What do these names have in common? They were all involved or invoked on David Letterman last night.
Dave did repeated bits with Hillary, including one in which she entreated us to check out her website for a Snickerdoodle recipe. I did and there it was. Even if it was Cat Cora’s recipe, I thought that was funny. (It’s not on Hill’s home page anymore.)
Jamie was a guest and talked about Oprah. I didn’t realize Jamie
is on Oprah’s new good works reality show. I am a bit sick of hearing how this show is the first reality show “that’s about what you give instead of what you get”. Of course it is. This is Oprah we’re talking about. I think it’s a great idea, but I just wish that the folks involved didn’t use the exact same words to describe the show. It sounds a little bit like they’ve all drunk the Kool-Aid.
Jamie did cook on The Late Show and he and Dave together were like a modern-day Laurel and Hardy. Jamie was the oh-so-cute straight guy to Dave’s Jerry Lewis-like antics. Jamie cooked away (the recipe is near the bottom of this link), pouring and stirring and tossy-tossing his ingredients, while Dave waded wrist deep in crab lungs. It was funny.
Jamie was also on Oprah today, talking about Big Give. He demonstrated a pizza recipe and some strange cocktail, but at least he didn’t kill anything on the stage. I really didn’t know that Miss Winfrey (Jamie called her Mrs. Winfrey and she corrected him) knew so little about cooking and food. It is kind of amazing. Now if he would just allow the Food Network to publish EVERY recipe he does on his show (only two recipes from each Jamie at Home episode appear online), I’d be happy. That to me would be a Big Give.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Take A Leap
Imagine being born on Leap Year DAY. I’m sure you’d feel gypped, sort of like a Christmas or Valentine’s Day birthday, even though you get a choice about which day to celebrate your birthday on (most years).
The only thing that I know about February 29th is that this is the one day of the year that women are "allowed" to propose marriage. That IS kinda ridiculous in the year 2008. Oh, there's another myth. "They" say it's bad luck to get married on Leap Year Day. It’s ok to ASK someone, but you can’t tie the knot then.
So what would be the appropriate to eat (or drink) on this day? Frog’s legs? Ick. No thanks. How about we keep with the ladies choice theme? Maybe something wonderful like a Madhur Jaffrey’s Masala Chai, which is a milky sweet Indian tea and a little cookie (or big one)…The only thing I would add to this recipe is a slice of fresh ginger to the spices. And you may want to cut down on the sugar somewhat.
The only thing that I know about February 29th is that this is the one day of the year that women are "allowed" to propose marriage. That IS kinda ridiculous in the year 2008. Oh, there's another myth. "They" say it's bad luck to get married on Leap Year Day. It’s ok to ASK someone, but you can’t tie the knot then.
So what would be the appropriate to eat (or drink) on this day? Frog’s legs? Ick. No thanks. How about we keep with the ladies choice theme? Maybe something wonderful like a Madhur Jaffrey’s Masala Chai, which is a milky sweet Indian tea and a little cookie (or big one)…The only thing I would add to this recipe is a slice of fresh ginger to the spices. And you may want to cut down on the sugar somewhat.
How To Make Masala Chai
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Ooh Baby, Giada Goes Bye-Bye
Giada's been busy. She was at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival over the weekend, where she told a People Magazine reporter all about her cravings - steak seems to be the major one.
Then she came to New York and did a stint on the Today Show on Tuesday about her favorite spring recipes. She was also given a baby shower by her NBC colleagues.
On Wednesday, she said her good-byes to her Today Show buddies. Her last piece was 5 tricks to make life better in the kitchen, which included washing your hands with mouthwash to get rid of a garlic smell. I have never heard that one. I just rub my hands on a stainless steel spoon, or even my sink, and it’s like magic. No more garlic.
Natalie and Hoda wanted to know if Giada had discussed names. Then they agreed that she shouldn’t say if she had, because people would just put their two cents in. That’s fine, except it was already reported what Giada wants to name her little girl baby to-be.
SHE, herself, was named Giada (Jade in Italian – who knew?) after her parents saw her green eyes. She really likes the name Jade and she thinks it goes with her husband’s American last name of Thompson. Her husband’s parents named him TODD Thompson!?
I have to say I know of only one woman, a friend, who named her daughter after herself. I thought WHY NOT? Guys do it all the time…In fact, in this very family, the daughter is named after the mother and one of the sons is named after the father. All I know is that they must have an easier time calling everyone for dinner….with so few names to say.
Anyway, Jade is a lovely name. I do prefer Diamond(s) or Amethyst, but Jade is rare and precious, well, precious anyway. Well, maybe not that precious these days, but it IS pretty. Little Jade is slated to make her appearance on April 3rd.
Then she came to New York and did a stint on the Today Show on Tuesday about her favorite spring recipes. She was also given a baby shower by her NBC colleagues.
On Wednesday, she said her good-byes to her Today Show buddies. Her last piece was 5 tricks to make life better in the kitchen, which included washing your hands with mouthwash to get rid of a garlic smell. I have never heard that one. I just rub my hands on a stainless steel spoon, or even my sink, and it’s like magic. No more garlic.
Natalie and Hoda wanted to know if Giada had discussed names. Then they agreed that she shouldn’t say if she had, because people would just put their two cents in. That’s fine, except it was already reported what Giada wants to name her little girl baby to-be.
SHE, herself, was named Giada (Jade in Italian – who knew?) after her parents saw her green eyes. She really likes the name Jade and she thinks it goes with her husband’s American last name of Thompson. Her husband’s parents named him TODD Thompson!?
I have to say I know of only one woman, a friend, who named her daughter after herself. I thought WHY NOT? Guys do it all the time…In fact, in this very family, the daughter is named after the mother and one of the sons is named after the father. All I know is that they must have an easier time calling everyone for dinner….with so few names to say.
Anyway, Jade is a lovely name. I do prefer Diamond(s) or Amethyst, but Jade is rare and precious, well, precious anyway. Well, maybe not that precious these days, but it IS pretty. Little Jade is slated to make her appearance on April 3rd.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Call The Cardiologist, The Neelys Are Cooking
Down Home with the Neelys with Pat and Gina Neely
Expandable Pants (Pat's Three Brothers Drop By For Dinner)
Grilled New York Strip Steak with Beer and Molasses Steak Sauce
Mama's Lasagna
Frozen Lemonade Pie
Green Beans with Ham Hock and New Potatoes
How about, instead of being worried about the over-exuberant loveydoviness exhibited by the Neelys, we worry about what's going on in their arteries? It is true that the more we pretend to want to cook and eat low calorie healthier food, the larger we are getting as a nation. So why not just throw caution to the wind and eat with absolutely NO CONCERN whatsoever to nutrition, like the Neely’s?
And why am I pointing this out with them and not my precious Ina, for example? I suppose because, with Ina's recipes, I automatically leave out or cut down the salt. I halve the cream. I substitute olive oil for a lot of the butter and, most importantly, I cut the portion size.
With the Neelys, there really is no recipe left after you've removed the sugar and the fat AND the artificial ingredients, so it would be a challenge to adapt them. A robust, full flavored i.e. fat-laden, absolutely yummy, dish every once in awhile is fine. But it has to be worth it! See if you think these are.
They start with Mama’s Lasagna. Pat chops an onion and garlic and sautés them in a stock pot with olive oil. Gina gets the filling ready. She mixes 2 cups of cottage cheese (or use ricotta, she says) with 2 eggs and a teaspoon of seasoning salt, which is their special mix of paprika, garlic powder and onion powder (both of which I use ONLY in Cajun blackened recipes). Oh, there’s regular salt and pepper too. Gina grates ½ cup of Parmesan cheese on a nifty grater that catches the cheese as it’s grated.
Pat browns 1 pound of ground beef in a stock pot. Curious choice of pot, by the way. That’s why I love a huge sauté pan for stews, chili, sauces and even soup. It guarantees you can BROWN meat properly, without it steaming. The high sides of a stock pot almost ensure that steam will gather up the sides of the pot and wash down on the meat. Brown in a sauté pan or skillet and then, if you have to, transfer the ingredients to a larger pot.
Gina, AKA the spice fairy, adds pepper and spices to the beef. They sure do have fun together. If these are the antics in the kitchen, I don’t even want to think about what’s going on upstairs. Pat chops the parsley. HE’S the parsley fairy. He adds tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste to the meat.
Gina starts the crust for the lemonade pie. She mixes 7 tablespoon of melted butter with ¼ cup sugar and 2 cups graham cracker crumbs (from a box… because she’s a working mother.) That goes into a pie plate. She takes the back of a measuring cup and presses the crumbs in the pie dish (just like Ina). She bakes it at 350°F for 7 minutes.
Gina tells us that Mother Neely bakes all the sweets for the restaurant, but Gina says SHE (Gina) is the sweetest. Uh-oh, are you supposed to say that about your M-I-L? Gina takes out the crust and lets it cool. I hope Mother Neely cools down as easily.
Pat sprays the lasagna pan. Gina puts the sauce in the bottom and Pat lays over unbaked noodles. (My spell check changed that sentence to Pat LIES over unbaked noodles…I’m sure Gina would like that!) They add half the fillings plus half an 8 ounce bag of cheddar cheese and half an 8 ounce bag of mozzarella. Pat adds more sauce and adds another layer of noodles and the rest of the filling goes over with the remainder of cheese. He puts it in a 375°F oven for 30 to 35 minutes WITHOUT covering it, a method I always employ.
The next recipe of green beans and ham hocks makes Gina remember her own small apartment with her grandma. (Great great grandma? I’m a little confused.) She and Pat deal with the ends of the green beans. He breaks them off, she cuts them. They go into a pot with the ham hocks that have been cooking for awhile and HALF A CUP OF SUGAR! They simmer for 20 minutes. I’m guessing the green beans will be done by then…no longer green, but done. “Look how they tender they look.” That’s one way of describing them.
They add potatoes and salt and pepper. (Pat’s the spice fairy now.) They cook for 20 more minutes covered. FYI – that would be a total of FORTY minutes for the green beans. Note that the potatoes are cooking for half the time of the beans.
They’re making a New York strip steak for the brothers. For a good steak, they tell us you should always make your own steak sauce. (I’m not sure they should bother, since Pat likes his steak well done and Gina likes her medium.)
Pat chops and Gina sautés 1 chopped onion with garlic. They mix together 2 cups of ketchup, beer, sugar (of course), lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, cayenne, paprika and apple cider. I wonder if they meant apple cider vinegar…I guess not. Gina sprays a measuring cup with Pam before measuring molasses. Smart. She adds that too. The sauce gets stirred into the onion. Pat fairies it up…you know, adds the seasonings. They cook it for 30 minutes over medium low heat and reduce it to 2 cups.
Pat rubs the steaks down with vegetable oil, then salts them. Gina dances over to spice up the steaks. He puts them on a medium grill. Luckily, the recipe tells us to cook NY Strip steak for 3 minutes per side for medium rare and not the well done that Pat prefers.
Gina starts on Mama Neelys Lemonade Pie. I like the sound of that. It sounds really refreshing. I hope the boxed graham cracker crumbs don’t portend something fake and artificial. She stirs in 6 oz defrosted lemonade (that’s ok, I make a wicked Brandy Sour with frozen lemonade) and 14 oz sweetened condensed milk. I’m still with her. A lot of Southern desserts depend on that.
Uh-oh, she takes a 12 ounce container of Cool Whip and stirs that in. I was kinda afraid the dessert would degenerate into that. Oh wait, but it’s ok (NOT!) because “to make it taste more homemade”, Gina’s adding freshly grated lemon zest. She says “we’re going to put this in my FRESH graham cracker pie shell…Nothing store bought here.” Uh, Gina you just made a pie that featured Cool Whip. She piles the whole thing into the prepared crust. It goes into the freezer for 2 hours.
If you’re reading this blog, I probably don’t have to tell you what’s wrong with Cool Whip…not that I ever let that stop me before.
I’m not saying that there’s not a deep, dark side to all of us that could eat a tub of Cool Whip in one sitting and be perfectly satisfied.
BUT, NUMBER ONE, I would never admit to it and NUMBER TWO when you have a cooking show on THE FOOD NETWORK, you shouldn’t be using Cool Whip. Gina, I promise you, your great grandmother didn’t use Cool Whip. I’d like to know what she used back in the day.
The beans are done…well, actually the beans were done many, MANY minutes ago. They look like limp grey versions of their former selves.
The brothers arrive. There are lots of them. 4 in total, counting Pat. Apparently, dinner isn’t being served in the dining room. The food is all on the counter and they dig in. While they’re still actively engaged in their steak dinners, Gina brings out the pie. She puts candied lemon peel (that looks about 3 years old) on top. After a lot of joking from his brothers, Gina says Pat’s not a Mama’s boy. One of the brothers says “Oh, yes he is. He’s just got 2 mamas!”.
What are we going to do with the Neelys? I like them, but I wouldn’t use their recipes. I don’t want to be harsh, because I like the fact that they cook together (which is SO foreign to me). I like their kitchen, I like their family values, but adding ½ cup of sugar to green beans and then cooking them for three quarters of an hour? There’s no way I would do that. You?
Expandable Pants (Pat's Three Brothers Drop By For Dinner)
Grilled New York Strip Steak with Beer and Molasses Steak Sauce
Mama's Lasagna
Frozen Lemonade Pie
Green Beans with Ham Hock and New Potatoes
How about, instead of being worried about the over-exuberant loveydoviness exhibited by the Neelys, we worry about what's going on in their arteries? It is true that the more we pretend to want to cook and eat low calorie healthier food, the larger we are getting as a nation. So why not just throw caution to the wind and eat with absolutely NO CONCERN whatsoever to nutrition, like the Neely’s?
And why am I pointing this out with them and not my precious Ina, for example? I suppose because, with Ina's recipes, I automatically leave out or cut down the salt. I halve the cream. I substitute olive oil for a lot of the butter and, most importantly, I cut the portion size.
With the Neelys, there really is no recipe left after you've removed the sugar and the fat AND the artificial ingredients, so it would be a challenge to adapt them. A robust, full flavored i.e. fat-laden, absolutely yummy, dish every once in awhile is fine. But it has to be worth it! See if you think these are.
They start with Mama’s Lasagna. Pat chops an onion and garlic and sautés them in a stock pot with olive oil. Gina gets the filling ready. She mixes 2 cups of cottage cheese (or use ricotta, she says) with 2 eggs and a teaspoon of seasoning salt, which is their special mix of paprika, garlic powder and onion powder (both of which I use ONLY in Cajun blackened recipes). Oh, there’s regular salt and pepper too. Gina grates ½ cup of Parmesan cheese on a nifty grater that catches the cheese as it’s grated.
Pat browns 1 pound of ground beef in a stock pot. Curious choice of pot, by the way. That’s why I love a huge sauté pan for stews, chili, sauces and even soup. It guarantees you can BROWN meat properly, without it steaming. The high sides of a stock pot almost ensure that steam will gather up the sides of the pot and wash down on the meat. Brown in a sauté pan or skillet and then, if you have to, transfer the ingredients to a larger pot.
Gina, AKA the spice fairy, adds pepper and spices to the beef. They sure do have fun together. If these are the antics in the kitchen, I don’t even want to think about what’s going on upstairs. Pat chops the parsley. HE’S the parsley fairy. He adds tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste to the meat.
Gina starts the crust for the lemonade pie. She mixes 7 tablespoon of melted butter with ¼ cup sugar and 2 cups graham cracker crumbs (from a box… because she’s a working mother.) That goes into a pie plate. She takes the back of a measuring cup and presses the crumbs in the pie dish (just like Ina). She bakes it at 350°F for 7 minutes.
Gina tells us that Mother Neely bakes all the sweets for the restaurant, but Gina says SHE (Gina) is the sweetest. Uh-oh, are you supposed to say that about your M-I-L? Gina takes out the crust and lets it cool. I hope Mother Neely cools down as easily.
Pat sprays the lasagna pan. Gina puts the sauce in the bottom and Pat lays over unbaked noodles. (My spell check changed that sentence to Pat LIES over unbaked noodles…I’m sure Gina would like that!) They add half the fillings plus half an 8 ounce bag of cheddar cheese and half an 8 ounce bag of mozzarella. Pat adds more sauce and adds another layer of noodles and the rest of the filling goes over with the remainder of cheese. He puts it in a 375°F oven for 30 to 35 minutes WITHOUT covering it, a method I always employ.
The next recipe of green beans and ham hocks makes Gina remember her own small apartment with her grandma. (Great great grandma? I’m a little confused.) She and Pat deal with the ends of the green beans. He breaks them off, she cuts them. They go into a pot with the ham hocks that have been cooking for awhile and HALF A CUP OF SUGAR! They simmer for 20 minutes. I’m guessing the green beans will be done by then…no longer green, but done. “Look how they tender they look.” That’s one way of describing them.
They add potatoes and salt and pepper. (Pat’s the spice fairy now.) They cook for 20 more minutes covered. FYI – that would be a total of FORTY minutes for the green beans. Note that the potatoes are cooking for half the time of the beans.
They’re making a New York strip steak for the brothers. For a good steak, they tell us you should always make your own steak sauce. (I’m not sure they should bother, since Pat likes his steak well done and Gina likes her medium.)
Pat chops and Gina sautés 1 chopped onion with garlic. They mix together 2 cups of ketchup, beer, sugar (of course), lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, cayenne, paprika and apple cider. I wonder if they meant apple cider vinegar…I guess not. Gina sprays a measuring cup with Pam before measuring molasses. Smart. She adds that too. The sauce gets stirred into the onion. Pat fairies it up…you know, adds the seasonings. They cook it for 30 minutes over medium low heat and reduce it to 2 cups.
Pat rubs the steaks down with vegetable oil, then salts them. Gina dances over to spice up the steaks. He puts them on a medium grill. Luckily, the recipe tells us to cook NY Strip steak for 3 minutes per side for medium rare and not the well done that Pat prefers.
Gina starts on Mama Neelys Lemonade Pie. I like the sound of that. It sounds really refreshing. I hope the boxed graham cracker crumbs don’t portend something fake and artificial. She stirs in 6 oz defrosted lemonade (that’s ok, I make a wicked Brandy Sour with frozen lemonade) and 14 oz sweetened condensed milk. I’m still with her. A lot of Southern desserts depend on that.
Uh-oh, she takes a 12 ounce container of Cool Whip and stirs that in. I was kinda afraid the dessert would degenerate into that. Oh wait, but it’s ok (NOT!) because “to make it taste more homemade”, Gina’s adding freshly grated lemon zest. She says “we’re going to put this in my FRESH graham cracker pie shell…Nothing store bought here.” Uh, Gina you just made a pie that featured Cool Whip. She piles the whole thing into the prepared crust. It goes into the freezer for 2 hours.
If you’re reading this blog, I probably don’t have to tell you what’s wrong with Cool Whip…not that I ever let that stop me before.
I’m not saying that there’s not a deep, dark side to all of us that could eat a tub of Cool Whip in one sitting and be perfectly satisfied.
BUT, NUMBER ONE, I would never admit to it and NUMBER TWO when you have a cooking show on THE FOOD NETWORK, you shouldn’t be using Cool Whip. Gina, I promise you, your great grandmother didn’t use Cool Whip. I’d like to know what she used back in the day.
The beans are done…well, actually the beans were done many, MANY minutes ago. They look like limp grey versions of their former selves.
The brothers arrive. There are lots of them. 4 in total, counting Pat. Apparently, dinner isn’t being served in the dining room. The food is all on the counter and they dig in. While they’re still actively engaged in their steak dinners, Gina brings out the pie. She puts candied lemon peel (that looks about 3 years old) on top. After a lot of joking from his brothers, Gina says Pat’s not a Mama’s boy. One of the brothers says “Oh, yes he is. He’s just got 2 mamas!”.
What are we going to do with the Neelys? I like them, but I wouldn’t use their recipes. I don’t want to be harsh, because I like the fact that they cook together (which is SO foreign to me). I like their kitchen, I like their family values, but adding ½ cup of sugar to green beans and then cooking them for three quarters of an hour? There’s no way I would do that. You?
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Giada - A Strata By Any Other Name Would Taste Just As Good
Everyday Italian with Giada De Laurentiis
Dining In, With Style
Asparagus Lasagna
Fresh Tomato and Goat Cheese Strata with Herb Oil
Amaretti Torta
Giada’s setting a beautiful table for dinner with friends. I missed what one of the dishes was called.”Thaahh-duh”. What in the world is that?
She starts with an elegant lasagna. She salts the water, adds the long lasagna noodles (no no-bake for her) and drains them. Giada starts on a “pesto”. She processes 2 cups of sun-dried tomatoes in a food processor with 1½ cups basil until coarsely chopped. That goes in a bowl. She grates in 1½ cups of Parmesan cheese. That’s it? Hmmmm. I’m all for no oil in pesto, I don’t add it to mine, but how’s about a bit of garlic or a nut or two? I guess this could be a good low calorie addition to pasta.
Giada heats a pan and adds a ½ inch thick piece of chopped pancetta. She tells us she always keeps a few slices in the freezer for flavoring soups or stews. Good idea. She chops an onion and 2 cloves of garlic - buy nice tight heads, she says. The crisped-up pancetta goes into a bowl. The onion and garlic go into the pan with a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper. She reminds us to season every layer of a dish, plus “the salt will help soften the onion.”
Giada chops asparagus into 1 inch pieces and adds that to the pan with the onion. More salt and pepper. She cooks them just a short time, because they will finish in the oven. She grates mozzarella.
After the break we see her at a tableware store called Art. (At least that's what the bags said. I spent HOURS trying to find it, I couldn’t.) She appears to buy little bowls on a glass tray.
Giada adds the asparagus mixture to the pancetta. She stirs in 15 ounces of ricotta, plus salt and pepper. (The recipe says to use whole milk ricotta. I suppose this is such a pared-down recipe, that it can certainly stand this full fat cheese.)
She sprinkles the “pesto” on the bottom of a baking dish, barely. She lays 3 lasagna noodles over and spreads them with more pesto. She spoons over half the ricotta filling and sprinkles over mozzarella, and grates parmesan on top. 3 more noodles go over, pesto, filling, mozzarella and parm. Noodles. Pesto. And cheese.
Then Giada grates tons of parmesan over the top to cover the noodles. She dots bits of butter over the tops as well. It goes into a 350°F oven for 25 minutes. Wow! There is no hint of gloppiness in this lasagna. No drooling stands of cheese or large globs of tomato sauce coming off the serving spoon. It looks spare and elegant. But good? Yeah…but definitely different.
I WOULD add another onion to sauté with the garlic, though, and Giada doesn’t say whether the sundried tomatoes are packed in oil, but I would use ones that are just for an added bit or richness. I think I could try this her way once - without slathering a béchamel sauce on top, but I can’t say I wouldn’t be tempted to supplement this recipe.
For dessert, she starts by processing 20 amaretti cookies with ½ cup chocolate chips. Have I been living under a rock? I never thought to mix amaretti with chocolate. Brava Giada! (I just like how that sounds.)
Giada beats 5 egg whites until stiff. WHY in the world is she using that hand mixer again? Annoying. For the base, she beats 2 sticks of unsalted room temperature butter with 1 cup of sugar. She laboring away with her hand mixer and THEN she adds 5 egg yolks…one…at…a…time. This is taking forever. It’s also pointless.
To me it’s like chopping down a tree with a steak knife. Use the best tool or machine for the job…especially if you happen to have it on the counter 3 feet behind you. Oh, gosh, she’s STILL beating. So silly.
She adds 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier liqueur. Hold your horses. I hate how she says liqueur. Dictionaries do say that Lick-Koor is acceptable, but to me when you have such an obviously FRENCH word, it shouldn’t be pronounced as if you lived the Bronx. (I can say that because I know some perfectly fine folks who grew up in the Bronx, including my twin brother.)
AND it really makes no sense for Giada, who spends much of her time getting every Italian syllable out perfectly. The correct way (to me) is more like Lick-Cure. Actually, in French it would be Lick – Cuh – EEUUURRrrrrrrr. The really funny thing is that my French is soooo poor (except for food or beverages), that I have no right to be giving diction lessons to anyone, least of all bi(multi?)lingual Giada...
That’s not the only problem with Grand Marnier, though. I can’t stand it when added to chocolate. Add it to the list of stuff I detest. I love it with fruit or probably any other way...just not with chocolate.
I know I’m in the minority. Go ahead and ruin your chocolate with orange li-cuh-ewww-rrr. I’ll be adding brandy to mine - a Courvoisier cognac. No, I’m not being a snob (this time). I use a tablespoon or so every couple of months, so it’s really not that much of a splurge.
You probably forgot, but she’s in the middle of her dessert torta recipe. She beats flour into the egg mixture. She folds in the crushed amaretti cookies and then the egg whites. She folds them in in several batches.
Whoa…hold on for a sec…I’m a little surprised at her technique here. I KNOW she learned to deal with egg whites a different way. I cannot think of an example where one would stray from the proper folding technique. The RECIPE is fine, it’s just the way she’s DOING it, that’s wrong.
First, you lighten the mixture by stirring in about a quarter of the whites. (The recipe on the FN website says one-third. Do a quarter.) Then you add the rest in one go (NOT several), and carefully and gently fold them in - with a cut and fold motion - turning the bowl as you go. A big spatula or metal spoon is good for this, never a wooden spoon, which can deflate the whites.
What did Giada do? She folded carefully enough, but she didn’t lighten the mixture and she did it in too many additions. She was fussing with them too much…kind of like how this explanation going. It took way too long.
She lines a 9 inch cake pan with parchment (waxed paper is acceptable) She “slides” the batter in and bakes the cake at 350°F for 45 to 50 minutes.
She moves on to the appetizer. You can see from the list of recipes that she’s making a "strata", but I didn’t have that handy when I was watching her.
She mixes 8 ounces of softened goat cheese with heavy cream. I thought she said ½ cup, the recipe says ¼, but, no matter, I don’t like that idea anyway of adding cream. What else could you add? I’ll have to think about it.
To make a flavored oil, Giada processes ¾ of a cup of basil with the same amount of mint (I might prefer all basil) and a bit of salt and drizzles in 1 cup of olive oil. She slices tomatoes (in the summer, use heirloom toms) 1/2 inch to ¾ inch thick. She puts the tomato slices on a plate and tops each slice with a dollop of the goat cheese. She seasons it and spoons the herb oil over. She tops it with toasted and chopped walnuts.
I think that’s a lovely dish, but what that has to do with a strata I have no idea. Isn’t a strata a baked egg and stale bread dish, often served for breakfast? I know there are all kinds of variations about what kind of bread to use, but in general it has plenty of eggs and is baked. This strata has none of those elements.
Giada takes out the cake and cools it. She spreads over a ½ cup of orange marmalade. Oy! Guess what I hate more than chocolate and orange together? Yup! Orange marmalade.
I can see how on paper the idea of marmalade sounded good. It echoes the Grand Marnier. It’s nice with chocolate (if you like that), and it’s a nice accent to the amaretti. Luckily for me, there are plenty of alternatives: raspberry jam, cherry jam or apricot preserves. To finish the cake, she crumbles some amaretti on top.
Dinner is served in a beautiful dining room. The “strata” is eaten. Then a solitary piece of asparagus lasagna – with NOTHING else - is served on each plate. It looks a little stingy, but I guess that’s how those California folks keep so trim. Dessert and coffee are served and all are happy. I would be too, except for the misnamed starter, the dry main course and the yucky dessert – all of which, happily, are easily fixed. But I still want to know where that store was; and how about thinning that goat cheese with sour cream and a smidge of lemon juice?
Dining In, With Style
Asparagus Lasagna
Fresh Tomato and Goat Cheese Strata with Herb Oil
Amaretti Torta
Giada’s setting a beautiful table for dinner with friends. I missed what one of the dishes was called.”Thaahh-duh”. What in the world is that?
She starts with an elegant lasagna. She salts the water, adds the long lasagna noodles (no no-bake for her) and drains them. Giada starts on a “pesto”. She processes 2 cups of sun-dried tomatoes in a food processor with 1½ cups basil until coarsely chopped. That goes in a bowl. She grates in 1½ cups of Parmesan cheese. That’s it? Hmmmm. I’m all for no oil in pesto, I don’t add it to mine, but how’s about a bit of garlic or a nut or two? I guess this could be a good low calorie addition to pasta.
Giada heats a pan and adds a ½ inch thick piece of chopped pancetta. She tells us she always keeps a few slices in the freezer for flavoring soups or stews. Good idea. She chops an onion and 2 cloves of garlic - buy nice tight heads, she says. The crisped-up pancetta goes into a bowl. The onion and garlic go into the pan with a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper. She reminds us to season every layer of a dish, plus “the salt will help soften the onion.”
Giada chops asparagus into 1 inch pieces and adds that to the pan with the onion. More salt and pepper. She cooks them just a short time, because they will finish in the oven. She grates mozzarella.
After the break we see her at a tableware store called Art. (At least that's what the bags said. I spent HOURS trying to find it, I couldn’t.) She appears to buy little bowls on a glass tray.
Giada adds the asparagus mixture to the pancetta. She stirs in 15 ounces of ricotta, plus salt and pepper. (The recipe says to use whole milk ricotta. I suppose this is such a pared-down recipe, that it can certainly stand this full fat cheese.)
She sprinkles the “pesto” on the bottom of a baking dish, barely. She lays 3 lasagna noodles over and spreads them with more pesto. She spoons over half the ricotta filling and sprinkles over mozzarella, and grates parmesan on top. 3 more noodles go over, pesto, filling, mozzarella and parm. Noodles. Pesto. And cheese.
Then Giada grates tons of parmesan over the top to cover the noodles. She dots bits of butter over the tops as well. It goes into a 350°F oven for 25 minutes. Wow! There is no hint of gloppiness in this lasagna. No drooling stands of cheese or large globs of tomato sauce coming off the serving spoon. It looks spare and elegant. But good? Yeah…but definitely different.
I WOULD add another onion to sauté with the garlic, though, and Giada doesn’t say whether the sundried tomatoes are packed in oil, but I would use ones that are just for an added bit or richness. I think I could try this her way once - without slathering a béchamel sauce on top, but I can’t say I wouldn’t be tempted to supplement this recipe.
For dessert, she starts by processing 20 amaretti cookies with ½ cup chocolate chips. Have I been living under a rock? I never thought to mix amaretti with chocolate. Brava Giada! (I just like how that sounds.)
Giada beats 5 egg whites until stiff. WHY in the world is she using that hand mixer again? Annoying. For the base, she beats 2 sticks of unsalted room temperature butter with 1 cup of sugar. She laboring away with her hand mixer and THEN she adds 5 egg yolks…one…at…a…time. This is taking forever. It’s also pointless.
To me it’s like chopping down a tree with a steak knife. Use the best tool or machine for the job…especially if you happen to have it on the counter 3 feet behind you. Oh, gosh, she’s STILL beating. So silly.
She adds 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier liqueur. Hold your horses. I hate how she says liqueur. Dictionaries do say that Lick-Koor is acceptable, but to me when you have such an obviously FRENCH word, it shouldn’t be pronounced as if you lived the Bronx. (I can say that because I know some perfectly fine folks who grew up in the Bronx, including my twin brother.)
AND it really makes no sense for Giada, who spends much of her time getting every Italian syllable out perfectly. The correct way (to me) is more like Lick-Cure. Actually, in French it would be Lick – Cuh – EEUUURRrrrrrrr. The really funny thing is that my French is soooo poor (except for food or beverages), that I have no right to be giving diction lessons to anyone, least of all bi(multi?)lingual Giada...
That’s not the only problem with Grand Marnier, though. I can’t stand it when added to chocolate. Add it to the list of stuff I detest. I love it with fruit or probably any other way...just not with chocolate.
I know I’m in the minority. Go ahead and ruin your chocolate with orange li-cuh-ewww-rrr. I’ll be adding brandy to mine - a Courvoisier cognac. No, I’m not being a snob (this time). I use a tablespoon or so every couple of months, so it’s really not that much of a splurge.
You probably forgot, but she’s in the middle of her dessert torta recipe. She beats flour into the egg mixture. She folds in the crushed amaretti cookies and then the egg whites. She folds them in in several batches.
Whoa…hold on for a sec…I’m a little surprised at her technique here. I KNOW she learned to deal with egg whites a different way. I cannot think of an example where one would stray from the proper folding technique. The RECIPE is fine, it’s just the way she’s DOING it, that’s wrong.
First, you lighten the mixture by stirring in about a quarter of the whites. (The recipe on the FN website says one-third. Do a quarter.) Then you add the rest in one go (NOT several), and carefully and gently fold them in - with a cut and fold motion - turning the bowl as you go. A big spatula or metal spoon is good for this, never a wooden spoon, which can deflate the whites.
What did Giada do? She folded carefully enough, but she didn’t lighten the mixture and she did it in too many additions. She was fussing with them too much…kind of like how this explanation going. It took way too long.
She lines a 9 inch cake pan with parchment (waxed paper is acceptable) She “slides” the batter in and bakes the cake at 350°F for 45 to 50 minutes.
She moves on to the appetizer. You can see from the list of recipes that she’s making a "strata", but I didn’t have that handy when I was watching her.
She mixes 8 ounces of softened goat cheese with heavy cream. I thought she said ½ cup, the recipe says ¼, but, no matter, I don’t like that idea anyway of adding cream. What else could you add? I’ll have to think about it.
To make a flavored oil, Giada processes ¾ of a cup of basil with the same amount of mint (I might prefer all basil) and a bit of salt and drizzles in 1 cup of olive oil. She slices tomatoes (in the summer, use heirloom toms) 1/2 inch to ¾ inch thick. She puts the tomato slices on a plate and tops each slice with a dollop of the goat cheese. She seasons it and spoons the herb oil over. She tops it with toasted and chopped walnuts.
I think that’s a lovely dish, but what that has to do with a strata I have no idea. Isn’t a strata a baked egg and stale bread dish, often served for breakfast? I know there are all kinds of variations about what kind of bread to use, but in general it has plenty of eggs and is baked. This strata has none of those elements.
Giada takes out the cake and cools it. She spreads over a ½ cup of orange marmalade. Oy! Guess what I hate more than chocolate and orange together? Yup! Orange marmalade.
I can see how on paper the idea of marmalade sounded good. It echoes the Grand Marnier. It’s nice with chocolate (if you like that), and it’s a nice accent to the amaretti. Luckily for me, there are plenty of alternatives: raspberry jam, cherry jam or apricot preserves. To finish the cake, she crumbles some amaretti on top.
Dinner is served in a beautiful dining room. The “strata” is eaten. Then a solitary piece of asparagus lasagna – with NOTHING else - is served on each plate. It looks a little stingy, but I guess that’s how those California folks keep so trim. Dessert and coffee are served and all are happy. I would be too, except for the misnamed starter, the dry main course and the yucky dessert – all of which, happily, are easily fixed. But I still want to know where that store was; and how about thinning that goat cheese with sour cream and a smidge of lemon juice?
Monday, February 25, 2008
The Morning After
A few favorite moments:
After a heartfelt acceptance speech from somebody or other, Jon Stewart coming back and saying "What an arrogant guy."
George Clooney in a tux...or anything.
At least FIVE folks slipping on the stage in the exact SAME spot near the podium. I was on the edge of my seat watching to see if anyone went down.
Marion Cotillard: "It is true. There is some angels in this city."
MY pizza.
After a heartfelt acceptance speech from somebody or other, Jon Stewart coming back and saying "What an arrogant guy."
George Clooney in a tux...or anything.
At least FIVE folks slipping on the stage in the exact SAME spot near the podium. I was on the edge of my seat watching to see if anyone went down.
Marion Cotillard: "It is true. There is some angels in this city."
MY pizza.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
I'm Ready
I grilled the pizzas:
I topped them:
I poured the champagne:
Wait WHAT??!! The Oscars don't start until 8:30?!! I'm not waiting. I have to taste my pizza.
Definitely Oscar-worthy...
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Hurray For Hollywood
Maybe it’s the strike or the lousy weather, but I'm not really that excited about the Oscars this year. I will, however, still be making my most favorite Oscar snack in the whole world. Wolfgang Puck served it years ago, at one of his earliest Oscar dinners. (This is his 14th year of preparing food for the Governor’s Ball. Here are some of this year’s recipes.)
The one I love is a signature early dish from Spago, It's quite simple, although quite elegant too. I'm talking about his Grilled Pizza with Smoked Salmon, Crème Fraiche and Red Onions.
Wolfgang didn’t invent grilled pizza, but he took it to a new level. It is a brilliant idea. Especially if you're a lover of thin crust pizza, grilling it really gives a super crisp result.
This is basically the recipe I use, except that the dough is grilled, instead of cooked at a high heat in the oven. Do either, but the grilling is fun. Also, I don’t roll it out in circles. I prefer long ovals. I find it easier to hold one side and munch your way to the end.
So basically I grill the pizza dough and then the toppings go on after it comes off the grill. I add the red onion INTO the dough before grilling. Then I top the pizzas with sour cream or crème fraiche. Sometimes, I go with smoked salmon and sometimes I use a zesty tapenade.
To grill pizza dough, follow your pizza dough recipe and shape individual pizzas. Brush both sides lightly with olive oil, leaving plain a one inch border around the edges. Put on a hot grill. Leave until pizza puffs up…a minute or two. Turn over and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes, moving to cooler part of the grill if it’s getting too browned.
If you want to add traditional toppings like cheese and tomato sauce, add them after both sides are cooked. Put topped pizza on cooler part of the grill. Close lid and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until cheese is melted.
The one I love is a signature early dish from Spago, It's quite simple, although quite elegant too. I'm talking about his Grilled Pizza with Smoked Salmon, Crème Fraiche and Red Onions.
Wolfgang didn’t invent grilled pizza, but he took it to a new level. It is a brilliant idea. Especially if you're a lover of thin crust pizza, grilling it really gives a super crisp result.
This is basically the recipe I use, except that the dough is grilled, instead of cooked at a high heat in the oven. Do either, but the grilling is fun. Also, I don’t roll it out in circles. I prefer long ovals. I find it easier to hold one side and munch your way to the end.
So basically I grill the pizza dough and then the toppings go on after it comes off the grill. I add the red onion INTO the dough before grilling. Then I top the pizzas with sour cream or crème fraiche. Sometimes, I go with smoked salmon and sometimes I use a zesty tapenade.
To grill pizza dough, follow your pizza dough recipe and shape individual pizzas. Brush both sides lightly with olive oil, leaving plain a one inch border around the edges. Put on a hot grill. Leave until pizza puffs up…a minute or two. Turn over and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes, moving to cooler part of the grill if it’s getting too browned.
If you want to add traditional toppings like cheese and tomato sauce, add them after both sides are cooked. Put topped pizza on cooler part of the grill. Close lid and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until cheese is melted.
And The Winner Is…
I know they aren’t allowed to say that anymore, but these are my picks. Your picks? (I haven’t seen every movie or every performance, but that never stopped me from having an opinion.)
My picks (who WILL win, not necessarily who SHOULD) have asterisks next to them.
BEST PICTURE
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
*No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
DIRECTOR
Julian Schnabel,The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Jason Reitman, Juno
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
*Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
*Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
*Julie Christie, Away from Her
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Laura Linney, The Savages
Ellen Page, Juno
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
*Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
*Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
Ruby Dee, American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
*Diablo Cody, Juno
Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Brad Bird, Ratatouille
Tamara Jenkins, The Savages
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Christopher Hampton, Atonement
Sarah Polley, Away from Her
Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
*Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
ANIMATED FEATURE
*Persepolis
Ratatouille
Surf's Up
My picks (who WILL win, not necessarily who SHOULD) have asterisks next to them.
BEST PICTURE
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
*No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
DIRECTOR
Julian Schnabel,The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Jason Reitman, Juno
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
*Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
*Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
*Julie Christie, Away from Her
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Laura Linney, The Savages
Ellen Page, Juno
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
*Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
*Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
Ruby Dee, American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
*Diablo Cody, Juno
Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Brad Bird, Ratatouille
Tamara Jenkins, The Savages
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Christopher Hampton, Atonement
Sarah Polley, Away from Her
Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
*Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
ANIMATED FEATURE
*Persepolis
Ratatouille
Surf's Up
Friday, February 22, 2008
She Likes Me,
She Really Likes Me
Thanks to the lovely Jenn at The Leftover Queen for naming me one of her Top 5 Wittiest Food Bloggers. I really appreciate it. I love making cranky comments about our FN favorites and fawning over those I idolize. I vow to continue writing, if you continue reading.
Thanks to the lovely Jenn at The Leftover Queen for naming me one of her Top 5 Wittiest Food Bloggers. I really appreciate it. I love making cranky comments about our FN favorites and fawning over those I idolize. I vow to continue writing, if you continue reading.
Ina's A Gas...No Wait, Just Her Food Is
Barefoot Contessa with Ina Garten
Baby Shower
Ina is surprising Sinead, a coworker, with a surprise baby shower. What a lucky girl!
She’s starting with Greek Gazpacho. What a fascinating idea! I’ve eaten many varieties of gazpacho in Spain and made many different versions – regular; white; with almonds; garnished with shellfish; served in giant martini glasses; even frozen, but I’ve never heard of or had GREEK gazpacho. What a nifty idea!
Ina puts 2 thick slices of stale bread in the food processor with 6 cloves of garlic. Uh, Ina, are you sure you want a pregnant lady eating that much raw garlic? She adds 2 tablespoons of roughly chopped parsley and processes the mixture until fine. She adds 5 tablespoons each of olive and red wine vinegar, reminding us that FOUR tablespoons is ¼ cup.
I knew that. You can ask me any measurement equivalence question. I went to cooking school in England when they were supposed to be going metric (but basically they refused to). I learned ounces, imperial pints, dessertspoons and punnets and pounds. Then I lived in South Africa and Spain where they were totally metric, so I learned how to deal with milliliters, grams, kilos and centimeters. In other words, I could bake a cake in any hemisphere OR north or south of the equator.
Oh wait, sorry, this isn’t about me… :-(
She pours the contents of the food processor into a big bowl. She adds a red and a yellow pepper and processes them until coarsely chopped, but not baby food, Ina says. She thinks of gazpacho as being a soup that’s really a salad. I agree.
She’s starting with Greek Gazpacho. What a fascinating idea! I’ve eaten many varieties of gazpacho in Spain and made many different versions – regular; white; with almonds; garnished with shellfish; served in giant martini glasses; even frozen, but I’ve never heard of or had GREEK gazpacho. What a nifty idea!
Ina puts 2 thick slices of stale bread in the food processor with 6 cloves of garlic. Uh, Ina, are you sure you want a pregnant lady eating that much raw garlic? She adds 2 tablespoons of roughly chopped parsley and processes the mixture until fine. She adds 5 tablespoons each of olive and red wine vinegar, reminding us that FOUR tablespoons is ¼ cup.
I knew that. You can ask me any measurement equivalence question. I went to cooking school in England when they were supposed to be going metric (but basically they refused to). I learned ounces, imperial pints, dessertspoons and punnets and pounds. Then I lived in South Africa and Spain where they were totally metric, so I learned how to deal with milliliters, grams, kilos and centimeters. In other words, I could bake a cake in any hemisphere OR north or south of the equator.
Oh wait, sorry, this isn’t about me… :-(
She pours the contents of the food processor into a big bowl. She adds a red and a yellow pepper and processes them until coarsely chopped, but not baby food, Ina says. She thinks of gazpacho as being a soup that’s really a salad. I agree.
She adds the next vegetables separately. She cuts up 2 (pretty big) red onions and processes them. (Ina, have you ever heard of pregnancy heartburn?) Into the bowl they go.
She cuts a seedless cucumber in half lengthwise and takes out any seeds that may be there. She roughly chops it in the food processor and adds it to the bowl. It looks a little too roughly chopped to me. She chops tomatoes and Kalamata olives and adds them with salt and pepper. She stirs in a big can of Sacramento tomato juice and puts it in the fridge. It looks really good...aside from the trouble the pregnant guest of honor (and her baby) will have digesting everything from the garlic and red onion to the burp-inducing cucumbers.
She’s making shortbread. I know most of you aren’t with me when I say that dry crumbly cookies just aren't my thing. She puts 1 ½ lbs. of butter (6 sticks!) in a mixer and creams it with 2 cups of sugar. Don’t overbeat it, Ina tells us. She adds 2 teaspoons vanilla and almond extract, which she likes with the pecans. She adds 7 cups of flour and a little salt and beats it on a very low heat. She makes sure it’s all mixed with a spatula. She adds 3 cup chopped pecans. (I would toast them first.)
Ina's worried that the mixture isn’t going to fit in the bowl. It does…barely. She likes to form big flat disks and then chill them before rolling, so that the dough is baked when cold, which keeps the edges nice and clean.
I have another idea. This is what I do in any rolling out situation, whether it’s pastry or cookie dough: I would place the cookie dough between two sheets of plastic wrap right after I make it. I roll it out to the desired thickness and then place the rolled out sheets in the refrigerator (or freezer if I’m doing it in advance). After it has chilled, I take it out and do whatever I need to - cut out the pie crust or cut out the cookies and then I bake it. In this case, the dough is definitely still chilled when you bake it.
Ina’s setting the table on the porch. She puts an electric train set ON the table and puts TONS of candy in the dirty cars. Well, they don’t really look that dirty, but she hasn’t lined them with anything and knowing Ina, she borrowed an antique train and the cars are probably painted with lead paint. Sinead, STAY AWAY FROM THE CANDY and everyone else of childbearing age too!
Ina takes the shortbread out of the fridge and flours her work surface and the rolling pin. She rolls it out into ¾ inch thickness. She flours her 2 inch circle cookie cutter and cuts out the cookies. They look perfect. The recipe makes 75 to 100 cookies. She bakes them at 350° F for 20 to 25 minutes on parchment. (Guess what I’d use...if I ever made these, which I won't.)
Ina bags the cookies 4 to a bag in glassine bags for favors. She says to make sure they’re cool before you bag them. She puts the extras on plates for a rather, underwhelming I believe, dessert.
For the main course Ina zests lemons for a marinade for salmon. Wait, are pregnant ladies supposed to eat big slabs of salmon? I’m not entirely sure this was a well-thought out menu. Oh well, the pregnant one will probably be so doubled over from indigestion from the soup that she won't even touch the salmon…
She zests 4 lemons and adds ¼ cup of olive oil, ¼ cup mustard and 4 cloves of garlic. (Yeah, I think the menu required more raw garlic.) Oh, she also adds pepper and 1½ tablespoons of salt. Let’s not even think about those swollen ankles.
She pours this mixture over the salmon and lets it sit for 15 minutes. She cooks Yukon Gold potatoes in boiling water for 20 minutes. She drains them in a colander and places a dish towel over for 10 minutes to continue to steam them. She puts haricots verts in boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes and then shocks them in ice water.
Ina puts the salmon in a 500°F. oven for 12 to 15 minutes.
She boils eggs her special way. She puts them in a pot and covers them with water. She brings them to the boil and simmers them for 5 minutes. She turns off the heat and allows them to sit in the water for another 5 minutes. She drains them and runs cold water over them.
I have another idea. This is what I do in any rolling out situation, whether it’s pastry or cookie dough: I would place the cookie dough between two sheets of plastic wrap right after I make it. I roll it out to the desired thickness and then place the rolled out sheets in the refrigerator (or freezer if I’m doing it in advance). After it has chilled, I take it out and do whatever I need to - cut out the pie crust or cut out the cookies and then I bake it. In this case, the dough is definitely still chilled when you bake it.
Ina’s setting the table on the porch. She puts an electric train set ON the table and puts TONS of candy in the dirty cars. Well, they don’t really look that dirty, but she hasn’t lined them with anything and knowing Ina, she borrowed an antique train and the cars are probably painted with lead paint. Sinead, STAY AWAY FROM THE CANDY and everyone else of childbearing age too!
Ina takes the shortbread out of the fridge and flours her work surface and the rolling pin. She rolls it out into ¾ inch thickness. She flours her 2 inch circle cookie cutter and cuts out the cookies. They look perfect. The recipe makes 75 to 100 cookies. She bakes them at 350° F for 20 to 25 minutes on parchment. (Guess what I’d use...if I ever made these, which I won't.)
Ina bags the cookies 4 to a bag in glassine bags for favors. She says to make sure they’re cool before you bag them. She puts the extras on plates for a rather, underwhelming I believe, dessert.
For the main course Ina zests lemons for a marinade for salmon. Wait, are pregnant ladies supposed to eat big slabs of salmon? I’m not entirely sure this was a well-thought out menu. Oh well, the pregnant one will probably be so doubled over from indigestion from the soup that she won't even touch the salmon…
She zests 4 lemons and adds ¼ cup of olive oil, ¼ cup mustard and 4 cloves of garlic. (Yeah, I think the menu required more raw garlic.) Oh, she also adds pepper and 1½ tablespoons of salt. Let’s not even think about those swollen ankles.
She pours this mixture over the salmon and lets it sit for 15 minutes. She cooks Yukon Gold potatoes in boiling water for 20 minutes. She drains them in a colander and places a dish towel over for 10 minutes to continue to steam them. She puts haricots verts in boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes and then shocks them in ice water.
Ina puts the salmon in a 500°F. oven for 12 to 15 minutes.
She boils eggs her special way. She puts them in a pot and covers them with water. She brings them to the boil and simmers them for 5 minutes. She turns off the heat and allows them to sit in the water for another 5 minutes. She drains them and runs cold water over them.
I don't like this method. I think the time it takes for the water to come to the boil can vary so much from stove to stove that I prefer my own foolproof way. I bring a big pot of water to the boil. I pour in a smidgen of vinegar (white or apple cider vinegar) which will set the white immediately if an egg should crack. Then, very carefully I lower the eggs into the water. After the water comes back to the boil, I cook the eggs for exactly 11 minutes. Then I plunge them into a bowl of ice and water. Voila - perfectly cooked eggs.
Ina takes out the salmon. It can be chilled at this point. To serve it, she cuts big pieces and lays them down the middle of the platter. She puts sliced potatoes on one side and quartered tomatoes on the other side with green beans. The hard boiled eggs get fitted in as well. Ina likes big blocks of color on a serving plate, rather than a little here and there. She adds green olives and anchovies. Ina tells us that a big platter makes even simple ingredients look special.
Ina puts together a vinaigrette to pour over the dish. She whisks ¼ cup of champagne vinegar and a teaspoon of Dijon with salt and pepper and ½ cup of olive oil.
The guests arrive. The food goes on the table. Ina adds 8 oz. of feta to the gazpacho and serves it in bowls BEFORE the guest of honor arrives. I guess she realized it might not be preggie-friendly. Sinead walks in, looks more appalled than anything, and the party begins. I must say the porch area has very bad acoustics. It sounded very loud and echo-y.
One of my eagle-eyed readers pointed out that the wrapping paper appeared to match the decorations. Now, Ina, THAT’S what I call attention to detail.
Interesting menu, not necessarily the best choice for the occasion, but I’m psyched to try it. One question...where were the party games, although Sinead didn't look like she'd be too thrilled to be dressed in a giant diaper or have 15 women guess how big her belly is. You know, maybe it's for the best they skipped the games...
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Martha and Emeril Make A Sweet Deal
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. announced yesterday that it had bought the rights to much of Emeril’s food empire: his books, television shows, kitchenware, food products and his Emeril.com website.
They paid $45 million in cash and $5 million in stock, but the price could rise if certain financial goals are met. They did not acquire the portion of his company, Emeril Homebase, which is the base of operations for his restaurants and charitable foundations.
Interestingly, the Food Network didn’t see much future in his brand, but Martha did. And her Omnimedia is doing very well these days. They announced a revenue increase of 22% in their 2007 fourth quarter results.
According to Emeril, “By affiliating with a larger company with means, infrastructure and reach, we know we can maximize (our) great potential.” And here I thought the only place left for him to market himself was Mars…
Anyway, good for you, Emeril. Maybe you’ll give RR a run for her (lots of) money in striving for complete world domination.
They paid $45 million in cash and $5 million in stock, but the price could rise if certain financial goals are met. They did not acquire the portion of his company, Emeril Homebase, which is the base of operations for his restaurants and charitable foundations.
Interestingly, the Food Network didn’t see much future in his brand, but Martha did. And her Omnimedia is doing very well these days. They announced a revenue increase of 22% in their 2007 fourth quarter results.
According to Emeril, “By affiliating with a larger company with means, infrastructure and reach, we know we can maximize (our) great potential.” And here I thought the only place left for him to market himself was Mars…
Anyway, good for you, Emeril. Maybe you’ll give RR a run for her (lots of) money in striving for complete world domination.
Buddakan
H and I found ourselves at Buddakan in Philadelphia over the weekend, which is part of restaurant impresario Stephen Starr’s group of 15 restaurants (11 are in Philadelphia and they include the Striped Bass and Morimoto).
We had been trying to go for over a year, but could never get a reservation, which was usually, I admit, last minute. Sunday night on a holiday weekend, they were still packed, but we managed to snag a 7:45 reservation.
There is a minute waiting area and happily our table was ready… and a nice one it was with a giant Buddha looking over us. Of course, the Buddha is so big, he basically overlooks everyone.
Great and attentive service followed and really fabulous food. I feel a little sheepish now sharing not WHAT we ordered, but HOW MUCH. We definitely could have done with 1 or 2 or 3 fewer dishes, but who knew when we would ever get a reservation again, so we went for it.
We started with the Crispy Shrimp and Scallop Spring Rolls. They were rolled in long skinny rounds and deep fried and then cut at a very acute angle to allow the filling to show. WOW, they were tasty! Not greasy at all, but beautifully crispy. The plum sauce was nothing special, the mustard added a nice bit of heat.
The King Crab Dumplings were in the style of shumai, in other words the wrapper was brought up around the filling and the dumpling was left open at the top and then steamed. They were glorious. The seafood tasted fresh and beautifully seasoned. One tiny complaint. I wish they had been smaller to allow for an easy one bite appetizer.
We didn’t need to but we ordered the (smaller) Asian Caesar salad with spicy cashews. The cashews tasted sweeter than spicy, but they added a nice crunch. The dressing was very creamy and rich, but the salad was WAY overdressed…Not that it stopped us from eating most of it. We probably could have shaved off a couple hundred calories if the salad chef had had a lighter hand.
Our last appetizer was scallion pancakes. Interestingly, they were topped with what the menu said was braised beef short rib and soybean hummus. The topping was a fairly dry beef mixture that didn’t go particularly well with the scallion pancake. But maybe it was okay, because the scallion pancake was a little overcooked and hard and it needed something. Usually I find a good scallion pancake is fine on its own with maybe just a little dipping sauce. 
The pan-roasted duck breast was wonderfully moist and I would have loved it if it hadn’t had five spice powder, which I detest, but I don’t blame the restaurant for that. The corn and scallion spoon bread was the richest, smoothest, creamiest, most toothsome version of that dish I’ve ever had.
The sesame crusted tuna was fine with a good dose of black sesame seeds to add interest. The accompanying salad (ginger, lemongrass and vegetable) was fresh and crisp and good enough to be served on it own. Actually our waiter told us, after I admired some of the largest crispiest onion rings I’ve ever seen, that the various accompaniments can usually be ordered separately. I’ll remember that for my next visit.
Wait, there was more…We also had a vegetable fried rice and Chinese eggplant and garlic sauce. The fried rice was super, not at all greasy and chock full of finely cut up veggies. Dee-licious. The Chinese eggplant wasn’t that different from a standard Chinese restaurant except that it was studded with pine nuts and golden raisins... very tasty.
Don’t tell anyone that we had room for only one dessert, but it was a good one. We had the Crème Brûlée, which was made with TWO kinds of vanilla - from Tahiti and Madagascar. It was rich yet rather fluffy and the vanilla flavor came through as strong and true.
I was impressed - one dud dish out of nine. And did you notice something? I have hardly mentioned the service at all. That’s a switch…usually, it’s all I talk about.
At Buddakan, the food was just about flawless; the service was seamless and completely inconspicuous. Our food was delivered promptly, our server checked up on us the right number of times and to be honest, I barely noticed he was there. I was left with more time to eat and less time to complain. What a nice experience, which I definitely want to try again.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Jamie - If You've Got The Thyme...
Jamie At Home with Jamie Oliver
Leeks
Roasted Concertina Squid with Grilled Leeks and a Warm Chorizo Dressing
Cheat's Pappardelle with Slow-Braised Leeks and Crispy Porcini Pangrattato
Jamie starts off by showing his huge gorgeous leeks and the patch from whence they came. He points out the white inner layers that haven’t been touched by the sun and the tough green outside layers that have to be cooked longer, but are still “brilliant.” He peels back the outer leaves and takes off the worst of the ends (they go in the compost heap).
To clean them, he holds them upside down by the root (see video below) and slices at them with a sharp knife to loosen and release all the dirt. He tells us to wash them downwards, so the dirt doesn’t get trapped in the layers.
He doesn’t do the pencil point trimming (that gets rid of most of the green ends) that I was taught, but he has fresh leeks that are a lot tenderer at the ends than the ones I usually use.
He’s making the leeks with pappardelle pasta, so he slices them the same thickness, about ½ inch on the diagonal, to match the pasta. He adds a “coupla lugs” of olive oil to a pan with a “good knob of butter”.
“As far as best friends of Mr. Leek (are) concerned – butter and leeks – Brilliant.” Jamie slices garlic, and adds that to the pan. He adds some thyme. Now, this is funny: “Thyme always makes a bit of fuss in the pan,” as the oil sizzles. It’s quite an “attention seeker.” I’ve been accused of that on occasion, so I’m on Mr. Thyme’s side.
Jamie adds the leeks and turns them in the oil and butter. He turns the heat to high and adds a half a glass of white wine with good pinches of salt and pepper. He “boils that up.” 1 pint of stock goes in and that will cook on low for 30 minutes after he shows us a wonderful technique for softening vegetables.
It’s called a cartouche, which is just a round of parchment paper (I ALWAYS use wax paper). Here’s a somewhat complicated video, showing the technique and this instructor tells us it’s used for preventing a skin on sauces or other cooked dishes. Yes, but it’s also used for softening vegetables or “sweating” vegetables to bring out their amazing sweetness. Vegetables that are browned BEFORE they’re softened can be bitter. This is a way of getting every ounce of flavor out of the lowly onion or, in this case, leek.
This is how I do it. I take a piece of wax paper slightly larger than my pot. I crumple it up in my hand. And then I lay it directly over the cooking vegetables in the sauté or saucepan making sure to smooth it down all around the edges. I cover it with a lid, turn the heat down low and leave it for as long as I can. The result is very, very soft sweet delicate vegetables. This is the best way to start any dish that uses onions, which is many of them. When you remove the cartouche, you’ll see how much steam has built up in the pot and how wonderfully that cooks your vegetables.
Jamie takes this to an amazing new level with the substitution of Parma ham for the wax paper. It’s really a brilliant idea that he got from Italian cooks. He lays the thin slices of ham right over the leeks, covers the pot and allows them to sweat for 30 minutes. He says that in Italy they discard it, but he slices it up to add to the dish. Super, super idea! Jamie. He’s really thinking here about how to maximize the flavor of a basically very simple dish. That, to me, is worth the price of admission.
For a topping for the dish, he puts together a pangrattato. I didn't know that's how you say bread crumbs in Italian. AND he puts a fascinating spin on it, as he tells us that “Mr. Leek gets along with Mr. Mushroom like a house on fire.”
He takes a handful of dried porcini mushrooms and, listen to this!, he pulverizes them in the food processor. Yup, he does. No soaking, no liquid, no nothing. He’s going to use them as is and just “give them a wazz” in the processor. That sounds dirty.
He adds a bunch of old bread, salt and pepper and has at it in the processor until the mixture is uniformly crumb-like. Olive oil goes into a sauté pan, with squashed cloves of garlic and a sprig of rosemary. He shakes the pan and throws in a handful of the breadcrumbs and decimated mushies and does a tossy toss with the pan. (Jamie is certainly on top of his game in this episode.)
For the pasta, he’s using premade sheets of lasagna. He talks to us about cooking and getting a fresh pasta flavor without having to make fresh pasta. He likes the idea of cutting the pasta sheets himself. Why bother, he asks? WELL!!! BECAUSE...he explains as he launches into a bit of a diatribe, food is about love and freshness, and anything we can do on the road to completely fresh is a good thing. That’s my interpretation of what he said, anyway.
He began to sound a little brassed off at any potential complaining on our parts about an additional step in the recipe.
He flours the sheets and rolls them up together and slices them just under a centimeter (1/2 inch), “which will grow in the water to just over a centimeter.” It goes into boiling salted for 2 minutes. Cutting the lasagna sheets gives the dish a homemade, slightly irregular, quality.
Jamie turns off the pan with the crumbs and pours it out onto paper towels.
Jamie slices up the ham into long strands and adds them back to the leeks with a handful of parmesan and butter. He drains the pasta and adds it with a bit of the pasta water to the leek mixture. He quickly stirs it together and serves it. Mmmmm. He sprinkles over the pangrattato, “thyme tips’ and a little more parmesan with a drizzle of oil. Jamie tells us when we serve this dish “You will be cleaning up at the dinner party awards.”
Next we see Jamie out in the garden with a mustachioed…friend? Gardener? Neighbor? He shows us treviso, an Italian type of radicchio. He also cuts a huge bulb of fennel from the garden. He bids farewell to the mystery gentleman.
Jamie tells us that when frying, roasting or grilling leeks, they must be parboiled first, so the outside layers don’t burn. Plus, it makes the leeks soft enough to absorb flavors. Interesting. I’ve only ever softened leeks in oil and/or butter before proceeding, so I’ve never had to parboil them.
He pours a bit of olive oil on the parboiled leeks and lays them across the barbecue. He slices the bushy top off the fennel and cuts the bulb in big slices through the stalk and puts them on the barbecue - completely dry. He adds radicchio leaves to the grill, also dry, just to wilt.
Jamie is making a dressing with chorizo. He chops it up a bit and put in a small frying pan with a bit of olive oil and that goes onto the grill.
He starts pulling some of the vegetables off the grill. The radicchio leaves go into a bowl. They look kind of like garbage. “Oh my god, Jamie,” he says to himself,” What have you done? It looks disgusting. He’s gone mad, obviously.” He adds the “lovely” baby leeks.
He shakes the chorizo pan and adds fresh rosemary. He grates 2 cloves of garlic. “This is when it all gets fu-un-nn,” he sings. The garlic goes in with balsamic vinegar and a squeeze of lemon. He stirs it all together and sets it aside.
“All this effort is to sell my mate, Mr. Squid and his four little tentacles.” WHO TALKS LIKE THAT?!! JAMIE DOES and it’s alright with me…
He puts a chef’s knife inside the piece of squid. With another knife, he slices the squid in ¼ inch slices. The first knife means that he can’t cut all the way through and he’s left with a pleated or “concertina” effect. He coats the squid with a bit of olive oil. He slices the fennel tops and throws that on top with salt and pepper. He mixes it all together. He adds oil to a frying pan and puts the tentacles in first and then the cut squid.
He tosses them in the oil for a minute and then into a very hot oven until browned for just a few minutes. The recipe says to preheat the oven to maximum. I’m going to take that as 500°F and say to check it after 3 minutes.
Jamie removes the fennel bulb from the grill and adds it to the bowl with the radicchio. He pours over the chorizo mixture and mixes it well. “Let’s go and get our squidy.” He plates up the squid, squeezes over some lemon and serves up the grilled marinated vegetables. He rips off a few fennel tops and sprinkles them over to add “a bit of fresh” to the robust and grilled food.
Great job, Jamie, I feel as if I learned so much. AND he only did 2 recipes this week, so they’re both on the FN website. Remember they’re permitted to publish only 2 (@#$%^!) of his recipes a week.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
TAG, We're It
Emiline made me do this. I feel like tagging her again, but there are so many other worthwhile folks out there.
Rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
Rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.
Ok, here are 5 riveting facts about me:
1. I baked my own wedding cake.
2. I was always embarrassed to admit this when I was growing up and now I don’t care: I never learned how to ride a bike. My father refused to put training wheels on a bike and I refused to ride it. I spent my youth making troll houses and baking brownies instead.
3. I have a twin brother. I’m 13 minutes older and 7 plus inches shorter, plus I have A LOT more hair. People have asked me (upon hearing I have a twin brother) if we’re identical.
4. A Brit Out Of Water reminded me of this. I know I’m a baby, but I refuse to eat by myself in public, except if it’s on the street while I’m walking. I have HAD to do it very rarely and I really hate it. I feel as if everyone is staring at me and so whenever I see someone eating by HERself (men are so full of themselves they don’t care) I’m so impressed by her bravery that I end up STARING AT HER.
5. I LOVE talking on the phone. (Call me anytime.) I’m old enough to remember the advent of cordless phones. Now THAT was a great invention. It meant I could I unload the groceries, make dinner, sit outside, take a walk, get the mail, paint the basement, do whatever I needed to on the computer AND talk on the phone.These are the 5 people I tag. You’re it:
Fruity
Tracy
CommonDialog
A Brit Out Of Water
Madam Chow
Friday, February 15, 2008
I Heart Madhur
This may not be a typical Valentine’s Day dinner, but it IS sooooooooo good. It’s from Madhur Jaffrey’s World of the East Vegetarian Cooking.
Madhur Jaffrey is to Indian food what Julia is to French food. Madhur is a fine cook who also happens to be a beautiful movie star. Maybe that's what gives her those excellent communication skills in teaching western cooks (and I’m sure many South Asian ones as well) the fabulous Indian food of her childhood.
Email me for the original recipe, this is my version.
Madhur Jaffrey’s and My Zucchini Meatballs
Meatballs:
2 zucchini (1 lb), grated
1 1 inch piece ginger
1 jalapeno, seeded
1 small onion
1 handful fresh coriander
1/3 cup flour
5 tbls. olive or vegetable oil for frying
Sauce:
2 medium onions
¼ tsp. turmeric
1/8 tsp. or so cayenne
2 tsps. cumin
1 tsp. coriander
2 tomatoes, minced
1 cup heavy cream
½ tsp. garam masala
1 tsp. cumin seeds, roasted and ground (see note)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Optional for garnish: ½ raw cashews, toasted
Grate the zucchini in a food processor. Put in a colander over a bowl and mix with 1 teaspoon Kosher salt. Let drain for 30 minutes. You’ll be using the zucchini juice.
With the steel blade, mince the 2 medium onions for the sauce and remove from food processor and set aside.
Mince the ginger and jalapeno for the meatballs in the food processor. Add the small onion and fresh coriander and process until finely minced. Place in medium bowl.
Squeeze out as much liquid as you can from the zucchini. Really squeeze! Make up to one cup with water. Set liquid aside. Add the grated zucchini to the onion and ginger mixture. Stir in flour and mix well.
Divide mixture into 16 balls. I divide it into 4 piles and then make 4 balls from each.
Heat oil in small nonstick frying pan or wok over medium heat. . (I like the wok because I can use less oil and it’s deeper because of the small circumference of the bottom. Got that?)
Fry 8 balls at a time, for about 4 to 5 minutes on each side, or until nicely browned. Remove to paper towel lined plate. (Remember my tip of just using paper towels on the top layer? The bottom can be newspaper.) Fry second batch. Drain. (You’re welcome to deep fry these, if you wish.) Reserve cooking oil.
For the sauce, in a medium sauté pan, heat about 4 tablespoons of the cooking oil over medium low heat. Stir in the 2 minced onions and cook for 7 to 8 minutes. The onions should start to brown at the edges.
Add the turmeric, cayenne, cumin and coriander. Stir over lowest heat for 3 minutes. Add tomatoes. Stir over medium low heat for 3 minutes. Add one cup zucchini juice. Bring to the boil. Lower heat and simmer, covered, for 6 to 7 minutes. Make in advance up to this point.
Add the cream, garam masala and roasted ground cumin if using. Simmer for 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Handling the zucchini meatballs very gently (they’re fragile), add them to the pan. Coat with sauce and simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes until hot. If sauce gets too thick, thin it with a bit of vegetable stock. Serve with basmati rice.
Note:
The roasted and ground cumin is the heart of this dish. You too will fall in love with cumin prepared this way.
Roast the seeds in a cast iron pan over medium heat until they begin to smell toasty. Cool slightly and grind them in a coffee grinder. They add a nutty roasted full flavor to the sauce.
BUT, if you can’t manage this extra step, make this dish anyway and just add leave out the extra cumin. It’s still fantastic.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Happy Valentine's Day
I once had a devoted young man in my life who did it ALL on Valentine's Day - flowers, candy, meticulously planned out lavish dinner and you know what? It was kind of annoying.
Fast forward to today and H...As with many things in life, I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum now. What to do? Just enough to make him feel guilty AND whatever I want...with or without his knowledge. (There is NOTHING wrong with buying yourself a new pair of shoes or even a refrigerator - that's another story - for Valentine's Day.)
I'll report on dinner tomorrow, but as for dessert...
Sometimes the standard things are just right and that's how I feel about chocolate dipped strawberries. The most important thing is NOT TO REFRIGERATE THEM. Okay, if you're a bit over zealous and you've made 20 for the 2 of you, go ahead and refrigerate the five you have left, but they will in no way resemble the ones you've tasted at room temperature. They will hold up fine for a day or two.
Melt 4 oz. dark chocolate (mix your favorites, if you wish) with 1 tablespoon of Crisco. (Please don't tell anyone I told you that and deny it if someone asks.) There is simply no other way to get a perfectly smooth dippable consistency that hardens nicely. Cream won't harden as well and you'll have an issue with the room temperature part. For a dual chocolate coating, melt 4 oz white chocolate with you know what. Actually, you may want to start with the white and then move on to the dark, but either way works.
Melt the chocolate with the...shhhhhh...Crisco in the microwave - about a minute and a half, stir and then microwave another 10 to 15 seconds until not quite melted. Stir well and just before you're ready to dip, put the bowl back in the microwave for 10 seconds. Lean the bowl on the edge of a coaster to give you a deeper pool of chocolate in which to dip. Let sit for a half hour or so and then dip the strawberries in your contrasting chocolate or use the same one and drizzle on a different chocolate. Whatever floats your boat..
I dip the first side of the strawberry at an angle, the second in a different chocolate at an opposite angle, and then drizzle a little extra chocolate over. Enjoy!
Fast forward to today and H...As with many things in life, I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum now. What to do? Just enough to make him feel guilty AND whatever I want...with or without his knowledge. (There is NOTHING wrong with buying yourself a new pair of shoes or even a refrigerator - that's another story - for Valentine's Day.)
I'll report on dinner tomorrow, but as for dessert...
Sometimes the standard things are just right and that's how I feel about chocolate dipped strawberries. The most important thing is NOT TO REFRIGERATE THEM. Okay, if you're a bit over zealous and you've made 20 for the 2 of you, go ahead and refrigerate the five you have left, but they will in no way resemble the ones you've tasted at room temperature. They will hold up fine for a day or two.
Melt 4 oz. dark chocolate (mix your favorites, if you wish) with 1 tablespoon of Crisco. (Please don't tell anyone I told you that and deny it if someone asks.) There is simply no other way to get a perfectly smooth dippable consistency that hardens nicely. Cream won't harden as well and you'll have an issue with the room temperature part. For a dual chocolate coating, melt 4 oz white chocolate with you know what. Actually, you may want to start with the white and then move on to the dark, but either way works.
Melt the chocolate with the...shhhhhh...Crisco in the microwave - about a minute and a half, stir and then microwave another 10 to 15 seconds until not quite melted. Stir well and just before you're ready to dip, put the bowl back in the microwave for 10 seconds. Lean the bowl on the edge of a coaster to give you a deeper pool of chocolate in which to dip. Let sit for a half hour or so and then dip the strawberries in your contrasting chocolate or use the same one and drizzle on a different chocolate. Whatever floats your boat..
I dip the first side of the strawberry at an angle, the second in a different chocolate at an opposite angle, and then drizzle a little extra chocolate over. Enjoy!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Mac And Cheese - Giada's Way (Sort Of)...And, Oh Yeah, There's No Mac
I love all the wonderful people who watch the Food Network, and then RUN to their kitchens to try the recipes, AND post reviews of them as well!
These folks are so generous with their comments and often very helpful. For example, for Giada's Baked Orzo, Donna from Hillsborough, North Carolina says, Keep stirring the orzo so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot. Giada never mentioned that. Other reviewers added more stock, because their mixtures had nowhere near the amount of liquid that Giada's did.
I changed a few bits and pieces of the recipe and it came out great. One big difference was that I combined everything in the same sauté pan in and I baked it in that.
Also I added sour cream, instead of cream and 1/2 cup white wine instead of 1 cup of marsala and...Well, here's the recipe so you can see for yourself.
Giada's and My Baked Orzo (serves 6)
4 cups stock, vegetable is fine
1 lb. orzo
2 tbls. olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 cups crimini mushrooms, sliced
½ cup white wine
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup (4 oz.) fontina, grated
1 cup (4 oz.) mozzarella, grated
½ cup sour cream
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Bring 4 cups of stock to the boil. Add 1 lb. of orzo, stirring well. Simmer gently for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large ovenproof sauté pan. Cook onions until completely softened. Add mushrooms, stir well and leave alone on medium to medium high heat for about 4 minutes. Stir again and leave for another 3 minutes. They should be nicely browned.
Add wine over high heat and stir to deglaze the pan for a minute. Turn off the heat. Stir the orzo into the pan. Stir in the frozen peas and then the fontina and the mozzarella. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in sour cream.
Mix together bread crumbs and Parmesan and sprinkle over top. Bake for 25 minutes.
Black Olive Vinaigrette
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tbls. red wine vinegar
2 tsps. Dijon mustard
1 clove of garlic, pressed
1 tbl. fresh parsley
big pinch of Kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup pitted black kalamata
Put all the ingredients in the blender. Blend until smooth. Or you may puree everything but the olives. Add them and pulse on and off 5 or 6 times, until vinaigrette is slightly chunky. Pour into jar and keep in fridge, bringing to room temperature before using.
These folks are so generous with their comments and often very helpful. For example, for Giada's Baked Orzo, Donna from Hillsborough, North Carolina says, Keep stirring the orzo so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot. Giada never mentioned that. Other reviewers added more stock, because their mixtures had nowhere near the amount of liquid that Giada's did.
I changed a few bits and pieces of the recipe and it came out great. One big difference was that I combined everything in the same sauté pan in and I baked it in that.
Also I added sour cream, instead of cream and 1/2 cup white wine instead of 1 cup of marsala and...Well, here's the recipe so you can see for yourself.
Giada's and My Baked Orzo (serves 6)
4 cups stock, vegetable is fine
1 lb. orzo
2 tbls. olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 cups crimini mushrooms, sliced
½ cup white wine
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup (4 oz.) fontina, grated
1 cup (4 oz.) mozzarella, grated
½ cup sour cream
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Bring 4 cups of stock to the boil. Add 1 lb. of orzo, stirring well. Simmer gently for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large ovenproof sauté pan. Cook onions until completely softened. Add mushrooms, stir well and leave alone on medium to medium high heat for about 4 minutes. Stir again and leave for another 3 minutes. They should be nicely browned.
Add wine over high heat and stir to deglaze the pan for a minute. Turn off the heat. Stir the orzo into the pan. Stir in the frozen peas and then the fontina and the mozzarella. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in sour cream.
Mix together bread crumbs and Parmesan and sprinkle over top. Bake for 25 minutes.
I also played around with Giada's Black Olive Vinaigrette . I LOVE the idea of adding olives to a vinaigrette to make it even more flavorful. It's great on salads, on top of grilled meat or chicken, on paninis, or even as a dollop on top of rice dishes.
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tbls. red wine vinegar
2 tsps. Dijon mustard
1 clove of garlic, pressed
1 tbl. fresh parsley
big pinch of Kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup pitted black kalamata
Put all the ingredients in the blender. Blend until smooth. Or you may puree everything but the olives. Add them and pulse on and off 5 or 6 times, until vinaigrette is slightly chunky. Pour into jar and keep in fridge, bringing to room temperature before using.
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