Cook Like Mad

So I kind of wish this idea for roasted carrot bean dip came to me before this past weekend, because it would have been a great contribution to the hoards of Superbowl recipes that flew around the food blog universe last week, but alas, some ideas just don’t come to me on demand. This recipe is the direct result of me being sick of eating raw carrots, having bought one of those 5 lb bags, and needing a recipe to avoid “forgetting” them in the fridge and ultimately tossing them out.

From that hearthbread I made a couple days ago, I had some roasted garlic left over (I always roast extra garlic once I’m going to the trouble of turning the oven on for a solid hour), and thought it would be a marvelous idea to mix that with some carrot puree and make a dip. To give the carrot puree extra flavor, I roasted them on a sheet tray first. To give texture to the dip, I added half a can of white beans, which is why the dip looks oddly yellow and not orange…though, I assure you part of the reason for this is my lack of picture-taking ability. The dip really was a more carrot-induced color.

Anyway, add a few flavorings that harmonize these three ingredients (namely, thyme) and toast up some whole grain bread and you’ve got yourself a great, healthy appetizer to add to your party food line-up. Put bowls of salsa and guacamole on the table and your guests will be astounded by how colorful your table looks. Enjoy!

Roasted Carrot White Bean Dip

Makes 2 1/2 cups

1 1/2 lbs carrots, sliced (or use baby carrots ,whole)

1 head garlic, top sliced off about 1/2 inch from the top.

1 can cannellini or broad beans, drained and rinsed with cold water

1 tsp thyme, fresh (fine to subsitute dried)

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

olive oil, for roasting carrots and garlic, about 2 tbsp

salt and pepper, to taste

toast points, to serve

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350, toss carrots in olive oil in a bowl to coat and spread carrots out on a sheet tray. Wrap head of garlic in foil, and before closing the package, drizzle in a little olive oil (about 1 tsp). Place foil wrapped garlic on the same sheet tray as the carrots and roast for 45 minutes until both the garlic and carrots are completely soft and golden.

2. While the carrots and garlic are roasting, get the rest of your mise en place ready (i.e. open the can of beans, measure your cheese, olive oil and thyme, and make sure your food processor isn’t dusty.

3. Place roasted carrots in bowl of food processor and squeeze garlic cloves out of the head into the bowl, as well. Add beans and thyme and puree until very smooth, but it will never be baby food, so don’t try for that. Add in cheese and extra virgin olive oil, and process until fully incorporated. If the mixture is a little dry, add more olive oil, about a tablespoon at a time. Season with salt and pepper and serve with toast points. Enjoy!

-M

I told D before we moved in together that we were going to have to make room for my enormous cookbook collection in our new apartment, but it wasn’t until I started piling the books against the wall last month for lack of bookshelf space, that he quite understood what I meant. Thankfully we “inherited” a second bookshelf from a past roommate, giving my collection a proper home, as well as freeing up some floor space…

This recipe for Garlic and Parsley Hearthbread comes from Nigella Lawson’s cookbook, How to be a Domestic Goddess. Nigella has a talent for making baked goods, both rustic and refined, seem utterly simplistic, and leads you through recipes as a friend would, with gentle nudgings in the right direction. One thing I particularly love about Nigella’s writing is the unparalleled way she describes a treat’s deliciousness. She says of dream bars, “on top is a sticky mixture of nuts and coconut bound by a tender, toffeelike chewy gunge,” and of chocolate macaroons, “Though description is irrelevant: the utter gorgeousness of just one mouthful of these chocolate macaroons…reveals the rank inadequacy of language.” For someone who describes her chocolate loaf cake as having “damp, heady aromatic denseness” and her cream cheese brownies as “rich, sweet, sharp, palate-cleaving,” its quite the complement to a dessert that it is beyond her ability to describe its lusciousness. Then again, if you’ve ever watched Nigella on TV, you are already aware that her words hold no flame to the look on her face when she takes a bite of her creation. Nothing makes you want to cook more than watching her hedonistic smile as she licks chocolate brownie batter off a wooden spoon. If you’re a guy, maybe you’re not thinking so much about cooking…However, if you’re attracted to men, then most likely you’re thinking about making those brownies to see the same smile on your guests faces as they delight in another fabulous Nigella recipe.

Back to the hearthbread (sorry guys…). All you need is your hands, a baking sheet, and a hot oven. Sure you can use the dough hook on your stand mixer to knead the dough, but for me, the whole point of baking bread from scratch is feeling the dough elasticize and strengthen in your palms. Nigella describes this hearthbread as “something between garlic naan and herby focaccia: dimpled, doughy, and headily pungent.” As usual, she gives an honest and accurate description of what will come from your oven. Enjoy!

Garlic and Parsley Hearthbreads (adapted from Nigella Lawson’s How To Be a Domestic Goddess)

Makes 2 6” x 10” breads, but you can shape them into rolls or rounds as you wish.

3 1/2 cups white bread flour (secretly, I used all purpose, and they turned out great! Don’t waste money on buying special flour if you don’t want to)

1 package (1/4 oz) rapid-rise yeast

1 tbsp salt

1 1/3 cup warm water

5 tbsp olive oil, plus 3 tbsp for garlic parley mixture, and more for greasing

1 large head fresh garlic, top sliced, drizzled with oil, roasted in the oven in foil at 375 for 45 minutes, until golden and soft

1/2 cup flat leaf parsely, minced

salt, for sprinkling

1 large or 2 small baking sheets, lightly oiled

Method (I’m being brief to avoid copyright issues, ok?)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine warm water and 5 tbsp olive oil in a measuring cup and flour, yeast, and salt in a large bowl. Stir wet mixture into the dry one, combine and dump on your cutting board. Knead 15 minutes, or until dough is stiff and elastic and smooth. Clean your large bowl, lightly oil it and place the bread inside. Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place (on top of your stove, while the oven is heating is nice) for 1 hour.

2. Meanwhile, mince together your roasted garlic (which you’ve extracted from its bulb) and parsley and place in a small bowl. Add 3 tbsp olive oil and stir to combine.

3. After your bread has risen for one hour (it should be about double in size), punch down dough and dump onto your clean counter. Form into desired shapes and set on greased baking sheet(s). With your finger tips, take a pinch of the garlic and parsley mixture and press it into the top of the bread, creating green and golden flecked dimples on the top of your dough. Repeat until the mixture is gone and your bread is covered. Let rest for 20 minutes on the baking sheet(s) under a damp paper towel (or two).

4. Once the dough is rested, place in the oven on the baking sheets, and bake for 20 minutes, until the top is golden, and totally firm to the touch. You can tap the bottoms of the breads and if it sounds hollow, they’re done. Let cool for at least 20 minutes, to allow the crumb to set and dry. Enjoy!

-M : )

There are some no-brainer food combinations that come to mind when I think of things to make for dessert: chocolate and mint, chocolate and cherry, chocolate and coconut, chocolate and almond, chocolate and peanut butter, white chocolate and berries, hmm…chocolate, white, milk, or dark, seems to compliment an inexhaustible list of flavors, huh? However, chocolate desserts, even when they contain fruit, can be quite heavy. The solution? Use the chocolate as a background flavor, as I’ve done in this take on a napoleon, using pate a choux (cream puff) disks in place of the traditional puff pastry rectangles, and pumpkin white chocolate puree in place of the heavy pastry cream filling. The result is a light, texturally interesting, and visually impressive dessert. And, of course, it’s delish- would I post the recipe if it wasn’t? Be assured, its a winner. Enjoy! : )

Pumpkin White Chocolate Pate a Choux “Napoleon”

Pate a Choux Dough (adapted from Nick Malgieri’s “How to Bake“)

Makes 30 3” rounds

1 cup water

6 tablespoons butter (I actually prefer salted butter, here)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup all purpose flour

4 large eggs

2/3 cup coarse white sugar, for sprinkling (coarse brown sugar is a fine substitute- look for demerara sugar)

pastry bag with 1/4 inch round tip

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a large baking sheet, or place a spat mat on the baking sheet. Arrange racks so that they are in the center of the oven.

2. Combine water, butter, and salt in a medium size saucepan or pot over medium high heat and bring to a boil. When mixture boils, turn off heat, add flour all at once and stir with a wooden spoon until incorporated and mixture leaves the sides of the pot cleanly.

3. Transfer paste to a bowl and spread the paste up the sides of the bowl to quicken cooling process. Let cool for 1 minute, then add eggs, one at a time, stirring until each is absorbed before adding the next.

4. Spoon mixture into pastry bag fitted with 1/4 inch wide round tip and pipe 3” pinwheels onto the baking sheet, keeping 1” between each puff. Pipe pinwheels by starting in the center first and coiling the dough around the center. When you’ve made a 3” pinwheel, release pressure on the bag and pull the tip away to the side (don’t pull the tip up) in a quick motion. Sprinkle tops of pinwheels liberally with coarse sugar. Don’t worry about shaking excess sugar off the baking sheet or mat, it will just caramelize in the oven and add extra crunch to the pinwheels.

4. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden and fully cooked through. Puffs should retain their shape out of the oven. If they collapse on themselves, bake for an extra minute or two.

Pumpkin White Chocolate Puree

Makes enough for 4 Napoleons

1 small can pumpkin puree

1/4 cup real maple syrup

2 tsp molasses

1 tsp cinnamon

pinch nutmeg

1 cup white chocolate chips, melted in the microwave

Method:

1. Mix 1/2 pumpkin puree (1 of the two parts) with the rest of the ingredients, except for the white chocolate, together in a bowl. Divide in half. Add melted white chocolate chips to one of the halves, mix and set both bowls aside.

Construction of the “Napoleon”

Pate a Choux Pinwheels

Pumpkin Puree

White Chocolate Pumpkin Puree

white chocolate chips, about 1/8 cup per person

1. Place a pinwheel cream puff in the center of a plate. Spoon or pipe about 1 tbsp of the non-white chocolate pumpkin puree onto the pinwheel and repeat layering process until you have used 3 pinwheels. Repeat with other plates.

2. Drizzle white chocolate pumpkin puree over each stack and sprinkle with white chocolate chips so your guests know the components of the dessert. Enjoy!

-M : )

Tonight’s dinner was both simple and impressive- simple for the chef, impressive for the bf. Does weeknight cooking get any better than that? I named these pork chops “Autumn” since they share the plate with mushroom-stuffed tomatoes. Stuffing, in any form, epitomizes fall to me, and here, crammed inside hollow tomatoes, it enriches a would-be tasteless fruit this time of year.

The pan sauce is simple and efficient and there’s no need to follow my recipe if you don’t have cherry tomatoes on hand (they can be kind of pricey this time of year). Instead, replace the cherry tomatoes with the chopped innards you removed from the large tomatoes and save yourself 4 bucks. The point of adding tomatoes is twofold: color and acidity. While the pan sauce has thyme in it, the red perks up the color while simultaneously balancing the stock-based sauce. The sauce, having been thickened with flour, needs the acidity to draw it out of “dullsville,” as my mother would say. No need to go there- sliced cherry tomatoes, tomato scraps, or even some lemon juice, will keep you far away.

No story necessary for this dinner, its just good, fresh, healthy food. Oh, and the stuffed tomatoes are an excellent vessel for getting more veggies into your child’s diet (or your boyfriend’s!). An untrained palate will never know there are mushrooms hiding in there, but the body that mouth feeds will reap the benefits. Enjoy! : )

Autumn Pork Chops with Stuffed Tomatoes

Serves 2

2 boneless pork chops
2 3” wide tomatoes, insides removed so only 1/2″ thick shell remains
3 large mushrooms, diced
1 small yellow onion, diced, separated in two equal portions
2 ribs celery, diced, separated in two equal portions
1 tsp fresh thyme (dried can be substituted), separated into 2 equal portions
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
2 tbsp parmesean, grated
1/2 cup (about 8-10) grape tomatoes, thinly sliced
1 tbsp flour (all purpose works well)
salt and pepper to taste
oil for sauteing vegetables (about 2 tbsp)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and place cover a small cookie sheet or ovensafe dish with a layer of aluminum foil.

2. In a small saute pan, heat 1 tbsp olive oil and add mushrooms and one portion each of onions and celery. Season with 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Saute until golden over medium high heat, about 5 minutes.

3. Turn the heat to low, add 1/2 cup chicken stock and mix well.

4. Take the pan off the heat, add breadcrumbs and 1/2 tsp thyme to pan, and once the mixture has cooled slightly, add the egg and mix well.

5. Using a spoon, distribute the stuffing evenly into the two tomatoes. Pack tightly and place the tomatoes on the aluminum foil covered baking sheet and transfer to oven. Cook for 25 minutes or until stuffing is golden.

Stuffed tomatoes ready for the oven!

6. While tomatoes bake, place heavy skillet over high heat and season pork chops with salt and pepper. Add pork chops to pan and leave undisturbed for 4-5 minutes, until topsides look very moist and the sides look cooked halfway up. Flip and cook other side until you have reached your desired level of doneness.

7. Remove pork chops to clean cutting board to rest and redistribute juices; reduce heat to medium high and add tomatoes and remaining portions of onions, celery, and thyme to the pan. Cook until golden, add flour and incorporate well, then add remaining chicken stock and raise heat to high.

Thickening the pan sauce

8. Cook until the sauce has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon and turn off the heat. At this point the stuffed tomatoes are ready, so take them out of the oven and place one on each plate. Top each with 1 tbsp parmesean. Place one pork chop on each plate and spoon desired amount of sauce over each. Serve and enjoy!

-M : )

Of all four seasons, autumn has the best food. Its like Goldilocks and the three (well, four..) bears: Winter’s food is too heavy, Summer (and Spring) food is too light, and Autumn’s just right. Vegetables and Fruits get the attention they deserve, and the spices are warm without being heavy, simultaneously sweet and savory. It is often a time of indulgence, as people are eager to make desserts with the apples, pears, pumpkins, and even sweet potatoes that crowd the market shelves, but our bodies are pushed back into balance by the amount of nutrients in the available food: brussel sprouts, winter squash, leeks, green beans, and broccoli, are a few that come to mind (in addition to those mentioned above, of course).

Using fruits and vegetables in desserts has always been an interest of mine. I much prefer zucchini breads, banana muffins, sweet potato pies and berry cobblers to cheesecakes, pecan pies, and other (in my opinion) more cloying treats. Produce in desserts adds depth of flavor, texture, color, and boosted nutrition. Its also a great way to help introduce kids to unfamiliar and perhaps intimidating foods.

This recipe for Pumpkin Ginger Bars is special then, in two ways: it’s in tune with the season and it includes some healthy ingredients (like molasses, cinnamon, and pumpkin). It’s also the most addictive baked good I’ve ever made. The lightness of the filling combined with the chewy, crunchy base provides a textural contrast that most desserts lack. For me, when I have pumpkin pie, I find the crust to be superfluous, unnecessary, almost a dilution of the filling’s flavor. Not so with these; the crust is made with ginger snaps, and then covered in a thin layer of caramel, pairing perfectly with the homemade pumpkin filling. The filling is incredible on its own, but you’ll never leave tasteless crust behind when you eat these. So take a little time this afternoon to appreciate and share autumn’s bounty with these Pumpkin Ginger Bars. With two of these warm from the oven, a cup of mulled cider and a good book, you’ll be fully equipped for a cozy afternoon : )

Pumpkin Ginger Bars
Makes 28 bars

For Crust:
30 2″ gingersnap cookies (I like Sweetzels brand), crushed in a food processor
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/8 cup brown sugar

For Caramel layer:
2 bags Werther’s classic chewy caramels
1/2 cup milk
3 tbsp butter

For Pumpkin filling:
1 15oz. can pumpkin puree
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 cup molasses

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and grease a 13 x 9 in. pan (glass works especially well).

2. Combine the cookie crumbs, butter, and brown sugar in a small bowl. Dump the mixture into the greased pan and distribute evenly over the bottom. The mixture will be very crumbly but don’t worry. Press it down lightly with your hands and make sure the crust extends to the edges of the pan.

3. Bake the crust blind for 10 minutes in the 425 degree oven to help it firm up. Don’t let it get too brown!

4. Unwrap caramels and place in a bowl over a pot of simmering water to melt. Add 1/2 cup milk and 3 tbsp butter to the bowl. Once caramels have melted, stir the mixture until it is fully incorporated and keep it over the double boiler to remain warm.

5. When the crust is ready, pour the caramel mixture over the crust and spread delicately to distribute it evenly over the crust’s surface. It will be thin, but there is exactly enough.

6. Combine all remaining ingredients in a bowl and pour over the caramel, again distributing the filling evenly.

E. Bake for 15 minutes at 425 then lower oven to 350 and finish cooking for 35 more minutes. Bars are done when the top feels firm and the filling no longer jiggles in the center.

Note: I recommend letting these cool to room temp before slicing them, and when you do slice them, make sure you use a sharp knife and press down firmly- the bottom crust is very dense. Additionally, I would refridgerate these, or they will be incredibly chewy. The fridge makes the crust crunchy rather than chewy and I tend to find them even better this way.

Enjoy!

-M : )