky eater, actually ate these last night and liked them.

Apple galette with Granny Smith apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, and Pillsbury pie dough crust. This was okay, not great. My blueberry galette is much better because of the homemade dough, and I haven't gotten a handle on the apples and the balance of sweetness to tartness, as well as the right size and texture. When I make this, the apples always seem to get dried out on the top before they get tender. Any suggestions?

Here's what I made today:

White mac-n-cheese made with gruyere, manchego, and American cheeses with thyme-infused bechamel and a sprinkling of cayenne.

Tomato bisque made out of canned fire roasted tomatoes, broth, canned evaporated milk, and fresh basil.

Chili with ground beef, canned fire roasted and Rotel tomatoes, 7 tbs. of spices, beef broth, leftover coffee, beer, and unsweetened chocolate.

Ramen with quick Asian broth (chicken broth, soy sauce, grated ginger, white pepper, sesame oil) with leftover chicken.

Whether snow is your muse or not, how would you respond to the challenge of cooking from what you have?

Buffalo Chicken Wings (Baked)

2011-01-20T04:00:00.000-08:00

My husband said, "I'd like buffalo wings. The real kind."

What he meant was that he wanted wings slathered in sauce, not plain wings with sauce on the side.

He's been subject to the sauce on the side rule since our older daughter dislikes the buttery, vinegary, tangy sauce. But Lizzy was away on a ski trip with her friend, and Mark was free, free at last, to have wings his way.

I've been making these wings for years. In fact, buffalo wings (deep-fried) were one of my first posts for this blog, and I also posted a blue cheese dressing recipe to go with the requisite celery and carrot sticks. My pictures weren't so good back then. An anonymous commenter noted, "Love your blog and lots of your recipes, but this has to be the most un-appetizing picture of wings ever!! You need a better finished wing picture!" Click here to see the post, and the method for frying wings.

Buffalo Chicken Wings (Baked)

2 packs of chicken wingettes
Brine (8 cups water, 2/3 cup kosher salt, 2/3 cup sugar)
Buffalo wing sauce below (Frank's Red-Hot Sauce, butter, vinegar)

Notes: This recipe is very scale-able. You can make as many wings as you like, and you may not have to increase the brine to cover the wings. Also, please note that if you're going to brine the wings, you'll need a big enough container to hold the water and wings, plus refrigerator space to hold the container.

Make the brine in a large bowl or pot, letting the sugar and salt dissolve in tepid water. This can take a few minutes, so be patient, whisking the water occasionally until the sugar and salt dissolves. I usually start the brine water first, 20 minutes before I start cooking or earlier in the day, so that when I need it, the brine is ready.

If you don't buy the wingettes but full chicken wings, cut off the wingtip and separate the drumstick and the wing , or the "two-bone" as my daughter calls it. If you're not really sure how to cut up wings, watch this handy dandy video.

Add the wings and let brine in the fridge for 1-3 hours.

When you're ready to cook the wings, preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Take out bowl/pot of chicken from the fridge and rinse chicken well, and I mean really well -- I dump them out into a clean sink and rinse them with the faucet sprayer. Dry on paper towels and then place on a baking sheet or baking sheets if you have a lot of wings. I use Silpats, so the chicken doesn't stick to the baking sheet, but one could also use non-stick aluminum foil or teflon baking sheets. Sprinkle with fresh ground pepper and put on the middle rack of the oven.

The wings will take 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes, depending on their size and how crispy you like them. If you want to bake the sauce onto the wings, that will be another 15 minutes.

Cook the wings for 30 minutes or until they start browning on one side and then flip over. You can flip them occasionally from this point, so they brown on both sides, and you'll notice some wings will brown more quickly than others. You can rotate the baking sheet(s), and/or move the wings around on the tray for even browning.

When they are crispy to your liking, take them out and toss with the buffalo wing sauce. You can serve the wings at this point.

If you want to bake the sauce onto the wings, place the sauced wings back in the oven, turning it down to 350 degrees, and let the wings bake for 15 minutes.

Serve with celery sticks, carrot sticks, and blue cheese dressing.

Buffalo Wing Sauce

Frank's Red-Hot Sauce (1 small bottle)
4 tbs. butter
1 tbs. white vinegar

Heat sauce ingredients together over low heat. If you have a big bottle of Frank's red-hot sauce, there's a recipe on the bottle. This recipe is very flexible so you can have more butter to make it less spicy or add more hot sauce to make it spicier.

If there's no recipe on the bottle, it's almost a 1:1 ratio of red-hot sauce and butter, but with a tad more red hot sauce, and a splash of white vinegar.

Tate's Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-01-18T06:18:00.000-08:00

Snow days = cooking days for me. Or make that cookie days ...

I saw that Cookies with Boys made Tate's Chocolate Cookies from Tate's Bake Shop. Crispy and buttery, these cookies from the famous Southampton, NY bakery capture a pretty penny at gourmet food stores. They are absolutely delicious -- cookies you crave, particularly when the gourmet food store is closed.

Picture of Tate's Bake Shop Cookies from here

Tate's also put out an eponymous cookbook, which is worth looking at if you're a baker.

Picture from here

It's interesting that this recipe is different in four small ways from the Nestle Tollhouse Cookie recipe: it cooks at 350 and not 375 degrees; it has 1/4 cup less flour; it includes 1 tsp. water; and the cookies cook for 12-17 minutes instead of 9-11 minutes. These small changes make a big difference in the cookie's ability to spread out and become addictingly crispy on the edges.

I made them -- making my husband go to the grocery store TWICE, first for chocolate chips and then back again for sugar (I mean, who runs out of sugar?) -- and they taste exactly like the store cookies. Super yummy.

Tate's Chocolate Chip Cookies
(recipe copied from Cookies with Boys blog)

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup salted butter, 2 sticks
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Grease or line 2-3 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and salt.
In another large bowl, cream the butter and sugars, then add the water and vanilla. Mix until just combined.
Add eggs to the butter mixture and mix them lightly.
Stir in the flour mixture. When flour is mixed in, fold in the chocolate chips.
Drop 2 tablespoonfuls of the cookie dough 2-inches apart onto prepared cookie sheets.
Bake for 12-17 minutes or until the edges and centers of the cookies are golden brown.
Remove from oven and allow to cool on wire racks.

OMG Chicken Wings with Momofuku Octo-Vin Sauce

2011-01-16T15:37:00.000-08:00

Ever since I got the Momofuku Cookbook from my brother Ed for Christmas, I've been Momofuku-ing it at home. David Chang, the foul-mouthed, Korean-American chef, and his pirate gang of bad-a** cooks rock.

I've been riffing off many of Momofuku's recipes, including their ramen, shredded pork, pork buns, ginger scallion noodles, tare, and octo vin sauce -- and that's just in the last week. I haven't made them exactly the way he does, but since the foundation concepts are so solid, the results are terrific and very adaptable to any number of dishes.

In the book is a fried chicken recipe which the restaurant serves with what they call Octo-vin, a vinaigrette of garlic, ginger, soy sauce, oil, and sugar that was originally made for an octopus dish (thus the name). Since I had made Momofuku's ginger scallion sauce, I used some of that for the Octo-vin sauce. Instead of frying chicken, I brined and baked chicken wings until they were nice and crispy and then tossed them in the sauce.

I don't know what I was expecting when I bit into a wing, but it was an OMG moment. Who knew that such a simple mix of ingredients could elevate the humble chicken wing to celebrity status? Salty, sweet, spicy ... mind-blowingly good.

This is a must try recipe...invite your friends!

OMG Chicken Wings with Momofuku Octo Vin Sauce

Chicken wingettes, as many as you want (we made 2 packs of chicken wingettes)
Brine (8 cups water, 2/3 cup kosher salt, 2/3 cup sugar)
Octo-vin sauce (below)

If you don't buy the wingettes but full chicken wings, cut off the wingtip and separate the drumstick and the wing , or the "two-bone" as my daughter calls it. If you're not really sure how to cut up wings, watch this handy dandy video.

[Note: If you have the wingtips, don't throw them away but keep them to make Momofuku tare or soup stock. Freeze them if you don't want to use them now.]

Make the brine in a large bowl or pot, letting the sugar and salt dissolve. Add the wings and let brine in the fridge for 1-3 hours.

When you're ready to cook the wings, preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Take out bowl/pot of chicken from the fridge and rinse chicken well (I mean really well -- I dump them out into a clean sink and rinse them with the faucet sprayer. Dry on paper towels and then place on a baking sheet or baking sheets if you have a lot of wings. Sprinkle with fresh ground pepper and put on the middle rack of the oven.

Cook for 20 minutes and then flip over. The wings will start to brown in the second half of their cooking time. You can flip them occasionally, so they brown on both sides. If your oven doesn't heat evenly and you notice some wings are browning faster than others, you can rotate the baking sheet(s) as well.

When they are crispy to your liking (you could cook them anywhere from 45 minutes, where they'll be browned and on the plump side to 1 hour and half if you like them super crispy and on their way to dessicated), take them out and toss with the Octo-vin. Serve.

Momofuku Octo-Vin Sauce

Note: If you have ginger scallion sauce on hand, you can substitute that for the ginger below. Also, if you don't have fresh chili pepper, you can use a little red crushed pepper, hot sesame oil, cayenne, and/or ichimi togarashi to taste.

2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
2 tablespoons chopped peeled fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thai-bird chili pepper or pepper of your choice
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup light soy sauce
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil (or other oil)
1/4 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

Mix ingredients together. I use a mini-food processor to finely chop the garlic and ginger, add the rest of the ingredients, and give a final whir.

Cookbook Bonanza for a Cookbook Addict: Is this a Good or Bad Thing?

2011-01-12T16:18:00.000-08:00

I was good. I didn't buy or acquire a cookbook for a long time. At least six months. My husband was proud of me for not clogging up yet another bookshelf with treasure troves of recipes I would never make.

Then Christmas came. And the cookbooks came wrapped in pretty paper from friends and family. Okay, some came wrapped in a Barnes & Nobles bag hidden in my car and bought by me. But that's not the point.

I asked for the Momofuku cookbook, which my brother bought for me at the flagship restaurant, signed by David Chang. Oh this is a good one. I devoured the stories, and I actually did cook from the cookbook (more to come in future posts).

My friend Bonnie Klein recommended Urban Italian, and the food writing is absolutely delectable. Andrew is also a fellow Clevelander, and I applaud him, Michael Symon, and Michael Ruhlman for raising the town's culinary profile.

My husband gave me The Flavor Bible, which I really wanted. A reference book, I like this one a lot since it doesn't have recipes but lists of ingredients and complementary ingredients. For those of us who don't do too well following recipes and like to free flow cook, this book inspires and promotes creativity in the kitchen.

While my bookcases are overflowing now, there's always hope. I can make a New Year's resolution to not get any more cookbooks. And we all know how New Year's resolutions work out ...

Cake Puffs

2010-12-15T10:51:00.000-08:00

"Do you know if you can cook cake mix in the takoyaki pan?" my daughter Christina asked me. I said, "I don't know, so why don't you look into it?"

I thought she would promptly forget about it the next day. But she didn't.

While she mixed the cake mix, I found myself digging out the takoyaki pan, which I hadn't used for years. It was given to me by the Inadas, my husband's boss way back when, when they moved back to Japan. Can it be that this was twenty years ago already? I don't know how I got so old.

In Japan, a takoyaki pan is used to make little savory balls filled with octopus. Street food along with yakisoba (fried noodles) and ramen, takoyaki used to hit the spot after a long night out at the bars with my friends. I can still remember the smell of sizzling batter and the sweet-salty smell of okonomiyaki sauce that hit me when I emerged from the subway station near my apartment -- ahh, good times. A few years later, the Inadas taught me how to make takoyaki using this very pan.

Beautiful takoyaki picture from here

Of course, some enterprising individual repurposed the takoyaki pan in the U.S. and made it into the Pancake Puff Pan (As seen on TV! Only $19.95! Order yours today!). This is probably where Christina got the idea years ago as a small child being seduced by toy, cereal, and of course, the Pancake Puff Pan commercials.

She used to point at the tv and say "I want that!" But that's another story.

Our takoyaki pan is "old school," made of cast iron and very well-seasoned. I imagine that it was passed from one transplanted Japanese family to the next, as one family was transferred back home and a new one came in, finally to be passed on to me. The handle fell off, so my husband drilled a hole into a piece of scrap wood and shoved it onto the pan. It's bulky, but it definitely works, as long as you don't set it on fire while cooking.

We preheated the pan, brushed each mold with oil, and then did a couple test balls. As with pancakes, it takes a few test runs until the pan reaches the right temperature. Also, it doesn't hurt to practice the technique through cooking a few test balls -- how much batter to put in (2/3rd of the ways up), how high the heat should be (medium-low), when to start trying to turn the ball, and how to flip it the most neatly, with a deft turn of the wrist.

It's about 3 minutes before you start trying to detach the balls from the sides, using a little metal pick, but your eyes work best here. Like pancakes the batter will start to look cooked and dried on the edges and the top will start to form the slightest of skins. When it gets near that point, you start using your pick to pull the ball away from the edges. When it's able to move, you flip it over and let it cook until it's cooked through and is browned, another minute or two. Depending on your heat source, the balls will cook at different rates. In our case, the middle ones cooked a lot faster than the edges.

Cooking the puffs takes patience. Try to flip them too soon and the pick will tear the edges and the batter, if it's not cooked enough, will ooze out when you try to flip them. If you wait just long enough, however, flipping is a breeze. Cooking a whole cake mix also equals a LOT of batches, so patience is a virtue.

Christina kept hugging me and saying, "Thank you, Mommy, for helping me" and "Isn't this a nice thing to do together?" If I had gone away, she would have gotten bored to tears. But we finished all the cake batter working together, and she had plenty of cake puffs to take to school the next day for a school party.

Half of the balls she drizzled with chocolate. She melted chocolate chips in the microwave in 15 second intervals, stirring in between, until the chocolate melted, added oil until the chocolate was thin enough to drizzle, and then dipped a fork in the chocolate mixture and drizzled away. It was fun to flick the fork and let the chocolate strands fly from the fork and land on the balls in abstract patterns.

The other half she kept plain and simple. Yummy both ways. But boy, do I have a craving for takoyaki now!

P.S. Fellow blogger and Kulinarya Cooking Club member Jacqui wrote me and let me know that these are like Danish ebelskivers, which she has written about here. Tiny Urban Kitchen writes about the similarities between the two dishes on her blog. Williams-Sonoma sells an ebelskiver pan. I'm glad I learned something new today. Thanks, Jacqui!

Leftover Maven: Pot Roast

2010-12-14T15:49:00.000-08:00

Here's what I heard in my house tonight:

[Pop! goes the lid as Lizzy opens the rice cooker to get rice.]

Christina (the 12 yr. old gourmand) : Lizzy. You have to fluff the rice.

[Lizzy grabs the paddle, shoves it into the rice and starts stirring clockwise with a heavy hand.]

Christina: Lizzy! You're smushing the rice! Stop!

Lizzy (the 14 yr. old distracted teenager): What am I supposed to do?

Christina: [taking the paddle and gently turning the grains] Lizzy, what do you think of when you think of fluffing? Putting air into things or stirring?

Lizzy: Stirring! [petulantly]

Then they both started laughing.

It could have easily ended with exasperated sighs, and "you are so annoying," but luckily, we have a sense of humor over our OCD tendencies with rice.

The kids were getting rice to eat with leftover roast beef that I had transformed into pot roast.

Why would I not take a perfectly good roast beef and serve that for dinner again?

There are two reasons:

my family doesn't eat leftovers (blame my husband), and
I bought the wrong cut of beef.

For all the cooking I have done, I can count on one hand the times I have made roast beef. Asian food is usually stove-top food, so using the oven is not my first inclination.

I was at the grocery store, however, and roast beef seemed like a good idea for a wintry Sunday. My hand hovered over the "roasts" and came upon a bottom round roast. I brought it home, let it get to room temperature, seasoned it with Penzey's prime rib rub, and cooked it in a preheated, 350-degree oven until 120 degrees. Then I let it rest, tented with foil, for about 20 minutes while I made gravy from the drippings.

After I sliced it and tasted it, a bit of cooking advice tickled my brain. I called my mother-in-law, and my suspicions were confirmed. Joyce said, "Yes, top round roast is better for roast beef. You usually use bottom round for pot roast."

I don't know how many times Joyce has told me this ... probably all four times I have made roast beef.

Don't get me wrong. The bottom round roast beef wasn't bad. Just a little chewy.

The next night I cut up the remaining roast beef into big chunks, threw it in the pressure cooker with the leftover gravy, some additional wine and beef broth, celery, and carrots and pressure-cooked it for 40 minutes until tender. There you go ... pot roast.

Which was better -- the bottom round as roast beef or as pot roast? Lizzy says the roast beef. Christina says the pot roast.

I say I like chuck roast better for pot roast.

Butter Pecan Thumbprints with Lemon Curd Filling

2010-12-12T13:54:00.000-08:00

I am not a baker, but I'm usually up for the challenge of baking 5 dozen cookies for my friend Julia's annual cookie swap.

With all those cookie recipes out there, choosing just one can be quite a challenge. When in doubt, follow the money.

Winning the $1,000 grand prize of Cook's Country's annual cookie challenge was a Lemon Hazelnut Thumbprint Cookie. Decision made.

Off I went to Trader Joe's, which has the cheapest and nicest nut selection around, for hazelnuts and lemon curd.

Have you ever made lemon or lime curd, by the way? I read the recipe some time ago and my heart just about stopped beating from seeing how much egg yolk and butter was in curd. Now I buy it under the same rationale as I buy ice cream: if you knew what was in it, you'd never eat it, but if you buy it, you can live happily (if not healthily) in ignorant bliss.

There must be some hazelnut shortage due to overenthusiastic bakers, because Trader Joe's was cleaned out -- had been cleaned out in over a week in fact -- and the guys there didn't know when the next shipment would arrive. "We keep putting the order in," said Dave with a sigh, "but we just don't know ..."

I bought pecans instead. Why sweat the small stuff?

Tripling the recipe, I ground the pecans and flour in the food processor and did the rest in the Kitchenaid mixer. My daughter Christina and I rolled and rolled and rolled the cookie balls and in no time we had a bunch of little cookie balls to smush down.

Our first batch was a little messy. We tried the back of a measuring spoon to imprint the cookies, but since it was a dull plastic instead of metal, the dough stuck (if you have fancy metal measuring spoons, you should be fine using the tsp. measure). We tried the end of a small pestle from our mortar and pestle, but that was a no go. Finally, I went into the cupboard and grabbed the top off the sesame oil, washed it, and rubbed it in butter - perfect.

After Batch 1 produced some misshapen cookies -- I mentioned I'm not a baker, right? -- we got our technique down. We rolled the balls, lined them neatly on the cookie sheets, and used the sesame oil top. I found that pressing down on the cookie first with my thumb and then with the top to make the cookies uniform worked the best. We then threw them in the freezer for 20 minutes to become firm, so they wouldn't spread out too much. Batch 2 was the best-looking batch.

With Batch 3, I tried to put the balls in the fridge to harden up first and then imprint. That didn't work so well, as when we pushed down on them, they cracked on the edges.

The cookies go in twice -- first to prebake and then a second time after the filling is added until they are barely browned. The filling bubbles and becomes more transparent, like stained glass.

Perfect or not so perfect, the cookies still tasted great -- nutty and tart. As my daughter Lizzy's friend Amanda said, "They're addictive."

We did test some with Nutella as a filling (we didn't cook the Nutella, but added to the fully baked cookie after it came out of the oven), and those were yummy too. For a Nutella thumbprint recipe, check this out. It looks scrumptious, but probably not a good one for a cookie swap as the Nutella is soft.

Butter Pecan Thumbprints with Lemon Curd Filling
(based on Cook's Country's December 2010 Issue Lemon Hazelnut Thumbprint Cookies)

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup toasted pecans (replacing the original hazelnuts)
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg yolk
3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
Lemon curd (about 1/4 cup) - I used Trader Joe's brand
Powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Process flour, hazelnuts, and salt in a food processor until finely ground.

Cream together the butter and sugar in an electric mixer until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and mix until incorporated.

Reduce the speed and gradually add the flour mixture, until just incorporated.

Take dough in tablespoon-sized portions and roll into 1-inch balls and place on baking sheets lined with parchment paper or silicone mats, about an inch apart. Gently push the center of each ball down, creating an indentation, either with your thumb and/or the back of a rounded measuring teaspoon. (I used a small cap, because I don't have the right kind of measuring spoon.)

Bake the cookies until just set, about 10 min, turning them 1/2 way during pre-baking process.

Remove the cookies form the oven and gently reinforce the indentation with a teaspoon. Fill the cookies with 1/2-1 tsp of lemon curd each. Bake again, 8-10 min, turning 1/2 way through baking, until barely browned on the edges.

Let cook 5 minutes on the sheet and then move to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust lightly with powdered sugar. [Note: if you're going to serve this the next day or later on, dust before serving.]

Enjoy.

REWIND: Cookie Swap

2010-12-09T19:09:00.001-08:00

It's that time of year again, so I thought I'd share some cookie recipes from last year's cookie swap. Happy Baking!

I know the holiday vacation is just around the corner when I find myself in front of Julia's fireplace, laughing with my female colleagues at the annual "Ladies' Auxiliary" Cookie Swap.

Julia, who's been a guest blogger here, is a super woman. She's a top producer at work. Her kids are smart and nice. She manages to cook for her family every night. And she's kind enough to invite her co-workers over every year to share some good cheer at her lovely 18th century home.

She sends out an invitation with this type of picture to get us in the mood to put our aprons on:

Can you tell Julia teaches anthropology and about the cultures of LONG AGO?

Despite the lack of lipstick and perfect hair, we come from work with our cookies in boxes, Ziploc bags, aluminum containers, and trays. Some of us have our kids in tow. Others bring appetizers, like Ruth's mexi-dip (my favorite!) or Kelly's baked brie, to join the spiral ham and lentil-chestnut dip at Julia's dining room table.

While we gather in the living or dining room, the cookies hang out in the kitchen, a merry crew of balls, filled tarts, sharply cut shapes and gentle mounds. Studded with nuts or candies, flavored with chocolate or rum, the cookies are as diverse as the cooks who made them.

What a lovely tray of cookies we all can bring home, along with fond memories of our annual get togethers at Chez Julia's.

Cookie Swap 2009

Below are the cookies that my friends brought to the swap. I'll be posting the recipes over the next few days. Enjoy!

Ninette's Chocolate Almond Toffee Bark

Sheena's Scottish Shortbread

Elizabeth's Granny's Sugar Cookies

Kate's Ginger Snaps

Elaine's Buckeye Balls

Zoe's Bisquick Sugar Cookies

Nancy's Fudge

Ruth's Florentine Cookies

Kelly's Pignoli Cookies

Julia's Andes Thin Mints Pillow Cookies

Tish's Peanut Butter Blossoms

Desiree's Pecan Tarts

Pam Anderson's Cassoulet-Style Italian Sausages and White Beans

2010-12-07T11:25:00.000-08:00

The Fates brought me to Pam Anderson, cookbook author and person extraordinaire. Thank you, Fates.

It started a few months ago when calamity struck Erika of Ivory Hut, a fellow food blogger and member of Kulinarya, a group focused on Filipino cooking. Erika's house burned down to the ground; in an instant, her home and all her family's belongings were gone in smoke and ash.

My eyes still tear up thinking about it.

I found out through other Kulinarya food bloggers that threemanycooks.com had set up a donation site. I went to the site to donate and saw that threemanycooks is the trio of Pam Anderson and her daughters.

I've known Pam Anderson through her writing for almost twenty years. As a fledging foodie in my twenties, I subscribed to Cook's Magazine and then to the launch of the new Cook's Illustrated Magazine and then the new Fine Cooking Magazine. A loyal reader, I've noticed, noted, and respected Pam's work.

Not only was I deeply moved by her and her daughters' efforts to help Erika -- they raised $10,000 -- I was thrilled to find Pam online. It was like finding on old friend.

Then a month ago, my school's Parents' Association asked me to do a presentation on cookbooks at the local Barnes & Noble as part of a fundraiser.

When I went to the Barnes & Noble to meet with Sally to go over my cookbook selections, I picked my favorites like Thomas Keller's Bouchon and Ad Hoc at Home, David Chang's Momofuku (which I actually don't own but have read (hint, hint, family, Christmas gift alert!)), and Andy Pforzheimer's Barcelona Cookbook, which features recipes from the outstanding Barcelona Wine Bar restaurants. I also wanted to feature some food blogger cookbooks, so I asked Sally to order copies of Jaden Hair's Steamy Kitchen Cookbook, Ree Drummond's Pioneer Woman Cooks, and Bakerella's Cake Pops.

As we stood lingering by the cookbook promotions table near the front of the store, Sally picked up Perfect One-Dish Dinners and said, "Have you seen Pam Anderson's new cookbook? She's lives locally."

Pan Anderson lives nearby? Serendipity. And yes, I wanted to feature Perfect One-Dish Dinners.

A couple days later, my friend Julia Facebooked me with a message: "Hey--speaker next Tuesday at the library, Perfect One-Dish Dinners. I just registered. Thought I'd check to see if you were interested. The reviews are really good."

At the library, I finally got to meet Pam. Sitting back with glasses of wine and tasting her delicious sausage and white bean casserole from her book, Julia and I listened to Pam's down-to-earth and genuine approach to food. Her sentiments deeply resonated with me, and again, I had that feeling of listening to a dear friend.

She said her books reflect the journey of her life, as does my blog. She said entertaining shouldn't be hard and that it's not really about the food, but about bringing people together. Ain't that the truth. She said people confessed to her they were intimidated when she was coming over for dinner; she confessed to us, how do they think she feels when they come over her house? I know the feeling, and I'm not even a cookbook author -- just a hack who other people now think is some amazing cook. She said she focused one of her cookbooks on losing weight, because she realized she was using food for other reasons. I can relate to that big time.

This woman is real. Don't you love Pam Anderson, too?

After her talk, I told her I was featuring her cookbook and would she come sign some of her cookbooks? Although she didn't know me or know my cause, she didn't hesitate to say yes.

And then she went to the bookstore the next day and signed 20 cookbooks.

At the book fair, I spoke to a lot of people about Pam's cookbook. I will tell you what I told them:

Perfect One Dish Dinners is a must buy. The recipes are easy, accessible and elegant at the same time. For entertaining, any of these dishes and their suggested appetizers and desserts are a snap. Pam's techniques are foolproof. For all these reasons, you should buy her book. But what's important to me and why I bought her book is that she's a nice person. Knowing that, I know her recipes are infused with her generous and kind spirit. That's the best ingredient of all.

When I got home, I made her cassoulet, adding in some fennel since I had some in the fridge. It took about 5 minutes to put the ingredients in the pan, and about 55 minutes to cook unattended. A neat trick Pam employed to brown the sausages in the oven was to put the roasting pan on the lowest rack. Worked like a charm. A wonderful and easy supper for any night. Also a great dish to do for a tree-trimming or other party.

To see Jaden Hair's post on TLC regarding Pam, who she fondly called her "virtual kitchen mentor," and featuring this recipe and others, go here.

Cassoulet-Style Italian Sausages and White Beans
Perfect One Dish Dinners by Pamela Anderson

Serves 8

If there’s time, sprinkle buttered bread crumbs over each plated portion for a nice touch. Heat a medium skillet over medium-low heat. Toss 2 cups fresh bread crumbs (made in the food processor from a good European-style loaf) with 2 tablespoons melted butter and a light sprinkling of salt. Add the crumbs to the skillet and cook, stirring frequently, until golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Stored in the refrigerator and warmed on the stovetop or in the microwave, this dish means instant dinner later in the week.

2½ pounds sweet Italian sausage links
3 pints cherry tomatoes
1 medium-large onion, cut into 1½-inch chunks
4 large garlic cloves, sliced
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1½ tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons dried thyme
3 bay leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 cans (about 16 ounces each) white beans, undrained

Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 425 degrees.

Mix sausages, tomatoes, onion, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, thyme, bay leaves, and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper in a large heavy roasting pan. Set pan in oven and roast until sausages are brown and tomatoes have reduced to a thick sauce, about 45 minutes. Remove from oven, stir in beans, and continue to cook until casserole has heated through, about 10 minutes longer. Serve.

Drink: An earthy, full-flavored Languedoc or Grenache

Thanksgiving 2010: It's All About the Filipino Mocha Cake

2010-12-05T16:10:00.000-08:00

We're a little photo crazy on my side of the family, particularly when we're all together. We don't get to see each other that often, so Thanksgiving is a photo clickfest.

My sister runs around with her camera like a paparazza. Here she is taking a picture of my dad carving the turkey.

My sister kept saying, "You'll be glad later that I took so many pictures!" My Uncle P. kept joking, "Oh, we'll see these pictures on the Facebook."

My sister posts tons of pictures on Facebook.

My mom says, "What's the Facebook?"

Even though my mom doesn't know exactly what Facebook is, that didn't stop her from using her camera/video camera that she just bought on the Home Shopping Network. She says it's high quality. Do you think she means number of pixels or zoom strength?

No way. My fashionista mother means that when it's closed it looks like a quilted purse, and when she's at the Filipino parties she constantly attends, no one will know it's an electronic device.

We took a gazillion pictures of the flower arrangements my sister and brother made from odds and ends they found in the yard. It's slim pickings when it comes to decorations in my house. Decorations are not my thing. But when you have talented siblings who can make something out of nothing, who needs stuff from the craft store?

(See that's my mom's camera on the counter ... looks like a purse, doesn't it?)

Then there are the photos of the non-cooks engaged in non-cooking pursuits ...

playing basketball...

strumming on the guitar...

snoozing.

And of course, photos of the turkeys.

Anthropologists might look at this picture 100 years from now and assume the woman decked out in the silk dress and big jewelry brined those bad boys, threw them into hot oil and fried them until they were crisp and juicy. But they would be wrong.

For the record, I did the brining and my husband, with the help of my brother-in-law, got the fry job done.

That's me at the stove trying to save the leek and sour cream mashed potatoes which were as lumpy as a gravel road. That's what you get when you have an Asian girl make the mashed potatoes.

I tried to cook the halved potatoes first in the slow cooker for four hours. They were still hard, so then I boiled them in water for another 20 minutes and then tried to mash them. Too hard. I tried ricing them, but it didn't work. Too hard. How potatoes could be hard after cooking for hours is beyond me. Note to self: cut the potatoes in smaller pieces and forget the slow cooker.

Here's my Irish-American husband trying to fix the potatoes.

His genes didn't give him a pass either. They were still lumpy.

But you know what? No one said a word. God forbid if I had made soggy rice, but the potatoes? Whatever.

Here's my dad slicing the turkey. He's a surgeon, so you can imagine why we all defer this job to him.

So the turkey wouldn't be lonely, we took lots more photos of other food...

... like the roasted cauliflower and fennel cazuela, adapted from the Barcelona Cookbook, a favorite cookbook of mine,

and my brother's cornbread, sausage, and cranberry stuffing (here's a link to my recipe which doesn't have cranberries but easily could). Rounding out the menu were shredded brussel sprouts with candied walnuts, gravy, my sister's cranberry relish, and of course, (non-soggy) white rice.

You would think by this time we'd be eating, but no, someone was still shooting photos of being at the table, like this:

or this...

Out of all the pictures we took on Thanksgiving, what was the most photographed? You guessed it ...

... the Filipino mocha cake. Forget turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, veggies, or the apple, pumple (pumpkin-apple), and pecan pies. If we had the mocha cake, we'd be all set.

Mocha cake is awesome. A chiffon cake infused with coffee flavor, it's light and springy. Like other Asian cakes, it's not too sweet. And the buttercream frosting is the perfect finish.

My mom brings two cakes with her across multiple state lines, so Thanksgiving will be true Thanksgiving. The cake is made by Tita Marge -- she's not my aunt, but Filipino kids call everyone "Aunt" or "Uncle." Tita Marge makes Filipino food to order, which is right up my mom's alley since she doesn't cook. I begged and pleaded Tita Marge to give me the recipe at my parents' 50th anniversary party. You would have thought I was asking for her ATM pin number.

One day, I'll have to figure out how to make this cake, but maybe not. Waiting to eat this cake once or twice a year is part of what makes it special.

Whether you are photo hounds or not, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Menu

Lunch
Italian Wedding Soup
Gorgonzola Salad

Dinner
Deep Fried Turkey
Leek and sour cream mashed potatoes
Shredded brussel sprouts with candied walnuts
Roasted cauliflower and fennel cazuela
Cornbread Sausage Stuffing
White Rice
Cranberry Relish
Gravy

Pumple, Apple, and Pecan Pies
Filipino Mocha Cake

Rewind: Thanksgiving 2009

2010-11-21T07:58:00.000-08:00

It's the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and I'm beginning to think through what my menu will be this year. How nice is it to have a blog to see what I made last year. I include my post below, in case it will help you plan your Thanksgiving menu.

I know for sure that this year we'll go back to frying two turkeys. Fried turkey is the best. My brother Ed is going to make cranberry stuffing and an apple pie. Sister Marichelle is making her cranberry-pineapple relish and bringing pies. My mom is bringing two Filipino mocha cakes (to die for!) and other Filipino treats. Uncle Pros will come with Chinese duck and roast chicken, Chinese puto, and who knows what else.

Now I just need to decide what I will do. Do you have your menu set?

"The Love of a Family is Life's Greatest Blessing"

I have the privilege of hosting Thanksgiving every year. My parents fly in and stay with us during the week. My siblings come in with their families, and my Uncle Pros and his family come. We don't see each other that much, maybe a couple times a year, so it's a real treat to get together.

We fall into our roles. I shop and cook most of the meal. My brother Ed sets the table. My Auntie Nanette always jumps in to wash dishes during the cooking process -- there are always lots of dishes! My mom supervises. My husband and the guys fry the turkeys. My dad always carves.

Then there's the series of horrible jokes from my Dad and Uncle Pros, running political commentary, story after story of our childhood, my nephew Christian who makes us laugh til we cry, and arguing about passages in the Bible. There's a lot of laughing and some yelling.

You know. Family.

This year was a little different, because my sister and family couldn't come (sad), but my older brother and his family came for the first time (happy!).

Brother Ed went about his task of setting the table, not easy in this decoration-less house. Edward always makes the table beautiful, making use of what the trees and bushes have to offer outside.

Turkey, Turkey, Turkey, Turkey So Fine

Then there's the turkey. As long as I've hosted, we've fried the turkeys. Fried turkey is the best! But this year, my husband was ready for a break, so we did something radical -- we roasted it.

The last time I tried to roast a turkey, it was disastrous. I called my Irish-American mother-in-law in a panic ... where to stick the thermometer? She tried to tell us, but we obviously couldn't follow directions. We took the turkey out, thinking it was cooked. It wasn't.

Ick.

Luckily, we had fried a turkey -- the fried turkey was supposed to be the experimental turkey that year -- so we ate that.

This year, I had the opposite problem. I bought a 20-pounder, and I brined it as usual. I highly recommend brining. I was gleeful, thinking I was going to smoke this big boy over hickory wood on my new obsession, the Big Green Egg.

Alas, it and the roasting pan didn't fit into the Egg.

Plan B was to cook it on the Weber Grill. I figured it would take about 6 hours, so I started the turkey in the oven, using Anne Burrell's roasted turkey recipe. Anne's recipe is delicious, by the way, and the apple cider in her recipe and cooking the turkey at high heat for the first hour made the bird burnished and browned.

Four hours in, I pulled the turkey out and put it on the preheated grill, so I could use my oven for other things. Even though the turkey had one of those popping button things to tell you when it was ready, we decided to stick a thermometer in to check it. My brother actually knew how to use the thermometer on a turkey.

Uh oh.

It registered 170F in the breast. It was done, two hours ahead of schedule. Actually over done. And the popping button thing was still unpopped.

Luckily the brine saved the turkey. It was moist and flavorful if not the juiciest turkey in the world.

Then again, it's hard to beat the juiciness of a fried turkey.

Intermezzo

Since we were planning to serve dinner around 6 pm, we had some light lunch fare.

The Italian Wedding Soup was a big hit, such a big hit that I don't have a picture. Italian Wedding Soup is a soup with little meatballs floating merrily in chicken broth, with some kind of green vegetable (I used spinach, but kale and escarole are also used) and sometimes shredded egg.

My mother made this soup the first time she cooked the Thanksgiving meal, when I was in college. We were all pretty sure she was going to mess up Thanksgiving -- I mean, a woman you have never seen cook your whole life is going to cook the biggest meal of the year? -- but that's another story.

It was also good fortune that I made Italian Wedding Soup as my sister-in-law Tina, who is Italian-American, shared with me that her mom makes the soup every year for Thanksgiving.

I also made a Butternut Squash Soup served with pepitas, for the vegetable lovers among us.

In addition to the soups and refreshing clusters of grapes, clementines, and cherries, we had a tray of salami, prosciutto di parma, provolone cheese, and sliced tomatoes lightly dressed with balsamic vinaigrette, served with freshly sliced Tuscan bread. I made the mistake of asking the Italian deli man if I could try samples of the domestic prosciutto ($10/lb.) and the Parma ham ($22/lb.)

Duh. As if there was even going to be a contest.

Finishing up the lineup was an offering of triple creme brie cheese, strawberry rhubarb jam, candied walnuts, and water crackers.

Ah man. Were these good. The creaminess of the cheese, the sweet-tart flavor of the jam, and the crunch of the nuts and crispness of the crackers were irresistible.

I wish I had taken pictures of this lovely spread -- the deep and vibrant red palate of the jam, grapes, cherries, and tomatoes; the pop of orange from the clementines; the creamy whites of the cheeses, bread and crackers, the sugary brown of the walnuts, and the rosy prosciutto and salami. Pretty and a delicious preface to the main event.

Dinner

I was perfectly on time most of the day. Until the turkey decided to be done two hours early.

Let's say the turkey got a good rest as I finished the rest of the meal, with the help of my sister-in-law who took over the salad, and my older brother who volunteered to make the gravy.

I threw a melange of cubed sweet potatoes, celeriac, carrots, acorn squash, and parsnips which I had tossed in olive oil, shallots, thyme, and salt and pepper to roast at 425F in the oven.

I quickly assembled the stuffing -- cubed Tuscan bread and crumbled cornbread, chicken broth, and a saute of onions, celery, apples, butter, and herbs -- and threw that in another oven.

I boiled the potatoes which Sergio had peeled and cut earlier in the day, and Tina helped mash them while I added a puree of leeks, chicken broth and butter I had made the day before, sour cream, and milk.

While my dad carved the turkey, I quickly made a sauce of shallots, white wine, orange juice, and chicken broth and tossed in haricots verts which I had blanched earlier in the day, to warm through and finish cooking.

Time for Dinner!

Salad of Goat Cheese, Candied Walnuts, Roasted Beets, Arugula & Mesclun with Balsamic Vinaigrette (pictured above in the far left).

Brined, Herbed and Roasted Turkey with Apple Cider Gravy

Stuffing with Cornbread, Sausage, and Apples

Mashed Potatoes with Sour Cream and Leeks and Apple Cider Gravy

White Rice, of course.

Sauteed Haricots Verts with Orange Sauce

Not pictured but still yummy:

Cranberry-orange-maple sauce
Roasted root vegetables

Desserts

The best thing about dessert is I didn't make any!

We had:

Filipino cashew boats, courtesy of my mom who brought them with her

Pumpkin pie and apple pie, courtesty of my older brother
Pecan pie and apple crumble pie, courtesy of my work
Ricotta cheesecake and carrot cake, courtesy of my aunt and uncle

Final Thoughts

While this post is mostly about food -- this is a food blog, after all -- Thanksgiving isn't really about the food. It's about taking the time to reflect about all that we have -- family, friends, a roof over our heads, food to eat, gifts of our hearts and hands to share -- and to open our eyes and take in the great beauty that quietly surrounds us and that we sometimes take for granted. How lucky we are.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Rewind: Roast Chicken a la Thomas Keller

2010-11-10T15:34:00.000-08:00

I am a huge Thomas Keller fan. I am absolutely ga-ga over his restaurant Bouchon. When I last went to Las Vegas, I ate there every day. To see why I went there every day, click here. I also have the French Laundry, Bouchon, and Ad Hoc Cookbooks, and they have an honored place in my kitchen.

Thomas Keller's high heat roast chicken is one of his famous dishes, because it's easy and flavorful. My friend Tania, after learning this recipe from me, says she makes it every week.

Since I'm making this chicken tonight, I will share again my post on this chicken. I hope you will try it!

*****

On the way home from school, I stopped at a local grocery store to pick up a rotisserie chicken.

My younger daughter said, "You say the chickens are really small here, and they're expensive."

I replied, "Well, I'm not going to drive to Costco to get a cheaper chicken."

But when I went into the deli section and found my hand hovering over the $7.99 miniscule, wrinkly chicken, I knew that my wise daughter was right. She knows me very well.

I came out with a farm-raised, no antibiotics whole chicken.

What a great opportunity to try out Thomas Keller's legendary roast chicken, which uses only salt, pepper, thyme, and a 450 degree oven. It cooks under an hour.

Whoa, this chicken is divine! A must try. Crispy. Succulent. Delicious.

I served it with pommes frittes (well, they were frozen Ore-Ida french fries aspiring to be pommes frittes - :)), leftover pan-grilled vegetables, and a gravy I made from the pan juices.

Kitty also got a gourmet meal out of the chicken liver in the giblets package, which were simmered with peas and orzo and then ground into a yummy cat mash.

Kitty reading Thomas Keller's Bouchon Cookbook, which I got for my birthday.

A few notes from the cook:

1) An organic or farm-raised chicken is a must, 3 lbs. max. Those mega-brands pump liquid into the chickens, and the natural chicken tastes much better.

2) A dry chicken is a crispy chicken. Make sure you super dry the chicken off.

3) Don't skimp on the salt. A good amount of kosher salt (1 tbs. or a little more) is needed to flavor the whole chicken.

4) Be prepared for your oven to need a run of the self-cleaning cycle after you make this spatter-inducing chicken.

Thomas Keller's Roast Chicken

One 2- to 3-pound farm-raised chicken
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp. fresh thyme, minced, or 1 tsp. dried thyme

Rinse the chicken, then dry it very, very well with paper towels, inside and out. Let the chicken sit out for 20-30 minutes before roasting, so that it gets to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 450°F.

Generously salt the chicken with kosher salt, inside and out. Remember that the salt needs to flavor the whole chicken. If you're using dried thyme, sprinkle thyme on the chicken and rub it in with the salt. Season with freshly ground pepper.

Truss the bird and put on a rack. (I used a silicone rubber band to tie the legs and then I put crumpled aluminum foil under the sides of the bird, which helped push the wings against the body. The foil also acted as an impromptu rack.) Put it in a roasting pan.

Roast it until it's done, 50 to 60 minutes. When it's done, the chicken will register 155 degrees with an instant thermometer between the thigh and leg. When it rests, it will reach a temperature of 165 degrees.

Remove it from the oven. Baste the bird several times with the juices. If you're using fresh thyme, add it to the juices before you baste the bird. Let it rest 15 minutes.

Cut and serve.

Leftover Maven: Beef Barley Soup

2010-11-07T16:15:00.000-08:00

Oh my, the smell of beef, onions, tomatoes, and thyme coming from this soup is intoxicating.

I had some leftover beef pot roast that I had cooked in the slow cooker with 1/2 can of fire roasted tomatoes, one onion I had caramelized until it was golden brown, a couple glugs of cabernet sauvignon, and 1 can of beef broth. It cooked on high for 5-6 hours until the beef was tender, and we enjoyed it with rice and roasted brussel sprouts.

Since I had a couple cups of leftover "pot liquor" and a few slices of beef, I decided to make some beef barley soup.

Soup is so easy. All you need is some stock, some diced veggies, and a little meat and/or starch (barley, pasta, rice, etc.) if you're so inclined. You don't need to measure with precision -- just add as much or as little as you like of the ingredients, and cut the veggies in big, rustic pieces, or in a petite dice.

In this case, I cut the beef in smaller pieces and poured the "pot liquor" and the beef into a pot. I added some more beef broth, the rest of the can of fire-roasted tomatoes, a couple spoonfuls of tomato paste, and big-dice carrots, celery, and potatoes. Fresh thyme and oregano, salt and pepper, and 1/2 cup of rinsed barley to finish it off. Cooked until the veggies and barley were tender. Added fresh cut parsley for a burst of color and fresh flavor. Done.

The smell is so good that you almost don't even have to eat the soup to be fulfilled.

Well, almost.

Looking for a real recipe? There are plenty to choose from at Foodgawker.

CHILI: And the Next Cast Iron Chef is ... Chris Thompson

2010-10-29T08:08:00.000-07:00

Last year some of my colleagues and I started the first chili cookoff at our school. I took top honors at the first Cast Iron Chef by a mere two votes! My award-winning recipe is featured here. I think what won it for me was smoking the chili on the Big Green Egg.

This year a whole new batch of competitors entered the contest and wowed us with their meat chilis and their secret ingredients, which ranged from heart healthy turkey, smoky chipotles, fresh and grassy cilantro, textured sirloin and bison, rich sausage, and the bass tones of chocolate.

3 of the 7 Chili cookoff contestants Jenny, Becky, and Sally.

There was a clear winner this time around, and it was Chris Thompson, pictured below with me.

Chris Thompson, 2010 Cast Iron Chef, and me, 2009 Cast Iron Chef, before the cookoff (Chris doesn't know yet that he will win!)

What's interesting to me about Chris' recipe is that he marinates the meat overnight with fresh peppers, onions and garlic, and lots of worcestershire sauce and salt -- a similar technique that my friend Coleen uses to make her Jamaican curry chicken to deepen the flavor. He also doesn't use that much chili powder or cumin, relying on fresh peppers. I use a good tablespoon of chili powder per pound of meat and at least a tsp. of cumin per pound, along with fresh peppers like poblano and jalapeno. As such, Chris' chili should appeal to those who like flavor but not lots of heat.

Give Chris' recipe a try at your next tailgate or football viewing party as his recipe is party size.

This Award-Winning Chili Recipe Will Make You a Hero
by Guest Blogger Chris Thompson

It is officially cold outside (at least if you just moved up North from Palm Beach, Florida), and one of the best cold weather dishes I can think of is a big pot of homemade chili. There are at least two things that make chili such a great thing, aside from tasting great: it’s cheap to make, and you can easily feed a lot of people, or create multiple meals for your family with just one pot.

What if I told you that you could feed a dozen people, or supply your family of four with multiple meals for three days all for under $25? Well you can, and you can do so even using steak! Vegetarians, you may want to look away now, because we’re going to be putting together a really hearty and meaty chili. If you don’t eat meat, I’m sure you could find something to substitute, and probably even save a good deal of money.

Anyway, I want to share with you a relatively inexpensive chili recipe, but not just any recipe. This recipe has even won awards at chili cook-offs. No, we’re not talking any national competitions you’d see on the Food Network, but this recipe and slight variations has won some top honors at a number of local events over the past 15 or so years including, amazingly enough, the 2nd annual chili cook-off I just entered! The original inspiration for this recipe came from the internet.

Ingredients

1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
4 poblano peppers, chopped
12 cloves garlic, minced
2 large yellow onions, chopped
1 lb. hot sausage, removed from casing and broken up into pieces
3 lb. top sirloin steak, cut in 1/2 inch cubes
4 tbs. worcestershire sauce
2 tbs. kosher salt and 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 tbs. Liquid Smoke
2 x 28 oz. cans of crushed tomatoes

1 28 oz. can of premium small red beans
2 tbs. chili powder
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. cumin
5 dashes Tabasco sauce
Ground cayenne pepper to taste

Preparing the Chili

Go ahead and chop the peppers into relatively small pieces, The same goes for the onions. Sweet onions are good if you prefer milder flavor. Of course, go ahead and use whatever kind you have on hand or prefer. In this case, I used two large onions (about 4 cups when chopped). Once you have your onions and pepper chopped, go ahead and mince up about 12 (or more) cloves of garlic. Then, throw everything into a big bowl. I have to stress the fact that it needs to be a big bowl, because not only are you putting all the veggies in here, but you’ll also be adding all of the meat and mixing it together for marinating a bit later.

Chop the steak into about half inch cubes. As seen above, that is only about 1 pound of the 3 pounds total that go into the mix. Once you add the chopped steak to the big mixing bowl full of onions and pepper, you’ll want to take the sausage and break it up into pieces. At this point you’re not looking to do anything special with the sausage other than make it easy enough to work with.

Now comes the fun part! To your meat, onion, and pepper mixture, it’s time to add the seasoning for the marinade. To the bowl, add a few tablespoons of salt. I prefer kosher salt myself, but whatever you have is fine. Then, add a teaspoon or so of black pepper. For me, that’s about 20 turns on my pepper grinder. Now it’s time for the liquid components. We’ll be using both the liquid smoke and the Worcestershire sauce. No exact measurements here, but I’d guess about 4 or 5 tablespoons of Worcestershire and maybe 2 tablespoons of liquid smoke to start (err on the side of too little than too much). Then, dig in with your hands! You need to thoroughly mix everything together. After you get things pretty mixed, you can determine if you need to add any more liquid. You don’t want a soup, but you want it to be moist and have everything covered. You can see from the image how mine turned out after mixing everything together.

Now, we wait. Cover the bowl, and throw it in the refrigerator overnight if possible. You really want the flavors to get into the meat since that is the heart and soul of this recipe, but if overnight won’t work, you can probably get by with 4 hours. The longer you’re able to let it sit, the better it will be. I know, the smell that this mixture has created will fill your house with some of the most amazing aromas ever, but you’re just going to have to wait.

Cooking the Chili

After the mixture has had time to marinate, it’s time to begin the actual cooking. You’ll want the largest skillet you have to make this process go as quickly as possible. Remember, we’re working with 4 pounds of meat and about 6-7 cups of vegetables. Even with a large skillet, it is impossible to brown everything in one batch. I know what you’re thinking, but don’t even try it. If you cram everything into the pan, you’re not going to speed anything up. It will take even longer to cook, and you’ll end up basically steaming the meat. So, work in batches. I have a 12-inch skillet that I used here and it took 3 batches. Each batch took about 7-10 minutes on medium-high heat. We’re not too concerned if the meat is 100% fully cooked since it is going to go into a pot and simmer for a few hours.

As your meat begins to brown, you’ll find yourself with something that looks like the picture above. Notice the liquid that’s coming out of the meat and veggie mixture. This is good! The last thing you want to do is to cook it so long that you boil this all away. You do want to have it reduce a little bit as to make sure you don’t end up with soup instead of chili, but this liquid that’s been extracted from the onions, peppers, meat and marinade is flavor that you can’t get anywhere else. So, it goes right into the chili pot (slow-cooker).

Once all of the browned meat is dumped into a big pot (or slow cooker), you can add the entire can of chili beans. Then, add almost one entire can of crushed tomatoes. I ended up using close to the entire two cans of tomatoes, but you want to be careful and go slow with adding them, because it can turn from chili to soup very quickly. Remember, you can always add, but it’s impossible to subtract. So start with that, and give it all a good stir to check the consistency.

This is the consistency you’re looking for, although if you like your chili more chunky or more soupy, go for it. Once you get the right consistency, it’s time for the seasoning. There is no exact science here, and you can really experiment with what works best for you. But you’ll want to start with about 2 tablespoons of chili powder, about 5 dashes of Tabasco sauce, and a teaspoon of both cumin and coriander. Top it off with a light sprinkle of cayenne pepper. Give it a good stir and see how it tastes. It will probably be pretty bland, and that’s fine. Again, it’s easier to add flavor, but impossible to take it out once it’s in. So, slow and steady is the key here. After adding the first round of spices, add a little more of each, with the chili powder being the primary ingredient, and add just small amounts of the others. Keep doing this until the taste and amount of heat is right for you.

All you have to do now is let it cook. I put all of this in a slow-cooker and let it cook on “low” for 10 hours. This long and slow cooking process really gives the meat a chance to become very tender, and all of the flavors and spices to come together.

Eating the Chili

And now it’s time to serve and eat!

ENJOY!!!

Leftover Maven: Filipino Pork Adobo

2010-10-22T18:28:00.000-07:00

I love leftovers, but my husband won't eat them.

Lucky for me that I have a particular knack for reinventing leftovers, so they are leftovers no more.

Tonight I had some leftover pork roast with linguisa that my mother-in-law made. I cut the pork into chunks, threw it into a pressure cooker with some chicken broth, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, and ginger ... voila! Filipino pork adobo. I even mixed in the leftover gravy into the sauce. Delicious!

What did I do with the leftover linguisa? Made fried rice of course.

Leftover Maven Pork Adobo

Leftover pork roast, cut into cubes (you can use uncooked pork too)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup rice or white vinegar
1 can chicken broth and water enough to cover meat
2-3 cloves garlic, smashed
2 coins ginger (take ginger and cut 2 slices, making "coins")
1 bay leaf
Freshly ground pepper
Ketchup

Add everything in a pot except ketchup and bring to simmer. Cover and cook until pork is tender.

Remove pork from liquid and pat dry with paper towels. Bring remaining liquid to a boil and let it reduce by 1/2. Brush pork lightly with ketchup.

Heat a skillet over medium heat until hot. Add a little oil. Pan fry pork until it's browned and a little crispy. The ketchup will help the browning process.

Add pork back to the liquid and serve with white rice.

Carrots in Apple Cider Glaze

2010-10-21T05:31:00.000-07:00

My mother-in-law was here and was making her signature roast pork and linguisa for dinner. Don't you just love relatives who show up and cook?

I was rooting around the fridge to see what I could add as a side. There were those baby carrots that my daughter Lizzy likes and some leftover apple cider from a football tailgate. Pork. Carrots. Cider. Sounded like a good match to me!

I simmered the carrots in water until they were just tender. In another saute pan, I put a little butter, apple cider, a shot of agave nectar, dried thyme, and salt and pepper and simmered it down until it was a glaze. Then I mixed the carrots in the glaze. That's it!

I don't have a recipe, but I wrote approximations below. The recipe is scaleable. If you cook more carrots, just simmer down more apple cider.

Carrots in Apple Cider Glaze

1 1/2 cups baby carrots
2 tsp. butter
1/2 cup apple cider
1 tbs. agave nectar (or maple syrup or brown sugar)
Pinch of dried thyme
Kosher salt & freshly ground pepper

Fill a small pot with cold water and add carrots. Bring to a simmer and cook until almost tender, about 8 minutes. You'll know it's almost tender, when you stick a fork in a carrot and it gives way but doesn't break in 1/2. Drain.

While the carrots are simmering, add rest of ingredients in a small saute pan and bring to a boil. Simmer down until it's syrupy but still liquidy enough to coat the carrots.

Add drained carrots to the glaze and mix, cooking the carrots a minute in the glaze over medium heat.

Enjoy!

Roast Pork Loin with Linguisa

2010-10-20T17:35:00.000-07:00

Trust me. This roast is so easy and so good. My mother-in-law learned this dish from her good friend Brian, who grew up in Fall River, MA. Fall River is well known for its Portuguese population, and of course, Emeril Lagasse.

Linguisa is Portuguese smoked sausage. Like chorizo and kielbasa, it's packed with flavor. It takes a bland roast and makes it taste fantastic, with no work. And the gravy? To die for.

This is a great dinner party dish. No fuss and you'll still look like a rock star.

Roast Pork Loin with Linguisa

1 pork loin, 3 to 3 1/2 lbs.
1 16 oz. package of linguisa, cut into 3 links of the same size.
Salt and pepper

Flour to make gravy

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butterfly pork loin. My mother-in-law does this by making a T-cut. She make 1 cut 2/3rds through the roast and then make the smaller cuts horizontally on each side.

Put linguisa in the center of the T and roll the pork around it. Secure with twine or over proof silicone rubber bands.

Salt and pepper the roast.

Put pork on a rack in a roasting pan and roast in the oven until the pork reached 150 degrees, about 1 hour. Ideally, your roasting pan is the kind that can be put on direct heat over the stove, so you can make gravy afterwards.

Let rest for 15 minutes. While the pork is resting, make gravy from the drippings.

Take roasting pan and put it over medium heat. Scrape the drippings from the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle flour and mix it into the drippings to make a paste. You'll sprinkle about the same amount of flour as there are drippings -- you'll just have to eyeball it. Cook together for a few minutes to cook out any floury taste. Slowly add water, whisking into the flour paste. Add the water little by little so your gravy doesn't get lumpy. Add enough water to make a gravy with the consistency you like. Salt and pepper to season. Strain and serve with the pork.

Roasted Cauliflower

2010-10-17T07:31:00.000-07:00

Roasted cauliflower rocks.

Nutty, a little crispy, garlicky and salty, these nuggets of flavor are just as addictive as potato chips. Except they are good for you. And they are diet-friendly to anyone avoiding carbs, gluten, and sugar.

Everyone who tries this recipe loves it.

I make roasted cauliflower in the simplest of ways: slice florets, toss with olive oil and minced garlic, generously salt with kosher salt (don't be shy -- think potato chip salty), and add a little ground pepper. The spices and flavors you could use are as endless as your imagination, however, as cauliflower is a good foil for just about anything.

I usually cook the cauliflower around 450 degrees for 20 minutes or more, flipping them so they brown on both sides. You can cook them longer so they get really browned and crispy -- they're really yummy when they're almost charred and cooked until most of the moisture is out of the cauliflower. The ones pictured here haven't been cooked to that point. You can cook them at a lower heat and then brown them under the broiler. You can cook them until they're well-browned, but if they're not tender and you can't stick a fork through them, turn down the heat and let them finish. This is what I love about cooking vs. baking.

If you've never tried roasted cauliflower, give 'em a whirl. You'll be pleasantly surprised, particularly if you're not a big fan of cauliflower like myself.

Roasted Cauliflower

1 head cauliflower

A few tbs. olive oil

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

Kosher salt

Freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Enjoy!

Pork Carnitas

2010-10-13T15:57:00.000-07:00

When I got married a long time ago, I got three, yes count 'em three, crock pots. You would think I would have used them multiple times over the near two decades that I've had them, amassing a formidable repertoire of slow-cook recipes that warmed our bellies and filled our hearts with fond memories.

Not.

I can count on one hand the times I have used these crockpots -- mostly to keep something warm during parties.

Since I recently lent a crockpot to a friend to use for a chili cookoff, I had it on the counter after I cleaned it out. Hmm, I thought, should I actually cook something in it?

A query on Facebook revealed that many of my friends were crock pot fans and loved coming home to a cooked meal. Honestly, I didn't get the appeal, being a pressure cooker fan myself.

Would slow win out over fast?

I decided to give pork carnitas in the slow cooker a try. Braised in a diluted orange juice mixture, a fatty piece of pork such as pork shoulder (aka Boston Butt) or country-style ribs is cooked until tender and the sauce cooks down and becomes syrupy. You can then shred the pork or cut it into chunks and fry it up in the rendered oil and sauce, either in a pan or under the broiler. Put the crisped meat in a tortilla with some fixings and you've gone straight to heaven.

In this cooking foray, I learned one crock pot lesson: don't start the crock pot at 4:30 pm if you want to eat at a decent time. At 6 pm, the liquid hadn't even reached a simmer.

I did what any enterprising cook would do. I bailed. Into the pressure cooker went the pork where it finished cooking in 30 minutes.

Pork after it's come out of the braising liquid. I like it in big chunks like this. When you pan fry the pork, the chunks will partially shred, giving you a variety of textures.

Braising liquid reducing down until it becomes a sauce that's got body and coats a spoon. When it's done, the sauce gets poured back over the pork and then used to help crisp it up, either under the broiler or in a sauce pan.

Pork carnitas with all the fixings. Delicious!

Pork Carnitas al Enrique

3-4 lbs. Boston Butt or country-style pork ribs, cut in big chunks (around 2 inches); do not trim any of the fat
1 cup orange juice or 1 large orange, cut in 1/2 and juiced (keep orange)
2 tbs. soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

2 tsp. chili powder

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup Coke, Pepsi, Sprite or 7-Up
2 bay leaves
1 large onion, cut in 1/2 and cut in thin slices
4 cloves garlic, cut in thin slices
1 guajillo pepper or dried red chili pepper (optional)

Toppings
Lime
Fresh cilantro, finely chopped
Shredded cabbage
Diced tomatoes
Pico de gallo
Salda verde
Sliced avocado

Put pork in a big bowl or baking sheet and sprinkle with soy sauce, chili powder, and salt and pepper. Mix together.

In a dutch oven, slow cooker, or pressure cooker, add pork mixture, onions, garlic, bay leaves, dried guajillo chili pepper, orange juice (and orange if you used a real one), red wine vinegar, soda, and water to cover. In the dutch oven, cook at a low simmer until pork is tender -- about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. In the crock pot, set in the morning and cook on low all day until you get home. In the pressure cooker, cook for about 45 minutes.

When the pork is tender, remove it from the braising liquid, along with the onions, and set it on a platter. Reduce liquid in the pan about 75% or until it's a sauce. Remove bay leaves, and if you used a real orange and/or the dried guajillo pepper, remove that from the pot before reducing.

Turn on the broiler. Pour some of sauce onto the pork. If cooking under the broiler, put the pork in a cookie sheet and under the broiler, turning occasionally until the meat is browned and crispy on the edges. Or brown and crisp in a hot sauce pan.

Serve pork on flour or corn tortillas with fixings.

Enjoy!

Food for Thought (1)

2010-10-13T04:32:00.000-07:00

When you focus on problems, you will have more problems. When you focus on possibilities, you will have more opportunities.

What are your possibilities today?

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

2010-10-11T06:01:00.000-07:00

This cake is so good that even the non-living want it ...

*****

My colleague Corey gave a wonderful talk at school about the idea of balance as the key to success. It's a message we all need to hear as we over-engage in some aspect of our lives. For me, this is work.

Corey counseled that we need a third piece to round off our work and family, a piece that we look forward to, rejuvenates us, and makes us better at work and family. For him, it's coaching, and during the summers, fishing.

For me, it's cooking and writing about food.

Corey reminded me that in the craziness that has characterized my life in the last five months, I have given up what makes me very happy. He reminded me that I need to make time for my passion.

So I am back to blogging.

A few days ago, I saw a pumpkin cake at How to: Simplify. I love the look and feel of this blog, as well as the name.

As the cake baked, it filled the kitchen with the smells of pumpkin and cinnamon -- the smell of fall.

I love the fall, don't you?

The cake was absolutely moist and delicious. These would be great as cupcakes too.

And the good news about my passion is that nourishes my family and work life, both figuratively and literally. Pretty good, right?

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
from How to: Simplify Blog
Ingredients:

Bars

4 eggs
1 2/3 cups sugar (I used 1 cup sugar)
1 cup canola oil (I used 1/2 cup oil)
1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

Frosting

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
3-4 cups confectioners' sugar
1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 baking dish.
Mix the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin with a mixer until light and fluffy.
Pour flour, powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda into another bowl and mix.
Pour flour mixture into pumpkin mixture and mix until incorporated and smooth.
Pour the batter into the baking dish and level out the batter.
Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool before removing from the dish or frosting.
Frost the bars when they have cooled -- To make the frosting: Combine cream cheese and butter in a bowl and mix until smooth. Add the sugar slowly until you reach the desired consistency. Stir in the vanilla.

* Recipe slightly adapted from Paula Deen

REWIND: Chocolate Drizzled Caramel Rice Krispy Squares

2010-10-10T13:38:00.000-07:00

It's true ... I disappeared again and haven't posted for awhile. Just as we got through moving -- the cause of my first 3-month hiatus -- work heated up and it's been non-stop. I also had the small problem of not being able to find my blog camera battery charger, so anything I cooked went undocumented. I just bought a new camera -- a Canon Rebel T2i -- and will fire it up shortly, but until then, let's do a rewind of these excellent fall treats my daughter made. If you're motivated, you could make them in cute pumpkin shapes!

*****

My daughter Christina and I were in the cashier line at the grocery store. You would think a kid would be tempted by the rows of candy and gum, but not Christina. Her hand went straight for a woman's magazine picturing well-designed pumpkins and claiming to have 178 new ideas for Halloween.
What inspired Christina was not the 178 new ideas that the magazine's editors and writers worked on, but the M&M advertisement section at the end of the magazine. The insert featured recipes using, you got it, M&Ms, and other brand products. She saw this picture of crispy pumpkin treats and wanted to make them.

We picked up the ingredients -- Rice Krispies cereal, marshmallows, caramel chews, butter, and chocolate -- and Christina went to work.
She measured out her ingredients and unwrapped dozens of caramel chews. Then she melted the marshmallows, butter, and caramels together and mixed that sticky, gooey mixture with the cereal. She spread the mixture out on a foil-lined jelly roll pan.

Faced with the choice of making rice crispy squares which could be eaten in minutes and pretty, chocolate-coated and orange-piped pumpkins on sticks, Christina punted.

She melted one cup of chocolate chips in the microwave, dipped a fork into the melted chocolate, and drizzled the chocolate onto the squares.

Then she cut off two pieces and went on her way.

Now that's good thinking!

For the recipe, click here.

Thai Chili Shrimp and How I Take Pictures for the Blog

2010-09-05T06:29:00.000-07:00

What do you do when you have little time but need to get dinner on the table?

I used to exercise the "pick up the phone" option quite a bit, but moving to a new house has changed our dining habits. We don't pass through town anymore to get home, nor do we live close to the major shopping and eating roads.

It seems a lot more convenient to grab a skillet and get to cooking.

Dinner took 5 minutes tonight and used only 5 ingredients: shrimp, garlic, oil, soy sauce and Mae Ploy Thai chili sauce.

Sweet and spicy, Thai chili sauce is very versatile. It can be used as a dip for spring or summer rolls, brushed on chicken or shrimp as a BBQ glaze, used in stir fries ... the sky's the limit. It's a great thing to have in one's pantry for quick dinners.

On another note, my colleague Jeorge, who is a photographer, asked how I take my pictures. My set up is primitive and looks like this:

I use a Lowel Ego photo light and something white to bounce the light back toward the food. My digital Canon Rebel -- one of the first digital cameras sold -- is so old that my new laptop doesn't recognize it. Maybe it's time to upgrade, but as a blogger, I think anyone can take good pictures without lots of investment.

Try this dish out with some white rice and a sauteed green vegetable. Fast and delicious!

Thai Chili Shrimp

1 lb. large shrimp, defrosted
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. soy sauce
Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce
Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Add a little oil and saute garlic for 10 seconds. Add shrimp and stir fry until opaque, a couple minutes. Add a little soy sauce for flavor and sweet chili sauce to coat (as much or as little as you like.

The Shrimp That Never Was

2010-09-03T04:40:00.000-07:00

I like to live dangerously.

I scurry here and there, always on the verge of a disaster, so close to the edge on deadlines that I can feel the wind from the abyss blowing upward through my hair and hear pebbles and loose branches scuttling from under my flats as they go spinning outward into nothingness.

Sometimes I make it, smiling serenely like Martha Stewart on tv as she displays her Good Things.

Other times I trip and fall head-first off the cliff, arms flailing like a colorful human pinwheel.

This time around I found myself running into my house 20 minutes before my guests. No problem, right? A little get together after work with wine and a few tasty treats to welcome new workmates Nancy and Erin. Easy peasy.

Slam! went the drawers as I threw random clutter into their dark recesses. Swish! went the broom as dirt bounced into the dustpan. Spray! went the water as it ran merrily over snap peas, red pepper, and carrot crudites. Crackle! went the bag as it popped open and out tumbled pita chips on a platter with bowls of hummus and red pepper-artichoke spreads. Creak! went the oven as it received the coconut curry chicken springrolls. Sigh! went the vacuum-packed container as it released the salty perfume of prosciutto destined to adorn the tops of bread sticks.

I'm rockin' and rollin' to my symphony of sounds. I even have time to line a platter with frizzy, sassy kale on which I'm going to display my main appetizer of Old Bay Shrimp.

5 minutes to go. Splash! goes the shrimp into its simmering, seasoned bath.

UH OH.

I watched in horror as white scum materialized and latched onto the shrimp's curves, transforming them into mutant shrimp. Eww.

DING DONG!

You'd think I'd be crying now as I fall off my metaphorical cliff, but who's at the door but Ruth with her famous multi-layer Mexican dip, Jeannette with her Italian pastries, and Julia with her pretty rollups. Sarah, Erin, Elizabeth, Desiree and Nancy bring wine, and in no time, we're enjoying ourselves in the family room, shrimp discreetly hidden away in the kitchen.

And that's how the shrimp became The Shrimp that Never Was, and I averted disaster.

At least this time around.

*********

P.S. The next night I opened another bag of defrosted Trader Joe's wild rock shrimp and Old Bayed it to see what happened. Was it the brand of shrimp I bought or something else? This batch turned out fine, and it's what you see in the opening picture. I can only posit that the shrimp in the first bag was not fully defrosted when I dumped it in the pot and maybe that's what causes the floating protein (scum). If you know what happened, please comment.

We make this shrimp a lot as it's easy, tasty, and fast. Great for football viewing and cocktail parties.

The recipe for Old Bay Seasoning Shrimp is here.

Ninette is Back: Chicken Pesto Meatballs

2010-08-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

Oh man, these pesto meatballs are a hit. If you haven't made anything from this blog, this is the one to try.

Even though our recent house sale and house purchase did not go smoothly, one of the real blessings that came out of the experience was housesitting at my friend Christine's for the month of July. Christine is elegant, kind, intelligent, generous, and balanced ... in fact, she and her family are the kind of people we should all strive to be.

In addition to Christine's house being the most lovely, warm, and comfortable house one can imagine, the house had a vegetable garden from which we could take what we wished. I never had a vegetable garden before, so I reveled in going outside and cutting lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes, green peppers, and herbs, including basil.

The fun thing about having a garden is that things keep growing! This is common sense, I know, but the joy I felt from going out and getting some basil and then going out a couple days later to find more basil waiting for me was immense.

How true that small things can make such a big difference.

Thanks to the bounty of the basil plants, I made lots of pesto. Bright and flavorful, pesto is versatile and can go practically anywhere. It's like summer's version of the LBD (Little Black Dress).

I would take a spoonful and add pesto to vinaigrette, slather it on chicken breast destined for the grill, and toss it with hot pasta. I would fold some pesto in eggs for a savory omelette and mix it with cooked chicken and a tad of mayo for chicken salad. All delicious.

Then I thought, what about pesto chicken meatballs? That sounds good. Good for appetizers with those little toothpicks with the frilly plastic on the ends, good in sauce, and good sliced and layered with spinach in a white lasagna.

And yes, these are good. So so good. You must make them.

Chef's Tips:

When I make meatballs, I usually eyeball the salt, pepper, and other spices. The easiest way to do this is to spread the meat out on a cookie tray in a layer the thickness of a hamburger and salt and pepper the top as you would your own cooked food. This goes for the other spices, breadcrumbs, etc. as well. I teach my kids this trick as everyone knows how to salt and pepper their own food at the dinner table, so this is a way to take cooking larger amounts and make it more accessible. Once you get a hang of this, you can eyeball ground meat in a bowl and know how much salt to put. If it's a measurement, it's probably about 1 tsp. kosher salt to one pound of ground meat, but I still have to test this ratio out to be sure.
Before I roll the meat into balls, I cook a small test sample in a skillet and taste the mixture first. That way, if I want to adjust the seasonings or the texture of the meatball, I can do it easily.
With the ground chicken meatballs, you want the mixture to be on the moist and sticky side. This will make them harder to roll, but they will stay moist during the cooking process. Be sure to wet our oil your hands so the mixture doesn't stick. Otherwise, your meatballs will look like porcupine balls.

Pesto Chicken Meatballs

(makes about 35 meatballs)

1 lb. ground chicken

1/3 cup pesto sauce, homemade (recipe below) or store-bought

1 small-medium onion, cut in fine dice

1/2 cup-3/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs (I take bread and shred it in the food processor or you can use panko)

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 egg, beaten

Splash of milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix ingredients together until just combined and seasonings are distributed. Mixture will be on the "wet" side.

Heat up a small skillet on the stove and put a little piece of the mixture. Cook and then taste. Adjust your meatball mixture as needed.

Using a tablespoon a a general measure, roll your meatballs and put them on a Silpat-lined cookie sheet or non-stick cookie sheet. These will be cocktail-size meatballs. Wet your hands beforehand or coat with oil, so the meatball mixture doesn't stick to your hands as much.

Cook the meatballs for 15 minutes or until cooked (you can cut into one and see if it's cooked all the way through).

Heat a large skillet over medium heat until hot. Add some olive oil and add the meatballs. Brown and serve.

Pesto Sauce
2 cups basil leaves, picked from their stems and loosely packed
1/3 cup fresh parsley
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
3 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 extra virgin olive oil or more
Pepper

Rinse basil thoroughly to rid it of any dirt. I use my salad spinner to do this and/or I soak the basil in a large bowl of water so the dirt will fall to the bottom of the bowl.

Bring a pot of water to boil. Add the basil and blanche, cooking less than a minute or so, or until the color turns a little darker. Cool immediately in an ice water bath or under cold running water.

Use the salad spinner to dry the blanched basil and or wrap in a dishtowel remove any excess water.

Blend the basil and the rest of the ingredients except for the oil in a mini-food processor or blender. Slowly drizzle in the oil until a paste forms.

TO TOAST PINE NUTS: Heat a small skillet over medium heat. Add pine nuts and cook, stirring, until you can start smelling the nuts and they get a little brown. Keep an eye on the nuts and stir as they can burn.

Ninette is Back: Naan Bread ... Or Is It Roti?

2010-08-15T11:13:00.000-07:00

I need my Indian food experts to chime in on this one ...

To go with chicken tikka masala, I wanted to make some flatbread to dip into the sauce. When I order chicken tikka masala at the Indian restaurant, I always get a side of naan. Naan is a slightly puffed flatbread, and it has a light smoky taste from its quick visit to the tandoor.

I was familiar with making an unleavened flatbread dough for scallion pancakes, which is flour, water, salt, and sesame oil. I figured naan must be similar but use milk/yogurt instead of water and ghee (clarified butter) instead of sesame oil. It may have yeast or baking powder, but I decided to stick with unleavened dough.

Here are my ratios for making flatbread: 1 part flour to almost 1/2 part of liquid. Splash of oil/fat for tenderness and salt for seasoning. A little sugar if that makes sense. For me, the sugar is not necessary for scallion pancakes, but since naan has milk in it, I thought a little sugar would be nice.

I let the flatbread dough rest for 30 minutes until the gluten relaxed, and then I cut it into 5 pieces. I rolled them thin, brushed them with ghee, and then we cooked them on a hot grill.

They were crisp yet flexible -- perfect for dipping into the chicken tikka masala sauce.

If it had been winter, I could have easily cooked them on a hot skillet, although I do know that this is the way you cook roti, which my friend Mala taught me to make. Her roti were also a little thicker and softer.

So here lies the issue of whether this bread is naan or roti or something in between. Is naan always leavened or can it be unleavened? Does the method of cooking -- on the grill/in the tandoor -- make it naan? Does the use of white flour make it not roti?

I don't know the answer, but I do know that whatever we made was terrific.

Indian Flatbread

Makes 4-5 pieces

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. sugar

Almost 1/2 cup milk

Splash of ghee or vegetable oil

Put flour in a bowl and mix in salt and sugar. Make a depression in the middle (I use the bottom of a 1 cup measuring cup) and pour in milk and oil. Using a fork in a circular fashion, take the flour from the edge of the depression and slowly incorporate it into the liquid. When you can no longer use the fork and have a shaggy dough in the bowl, dump it out onto a floured board. Lightly dust your hands with flour and knead the shaggy mass until it becomes a smooth ball of dough, about 10 minutes. As with any dough, you may have to add a little more flour as you knead (it depends on the humidity in the air).

Wrap the dough in plastic and let rest for about 30 minutes. Cut into 5 pieces and roll on a floured board (flour your rolling pin too) until you have oblong shaped of thin dough. Brush with oil and ghee.

Preheat grill to 500 degrees and make sure the grates are clean.

Place dough on grates and when it bubbles and is dry on the edges (a couple minuted), flip it over and cook the other side for a minute or two. The flatbread will cook quickly.

Before serving, you can brush the flatbread again with ghee or leave it plain.

Enjoy.

Ninette is back: Chicken Tikka Masala

2010-08-14T16:39:00.000-07:00

In early May, I had the crazy idea to put our house on the market. Three months and one wild-n-crazy ride later, I can finally sit down in our new home and blog again.

It's nice to be back to normal.

Even if normal means not yet finding the plates and wondering where my blog camera is.

My first blog back from the world of moving resulted from a craving. A foodie, my 12-year-old daughter Christina wanted chicken tikka masala. And she wanted it BAD(ly).

I can understand why. CTM is addictive, with its yogurt-marinated, spiced and grilled chicken pieces and luscious cream-tomato sauce, perfect atop fluffy basmati rice or as a seductive pool for naan bread. There's a reason why chicken tikka masala has been called Britain's national dish and is a mainstay at almost every Indian restaurant.

Christina was pouting, however, because at my in-laws' lakehouse where the kids were visiting for a few weeks, there isn't an Indian restaurant for miles.

No problem, I told her, I would make it the next time her dad and I came up to the lakehouse.

"Yeah, right," was written all over her face.

Did I mention she was 12 (i.e., teenager-in-training)?

When I was home, I really did mean to pack the things I needed to make chicken tikka masala, such as garam masala, and bring them with me. But time got away from me, and the next weekend I showed up at the lakehouse spice-less.

Do you think Christina forgot about the promise of chicken tikka masala?

Not a chance.

The chicken tikka masala recipe at Rasa Malaysia saved the day as it used easily found chile powder and cumin as its main spices. And while I would have liked some garam masala, it was delicious without it.

If you haven't ever made Indian food, this is a good way to start. It's super easy and delicious.

To anyone who followed this blog, thanks for waiting for me. I look forward to reconnecting with you.

Chicken Tikka Masala
(based on Rasa Malaysia's recipe with slight modifications)

3-4 boneless chicken breasts, skins removed and cut into approx. 3/4 inch pieces
1 cup thick natural yogurt

1 medium onion
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoon chili powder

1 tsp. turmeric

1/2 tsp. ground coriander

Kosher salt and ground pepper

Take cut chicken and put it in a large bowl. Generously salt. Add rest of spices and some freshly ground pepper. Mix together until the chicken is evenly coated.

In a food processor or blender, puree the onion, ginger, and yogurt together. Add yogurt mixture to chicken and mix together well. Cover the bowl or transfer to a Ziploc bag. Let marinate at least 2 hours or overnight.

When ready, remove chicken from yogurt marinade and discard rest of yogurt marinade. Grill pieces over medium heat until done, about 10-15 minutes. You can also cook them in a skillet or under the broiler of your oven, flipping occasionally.

TOMATO GRAVY:

1 cup tomat puree
1 cup heavy cream or half and half
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-2 jalapenos or red chiles, finely chopped (remove seeds if you don't like it too spicy)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons paprika powder
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1 tablespoon ghee or clarified butter or vegetable oil.
Handful of coriander leaves/cilantro, chopped
Salt and pepper

Heat a dutch oven or large skillet to medium and melt the ghee/clarified butter. Sauté the garlic and chopped jalapenos until fragrant. Sprinkle the ground cumin, paprika powder and a pinch of salt. Sauté for a further minute or two until the mixture turns into a paste-like texture.

Pour in the canned tomatoes, scraping the bottom of the skillet to deglaze it and to release any bits stuck to the pan. Simmer uncovered for approx. 10-15 minutes on low heat until the sauces begins to thicken, then add the grilled chicken pieces and cream. Simmer for a further 10 minutes, thickening the sauce further and to heat the chicken and cream through.

Serve sprinkled with fresh chopped coriander leaves and with steamed Basmati rice, fresh naans and pickles.

Packing Up My Kitchen Today -- What Would You Keep as Your Essentials?

2010-06-19T04:21:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone is doing well in the food blog world. I miss my virtual friends!

Since we put our house on the market in early May and sold in mid-May, it's been a whirlwind of emotion. We had a beautiful house -- the price was right, the location was right, and the timing of the move was perfect. We were soaring with excitement over our accepted offer on the new house and were moving forward with the paperwork, building inspection, etc. A week later, a counteroffer came in and we lost the house. After that, we descended into the valley of frantic house searching. Every time we were putting a bid on a house, another bid would come in. I thought to myself, I must be the good luck fairy for home sellers! Then we were in another negotiation where after we had agreed to a price, the seller came back and demanded list price.

Where is the famed buyer's market everyone has been talking about?

With all the craziness, I have cooked 3 times in the last six weeks, and today, I will pack up my kitchen. I gutted and renovated my kitchen in 2006, so it is with some regret that I will leave my cherry cabinets, my pantry with the pull-out shelves, my hot/cold water dispenser on my sink, and all the nifty things I put in.

Since we don't have a place to live yet, the contents of our house will go into storage as of June 30, the kids will go live with their grandparents for the summer, and Mark and I will housesit at a friend's house for the month of July. Hopefully, we will have a house by mid-August before school starts.

So as I face today's task of packing of my kitchen, I am thinking through what are my essentials that I will not put in storage. I'll report later what I kept, but what would you keep close to you if you had to pack up your kitchen?

On Hiatus for a House Hunt

2010-05-11T19:02:00.000-07:00

Oh my, it's been crazy! We put our house on the market a week ago, it sold, and now we have to find somewhere to live by June 30.

I have to put blogging and even cooking at all aside for the moment until we've settled somewhere.

Wish us luck!

Smitten Kitchen's Lime Yogurt Cake with Blackberry Sauce

2010-04-19T17:19:00.000-07:00

I get a daily feed from the Food News Journal, a great resource that serves up food news from all over the web. I discovered it when they featured one of my blog posts, and I'm so glad they found me. FNJ is one of my favorite sites now.

In the blog section of today's FNJ, I saw a link for Smitten Kitchen's Lime Yogurt Cake with Blackberry Sauce. A quick look at the recipe and the synapses in my brain immediately started firing away. Yogurt? Yes, I had some Fage from making a Greek-style dinner the other day. Limes? Yup, I had those from making a Mexican-style dinner last night. Blackberries? Nope, but I knew I had some raspberry preserves that I could thin down and use for the sauce.

I was in business.

I ran home, turned on the stove, and whipped everything together in a snap.

A little 30 minute visit to the oven and the cake was done.

Light,tender, and moist, this cake is a winner. What a great spring and summer cake to bring to someone's house or to serve for brunch!

Thank you, Smitten Kitchen. I've never made one of your recipes before, but I will be back. I now know why you are one of the Grande Dames of the Food Blog World.

And thank you, Food News Journal. Keep up the great work as I love your site.

For the cake recipe, please click here