Katie at the Kitchen Door

Globally-inspired, seasonal recipes

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0 Dessert

Addiction.

In an ideal world, I would have time to bake 10 different kinds of Christmas cookies, and then come Christmas day lay out a beautiful plate of differently shaped and colored and flavored treats.  (Yes, this is actually something I fantasize about.  I also fantasize about normal things like inheriting a villa in Italy and spending all day in a king-sized hotel bed with 15 pillows, but occasionally I fantasize about having perfect displays of baked goods.  C’est juste moi.)  In the real world, I have time to bake exactly 0 kinds of Christmas cookies, meaning that I will probably end up making 2 to 3 different kinds at odd hours of the morning when I should be studying for my steel final or writing the research term paper that I’ve been procrastinating literally since September.  Oops.

I can’t decide how much of a problem my tendency to use baking as a form of procrastination is.  I don’t really think it’s normal – most people are content with facebook and reruns of Modern Family – but at least it’s semi productive.  Or at least that is how I would like to justify it to myself.  For example, the night before fall break while working on yet another impossible matrix structural analysis problem set (yeah, I’m trying to impress you with the names of my classes), I decided at midnight to make 2 different kinds of apple muffins to bring with me to Tim’s house the next morning.  A nice, really poorly timed idea.  Then, the night before my steel midterm, which I began studying for at 9pm, I made an executive decision at 11pm that making banana bread would take approximately 5 minutes and be a great study break.  If you are ever thinking of making the same executive decision here are a few notes.  Note 1: making banana bread takes more than 5 minutes.  Note 2: once you make the banana bread you might find that it’s 11:45 and you feel kind of like taking a shower.  Note 3: after your shower it will be 12:15 and you will need time to eat 4 slices of banana bread.  Note 4: after eating too many slices of banana bread you will fall asleep, fat and happy and totally unprepared for your steel midterm.  Note 5: you will now need to do exceptionally well on your steel final and abstain from absolutely all baking for the 24 hours beforehand.  Period.

Occasionally, however, I behave like a responsible human being and set aside an hour or two of weekend time to bake.  For example, this morning.  When I made these shortbread cookies because shortbread is this month’s challenge over at Have the Cake.  I actually got really excited when I saw this challenge, especially since I haven’t been able to participate for a few months and I knew something as simple but changeable as shortbread would get me in the kitchen stat.  There were several shortbread recipes I wanted to try, and I might still try the savory parmesan-rosemary recipe I found, but in the end I decided to go with these lime and white chocolate shortbreads because they seemed festive enough to fit the bill of my first holiday cookie.

I think I would give these cookies a 3.5 out of 5 – there’s room for improvement.  I liked the flavors of the cookie and topping, but the texture of the lime zest in the cookie threw me off.  It made the cookies a bit crunchier than I thought they should be.  These cookies are also fairly crumbly, but since this is my first time making shortbread, I’m not sure how much of that is because of my technique and how much because of the recipe.  I would like to try these again omitting the lime zest from the cookie and using concentrated lime oil or lime extract instead of the almond extract, as I think that would give the cookies more flavor and a better texture.  I would keep the topping the same, as it was quite yummy and went well with the buttery cookie.

Lime Shortbread Cookies with White Chocolate and Almonds

Adapted from Bon Appetit.  Makes 24 cookies.

  • 2 c. flour
  • 1/2 c. powdered sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 2 sticks chilled, unsalted butter
  • 3 TBS lime zest, divided
  • 1 tsp. almond extract
  • 4 oz. white chocolate
  • juice from 1 lime
  • 1/3 c. sliced, blanched almonds, toasted until golden then chopped
  1. Preheat oven to 325°F.  Butter a 13×9 metal baking pan.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, powdered sugar, and salt.  Mix in 2 TBS of lime zest and almond extract.  Cut cold butter into flour in small pieces, then use pastry cutter or hands to blend until even and can be pressed together into a loose ball.
  3. Press dough evenly into prepared pan.  Use a fork to poke holes all over dough.  With a sharp knife, cut evenly sized triangles into dough, cutting all the way through dough.  Bake cookies for 35-45 minutes, or until golden brown and firm.  Upon removal from the oven, immediately use knife to recut through earlier markings.  Let cookies cool in pan on rack.  When cool, carefully remove from pan.
  4. Bring a medium pot of water to a gentle simmer.  In a smaller pot, place white chocolate, remaining 1 TBS of lime zest, and lime juice.  Melt chocolate over simmering water, stirring all the while.  When thin enough, use a fork to drizzle lime-chocolate mixture over cookies, then top cookies with toasted almonds.

3 Asian and Indian

Indian Comfort

Over the summer I picked up a cookbook called Cooking with My Indian Mother-in-Law, written by Simon Daley.  I love Indian food, but I’ve struggled with several things when trying to cook it for myself – finding authentic and flavorful recipes, balancing the spices properly, and achieving that wonderful combination of sour, spicy, and warm that is so characteristic of many Indian dishes I’ve tried.  Glancing through this book, I was intrigued by the simple recipes and the idea of learning home recipes from a woman who has cooked these dishes every day of her life; it’s true that the simplest, most comforting, yet also most wonderful Indian food I’ve eaten has always been prepared by someone’s Indian mother.  So I checked the book out and began to read.

First, the book demystified the ingredients and techniques essential to Indian cooking.  I learned about the process of tempering whole vs. ground spices, how to ready-fry onions, how to make a basic garlic-ginger-chilie paste, what kind of tomatoes are best to use in sauces, and how to identify when a masala pools.  Then I looked through the recipes, and found myself confronted with a lot of excellent sounding dishes with very long ingredient lists.  The one that attracted me most, however, was a simple-ish recipe for Chickpea Dumplings.  It took me about 6 weeks from the time I first saw the recipe to the time I first made it.  To a lot of people, this may seem like a long time.  To  people who, like me, hoard recipes in word files, scans, clippings, and scribbled notes, it should seem fast.  At least it does to me.

This recipe absolutely lived up to my expectations.  I went all out and bought all the spices from the bulk spice section in Wholefoods. (Side note: I literally cannot get enough of the bulk section in Wholefoods.  Every time I come back with little baggies of grains and nuts and spices for super reasonable prices I show Megan and say things like “Look!  Three pounds of couscous only cost $4!  They had asafoetida!  And dried lemon balm!  Look how many pinto beans I have!”  And she looks at me like I have 3 to 4 heads.  Actually, I kind of can’t get enough of Wholefoods in general.  Like, every time I go I’m a little bit tempted just to start living there and subsisting off of cheese samples.  Not kidding.  Side note over.)  I even used those San Marzano tomatoes that food bloggers rave about all the time and are ridiculously expensive, at least for canned tomatoes.  I actually only bought them because I read the price tag wrong and thought they were a good deal.  The weren’t.  But they were good.  One day when I’m employed I will buy quality ingredients regularly.  Until then I love me some store brand staples.  I don’t even know what I’m talking about anymore.  I should move on.  I’m just gonna start this paragraph over.

This recipe absolutely lived up to my expectations.  The best way to describe it would be as an Indian version of pasta with tomato sauce – comforting, warm, tangy, hearty.  The dumplings were perfectly spiced and kind of fun to make.  To do so, you boil water with a ginger-garlic paste and then dump in some chickpea flour and stir until it forms a ball of dough.  Then you roll the dough out as quickly as possible and cut it into little diamonds.  Yes, this is fun for me.  The dumplings themselves are addictive.  I would estimate that both times I’ve made them I consumed one fourth of them before even starting the sauce.  After simmering them in a tomato-yogurt sauce, you have the kind of meal you can’t stop shoveling into your mouth after a long day – unpretentious, filling, flavorful, good.

Chickpea Dumplings in Tomato-Yogurt Sauce

Adapted from Simon Daley’s Cooking with My Indian Mother-in-Law. Serves 3-4.

For the chickpea dumplings:

  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1 inch ginger, peeled
  • 1-2 jalapenos, stemmed and seeded
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 1/2 c. water
  • 2 tsp. canola oil
  • 2 c. chickpea flour
  1. Peel the garlic.  Slice peeled ginger and seeded jalapeno into large chunks.  In a mortar and pestle, grind garlic, ginger, jalapeno, salt, and cumin seeds into a paste.
  2. Oil a large cutting board and rolling pin.  Set aside.
  3. In a medium pot, bring 1 1/2 c. water and ginger-garlic-pepper paste to a boil.  Turn vent on as steam may sting eyes.  When water is boiling.  Add 2 tsp. oil and stir.  Add chickpea flour, reduce heat, and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until dough comes together in a ball.  Turn the dough out onto oiled board and let stand 1 minute.  Then quickly roll dough out to about 1/2 inch thickness.  Slice dough into diamonds, and set dumplings aside.

For the masala:

  • 1 tsp. cumin seeds
  • 1 tsp coriander seeds
  • 1 tsp. chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 2 TBS canola oil
  • 1 tsp. mustard seeds
  • 1 tsp. cumin seeds
  • 1/2 tsp asafetida
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • 14 oz. canned plum tomatoes, preferably San Marzanos
  • 4 cloves garlic crushed into a paste with 1 tsp. salt
  • 2 TBS cilantro stems
  • 1 1/2 c. plain yogurt
  • 1 c. warm water
  • 1 recipe chickpea dumplings, above
  1. Mix 1 tsp. cumin seeds, coriander, chili powder, and turmeric in a small bowl. Set aside.
  2. Heat oil over medium-low heat.  Add mustard seeds and remaining 1 tsp. cumin seeds and cook for 1 minute.  Add asafetida and onion and sautee 2 minutes, until onion is beginning to soften.  Add garlic paste and sautee an additional 1 minute.  Add spice mixture from step 1, tomatoes, and cilantro stems.  Simmer over low heat until oil pools around edges of pan.
  3. Mix yogurt with 1 c. warm water in large bowl.  Add 1 c. of hot tomato mixture to yogurt, stirring yogurt constantly, to temper yogurt and keep it from curdling.  Slowly add yogurt to remaining tomato mixture in pan, stirring constantly.  Bring to a slow boil, add dumplings, and cook 2-3 minutes to heat dumplings through.  Season with additional salt if necessary.  Serve hot.

1 Poultry

Rotisserie Chicken Chronicles #3

Aha!  I got you.  You thought that after I posted the first two installments in this so-called series 3 months apart I would either get my act together and post with some continuity or give up like a respectable human being and stop with the chicken thing.  But you were wrong.  Because it’s been another 3 months, and I’m back with more lovingly-roasted-by-someone-else-chickens.  Get excited.

I’ve known for a while that the 3rd installment in my rotisserie chicken series was going to be a pizza.  Chicken on pizza is stellar.  It’s actually been on my menu for the past 5 weeks in a row… it’s just that I ran out of pizza dough, and making pizza dough without a stand mixer?  Huge pain in the ass.  I did it once last spring and made enough for 5 pizzas, but I ate those 5 pizzas and the 45 minute kneading process required to make more dough should definitely be categorized as an aerobic workout.  Maybe anaerobic.  And who likes exercise anyways.

The other problem is the chicken itself – if I don’t get at it right away, while it’s still warm, it’s a goner.  Cold rotisserie chicken that’s been in the fridge for two days and has congealed in the bag?  Not my favorite thing to pick apart.  And if I do manage to tackle the chicken as soon as I get back from the grocery store then there’s the problem of trying to make stock at night and getting really exhausted before it has time to cool properly.  Whine whine bitch moan.

But I’ve been really wanting this pizza.  And the prospect of having pizza dough in the freezer again is highly appealing.  So I buckled down.  I’d like to say that the stars just aligned and I woke up this morning totally jazzed to knead dough and boil chicken carcasses and then have the energy to photograph my lunch before snarfing it.  But no, I actually just had to make myself do it.  But it was totally worth it.  Especially because as I was taking my pictures it started to snow.  And not only is it the first snow of the season, I’ve actually never seen it snow like this in Durham.  We had one really heavy, really brief, really nasty storm last January and no one could figure out how to drive for 2 and a half weeks, but this is like… beautiful, perfect snow.  The kind of snow I actually like.  All the freshmen from Texas/Florida/Southern California are probably freaking out like they do every year.  Anyway, I just sat by the window and ate my pizza and watched the snow and didn’t think about anything other than how lovely it was, and it was really nice.

Back to pizza.  This was just like I wanted it to be – pizza is one of those sum of its parts things.  In a good way.  If you use quality ingredients that you like, and you have some idea of how to combine them, your pizza will be good.  Like this.  Besides the dough-making process it was also really quick to throw together.  If you already had dough in the fridge/freezer this could be ready to eat in 20 minutes.  And now I no longer have to be tempted by the frozen California Pizza Kitchen pizzas in Kroger, cuz I can do it myself. :-)

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Want More Chicken?

Thai Chicken Pizza

Serves 2-3.

  • 1/5 basic pizza dough recipe, below
  • 2 TBS minced fresh ginger
  • 1/2 c. peanut butter
  • 1/2 c. water
  • 2 TBS soy sauce
  • 3 TBS hoisin sauce
  • 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
  • 1 c. shredded cooked chicken from rotisserie chicken
  • 3/4 c. mozzarella cheese
  • 3 scallions, sliced
  • 1 carrot, grated
  • 1/2 c. sprouts
  • 1/2 c. chopped cilantro
  1. Preheat oven to 425°F.  Roll pizza dough out to 1/4 inch thickness.  Sprinkle baking pan with a teaspoon or two of cornmeal to prevent the bottom from burning and place dough on pan.
  2. In a small bowl, mix together ginger, soy sauce, water, peanut butter, hoisin sauce, and red pepper flakes until smooth.  Spread 2/3 of the mixture evenly over the pizza dough.  Add the remaining 1/3 of the peanut sauce to the chicken and stir to coat.  Sprinkle cheese over the sauce/dough, and then place chicken pieces on top.  Bake for 15 minutes.
  3. When pizza is cooked, remove from oven and allow to cool for 1 or 2 minutes.  Then sprinkle the top with the scallions, shredded carrot, sprouts, and chopped cilantro.  Slice and serve.

Basic Pizza Dough

This is my mom’s calzone dough recipe.  It’s very simple and actually takes significantly less time than 45 minutes to knead, so I’m glad I have it now.  It also gets a great rise, and extra can be frozen after it has risen and been punched down.  This recipe makes enough for 5 individual sized pizzas or calzones.

  • 2 c. skim milk
  • 1/4 c. very warm water
  • 1 TBS active dry yeast
  • 1/4 c. olive oil
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 5 1/2 – 6 c. flour
  1. Proof yeast – sprinkle yeast over 1/4 c. warm water and allow to stand for 5 minutes.
  2. Heat milk in the microwave for 2 minutes, until quite warm but not bubbling.
  3. In a large bowl, mix together 4 c. of flour, salt, and olive oil.  Add milk and yeast mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until well incorporated.  Add remaining flour half a cup at a time until the dough comes together and is not too sticky.
  4. Dump dough on lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic, adding flour as needed.
  5. Place in a lightly oiled bowl and allow to rise for 1 hour.  Once risen, punch down and break into five equal portions.  Freeze portions in individual ziploc bags or use within 1-2 days.

0 Recipe

Elegant Endives

So it’s Thanksgiving.  And the food blogosphere has been inundated with sweet potatoes, cranberries, pie crusts, and 4-day turkey brining processes.  Which is all great and mouthwatering and exciting, except that I’m not in charge of Thanksgiving.  And I’m the kind of person who actually loves Stove Top stuffing and plain old mashed potatoes once a year.  So I’m not contributing any fancy new dishes to our table or experimenting with pie fillings or scouring cookbooks for stuffing recipes.

Instead, I’m going to do whatever my mother tells me I can do to help.  And the first of these things was to help her with the shopping.  Which I did.  But then amongst the acorn squash and fresh cranberries and bags of shallots, I found endives.  For a price that was significantly less than the ridiculous $4 a piece they cost in the Durham Wholefoods.  And since I’ve been meaning to share this endive recipe pretty much since the creation of this blog, I decided to buy them.

And that, my friends, is how it came to pass that I’m sharing a light, summery appetizer with you on the day before Thanksgiving, completely bucking national food blogging trends.  Although they would make a good cocktail party appetizer.  And it is kind of the start of cocktail party season.  And candied pecans are actually pretty seasonal too.  So maybe I’m not as far off the mark as I thought.  Either way, I really enjoy these.  They’re simple, and elegant, and well-balanced, and infinitely variable too.

A few notes about candying nuts: I fell in love with candied nuts in Prague, where you can buy them on every street corner as soon as the weather turns cold.  I’d frequently run down to the square between classes for a little paper packet of sugared almonds and a cup of hot wine (man, talk about living the life, right?)  As a result of this, I ended up craving them all the time, and so I’ve experimented with several ways of getting the perfect, warm, crispy, sugared nut.  You can either do them on the stove top or in the oven: they’ll be done more quickly on the stove top, and you only need water and sugar, but your technique is more important – if you don’t stir constantly you’ll end up with a caramel mess and soggy nuts.  They take longer in the oven, your results will be consistently good.  I think I prefer the end result of the oven roasted nuts better, so if you have the time, do them in the oven!

Elegant Endives

Recipe from epicurious.  Serves 6-8 as an appetizer.

  • 2 belgian endives
  • 4 oz. crumbled blue cheese
  • 3/4 c. candied pecan pieces, see recipe below
  • honey

Slice off the bases of the endives.  Remove small and damaged outer leaves.  Carefully separate leaves from the base so that they remain intact.  Fill the white part of the endive with crumbled cheese and pecan pieces.  Arrange on platter and drizzle with a small amount of honey.

Candied Pecans

Technique adapted from AllRecipes.

  • 2 c. pecan halves and pieces
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 TBS water
  • 1/4 tsp. vanilla
  • 1/2 c. sugar
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 3/4 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 TBS butter
  1. Preheat oven to 250°F.  Use butter to grease a baking pan.
  2. Beat egg white with water and vanilla until frothy.  In a separate bowl, mix together sugar, cinnamon, and salt.
  3. Mix pecans with egg white mixture until they are all moistened.  Then transfer to the sugar mixture and stir until pecans are fully coated.  Spread pecans on greased pan in a single layer and bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

0 Pasta

Kale Recovery

So the beginning of November did not go so hot for me – I unexpectedly got a staph infection that was complicated by an allergic reaction to the antibiotic they put me on.  It took 12 days, 3 doctor’s visits, and 5 prescriptions for me to start getting better.  And in the meantime I had to take 3 midterms with kind of disgusting, fully bandaged right hand, and continue to go to class and to work and do my dishes and I didn’t have anyone to take care of me.  And then on top of that they canceled tailgate, but that’s a story for another day.  Basically, it was exceedingly frustrating.  However, thanks to a beautiful thing called steroids, I’ve finally regained use of my hand/feel like a normal, non-disfigured human being again.  And now, if you notice me looking particularly jacked in the next 3 weeks or winning the Feaster Five, you’ll understand why.

Needless to say, cooking/blogging was not really a priority when the average amount of time it took me to do everything had doubled.  However, one night last weekend I did find this incredible recipe, that I’m crediting in part for Sunday being the turn-around point of my recovery.  Having made several trips to Rite-Aid in the recent past, which happened to necessitate 15 minutes of standing around in the aisles, and additionally happened to coincide with the week after Halloween, my cupboard had somehow been filled with a large amount of half-price off-brand halloween candy.  Saturday afternoon I found myself mindlessly eating peppermint patties one after the other, and my thought process after realizing what I was doing went something like this: Man, this is probably not helping my body do it’s thing.  But I can’t use my hand to do much beyond stir, and I can’t wash anything that won’t go in the dishwasher.  And I really just want some cheesy pasta.  But that has no nutritional value either.  And I really should use up all those vegetables I bought in the hope that consumer guilt would force me to eat them.  I’m going to stop thinking about this and mindlessly browse the internet like I’ve been doing all day.  Oh, what Heidi of 101 cookbooks, you just made a meal that requires all of one pot and one dishwasher safe blender that was a sauce of blanched kale and goat cheese served over whole wheat pasta?  Does that not fill exactly all of the requirements that I just mentioned?  Are you an angel?

Keep in mind that I was not searching for recipes that used kale, or that were simple, or that involved cheese and pasta.  I literally just clicked the little 101 cookbooks button on my sidebar and BAM.  Serendipity.  I made it immediately, ate it immediately, and loved it a lot.  Since I’m pretty sure kale has magical properties it’s so nutritious, I decided that the fact that I woke up feeling about 150% better Sunday morning had to be attributed in part to that sauce, which I’m passing on to you all, with a few revisions: the original recipe called for olive oil, but I thought it drowned out the freshness of the kale, so I omitted it this time.  I also think this would be really stellar/even more healthifying with a little bit of ginger in it for kick, so I plan on trying that soon… In the meantime, all hail kale.

Creamy Chevre and Kale Pasta

Adapted slightly from 101 Cookbooks. Serves 2-3.

  • 6 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 1/2 large bunch of fresh kale, washed, stemmed, and very roughly chopped
  • 3 oz. goat cheese
  • 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
  • 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
  • kosher salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/2 box rotini
  1. Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil.  Add garlic cloves and boil for 2-3 minutes.  Add kale and blanch for 15 seconds (don’t overcook!) then remove kale and garlic to a blender with a slotted spoon.  Reserve blanching water.
  2. Add goat cheese, lemon juice, and red pepper flakes to blender.  Add 1/2 c. of blanching water.  Blend.  Add more water until consistency is as desired.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.
  3. Return blanching water to a boil.  Add rotini and cook according to package  directions.  Drain, mix with sauce.  Serve warm, sprinkled with more goat cheese.

0 Dessert

Iron Chef: Duke Edition

When Becky forwarded me an email announcing that Duke would be hosting its own version of Iron Chef this fall, I was too excited for words.  I’ve never really participated in any events at Duke, and this was clearly going to be my shining moment.  The competition announcement stated that competitors would need to work in teams of two, and that they would have one hour to create and serve two dishes, one sweet and one savory, that incorporated the “secret” ingredient of the year: pumpkin.  I immediately ran through all of the people that I would want to work with and pretty quickly concluded that Justin was my first choice sous-chef.  When I asked him he agreed but questioned my choice, reminding me that he doesn’t really cook.  Yes, I explained, I know, but you have discerning taste when it comes to food, you’ve eaten at a lot of excellent restaurants, and you’re passionate about perfection. (I don’t think I stated these things this eloquently in real life, but it’s what I meant.  Really.  And as a side-note Margie was my second choice because she was an extremely reliable onion chopper throughout our Prague rooming experience and she’s really good at doing what I tell her to.)  So it was settled:  Justin and I were going to enter.

Although the competition wasn’t until October 29th, we were required to submit our recipes for consideration by October 6th, giving us only one weekend from when we decided to compete until the deadline.  Despite having 2 midterms and 4 problem sets due the next week, I dedicated that Sunday to playing with pumpkin.  As we only had one hour to complete two dishes, and no access to an oven, roasting our own pumpkin was out of the question.  With a little help from Trevor, Justin’s sister-in-law, and The Flavor Bible (which, serendipitously enough, we both happened to own, so we could discuss flavor combinations at length over the phone), we decided that our starring flavor combination was going to be that of pumpkin and ginger.  I already knew what I wanted to do for the dessert – a version of these Pumpkin Cheesecake Pots with gingersnaps and ginger-infused whipped cream – but was less sure about the savory dish.  A soup felt too boring, a classic sage-pumpkin-gorgonzola take too, well, classic.  Then Justin came through with the idea of a curry, but not in the traditional way.  Rather, he wanted a pumpkin ravioli in a curry sauce, but not too Indian of a curry sauce.  More like a Thai curry sauce.  I was sold.  I knew I picked him for a reason.

So we hit up Kroger, where we were almost defeated when they told us they didn’t carry pumpkin, only to have a nice lady chase us down the aisle waving cans of pumpkin at us a few minutes later.  Thank you, Kroger lady, you saved my shining moment.  We headed back to my kitchen, and made some cheesecake pots, and some curry sauce, and some ravioli filling, and realized that neither of us really likes pumpkin.  Oh well.  We tweaked here and there, cleaned up, snapped a couple pics, submitted the recipes, and called it a day.

A week and a half later we got an email saying that we were one of four teams accepted by the professional chef judges to compete – thrilling!  Our out-of-box-flavor-bible thinking had paid off.  Even more exciting – I now had a legitimate excuse to buy the pasta machine that’s been in my Amazon cart for 5 months.  I see many, many ravioli in this blog’s future.

The competition was a blast.  It was probably the fastest an hour of cooking ever went by in my life.  Tons of people came out to cheer, and we even had President Broadhead doing a fist pump in support of our team, the New Jersey Fist Pump-Kins.  No, I’m not from New Jersey.  Yeah, we kinda rule.  At first we were nervous about how our food was going to turn out – things weren’t coming out quite as well as they had when we practiced them.  But then we started getting positive feedback from the crowd, and people who were interviewed kept choosing our parfait as their favorite so far.  It was kind of really super exciting to have that many people trying and excited about our food.  We managed to get everything out on time and looking decent, and then we sat back, covered in pumpkin, and waited while the judges ate.  When it came time for the announcer to ask the judges what their favorite savory dish was, we were thrilled that 2 out of the 3 judges chose our ravioli, and all 3 chose our parfait as their favorite side/dessert dish!  Despite the positive feedback, we ended up taking 2nd place.  One of the judges came by afterward and said that if taste alone had been the judging criteria, our food would have won hands down, but that it didn’t do as well in the healthiness category.  A fair point – both our dishes were lacking in fresh produce compared to the other contestants’.  It was so nice to have people react so positively to our food though, and the crowd and atmosphere made the whole experience a blast.

Thank you SO much to everyone who came out and cheered for us, and to Duke Culinary Society for running such a great competition.  Also, thank you Justin for competing with me – you were definitely not a sous chef.  And thank you to Tim for coming up with a sweet name/theme for us even though you’re lame and didn’t come watch.  Finally, thanks to Carissa, Megan, and Alice for the photos.  Recipes for both our dishes are below, if you’re interested in checking them out!

Ginger-Pumpkin Cheesecake Parfaits

  • 1  14 oz. can 100% pumpkin puree
  • 8oz neufchatel cheese
  • 1/3 c. sugar
  • 1/2 c. brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp allspice
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1/2 lb. gingersnap cookies
  • 2 TBS salted butter, melted
  • 1/2 pint heavy cream
  • 1 inch piece fresh ginger
  • 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
  • 3 TBS sugar
  1. In a blender or large food processor, combine pumpkin, neufchatel, sugars, spices, and vanilla.  Pulse until smooth.
  2. In a large plastic bag, crush gingersnap cookies into crumbs with a rolling pin.  Mix with melted butter.  Toast for 2-3 minutes over medium heat in a large saucepan.  Set aside.
  3. Peel ginger.  Crush into a paste in a mortar and pestle, or pulse until smooth with a food processor.
  4. In a large bowl, beat cold heavy cream with cream of tartar until stiff.  Whisk in sugar and ginger paste to taste.
  5. Assemble parfaits by layering in the following order: pumpkin custard, gingersnap crumbs, pumpkin custard, whipped cream, ginger snap crumbs.  Serve cold.

Spiced-Pumpkin Ravioli in a Thai Curry Sauce

For the sauce:

  • 2 tsp canola oil
  • 1 inches fresh ginger, peeled
  • 6 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 can coconut milk
  • 1 1/2 TBS Thai red curry paste (Thai Kitchen brand)
  • 1 TBS lime juice
  • 1 c. chicken broth
  • kosher salt to taste

For the pasta dough:

  • 2 c. flour
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 TBS extra virgin olive oil + extra for brushing

For the ravioli filling:

  • 1 (14 oz.) can 100% pumpkin puree
  • 1/4 c. light brown sugar
  • 1/3 c. finely ground unsalted cashews
  • salt and black pepper, to taste
  • 1/4 tsp. cardamom

Ravioli Filling:

  1. Mix all ingredients together, season to taste.

Ravioli dough:

  1. Mix together flour and salt.  Mound flour on a large, clean surface.  Form a large well in the middle of the mound.  Add eggs and olive oil to well, and beat gently to break yolks.  Using a fork, pull flour from edge of mound into center of well.  Do your best not to break the well, but it’s kind of inevitable.  Continue to gently incorporate the flour into the eggs/oil until it begins to come together.  At this point it is easiest to knead the dough by hand.  Knead for at least 5 minutes, until the dough is uniform and beginning to develop some elasticity.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap brushed with olive oil and let it relax for 30 minutes.
  2. Roll the relaxed dough out into a square about 1/2 inch thick.  Cut this into rectangular sheets and feed through pasta machine as instructions direct.  If you are not going to form the ravioli immediately, cover pasta sheets with plastic wrap to keep them from drying out.
  3. Fill a small bowl with water.  Take a sheet of pasta and place a tsp of pumpkin filling in the center of one side.  Brush the edges around the filling with water (I use my finger usually).  Fold the edge over (lengthwise) and press the edges together to seal.  Cut through the sealed edge on one end so that the rest of the pasta sheet length is free from the newly formed ravioli.  Continue to work your way down the pasta sheet.
  4. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Cook the ravioli in batches, for about 2-3 minutes each.  If your boil is gentle, you will know your ravioli are done when they float to the top.  In a rapid boil they tend to float instantly.  Two minutes is generally a safe amount of time to cook them.  Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside, or in the sauce they will be served in.

Sauce:

  1. Crush peeled ginger into a paste in mortar and pestle or blender.  Heat canola oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add garlic and ginger paste, sautee for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant and ginger begins to soften.  Add curry paste, sautee for an additional minute.
  2. Add coconut milk, chicken broth, and lime juice.  Simmer gently to reduce to desired consistency.  Season to taste with salt.
  3. Add cooked ravioli.  Simmer gently to heat through.  Serve hot, sprinkled with large crystal sea salt and cashew pieces.

0 Dessert

Cupcake Lovin’, Part Three

Margie – [Pronounced Marrrr-ghee]  A hilarious species native to Israel.  I mean, New York.  Known to carry a large camera, abbreviate most words in the English and Hebrew languages, and ask for crowns relentlessly.  Often seen practicing Judaism and stealing bagels at the Freeman center.  Adapts easily to some external habitats, but will stagnate in others, most notably the park in Budapest and dirty hostels in Cesky Krumlov.  Is much better than Helen Wang at carrying large bags of groceries.  Enjoys Taylor Swift, Mika, Steph Wells, Miley Cyrus, and no other musicians.  Highly lovable.

Seriously, Margie and I are Praha besties.  Sophomore year we actually lived on the same hall as each other and didn’t speak for the entire year, except for one time – a time which I remember vividly and she remembers not at all. I cut my hand on the espresso machine at the coffeehouse during a late shift, and when I got back to the Crave Megan was already sleeping and I couldn’t find my bandaids without the light.  Bleeding, exhausted, I was standing in the bathroom at 3 in the morning, when Margie pads in in bright red feetie pajamas, looks at my hand, and runs back to her room to get a bandaid.  I thanked her, she went on her apparently exceedingly merry way, and we never spoke again.  That is until I showed up in Prague and saw her name on my apartment door.  Awkward.  Good thing she rules, and we quickly bonded over the fact that we’re both kind of cheap and occasionally grouchy and bigoted.  Especially when it comes to Asian roommates.  Kidding!  We love you Helen, even though you can’t cook rice and store food in the dishwasher instead of dishes.

Anyway, being together in Prague was a blast, and now I have an incredible friend at Duke too.  Honestly, that was not at all something I was expecting when I escaped to Prague via NYU, but it definitely worked out in my favor.  And Margie’s too, because I rule.  Now, on to the birthday part.  I’m really glad Margie’s finally 21 … I think I may actually have been looking forward to her birthday more than she has.  People like my parents and Steph and Trevor keep asking me how I’m doing, and I’m like “great, Margie’s birthday is in 15 days!”  And they sort of pause awkwardly and decide to just move on.  What can I say?  I really like Margie and I really like birthdays.  And I really like making cupcakes, and this time around, I went with mini key-lime and raspberry cheesecakes.

All the components of these cupcakes have a reason behind them – the key lime is because she ate all of my break-up key lime pie out of the freezer, the cheesecake is to pay homage to the one I made her in Prague a year ago (it was a serious feat considering they don’t have cream cheese in the potraviny), and the raspberry swirl/white chocolate layer/almond crust is for keeping it classy, like her.  D’aw.  These were delish – they taste kind of just like you would expect them to taste, given the description.  You can taste all the components, and they go well together.  And that, my friends, is the end of the cupcake extravaganza.  I’m going to go have a salad.

Mini Key-Lime Cheesecakes

Makes 18.  Recipe adapted from Modern Comfort Food.

  • 1 c. graham cracker crumbs
  • 1/2 c. sliced almonds
  • 4 TBS butter, melted
  • 1/3 c. sugar
  • 3/4 c. white chocolate chips
  • 8 oz neufchatel cheese, room temperature
  • 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 4 oz (1/2 c.) key lime juice
  • 1/2 c. frozen raspberries
  • 2 TBS sugar
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Line muffin tins with cupcake liners.  In a food processor, pulse graham crackers, almonds, and sugar, until fine.  Mix in melted butter and stir or pulse until all crumbs are moistened.  Press a tablespoon of crust mixture into the bottom of each cup.  Top with a few white chocolate chips.  Bake for 3-5 minutes, and remove from oven.  Immediately spread white chocolate chips into a layer over the graham cracker.  Pop into the freezer while you prepare the other components.*
  2. In a large bowl, beat neufchatel (cream cheese), sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, and egg yolks, until combined.  Set aside.
  3. In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm raspberries and sugar, stirring constantly.  Break up the raspberries with the back of your spoon.  Cook until all of the raspberries have broken down and have formed a slightly thickened sauce.  Remove from heat and set aside.
  4. Remove muffin tin from freezer.  Place 3 tablespoons of cheesecake batter in each cup.  Using a 1/4 tsp measuring spoon, spoon 3-4 tiny dots on top of each cheesecake cup.  Take a toothpick and gently swirl the raspberry into the cheesecake batter, forming a marble pattern.
  5. Bake the cheesecakes for 20 minutes, until set.  Refrigerate for 2-4 hours.  Serve cold.

* If anyone can think of a better way to do the white chocolate layer, let me know.  I tried heating the chips with a small amount of cream to form a makeshift ganache, but it soaked into the graham cracker layer.  Ideally, I’d like a crisp layer of white chocolate over the graham cracker firmly separating the crust from the cheesecake.

Want some more?

Cupcake Lovin’, Part One

Cupcake Lovin’, Part Two

1 Recipe

Detox

We’ve reached that point in the semester that’s like the Wednesday of a busy week – fall break already seems like it happened months ago, Thanksgiving is about 30 midterms away, the excitement of being back at school has worn off, and we’re tired.  We need to be re-focused.  We need a detox – a mental, physical, and emotional detox.

My physical rejuvenation is getting a kick-start with my mom’s vegetarian chili.  It’s one of my favorite recipes of all time; long before I was doing my own cooking, or actively consuming vegetables, I frequently requested this for dinner.  It’s really, really good.  Like, it’s so good that I had some for breakfast this morning.  Vegetables?  For breakfast?  Katie?  Yeah, now you know it’s delicious.

I’ve been wanting to share this recipe pretty much since I started this blog, but I’ve been waiting for the right time, and now is definitely the right time.  It’s just starting to get chilly and crisp outside, it’s getting dark earlier, and a bowl of hot, nutritious chili is about as appealing as it gets.  This particular recipe is full of vegetables, beans, and nuts, so it’s super flavorful, energizing, and full of nutrients.  So that after you eat it you can continue your physical detox by ellipticalling infinity miles at the Belmont gym while watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall on TV.  Man I love those new ellipticals.  But seriously, I really can’t describe it adequately – you have to try it.  Served over rice or fresh cornbread and sprinkled with shredded cheddar, it’s perfection.

And you know what?  Making this chili and some corn-thyme biscuits was kind of an emotional detox too.  There’s something very therapeutic about being tired but calm and making something wholesome that takes time and patience.  And I also have this weird thing for cutting butter.  Literally, one of my favorite food memories is of sitting at our kitchen table in Prague, cutting sticks and sticks of frozen butter into little pieces for our Thanksgiving pies.  Maybe that’s beside the point.  The point being, make this chili.

Mom’s Vegetarian Chili

Serves 6

  • 1 T olive oil
  • 3/4 c. chopped celery
  • 3/4 c. chopped onion
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
  • 2 cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1/2 c. raisins
  • 1 T red wine vinegar
  • 2 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp dried parsley
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp dried basil
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1/2 tsp allspice
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 6 oz. beer
  • 1/2 c. cashews
  • cheddar cheese
  1. Heat oil over medium heat in a large pot.  Add celery, onion, and garlic, and saute until softened.
  2. Add tomatoes, beans, raisins, vinegar, bay leaf, and spices.  Stir to mix, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 hours.
  3. Slowly stir in beer (it will bubble) and cashews.  Return to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered for 30 minutes.
  4. To serve, remove bay leaf, and spoon over rice or cornbread.  Top with shredded cheddar cheese.

0 Dessert

Cupcake Lovin’, Part Two

Megan is my rooms.  In fact, this is the fourth year in a row that she has been my rooms.  That’s a pretty solid relationship right there.  Two years ago after a particularly thirsty night out I came home and asked her, quite plaintively I believe, if we could be roommates forever, and ever, for life.  I was completely serious.  I still am completely serious.  She would have to let a seriously large amount of laundry mixed with dirty dishes accumulate in the living room for me to change my mind.

There are a lot of reasons Megan is a good roommate.  She’s very generous with her car, which is a. the only vehicle I’ve ever enjoyed driving since the demise of my poor, poor pimpmobile, b. the only vehicle I’ve ever driven, period, where I didn’t have to adjust the seat when I got in because we both drive inappropriately close to the wheel, and c. full of jammin’  music which I refer to in my head as Megan tunes.  Megan tunes include a significant portion of the Glee soundtrack, usually followed by JJJJ J R, with some random a capella that makes me cry suddenly and unexpectedly while driving home from work thrown in there.  Annnnd … that’s all the reasons I have.

Just kidding.  I love Megan to death.  I love when she dances around without pants.  I love that she gives the best drunk hugs known to man.  I love that we have the same conversation every night as we sit around the kitchen table and then laugh (or cry, depending on how many hours past midnight it is) about how pathetic we are.  I do not really love the flotsam she tends to eject but I will deal with it.  I love that she suffers from baby-itis as badly as I do.  I love that she does things like eat entire boxes of nilla wafers dipped in frosting and four slices of cheesy bread at midnight.  I love that she’s just the right amount of normal mixed with just the right amount of weird.  Megan is incredibly smart, caring, funny, and mature, and I really mean every single one of those words.  She’s a great person to have around.

I had sort of a hard time deciding what kind of cupcakes to make for Megan.  Mostly it was hard because she obviously knows whatever I’m cooking and sometimes she watches over my shoulder when I’m foodgawking and says things like “I want that.  And that.  Oh and those pumpkin ones.”  And since I want them all too it’s hard to focus.  My initial inclination was, like my dad said, to make something messy on the outside but delicious and sweet on the inside.  I almost went for some sort of chocolate filled peanut butter candy covered concoction, but then I asked her if she wanted something vanilla-ish or chocolate-ish and she said “light, so I can eat five at a time.  But it’s OK if you work a little chocolate in there somewhere.”  So I regrouped.  I decided to go for these fondue cupcakes, because fondue is decidedly messy but in a fun, communal way.  Appropriate.  Also they have berries on top, and Megan eats a lot of berries.  And berries are healthy so you can eat 5 of these at a time.  Tah dah!  The perfect Megan cupcake.   These came out very well.  I used Martha Stewart’s buttermilk cake recipe and it was just what I wanted – great flavor, great texture, and very moist.  It will definitely be my go-to yellow cake recipe.  The chocolate topping was decadent, but when combined with the light cake and the cold fruit it was just right … and all together they really did remind me of chocolate fondue!

So, three down, one to go.  And after October 23rd, no more cupcakes until at least Christmas.  Time.  Ish.

Fondue Cupcakes

Cake recipe adapted from Martha Stewart.  Frosting recipe from Shelly Kaldunski’s Cupcakes.  Makes 18.

  • 1.5 c. cake flour
  • 3/4 c. AP flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1 stick salted butter, room temperature
  • 1 c. + 2 TBS sugar
  • 2 whole eggs
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 c. buttermilk
  • 8 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
  • 2/3 c. sweetened condensed milk
  • 2 TBS butter
  • fresh strawberries and raspberries for topping
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line muffin pan with cupcake liners.  In a medium bowl, sift together flowers, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add whole eggs one at a time, beating vigorously in between additions.  Add egg yolks and vanilla and beat to combine.
  3. Add flour mixture and buttermilk to wet ingredients in alternating additions: add 1/3 of the flour, mix, 1/2 of the buttermilk, mix, 1/3 of the flour, mix, the remaining buttermilk, mix, the remaining flour, mix.  Only mix very gently between additions, just to fold the ingredients into the batter evenly.
  4. Spoon the batter into cupcake liners, filling about 3/4 of the way.  Bake for 17-19 minutes – when done, they should spring back lightly when you push down on them and a toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean, but the edges should not have begun to brown.  Let cool.
  5. In a small saucepan over low heat, melt together chocolate, condensed milk, and butter, stirring regularly.  When it has formed a smooth, even mixture, spoon on top of cooled cupcakes (leaving the chocolate over low heat so it doesn’t lose it’s texture).  Spread to form a smooth cap, then top with fresh fruit.  Be careful not to let the chocolate get to warm, as it will begin to burn and the texture will change to become grainy.

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Cupcake Lovin’, Part One

4 Breakfast

Recap: September

I’m literally shocked that September is already over.  It went fast.  I feel like I’ve just barely gotten to school and yet we actually just finished the fifth week of class.  So we’re going to do a little recap just so I feel like we can officially move into October.

In September, I had fun.  A lot of fun.  More fun than I’ve had in a while, and definitely more fun than I was expecting to have back at Duke.  Where I’m actually enjoying being.  In a controlled, happy, down-to-earth true-to-myself way.  For the first time ever.  About time.

But let’s get specific.  In September, I danced.  I learned to salsa dance with Justin on the chapel steps.  In the rain.  It was romantic.  I continued cardio dancing with the 300 other people who attend that class.  It was not romantic but I lost five pounds.  I danced until I was drenched at the Homecoming Ball, at which the University provided free wine, and it was a total blast.  I danced while people showered me with beer at two tailgates (which has to be a personal record for me.)  And I’m pretty sure I danced in the pool at the kind of epic Belmont pool party after the Army tailgate.

In September, I had more friends than I realized.  Friends with whom I went running, friends with whom I went hiking, friends with whom I played sports on East Campus and tried to befriend awkward freshman.  Friends who were Margie with whom I watched a lot of movies, including Titanic (which I’d never seen and now I understand why everyone was so obsessed with Leo), Wall Street 2 (which was over my head but I do love Shia LaBeouf) and The Social Network (which was incredible and made me oddly homesick).  Friends with whom I saw Whose Line Is It Anyway Live.  Friends with whom I ate meals, and cooked.  Friends with whom I went out for burritos, and hamburgers, and drinks.  I even made new friends, just like you’re supposed to in a new school year.

Of course it wasn’t all fun.  I did a lot of engineering.  And then recruiting season snuck up on me.  The second week of class I wore gym clothes every day.  The third week of class I wore heels on four consecutive days and used an electronic apparatus to do my hair more times than there are days in the week.  If you have ever lived with me (aka you are Megan, Margie, Helen, Mel, Molly, Trevor, my bunkies from camp 8 billion years ago, or my mother), you know how very, extremely unusual this is.  I also shook a lot more hands than I do in an average week, nodded enthusiastically a lot more times than I do in an average week, and collapsed completely exhausted at 9pm a lot more times than I do in an average week.  OK, maybe the same number of times I do in an average week, but still.

Oh, and here’s some breakfast.  Because this is a food blog, and even when I don’t write about food, I still feel obliged to share some with you.  These tartlets are lovely and pretty healthy and you could easily make them on, say, Sunday night, and have a delicious breakfast treat for Monday and Tuesday.   I recommend trying them.  Like, really.  Because they totally taste like dessert for breakfast but with more redeeming nutritional qualities.  So you can eat two.

Yogurt Tartlets

Makes 6.  Adapted from 101 Cookbooks.

  • 1 c. AP flour
  • 1/3 c. oats
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 7 TBS butter
  • 2 TBS maple syrup
  • 2 TBS natural cane sugar
  • 1 c. plain lowfat vanilla yogurt
  • 2 TBS maple syrup
  • 2 tsp lemon juice
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • fresh fruit, for topping
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Stir together flour, oats, and salt in a medium bowl.  Melt butter over medium heat in a large saucepan.  Once melted, add sugar and maple syrup and stir until evenly incorporated.  Add flour/oat mixture, stir to mix, and continue to cook for two minutes.  Dough will turn slightly whiter in spots and will start to smell toasted as it cooks.
  2. Turn the dough out onto a cutting board or other heatproof surface.  Divide into 6 portions.  When cool enough to touch, press each portion into the bottom and around the sides of a 4 inch tartlet pan.  Freeze tartlet crusts for 10 minutes.
  3. In a medium bowl, mix together yogurt, lemon juice, and remaining 2 TBS of maple syrup.  Lightly beat eggs in a small bowl, then stir into yogurt just to incorporate.  Divide yogurt mixture evenly among tartlet pans.  Bake for 23-25 minutes, until the custard is no longer jiggly.  Refrigerate baked tartlets for 2-3 hours before serving.  Serve cold, topped with fresh or dried fruit.

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Nutritional Analysis (estimated using SparkPeople’s recipe calculator): 297.2 calories per serving (6 servings per recipe), 15.3 g fat, 1.5 g fiber, 7.1 g protein.