Tag Archives: recipes

101 in 1001: [037] make a new recipe from each cookbook i own

{03 February 2014}

Feb 2, 2014
Chocolate Biscotti

This cookbook was gifted to me at my bridal shower by lau; the first thing I made from it was the excellent cheddar scones, in the kitchen of our seaside cabin while on our honeymoon. The first meal my new husband and I cooked together. Since then, this book has mostly served as a guide for making croissants, which require the dedication of an entire weekend, but are totally worth it. But both of those were accomplished before I started this 101 challenge, so I needed somethign new in order to keep this cookbook on my shelves. I recently had one of those break-a-tooth rock hard sorry excuses for biscotti in a cafe. Like a raccoon washing its food, I had to soak in coffee until it turned to mush in order to eat it. I remembered that biscotti isn’t really supposed to be like that. Years ago, a co-worker’s Italian mother sent a care package with homemade biscotti in it, and when I tasted it I realized that all of those bland, crunchy logs served in cafes didn’t represent biscotti any more than hershey’s represents chocolate. Properly made biscotti has crunch, and is delicious dipped in coffee, but it also has a softness that gives way when you bite in to it.

The Standard Baking Co Pastries book has two biscotti recipes – one almond-flavored and traditional, the other chocolate walnut. The chocolate recipe was described as being “almost cake-like” because of an unusually high fat content. I liked the sound of that, so I skipped over traditional almond and went straight for chocolate. They came out exactly the way I wanted them to be. Crunchy, but not break-a-tooth crunchy. Would benefit from a quick dip in some coffee, but only to enjoy the flavor and temperature combination of the coffee-against-cookie, not to make it edible.

I brought these to a super bow party and when I set them out, someone asked, “ooh, are those, like, brownie sticks?” The answer is yes, they are basically over-cooked brownie sticks. Delicious, overcooked brownie sticks.

Make it again? Definitely. I might try to combine the almond flavoring of the traditional recipe with the butter-fat structure of the chocolate one. Maybe.

9. The Mac + Cheese Cookbook

Jan 8, 2014:
Mom’s Mac and Cheese

My mother’s mac and cheese is probably the first recipe I learned to make, and its one of those recipes I can make without measuring. But I basically stopped making it at home once I discovered Homeroom, the Mac + Cheese restaurant in Oakland. We used to meet up with my brothers there for dinner occasionally (okay, any time we could all end up in Oakland at the same time). While Homeroom serves a dozen gourmet riffs on mac and cheese, I noticed that my brother matt and I both always order the version that was closest to what our moms made. Sharp white cheddar, with broccoli and toasted breadcrumbs. Last fall Ben and I were eating there on a trip back to California and discovered that they’d published a cookbook. We immediately bought two, one for each of my brothers. And under the Christmas tree this winter there were three copies – Matt and Carrie bought us one too. It was the Year of the Homeroom Cookbook.

So all of this is to say that I decided to use the cookbook to check in on the quantities of the recipe I’ve always been making. Turns out, the Vermont Sharp White Cheddar recipe just about exactly what my mom makes.

I made a vat of mac and cheese to serve 12 people at work. It was declared a success.

8. The Science of Good Food

Jan 6, 2014:
Mushroom Risotto

Ben gave me this cookbook a few years ago. It’s more of an encyclopedia of cooking science than an actual cookbook, but there are recipes scattered throughout. It’s an excellent reference. Curious about the maillard reaction? Want to know why baking at 325 is completely different than baking at 350? This is your book.

I used the basic risotto recipe as a place to start on this mushroom extravaganza, but here are the details of what I made. So I can make it again, because, yum:

– generous glug of olive oil
– 3/4 large white onion, chopped
– 3 cloves garlic, pressed
– 1 cup risotto rice
– 2 cup mushroom broth (see below)
– 1/2 lb button mushrooms. half of them sliced, and half cut into quarters or 1/2″ chunks.
– 1/4 lb shitake mushrooms, sliced. if dried, soak them in hot water for 45 min first.
– butter. lots of butter.
– 3/4 c grated parmesan. or more. there’s no such thing as too much, really.
– salt and pepper to taste
– fresh or dried thyme and rosemary, finely chopped
– dash soy sauce
– dash worchester sauce (not vegetarian, FYI)

saute onions and garlic in olive oil until onions are soft. add rice and stir until rice is coated and warm. begin adding scoops of mushroom broth, stirring until the liquid is absorbed before adding more. stir and stir. continue adding liquid until rice reaches the desired consistency. overdo it and it’ll get gloppy, so stop when you like it.

meanwhile, saute mushrooms in butter until released liquid is nearly all evaporated. then add to the pot with the rice.

stir in seasonings, cheese and butter. serve immediately.

mushroom broth:
– 1.5 lb button mushrooms
– 1/2 onion
– 1 carrot
– 2 stalks celery
– 3 smashed cloves of garlic
(or whatever other veggies you fancy)
– salt to taste – go easy, you can always add more salt when using the broth in a finished dish later

rough chop everything and throw into the biggest pot of water you have. Simmer for 90 minutes. Drain and discard vegetables. Return pot to the stove and continue to simmer until the stock is reduced to your taste, 20 min or so. I like to freeze it in 2-cup quantities in plastic baggies for easy use later.

7. Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables

August 28, 2013:
Curried Cauliflower

This is the cookbook from our CSA Farm, Angelic Organics. It includes a vegetable identification guide, to help hapless CSA subscribers to not only identify rarities like celeriac and sunchokes, but also know how to eat them. The book is organized by vegetable, so when you have a lot of cauliflower you can turn to that section and find a variety of things to do with it, and the vegetable chapters are ordered according to the season, so you could cook your way through the book from start to finish, if you wanted to. It’s also full of snippets of wisdom and philosophy from Farmer John, snapshots of the farm, shareholder letters and comments, and, randomly, margin notes consisting of overheard conversations that seem to bear little relevance to the rest of the cookbook:

YOUNG WOMAN: I was having trouble with my roommate in college — communication problems. I kept eyeing a dead tree outside my dorm. After a week I brought the dead tree into our room and set it up between our beds. Every day I hung another dirty sock on a branch.

ACQUAINTANCE: What did she say about that?

YOUNG WOMAN: Nothing. She never said a thing.

ACQUAINTANCE: Did she know it was there?

YOUNG WOMAN: Yeah, she knew. A couple of the branches went right into her closet.

In vegetables, are on the cusp of the season change, when our CSA box is full of the long-awaited summer tomatoes but also the early fall vegetables like cauliflower. Consequently, last night I turned beautiful yellow heirloom tomatoes into 101 Cookbook’s Golden Tomato Sauce and tonight I roasted cauliflower. When I was a kid we used to eat cauliflower by boiling it and then covering it in cheddar cheese sauce or butter and parmesan. Delicious, but in either preparation the cauliflower was merely a vehicle, and tasted like nothing at all. Learning to roast vegetables, rather than boil them, was a game-changer.

This almost doesn’t count as a new recipe from a new cookbook, as I used it more for inspiration and riffed freely, but hey, this is my 101 list, my rules. I selected this recipe mainly because of the spice mixture. We have this box of Indian spices that I was itching to use and didn’t want to settle for a recipe that only called for curry powder. Not when I have turmeric and black mustard seeds and toasted pomegranate powder and fenugreek, whatever that is. The tricky part is that I have ZERO intuition for Indian spices, so it’s hard to actually select a recipe based on the flavor profile. So I just looked for a recipe that called for several of the items in my box. I combined the spice mixture from this recipe with the the oven roasting technique from Smitten Kitchen’s Cumin Seed Roasted Cauliflower (which is also very good, btw, and requires fewer Indian spices on hand).

Make it again: totally. In fact, I’m going to record what I did here so I can remember later:

Curry Roasted Cauliflower
Serves 2

1/2 head cauliflower
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp sea salt flakes
1/2 tsp crushed coriander seeds
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 c greek yogurt
cilantro
fresh lemon juice
crumbled feta

– Clean and chop cauliflower. It doesn’t matter if the florets are all the same size – a variety of sizes results in a variety of textures when it roasts.
– Combine 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (ghee would probably be way tastier) and the spices.
– Toss the oil mixture with cauliflower until it is fully coated.
– Place on a baking sheet or roasting pan. Roast at 425 degrees 20-25 minutes, turning every 5 min.
– While the cauliflower is roasting, combine greek yogurt with a squeeze of lemon juice and a pinch of salt, and dice the cilantro.
– Serve cauliflower topped with a sprinkle of crumbled feta, chopped cilantro and the yogurt alongside.

6. The Bread Baker’s Bible, Rose Levy Beranbaum

April 26, 2013:
-Pizza Dough

i was on a quest for a pizza dough that i could mix, rise and bake all in the space of one afternoon. most recipes have you make it the night before, since a 12-hour nap in the fridge improves the depth of flavor. i knew it existed, and the first one i landed on was, surprisingly, tucked in between the excessively complicated multi-step, multi-day recipes of Beranbaum’s Bread Bible. most of the recipes in this book require that you book your entire weekend around the completion of just one (unless we’re talking about sourdough starter, in which case you may as well go ahead and clear all your appointments for the next month and warn your husband you’ll be in the kitchen with your science experiment until further notice). her recipes are delicious but needy. (haha, ‘needy’ breads…)

so back to pizza dough. there were some red flags when she insisted that only unbleached white flour could be used, and that instead of using a dusting of cornmeal to keep the dough from sticking to everything, it uses olive oil. so it’s a strange, soft, oily dough that wants to tear if you even look at it wrong, and tossing it into the air was right out considering that it was bathed in olive oil that would have flung to the far corners of the kitchen. instead of rolling it out she has you sort of press it into the corners of the baking tray. from where it springs right back. i spent about 10 minutes trying to coax the small lump of dough into two 7″ round pizzas and finally gave up and allowed it to be two 5″ amoeba-shaped pizzas.

anyway, the useful takeaway from this recipe is that it pays to cook the pizza crust for a few minutes BEFORE adding toppings — it helps the crust actually set up, and keeps the vegetables/cheese from turning mushy/rubbery before the crust has even considered cooking through.

and the whole point of this exercise was to try cooking pizzas on the gas grill outside. why, exactly, when i have a perfectly nice pizza stone in my oven? well, because i could. and it was finally warm enough and light enough at 7pm that we could find our way to the grill in the backyard for the first time since we moved in.

cooking the pizza on the grill was awesome. i will totally do that again. it had a nicely browned, crisp crust on the bottom, softer and doughier on top. it reminded me a bit of naan. strangely enough, this crust actually asks for a light smattering of toppings, not a giant mound of melty commercial mozzarella. i didn’t know such a thing was possible until we tried it, but it might honestly be because the dough was so good that the cheese got in the way of fully appreciating its many textures. and amazingly we didn’t destroy the cheap cookie sheet i used on the grill. (Beranbaum’s grill instructions call for a ‘black steel pizza pan’, of course but i just checked that my old Farberware non-stick was good up to 500 degrees and hoped for the best).

the only gripe about the grill pizza is that the top layer of cheese didn’t really brown much, but i’m not sure if we had left it on longer if it would have caught up, or if it always needs a quick spin under the broiler anyway.

make it again: i’d use this dough recipe only if i was in a hurry, or if i was trying to recreate naan. otherwise i’d rather use a recipe that didn’t shun cornmeal or wheat flour or rolling pins. but i will definitely cook pizza on a gas grill again, especially in summer when it’s too hot to turn on the oven.

5. Super Natural Everyday, Heidi Swanson

April 23, 2013:
-Weeknight Curry

i finally made a curry! i’ve made a few attempts at curry before and it was always a miserable failure. now i can’t really tell why, because this was so easy, but whatever. going up in boise, idaho in a household with a severe peanut allergy, i wasn’t exactly raised on the flavors and techniques of south east asia. (but just watch me improvise a cream sauce). so it’s taken some time to catch up.

anyway, my one complaint about many of the recipes on 101cookbooks is that they take about three steps and three pots too many, particularly for a weeknight. but this one was surprisingly simple, and has the added advantage of being a ‘back of the fridge’ recipe, adapting to whatever leftover vegetable are languishing in the crisper drawer. which in this case were mushrooms, potatoes, onion, asparagus, red bell pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, and tofu. and we have dinner for tomorrow, too.

btw, it’s worth noting that the photography in Heidi’s book is at least as beautiful as her food. this is one cookbook that i actually feel bad about spilling on as i work. (usually i think that just gives them a patina that indicates their usefulness).

make it again: yes, but trust the recipe when it comes to vegetable-simmering time. and be less shy with the thai curry paste. and this curry isn’t really right for potatoes. better to stick with vegetables and not have to cook them so long.

4. The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, Deb Perelman

April 13, 2013:
-Kale, Caramelized Onion and Wild Rice Gratin

so, a little preface here: the whole point of the cook-one-recipe-from-each-cookbook assignment was that around the 190th time i moved apartments, and lugged at least two insanely heavy book boxes dedicated only to cookbooks around, i made myself a promise that i could only buy a new cookbook once i had either made something from, or given away, every cookbook i already owned. that was like 3 years and 3 moves ago, and i’m still not done. but a handy little loophole is that the rule doesn’t prevent anyone from GIVING me cookbooks. enter birthday gifts. M & C sent me the Smitten Kitchen book for my birthday last week and holy food p0rn batman, the closeups on peach “breakfast” cobbler are enough to make me wonder why we’ve been eating kashi and greek yogurt all this time if we are, in fact, grownups that can do whatever we want.

so i’m a little disappointed that the first thing i decided to make from this cookbook came out kind of meh. i’d make it again, but with a significant set of adjustments. it’s not really the cookbook’s fault, it just wasn’t my favorite set of flavors. i had conveniently forgotten that i don’t like the sweetness of caramelized onions.

make it again: yes. with adjustments. and not on a week night – B would eat one of the cats waiting for this dish to finally be ready.

next time:
– make a half recipe – we’ll be eating this all week
– double the kale
– cut the kale “ribbons” into short lengths, otherwise the dish turns into a tangled yarn ball when you try to scoop out a serving
– cooks beautifully in the cast iron skillet – do that again (only use the 8″ one)
– mix some parmesan in with the swiss cheese – it needs more saltiness. particularly if you’re using homemade stock/broth.
– add mushrooms. always mushrooms.
– try with sauteed but not caramelized onions (and cut the quantity in half)
– surprisingly, go easy with the breadcrumbs on top. they kind of overpowered the rest of the flavors
– pick (or make) a high wild rice-to-regular rice ratio. i picked a mix that only had a decorative amount of wild rice and the result was a mushy texture. the chewiness of the wild rice would have been nice. and since the rice is cooked and then gets thrown into the gratin and has more liquid added, the rice can be a bit undercooked going into the final assembly.

3. Bake the Bread, Buy the Butter, Jennifer Reese

April 7, 2013:
-CrÃ¨me brÃ»lÃ©e

i opted for this particular recipe because it was the simplest of the crÃ¨me brÃ»lÃ©e recipes i could find, and i had a hangover from the previous night’s birthday revels, and only so many hours before dinner guests were going to arrive. why didn’t i just go out and buy some cookies for dessert, you ask? well, because three months ago i started making my own vanilla extract (from this same cookbook) and it was FINALLY READY so of course i needed to make something to show off the wondrous $59 billion dollars worth of vanilla i had created at home for 12 cents worth of supplies (there’s a post forthcoming about this).

so, first-timer’s crÃ¨me brÃ»lÃ©e, with a hangover. what could go wrong?

first let it be said that hangovers don’t usually me sick, or even headachy. but they do make me spectacularly slow and stupid. but the ingredient list was encouragingly short: eggs, cream, sugar, and whatever flavoring you might wish for (i chose vanilla and cardamom). it turns out its all in the technique. suddenly i had cream approaching boil on the stovetop, only half the eggs separated, the sugar not yet measured, and wait, what’s that about a water bath? and how many crÃ¨me brÃ»lÃ©e pots do we have? 4? but we have 9 people coming to dinner tonight.

amazingly, it all came together. ben saved the day with a beautifully-timed birthday gift of two of the cutest little teeny tiny Le Crueset pots, (and we made all the couple share a dish — romantic, right?) somehow i managed to not curdle the eggs even though i didn’t really read any of the chemistry behind custard-making until AFTER the brÃ»lÃ©es were in the oven, they were completed with enough time to chill for the proscribed four hours before serving, and we didn’t even burn the house down braising the tops.

the texture was smooth and creamy just like it should be, the top nice and crusty caramelized, and so the only disappointment was that we could hardly taste the vanilla or the cardamom. it was mostly just rich fatty eggs/sugar/cream. which is great, but misses the entire point which was to show off my homesteading ability to make my own vanilla extract.

make it again: yes. with a hangover? maybe not.

for next time: double the recipe to get 9 servings (they were a little skimpy at 1.5 times the recipe), use approximately 4 times the vanilla and much fresher cardamom (also maybe simmer cardamom pods in the cream rather than just using ground cardamom of indeterminate age), and continue to ignore the internet’s insistence upon a water bath; as long as you stick to 225 degrees and a long slow cooking time, there seemed to be no need.

2. Tassajara Dinners and Desserts, The San Francisco Zen Center

March 11, 2013:
– Mushroom Ragout, served over
– Parmesan Polenta

accompanied by sauteed greens, it was a bit ambitious for a weeknight, but so delicious. and it has completely changed my mind about polenta. i’d only ever ‘made’ it at home by slicing open the prepared tubes of yellow goo from Trader Joe’s. it turns out it’s so easy (but does require a fair amount of stirring time) and so much more delicious when made fresh. i used coarse ground cornmeal from the bulk section at Whole Foods. so much more flavor than the prepared stuff, and it and cost about 10 cents per serving. win-win.

make it again: yes, not on a week night.

1. Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day, Jeff Hertzberg, ZoÃ« FranÃ§ois and Mark Luinenburg

March 10, 2013:
– Whole wheat sandwich loaf

despite singing all the praises of my no-knead artisan loaf, i’ve kind of been wishing for a loaf-pan-shaped loaf lately for making sandwiches. this came out pretty darn well for a first pass. i cut the honey by half since i don’t like sweet breads, and i wish i’d had some nuts and seeds to add for more textural variety. not the best bread i ever ate [but then again, wheat bread never is], but still tasty, healthy, and it held together even when sliced thin and toasted. B expressed muted enthusiasm, which i take to mean he likes the artisan bread better but he’s smart enough to know that when one’s partner is baking fresh bread, one doesn’t complain lightly.

make it again: yes, with modifications

New York (not so very) Tall (Lemon) Cheesecake (with Blueberry sauce) or, Parenthetical Cheesecake

{06 July 2011}

like most things i cook, particularly when i bake, once i get an idea of what i want to make, a taste for something, i have a very specific idea of what it is that i want, even if it’s something i’ve never made or even eaten before. then comes the challenge of finding a recipe that matches the idea i’ve created in my head. i usually end up mining a dozen recipes and making a hybrid of my own creation. (sometimes with disastrous results, as baked goods in particular are delicate science experiments that don’t always appreciate being frankensteined together). nevertheless, i am a incorrigibly kitchen tinkerer. except possibly with bread, where i am utterly humbled, i don’t have the patience to make a recipe correctly the first time. who has time to always follow the rules? today’s cheesecake is no exception, except that the results were fabulous, not disastrous. beginners luck?

adapted from Smitten Kitchen (who adapted from Gourmet Magazine), from QueenB on Chowhound and the blueberry sauce from Memories in the Baking.

Crumb crust:
10 ounces finely ground graham crackers
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar (cut back sugar by 1/4 c if the graham cracker is a sugar-topped variety)
1/2 teaspoon salt

(Not quite so) Very tall cheesecake filling:
3 eight-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 lemons’ woth of finely grated zest (Meyer if you can get ’em)
1 tsp finely grated orange zest (omit if you find the Meyers)
1/4 cup fresh (Meyer) lemon juice
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 large egg yolk, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix crust ingredients. (The food processor is great for mashing it all up together in a couple of quick pulses, but you can do it by hand as well — put the graham crackers into a ziplock back and smoosh it with a rolling pin or wine bottle). Press the crust into bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan, stopping one inch below of the top rim (very important! see below). After pressing the crust into place, put into the freezer until you’re ready to pour the filling in. Don’t pre-bake! I did that with my first attempt at crust and it got a burned taste and the crust slipped down the sides of the pan into a glop at the bottom and I had to throw it out and start again.

Preheat oven to 550 degrees (or however hot your oven will go, taking into account the fact that some pans (teflon, or other cheap surfaces) have a maximum heat limit of around 475 (or so I’ve heard…)).

With electric mixer or stand mixer (sigh…someday a Kitchenaid will be mine), beat together cream cheese, sugar, flour, zest(s) and lemon juice with an electric mixer until smooth. Add vanilla, then eggs and yolk, one at a time, scraping bowl as you go.

Put springform pan with crust into a shallow baking pan (to catch all the butter which WILL run out of the springform pan and smoke up your kitchen if allowed to fall into the bottom of the oven). Pour filling into crust. Ideally, you want the filling to come just above the level of the crust. If any crust peeks up above the filling, it will burn black in the first 12 minutes of high temperature baking (see next paragraph), and later you’ll have to go back through with a spoon and carefully scrape off the burned bits. I know this for fact.

Put into the middle of a 550 degree oven for 12 minutes or until the surface is puffed and starts to brown. Reduce the temperature to 200 degrees and continue baking until cake is mostly firm, about 45 minutes more. The center should still be slightly wobbly.

Because I hate it when recipes don’t explain the Why (and I often ignore very good instructions as a result), I will tell you: the point of the hot oven is to keep the cheesecake from cracking when it cools without having to monkey around with a water bath. The other benefit of the very hot oven is that sugar caramelizes at temperatures above 320. So getting the crust good and hot in the initial 12 minutes gives the crust a lovely caramel flavor and texture — more interesting than just sweet graham crackers and butter.

Topping No. 1: Sour Cream
2 cups sour cream
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

While the cake is baking, mix together sour cream and remaining sugar and vanilla. Remove the cake from the oven, gently spread sour cream mixture over top, and return to oven and bake 10 more minutes.

Turn oven off and cool cheesecake in oven with door propped open for 1 hour. Remove cheesecake from oven, run a knife around the outside edge of the cake to loosen it, and then cool completely on wire rack. Move to the refrigerator and cool at least 6 hours.

(stay with me here, i promise you that both toppings are worth it)

Topping No. 2: Blueberry Sauce
1 pint fresh blueberries
Â¼ cup sugar (adjust according to sweetness of berries and desired tartness of sauce)
3 tablespoons water, separated
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp cornstarch

In a medium saucepan combine berries, sugar, 2 TBS water, and lemon juice. In a small dish, mix the cornstarch with remaining 1 TBS of cold water and stir until the mixture is completely smooth. Once the sauce begins to bubble lightly, spoon small amounts of the hot blueberry liquid into the cornstarch mixture, stirring after each addition, until you’ve raised the temperature of the cornstarch mixture to match that of the bubbling pan. (The Why? glad you asked. Cornstarch, if added directly to hot liquid, will clump. But whisk it smoothly into a small amount of cold liquid, then gradually raise the temperature of the liquid and you’ll never have the clumping issue. This is one of the most basic cooking techniques I learned from my mother. Thanks mom!). Pour the cornstarch mixture into the pan with the berries and stir. It should begin to thicken in a minute or two. Cook until the blueberries begin to break down and the sauce is slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

When you’re ready to serve the cheesecake, pour the berry mixture into the center of the cake and gently spread outwards toward the sides. Garnish slices of cheesecake with thinly cut lemon wheels and serve and watch your family/friends devour it.

The internet tells me that cheesecake keeps up to two weeks in the fridge, but I scoff at that. Who would ignore cheesecake in their fridge for two weeks? Ours kept nicely for 2 days.

parenthetical count: 23.

what’s for dinner?

{30 January 2011}

two weeks of tech mean that i’ve been surviving on a diet of cheese-spinach-avocado sandwiches (it’s vegetarian january) and the big pot of chili we made and froze last month. i haven’t been home before midnight in two weeks. so with my first day off, what a relief to spend the evening cooking. our CSA has a tendency to gift us with ugly-looking squash-type things that i can never tell if I’m supposed to eat or decorate a cornucopia with. most of them i foist off on teresa, who can call them by name and conjure meals out of them. but a butternut squash came our way and i was determined i’d learn out to use it.

as it turns out, the trickiest part of eating a butternut squash is butchering it. i asked the internet, and got directions which told me to go after it with a vegetable peeler, which makes about as much sense is trying to debark a tree with a vegetable peeler. in the end i spent the better part of an hour hacking my way through the squash (fingers still intact, amazingly). the result was about 3 pounds of usable squash. I cubed and froze all of it and have been working my way through it since Christmas. first there were martha stewart’ssquash wontons (highly recommended). tonight i created the recipe below. next week i think there will be an attempt at a squash risotto. all in all, this single squash is going to see us through vegetarian january and beyond.

so the recipe here is for butternut squash ravioli with balsamic browned butter sauce. it’s awesome. i read about a dozen recipes for butternut squash ravioli before deciding i was going to wing it with the various knowledge i had absorbed and the contents of my fridge. the results kicked ass, if i may say so. recorded below so i can remember to make this for my next dinner party (most of this can be made in advance so it’s a good dinner party option). the measurements are all approximate, seeing as how i didn’t measure anything. that is to say, follow these directions at your own risk, but follow your own intuition and preferences about flavors fearlessly.

butternut squash ravioli with balsamic browned butter sauce

* 1 c butternut squash, cubed.
* 1/4 c goat cheese
* 1/4 large white onion, minced
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* pinch nutmeg
* 1/2 tsp dried sage
* wonton wrappers or fresh rolled pasta dough*

* 4 cups fresh spinach, rinsed
* 1/4 c freshly grated parmesan
* 1/4 c walnuts, chopped

* 1/4 c salted butter + a little more for sauteing
* 1 TBS balsamic vinegar

* salt and pepper to taste
* olive oil

1. Toast the walnuts by tossing into a frying pan over medium heat. Toss frequently, and never look away or they will burn in an instant (trust me, I know this from first hand experience, and lots of it). It’ll take about 5 minute for them to brown and become fragrant. Remove to a dish to cool.

2. Roast or steam the squash until very soft. Roasting in the oven yields better flavor, but if you’re pressed for time, steaming is much faster (about 5 minutes compared to 45 minutes). After steaming it I tossed it into a pan and pan fried it a little bit, just to give it a bit more flavor.

4. While the squash is cooking , saute the minced onions and garlic in a mixture of olive oil and butter.

5. Put squash, onions, garlic, goat cheese, salt, pepper, sage and nutmeg into a food processor or blender. Blend until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary.

6. Assemble ravioli by placing a small dollop (less than you think you need) in the center of each wonton wrapper or pasta square. Fold in half, using a bit of water to stick the layers together, and press the edges with the tines of a fork to get a good seal. Transfer ravioli to a cookie sheet and freeze until firm, about 10 minutes.

7. Meanwhile, wilt spinach by heating a small amount of olive oil in a pan and tossing in the freshly-washed spinach. It should crackle as it hits the pan. Put a lid on to wilt — with baby spinach it needs only 30 seconds, with tougher leaves it might need 2 minutes. Turn off the heat before the spinach looks fully wilted, as it will continue to cook even after the heat is off.

8. Bring a pot of water to boil for the ravioli. While that is heating, make the butter sauce. Put butter into a small frying pan, and heat on medium heat until the foam subsides and the butter browns (scoop a bit out onto a white plate to check the color). About 3 minutes. Add a few grinds of pepper. When the butter is brown, turn off heat, transfer to a cool dish, and whisk in the balsamic vinegar.

9. Boil the ravioli — how long depends on what wrapper or pasta you choose. With wonton wrappers, only 3-4 minutes are needed — basically the time it takes the water to return to boil after placing the cold ravioli in it. If you are making a large quantity, you may want to boil in two batches. Drain the ravioli.

10. Assemble the plates: a bed of wilted spinach topped with the ravioli, butter sauce, toasted walnuts, and grated parmesan.

11. Serve immediately with crusty bread and a bottle of wine.

* i used wonton wrappers for this, which are convenient and not that hard to find, but ultimately, not as awesome as pasta. while writing this up i asked the internet and found a place nearby *fourth street pasta shop in berkeley) where i can by fresh sheet pasta. so we will revisit the recipe again soon with proper sheets of egg pasta in place of the wonton wrappers.

perfecting shortcake

{15 August 2010}

baking triumph! this weekend i made strawberry shortcake to share at my CSA’s potluck meal (post to come). the strawberries were a dream; picked right out of the field, served still sun-warm. there was no need to sugar them in the least. we just sliced, mashed, and poured on top of the shortcakes i had made earlier in the day. we topped with whipped cream (from a can, shameful i know, but we were camping-cooking, which is the one time that one is allowed to cut such corners), and it was an instant success. our only mistake was in not making a triple batch. but honestly, cardboard topped with those strawberries would have been delicious. as i ate my portion, i started to realize that the shortcake was totally inferior. even soaked in mashed strawberries, my plastic spoon barely could cut through the dense, dry, tough-bottomed cake. what went wrong?

making biscuits was one of the first things i learned to cook. i could make them by the time i was 12. mix milk and bisquick (ah bisquick, a baking secret weapon i have worked long and hard to liberate myself from) into a sticky dough. flour a dish towel, drop the dough onto it, roll out into 3/4″ thickness, and use a drinking glass to cut rounds. re-roll the scraps to eliminate waste. plop onto a cookie sheet and put into a hot oven for 10 minutes. done! top with honey and butter and serve with soup on a cold night.

i have long since banned the hydrogenated-oil laden bisquick from my kitchen, so to make this week’s shortcakes, i cracked open the Joy of Cooking, my basic go-to reference, to the section on biscuits. (since shortcake is really just a sweetened biscuit). besides using flour and shortening, the recipe was pretty much the same as what we used to make when i was a kid. they looked the same: 2″ rounds and about 3/4″ thick. that’s 3/4″ thick before and after they baked. they came out with a sweet, bread-y flavor but dry and dense and low. and now that i think about it, the bisquick ones of my childhood were similarly dense, and dry if you didn’t cover them up with more butter when it was time to eat them. aren’t i missing something if i have to coat my baked good in more butter to make it moist enough to eat? these weren’t cutting it. when i picture strawberry shortcake in my mind, i think of a thick, fluffy soft white flour biscuit, getting soggy with strawberries as you eat it. nothing that needs a knife to cut it, for goodness sake.

so when we got back from the farm today i sat down with my copy of The Science of Good Food to learn just what makes biscuits flaky and light. baking is a complicated science, and i won’t attempt to recount much of it here other than: reactions between acids and bases are part of what causes the leavening action. which is why the addition of acidic ingredients (like buttermilk), and why the use of both baking powder (base and acid both) AND baking soda (just a base).

after this basic background i dove into the internets to see what they had to teach me. this was a helpful guide, much of it i already knew (keep your fats cold, don’t overwork the dough), but other things, like the ratio of fat-to-flour was a new one. and i’ve been learning about different kinds of flour lately (cake, pastry, all-purpose, bread, plus the whole wheat versions of all of those). umm, there are six kinds of (wheat-based) flour in my baking cupboard right now. (yes, i have a baking cupboard). it seemed like the Joy of Cooking recipe was short on fat, and that the rolling method just worked the dough way too much, which creates gluten and toughens up the dough. and the additional acid in buttermilk helps limit gluten formation as well as substituting in some lower protein (cake or pastry) flours.

so i headed out to the grocery for half and half, buttermilk, and just to be sure, replaced my baking soda and powder, since i’m not sure how old they are and they lose their reactivity after a while. making this many changes, of course, destroys the scientific method, but really, how many batches of mediocre biscuits did i really want to make?

then, because i can’t leave well enough alone, i started adapting. this recipe is based on this biscuit recipe, but i opted for lower fat buttermilk and switched the cream out for half-and-half with no ill effects, and i increased the sugar to get a sweeter dough. also, i like it when you have to tear the biscuits apart, so i nestled them all together.

* 1-1/4 cups all purpose flour
* 1/2 cup pastry flour
* 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
* 1/2 tsp. baking soda
* 1/2 tsp. salt
* 2 tsp. sugar
* 1/3 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces
* 2/3 cup cold low-fat buttermilk
* 1/2 cup cold half and half
* 1 cup all purpose flour for shaping biscuits
* 2 Tbsp. melted butter or milk

1) mix dry ingredients
2) cut the butter into chunks, keeping it very cold
3) use a pastry cutter or food processor to cut the butter in, leaving some visible chunks about 1/2 the size of a marble.
4) make a well in the center of the dough, and pour in the milks
5) stir gently only until just combined.
6) let dough sit for five minutes
7) pour the 1 cup flour into a plate or wide-mouthed bowl
8) flour your hands and scoop the dough out in scant 1/4 cup balls. it will be very sticky.
9) drop each ball into the flour dish, coat lightly, then gently shape into a ball. work the dough as little as possible!
10) place the dough balls in a greased baking dish, nestling them up against one another
11) brush the tops with milk or melted butter
12) bake at 450 for 15-18 minutes, till nicely browned
13) allow to cook 3-5 min in the baking dish, then transfer to a wire rack

the results? success! these were light, fluffy, stood up tall, and began to soak up berry juice in a delicious way when covered with mashed strawberries. definitely didn’t need additional butter.

some ideas — you could cut the sugar back if you wanted to make a savory biscuit rather than a shortcake. or, sticking with the sweet approach, Teresa suggested adding some turbino sugar to the top that would caramelize and crunch, which i bet would be awesome. next time i’m going to attempt it with wheat pastry flour and see where that gets us.

Procrastination Bread

{07 August 2010}

even without our own garden we find ourselves with a embarrassment of zucchini this time of year; we recently joined a CSA, and one week’s vegetable box yielded enough squash for a a tomato-zucchini-dill side-dish, two pasta dishes, and this weekend i retreated to the obligatory zucchini bread. this is not a chore, however — i’m always looking for an excuse to bake. two over-ripe bananas? banana bread coming up. even better if i can procrastinate something, anything, in order to bake. saturday afternoon was set aside for finishing up the blog transition; consequently, i decided i should bake and here it is 6pm and i’m finally sitting down at my desk, with a warm loaf of Procrastination Bread cooling on the kitchen counter.

so i trolled a half dozen recipes (paula deen suggest serving hers with a side of whipped cream, naturally) before deciding that i’d made up my own version. admittedly, doing something my own way without having done it correctly the first time IS how i have gone astray in the kitchen many many times. but i know my way around quickbreads pretty well.

i loosely based this on 101 cookbook’s Special Zucchini Bread Recipe, borrowing the structure more than the flavors. 101 cookbooks is great about using wheat flours. simply substituting wheat for white flour in a recipe usually yields baked goods that are crumbly and dry. the recipe needs to be built for wheat flour, and that’s beyond my baking skills as of yet. anyway, i had chocolate on the brain, but i couldn’t really justify making a cocoa-powder-laden loaf (tho, yum) and still consider it something that’s on the diet-approved list. but maybe sneaking a few chocolate chips wouldn’t count, right? its like putting chocolate into mixed nuts and calling it trail mix. in another arrangement, the same ingredients would be a snickers bar. but packaging is everything.

so, i packaged chocolate chips into a bread loaded with zucchini. or, hid zucchini in a chocolate chip muffin, thereby tricking Ben into eating one more zucchini dish this week. one of the loaf pans seems to have gone missing, so it was necessary at the last minute to bail into one loaf pan and one muffin pan, but no harm done there.

here’s the recipe, with a few tweaks added in for next time based on how these came out:

Procrastination Bread, or Chocolate Chip Orange Zucchini Bread/Muffins

1.5 cup chopped walnuts. i like pretty big chunks, so i tend to buy halves and then chop them slightly
1 cup chocolate chips or chunks (i recommend guittard for chips, or better yet, buy a scharffenberger bar and chop it into chunks)
zest of 2 oranges

3 cup whole wheat pastry flour (hard to find, totally worth it. you can order it here, or, happily, Berkeley Bowl carries it in the bulk foods section)
1.5 tsp baking soda (make sure your box isn’t more than a year old — it DOES matter)
.5 tsp baking powder (ditto that for age of baking soda)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg (could try allspice in place of the nutmeg with interesting results)

.5 cup butter, softened
.75 cup granulated sugar
.5 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

3 cup grated zucchini (the food processor is your best friend here!)

1) toss together walnuts, orange zest and chocolate. set aside and try not to snack on too much. (think of it as a snickers bar, not trail mix).

2) mix together flour, baking soda and powder, salt and spices and set aside.

3) grate zucchini

4) cream butter with an electric mixer (or your big strong arm) till it’s fluffy. add sugar. then add eggs one at a time, and finally the vanilla. with a spatula, fold in the zucchini shreds.

5) mix in the flour mixture in several batches. don’t over mix. stir till the flour is almost but not quite incorporated. then add the chocolate/nut/orange mix and fold over a couple of times.

6) line 2 loaf pans with parchment paper (for real – once you discover parchment paper you’ll never butter/flour or pam a pan again). pour batter in and smooth the top.

7) baking 45 + minutes at 350 degrees, checking every 5 until the center is set. per 101 cookbook’s recommendation, don’t overbake, since the loaf will keep cooking for a few minutes once you pull it out. i made one loaf and a dozen cupcakes out of this recipe, since i could only find one of my loaf pans. the cupcakes took about 18 minutes. start checking them every 3 min after about 12 minutes.

8) let stand in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack or a dishtowel to fully cool.

9) now go back to doing whatever you were supposed to be doing before you started baking instead.

farmer’s market gazpacho

{20 July 2010}

It is a truth that every summer I am inspired by farmer’s market tomatoes to spend an entire afternoon chopping, straining, pureeing and chilling a whole pile o’ veggies into a round of gazpacho. It is also a truth that every year I remember, 2/3rds of the way through, that it’s really too much work. Also, that the bay area summers never get hot enough to justify a bowl of cold soup for dinner. And yet I persist once a year, and it feels like a grown up, gourmet, foodie sort of meal, despite the fact that really, I just spent the past hour and a half making a bowl of organic V8. Still, we strive with presentation.

Gazpacho

(with my edits)

6 ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped (see Joy of Cooking for tomato blanching. Surprisingly effective!)
1 purple onion, finely chopped
2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded, chopped
1 sweet red bell pepper (or green) seeded and chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1-2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbsp chopped fresh chives
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 cup red wine vinegar, plus more to taste
1/8 cup olive oil, plus more to taste
2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
2 cups tomato juice (use tomato juice, not a vegetable juice like V8), and add it slowly. If your tomatoes are really juicy and ripe, it may not be necessary at all.
1 ripe avocado, sliced thinly, for garnish
1 green bell pepper, sliced into rings, for garnish

Reserve 1/3 c of finely-minced vegetables (cucumber, bell pepper, celery) for garnish. Combine all ingredients in food processor, working in batches if necessary, or chop finely before putting into a blender. Blend to a smooth consistency. Then run through a strainer, reserving the liquid and mashing the solids to get a much liquid as out possible. Depending on desired consistency, add some portion of the vegetable pulp back, discarding the rest. Blend again to get the smoothest texture possible. Taste and adjust for olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Place in non-metal, non-reactive storage container, cover tightly and refrigerate overnight, allowing flavors to blend.

To serve, garnish with slice of avocado, a ring of green bell pepper, and the minced vegetables. Serve with crusty bread and a bottle of spanish wine. On a very hot day.

tofu asparagus stirfry with peanut sauce

{08 July 2009}

success in the kitchen tonight! the original inspiration was this asparagus stir-fry recipe from 101cookbooks. but i didn’t have about half of the ingredients it called for, so when i got home i just started improvising, and i have to say i’m rather pleased with what i came up with. so:

tofu asparagus stir-fry with peanut sauce

chop and prep all ingredients in advance because it cooks quickly once you start cooking.

ingredients:
two cloves garlic, minced
about 1″ of fresh ginger root, minced
vegetable or sesame oil
sea salt
red pepper flakes
3 tbs peanut butter
1 lime, juiced and zested
extra firm tofu, cubed
1/2 bunch asparagus, chopped into 2″ pieces
1 cup spinach, de-stemmed
about 15 large basil leaves, rolled and sliced into strips
brown rice, prepared according to package

peanut sauce:
heat a small amount of vegetable or sesame oil in a small frying pan. add half the garlic and half the ginger and saute for a minute or so (don’t let it brown). add peanut butter, the lime zest and the lime juice. thin with water as needed, and whisk into a creamy sauce. take off the heat and set aside.

saute tofu and veggies:
heat some oil in a frying pan. add the remaining ginger and garlic, and a few shakes of red pepper, and tofu. add a couple of pinches of sea salt. saute for 3-4 minutes, until the tofu starts to brown. add green onions and asparagus and cook until the asparagus is tender-crisp. add the peanut sauce. add the spinach and cook for about 30 seconds until the spinach starts to wilt. add the basil, stir, and take off the heat.

serve over brown rice. yum!

father’s day blueberry muffins

{21 June 2009}

i invented this recipe while cooking brunch for my family today. since it’s father’s day, i decided that’s what i’ll name the muffin recipe. not very original, but…whatever. when i bake them i’ll think of family, and that’s nice. the key to this recipe is the little bit of rosemary and thyme* that offsets the sweetness, and thenthe lemon just sort of perfumes and binds it all together. but go easy on the herbs, or the muffins will get a am-i-a-sweet-or-savory-food? sort of confusion about them. oh, and don’t waste time with frozen blueberries. they just lose all their flavor when you process them. better to wait and make this recipe when you can get fresh berries.

mix dry ingredients:
2 c wheat flour
1.5 c white wheat flour or unbleached white flour
1/2 c white sugar or whatever more natural granulated sugar product you prefer
5 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
fresh or dried rosemary to taste
fresh or dried thyme to taste
zest of one lemon

mix wet ingredients:
1/2 c butter, melted and cooled slightly (so it doesn’t cook the eggs on contact)

2 eggs
1 c milk

gently mix wet and dry ingredients until just blended, then fold in:
1 c fresh blueberries

cut together with pasty cutter or food processor the crumble topping:
1/2 c flour
1/2 c plain oats
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c butter (cut into chunks kept very cold until use)

place batter into muffin cups (lined with paper if desired) and top with crumble topping
bake at 400 degrees for 25-25 min
makes 18-24 muffins

oh, credit where credit is due: the addition of rosemary is an idea i got from www.101cookbooks.com.

move over, pasta

{23 January 2009}

this just became my new favorite 10-minute meal:

Quinoa and Black Bean Salad with Smoky Lime Dressing

1 cup quinoa, cooked according to package directions
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon low-sodium teriyaki sauce or soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar (optional, i prefer without)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (or more than 1 if you like some serious kick)
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped

Cook the quinoa according to package directions.

Stir in the green onions, black beans, and cilantro.

Puree the remaining ingredients together in a food processor; pour over
quinoa and stir to coat with dressing. Serve warm or at room
temperature.

Makes 4 – 6 servings.

ps – oh yeah, it paired beautifully with some crusty bread and goat cheese

pps – buyer beware: this keeps in the fridge beautifully, but the chipotle sauce got spicier once it had time to sit and contemplate its navel overnight.

productive procrastinating

{03 September 2008}

so i procrastinate by baking. i’ve made peace with this personality flaw, and furthermore have decided to embrace it. it’s better than watching youtube instead of going to bed on time, right? usually i bring the baked goods into work and feed them to the carpenters on their morning break, which suits everyone: i don’t get stuck at home with two loaves of zucchini bread or 3 dozen cookies, and the carpenters, when plied with homemade bakedgoods, will eat out of my hand* and do anything i ask.

i feel like i’ve pretty much mastered the basic quick breads/muffins, and i’ve got a reasonable handle on cookies and scones. last summer was devoted to the fruit cobbler. so i’m now moving on to simple pastries (ie, pie crust). actual leaven bread is probably years and many procrastinated tasks away from me yet.

last week i went apple picking in wisconsin, and the apples were were pleasantly crisp for eating, but a little bit picked-too-early sour. i figured they’d make great baking apples, and so saturday i made an apple pie from scratch. i generally understand the science behind pastry crust, and have helped my father/brother (both of whom are expert pie-makers) make pies, but this was the first time i’d made one from scratch in my own kitchen.** behold the results below. not too bad. the crust came out a little over baked, thanks to my highly unpredictable oven, and a little tougher than i’d like it to be, but definitely still flaky. the apples, as i had expected, treated with cinnamon, sugar, lemon zest and allspice, were divine. the recipe i followed came from 101cookbooks, though i altered the crust recipe to go with an all-butter crust instead of using a combo of butter and crisco.*** i also used white whole wheat flour instead of pastry flour, just because that was what i had on hand, and that might have been a mistake. after all, i want my food to be made of simple, nourishing ingredients, but if we’re baking pie here, we’re not making health food.

*metaphor, people!

**i realized it must be the first time i’ve made my own pie at home when, filling mixture and dough all ready to go, i discovered that i didn’t actually OWN a pie dish. oops. emergency run to target.

**the whole point of cooking at home is that i like to eat food made of simple ingredients. why spend 5 hours making a pie crust just to load it up with trans-fat filled vegetable shortening? i am determined to learn how to bake without frankeningredients. Bisquick and Crisco, you are banned from my kitchen!