Recipe: Orange, Currant and Pine Nut Couscous

 

Orange, Currant and Pine Nut Couscous

Emeril 20-40-60 Fresh Food Fast, p. 48
5 stars

A really great side -- we had this with salmon, steamed broccoli and a Chardonnay. A DELICIOUS MEAL!

Ingredients: couscous, carrots, dried currants, red onion or shallot, orange, orange zest, pine nuts or walnuts, mint or parsley, extra-virgin olive oil, salt, white pepper, water

Notes/Tips:

• Because the couscous takes 10 min to cook, we started cooking the couscous for 5 min, then added the carrots, red onion, etc. We didn't follow the recipe (the steam method).
• Tripled the amount of carrots
• Used 1/2 tsp of salt instead of 3/4 tsp
• Used dried blueberries since we had them on hand
• Used both walnuts and pine nuts -- added them upon serving vs. mixing them in (didn't want to make them soggy)
• Also added the orange segments upon serving

Recipe: Cheddar Cornbread Waffle BLT with Chipotle Butter

Cheddar Cornbread Waffle BLT with Chipotle Butter
HalfBakedHarvest.com
5 stars

Wow - this was as good as the title of the recipe sounds. Restaurant worthy (it could be served at a restaurant), and I enjoyed every single bite. Each bite had some much flavor and texture!

Ingredients: buttermilk, sharp cheddar, bacon, tomatoes, arugula, avocado corn kernels, jalapeno, eggs, all-purpose flour, stoneground cornmeal, honey, baking powder, salt, Kosher salt, pepper, maple syrup, salted butter, chipotle chiles in adobo

Tips/Notes:

• Lightly char the corn next time to give yet another dimension of flavor/texture
• We would've liked more spice (the jalapeno was not hot) so have a couple of jalapenos and/or a serrano on hand
• This recipe made 6 waffles
• Great with a bourbon cocktail!

Recipe: Spicy-Sweet Sambal Pork Noodles and Blistered Green Beans with Fried Shallots

Spicy-Sweet Sambal Pork Noodles
Bon Appetit Magazine, May 2020, p. 30
5 stars

Ingredients: ramen or spaghetti, ground pork, ginger, tomato paste, basil, hot chili paste (sambal oelek), garlic, soy sauce, unseasoned rice vinegar, sugar, butter, extra-virgin olive oil, Kosher salt

Blistered Green Beans with Fried Shallots
Bon Appetit Magazine, May 2020, p.74
5 stars

Ingredients: green beans, oyster sauce, shallot, garlic, lemongrass, ginger, vegetable oil, Kosher salt

I loved this meal so much! Packed with flavor and relatively easy to make.
The noodles were like an Asian bolognese, and the the green been dish is now a new favorite to add as a side for the other Asian dishes we make.

Notes:

• The noodles were pretty spicy but we halved the overall recipe and forgot to half the sambal oelek.
• This meal would be great with a side of simple tofu.

Recipe: Pork-and-Apple Bedfordshire Clangers

Pork-and-Apple Bedfordshire Clangers
Food and Wine Magazine, Nov 2017, p.54
5 stars

While simple, this took a long time to make as there were many steps.  Start 3 hours before you plan to have dinner.  Note:  The pastry dough is the flakiest dough I've made.  The 4 rolls above have 2 whole sticks of butter in them altogether!

Pastry ingredients:  flour, Kosher salt, unsalted butter, ice water

Sausage ingredients:  ground pork shoulder, fresh breadcrumbs, sage, garlic, sugar, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, Kosher salt, pepper, chicken stock

Apple pie ingredients:  Honeycrisp apples, dark brown sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, granulated sugar

Other ingredients:  egg

Tips:

• Used fresh ginger
• Didn't do 'half-and-half' with each roll having both sausage and fruit per the recipe;  instead created 2 rolls with sausage (the ones on the right in the photo) and 2 rolls with fruit (the 2 on the left with the slits)
• 1 lb of apples is way too much; next time use 1/2 lb
• Serve with a bold red wine

Timing if you plan to eat at 7:15pm:

• 4:15pm:  make pastry
• 4:30pm:  make filling
• 5:00pm:  freeze the filling
• 5:30pm:  roll out the dough and make the clangers
• 5:45pm:  refrigerate the clangers until chilled
• 6:15pm:  bake
• 7:15pm:  eat

Recipe: Twice-Baked Potatoes

Twice-baked potatoes along with ribs, broccoli cheddar gratin
and popovers w/gruyere = a perfect meal

Twice-baked Potatoes
Bon Appetit, March 2015
4.5 stars

Why have we never made twice-baked potatoes before?  I've had them . .  but we usually default to making regular mash which I love.  After seeing this recipe in Bon Appetit magazine (and knowing we were going to make ribs AND that we had tarragon and sour cream in the fridge) -- I added this to our weekly recipe selection.

Yum.

Ingredients:  potatoes, vegetable oil, sour cream, butter, chives, tarragon, salt and pepper

Just 8 ingredients including salt and pepper!

Adding this to our side dish rotation!

Recipe: Salt-and-Pepper-Biscuits; Grilled Brussels Sprouts with Chanterelles

You know you've cooked a lot . . . 

Salt-and-Pepper Biscuits
Grilled Brussels Sprouts with Bacon & Mushrooms

We literally cooked up a storm last night -- there were pots and pans everywhere!

• Thomas Keller's roast chicken recipe (without the bed of root vegetables) - always delicious
• Salt-and-Pepper Biscuits (Bon Appetit Magazine - Nov 2013, p.128 with photo on p.126)
• Grilled Brussels Sprouts with Chanterelles (Bon Appetit Magazine - Nov 2013, p.139 with photo on p.138)
• Homemade vanilla ice cream with mint chocolate chips

The biscuits and Brussels sprouts recipes were new for us, and they both get huge thumbs up.

The Salt-and-Pepper Biscuits were absolutely delicious.  It was my first time making biscuits from scratch, and it was so easy -- something I'll be able to whip up anytime (and in 30 min max) as long as I have sour cream and heavy cream in house.  There are only 9 ingredients in this recipe: sour cream, heavy cream, baking powder, kosher salt, sugar, black pepper, flour, butter, sea salt.

We modified the Grilled Brussels Sprouts with Chanterelles recipe, and it turned out great:

• Used baby bella mushrooms instead of chanterelles
• Roasted the Brussels sprouts with my roast chicken instead of grilling them
• Didn't use all of the bacon fat to cook the mushrooms, shallot and garlic (it would've been way too greasy)

I can't wait to eat the leftovers this week.  Tonight we're going to try the Thai Beef with Basil recipe (Bon Appetit - Nov 2013, p. 54).

Art-inspired Dinner 2 - Oct 2013

So fun. So delicious.

A Vietnamese style caprese with grape tomatoes,
fresh mozzarella, cucumber, basil, spicy meatballs over
a bed of rice noodles in tomato water
(inspired by John Chamberlain's auto metalsculpture)

A mixed greens salad with grapes, marcona almonds and
shaved manchego with a grape/sherry/balsamic vinaigrette in a
romaine lettuce leaf
(inspired by Dale Chihuly's glass art
 in boats)

Fresh squid pasta with meatballs
(inspired by Adolph Gottlieb's work
like Pink High)

Salted caramel ice cream with caramel shards
(inspired by Robert Smithson's work
like Mirror and Shelly Sand)

I love blog contributor the grandcruman's creations (though, he hasn't contributed in a while, ahem).  I don't have a recipe to share for this unless he would like to comment on this post with more details!

It's a pan-seared sea bass that was marinated in miso, seasoned rice wine vinegar, and soy sauce (I think that's what he said) served on top of a bed of rice and topped with carrots, celery, cucumber, chives and cilantro.  Cremini mushrooms are in a miso glaze served on the side.

Paired it with a non-sweet riesling, and it was a phenomenal meal!

Art-inspired Dinner

Rothko-inspired bramble jelly shot

Phase-Mother Earth inspired chocolate & vanilla cake

A few weeks ago, our friends threw an art-themed dinner party which was inspired by Caitlin Freeman's book Modern Art Desserts.  Everyone invited brought a dish, and we each had to guess what artist/artwork inspired the dish.  It was tons 'o fun, and I'm hoping we do it again soon.

We made 2 items:

1. A bramble cocktail jelly shot that was inspired by Marc Rothko's work.
2. A cake inspired by Nubuo Sekine's Phase-Mother Earth which is considered to be a pivotal work of the Mono-ha Japanese art movement of the late 60s and early 70s.  Phase-Mother Earth was a large cylindrical tower made of packed earth which was removed from a cylindrical hole with the same shape.

The jelly shots were a hit and fun to eat.  (From now on, I think I'm going to make a fun jelly shot for every dinner party we have.)

The cake turned out fine, we just had to do some minor repairs at the end.  Making the cake was an interesting undertaking as you probably imagine from looking at the photo.  I do need to find a great cake recipe that produces somewhat dense and moist cake AND that is meant for layering so if anyone has a tried-and-true recipe, please let me know and respond in the comments!

Friday Night Dinner

Beef Wellington
Mashed Potatoes
Mozzarella, tomato, basil salad
Chateau St. Jean Cinq Cepages

 

Life is good.

Dinner Idea: Bleu-cheese Stuffed Steak; Artichoke, Leek and Potato Gratin, Mixed Greens and Pear Salad

Please excuse the plating.

Having guests over and can't think of what to serve?  We made this lovely dinner last weekend, and it was hit.

Bleu Cheese-stuffed Filet Mignon

• No recipe link here.  We basically made a mix of high quality bleu cheese, freshly ground peppercorns, a little lemon zest and salt and stuffed the filets with it.  Salt & pepper the filets, sear them on the grill and finish them in the oven.

Arugula and Pear Salad with Mascarpone and Toasted Walnuts

• This is a deconstructed salad (see the photo on the epicurious.com website).
• Used mixed greens instead of arugula.  Using a combination of both would be perfect.
• Used half the amount of oil and lemon juice.

Artichoke, Leek and Potato Gratin

• Used gruyere (one of my favorite cheeses)!

Recipes: Mac & Cheese, Green Beans with Gorgonzola Butter and a Warm Chocolate Budino

Not the prettiest plating, but oh well

Again, not the best plating
nor the best roasted almonds

Lovely dinner with friends this past weekend.  Surf & turf (sirloin and lobster) with four-cheese mac & cheese, green beans with gorgonzola butter, and Chateau St. Jean Cinq Cepages and Ramey Chardonnay; followed by a warm chocolate budino for dessert.

The Four-Cheese Mac and Cheese recipe was interesting.  It was in Food & Wine Magazine's June 2012 issue (p. 114) and is a recipe from Slows Bar BQ in Detroit.  In interesting I mean that it called for extra-sharp cheddar cheese, Muenster cheese, Swiss cheese and cream cheese -- AND Tabasco sauce and ground mace.  What's ground mace?  It's a spice obtained from the dried aril (net-like sheath) which covers the nutmeg seed.  The recipe was good, but I really prefer my America's Test Kitchen Classic Mac & Cheese recipe.

I found this Grilled Asparagus with Gorgonzola Butter recipe, but since I wanted to serve green beans, I modified the recipe.  We blanched the beans, and in the future, I would actually saute the beans in the mixture of butter, Gorgonzola cheese, lemon juice, basil, and garlic altogether.  Nix the olive oil because the butter is enough.  And make sure to add salt to taste.

For dessert, I wanted to try out the Warm Chocolate Budino recipe (Food & Wine Magazine's April 2012 issue, p.56)  because I had ordered one at Private Social a couple of weekends ago.  This one turned out pretty nicely -- I love the flavors of chocolate, roasted almonds, vanilla ice cream and olive oil altogether.  (Note: Private Social's dessert had an olive oil ice cream, but this recipe calls for vanilla ice cream with extra-virgin olive oil drizzled on top.)

Bon Appetit!

Recipe: Toast for Dinner

Friday night. . .we were trying to figure out what to have for dinner, and I didn't feel like a major cooking endeavor.  I flipped through a few of our cooking magazines and had marked p.16 of Bon Appetit's July 2012 issue.  It was Adam Rapoport's editor's letter called 'The Toast of Summer' where he recalls a backyard dinner party where he forgot to prepare an appetizer/munchies to eat pre-dinner.  So, he frantically rummaged through his kitchen and ended up grilling some bread and layering the toast with avocado, extra-virgin olive oil, sea salt and red pepper flakes.  This simple dish was the highlight of the meal.

This was the inspiration for our dinner which included the grilled toast below -- as well as burrata (didn't get a photo of that since I ate it with a spoon).  All of the toast was lightly rubbed with garlic.

Ricotta, lemon zest,drizzled with honey

Avocado, extra-virgin olive oil,
sea salt, red pepper flakes
Next time, we'll dice up the avocado.

Tomatoes, basil, extra-virgin olive oil, sea salt

Ricotta, lemon zest, figs

Recipes: Chicken Au Champagne; Cauliflower Gratin



I mentioned the book French Women Don't Get Fat in an earlier blog post and the recipe Chicken Au Champagne.  Voila!  We made it last night for the second time along with Mireille's (the author) Cauliflower Gratin.

The chicken is so flavorful and easy to make -- here is the recipe:
http://frenchwomendontgetfat.com/content/chicken-emau-champagneem
Note: We didn't use Champagne but instead some inexpensive sparkling wine.  I believe that cooking with good Champagne is such a waste!

For the Cauliflower Gratin, I threw in some broccoli as well and doubled the amount of cheese (so in the end, it wasn't low fat).  Interestingly, the Cauliflower Gratin recipe in the book is different from what's on Mireille's website. 

Cauliflower Gratin recipe on her website (looks tasty; is cheese-less; we'll try it next time):
http://frenchwomendontgetfat.com/content/cauliflower-gratin

Cauliflower Gratin recipe that we made that's in her book:  http://www.goodcooking.com/ckbookrv/spring_05/fat_bu05/fat_rev.htm

This is an easy meal to make during the weekday.

Recipe: Martin Yan's Shrimp-and-Pork Dumplings with Bamboo Shoots

We can cook, so can you!  [channeling my Martin Yan]

For dinner tonight, we made the Shrimp-and-Pork Dumplings with Bamboo Shoots recipe from Food and Wine Magazine (Jan 2012, pg. 52)  Easy and delicious, seriously -- you just need a handful of ingredients.  Shrimp, pork, bamboo shoots (found them at our local Kroger!), canola oil, sesame oil, salt, white pepper, and wonton wrappers.  We added about 4 oz of pork intsead of 2 to make them more 'porky' (ha ha)!  The next time we make them, I'm going to add some green onion.

We had Ginger Garlic Green Beans on the side but without the garlic (because raw garlic = awful breath later) and added sriracha sauce to it.

Shrimp-and-Pork Dumplings with Bamboo Shoots
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/shrimp-and-pork-dumplings-with-bamboo-shoots

Ginger Garlic Green Beans
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Ginger-Garlic-Green-Beans-354956

For the dumpling dipping sauce, I concoted the following:

• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 tsp sugar
• About 1 tbsp grated peeled fresh ginger
• About 1 tbsp chopped green onion
• Sriracha sauce to taste

Believe me, fresh dumplings are a million times better than the ones found in the freezer section of the Asian Supermarket.

For more on what Sriracha Sauce is, click here.  You can probably find it at your local grocery store if your store has an aisle dedicated to ethnic foods.  Interestingly, the ingredient was named 'Ingredient of the Year' in 2010 by Bon Appetit Magazine.

Le Poulet du Ad Hoc . . . and Snickers Cake

This evening, we made our first recipe out of Thomas Keller's ad hoc at home cookbook -- and it was amazing!!!

A note 'To the Woman Who Ate Everything' blog contributor:  You were absolutely right.  The Whole Roasted Chicken on a Bed of Root Vegetables recipe was easy and absolutely delicious.  There is no reason for us to buy rotisserie chicken ever again!  Next on my list is the ad hoc chicken potpie recipe that you've been talking about for at least a year.

I have to admit that I was a bit wary about making the recipe, not having roasted a chicken before and thinking it might be dry, but no, it was JUICY, and the roast vegetables were fabulous.  We had the chicken & vegetables along with mac & cheese a la the America's Test Kitchen classic recipe.

For dessert, it was Snickers Cake which took literally 3 hours to make (I started the cake yesterday).  I would make the cake part of the recipe again, but not the buttercream -- like one of the reviewers on epicurious noted, it was TOO buttery.  I added 6 more oz of chocolate just to tone down the buttery texture and flavor.  I mean, I love butter, but this buttercream frosting just wasn't as great as other buttercream frostings I've had (plus, it took a long time to make).
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Snickers-Cake-2750

Whole Roasted Chicken on a Bed of Root Vegetables

Snickers Cake

An Italian Thanksgiving Feast

Last year, we had a Texas Thanksgiving with brisket, cole slaw, mac 'n cheese, and blueberry cobbler.

This year it was Festa Italiana -- complete with homemade pasta.

Need a place to dry your pasta?
We stuck cooking utensils under the plates in our cabinets.

Prosciutto, Parmesan & Breadsticks

Panzanella Salad
Fresh Pasta w/Spinach, Mushrooms and Parmesan
in a Beurre Blanc Sauce

Steaks in a Mushroom and Gorgonzola Sauce

Pannacotta w/Balsamic Raspberries
Chocolate Biscotti

I realized yesterday that we forget to serve Limoncello with dessert!

Panzanella Salad Recipe
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Grilled-Panzanella-366695
Notes:  Added romaine lettuce and black olives; didn't use as much lemon zest & lemon juice (too acidic); made large croutons with the sourdough bread by cutting the bread into cubes and broiling them.

Pannacotta w/Balsamic Raspberries
Food Fiend:  I need your recipe for this and the biscotti!

Guest Post (The GrandCruMan): 9 pounds 6 hours

....9 pounds of Texas brisket, a smoking charcoal kettle, spices and about 6 hours later - Labor Day dinner. Throw in the good American home-made mac and cheese, a salad, and a bottle of Mondavi '06 Napa Cab and voila! dinner is served. I've been wanting to finish up the summer with some bar-b-que and this hit the spot.

I may share the recipe upon request, but you can google any number of spice rub mixes. What I recommend is the basting - with a simple butter/bourbon/brown sugar concoction. The brisket spent about 4.5 hours on the smoker and finished up in the oven at 350 degrees for 1.5 more hours.

The meat was well-saturated with flavor and still retained sufficient bite and chew. Next time I'm tempted to up cooking time dramatically to go for no knife needed tender. We went for the '06 cabernet and its tannins stood up well to the smoked meat. The wine's fruit came through well but I imagine if we uncorked an older wine the meat would have been too dominant.