Friday, October 31, 2008

Pumpkin Cupcakes



Its time for seasonal stuff. Linnea gave me a giant pumpkin, so I turned it into goo, and made cupcakes from that. I tried out King Arthur's pumpkin mini cakes, which were good, but I prefer to call them cupcakes. The recipe made 12 regular-sized cupcakes for me. Then I made it again and it made 32 mini cupcakes. A good recipe, moist, not too pumpkin-y, and just spicy enough to be quite yummy. The only change I made was that the second batch of cupcakes I only used 3/4C sugar instead of 1C, and I thought that was an improvement. They'd been a bit too sweet before. The frosting is an orange-dyed cream cheese frosting.



These were a big hit at work, but Ed wouldn't try one because it has pumpkin in it. Freakn biases... so no Ed rating.


For the swirl, I put a glob of orange frosting in a ziplock bag, then a glob of white, then orange, then white, and squeezed it out the cut corner. I don't have a pastry tip, so to get the ridges, I duct taped the corner I was planning to cut with 3-4 layers of duct tape. Then I cut out a star shape, and it worked well enough to get those pretty ridges.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Goat cheese, fig, and caramelized onion crostini



Sunday night, Tiffany and Mario came over for dinner, and since it would be a late dinner we figured we should have some appetizers out. After my impulse-buy of a whole box of figs at Russos, I decided to use them up on the appetizer. A little browsing of the google, epicurious, and random other blogs led to an amalgamation of figs and goat cheese on some toasted bread. We had gotten the cheapest loaf of french bread that Trader Joe's had, and it was kind of dense and not that interesting, but it made perfect little toasts! This was a good combination, the goat cheese mixture tasted faintly of cream cheese, but the herbs helped out a lot in that department, and the caramelized onions were a nice touch, If I do say so myself. I would have added some prosciutto if I'd had any, but then maybe we're putting too many things on a poor little piece of bread...

Ingredients

1/2 loaf of french bread, sliced on a slight diagonal in 1/4-1/2" slices, to make 30 slices
~2-4tbs olive oil
15 fresh figs
1 big onion (or two smaller ones)
~1tbs butter
6oz fresh goat cheese (it usually comes in a log)
1/4C heavy cream
1 tbs chopped dried herbs
1-2 tsp honey
salt and pepper to taste

Slice the onions so that you get long pieces, and cook them on medium-low heat for 30-45 minutes, adding butter as needed, until they are deep brown and taste sweet.

Preheat your oven to 350F. Slice up your bread, and lay it out on a cookie sheet (or two, if it won't fit on one). Drizzle it generously with olive oil, flip it over, and drizzle the other side. Put it in the oven for approximately 5-10 minutes (check after 5) until the bread is crispy and golden on the bottom. If you want it super crunchy, flip it over and bake for another 5 minutes.

Mix the goat cheese with the cream, honey, and herbs. Mix it up and add salt and pepper to taste.

Slice the figs into quarters.

Spread a good glob of the cheese mixture onto a piece of bread. Squish some onions into the cheese. Top with two fig quarters, pushing down on them so they stick there. Repeat with the rest of the bread slices. Serve!



And just for the drool-factor, I leave you with a picture of the meal that came after these crostini: herb-crusted ahi tuna on a bed of chantarelle risotto with snap peas. Yes, it was AMAZING.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Beet salad with a fig balsamic vinegrette



I love beets. This is a pretty straight-forward salad, but its very pretty. Much more so than the usual pile o' lettuce with dressing on top. The dressing was inspired by some fig vinegar that Ed picked up at Formaggio's the other day. Its yummy, but I'm sure you'll be fine without it. The salad was inspired by this beet carpaccio in the Boston Globe, although really the only shared characteristics are the thinly-sliced beets.



Beet-chevre salad with fig-balsamic vinegrette:
2 beets
1/2 an avocado
2-3 oz soft fresh crumbly goat cheese (not sure how else to describe it)
1/4 red onion
Mint (or basil or any fresh herb really. Or even any baby lettuce) leaves

Dressing: (amounts are approximate)
3 tbs Fig-balsamic vinegar
4 tbs Olive oil
1 tbs Dijon or other strong mustard
1 tbs Molasses
salt to taste

For the dressing: Mix everything together in a bowl with a fork. Taste it. Add other things until it tastes how you like it.

For the salad:
Scrub the beets pretty clean, but don't peel them, and wrap them in tin foil. Bake them in a 400F oven for 30-40 minutes until they can be poked easily with a fork. Take them out of the oven, hold them in a bowl of cold water, and rub the skins with your fingers (if you care about not having pink cuticles, wear gloves) until the skin comes off. Using a mandolin, cut very thin slices of the beets and arrange them prettily on a plate.

Using a super sharp knife, cut some really thin pieces of red onion. I like to quarter the onion, and then holding it on the flat edge, cut slices so that you get the curve of the onion in each piece. Really thin. Sprinkle the onion slices on top of the beets.

Crumble the goat cheese and sprinkle that on top of the beets and onions. Slice the avocado and arrange the slices around the edge of the plate. Sprinkle some mint leaves on top of the beets. Drizzle dressing all over the thing. Eat. Enjoy.

This serves two, as a very small salad. I could easily eat the whole thing myself... but I have quite the appetite.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Recipe Index

This is a kludge, but, ideally you'll be able to link to all the recipes on this blog!

Savoury
Appetizers
Goat cheese, fig, and caramelized onion crostini
Polenta wedges
Vietnamese spring rolls
Crab cakes
Mango-avocado salsa
Guacamole
Jiaozi
Made with love nuts
Scallion pancakes
Buckwheat Scallion Pancakes
Spicy roasted almonds
Spinach-Ricotta Pie
Roasted garlic
Sardines and Avocados
Pesto

Pizza
Pizza
Pesto Pizza
Clean-out-the-fridge Pizza
Ratatouille Pizza

Soups
Everything soup
Butternut Squash Soup
French Onion Soup
Watercress Soup
Potato-Leek Soup
Lentil Soup

Savory Breakfasts
Scromelette
Clean-out-the-fridge Fritatta
Chanterelle scromelette
Toasty Eggs

Beans
Black bean burgers with mango-avocado salsa
Chili
Moroccan couscous
Black bean-corn salsa
Tuscan style beans and chard
Crunchy chickpeas
Indian experiments
Bean Tacos
Bean Gratin

Grains/starches
Israeli couscous with tomato sauce
Pear-bacon-barley salad
Healthy cranberry pancakes
Muesli
Tabouleh
Risotto
Lo mein
Lasagna
Soft pretzels
Pumpkin Gnocchi
Pork Fried Rice
Pull-apart Garlic Bread
Buckwheat crepes with apple filling
Crunchy seed braid
Grilled cheese
Brown rice risotto
Mushroom-Ramp Risotto
NYT No-Knead Bread
Oven-cooked polenta
Pan-fried potatoes

Pasta dishes
Spaghetti with duck sausage, fava beans, and morels
Pasta in a brown butter sage sauce
Prosciutto-ricotta-filled ravioli
Pasta with Brussels sprouts and chicken and ricotta
Spaghetti Carbonara
Pasta with a tomato anchovy sauce
Pasta with ramps, fiddleheads, and asparagus
Tuna casserole pasta
Pasta with cabbage and sausage
Quail egg raviolo

Meat
Lamb lollypops in an orange-soy-ginger glaze
Squab, with ginger-cilantro risotto and pan-fried endives
Duck legs with roasted vegetables
Rabbit
Rack of lamb with broccoli rabe
Tenderloin with chantarelles and celery root
Chop Chae (Korean beef dish)
Buffalo Basil
Boef Bourguinon
Chicken Stir Fry

Fish
Sushi
Scallop ceviche
Seared ahi tuna
California rolls
Mussels
Crab with mango-avocado salsa
Polenta with a tomato tunafish sauce
Fried Seafood
Fish Tacos
Halibut with Pasta with spinach and ricotta
Salmon with couscous and spinach
Salmon salad
Steamed scallops with middle eastern couscous

Salads
Gazpacho salad stack
Tomato-basil stacks
Endive-walnut salad
Radish-carrot salad
Beet salad with fig-balsamic vinegrette
Mango-Avocado Salad
Steak Caesar salad
Tomato avocado salad
Cucumber salad
Anne Leith's tomato-avocado salad
Tomato-basil salad

Veggies
Vegetable fritters
Crunchy kale
Tuscan Kale Chips
Crunchy broccoli
Butternut squash puree
Roasted root vegetables
Caramelized brussels sprouts
Eggplant parm
Vegetable-polenta salad stacks
Kale with stuff
Kale with Bacon, Egg, and Tofu
Brussels Sprouts with Bacon
Spinach Curry
Cooked Endives
Spaghetti Squash
Sweet and Sour Tofu Stir Fry
Zucchini and caramelized onions

Sweet
Chocolate
Mystery mocha cake
Peanut butter balls
King Arthur Chocolate Zucchini Cake
Chocolate Raspberry Truffles
Chocolate Tofu Mousse

Cookies
Almond biscotti
Sparkling cranberry gems
Freezing cookie dough
Jam-filled oat bars, or "nutrigrain" bars
Papaya cookies
Date-almond-coconut balls
Oatmeal-coconut cookies, or, the best oatmeal cookies you'll ever eat
Egg-yolk sugar cookies
Chewy Chocolate Walnut Cookie/brownies
Dream Bars
Mint-chocolate pinwheel cookies
Eggless chocolate chip cookies
Pumpkin Chip Cookies
Thumbprint Cookies
Cut-out Cookies
Chewy Ginger Cookies
Pignoli Cookies
Jan Hagel Cookies

Cupcakes
Lemon chiffon cupcakes
Car-bomb cupcakes, V1 and V2
Margarita cupcakes
Mojito cupcakes
Oreo cupcakes (vegan)
Lavender-blackberry tea cupcakes
Chocolate-beet cupcakes
Pumpkin Cupcakes
Blackberry Cobbler Cupcakes
Almond Lemon Cupcakes

Other desserts
Thai rice pudding
Cake balls
Fresh fruit tart and sticky maple-pecan bars
Beeramisu
Strawberry Lemonade Bars
David Lebovitz's Lemon Curd Tart

Fruit
Red wine-poached figs
Blueberry bars
Strawberry-lemonade bars
Strawberry charlotte ripoff
Peach-blackberry crisp
Peach tart
Persimmon Pie
Cherry-studded Whitney Cake
Applesauce
Chewy Chocolate-Walnut Clif Bar Knock-offs

Muffins
Pumpkin cranberry muffins
Veggie muffins
Summer squash and lemon muffins
Blueberry-bran applesauce muffins
Strawberry muffins
PDQ muffins
Coconut-lime muffins
Honey whole wheat muffins
Rhubarb-ginger muffins
Cranberry-orange-walnut muffins
Carrot spice muffins
Maple walnut banana bran muffins
OCD muffins
Cottage cheese muffins
Lemon cornmeal summer squash muffins
Lemon-Ginger Muffins
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Apple chunk muffins

Baked things other than muffins:
Pear-cranberry coffee cake
Sticky buns
Irish soda bread
Blackberry scones
Strawberry scones
Persimmon pudding bread
Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread
Orange Yogurt Cake
Chewy Granola Bars
Lime Polenta Yogurt Cake

Tasty, healthy, cheap
Introduction this this idea
Being a cheap-ass grad student: free food

Vegetable fritters


I like pancakes. Mostly the fluffy kind that you drown in real maple syrup, but crepes with strawberries or apples are also good, as are vegetable fritters. Vegetable fritters? Why would you put vegetables in a pancake?? Well, I've found that its a good way to use up extra veggies and make them taste good, so there. I normally go with the pancake approach (flour, baking powder, salt, egg, milk, and the veggie) but last night I tried the panko approach. This way had more veggie and less bready stuff. They're both good. One of my recent favorites was when Ed came back from Vermont with a couple pounds of corn off the cob left over from a party his cousin had been hosting. Corn, cheddar, jalapeno fritters, anyone? We made a lot of these... here are some recipes.

Corn, cheddar, jalapeno fritters

1C flour (any combination of white and whole wheat)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1C grated cheddar (or any cheese, really)
1C corn
1 jalapeno, diced (or more, depends on your favored level of spiciness)
1 egg
3/4C milk, to make 1C of liquid
Butter (or oil) for frying

Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, grated cheddar, corn, and jalapeno. In a 1-cup measure, beat the egg with the milk. Pour the wet into the dry. If it looks too dry to be a batter (highly scientific here), add some water. Get your pan warm (around the 4 on my stove, which goes up to 6), rub it with butter, and form little pats of batter on the stove, flattening them with your spoon. Let them sizzle for 2-3 minutes, then flip them. They should be golden brown on the cooked side. Cook them for another couple minutes and when they're done put them on a paper-towel-lined plate, and sprinkle a little salt on top if you like that sort of thing.



Zucchini fritters

These fritters have no flour, just panko, a Japanese breadcrumb that generally adds crunch to stuff. These were more zucchini-y than my generic zucchini fritters.

1 zucchini, grated
2 eggs
1/2C panko
1/4C grated parmesan cheese
1/4tsp salt
ground pepper
butter (or oil) for frying

To grate the zucchini, cut off the rounder end, but leave the little stalky end on. Holding the stalky end (see, you have a handle!) grate it using a cheese grater. Take your mound of zucchini (you'll have between 1-2 cups) and squeeze it between your hands to get the water out. A lot of water will come out. Put the dry (er) zucchini in a bowl, add the rest of the ingredients, and form into patties in a hot pan. Fry for 2-3 minutes on one side, then flip.

Generic zucchini fritters

These ones use more of a pancake batter. Like the corn fritters.

1 zucchini
1C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
3/4C milk

Follow the corn fritters instructions.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Lasagna: Cheap, easy, and healthy?


Jess, this one is for you. Protein, iron, and vitamin C. Plus, ground beef isn't as bad to handle (gross-factor) as chicken or a hunk of meat. You just put it in a pan and poke at it until its little gray crumbles.

I'm not at all an experienced lasagna-maker. I've only ever made two in my life. The first was before we went to Italy, because I had ricotta and mozzarella in my refrigerator that had to get used up. Then I had extra lasagna noodles, so I just made another one. Unfortunately, I hadn't used up all the ricotta last time and had been planning on using that, stupidly, because its pink and smelly and probably would make my stomach a little unhappy... if I even ate it in the first place. So, this lasagna didn't have enough cheese in it. Live and learn... buy fresh ricotta each time you want to make a lasagna.

I could also have made this easier by purchasing a pre-made sauce. Or just using canned tomato sauce thats unseasoned. But nooo, I have to do it the hard way. In the end, the sauce tastes better, I think, so I guess I'd recommend the 1.5 hr prep time. If you're less scatter-brained, it might go faster, or if you're more experienced in lasagna-making, but otherwise, don't do this on a weeknight. The good news is that the pieces freeze really well, and to me they tasted about the same fresh out of the oven and microwaved for lunch after being frozen for a few weeks.

The concept at least is easy. Layer sauce, noodles, and cheese until your lasagna fills the pan. Then bake for 35-40 minutes at 350F until its bubbly. I bought ready-bake noodles, since I couldn't find any other ones--you don't boil them first, you just put them in the pan. Its like magic. Or ramen. Maybe ramen is magic. We'll never know. Supposedly this cuts the preparation time in half, if you believe the box, but I don't believe that. I also put eggplant into my lasagna, because I like eggplant, and Ed didn't mind it too much. He actually didn't notice it, but I told him, and then he sort of shrugged, chewed thoughtfully for a moment, and then decided that he couldn't taste the eggplant so it was ok for it to be in there. The sauce has peppers, mushrooms, and zucchini, although really you can add whatever you want. If I'd had spinach or kale I would have tried to put that in there. So here goes...

Sauce:
1 can tomato sauce, the generic store-brand kind, not the classico or other expensive stuff.
1 can tomato chunks
1 zucchini
1 box pre-sliced mushrooms (they're cheaper than the un-sliced ones. Baby bellas)
1/2 green pepper
1 onion
3-4 cloves garlic
1 tsp rosemary, or other herbs you like to put in sauces. I recommend basil, sage, marjoram, or oregano.
salt and pepper to taste
1 pound ground beef
1/4C white wine (optional)
2 pinches white sugar

Other stuff:
1 egg
1C ricotta cheese (skim is fine)
2-3C grated cheddar (One of the small blocks, rather than the gargantuan block)
6 slices mozzarella cheese
lasagna noodles
olive oil

Start by dealing with the eggplant. Slice it into 1/4 inch (or so) slices, sprinkle both sides with salt, and let it sit for 20-30 minutes. It will ooze out most of its water and get nice and firm, and then you can rinse off the salt and squeeze out the rest of the water. That way it won't get too mushy. Preheat your oven to 350F.

To make the sauce, start by sweating the onion in some olive oil, then add the garlic. A wok is good, since you'll end up with a LOT of sauce. Once the garlic is golden-ish, add the mushrooms and peppers. Cook them for a little bit, then add the beef. Depending on how long its been living in your freezer or how little you trust the source, cook the bejesus out of it or if you trust it, cook it until its medium rare. Drain off some of the juice, and add the tomatoes, after draining their juice. Otherwise its too watery. Add the can of sauce. Add the white wine (if you're using it - makes sauces taste better, but if you don't have a bottle just sitting around waiting to be used on risotto or tomato sauce don't bother) and sugar (cuts the acidity of the tomatoes). Cook this down for a bit as you grate the zucchini on a cheese grated. If you leave the little knobby part on, its like you have a handle. Add the zucchini, and take the sauce off the heat. Its a chunky sauce. If you don't like chunky sauce... go buy a premade one. (that was much nicer than the other thing I was going to say). You'll end up using half of the sauce. Its good on pasta, too, but if you don't eat pasta as often as I do, go ahead and freeze it, it'll keep.

Meanwhile, rinse your eggplant, and put about a tablespoon of olive oil on a baking sheet. Use a slice of eggplant to smear around the oil. Get both sides of the eggplant oily, and bake the slices for approximately 10 minutes, until they're softened. As that does its thing, beat the egg and add the ricotta. If you have any fresh herbs on hand, those would be a nice addition. I didn't have any. Grate the cheddar cheese.

Time to layer the beast. Never having made a lasagna before, I wasn't sure what order I should do things in. I eventually decided to put the eggplant on the bottom (ideally, you'll take off the skins first, but I was too lazy). Then sauce, to fill in the cracks. Then mozzarella cheese, to seal it in. Then noodles. Then ricotta/egg. Rinse and repeat, and top with a thick layer of cheddar. Bake for 35-40 minutes. The cheese should be browning on top when you take it out, if not, turn on the broiler and broil it until its brown. Then comes the hard part - let it cool before you cut it. At this point you're starving, I know, but still. Let it cool.

OK, so lets get to the point here. Is lasagna cheap, healthy, and easy? I nixed the easy part, since the prep work was an hour and a half, although the concept is pretty easy. Takes too long. Although taking it out of the freezer makes it easy, so thats like the cheating way to make it easy. So how about cheap? Looking at the ingredients, we have:
Tomato sauce: $0.75
Tomato chunks: $1.00
Zucchini: $0.34
Eggplant: $1.15
Mushrooms: $2.49 (but you only use half, so its actually $1.25)
Green pepper: $1.12 (again, only using half: $0.56)
Onion: $0.89
Garlic: $0.50 for a head, you use a quarter of that, so $0.13
Noodles: $1.00
Ground beef: $5.00 (This was some of the grass-fed-Vermont-highland-cow beef, a little more expensive than you average slaughterhouse stuff...)
Ricotta: $2.89
Mozzarella, 1/4lb at the deli: $3.00
Cheddar, generic block: $3.99
Egg: $1.99/12 eggs, so $0.08

The sauce ingredients cost $11.07. Since you only use half of it, thats $5.54. So our total cost of the thing was $17.50. In an 8x8" pan, you can cut 16 slices. A normal person or a not-too-hungry-Alex will eat two slices, so a meal of lasagna would cost $2.18 (for two slices). Eh, not too bad, but not great. I wouldn't call that cheap, but I wouldn't call it expensive the way a rack of lamb is expensive. I suppose you could use less cheese. But then, what would be the point?

As for healthy, I guess this depends how lean your beef was and how much cheese you use. If you only use half the block of cheddar, I'd call it pretty healthy. I mean, there are a ton of vegetables, which is a good thing. So, it gets one checkmark! Wooo!

Oh, and I almost forgot. Tasty? DAMN STRAIGHT.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Israeli Couscous glop


Doesn't this picture just look like such an appetizing pile of glop? Maybe it would look more appetizing if I didn't call it glop... but I like that word. It describes so many things so well! Anyway, I was hungry, and I didn't want to make it look all nice and fancy, and how fancy can glop look anyway? There be my excuse for glopful pictures.

Couscous is just pasta, and Israeli couscous is large couscous. It kind of reminded me of those bubbles you get in bubble tea. I don't particularly like bubble tea, but I liked the couscous. According to the all-knowing google, Israeli couscous is actually Levantine couscous, and it is made with hard wheat instead of semolina flour. Useless fact of today!

So I figured that since couscous is pasta, it would go well with a sauce. This is a pretty quick meal. While you're chopping/cooking the veggies, get the water boiling. It'll take about 10 minutes to boil the water and 10 minutes to let the couscous sit, so you have 20 minutes to chop the veggies and make the sauce. I had some leftover canned tomato sauce (like tomato puree, but already seasoned, and the same price!) from my lasagna exploits, so I used that. I sweated some onions in bacon grease, added garlic, cooked some mushrooms, added the sauce, and then grated a zucchini and added that. Its a nice way of using up zucchini without actually thinking that you're eating zucchini and being sick of it. It just adds thickness to the sauce, in my experience, no strange zucchini flavors or anything like that. You can add whatever veggies you think would taste good, I bet an eggplant would be alright, or some peppers.

To cook the couscous, boil 2C of water, add 1C of couscous, boil for 3 minutes, and then removed the pot from the heat and let it sit covered for 5-10 minutes, until it tastes cooked but still quite chewy; al dente. It is a pasta product, after all! Drain any leftover water. Then add the couscous to the sauce, toss to coat, and serve! Simple, and almost a one-pot meal. A two-pot meal. The Ed-rating was a "I like this couscous better than the normal stuff", which I'll take as a success. Grated parmesan cheese is another great addition...