Lentil and Tomato Soup

VEW

This is a really tasty Midle-Eastern take on lentil soup (Once you click of the link, scroll down this recipe--there are others listed along with it). I was skeptical that it would have enough flavor for my liking as I read over the recipe--but it was great. The key lies in grinding the spices. It's easy to find whole cumin and coriander seeds in the spice section of ant grocery store, and a spice grinder (aka coffee grinder) can be had for a little as $10.

I paired this soup with chunks of chicken marinated in a mixture of saffron, water, lemon juice and minced garlic, then cooked on my grill pan, and dill rice. I believe I posted dill rice previously but it wasn't coming up when I searched prior blog entries for it so here it is again:

1C basmati rice

2 C chicken stock

2-3 T dill

Put all ingredients in a pot and heat on high. Once it boils, cover and turn heat to low. It should be ready in about 2o minutes.

Thomas Keller's Egg Sandwich

VEW

If you're a fan of fried egg sandwiches, then you have to try this one. It's merely a slightly different take on the old standard, but the slight difference makes for a phenomenal treat. If you happen watch the Adam Sandler flick Spanglish, stay tuned at the end to see Keller demonstrate how to make his favorite midnight snack.

The World's Easiest Cookies

CLN

I have been given this recipe by several people but never really believed that they were good. Well, I finally tried some that a friend made and they are in fact delicious. I made them with natural peanut butter but you can certainly use the trans fat version if you so desire.

1 C peanut butter
1 C sugar
1 egg

Mix it all together and bake at 350 for about 12 min.
How's that for easy?

Raspberry Almond Scones

VEW
Yet another scone concoction that is pretty tasty. Is all honesty, can you really make one that isn't?

1/2 C ground almonds (use a food processor...)
2C all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 t salt
1T baking powder
3T sugar
6T cold, unsalted butter
1 egg
1/2 C whole milk
1/4t almond extract
1t vanilla extract
1 C fresh raspberries tossed with 1 T flour to coat

Preheat oven to 375. Mix dry ingredients together and cut in butter until mixture is like coarse crumbs. In a separate bowl mix wet ingredients, then mix into dry ingredients until a dough is formed. Knead a few times to incorporate all the flour. Divide dough in half and flatten into 2 rounds about an inch thick. Press raspberries into one round leaving about 1/2" at the edge. Lay the other round on top pressing down slightly. Press the edges together to seal the berries in. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Cut dough into 8 wedges and lay close together (not quite touching) in a circle. Brush tops with a little milk and top with turbinado sugar. Bake until golden--about 20 minutes.

Cookbook: Braises and stews

CLN

While roaming through William Sonoma I found a great cookbook propped up by the Le Crueset dutch ovens. It may just be that fall is approaching and I start to crave rich and comforting stews and braises but everything in this cookbook looks great. I ,of course, paid full price for it but you can get it used here.

Sage and Cracked Pepper Papardelle with Wild Mushrooms

VEW
I could eat pasta with mushrooms for the rest of my life and be happy.If you’re luke-warm about mushrooms, I think this recipe could convert you to my side. The rich sweetness of the sauce and the fresh earthiness of the pasta is a really great combination.

Pasta recipes vary tremendously as far as the ratio of flour to eggs and the type of flour. I have made many different kinds; I have mixed and rolled by hand, mixed by food processor, kneaded by hand and rolled by pasta roller. It’s all good and leagues better than dried and even the store-bought fresh pastas. The one constant is that you really should knead by hand for a few minutes. It gives you a silkier dough, and if you’re going to go through all the trouble of making pasta from scratch, you should want to get your hands in it! I’ll give you the latest recipe I’ve used, but if you have one you use, make it as directed, just add the sage and pepper to the flour as this recipe states.

2 ¼ C King Arthur brand Perfect Pasta Blend Flour

3 eggs at room temperature
1-2 T water
8-10 fresh sage leaves, minced
Freshly ground black pepper (about ½ t)
Mix the flour, sage and pepper. You can either make a well in the center of the flour mound and add in the eggs, gradullay incorporating the flour as you mix, or if you’re short on time you can do this all in a food processor. Mix in the egg and little bits of the water at a time until the dough just clings together. Knead for at least 3 minutes; 6-10 will yield increasingly better results. Wrap in plastic and set aside to rest for 20 minutes. Alternatively, throw it in the fridge and take it out 20 minutes before you’re ready to use it.
I use an Imperia hand-crank pasta roller to roll out sheet of pasta and then I cut them however I want. To make pappardelle, flour the sheets well and then fold them in half, in half again, in half again etc. until you have a small sheet that is manageable to slice into 1” ribbons with a large knife. Unroll them and lay on a floured towel . If you aren’t going to use your pasta right away, or if you want to store for a few days or even weeks, you can freeze it on a cookie sheet. When ready to cook, just drop in boiling water as you would dried pasta. It will cook in about 3 minutes. (This is very helpful if you end up making more pasta than you can use in one night).

Mushroom sauce
2T unsalted butter
2 large shallots, sliced in ¼” rounds
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 lb assorted mushrooms, thickly sliced (shitake and baby portobellos are readily available in most stores)
3/4oz dried mushrooms such as porcini or Polish Cépes, soaked in ½ C boiling water for 30 minutes
1/4C dry red wine
1/3 C heavy cream
3T ricotta cheese
¼ Cup finely grated parmesan or pecorino cheese
1T freshly chopped parsley
Melt the butter in a large frying pan and sautee the shallots and garlic until beginning to carmelize. Deglaze the pan with about ¼ C red wine. Simmer until wine is almost gone, then add the fresh mushrooms. Cover and cook over med-low heat until softened—about 8 minutes. Add in the dried mushrooms with their soaking liquid. (It’s generally a good idea to pour the liquid through a fine mesh sieve to keep any sediment from your dish.) Gently simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Make sure your sauce stays saucey. If you find the pan drying out a bit, turn down the heat and/or partially cover the pan. Pour in the heavy cream and cook for another 5 minutes. Just before serving stir in the ricotta, parmesan cheese and parsley. Gently toss with cooked noodles. Serve with a drizzle of fine extra virgin olive oil and some gray salt. I could die happy…

Swiss Chard and Ricotta Ravioli

VEW

This is a nice mellow recipe and a great way to incorporate Swiss Chard into a meal if you find yourself at a bit of a loss as to what to do with it (like me). A friend of mine who is a great cook made this as written and raved about it. I had extra time on my hands so I made pasta from scratch rather than use the store-bought wrappers the recipe suggests. Homemade pasta will never disappoint you and it really is very easy. It is a bit time consuming until you really get the hang out of, that is the only conceivable argument anyone could have with it. We have been enjoying making pasta for about 9 years now. I remember in the beginning we would make it with friends and we'd end up eating at 10pm. The meals were always fabulous, so it didn't seem to matter. These days the process is much faster, so if you're put off by the time factor, keep going! I will post more later on making fresh pasta as the comfort food season is almost upon us and what is better than pasta?

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes!

VEW

The perennial question of what to do with the abundance of in-season tomatoes is upon us. Here are a few good recipes that I have made this week.

Rustic Tomato Tart. You can use purchased pie crust or puff pastry to make such a tart, which is what I do in a pinch but I don’t love them. Homemade is definitely the way to go if you have the time (you can use a basic pate brisee recipe like this). While you can use just about any cheese that suits your fancy, I have had great success with Brie, Fontina and goat cheese. You can add in any combo of fresh herbs that floats your boat as well. I like the pepperiness of thyme to offset the sweetness of basil, but really, anything goes with tomatoes and cheese right?

1 recipe tart dough (see above)

variety of fresh tomatoes, sliced in 1/2" slices

variety of fresh chopped herbs

Parmesan cheese

Your choice of cheese, thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 375. line a baking sheet with parchment paper.Roll dough into a circle and transfer to parchment. Sprinkle with some freshly grated Parmesan and put in the oven for about 8 minutes, or until just beginning to turn golden (not brown!). Remove and layer tomato slices in concentric circles leaving about 1 inch of dough at the edges. Sprinkle with herbs. Top with cheese. Gently fold the edges of the dough inward, pleating as you go to form a rustic looking tart. Bake until the cheese is melted and the crust is golden brown.

The finished product

Roasted Tomatoes with Herbed Goat Cheese and Lavash Crackers
This past weekend the number of tomatoes gracing my countertops slowly threatening to go bad were causing me a fair amount of stress. So I cut up a bunch of the Garden Peach variety that is growing like mad in my garden and tossed them in a pan with salt and olive oil and roasted them at 350 until they were soft and carmelized. At this point my husband announced that he would like to make the appetizer, so we ran out to our garden in the pouring rain and cut some chives, oregano, parsely, thyme and basil and came in sopping, but triumphant. My willing sous-chef finely diced the herbs and mixed them into about 4 oz of goat cheese with a little cracked pepper and then dropped mounds over the roasted tomatoes. We served it with some homemade lavash crackers and voila!

Shrimp Tikka with Mango Chutney, Coriander and Cilantro Flatbreads with Raita

VEW

This is FANTASTIC. So good, so fast. It is perfect as written, but when I want to make it even faster, I skip the skewering/grilling of the shrimp and just throw the whole batch in a frying pan and cook it up.

The flatbreads (pictured above) are so tasty and easy! I have made them one at a time in a frying pan, but tonight I made the whole batch at once on my griddle and they were great. Please try this if you have even a small affinity for Indian food. It is one of my favorites.
Oh, one more thing. I am usually die-hard about making everything homemade, but as good mangoes are generally hard to find where I live, I have used a mango chutney that a local farm makes instead of making my own and the recipe doesn’t suffer one bit. Enjoy!

Avocado-Feta Salsa

CLN
I am a self-proclaimed queen of dips and this one is a favorite. I recently brought this to a party where is was promptly devoured by my neighbor.

2 plum tomatoes, chopped
1 avocado, chopped
1/4 C. finely chopped red onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T. fresh parsley
1 T. fresh oregano
1 T. olive oil
1 T. red or white wine vinegar
4 oz. feta cheese, coarsely crumbled

Combine all but the feta and gently stir. Add in feta and cover and chill for up to 6 hrs. Serve with pita or tortilla chips.

Curried Zucchini Soup

CLN

I have been getting my fair share of zucchini lately from my farm but unfortunately, my husband is not as fond of it as I am. I started making this recipe and even my husband enjoys it now. I tried freezing it with moderate success. The taste wasn't compromised but the texture was a bit. I have served it with a variety of things including: frittatas, salads, sandwiches and grilled bread with cheese melted on top ....enjoy!

Eggplant

VEW

Eggplant: (n.) A vegetable that inspires apathy, boredom and even fear as it begins to show up in increasingly larger quantities in my farm share.

This is one thing I haven't loved seeing in my farm share basket. There are some people who can make eggplant taste good, even interesting, but I am not one of them. I usually find it bland and soggy at best. Tonight as I trolled the crisper for ideas for dinner, I had 3 white eggplants glaring at me at if to say, are you really going to let us go the way of that first batch of Swiss chard?

No, I decided, I am not. I will conquer you! Of course this conquering was occurring right around 5pm with 2 children getting more ornery by the minute, desperately needing something to eat. So I tried this recipe for Rigatoni with Eggplant, Tomato and Ricotta despite the fact that it sounded utterly bland.

I was wrong.

It was actually quite tasty. My uber-finicky eaters even ate it. Go figure. I made it as written using a white eggplant and I used linguine because it's what I had. It worked just fine. If I were to make it again, I would toss it with freshly made pasta, and perhaps toss in a mixture of fresh herbs in addition to the basil that is called for. If you give it a try, note that the recipe is for 2 and didn't make much, so you may want to double it.

Peach Cobbler Scones

VEW
It’s August and we’ve just begun getting fresh peaches from our farm share. I love peach cobbler but would feel a little guilty about eating it for breakfast so I came up with this slightly better-for-you alternative.

2 C unbleached all purpose flour (I prefer King Arthur)
2 T white sugar
Scant ¼ C packed light brown sugar
1T baking powder
2T flax seed meal (bob’s red mill)
1t salt
1/8 t cinnamon
Bit of nutmeg*
6T sweet cream butter
1 egg
Scant ¼ C half & half
1/2t vanilla
1 ripe peach, skin removed and cut in a dice
Demerara or Turbinado sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 375degrees. Mix all dry ingredients and cut in butter with a pastry cutter until mixture is the size of peas. Pat diced peach with a paper towel to remove moisture; toss in flour mixture until each piece is coated. In a separate bowl beat egg, half & half and vanilla. Gently mix into dry ingredients and knead until dough comes together. It will be fairly wet and sticky after a brief bit of kneading. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and form dough into 6-8 rough balls. Sprinkle with sugar and bake for about 15 minutes until golden.

*Using whole nutmeg and grating a bit with a small microplane grater is easy and far better than using the store-bought pre-ground kind.

Make it Beautiful

VEW

I love cooking, but my first love is painting. I am a painter and my preferred genre is still life. That pretty much means I get inordinately excited about things like grocery store produce sections and farm stands. I think there is an insane, even existential beauty in simple, natural things. If you really stop and think about it, the lovliness of vegetables and fruits, not to mention the tastes and textures when we actaully put them to use and eat them, it can truly be overwhelming.

Today was the first pick-up at the farm from which I have purchased a share. We were told not to expect much--it's still early in the growing season here and the nights can still drop to fifty degrees or so. I arrived not expecting much and was pleasantly surprised. Three types of lettuce, bok choy, pea shoots, strawberries, chives. I couldn't wait to get it all home and washed, and when I did, I wrapped it up bouquet-like in papertowels and layed it in the fridge. Every time I opened the fridge I smiled.

As I prepared dinner tonight I realized that as much as I love cooking I look forward most to plating things. It can be an artform. I don't always do a good job of this--to be honest, many nights it's all I can do to get a decent meal on the table in the pot it was cooked in. But taking the time to make what you've spent time cooking beautiful is worth the minimal effort. Plating elevates anything and adds to the sensual pleasure that is eating. Early on in my cooking career if nothing else I would grind some cracked pepper, or sprinkle an appropriate dried green herb around the edges of my plain white plates. Tonight I made a great summer appetizer that we learned at Reza's restaurant in Chicago: Pita with feta, radish and parsley. I have a large white circular platter, I arranged the pita quarters fan-like down two of the sides and placed 2 chunks of feta at either end. The center was filled with bright red radishes and bouquets of parsley framed the edges of the plate. I'm sure I'm the only one who gets excited at the sight of such a thing--but it really was pretty, and that makes it more fun to eat.

None of us lives life as slowly as we would like, taking a little extra time to make it beautiful is worth the time and will enliven your table in new and fun ways.

A Serendipitous Kitchen Mishap

VEW

One fine day, as the birds were chirping and the sun was shining and a gaze out my kitchen window revealed that after three years my gardens were at last showing signs of flourishing, I decided it would be better to prep some food for a party under these idyllic circumstances rather than fitting it in willy-nilly to the mayhem (albeit joyous) that tends to make up Saturdays at home with young children.
My tasks were easy enough, even a bit rote, so perhaps I was daydreaming as I reached out my arm to place the 1.5 liter bottle of olive oil that I keep at hand back in its spot by the stove…and missed. Let me take a moment to set the scene: In the corner of the kitchen where I usually work, there is a large, two- tier lazy susan that is likely supposed to be used for pots and pans. I find that it is much more convenient to store my spices, oils, vinegars, garlic, etc. there instead as everything can be seen in a quick spin. At this given moment, the lazy susan was open, revealing numerous bottles of all sorts of things. On the counter above are glass jars with flour, sugar, etc. and some oils, salt and pepper that I use regularly. Can you picture it? As I reached out to put the probably-too-large bottle of olive oil back, it jumped out of hand smack into the corner—glass hitting granite--and simultaneously spewing oil and tiny fragments of glass all over the top of the counter and its inhabitants and more horrifyingly, the lazy susan and all it contained. Now, when my stove was installed, one of the feet broke just slightly enough to make the oven ever so uneven that whenever I make a cake I have to arrange the layer just so or I have a sadly lopsided cake…I was not so lucky with the lazy susan. It was installed impeccably, and somehow doesn’t sag under the weight of everything it is forced to carry; I found this out as the oil quickly engulfed all the spices from B to T (yes, I alphabetize them) encompassing about 320 degrees of the circle--47 bottles of oil soaked glass and paper.
After cleaning up the glass, which stuck like shrapnel to the sides of so many bottles and occasionally my fingers, I began the long and tedious process of bathing each bottle in hot, soapy water and massaging them clean with towels. As I was doing this though, my woe-is-me pitying of myself turned to thoughts about cooking and why I love it so much as to have all this junk in the first place (and yes, I use it all…except perhaps for the pickling spice. Just why would I have that?). This is what I realized, again, for I have had this epiphany before: cooking brings people together, allows you to serve people you love and enjoy and reminds of times and places. Eating together is one of the most intimate things people do—across all cultures and times. As I washed off each individual bottle, stories came flooding into my head; the tasty Garam Masala from a little shop the my sister-in-law discovered and gave as a gift along with a great cookbook from Madhur Jaffrey, the copious yellow-labeled bottles from Penzey's Spices that I was turned on to by CLN of this blog, the saffron that was brought back from Turkey by a friend of a friend and shared with me. Washing the paprika I began remembering the first time I decided I liked hummus—at a party given by a friend who I’ve lost touch with and shouldn’t have. It seems silly and sentimental, but the preparation of certain meals and use of certain spices reminds me of travels with my husband and dear friends, of people come and gone, of who we were before we had kids, of who we are since having kids. It truly is one of the threads that makes up the tapestry of life and this little mishap made me take a rare minute (or 25 really) to contemplate how blessed I have been in life, how much I love the people with whom I’ve shared meals and of all the meals I look forward to sharing in the future.
So while I can not recommend shattering your own bottle full of olive oil all over your kitchen, I can say that life’s too short to eat without thinking or cook without caring—at least some of the time. Food is sustenance in so many more ways that the obvious. Perhaps that’s why heaven is often described as one big feast. Count me in. Cheers!

Great Pancakes!

VEW

These are easy and quick to whip up from scratch--and I feel good about giving them to my kids which is always an added bonus:

1C wheat flour

2T flaxseed meal

2T wheat bran

1T sugar

2t baking powder

1/4t salt

Mix the above ingredients together and then add the following 3 ingredients after you've mixed them together:

1C milk

1egg

2T canola oil

I usually add blueberries (the small, wild ones are best) at this point, but you can add in whatever you like.

Cook them up, put on "It's A Good Day" by the Susie Arioli Band and you have all the makings of a June Cleaver sort of day.

Grilled Salmon with Dijon-Honey Vinaigrette

VEW

When you live in the northern parts of the country you must squeeze every drop of warm, sunny weather out of the few months that comprise Spring, Summer and Autumn. For me that means grilling often. I'll grill just about anything that one can eat, but fish has always scared me a bit. I've done fish steaks, but fillets have always left me with visions of shredded bits of flesh stuck to my grill thereafter flavoring all other meats with a general and no so appetizing fishy-ness. I am well aware that there exists a host of gadgets to combat this problem: cedar planks, roasting baskets, racks. Being a relative gadget minimalist, I have never wanted to acquire any of these, but I have the cabinet space so what am I afraid of? I am currently in the market for some such things. However, as a recent trip to Florida proved, such things may make life easier, but are not necessary. I was cured of my irrational bias against grilling fish when my brother-in-law, a self-proclaimed mere occasional griller, grilled a large Grouper fillet to not-shredded perfection over a sea-air corroded gas grill that had 3 of 4 burners on the fritz. I came home determined to get right in the saddle. I went to the store and bought some wild Coho Salmon and made this recipe from Bobby Flay. It was great. The vinaigrette was just as good on a simple salad of Romaine, cranberries, walnuts and crumbled blue cheese as it was on the fish, and I am confident that when I grill chicken tomorrow, it will not taste like last night's salmon. Did I mention the whole meal including time to light a charcoal grill took 25 minutes? Give it a whirl.

Bolognese sauce--so easy, so good

There are a million takes on this meaty ragu that takes its name from the city of Bologna on the north eastern side of the Italian boot. I fell in love with this simple dish at a little restaurant in a tiny hamlet called LaMole in Chianti. You can find a bunch of recipes all over the internet but in my opinion the things that make a really good sauce are the use of whole milk, dry white wine, good meat and time. The sauce requires little hands-on time but will benefit greatly from a lot of time simmering on the stove.

Finely chop:
3 stalks celery
2 carrots
1 large onion
4 cloves garlic

Saute in 1/4 C extra virgin olive oil until golden--about 5 minutes. Then add:

1 lb ground pork and 1C chopped pancetta or prosciutto
(You can substitute or add ground veal or ground beef as well--all in all you want about 1.5-2lbs of meat for this recipe)

Once the meat is no longer pink, add in:
1 6oz can tomato paste
1C whole milk
1C dry white wine
1 C water

Simmer covered for about 1.5 hours. Season with coarse salt and then take the lid off. The sauce will be very saucy at this point--it is best very thick and this is achieved by simmering away most of the liquid so only the solids and the oils remain--about another 1-1.5 hours.

Best served over homemade/fresh pasta such as linguine, pappardelle or spaghetti.

A good accompaniment is a fennel apple salad (from Simple Pleasures by Alfred Portale)
Finely slice 1 Granny Smith Apple and 1 bulb fennel. Combine with a little olive oil, the zest of 1 lemon and some shavings of parmesan. Season with coarse salt. I served over arugula dressed with lemon juice and a bit of olive oil. This was a really light, sweet and nutty salad which complemeted the richness of the pasta well.

Better Cinnamon Chip Scones

I made these the other morning fully expecting them to be not quite as good as the regular recipe (posted here a few months back) but they were in fact better! Try this out:

1C unbleached all purpose flour (I use King Arthur)
1C whole Wheat flour
2T sugar
1T baking powder
2T wheat bran (Bob's Red Mill brand)
2T ground flaxseed meal (same brand as above)
1t cinnamon

Mix all of the above together then cut in

7T unsalted butter

mix in 1/2 C king Arthur cinnamon chips

Mix together the following and then add to the flour/butter mixture:
1 egg
1/3 cup heavy cream + 1% milk to equal 1/2C total
1t vanilla

**If the mixture is not coming together readily, just add milk by 1/2T until you can form it into a knead-able dough.

Mix and knead until dough comes together. Form into 2 balls and flatten each into a disk. Cut into wedges. Bake on parchment lined sheet at 425 for about 12 minutes. Makes about 8-10 scones depending on size.

Bistro Entertaining

VEW

This 2 course casual dinner is tasty, short on prep and encourages conversation and even help from your guests.

Appetizer

Mussels Steamed with Vermouth and Thyme

Place 2 T butter in a large pot and melt. Add 1 finely chopped shallot and 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic. Saute until tender but not yet golden. Add 2 cups vermouth or white wine and a few springs of thyme. Bring to a boil and then add in 2lbs cleaned mussels (always discard any mussels that do not close upon touch when you're cleaning them). Cover the pot and steam for a few minutes. Remove mussels to a large bowl. If you wish, add one more chopped shallot to the broth and cook until translucent. Throw in some chopped parsley and pour over the mussels. Serve with good crusty (or toasted) bread.

Main Course

NY Strips with Mushroom Madeira Sauce

The recipe referenced here uses blade steaks which are less expensive than NY strips--but my husband vetoed using them. The sauce is great and super easy--but if you want something richer whisk in a little butter (1T) and cream (3T) at the end and that should do it.

Sides

Zucchini Friti

SO GOOD.

What can I say? The cooked zucchini clumps up--which is good because it makes for great presentation and makes it easier to eat. Cut 4 medium zucchinis into matchstick about 1/8" thick. A Mandolin would be helpful but isn't necessary. Pour canola oil a couple of inches deep in a large pot and heat to 375. Dip handfuls of zucchini in a bowl of milk, then in a bowl of flour. Cook in the oil for about 3 minutes or until they are a light golden color. Remove (a spider is very useful for this) and drain on paper towels. Salt just after removing.

Green Beans with Shallot Dijon Vinaigrette

Blanch about a pound of green beans in salted, boiling water until crisp tender--about 4 minutes. Drain and run under cold water to stop cooking. In a jar add 1tsp Dijon mustard, 1T minced shallot, 1tsp fresh thyme, 1tsp fresh tarragon, 2T white wine vinegar and a little salt and white pepper to taste. Shake up and then add about 2T olive oil. Shake again and pour over beans. * This is not your typical vinaigrette ratios of oil to vinegar--it makes a much thicker, tangier dressing that sticks well to the beans.

Dessert

Chocolate Polenta Cake with Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

If there's one thing I could impress on you it would be to make this cake. I love Italian cooking and have thus come across polenta in dessert recipes numerous times but never made one until now. Why? Because polenta just doesn't sound that appetizing in a dessert. It certainly doesn't sound decadent. This cake is fabulous. It is similar to a flourless cake in that it only uses a tiny bit of polenta and a slightly larger amount of ground almonds. Together they make for an uber-moist, perfectly dense rich dessert. This goes to the top of my list for easy and tasty desserts. The homemade ice cream was a great addition, but store bought would be fine as would whipped cream. Oh, and when it says to line the cake pan with parchment, let the paper rise higher than the edge of the pan--don't trim the excess. The cake rises--souffle-like and the edges will keep it from spilling over like mine did.

A Few Changes for the Better

VEW

When we at the TP started this blog, it was with grand intentions...mainly for ourselves and our own enjoyment. We all love to cook and we thought that by recording our weekly menus we would be creating an archive that we could use and that others could also benefit from. Apparently, life with small children and a bevy of activities has caused us all to fall off the blogging wagon. It appears that our set up of recording a whole week's worth of menus complete with descriptions was too time consuming and thus we stopped writing all together. So from now on we will be posting meals that we find exceptional, occasional menus, reviews, entertaining ideas, etc.

Stay tuned for what we hope will be some fabulous ideas for summer cooking. We have joined a local farm and will be getting loads of organic goods to cook with...likely we will not know what to do with some of it and therein lies the fun.

Weekly Menu 7

VEW

Lamb Chops with Sundried Tomato Butter, Green Beans with Garlic and Prosciutto, Baked Eggplant with Prosciutto, Sundried Tomatoes and Kalamata Olives

Chipotle Chicken Fajitas with Quick Corn Risotto

Lemon Chicken, Baked Cauliflower with Lemon-Mustard Sauce, Wild Rice and Lentils

Day 1
This was a slightly more involved celebratory dinner I made for my husband, but it came together really quickly as the lamb cooks for mere minutes and everything else is pretty hands-off once it’s cooking. The Sundried-tomato butter was really good—I would definitely try in on a pasta or orzo as suggested (see recipe).

Season lamb chops with s & p, sear on a hot grill pan brushed with a little olive oil and just a few mintes per side (lamb should be served medium rare at the most...) Spread a little Sundried tomato butter on each chop.

For the green beans, sautee some garlic and olive oil in a pan for about a minute and add in about 2 T chopped prosciutto for one minute more. Rinse beans and throw in the pan, cover. Cook for about 10 minutes, remove the lid, add a bit of sea salt and cook until carmelized.

I am not a huge fan of eggplant, but this recipe was pretty good. I doctored it to use some of the ingredients I had left over from the other dishes above and it worked out well. A pretty forgiving recipe if you don't follow it to a T.

Day 2
Chipotle Chicken Fajitas with Quick Corn Risotto
The fajitas are straitforward: Cut some red, yellow and green bell peppers into strips along with onion and whatever else suits your fancy. Do the same with some boneless chicken breasts and marinate for at least 30 minutes in some lime juice, minced garlic and chipotle seasoning (How much you use depends on how hot you like it). My sister-in-law sent this to us and it’s great. It gives the chicken that smoky, spicy chipotle flavor and sets these apart from your run-of-the-mill version. If you can’t find a chipotle spice you like, you can replace it with 1-2 chipotles in adobo sauce—just beware that these are hot! Sautee the veggies first, then remove and tent on a plate to keep warm. Cook chicken, throw everything together for a minute in the pan and then plate. Serve with pico de gallo, sour cream, cheese, fresh cilantro and guacamole.

The “risotto” is easy and tasty. I’m not a fan of pepper jack cheese, but it’s what makes this dish great so don’t substitute plain jack cheese.

Day 3
Lemon chicken, baked cauliflower with lemon-mustard sauce, wild rice and lentils

This lemon chicken is one of my favorites. The cauliflower was so good I was wishing I’d bought 2 heads as I could’ve eaten one alone. You can easily cut the sauce in half and have plenty.

For the chicken, mix the juice of 4-6 lemons with ¼ C olive oil, 1T red wine vinegar, 1t dried oregano (or 1T fresh chopped) and 4 garlic cloves chopped and some salt and pepper. Put in a large ziplock bag and add a cut up chicken (I really recommend using bone in chicken as opposed to boneless chicken breasts); marinate for at least an hour and as long as overnight. Pour chicken with marinade in a 9x13 pan and bake at 400 for about 45 minutes, flipping once.

For the wild rice and lentils, I just threw together the ends of bags. I tossed about a cup of wild rice and ½ C of lentils in a pot with 1.5C water and 1 C chicken stock. You can change the ratio of water to stock, just keep the liquid to about 2.5 cups to start. Bring all to a boil and then cover and simmer until done. You may have to add a little hot water if it’s too dry. Salt to taste. This sounds boring, but it was really good, and the lemony juices from the chicken are great to spoon over the top.

Scones, Fabulous Scones

VEW

Please pardon the horrible lag in new posts. This is the first year that I participated in the “holidays are so busy” cliché. I am still recovering. Couple that with the fact that my only New Year’s Resolution was to slow down a bit. Which means letting certain things go when more important things (say, my kids) are underfoot. Anyway, for the Tasty Plate, that should translate into simpler weekly menus and quicker preparations…so I guess it’s a good thing.
One of the things I am always busy doing and will likely never give up is making scones. The world of scones is huge and varied and limitless. I will post a few of my favorite recipes here. If the word scones conjures up images of crumbly, tasteless bricks that can be found at certain coffee establishments, please give any of these recipes a try—you will be pleasantly astonished.

Basic Scone recipe
This recipe is my mom’s and is responsible for launching me into my need for a scone to always accompany my morning coffee. While this is likely due in large part to the fact that when I was young my parents would often make these scones at night, after we kids were in bed and enjoy them alone in a quiet house. The following morning the scene was always one of mixed emotion: childish outrage that they had done it AGAIN! And excitement that they had at least left some for us.
These are classic cream scones—best eaten with raspberry preserves and freshly whipped cream.
2 cups unbleached, all purpose flour
2T sugar
1T baking powder
1/2t salt
6 T butter
1 egg, beaten
1/3 C half & half or cream plus enough milk to equal ½ total liquid
1 slightly beaten egg for egg wash
Mix dry ingredients and then cut in butter with a pastry cutter until the mixture is like coarse crumbs. Combine the cream/milk mixture with the beaten egg; add into crumb mixture and stir to combine. Knead a few times to bring dough together. Form into 2 discs and cut into wedges. Brush tops with egg wash. Bake on parchment paper on cookie sheets at 425 for about 12 minutes.

Cinnamon Chip* Scones
2 Cups unbleached, all purpose flour
1T baking powder

2T sugar
1/2t salt
6 T butter
¼ Cup sour cream
¼ Cup buttermilk

1 egg
½ cup cinnamon chips
Mix dry ingredients and cut in butter. Mix wet ingredients and add to dry; stir to bring dough together, then knead a few times to make a nice dough. Add in chips and knead to incorporate. At this point you can either prepare them for baking as in the previous recipe, or you can just pull off mounds of dough and place them on the baking sheet for a more rustic looking scone.

Orange Currant Scones
These are a great, tasty scone. The recipe makes quite a few—I often cut it in half and reduce the butter to 6T.

Oatmeal Currant Scones
These are similar to the scones above but the oatmeal adds interesting texture and flavor. They aren’t quite as dense as other scones, and on days I feel bad about letting my 3 year old eat a scone for breakfast, the oatmeal in this makes me feel better. Slightly.

This scone recipe is great for add-ins and is my current favorite. I leave out the raisins and add in any kind of chip or dried fruit and have good results everytime. To add something to the recipe, make the dough and knead it until it comes together (I often add 1-2T of cream because I find the dough as written is a bit dry), then knead in the chips or dried fruit. I use about a cup. If you add dried fruit sprinkle the tops with some turbinado sugar for a nice crust and some added sweetness.

Great add-ins:

Dried cranberries, soaked in a little orange juice for at least 15 minutes before adding

Small frozen blueberries—tossed with 1T four before adding

Applesauce or grated apple—you will need to adjust the liquid ingredients so your dough isn’t too moist

*While you can find Hershey’s cinnamon chips by the chocolate chips in certain grocery stores, they are not available everywhere for some reason. King Arthur’s chips are far superior and you can order online through their web site, so no one has an excuse for not making these.