Mom Takes Back the Kitchen

In case you haven't read my posts from the past few weeks, I love my job.  However, after two months of being a full-timer, I have found one thing that I dislike - the lack of time for cooking.  When I was unemployed, I balanced my time between laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, and Lifetime movies (my only downfall).  I had way too much time on my hands to think about food, and browse the internet for new recipes, and shop, and prep, and execute the dinner I had so carefully planned.  Now, after eight hours serving other people, all I want to do is flop down on the couch and have some sort of food placed in front of me.  There's something semi-mind-numbing about asking the same questions all day every day ("Here or to go? Coleslaw or potato salad?  Small or large?  Napkins and silverware in the bag?"), that by the time I'm done my brain can't even formulate a full thought, let alone plan a dinner menu.  And, if by chance, I do find enough mental and physical strength to cook, I rush the process (mainly so we don't end up eating at nine at night) and I don't really get to enjoy it.  

Now I don't want to seem all woe-is-me.  I take full advantage of my days off, which actually makes those nights that I do get to cook even more enjoyable - and delicious.  And it also gives my parents a chance to put their aprons on and get back in the kitchen.  A few weeks ago, I served as my dad's sous chef when he made Panko Crusted Cod and Two Toned Potatoes.  This week, my mom was chef, however, she didn't let me step foot inside the kitchen.  Actually, she wouldn't let me know what she was doing, or even look inside the grocery bags.  My only job was setting the table and pouring the wine, which allowed for a quick nap before dinner.

The smells wafting down the hall to my room from the kitchen were absolutely lovely, but I was unsure what was being made.  Even after the plate was set down in front of me, I wasn't quite sure what all the components were.  I anxiously waited for my mom to finish plating so she could spill the beans (baked beans, that is).  

Mom made a whole golden trout stuffed with apples and caramelized onions, baked potatoes which she then served with some of the apple-onions stuffing and a small dollop of chipotle mustard on top, and roasted asparagus with raspberries.  The meal was the epitome of balance between sweet and savory (which you know I love), with a subtle smokey undertone.  When I asked her how she came up with the ideas, she said that at a work conference, they had served a chilled asparagus and raspberry salad, but wanted to know if it would work as a hot dish - it did.  Begin a warm spring night, she went to the store with the image of a whole fish with barbeque sauce in her head.  She found a whole golden trout, but when she went to find a good barbeque sauce, she realized that every single one had high fructose corn syrup as the first ingredient.  Not being a fan of artificial ingredients, she decided to do her own spin on barbeque.  She also noticed that a large amount of sauces were Applewood-Smoked Bacon flavored, a flavor which she tried to create by using the apples, caramelized onions, and cherry juice - and I have to say, using the combination of sweet, savory, and tart, she pulled it off.

Apple-Onion Stuffed Golden Trout with Baked Potatoes and Roasted Asparagus with Raspberries

2 medium sized whole trouts

4 small butter potatoes

1 bunch of asparagus, ends trimmed

¼ cup raspberries

1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced

1 large green apple

½ tsp chipotle mustard per serving

¾ cup tart cherry juice

¼ tsp cinnamon

1 tbs butter

sugar

olive oil

salt and white pepper

+ Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  

+ Wrap each potato in foil and bake for 45-60 minutes, depending on size.

+ Place asparagus in a shallow baking dish.  Drizzle with olive oil and a pinch of salt.  Bake in oven for 20 minutes.  Add the raspberries, bake for 10 minutes, or until asparagus is cooked through.

+ While potatoes and asparagus are roasting, caramelize onions in a splash of oil in a medium sauce pan.  Once the onions are done, add the cherry juice to deglaze the pan.  Set onions aside.

+ Once the vegetables are done roasting, reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees.  

+ Rinse the fish thoroughly, then place in a large baking dish.  Salt and pepper the inside of the fish. 

+ Slice ¼ of the apple very thinly.  Place apples inside the fish, then top with half of the caramelized onions.  Pour the cherry juice from the onions over the fish.  Bake for 30-40 minutes, basting the fish or adding more juice if the fish begins to dry out.

+ Dice the remaining apple, place in a medium sauce pan.  Add cinnamon, a dash of sugar, and butter.  Cook the apples - adding water if needed to keep a little moisture in the pan - for about 10 minutes, or until caramelized.  Combine cooked apples with remaining onions.

+ To serve, cut cooked potatoes in half, top with a table spoon of the apple-onion mixture and chipotle mustard.  Finish fish with a good-sized spoon-full of cherry juice from baking dish.  Add a few fresh uncooked raspberries on top of the asparagus.  A scoop of baked beans on the side rounds out the whole barbeque feel.

Panko Crusted Cod with Two-Tone Potatoes

Eating dinner together at the table has always been incredibly important to my family.  For as long as I can remember, sitting down to dinner has always been a priority.  Even during middle school when my travel soccer stage overlapped with my brother's early career on stage, we were never a family that grabbed fast food to eat in the car.  It was always home-cooked, and at worst we ate in shifts.  Shopping and cooking was always balanced between my mom and dad.  And my dad isn't one of those microwave-dinner doesn't-know-how-to-boil-an-egg dad's either.  Not only can he cook, but he puts a lot of thought into what flavors  he wants or mood he wants to convey, and then creates meals inspired by them.  Since I've been home, I've kind of taken over the grocery shopping and dinner preparation (partly due to my intense need to have control over most aspects of my daily life).  I mean, it's not like I don't take their wants into consideration - I get their input and most of the time call from the grocery store for their advice and decision making skills, but the physical acts are usually done by me.

Dad's Notes on Dinner.

Except for days like today.  Today I drove up to my alma mater to visit an old friend in town for the week, and didn't get back until later this evening.  When I got home, my dad already had dinner in his head and in the works.  Tonight, I was merely a sous chef.  Chopping, sauteing, and following the direction and vision of the head chef.  This recipe is a brain child of my father, with my only culinary involvement being the addition of basil and lime.

Panko Crusted Cod with Two-Tone Potatoes

2 tbs olive oil

2 medium carrots, minced
1 medium sweet onion, minced

3 small celery stalks, minced

½ cup basil, chopped

2 large white potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters

1 tbs garlic, minced

12 tbs butter

½ cup milk, slightly warmed

2 filets (or 1½ lbs) cod

1 lime, juice and zest

panko 

salt and pepper

+ Preheat the oven at 375 degrees.  

+ Place the potatoes in a large pot and cover with water.  Bring the potatoes and water to a boil, cook until fork tender.

+ In a medium pan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat.  Once the oil is hot, add the carrots, onion, celery and basil.  Cook on high until the mirepoix becomes fragrant, stirring frequently to prevent the veggies from sticking.  Turn heat down to load and let cook, stirring occasionally.

+ While the mirepoix is cooking down, cover the bottom of a large baking dish with panko.  Melt 8 tbs of butter in a large bowl.  Dunk the filets of cod in the melted butter and then place them in the baking dish.  Cover the tops of the fish with panko.  Top with lime zest and juice.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.

+ Once the potatoes are soft, drain and separate the white and sweet potatoes into two large bowls.  Add 2 tbs butter and ¼ cup milk to each, adding the garlic to the white potatoes only.  Mash until smooth, adding milk if needed to obtain desired consistency.  
+ Line a small baking dish with parchment paper.  Place mash potatoes into zip-locked baggies, cutting one corner of each to make a piping bag of sorts.  Pipe small circles of potato onto the parchment, layering white and sweet potatoes on top of each other.  

+ In the last moments of the fish cooking, turn the oven to broil and put the potatoes on a rack above the fish.  Watch carefully, as you want the top of the potatoes to brown slightly.

+ Serve mirepoix over cod with potatoes garnished with a sprig of basil on the side.

Karmic Curries

It's been two weeks and five days since I started working at Main Street, and I am loving every minute of it.  I know, I know, no one loves working, but I'm telling you, I love it.  Clearing dishes, making coffee, loading the dish washer, foaming milk, wrapping food, and especially waiting on customers.  While you get the occasional rude or overly needy patron, the majority are pleasant and fun to chat with.  We have a couple of every-day regulars who are ridiculously charming and make me smile every time I see them walk through the door.  And the people I work with make the slow dragging lulls go by so much faster.

Easter Baristas.

Okay, sorry, enough ranting about my love of being a barista.  The point of me bring up work was to segue into a narrative about how I decided on last night's dinner. And this segue is much more awkward than anticipated...

On our way home from work, my mother and I stopped at the grocery store to pick up eggs to dye for Easter, but neither of us could come up with anything we felt like having for dinner, so we decided on picking up sushi after the market.  We grabbed eggs and a few necessities and headed to the checkout.  My mom forgot her wallet in the car, so I held our place in line while she ran out to get it.  Of course, my gaze immediately went to the strategically placed magazines. While there were various celebrity dissolved marriages to pry into and best bikini bodies to glare at, a special Spring/Summer edition of Real Simple that was all "Easy, Delicious Home Cooking" caught my eye.  I was flipping through it, admiring the beautiful photos and mentally tagging recipes to look up later, when I saw it - what I wanted for dinner.  A vegetable and tofu curried soup.  The photo was what got me; it was warm and inviting, but with bright colors and a crispness that just screamed spring.

While I'd found what I wanted for dinner, not all the Confoy's are as keen on tofu as I am, so I needed to come up with something that the whole family would enjoy .  With a sigh, I resumed flipping pages, mentally tagging the tofu curry for another night.  But guess what was lying only a few pages away?  A recipe for curried shrimp and snow peas.  The best part?  The ingredients for both recipes were basically identical, the real difference being a very slight change in preparation methods.  I took that as a big karmic slap-in-the-face that tonight I must make curry. When I saw my mom heading down the registers I yelled, "I know what we have to make for dinner!  Go grab coconut milk and shrimp!"  We were quick and  efficient, and home eating curry faster than it would have taken to order and pick-up sushi.

I made a few changes to Real Simple's recipes, mainly due to missing or varying ingredients. Both recipes call for red curry paste, which isn't a pantry necessity, and which I didn't want to buy just for this one recipe.  I did however just buy a jar of  Ras El Hanout - a Moroccan spice blend - that I'd been meaning to give a try.  I also left out the green beans in tofu dish, because I thought with the peas they might be a little redundant.

Now, one ingredient that I normally leave out of my curries is coconut milk.  I'm not talking about the vegan milk-substitute made with coconuts (though I do use it along with the canned coconut milk in these recipes).  I'm talking about real coconut milk made from the meat of the coconut.  Why haven't I used it before?  Well, first off, it came in a can, and the idea of "milk in a can" just kind of turned me off.  And second, I didn't really think that it would make that much of a difference.  Oh, how wrong I was.  The coconut milk made these curries.  Seriously.  I've been plagued with curries that are too thin and soupy, or when I try to thicken them, become heavy and more of a gravy than a curry.  But the coconut milk is the perfect combination of liquid and creamy thickness that gives the curry the perfect consistency.  This week I am going to stock up on cans of coconut milk so I can make excellent curry whenever I want.

Thai Curry Vegetable and Tofu Soup
1½ cups vegetable broth

½ 14 oz can coconut milk

½ cup non-dairy coconut milk

2 tbs Ras El Hanout, or other curry powder

2 tsp fresh grated ginger

1 pint sized container of shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and caps thinly sliced

1 cup snow peas

1 carrot, sliced into thin coins

14 oz extra-firm tofu, drained and cubed

2 tbs fresh lime juice

¼ cup fresh basil leaves, sliced

salt and lime zest to taste

+ In a large sauce pan, whisk the broth, coconut milk, non-dairy milk, curry, ginger, and a pinch of salt.  Bring to boil.

+ Add the mushrooms and carrots and simmer until the carrots are tender.  Then add the peas and tofu, and simmer until the peas become a bright green.

+ Stir in the lime juice, zest, and basil.  Serve hot over rice or on its own.

Curry Shrimp and Snow Peas

½ 14 oz can coconut milk

½ cup non-dairy coconut milk

2 tbs Ras El Hanout, or other curry powder
1 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 tbs fresh lime juice
1 cup snow peas
½ cup bean sprouts
¼ cup fresh basil leaves, sliced
salt and lime zest to taste

+ In a large sauce pan, whisk coconut milk, non-dairy milk, curry, and salt.  Bring to a boil.
+ Add the shrimp, and reduce heat to simmer.  Cook until the shrimp is done, bright pink and curled.
+ While the shrimp is cooking, toss the peas, sprouts, basil and 1 tbs lime juice in a medium bowl.  Season with salt and pepper.
+ When the shrimp is done, stir in the remaining lime juice and zest.  Serve the shrimp curry over rice with the pea mixture on top.
Note: In both cases the liquid will begin to bubble up, so watch it it make sure it doesn't overflow.  Once the vegetable are added, the liquid will settle.

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Salmon Salad

I love fusion in my cooking.  Whether it be a fusion of flavors, textures, or temperatures, I always have contrasts, no, conflicts in my dishes, challenging the diner's palate.  I have a strong background in film studies, and have always been drawn to those films that challenge a viewer's previously held ideals and beliefs about what film should be.  I think I've subconsciously carried that avant garde mentality into my cooking - though I haven't quite ventured into the realm of molecular gastronomy with its foie gras ice cream and grapefruit caviar.  That being said, I almost always marry the sweet and savory in my dinner meals.  There's something so beautiful about getting salty and sugary and spicy all in one bite.

One of my family's favorite dinners - and one such dish that combines the savory and sweet - is salmon salad (don't worry, this isn't like a tuna salad, its salmon over a bed salad).  The salad portion of this meal consists of: mixed greens because I liked the varied textures and bitterness of each kind; dried and fresh fruit for the sweet and chewy; roasted tomatoes because they are my current obsession and because they themselves possess both elements of the sweet savory; red onions for some crunch and bite; and avocado for the creaminess.  The marinade for the salmon varies with our mood and what's in the house, but the salad remains with little variation.  Tonight I decided to carry that sweet-savory theme onto the salmon with a marinade of soy sauce, spicy peanut dressing, and orange marmalade.

However, like with all of the recipes I post, you can take the idea and do whatever you want with it.  Take the general idea - salmon on top of salad - and make the dish that fits your tastes.  This dish is really a blank slate.  I'm just giving you a general outline and letting you color in the lines, or outside of them for that matter.

Salmon Salad
¼ soy sauce
¼ Trader Joe's Spicy Peanut Dressing
2 tbs orange marmalade
1½ lbs wild caught salmon 
5 oz container mixed salad greens
½ red onion, chopped
1 avocado, cubed
½ fresh strawberries, sliced
¼ cup dried cranberries
½ roasted tomatoes
Brianna's Blush Wine Vinaigrette

+ Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Place the salmon in a deep baking dish, skin down.
+ In a medium bowl, whisk together soy, peanut dressing, and marmalade until combined.  Pour over salmon, making sure that the top of salmon is well covered.  Bake for about 40 minutes, or until salmon is flaky and light pink inside.
+ Toss greens, onion, avocado, berries, and roasted tomatoes in the vinaigrette.  Serve pieces of warm salmon over chilled salad, drizzling some of the caramelized marinade over the top.

Eat More Kale

Princeton, New Jersey has officially dubbed March "Eat More Kale" Month - a town wide, month-long celebration and awareness campaign for this super leafy green.  It all started with a Vermont man making "Eat More Kale" t-shirts out of his garage.  The employees at the bent spoon, Small World Coffee, and Whole Earth Center all starting wearing these shirts, sparking discussions of how to promote kale and eating healthy.  Soon, the movement was embraced by over a dozen local businesses and organizations.  Not only is kale being highlighted in dishes around town, but when you buy kale products (t-shirts and salad at Small World, a pint of kale ice cream at bent spoon) a bunch of kale will be donated to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen. 

So what exactly is kale, and why does Princeton want me to eat more of it?  Kale is found in recipes all over the world from Europe (Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal) to East Africa to Asia (China, Taiwan, Japan).  It's a form of cabbage that comes from the same family as broccoli, cauliflower, collard greens, and brussels sprouts.  Up until the Middle Ages, it was the most common green in Europe.  During World War II, the UK cultivated massive amounts of the easy-to-grow kale in order to replace nutrients lost from diets due to rationing.  Kale - also known as "farmer's cabbage" - is high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, and calcium.  When eaten raw, kale possesses both sulforaphane and indole-3-carbinol, which have been shown to have anti-cancer properties; the latter boosting DNA repair and blocking the growth of cancer cells.

There are many different varieties of kale, but the most likely ones to be found at your grocery store are dino kale, green kale, and red kale.  Dino kale is a dark green with flat, smooth-edged leaves (they look like dinosaur scales, which I assume is where it got its name).  It is also the mildest of the three.  Red kale and green kale are very similar looking with their curled, crinkly edges; the only difference being that the red kale is tinted purple around the edges and is more bitter and tough.

Red, Green, and Dino Kales

Besides being ridiculously nutritious, kale is ridiculously versatile: raw, baked, sauteed, steamed, savory, sweet, blended, combined, by itself, chips, pesto, hummus, anyway and every way.  Which is why, for this blog entry, I'm giving you a full day of kale.  Breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  So much kale that you'll be sick of it.  I'm only teasing, you could never get sick of kale, because there are so many things you can do with kale it's kind of insane.

In honor of "Eat More Kale" month, I've donned my celebratory t-shirt and put together an entire days menu featuring kale, kale, and more kale.  I used both raw and cooked kale, as well as using it in sweet and savory dishes.  For your pleasure we have for breakfast, a Tropical Dino Smoothie made with - you guessed it! - the dino kale; lunch is a Raw Green Kale Salad with chickpeas and homemade dressing; and for dinner, the finale, a sweet and spicy Red Kale and Butternut Squash Curry with brown basmati rice.

So, go!  Go buy a bunch of kale - make that three bunches - and make these recipes.  Or better yet, do some creating of your own with this amazing versatile ridiculous nutritious leafy green.

Tropical Dino Smoothie
1 cup dino kale, de-veined and roughly torn
¼ cup orange juice
1 banana
1 cup fresh cut pineapple
⅓ cup fresh cut mango

+ Combine ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth (or chunky, if you're like me).  If needed, add more juice until to reaches desired thickness.

Raw Green Kale Salad
½ bunch green kale, de-veined and roughly torn
1 can chick peas, rinsed
¼ red onion, thinly sliced
2 tbs olive oil
2 tbs umeboshi vinegar (or any other vinegar)
2 tbs orange juice
1 tbs honey
salt and pepper to taste

+ Whisk together olive oil, vinegar, juice and honey in a small bowl.
+ Place kale on the bottom of a large bowl, topped with onion and chick peas.  Toss with dressing and serve.

Red Kale and Butternut Squash Curry
1 bunch red kale, de-veined and roughly torn
1 large yellow onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic
1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 20 oz package of pre-cut butternut squash
1 cup shredded carrot
½ cup fresh mango, chopped
2 cups fresh pineapple, chopped
2 tbs curry powder
2 cups wine
4 cups vegetable stock
1 cup brown basmati rice
olive oil
salt and pepper

+ In a medium pot, combine rice and 2 cups stock.  Bring to a boil, then stir once, cover and reduce to a simmer.  Cook for about 45 minutes (or until all the liquid has been absorbed) without uncovering or stirring.  Once it's done, uncover, fluff with a fork, drizzle with a little olive oil and keep covered until served.
+ In a large sauce pan or large pot, saute onions and garlic over medium-high heat.  Add the squash, potato, mango, and pineapple, cooking for a few minutes.  Add curry powder, salt and pepper to taste, and give a good stir.  Add half the stock and half the wine.  Place the kale on top, and cover and cook until the squash and potato are fork tender, and the kale has wilted.
+ Remove ⅓ of the curry and place in a small pot.  Using a stick blender, blend until the mixture is smooth (if you don't have a stick blender, a normal blender will work just fine).  If the mixture is too thick to blend, add a bit of the reserved stock or wine.
+ Place the blended mix back into the pot and give it a good stir.  Add the remaining stock and wine, season to taste.  Cook until alcohol has cooked off, stirring occasionally.
+ Serve the curry over the basmati rice with a side of warmed naan.

Working Girl Dinner

Let me start off by apologizing for disappearing for a week - I am sorry. However, a very big part of me isn't sorry since my lack of updating is due to my recent employment. Yes, that's right, I am no longer an unemployed post-graduate.  I am officially employed. And I have to say, so far, I'm absolutely loving it.  Not only am I working as a barista - the breakfast bartender, making your life better one drink at a time - but I'm working with some truly amazing people.  They were incredibly welcoming to a newbie who asks far too many questions, and I feel like I've been there for much longer than a week.  I think I've settled in very nicely, though my milk foaming could use a little work.

Only downfall to my recent employment?  A job kind of takes away of a lot of the idle time around the house that I've been using as prep and cooking time.  Not to mention the fact that when I get home all I want to do is crash on the couch and have others serve me.  That being said, I really miss cooking.  That's why, today after work, I stopped at the grocery store and picked up a few quick items to add to things I already had in the house for dinner.  At home we had a of bag baby scallops in the freezer, a quart of cherry tomatoes, a bunch of scallions, fresh basil, and elephant garlic.  You heard me right, elephant garlic.  My two favorite things in the entire world combined by a genius to make one amazing thing.  This garlic dwarfs a normal clove, and cuts like an apple.  It's crisp and fragrant, but makes your eyes water like the worst onion - my whole face was hurting actually.  While the garlic is bigger, the flavor is more mild and less aggressive than regular garlic.  But I digress...

So at the store, I grabbed some ingredients to fill in the blanks and then sort of threw things together.  You know how much I love throw-together dinners, and they turn out to be the perfect meals for working girls with a small budget and even less time.

Elephant vs. Regular Garlic Clove

A Sort-of Scampi
1 quart cherry tomatoes, halved
1 bunch scallions, chopped
4 tbs fresh basil, chopped
2 cloves elephant garlic
1 cup dry quinoa
2 cups vegetable broth
1 head of broccoli, cut into florets
½ yellow onion
⅓ cup white wine (Cupcake Sauvignon Blanc)
1 lemon, zest
1 bag frozen baby scallops
½ lb wild-caught shrimp
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste



+ Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a medium bowl, toss tomatoes, scallions, basil, and garlic in a splash of olive oil.  Season generously with salt and pepper.  Pour the tomatoes into a deep baking dish (scraping the olive oil and seasoning from the bowl with a spatula).  Bake tomatoes for about an hour, or until shriveled and juicy.
+ In a medium pot, bring quinoa and vegetable broth to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and add broccoli.  Simmer uncovered until the liquid is absorbed and the grains have split.
+ In a large sauce pan, saute onions in olive oil until translucent.  Add the garlic and cook until just beginning to brown.
+ Mix the shrimp and scallops with zest, a little olive oil, salt and pepper in a medium bowl.
+  Add the shrimp and scallops to the pan, then add the wine.  Then cover and cook until shrimp is curled and pink, and the scallops turn white.
+ Serve with a scoop of shrimp and seafood over a bed of quinoa topped with the roasted tomatoes.

St. Paddy's Day Shenanigans

This St. Paddy's Day was my first one as a legally drinking adult in the United States.  Last year I was 21, but I was in London, in a pub called the Hobgoblin eating Thai food while listening to a fiddle band and a short Irish bloke in a football jersey curse out the bartender for not pouring his Guinness quickly enough.  It was perfect.

This year, St. Patrick's Weekend was jam-packed full of things to do with fun people and ridiculously good food. On Friday, my friends Ally and Julie came to my house for a sleepover, so I decided on an Irish-themed menu: Irish soda bread, "meat" and potato stew, and Irish Car Bomb ice cream floats.

I used Ina Garten's soda bread recipe. Since this bread doesn't call for yeast, and therefor doesn't need any time to rise, you can make and bake it in under an hour.  My Italian grandmother used to make soda bread every year, but I used to absolutely hate it.  It was always really dry and baking soda-y.  While this recipe calls for currants and only a teaspoon of orange zest, I used golden raisins and used whole orange worth of zest - the plump raisins have more sweetness than the currants, and the zest gave it a punch of flavor that my grandmother's was always lacking.  (In defense of my grandma: while her soda bread wasn't her finest work, her spaghetti sauce is killer, and I have yet to be able to replicate it on my own.)

The "meat" and potato stew came from one of my favorite vegan recipe sources: Post Punk Kitchen.  I used her Seitan Porcini Beef Stew recipe with a few minor changes.  I could not find dried porcini mushrooms anywhere, so in their place, I used a medley of fresh mushrooms - the package included oyster, shiitake, and baby protobello.  Instead of throwing them into the stew towards the end, I sauteed them with the onions and garlic on a low heat, so that they browned, but didn't shrivel and get lost in the stew.  Now I'm not big on meat replacement products, mainly because I tend to stray away from processed foods.  However, I found some un-beef strips at Trader Joe's whose ingredients list wasn't lengthy or full of unrecognizable products, so I decided to try them out instead of the vegan sausage.  They actually worked really well - they tasted like the rest of stew, but added the meaty texture that was needed.  And the stew was perfect.  It was exactly the meat and potato dish that I had been craving for the day and went extremely well with a Guinness.

I saw the recipe for the Irish Car Bomb floats about a week ago on Petite Kitchenesse and was trying to come up the perfect excuse to make them.  Thanks again to Ally and Julie for allowing themselves to act as my excuse.  Since making ice cream is a little labor intensive (especially dairy-free), I bought a pint of regular vanilla ice cream and a pint of coconut milk vanilla ice cream, put them in the stand mixer with some Baileys, and then put it back into their cartons and let it reform in the freezer.  We learned that the more ice cream the better.  Also, if you're adding the whiskey-caramel on top, know that it immediately sinks to the bottom, so give it a good stir before sipping, unless you enjoy a big mouthful of sweet whiskey deliciousness, which I do.

Saturday, I headed into the city to see Once, an incredible new musical set in Ireland, where the actors are also the orchestra, and the music is Irish and folksie - I downloaded the soundtrack as soon as I got home and have been listening to it non-stop.  We started the evening out at my aunt and uncles house in Bronxville with some wine and Irish cheeses.  Then trained into the city where we had dinner at The Glass House Tavern, a cozy little joint in the middle of the theater district.  It was surprisingly well-priced for where we were and the quality of the food.  I did the prix fix dinner and got black truffle risotto, Alaskan salmon filet over roasted corn and cous cous "risotto", and a warm chocolate cake with fresh berries for $35.  And the food was amazing.  Beyond amazing.  Not only did it taste good, but the presentation and portions of everything were wonderful.  Not to mention the little Irish soda bread rolls that came before the meal.  Between dinner and the show, it was an amazing way to spend the day.

My Sicilian grandmother(who can't make soda bread)'s birthday is St. Patrick's Day, so today we headed over her house for a little throw together celebration.  I was given the task of cake baking, and since my grandma is a huge Bailey's fan, I decided to make another recipe I've been looking for an excuse to make for a while now: Irish Car Bomb cake - do you see a theme emerging for this weekend?  I used a recipe from the Brown Eyed Baker, but made a cake instead of cupcakes.  I also ran out of time to make my own icing, but just mixed the Bailey's into some store bought icing I had in the pantry, and it worked just fine.  Before I put the chocolate whiskey ganache filling in between the cakes, I drizzled some whiskey onto the exposed cake so that it soaked in.  It ended up not being the prettiest cake, but it was wonderfully delicious and paired perfectly with a pint of Guinness.

Tonight, my mother and I had the actual Irish Car Bomb cocktail which is a Boiler Maker with Guinness and a shot of half Bailey's half whiskey.   All in all, it turned out to be an absolutely fantastic St. Paddy's weekend - even though it was lacking a tiny foul-mouthed Irishman.

Berries (Blue + Black + Straw) = Pi

My attempt at making a pi symbol in the crust.

It's the day again.  The day that we eagerly await all year, the excitement building as it gets closer, writing and re-writing our letters to Euclid hoping that he'll leave presents in the pie tins we leave sitting out on our kitchen tables.  Yes, today is Pi Day, March 14th, in honor of the irrational constant that represents the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter - 3.1419526, oh, you know the rest.

To celebrate this momentous day, I have broken out my Pi Day t-shirt made in 8th grade for Mrs. Conway's Algebra class.  Alright, can I just say this, to get it out of the way?  I love Algebra.  I know, I just graduated with a degree in English Creative Writing, which means that I should have a natural aversion to mathematics and science, but I love Algebra and Physics and Chemistry.  Finding x, God, I could spend all day finding x.  Whew!  I feel so much better now that that's off my chest.  I actually just got finished helping my brother with his factoring homework, and I felt momentarily fulfilled by the simple multiplication.  I think its the simplicity.  And the idea that there's an definite answer.  You are able to come to a conclusion, to finish, to accomplish something with a bit of easy and simple logic.  Sigh, if only life were as simple as foiling.

It being Pi Day and all, what to make for dinner was a no brainer - just like the square root of 65,536 - I made not one, but two pies.  I mean, for God's sake, it's Pi Day!  It only comes once a year, and what better way to celebrate than with sweet and savory pies.  To be honest, I think that pie may be the perfect food.  Yeah, I said it, the perfect food.  There's a pie for every season, occasion, meal, taste, temperature.  Fruit pies, custard pies, pot pies, quiche, spanakopita, meat pies.  There are so many variations, that you really could just live on pies for the rest of your life if you wanted to - and let's be real, who wouldn't?

When I was little, I used to hate the crusts and would just scrape out the sweet gooey filling, leaving a shelled-out carcass of dough. As I grew and my horizons were broadened, I embraced the flaky, buttery, crunchy texture that crusts add to the pie.  However, my focus still remains on the filling, so I usually make a one crust pie (either a bottom or top crust).

Speaking of crusts, a doughy crust is the worst.  I don't think I've mentioned my bitter hatred for soggy things - wow, you're learning a whole lot about me today.  Cereal that's been sitting too long, cookies dunked in milk, socks wet from the rain, and especially soggy pie dough.  That's why I tend toward a top crust, which insures maximum golden brown flakiness.  However, when baking ridiculously over-stuffed pies - like the berry one I made tonight - two crust are sometimes necessary.  And don't scoff at the store-bought crusts.  If you have the time and energy to make a crust from scratch, awesome.  But the frozen ones are quick and easy, especially the roll out kind, because you can mold them into whatever size or shape you need.  Plus, always having a couple crusts in the freezer is perfect for spontaneous pie making.

Seafood Pot Pie
2 tbs olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
3 stalks celery, roughly chopped
1 cup carrots, roughly chopped 
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and chopped into bite sized pieces
1 20 oz container of cut, uncooked butternut squash
1 tbs rosemary leaves
1 tbs thyme
2 tbs fresh basil, cut into strips
4 cups vegetable broth
½ cup frozen peas
½ cup frozen corn
1 bag frozen seafood medley (a la Trader Joe's)
2 tbs cold butter, cut into cubes
3 tbs all-purpose flour
1 sheet frozen pie crust
salt and pepper to taste

Golden-crusted Seafood Pie

+ Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
+ In a large pot or sauce pan, saute onion, celery, carrot, and garlic in olive oil over low-medium heat.
+ Once the veggies become translucent, add the sweet potato and butternut squash.  Then add the rosemary, thyme, basil, and salt and pepper.  Saute for a few minutes, or until the onion, celery, and carrot just begin to brown.
+ Add the vegetable broth, cover, and turn the heat to medium-high.  Cook until the potato and squash are fork tender.  If the broth begins to boil, turn heat down so that it maintains a simmer.
+ Stir in the peas, corn, and seafood.  Turn the heat up slightly.  Taste and season accordingly.
+ In a measuring cup, fork together the butter and flour, until it gets a crumbly texture.  Spoon in a few tablespoons of broth from the pot.  Mix together until a thick rue begins to form, add more broth or more flour if needed (it should look like pancake batter).
+ Slowly pour the rue into the pot, stirring constantly, until desired thickness is reached.  If too thin, just mix a bit of flour and broth in the measuring cup.  If too thick, add a bit of water.
+ On a lightly floured surface, roll out the crust so that it's large enough to cover a 9x13 baking dish.
+ Pour the filling into the baking dish.  Cover with crust, poking a few holes in the top.
+ Bake for an hour, or until the crust is golden brown.

Triple Berry Orange Ginger Pie
1 pint blueberries
1 pint blackberries
1 pint strawberries, quartered
1 tbs fresh ginger, grated
¼  cup honey
¼  cup all-purpose flour
½ orange, juice and zest
2 sheets pie crust


+ Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
+ Put all the berries in a large bowl.  Gently fold in the ginger, honey, flour, juice, and zest.  Cover and refrigerate while completing next steps.
+ Unroll one pie crust into a pie pan.  Fill with pie weights or beans, and bake for 7-10 minutes, just before the crust begins to brown.
+ On a lightly floured surface, roll out the second crust so that its about two inches wider than the pan.
+ Fill cooked crust with berries, then place the rolled out crust on top.  Cut any excess dough from the edges, and secure the crust tightly around the edges.
+ Bake for an hour, or until the crust is golden brown.  Serve with vanilla ice cream, fresh whipped cream, or a tall flute of bubbly.

Operation Home-Made Pasta

About a month ago we had a new kitchen floor put in, which of course meant completely reorganizing the cabinets and installing a pantry in an old closet.  In the course of taking everything out of the cabinets, I made some interested discoveries.  For example, we own not one, but three cast iron corn bread molds - two in the shape of little corn cobs, one with various Arizona-themed shapes (coyote, cactus, crescent moon, armadillo).  I also found canape bread molds, an espresso maker with milk steamer, and an Easy Bake oven with remnants of a vanilla cake circa 1999.

             
Aside from the random kitchen ware, I stumbled across an unopened box of pasta making attachments for our KitchenAid stand mixer.  My dad and I have been wanting to make our own pasta for ages, but we always shied away from it, since we didn't have a roller.  However, this pristine box of shiny stainless steel gadgets changed it all.

We chose a lazy Sunday afternoon for our pasta making endeavors.   We used a pasta recipe for KitchenAid mixers, basically because it gave specific speed and setting directions.  After a quick run to the health food store for semolina flour (and a cappuccino at the cafe next door) and quick review of the KitchenAid manual, we were ready.

Now, I knew that making pasta from scratch wasn't going to be a breeze, but it was a little more...intense than expected.  I think part of the issue was a lack of adequate counter space.  Okay, there's something you should know about me - I never clear enough kitchen space for myself when cooking.  I always end up working in a cutting board sized space, with spices, kitchen towels, utensils, and empty containers piled up around me.  I know I should be more organized, but it works for me.  However, when making pasta, I suggest having a large, clean work area.  You need to have somewhere to lay out the rolled pasta before you cut it - clearing your kitchen table, cleaning it, and dusting it with flour would work best I think.

We decided to hand-cut the pasta, since rolling out the dough, changing the attachment, and then cutting it seemed like it would take too long.  In reality, my dad cutting the rolled dough into long strands with a pairing knife took quite a bit of time and added effort.  It wasn't until his last piece of rolled dough that he thought of using a pizza cutter, which made things go a lot faster.  We only rolled and cut half of the dough last night, and this afternoon, I cut the rest, but this time using the cutting attachment, which was way easier and simpler than hand cutting it - though it didn't have that charming rustic look.

Makeshift drying racks.

Also, the recipe I used called for a "pasta drying rack", which I didn't even know such a thing existed.  In it's place, we covered the bottoms of some plastic hangers and hung them from our kitchen lamp and cabinets.  It felt kind of trashy, but, you know, in a good way.

Since I wanted to highlight the pasta, I cooked down some tomatoes, garlic, onions, and basil down in white wine - I mean, after putting all that energy into its production, I didn't want to drown it in a heavy sauce.  Not only was the sauce nice and light, but so was the pasta itself.  The flavored reminded me of an egg noodle, but not as thick and dense.  Normally if I have two plate fulls of pasta, I feel overly full.  But after two plates of this stuff, I could still have eat another two...or four.  It's going to be the perfect alfresco summer dinner - I'm picturing our teak table, fresh cut flowers, tiki torches, a sun dress, a big glass of a bright white, and this pasta with lemon, peas, and asparagus.  Jeeze, I cannot wait for summer.

Salmon Burgers & Pickled Red Onions

In case you're agoraphobic or haven't been on Facebook and seen all the weather related statuses, today was an absolutely gorgeous day.  A sun-glass-wearing, take-your-dog-to-the-park, break-out-your-sandals, driving-with-the-windows-down-and-radio-blaring, napping-on-a-blanket-in-your-backyard kind of spring day.

Peppermint and I at the park.

I picked my mom up from work, and we decided we were going to grab some takeout for dinner, but as we were driving home - the warm breeze reminded me so much of the beach I could practically taste the salt in the air - I was hit with the overwhelming feeling that this was the perfect night for a burger and an ice cold beer.

So, we stopped at Wegmans, grabbed some buns, salmon, and a six pack of River Horse Triple Horse Belgian-Style Ale.  I love River Horse Brewing Company because its local (run out of Lambertville, fifteen minutes from my house), it's all hand crafted, and it's wonderfully delicious and really cute boys work there.

Salmon burgers are the easiet thing in the entire world to make...besides a bowl of cereal.  They're a blank slate.  You can add whatever ingredients or flavors that you like - fresh herbs, dressings, marinades, veggies or just salt and pepper.  I made ours with a little pepper, garlic, and soy.

And hey, going to the store, buying ingredients, coming home and cooking took the same amount of time it would have taken to go to a Chinese joint, order, wait for the food, and bring it home.  No time lost in our last minute change of plans.  And we got beer.  So win-win.

Pre-Pickling.

Oh, and I've mentioned my obsession with Bobby Flay, right?  Okay, so my dad and I went through a huge Throwdown phase.  For those of you who aren't familiar with Throwdown, it's a show where Bobby finds a chef famous for one dish, challenges them with his version of that same dish, then local celebrity judges have a blind taste test and they choose the best dish.  It gets pretty intense, and the challenged chef's aren't always gracious when Bobby's dish gets voted best.  Point of this tirade is that Bobby Flay uses pickled red onions in as many dishes as he can: tacos, empanadas, potato salad, hot dogs, burgers, you name it.  The only thing he didn't put them on was his Coconut Cake (which is one of the best goddamn things I've ever tasted).  Anyway, I've been wanting to make them for a long time, so the other day I was bored and made them.  They ended up being super easy and ridiculously good, and I have since tried to work them into every dinner - fish tacos last night, salmon burgers tonight.  They're sweet and tangy, adding great flavor without overpowering.  They seem to compliment everything.  Basically, they're magic.

Post-Pickling

Bobby's Pickled Red Onions
1 cup red wine vinegar
½ cup lime juice
¼ cup water
3 tbs sugar
1 tbs salt
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced


+ In a small sauce pan, bring the vinegar, lime juice, water, sugar and salt to a boil. 
+ Remove from heat, let cool for ten minutes.
+ In medium bowl, cover the onions with the vinegar, then cover and refrigerate for at least four hours.

Note: Instead of a bowl, I used two mason jars, putting half of the onion in each and then sealing.



Salmon Burgers
1 lb wild-caught salmon, skin removed, cut into large chunks (ask your fish monger to do this for you)
4 tbs soy sauce
4 cloved garlic, roughly chopped
pepper to taste





+ Combine all ingredients in food processor and pulse until salmon is broken down, but remains chunky.
+ Form salmon into palm sized balls, and then flatten into patties.
+ Cook on grease skillet or grill for 5-7 minutes on each side, depending on size and thickness.  Or if you're cooking on a George Foreman, 6-8 minutes.  

Burger and Beer.  Beautiful.

Fixed Oven, Naan Pizza, & Brussels Sprout Love

Me playing the vital "light holding" role in fixing the oven.

THE OVEN IS FIXED! THE OVEN IS FIXED!
After weeks of an oven-less existence, the element finally came today in the mail.  In celebration of such a momentous and much-awaited day, I broke in the oven by baking up some naan pizzas. 

Having a working oven is a wonderful thing.

I love naan.  For those unaware of the beauty of naan, it's an Asian flatbread, most commonly used in Indian cuisines.  While it's perfect for scraping up the last bit of palak paneer, it also makes a phenomenal pizza crust.  It can hold up to lots of sauce and toppings, and gets a little crunchy on the outside when you bake it, while still retaining a soft, chewy inside.  

Naan pizzas are a staple in the Confoy household.  Not only are the quick and easy, but they allow the variety to gives everyone what they want.  Since half of the family doesn't eat dairy, and three-fourths don't eat meat, my lacto-carnivore brother often finds the dinners I make lacking in the things he enjoys the most - meat and bleu cheese.  But on Make-Your-Own-Pizza Night, he can stack as much prosciutto, salami, bacon, and bleu cheese on his naan as that leavened bread can handle.  

Me?  I like a base of roasted tomatoes, then some sauteed veggies.  Usually I go for onions, mushrooms, and yellow and green squash.  Tonight, I added some roasted brussels sprouts 1) because in a recent issue of her magazine, Martha Stewart put brussel sprouts on a pizza, and 2) I have been craving them (yes, I crave brussels sprouts.  Actually, I love brussels sprouts.  I know that they're the vegetable that everyone hates, but if you roast them instead of boiling them, they are the most delicious thing in the world.  Bobby Flay's Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pomegranate and Vanilla-Pecan Butter turned me on to the wonderfulness of sprouts).

Mmm, brussels spouts.

Basically, you all know how to make pizzas.  You can buy naan pre-made at the grocery store (the brand Fabulous Flats is great), and then just top it off with whatever you want.  Really, whatever you want.  Mozzarella and basil?  Steak and pineapple?  Shrimp and chocolate?  Not judgement here.  I'm leaving this one up to you.

Note: Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, until toppings are warm or cheese has melted.