At Market...Brussels Sprouts

Growing up, I never tasted a brussels sprout. My mom really doesn't have much of a taste for vegetables, and so even though she served them often for the rest of her family, we didn't eat a huge variety; broccoli, green beans, cauliflower, and salad were about all we ever had. Not that I blame her because I think that she was tainted by her mother's overcooking of them, which can make most things taste bad, by any account. So it wasn't until I had a kitchen of my own, that I began to branch out and try to cook things like asparagus, peas, and yes, brussels sprouts.

I think that brussels sprouts are so adorable. They are like miniature cabbages that grow in spiral rows up long stalks. And when cut open, they have layer upon layer of tightly packed, curly leaves. They are indeed, related to cabbages and broccoli and all the other members of the cruciferous family, and like their cousins, they are extraordinarily healthy, and extraordinarily delicious.

My favorite way to prepare them is to slice them thinly, then saute them in a touch of butter. But I also love to roast them at high heat in my oven, tossed in a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. They are so very small, they don't take long to cook at all.



Sauteed Brussels Sprouts

Wash brussels sprouts and remove any damaged outer leaves. Cut off the stem end, then slice them thinly top to bottom, about 3-4 slices per brussels sprout. Heat butter or olive oil (about 1 T)in a pan over medium high heat. Add brussels sprouts and season with salt and pepper. Saute for about 3 minutes, or until some leaves begin to turn golden brown and they are as tender as you like (I like them pretty crisp). Taste for seasoning and serve.

Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

I love the Barefoot Contessa and her recipes. And I want her house on the Hamptons, and her cutting garden, and her hydrangeas, and her view.... small dreams, really. Actually it would be better if her house were somewhere on the Cape. But, I digress. I do love her recipes. Most of them are too rich with butter, according to my husband, but I have never made a recipe of hers that has turned out badly. That is true for her Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic recipe. Chicken breasts are browned, then braised in Cognac and wine along with the garlic. To use her words, how bad could that be?

Well, it is not bad. In fact, it is a delicious, fancy sort of comfort meal, impressive enough for company. But it is not difficult to make by any stretch of the imagination. I realize that forty cloves of garlic may sound like a lot, and it is, but they cook for quite a long time and the slow cooking mellows and sweetens the flavor significantly. I buy the garlic for this dish at Trader Joes (in the fresh vegetable section), in pre-peeled, packaged form. I once counted the cloves in the package and it was something around forty, so now I just know to dump the whole thing in. But if you cannot find pre-peeled cloves of garlic, it is really easy to peel them yourself. Simply crack open the heads of garlic and drop the cloves in boiling water for about a minute. The peel should come right off!

Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic

recipe adapted from Barefoot Contessa

3 whole heads garlic, about 40 cloves (1 package pre-peeled garlic from Trader Joes)
6 bone in, skin on chicken breasts

Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons good olive oil
3 tablespoons Cognac, divided (or good brandy)
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (or 1 t dry)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons heavy cream

Separate the cloves of garlic and drop them into a pot of boiling water for 60 seconds. Drain the garlic and peel. Set aside.

Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and season well with salt and pepper on both sides. Brown the chicken in the butter and oil over medium high heat, in batches if necessary. It should take about 3-5 minutes per side. Remove the chicken to a plate. Add all the peeled garlic to the pot and saute for about 5-10 minutes, or until golden brown. Pour in 2 T of the cognac and all the white wine to the pan and scrape up any brown bits. Return chicken and juices to the pan, sprinkle with thyme, bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat and simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes or until done (165 degrees).

Remove chicken to a plate and cover to keep warm. In a small bowl whisk together flour with 1/2 cup of the sauce. Return to the pot and stir to thicken. Add remaining cognac and heavy cream and boil for 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and pour over chicken, along with the garlic and serve.

At Market...or I Scream, You Scream...

Okay, I realize that not many of you will be craving a cool treat on a cold day. But citrus season is in full swing here and the tangerines were so beautiful at the market today. And when I opened the New York Times magazine this morning, there was a fun article written by a dad who has a son who loves to "help" in the kitchen. Together, they whipped up a delicious Tangerine Sherbet. I had to make it, it was perfect timing. After all, I had a bag full of tangerines fresh from the market, and heavy cream in the fridge that was needing an important task.

The tangerines were zested, juiced and mixed with sugar and gelatin, just a touch. After cooling in the fridge for a bit, I let it run through the already chilled bowl of my ice cream maker (you do have one, don't you?) and 20 minutes later I was in creamy citrus heaven.

The sherbet tastes like a Creamsicle, or an Orange Julius, but the flavor is much sharper and tangier. The recipe didn't make much and I think that I will have to hide it from the rest of my family. Alright, maybe I will share a little...after all, one of my New Year's resolutions is to be more generous...and have a good attitude about it. Hmph!

Tangerine Sherbet

1/2 t gelatin

1 1/2 C freshly squeezed tangerine juice (from about 2 1/2 pounds)

zest from 2 tangerines

1/2 t salt

1/2 C sugar

1/2 C heavy cream

Put gelatin along with 2 T water in a small sauce pan. Meanwhile, zest 2 of the tangerines, putting zest in a small bowl. Squeeze all of the tangerines (including the zested ones) to make 1 1/2 C juice. Heat saucepan over medium heat and stir to fully dissolve gelatin. Add juice, zest, salt and sugar and warm only to body temperature, or about 100 degrees. Stir well, to help sugar dissolve. Cool mixture completely in fridge. Strain through fine sieve and pour into the frozen bowl of an ice cream maker with the cream. Freeze for about 20 minutes, or according to manufacturer's directions. Place in a container and put in freezer until solid, about 1 hour.

Warming Thai Curry Noodles

My belly hurts...well actually all of me hurts. I didn't sleep well last night because every time I rolled over, I was in pain. I went to my first yoga class yesterday at the newly christened YogaWorks and it would be safe to say that I have really let my very consistent yoga practice slide over the month of December. It feels as if I have been punched in the ribs, and the back, and my shoulders evidently contain muscles that I have never noticed until now. But this is all for the best, right...for my health or something? My husband suggested that if something that is supposed good for me puts me out of commission for two days straight, perhaps it is not so good...

I did finally manage to make a dinner after reclining (painfully) near the fire all afternoon. It was a warming Thai noodle dish, with chicken, coconut milk, and red curry, perfect for a cold winter's night. The recipe is adapted from a book that I bought on Cape Cod this summer at Nantucket Wild Gourmet and Smokehouse. It is called Quick and Easy Thai by Nancie McDermott, and every recipe I have tried has been both quick and easy and delicious as well.

Chiang Mai Curry Noodles

Chicken with Red Curry

2 T vegetable oil

1 T finely chopped garlic

2 T red curry paste (I found it at World Market, but they also have it at Whole Foods and Bristol Farms or Asian markets)

3/4 pound boneless chicken, cut in big chunks

2 C unsweetened coconut milk (I used light)

1 3/4 C chicken broth

2 t turmeric or curry powder

2 T dark soy sauce

1 t sugar

1 t salt

2 T freshly squeezed lime juice

1 pound Chinese-style egg noodles, angel hair pasta or spaghetti, cooked according to package directions

Chinese rice style noodles (the very thin kind) (for garnish)

chopped fresh cilantro

chopped green onion

slices of jalapeno

Heat oil and saute garlic for one minute. Add curry paste and saute for two minutes more. Add chicken and stir until coated with paste and beginning to brown, about 2 minutes. Add coconut milk, chicken broth, turmeric, soy sauce, sugar and salt and stir well. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a brisk simmer. Simmer for about 10 minutes or until cooked through. Stir in lime juice then ladle over hot, cooked noodles. Garnish with cilantro, green onion and jalapeno slices.

To fry rice noodles for garnish simply heat about 1/2 inch of vegetable oil in a heavy sauce pan. Carefully drop in noodles and stand back because the oil will spatter a bit. Separate noodles with a fork and watch them rise up. When they are puffy and lightly toasted, remove from pan and drain on paper towels.

Oh Baby! Dutch Baby Pancakes

Dutch Baby, German Pancake, Baked Pancake...whatever the name, this is a weekend breakfast favorite in our house. The star in the recipe is eggs, so I always like to make sure that I use good ones (from the farmers market or at the very least, free range organic). It bakes up high and mighty and is quite an amazing sight when it is removed from the oven. But don't blink, because it deflates quickly, which doesn't affect it's flavor, of course. A mixture of eggs, flour, butter and milk, this is really quite simple to prepare. A squeeze of lemon and a sprinkle of powdered sugar are all you need to top it, although I've known folks to enjoy it with maple syrup too.

My high school boyfriend's mom used to make it every Saturday for her three (well four if you count her husband) hungry boys. I think that she only made one pan's worth. She must have been a much better rationer of food than I am, because we always have to triple the recipe.

Dutch Baby Pancake

To serve my piggies (there are 5 of us) we TRIPLE the recipe and put 1/3 of the mixture in a cast iron skillet and the rest in a 9x13.

3 large eggs, room temperature

1/2 C milk

1/2 C all purpose flour

1/2 t salt

2 T melted butter

lemon juice

confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Butter a 12 inch skillet. Break the eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk until mixed. Add milk and blend well. Sift the flour and salt into egg mixture while whisking to prevent clumps. Add melted butter and mix briskly until the batter is smooth.

Pour batter into prepared skillet and place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Without opening the oven, turn the temperature down to 350 degrees, and bake for another 10 minutes. The pancake will be high and golden. Sprinkle pancake with lemon juice and confectioners' sugar and serve while hot.

Gougeres...A Delicious Start to Our Year!

They are bite size, cheesy, buttery and delicious. I made them for the first time on New Year's Eve, after discovering a recipe for them some time ago. Served in many restaurants as an amuse bouche (or mouth amuser in English), gougeres are basically savory puffs made with pate a choux pastry dough, which is simply a mixture of water, butter, flour and eggs (and gruyere cheese) that is cooked in a pot then piped out into little rounds on a baking sheet and finished off in the oven.
Our evening was a simple affair, family and food. Two of my favorite things.




After our appetites were sated on our eclectic mix of appetizers, we headed out to Pasadena to take in a late night preview of the floats lined up in preparation for the Rose Parade. The array of flowers, fruits, vegetables and seeds coating every inch of these amazing floats is always a sight to behold! And when we returned home, we celebrated the new year by popping a few more of those tasty little morsels into our mouths. If 2009 is anywhere close to being as good as those gougeres, it will be a wonderful year indeed!

Gougeres

adapted from Gourmet

1 C water

1 stick butter

1/4 t salt

1 C all purpose flour

4 extra large eggs

1 1/2 C grated gruyere cheese

2 T finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1/4 t freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 t freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, with 2 racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Lightly spray 2 cookie sheets with cooking spray (or butter them).

Combine water, butter and salt in a heavy 3-quart stockpot. Bring to a full boil over high heat, stirring until butter is melted. Reduce heat to medium, then add the flour all at once, stirring until the dough comes away from the sides of the pot, about 30 seconds. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for about another minute and a half to remove excess moisture. Remove from heat and let cool for about 3 minutes.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well with a wooden spoon between each addition. Mixture may appear to separate, but it will come back together in the end. It should be glossy and just able to hold soft peaks and fall softly from a spoon. Stir in cheeses, nutmeg and pepper.

Drop by level tablespoonfulls onto prepared cookie sheets or fill a pastry bag (or you can use a ziplock bag that you snip about 1/2 inch from one corner to pipe out little mounds of dough). Pipe 15, 1 inch diameter mounds, one inch apart on each cookie sheet. Bake, switching positions of cookie sheets half way, until puffed, golden and crisp, about 30 minutes total (although if you drop them by spoonfulls, it will take about 15 minutes longer). Serve warm.

Happy New Year!

A tradition over many years, dinner with dear friends and their lovely girls on New Year's Day. With football the background din, the conversation wanders through many of life's joys and heartaches. It's almost like a year in reflection, even as we consider the new year to come with much anticipation and hope for something better, and something just as good. Games played, dinner served (an Italian feast this year...although I really do think that someone ended up heating some corn dogs up for the children-ugh!), wine poured, and voices rang out. An annual celebration of the good life that we have; our beautiful families, our beautiful friends.

This year I prepared a few of the dishes in this months Gourmet Magazine; chicken roasted with olives and pancetta, broccoli raab with spicy sausage, and a salad with radicchio, fennel, and oranges with a pomegranate dressing (well that was a recipe of my own creation). But the absolute, hands-down, stand out dish was dessert brought by my friend.

Earlier in the week she called and demanded to know what she could bring, and don't make it something lame like bread, she said. So I suggested dessert (not being one to argue...). They arrived armed with brownies, ice cream, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, nuts and sprinkles (and that was just for the kids), and balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, and strawberries (to be served over vanilla ice cream) for us.

Wow! The dish is so simple and yet so complex, a study in contrasts; dark and light, sweet and sour, tangy and creamy....and it's absolutely divine. I had to have a second helping, which I never do (with desserts). She was kind enough to share her recipe.

Balsamic Strawberries

Place equal parts good quality balsamic vinegar and brown sugar (1/2 C each) in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for 1 minute or until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and stir in hulled and quartered strawberries (about a pint). Serve warm over scoops of vanilla ice cream.