PRUNING MY LIBRARY

Spines of the cast-offs hidden to protect the guilty

PRUNING MY LIBRARY

Living in a city-sized apartment keeps a book hoarder mindful of how many inches remain on the shelf for new spines. If things get too crowded, it’s the weak links that are cast off to Goodwill. But quel horreur! A cookbook editor shedding her cookbooks? Brace yourselves, folks: it’s true. While the Internet abounds with Cook’s Illustrated-tested staples and reviewers each adding their two cents, I still usually start with a book. I might build on it with other sources, but I like to learn new things from recipes that were lovingly developed, read by dozens of eagle eyes, and bound in a complete package. What qualities should a book have to serve in my kitchen for the long haul? Here are a few, plus some of the books that kept their spots in my culinary laboratory.

1. The appropriate, relevant basics. An Italian book with nary a recipe for fresh pasta, homemade ricotta, or panna cotta? Gone. A bread book filled with breads that aren’t suitable for toasting and slathering with jam? It’s not useful. If the book doesn’t offer a foothold, it is better replaced with something that does.

2. A trustworthy voice with something to say. For me, this excludes those books from the bargain shelf that boast 1,001 salads and Better Living with Beets: I want an author whose expertise and careful work is evident from page 1. Books tossed together with odd stock photography and no soul just collect dust. If they don’t inspire, move them out.

3. Trends that show their age. To a certain extent, buying in a trend is unavoidable. But there’s a reason why thrift stores of the last two decades have been brimming with unused food mills and dehydrators—and their accompanying cookbooks. If you don’t see Fat-Free Cooking with Sweet ‘n Low fitting into your meals and your interests, pass it up.

Now for the good stuff: my most useful books of late. Some of them are well known (and best-selling), and others just fit the way I live. (This list changes often!)

Zuni Café Cookbook: the over-explanation can be fiddly at times, but it’s a carefully put-together resource for all kinds of good food. Start with the homemade Caesar salad and move onto the marvelous entrées.

What’s Cooking in Cortez: replace this with your own local Junior League cookbook or family recipe collection, but I can’t be without my family recipes for blackened mullet and coconut cake.

Scoop: the best and only ice cream book you need in your repertoire. Period.

Nigella Lawson’s Feast: I love all of Nigella’s books for her effusive approach to good food, but notable here is a super-basic chocolate cake equally good made with Guinness, red wine, or a floral tea, an incredible chocolate gingerbread, and a chocolate-orange cake: all worth making.

Vefa’s Kitchen: Vefa is the Julia Child of Greece, with decades of food TV under her apron strings. The photography is charmingly old-fashioned, but the fish, vegetable dishes, and comprehensive coverage can’t be beat. Try any eggplant dish here.

The Essential New York Times Cookbook: don’t miss a coriander coconut pound cake and excellent cocktails and other beverages in a time capsule retrofitted for daily use.

What books can’t you be without?

-Kristen

Champagne for Dinner?

Champagne for Dinner? Mais Oui!

Some people can make cooking look effortless.  They are the sort of folks who invite you over to their house for dinner, and part of the “event” is to watch them patter around their kitchen: chopping, sautéing, kneading, flambéing, or whatever cooking technique they can perform with the greatest of ease .  Alas, I am not that kind of person.  Mind you, I LOVE to cook, but not when it’s a spectator sport.   For me, cooking is something best done alone, behind closed doors—preferably with NPR prattling on in the background (or maybe some Edith Piaf tunes on rainy day).  For the most part, cooking is meditative.   So having other people milling about while I’m trying to fix dinner is . . you guessed it . . a recipe for disaster.

Let me assure you that this hasn’t made me a Kitchen hermit.  I love to have people over for dinner -- as long as I can prepare most of it ahead of time!  For that reason I’m always on the lookout for dishes that look and taste really impressive . . . yet can be prepared and hidden away in the oven by the time the first guest arrives. That way, my friends and I can relax and talk while we all wait for the oven timer to go off and Voila!

Here’s a recipe from my “Greatest Hits” in dinner party fame.  I got it from one of my favorite books, French Women Don’t Get Fat by Mireille Giuliano.  I know what you’re thinking: pouring champagne on chicken? How decadent!  But it’s actually very practical—you use just a cup of bubbly for the dish, then save the rest for everyone to sample as a pre-dinner aperitif, to “awaken the appetite.”  Interestingly, Giuliano points out that for the French, most wine is strictly to be accompanied by a meal--they’d never dream of sipping wine without some sort of food alongside it. For drinking sans food—the French say that it's best left to the sparkling stuff.  Whether you use the “real” French champagne or opt for Italian Prosecco—this is a dish that’ll make you feel positively effervescent.

Cheers!

Jennifer

(Recipe adapted from Mireille Giuliano’s French Women Don’t Get Fat, Knopf, 2005).

Chicken Au Champagne

1.        Get 4 chicken breasts (with skin and bone attached), and put in a roasting pan. Make a slit in each piece of chicken, and insert a little piece of shallot.  Pour ½ cup of champagne over the chicken, and season with tarragon, thyme, salt and pepper.

2.       Put pan under broiler for a few minutes, then flip chicken and broil on the other side for about 5 minutes.

3.       Remove from broiler, baste with the pan juices, and add in another ½ cup of champagne. Bake in oven at 475 degrees for 30 minutes, basting once after about 15 minutes.

4.       While chicken is cooking, steam some brown rice.  When chicken is almost done, go ahead and sauté chopped mushrooms with some olive oil (this you can probably do in front of your guests—or banish them to the living room for a few minutes!).  Add a squeeze of lemon, maybe some sage, and a tablespoon of butter. 

5.       To serve, get an impressive serving platter.  Place chicken on a bed of rice.  Top with the mushroom mixture, along with all of the pan juices from the chicken.

6.       Toast (and eat) to this fabulous recipe.

Photo via here

Cinnamon-Sugar Glee

When I was a child, I liked to sleep in. My wife likes to sleep in. My children like to sleep in. If left on our own, we would sleep past nine nearly every morning. However, being a responsible person I’ve bowed to the alarm, getting up with the sun for years in order to put in a full day’s work. I’ve adjusted, and even though I’ve come to enjoy the quiet solitude of the early morning hours, on weekends I still enjoy an extra hour or two of sleep—which is a pipe dream when visiting my in-laws.

Typically, when visiting Grandpa’s, my wife’s sister’s family is there too. Her kids don’t sleep late at all. They are up at the crack of dawn no matter if it’s a school day or weekend. The last time we were there her youngest woke up at 5:00 a.m. The rustling upstairs tends to stir my young’uns, rousing them into energetic wakefulness. Before I know it, I’m in the kitchen at 7:30 trying to calm the wild beasts with some food. And what they all love most is cinnamon-sugar toast.

Cinnamon is one of the most remarkable spices. It dates back as far as 2800 BC. According to The Spice House, “Romans used cinnamon to make their strong, bitter wine palatable, Greeks to season meat and vegetable dishes, Arabs in tea, and nearly everyone in baked goods. English nobility hoarded the delicate Ceylon cinnamon to flavor breads and puddings.” In the first century AD, cinnamon was worth more than silver. You can use it in all sorts of baked goods: apple-cinnamon donuts, cinnamon buns, or Paula Deen’s Baked French Toast Casserole. It’s great in savory dishes like Michael Chiarello’s Roasted Butternut Squash Soup, or beef samosas. And it’s essential in Christmas wassail or hot buttered rum. About.com reports that it can even “improve blood glucose and cholesterol levels in people with Type 2 diabetes,” according to some studies. I don’t know much about that, but I do know that mixed with some sugar, it’s like magical pixie dust to our children. They can’t get enough of it, and I think it actually makes them fly, at least for a moment when coming off the couch. Every morning, I throw a bunch of slices of bread into the toaster oven and turn the nob to medium dark. I grab a small bowl and add a tablespoon of ground cinnamon. Then I mix in about a half cup of sugar. After I butter the hot toast, I liberally sprinkle the sugary cinnamon concoction all over the bread until it forms a deep dark brown granulated goodness on top. It sure does the trick to quiet the kids for about five minutes, or until the sugar starts to take affect. I may not get to sleep in when visiting the grandparents, but I sure do get to enjoy the glee the kids experience when gobbling up their cinnamon-sugar toast.

Geoff

SPICE UP YOUR LIFE

SPICE UP YOUR LIFE

When the weather outside is frightful and the season of mega-indulgence is over (consequently, beginning a season of fitness goals), cooking can seem drab. As passionately as I love parsnips and sweet potatoes, I’m tired of looking at them and longing for excitement in the kitchen. What’s simpler than a weekend jaunt to Puerto Rico for some sun and papaya? Adding an unusual ingredient to your repertoire, and trying to find as many uses for it as you can.

This week’s superstar vacation substitute is: kimchi. Oh, the wonders of kimchi. (Or kimchee, depending on your preference.) First let me reassure you that you don’t have to begin by making your own (though you could!). When I’m purchasing an unfamiliar packaged ingredient—especially one whose label isn’t written in a language I can read—I watch what other people are buying. There’s wisdom in crowds. Barring that, I go for the mid-range price: better than Arbor Mist, but not Veuve Cliquot. The brand I bought most recently was Bing Gre, widely available on the east coast (also the winner of a Serious Eats local kimchi taste-off). It’s salty and has some heat, but not too much. The cabbage is cut somewhat irregularly, giving it a more homemade look, and it’s pleasantly sour.

Now that you have your secret weapon, what to begin? A fun companion to kimchi is The Kimchi Chronicles, written by Marja Vongerichten, wife of restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The first thing I made was a spicy soba noodle bowl for one with a soy dressing and a generous topping of kimchi and scallions. Delish. Over the weekend I threw it in a Saturday breakfast hash: bacon, fingerling potatoes, and kimchi, cooked until crisp and served alongside a runny egg. Cooking the kimchi tames some of its fire, making it safe for the spice-averse, and it was an excellent way to wake up mid-morning after our first real snow.

Should you be looking for a more assertive way to greet your weekend, try a kimchi bloody mary. Our forthcoming title Happy Hour at Home, by Barbara Scott-Goodman (summer 2013 can’t come too soon), has a recipe, but in the meantime, pay a visit to Dokebi, a Korean barbecue joint in Williamsburg. I know I’ll be experimenting next weekend after I replenish my stash.

Where to find kimchi in Philadelphia?

First Oriental Supermarket

1111 S 6th St
Philadelphia, PA 19195

Notables: live frogs/eels, unusual citrus, cookware, chile sauces, rice noodles, herbs, and teas

-Kristen

A WORK IN PROGRESS

Image courtesy of The Houndstooth Gourmet.

A WORK IN PROGRESS

I’ve been kinda busy lately and am sad to say I had no free time to bake this past week. But lucky for me, my fellow blogger Kristen came to the rescue and let me sample some of her Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies baked from Vegan Diner.

Not only did they look like normal cookies and were perfectly round and had the right balance of crispy outside and softer inside, but they were delicious. Clearly, Kristen is a much more experience baker than I am. And so I look to her for advice and tips, and she enlightens me.

For example, while the recipe she used was vegan, it wasn’t gluten free. So instead of going through complicated vegan gluten-free cookbooks, she just subbed in all-purpose gluten-free flour for regular wheat flour. Brilliant. Why didn’t I think of this before?

She did note, however, that when subbing gluten-free flour you also need to add a little xanthan gum. Always read your packaging—look at the back of your gluten-free mix and it will tell you how much xanthan gum to add per cup of flour.

Here’s the recipe she used…

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Makes about 16 cookies

13/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose gluten-free flour)

11/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar

1 stick (1/2 cup) non-hydrogenated vegan margarine, softened

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

3 tablespoons soymilk or almond milk

1 tablespoon flaxseed meal, preferably golden

11/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 cup raisins or dried cherries (or cranberries)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat silicone mat.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt,

In a large bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the brown sugar, margarine, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add the soymilk and flax, beating until smooth. Add the flour mixture to the margarine mixture, beating just until mixed. Add the oats, mixing until incorporated. Mix in the raisins. Don’t overbeat the batter.

Scoop the dough with a cookie scoop or 1/4 cup measuring cup onto prepared baking sheets. Press the tops of the cookies lightly with slightly damp fingers, to flatten into a disc. Bake in the preheated oven for 14 to 15 minutes, or until the cookies have puffed up and are golden, but are still soft to the touch. They will probably have a few cracks on the top, too. Let the cookies cool completely on baking sheet before removing.

As a perfectionist cookie baker, there are a few tips and tricks to keep your cookies coming out perfectly every time. The first is to not overbeat your batter, once the flour mixture is added. This will help keep your cookies from flattening out on the cookie sheet. Another pro tip is the cookie scoop, otherwise known as a dasher.  Your cookies will bake and be shaped more evenly. You can find them in cooking stores, in restaurant supply stores, and online. Finally, line your cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. No greasing required, and they won’t get too brown on the bottoms (unless of course you overbake them).

Recipe reprinted from Vegan Diner © 2011 by Julie Hasson, Running Press.

Happy baking,

Caroline

@carolinebrown

A Date with Dates

Ever since I was young I was exposed to a wide range of foods. I always loved pulling off the leaves of my artichoke, dipping them in a lemony butter sauce, and scraping the meaty part off with my teeth. I wasn’t sure what to make of the earthy goodness of fresh deep red beets. I think I thought they tasted like dirt, which was kind of cool to me if I didn’t think about it too much. Like the artichokes I liked the mechanical task of shelling pistachios to get to the salty sweet gem of a nut hidden inside. I could go through handfuls at a time. Dates, though, were something I could never get into. I think it had something to do with the fact that my mother would try to pass them off as dessert. Dates are a lot of things. According to organicfacts.net they are naturally fibrous, rich in vitamins and minerals, “help in fighting constipation, intestinal disorders, weight gain, heart problems, sexual weakness, diarrhea, and abdominal cancer.” But they are not dessert.

It’s interesting how your tastes can change over the years. Even though I enjoyed a wide range of flavors as a child, there were a lot of things I didn’t like. It may have had more to do with texture, though. Today, I like many of the things I couldn’t stomach as a kid: mushrooms, hollandaise sauce (and eggs over easy, probably my favorite food), oysters, clams, and dates.

Dates have a sweet mealy goodness to them. The mealy part is what I couldn’t get past as a child. That and I expected a refined processed corn sugary sweetness that dominated all the other foods I counted as desserts. Maybe it’s because I steer clear of corn syrup these days and am looking to eat foods that are more food than chemicals or maybe it’s because I have sharper teeth and stronger enzymes to better handle more fibrous foods, but now I actually enjoy eating dates, especially when they are rolled in coconut and have an almond embedded in them. As much as my taste buds have grown and even though I like to snack on dates now, I will never consider them a dessert.

Geoff

SLOW-COOKER CHALLENGE!

SLOW-COOKER CHALLENGE!

I'm so happy to introduce a guest blogger on this holiday Monday, while we're at home huddled under blankets to stave off hypothermia. Meet Kelsey Banfield, blogger at TheNaptimeChef.com and author of The Naptime Chef: Fitting Great Food into Family Life, out in March! Read on about a slow-cooking challenge and awesome giveaway! -@KristenWiewora

Hi Friends! I am here to announce the Slow-Cooker Challenge! Do you like to use your slow cooker to make tasty meals in a convenient fashion? Then this challenge is for you. All week, Big Girls, Small Kitchen, SmallKitchen College and TheNaptime Chef are hosting a slow-cooker challenge featuring meals from bloggers and food news website and we are giving away TWO awesome slow cookers as well as two prize packs of slow-cooking goodies from OXO Good Grips. To enter to win please visit The Naptime Chef, Big Girls, Small Kitchen and Small Kitchen College to read entry details.

 

If you are on Twitter please join us on Wednesday, January 18th from 12pm - 1pm, when we'll be hosting a live twitter chat along with Food52, The Daily Meal, Fine Cooking, Punchfork, Foodily, OXO Good Grips and more. We'll be using hash tag #slowcooker. Tune in to talk all things slow cookin'! During the Twitter event and throughout the day we'll be offering a bonus giveaway of amazing OXO Good Grip tools that are essential for slow-cooking valued at over $150!

On Thursday, January 19th we'll be slow-cookin' all day on Facebook: you can enter to win a second prize pack of OXO Good Grips kitchen tools by uploading photographs of your slow-cooked meals to The Naptime Chef fanpage, Small Kitchen College fanpage or Big Girls, Small Kitchen fanpage.

To get you started with your own slow-cookin’ this week, here is a great recipe for low-fat slow-cooker lemon thyme chicken. This is the perfect dish for a whole family and will even help you hold on to your New Year’s resolutions just a bit longer. Come join the fun and get slow-cookin’!

Low-Fat Lemon Thyme Slow-Cooker Challenge

¼ cup olive oil

Zest and juice of 2 large lemons (reserving the rinds)

4 large garlic cloves, minced

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, (on the larger, denser side)

Kosher salt

Freshly cracked pepper

8 sprigs fresh thyme

1. Mix the olive oil, zest and juice, and minced garlic together in a small mixing bowl and pour it into the bottom of a large slow cooker, about 5 or 6 quart.

2. Pat the chicken breasts dry and place them in the slow cooker, turning them once through the olive oil mixture. Then sprinkle both sides of chicken with large pinches of kosher salt and cracked pepper. Nestle the chicken breasts snugly into the bottom of the slow cooker. Tuck the sprigs of thyme between and around the chicken breasts.

3. Cut one of the lemon rinds into eighths and nestle them around the breasts.

4. Place the lid on top of the slow cooker and cook on high heat for 3 hours. Check the inside of one of the breasts to make sure they are cooked through: the juices should run clear. The cooking time might vary a bit based on the slow-cooker and density of the chicken breasts. If they need to cook longer do it in 15-minute increments. 

Follow Kelsey on Twitter! @TheNaptimeChef

Jennifer's Skinny Chili

Jennifer’s Skinny Chili

It’s that time again...when women’s magazines inundate us with those “Repent the Holidays!” messages.  Even if you never buy one these mags, and simply spy them at the grocery checkout, you can’t help but be affected.  Headlines like, “Slim Down in 30 Days!” “Detox Your Diet!” and “Lose the Holiday Fat!” can make you feel guilty about that stick of butter you put in your Xmas mashed potatoes.  The problem is, this call for asceticism comes at a time when (for most of us, anyway) it’s darned cold outside.  It’s hard to imagine cozying up to the fireplace, watching the snowstorm, sipping on...lemon water?  Snacking on....a carrot with a dollop of hummus?  Get real!  The weather requires us to eat something that sticks to our ribs, that provides some insulation from the bitter chill.  Something warm, something hearty, something like....chili! But is it possible to eat a chili that provides satisfaction AND makes you feel virtuous?

I’m happy to tell you I’ve found the holy grail of chilis. I got the recipe out of last January’s issue of Clean Eating magazine, and I’ve made it dozens of times.  It’ll make you feel really healthy—I promise!  I often take it for a work lunch—and I always have an extremely productive afternoon when I do.   It’s like my Popeye’s spinach.  It’s technically vegan and low-fat, but it’s so good you can probably enter a chili cook-off and be a serious contender.   Yet I admit it has some surprising ingredients:  Thai Red Curry paste, sweet potatoes, coconut milk, and bulgur.  But sometimes surprising things reap surprising results.   Hope this one becomes your new favorite healthy recipe!

New Year, New Chili,

Jennifer

This is adapted from Clean Eating magazine, January 2011 issue:

1.       In a big pot, throw in 1 ½ teaspoons of red curry paste, a teaspoon of cumin, and a splash of veggie broth (use the pre-packaged carton kind).  Mash it up so the paste doesn’t have any lumps.  Then add 4 cups of veggie broth, ½ cup of bulgur, a couple sweet potatoes (cut up in bite-sized cubes); and some green pepper (cut up in chunks).  Turn heat to high and bring to boil.  Cover pot with a lid, turn heat down to medium-low, and cook for about 10 minutes.

2.       Add a couple cans of kidney beans (drained and rinsed) ½ cup of light coconut milk, and 2 cups of tomato puree. Cook uncovered for another 10 minutes until bulgur is tender.

Note: This is a recipe that is best served the next day—put in fridge overnight to have the flavors meld.  Reheat the next day and feel good that you found a “skinny chili.”

Essential Espresso

Essential Espresso

Although my parents didn’t let me have coffee until I was at least twelve, all my life I’ve liked coffee. I’m convinced of it. The rich, roasty aroma has always filled me with a warm comfortable feeling. I never thought about it much until my six-year-old asked for a sip of my coffee. To my surprise he liked it, and I don’t load it up with sugar. Since he’s the kind to bounce off the walls and turn our living and dining rooms into an athletic field complete with a high jump (couch), hurdles (little brother), and a track (around the dining room table), we’ll probably hold off on letting him have coffee until he’s out of the house, or at least has turned into a lethargic teenager.

The coffee bean is a remarkable gift to humanity. Good coffee is all about the bean and the roasting. Most green coffee comes from Brazil, Vietnam, Columbia, and Indonesia. While the terroir matters, the roasting plays probably a more important role. The lighter the roast the more you can distinguish the origin flavor and generally the more caffeine. Even though I need all the help I can get in the morning, I prefer the darker French or Italian roast, which are good for espressos. Of all the US cities you might think Seattle has the most coffee shops per capita. Actually, Anchorage has nearly 3 per 1,000 people compared to Seattle’s 2.5. Despite our love of coffee, we still rank twelfth in world coffee consumption at around 6.5 pounds (3 kg) per person per year. The Scandinavian countries and Finland round out the top four spots, and it’s no wonder as they try to fight the morning chill.

Has there ever been a better drink. It’s so versatile. You can have it so many different ways: freshly brewed, over ice with flavored syrups, concentrated by brewing with steam, leftover and cold as you run out the door hoping to grab whatever jolt you can to jump-start your morning. I even knew a guy who used it in the other end as some sort of cleansing technique. Personally, I prefer to drink mine. And my favorite way is as an espresso with frothy milk in a tiny cup in the Italian Riviera. Since that doesn’t happen very often, today I’ll have to settle for some fresh brewed office coffee in front of a screen saver of Cinque Terra.

Geoff

(Be a) HOSTESS WITH THE MOSTESS

(Be a) HOSTESS WITH THE MOSTESS

Today, instead of boring you with the gluten-free vegan oatmeal-cranberry cookies I made last night (from Vegan Diner: delicious!) or talking about my first stuffed-and-trussed roast (success!) in… ever?... I’m going to chat with you about cooking for other people. Specifically, hosting friends for dinner. (Dare I call it a dinner party?)

Having friends over for a meal, a party, or just a glass of wine is something I genuinely enjoy. For one, it forces me to clean the house. (I am expert at dim lighting that hides dust.) Two, it can take your friendship to a new place. Those friends who are Spin Class Only Friends, Weekday Coffee Friends, or (always tricky) Primarily Colleagues? Moving those people from one category to Sees My Eclectic Décor and Eats My Roast can be nerve-wracking, but also rewarding. A few thoughts:

A. Cook what you’re comfortable doing with one hand tied behind your back. I did not follow this route this time (see: anxiety-mongering trussed roast, above), but in the past, I’ve had great luck with a simple roasted vegetable ragoût over creamy polenta. People love it: it can easily be vegan or vegetarian, and it’s idiot-proof. (And you can make your polenta in the microwave to great effect!)

B. Worry not about fancy tableware—I’ve served out of mason jars and mismatched glass punch plates—and instead about having plenty of fizzy water and other beverages to go around. Focus on the conversation instead.

C. Mix up the guest list and see what happens. Having just one other couple can be a raucous good time, but your retired neighbors + a fun-seeming professional acquaintance + the owners of the local coffee shop can be a night to remember. The same friends every time will grow tired of your polenta real quick.

D. Imperfect dishes? A disaster or two, even? Laugh about it. As a guest, there are far worse things than food that isn’t bloggable: spending the evening in the company of a humorless superhuman dinner party machine, for one. I’ll go ahead and admit that I got so caught up in a funny story that I burned the tart shell; two full drinks spilled on my fussy table, one of them mine; and the fondue separated very strangely. Did they care? They did not.

 The evening's guests, minus Santa.

Even if your place is too small and you haven’t upgraded your silverware since college days, give it a shot this weekend. Make what you know, invite your best and brightest, and linger over the burned tart. It could be habit-forming.

 - Kristen

Good Eats for the Florida Beach

Good Eats for the Florida Beach

As I was scraping the ice off my windshield this morning, I found it hard to believe that just a few days ago I was in the above scene, strolling along a beach and taking a dip in the ocean waters.  For the holidays, I returned to my native state of Florida and visited my folks.  I especially miss “home” during these winter months, but I must admit Florida is a somewhat odd (yet wonderful!) place.  It has a mood and identity all its own.  It’s in the south but not quite Southern in culture.  It’s packed with retirees, snowbirds, and partying Spring Breakers. As Jimmy Buffet lyrically said, it’s a place where you waste away and search for your lost shaker of salt. And it’s a place that has its own distinctive cuisine.

I know that California and Texas get most of the press when it comes to unique states with their own delicious food tradition—but let’s give Florida its due, shall we?  Here are some quintessential Florida dishes to try: beer-boiled shrimp, conch chowder, conch fritters, and of course, key lime pie. Funnily enough, my favorite dish that I consider “so Florida” comes from a French chef.  I’ve been cooking out of Pierre Franey’s 60-Minute Gourmet since I was a teenager, and I find it to be one of the most delicious and reliable cookbooks ever.  I make his Shrimp Scampi w/ Baked Rice every time I visit Florida.  It’s kind of my “So glad to be back in Florida” signature meal.  To make it in my Pennsylvania kitchen would somehow seem out of place.  But feel free to try it out wherever you live—and raise a Margarita to my home state!

Happy Shrimp Making,

Jennifer

This recipe is adapted from More 60-Minute Gourmet (published by Ballantine in 1986).  

For the shrimp: 

1.       Get 2 pounds of fresh or frozen jumbo shrimp.  If frozen, thaw in a bowl of cool water.  Devein and take off their tails. 

2.       In a large bowl, combine 1/3 cup olive oil, 1/3 cup breadcrumbs, along with some garlic, red pepper, oregano, salt, and parsley.  Dump the shrimp in the bowl and with your very clean hands, combine to make sure every shrimp is covered with the sauce.

3.       Line a cookie sheet with foil.  Arrange shrimp on the sheet, and stick under the broiler for just 5 minutes.  Shrimp can overcook in a blink of an eye, so watch them.  After 5 minutes, you may want to flip the shrimp and give them another minute or two under the broiler.  But take out as soon as they turn pink!  Serve atop the special baked rice, below.  If you like, you can also sprinkle with a little Parmesan cheese .

Baked rice:

I know, it sounds weird to put your pot of rice in the oven.  But trust me—you’ll love this.

1.       Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2.        On stovetop, melt a few tablespoons of butter in a pot, then add some chopped onion.  Let cook until slightly wilted. Add cup of white rice and stir, then add 2 cups of water.  Add some thyme, some salt, and a shake of Tabasco sauce.  Let it come to a boil, and as soon as it does, put the lid on the pot and put in the oven for exactly 17 minutes.

3.       Take out of oven and fluff.  Voila!

THE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE THAT COULD

THE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE THAT COULD

My brother and his girlfriend hooked me up with one of the best Christmas presents ever: Babycakes Covers the Classics, a new cookbook from the fabulous gluten-free vegan East Village bakery in NYC. I’ve been so excited to bake with it.

But before I dive into that, I’d like to share three important lessons I’ve learned so far on my gluten-free vegan baking escapades:

1. Plan ahead. Never wait until the night before to buy all of your supplies, because the store will be out of a necessary ingredient, which is exactly what happened to me last night.
2. Don’t substitute ingredients or try to adjust recipes. Follow them exactly as they appear. My brownie baking fiasco. Need I say more.
3. Get an oven thermometer because most ovens are surprisingly off in temperature. This noteworthy tip I learned from reading the introduction of the Babycakes cookbook. Last night, I preheated my over to 325 degrees per the recipe, but the thermometer said my oven was actually 400 degrees. Big difference. No wonder I’ve been burning stuff.

Now that that’s out of the way, on to the recipe. To start, I chose the Chips Ahoy! recipe because it was a.) very easy, and b.) I’ve been craving chocolate chip cookies for a really long time now. Can’t tell you the last time I had one.

Things started off a bit rocky. I broke rule number one and waited until last night to buy ingredients and my local food co-op, Weavers Way in Chestnut Hill (a great store, I might add), was out of arrowroot. What the heck is arrowroot, you ask? Well, I had never heard of it either, so I looked it up. Basically, arrowroot is a pure starch that is used as a wheat flour replacement for gluten-free baking.

But since I was on deadline, I decided to break rule number two and substituted the arrowroot with teff flour. After all, the recipe only called for a ¼ cup arrowroot and I figured it wouldn’t make a big difference. Teff flour is also a wheat flour substitute, and I still had a lot left over after using it to make those bad brownies, so I gave it a whirl.

And I got lucky. While I don’t know what the cookies are supposed to taste like, I think these turned out really good. The texture is somewhat grainy, and they seemed a bit dryer, but the flavor was great. They aren’t nearly as rich or sweet as regular chocolate chip cookies, but I really like that. If you ask my mom, she’ll tell you that as a child I used to always ask for my chocolate chip cookies to be made without the chocolate chips, but in this case I think you need the chips to help balance out the cookie.

I was so proud of my cookies that I decided to bring them into the office this morning and share them with my colleagues. Overall, everyone seemed to like the cookies, or at least they said they did:

“Um, these are good! Just a slightly different taste, though they still feel indulgent. I probably wouldn’t know they were gluten free if you didn’t say so.” –Jennifer Leczkowski, Managing Editor

“The second and third bites were better. I think I just needed to have my palate awakened. The texture reminded me of the more rich butter-laden cookies from gourmet stores, but not as overpoweringly sweet. It was surprisingly delicious.” –Geoff Stone, Editor

“I love it. This might be my new go-to cookie!” –Jennifer Kasius, Executive Editor

Here’s the recipe:

CHIPS AHOY!

1 ½ cups oat flour

1 cup Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten-Free Baking Flour

1 cup vegan sugar

¼ cup ground flax meal

¼ cup arrowroot

1 ½ teaspoons xanthan gum

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons melted refined coconut oil or canola oil

6 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

1 cup vegan gluten-free chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, sugar, flax meal, arrowroot, xanthan gum, baking soda, and salt. Add the coconut oil, applesauce, and vanilla and stir with rubber spatula until a thick dough forms. Stir in the chocolate chips until evenly distributed.

Drop the dough by the teaspoonful onto the prepared baking sheets, about 1 ½ inches apart. Bake for 7 minutes, rotate the baking sheets, and bake for 7 minutes more, or until the cookies are golden brown and firm. Let stand on the baking sheets for 15 minutes before eating.

Makes 36

Recipe excerpted from Babycakes Covers the Classics © 2011 by Erin McKenna, Clarkson Potter Publishers, a division of Random House, Inc.

Enjoy!

- Caroline

Bison Burgers Grow the Heart Leaner

Bison Burgers Grow the Heart Leaner

We are creatures of habit. According to psychologist Ian Newby-Clark habits help us through our day. We are able to do dozens of things effortlessly out of habit. But a little break from our everyday lives is good for awakening our sense of adventure. And sometimes there is nothing quite more adventurous than spending time with family and friends over the holidays. For some of us the holidays are relaxing and subdued. For others they may be more like a wild safari complete with baboons and snarling tigers. Either way the respite from work and break from the routine is necessary to keep us sharp and rejuvenated, and for making sumptuously permissive moments standing around a snack tray popping mini pastries and confectionery creations. It’s a holiday, a celebration after all.

Now that the holidays are behind us, and the Choclatique Tower of Delight, Harry and David’s Deluxe Cookie Basket, and DiBruno Bros. Cheesebox Grandioso are polished off, it’s time to get back on track, to get back into a routine of eating healthy and lean. And what better way to do that than with some nice juicy buffalo burgers. According to USDA’s Agricultural Research Service bison has 63% fewer calories and 91% less fat than beef. The Reluctant Gourmet says that it is also “higher in protein, iron and all the omega and amino acids.” I’m sold.

This past weekend I pulled out some frozen ground bison meat that I was saving for such an occasion. Because bison is so much leaner than regular ground beef it can dry out more quickly on the grill. To keep the burger juicy and prevent it from crumbling when flipping I doctored it a little before making patties. I added a little ground oatmeal as a filler to hold it together and a dash of liquid and good fat to ensure it would have the proper degree of juiciness. I prefer the old-fashioned charcoal grill to the gas grill, so I mounded the red hot coals in the center and placed the burgers around the edge to cook them over a medium heat, about 7 minutes per side. Now this is a habit that I could relish with a little lettuce and sliced tomato.

Juicy Bison Burgers

1 pound ground bison

1 tablespoon quick-cooking oatmeal

1 tablespoon beef or chicken broth

2 teaspoons olive oil

Salt and pepper

Put the bison meat in a large bowl. Process the oatmeal in a food processor until well ground. Add to the bison. Add the broth and oil and mix until just combined. Add salt and pepper to taste. Form into patties about 1/3 inch thick and grill over medium hot grill for about 7 minutes per side, or cooked until how you prefer.

Enjoy!

Geoff