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HEY GUYS. (Pretend I’m saying this with attitude, perhaps with a snappy hand gesture or two.)
So I know it’s been 6 months and all since I last wrote. And I could be all apologetic and whiny, but honestly, I hate reading those posts. And I could tell you in detail what I HAVE been doing while I’ve NOT been blogging but it all boils down to: I moved from Colorado to Virginia. From an apartment to a house. From no backyard to a garden-friendly one. And I think I might have even convinced Brad to let us get a dog to go with our picket fence (which is not white, but whatever, that’s just details.)
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I still squee when I look at my new house. It’s so sweet it practically gives me diabetes.
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The kitchen. Looks a little white to start with, but I’m painting it a bright, bright green. ‘Cause that’s how I roll.
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The backyard, where Dad and my brother and I have already installed four raised garden beds. I’m getting topsoil and compost delivered later this week, and have already bought some seeds and garlic to plant this fall, even though I know I’ll only get to grow some quick-maturing leafy greens with what’s left of the season. Having never grown anything before (not a single potted plant, people) I am slightly terrified that I’m going to find out I have the brownest thumb ever. But, I figure I can probably grow zucchini and summer squash pretty easily. And if we end up with 4 raised beds’ worth of zucchini each summer and that’s it, well at least I will have a lot of zucchini bread, right?
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There’s been lots of cooking going on in the new house, although I’ve fallen back on some of the old favorites rather than trying many new ones. But after what seems like the LONGEST SUMMER EVER, what with the hot Colorado sun and then the stifling Virginia heat, I’m so desperate for fall I’m about to rent a snow machine and spray paint my trees yellow. I’m pushing the fall season like Wal-mart pushes Halloween candy in August, and making butternut squash lasagna and roasted potatoes instead of hanging onto the last few days of summer with marinated tomato salads and such.
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I found this recipe on that time-suck-to-which-no-other-compares, Pinterest. It was so pretty I just HAD to try it. I added a pinch of paprika for extra flavor, but next time (and there WILL be a next time) I’m thinking of infusing the butter with roasted garlic first. The shallot just wasn’t enough for me in this instance, although the texture of the dish was SPOT FREAKING ON. Extra crisp top and smooth creamy slices of potato that fall apart on the plate. A dish made perfect with those last potatoes of the summer, especially on the first cold night of fall. (Or so I would imagine, considering it’s still 75 degrees here at night.)
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Crispy Potato Roast
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Serves 6
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Martha says there’s only 25 minutes of prep time for this recipe. Martha is full of lies. (But it’s totally worth it.)
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Gather:
3 tablespoons butter, melted
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 pounds potatoes, peeled
4 shallots, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
a pinch paprika
a few springs of thyme, and
a mandoline or a sharp knife
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Prepare:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Slice the potatoes on thinnest setting of a mandoline or as thin as you can with a knife. (The thinner the potatoes, the crispier they will bake up.) You can prevent them from browning by putting them in a bowl of water as you slice.
Combine the butter and olive oil in a small bowl. Brush the olive oil mixture on the inside of a cast iron skillet or other heavy baking dish. Arrange the potato slices in the skillet as you like. Wedge slices of shallot between slices of potato. Sprinkle with salt, crushed red pepper, and a pinch of paprika. Bake for 75 minutes. Arrange a few sprigs of thyme on top of the potatoes and bake for another 35 minutes, or until the potatoes are crispy on top. Serve.
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Fitz & the Tantrums / Don’t Gotta Work It Out
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For the past two weeks or so, I’ve been having exactly this for breakfast – a bowl of plain yogurt with blood orange segments on top. I’ve been using homemade yogurt, which is super thick like I like it. After I segment the oranges, I like to squeeze the leftover membranes over top of the bowl, to get all the extra juice into my yogurt. It’s like a customized blood-orange-flavored yogurt, minus the horrible sugary taste you get with commercial yogurts. So, so tasty.
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And then there was the day that I ran out of blood oranges… so I used some frozen berries left over from last summer. I microwaved them for 30 seconds on half-power, and let all the juices mix in with the yogurt. Definitely the best way to start the day.
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The Love Language / Brittany’s Back
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You want to know what is REALLY hard to make look delicious?
That would be, a bowl of this here soup.
I mean, it’s freaking tasty stuff, this soup, but it will definitely be filed under the category of what I like to call, ugly food. Don’t get me wrong, ugly food is almost always tasty – we’ve been over this before – it’s just that you’re going to have to convince your guests/spouse/disbelieving children of that fact before they’ll even sit down to the table. I tried to be all Ina-like and add “a garnish that reflects the flavors present in the dish” – that’s why the rosemary spring is just hanging out over there on the left – because honestly, brown soup is just a wee bit unappetizing.
Okay, so we’ve been over the basics of why you probably WON’T want to try this soup. But this is a food blog, so its not like I’m going to post horrible recipes. So let’s go over the reasons why you should try this, non?
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1. It’s a recipe from Ina Garten, whose every recipe is a foodgasm in the making, and who is only second to God in our foodie world next to Martha Stewart. (But is actually first in God’s eyes because Ina hasn’t been to jail. Go Ina.)
2. It’s made with all natural ingredients like chicken stock and white beans, so you know it’s good for you without tasting like cardboard.
3. This is a perfect dish for winter, since it uses just about the only thing “in season” in Colorado – dried beans.
4. The end product is creamy without being heavy, flavorful without being full of fat. The best of both worlds.
5. The ugly factor of food is inversely related to how delicious the food is. So this dish is obviously off the charts. (Obviously.)
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So, now that I’ve thoroughly convinced you, Law & Order-style, get thee to your grocery store/farmers market/pantry some cannellini beans.
And make sure to distract your children/spouse/guests with cartoons/sports/booze before you serve this.
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Rosemary White Bean Soup
Adapted from Ina Garten
Serves 6
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The only “adaptations” included reducing the amount of olive oil (because she alway uses a ton, bless her heart) and removing all references to “good” ingredients that will make you feel inferior.
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Gather:
1 pound dried white cannellini beans
4 cups sliced sweet yellow onions
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large branch fresh rosemary
6 cups chicken stock
1 bay leaf
kosher salt, to taste
fresh cracked pepper, to taste
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Prepare:
Pick through the beans to remove any pebbles or other debris. In a large bowl, cover beans with at least 2 inches of cold water. Let soak overnight or at least 8 hours. Drain.
In a large stockpot, saute the onions with the olive oil until translucent, 10 to 15 minutes. (Note: Instead of adding more olive oil, just add a bit of water if the onions start to burn. And if you do burn the onions, just tell your guests it’s “Caramelized Onion White Bean Soup.”) Add the garlic and cook for 3 minutes until fragrant. Add the drained white beans, rosemary, chicken stock, and bay leaf. Cover; bring to a boil, and simmer 30 to 40 minutes, until the beans are soft. Remove rosemary and bay leaf. Pass the soup through the coarsest blade of a food mill, or puree half of the soup in a blender/food processor. Continue pureeing and mixing until you reach a consistency you like. (I prefer a course puree.) Return the soup to the pot, and reheat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.
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Best Coast / The End
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I made these for the first time a few weeks ago, when I just had some white and orange sweet potatoes hanging out in my house, leftover from the fall produce sales. They were starting their own mini sweet-potato-reproducing-factory in my cabinet, and I needed to get rid of them. Naturally, I decided to make some fries. It’s the default thing to do with leftover sweet potatoes, right?
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But you can’t just serve fries on their own… and for me, ketchup/catsup/catchup isn’t what you serve with a big platter of sweet potato fries. Sweet potato fries are the sophisticated older sister of regular fries. You need something to woo her with…
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Like intense garlic breath, of course.
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Thus, roasted garlic aioli. An aioli is much like mayonnaise… except hopefully homemade, and with a fancier name.
Honestly, you probably just want to invite all your friends over for these fries. You want to make sure all the people you know are eating this, lest you see a friend or five out and about later… because they won’t want to be within 10 feet of you. (Unless that’s what you’re going for… in which case, I applaud you for your creative strategy.)
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Sweet Potato Fries
From the Kitchenette
Serves 8 as an appetizer or side
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Gather:
4 sweet potatoes, orange or white or both, scrubbed clean
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more if needed
coarse salt
fresh cracked pepper
Prepare:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch sticks. (Note: I’m not too concerned about getting each fry the perfect length or width. Perfection is BORING. Plus, having some fries be more crispy than others is quite tasty, honestly.) Toss sweet potatoes with 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt and pepper, adding more oil until fries are just barely coated. Roast at 425 degrees for approximately 40-50 minutes, tossing each 15 minutes or so.
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Roasted Garlic Aioli
From the Kitchenette
Yields about 3/4 cup
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Gather:
1 head garlic
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
1 egg
salt
fresh cracked pepper
Prepare:
To roast the garlic, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the top off the head of garlic, and place on a square of aluminum foil. Drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil over top the head. Wrap the aluminum foil around the garlic, and roast at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until garlic is translucent and soft inside.
To make aioli, put 3 cloves of roasted garlic (you can squeeze them out of the head with your thumb) in a food processor or blender. Add in the egg, a pinch each of salt and pepper, and turn on the food processor/blender to high. Add in the olive oil in a VERY slow stream, as slowly as possible. Check the texture of the aioli intermittently while adding the olive oil; you are looking for a texture akin to a thin mayonnaise, and you may not need all the oil, or you may need a bit more. Once the appropriate texture is reached, transfer to a serving dish.
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Warpaint / Undertow
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So I actually meant to post these in time for Christmas, but as you probably remember, I went home to Virginia…
and accidentally disappeared off the face of the earth for approximately 30 days.
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As you can probably tell, the red ball is covered in chopped dried cranberries. It’s filled with delicious mango chutney and shredded cheddar, along with some other delicious things. The green one is covered in chopped parsley, and is filled with heavenly, creamy goat cheese and scallions. (If you start drooling, I won’t say anything. I’m totally drooling just writing this.)
These cheese balls are a staple at any of our family gatherings. My cousin Grayson, and my brother Jeff, have been known to request them at Thanksgiving and Christmas. But I see no reason you can’t serve them for Superbowl Sunday… or even just a Tuesday afternoon. I mean, honestly… who can resist a cheese ball???
In fact, if you are able to resist a cheese ball, then I’m unsure you have a soul.
And I’m positive we can’t be friends. It’s just a requirement to friendship.
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This is another Martha Stewart recipe, because I swear, that bitch can do no wrong. (I tried a banana bread recipe from her the other day, and I swear I saw angels with the first bite. Damn her and her perfect, perfect recipes.)
Martha suggests serving the parsley-goat cheese ball with slices of cucumber, but clearly that’s for people who are trying to ignore the fact that they are eating a large ball made entirely of dairy fat. Own it, and serve it with water crackers.
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Base for Cheese Balls
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Makes one 4-inch ball
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Gather:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons lemon juice
scant 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 dashes hot sauce
pinch salt
pinch white pepper
Prepare:
Mix all ingredients in a bowl until smooth and combined. Proceed with variation chosen below. (Base may be multiplied if making more than 1 variation; just divide evenly between separate bowls before proceeding.)
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Cranberry-Cheddar Cheese Ball
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Makes one 4-inch ball
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Gather:
1 recipe Cheese Ball base, above
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated
2 tablespoons mango chutney (or other complimentary flavor)
3/4 cup finely chopped cranberries
Prepare:
Combine the cheese ball base, cheddar, and mango chutney, and stir until thoroughly mixed. Pull out a sheet of cling wrap and lay on flat surface. Shape cheese into a ball, and wrap in cling wrap. Chill in fridge 1 hour.
Scatter chopped cranberries on a cutting board or other flat surface. Unwrap cheese ball from cling wrap and lightly press into cranberries, until dried fruit clings to surface. (Cheese ball can be prepared up to 24 hours in advance. Refrigerate, and let sit at room temperature approximately 1 hour before serving.)
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Scallion-Chevre Cheese Ball
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Makes one 4-inch ball
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Gather:
1 recipe Cheese Ball base, above
8 ounces goat cheese, softened
2 tablespoons scallions, finely chopped
1/3 cup curly parsley, finely chopped
Prepare:
Combine the cheese ball base, goat cheese, and scallions, and stir until thoroughly mixed. Pull out a sheet of cling wrap and lay on flat surface. Shape cheese into a ball, and wrap in cling wrap. Chill in fridge 1 hour.
Scatter chopped parsley on a cutting board or other flat surface. Unwrap cheese ball from cling wrap and lightly press into parsley, until herb clings to surface. (Cheese ball base can be prepared up to 24 hours in advance. Do not roll in parsley more than an hour or two before serving; the parsley will wilt in the fridge. Let cheese ball sit at room temperature about 1 hour prior to serving.)
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Remember how I confessed to never having tried apple butter yesterday?
Remember how I said I remedied that immediately?
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Yeah. This is how I remedied that.
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It would be waaaaay too easy for me to take the easy way out and just do one batch of classic apple butter. I mean, you know me by now. You knew that when faced with 14 cups of apple butter, I would make 4 different kinds. Right?
Right.
Of course, I hit the classic apple butter – just some cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove thrown in. Very delicate, not too sweet. I like it. I kind of wanted to eat it straight out of the jar.
Then I figured, a ginger apple butter. Extra-light coloring, a hint of ginger to spice things up a bit. Ginger is like cowbell – you always need more.
And let’s do bourbon! I mean, I have plenty laying around, for pete’s sake.
Finally, I had to play the savory note. Flavor Bible says: rosemary. Thankfully, when I burnt this batch a bit, I just called it “caramelized.”
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Mostly all I want to do right now is eat it straight. But as an apple butter virgin, I ask you, dear readers: how do you eat your apple butter?
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Classic Apple Butter
Adapted from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
Makes 8 8-oz jars
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Gather:
6 pounds apples, peeled, cored, and quartered
water as needed
2 cups brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Prepare:
Cook apples over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add water to just cover the bottom of the pan. Stir the apples occasionally and add more water if the apples begin to stick. Cook apples until softened, about 15 minutes. Put through a food mill. Measure puree, and divide into smaller batches if you will make adaptations as directed below. Prepare canner, jars, and lids. Return puree to pot, add in sugar and spices as directed; add in ginger, reduced bourbon, or rosemary as needed. Stir until sugar dissolves and butter becomes thick and begins to sputter. Ladle into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Process for 10 minutes, adjusting for altitude as necessary. Leave in canner for 5 more additional minutes; let stand for 24 hours before checking seals. Store for up to 12 months.
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Adaptations:
Ginger – Skip cinnamon, nutmeg and clove. Add freshly grated ginger to taste before canning and processing. I used about 1/2 teaspoon for each 8-oz jar.
Bourbon – Reduce cinnamon by half; skip nutmeg and clove. Reduce 1/2 cup bourbon over medium heat. Add to apple butter before canning and processing. (I used about 1/2 cup straight bourbon for 4 jars of bourbon apple butter.)
(Caramelized) Rosemary – Reduce cinnamon by half; skip nutmeg and clove. Add finely minced rosemary to taste before canning and preserving. I used about 1/2 teaspoon per jar. Burn apples unintentionally for about 3 minutes before freaking out, complete with wild hand gestures and increased heart rate.
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The Decemberists / Down By the Water
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Happy Birthday to me.
Today is my grand 27th birthday. I celebrated by making this cake, and then watching a horrible, horrible guilty-pleasure teen movie while I ate a slice. I can’t even tell you which movie it is, I’m so embarrassed. I also scheduled myself a dentist’s appointment for Monday afternoon and went grocery shopping. It was a good day, all things considered.
And Brad gave me my present. I know some of you probably hold the same fear I do when it comes to presents from your husband. Will it be a vacuum? Some lingerie that borders on trashy rather than sexy? Or worse, some new Xbox game that he really wanted for himself??? None of these situations have happened to me, but everyone has heard the stories. It’s like urban legends… but instead pf some girl who maybe got murdered in the university cafeteria, it’s your mother’s best friend’s niece’s step-sister who got A FREAKING VACUUM for her birthday and OH MY GOD HOW COULD HE??? (For the record, that would be before the Dyson came out. I think many women would be happy with a Dyson… because I know two friends who are drooling over them.)
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Well, anyways, no vacuum for me. B has really been on the ball lately – for our anniversary he got me Ugg boots! which I would never ever buy myself – and he gifted me two boxes of Weck jars for my birthday. Some of you are probably all, WTF woman? You got canning jars for your birthday? What kind of weird urban homesteading freak are you? But I didn’t have any! And I really wanted some! So this was a great gift.
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While normally I’m a chocolate freak, I had a big craving for almond cake today. Sometimes you just want that almond-y marzipan-y taste, you know? This cake was a real surprise. It’s tender and light, and moist not dry at all. No reason for why I decided to make some salted caramel sauce to add on top, I just liked the juxtaposition of flavors. And the pears, I just added on because they were about to go bad, so I thought, heck, why not? Seems like a good way to start off my 28th year of life!
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Almond Cake
Adapted from David Lebovitz, who adapted it from Chez Panisse Desserts
Makes one 9- or- 10-inch cake
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Gather:
1 1/3 cups (265g) sugar
8 ounces (225g) almond paste
3/4, plus 1/4 cup (140g total) flour
1 cup (8 ounces, 225g) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
6 large eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup blanched almonds
sugared forelle pears, for serving
salted caramel sauce, for serving
Prepare:
Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Butter a 9- or 10-inch cake pan, dust with flour, and line the bottom of the pan with a round piece of parchment.
In the bowl of a food processor, grind the sugar, almond paste, and 1/4 cup (35g) of flour until the mixture looks like sand. In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining 3/4 cup flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter, vanilla, and almond extract to the food processor bowl, and process until batter is smooth and light, about 1 minute. Add eggs one at a time, waiting 5 seconds between each addition of egg to make sure the previous is well incorporated into the batter. Add half the flour mixture to the food processor bowl, pulse once to combine. Add remaining flour and pulse once or twice until the dry ingredients are just incorporated to the wet. Bake for 65 minutes, or until the middle of the cake appears firm to the touch and the cake is golden brown all over. Run a knife around the edge of the cake, and let cake cool completely in pan before turning over and sprinkling with blanched almonds.
Serve with sugared pears and salted caramel, if desired.
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Sugared Pears
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Yields 6 pears
Gather:
1/2 cup beaten egg whites
1/4 cup sanding sugar
6 ripe forelle or seckel pears
Prepare:
Dip the pears into the beaten egg whites, then press gently into sanding sugar on all four sides. Let stand for 30 minutes to dry before eating. (Note: I used regular egg whites; use pasteurized egg white product if you are pregnant or are feeding this to young children.)
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Salted Caramel Sauce
Basic recipe adapted from many places
Yields 1/2 cup
Gather:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Prepare:
Heat the sugar in a dry skillet over medium heat until the sugar begins to caramelize, about 7 minutes. Whisk the sugar to help the sugar caramelize evenly. When the sugar is amber-colored, add the whipping cream in a slow stream, whisking to incorporate. Add salt. Continue whisking until the cream is fully incorporated and the caramel is thick.
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Ra Ra Riot / Too Dramatic - I’m all about indulgence today with my delicious cake, terrible teen movies, and indie rock boys singing falsetto.
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Y’all, I have a new crush.
No, it’s not Jeremy from Vampire Diaries, although Bekah and Lula and I are all over the moon that the producers finally gave him a better haircut. (And a plot line, for pete’s sake.)
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No, my new crush is Ching-He Huang, from “Chinese Cooking Made Easy” on the Cooking Channel. Have you seen her show? I’m totally in love with her. Not so much in a let’s-get-married-in-Vermont way (although she is pretty adorable), but more in a omg-your-show-is-brilliant-please-teach-me-everything-you-know way. (And maybe in a read-me-the-phone-book-in-your-spare-time way, because her accent is absurdly charming.)
Although Brad has always been a huge fan of Chinese food, I didn’t grow up with it, unless you count the occasion Chinese take-out I had over at friends’ houses. And take-out isn’t really the best place to start with Chinese, right? The fried rice and greasy noodles always made me feel nauseous, instead of hungry. So I kind of got off to a rough start.
But I caught Ching’s show on the Cooking Channel a few weeks ago and was ridiculously impressed. (Tangent – one day we need to discuss how the Cooking Channel compares to Food Network, and how MTV circa 1992 compares to MTV circa 2010, and how IT’S EXACTLY THE SAME RELATIONSHIP.)
Ching’s show focuses on using fresh ingredients to create flavorful dishes Chinese dishes. Honestly, I don’t even think of her dishes as really “Chinese” cuisine; I guess that’s because whenever I think of chinese food, I think of greasy take-out. I just think of them as tasty, yummy, simple food. This is much lighter, and much healthier food, based on fresh vegetables and fresh meat and seafood. Once I tried the Fragrant Pork dish from the series opener, both Brad and I were hooked. I made this dish for Brad to take for lunch one day, and it’s now a staple in our current repetoire.
If you’re not a “fan” of Chinese cooking, I’d have to say, give it one more chance with one of Ching’s recipes. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Check out her website and the Chinese Cooking Made Easy recipes on the Cooking Channel website for more ideas!
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Spicy Beef Stir-Fry over Brown Rice
Adapted from Chinese Cooking Made Easy
Serves 2
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It took me weeks to finally track down Shaosing rice wine (sherry will do just fine here as a substitute) but let me give you the long story short – you can find it at your local Asian grocery store. (I had to ask someone to help me, but they did have it!)
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Gather:
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pound flap steak or other lean beef cut, sliced thinly into 1/4-inch-thick strips
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 tablespoon Shaohsing rice wine or dry sherry
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 large handful fresh cilantro leaves and stalks, roughly chopped
1 spring onion, finely sliced
cooked brown rice, for serving
Prepare:
Combine the cumin, red pepper, black pepper, and salt in a medium bowl. Dredge steak strips in spice mix, covering on all sides.
Heat peanut oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the beef strips to the hot oil, keeping the strips in one layer in the pan, and using the back of a spatula or a spoon to press each strip into the hot skillet to get a good sear. Cook beef for 1 minute, and turn to other side. Add rice wine and soy sauce. Let cook for another 30 seconds, then remove to serving dish. Garnish with cilantro and green onions, if desired, and serve with brown rice.
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Fiveng / Easy – this is on repeat at my house right now! Sounds a bit like my second husband, Noah Lennox/Panda Bear
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I really felt like naming this post THE ALMIGHTY HIGH-ALTITUDE DOMINATION OF CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE. It sounds a lot more exciting, right? Like Jean-Claude Van Damme might show up in a frilly apron any second, whisking egg whites at high speeds unknown to man until now.
Obviously, I’m dealing with high altitude here in Denver. We live at almost 5300 feet above sea level, which means there’s a lot that can happen to baked goods up here. (Add to that, I don’t bake a lot in general – Brad won’t eat lots of baked goods, and so I try not to churn out multiple dozens of cookies every week, lest every cookie make it’s way to my ass.)
There’s a rumor that baked goods fall at high altitudes, including but not limited to, cakes and soufflés. For a long time (read: before I moved here) I thought it was because there was more pressure in the air up here. It’s actually the reverse – there’s much less oxygen at high altitudes, which means there is much LESS air pressure than at sea level. When there is less air pressure, air bubbles in the batter of baked goods expands much more quickly (because hot air expands, remember?) If the air bubbles expand too much before the cake’s structure (in the flour, usually) has had time to bake and therefore set up properly, then the cake/soufflé will fall once it’s removed from the hot air of the oven.
This is doubly so for soufflés, since there is little to no flour in most soufflé recipes to provide a good structure to hold up. Also, soufflés are underbaked usually, so that the center is creamy. Any souffle, at any altitude, will fall when it’s removed from the oven; it’s just a matter of how much time.
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After google-searching “high altitude soufflé,” I came across this Mark Bittman recipe from the New York Times. I made only one adjustment – instead of whipping the egg whites to stiff peaks, I only whipped them to soft peaks. The purpose of holding back on whipping the egg whites, was to prevent the cake from rising too quickly. If I didn’t whip the egg whites as much as called for, then I hoped that the soufflé wouldn’t rise too quickly before it was baked
Dave and Linda from Monkeyshines in the Kitchen chose Soufflés as our November 2010 Daring Cooks’ challenge! Dave and Linda provided many of their own delicious recipes plus a sinfully decadent chocolate soufflé recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe found at the BBC Good Food website.
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Chocolate Souffle (High Altitude Domination)
Adapted from Mark Bittman
Makes one 4-cup soufflé or two 2-cup soufflés
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Gather:
1 tablespoon butter, softened
2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup sugar, divided, plus extra for dish
3 eggs, room temperature, separated into yolks and whites
pinch salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
powdered sugar for serving (optional)
Prepare:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter the inside(s) of two 2-cup or one 4-cup soufflé or other deep baking dish(es). Dust the inside with granulated sugar and tap out any excess.
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler (i.e. a glass bowl over a small pot of simmering water).
Whisk the egg yolks with all but 1 tablespoon of the sugar, until the mixture is very light yellow, and falls in a ribbon from the beater blade. Meanwhile, whisk egg whites in a medium bowl with cream of tartar until frothy. Gradually add remaining tablespoon sugar, until the egg whites have soft peaks (i.e., when you pull out the beaters, small little peaks appear in the egg whites, and they flop over at the top rather than standing straight on their own.) Temper the egg yolk mixture by adding in about a tablespoon of melted chocolate; stir to combine. Add the rest of the melted chocolate, and stir until combined. Then add a large spoonful of egg whites to the chocolate mixture, and gently fold in the egg whites with a plastic spatula. Fold in the remaining egg whites gently. Transfer batter to prepared soufflé dish(es). (Make ahead: cover and store in the fridge until ready to bake.)
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes for individual soufflés or 25 to 35 minutes for a single large soufflé. Do not open the oven whatsoever while baking. When the outside looks done but the center still looks creamy, remove from oven and serve immediately. Sprinkle powdered sugar over top, if desired.
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Air Waves / Shine On
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Uncanny is a series in which I explore the different uses for jams and preserves that we put up during the summer. Because even though each jam you make is wonderful on its own, a veritable taste of summer in a jar… sometimes, you just get TIRED of eating summer on toast.
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Oatmeal wasn’t big in my house when I was growing up. I think grits were more of a constant presence. (We did grow up in Virginia, after all, Land of Buttered and Cheesy grits. Lula will agree with me. REPRESENT.)
But, I have recently come around to oatmeal. Remember how I wrote two days ago that if we didn’t get snow for 2 more weeks than we would break a record here in Denver? Well, nevermind, because we got our first snowfall today. Major fail, in my opinion. When it snows, it gets all cold and all wet, and people forget how to drive, as if 3 snowflakes in the air impedes their ability to drive whatsoever, and then it ends up taking me an hour to drive to the grocery store which is all of 10 blocks away which sends me into a not-so-nice mood and there’s lots of cursing and obscene hand gestures and honking and my father on the phone telling me “he wasn’t aware I had that kind of mouth.”
So yeah… snow sucks.
Basically, it’s cold and it’s wet and you know what coldness and wetness calls for? (Other than puppy hugs, that is?)
Hot, warm breakfast cereals. Like oatmeal.
This isn’t some earth-shattering revelation of how to use up jam. This is the Kitchenette blog, not the Kitchenette Think Tank, of course. But, I think the picture above is so yummy-looking that it deserved a blog post. For the record, I like my oatmeal made with steel-cut oats; the texture is a lot more pleasing than the rolled oats I bake with so often. Furthermore, I like my oatmeal topped with a dollop of cold, tangy, plain yogurt, and then swirled with some hot jam. I microwave my jam for 20-30 seconds until it’s really runny, because it mixes in better when it’s hot, than it does with it’s straight from the fridge and gloopy and all that.
This morning I made mine with some cinnamon-scented blackberry jelly, but you could use whatever preserves you have around.
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Steel-Cut Oats with a Jam Swirl
Adapted from Alton Brown
Serves 2 really hungry breakfast-ers
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Gather:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 cup steel cut oats
3 cups boiling water
3/4 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon brown sugar
plain whole-milk yogurt, for serving
1/4 cup jam (your choice of flavor)
Prepare:
In a large saucepot, melt the butter and add the oats. Stir for 2 minutes to toast. Add the boiling water and reduce heat to a simmer. Keep at a low simmer for 25 minutes, without stirring. Add the milk, and stir gently to combine and cook for an additional 10 minutes. Meanwhile, spoon your jam into a small microwave-safe bowl, and microwave for 20-30 seconds, or until the jam is hot and runny. Spoon oatmeal into a serving bowl and top with yogurt and hot jam. Swirl if desired before serving immediately.
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Other Uncanny Ideas from Around the Interwebz:
In a pan sauce to accompany turkey or chicken – A small dollop of sweet preserves makes a delicious sauce for juicy, roasted chicken or turkey. (via Local Kitchen)
In a spicy dipping sauce for sweet potato fries - A spoonful of jam creates a sweet fruity note for extra spicy dipping sauce! (via Food in Jars)
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Dinosaur Bones / Royalty
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