Warm and Soft

When I'm sick there is nohing that I want to be more than someplace warm and soft. Right now my throat feels like someone has taken a power sander to the inside. And my head has a full orchestra of jackhammers and cement drills going on. And don't get me started on how I can barely take a breath because a 400 pound gorilla is sitting on my chest. So what did I decide to do? Yup, you guessed it, NOT stay in my nice warm bed and continue to eat the velvety garlic chicken soup I made from scratch yesterday. No. I got up at 4 am and took a flight to New Jersey. Where it is raining.  And I'm lost.  Of course I have my GPS with me.  I still got lost.  I'm good like that.

Fast forward a few hours and I made it through, made the plane by seconds, sat on the runway for an hour (grumble grumble grumble).  But I did make it back to the house in time for bath time and one more cup of soup before crawling into my bed.  Aaaaaahhhhhhh.

I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of soup.  Something about being force-fed vegetable soup that was "healthy" when I was a kid.  Just to be clear, anytime you tell your kids something is healthy they will hate it.  Healthy means it tastes bad.  So, this soup is NOT healthy, it is actually just tasty.  Especially if you like garlic.  The best thing about this soup is that it is creamy and almost velvety.  Perfect for soothing a sore throat.

Chicken, Garlic and Bacon Soup 

10 Cloves of garlic, sliced thin

2 Pieces thick bacon

3T Butter

1/4C Flour

6C Chicken Stock (homemade is best)

3 Egg Whites

Salt and Pepper to taste

Render the fat from the bacon slices and remove bacon when crisp.  Add butter.  Saute garlic in butter and bacon fat until translucent and sweet smelling (yes, garlic does smell sweet when cooked, I promise, its really really good, even 10 cloves of it).  Whisk flour into mixture and cook, stirring often, until mixture looks medium brown and smells nutty (or just rely on look if your nose is all stuffed up like mine was).  Pour in 3-4 cups chicken stock and whisk to remove lumps.  Bring to low boil and cook for 10-15min.  If soup appears too thick, add additional stock.  Soup should coat the back of a spoon but not be too dense.  While whisking, add egg whites and cook additional 2min whisking constantly.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with crusty french bread and crumbled bacon on top.  Best eaten curled up in bed on a rainy day.

Fair and Balanced Dinner

In case you haven't caught onto the recent theme (no, not the failures theme, the actual food I'm trying to cook), I'm trying to eat healthy.  We're in a land of whatever you want at whatever time you want and while I'm all for buying a lawn mower at 3am, I do want to keep some of the habits we've established by living overseas.  Namely eating food that is fresh.  Perhaps even prepared by me.  Luckily for me, and unluckily for my husband and my bank account, we live walking distance to a Whole Foods.  And yes, they are incredibly expensive, and no, I can't help myself.  Luckily this one doesn't sell caviar.  Just over-priced eggplants and the like.  This one also has a pretty nice fish counter.  Of course you need a credit check just to approach, but once you've been reviewed by the loan officers you are allowed to actually look for what you will over-buy and then only cook half of.  Which is all beautiful.


Now, I'm usually a salmon or tuna girl, as is my husband, since they most closely resemble red meat.  He likes sword fish, although I'm not a fan.  White fish to me is hit or miss.  Sometimes they just taste like a carrier for the sauces and sometimes there's a flavor.  Mulling over all these things, I"m pacing the fish counter.  The loan officers begin to be concerned that I'm running too many numbers in my head and perhaps am not able to afford the almost criminally beautiful layout of oceanic tastiness in front of me.  In the nick of time the light-bulb goes on and I settle on red snapper.  Yes, its a white fish, but I've heard great things and have actually had it and liked it a time or two.


Of course I buy the snapper without knowing how I'm going to cook it.  A quick internet search pops up some great inspiration and I settle on an Asian style.  Sweet and spicy soy glaze over the fish while it cooks, and a cabbage, red pepper, and onion stir fry.  To the side I had a cold soba noodle salad with a light peanut dressing.  All in all, the flavors were perfect, nothing was overpowering, the stir fry was still slightly crispy and soaked up the extra glaze nicely.  Oh yeah, and the fish cooked perfectly and tasted pretty darn awesome.


So, fresh veggies, a small portion of lean protein, and a whole grain side.  Perhaps the hippies at Whole Foods are wearing off on me.  Regardless, I'm pretty pleased with making a tasty, healthy, and balanced dinner.  Recipes below:


Red Snapper and Stir Fry

1 red bell pepper sliced thin

2 cups thinly slice Napa cabbage

1/2 thinly sliced red onion

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 tablespoon season rice vinegar

3/4 cup Sweet Spicy Soy Glaze (see below)

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

four 4-ounce red snapper or grouper fillets with skin

Preheat oven to 350.  Oil baking pan with 2 teaspoons vegetable oil.  Place red snapper fillets skin side down.  Pour 1/2 C of Sweet Spicy Soy glaze over the fillets.  Bake in the oven for 20min or until nearly cooked through.  Turn oven to broil for an additional 5min to caramelize the glaze, basting additional glaze over the fish just prior if necessary.  While the fish cooks, heat 1T vegetable oil in a non-stick pan until almost smoking.  Add bell peppers and onions, sauteing while stirring for 1-2 minutes.  Add cabbage and continue to stir, preventing the vegetables from burning, for no more than 7-8 minutes.  Add rice vinegar and saute for an additional 1-2 minutes. Take off of heat.


Serve fish and vegetables with additional glaze on the side.




Sweet Spicy Soy Glaze

1/2 pound shallots (about 5 large)

1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup water

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon finely grated peeled fresh gingerroot

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lime zest

Heat vegetable oil in a sauce pan and caramelize shallots, about 5min.  Add all other ingredients and cook together for 10-12 minutes so that all flavors meld.  Spoon over fish or vegetables.

Two at a Time

Yup.  That's how we're doing it these days.  Two at a time.  Now that there are veggies available other than potatoes and cabbage, I'm attempting to cook 2 vegetables for every meal.  Yes, that is difficult.  And no, they are not always good.  Tonight's were 50/50.  See, that's the good thing about doing 2 different veggies, you have a 50/50 shot at getting one right.  Either that, or you bomb both and feel like a complete failure, crawling into a bottle of cheap merlot washed down with take-out chinese.  Nothing complements the bitter taste of failure like cheap liquor and take-out.

But back to tonight.  Tonight was not a complete failure.  It was a learning experience.   Really.  I'm serious.  Ok, so kind of was a failure.  Damn, that merlot is looking pretty good right now.  The attempt was bacon sauteed brussels sprouts and oven sweet potato fries.  The sweet potatoes actually came out with a nice flavor since I broiled them with olive oil, a little bacon grease, salt, pepper, and cajun spices.  The texture was a little bit more like mashed potatoes than crispy fries, but overall the taste was excellent.

The brussel sprouts were also a learning experience.  Don't order me the take-out yet!  This one wasn't a failure.  The texture was nice, the color was nice, and after boiling them I sauteed them with bacon.  If one were to like brussels sprouts, I think this would be wonderful dish.  I nearly lost everything in my stomach trying to choke down my 4th bite.  Ok, so I don't like brussels sprouts.  What the hell do I do with the rest of the bag?  I'm thinking a sling-shot is in order here.

And I'm sure you are now going to astutely point out that bacon on top of veggies is not the most healthy way to cook them.  Well hey, at least I didn't wrap the bacon around a block of cheddar cheese and deep fry it like I wanted to.  Every little bit counts!

I was about to write about last night's dinner, but I don't want to spoil the "I'm a failure" mood.  I'm half way through the merlot.  An "I'm a success" might require more moderation, or acting like an adult, or something.   So let me wallow, enjoy my cheap merlot, and I'll add last night success story in a different post.

Cheers!

Rebuilding

Finally settled back in the US.  Its been a rather hectic and time-consuming ordeal.  As I'm sure you can guess by my lack of posting.  Eating in restaurants and staying in hotels for 2 months doesn't provide a lot of fodder for blogging about food.  That is, unless you want to hear about the 4th schnitzel that week, or Charlotte's extreme dislike of anything presented to her by a waitress.  So we'll by-pass that less than heart-warming section of our travels and come straight to the rebuilding phase.  Its a little daunting to move, especially when it involves leaving such a solid base of friends, community, and well, who can forget the pretty awesome food options in Europe.  But here we are, working on building a life in the DC area.  Of all the places to land, its pretty nice.  We're finding some routine and starting to explore a little.  And what's best is that I get to start cooking again.  So here's some of the first attempts:

Coffee
What?!  As a functional caffeine addict how can you even think of talking about making coffee?!  Well, apparently I am out of practice with using a French Press.  Couple that with barely sleeping due to a fussy two year old and an uncomfortable air mattress and it appears that my coffee making skills have suffered.  The result was highly caffeinated sludge.  Resembling the consistency of tar.  Or perhaps black colored caulk.  At one point I think it even growled at me.  And no, I did not throw it out.  I just got a spoon.

Oatmeal Pancakes
Please see my previous article about leavening.  Baking soda and baking powder are wonderful things.  And pancakes without them, especially when made with oatmeal that already has a pretty gluey, heavy consistency, came out the consistency of paving stones.  Flat, dense, hard, and a mottled brown.

So, come on over to my place in Alexandria.  Grab a glass of wine and a shovel.  Between the wine, the tar, and the new pavers we're ready for rebuilding.

Au Natural

Baking soda and baking powder are awesome.  From a chemists perspective.  Their ability to react in measured, timed increments with other baking ingredients all coming together to make a fluffy cloud of a cake is really pretty incredible.  And then talk to someone who grew up eating things without chemicals or preservatives.  All of sudden it isn't so cool.  So I took it on as a challenge to bake a cake without chemical rising agents.  Baking bread without chemical rising agents is easy.  Yeast.  Souffles rise without chemicals, but you also can't pack them in a cooler and eat them at a picnic.  So, after hours of research...... yes, I'm that sort of nerd, I spent hours online and in baking books researching frontier-era cake making...... I found that there are 2 standard non-chemical cakes.  Pound cake and Génoise.  


Ok, so one cake is a normal American butter cake and the other is a complicated Italian cake.  Which did I choose?  Yup, you guessed it, the Italian one that takes precise heating of sugar and eggs, while whipping them silly and then gently folding in a little bit of flour and baking for precisely 8 minutes and 23 seconds.  Then removing from the oven and immediately rolling into a jelly roll.  Of course to go inside the roll you have to have something creamy.  Hmmmmm.......  buttercream?  Too sweet.  Custard?  Doesn't stand up as well.  Jelly?  Sure, but still need something creamy.  (insert wild frantic search through fridge because I hadn't bothered to think about this until the day of, which of course was a Sunday and nothing was open.......  perhaps something with coconut milk and maple syrup, I have that......)  Big sigh of relief, I found some creme fraiche and mascarpone.  So, a slightly sweet-sour cream with bourbon vanilla resulted.  Combined with the jelly and sponge cake it wasn't too bad.


But it was missing something.  There was a lack of depth.  I think it needed to be brushed in some sort of alcohol.  That would have made it a little less dry.  Of course since this was the day after the fest, the last thing I wanted to smell was more alcohol.  By the way, who thought it was a good idea to open the rum last night?  Come on, fess up!  Anyway, next time I'll brush it with alcohol (but not rum), reduce the jelly, and add more creme fraiche to the icing.  But overall, it was a good cake.  Good ending to the easter brunch.


Here is an actual recipe for Génoise:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Plain-Genoise-353190 


Oh, and don't forget to whip the eggs like < insert inappropriate analogy of choice >

Bacon and Alcohol

What does one bring to the house of one's very best friends?  Why, bacon and alcohol, of course!  On a Monday night I found myself without family and thought that a quiet evening with friends would be just the thing.  So I offered to cook dinner, a small gesture to off-set the hundreds of times I show up unannounced, drink their liquor, eat their food, sunbathe on their porch........ as a matter of fact, now that I think about it, why do they still answer the door when I come by?  No Emily, don't pull that string too hard, just be glad they do.

So anyway, I decided to make a pretty simple somewhat healthy dinner.  Chicken and salad.  What's more healthy than that?  Yup, you guessed it, I couldn't just make chicken and salad, I had to make salad with bacon and the chicken should have had a white wine sauce, but we drank all the wine before it was time to make the sauce.  So I wrapped the chicken in bacon too.  Actually I wrapped the chicken in prosciutto, which is much classier, but essentially still bacon.   And of course I love cheese and no meal is complete without it, so I fried 2 different types of goat cheese to see which one fried better.  Hmmmm......  Perhaps my definition of "healthy" and "simple" needs some work.

Well, the meal went perfectly with the wine that was supposed to go into the sauce, I was a huge hit with the 5-year-old because I left a couple pieces of bacon whole for him, and he actually liked the chicken.  Of course my early, calm, not drinking night was all three things............sort of.  Its what I love about my friends, while eating we talk about what we ate previously, the flavor, texture, combination, and nuances of what we are currently eating, and what we will eat next.  Its my kind of crowd!

Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken
2 Large Chicken Breasts (sized DD if you can find them, in Europe they don't enhance them as much so we had a full C), alternatively you can use chicken tenders about 1lb of meat total
6 pieces Thin Sliced, High Quality Prosciutto (substitute thin sliced bacon, must be smoked)
2T Light Olive Oil or Sunflower Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
(sauce contains white wine, lemon juice, chicken stock, and heavy cream...... but I can't comment on proportions since I drank all the white wine and a white wine sauce without wine is a little like wearing running shoes with your business suit)

Pound chicken breasts to about 1/2-3/4 in thick.  Cut into 2-3 pieces each.  Salt and pepper the chicken on both sides.  Wrap each piece of chicken in prosciutto, starting at one end and leaving both ends of the prosciutto tucked under the same side of the chicken.  Let the chicken rest with the seam side down while you head the olive oil in the pan until hot but not smoking.  Olive Oil has a low smoke point, sunflower oil is a little better so it doesn't make as big a mess and doesn't risk burning at as low a temperature.  Place the chicken in the oil seam side down.  Cook for 2-3 minutes until bottom is lightly browned.  Carefully flip the chicken and brown on the other side for 2-3 minutes.  Chicken may take an additional 2 minutes per side for the prosciutto to become golden brown and the chicken to cook through, depending on the thickness of the chicken.

Feld Salat with Shallot, Bacon, and White Balsamic dressing
1 Large Bunch of Feld Salad, substitute other tender leafy green if you are somewhere other than Germany
1 Package of Bacon (6-8 pieces, this is German sized package, not US)
2 Large or 3 Small Shallots minced
3T Olive Oil
2T White Balsamic Vinegar
1T Lemon Juice
1T Dijon Mustard
Salt and Pepper

Fry bacon until crispy.  Remove bacon from pan but leave drippings.  Add 1T of olive oil to the pan if there is not enough fat rendered from the bacon.  Caramelize the shallots in the bacon grease until translucent and soft.  Using a slotted spoon remove the shallots and put into a bowl.  In another bowl, whisk 2T olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, and mustard.  Add shallots.  Salt and pepper to taste.  To serve, toss the greens with the dressing and top with crumbled bacon.

Fried Goat Cheese
1 Log of Goat Cheese
10 Crackers (Ritz are good, I used parmesan crackers)
2T Olive Oil

Crush the crackers on a plate.  Cut the goat cheese log into rounds about 1/2in thick.  Roll the goat cheese in the cracker crumbs, pressing gently to adhere the crumbs to the cheese.  Heat the olive oil in a pan, preferably the one from above with the shallot and bacon grease, everything tastes better fried in bacon grease.  Heat until smoking....... the pan, not you......  Gently place the goat cheese rounds in the oil and fry for 2-3 min.  Very gently, using a spatula, flip the goat cheese and fry on the other side.  It will most likely ooze a little.   Place directly on the plate with the salad and chicken.

Then open the 2nd bottle of wine and enjoy with friends.

It Felt French....

So there we were, deciding what to do on a Saturday night.  Perhaps a calm night in?  Sounds good.  And we should cook.  Yeah!  Cooking together as a big groups will be fun.  We'll help each other, and each do a dish or two.  It will be easy and simple......

Of course, I don't do anything simple.  And neither do my friends.  So for a simple meal in together we made the following:
Caramelized Onion tart with anchovies and olives
Pork Wellington with apples and proscuitto
Tenderloin in a red wine reduction
Potatoes au Gratin
Bête Noire with Grand Marnier whipped cream

Oh, and did I mention there were only 5 of us eating?  That's right, a full French meal with two meat dishes for 5 people.  Now I know where the idea for fois gras came from.  All dishes were very very good.  Decadent and complicated good.  So much for the simple night in.

And of course we helped each other.  I helped Ivan wrap the tenderloin in puff pastry.  Migle watched the au gratin in the oven.  Jim managed the oven space.  Trey poured wine.  It all went well.  Until Ivan decided to help with the Bête Noire.  Now this is a very simple cake.  In fact, it requires eggs, sugar, chocolate, and butter.  Seriously.  That's it.  But it has about 48 steps that have to be exactly right.  One of them is whipping egg whites then gently incorporating them into the rest of the mixture.  Well, Ivan misunderstood my direction and poured the hot chocolate directly onto the whipped egg white deflating and partially cooking them.  Of course at that point there is nothing you can do but laugh and either bake it, start over, or skip desert.  We, being the experimental sort (no not that way......at least not until after desert), threw the whole thing together and baked it.  Texture was a little off, but really not bad.  The whipped cream with Grand Marnier helped.

I'll give the cake recipe here.  The tart recipe came from the Beautiful French cookbook, and was very tasty.  Sounds strange to have caramelized onions, anchovies, and olives, but the anchovies and olives with their salty taste cut the richness of the pastry and sweetness of the onions beautifully.  I guess that's why they call it the Beautiful cookbook.

Well, here is the One, the Only, the Richest Chocolate Cake ever: bête noire!  Literally translated: The Black Beast.  I used the recipe from the Beautiful cookbook (the more I write that, the more I can feel the book jumping up and down in front of me shouting "look at me I'm so beautiful", which in fact it is, it is also the size of an atlas and nearly broke Charlotte's toe when she dropped it.  Good cookbook, but a little pretentious....).  Anyway, below is the one from Epicurious which is exactly the same except for the addition of vanilla.  Oh, and I used half and half 60% and 70% belgian chocolate.  Oh, and make sure you put the chocolate into the yolks not the whites.


For cake

• 12 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

• 6 large eggs, separated
• 12 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 9-inch-diameter springform pan. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper or waxed paper; butter paper. Wrap outside of pan with foil. Stir chocolate and butter in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Cool to lukewarm, stirring often.

Using electric mixer, beat egg yolks and 6 tablespoons sugar in large bowl until mixture is very thick and pale, about 3 minutes. Fold lukewarm chocolate mixture into yolk mixture, then fold in vanilla extract. Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in another large bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 6 tablespoons sugar, beating until medium-firm peaks form. Fold whites into chocolate mixture in 3 additions. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake cake until top is puffed and cracked and tester inserted into center comes out with some moist crumbs attached, about 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack (cake will fall).

Gently press down crusty top to make evenly thick cake. Using small knife, cut around pan sides to loosen cake. Remove pan sides. Place 9-inch-diameter tart pan bottom or cardboard round atop cake. Invert cake onto tart pan bottom. Peel off parchment paper.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Flourless-Chocolate-Cake-with-Chocolate-Glaze-5872#ixzz1IA8cvU9s