So, we were supposed to have company today. I was very excited about this meal because one of the people, or maybe the combination of them left me with a challenge: No gluten, no corn, no dairy, and no peanuts. I've been exploring the no gluten thing for a while, because I have self diagnosed myself with some sort of gluten intolerance... but the corn and dairy and gluten all at the same time were going to be a challenge. It ended up being fine, even though they couldn't make it, which just gives me another opportunity to do it again later. We enjoyed the meal, and I was a little bit excited about 2 of the dishes because I got to use some new oil and vinegar that I am totally obsessed with, so I thought I'd share.
First I have to explain my obsession. Veronica foods produces the best olive oil and vinegar you will ever in your life eat. I have been waiting for a store to open in Augusta that carries their stuff... I really can't explain it, you have to just try the stuff yourself. If you don't live here, contact them and ask what stores are in your area, this stuff is life changing.
OK, so the two things I made with my new acquisitions were a roasted butternut squash with fresh sage, salt and pepper, tossed in the blood orange infused olive oil. I did put just a tad of a sprinkle of rapadura sugar on it - you could also use honey. This was so good- the best butternut I've ever had.
Second was dessert, which was particularly challenging considering no gluten or corn or dairy. I was a little at a loss, so I made rice pudding. Something that I have never eaten or had the desire to eat, but it seemed like an easy fix - I could just use coconut milk. So that is what I did, using arborio rice and rapadura (1/2 cup rice, boiled for ten minutes before cooking in the 4 cups coconut milk and 1/3 cup sugar.). It was actually tasty just like this, but then after chilling, I drizzled espresso vinegar on top and it was awesome.
So there you have it.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Set your ovens!
Ok, so it was finally my Sunday to cook. If you recall, I promised to put crowd size recipes on here about a month ago, and have yet to do it. Anyway, I had the absolute hardest time deciding what to make, and so when I'm indecisive, my fall back is typically brunch. I have made most of these dishes enough that even though I still have to follow a recipe, I'm comfortable with them. They are all mostly make-ahead, and you can easily adjust the quantities for a large crowd or small. At lunch today we had 19 people, although a few of them don't eat much. 7 adults, 6 teenagers, and 6 little people that might equal one adult if you add all of them together. Ansley would make up half of that adult. My girl loves her brunch.
The menu:
Shrimp & Grits
Quiche
Oven Potatoes
Fruit Salad
Brussels Sprouts Salad
Sweet Potato Bread
I didn't truly make up any of these, because I am generally not an original person. I just like to put my personal flare on things. So, here are the recipes.
Shrimp & Grits: This is straight up out of an old Cooking Light magazine. Except that I unlightened it.
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/shrimp-grits-casserole-10000001714620/
Modifications: Use whole milk and full fat cream cheese. I firmly believe that if the Lord wanted us to eat natural foods low-fat, He would have made them that way. Also, grease your pan with butter. Don't feel guilty about it. I also believe that He probably never intended us to eat anything you can spray out of a can. You can assemble this completely the day before and pop it in the oven to cook so that it's hot right before you want to eat it.
Quiche:
This is a recipe that I found in an old Williams Sonoma catalog for a frittata, and I made it a quiche. It's not as pretty as the frittata would be, but easier, because you don't have to have a frittata pan, and you also don't have to worry about the whole wagon-wheel-spoke thing. Incidentally, this is my all time favorite quiche, and I don't make any other recipe anymore. Once you have something this good, you just don't keep looking.
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/asparagus-and-goat-cheese-frittata.html
Modifications: I only use 7 eggs, and add 3/4 cup of half & half or heavy cream. I also normally use dried tarragon instead of fresh, and I can never find chervil anywhere, so never, not one time, have I ever put this in. Also, I generally only use 1 lb of asparagus, because I use more than just the tips. If you only use the tips then you'll need 2 lbs. Here is a picture of how I cut the asparagus.
I cut it after I blanched it. You could cut it first and then blanch it, and if you choose to do that, it would probably be a little easier, because you could use a mandoline to do your cutting. Just keep the asparagus rubber banded together and slice the ends. I chose not to do this, because I have had some seriously unfortunate knife incidents over the last couple of weeks, ever since we got my knives sharpened. I have almost cut off my middle finger on my left hand, my thumb on my right hand, and I've stabbed my left hand twice. Thus, I am trying to avoid razor sharp blades for the moment. Final modification is that I put this in a pie crust, and then cook it at 375 degrees for about 30-40 minutes. True confessions: I take a short cut on my pie crust. It sort of goes against everything in my being to do this, but if you have to take a short cut somewhere, this is where I would choose to do it. I just buy the refrigerated pie crust. Note: today, since we had so many people, I made 2 of these, and in one of them I put 4 oz. sliced mushrooms instead of asparagus. If you choose to do this, sautee them with the leeks first. The way I do this make-ahead is that I mix everything together in a bowl, and then stick it in the fridge the day before. When it's time to bake, just roll out your pie crust and pour the quiche into the pan. It takes like 2 minutes to do that. You might could cook it ahead of time and then reheat it, but I've never tried that and I'm not sure how much time it would actually save anyway. Moving on.
Oven potatoes:
Cube potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes. Toss them in a little olive oil and cajun seasoning. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. I didn't really put quantities because you sort of just have to decide this based on how many people you are having over. I used about 1 1/2 lbs of potatoes, a couple tablespoons of oil and a tablespoon or so of seasoning, but you could do more or less depending on how spicy you want your 'taters.
I didn't make this ahead of time, but you could. If you make it too far in advance the potatoes will discolor, unless you use purple ones, then you can't tell if they discolor or not. So if you choose to slice your potatoes ahead of time, I recommend submerging them in water until you are ready to bake them then toss with the oil and seasoning.
Fruit Salad:
Pretty self explanatory. This I wouldn't make ahead, but you can assign one of your guests to cut up the fruit and assemble it so that you can be making other preparations. I like berries in mine, which is why I don't do ahead, but if you were doing melon or something you could totally make it ahead of time and it would be fine.
Brussels Sprout Salad:
Love this salad! My sweet friend Robyn introduced me to this salad and it is a go-to for potlucks. It's a little more than what my family will eat, but I love making it for a crowd! I don't know where she got it, so I'm just retyping it below:
1 lb. brussels sprouts, sliced with the slicer blade on the food processor
1/2 cup grated Gruyere, or Pecorino Romano Cheese or Parmesan
6 oz. walnuts or pecans in small pieces
9 Tbsp. olive oil
3 Tbsp. cider vinegar
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste
So mix first 3 ingredients together. Put remaining ingredients in a bowl and shake it up until it comes together. You can also add a tsp. of maple syrup to this, which I would recommend b/c it is awesome.
Toss salad with dressing. Now, to make ahead, I would just NOT dress the salad. Do that just before you serve it. But you can mix the sprouts, cheese and nuts together, and then separately make the dressing ahead of time. Also, I like to throw some raisins or cranberries in here, too. Tasty!
Finally,
Sweet Potato Bread:
This was out of this month's Cooking Light, with modifications to unlighten it and make it more nutritious. Since I can't find it online yet, I'll just type it here. But I'm gonna type it the way I made it.
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
3 oz plain greek yogurt
1 oz creme fraiche [Note on previous two ingredients: you are going for 4 oz. of a thick, yogurty type thing here, I used what I had]
1/2 cup rapadura
1/4 cup rendered lard [so, you could use butter, coconut oil, lots of different things here]
2 eggs
1/2 cup packed shredded sweet potato
1/3 cup chopped dates
1/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted.
cream cheese
lemon juice
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix first 7 ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix yogurt through eggs. Add to flour mixture, stirring until just moist. Gently fold in sweet potato, dates, and pecans.
Bake in a floured, greased 9X5 pan (ok, so I have a silicone pan, which doesn't require greasing, but if you do grease a pan, see my above note on eating things sprayed out of a can) for 40 minutes, until done (check w/a toothpick). Cool 10 minutes, remove from pan, and then if you want an "icing" you can mix the cream cheese and lemon juice together until a thin enough consistency to spread on top. I didn't think the bread really needed this, so you could kind of go either way. I made 2 of these for this size crowd.
And there you have it. It seems like a lot, but really, if you do all the make-ahead parts, all you are doing right before meal time is:
Pouring the quiche in the crusts, popping them, with the other already prepared things in the oven, tossing your salad, and cutting up some fruit.
Final note: If you don't have a convection oven or two, then allow for a little longer cooking times because this is a whole lotta stuff in one oven.
Happy eating!
The menu:
Shrimp & Grits
Quiche
Oven Potatoes
Fruit Salad
Brussels Sprouts Salad
Sweet Potato Bread
I didn't truly make up any of these, because I am generally not an original person. I just like to put my personal flare on things. So, here are the recipes.
Shrimp & Grits: This is straight up out of an old Cooking Light magazine. Except that I unlightened it.
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/shrimp-grits-casserole-10000001714620/
Modifications: Use whole milk and full fat cream cheese. I firmly believe that if the Lord wanted us to eat natural foods low-fat, He would have made them that way. Also, grease your pan with butter. Don't feel guilty about it. I also believe that He probably never intended us to eat anything you can spray out of a can. You can assemble this completely the day before and pop it in the oven to cook so that it's hot right before you want to eat it.
Quiche:
This is a recipe that I found in an old Williams Sonoma catalog for a frittata, and I made it a quiche. It's not as pretty as the frittata would be, but easier, because you don't have to have a frittata pan, and you also don't have to worry about the whole wagon-wheel-spoke thing. Incidentally, this is my all time favorite quiche, and I don't make any other recipe anymore. Once you have something this good, you just don't keep looking.
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/asparagus-and-goat-cheese-frittata.html
Modifications: I only use 7 eggs, and add 3/4 cup of half & half or heavy cream. I also normally use dried tarragon instead of fresh, and I can never find chervil anywhere, so never, not one time, have I ever put this in. Also, I generally only use 1 lb of asparagus, because I use more than just the tips. If you only use the tips then you'll need 2 lbs. Here is a picture of how I cut the asparagus.
I cut it after I blanched it. You could cut it first and then blanch it, and if you choose to do that, it would probably be a little easier, because you could use a mandoline to do your cutting. Just keep the asparagus rubber banded together and slice the ends. I chose not to do this, because I have had some seriously unfortunate knife incidents over the last couple of weeks, ever since we got my knives sharpened. I have almost cut off my middle finger on my left hand, my thumb on my right hand, and I've stabbed my left hand twice. Thus, I am trying to avoid razor sharp blades for the moment. Final modification is that I put this in a pie crust, and then cook it at 375 degrees for about 30-40 minutes. True confessions: I take a short cut on my pie crust. It sort of goes against everything in my being to do this, but if you have to take a short cut somewhere, this is where I would choose to do it. I just buy the refrigerated pie crust. Note: today, since we had so many people, I made 2 of these, and in one of them I put 4 oz. sliced mushrooms instead of asparagus. If you choose to do this, sautee them with the leeks first. The way I do this make-ahead is that I mix everything together in a bowl, and then stick it in the fridge the day before. When it's time to bake, just roll out your pie crust and pour the quiche into the pan. It takes like 2 minutes to do that. You might could cook it ahead of time and then reheat it, but I've never tried that and I'm not sure how much time it would actually save anyway. Moving on.
Oven potatoes:
Cube potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes. Toss them in a little olive oil and cajun seasoning. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. I didn't really put quantities because you sort of just have to decide this based on how many people you are having over. I used about 1 1/2 lbs of potatoes, a couple tablespoons of oil and a tablespoon or so of seasoning, but you could do more or less depending on how spicy you want your 'taters.
I didn't make this ahead of time, but you could. If you make it too far in advance the potatoes will discolor, unless you use purple ones, then you can't tell if they discolor or not. So if you choose to slice your potatoes ahead of time, I recommend submerging them in water until you are ready to bake them then toss with the oil and seasoning.
Fruit Salad:
Pretty self explanatory. This I wouldn't make ahead, but you can assign one of your guests to cut up the fruit and assemble it so that you can be making other preparations. I like berries in mine, which is why I don't do ahead, but if you were doing melon or something you could totally make it ahead of time and it would be fine.
Brussels Sprout Salad:
Love this salad! My sweet friend Robyn introduced me to this salad and it is a go-to for potlucks. It's a little more than what my family will eat, but I love making it for a crowd! I don't know where she got it, so I'm just retyping it below:
1 lb. brussels sprouts, sliced with the slicer blade on the food processor
1/2 cup grated Gruyere, or Pecorino Romano Cheese or Parmesan
6 oz. walnuts or pecans in small pieces
9 Tbsp. olive oil
3 Tbsp. cider vinegar
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste
So mix first 3 ingredients together. Put remaining ingredients in a bowl and shake it up until it comes together. You can also add a tsp. of maple syrup to this, which I would recommend b/c it is awesome.
Toss salad with dressing. Now, to make ahead, I would just NOT dress the salad. Do that just before you serve it. But you can mix the sprouts, cheese and nuts together, and then separately make the dressing ahead of time. Also, I like to throw some raisins or cranberries in here, too. Tasty!
Finally,
Sweet Potato Bread:
This was out of this month's Cooking Light, with modifications to unlighten it and make it more nutritious. Since I can't find it online yet, I'll just type it here. But I'm gonna type it the way I made it.
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
3 oz plain greek yogurt
1 oz creme fraiche [Note on previous two ingredients: you are going for 4 oz. of a thick, yogurty type thing here, I used what I had]
1/2 cup rapadura
1/4 cup rendered lard [so, you could use butter, coconut oil, lots of different things here]
2 eggs
1/2 cup packed shredded sweet potato
1/3 cup chopped dates
1/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted.
cream cheese
lemon juice
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix first 7 ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix yogurt through eggs. Add to flour mixture, stirring until just moist. Gently fold in sweet potato, dates, and pecans.
Bake in a floured, greased 9X5 pan (ok, so I have a silicone pan, which doesn't require greasing, but if you do grease a pan, see my above note on eating things sprayed out of a can) for 40 minutes, until done (check w/a toothpick). Cool 10 minutes, remove from pan, and then if you want an "icing" you can mix the cream cheese and lemon juice together until a thin enough consistency to spread on top. I didn't think the bread really needed this, so you could kind of go either way. I made 2 of these for this size crowd.
And there you have it. It seems like a lot, but really, if you do all the make-ahead parts, all you are doing right before meal time is:
Pouring the quiche in the crusts, popping them, with the other already prepared things in the oven, tossing your salad, and cutting up some fruit.
Final note: If you don't have a convection oven or two, then allow for a little longer cooking times because this is a whole lotta stuff in one oven.
Happy eating!
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
My last post on ice cream
Ok, so try #3 on coconut was a success. I finally got a coconut with a lot of milk in it, and it actually came out. I poked a bigger hole through the soft spots, so maybe that had something to do with it. But I could actually hear all the milk inside when I shook the thing up, so I was determined to get it out this time. Instead of my phillips head screwdriver and hammer, I used the biggest flat head one that I had and twisted it around in that hole forever it seems. Either my method or my choice of coconut paid off. I got 2/3 cup of coconut water out of that baby! And then, when I baked it at 350 degrees I checked it at 15 minute intervals and it had cracked perfectly somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes. It hadn't dried out yet at 30 minutes in the slightest bit, and was much easier to peel. All in all, I am so glad I made a 3rd attempt, because it wasn't as hard as I had made it the 1st two times. Anyway, after pureeing the freshly peeled coconut with the coconut water, and then adding a can of coconut milk, I had almost 4 cups of liquid already, so there was a very minimal amount of cream to be added. Then I added 3/4 cup of syrup, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1 Tbsp. of freshly squeezed lime juice, and voila, perfect coconut ice cream.
I also made another ice cream that my mother was working on while I was working on coconut. She was given the ingredients from a staff member at Robert Levine's restaurant in Hilton Head, and perfected the quantities. I basically made vanilla ice cream: 3 cups cream, 3/4 cup maple syrup, 1 tsp vanilla (this is my new standard, go to vanilla recipe). Then added 1 tsp cinnamon (but I actually love cinnamon, so I added a little more), and 1 1/2 to 2 Tbsp of Frank's hot sauce. It's technically supposed to be Tabasco. So if you use Tabasco, I wouldn't use as much b/c it's a little hotter than the Franks. Listen, this wasn't that hot, but it had a sweet little bite at the end and all of my kids who are spicy-averse loved this ice cream and ate it right up. It was a huge hit! Very tasty.
I also made another ice cream that my mother was working on while I was working on coconut. She was given the ingredients from a staff member at Robert Levine's restaurant in Hilton Head, and perfected the quantities. I basically made vanilla ice cream: 3 cups cream, 3/4 cup maple syrup, 1 tsp vanilla (this is my new standard, go to vanilla recipe). Then added 1 tsp cinnamon (but I actually love cinnamon, so I added a little more), and 1 1/2 to 2 Tbsp of Frank's hot sauce. It's technically supposed to be Tabasco. So if you use Tabasco, I wouldn't use as much b/c it's a little hotter than the Franks. Listen, this wasn't that hot, but it had a sweet little bite at the end and all of my kids who are spicy-averse loved this ice cream and ate it right up. It was a huge hit! Very tasty.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Coconut Ice Cream, Take 2
This was so much better. I forgot the lime, but I'm totally ok with that.
1 coconut
1 can of coconut milk
approx. 1 cup cream
3/4 c. of maple syrup
1-2 tsp. vanilla
So, this time, I cooked the coconut at 350 degrees until it cracked. Maybe a little longer. The thing is I was expecting it to take a while since it never happened last time, and I didn't check it until it had been in there for an hour already, and it had cracked. It had started drying out (and this one did have milk in it, but I couldn't get it out! I get an F on opening coconuts) already, but it was still slightly moist. So after I got all the meat out, I put it in the food processor and pureed it with the entire can of coconut milk. Then I chilled it. It measured about 3 cups, so I put enough cream in my measure to equal 4 cups of liquid. Then I poured in the maple syrup, and I didn't actually measure the vanilla, but I am guessing it was closer to 2 teaspoons than 1. I love vanilla. Anyway, this was wonderful. It totally satisfied the craving and I'm not one bit sad that I forgot to add the lime. Colin didn't like it, but Ansley, Silas, both babies and our Chinese exchange student all ate a huge bowl. And no I'm not kidding. Length of stay tbd. ;)
1 coconut
1 can of coconut milk
approx. 1 cup cream
3/4 c. of maple syrup
1-2 tsp. vanilla
So, this time, I cooked the coconut at 350 degrees until it cracked. Maybe a little longer. The thing is I was expecting it to take a while since it never happened last time, and I didn't check it until it had been in there for an hour already, and it had cracked. It had started drying out (and this one did have milk in it, but I couldn't get it out! I get an F on opening coconuts) already, but it was still slightly moist. So after I got all the meat out, I put it in the food processor and pureed it with the entire can of coconut milk. Then I chilled it. It measured about 3 cups, so I put enough cream in my measure to equal 4 cups of liquid. Then I poured in the maple syrup, and I didn't actually measure the vanilla, but I am guessing it was closer to 2 teaspoons than 1. I love vanilla. Anyway, this was wonderful. It totally satisfied the craving and I'm not one bit sad that I forgot to add the lime. Colin didn't like it, but Ansley, Silas, both babies and our Chinese exchange student all ate a huge bowl. And no I'm not kidding. Length of stay tbd. ;)
Saturday, September 1, 2012
The best fried chicken ever
This is wonderful. Of course it is, because it's Thomas Keller. I never thought I could love fried chicken this much. Especially one that I made in my own kitchen, because as much as I cook, I don't often fry. You'd think frying would be one of the easier things to do, but I don't have a deep fryer, so I just use a saucepan, and I'm cheap on the whole oil thing. This is probably the reason that most of my early frying attempts failed so miserably. But I've finally figured out how to use the least amount of oil (or preferably, beef fat) and succeed and so I don't feel like I'm wasting it all. Plus I'm really cheap and will often fry in the beef fat twice, depending on what I fried the first time. Oh yeah, and I don't have a thermometer to measure how hot the oil is. So you can see why I had so many failed attempts. I still pretty much just guess, but I'm a better guesser now after having messed up so many times. Anyway, this is really, really delicious. Please make it. Your taste buds, not to mention your whole family, will thank you.
You have to brine it:
2.5 lemons
12 bay leaves
2 oz bunch flat leaf parsley
1/2 oz bunch thyme
1/4 cup honey
1/2 head garlic, halved through the equator
1/8 c. peppercorns
1 cup (5oz) kosher salt
1 gallon water
Bring to a boil and then cool, chill, and put your (cut up) chicken in it! Don't almost cut your middle finger off when halving the garlic through the equator, though. It's really difficult to type with a bandaid on. Also, he recommends that you not brine your chicken for longer than 12 hours, because it will get pretty salty. I can believe it. I don't use a lot of salt, so this chicken was noticeably salty. But it was great. I brined for right at the 12 hours.
Now he has a buttermilk fried chicken recipe that has the exact spice-flour-chicken-buttermilk combo. If you want that I'd be happy to send it to you, because it was great. But I'm not going to type it all out here. I think the key to this delicious chicken was the brining. The breading was great, a little spice to it, which I loved, Russ loved, the kids pulled off. Everyone cleaned their plates though and I gave them a pretty good sized portion!
P.S. I used whole wheat flour for my breading, and fried in beef fat. So I did break from the directions, just a little.
You have to brine it:
2.5 lemons
12 bay leaves
2 oz bunch flat leaf parsley
1/2 oz bunch thyme
1/4 cup honey
1/2 head garlic, halved through the equator
1/8 c. peppercorns
1 cup (5oz) kosher salt
1 gallon water
Bring to a boil and then cool, chill, and put your (cut up) chicken in it! Don't almost cut your middle finger off when halving the garlic through the equator, though. It's really difficult to type with a bandaid on. Also, he recommends that you not brine your chicken for longer than 12 hours, because it will get pretty salty. I can believe it. I don't use a lot of salt, so this chicken was noticeably salty. But it was great. I brined for right at the 12 hours.
Now he has a buttermilk fried chicken recipe that has the exact spice-flour-chicken-buttermilk combo. If you want that I'd be happy to send it to you, because it was great. But I'm not going to type it all out here. I think the key to this delicious chicken was the brining. The breading was great, a little spice to it, which I loved, Russ loved, the kids pulled off. Everyone cleaned their plates though and I gave them a pretty good sized portion!
P.S. I used whole wheat flour for my breading, and fried in beef fat. So I did break from the directions, just a little.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
In my ice cream maker......
I've got the following concoction. But I need to preface this, with this fact: It's partly an accidental concoction, as are a lot of my culinary experiences.
1 cup shredded, totally dried out coconut
3 cups heavy cream (it is ice CREAM after all)
3/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp bourbon vanilla
1 Tbsp. lime juice
the zest of 1 lime
toasted, dried out, coconut (which sounds redundant) will be added after it is finished in the ice cream maker.
You see, I have never in my life made anything with a fresh coconut before. I intended to make this ice cream differently than I did. But, I sort of misread, or mis-remembered to be more accurate, the directions on preparing a fresh coconut. So, I poked holes in the soft spots, and no milk came out. Not sure if I even bought a good coconut. Off to a bad start. Then, I wanted to crack it open, so I put it in the oven like the directions I was following told me to do, but here's where I messed up. I was supposed to put it in the oven at 350 degrees until it cracked, and then after I got the meat out and pureed it, dry it out in the oven at 150 degrees for like 12 hours. BUT, since my brain is very literally mush most days, I remembered this backwards, and so I baked the coconut for 12 hours at 180 because my oven doesn't go down to 150, and it never cracked. Then I read the directions again and realized my mistake. So I cooked it at 350 for another hour or so and it still didn't crack. SO I just took my mallet out to the back yard and put that stubborn coconut on my concrete table and started beating the ever living daylights out of it until it cracked open. I found a nicely dried out interior of my coconut. It was at this point, extremely difficult to peel away the shell, but I was pretty determined to have this ice cream. So after I did that I put it in my food processor and made coconut that is about the consistency of bread crumbs. It's totally dry. So, I put a cup of this in my ice cream, and I'm at this moment toasting the rest of the coconut crumbs to mix in approximately 15 minutes. I'm shaking the pan a bit every few minutes so that they are evenly toasted and not burned to a crisp. I still have enough cream left to try it the way I originally intended later this week, once we eat this, and I buy another coconut.
In the meantime, I thought I'd tell you about this wonderful peach salad I discovered last night. It was absolutely wonderful, and I might have to fix it weekly until peach season is over. It was in Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc cookbook that I mentioned before, and if you want the actual recipe I'll send it to you. But it had arugula, endive, toasted almonds, peaches, and this great peach vinaigrette dressing. The dressing was made with white wine vinegar, olive oil, shallots, salt, pepper, and a peach puree. The peach puree is the part I am most excited about - it's pretty much just peaches, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar. Since I refuse to cook with white sugar, I used the rapadura. You cook this for a while until it reaches the setting point, which I don't have any idea if mine ever did, because believe it or not, I don't have a candy thermometer. Why I don't just buy one I haven't figured out yet. So I just pretty much guess, and sometimes we're good and sometimes we're not. But it worked out last night, and I had tons of left over. You're wondering why this was exciting. Well I mixed it into our plain yogurt this morning, and EVERYONE ate it. My kids have been on a yogurt strike since I started making it at home, and I refuse to sweeten it with white sugar, so we've been at sort of a standoff. Peach puree may have just saved the day here.
7 minutes left on my ice cream......
1 cup shredded, totally dried out coconut
3 cups heavy cream (it is ice CREAM after all)
3/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp bourbon vanilla
1 Tbsp. lime juice
the zest of 1 lime
toasted, dried out, coconut (which sounds redundant) will be added after it is finished in the ice cream maker.
You see, I have never in my life made anything with a fresh coconut before. I intended to make this ice cream differently than I did. But, I sort of misread, or mis-remembered to be more accurate, the directions on preparing a fresh coconut. So, I poked holes in the soft spots, and no milk came out. Not sure if I even bought a good coconut. Off to a bad start. Then, I wanted to crack it open, so I put it in the oven like the directions I was following told me to do, but here's where I messed up. I was supposed to put it in the oven at 350 degrees until it cracked, and then after I got the meat out and pureed it, dry it out in the oven at 150 degrees for like 12 hours. BUT, since my brain is very literally mush most days, I remembered this backwards, and so I baked the coconut for 12 hours at 180 because my oven doesn't go down to 150, and it never cracked. Then I read the directions again and realized my mistake. So I cooked it at 350 for another hour or so and it still didn't crack. SO I just took my mallet out to the back yard and put that stubborn coconut on my concrete table and started beating the ever living daylights out of it until it cracked open. I found a nicely dried out interior of my coconut. It was at this point, extremely difficult to peel away the shell, but I was pretty determined to have this ice cream. So after I did that I put it in my food processor and made coconut that is about the consistency of bread crumbs. It's totally dry. So, I put a cup of this in my ice cream, and I'm at this moment toasting the rest of the coconut crumbs to mix in approximately 15 minutes. I'm shaking the pan a bit every few minutes so that they are evenly toasted and not burned to a crisp. I still have enough cream left to try it the way I originally intended later this week, once we eat this, and I buy another coconut.
In the meantime, I thought I'd tell you about this wonderful peach salad I discovered last night. It was absolutely wonderful, and I might have to fix it weekly until peach season is over. It was in Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc cookbook that I mentioned before, and if you want the actual recipe I'll send it to you. But it had arugula, endive, toasted almonds, peaches, and this great peach vinaigrette dressing. The dressing was made with white wine vinegar, olive oil, shallots, salt, pepper, and a peach puree. The peach puree is the part I am most excited about - it's pretty much just peaches, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar. Since I refuse to cook with white sugar, I used the rapadura. You cook this for a while until it reaches the setting point, which I don't have any idea if mine ever did, because believe it or not, I don't have a candy thermometer. Why I don't just buy one I haven't figured out yet. So I just pretty much guess, and sometimes we're good and sometimes we're not. But it worked out last night, and I had tons of left over. You're wondering why this was exciting. Well I mixed it into our plain yogurt this morning, and EVERYONE ate it. My kids have been on a yogurt strike since I started making it at home, and I refuse to sweeten it with white sugar, so we've been at sort of a standoff. Peach puree may have just saved the day here.
7 minutes left on my ice cream......
Friday, August 24, 2012
My top 3 cookbooks (that I own)
So, after being chastised twice in the same day by two different people for still having cinnamon rolls on the blog, I am updating this, but it will be brief. Maybe. I get a little talky sometimes. Anyway, I thought I would make a couple of cookbook recommendations because these are such good and useful cookbooks in my house.
I have 3 favorites that are practical. Well 2 of them are really practical and the other one is mostly practical.
1) The 150 best slow cooker recipes I haven't cooked everything in this, but I'm just gonna tell you that everything I have cooked is wonderful. And I have cooked a lot out of it. If you like to use your crock pot, get this cookbook.
2) Williams -Sonoma Comfort Food It's Williams-Sonoma, so it should be pretty self-explanatory, but as was true of the previous cookbook, everything I have made out of this cookbook is awesome. I particularly love the corn fritters dipped in maple syrup, and the short ribs and polenta, and the shrimp scampi, and the carne asada, and the coconut cake, and the kids loved the sloppy joes and the spagetti and meatballs. I mean, you sort of can't go wrong. I'm probably forgetting some of the other wonderful things that I love to make, frequently out of this. BTW Laura, the corn fritters are the other thing I fry a lot besides okra in the tallow. And by a lot I mean like once a month, maybe. But that's a lot for me.
3) Ad Hoc At Home This one is Thomas Keller. We've already established that I sort of idol worship him just a little bit, and this one isn't always particularly practical. But it's always delicious. Always. And while we're talking about it, there was this GREAT article about the Pioneer Woman vs. Thomas Keller and this lady made the exact same meal out of both cookbooks. You should read it. I can't summarize it and do it justice.
So there you have it. My "go-to's." Which probably shouldn't have an apostrophe, but I'm a little bit of a perfectionist at times and the spell checker didn't like it without the apostrophe.
We are in the midst of homeschooling and traveling, and birthdays, and all kinds of exciting things. So this blog has sort of fallen to the bottom of the list of things for me to do. However, I love having people over, and I love cooking, and I know lots of people who also love to do this, but I know lots of people who are afraid to do it. So, if I can remember, I'm going to try to put down my recipes of stuff that I make when we have lots of people over. Because I like to do make-ahead set your oven timer or crock pot type dishes, because they're easy. But I also like making great food as often as possible, and so this can sometimes be a challenge. I'm also going to try and make up a top-secret ice cream recipe for our ice cream cook-off in a couple of weeks. I've been dreaming about this ice cream for like 2 days now and I can hardly stand waiting to make it. So stay-tuned.
I have 3 favorites that are practical. Well 2 of them are really practical and the other one is mostly practical.
1) The 150 best slow cooker recipes I haven't cooked everything in this, but I'm just gonna tell you that everything I have cooked is wonderful. And I have cooked a lot out of it. If you like to use your crock pot, get this cookbook.
2) Williams -Sonoma Comfort Food It's Williams-Sonoma, so it should be pretty self-explanatory, but as was true of the previous cookbook, everything I have made out of this cookbook is awesome. I particularly love the corn fritters dipped in maple syrup, and the short ribs and polenta, and the shrimp scampi, and the carne asada, and the coconut cake, and the kids loved the sloppy joes and the spagetti and meatballs. I mean, you sort of can't go wrong. I'm probably forgetting some of the other wonderful things that I love to make, frequently out of this. BTW Laura, the corn fritters are the other thing I fry a lot besides okra in the tallow. And by a lot I mean like once a month, maybe. But that's a lot for me.
3) Ad Hoc At Home This one is Thomas Keller. We've already established that I sort of idol worship him just a little bit, and this one isn't always particularly practical. But it's always delicious. Always. And while we're talking about it, there was this GREAT article about the Pioneer Woman vs. Thomas Keller and this lady made the exact same meal out of both cookbooks. You should read it. I can't summarize it and do it justice.
So there you have it. My "go-to's." Which probably shouldn't have an apostrophe, but I'm a little bit of a perfectionist at times and the spell checker didn't like it without the apostrophe.
We are in the midst of homeschooling and traveling, and birthdays, and all kinds of exciting things. So this blog has sort of fallen to the bottom of the list of things for me to do. However, I love having people over, and I love cooking, and I know lots of people who also love to do this, but I know lots of people who are afraid to do it. So, if I can remember, I'm going to try to put down my recipes of stuff that I make when we have lots of people over. Because I like to do make-ahead set your oven timer or crock pot type dishes, because they're easy. But I also like making great food as often as possible, and so this can sometimes be a challenge. I'm also going to try and make up a top-secret ice cream recipe for our ice cream cook-off in a couple of weeks. I've been dreaming about this ice cream for like 2 days now and I can hardly stand waiting to make it. So stay-tuned.
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