Posts Tagged ‘recipes’

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Perfect, quick & easy weeknight pizza

Friday, August 12th, 2011

I couldn’t even bring myself to call this one a recipe in the post title. That’s how easy it is.

I loooove pizza. But the price adds up, much of it is really greasy, and it’s hard to find one with the perfect crispy thin crust. You can make your own to fix most of these problems, but many people find the idea daunting. Making pizza from scratch is actually pretty easy. But some nights you just want it to take 20 minutes, or do it on the spur of the moment, and that’s when this comes in handy.

Lavash bread: Much of the secret is the choice of crust. I’ve tried various pre-made crusts and doughs, and the best thing I’ve ever found is something that isn’t marketed as pizza crust at all—it’s a Middle Eastern flatbread. It cooks up crispy and thin, which is hard to manage at home.

So. Preheat your oven to about, say, 400 F. Grab a heavy sheet tray, or whatever’s on hand. Slap some parchment paper on there and spray a light bit of cooking oil on to make sure the bread doesn’t stick.

Put a round of lavash on the parchment paper. Yep, it’s already cooked, not dough. That’s okay. Lightly brush or spray it with oil—this helps to protect the bread from getting soaked by the toppings. Olive oil is nice but not necessary.

Top the round with whatever toppings you like on your pizza, leaving about an inch of space around the edges. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the crust is browning and crispy, the cheese (if any) is melted, etc.

Toppings:

When it comes to cheeses, you’ll want a big pile of shreds (they’ll melt down a lot). I like freshly grated monterey jack or cheddar, maybe some mozzarella slices, and/or a scattering of parmesan (good parmesan should be used in moderation and always with other cheeses—it has a strong flavor). Another option is slices of marinated fresh mozzarella—then you can use the seasoned oil left over to brush on the crust and/or dip bread into.

As for tomatoes, you have options. If you want to use fresh tomatoes, try slicing or dicing them, then salt lightly and place in a colander or strainer for 20-30 minutes to remove some of the water. One of my favorite options is part of a can of crushed fire-roasted tomatoes. Something I do when I get super-ripe grape tomatoes from the farmer’s market that won’t last is split them, season them, oven-roast them, then refrigerate them. This way you can drain some when you need them during the week and use them on pizza or pasta.

Cheese pizza: Spread some tomatoes (see above) on the bread, then top with shredded cheeses.

Red clam pizza: Rinse and drain a can of boiled baby clams (good source of iron, by the way!). Spread those tomatoes on the bread again, top with clams, top with cheeses, and bake.

Basil-mozzarella pizza: Top with tomato, slices of mozzarella, and whole basil leaves. Bake. (This is a great place to use that marinated mozzarella).

Chorizo pizza: Top with tomato, mixed shredded cheeses, and slices of chorizo (or crumbled chorizo) that you’ve pre-browned on the stovetop and drained.

You should be able to go from there! Remember, it’s as easy as:

  • Lavash bread, brushed or sprayed with oil
  • Toppings
  • Bake!

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Recipe: White Chocolate-Raspberry Decadence

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

We found some gorgeous raspberries on sale this week, and I had a package of frozen puff pastry in the freezer; this inspired me to make the following. It has four parts: white chocolate pudding; whipped cream; fresh raspberries; puff pastry. I include three different serving options at the end.

Puff Pastry

In this case, a package of frozen puff pastry will do just fine. Thaw according to package directions. Cut into squares, about 2 or 3 inches on a side. Lay out on a parchment-lined sheet pan and bake at 350 until golden-brown. (We ended up baking for 20 minutes, rotating the pan to evenly brown the pastry, then baking roughly another 10 minutes.) Actual time/temp necessary may depend on your oven and pastry; when in doubt, go by package directions and check it regularly while it’s in the oven. Allow to cool completely.

White Chocolate Pudding

  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 3 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 2 cups milk
  • Pinch of salt
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 2 (3.5 oz) bars Green & Black’s vanilla white chocolate bars*, broken into small pieces

Whisk the cornstarch into the 1/2 cup milk, then whisk in the two egg yolks. Set aside.

Place the 2 cups milk in a saucepan with the pinch of salt and the 2T sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.

As soon as the milk comes to a boil, whisk a spoonful of it into the cornstarch and egg mixture to temper it, then pour that back into the milk. Continue to cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens, about one minute.

Remove from heat. Add the vanilla and the butter. Whisk until the butter has melted in.

Add the white chocolate pieces. Whisk until smooth.

Allow to sit at room temp until cool; refrigerate until chilled (at least two hours; overnight is fine).

*Of course you can use any brand of white chocolate you want. I mention G&B’s because it’s the one brand I’ve found that has a totally smooth, buttery, non-chalky taste.

Whipped Cream

Fetch a pint of heavy cream (nothing beats chilled local farm cream) and beat in a mixer set on high until stiff peaks form.

Raspberries

Wash and sort through roughly 4 cups of fresh raspberries.

 

Assembly

Option 1: Parfait Cut, tear, or crumble the puff pastry into small pieces. Layer all of the parts of the recipe at least twice over in serving glasses (pastry, pudding, raspberries, whipped cream). Serve immediately, before the pastry gets soggy.

Option 2: Shells Instead of buying a sheet of puff pastry, buy packaged puff pastry shells (Pepperidge Farm makes some nice ones) and bake according to package directions. Fill with pudding, top with whipped cream, and scatter raspberries around them.

Option 3: Individual bowls This is an easy, yummy option, and it still looks great (photos below). Pool some pudding in the bottom of a bowl. Top with a dollop of whipped cream. Place a handful of raspberries to one side of the cream, and stick a puff pastry square on another side. Voila!

 

Pudding and Whipped Cream

Pudding and Whipped Cream

 

White Chocolate-Raspberry Decadence

White Chocolate-Raspberry Decadence

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Recipe: Strawberries and Cream Pie

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

We found a bunch of really good strawberries on sale this weekend, and some gorgeous farm-fresh heavy cream. I decided to improvise the following:

  • Two pie crusts, prebaked and cooled*
  • Two one-pound packages of ripe strawberries
  • Two tablespoons sugar
  • Two tablespoons fruit-flavored liqueur, such as Chambord or Grand Marnier, optional
  • One pint heavy cream
  • One packet gelatin
  • One 8oz package cream cheese, softened
  • 1/4 cup sugar

Wash, hull, and chop the strawberries. Mash lightly with the two tablespoons sugar and the liqueur, if using, and set aside. (A potato masher is useful for this. You don’t want to make jam—you just want to release the juices a bit.)

Measure out 3/4 cup of the heavy cream. Put two tablespoons of that in a bowl and sprinkle the packet of gelatin overtop to soften. Scald the remainder of the 3/4 cup and then add slowly to the gelatin mixture, whisking until the gelatin is dissolved.

Beat the remaining 1 1/4 cups heavy cream until stiff peaks form.

Separately, beat the 1/4 cup sugar into the softened cream cheese until smooth. Gradually beat the gelatin and cream mixture into the cream cheese until smooth.

Stir the strawberries into the cream cheese mixture, then fold in the whipped cream. Spoon into the pie shells and refrigerate for several hours.

*Most such recipes would use a graham cracker crust. I prefer a regular flour-based crust, because it gives the pie a shortcake flavor. Use your favorite recipe or a good quality prepackaged crust.

As you can see from the (not entirely great) photo below, the pie still has a fairly soft texture. I only wanted to add enough gelatin to give it a bit of shape; I still wanted to retain a cloud-like softness.

As for how it came out? Oh. Wow. Let’s just say I’d better not make it too often or I’d eat nothing but pie.

 

Strawberries and Cream Pie

Strawberries and Cream Pie

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Recipe: Chilled Lemon Pie

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

I found some Meyer lemons at the grocery store last weekend, and on impulse I picked up some gingersnaps and cream cheese. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to do with them at the time, but this ended up being the result:

Gingersnap Crust

  • Roughly 2 cups of gingersnap crumbs. I like the Mi-Del brand, pulverized in a food processor.
  • 4 T (1/2 stick) butter, melted

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Mix crumbs and melted butter thoroughly, then press into a lightly greased pie plate. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the crust is lightly browned and smells of ginger. Cool until room temp, or chill briefly in the refrigerator or freezer.

Lemon Filling

  • two 8 oz packages cream cheese, softened at room temperature*
  • one can of sweetened condensed milk
  • juice and zest of two Meyer lemons**
  • one teaspoon regular lemon juice

Use a mixer to thoroughly blend the cream cheese and condensed milk. Then blend in the lemon juices and zest. Pour into the pie shell, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for a couple of hours. Serve.

*Neufchatel (1/3 less fat cream cheese) does work in place of cream cheese, although the filling won’t be quite as firm. If you use Neufchatel then you won’t need to pre-soften the cream cheese. I actually prefer the soft, pudding-like texture, however.

**If you don’t have Meyer lemons, which are sweeter and less tart than regular lemons (hence the addition of a small amount of regular lemon juice), use the juice of two regular lemons and the zest of one, and leave out the extra teaspoon of juice.

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Recipe: Minimalist Blueberry Crumble

Monday, February 28th, 2011

I can’t give up dessert entirely, but I’m working on making it higher in fruit and lower in carbs & fats. Here’s my minimalist blueberry crumble, designed to be lean(er) but have the texture and taste of the good stuff. You can’t do away with things like flour and butter entirely, but you can certainly minimize them.

Minimalist Blueberry Crumble

  • 4 cups blueberries
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 3 tablespoons agave nectar (or honey, maple syrup, or sugar—agave has a lower glycemic index); you might have to adjust this depending on how sweet your berries are
  • 1/4 cup whole wheat or white whole wheat flour
  • 1/4 cup powdered honey or granulated maple syrup, or 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • a pinch of salt
  • 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1/3 cup chopped pecans
  • 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, melted*

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Stir the blueberries, lemon juice, and agave nectar together. Pour into a greased 8 x 8 inch pan.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, oats, and pecans. Add the melted butter and mix with a fork until thoroughly combined. Scatter across the top of the blueberries.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown and the blueberries are bubbly. Cool for at least 5 minutes and enjoy!

If you feel the need to add ice cream when this is hot out of the oven, I recommend Breyers French Vanilla. It has about half the sugar of other good-quality ice creams I’ve tried, and it’s really good.

*This amount of butter is the bare minimum I could use and get the whole topping moistened. If your amounts are slightly off and your mix seems dry, add another tablespoon of melted butter.

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Recipe: Bacon Cheddar Deviled Eggs

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

I stumbled across a recipe for bacon jack deviled eggs today—but I didn’t have all the ingredients, and there were some changes I wanted to make. So here’s the result. The most obvious difference is that I halved the recipe, but I also reduced the proportion of mayo, increased and changed the cheese, removed the onion entirely, and added a pinch of fire.

Bacon Cheddar Deviled Eggs

  • 6 hard boiled eggs, peeled and halved lengthwise
  • 2 T mayonnaise
  • 2 strips bacon, diced and cooked until crispy and drained on paper towels
  • 1 T finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • a pinch of cayenne, ground chipotle, chili powder, or smoked paprika
  • salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
  • colorful finishing salt (optional)

Gently spoon the yolks out of the egg halves and into a bowl. Set the whites on a plate, open side up. Add the mayo, bacon, cheese, mustard, and cayenne to the yolks; mash and mix with a fork. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Carefully stuff a little mound of the mixture back into the hole in each egg half. If you have a colorful large-flake salt around, sprinkle a little on top; it tastes good and it looks neat.

Makes 12 rather filling stuffed egg halves.

 

We’ve put up plenty of book reviews lately, so check them out! You’ll find entries in a wide variety of genres.

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Recipe: Hybrid Hot Cocoa Mix

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

Recently I found a commercial hot cocoa mix that included finely chopped chocolate. I’ve had plenty of “normal” hot cocoa mixes, as well as the delight that is chopped chocolate melted into hot milk, but I hadn’t had a hybrid variety. I absolutely love it. It has the richness of chocolate with the smooth texture of cocoa. The product I started with was ridiculously expensive, though, so I set out to make my own mix.

Infinitely Scalable Version

  • 1 part unsweetened cocoa powder
  • a generous 1 part sugar
  • 1 part good-quality milk powder
  • 2 parts finely-chopped semisweet chocolate

Mix well. Add by tablespoons to scalding-hot milk or boiling water until it reaches your preferred richness level. Stir well until chocolate is melted.

Specific Version (makes 2.5 cups)

  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • heaping 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup good-quality milk powder
  • 1 cup finely-chopped semisweet chocolate, approximately 5 oz

Add approximately 3 T to 8 oz of scalding milk or boiling water (milk will result in a richer cocoa); stir well until chocolate is melted.

Notes

Milk Powder: I use milk powder not because I like to be able to make my cocoa with water (I always use milk) but because I like a little extra richness. If you don’t want to use milk powder, you could add a little cream or half-and-half to the milk instead. Using milk powder does give you the option of using water, however, should you choose. I found a dry milk powder at Whole Foods that didn’t taste at all chalky and produced a nice, smooth result.

Chocolates: I experimented with different chocolates and found semisweet worked best for me, but you might try a deep milk or a sweet dark. Mostly I suggest not using something that’s too bitter, since any tiny bits that don’t quite melt will contrast rather severely with the sweet cocoa. While using mini-chips removes the need to chop chocolate, which can be messy, I recommend going to the effort of chopping bar chocolate instead. Chips are designed NOT to melt during baking, which means they also don’t melt as well in hot milk and they require much more stirring.

Variation: I like to take portions of the mix and put them in different containers with extra flavoring: cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, miniature marshmallows (not those dried hard things!) or whatever sounds good. For a vanilla flavoring you might use vanilla sugar in the recipe.

Enjoy, and please share some of your own cocoa/hot chocolate thoughts & ideas!

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Avocado fries & eggplant soup

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

Thanks to reddit, I found a recipe for avocado fries. I’m a sucker for avocados, and a sucker for crunchy fried things, so I HAD to make them. No really, it was a total compulsion. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Anyway, let’s just say they were perfect. There really isn’t any other way to put it. Do check out the link above for the full recipe, but here’s the gist of it:

Avocado Fries

  • Avocados
  • Salt
  • Flour
  • Eggs
  • Panko crumbs
  • Canola oil
  • Parmesan (optional)

Slice avocados into wedges. Salt lightly.

Lay out shallow bowls of salted flour, beaten egg, and panko crumbs.

Heat canola oil to a depth of about halfway up the side of an avocado wedge; maybe a little deeper. I went for about medium high heat on our electric stove and it worked well.

Dip wedges first in flour, then in egg, then in panko. I find this works best if you use forks rather than your fingers, because fingers always seem to smudge and pull away the coating more. Just use a different fork for each layer of coating, dropping the avocado wedge into the next bowl in the series.

Fry the wedges for 30-60 seconds on a side until golden brown, and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with parmesan if desired. Eat right away.

Fantastic alone, or with a sweet chili sauce; I imagine thousand island dressing would also be a good choice.

 

Then there’s the incredibly simple, frugal, and healthy eggplant soup we made off-the-cuff the other day. Here are some rough directions for folks who don’t mind winging it a bit. The amounts are rough because, frankly, they just don’t need to be precise. This recipe has a lot of tolerance for variation.

Eggplant-Chickpea Soup

  • Olive or canola oil
  • One eggplant, chopped
  • Red curry spice mix or paste (for the exact mix we used, go to Auntie Arwen’s and search for “red curry”)
  • 2 to 3 cups stock (chicken, turkey, beef, or vegetable)
  • 1 to 2 cups water
  • One can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
  • Salt to taste

I heated up about a tablespoon of oil, then dropped the chopped eggplant in, and added about a teaspoon or so of the spice mix. I sauteed this until the eggplant was nicely coated with spices, then added the stock, water, and chickpeas (I used homemade turkey stock). I brought it to a boil, lidded it (with a crack left open), lowered it to a simmer, and simmered for about an hour and a half, until everything was soft and falling apart (add more water if too much boils off). Adjust seasoning to taste. You could blend it at this point, but it’s also great as-is.

If you use a curry paste instead of a dry mix, you’ll probably want to heat a little stock, blend some paste with that until smooth, then add the eggplant and go from there (leaving out the oil).

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Strawberries & Cream Bars

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

After the creamsicle cloud pudding, I was asked by someone to try to replicate a Strawberry Jello Salad with Pretzel Crust recipe using all-natural ingredients. There are several ways I could have approached it, but here are the criteria I decided to stick with:

  • Use entirely all-natural ingredients
  • Replicate the original experience pretty closely
  • Try to keep it relatively light
  • Stick to ingredients that most people should be able to find

Strawberries & Cream Bars

Plan for about an hour of cooling or chilling time after each layer, plus a couple of extra hours after the final layer. You can, of course, make the first layer or two one night, then the final layer the next day. And this sits just fine overnight.

Crust

  • 2 cups crushed pretzels (one 8 oz bag of thin crunchy pretzel sticks, pulverized with a rolling pin or in a food processor)
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

Preheat oven to 400 F. Mix crushed pretzels with sugar, and then with melted butter. Press out lightly onto the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan with a spatula or the back of a spoon. Bake for six minutes. Cool.

When you press this out (and when you take it out of the oven) you’ll be tempted to think there isn’t enough butter in it and it won’t hold together. Fret not. If you add the next layer gently so it doesn’t stir things up too much, it’ll stabilize things so that the crust holds together perfectly.

Cream Cheese Layer

  • two 8 oz packages cream cheese, softened at room temperature
  • 2 cups confectioner’s sugar
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 2 envelopes (.25 oz each) unflavored gelatin

Blend the softened cream cheese with the sugar and vanilla on the low speed of an electric mixer until thoroughly mixed. Yes, you’re essentially making cream cheese frosting in this step, but try not to eat it!

Sprinkle the gelatin on top of the water and allow to bloom while you heat the milk to scalding hot. Add the hot milk to the water and stir until the gelatin is dissolved.

Gradually add the hot milk and gelatin mixture to the cream cheese mixture, blending first on the low speed of your electric mixer until well-mixed and liquid, then at medium-high speed. Once it’s all added, blend for another three minutes. Mixture should be smooth and foamy.

Pour gently onto the cooled crust and place in the refrigerator until set. Yes, some of the pretzel bits will get stirred up into the milk layer no matter how careful you are. It’ll all be okay. Trust me (muahaha).

Strawberry Layer

  • one 1 lb package fresh strawberries, washed and chopped (or a package of frozen strawberries, thawed and drained)
  • 4 cups all-natural 100% juice fruit punch (total)
  • 3 envelopes (.25 oz each) unflavored gelatin

Scatter the chopped strawberries on top of the cream cheese layer.

Sprinkle the envelopes of gelatin onto one cup of the fruit punch. Allow to bloom while you bring the remaining three cups to a boil. Add the hot juice to the cold, whisking until the gelatin is fully dissolved. Put into the refrigerator, checking and stirring every 15-20 minutes, until fully cooled.

Pour gently over the strawberries. Cover, put the whole thing in the refrigerator (it’s going to be heavy and sloshing, so be careful), and chill until fully set. Optionally, if you wait until the gelatin mixture has reached a soft-set stage where it’s mounding slightly when spooned, that would probably make it easier to get the whole thing into the fridge without spilling anything.

 

Sorry the following slideshow is flash-based, but at least there are pics:

If you can’t see flash, here’s an imgur album instead.

 

Potential variations:

Instead of using my gelatin-stabilized cream cheese layer, do something more like the original. Only instead of using cool whip, use sweetened whipped cream.

Experiment with different juices and fruits.

Try a graham cracker crust.

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Creamsicle Cloud Pudding

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

I’ve been playing around with gelatin-based desserts lately. They’re easy, they’re cold, and they’re yummy. I don’t like all the artificial stuff and super-sugary nature of the pre-packaged Jell-o mixes, however. So when I found an orange sherbet Jello “salad” genre of recipes, I had to come up with a version that suited my tastes. So, here you are:

Creamsicle Cloud Pudding

  • 2 cups orange juice, total
  • 3 teaspoons unflavored gelatin (a little more than a .25 oz packet)
  • a pint of all natural orange sherbet (such as GaGa’s Orange Sherbetter)
  • 1/3 cup half-and-half
  • one drained can of mandarin orange slices (optional)

Pour 1/2 cup of the orange juice into a medium bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin overtop and allow it to bloom while you bring the remaining 1 1/2 cups of juice to a boil (microwaving works fine). Pour the boiling juice into the bowl and whisk until the gelatin is dissolved.

Add the pint of sherbet and whisk until the entire pint has melted into the juice. By then the mixture should be cooled off nicely. Add the half-and-half at this point and NOT earlier (adding it before the sherbet will cause it to curdle). Pour the mixture into serving dishes and top each with a few slices of mandarin orange, if using. Allow to set for at least two hours in the refrigerator.

This will be a soft-set dessert, so don’t try to un-mold it! You want it to have a soft, creamy texture, not a solid one.

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