Foodie BlogRoll Welcomes KarmaFreeCooking March 31, 2008

I am super excited…  KarmaFree Cooking has been added to the Foodie BlogRoll.  The Foodie BlogRoll is a directory of blogs all revolving around the topic of food and the enjoyment of eating such foods.  This directory is the brainchild of Jenn…  better known as the culinary royalty The Left Over Queen. 

I can’t tell you how happy I am to belong to such a great group of writers and chefs.  You can now find a link to the Foodie BlogRoll on the sidebar at the right.  Please visit and check out all the wonderful food-related blogs out there.  There are plans to categorize the blogs in the directory and soon enough there will be a vegetarian section for you to scan only the vegetarian blogs available.  Jen manages this directory on her own… so be patient.

Do you have your own food blog? Are you interested in joining a community of over 1000 fellow food bloggers worldwide? Do you just like reading about food, looking at beautiful food photography, or finding great new recipes online? This might be for you. Check out the FAQ page for more info about what it is and how to join.

Potato Boursin Casserole March 31, 2008

I was watching the Today Show the other morning and saw a piece on how to “fancy up” regular take-out food to serve it even to company…  I was intrigued.  Not because I am a take-out consumer, but I am always eager to learn how a simple twist or added ingredient can make something nicer and fancier…The one idea that struck me the most was to add Boursin cheese to KFC’s mashed potatoes.  You mix it up, put it in a casserole dish and bake it in the oven for a few minutes and voila, fancy mashed potatoes!!    I have seen this Boursin cheese in the grocery store before, but was never motivated enough to buy it.

At the Today Show demo, Hoda Kotb tried it and was amazed at the flavor… so, if Boursin cheese can do that to a tub of KFC’s mashed potatoes, what can it do to fresh baby red skinned mashed potatoes… try this one and you’ll see for yourself!!!

POTATO BOURSIN CASSEROLE

2 medium red skin potatoes, washed and cut in quarters

A  4.4oz packet of Boursin Light cheese - I used the Garlic and Fine Herbs kind

Drizzle of Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

2 tbs of butter

A splash of milk or buttermilk - Optional

Salt and Freshly ground Pepper to taste

Canola Oil Spray - for the casserole dish

1. In a medium saucepan, filled about ¼ of the way with salted water, boil the potatoes.  I find that if the water reaches about half way the potatoes, they cook faster than if the potatoes are fully submerged in the water.
2. Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
3. After the potatoes are done, drain most of the water and the same hot saucepan add the butter, olive oil, and milk/buttermilk if using.  Mash the potatoes to combine the ingredients.  Add the cheese.  Season with salt and pepper.
4. Spray a glass casserole dish with canola oil spray and transfer the potato mixture.  Smooth out the top and then rake the top using a fork to create indentations.
5. Bake in oven for about 15-20 minutes or until the top gets browned a bit.

You can definitely eat these mashed potatoes after you mix in the cheese… but putting it in the oven for a few minutes creates a nice crunchy topping which I loved.  It all depends how much in a hurry or how hungry you are.

Dorie’s Perfect Party Cake - DBC March 2008 March 30, 2008

I was very excited to receive the recipe for March 2008 Daring Bakers Challenge - a cake!!!  That is definitely something I can do.   This month’s challenge is hosted by Morven at Food, Art and Random Thoughts and the original recipe comes from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours.  So thanks Morven for such a nice recipe.  I was so excited about this recipe that I actually tried it twice - the first time I made it with whole wheat pastry flour and the second time I tried it with spelt flour.  As you’ll see, spelt yielded better results overall.  What I loved most about this challenge was that Morven gave us the flexibility to change ingredients and presentation as long as we followed the basic recipe components - the cake, the frosting and the fruit preserves.  The rest, was up to us, the creative daring bakers…

I was faced with 2 other challenges for this recipe… First, I do not own any round cake pans - as I mentioned in my last DBC post, I am not a “baker” per se, so I have never attempted to do any layered cakes before and second, I could not find lemon extract anywhere.  My solutions to these dilemmas…  to use my cupcake/muffin pans and to double on the lemon zest and add the juice of the lemons to get the lemony taste.

 

So here’s the Karma-Free version of Dorie’s Perfect Party Cake…

For the Cake:

2  ½ cups spelt flour

1 tbs baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 ¼ cups buttermilk

6 tsp egg replacer diluted into 8tbs water

1 ½ cups brown sugar

Zest of 2 lemons (about 4 tsp)

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

The juice of 1 lemon

For the Sweetened Whipped Cream frosting:

1 pint heavy cream

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla powder

For Finishing:

2/3 cup seedless raspberry or strawberry preserves stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable

1. Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour your pans - I used 2 cupcake/muffin pans. I also used cupcake liners and worked great too.

To Make the Cake

    2. Sift together the spelt flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

    3. Whisk together the egg substitute and buttermilk. Set aside.

    4. Whisk together the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.

    5. Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.

    6. Beat in the lemon juice, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.

    7. Beat in half of the milk-egg sub mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.

    8. Add the rest of the milk/egg sub mixture beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.

    9. Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.

  10. Divide the batter in your muffin/cupcake pans.

  11. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cupcakes are well risen and springy to the touch - a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean

  12. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then take them out of the pans to fully cool.
 

To decorate the Cake

I made a Sweetened Whipped Cream Frosting just because I do not particularly like the taste of buttercream.  So, to make the frosting:

1. Using both a chilled bowl and chilled beaters, beat the cream until frothy.
2. Add the brown sugar and vanilla gradually while beating.
3. Whip until light and a thick enough consistency to spread as an icing.
4. Use immediately.

Here are my renditions of these lovely cupcakes… 

    

This first picture is the whole wheat version.  As you can see, the tops cracked and the color was a bit paler.  The picture on the right, are the spelt version, with much nicer color, top texture and flavor too.

As you can see, I still have a lot of ways to go in terms of decorating techniques… but the flavors were spot on.

    

     

This recipe is super easy to make.  After you’ve done it once, the following tries are much, much easier… and everyone who had the chance to taste them were impressed by the lemony taste and the crispiness that the bundt muffin pan imparted to the outside…  aren’t they cute?

My favorite way to eat them was to leave them plain, without any decorations, and just spread some of the preserves to a morsel of cupcake and pop it in my mouth.  Delectable!!

Storing
The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to two days. Bring it to room temperature before serving.

                        

Vegetable Noodle Soup March 23, 2008

I just came back from a spiritual retreat… the ones I spend in silence, meditating about 10 hours a day and fasting.  Yes… fasting.  No solid food - only water, lemon juice and honey…  We drink that “watered down lemonade” about 5 times a day, which helps our body use up all the energy it usually uses up digesting food to actually eliminate a lot of toxins that accumulate over time…

After these retreats, you feel light and energized, but you also you need to ease your body into taking solid foods again… We usually start with a huge fruit salad - today’s salad had a lot of papaya and bananas with a little bit of mangoes and other “sweet” fruits.  But after that, your body starts getting hungry… and what better way to welcome your system to solid food again than with a hearty vegetable soup.

Literally, it took me 25 minutes to make this soup.  It hit the spot…

VEGETABLE NOODLE SOUP

4 baby red-skinned potatoes, quartered

1 carrot, sliced

1/2 onion, sliced

1 tbs sofrito

1 tbs olive oil

1 vegetable broth bullion cube

1 bunch of noodles - whole wheat vermicelli

Salt and Pepper to taste

about 2 cups of water

5-6 grape tomatoes, quartered - optional

2 handfuls of fresh spinach leaves - optional

1. In a medium pot over medium heat, pour olive oil.  When the oil has heat up a bit, add sofrito and the vegetable bullion cube.  Smash the cube a bit so that it dissolves better.
2. Add the onions.  Saute for a little while.
3. Add the cut potatoes and the carrots.  Saute for a little while to give it a head start.
4. Add the tomatoes.
5. Add enough water to cover the vegetables.  Cover and let it boil at a medium roll for about 20 minutes.
6. After 20 minutes, the potatoes and the carrots should be done.
7. Add the noodles and stir so the noodles separate and they don’t stick together.  Cover again.
8. After the noodles have cooked, about 5 minutes, add the spinach leaves.  They will wilt into the broth almost immediately.  Cover and turn off the heat.  Let the soup finish cooking with the residual heat.
9.  After about 10 minutes… serve and enjoy.

This is the foundation recipe - to this you can add anything else you might have on your fridge - mushrooms, peppers, celery, etc.  Your imagination is the limit… 

 This is also the same soup recipe I make when I am feeling “under-the-weather”…  so you can say this is my “vegetable soup for my soul”.  From my soul to yours… buen provecho.

Tostón Sandwich March 19, 2008

I am sooooo proud of Iván Avilés…  he was the winner in the Comfort Foods episode of Ultimate Recipe Showdown, a new Food Network cooking competition where regular cooks, just like you and me, compete to see who has the Ultimate recipe in a series of categories.

And why I could be proud of Iván specifically??  He’s Boricua (another word for Puerto Rican, derived from Borinquen, the original indigenous name of Puerto Rico) and he won with his Boricua Plantain Sandwich.  It’s not vegetarian, but it did remind me of a sandwich my friend Tania taught me how to make a few years back.  I was so surprised to see Iván use TOSTONES as the “bread” for the sandwich, something I had only seen Tania do.

Tostones (which are also called patacones in South America) are twice fried mashed green plantains.  Tostones are a staple in Puerto Rican cooking and for people trying to “get away from the carbs” are a great bread substitution in this sandwich.  But less carbs does not mean less fat - I did tell you these are TWICE FRIED, no?

Let me give you the play by play to making my vegetarian version of the Tostón Sandwich…

 

 

 

 TOSTON SANDWICH

1 green plantain, peeled

2 small strips of firm tofu - you can definitely used extra firm here, but never the silken kind

1/4 onion, sliced

Garlic Salt

1/4 cup Tamari Sauce

Ketchup

Canola Oil for frying

 

1. Take the tofu pieces and press them in between 2-3 good paper towels or napkins (I use Bounty) to drain away most of the liquid.  I place then in between 2 small baking sheets and weigh using something heavy.  I change the paper towel at least once.  meanwhile…
2. Peel the green plantain.  Remember that green plantains, just like green bananas, have a sap (mancha).  Remember to oil the knife you’re using to peel the plantain so the sap does not adhere to the knife.  Follow the method I showed you for the green bananas here.

3. 

4. In a medium skillet, heat about 1 cup of canola oil over medium high heat.   Just make sure the skillet is wide enough that will fit your plantain.  If your plantain is on the small side, by all means, use a smaller skillet.  You need enough oil to cover the plantains halfway, more or less. 
5. Cut the plantain in half lengthwise, making two long halves.
6. Make sure the oil is hot enough.  Rachael Ray taught me to dip the end of a wooden spoon into the oil.  If the oil bubbles around the spoon, the oil is ready.  I love this tip.

7. 

8. Fry the plantain halves for about 5 minutes.  What you’re looking for is to cook the plantain, add some color to it, but without getting it crispy.

9. 

10. Take the partially fried plantain halves out of the oil and using either two heavy plates or two small baking sheets, smash them flat.   If using baking sheet, place a kitchen towel on top so the heat does not transfer to your hand.  Keep the oil in the hot stove, you will use it again.  Sorry I don’t have a picture of this, but I was by myself making this and I could not smash and photograph at the same time.  This is the already-smashed plantain…

11. 

12. After smashing the plantains, re-immerse the smashed plantain halves in the hot oil to finish frying. 
13.  

    

14. This time, the end result should be a golden and crispy plantain halve - this is a Toston.  Tostones typically are made the exact same way with the exception that instead of being cut lengthwise, you cut the plantain in 1 inch round slices.
15. Drain the finished tostones on a paper towel and sprinkle some garlic salt to season them.  Keep the aside while you make the fillings.  They need to cool off a bit if you don’t want to burn the roof of your mouth.
16. Drain the skillet of the hot oil CAREFULLY and in that same hot skillet with some of the remaining oil on it,  place the drained tofu pieces and the onion slices.  The object of this is to smother the onions and to cook the tofu and for it to dry out a bit.  Add some garlic salt to the onions to season them.

17. 

18. When tofu slices have gained some yellowy color (they will not change color very dramatically), dunk them in the tamari sauce for a few minutes.  Return them to the skillet to finish “frying”.
19. Now we assemble - Place the wider tostón half on a plate, place tofu pieces, squirt some ketchup, place smothered onions, squirt some extra ketchup and top with the remaining tostón half. 

 

Mmmmmm!!!!!

 

 

 

I have also made this with fried white cheese instead of the tamari-marinated tofu.  It tastes delicious!!!  If you fry the tostones in hot enough oil and drain them, they will be crunchy, but not oily.

I had not done this sandwich in a long time… so I thank Iván and the Ultimate Recipe Showdown for reminding me.   And even it’s not vegetarian, you can taste an adaptation of Iván’s sandwich at your local TGIFriday’s restaurant.  They’re made with sweet ripe plantains, which is a different “ball game”, but still you can come out and support my fellow Boricua!!!

 

Strawberry Seduction Challenge March 18, 2008

Mike at Mike’s Table is hosting a blog event - the Strawberry Seduction Event. 

You know I am a strawberry lover - so much of a lover to even pay $7 for a  basket of these delicious red sweet jewels.  I was very excited to see someone loved strawberries even more than I.

I went a submitted a few recipes I had already shared with you to this event and I hope to create a few extra before the April 4 deadline.  The recipes I submitted are:

Strawberry Kanten

Spinach Strawberry Salad

Strawberry Banana Sherbet 

I’ll let you know of any other cool vegetarian strawberry recipes submitted by other bloggers… OK?

You Make My Day Award March 14, 2008

I have been graced by having 2 friends and fellow bloggers name me within their You Make My Day Award list.  The first time it happened caught me completely off-guard… It was Bonnie at Weaving Spirit.  And again, this week my friend Kathleen from Kathleen’s Vegetarian Kitchen also named me as someone who “makes her day”.  And this latter one is very special, because it was Kathleen who inspired me to start this blogging adventure about a year ago.

So I feel the need to reciprocate… to share with you a list of the blogs and online places out there that Make My Day, in addition to my friends mentioned above:

• Serious Eats - I can’t remember how I learned about this website, but I do remember I had something to do with Mario Batali.  I love Serious Eats because it’s a one-stop shop on the celebration and enthusiasm of food thru blogs and other content providers.  I personally love the Talk section because it provides a forum to ask, answer, vent and celebrate anything food-related.  It’s awesome!!
• Tastespotting- I also visit this site almost daily… It’s food photography at its best.  I have learned and found so much inspiration from the people who post here…

And who are these people I have met thanks to Tastespotting… 

• 101 cookbooks - Heidi is a vegetarian who takes the most wonderful pictures of what she cooks.  The premise of her blog was to go thru the recipes of all the cookbooks she had been collecting over the years.  I wish I had a table or butcher’s block like hers… it makes for a very elegant background for her pictures.
• herbivoracious - Michael is a vegetarian who took a sabbatical from his engineering job to work as an apprentice in Cafe Flora in Seattle.  He inspires me to take chances and to follow one’s dream and passion and see where that leads.
• Paola at Mijn Zoete Leven - I have no idea what the title is, but Paola is a Colombian living in the Netherlands.  She has developed a home business out of her “small but very well-equipped kitchen” in Almere. 
• Daring Bakers - After seeing photo after scrumptious photo of lemon meringue pies back in January, I decided to join this group of fellow bloggers who every month we get together, in heart and spirit, to bake the same recipe.  I have only completed one challenge so far and have loved every minute of it.

And last, but not least, my teachers in the culinary world -  Martha Stewart and Food Network, which are my food and recipe encyclopedias.  I refer to them everytime I see a great recipe on TV, which is almost everyday.

And also a special mention to Kimberly - she is a vegetarian living in Iowa and even though her blog is not food-related, I enjoy very much our email conversation about recipes, ingredients and the vegetarian lifestyle in general…  She’s a KarmaFree Cooking fan and I appreciate her very much for that.

Top Chef Pasta - Bucatini with Spinach, Tomatoes and Goat Cheese March 13, 2008

I love Top Chef…  I have been a fan since its 1st season. 

But being a fan of the TV show, I don’t understand why is it that I have never bought an issue of Food & Wine magazine, one of the show premier sponsors. Not even to read the feature article on the winners, which is part of the main prize package.  So last month I bought my first and only Food & Wine magazine to see what is it all about.  The main thing that attracted me to it was it had a feature on fast, hearty pastas… my weakness.

So in honor of Top Chef Chicago’s premier last night… I decided to try out my first Food & Wine recipe - Bucatini with Spinach, Tomatoes and Goat Cheese.  The original recipe called for spaghetti, but, as you will see, it works with any noodle in my opinion.  I was hungry and had all the ingredients in my fridge, so “manos a la obra”…

 

BUCATINI with SPINACH, TOMATOES and GOAT CHEESE

Adapted from the Food & Wine Magazine February 2008 issue

1/4 lbs bucatini or whole-wheat spaghetti   

2 tbs extra-virgin olive oil

1 garlic clove, sliced thinly

1/2 cup grape tomatoes, halved (about 6-7 grape tomatoes)

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

2 big handfuls of baby spinach leaves

1/4 cup freshly grated pecorino romano or Parmesan cheese

2 ounces of fresh goat cheese, crumbled

Pinch of crushed red pepper -optional

1. In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook the pasta until it is al dente.  Drain the pasta well, reserving 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the garlic and  crushed red pepper, if using.  Cook over moderate heat until the garlic is tender, about 3 minutes.
3. Add the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and cook over moderate heat until the tomatoes begin to release their juices, about 2 minutes.
4. Add the spinach and cook until wilted about 2 minutes.

5. 

6. To the skillet with the tomatoes and spinach, add the pasta, the reserved pasta water and the grated pecorino cheese.  Toss over low heat until the pasta is coated with the sauce.  Season again with salt and pepper. 
7. Add the goat cheese and toss gently.

8. 

9. Transfer the pasta to shallow bowls and serve adding extra grated cheese if desired.

This was an awesome pasta dish.  Worthy of serving when company comes around, but easy enough to do any week-night.

Top Chef Chicago was super cool last night.  I still have not formed an opinion on who’s my favorite.  I guess Sam Talbot from Season 2 will always be My personal favorite.   In the meantime, I will continue trying Food & Wine’s awesome pasta selections… one down, 3-4 more to go. Mmmmm!!

Wash your Produce March 10, 2008

I can’t stress enough the importance of washing well all your produce before eating it or using it in your cooking.  The produce you buy has passed soooooo many hands between being picked in the field until you get it home - and that does not count all the dirt, smog, wax, pesticides and insecticides sprayed over them. 

I fully advocate washing well all produce before using it or consuming it - even if you’re peeling it.

In the yoga center I attend, we need to peel most produce before using it, especially those vegetables that have wax sprayed on - apples, pears, cucumbers, tomatoes, grapes (yeah, not nice and very time consuming when we need to make a fruit salad), oranges, peppers, etc.

To make my life easier at home and to preserve the nutrients and fiber in the peel of produce, I use a product I learned about when I worked at Procter & Gamble called FIT.

Fit is a solution made from natural ingredients designed to take most of the dirt and wax of the produce we use.  I buy it in my neighborhood health food store and I find that it takes the entire waxy residue off the tomatoes, cucumbers, pears, etc.  It also helps clean my lettuces, spinach, or any leafy green. 

I use the little sprayer for individual items and I soak for anything that’s larger or leafy, like leeks, lettuces, cabbages, herbs, etc.

I am not a scientist, but I like that their ingredient label states natural sources for their ingredients.  I no longer work at P&G, and they licensed the name to another manufacturing company, but I still feel Fit is a great product that helps me eat produce more naturally without the added toxins on the produce’s skin.

 

Roasted Pears - A Deux March 7, 2008

I am on a pear thing…  it started because I wanted to do a pear butter, which I have not gotten around to do.   But I learned to make last year these poached pears and I decided to take the pear desserts a few steps further. 

This recipe is even simpler than the Poached Pears I posted recently…  less ingredients always scream easier to me.  The basic recipe for these roasted pears was given to me by Diane Carlson, as part of the Conscious Gourmet retreat I attended.  I decided to try some embellishments of my own and they ended up being really good combinations…  check them out.  I love the first photo - my pear had a belly button - sooooo cute!!

         

 Let’s start with roasting the pears…

ROASTED PEARS

2 Bartlett pears - ripe but firm

the juice of 1/2 a lemon

1 1/2 tbs maple syrup

1. Pre-heat oven to 450F. 
2. Peel and cut the pears in half, vertically.  Core them using a melon baller - it’s the best tool for this.
3. Place pears cut side down on a glass casserole dish and drizzle the maple syrup and lemon juice.  I rub the pears a bit trying them to be coated all over with the syrup/lemon juice liquid.
4. Roast in oven for about 45 minutes.  I noticed that if pears are nicely ripen, the time can be cut to 25-30 minutes.  Just roast them until they’re cooked but still have their shape.

I think 1/2 to 1 whole pear per person is a fine portion - so feel free to double, triple or cuadruple this recipe as you need.

Now we play with the accompaniments…

ROASTED PEARS with ALMOND PRALINE

1. Serve the roasted pears with the sauce the maple syrup created in the baking dish. 
2. Sprinkle Almond Praline around it. 
3. Note: the almond praline does not need to look this dark… I walked away from the kitchen and had to live with the consequences.

ROASTED PEARS with BLUE CHEESE and HAZELNUT PRALINE

 

1.  Serve the roasted pears cut side up and in the indentation place some crumbled mild blue cheese.  I used this cheese…
2. 
3. Drizzle some of the sauce created by the maple syrup and sprinkle some Hazelnut Praline on the side.

This version also is screaming to be served for company… it tasted as if I was eating in a restaurant.  Scrumptious…  Need proof??

Hazelnut Praline March 7, 2008

I have been meaning to share with you some desserts, but I wanted to make them with Almonds.  Every-time I go to the market, I forget to buy them.  If I don’t write it, I will never remember it.

Then the other day I was reorganizing my fridge (in preparation to my upcoming trip to Costco) and I found along lost bag of shelled hazelnuts.  My dear mom helped me shell these hazelnuts I bought before Xmas and I never got to eat and they were sitting, very unassumingly, in this ziplock bag in the back of my fridge… how about Hazelnut Praline!!!  I am sure it will taste fantastic too.  It did…

                 

HAZELNUT PRALINE

1/2 cup shelled hazelnuts

1 tbs maple sugar

1 1/2 tbs maple syrup

1.  I like to start with peeled hazelnuts.  I think the taste of the nut comes across better when the little skin is taken off.  So to do this with hazelnuts, I roasted them for a little while in a 350F oven for about 10 minutes.  They’ll start to smell a bit.
2. Then place them in a clean kitchen towel and scrub them all together.  Most of the skins will come off.  Some I had to peel a bit of my hands.  Wait a bit until the nuts cool down some.  You don’t need to get your fingers burned.
3.  
4. Cut the hazelnuts in a smaller pieces.  I used a serrated knife and it worked very well.  The nuts did not fly all across the cutting board.
5. Mix the nuts in a medium bowl with the maple syrup and maple sugar.  Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet and bake in a 350F oven for about 12 minutes.  I try not to leave the kitchen because nuts tend to burn fast and remember, you may have already roasted them a bit already to skin them.
6. When they’re done, they’ll smell really sweet and nutty delicious.
7. Be careful taking them out of the oven, but transfer then to a metal dish right away to help them cool off.  I sometimes put the nuts in the fridge to help keep them away from the humidity we always have here in PR.

Snap the nuts loose and eat them alone as a snack or sprinkle them over your favorite dessert.  I particularly enjoyed them today with my Roasted Pears with Blue Cheese.

Spinach Strawberry Salad March 7, 2008

I went to Costco yesterday.  And here in Puerto Rico, Costco has the BEST produce you can find… everything is beautiful and fresh and gorgeous. 

I bought yesterday strawberries (you know how I feel about strawberries), grape tomatoes and organic baby leaf  spinach.  You’ll be seeing these ingredients in the next few posts, I’ll promise. 

As I was doing my Serious Eats site daily perusing - I noticed this Talk string about being on a “kick”.  I get those sometimes, but nothing lately.  I read the post from evilchefmom saying she’s on a Strawberry Spinach Salad kick…  That’s exactly what I bought today - baby spinach and strawberries, never thinking when I bought them I would actually eat them together.

I decided to make my version of what she wrote… I do not normally mix fruit in my salads, but I decided to take a chance.  The results were DELICIOUS!!!!  Sweet and tangy, a very different salad that screams for company…

 

SPINACH AND STRAWBERRY SALAD

for one

2 handfuls of washed organic baby spinach

3-4 beautifully ripe strawberries - hulled and cut in pieces or slices

2-3 very thin slices of red onion

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil - the best one you can find

2 splashes of balsamic vinegar - about 2 tbs

Salt and Ground pepper to taste

a squirt of Honey

1. In a medium sized bowl prepare the dressing - Whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and honey.
2. Add the strawberries and onions to the dressing and toss to coat.
3. In a salad bowl, arrange the baby spinach leaves and top with the strawberries, onions and dressing.

I was so pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this flavor combination, that I immediately made a mental note to serve this salad at any upcoming dinner party… this is too good to keep to myself.

Thanks eveilchefmom for showing me something I have never tried before… 

Strawberry Banana Sherbet March 5, 2008

I know it’s the middle of winter in the US… but it’s 83 degrees in Puerto Rico.  I am working without air conditioning for a few weeks now and I need something to cool off with when it gets hot.  So I decided to put together a few frozen things I already had in my freezer and see how they tasted all-together…

This is how Strawberry Banana Sherbet was born.  Nice little experiment, no?

 

STRAWBERRY BANANA SHERBET

1 cup strawberries

1 medium banana

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 to 1/3 cup fresh orange juice - nobody will notice if you use Tropicana, so don’t worry

juice of 1 lemon

1/2 cup of kefir - this will make it a sherbet, rather than a sorbet

1.  Mix all the ingredients in a blender.
2. Pour the mixture in a container to freeze up.  I used an ice tray… it’s convenient and helps in portion control too.  You could also use mini plastic cups or even place a wooden stick to serve as popsicles.
3. Freeze for about 2-3 hours until it hardens up

I used fresh fruits I had frozen myself, but you can use fresh ones if you have them around or even frozen fruits bought from the supermarket.  I am sure you can use the same method to create other nice fruit sherbets.  I will be experimenting a few more in the coming weeks.  I promise to share.

Sweet Potato Pastelón March 3, 2008

I know this is not exactly a potato, but I wanted to add a new recipe to my Potato Festival collection.  In English, it fits.  In Spanish, it does not (Pastelón de Batata Mameya).  It’s delicious and super easy in either Spanish or English, so here it goes…

 

SWEET POTATO PASTELON

1 medium sweet potato or batata mameya - washed, peeled and cubed into 1″ slices

1/2 tomato - chopped finely

1/2 onion - chopped finely

1/4 green pepper - chopped finely

1 tbs butter or margarine

2 tbs Parmesan cheese

Extra-virgin Olive oil

Canola spray

Salt and Pepper to taste

1. In a medium pot, place sweet potato cubes, almost cover with water, sprinkle with some salt.  Cover and boil until fork tender.  This should take about 15 minutes.
2. In a small skillet, pour about 1tbs olive oil and sautee the onions and peppers.  When they’re starting to turn soft, add the tomatoes until everything is soft and cooked. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Drain the boiled sweet potatoes and return to the hot pot.  Add the butter, Parmesan cheese and mash until smooth with a potato masher.
4. Transfer mashed sweet potato to a glass baking dish sprayed with canola oil. Spread it evenly.  Now, pour the sauteed mixture of onions, peppers and tomato on top of the mashed sweet potatoes.
5. Place in a 350 degree oven so the sweet potato compacts a bit and the flavors meld.  For about 10-15 minutes.  It’s just for melding the flavors, because everything is basically cooked.

Serve with a simple salad for a nice supper or light lunch.

And if you’re in a hurry… just serve the mashed sweet potato and spoon the tomato/onion/pepper mixture over it.  It tastes just the same.

No-Knead Bread - Consolation prize for my ego March 2, 2008

I already told you about my fiasco story on the Daring Bakers Feb 2008 Challenge - Pain Francais.

So, to give myself an ego-boost, I decided to try out the NY Times No-Knead Bread Recipe…  of course, with a few modifications because I was using whole wheat flour again.  For months I have been meaning to make this recipe… and to me it was a dream come true, because one of the reasons I have never dared to make any breads or pizza dough is the lack of a Stand mixer - remember my Xmas wishes??? So, this recipe eliminated that need…

For this recipe you need a cast iron dutch oven… yikes, I don’t have a cast-iron dutch oven either. But my friend Kathleen told me I could probably do this with a Pyrex bowl on top of a baking sheet.  I don’t have a big Pyrex glass bowl, but my mom has a glass Pyrex dutch oven - the best of both worlds. 

You still need to plan this recipe out… it needs about 12 hours to proof.  It’s not like you get a bread craving and you can make this in a pinch.  You can make the dough at night to bake it in the morning, or make the dough in the morning to bake the bread at night. 

 

NO-KNEAD BREAD

Adapted from the original No-Knead Bread recipe from the NY Times.

3 cups of whole wheat flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

3/4 tbs kosher salt

1 package of dry active yeast

squirt of honey

1 3/4 cups of water

2 tbs wheat germ

Covered Pot - (5 quart or larger cast iron, Pyrex, ceramic, enamel - something that can go into a 450F oven)

Mix the Dough

1. When using whole wheat flour, I read in several sources that it’s better to proof the yeast before mixing in the rest of the ingredients.  So take like 1/2 cup of the water the recipe calls for and dissolve the yeast packet.  Add a squirt of honey to help it come alive.  (I threw away several packets of yeast thinking they were dead before doing this little trick to it.) 
2. Combine all ingredients in a big bowl with a wooden spoon until the dough just comes together.  It will be a shaggy, doughy mess.  Control the urge to add more water.  Cover with a plastic wrap and let sit in counter-top for about 12 hours.  The room should be about 70degrees F.  Leave for up to 20 hours if room is slightly cooler.

Shape and Pre-heat

1. The dough will be wet, sticky and bubbly.  With a wet spatula, dump the dough onto a floured surface. 
2. Fold ends of dough over a few times with the spatula and nudge it into a ball shape.  You can use your hands if you prefer.
3. Generously dust a flour sack towel with flour and wheat germ. Set dough seam side down on top of towel.  Let it rest for 2 hours.
4. Set 2 timers - 1 for 1:30 hours and one for 2 hours.
5. When the 1:30 hour timer rings - it’s time to pre-heat the oven.  Put your covered pot in the oven and preheat the oven with the pot inside for 30 minutes at 450 degrees F.
6. When the 2 hour timer goes off - it’s time to bake.

Bake

1. The dough should have doubled in size.
2. Carefully, remove pot from oven.  Holding the dough inside the towel, dump the wobbly dough inside the pot - it does not matter which way it lands.  Cover.
3. Bake covered for 30 minutes. Set timer again for 30 minutes.
4. Uncover.  Bake another 15-20 minutes uncovered  until the crust is golden brown and beautiful.
5. Remove from oven and let cool in a cooling rack.

 

I ate mine warm with lots of butter.  The crust was superb.  I ate some of it, and gave a piece to a friend and my mom, which loved it too.

I still do not consider myself a bread baker by any means.  However, I will definitely make this recipe again… and I know that as I feel more confident with it, I will start making modifications to it… adding cheese, or nuts or other flours.  You’ll see.  I won’t keep it to myself…

Pain Français- DBC Feb 2008 March 1, 2008

I am not a baker.  So I joined the Daring Baker’s Challenge.

If I am not a baker, why in the world would I join a group of  called Daring Bakers???  To get out of my comfort zone precisely.  To try recipes I would never dare to try. To learn things, techniques I may be avoiding…  to indeed, become a baker after all.  

I was inspired last month with January’s challenge - Lemon Meringues.  All the recipes I saw looked sooooo beautiful that I felt compelled to join.  Please remind yourselves… I AM NOT A BAKER!!!  My dessert repertoire extends to cookies and flans - anything else besides that is just baked fruits, fruit sauces, and boiling cans of condensed milk… ahhh, and buying Haagen-Dazs mango sherbet at the supermarket.  Yet, after knowing all of this, I dared and joined the group. No pun intended.

I have to admit, I was daunted and excited when I received my first recipe - Pain Français from a Julia Child recipe…. Oh my gravy!!!!  I was excited, as you know I take French lessons at the Alliance Française.  To say I was super excited was an understatement!!  But, why daunted???  French bread only has really 4 ingredients - flour, water, yeast and salt.  What can be simpler???  Anything in this world is simpler, if you ask me. 

And, I am not a quitter.  I was not going to pass this up , my first Daring Baker’s challenge, just because I had an 11-page recipe - yes, this is not a typo, 11 pages… I was sent a video to see the kneading technique, the forming technique, the baking technique…  I read the recipe 3-4 times.  I saw the video twice. Yet… I never achieved the perfect loaf of Pain Français.  The only thing I did change in the recipe… was the flour.  I only like to use whole wheat products when I bake, so I used whole wheat flour…  here are the results:

This is the flour I used - I do not recommend it for this recipe.  This was the dough, before kneading. How dry it was should have told me something then, but I continued with the process as dictated in the recipe.

This was the dough after “kneading” for about 500 times… I was so tired after that, I had to lay down to rest.  Really.

 And this was the frustrating moment when, after 3 hours of “rising time” my dough was exactly the same size as it started.

But, in my opinion, there are many ways to define success.  Success is not only demonstrated by showing here my “perfect loaves of french bread from the first try”… To me, success is also achieved by all the learnings gathered from trying to execute this recipe.  I actually have a list of learnings I would like to share with you and all my fellow Daring Bakers:

1. You need a really large kitchen with lots of counter space to bake bread. - my kitchen is TINY and trying to knead bread almost inside the kitchen sink is not the ideal of any bread baker.
2. A Kitchen-Aid mixer is a must if you’re a petite bread baker. - I am sorry, but kneading 800 times by hand is not my definition of a good arm workout.  My arm was about to fall off - I guess because the flour/water proportions were off when using whole wheat… but that’s another learning.
3. Stone-ground whole wheat flour is NOT ideal when trying to make Julia Child’s french bread recipe. - Start with whole wheat pastry flour and then move gradually to coarser flours, especially when you do not have a stand mixer.
4. Bread baking is not for the impatient. - You need a good day to make this recipe… no plans to go out, no plans for someone to come over, just stay home and bake bread.  Now I know why Rachael Ray is not a baker…
5. Bread-baking is not for the compulsive cleaner. - No matter how clean I tried to keep the kitchen floor, there was flour all over… all over!!!  all over my dishes, all over the sink, all over the counters, all over the floor, all over me!!!!
6. 11 page recipes need to be left to professionals. - I am sure that if I had spent a day learning this by actually watching someone do it, I would have grasped it a little better.  I felt consumed by the pages in the recipe.
7. I will try this recipe again SOON.- I was not able to do it all over before the posting date, but I will not let this recipe get to me. 

Let’s say I have a new-found appreciation for bread bakers.  And as a consolation prize for my ego… the only thing left for me was to try… The No-Knead Bread recipe. YEAH!!!