Braised Leeks

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted new recipes. Never fear, I have been cooking away, and stockpiling food pictures and recipes, so there should be a number of good things coming your way soon.

Here is an excellent new recipe for braised leeks from Smitten Kitchen. It's supposed to be served as a side with her breaded chicken thighs, but I've made it twice now without the chicken, and it's great on its own. (In case you were wondering, braising is a cooking technique that involves searing or cooking at high heat to brown something, then cooking it for a longer time in the oven with liquid). It may not look like much, but the flavors are amazing and the leeks become soft and tender.

The recipe calls for chicken stock, but that could be easily replaced with veggie stock. Though I will say that the recipe was amazing when I used homemade chicken stock, and merely good with the carton one.

The recipe below reheats well, and can easily be cut in half since 6 leeks makes a lot of food.

Braised Leeks

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Serves 6-8


Ingredients
6 large leeks
About 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup peeled and sliced shallots
1 tablespoon thyme leaves or powdered thyme
3/4 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 to 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock or water
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Equipment

Stove

Pot holders

Oven

Knife and cutting board

Measuring cup and spoons

Tongs

Large saucepan

Relatively tall-sided baking dish that can go in the oven

Towel or paper towel

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Trim the roots off the leeks, but leave as much of the bottom bulb as you can. Remove any brown or nasty looking outer leaves. Trim the tops of the leeks to remove the tips and any dried-out green parts. Rinse the outside of the leeks and shake dry.

3. Cut the leeks in half lengthwise, and then in half widthwise. Rinse again, peeling the layers apart slightly to get out deeply embedded dirt (but try not to pull the leeks entirely apart - you still want them in their nested quarters for frying).

4. Place the leeks, cut side down, on a towel and pat dry completely. Turn the leeks over so their cut sides are facing up, and season with 2 teaspoons salt and a few grindings of black pepper.

5. Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat for 2 minutes. Pour in 1/4 cup olive oil, and wait 1 minute. Place the leeks in the pan, cut side down, as many as you can layer to cover the whole bottom of the pan without overlapping. You will probably need to saute them in batches (it took me 4 batches with a pretty large pan). Add more olive oil to the pan as needed, for each batch. Sear them 4 to 5 minutes, until they are golden brown. Season the backs of the leeks with salt and pepper, and turn them over to cook another 3 to 4 minutes (until brown on the other side). When cooked, transfer them to a large baking dish.

6. Pour 1/4 cup olive oil into the pan and heat over medium heat. Add the shallots, thyme, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and a pinch of pepper. Cook about 5 minutes, until the shallots are just beginning to color.

7. Add the white wine and reduce by half (cook until half the liquid has evaporated). Add 1.5 cups stock, and bring to a boil over high heat.

8. Pour the liquid over the leeks in the baking dish. The stock should not quite cover them; add more stock if necessary.

9. Cook in the oven 30 minutes, until the leeks are tender when pierced. Serve hot with the liquid.

Fresh Fruit Tart

This fresh fruit tart recipe produces a beautiful and delicious tart (as long as you cut the fruit nicely), and is perfect for a party because you can make everything the day ahead (or even two) and just assemble right before serving. I failed to get any pictures of the ones I made for glee club because they were devoured too quickly, but this picture is from the one Taylor and I made the weekend before to test the recipe out (see why you don't use blackberry jam for the glaze).

I mostly followed the recipe from Joy of Baking, and found it works well with a mixture of fruit (mango, strawberry, blackberry, pineapple, etc.), or as an all-berry tart (your choice of strawberry, blackberry, blueberry, raspberry). This recipe has quite a few steps and separate pieces, but it's very much worth making.

Fresh Fruit Tart

Serves 8-10

Ingredients

Sweet Pastry Crust:
     1 1/2 cups all purpose flour + more for dusting
     1/8 teaspoon salt
     1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature + more for coating pan
     1/4 cup granulated white sugar
     1 large egg

Pastry Cream:
     1 1/4 cups whole milk
     1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
     3 large egg yolks
     1/4 cup granulated white sugar
     2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
     2 tablespoons cornstarch
     1 1/2 tablespoons Malibu (optional)

Apricot Glaze: (optional - I used it, but I'm not sure it's necessary, especially if you're assembling close to the time you eat)
     1/2 cup apricot jam
     1 tablespoon water

Topping:
     3 cups fruit, washed and cut into nice-looking, small pieces

Equipment

Measuring cup and spoons

Hand mixer

Large mixing bowl

Plastic wrap

9 inch tart pan with removable bottom (a pie plate might be able to be used in a pinch)

Freezer

Oven and oven mitts

Fork

Medium heat-proof bowl

Whisk

Saucepan

Stove

Wooden spoon or silicone spatula

Knife and cutting board

Optional if using glaze: small saucepan/heatproof bowl, strainer, pastry brush

Instructions

Sweet Pastry Crust:

1. Place the butter in a mixing bowl and beat on medium-high speed until softened with hand mixer. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat just until incorporated.

2. Add the flour and salt all at once and mix at medium-low speed just until it comes together and forms a ball.

3. Turn dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap and form into a ball. Flatten into a disk and fold plastic wrap around it to cover. Refrigerate for 15-30 minutes or just until firm (or place in freezer for about 10-15 minutes.)

4. Lightly butter and flour, or spray with a non-stick vegetable/flour cooking spray, the tart pan.

5. Remove pastry from freezer and unwrap. Use your hands to flatten pastry dough into large circle, approximately the size of the tart pan. Place dough in pan and press into bottom and up sides of pan. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for about 15 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F and place rack in center of oven.

7. Remove plastic wrap from tart shell and lightly prick bottom of pastry crust with the tines of a fork (this will prevent the dough from puffing up as it bakes). Bake crust for 5 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue to bake the crust for about 15-20 minutes or until dry and lightly golden brown.

8. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely before filling. Can be covered and stored for a few days.

Pastry Cream:

1. In a medium-sized heatproof bowl, whisk the sugar and egg yolks together. (Don't let the mixture sit too long or you will get pieces of egg forming.)

2. Add the flour and cornstarch to the egg mixture, whisking mixing until you get a smooth paste.

3. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, bring the milk and vanilla just to boiling (just until milk starts to foam up.)

4. Remove from heat and add slowly to egg mixture (Slowly is really important here), whisking constantly to prevent curdling. (If you get a few pieces of egg (curdling) in the mixture, pour through a strainer.) 

5. Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat whisking constantly. The mixture will slowly thicken, and then will suddenly thicken a lot. Keep cooking until this point, where it thickens significantly to just beyond a pudding-like consistency. [Make sure to be watching carefully because it will quickly go from too thin to the right consistency to too thick.]

6. Remove from heat and immediately whisk in the liqueur (if using). Pour into a clean bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a crust from forming. Cool to room temperature. If not using right away refrigerate until needed, up to 3 days. Beat or whisk before using to get rid of any lumps that may have formed.

Apricot Glaze:

Heat the apricot jam and water in a small saucepan over medium heat until liquid (melted). (Can also heat in the microwave.) Remove from heat and strain the jam through a fine strainer to remove any fruit lumps.

To Assemble Tart:

1. To remove the tart from the fluted sides of the pan, place your hand under the pan, touching only the removable bottom not the sides. Gently push the tart straight up, away from the sides. The fluted tart ring will fall away and slide down your arm. If you want to remove the bottom of the pan, run a knife or thin metal spatula between the crust and metal bottom, then slide the tart onto your platter.

2. If using the glaze, spread a thin layer of apricot glaze over the bottom and sides of the baked tart shell to prevent the crust from getting soggy. Let the glaze dry (about 20 minutes).

3. Spread the pastry cream onto the bottom of the tart shell. Place fruit randomly on top of cream or in concentric overlapping circles, starting at the outside edge.

4. After arranging the fruit, rewarm the glaze, if using, and gently brush a light coat on the fruit. If not serving immediately, refrigerate but bring to room temperature before serving.

This fruit tart is best eaten the same day as it is assembled. Cover and refrigerate any leftovers.

Mini Caramelized White Chocolate "Cheesecakes"

Adam and I are making appetizers and baking dessert for 60 this weekend for the annual Glee Club banquet, so get excited for some awesome dishes coming your way over the next few days as I test out the new recipes and we do tons of cooking this weekend.

For the desserts, we wanted to do one chocolate dish, one fruit dish, and one non-fruit non-chocolate dish (without nuts because of allergies), so hopefully everyone would have at least one or two options they would like. We landed pretty quickly on Jeni's Darkest Chocolate Ice Cream in the World (which I make with espresso in place of coffee and is divine) and a fresh fruit tart (which I'll send out soon). The non-fruit non-chocolate recipe was a bit harder. Adam suggested cheesecake, but I wanted to go with something more exciting, so thinking back to David Lebovitz's recipe for caramelized white chocolate, I decided to try inventing a recipe for caramelize white chocolate cheesecake. I found a recipe for white chocolate cheesecake, and just substituted in the caramelized white chocolate.

While my office seemed to like it a lot, I thought the resulting cheesecake was good, but not great. I think it wasn't quite as dense and creamy as I hoped it would be, and the crust was a crumbly mess and too thick, and it got into the cream cheese part, ruining the texture. Given I didn't love it and I had forgotten how much of a pain in the ass cheesecake is (especially messing with cooking it for 2 hours in a water bath and cooling it for 4 hours before unmolding with only 1 springform pan to use for 6 cakes), we decided not to make it for the banquet.

However, I ended up with mini caramelized white chocolate cheesecake-souffles as a delicious accidental byproduct, which is what I'm sharing with you today, and is something that I probably would make again (even though it won't work for this weekend because it requires separate ramekins). Because I didn't have a tall-sided springform pan, I made the large cheesecake in a shallower dish that couldn't accommodate all the filling I had made. Not one to waste delicious caramelized white chocolate cheesecake batter, I poured the excess into 4 small ramekins and baked them alongside the big cheesecake outside of the water bath because there was no room in the roasting pan.

These mini desserts turned out quite unlike the large cheesecake, but very delicious in their own way. They baked up with a nice crust on top and a dense texture somewhere between a cheesecake and a fallen souffle - more cakelike than a cheesecake, more cheesecake like than a cake. The caramel flavor was much more pronounced, and without a crust getting in the way, the texture was significantly improved. Also, without the need to make and bake the crust, or to bake them in the water bath, these are much easier to make - and worth it.

Mini Caramelized White Chocolate "Cheesecakes"

Serves 12

Ingredients

8 oz good quality white chocolate (make sure cocoa butter is a listed ingredient, the more the better)

a pinch of sea salt

3 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
5 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch salt

Equipment

Knife and cutting board

Oven and pot holders

Stovetop

Baking sheet

Silicone spatula

Saucepan

Mixing bowl
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons

Hand mixer/standing mixer

optional: immersion blender

10-12 ramekins, depending on their size

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 250. If the white chocolate is in a block, chop it into relatively small pieces.

2. Distribute the white chocolate on a rimmed baking sheet and heat in the oven for ten minutes.

3. Remove it from the oven and spread it with a clean, dry spatula (it's okay if it doesn't spread nicely, just do your best).

4. Continue to cook for an additional 30-60 minutes, stirring at 10 minute intervals. At some points it may look lumpy and chalky (and even unpleasant), but keep going.

5. Cook until the white chocolate is deep-golden brown, and caramelized. It's okay if it's still a bit lumpy - we'll fix that later. Stir in a good pinch of sea salt and set aside. [If you want to make the caramelized white chocolate to use in other things, you can now store in a jar, at room temperature, until ready to use. It should keep for several months, if stored in a cool, dry place.]

6. Increase oven temperature to 325°F and bring the 1/2 cup of cream to a simmer over medium heat in a small sauce pan. Remove from heat and scrape in caramelized white chocolate, stirring gently until melted completely and combined. If there are lumps that won't dissolve (like in mine), use an immersion blender to smooth it out. If you don't have an immersion blender, you could probably pour into a regular blender, or tough it out and deal with a few tiny lumps in your final cakes.

7. With your hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth and lump free. Add the sugar and mix, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
8. On medium speed, slowly add the white chocolate mixture. Once combined you can add the eggs, one at a time, beating on low speed until each egg is incorporated. Once you've added all the eggs, mix in the vanilla and salt.

9. Fill ramekins about 2/3 full with the batter. Bake for about 60 minutes or until puffed up and slightly browned on the top, and no longer jiggly.

10. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. You can store for several days in the fridge, and bring to room temperature to serve.

Mango, Avocado, and Sesame-Seared Tuna Salad

My regular rule when I eat out is that I don't order anything I think I can make as well or better at home. I gravitate instead towards dishes with hard-to-find or very fresh ingredients, difficult preparation techniques, ethnic foods that I don't know how to make, or very involved recipes. A several fancy restaurants I've been to in the last few years have featured ceviche-like dishes with slices or cubes of raw tuna, often accompanied by avocados, mangos, and citrus fruits. Fearful of doing raw fish at home, I had not attempted to recreate this myself. But when the grocery store had beautiful, essentially sushi-grade, frozen tuna steaks on sale, I knew I had to buy them and give it a try. This delicious recipe is the result. While fancier than I would normally cook on a regular night, it's actually not that expensive if you're buying the raw ingredients, and is great if you want a nicer meal for a special occasion at home. Also, other than searing the tuna, it's really more assembly than cooking, and hard to screw up.

Mango, Avocado, and Sesame-Seared Tuna Salad

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 mango (champagne/atauflo are my favorites)

1 avocado

1 cup cherry tomatoes

2 tuna steaks

1 Tbsp sesame oil

baby greens or other lettuce (optional)

toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Equipment

Knife and cutting board

Saucepan

Stove

Tongs

Instructions

1. Peel mango. Slice fruit from both sides of the pit and along the edges of the pit, then cut into 1/2 inch cubes.

2. Peel avocado, remove pit, and cut into 1/2 inch cubes.

3. Wash and chop cherry tomatoes in half. Toss tomatoes with mango and avocado to combine.

4. Wash and pat dry tuna steaks. Pour sesame oil into saucepan on stove over medium heat. Place tuna steaks in saucepan and cook until the bottom side has become opaque and begun to develop a golden crust on the edges but middle is still raw. Flip and cook on other side, again until opaque and with a slight golden color, but with the middle still pink along the sides (like in the photo below).

5. Using tongs, carefully rotate the tuna steak so it is standing on its short edges. Cook briefly on each edge until the sides are no longer raw (but the middle remains uncooked). [I love my tuna not really cooked, but if you want yours more cooked, then it's fine to cook longer until pink but not raw in the middle. Just don't cook it until gray throughout, you will ruin it.]

6. Remove from the heat and let cool for a few minutes, then slice (see how lovely and raw it still is in the middle!).

7. Plate your greens and top with half the mango mixture or place the mango mixture in a bowl, and arrange the seared tuna on top. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds if desired.

Romesco (Roasted Red Pepper) Sauce

I had never heard of romesco until I ate at Veggie Planet in Harvard Square and fell in love with their Portobello Redhead pizza. It features slices of portobello mushroom slathered in a delicious roasted red pepper/almond sauce - sauce I learned was romesco. Now, whenever I go there, I order the sauce by the cup with their bread, a method which has on several occasions enabled Taylor and me to put away an embarrassingly large quantity of this magic spread. Now that I no longer live in Cambridge, I thought I'd try my hand at making it. It was good but not great the first time, but this further modified batch was excellent.

The beauty of this sauce, in addition to its stellar flavor, is its diversity. It's amazing served over oven roasted portobello mushrooms, on shrimp, over pasta, or almost any way you might use tomato sauce. Also great with pita chips or toast. Or a spoon.

Romesco Sauce
6 servings

Ingredients
3 large bell peppers (all red or 1/2 red 1/2 yellow)
1.5 Tbsp olive oil
1.75 cups (15 oz) cherry tomatoes
7 cloves garlic
3/4 cup ground almonds (or 1 cup whole almonds)
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 chipotle pepper in adobo

Equipment
Knive and cutting board
Oven
Stovetop
Measuring cups and spoons
Baking sheet
Silpat or aluminum foil
Tongs or fork
Large saucepan
Silicone spatula
Blender/Food processor/Immersion blender*
Large bowl

*If you do not have a blender, food processor, or immersion blender, you could do a chunkier version of this if you use ground almonds and chop the roasted vegetables into very small pieces before mixing with the other ingredients. Whole almonds will probably not grind well in a blender, so be sure to use ground ones if you don't have a food processor or immersion blender.

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or foil.
2. Wash, de-stem, and de-seed the bell peppers, cutting them into halves or quarters if they are particularly large.
3. Place peppers on lined baking sheet and drizzle with the olive oil. Use your hands to rub the olive oil into the peppers, lightly coating both sides.

4. Roast for 40 minutes, flipping pieces after 20 minutes, until skin is somewhat blackened and the peppers are very soft.

5. While the peppers are roasting, place tomatoes, garlic, (and whole almonds if you're using them) in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring vigilantly, until there are nice brown spots and nearly all the cherry tomatoes have popped (about 6-8 minutes).

6. Place roasted peppers, pan roasted tomatoes and garlic, ground or pan roasted almonds, red wine vinegar, red pepper flakes, and chipotle pepper in a food processor, blender, or large bowl with an immersion blender. Blend until desired consistency (I recommend until there are no large chunks, but it's not totally smooth).
7. Serve hot or cold over veggies, meat, or bread.

Pesto Quinoa

Sorry I have been delinquent in posting for the last few weeks - too much work and campaign stuff going on. To apologize, I have one of my favorite recipes to share with you. I first made it several summers ago from 101 cookbooks, and have loved it ever since. It is a particular standout in that not only is it delicious and healthy, but also vegan and gluten free (and highly acceptable to those who are neither).

There is some flexibility in the ingredients if you don't have or don't like them, but I find the flavors here are great as is (except for the 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds called for in the original which I have never once remembered to include).

Pesto Quinoa (Adapted from Heather's Quinoa at 101 Cookbooks)

Serves 6

Ingredients

several splashes of extra-virgin olive oil

a pinch of fine grain sea salt

1 shallot, minced

2 cups dry quinoa [you could probably use brown rice, bulgar wheat, or another grain if you want]

1 cup corn, fresh or frozen, removed from the ear (raw and cooked both work)

2 cups kale, finely chopped [you can use spinach or another green if you want]

2 blocks extra-firm nigari tofu

1/3 cup pesto

2/3 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes

Parmesan cheese to garnish (optional)

Equipment

Knife and cutting board

Medium saucepan

Medium pot with lid

Wooden spoon or silicone spatula

LARGE pot for easy reheating, or a bowl in a pinch

Instructions

1.Rinse dry quinoa in a fine-meshed strainer or bowl. In a medium pot heat the quinoa and 4 cups water until boiling. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until water is absorbed and quinoa fluffs up, about 15 minutes. Quinoa is done when you can see the curlique in each grain, and it is tender with a bit of pop to each bite. Drain any extra water and set aside.

2. Meanwhile, slice tofu into medium sized chunks and pat dry. Brown in a saucepan over medium heat with a little olive oil until golden and crispy on all sides (this is important because it keeps the tofu from crumbling when you mix it with the quinoa). Remove the tofu from heat and set aside.

3. Add a bit more olive oil and salt to the saucepan, still on medium heat, then stir in the shallot and cook for a minute or two. Add corn and kale and continue cooking until kale is wilted and corn is cooked, 2-3 minutes.

4. To the large pot, add cooked quinoa and pesto, mixing until the pesto is distributed throughout. Add the browned tofu, shallot/corn/kale mixture, and chopped sun-dried tomatoes and stir again to distribute. Serve warm, with grated parmesan if desired.

Roasted Butternut Squash

If you thought the curry was easy, this recipe will knock your socks off. Roasted veggies in general are unbelievably easy. Basically you cut them into smallish pieces, toss with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and roast at 400 degrees for as long as it takes to cook and start to get crispy. That's it.

Butternut squash is particularly good roasted because as it cooks it caramelizes. The end product is squash that tastes like candy (no, really).

Roasted Butternut Squash

Ingredients

1 large butternut squash (You can buy pre-cubed if you're lazy or don't own good knives. Seriously, don't hurt yourself by trying to cut a squash with bad knives.)

3 Tbsp olive oil

sea salt to taste

Equipment

A big knife

Cutting board

Vegetable peeler

Metal spoon

Measuring spoon

Silpat/foil

Baking sheet

Oven

Tongs/fork

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Peel your squash with the vegetable peeler, making sure to get the whitish part underneath the shiny skin peeled off too because it's kinda hard and flavorless.

3. Chop your squash in half lengthwise and scrape out and discard the seeds and stringy bits. Chop into 1/2 to 3/4 inch cubes.

4. Spread squash cubes on foil or silpat lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Use your hands to toss and coat evenly. Sprinkle with salt.

5. Place squash in oven and cook for approximately 40 minutes until cooked through and beginning to brown, removing every 15 minutes to turn the squash with the tongs so they don't get stuck to the bottom or burn. Enjoy warm or cooled.

Thai Coconut Curry

I am a big fan of Thai food, and have been experimenting with making it myself at home. This recipe is really easy (Kenzie, I'm looking at you), tastes great, is incredibly versatile. I made it with frozen shrimp because that's the protein I had in my apartment, but you can make it just as easily with tofu, chicken, pork or beef, or even some combo of them. Likewise, I used the veggies I had around, so don't feel constrained by my choices; you can mix it up - add broccoli, snow peas, cauliflower, tomatoes, or shredded carrots. I would say you probably want sturdier veggies because something like spinach will just fall apart, but it's really up to you.

Thai Coconut Curry with Shrimp

Makes 5 large servings

Ingredients

1 can coconut milk (1 2/3 cups)

~3 Tbsp curry paste (I used yellow, you can use red or green if you have it)

~12 cups chopped veggies [I used 2 large red bell peppers, 2 large green bell peppers, 1.5 yellow onions, a can of bean sprouts, a can of water chestnuts, and half a container (about 3/4 cup) mushrooms]

1 lime

2 Tbsp chopped ginger

5 portions of protein (I used 50 medium-large shrimp, you could also use about 1 1/2 blocks of tofu, 4 chicken breasts, etc.) + 1/2-1 Tbsp oil to cook it in

Equipment

Cutting board and knife

Large pot (Dutch oven is ideal)

Can opener

Measuring spoon

Small saucepan (if protein isn't cooked)

Instructions

1. Cut your protein of choice into cubes (you can keep shrimp whole) and saute in a pan with oil if not cooked yet.

2. Wash, then chop/slice veggies into bite size pieces. Rinse any canned veggies (this helps wash away some of the sodium, which is almost always more than you want).

3. Pour coconut milk into large pot set over medium heat. Refill empty can with water and pour into the pot too. Add the ginger and curry paste and stir to combine.

4. Add chopped veggies and simmer in coconut milk mixture until cooked through (time will vary depending on what veggies you use). When veggies are mostly cooked, add cooked protein and stir to distribute.

You can eat the curry plain, or over rice. It reheats very well, and also freezes well.

Curried chicken/tofu salad

This is an easy recipe that packs in lots of protein, healthy fats, and fiber, and also tastes great. You can make it with cubed pan sautéed chicken or tofu, and in the later case it's vegan. I served it cold over greens but it would also be great on a sandwich or warm on rice.

Ingredients
3 chicken breasts/1.5 blocks extra firm tofu
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1.5 ripe avocados
1/2 yellow onion
2 granny smith apples
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp curry powder
3/4 tsp powdered ginger
1/2 tsp turmeric
1.5 tbsp lemon juice

Equipment
Knife and cutting board
Strong fork
Large bowl
Medium saucepan
Stove
Measuring spoons

Instructions
1. Cut chicken or tofu into cubes and sauté in olive oil over medium heat until cooked through for chicken and until a golden crust forms for tofu.
2. Chop onion finely. If you want, peel the apple, them chop into smallish pieces (the size of the tip of your pinky or smaller).
3. Peel and remove pit from avocados, then mash in large bowl with a fork until smooth.
4. Add spices and lemon juice to mashed avocado and mix thoroughly with the fork.
5. Add onion, apple, and cubed chicken or tofu and toss to coat with avocado mixture. Eat immediately or refrigerate (note: the avocado will brown quickly but still taste fine for a few days in the fridge). Serves 3-4.

Eat More Kale (Kale Salad and Kale Chips)

Last weekend I gave you ice cream, so it's only fair that I do something healthier this weekend. And kale isn't just healthy, it's awesome. If you missed it, kale is so great that the people at Chik-fil-a felt threatened and tried to shut it down. Really.

My great discovery of the week was kale salad. What is that you might ask? Basically you replace your regular lettuce (or arugula for the snobbish among us) with strips of raw kale. You need to marinate the kale in an acid to break down some of the fibrousness, but at the end, you get a delicious salad made with a superfood. I had my kale salad plain, but I bet it would be amazing with dried cherries, toasted pecans, and crumbled goat cheese, or with avocado and tomato. You can also add any sort of protein you like - shrimp, chicken, tofu, tempeh, slices of lunch meats, etc. - to make it a full meal.

Delicious Kale Salad

A previous, but no less exciting discovery, was homemade kale chips. You can buy them at stores like Whole Foods, but they're ridiculously expensive, and a large head of kale costs about $2, so you decide. Kale chips don't taste or have the exact same texture as regular chips, but they're pretty good in their own right.

Kale Salad

Ingredients

Kale

Olive oil

Lemon juice or balsamic vinegar (or other vinegar you like in your salad dressing)

Sea salt (optional)

Other salad toppings if desired

Equipment

Cutting board and knife

Large bowl

Instructions

1. Wash your kale and shake off the excess water. Cut off the tips of the stalks if they look brown or dried. Then slice the kale into 3/4 inch ribbons and place cut kale into the bowl.

2. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice or balsamic vinegar. I just did it by eye, but I would say if you need quantities, about 1 Tbps of acid and 1 Tbsp of olive oil is good for a very large salad for one person or a regular sized salad for 2.

3. Massage the oil and vinegar or lemon juice into the kale leaves with your hands to get it thoroughly mixed. Let sit for 15-20 minutes (now is a good time to prepare your other salad toppings if you have them).

4. Sprinkle with sea salt if you want (I have found this adds some great flavor, but you really don't want too much), then add any toppings you might have, and enjoy.

Kale Chips

Ingredients

Kale

Olive oil

Sea salt

Spices (garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, paprika, or whatever other flavorings you want)

Equipment

Salad spinner or towels to dry the kale

Cutting board and knife

Baking sheet (lined with a silpat if you have one or parchment paper)

Oven

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Wash your kale and shake off excess water. Use your knife to de-stalk the kale - cut along each side of the thick stems to separate them from the large leaves. [The stems won't cook into nice thin crispy chips so you want to take them all out. But don't throw them away - save the stems, cut into 1/2-3/4 inch pieces and saute with olive oil and garlic for a great and easy side]. You can also even use your hands to rip the leaves from the stems. Then use your knife or hands to cut p kale into chip-size pieces.

3. Dry the kale leaves in the salad spinner or with towels [you need as much moisture gone so they will get crispy when you bake them].

4. Place kale on the lined baking sheet so that the leaves, when spread out, don't overlap (you will likely have to bake in multiple rounds or with multiple baking sheets at one time). Drizzle with olive oil (probably about 1 Tbps per sheet) and toss with your hands to coat all the leaves, or you could spray with cooking spray, ideally olive oil cooking spray, to coat evenly. Sprinkle with sea salt and any spices (I've used garlic and onion powder and liked that, but the plain are good too).

5. Bake until edges are brown but not burnt (about 10-15 minutes).

6. Eat still warm from the oven for the best chips, or allow to cool fully before placing into an airtight container (tupperware or ziploc bag), in which you can store them for a week or so.

Passion Fruit Ice Cream

Since Bill Rose gave me an ice cream maker nearly 3 years ago (wow, we're getting old) I have been rather obsessed with homemade ice cream (to the benefit or detriment, depending on your POV, of my DC housemates, blockmates, and friends). For a while I used various recipes I found online, but my culinary life changed again when Adam's family gave me Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home for my birthday this past year. Jeni runs an ice cream shop near Columbus, Ohio, and has developed a foolproof technique for amazing ice cream that works just as well at home as at her very popular store (and for the $12/pint ice creams she ships all over the country). So far I have made 5 different ice creams and sorbets out of the book (several of them multiple times) and not been the slightest bit disappointed with any of them.

Now I don't know what normal people do in their free time when they're not at campaign events with their mother, but when I wasn't cleaning my apartment after weeks of pre-LSAT neglect, I spent my weekend making ice cream. The first one I made is called Buckeye State, which is peanut butter with dark chocolate freckles and tastes just like those chocolate covered peanut butter balls in ice cream form. It was phenomenal. Except for the part where I wanted to eat the whole 2.5 pints in one sitting. I won't repost the recipe because it's Jeni's copyright, but I encourage you to check out her book (pg 104-105) and give it a try.

The second recipe, which I invented, and therefore can share with you, came about as a result of my obsession with passion fruit. In anticipation of making passion fruit ice cream, I had been looking for months for passion fruit puree or curd at the store, and finally found frozen puree. Jeni has a recipe for tangy passion fruit frozen yogurt, but I wanted ice cream (and had the cream and milk on hand, but no plain yogurt), so I decided to make my own passion fruit ice cream.  Fortunately, another benefit of her technique is that it creates a base that is easily adaptable to new flavors, and my version worked out great. Now I don't like to brag, but this stuff is really good. Like go-out-now-and-buy-an-ice-cream-maker-so-you-can-make-it-yourself good. It's creamy, tangy, the right amount of sweet, and has a strong passion fruit flavor. It's definitely one I will be making again.

Passion Fruit Ice Cream

Ingredients

2/3 cup passion fruit puree (frozen is fine, or probably about 8-10 medium fruits, pressed through a sieve to remove the seeds)

2 cups whole milk

1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp corn starch

1.5 oz (3 Tbsp) cream cheese, softened

1/8 tsp fine sea salt

1.25 cups heavy cream

2/3 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar (divided)

2 Tbsp light corn syrup

Equipment

small saucepan

tall-sided saucepan

silicone spatula

measuring cups and spoons

stove

small bowl

fork

large bowl

whisk

ice cream maker

Instructions

1. Make a passion fruit syrup by heating the passion fruit puree (still frozen is fine) with 2 Tbsp of the sugar in a small saucepan. Simmer, stirring until sugar is dissolved and for about a minute after the mixture begins to bubble. Remove from heat and refrigerate.

2. Mix 1/4 cup of the milk with the cornstarch in the small bowl until smooth, using the fork to break up any lumps.

3. Whisk the cream cheese and salt together in the large bowl to break up the big lumps of cheese.

4. Combine the remaining milk and sugar, cream, and corn syrup in the tall-sided saucepan. Bring to a roiling boil over medium-high heat and boil for 4 minutes [watch carefully during this time period because at least half of the times I've made ice cream this way, the mixture has or has nearly boiled over - be ready to pull the pot off the burner and hold to the side until the bubbling goes down, then return to the heat and lower slightly so it doesn't boil over again].

5. Remove from the heat and gradually mix in the cornstarch slurry.

6. Return to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute.

7. Remove from the heat and gradually pour into the large bowl of cream cheese, whisking with each addition. Continue whisking until smooth and completely incorporated.

8. Chill completely in the refrigerator (at least 6 hours, overnight is better). If you are very impatient, you can pour the hot mixture into a gallon ziplock bag and submerge it in an ice bath, adding more ice every 5-10 minutes for half an hour or until the mixture is cold.

9. Turn on your ice cream maker and pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister. Pour the passion fruit syrup through the opening at the top of the machine and let the machine run until thick and creamy. It's better if you pack it into containers and freeze for at least another 2 hours in your freezer before eating, but if you like it pretty soft you can go ahead and eat it right from the machine.

If you're making it for a group, you can make ice cream ahead of time and it will last perfectly for weeks in the freezer, though not once people know it's in there.

Pan Fried Eggplant

I like eggplant may ways - grilled, roasted, curried, in bhaba ghanoush, in eggplant parmesan, and even

fried. Fried eggplant is so tasty, and a lot faster than roasting in the oven for an hour. It is not, however, very healthy. And, if you salt the eggplant first, which you usually have to, it's not even that fast. Enter my new technique, which will give you delicious and healthy pan-fried eggplant in about 20 minutes.

Ingredients

One eggplant

Cooking spray or a small amount olive/canola oil

Salt (to taste)

Equipment

Knife and cutting board

Stove

Saucepan (the wider it is, the more slices you can do at once)

Fork

Instructions

1. Wash your eggplant and cut off the stem (don't peel it or your slices will fall apart in the pan). Slice into 1/4 inch thick rounds.

2. Turn your saucepan on to medium heat and mist with cooking spray. Place into it as many slices of eggplant as you can without overlapping them, then mist again with cooking spray to cover the tops.

3. Cook for 2-3 minutes, until they begin to steam. Press down pretty hard on the top of each slice with a fork so the moisture begins to seep out, moving around the surface of the slice to get the moisture out of the entire slice. Flip the slices.

4. Cook for another minute, then press down again with the fork along the whole surface of each slice. Flip again.

5. Repeat 1-3 rounds of cooking for a minute, depressing with a fork, and flipping until each slice is cooked through (it should be translucent, with no whitish patches).

6. Give each slice a nice crispy edge by cooking for 30 seconds on each side without pressing down with the fork, then transfer to a plate to cool. Sprinkle with salt.

7. Repeat cooking process for remaining slices.

While you can eat the fried eggplant plain, I would also recommend cutting the slices into pieces and adding to a pasta dish (I'll send out a recipe for what I did with mine), using in a panini, or making eggplant rolatinis by wrapping each slice around ricotta or fresh mozzarella (perhaps with some sundried or fresh tomato, roasted red peppers, or hot peppers in the middle).

Vegetarian Chili

As promised, here is the recipe for the vegetarian chili I made last week (my variations off of Heidi Swanson's recipe). It's a very flexible recipe, so feel free to tweak based on what you have on hand. It reheats and freezes well, and is both very healthy and very tasty. 

Note: this makes a HUGE pot of chili, like 10 large servings, and was half an inch from overflowing my largest pot, so unless you're cooking for a crowd and have an enormous pot, you will probably want to half the recipe.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 shallots, chopped
10 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon ginger, peeled and grated
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 serrano pepper, seeded and finely chopped [serrano peppers are hot, so be careful with your handling of it]
1 chipotle pepper (from can or rehydrated), minced [I used canned in adobo and the flavor was excellent]
1 28-ounce can of whole tomatoes, roughly chopped (save the liquid and add that with the tomatoes too)

1.5 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
8-10 cups vegetable broth (you can sub in water for some or all of this, just adjust your salt accordingly - I used 4 cups broth and 4 cups water)
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (canned is fine)
2 1/4 cups black, brown, or green lentils (or combo), rinsed and picked over [I tried using 1 cup of yellow split peas instead of lentils, and they didn't soften as much as they should have, so I would really use lentils here, or more chickpeas]
1 1/3 cup pearled barley, pearled farro, or bulgur wheat (or some combo) [I used all bulgar wheat and it was great]
1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt (or to taste)

cayenne pepper to taste

Equipment

knife and cutting board

sieve/strainer (for rinsing lentils and draining chickpeas)

measuring spoons

measuring cup

can opener

LARGE stockpot or dutch oven

wooden spoon/silicone spatula

Instructions
1. Chop and rinse all ingredients as noted above.

2. In a large stockpot pot over medium heat add the olive oil, onion, and shallots.

3. When the onions soften up and get a bit translucent, add the garlic, ginger, chili powder, and cumin. Stir well and cook for a minute or so, until everything gets quite fragrant.

4. Stir in the serrano pepper and chipotle pepper, canned and fresh tomatoes, and 6 cups of the broth/water. Now add the chickpeas, lentils, and barley/farro/bulgur - stirring between each addition.

5. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 35- 45 minutes (stirring every 5 minutes or so to ensure things don't get stuck to the bottom of the pan and burn, as happened to me) or until the lentils and grains are cooked through. As it cooks down, add more vegetable broth or water as necessary to keep the mixture from getting too thick.

6. Before serving, do your final adjustments - add some cayenne if it's not hot enough yet, or more chipotle, salt, or whatever you think it needs.

Palak Daal

This is a great recipe to make on Sundays for the whole week because it's easy to make in a large quantity and the flavors gets better every day (it also reheats very well). My recipe is an adaptation of the one from 101cookbooks (one of my favorite food blogs - check it out). You have a lot of leeway in the spicing here, so feel free to tweak based on how spicy you like thing. I tend to slightly underspice when I'm making the whole recipe and then individually spice each bowl as I eat it so I can add exactly the right amount (it can be hard to spice a giant pot of food because you won't get all the peppers and spices distributed totally evenly), but you can also just do the whole pot if you don't want to mess with adding spices each meal.

This recipe makes about 8 large servings, so feel free to cut in half. I recommend serving with brown rice, but you could also serve with naan or plain.

Ingredients
1.5 cups / 9.75 oz lentils, picked over and rinsed [the original recipe says to use "white urid/ ivory lentils, I have never found them, so I've used regular lentils and yellow split peas, both of which turned out great, I think french green lentils would also work too]
9 cups water, plus more if necessary
1 lb. spinach, washed and chopped
1.5 Tbsp ginger, peeled and finely chopped
3/4 tsp turmeric
1.5 jalapeno pepppers, minced (plus more for garnishing)
3 plum tomatoes, chopped
3/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter (you could probably substitute vegan margarine/olive or canola oil to make it vegan)
3/4 tsp cumin seeds
1.5 tsp red chile powder
juice of 1/4 a lemon
3/4 cup cilantro, chopped

Equipment

Cutting board and large knife

Large pot (ideally thick bottomed so things don't burn)

Stirring spoon or silicone spatula

Small saucepan

Instructions

1. In a large pot over medium-high heat combine the lentils and water, and bring to a boil.

2. While the water boils, work on chopping your spinach, ginger, tomatoes, and jalapenos. [Word of warning on chopping jalapenos - use rubber gloves or put your hand inside a plastic bag as you cut them up so your hands don't start burning, and especially if you have contact lenses, because taking lenses out with small amounts of capsaicin left under your fingernails is a highly unpleasant experience and permanently wrecks your lenses. Also, you should discard all the seeds and the white part the seeds are attached too - all you want is the green exterior.] If you're using baby spinach, you don't need to chop as finely because it will already be in smaller tender leaves, but if you're using spinach with thicker stems and leaves, chop it more finely. [Another note: you can and should store your ginger root in a Ziplock in the freezer. It will keep the ginger fresh much longer, and frozen ginger is way easier to peel and cut into nice shavings that mince into tiny bits.]

3. When the water is boiling, add the spinach, ginger, turmeric, jalapenos, and tomatoes.Reduce the heat, put the top on, and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. If things start to dry out, add more water, but as long as the pot is covered, that probably won't happen.

4. Towards the end of the simmering time, heat the butter and cumin in a saucepan over medium heat and fry until the cumin seeds start to pop (this is what the instructions say, sometimes they don't pop, maybe the seeds are old or something, so after 30 seconds or so of the butter being hot and melted, if nothing happens, go on). Add the red chile powder and fry for another 30 seconds.

5. Add this butter mixture to the lentils along with the salt and allow to cook for another five minutes.

6. Taste, and season with more salt or other spices if needed. If you care more about ease than prettiness, you can add the chopped cilantro now and stir into the daal, where it will promptly wilt. If you are going to eat most of the daal now, you can serve it into bowls and top with chopped cilantro (and a little bit of extra jalapeno if you like it very spicy), which is a prettier presentation. Otherwise, let it cool some, then put into containers to refrigerate or freeze.

Bacon Chocolate Truffles (and Bacon Brittle)

As some of you may know, meat takes up the bottom 2/3 of my my lovely boyfriend Adam's personal food pyramid (pie takes up the remaining 1/3). So, for Valentine's Day last year, I made him chocolate covered caramelized bacon, which was very popular (perhaps I'll share that recipe in the future). This year, I decided to keep up the trend with bacon chocolate truffles. 



The bacon chocolate truffles come from a recipe from Carri Thurman, via Michael Ruhlman's blog, with some of my tweaks and my own bacon brittle spinoff. I have to say from the outset that the chocolate dipped truffles are beautiful, but not very bacon-y. The ones rolled in bacon brittle powder are more bacon-y, and the chocolate dipped bacon brittle is very tasty and quite bacon-y if that's what you're going for.

Sorry veggies and vegans, this recipe is not for you (however, assuming the chili that's on the stove right now turns out okay, I promise a great vegan chili recipe later this week). Veggies, it is quite easy to skip the bacon cream infusion and replace the bacon fat with butter if you want a vegetarian truffle, though that kind of defeats the purpose of this recipe.

Ingredients

Truffle Centers
1/2 pound bacon (preferably applewood smoked)
1/4 cup alcohol (brandy, whiskey, etc)

1/4 cup water
1.5 cups heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1.5 pounds semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
Truffle Coating

3 cups semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup reserved bacon fat (or 1/2 cup butter/vegetable shortening)

Bacon Brittle
1/2 pound finely chopped and cooked bacon (you can re-use the bacon left over from making the centers above)
1 cup demarera sugar (brown sugar could be subbed in here)
1/2 cup water

1 tsp baking soda

Equipment
Medium saucepan
Wooden spoon
Whisk
Sieve/strainer
Non-stick sauté pan
Small or medium-sized bowl
2 sheet pans lined with parchment paper/silpats
Pyrex baking pan

Silicone spatula
Fork
Truffle cups (small paper cups like mini cupcake liners)

Larger paper cups or cupcake liners for the bacon brittle

Large microwave safe bowl

Food processor (optional)

Instructions

1. Slice the bacon strips in half lengthwise and then into thin slices (about 1/4 inch wide or smaller). Fry in the saucepan over medium heat until very crispy.

2. Place the sieve over a medium bowl and pour bacon over it to strain off the bacon bits from the fat. Retain the bowl of bacon fat for the coating.

3. Return the bacon bits to the saucepan, turn the heat to medium, and add the alcohol and water. Cook for 2-3 minutes until the liquid is burned off.

4. Add heavy cream and kosher salt to the pan and bring just to a boil. Turn off the heat and let sit 20 minutes for the bacon to infuse into the cream. After 20 minutes, turn the heat back on to a light simmer to thoroughly reheat it.

5. Evenly spread the chocolate chips over the bottom of the Pyrex baking pan. Pour the cream through a sieve to catch the bacon bits (save those for the bacon brittle) and over the chocolate chips. Let sit for about 5 minutes to melt. [If your chocolate doesn't melt, as mine didn't, just use a spatula to scrape the cream and chocolate mixture back into the saucepan and reheat over medium-low heat, stirring constantly so it doesn't burn, until the chocolate is melted, then scrape back into the baking dish.]

6. Whisk the mixture to make sure it's smooth. Refrigerate until solid.

7. While you're waiting for your chocolate filling to chill, make the bacon brittle. Take the bacon bits left over from making the infused cream and put into a saucepan along with the demarera sugar and water. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium high heat until the sugar is melted and the mixture gets very bubbly (about 3 minutes).

8. Remove from heat and stir in the baking soda. Stir together quickly (you will see the mixture getting thick and opaque).

9. Quickly scrape out the mixture onto one of the parchment paper or silpat-lined baking sheets and spread out to a relatively thin layer using the back of your spatula.

10. Let the mixture cool completely (about 10 minutes). Break about half of it into small bits and pulse in a food processor until you get a fine crumb/powder mixture. Break the other half into larger chunks (about 1.5x1.5 inches) to save to dip in chocolate.

11. When your truffle filling is firm, take it out of the fridge and scoop into balls (using a melon baller, small ice cream scoop, or strong spoon to get a properly sized chunk of filling and then shaping into a ball with your clean hands). If the chocolate is too hard to scoop (which mine was after chilling overnight), let warm up for about half an hour or muscle through it. The directions say to re-freeze the centers before coating, but I skipped this step and mine turned out fine.

12. If you want to coat your truffles in bacon brittle powder, take the centers and roll them in the powder to coat, pressing it into the sides so it sticks. Place the rolled truffles in cups. If you want to coat some or all truffles in chocolate, read on.

12. Melt 3 cups chocolate and 1/2 cup reserved bacon fat in a large Pyrex measuring cup or other large microwave safe bowl [Many recipes will tell you to melt chocolate in a double boiler setup over the stove. This is entirely unnecessary - you can melt chocolate easily in the microwave. To do so, heat in 30 second bursts, then stir to combine melted and unmelted bits, and repeat until the chocolate is just melted (it will look unmelted when you first start stirring, but then as you stir the bits will melt and combine).]

13. Drop the formed truffle centers one at a time into the melted chocolate. Use a fork to stir around so all the sides are coated. Then scoop up the center, tapping off the excess chocolate on the side of the bowl. Slide off the fork onto the other baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat. If there is a gap in the chocolate coating where the fork was, drizzle a little extra chocolate over it and use the fork to even up the covering. While the chocolate coating ss still melty, sprinkle with the bacon dust. Let cool completely before carefully peeling off the parchment paper and placing into truffle cups. 

14. Dip any reserved pieces of bacon brittle in melted chocolate, submerging entirely or only half, depending on your preference. Place on parchment paper and cool completely before removing and placing into larger paper liners.