Sugar and Thyme...

Culinary MacGyver

 

With an evening full of reading and writing, dinner wasn't high on my priority list tonight. But I was pretty pleased with myself to have MacGyvered this great soup.

The players:
1.5 cups leftover couscous, roasted garlic flavor
1/2 of a leftover wrap filled with grilled chicken and baby spinach
2 cups of chicken broth
1 pinch of italian hard cheese (Parm or Romano)

After de-robing the chicken and spinach (getting rid of the wrap) I dropped a few pices of chicken into the bottom of a big mug and set aside all of the spinach. The couscous went into a small pot and was mixed with the chicken broth. Because the couscous was a few days old, I brought the entire mixture to a boil (just to make sure I killed any bacteria that may have been brewing). After reaching a rolling boil I removed the soup from the heat and dropped in the spinach leaves. Stir, stir, stir for a minute or two and then I poured the soup into the mug that held the chicken bits. After a pinch of cheese dinner was served. And because most of the ingredients were left over from previous meals, nothing had to be prepped or seasoned - it was all ready to go!

What's your best MacGyver meal?

Easy Weekend Lunch: Stuffed Peppers

 

Normally I don’t write much about “quick and easy” meals – I figure everyone has watched a few requisite Rachel Ray episodes and has at least two or three of these recipes up his or her sleeve. I don’t really need to add to this conversation. But today I was so pleased to be able to throw together these stuffed peppers in literally five minutes (thanks to some leftovers and standard pantry items), I had to share.

These can be made with or without meat, but I started with about 10 ounces of leftover ground sirloin. Then I grabbed a bag of pre-cooked brown rice (something that’s always good to have on hand), a jar of tomato sauce (ditto), some mixed Italian cheese (Asiago, Fontina, and Parmesan, all in one pre-mixed bag), and three green bell peppers. After rinsing them clean and cutting the top off the peppers I removed the core and ribs, leaving three clean green bowls ready for stuffing. Then I mixed together the beef, rice, and about 1/3 of the tomato sauce, giving the filling a nice rosy hue. I tossed in a handful of cheese, gave a final stir, and packed the filling into the peppers.

After they were stuffed I placed them in an oven-safe dish (I wound up using a soufflé dish, which was nice because it supported the sides of the peppers) and poured over the remaining 2/3 of the tomato sauce. A little water went into the bottom of the dish (just enough to keep the tomato sauce from scorching) and then I covered it with aluminum foil and placed it in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. The peppers basically steam in there while the filling gets warmed to hot, gooey perfection.  

This would be just as good without the beef, using brown rice and cheese while maybe adding some other veggies – corn, or chopped carrots or onions. Either way, it’s a quick and tasty weekend lunch. Enjoy!

Mmmmmguacamole

My previous aversion to guacamole can be partly blamed on, yes, my picky eating habits. I will admit that the idea of eating salty, creamy fruit didn’t really get me too excited.

But fussiness aside, I think that I can speak for most of the non-guac-eating public when I say, “It’s not our fault!” We’ve simply crossed paths with some bad dip – either a runny green puree wallowing at the bottom of a 5-layer dip or a brown chunky afterthought plopped on top of Nacho Mountain. Either way, not good.

But there is a different world out there! A world of cool, creamy, flavorful guacamole made from real avocados with garlic, lime, onions, salt. It’s a delicious counterpoint to your (okay, my) black bean burrito, steaming with rice and beans and spicy salsa. And while avocados might be high in calories, they’re also high in mono- and polyunsaturated fats (“good” fats) as well as fiber and potassium. This recipe is based on one that my colleague Amelia very generously shared with me. I took it to a friend’s house for dinner last night and it was a big hit. Here’s what you’ll need:

4 ripe avocados*
3 limes
2 medium to large cloves of garlic, minced or passed through a press
¼ of a large red onion, minced
2 large pinches of salt
1 pinch of cayenne pepper

Slice the avocados in half lengthwise, scoop out the flesh and place it in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Squeeze the juice from two of your three limes over the avocado wedges. To really get as much lime juice as possible I jab the cut side of ½ a lime with a fork and then twist. Lime pulp is a-ok by me, so if some makes its way into the bowl, let it be. Mash the fruit with a fork until the avocado is broken down into large chunks. Don’t over-mash the avocado because there’s more mixing to be done!

Add the garlic, onion, salt, and cayenne pepper, mix the ingredients, and then taste. Try to achieve a balance of flavors – you should taste everything, but one ingredient shouldn’t overwhelm the others. Adjust by adding more of whatever fades into the background. If the flavors taste like they’re well balanced but the mixture is still flat, try adding a little salt. Stir the ingredients with a fork until the texture is to your liking.

Place the mixture in a serving bowl and squeeze another ½ of a lime over the top to prevent browning. Cover with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic actually touches the surface of the guacamole. Refrigerate for at least one hour, then enjoy!

 

* Buy your avocados a few days before you plan on making the dip to allow them to ripen. Store them at room temperature. A ripe avocado, when poked gently, should feel like the fleshy part of your palm – the spot right below your thumb.

Baby, it's Cold Outside!

It's been a cold winter. I mean really cold - yesterday it was TWO DEGREES when I left for work. [shiver]

 

Leek and Potato soup is one of the best things to eat on a frigid day. This version is warm, comforting, filling, flavorful, and best of all vegan. Now I'm not vegan or veg by any stretch of the imagination, but it's nice to have a few recipes on hand that warm you up without weighing you down (especially if they taste as good as this one). Here goes:

 

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 garlic clove, whole

5 medium leeks, white and light green parts only, rinsed thoroughly and sliced to about 1/8”

5 medium to large Yukon gold potatoes, cut to 1” dice

4-ish cups of water (see below)

½ cup soy creamer (optional)

Salt and pepper

 

 

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in the bottom of a stock pot. Add the leeks and garlic clove along with a pinch of salt and sweat for 15 minutes, stirring frequently to keep the leeks from browning. The leeks will take on a warm gold color and smell fantastic. In the meantime, peel and dice your potatoes. Drop the spuds into the stock pot, stir, and pluck out the garlic clove. Cover the leeks and potatoes with water (4-ish cups should do the trick, but add more if needed) and simmer for at least 20 minutes or until the potatoes fall apart when you poke them with a fork. Add a second pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper, then puree the soup (I use an immersion blender, but you could use a regular blender, a food mill, or a food processor). Add the soy creamer, which brings a nice richness to the soup and will help if it’s not the right consistency. Water will also loosen the mixture if needed. Taste your masterpiece and salt if needed. Enjoy!

Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

With apologies to Carren for taking so long to post this...

Winter days roll around and I can't think of anything better than cranberries. Fresh or dried, these ruby fruits make my mouth pucker and smile at the same time with their tart and sweet flavors. So cranberry oatmeal cookies, to me, are one of the best treats of the holiday season.

Ingredients:
10Tb butter
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1Tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 and 1/2 Tsp baking soda
Pinch of Salt
1 and 2/3 cup whole wheat flour (King Arthur's is widely available in most grocery stores)
1 cup rolled oats
2 cups dried cranberries

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Beat together the butter and sugar, then add vanilla and eggs and blend until all of the ingredients are thoroughly combined and the mixture is smooth. In a separate bowl, sift together your dry ingredients (baking soda, salt, and flour). Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, 1/3 at at time, and mix until combined. Add the oats, mix, and once they have been distributed evenly add the cranberries. Give everything a few final stirs to spread the cranberries throughout the mixture.

Scoop out small dough balls from your bowl, rolling them between your hands to make them slightly smaller than ping pong balls, and place them on an unlined, ungreased cookie sheet. Put the sheet in the center oven rack and bake for 7 to 9 minutes, or until the cookie tops begin to look brown and toasty. Cool on a baker's rack and enjoy!

Disaster #1: Sausage and Lentil Soup

 

Sounds wonderful, right? Warm, comforting, exactly the sort of thing you’d like to curl up with on a cold day in November. The recipe, taken from Katie Lee Joel’s The Comfort Table, seemed straightforward enough: green lentils, andouille sausage, aromatics, kale, broth.

But unfortunately Trader Joe’s doesn’t carry green lentils. In fact, my Trader Joe’s doesn’t carry ANY dried lentils – only bags of pre-cooked beluga lentils. Nice for a quick munch, not so great for soup since a long slow simmer is required to bring together all of the flavors.

So I stopped by my local Giant Eagle, the standby supermarket for most of us in Western PA, to pick up green lentils, and wound up coming home with dried split peas. Not exactly what was called for, but they passed my test: Legumes? Check. Greenish in color? Check. Slightly firmer than regular lentils (which is what distinguishes green lentils from their counterparts)? Check.  

Four hours later I was standing over a pot of what could have easily passed for green concrete. There was barely any cooking liquid left. The peas were still not cooked through. The sausage, which had been simmering in the soup for hours, had rendered its flavor to the little bit of broth that hadn’t evaporated, leaving the meat hot but nearly tasteless.

Sigh. So the lesson learned is: Substitutes are fine if the recipe is old hat, but don’t try a new dish without having the proper ingredients on hand.

Coming up in disaster #2 – burned sugar!

Bucatini All'Amatriciana

The first time I tried this dish it was a disasterous failure. It's not that it's overly complicated - on the contrary, it's a straighforward, fast and easy dish, but somehow I managed to crash and burn quite nicely. Four years later, after seeing Giada De Laurentiis and her aunt Raffy make it this afternoon on the Food Network, I figured it was time to redeem myself.

So I went to the grocery store to arm myself with the necessities:

1# of bucatini or percatelli (both pastas have a pinhole running through the length of the noodle - if you can't find one, spaghetti will do)
8 oz. of cubed or diced pancetta
14 oz. of crushed tomatoes
1 medium spanish onion, cut in half then sliced thinly
2 cloves of garlic, peeled but whole
3/4 cup dry white wine
crushed red pepper flakes
salt
olive oil
1 cup pecorino romano cheese

First, put a large pot of water on the stove to boil. Then, in your largest saute pan (something that will hold the sauce plus your pound of pasta) coat the bottom with the oil and cook the pancetta cubes over medium heat until they're crispy, 7-10 minutes. Remove the pancetta (drain it on paper if you'd like) but allow the fat to remain in the bottom of your pan. Add the onions, garlic cloves, and a generous pinch of salt. Sweat the onions for 5 minutes or until they're no longer rigid and becoming translucent.

By this time your water should be boiling - add the pasta with a generous handful of salt and cook for 1 minute less than listed on the package (this is one of my tricks - for me, the pasta is always perfectly al dente if I follow this rule). 

As the pasta boils, add the white wine and pepper flakes to your sauce - kick up the heat to medium or medium/high to help with the wine evaporation. Simmer the onions in the vino for a few minutes or until the liquid's volume has reduced by about half. Add the crushed tomatoes and stir. Allow the sauce to bubble, then (carefully without burning yourself) taste for seasoning. Add salt and more pepper if needed. 

When the pasta is ready, transfer the noodles directly to the sauce. Add the pancetta to the top and toss the sauce, noodles, and pork together along with the pecorino cheese. Serve immediately - enjoy!

Easy Artichoke Dip

 

Another super quick and easy appetizer, this artichoke dip can be thrown together in the time it takes your oven to preheat. Even better, you don't need a ton of specialty ingredients or seasonings, just the following:

1 14oz. can of quartered artichoke hearts (packed in water, not oil)
1 cup mayo
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
cayenne or paprika, whichever you prefer

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Drain the artichokes and run a knife over them so that they're roughly chopped - no precision necessary. Place the chopped artichokes in a bowl along with 1 cup of mayo and the Parmesan cheese, reserving a pinch or two of the Parmesan for later. Stir the ingredients until everything is thoroughly blended, then scoop the mixture into a small baking dish or a large ramekin, whatever you have on hand. Sprinkle the reserved cheese on top along with a dusting of cayenne pepper or paprika, depending on how much of a kick you're after. I'll always choose the cayenne, but then I never can get enough of that wonderful pepper burn.

Pop the dish in the oven and bake it for 15 minutes or until the top begins to brown and the dish is bubbling at the sides. Resist the temptation to eat directly from the baking dish with your finger (because let's remember, the dip is hot) and serve the artichoke dip with crackers, tortilla chips, pretzels, endive or any other civilized implement. Enjoy!

Figs and Prosciutto

A costly appetizer, yes, but figs and prosciutto couldn't be easier or tastier.

I'd definitely make these sweet little bundles the next time I have friends over for cocktails and appetizers. My first attempt at making these was earlier this week when I needed a no-cook appetizer for a small potluck luncheon at my office, and they were simple, delicate, flavorful - overall, a big success! Here's what you'll need:

8 slices of prosciutto
1 small package of plain goat cheese
2 figs

Cut the slices of prosciutto in half widthwise so that you wind up with 16 long ribbons of ham. Then wash and dry your figs very carefully so that you don't damage the delicate fruit. Trim the woody stem from the top and, with your sharpest knife, slice each fig into quarters, then cut each quarter in half. You will wind up with 16 pieces of fruit to go with your 16 prosciutto slices.

Then assemble your bundles - stretch out the prosciutto, spread a small amount of goat cheese on one end, place the fig slice on top, and then roll the ham around the fig and cheese. The appetizers can be assembled up to 24 hours ahead of time - just chill them in the fridge and bring them to room temperature before serving. Enjoy!

Recipe: Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

I'm on a Nigella Lawson kick, and this recipe from "How to be a Domestic Goddess" (which I tweaked only slightly) seemed too easy and too good to pass up. And it is - though it only took a little more than an hour from start to finish, including washing (okay, rinsing) dishes, I wound up with a dozen beautiful chocolate soldiers, ready to brighten anyone's day.

The batter:
1 stick unsalted butter
4 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces
12 ounces (one small jar) of cherry jam
1/3 cup sugar
large pinch of salt
2 large eggs, beaten
1 cup cake flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. When it's almost completely melted, add the chocolate pieces. Let the pan sit over the heat for 15 seconds or so and then turn off the heat (remove the pan from the hot burner if working on an electric stove) and stir the butter and chocolate until smooth and shiny. Add the jam, sugar, salt, and eggs and stir. Add the flour and baking powder to the saucepan and mix until the flour is just incorporated.

Spoon the mixture into lined cupcake tins, being careful to fill the tins only 2/3 full (otherwise your cupcakes will spill over and have large flat tops). Bake for 25 minutes on the middle rack of your oven. When done, cool in the pan on the cooling rack for 10 minutes, then remove them from the pan and cool on the rack.

The frosting:
1/3 cup heavy cream
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
12 chocolate covered cherries

Place the cream and chocolate in a small saucepan over medium heat. Warm the cream to almost boiling and then remove the pan from the heat and stir until smooth. Allow the mixture (which is actually a ganache) to cool to room temperature. Then whisk the ganache until it's thick. Apply to the cupcakes like any other icing and top with a chocolate cherry. Enjoy!