Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Thankful for...a new cheese?

We went over to friends' for T-day, meaning that for what must be the fourth straight year we didn't have to do any cooking. Well, Akiko made a pie, but I'll let her write about that if she feels like it.

Which meant no new recipes tried out. We ate a lot of things that I want to try someday, though, so blogwise there might have been something in it. In the meantime, we did discover an awesome cheese that somebody brought to the party.

It's a Spanish cheese called Idiazabal. Made from sheep's milk, although I don't think it tastes sheepy at all. In fact the person who brought it said it was cow's milk (or I misremembered), and I believed it until we bought some tonight.

The only Spanish cheese I knew about previously was manchego, and I'm wild about that. This is maybe a little milder, and the variety we have is smoked, so it almost tastes like a gouda, but without the gouda flavor. Like, it's sharp and dry but not nutty. Buttery? I need to develop a pretentious cheese vocabulary, obviously. In any case, it's real good. A new fave.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Chicken Marsala

Hey everyone! I am sorry that I haven't been doing anything on here in a while. I haven't been cooking much lately with school and stuff. I know everyone knows about this recipe but I have never made it before so I decided to take a little time for myself away from homework today to make a real meal.

This recipe is originally from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I had to make some changes and I included those.

1lb chicken breasts (I bought purdue ones that were already really really thin so I didn't have to pound them myself)
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. dry marjoram
salt to taste
pepper
2 cups sliced mushrooms (I used a carton of sliced baby bellas from the store)
2 small spring onions chopped finely
butter/margarine/cooking oil (this is where I had issues)
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup Marsala wine

Mix flour, marjoram, some pepper, and a little salt on a plate. Dredge your flattened chicken breasts and set aside. In a non-stick pan melt (med/low heat) about 2 tbs butter/margarine and add a tiny bit of cooking oil (The cookbook called for so much less and left me with sticking sad mushrooms until i added more lipids!!). Sautee your onion and mushrooms until the mushrooms are tender and browned. Remove the mushrooms/onions from the pan. DON'T RINSE/WASH/WIPE the pan - you need the good browned stuff on the bottom for later. Add more butter and oil (the same amount) and brown your chickens over high heat. This should go really quickly (about 4 minutes to cook a breast). Turn them over as they cook to ensure they brown on both sides. Remove from pan and set aside when they're done. Put your mushroom stuff back in the pan (low heat now) and add your chicken stock and Marsala. Add a pinch of salt to taste here (not much, the sauce is nice a little sweet in my opinion). Turn up the heat and proceed to deglaze the pan while reducing the sauce. This is where all the crusty junk from the bottom of the pan becomes magical :) All that stuff = Flava! But I digress. When your sauce is at a consistency you approve of, pour the sauce and mushrooms over the chicken breast. Enjoy. This serves 4 technically. I say 3 without a side dish if you are lazy like me.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Black Bean Enchiladas

I know this is two posts in one day, but I actually had a few minutes to think about stuff and get around to writing it. We made enchiladas today and this is one of our favorite recipes. I've made them for other people a bunch of times and it always goes over well. I cobbled it together starting with a soft taco recipe and it's kind of morphed over time, so feel free to tweak it as you like.

Filling:
one 15-oz can black beans
1 cup frozen corn (don't bother to unfreeze it)
1 medium zucchini, chopped to bite-size
some mushrooms--one small can or a handful of fresh

1. Heat oven to 375F
2. Mix up some filling--feel free to substitute veggies and whatnot
3. Get a 9x13 pan and spread some enchilada sauce on the bottom and sides (keeps the tortillas from sticking so much).
4. Fill some tortillas with filling--three or four tablespoons each--roll them up and put them in the pan.
5. Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over the top, cover with foil, and cook 30 minutes.
6. When the enchiladas come out, spread some grated cheese on top and place the foil back loosely. Just leave it on top of the stove and the cheese will melt great.

Not that you needed instructions on how to fill some enchiladas, but there they are. If you put the cheese on before baking it'll kind of overmelt and disappear. These enchiladas will be messy but tasty, and when I have sour cream around I put a little dollop on top before eating.

As for enchilada sauce just use your favorite if you have one. If not, I'm partial to La Victoria (hot or mild, they both work fine) and Rosarita will do fine, too.

New Food November

So I've eaten new foods in the last while but I didn't write them all down. Sadness, truly. But here are a few for November:

1. Brianna's Chipotle Cheddar dressing, which is pretty interesting. The chipotle gives it a nice kick and the cheddar part is a little weird for me but good. I mean, it actually has a slighly cheddary taste, and I've never experienced that in a dressing. I was expecting a little more ranch-like, I guess.

2. Leicester red cheese--the particular one I bought was Kerrygold but I've seen a couple different brands around. It pretty much tastes like cheddar (medium sharpness, I'd say) but it's definitely more red. If you something exciting for a cheese platter or garnish this would be cool.

3. Bundaberg root beer from Australia, which is pretty good. Definitely on the sharp and gingery side, but that's not a bad thing in my opinion. Root beer is pretty much the only soda Eric really loves, so when I spot an exciting one I bring it home to try.

4. Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce--this isn't exactly a new food, but it's become my favorite barbecue sauce. I like the hot and spicy one, but Eric's partial to the hickory and brown sugar, which I must say is quite nice. The flavors I've tried have been more sweet than smoky, though, so it depends on your taste.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Tofu Potato Scramble

This is one of my favorite cold weather comfort foods, one of my only breakfast-for-dinner type recipes. This recipe makes enough for two with probably some leftovers.

2 Tbs olive oil
One 16-oz bag frozen O'Brien potatoes
6 veggie sausage links, cut into 1/2-inch rounds (I'm sure this would work with real sausage)
1 tsp hot pepper sauce, plus more to taste
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
one 14-oz package firm tofu, drained
1 tsp creole or cajun seasoning
1/3 cup cream cheese (I just eyeball it)
2 green onions, white and green parts, chopped (about 1/4 cup)

1. Heat your oil in a large skillet on medium-high or so. Cook the sausage until golden brown and set aside, then cook the potatoes 8 to 10 minutes until they're hot and starting to brown.
2. Combine the hot sauce, turmeric, and one Tbs water in a small bowl. Crumble the tofu over the potatoes and add the sausage back in, then pour your hot sauce mixture on top. Sprinkle the creole seasoning, stir, and cook about 3 minutes until it's heated through.
3. Season with salt and pepper and take it off the heat. Stir in some dollops of cream cheese and sprinkle the green onions on top.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Borscht

This is another recipe I got from allrecipes, modified a bit according to the comments, and will probably modify a bit more next time I make it. Here's what I think needs to happen.

Ingredients:
*2/3 pound beef stew meat, cut into 1/2 inch or 1 inch cubes
*3-4 beets, peeled and chopped (see #1 below)
*1 large or 2 smallish potatoes, peeled and chopped
*1/2 cup baby carrots, chopped
*1/2 white onion, chopped
*3 cloves garlic or to taste, minced
*4 cups beef broth (may not use all)
*1 6-oz can tomato paste
*1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
*4 tbsp red wine vinegar
*3 tbsp brown sugar
*1 1/2 tsp dried dill weed
*1 tbsp dried parsley
*1 bay leaf
*1 tsp salt
*1/2 tsp ground black pepper, or to taste
*2 cups shredded green cabbage
*sour cream

1. Chop the beets. Supposedly beets are hard to peel unless you boil them for about 10 minutes first. I did this, and that did make them pretty easy to peel. I chopped them into cubes of no bigger than 1 cm, and smaller might even be better.

2. Chop the carrots, potato, and onion. The potato(es), too, should be chopped rather small. I chopped it large, because that's how we like it in curry and stuff, but it didn't get as soft as we would have liked: small is better here.

3. Put beef, beets, carrots, potato, garlic, and onion into slow cooker. Open diced tomatoes and put them into the slow cooker without draining.

4. In a bowl, whisk together the tomato paste, vinegar, brown sugar, dill, parsley, salt, and pepper with 2 cups of the beef broth. Pour into slow cooker. Add more beef broth if needed until everything is covered and there's as much liquid as you'd like. Put the bay leaf in.

5. Cook on low for 7 hours.

6. Add the cabbage and cook on high for an hour.

7. Serve with plenty of sour cream and some good hard crusty bread.

Notes: The amounts given in the original version of this recipe were too much for our 5-qt cooker - I ended up having to discard some potato and beet and carrot just to be able to fit the tomatoes in. And in the end there was no room for the cabbage, either, so we actually skipped that. According to the comments the directed half hour on high for the cabbage isn't long enough, so I'm guessing an hour might be, but that's just a guess. ...If you've never used them, everything you've heard about beets is true: they make an amazing mess. Their juice looks just like blood. But cleanup was easier than I'd expected, and my hands aren't pink, even though I didn't wear gloves. I think next time I might use canned (non-pickled) beets, to see if they work as well. I had a hard time judging how much beet to use, too: the recipe called for 4, but didn't say what size. I used five, because the ones I got seemed a little small to me, but further research makes me think maybe they weren't, so I think next time I'll use 4 or maybe only 3, if they're medium size. ...Obviously a lot of what we liked about this was the beef, but I'm sure it would be just as good without it, and with veggie broth instead of beef. The essence of it is the beet/tomato/dill soup, with the sour cream as a garnish.

Anyway, all those caveats noted, this came out pretty satisfying. I've only had borscht in restaurants a couple of times, so I don't have too much to compare it to, but it was a nice warm way to end a rainy day (you'll read those words many times between now and next May, I'm sure!).

Saturday, November 6, 2010

cowboy spaghetti

Hi all. We tried this Rachel Ray recipe this week. It was fantastic.

Ingredients

* 1 pound spaghetti
* Salt
* 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan
* 3 slices smoky bacon, chopped
* 1 pound ground sirloin
* 1 medium onion, chopped
* 3 to 4 cloves garlic, chopped
* Ground black pepper
* 2 teaspoons hot sauce, eyeball it
* 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, eyeball it
* 1/2 cup beer
* 1 (14-ounce) can, chopped or crushed fire roasted tomatoes
* 1 (8-ounces) can, tomato sauce
* 8 ounces sharp Cheddar
* 4 scallions, chopped

Directions

Heat a pot of water to a boil. Add spaghetti and salt the water. Cook to al dente or with a bite to it.

Heat a deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil and bacon. Brown and crisp bacon, 5 minutes, remove with a slotted spoon. Drain off a little excess fat if necessary. Leave just enough to coat the bottom of the skillet. Add beef and crumble it as it browns, 3 to 4 minutes. Add onions, garlic and stir into meat. Season the meat with salt and pepper, hot sauce and Worcestershire. Add 1/2 cup beer and deglaze the pan. Cook 5 to 6 minutes more then stir in tomatoes and tomato sauce.

Add hot spaghetti to meat and sauce and combine. Adjust seasonings and serve up pasta in shallow bowls. Grate some cheese over the pasta and sprinkle with scallions. Garnish with crisp bacon.