Archive for April, 2007
Hello Everyone! Just want to say a few things - first, thank you all so much for your votes for Best Food Blog! There are so many great blogs in the competition, it’s really an honor to be a part of it. You guys are great!
I also wanted to draw your attention to the new tabs up at the top - archive, favorites, and how-to. Check them out! I am working on adding a cookbook-like index (alphabetical and categorical), but as you can imagine, that will take a bit longer! It’ll be up within a few days.
Peanut Sesame Ginger Cookies from VCON
April 13th, 2007
This recipe has a few surprises. My requirements for dinner included using an eggplant, a red pepper, a stalk of broccoli, and some leftover tofu. This turned out to be really fun and easy, despite the copious amounts of dishes it seemed to leave me with. I’m sure I could have made it in a more organized fashion had I not been making it up as I went along.
The sauce you see is not tomato, it’s simply a single red bell pepper, pureed raw, with a pinch of salt. I need to remind myself every once in a while that it’s not necessary to cook every single vegetable I want to eat. It added a nice sweetness to balance out the salty roasted eggplant and sun-dried tomatoes in the couscous. Yup! That’s couscous in there, too!
Can you guess what the green bit on the top is? Pureed, steamed broccoli! This was such a fun way to eat broccoli, I want to buy more immediately so I can blend it up again and use it in odd places. Forgive my enthusiasm, but there’s something about this light, bright green broccoli fluff that makes be a bit giddy.
Eggplant Napoleon
Serves four
Roasted Eggplant
1 Eggplant, sliced into 3/8″ thick rounds
1/2 Cup Olive oil (I know! It’s a lot! Use less if you want!)
1 tsp Salt
Sun-dried Tomato Couscous
1/2 cup Couscous (french - the very tiny kind thats roughly shaped)
1/4 Cup Sun-Dried Tomatoes, sliced in strips
1 Cup Water, boiling
Sauce
1 Red Bell Pepper, seeded and veined
1 pinch to 1/4 tsp salt
Broccoli Fluff
2 Cups Broccoli, rough chopped, steamed
Pepper to taste
1/2 Recipe Tofu Ricotta
1/2 Cup Toasted Pine Nuts
Preheat oven to 425º F.
Rub eggplant slices in salt and oil, place in one layer on a cookie sheet, and bake for 20 minutes. Flip, bake for 10 more minutes, remove from oven.
Meanwhile, place couscous and tomatoes in a small pot with a dribble of vegetable oil. Toast over medium heat until fragrant, add boiling water, cover, reduce heat to low. After 10 minutes, turn off heat. Puree your pepper in a food processor until very smooth. Add salt to taste, set aside. Steam broccoli, puree, add pepper to taste, set aside. Toast pine nuts in a dry skillet. Mix together tofu ricotta, heat in mircowave until hot, set aside.
To assemble
Place a bit of the pepper sauce in the middle of the plate. Add a slice of eggplant on top of that. Add a layer of tofu ricotta and a layer of broccoli fluff. Add another slice of eggplant. Add couscous and broccoli. Add the last slice of eggplant and top with tofu and broccoli. Garnish with toasted pine nuts.
April 12th, 2007
It might snow here in Boston tomorrow, but my mind is set on spring. I bought some culinary lavender a few weeks back and finally decided to use it in some shortbread. This shortbread is super simple, but it has a secret: rosewater. It’ll be plenty good without it, but if you happen to have a bottle (or have an Indian grocer nearby), it adds a most delightful yet subtle floral note that complements the lavender well.
Here are two methods for rolling out your shortbread dough, one free form and the other uses miniature springform pans. You can use full size 8″ or 9″ pans, but I like the small rounds my 4.5″ pans produce. If you want to increase the lavender flavor, let the lavender sit in the powdered sugar for a day or two before making this recipe. If you measure it out this way beforhand, you can just dump it into your softened earth balance when you’re ready to make the recipe. If I were you, though, I’d make some extra lavender sugar while you’re at it to add to tea and other baked goods.
Lavender Shortbread
Makes Approximately six 4.5″ rounds
1 Cup Earth Balance, softened
1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar
1-2 tsp Rosewater
1 1/2 Tbs Dried Culinary Lavender
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
Preheat oven to 325º F.
Cream earth balance, sugar, lavender, and rose water together in an electric mixer until very soft and fluffy. Mix in four by hand with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. If needed, use your hands to work the dough but do not overmix. The dough should be very soft but not overly sticky.
If making free form rounds: Divide dough in half, form into flat rounds, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.
Roll out dough on parchment paper into rounds that are 1/4″ thick. It doesn’t really matter how large they are in diameter, just make them all consistent so they they bake evenly. I recommend between 4″ and 8″. Place the parchment paper, dough and all, on cookie sheet and bake for 15-18 minutes, until golden around the edges. See the last photo for the last set of instructions.
If using springform pans:Divide dough between greased springform pans pans.
Pat down on the dough to evenly distribute it. Make sure it is no more than 1/4″ thick. To test for thickness, insert a butter knife into the dough vertically and remove - just like checking your oil in your car.
You do check your oil, don’t you?
You can further smooth your shortbread round by greasing the back of a spoon and pressing lightly on the dough. This is great for evening out the edges especially. Be gentle here, or you could accidently tear the dough. If you do, simply press it back together.
Carefully place plastic wrap over the surface of the dough (so no part is exposed to air) and refrigerate for at least an hour. Though dough should feel firm once fully chilled. Simply remove the plastic wrap and place directly in your preheated oven and bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.
When the shortbread comes out of the oven, remove the rings if using pans, and lightly use a spatula or the back of a long knife to score the tops of the shortbread. Once the bread cools, it will become harder and crispier and will easily break along these lines. Allow to cool completely before serving.
This would be extra nice served with tea!
April 11th, 2007
Sometimes I want to make a tasty side dish that I can start and forget about while I’m making the rest of my dinner. Anything roasted or baked tends to fall into this category. Throw it in the oven until it’s done! These potatoes were a big hit with us tonight, and I especially loved them because they were really simple to prepare.
Toasting the spices in the releases their flavor into the oil, and the fresh lemon juice does something magical to the whole thing. Not exactly a technical explanation, I know, but it balances the salt without being overpowering. Just trust me on this one!
I served the potatoes with naan and tamarind lentils, a test recipe for the PPK’s new cookbook. The lentils were tangy and sweet, perfect alongside the salty, lemony potatoes. I should eat more lentils, and this dish is a great way to accomplish that.
Thanks to Terry for the wonderful lentil recipe. I’m SO going to make this again in the future!
Three Spice Potatoes
Serves two
15 oz Russet Potatoes (about three medium potatoes)
3 Tbs Vegetable Oil
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 tsp Black/Brown Mustard Seeds
1/2 tsp Coriander Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 Tbs Lemon Juice
Preheat oven to 400º F.
Scrub potatoes and leave skins on. Cut potatoes in half lengthwise, then in half lengthwise again to form four long wedges. Cut each wedge in half widthwise to make chunks. Set aside.
Heat oil in a large, oven proof skillet that has a tight fitting lid. Add spices and salt and mix well, until the seeds begin to pop. Add lemon juice. When the bubbling subsides, add potatoes and toss well to coat with the oil and spices. Make sure the potatoes are resting on their cut sides (as opposed to their skins). Cover and place in the oven for 15 minutes.
Remove pan from oven and use a spatula to loosen potatoes from the bottom of the pan. Turn them so browned sides are up and place back in the oven for another 10 minutes, uncovered, or until potatoes are tender but still hold their shape.
When finished baking, squeeze a bit of extra lemon juice over the top and sprinkle with a dash of salt. Serve immediately.
April 10th, 2007
Thank you so much to Celine at Have Cake, Will Travel for nominating me for Best Food Blog at the Blogger’s Choice Awards. Go on over and vote if you think I’m vote worthy!
I am so ridiculously flattered!
April 9th, 2007
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