i heartichoke

One of my favorite breakfasts that I discovered while in Boston at Tealuxe is scones with Devon cream.  I finally planned ahead and got some Double Devon Cream last night to have with morning scones.  Charlie baked scones from the recipe in our copy of The River Cottage Bread Handbook.  They were super tasty–way better than store bought, of course.  By the way, that bread cookbook is amazing in general, teaching the art of bread making through narrative as well as the usual recipe format.

We didn’t have strawberry or raspberry jam but I feel that the Black Cherry Preserves I found in the fridge worked wonderfully.

Our CSA provided us with many tasty vegetables in its first week including some potatoes they stored over the winter and lots of mustard greens.  I had this crazy idea to combine the soft spoken potato with the mustardy bite of the greens and mashing seemed like the way to go.  These were tasty tasty!

Mashed Potatoes with Mustard Greens

It’s the weekend…mostly and weekends mean time for real breakfasts in this house.  Last weekend, we made both pancakes and waffles from scratch.  Sadly, I failed to photograph the waffles though they were by far the best waffles we have ever had.  So, I’ll give you both recipes in one post with photographed pancakes.

Pancakes! From scratch!

These pancakes use corn meal mixed in with the flour because we have a bunch of corn meal lying around.  I also used brown sugar instead of regular sugar because I wanted to see how it would come out.  I think because of the corn meal addition, these were a thick and hearty sort of pancake but still fairly good.  My guess is that if we used 2 cups of flour and no corn meal that these would be on the lighter side of the pancake world.  They are not the best pancakes I have tasted (I was hoping they’d turn out fluffier) but Charlie enjoyed them greatly.

Adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup corn meal
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups well shaken buttermilk
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Mix dry ingredients together in medium bowl.  Add all wet ingredients at once and stir just until combined. Do not over mix, batter will be slightly lumpy.  Lightly coat skillet with butter or oil though ours is nonstick so we used nothing.  Use medium low heat.  Drop a pancake sized amount of batter onto heated skillet.  Cook on first side until bubbles begin to form on surface.  Flip over and cook another 2-3 minutes until golden brown and centre springs back when lightly touched.  Serve warm with maple syrup! perhaps? Makes 10-12 pancakes.

A Great Make-the-Morning-of Waffle

We made these waffles exactly as they are described by the great Orangette.  They were amazing: the perfect density, crispy on the outside, softish toward the center, just a hint of sweetness.  Really, these were super tasty, a delight to have on the tongue.  Please go to Orangette’s blog for the recipe (the second one in the post).  Do yourself a favor and make these.  Really!  Soooo good!

Still in search of super easy yet super tasty and hopefully healthy dinners, I came across this recipe while reading up on composting (random? a bit, I suppose).  This pasta is surprisingly creamy for being vegan.  It’s all about that nutritional yeast I guess.  We didn’t bother chopping any of the ingredients up before adding to the food processor and there were no issues.  This makes it super crazy easy…if you’ve got a food processor anyway.

Ingredients

1 lb box shaped pasta (ziti)
1/3 cup chopped pecans
3 cloves garlic minced
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 can artichoke hearts in water, drained and chopped
8 fresh basil leaves chopped
2 tablespoons fresh parsley chopped
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and ground black pepper to taste
1/4 to 1/3 cup reserved pasta water

Preparation

Cook pasta according to directions (cooking with some salt and olive oil).  While pasta is cooking, begin sauce by pulsing pecans and garlic in a food processor until finely chopped and blended.  Add the remaining ingredients through salt and pepper and blend until it becomes a smooth sauce.  Taste and adjust salt and pepper as desired.  Reserve some pasta water before draining pasta.  Drain pasta and put it back into the pot it cooked in. Pour the sauce over the pasta.  Stir together adding pasta water as needed to thin the sauce to cover the pasta and keep sauce consistency creamy.  Serve immediately.

Makes: 6 servings, Preparation time: 15 minutes, Cooking time: 15 minutes

Today’s post is courtesy of Julie of JulieNapoli.com:

Bread Pudding, Vanilla Pudding, Banana Pudding, Chocolate Pudding

That is a line in a song Josh and I both enjoy. Completely nonsensical, but perhaps the subconscious reason behind my sudden craving for Chocolate Pudding Pie. Or, I suppose it could be that this delicious recipe – from one of my favorite food blogs – recently came up in my reader. I won’t bother to copy the whole recipe here, as I followed it exactly. Be warned, though, it takes a long time from start to finish if making your own pie dough. I started this at 5pm, anticipating having it for dessert. While we *could* have had it when it finished setting at 11pm, we were neither hungry nor awake enough to eat it then. So, we just had a lunchtime slice instead. And, Josh polished his off so quickly, he is either starving or actually liked it!  It was quite tasty – and possibly the first pregnancy craving item that actually tasted good to me by the time I had it. Next time, I might experiment with a different type of crust.  The pie crust seemed a bit incongruous to me. (This would probably be a good time to mention that I have never been a big fan of pie crust in general. So, it isn’t surprising I found myself wanting a different type of crust, and it may be just fine for everyone else.) A graham cracker crust would have added a nice texture, but been too sweet. So, something similar to graham crackers, but not as sweet? Any ideas? Also, I would have whipped the cream topping for longer. It was already beginning to melt by the time I served it. That’s what I get for deciding to whip it by hand, then getting too tired to do it properly! It still was pretty tasty, anyhow. This would also be very good skipping the crust altogether, and putting the pudding (hehe) in individual ramekins, with some whipped cream on top.

This pizza was quicker than this post will be.  We didn’t want to spend a lot of time cooking but also didn’t want to eat a boring meal or spend money on take-out, so this pizza was born: cheapish and easy.

Ingredients

your favorite pizza shell (we used a whole wheat Boboli shell)

your favorite pizza sauce (we used some local no sugar added stuff)

shredded mozzarella

rosemary goat cheese

fig preserves

1 red onion, sliced

balsamic vinegar

Preparation

Throw a little olive oil in a pan and saute the sliced red onion.  Add some balsamic vinegar and cook until the vinegar is reduced and a little syrupy.  Spread the pizza sauce on the shell, sprinkle on mozzarella cheese, cooked onions, the goat cheese as best you can, and place small dollops of the fig preserves onto the pizza.  Then bake according to the directions for your pizza shell.

The flavors work wonderfully together.  It seems like I keep seeing reduced balsamic vinegar everywhere I go and there’s a good reason why:  it’s super tasty.  Originally, I had intended to use fresh figs but had no luck finding them and realized I had the preserves already in the kitchen.  Fig + goat cheese = amazing.

Having just procured a copy of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, we decided to make proper French omelettes for breakfast this morning.  We chose to follow the “rolled omelette” technique which uses angling and jerking of the pan to form the omelette.  The ones we made were very simple:

Beat 2-3 eggs with a fork until just mixed, add a pinch of salt and pepper if wanted while mixing.  I used some parsley and freshly ground pepper for mine.  Charlie kept his more plain but had a side of kimchi that’s been hanging out in our fridge for a while (!!).  Add about a tablespoon of butter to your pan and use high heat to melt the butter.  Pour in the eggs and allow them to coagulate for a couple of minutes before angling and jerking the pan to move the egg to the far lip of the pan and then flipping the egg over itself to create the normal omelette shape.  Then flip it into your plate.  I recommend checking out the cookbook for diagrams and detailed instructions on how to do this.

The real point of this post is not the omelette though, it is the simplicity of the recipe that allows the good ingredients that went into it to shine through.  I’ve had many omelettes and often they taste very heavy and greasy.  This omelette, however, was light and almost airy yet creamy too.  The first thing I noticed is the taste of the butter we used was very present and added a wonderful dimension to the omelette.  We used fresh, local unsalted butter that has an amazing flavor:

The eggs were fresh and local (Edwards Eggs from down the road), the pepper was freshly ground…these are all simple ingredients but when a little effort is put into choosing them, it can really make a difference.  Eating locally doesn’t just decrease the amount of fossil fuels used in bringing your food to your table, it gives you something much fresher and therefore tastier to eat too and it supports local family farms!

Simple, good ingredients make simple, good recipes.

For reasons I cannot explain, I wasn’t expecting much from this recipe.  But, we wanted to make a chickpea-centric dish for dinner.  In the end, we were more than pleasantly surprised.  The taste was delightfully creamy due to the ground almonds mixed into the tomato-pepper puree.  The chickpeas were texturally a great addition to the surrounding sauce.  We had this over plain jasmine rice.  Even the leftovers a few days later were super tasty.

Adapted from the Veganomicon:

Ingredients

• 1/2 C sliced almonds
• 1-28oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes
• 2 roasted red peppers
• olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced finely
• 2 shallots, minced finely
• 1 green serrano chile, mostly seeded and minced finely
• 1/4 C vegetable broth
• 2 tsp red wine vinegar
• 2 tsp turbinado sugar
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp dried rosemary, crumbled
• 2-15oz cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 tsp salt
• freshly ground pepper to taste

Preparation

Using a food processor, grind the almonds into very fine crumbs.  Set aside.  Puree the tomatoes and roasted red peppers together until smooth, pour into large bowl and set aside.

Preheat a medium-size heavy bottom saucepan over medium heat.  Saute the garlic, shallots, and chile in oil until shallots are turning golden, 4-5 minutes.  Pour in the vegetable broth and stir to dissolve any browned bits of garlic from bottom of pot, simmer 1 minute.  Add the tomato puree, vinegar, sugar, thyme, and rosemary.  Turn the heat to medium-high and bring to a near boil.  Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the ground almonds and stir the mixture until they are completely combined.  Fold in the chickpeas and simmer, uncovered, for 20 to 25 minutes, until the sauce is slightly reduced and the chickpeas are tender.  Remove from the heat, season with salt and pepper, and allow to cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

This one comes from Julie of julienapoli.com:

Ingredients

For Dough

• 1 (1/4-ounce) package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
• 2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup warm water (105-115F)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil

Stir together yeast, 1 tablespoon flour, and 1/4 cup warm water and let stand until mixture appears creamy on surface, about 5 minutes.

Stir together 1 1/2 cups flour and salt in a large bowl, then add yeast mixture, oil, and remaining 1/2 cup warm water and stir until smooth. Stir in enough of remaining flour (1/4 to 1/2 cup) for dough to come away from side of bowl. (This dough will be slightly wetter than other pizza doughs you may have made.)

Knead dough with floured hands, reflouring work surface and hands when dough becomes too sticky, until dough is smooth, and elastic, about 8 minutes. Divide dough into 2 balls, dust with flour and put each in a medium bowl. Cover bowls with plastic wrap and let dough rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

For Toppings

• pasta or pizza sauce, no added sugar
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil for brushing
• 8 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced into rounds
• 6 to 8 medium fresh basil leaves, sliced

Preparation

Make dough.  Allow to rise.  Once dough has risen, prepare cooking surface.  These would be great grilled, but we cooked on a pizza stone in the oven due to the chilly weather outside.  For oven, preheat to 425 degrees (leave stone in oven while preheating.  Brush stone with oil, or flour.  Throw dough to 9-inch round.  Place on stone.  Cook 6 minutes or until bottom is just turning brown.  This step helps the dough cook through and not get soggy from the toppings. While dough is cooking, simmer 4-8 ounces of sauce until thickened, about 10 minutes.  Spread thickened sauce on pre-cooked dough. Scatter half of mozzerella rounds on top.  Cook for another 6-7 minutes or until cheese is hot and bubbly.  Slide onto cutting board and slice.  Sprinkle with desired amount of basil leaves and eat immediately while the cheese is still nice and hot!  Repeat for 2nd ball of dough.  Or, freeze for another day.

What To Do Next Time

This was our most successful dough to date.  However, it would benefit from a bit more flavor.  Next time, I will try mixing in some rosemary.

This can be an easy (and still healthy) fast dish if you buy pre-made whole wheat dough available at Trader Joes and Whole Foods.

Modified from recipe via Epicurious

The cilantro really makes this recipe…

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons Asian sesame oil, divided
• yams (red-skinned sweet potatoes; about 1 pound), peeled, cut crosswise into 1/3-inch-thick rounds, then cut into 1/3-inch-wide strips
• 1 medium-size red onion, cut lengthwise into 1/3-inch-thick slices
• 8 ounces skinless boneless chicken cutlets, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-wide strips
• 1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 cups 1/3-inch-thick strips sliced red cabbage (about 1/4 medium head)
• 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 3/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Preparation

Heat 1 tablespoon sesame oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add yams and onion; stir-fry until yams are just tender, adjusting heat if browning too quickly and adding water by tablespoonfuls if mixture is dry, about 12 minutes. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to skillet. Add chicken, ginger, and garlic; stir-fry 1 minute. Add cabbage; stirfry until chicken is cooked through and cabbage is wilted but still slightly crunchy, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in hoisin sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix in 1/2 cup cilantro. Transfer stir-fry to serving bowl; sprinkle with remaining cilantro.

Makes 4 servings.  Recipe from Epicurious.