Archive for December, 2009
Recipe roundup
Over the last six months, I’ve done a lot of typing, and a lot of talking. An average of seventeen hours a day of typing and talking, for the most part. I haven’t done a lot of sleeping, or seeing my friends, and definitely I haven’t touched a pot or a pan… I’ve pretty much become a takeout girl, the Lois Lane of digital advertising, except that when I take the time to bother, I actually can boil pasta without burning it.
But this week, I’m on vacation. And this week, I’ve been trying to cram six months’ worth of socializing and entertaining into a few short days, which means I’ve been cooking up a storm. My refrigerator is crammed full of half-eaten meals, but I keep making more because I can’t serve half of yesterday’s strata to tomorrow’s guest. At this rate, I won’t have to cook again until after the MLK holiday, but I’m so happy to be chopping and simmering again, and also for the opportunity to try out some new recipes and to revisit some old favorites.
Buttermilk waffles From poor defunct Gourmet magazine, these waffles are my go-to standby when I want to serve something other than cereal for breakfast, especially if the “when” happens to be a weekday and I’m rushing to prep breakfast and still make it to work on time. These take all of ten minutes to put together, start to finish, and people are usually pretty happy to make their own as they want them so I don’t have to spend breakfast as the Waffle Monitor.
I couldn’t find the recipe on Epicurious or any of the other recipe collection sites, so here it is if any of y’all are looking for good, quick, easy buttermilk waffles:
3 c. all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 1/4 c. well-shaken buttermilk
1 1/2 sticks (12 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
vegetable oil for brushing waffle iron, if necessary (I use butter)
Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Add buttermilk, butter, and eggs and stirl until smooth (batter will be thick). Spoon batter into waffle iron, spreading batter evenly. Cook according to manufacturer’s instructions. Makes twelve 4-inch Belgian waffles or twenty-four 4-inch standard waffles.
This recipe, with its proportions in multiples of threes, scales up or down beautifully. I like to serve mine with fruit and maple syrup.
Spinach and cheese strata I read Deb’s post about hosting brunch AND sleeping in and thought, she has a point. I shouldn’t be slogging my way through brunch in desperate anticipation of when I can crawl back into bed because I’m just so tired if my guests don’t leave soon I’m going to fall asleep in the last of the omelet fixings. Plus, if I’m honest with myself, I can’t really flip omelets to save my life… they always end up looking deformed, like a five year old made them.
Brunches require something eggy and substantial, though, and this strata (also from poor defunct Gourmet magazine) seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. I put it together the night before and baked it in the morning. It made my house smell lovely, but it really does have a bread-pudding texture, and I’m not sure I’m in love with bread pudding. I did like the leftovers cold the next day, though.
Latkes I made zucchini fritters for a Mediterranean-themed iftaar two years ago, and they went over like gangbusters… but they kicked my ass in the making. When I got home from the iftaar that night and saw the mess still left to clean up, I resolved never again to make anything remotely resembling a fritter because they were so obnoxious to fry, but I was desperate for one additional substantial something for brunch. Alicia convinced me that latkes reheat splendidly, so I grated some potatoes, added some sliced onion, and started with the frying.
Fresh out of the pan, these are AMAZING. I cannot believe I waited this long to try or make a latke, which basically tastes like a large homemade tater tot. I LOVE tater tots. However, I think I did a mediocre job of reheating them because the next day they were a little doughy and not nearly so delicious as they’d been the night before. I’m going to need to play around with the reheating process because the cooking process left my house smelling like Fried, and a couple hours plus a healthy dosage of Oust was pretty much necessary to make things livable again.
Breakfast apple granola crisp This granola was my attempt to healthy up brunch a little, and also to provide something sweet in case I didn’t get around to making individual lemon tarts (which I did not). I learned from Deb’s notes and added the lemon juice, sugar, and cornstarch to the apples after I’d cut my way through a pound, so my apples didn’t brown. I simply stirred to coat after every additional apple. The coconut in my crisp burned well before the 45 minutes were up (or the apples fully cooked), which I initially suspected was due to my using sweetened coconut and Deb using unsweetened. Reading through the comments the next day, I realized the coconut burned for several people, so I think I’m going to drop the temperature to 375 and cover the pan about 30 minutes into the bake next time. I served with full-fat Greek yogurt and will probably be putting this together for just myself, no guests, once I start back at work. It’s that good.
Easiest baked mac and cheese I’ve never made mac and cheese before, largely because the calorie count of the dish plus my lack of enthusiasm for making bechamel sauces inevitably steered me towards lighter, red saucier pastas. This one tastes just like classic, unfussy mac and cheese, and is the perfect recipe if you’ve got a four-year-old showing up in a few hours and you haven’t begun to make his lunch, much less his mother’s. It’s so simple it doesn’t even require pre-boiling the macaroni — just puree, stir, and bake.
Chocolate-chocolate chunk muffins I wanted to take something when I went to visit brand new baby Maya, but I’d promised Maya’s mother that I’d be over by three, and as it was just after one, I didn’t think I had time to do cookies or cake, but muffins… muffins whip together quickly and don’t require frosting, and these even had chocolate in them in case anyone wanted to have them for dessert anyway. They came together in twenty minutes and smelled just like cupcakes, but they have a distinctly non-cakey texture. I wouldn’t want to serve them for dessert (but ate the extra one for dessert anway because they are yummy and chocolate is chocolate).
Tuna nicoise sandwich Uzmaa bought me a subscription to Everyday Food last year. The magazine shows up in my mailbox every other month, but I’ve never actually made anything out of it… until now. I’d bookmarked this sandwich as something to take to Braves games, but who had time to go to Braves games this summer? Or, at least, to plan ahead the food? Wish I had, though, because this sandwich is a hundred times better than anything I could buy at Turner Field, and much healthier too.
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar (I used regular, as that’s what I had)
1 tbsp Dijon mustard (I used spicy brown, as that’s what I had)
8-inch country-style loaf of bread
12 oz. oil-packed tuna, drained
1/4 English cucumber, thinly sliced
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
3 tbsp olive tapenade
1 c. packed fresh basil
2 large hard-boiled eggs, sliced
coarse salt
ground black pepper
In a medium bowl, whisk together olive oil, vinegar, and mustard; season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer 2 tbsp dressing to another bowl. Toss with tuna. To remaining dressing, add cucumber onion; toss to combine.
Cut bread in half horizontally. Remove most of soft interior bread. Spread tapenade on bottom half. Top with basil, then sliced eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Top with tuna, then cucumber mixture, and close sandwich.
Wrap sandwich tightly in plastic and place between two baking sheets. Weight with a heavy skillet. Let stand 1 hour (or refrigerate, up to overnight).
The dressing soaked through to the bottom half of the loaf, so I’m glad I accidentally cut the loaf unevenly so the bottom was thicker than the top. Also I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do with the remaining 3/4 of the English cucumber (last-ditch options: raita or salad), but this one’s a keeper.
Fixed
It didn’t take nearly so long as I thought it would… and at least the links are all fixed now. Still not sure what I think about the design, or where I’m going to go from here, but… fixed.