Several recent recipes (mostly successful)

First of all, I remade the ginger cookies from the previous post when I was at my in-laws' after Christmas. They love ginger, so I added a little extra ground ginger, and I added probably close to a cup of minced candied ginger to the dough. I baked them less this time so they would be more chewy and less ginger-"snappy". They really liked them (and they are not really dessert people), although I would have left them in the oven for a minute longer as they were almost too soft in the centers. The minced ginger almost melts into the dough, giving tiny pockets of ginger punch, but not huge unpleasant kicks of ginger.

Since Christmas and New Year's are over, we have been trying to return to a world of normal food, with reasonable portions and more fruits and vegetables. To kick things off, I tried a few recipes I found on the Cooking Light website. For the most part, these turned out really well. Unfortunately, I didn't document most of them with pictures. I'll give you the recipes anyway.

For a really easy and flavorful lunch, we had roast chicken pitas with cumin-lemon dressing. Basically, I took all of the meat from an already cooked rotisserie chicken. Then I mixed it with some salt and pepper and the juice from two lemons. I sauteed garlic and cumin in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, then mixed it with the lemon chicken. We ate it cold rolled in a whole wheat pita with cucumber and red onion slices. It was delicious and we definitely plan on making it again. In the summer, we'll probably use it as a base for chicken salad (good for picnics and potlucks because it has no mayo), and add some chopped bell pepper, onion, and celery.

For dinner one night, we had linguine with spicy red clam sauce. This was easy and really delicious. The red clam sauce is made by first sauteing onion, garlic, and crushed red pepper in olive oil. Then you add two tablespoons of tomato paste and a can of diced tomatoes with no salt added. Given that the sauce isn't fancy, I think it is really important to use good canned tomatoes. For me this means Muir Glen organic canned tomatoes. I haven't found a better-tasting canned tomato! I also like to stick some kitchen scissors right into the can and cut the tomatoes into even smaller pieces before putting them in the pan. I also added about a half a cup of pinot grigio and two cans of chopped clams. I let that simmer together for awhile. In the meantime I cooked a package of fresh linguine for 2 or 3 minutes, drained it, and put it in the sauce. I tossed it together and served it up. It was sooo good! We ate the leftovers for lunch, and they were still good. We had refrigerated the pasta with the sauce on it and were afraid it would get mushy, but it was fine.

Just this afternoon for lunch, I made Ham, Spinach, and Sun-Dried Tomato Calzones. I made a filling of ricotta, mozzarella, freshly-grated parmesan, diced sun-dried tomatoes, a package of thawed chopped spinach, some chopped deli ham, ground basil, ground oregano, ground black pepper, crushed red pepper, and garlic powder. I rolled out a Pillsbury refrigerated pizza dough, and cut it into four quarters. I put one fourth of the filling on the right side of each dough rectangle, then folded the left side over. I pulled the bottom crust over the top and pinched it to seal, then baked them. These turned out terrific! They were nice and crispy on top, and creamy on the inside. We dipped them in pizza sauce straight from the jar.

Two nights ago, we tried another recipe that wasn't so successful. I tried making salmon en papillote with julienned vegetables. It looked beautiful, but it wasn't flavorful enough for our liking. I would try it again using more Asian flavors (soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil and/or seeds, etc.). Since going to Alaska, we have also sworn off farm-raised salmon in favor of wild salmon. The farm-raised stuff just has no flavor compared to wild. I was able to get some wild sockeye salmon for this. The color is beautiful. Even when cooked, it is still a vibrant pink as opposed to the more muted pink associated with farm-raised. The recipe was simple enough. I decided to use an aluminum foil pouch instead of dealing with my roll of parchment paper. On one half of the foil, I placed a bed of julienned leeks, fennel bulb, carrot, and snow peas. I seasoned this with salt and pepper, placed the salmon (skin on) on top, then seasoned the salmon with salt and pepper. Then I placed orange wedges on the salmon, added a splash of pinot grigio, and closed up the pouches. The original recipe said to microwave the pouches, but I wanted to bake them. I think I did them at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes to get the salmon to a medium/medium-well. This was intentional as that is how we like our salmon. Here is a kind of crappy picture:

Cookies!

So it's been a long time since I've posted. Sorry about that! I've been very busy wrapping up the term, and things are winding down a bit now. So I'm not usually much of a baker, but I decided to try doing some different cookies from scratch for the holidays.

I decided to try "The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies" recipe posted on allrecipes.com. These were a huge pain in the ass. The dough was ridiculously sticky, and I spent most of my time popping the dough in and out of the fridge. Furthermore, they tasted good, but nothing special. Definitely not worth the time and effort, and I will not make them again or recommend them to anybody.

Probably the coolest part about that cookie experiment was the recipe I found for colored dough that you pipe onto the cookies before baking, so they are already decorated and look iced when they come out of the oven. I did this because I wanted to freeze the cookies, and freezing icing doesn't go so well. The original recipe comes from Better Homes and Gardens, and turned out really well. I've also posted the recipe here:

Dough "Icing" for use before baking

-1/4 cup butter, softened
-1/4 cup granulated sugar
-6 tablespoons light cream or half-and-half (I used half-and-half)
-1 cup all-purpose flour
-Paste food coloring (I don't have paste, so I used liquid. It took me about 24 drops to get a vibrant red and 18 to get a vibrant green)

1. Beat softened butter in a small bowl on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar and beat until combined. Beat in light cream. Add all-purpose flour and beat until smooth. Divide dough into 2 to 3 portions (depending on how many colors you want to make). Color each portion with food coloring.

2. Place each color in a decorating bag fitted with a writing, rose, or star tip. (I used a sturdy quart freezer bag and snipped the tip.) The dough must be stiff for the designs to hold their shape, so don't be tempted to add liquid. Pipe one color on all the unbaked cookies on the cookie sheet, then do the same with the second color, then with a third, if desired. Bake as cookie recipe directs. Once baked, the piped-on designs are durable and the cookies store and freeze well.

Here is how the cookies turned out. Please excuse my elementary piping "skills". The "D" is the first initial of the friend these are for, and the surface of the cookies might look a little funny because I took them straight out of the freezer for the picture.



The same article I posed above also suggested adding a few drops of food coloring to an egg yolk and using a paintbrush to apply it to the cookies before baking. I tried this, and it made a simple cracked and glazed finish to the cookies. It looked especially nice on some tiny less than one inch cookies I made.

I also decided to try Gingerbread Cookies, and I used a recipe from No Special Effects that I saw on Tastespotting.

These turned out pretty well, and I used lots of ginger because Jon loves the stuff. For Jon, I added candied ginger to the top for some extra ginger "zing". I also made plain ones for other folks who don't like sinus-clearing cookies. Here are pictures, and the recipe.



Gingerbread cookies (adapted from No Special Effects):
-3 cups AP flour
-3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
-3/4 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon table salt
-1 heaping tablespoon ground cinnamon
-1 heaping tablespoon ground ginger
-1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
-Grated whole nutmeg (not sure how much I used, I just wanted some extra spices)
-1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces and slightly softened
-3/4 cup unsulphured molasses
-2 tablespoons whole milk (I used half and half)
-Candied ginger chopped into small pieces and coated in granulated sugar to separate the pieces (optional)

In a small bowl, combine the molasses and milk and stir together; set aside. In the bowl of the stand mixer (with paddle attachment), combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, pie spice, and nutmeg. Mix at low speed until combined (about 30 seconds). Scatter the butter pieces over the top and mix at medium-low speed until it resembles very fine meal (about 90 seconds). Reduce the speed to low and drizzle in the molasses mixture with the mixer running and mix until the dough is moistened thoroughly (about 20 seconds), then increase the speed to medium and mix for 10 seconds more to combine.

Divide the dough in half, and roll between sheets of wax or parchment paper to 1/4 inch thickness. Stack the dough sheets (still intact in their parchment sandwiches) onto a sheet pan and freeze until firm, about 20 minutes, or refrigerate 2 hours or overnight.

Place a rack in the upper and lower-middle positions of your oven and preheat to 350°F. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper or silpat baking mats. Cut out whatever shapes you'd like with a cookie cutter and move the baking pans, leaving at least 1 inch between the cookies. Add some candied ginger pieces to the top if you'd like. Bake the cookies for 8-11 minutes, rotating the pans front to back and top to bottom halfway through. You're looking for set centers and for the dough to barely retain an imprint when touched gently with a fingertip. Don't overbake! They will set some more while cooling. Cool the cookies for 2 minutes on the pans then transfer with a wide metal spatula to a cooling rack. Gather the scraps and repeat the rolling and cutting one time (so you don't overwork the dough). Best if eaten within a week.

Yield: About 34 3-inch round cookies

Bacchanalia

So on Saturday evening, I went with my sister, L, to Bacchanalia (www.starprovisions.com, then select Bacchanalia), an Atlanta restaurant owned by Chefs Anne Quatrano and Clifford Harrison. Bacchanalia features a four course prix fixe menu at $72 per head, and the chefs source a lot of ingredients from their own farm. It was the singular best dining experience I have ever had in my life! The taste and presentation of the food, the service, and the space were all on point. The dining room is small and decorated in warm shades of red and cream. The environment was lively, but not stuffy. The service was great. Our server was polite but friendly and bantered with us. The timing of the meal was perfect with just a short time between courses and ample time to enjoy the meal. We were there from about 8:30pm until 11:00pm, and we enjoyed every minute! One of the greatest things about the restaurant is that you can go into the adjacent Star Provisions to purchase many of the ingredients or items that were in your meal. For example, my sister overheard the fromagier tell the couple at the table next to us that a certain blue cheese was his favorite blue cheese. After our meal, we went into the cheese shop, and my sister got to sample and get the name of the aforementioned blue (Saint Agur Cow Blue from France). Onto the meal itself:

Amuse Bouche
Cheese filled profiterole - Delicious! Bite size puff pastry filled with salty melted cheese! How can you go wrong?
Cauliflower soup topped with fried capers and raisins - Warm and earthy, accented by the brininess of the capers and sweetness of the raisins. I could have eaten a whole bowl!

1st course - appetizer
L had a house cured Saucisson with a small salad of saba-dressed red peppers and leeks. It was delicious.

I had veal sweetbreads fried and served with pears, country ham, and a lightly dressed vegetable salad. I actually can't remember what was in the salad, but I remember red onion and some other crunchy veggies. It was amazing! The sweetbreads were fried so they were nice and crunchy, and the sweetness from the pears, crispy saltiness from the ham, and the tanginess of the salad filled my mouth with flavor.

2nd course - entree
L had lamb served on a bed of diced fuji apple, greens (can't remember what), and celery root puree, all surrounded by jus. I had a bite with a touch of everything, and it was delicious and perfect. L declared that it was without question the best lamb she had ever had!

I had locally grown wood grilled pork tenderloin, served with maple glazed pork belly, grits, and brussels sprouts. It was the most delicious, tender pork I've ever had, and magically, it somehow tasted like bacon throughout! I'd never had pork belly before, but it was delicious. It added a melt-in-your-mouth richness to the pork, and combined with the pork, creamy grits, and crunchy, slightly bitter brussel sprout, it made the perfect bite.

3rd course - cheese
L had forme d'ambert with poached pears, pecan brittle, and micro greens. The cheese was very rich, but when combined with the pears and pecan brittle was well-rounded and refreshing.

I had a homemade cream cheese that tasted like a mix between cream cheese and Chevre. It was served with roasted beets macerated in sherry vinaigrette and with a beet sorbet. I've had a similar dish with roasted beets and goat cheese before, but the micro greens, vinaigrette, and earthy, cool beet sorbet elevated it above any cheese course I've had before.

Intermezzo
At this point in the meal, we were served an intermezzo of buttermilk panna cotta with cranberry sauce. It was a bite of perfectly creamy panna cotta with a tangy homemade cranberry sauce on top. A tiny sprig of micro mint topped it off.

4th course - dessert
L had a moist gingerbread cake topped with yoghurt cheesecake. On top of this were preserved orange slices and micro mint. She really liked it. I was full, so unfortunately I didn't have a bite.

I had the warm Valhrona chocolate cake, served with mint ice cream. This was the richest, most decadent, "molten" chocolate cake I've ever had. The richest came not from sugar, but from the high quality dark cocoa. The mint ice cream was delicious as it tasted like garden fresh mint (and not mint extract).

Petit fours
Just when we thought we were done, our waiter brought us a plate of bite size petit fours consisting of pecan chili chocolate truffles, fig thumbprint cookies, brown sugar shortbread (in the shape of gingerbread men), and almond fruit cake. We were also brought two madeleines. These were tasty, but we were both really full at this point and just nibbled on them.

I didn't explain all of the presentation of the dishes here and I didn't take my camera, but suffice it to say that it was all beautiful.

After we left, we stopped in the Star Provisions store to browse. I picked up some Italian arborio rice for risotto making, and my sister got to try the Saint Agur Blue Cheese as I mentioned earlier. On the way out, the clerk asked if we'd like something from the bakery. She sent us home with a loaf of artisan wheat bread, an almond danish, and a cranberry cream cheese danish (all for free!). L is saving the bread for hummus sandwiches for her and her boyfriend this week, and we had the danishes for breakfast this morning.

All in all, the experience was amazing, and I would recommend Bacchanalia or Star Provisions to anybody visiting Atlanta. It was well worth the price, and was an amazing, satisfying experience.

Tastespotting

My last post was just linked on Tastespotting. I love the site, and it is pretty much what inspired me to start this blog. So anyway, you get no recipes or pictures, just a little excited bragging :-)

Guacamole and Squash

At the grocery store last Sunday, I found some decent looking avocados and decided to make one of my favorite things - guacamole! In fact, I consider the Mexican vacation when my sister and I each consumed about 7 cups of guacamole a sort of turning point in life. I've been a guacamole fiend ever since. Anyway, I make a really simple version at home. At its most basic, I mash two avocados then add 1 diced plum tomato (flesh only, no seeds), the juice of one lime, and salt and pepper to taste. When I have them around, I add fresh cilantro and one finely diced jalapeno. At any rate, it's really simple and tasty. Here is a picture of the finished guac.



I also picked up a butternut squash and a spaghetti squash at the farmer's market last Friday. I've never made either, and I decided to try the butternut squash tonight. As the farmer's market vendor recommended, I cooked it in the microwave. Then I mashed it with some egg, milk, Splenda, butter, and spices to create a cereal-topped custard-like casserole. Here are pictures of the squash and the finished casserole.


Here is the recipe:

Butternut squash casserole
1 butternut squash, cooked (see directions for microwaving below)
1/2 cup Splenda (next time I would use white sugar or brown sugar)
1 cup milk (next time I would reduce this a bit)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice to taste
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 heaping tablespoons of AP flour
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup breakfast cereal, crushed (I used a cereal that had oat flakes, oat clusters, pecans, and dried blueberries because it was what I had on hand)

1. Mash the squash with a spoon or fork.

2. After the squash has cooled a bit, mix in the Splenda/sugar, vanilla, salt, spices, eggs, flour, and butter using a whisk.

3. Pour into a casserole dish and sprinkle with the crushed cereal.

4. Bake at 425 for about 30 minutes until set.

You may need to adjust the quantities depending on the size of your squash.

Cooking the squash
Cut the butternut squash in half, scoop out the seeds, cover with a damp paper towel, and microwave for 10-15 minutes, rotating every five minutes or so. Scoop the cooked squash out of the rind with a spoon and let it cool for awhile before mixing in the egg.

Bacon and Egg Risotto

We were in the mood for some belly-warming, comfort-food style brunch, so I decided to try a recipe I've seen floating around on a couple of food blogs - Bacon and Egg Risotto. So after checking out Last Night's Dinner and An Obsession with Food and Wine, I decided to go for it. Here are some pics from the endeavor. I give you crumbled bacon, egg yolk (before poaching), simmering risotto, and the finished, amazing, delicious product!







Recipe - Bacon and Egg Risotto
4 cups low-sodium, low-fat chicken stock
4 strips of bacon
1 medium onion, diced small
1 cup arborio rice (do not use regular white rice!)
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 to 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
2 egg yolks

1. Heat up the chicken stock on the stove (I turned it on medium-high, then dropped it down to just above low).
2. In a large skillet, cook four strips of bacon until crisp, take them out, and crumble them. Your dog will love you if you let him have a small piece. So will your husband.
3. In the bacon fat - DID YOU HEAR ME? I SAID IN THE BACON FAT! YOU KNOW THIS IS GOING TO BE GOOD! - cook the onion on medium heat until soft and translucent. Add salt and pepper to taste (but remember the chicken stock has some salt in it, and so will the parmesan you are using to finish).
4. Stir in the rice and let it toast, stirring occasionally, for about four minutes.
5. Add the wine, stir, and listen to the satisfying sizzle.
6. When the wine is absorbed (which can take under a minute), add a ladle of the warm chicken stock. Let this absorb, stirring occasionally. When it absorbs, add another ladle of chicken stock, let it absorb, and continue.
7. When you start running low on chicken stock, start tasting the risotto to see if it is done the way you like it. Some people like the rice to get completely soft, and others like it a little chewy and "al dente". It's up to you, so just stop adding liquid when it is where you want it.
8. Stir in the parmesan cheese, butter, and crumbled bacon to finish.
9. Top with a poached egg yolk.
10. Enjoy the decadence!

To poach the egg yolks, I put two egg yolks in two little prep bowls. I then slid them into boiling water for less than 30 seconds. Even at thirty seconds, mine were a little overdone, but we actually liked the mix of runny egg yolk with just cooked egg yolk. Remove the yolks gently with a slotted spoon. You'll have to do this carefully. One of mine made it to the risotto and broke on contact (which is what I was going to do with my spoon anyway), but the other started breaking on the spoon before it made it to the bowl. Doesn't matter though, because it still tastes great!

Last night, we took my sister, Kate, out to Korean Barbecue for a birthday dinner. Our Korean BBQ place is great because they have a buffet of raw, marinated meats. There is usually some combo of pork, short ribs, beef bulgogi (beef in a slightly sweet, soy marinade), chicken in some spicy marinade, shrimp, scallops, mussels, and cuttlefish. You load up a plate with meat, take it to your table, and cook it on a tabletop grill. We also cook some garlic, scallion, onions, and mushrooms on our grill. They have some kim chi and other pickled veggies available, but none of us are fans of those. Anyway, you can just eat the meat with rice, or you can put it on lettuce leaves with a little rice and miso paste, and make a wrap out of it. We finished with mango and green tea ice cream. Yum! Kate had never tried it but she seemed to have a good time (as do most people we take there).

Shipwrecked

Unfortunately some neighborhood creatures thought my pirate ship jack-o-lantern looked good...good enough to eat! Sorry for the poor picture quality! I ran outside to snap a quick pic in the rain and didn't have a very steady hand.