Year: 2012

50 Women Game-Changers- #37- Ina Garten-Roasted Shrimp with Feta

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how easy is that?

Ina’s Roasted Shrimp with Feta from her 2010 book,  How Easy is That? served with salad.

  If I’m home in the afternoon, no one has to ask where I’ve disappeared to around 3.  I’m watching Ina, of course.  I’ll admit that portions of the Food Network are not for me; I switch them off or tune them out.  But if Ina’s on (or Tyler Florence), I’m probably watching.  It says a lot.  I’m not a tv person, with the exception of early morning political shows (love “Morning Joe”), a few minutes of TODAY, and the occasional film on the old-movie channel.  I have better fish to fry, literally.  Or I’m at the piano.  Or I’m walking Gabby and Tucker.  Loving Dave.

courtesy Clarkson-Potter

But Ina and I go way back–sorta.  In fact, we could  have been friends.  Well!  Back in the seventies, my bus stop was right in front of the building where she worked in Washington, D.C.  (I didn’t know that then.)  I cooked; she cooked.  I gave dinner parties; she did, too.  Right around the corner from one another almost.  Until she moved to New York to open the Barefoot Contessa, a specialty food store, in 1978.   Between then and now, she ran that store and catered for twenty years, wrote seven books and countless magazine columns, and made more segments of The Barefoot Contessa  on Foot Network than I know what to with.   There’s also a product line, Barefoot Contessa Pantry, available in specialty stores where you can buy everything from coffee to cupcake mixes.  In fact, I noticed our local Macy’s carries Ina’s products.  I freely admit I have never bought any of these boxes goods.  Hey!  I make Ina’s stuff from scratch.  But if you try them, let me know; I’d love a review.  

Ina, you’ve got to stop, but why not an app for my ipad?!

Somehow we missed meeting and cooking together.  Sigh.  Later I moved all over the country until I stopped in one  place where a new friend talked me into borrowing The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook from the library.   That was it.   Now I have my own copy and six more of Ina’s books plus an index.
 
Trying to decide which recipe to blog for Ina, who is number 39 in the 50 Women Game-Changers in Food, was like trying to decide whether to go to Italy or France for two months next summer.  How could I decide?  I’ve made tons of them.  Some of them are very, very much favorites–including a lemon pound cake I just made last week for the Friends of the St. Paul Library board:

One of the perfectly perfect things about Ina’s recipes is that you can do all kinds of things with them.  I added homemade strawberry ice cream and a blueberry drizzle to this cake  and here’s how it looked:

Ina’s a great starting point.

After much dithering and mithering, I did the only sane thing:  I made something of Ina’s I hadn’t yet made.  A great excuse to try a new recipe, which turned out to be Roasted Shrimp with Feta.  I have always made a summer pasta that is this fast:  spaghetti topped with lots of chopped fresh tomatoes, cooked shrimp, chopped feta and a good, heavy dose of dried oregano and black pepper.  But Ina’s recipe is great in the winter….  Run, don’t walk to the store to make this.  It’s beautiful, tasty–tasty, easy, not too expensive, cuts in half easily, and is healthy. (Is this a Friday in Lent?)  Including chopping ingredients, it probably takes about 45 minutes to make–much of which is taken up with  cooking stove-top or in the oven.  I served it with a simple green salad and we needed nothing more except a bit of Chardonnay.  Fancy enough for company, I made it for just Dave and me and we ate on the front porch for the first time this winter.  (Like the rest of the country, St. Paul is experiencing May in March–no complaints.)  I’m not going to print the recipe as Food Network is clear about “all rights reserved,” but the link is just below.  The recipe is in Ina’s Newest book, How Easy is That? (2010/Clarkson-Potter) so you can buy it if you like!

Ina’s Roasted Shrimp with Feta Recipe... click here.

Cook’s Note:  I changed almost nothing in the recipe, though I did add a pinch of crushed red pepper–a bit of heat enhances the lemony shrimp.  Get the best feta you can find; you’ll be glad you did.  Use peeled shrimp.

You don’t need more than this.

 Thanks, Ina Garten and that doesn’t begin to say it.  Blessings on your life and work.  Keep on!  (And about that app…)

Ina’s Biography from Food Network

Read the Epicurious interview with Ina.

Barefoot Contessa Website

Watch Ina on youtube.
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Want to read other bloggers who are following the 50 Women Game-Changers in Food story? There are a lot of good blogs out there; read on!

Val – More Than Burnt Toast, Taryn – Have Kitchen Will Feed, Susan – The Spice Garden, Heather – girlichef, Miranda – Mangoes and Chutney, Jeanette – Healthy Living  Mary – One Perfect Bite, Kathleen – Bake Away with Me, Sue – The View from Great Island Barbara – Movable Feasts , Linda A – There and Back Again, Nancy – Picadillo Mireya – My Healthy Eating Habits, Veronica – My Catholic Kitchen Annie – Most Lovely Things, Claudia – Journey of an Italian Cook, Alyce – More Time at the Table, Amrita – Beetles Kitchen Escapades

If you liked this, you might like:

Potato Soup and Irish Soda Bread for St. Patrick’s Day

 or

My Breakfast Reuben in a Cup for St. Patrick’s Day on my Dinner Place (Cooking for One) Blog.

Sing a new song and join me on my daily Lenten blog,
Alyce

50 Women Game-Changers in Food -#38 – Darina Allen – Brown Soda Bread

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That’s it. I’m leaving home.  I always wondered where I’d get my cooking credentials (other than living in my kitchen) and now I know.  I’m going to the Ballymaloe Cookery School in Shanagarry, County Cork, Ireland.  I’ll see you later.  It’s time I earned my toque… or at least an apron that says, ” Ballymaloe.”

Ireland:  Cliffs of Moher                                                                                                                         (copyright Alyce Morgan, 2003)

   Ok, I’m not.  But I’d like to.   Meantime,  just in time for St. Patty’s Day, I’m baking some bread from the Cookery School’s founder and Ireland’s best chef-teacher, Darina Allen, number 38 in Gourmet Live’s list of 50 Women Game-Changers in Food:

(Courtesy Koster Photography)

When Americans make or think about Irish Soda Bread, which they only do in March of every year, they think about the American take on the bread (think chop suey), which I adore and make as often as anyone:

Here’s my own American version.  Please have a little bread with your butter.

But if you go to Ireland and stop in a hotel or restaurant for breakfast (or other meal), you find that the soda bread is whole wheat.  Dense, thick, sturdy, filling.  Perfect smothered with lots of beautiful Irish butter and jam or, even better, dipped in a deep, dark mug of tea.  And, should you not think about it, this bread is a chunky, dunky sideshow for stew or soup, as well as tasty sandwich bread.   Get ready to dirty your hands and bake up!

darina allen’s brown soda bread

400g (14oz) wholemeal flour (about 3 cups)
75g (3oz) plain white flour, (Darina specifies unbleached if you can get it) (about 3/4 cup)
1 tsp salt,  (Darina specifies dairy salt, which is finer, but I used regular old table salt.)
1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda, sieved  (baking soda)
1 egg
1 tbsp sunflower oil  (I used canola oil)
1 teaspoon honey ( or treacle or soft brown sugar)
425ml (¾ pint) buttermilk  (or add 2 tbsp of lemon juice to 600 ml (1 pint) milk)

Method

Grease a loaf tin (I used 9x5x3) with vegetable oil. Preheat the oven to 200°c (gas mark 6).  (about 400 degrees Fahrenheit)
Put the flours, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl and mix well.  Make a well in the centre ready for the wet ingredients.
Whisk the egg and add it to the oil, honey (or treacle or sugar), and the buttermilk (or lemon juice/milk mixture).
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and using your clean hands mix well.  The dough should be very sticky, Darina describes it as ‘soft and slightly sloppy’, if it’s not add more buttermilk. Pour into the loaf tin and bake for about 1 hour.
To test take it out of its tin and tap the bottom, if it’s cooked it will sound hollow.
Allow to cool before eating if you can manage it.

Recipe courtesy The Ordinary Cook   
My cook’s notes are in red.

Use the other side of your measuring cups for this one; you need 425 ml of buttermilk.

I weighed both flours for accuracy.

Full “well”

Smooth it out as best you can in a greased pan.

 

Very healthy wholewheat bread, but quite yummy with a little butter and jam.

the skinny on darina
I don’t know how she does it….

Owner of Ballymaloe Cookery School in Shanagarry, Co Cork, Ireland, teacher, food writer, newspaper columnist, cookbook author and television presenter. School is situated on an organically run farm.
Graduate in Hotel Management, Dublin Institute of Technology.
Member of Taste Council of Irish Food Board, Chair of Artisan Food Forum of Food Safety Authority of Ireland, Food Safety Consultative Council of Ireland, Trustee of Irish Organic Centre, Patron of Irish Seedsavers.
Cooking Teacher of the Year Award from IACP 2005, Recipient of Honorary Degree from University of Ulster 2003, Winner of Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year 2001, Waterford Wedgwood Hospitality Award 2000, Langhe Ceretto Prize 1996, Laois Person of the Year 1993…and more.
 courtesy Ballymaloe Cookery School;  County Cork, Ireland.

Want to read other bloggers who are following the 50 Women Game-Changers in Food story? There are a lot of good blogs out there; read on!

Val – More Than Burnt Toast, Taryn – Have Kitchen Will Feed, Susan – The Spice Garden, Heather – girlichef, Miranda – Mangoes and Chutney, Jeanette – Healthy Living  Mary – One Perfect Bite, Kathleen – Bake Away with Me, Sue – The View from Great Island Barbara – Movable Feasts , Linda A – There and Back Again, Nancy – Picadillo Mireya – My Healthy Eating Habits, Veronica – My Catholic Kitchen Annie – Most Lovely Things, Claudia – Journey of an Italian Cook, Alyce – More Time at the Table, Amrita – Beetles Kitchen Escapades

if you liked this, you might like:

Potato Soup and Irish Soda Bread for St. Patrick’s Day

Sing a new song and join me on my daily Lenten blog,
Alyce

Ask me about Dessert

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Lemon-Syrup Pound Cake with Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream and Blueberry Drizzle

    What’s the fun of catering dessert?  What’s not the fun of catering dessert?  But I DO LOVE TO HAVE A REASON to make dessert.  And I adore having a reason to try something I love or have never done before; dessert for two is so different than dessert for a group.  We simply don’t need a whole pie (well, Dave would argue with that.)  We don’t want a whole cake or two quarts of ice cream, which is what my new ice cream maker makes.  But if I’m asked to bring dessert or have a catering job, I get to do the whole shebang. (Scroll down for Lemon-Syrup Pound Cake with Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream and Blueberry Drizzle.)

Seasonal crostatas — free-form pie

Creme Brulee avec  Torch.
Added art is free.
Chocolate-Hazelnut Torte
Elvis Presley’s Favorite Cake–Pound Cake I serve with Peaches and Fresh Ginger Ice Cream come summer.

 

Lemon Tart for a Birthday?

Individual Pear-Orange Crostatas.   They’re flavored with lemon or orange and have a streusel topping with or without almonds.
Coffee Cup Pies
Pagliacci’s New York Cheesecake

Any kind of whole pie

I start with numbers.  How many people?  When?  Where?  What’s the menu? 

The menu was tenderloin and fennel gratin with a carrot salad starter.  One that I blogged, in fact.  I thought that left me scotfree to make whatever I wanted.  The meal wasn’t so heavy that I needed to do a baby shot of custard and squeensy-tweentsy cookies.  It wasn’t so light that I needed to make tiramisu.  I offered several options:

 Bread Pudding!
Jam Tart?
Basket of Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies!!!

or….

–Chocolate pots de creme and ginger cookies
–Lemon poundcake and strawberry ice cream
–Fig-Brandy Vanilla Pudding with Skinny Fluted Shortbread
–Apple-Sour Cream-Walnut Pie w or w/out homemade vanilla ice cream
–Apple Tart w or without cinnamon ice cream
–Espresso pots de creme and milk chocolate chip-pecan cookies
–God’s Own Brownies or God’s Own Brownie Sundaes
–Chocolate-Dipped Salty Shortbread and Coffee Gelato
–Whole Lemon Tart

–Jam Tart
 

You can ask for pot pie, too, if you need dinner.   Here:  Turkey Roasted Vegetable

about the lemon-syrup pound cake, strawberry ice cream and blueberry drizzle:

 The choice this time was Lemon pound cake and strawberry ice cream.  After 2 seconds thought, I added a blueberry drizzle–for color and a flavor pop.   Instead of reinventing any wheels, I took two or three recipes and decided on my method. I like SILVER PALATE’S Lemon Pound Cake, but it was made in a bundt pan and I really wanted loaf pound cake as my group was small and a second loaf could go in the freezer.  I checked out Ina Garten’s Lemon Cake from her The Barefoot Contessa PARTIES book and ended up with a mixture of the two recipes aided by Marion Cunningham’s from Fanny Farmer Baking Book, which is my easy go-to for most things.   In fact, I end up with both the bundt cake and loaf cakes because I mis-read Ina’s instructions, which were a bit confusing.  The ingredient list doesn’t let you know that you’ll be using that 3/4 cup lemon juice in two parts.  Ditto sugar.  So when I dumped all the sugar in the Kitchen Aid, the extra bundt cake was born.  And while it’s obvious from the ingredient list there’s a glaze, it’s not so obvious there’s a syrup, too.  I just re-write the recipe to suit me.  No problem; the choir likes to eat, as does Word Team.  Tonight, I’ll bring the big bundt cake and a couple of pots of coffee.
 

How many cakes are you baking?  As many as it takes to get it right.

 Lemon Syrup Poundcake (new name):  all done.  Now I just have to make strawberry ice cream.
Ah gee.  And…a Blueberry Drizzle.   Could life be any more fun?
 

Pound Cake with Syrup and Glaze
Adding the last of the berries to the ice cream maker.  I use David Lebovitz ice cream recipes almost all the time, but this one is in the book that came with the Cuisinart 2qt ice cream maker.  The strawberries are marinated with lemon; half are mashed for freezing with the cream and sugar, and half are added during the last five minutes.
Blueberry Drizzle (instructions below)

Lemon-Syrup Pound Cake with Strawberry Ice Cream (Homemade) and Blueberry Drizzle

 Blueberry Drizzle:  Place one pint fresh blueberries (cleaned and picked over) in a medium saucepan with 1/4 cup each water and granulated sugar.  If you like, you can add a large piece of lemon peel or a cinnamon stick, but for this recipe, the blueberries are best left to their own devices.  Bring to a boil over medium heat and reduce heat to low, simmering and stirring the berries about 15 minutes.  When they’re softened, breaking apart, and a bit thicker, remove from heat and mash with a potato masher.   Strain the mixture over a small bowl.   Reserve the crushed berries for your peanut butter toast and use the strained liquid for your “drizzle,” which is also good on pancakes or English muffins.

Two-Dog Kitchen and Around the ‘Hood
Yesterday it was 60 and gorgeous.  Today it’s rainy and freezy and so gray.
I have no new pics of the dogs, but they are filthy.  Friday:  groomer.

New art in my kitchen.  Did I already show you this?
Cold Chickadees
This is melted…and we now have Minnesota Mush.

Here’s a Salmon Salad I made the other day for supper.  It might make the blog.

 Sing a new song, read my Lenten Blog, 
Alyce

Women Game-Changers #37-Severine von Tscharner Fleming- Moroccan Carrot Salad

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‘Farming is an attractive path for people who are getting out of school and feeling like there’s kind of a toxic consumerism and not feeling too excited about working for the Man, especially seeing as he’s been spoiling our politics and a lot of our ecology,’’ she said.  (Severine von Tscharner Fleming via NYT)

#36 on Gourmet’s list of 50 Women Game-Changers in Food is Severine von Tscharner Fleming– farmer, activist, and filmmaker…

 based in the Hudson Valley, NY. Over the past two years she has produced+ directed a documentary film about the young farmers who are reclaiming, restoring, retrofitting and respecting this country of ours. That film, titled “The Greenhorns” grew into a small nonprofit organization that currently produces events, media and new media for and about the young farming community. Greenhorns mission is to “recruit, promote and support” the growing tribe of new agrarians. To that end, Greenhorns runs a weekly radio show on Heritage Radio Network, a popular blog, a wiki-based resource guide for beginning farmers, a GIS-based mapping project, and dozens of mixers+ educational events for young farmers all around the country. Greenhorns actively works to provide venues for networking, collaboration and communication within their large, and growing! network. Severine attended Pomona College and University of California at Berkeley where she graduated with a B.S. in Conservation/AgroEcology. She co- founded the Pomona Organic Farm and founded UC Berkeley’s Society for Agriculture and Food Ecology and is a proud co-founder of the National Young Farmers Coalition. (courtesy The Greenhorns)

I was interested in this carrot salad because it sounded:

  • attractive
  • inexpensive 
  • delicious
  • simple
  • healthy
  • bright
  • like it might hold a few days in the frig
  • unlike my mother’s carrot salad!

 And it was all of those things.  Even though I had misplaced my Cuisinart grating disc in the move to St. Paul (I know; I’ll get another one) and had to grate the carrots by hand, it was a simple chore and done easily.  Carrots grated by hand contain a lot less liquid than carrots grated by Cuisinart anyway, so it was probably the method of choice.  While spring definitely hasn’t sprung around here, I kept thinking what a quick and delicious side this would be for grilled food come better weather.  Since nearly everyone likes carrots, including children, it’s probably a good idea for a BBQ or potluck dish.  The recipe indicates a one-hour marinating time.  I tasted it right after it was made and after the hour at room temp.  The flavors definitely were damped by the hour wait (cumin particularly); you might want to add a little extra of the spices if  you’re going to wait or eat this over a couple of days.  Did I mention this little ditty was scrumptious?  I just couldn’t believe that was all there was to it.  But that was it.  Just lovely fresh food.

Wednesday’s yard photograph–Not thinking garden quite yet.

Moroccan Carrot Salad
From Winter Harvest Cookbook, a vegan and gluten-free recipe. Serves 6.

  • 1 pound carrots (about 6 medium), scrubbed
  • 2 shallots, chopped fine
  • 2-3 T. sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • Pepper
  • Dash cayenne
  • 3 T lemon juice
  • 1/2 c finely minced parsley

Grate or julienne carrots. Add shallots and toss. Combine sugar, salt, and cumin and toss with carrots. Season with pepper and cayenne. Add lemon juice and toss again. Marinate for 1 hour. Sprinkle with parsley and serve at room temperature.

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Want more info or to get involved in this movement?  Click here.
Want to request a screening of the movie?  Click here.
Read the blog.  Click here.

If you like this, you might also like my curried cauliflower

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Want to read other bloggers who are following the 50 Women Game-Changers in Food story? There’s a lot of good food out there; read on!

Val – More Than Burnt Toast, Taryn – Have Kitchen Will Feed, Susan – The Spice Garden, Heather – girlichef, Miranda – Mangoes and Chutney, Jeanette – Healthy Living  Mary – One Perfect Bite, Kathleen – Bake Away with Me, Sue – The View from Great Island Barbara – Movable Feasts , Linda A – There and Back Again, Nancy – Picadillo Mireya – My Healthy Eating Habits, Veronica – My Catholic Kitchen Annie – Most Lovely Things, Claudia – Journey of an Italian Cook, Alyce – More Time at the Table, Amrita – Beetles Kitchen Escapades

Sing a new song,
Alyce

50 Women Game-Changers – #36 Edna Lewis- Biscuits

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“I married her for her beaten biscuits.”

Edna Lewis’ Best Biscuits

Ingredients

  1. 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  2. 1 1/2 teaspoons single-acting baking powder or double-acting baking powder (see Note)
  3. 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  4. 1/2 teaspoon salt
  5. 1/4 cup cold lard or vegetable shortening, cut into pieces
  6. 1/2 cup buttermilk
  7. 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted  

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 450°. In a bowl, sift the flour with the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your fingers, work in the lard just until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in the buttermilk just until moistened.
  2. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead 2 or 3 times. Roll out or pat the dough 1/2 inch thick. Using a 2-inch round cutter, stamp out biscuits as close together as possible. Transfer the biscuits to a baking sheet. Pat the dough scraps together, reroll and cut out the remaining biscuits; do not overwork the dough.
  3. Pierce the top of each biscuit 3 times with a fork and brush with the butter. Bake the biscuits for 12 to 14 minutes, or until risen and golden. Serve at once.

Make AheadThe unbaked biscuits can be frozen in a single layer, then kept frozen in an airtight container for up to 1 month. Thaw before baking. NotesTo make your own single-acting baking powder, combine 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar with 1 1/2 tablespoons of cornstarch and 1 tablespoon of baking soda. The mix will keep in a tightly sealed jar for up to 1 month.
                                                                         (Courtesy Food and Wine.)

if you want love, learn how to make biscuits

Back in college, Dave and I had a professor of music named Ann Collins.  Now Ann was a fine pianist, a good teacher, and she wrote interesting books (I still have two of them) about teaching preschoolers to play the piano.  While I never agreed with teaching preschoolers to play the piano (I liked them playing in the sandbox myself), I did admire Ann.  Ann wasn’t my teacher particularly, but she was Dave’s.  And somehow, as life went in those days, we ended up for dinner at Ann’s house one night.  If memory serves, she was celebrating a new grand piano.  While I remember little else, I do remember Ann’s biscuits.  Not only that, I remember her husband making big over them.  In fact, Ann’s husband (Gary?) said, “I married her because she could make beaten biscuits in her sleep.”  To a newly married 20-year old this sounded callous and weird.  I don’t know what I wanted to be married for, but it wasn’t my biscuits.
Of course, later on, I learned to make biscuits.  And I made them a lot.  When you have four kids to feed, biscuits really stretch a meal.  I don’t think I could have made them in my sleep, but it was damned sure close to that.  It takes making them often.  It takes a light touch so that the fat isn’t over-worked in the dough.  It takes knowing your oven so that you either always make them in a glass pie plate, as did I, or on a cookie sheet as did one friend.  It takes understanding if you need big, thick or little, crispy biscuits.  Were they for ham or were they for gravy?  For butter and jam or for strawberries and cream?  For sour cream and honey, if you were my Dad.
I’m guessing Edna Lewis, creator of the above recipe, could have made biscuits in her sleep.  And while she surely earned the title of chef, she might have been quite happy with the fame that came from her biscuits, as was Ann. There’s just something about biscuits that makes people happy.

edna lewis, the first lady of southern cooking died in 2006 at the age of 89 at the end of a long, industrious culinary career.  She was special by any standards, but as the granddaughter of a former slave raised on the family farm in Virginia, the roadblocks to writing cookbooks were a few more then than they would be now.  Combining a southern upbringing with a New York City restaurant career, she didn’t have time to write anything at all until she had to sit still after breaking her leg.  If she couldn’t cook, she would then write a cookbook and write she did.  Three other books followed, along with other restaurants, awards, and a strong dedication to keeping the south’s cooking tradition alive and well. (Scroll down for a video interview with Miss Lewis.)

From the NYT obituary by Eric Asimov and Kim Severson:

Ms. (Judith) Jones, who edited three books by Miss Lewis, recalled her yesterday as a lover of Jack Daniel’s, Bessie Smith and understated conversation. “She had a tremendous sense of dignity in the face of often difficult treatment,” Ms. Jones said. Her husband had died as she completed “The Taste of Country Cooking,” she said.
After that cookbook raised her profile, Miss Lewis returned to restaurants, most notably to Gage & Tollner in Brooklyn. In the mid-90s she retired from the restaurant and with some friends, she founded the Society for the Revival and Preservation of Southern Food, dedicated in part to seeing that people did not forget how to cook with lard.

Butter?  Honey?   Jam?  Sausage gravy?  Ham?

 And, Edna, I’m sorry; I can’t make biscuits with lard or shortening; butter’s my thing.  I do try to have a light hand though.

 Read Edna Lewis’ obituary in the New York Times here.   Video:  Scroll down.
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Click and read the other bloggers who are part of the 50 Women Game-Changers Group:

Val – More Than Burnt Toast, Taryn – Have Kitchen Will Feed, Susan – The Spice Garden, Heather – girlichef, Miranda – Mangoes and Chutney, Jeanette – Healthy Living  Mary – One Perfect Bite, Kathleen – Bake Away with Me, Sue – The View from Great Island Barbara – Movable Feasts , Linda A – There and Back Again, Nancy – Picadillo Mireya – My Healthy Eating Habits, Veronica – My Catholic Kitchen Annie – Most Lovely Things, Claudia – Journey of an Italian Cook, Alyce – More Time at the Table, Amrita – Beetles Kitchen Escapades
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Jambalaya– A Repeat Post or There’s No Crying in Lent

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Originally posted February, 2010

In my world, and for some of you, this is the day when traditionally we clean out the beautiful, fattening rich things like butter and dairy.  Adding flour (and whatever else), we come up with stacks of pancakes and, oh, ok, bacon or sausage…Drooling maple syrup (only the real kind) and maybe a few bananas or even leftover frozen and grated cranberries with toasted pecans and a tish orange peel, my personal favorite.  ( pancake photo: Salahan.com; jambalaya photo: Alyce Morgan)

2-21-12:  The church I work at has a Pancake Supper tonight:  6pm @ Prospect Park United Methodist in Minneapolis; come to Fat Tuesday!
  

Christians are getting ready to begin Lent…and, it’s not a time to sit around and think about how bad we are. That’s old school.  Now, it’s an opportunity to review who we are and why….how we stand right now…and even to think about wiping our own personal slate clean so that we can be drawn new. To maybe see a few goals for our spiritual existence or personal life.  It’s a fine time to commit to prayer, to renewed study and to see what comes of it.  We are assured that, as we model ourselves on our God and savior, we too can begin again, live again, fall into depths doubting and shouting… and rise once more. Ever hopeful, ever-changing.  40 days of saying to oneself sometime during each day’s prayer-life, “I want to change this one thing; I’m committed to it.”  In other words, Lent is a positive, proactive experience.  Make me new.  Help me take the time to think about what I am, who I am and what I would like to change, who I would like to be…  There’s no crying in Lent (or baseball.)

But, instead of the ubiquitous pancakes, why not whip up a Mardi Gras special before Lent starts tomorrow?  Even if you don’t know Lent from “Rent,” it’s a great time for this dish.  With a little New Orleans background of my own, I was born with what they call the trinity (onions, green peppers and celery) in my mouth.  I’m talking Jambalaya, an easy one. The orignial recipe here is from honored Cajun food writer Maude Ancelet, but comes to us through Andrew Scrivani’s sweet blog makingsundaysauce.com.  Mark Bittman (NYT) mentioned it a little over a week ago and I’ve made and tweaked it, clarifying a few things and changing it up a teense.

In the food world, my recipe will be called “a riff on it.” I will also say I’m in the process of tweaking it even more. I’d like to try it as an oven dish because to find a dutch oven or covered skillet large enough for all of these ingredients (and for them not to be stacked 6 inches high in the pan) is difficult.  I covered my 14″ frittata pan with an assortment of cookie sheet, foil, etc. to getter done.  A bit cumbersome.  Never-the-less.  You may have different pans!  Your dutch oven may be larger or, in any case, you can brown the chicken in batches if you need to. Just make it; it’s delish.  Phew.  Great for … Shrove Tuesday.  Here’s my version:                                                                      (Oh, and it’s time to rent “Chocolat.”)

Jambalaya
serves 4-6 easily

1 whole chicken, cut into pieces
1# sweet Italian sausage, cut into 2″ pieces
2T olive oil
2 large onions, chopped coarsely
2 stalks celery, ditto
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 t dry oregano
1 bay leaf
5 cups water
1 # rice
1/2 t kosher salt-or to taste
1/4 t fresh ground black pepper-or to taste
1/4 t crushed red pepper, optional
1/4 c each sliced green onions (use tops) and chopped parsley*

In dutch oven, or large skillet (will need a lid), brown chicken and sausage in oil over medium heat, turning to cook evenly on all sides.  Remove meats to paper-towel lined platter when nicely browned, but not done.  Add the onions, pepper, celery, garlic, oregano and bay leaf to pan.  Saute well for 10 minutes or so until softened.  Add water, rice, salt  and pepper.  Return the meats to the pot  Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat.  Simmer until rice is tender and all liquid is absorbed.  Keep covered and let steep a little while, serving “piping hot.”  In a small bowl, mix the green onions and parsley and let folks help themselves to these for a garnish.
*option:  top with some shrimp grilled with a little bit of Old Bay seasoning

WINE:  California zinfandel.  You also might like a  Beaujolais, often known as a “fun” wine.
DESSERT:  Something “sinful” like a hot fudge sundae or 2 pieces of apple pie and ice cream.

Happy Mardi Gras, Happy Shrove Tuesday…..
May your Lent be all you need it to be…………..

Sing a new song (definitely for the next 40 days),
Alyce

And, of course…  NEWS FROM THE TWO-DOG KITCHEN….

50 Women Game-Changers in Food – #35 – Delia Smith

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Would you cook with this woman?  Meet Delia Smith.

In North America, we might argue over who taught us to cook.  While Julia really was on tv, I’m sure I learned to cook from a. my mother, b. James Beard, and c. SILVER PALATE.  (We all teach ourselves right in our kitchen, don’t we?)  But in the UK, there’s no question about who taught you to cook; Delia Smith, #35 in Gourmet’s 50 Women Game-Changers in Food, did.  (photo courtesy BBC)

Way back in the ’70s (was it that far away?), you only had to tune in to the telly to learn how to make pastry (or lots else) with Delia in London or Edinburgh. For grins, scroll down to the bottom of the post and click on the video and see what the buzz was about.  Could you bake a blind tart shell after watching that television program? I admit I missed Julia a bit as I watched!

After a couple of false starts as a hairstylist and travel agent, and without much education, Delia began reading cookbooks in the reading room at the British Museum.  Not long after, she was cooking and writing for the Daily Mirror starting in 1969, where she met her husband, Michael Wynn Jones.

Many television episodes, newspaper articles,  books (21 million sold), a website, and even a soccer club later, Delia continues to deliver basic, commonsense, always-trusted cooking advice, recipes, and technique.  She’s so successful at delivering the goods that, within the world marketplace, there’s now something called “The Delia Effect.”  Which means it’ll sell like the proverbial hotcakes, as her stamp on anything makes product fly off the shelves in the UK. Reportedly, egg sales in England rose by 10% after her book How to Cook was published.

Delia’s Complete How to Cook can be ordered through amazon.com, as can other volumes, though some appear to be more available overseas than here in the States.   Time for a few days in London, I’d say.

 Reading through recipes and trying to decide which to try for this blog, I found no shortage of tasty and wonderful-sounding things to cook.  Oven-Baked Smoked Pancetta and Leek Risotto caught my eye, as did Grilled Venison Steaks with Red Onion, Grape, and Raisin Confit, a selection from Delia’s website under the banner, “What Should You be Cooking This Month?”  There’s also a tab for ingredients and the available recipes to use them.  Special diets, Under 30 minutes, Freezing, and Cooking for One are just a few of the sections you might want to peruse on the site.   I especially enjoyed “Recipe of the Day” and “Competitions.”  At the very bottom are links to lists of recipes like, “French,” “Pasta,” and so on.  While it might not be true, the website has every indication of containing a good portion of her thirty-plus years’ recipes and information, which makes it a treasure trove, to say nothing of a great value.

You could make “Italian Baked Fish” (and who doesn’t want more baked fish recipes) as did I, and give Delia a whirl:

First:  Make a little marinara with mushrooms.

 italian baked fish  serves 4  (recipe courtesy deliaonline.com)

4 thick pieces of cod or other white fish (MN cooks:  try our Lake Superior white fish here.)
2T olive oil (no need for extra virgin oil)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 fat clove garlic, crushed
1# ripe tomatoes or 400g tin of Italian tomatoes
4 oz (110 g) sliced mushrooms
1 T chopped fresh basil
1 T capers, chopped
Juice of 1/2 lemon
12 black olives (I opted for kalamata.)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

method

Start by making a good, thick tomato sauce:  heat the olive oil in a saucepan and fry the onion for about 5 minutes.  Now add the garlic and tomatoes.  Season with salt and pepper, then bring to a simmering point and cook gently, uncovered, for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Next add the sliced mushrooms, making sure they are well stirred in.  Simmer for a further few minutes until it looks like a thick sauce.  Lastly, stir in the fresh basil and chopped capers.

Next, season the fish with lemon, salt, and pepper

 Now place the fish in a shallow baking dish or tin, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle a little lemon juice on each piece.  Next spoon an equal quantity of the sauce on to each piece of fish and arrange a few olives on top.   Cover the dish with foil and bake on a high shelf (in upper 1/3 of oven) for about 25 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish.  Serve with new potatoes or brown rice and a tossed green salad.  

Last, top with marinara, and bake.

 I sometimes cook fish right down in a chunky tomato-onion-garlic-etc bath either on top of the stove or in the oven; you might try that idea if it appeals to you.  Here’s my fast snapper in tomato sauce.  Get your vegetables, honey.

Next week, join us when we’ll feature #36, Edna Lewis. “The granddaughter of an emancipated slave, Lewis, another Judith Jones protégée, brought sophisticated Southern dishes into the spotlight.” 
 ~~~~~

If you’d like to cook a few other gorgeous Delia Smith (or other) meals, click on the blogs of the food bloggers featuring Gourmet Live’s 50 Women Game-Changers in Food this (or another) week:
 
Val – More Than Burnt Toast, Taryn – Have Kitchen Will Feed, Susan – The Spice Garden, Heather – girlichef, Miranda – Mangoes and Chutney, Jeanette – Healthy Living  Mary – One Perfect Bite, Kathleen – Bake Away with Me, Sue – The View from Great Island Barbara – Movable Feasts , Linda A – There and Back Again, Nancy – Picadillo Mireya – My Healthy Eating Habits, Veronica – My Catholic Kitchen Annie – Most Lovely Things, Claudia – Journey of an Italian Cook, Alyce – More Time at the Table, Amrita – Beetles Kitchen Escapades
~~~~~
What’s on Alyce’s blog about cooking for one, Dinner Place?

Pork Tenderloin Salad with Berries and Oranges and a Sherry Vinaigrette

 Thanks for stopping by.


just for fun, here’s the early video of Delia teaching pastry-making  in the late ’70s.  courtesy BBC                              Bake a new tart, Alyce
 

No Reservations (Valentine’s Day at Home)

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Alyce’s Tuna with Marinara and Spinach with Onions*

 
To get you in the mood, kick off with Van Morrison’s “Moondance.”  
Or, if you’d rather, “Someone Like You.”
          Note: If you right click on the song title, you can open youtube in another window and keep the music playing…………………………………
                    
If you’d rather just order pizza (I know you!) and watch a movie, stop here and look at the best movies of 2011 and call for delivery.   Wow, that was a short blog!   But…if you’re in the mood for food at home, read on.

Since everyone and their mother is now a food or wine writer, it’s a bit crazy to see just how many articles there are about cooking for Valentine’s Day or drinking for Valentine’s Day.   “I Wine You to Wine Me,” is out from Wine Spectator.  Phew.   The desserts, the bubblies…  It’s all somewhat odd, eh?  Because the word has always been that one goes OUT for Valentine’s Day–something I’ve seldom done.  Why?  Too crowded, too expensive, and rushed food.  Enough reasons?  I will admit, however, that if you have children of any age in the house, going out looks better and better.  Who wants to be searing a great piece of salmon while your loved one lights the candles only to be confronted with a dirty diaper, a bloody nose, a soccer practice, or a boyfriend crisis?
 

The only kids now at home sleep under the table!


 Because I’m a faithful person and because my (adult) children know I love them madly, I’ll admit I’ve been thrilled to cook at home on Valentine’s Day in the years since they left.  THANK YOU, GOD! And, truthfully, we were broke for a lot of years before that, so I cooked for a bunch of those, too.  Not only that, I  have always made Dave one of his favorite desserts for his Valentine’s Day present.   (What do you get a guy for Valentine’s Day??)  For us, it’s a bit simple. While embarrassing to admit, I cook better food than most restaurants serve (as do many people) and I can afford the wine in my cellar (or on my counter) because I bought it myself and it’s paid for.  So, the food and wine are both better…   I’ve saved a heap of money (even the loveliest filet at the butcher is $15 per in St. Paul), I can hear everything Dave says, and dinner can–and occasionally does–take all evening.   No one is standing at the entrance to the room eyeing our plates to see when we’ll be done.  No server is bringing dessert before I’ve finished my dinner.  If there’s any clanking in the kitchen, Dave and I are doing it.  And, in St. Paul, no doors are opening letting in the Arctic Circle.

I often plan a meal complete with music (you can get “Sarah Vaughn for Lovers,”  “Ella Fitzgerald for Lovers” or just put on Van Morrison’s “Moondance” and be done) and it may start in one room–maybe the kitchen– with a tiny appetizer and a sparkler, later moving into dining room for soup, main course, and salad–and end in the living room with cheese and dessert.  A spot of port.  While that’s possible in a restaurant, it’s not probable.   You don’t have to do all those things, of course; but they’re fun!

So if you can pawn off the kids elsewhere or pay them to stay upstairs… or if you have no kids… dream up something scrumptious and cook at home.  Leave the dishes rinsed in the sink for the next morning.

First,  you’ll have to decide about the gift dessert— I don’t know what I’m making Dave this year, but here are some of my favorites on More Time:

Hazelnut-Chocolate Cake

Apple pie...a great gift for Valentine’s Day

Chocolate-Chip Oatmeal Cookies (good anytime)

 Lemon Scented Pear-Almond Crostata – Yes!

There are directions for making this crostata with apples, too, if you like.

One of my all-time favorite desserts is Brandied Fig Vanilla Pudding from Epicurious.  Almost done before you begin, this silky pudding is simple, subtle, supple, and topped with a bit of fig preserves mixed with a spoonful of brandy.  Sometimes I offer a tish of hot fudge and berries in placeof the figs, depending on the season.   Made on the stove in a few minutes, it can be done ahead or at the last minute.  It’s great warm if you’re running late!  One note:  Brandied Fig Vanilla Pudding is gorgeous in nice, heavy crystal on-the-rocks tumblers; you can see the pudding and the shining golden fig layer at top through the sparkling glass.

 Thing is, I think you can often cook as well as the folks in the restaurants, too.  You can cook to your own tastes and take your time.  You can make the dessert today and just serve a salad and steak tomorrow.   I mean, most of us work on Valentine’s Day, right?
 

Needn’t be a complex salad to be good.  In fact, the opposite is true.

Just for fun, I’ve looked around at a few available menus to see what exactly IS a romantic menu?  I’m not sure I know; so here are a couple I’ve seen around the net lately:

This one, off the Epicurious site, is called:

                                        ROMANTIC DINNER

  • Peach Royale
  • Smoked Salmon with Crispy Shallots and Dilled Cream
  • Seared Duck Breast with Cherries and Port Sauce
  • Penne with Hazelnut Gremolata and Roasted Broccolini
  • Sliced Strawberries with Grand Marnier Zabaglione
OR…you might like…
CLAUDIA FLEMING AND GARY HAYDEN’S VALENTINE’S MENU FOR TWO:
  • Flatbread with Fingerling Potatoes, Shitake Mushrooms, and Truffle Oil
  • Spice-Coated Rack of Lamb for Two with Arugula, Avocado, and Blood Orange Salad
  • Almond Cakes with Chocolate Passion-Fruit Sauce 

Other options are:

THOUGH NATURALLY  ONE OF MY FAVORITES IS..

Yum.
LAMB CHOPS AND ROASTED VEGETABLES FOR TWO  right here from More Time.  (pictured at top)
                           If you do make the lamb chops, you are wide open for both wine and dessert.  While a typical pairing for lamb is Cabernet Sauvignon, I like Syrah or Pinot Noir (California and Oregon, respectively, though I love CRISTOM Syrah, which is Oregon) with this meal to meet up and ring with with the sweet tones in the root vegetables.  In the post, there’s a simple bread pudding, but you might remember I just blogged another bread pudding that’s to die for.  Don’t want to make dessert?  Pick up two kinds of gelato or sorbet (I like Pistachio gelato with Raspberry sorbet) and some tiny Scots shortbread cookies or feast on a bit of the chocolate you bought.  Don’t skimp on the coffee; make sure it’s lovely.  It’s Valentine’s Day and it’s all in the details (and the laughter.)

OR

TUNA MARINARA WITH SAUTEED SPINACH AND ONIONS…(top photo)

While I’m just realizing this, one of my favorite meals to serve Dave or company, isn’t on the blog; the marinara, however, is on my other blog, Dinner Place, as is tuna with spinach and onions.
I think you can figure out how to put it all together from the photo; don’t forget Parmesan at the table. 

Whatever you do, enjoy. 

two-dog kitchen and around the ‘hood

Last Friday Night’s Table

The other lovers.

On my kitchen window

Tucker–thinks he’s hiding.

Sing a new song on Valentine’s Day….
Alyce

Women Game-Changers in Food – #34 Ella Brennan – Creole Bread Pudding

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  Conventional wisdom says, “If there’s bread pudding on the menu, order it.”  Now that I’ve made Brennan’s Creole Bread Pudding, I know why.  I won’t say who it is, but someone in my house is saying, “Please let me stay out of the frig as long as that bread pudding is in there.”

Creole Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce

For number 34 on Gourmet Live’s List of Women Game-Changers in Food, there’s the infamous and famous Ella Brennan, New Orleans restauranteur extraordinaire.   Hailed as the most influential person in the American restaurant business ever,

  Ella Brennan, at center, seated with family.  (courtesy Commander’s Palace)
… Brennan has made her mark with a series of fresh and innovative concepts: She pioneered the notion of nouvelle Creole cuisine. She elevated the profile of Louisiana cooking throughout the world. She forged a level of service that was the match of any anywhere. And she used her kitchen at Commander’s Palace as a kind of de facto New Orleans culinary academy, turning out dozens of the city’s finest chefs and thereby enlivening the local food scene beyond measure. (courtesy Elizabeth Mullener, Times-Picayune.)
 Part of a large restaurant family,  Ella Brennan began as a teen in the business with her brother Owen at Brennan’s, home of the famous “breakfast at Brennan’s.”   She went on to travel the world to learn about great food and better service, returning home to put the knowledge to work building one successful restaurant after another.  Not only that, she brought the tourists home with her, putting New Orleans on the map as a center for food and some say the most beautiful restaurant experience available in the United States.  After the family bought The Commander’s Palace in 1969, Brennan proceeded to hire and train chefs who went on to be famous in their own right, among them Paul Prodhomme and Emeril Lagasse.  Business woman and lover of perfect meals, she was an expert in the world of food though she never cooked at all.  “I never took to the kitchen,” she says.   My thought is she never needed to “take to the kitchen,” with the kind of talent she hired.                                           
Order a copy of The Commander’s Palace New Orleans Cookbook here.

Famed  food (editor, writer and) restaurant critic Ruth Reichl commented that her first visit to Commander’s Palace combined “upscale fun” with “the most extraordinary service [she]’d ever had in an American restaurant,” service which she credited to Brennan’s exacting standards. (courtesy Encyclopedia of Louisiana)

Read all about The Commander’s Palace or make a reservation.  25 cent Martinis if you go!
 
More info:  read a short biography of Ella Brennan here

Want to try one of the most famous recipes?   Since Ella herself didn’t cook much I thought I’d make one of the cornerstones of the Brennan empire– bread pudding  Here it is:  (Note: Have salad for supper; this is Decadent with a Capital D and worth every calorie.)

Invite friends.  What fun!   This makes a  huge pan of bread pudding.

Creole Bread Pudding
“Much as we all love Commander’s Bread Pudding Soufflé, sometimes plain
Creole Bread Pudding is the most soul-satisfying taste of all. But do it right.
One day, while my mother [Ella Brennan] and I were nibbling on some bread
pudding, I watched her eyebrow go up as she discovered a morsel of dry bread.
I hadn’t soaked thoroughly, a cardinal sin. When pastry chef Tom Robey
walked by, Mom pointed to the dry morsel. She didn’t have to say a word.
Tom shook his head and went off to explain to a protégé how we don’t
rush things at Commander’s. Originally created as a way to utilize day-
old bread, this dessert, along with pecan pie and crème caramel, is a must
for any New Orleans restaurant.”

Cook’s Note:  Make Whiskey Sauce (recipe below) while pudding bakes; it must cool.   Fyi: The Bread Pudding Soufflé is served in ramekins with  meringue and hard sauce.
 
1 tablespoon butter
12 medium eggs, beaten
3 cups heavy cream (I used half and half  since my arteries were yelling, HELLO?)
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract (use
a high-quality extract, not an imitation)
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
*4 ounces day-old French bread, sliced 1 inch thick (I used a lot more bread; see note.)
1 cup raisins

–Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
–Butter a large (11 x 8 1/2 x 3 inches) casserole dish and set aside. (Once in the oven, the casserole will sit inside a large pan. A roasting pan would be good.) Mix the eggs, cream and vanilla in a large bowl, and combine the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a separate bowl. This helps to evenly dis- tribute the spices. Add the sugar mixture to the egg mixture, and combine thoroughly.
–Place the raisins in the bottom of the buttered casserole, and add the bread slices in a single layer. Gently pour the custard over the bread, making certain that all the bread thoroughly soaks up the custard. [We let ours stand for a while before baking.] (Turn the bread over in the custard to make sure each piece is well-coated.)
–Cover the casserole with foil, place in a large dish (the roasting pan, if that’s what you decided to use) partly filled with hot water, and bake for 2 1/2 hours. Remove the foil, and increase the oven temperature to 300 degrees F. Bake for 1 hour more, or until the pudding is golden brown and slightly firm. Use a spoon to make sure the custard is fully cooked; it should be moist but no longer runny. If you’re unsure whether it’s done, remove it from the oven and let it cool while it remains sitting in the water bath; the carryover effect will keep it cooking.
–Serve slightly warm with whiskey sauce, recipe below (made ahead.)

                                                
Whiskey Sauce 
  • 1 cup(s) heavy cream
  • 1/2 tablespoon(s) cornstarch
  • 1 tablespoon(s) waterhttp://a19.g.akamai.net/7/19/7125/1450/Ocellus.coupons.com/_images/showlist_icon.gif
  • 3 tablespoon(s) sugar
  • 1/4 cup(s) bourbon
·          
·           For the whiskey sauce: Place the cream in a small saucepan over medium heat, and bring to a boil. Whisk cornstarch and water together, and add to cream while whisking. Bring to a boil. Whisk and let simmer for a few seconds, taking care not to burn the mixture on the bottom. Remove from heat.
Stir in the sugar and bourbon. Taste to make sure the sauce has a thick consistency, a sufficiently sweet taste, and a good bourbon flavor. Cool to room temperature.
*4oz of French bread is a bit less than 1/4 of  the baguette I got from Whole Foods, which seemed like way too little bread to me; it didn’t cover half of the bottom of the casserole.  Typo in the recipe?   Wrong kind of bread??   I increased the amount to approximately 12 ounces; my baguette was 15 oz. total.   I don’t make bread pudding from a recipe usually; I just combine milk, eggs, and nutmeg and sweeten it to taste–which isn’t nearly as much sugar as this recipe calls for.  I did leave the amount of sugar the same in order to try and get a true test of the recipe. It was the right thing to do!
                                                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~
Other bloggers writing about Ella Brennan this week are:

Val – More Than Burnt Toast, Taryn – Have Kitchen Will Feed, Susan – The Spice Garden, Heather – girlichef, Miranda – Mangoes and Chutney, Jeanette – Healthy Living
Mary – One Perfect Bite, Kathleen – Bake Away with Me, Sue – The View from Great Island Barbara – Movable Feasts , Linda A – There and Back Again, Nancy – Picadillo
Mireya – My Healthy Eating Habits, Veronica – My Catholic Kitchen
Annie – Most Lovely Things, Claudia – Journey of an Italian Cook, Alyce – More Time at the Table, Amrita – Beetles Kitchen Escapades

Scroll on over!
                                                             ~~~~~~~~~~~

If you liked this, you might like:
amaretto bread pudding (with peaches)
  

Sing a new song and make some bread pudding–Two-Dog Kitchen returns next post,
Alyce