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3 February 18, 2013 Cookbook

Roast Figs, Sugar Snow, Revisited // Stuffed Quail with Marmalade, Whiskey, and Bacon & “Hot Lightning”

After spending a few months last fall really diving into cookbook reviews (and recently picking it up again), I’ve come to recognize the things I truly love in a cookbook. Before, when I picked up a book and flipped through it, I had some immediate reaction to it which was either positive, negative, or neutral, and I bought the ones I felt positively about over multiple visits to the bookstore. I did sort of identify that the books that fell into the negative category were the ones where I said “eh, I’ve seen this before,” and my favorites were the ones with the most to teach me. But after writing 11 reviews since October, I’ve developed a whole new thought process for analyzing and talking about cookbooks – and, while I’ve discovered some really wonderful new books, it has also strengthened my love for some of my old favorites.

Roast Figs, Sugar Snow, is one of those favorites. It has everything I love in a book – a touch of whimsy, delivered via lovely quotes (the fact that this book opens with a Laura Ingalls Wilder quote probably sealed the deal for me before I even started reading it); a few travel stories, just compelling enough to make you close your eyes and envision another place; photographs evocative of both food and place; a strong voice that’s personal but not oppressive; and last, but most important, recipes that are new to me and make me want to eat them right away. Oh, and the fact that the first chapter is entirely devoted to cheese-based recipes doesn’t hurt either.

Since I wrote a full review last year, I won’t go into any more detail here. But I wanted to bring it back up to the top of my pile, since I always find myself flipping through it in the summer, dreaming of steaming mugs and rich stews, and well, winter is almost over, so now’s the time!

Trevor and I made this lovely meal for lunch on Sunday, while the snow was whipping around outside. I love the idea of a Sunday roast, and since Trevor’s good friend Merges got him a gift certificate to Savenor’s for Christmas, he decided to get something a little out of the ordinary to pop in the oven – six little quail (which he lovingly shared with me, like the good boyfriend that he is). The recipe we used called for whiskey and marmalade, for which we substituted the last of the grapefruit jam I made last week, as well as a large amount of bacon. A frighteningly large amount of bacon, which served to keep the quail moist and flavorful. I also made a side dish called “Hot Lightning” – a mix of potatoes, apples, pears, and, yep, more bacon. Both the quail and the veggies were really delicious, a treat on a winter afternoon.

While this was a comfy, cozy meal, and I’m glad I got the chance to make a few more wintery dishes from this book, I still kinda can’t wait for spring. Bring on the asparagus and fava beans, I’m ready for them.

Stuffed Quail with Marmalade, Whiskey, and Bacon

Recipe from Roast Figs, Sugar Snow. Serves 4.

1/2 c. marmalade (or grapefruit jam)
1/2 c. plus 2 TBS whiskey, divided
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
salt and pepper
8 quails
10 slices bacon, divided
1/2 small onion, finely minced
1 TBS butter
2 oz. fresh breadcrumbs
1 TBS finely minced fresh parsley
1 egg, beaten
1 3/4 c. strong-flavored chicken stock

Whisk together the marmalade, 1/2 c. of the whiskey and the thyme, and season with salt and pepper. Spoon the marinade over the quails, cover loosely and let marinate for at least one hour up to overnight (if marinating for more than 1 hour, do so in the fridge).
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Take 2 slices of the bacon and finely dice them. Add the bacon, the onion, and the butter to a frying pan and saute over medium heat until bacon is crisp. Add the breadcrumbs and saute until golden. Remove from heat, and stir in the parsley and the beaten egg. Use this stuffing to stuff each quail. Cut the remaining 8 strips of bacon in half, and lay criscross on top of each bird. Season with pepper. Put the birds in a pot in which they fit snugly, and spoon the marinade over them again. Roast for 25-35 minutes, until quail is cooked through, spooning the juices and marinade over the birds every 10 minutes. If bacon is not crisp but quail is cooked, broil on high for 2-3 minutes to finish. Serve 2 birds per person.
While the quail is roasting, reduce the chicken stock by half over medium heat, or until it is slightly syrupy. Add the remaining 2 TBS of whiskey. Serve gravy with the quail.

“Hot Lightning” – A Dish of Roast Potatoes, Apples, Pears, and Bacon

Recipe adapted slightly from Roast Figs, Sugar Snow. Serves 4.

Notes: I changed the cooking time and temperature of this dish so that it could be made at the same time as the quail – the original recipe called for 30 minutes at 325°F. I also reduced the amount of bacon since we would already be consuming so much with the quail! I didn’t think it needed any more bacon than we used. If you have slab bacon, cooking that in 3/4-inch cubes in place of the strips would be lovely. You don’t need to peel the potatoes or the fruit, but do take care to wash them well.

1/2 stick butter
2 lbs new potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
8 strips bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 Granny Smith apples, cored, then thinly sliced lengthwise
2 pears, cored, then thinly sliced lengthwise
3 TBS light brown sugar
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400°F. Melt butter in a large oven-proof and gas-proof casserole dish over medium heat. Add potatoes and bacon, and saute, stirring, until bacon is crisp and potatoes have begun to turn golden, about 10-15 minutes. Add the apples and pears and turn over in the buttery juices. Season with the sugar, thyme leaves, and salt and pepper and stir to combine.
Remove the dish from the flame, cover with a lid or tin foil, and bake for 25-30 minutes. Serve hot.

0 February 16, 2013 Cookbook

Book Club: Breakfast for Dinner // Italian-Style Stuffed French Toast

For this week’s book club, I’ve got a copy of Love and Olive Oil’s newest cookbook – Breakfast for Dinner. I’ve been looking forward to this book since Lindsay announced that they were working on it. Her first book, The Cookie Dough Lover’s Cookbook, wasn’t really my thing – while cookie dough is undoubtedly delicious, it makes me feel a little queasy to think about eating it in large quantities (this is probably the result of actually getting queasy from eating too much cookie dough). Breakfast for dinner, though, is something I can whole-heartedly get behind.

Breakfast for Dinner is a cute, approachable book. While I’ll never escape the part of me that, as a little girl, used to like nothing more than to page through encyclopedias, atlases, and 1,000 page collections of literary classics, I’ve found that I tend to actually use physically small, focused cookbooks much more than the huge glossy tomes I like to collect. At 160 pages, Breakfast for Dinner fits this bill, and is small enough to throw in my purse (yes, I sometimes travel with cookbooks as reading materials). It is also beautifully designed – between the type, the layout, the paper, and the beautiful full page photographs that accompany every single recipe, it’s a pleasure to read.

The recipes included in Breakfast for Dinner are divided into three categories – Main Dishes, Sides & Starters, and Drinks & Desserts. Since I was expecting a lot of truly breakfasty recipes scaled up for dinnertime, I was pleasantly surprised to find a much broader interpretation of “breakfast for dinner.” In particular, I loved the inclusion of recipes where typical breakfast staples (cornflakes, breakfast sausage) are re-purposed in decidedly dinner-like meals (cornflake-crusted chicken, breakfast-sausage ravioli). The recipes run the gamut from tried-and-true breakfast staples, such as Steak and Eggs Benedict, to more creative dishes, such as Grapefruit Risotto with Seared Scallops. One thing all the recipes have in common is that they are crowd-pleasers – I can’t imagine you’ll find many people who would turn down Bacon Fried Rice, Burgers topped with Fried Eggs, Hashbrowns, and Apricot Jam, or Mocha Ice Cream Pie with Biscotti Crust. (Except, in retrospect after writing that list, maybe vegetarians. Don’t worry, they’ll probably go for the Polenta Cakes with Shiitake Mushrooms and the Parmesan Beignets).

To test out this book, I made two recipes, one sweet, and one savory. On the sweet side, I made Chocolate Brownie Waffles with Blackberry Sauce. Sounds amazing, right? Sadly, I couldn’t get the waffles to come out right – the batter seemed very thick, and once it went into the waffle iron, I couldn’t get any waffles to stay together. They were super delicate, and at the same time dried out quickly. So, not perfect, although my roommates were happy to devour the waffle crumbs. As I started the savory recipe – Italian-Style Stuffed French Toast – I was a little nervous. Would this one work? Thankfully, it came out great. I could barely stop myself from eating all the lemon-scented spinach and ricotta filling before stuffing the bread, and the marinara sauce was easy to make and well-spiced. It was a little tricky stuffing the toast, but I eventually got the hang of it. I also tried it grilled cheese style, and by just toasting the bread and then spreading it with the ricotta – all three ways worked great. Served with a green salad, this would make a fantastic family dinner recipe, especially if you’re tired of spaghetti and lasagna but still craving Italian food.

The bottom line: Breakfast for Dinner is a cute, focused, well-designed cookbook full of crowd-pleasing dinner and dessert recipes that utilize traditional breakfast ingredients, like bacon, eggs, coffee, and maple syrup. Lindsay and Taylor, who are also the duo behind the popular blog Love and Olive Oil, create tasty, easy, and accessible recipes and stunning photographs. I did have a little trouble getting one of the recipes I tested to come out right, but the second recipe was phenomenal. Recommended for beginner cooks looking to expand their repertoire and those looking to mix up their daily dinner routine with some delicious comfort food.

Disclaimer: Quirk Books sent me a copy of Breakfast for Dinner free of charge, but I was not otherwise compensated and all opinions are my own.

Italian-Style Stuffed French Toast

Recipe from Breakfast for Dinner. Makes 8 slices (serves 4).

4 TBS olive oil, divided
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
4 c. fresh baby spinach (about 6-oz.)
1/2 c. whole-milk ricotta cheese
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper, to taste
1 loaf soft french bread, cut into 8 slices 1-1/2 inches thick
3 egg
1/2 c. whole milk
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 c. marinara sauce (store-bought, or see recipe below)

Heat 2 TBS of the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the minced garlic, and saute for 30 seconds, then add the spinach, and saute, stirring, until it has all wilted, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool, then coarsely chop.
In a medium bowl, stir together the chopped spinach, ricotta, parmesan, lemon zest, basil, and oregano until evenly mixed. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
In a small baking dish, whisk together eggs, milk, garlic powder, and 1/4 tsp salt. Use a serrated knife to cut a slit into each piece of bread, and then use the knife to stuff 2 TBS of filling into each slit. Heat the remaining 2 TBS olive oil in the frying pan. One at a time, dip each slice of bread into the egg mixture for 30 seconds on each side. Add to the frying pan, but don’t overcrowd the slices. Cook for 3 minutes on each side. (Alternatively, if you’re having a tough time stuffing the bread, you can make these grilled cheese style, or simply dip and toast the bread, then spread with ricotta afterwards.) Serve with warm marinara sauce.

Easy Marinara

Recipe from Breakfast for Dinner. Makes 2 cups.

2 TBS olive oil
1/2 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 15-oz can of diced tomatoes
1 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper, to taste

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, and saute for 3 minutes, or until onion has softened, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute longer. Add tomatoes, 1/4 c. of water, basil, and oregano. Let simmer for 20 minutes, or until sauce has thickened slightly, stirring occasionally. Season to taste with salt and pepper before serving.

2 February 15, 2013 Fall

A Day Off // Roasted Carrot and Tahini Soup with Chickpeas

I took today off, not to do anything in particular, but just to have a whole day to myself, to catch up on things, clean, get organized, write, etc. A one day staycation, if you will. I love days like this. It helps that the temperature got up to 50 (50! Spring! I can feel it!) and that after a full week of sneezing I’m finally feeling better.

I wanted to ask – how were everyone’s Valentine’s Days? Mine was just right. Trevor brought me flowers (yellow, my favorite) and chocolate and 9 little airplane bottles of booze with 9 accompanying packets of hot chocolate – boy knows how I like to drink. We had planned on going ice skating, but I got home from work too late. Instead, we meandered downtown just to see if we could find space at a bar for a few drinks. We ended up at Saloon, a very hipster-esque underground bar/restaurant. They were having a singles Swing Dance night, and it was fun to drink our fancy cocktails and nibble on sliders and watch people. It was even more fun to be with my favorite person and just talk and laugh. I feel so lucky to have that.

Sorry, enough schmaltz, back to my staycation. No day at home is complete for me without a little bit (or a lot) of cooking, and today was no different. I made another batch of these grapefruit and ginger thumbprint cookies (note to self, always make extra dough so you can whip up a batch of these in 10 minutes!), I worked on a spring salad feature for an online magazine (which you’ll have to wait to hear more about), I’m in the process of testing out Lindsay of Love and Olive Oil‘s new book, Breakfast for Dinner, and I made this roasted carrot and tahini soup, the perfect healthy and tasty treat for an afternoon lunch at home. I’ve tried a lot of different carrot soups over the past years, and never found one that I liked, until I realized that the trick was in roasting the carrots first. Now, I use this technique with most vegetable puree-type soups that I make. This particular soup was inspired by Smitten Kitchen – I used slightly different amounts and spices, I roasted the carrots instead of boiling them, and I went for a yogurt-tahini sauce instead of a thinner tahini-lemon sauce, but the gist of the two recipes is basically the same. The flavors are lovely and bright, the puree smooth and the crunchy spiced chickpeas addictive. I might just have another bowl for dinner.

Roasted Carrot and Tahini Soup with Chickpeas

Inspired by Smitten Kitchen. Serves 3-4.

1 lb. carrots, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch slices
4 TBS olive oil, divided
coarse sea salt, to taste
1 small onion, peeled and diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
3 c. chicken broth
1 1/2 c. cooked chickpeas, or canned chickpeas, drained of their liquid
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp paprika
juice from 1/2 lemon
1 6-oz. container plain Greek yogurt
4 TBS tahini

Preheat oven to 400°F. Toss the carrots with 2 TBS of the olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast the carrots for 25 minutes, flipping once, after 15 minutes of cooking.
About 5 minutes before the carrots are done, heat 1 TBS of the remaining olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the diced onion, and saute for 3 minutes, or until beginning to soften. Add the minced garlic, coriander, and red pepper flakes and saute for 2 minutes longer, until the garlic and spices are fragrant. Add the roasted carrots to the pot along with the chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then let simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the cooked chickpeas to the same roasting pan you used for the carrots. Add the last 1 TBS of olive oil, to the chickpeas, then sprinkle with the cumin, paprika, and sea salt. Toss to coat evenly, then roast for 15 minutes.
Blend the soup in a blender until it is a smooth puree. If it is too thick, add more broth to the blender. Add the lemon juice to the hot soup and pulse a few times to incorporate. Taste for seasoning and add more lemon or salt if necessary.
Spoon the soup into bowls. Top each with a large spoonful of yogurt and 1 TBS of tahini, as well as a handful of the roasted chickpeas.

0 February 13, 2013 Uncategorized

Snowstorm // Grapefruit Jam and Grapefruit-Ginger Thumbprint Cookies

So, fellow New Englanders, how did the blizzard treat you all? I’m refusing to call it Nemo, because I can’t imagine sitting on my porch in 50 years and telling my grandchildren “I remember back when Nemo hit…” Nope. I’m gonna be sitting there grumping about the Blizzard of ’13. Because stoicism is a valuable quality in a New Englander.

Anyway, the storm was fairly uneventful for me. I woke up Friday morning with a nasty cold, so leaving work early on Friday and getting to spend most of the weekend sleeping was actually fairly well-timed. I did spend about 3 hours shoveling on Saturday afternoon. It was kind of weird – I don’t think I’ve ever seen more people outside in my neighborhood at one time. People were chatting, playing music, commiserating. Even on Sunday, the streets were filled with people walking around carrying shovels, only a handful of cars crawling by. It felt old-fashioned, somehow. I was a little bit disappointed to find out that city/adult-life blizzards mean mostly shoveling, while country/kid-life blizzards have a lot more playing in the snow and sitting by the fire playing board games. Of course, being sick may have had something to do with that trade-off.

I’m still not feeling stellar, but, thanks to Trevor, I’ve eaten plenty of the world’s best homemade chicken noodle soup to speed me on my way back to health. With that taken care of, I wanted to make something a little sweeter. Specifically, I wanted to find a way to celebrate some of the super juicy grapefruits Trevor picked up for me during his trip to Texas last week. Grapefruit is a hard flavor to capture outside of eating it fresh – so much of what makes it wonderful lives in the refreshing burst of sweet-tart juice that it offers, and it doesn’t always translate well to desserts. Of the 6 grapefruit recipes I have bookmarked in my massive online recipe organizer, 5 of them are for frozen desserts, and the 6th is for a cocktail – neither of which I was in the mood for. I’ve had success in the past with concentrating the juice to be used in a buttercream, but I wasn’t feeling like cake, either. I wanted something juicy. So I made grapefruit-ginger bars, hoping for a smooth, tangy, filling that would be bursting with flavor and make me pucker up in delight. But, as you can see, there are no grapefruit-ginger bars pictured here – they just didn’t quite come out right. Option number 2? Jam. And cookies.

These cute little thumbprint cookies more than made up for the failure of the grapefruit bars. The buttery shortbread crust has just enough ginger to alert you to its presence without overwhelming the flavor, and the grapefruit jam is lip-puckeringly tart, without any trace of bitterness. Since Valentine’s Day is only two days away, and grapefruits are conveniently pink already, I made these cookies in a heart shape – check out Once Upon A Cutting Board for pictures that show you how to shape them. If you’re pressed for time though, or just don’t like schmaltzy heart-shaped things, they’ll be just as tasty in the standard circular form. I have plenty of jam leftover, and I’m most excited to try it out on scones. There’s just nothing like a scone with tart jam and thick cream. But until I get around to making scones, I’ll be trying to restrain myself from eating the rest of these cookies in a sitting. They’re really that good.

Grapefruit-Ginger Thumbprint Cookies

Recipe adapted from Not Your Momma’s Cookie and Once Upon A Cutting Board. Makes 24 cookies.

1 1/2 stick salted butter, well-softened
2/3 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 c. grapefruit jam (recipe below)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract until fully incorporated.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and ginger until combined. Add to the butter mixture and beat until the dough comes together into a smooth ball.
Pinch off small pieces of the dough and roll into balls about 3/4 inch in diameter – you should get about 48 balls in total. Place the balls together in pairs on a baking sheet so that they’re touching (if it helps you envision this, they will look kind of like butt cheeks). Press your thumb into each ball at an angle so that your thumbprints make a rough heart shape. Pinch the bottoms of the two balls together to complete the bottom of the heart, then press the thumbprint a little deeper. The whole process is kind of like making a clay pinch pot. Fill each heart indentation with jam (don’t overfill or it may spill out during baking). Stick the baking sheet and cookies in the freezer for 5 minutes, then place directly in the oven and bake for 14-16 minutes, until lightly golden brown around the edges. Remove with a spatula to a cooling rack.

Grapefruit Jam

Recipe adapted slightly from Food in Jars. Makes one 1/2-pint jar.

3 large red grapefruits
3/4 c. sugar

Cut the peel off the grapefruits, completely removing all of the white pith. Squeeze the peels out over a large saucepan to catch the juice. Supreme (remove the segments from the membranes) the peeled grapefruits – my favorite way to do this is simply to peel the fruit away from the membrane using my fingers, but some people prefer to use a knife to cut between sections. Remove all seeds and set aside. Place the grapefruit segments and any juice in the saucepan. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Place the reserved seeds in a small cloth bag designed for cooking and tie-off – the seeds will add additional pectin to the jam.
Bring the grapefruit to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring regularly, until the jam reaches 220°F and passes the plate test/sheet test. Remove from heat and ladle into your storage container (if plastic, let jam cool slightly first). I didn’t can this batch since I was only making one jar, but if making a larger batch follow canning instructions on Food in Jars.

2 February 9, 2013 Asian and Indian

Book Club: Every Grain of Rice // Gong Bao Chicken with Peanuts

I’ve always been a bit of a bookworm. When I was at the height of my reading-frenzy, which was probably 4th or 5th grade, I used to keep lists of every book I read during the year, and in the summer, I’d frequently go through multiple books a day. Chapter books, of course. Now, a lot of my book time is spent with cookbooks, although don’t be surprised if you find me sitting on the floor in the used paperback section at the bookstore, a stack of 9 books I want to buy at my side. Because I had so much fun writing cookbook reviews this fall, I’ve decided to make it a more regular feature here. Hopefully, weekly, although I’m not off to a good start, given that I planned to post this on Thursday… I’m blaming blizzard preparations. So I bring you “Book Club,” a column that will feature mostly newly released cookbooks, sometimes old cookbooks, and occasionally great fiction or non-fiction I’ve been reading on the side. I hope you enjoy it!

First up is Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking, a book by Fuchsia Dunlop, which was just released on Monday. This is Fuchsia’s 3rd cookbook focused on Chinese cuisine – she is also the author of Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking and of Revolutionary Chinese Cooking: Recipes from Hunan Province. In addition, she wrote the memoir Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper detailing her food-driven journeys through China. Although not ethnically Chinese, Fuchsia certainly knows the ins and outs of Chinese cooking better than most.

Every Grain of Rice is a solid cookbook. It starts with an introduction to Chinese ingredients, utensils, and techniques, and quickly moves into recipes organized by main ingredient – tofu, leafy greens, chicken & eggs, root vegetables, mushrooms, noodles, dumplings, etc. Every recipe has a lengthy headnote, often describing the history or cultural importance of the dish, as well as the flavor and any adaptations you can make. I’m a big fan of good headnotes – when you’re confronted with a book full of a hundred recipes, it makes it so much easier to know what recipe to choose! Almost every recipe also has a beautiful, clean, full-page photograph to go with it. The photographic style is simple and bright, perfectly reflecting the food it depicts.

As I started flipping through the recipes, one of my first thoughts was: “This is how Rongjie eats.” Rongjie is my friend/co-worker who sits across from me at work. Both she and her roommate are Chinese, and everyday she brings in a lunch that one of them has made consisting of rice, some sort of dark and saucy meat or tofu dish, and dark leafy greens. It’s very different from how I eat, but also very healthy. I decided that for my recipe testing for this book, I would try and emulate this typical Chinese way of eating, by making Gong Bao Chicken, served with Chinese Broccoli in Ginger Sauce and plain rice. And this is where things got interesting.

One challenge of Chinese cooking is that you need Chinese ingredients – which can be hard to find, depending on where you live. Since I’m fairly unfamiliar with Chinese cooking, I brought in a list of the ingredients I needed to show Rongjie and to pick her brain on what they were like, and what might be good substitutes if I could’t find them. Her suggestion? Just go to Chinatown. But I didn’t want to go by myself, so I coerced her into coming with me to show me where to go, which is how both of us ended up in an insanely crowded Chinese grocery store, two hours before the MBTA shut down for the blizzard, and two days before Chinese New Year. INSANE. But really exciting. I was super over-stimulated in there – rows and rows of bright and unfamiliar ingredients, being pushed on all sides by tiny old Chinese ladies, the smell of fish in the air, occasional announcements in Chinese that seemed to cause quite a stir among the other shoppers… it was an experience. But I got what I needed – dark soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, Chinkiang vinegar, potato starch, and Chinese broccoli.

When I got home, snow swirling outside, I was ready to start cooking. But after all that adventuring, I discovered that both my garlic and my ginger had somehow managed to go bad. Sigh. I went forward anyways, borrowing minced garlic and using dried ginger instead. Not as authentic as I wanted, but both dishes still tasted great, so it was all OK. The chicken in particular was delicious – sweet, salty, and spicy, with a thick tangy sauce, it was as good as any Chinese takeout I’ve had. And since I have massive bottles of soy sauce, wine, and vinegar leftover, I’m excited to start trying some of the other recipes – like Stir-Fried Beef with Black Bean and Chili, General Tso’s Chicken, and Buckwheat Noodles with Red-Braised Beef. The real test of any of these dishes, though, will be when I bring the leftovers in for lunch and get Rongjie’s expert opinion. If she has any comments, I’ll report back.

The bottom line: Every Grain of Rice is a solid cookbook that serves as a great introduction to simple Chinese cooking. Based on my limited knowledge of Chinese cuisine, the recipes seem authentic, and the few that I’ve tried have been delicious. Cooking from the book will require an investment in a few special ingredients, but once you have the basics, you’ll be able to cook most of the recipes in the book. From a design standpoint, Every Grain of Rice is clean and well organized, with plenty of beautiful full-page photographs. I’d recommend this to anyone who likes eating Chinese food, or who is interested in learning a new cuisine.

Disclaimer: I was sent a free review copy of Every Grain of Rice by the publisher, W.W. Norton, but I was not otherwise compensated to write this review and all opinions are my own!

Gong Bao Chicken with Peanuts

2 boneless chicken breasts, with or without skin (11–12 oz/300–350g in total)
3 garlic cloves
An equivalent amount of ginger
5 spring onions, white parts only
A handful of mild dried chillies (about 10)
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 tsp whole Sichuan pepper
3 oz (75g) roasted peanuts

For the marinade:

1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp Shaoxing wine
11/2 tsp potato flour

For the sauce:

1 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp potato flour
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp Chinkiang vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp chicken stock or water

Cut the chicken as evenly as possible into 1/2 in (11/2cm) strips, then cut these into small cubes. Place in a small bowl. Add the marinade ingredients together with 1 tbsp water, mix well and set aside while you prepare the other ingredients.
Peel and thinly slice the garlic and ginger and chop the spring onions into chunks as long as their diameter (to match the chicken cubes). Snip the chillies in half or into sections. Discard their seeds as far as possible. Combine the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
Heat a seasoned wok [or frying pan] over a high flame. Add the oil with the chillies and Sichuan pepper and stir-fry briefly until the chillies are darkening but not burned (remove the wok from the heat if necessary to prevent overheating). Quickly add the chicken and stir-fry over a high flame, stirring constantly. As soon as the chicken cubes have separated, add the ginger, garlic and spring onions and continue to stir-fry until they are fragrant and the meat just cooked through (test one of the larger pieces to make sure).
Give the sauce a stir and add it to the wok, continuing to stir and toss. As soon as the sauce has become thick and shiny, add the peanuts, stir them in and serve.

Chinese Broccoli in Ginger Sauce

3/4 lb (350g) Chinese broccoli
Salt
4 tbsp cooking oil
2 tbsp finely chopped ginger
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp potato flour mixed with 1 tbsp cold water (optional)

Bring a large panful of water to a boil (a generous 21/2 quarts/21/2 liters will do). Wash and trim the Chinese broccoli. If the lower parts of the stems are thick and fibrous, peel away their outer skin with a potato peeler.
When the water is boiling, add 1 tbsp salt and 1 tbsp oil, then the Chinese broccoli. Blanch it for a minute or two to “break its rawness.” The stems should be just tender, but still crisp. If you are stir-frying them immediately, simply drain the broccoli stems and shake dry in a colander; if you want to serve them later, refresh the stems under a cold tap to arrest cooking before draining well.
When you wish to serve the broccoli, add the remaining oil to a seasoned wok over a high flame, swirl it around, then add the ginger and sizzle briefly until you can smell its fragrance. Splash in the Shaoxing wine and add the sugar. Add the broccoli and stir-fry, adding salt to taste, until it is piping hot. (If you are using broccoli blanched earlier, then cooled, you will need to pour 2–3 tbsp water or stock into the wok and cover it, so the stems reheat thoroughly.)
Remove the stems from the wok and lay them neatly on a serving dish. If you wish to thicken the juices, give the potato flour mixture a stir and add just enough, in stages, to thicken the sauce to a clingy consistency; then pour the sauce over the broccoli and serve. If you do not wish to thicken the juices, simply pour them and the ginger over the broccoli.

0 February 5, 2013 Dessert

Cherry-Hazelnut Biscotti

Even though my last post was only five days ago, I somehow feel like I’ve been avoiding writing here, and I feel guilty. What is that all about anyway, blogger’s guilt? It’s unwelcome, and I would like it to leave. I tried in earnest to post yesterday – something healthy, since I seem to have been avoiding healthy food posts since finishing the cleanse. I was planning on sharing lamb-and-beet burgers with goat cheese and fried eggs, inspired by Nigel Slater’s Tender. But they came out more like lamb-and-beet sloppy joes, probably because I skipped half the steps out of laziness, and I also didn’t measure any of the ingredients. My bad.

So I’m reverting to cookies. Biscotti, actually, since somehow they seem to me to be a healthier sort of cookie, something just a little sweet and crunchy to have with your tea and help tide you over until dinner. I seem to need a lot of “tiding over” the past few weeks – winter is starting to drag on, and when the light starts to leave the sky and you can tell just by looking that it’s going to be breathtakingly cold as soon as you leave the building, it’s a little depressing. So I’ve been guzzling mug after mug of cinnamon spice tea, and trying my best not to snack mindlessly from the office snack drawer. Tomorrow, though, mindless snacking won’t be a problem – I’ll bring a few of these little guys, and have them to look forward to all morning. A cup of tea, a small plate of biscotti, and I’ll have made it over the hump. And soon, I know the days will get longer and the weather warmer, my seedlings will start to flourish, spring will be back, and maybe I’ll no longer need tiding over. It isn’t so much longer, you know.

Cherry-Hazelnut Biscotti

Adapted slightly from Martha Stewart. Makes about 3 dozen.

1 3/4 c. dried cherries
1/2 c. frangelico liqueur
3 c. flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp coarse salt
4 TBS salted butter, softened slightly
1 c. sugar
4 eggs (3 for dough and one for brushing the cookies)
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 c. coarsely chopped hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 325°F. Place dried cherries and frangelico in a small saucepan, and bring to a low simmer over medium-low heat. Cook until cherries have softened, 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Strain the cherries, reserving the cherry-frangelico liquid.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a separate, larger bowl, beat together softened butter and sugar until pale and creamy. One at a time, beat 3 of the 4 eggs into the batter – it should be pale yellow and fairly runny. Beat in the vanilla, and 2 TBS of the reserved cherry-frangelico liquid. Add the flour to the wet ingredients a cup at a time, stirring between additions, until dough is smooth. Stir in cherries and hazelnuts until evenly incorporated.
Lightly flour a work surface and turn the dough out onto it. Divide the dough in half, and shape into two logs about a foot long each. Flatten the logs to make rectangles that are a half inch thick. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Beat the remaining egg lightly in a small bowl. Brush the beaten egg on top of the dough. Bake for 35 minutes, then remove from oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes on wire racks.
Reduce the oven temperature to 300°F. Slice each log on the diagonal into cookies about 1/2 inch thick. Lay cookies down on the baking sheet, and bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven, flip the cookies, and bake for another 8 minutes. Remove and let cool. Store in an airtight container.

1 January 31, 2013 Boston

Taza Chocolate Giveaway and Mayan Chocolate Mousse

Update: The giveaway is now closed. Congrats to Amy of U Try.It on winning! And thank you everyone for sharing your perfect Valentine’s Day dreams… so fun to read.

If you live in Somerville, MA, you’ve almost definitely heard of Taza Chocolate. If you live elsewhere in Greater Boston and have ever gone to any event remotely food-related, you’ve probably heard of Taza Chocolate. But if you’re further afield, you may never have had the delicious experience of eating their stone-ground Mexican chocolate, and so I’m here to share the love, because I really do love Taza’s chocolate. It’s different – gritty, not super sweet, and infused with flavors like chipotle and cinnamon and orange – but it’s addicting. Trevor introduced me to it a few years ago and I’ve gotten more and more excited about it ever since. Visiting the Taza factory in Somerville has been high on my “to-do in Boston” list since I moved back, and when I finally got around to it (which, admittedly was kind of a while ago at this point…), it was well worth the trip.

I’ve been on a decent amount of food tours – to breweries, cheesemakers, cider houses, farms, and restaurant kitchens – and they can definitely be hit or miss. The Magic Hat Brewery Tour was a disappointment and I learned very little. Visiting Prodigal Farm in North Carolina was truly fascinating (you can read more about it here). The Taza tour was way up on my quality scale – honestly, it was one of the most interesting and informative tours I’ve ever been on, and I’m not just saying that because there was a constant supply of chocolate samples during the tour. It probably helped that I knew very little about the chocolate making process to start. Did you know how huge cocoa pods are? Or that they grow straight from the trunk of the tree? Or that they turn beautiful colors in the fall? Just the images of the cocoa trees themselves fascinated me. Then we moved onto the harvesting, shipping, roasting, winnowing, and grinding processes, and every piece of information was new and exciting. I don’t want to give away their whole tour, in case some of you would like to actually hear it from the Taza people themselves rather than in an overly-excited and garbled form from me, but I will share some of the highlights. Like that one of the co-founders of Taza spent a year in Oaxaca learning to properly dress the traditional millstones used to grind the chocolate. Or that their winnowing machine is an old Italian giant they found on a cocoa sourcing trip. Or that they travel to the countries from which their cocoa beans come every year to pick the best quality beans and make sure the farms they come from are fair. Or that the difference between European and Mexican chocolate is the addition of milk and a thorough mixing process to smooth it out.

I highly recommend a trip to the factory if you live in the area or are ever visiting. And if you’re really looking for the full chocolate experience, Taza offers a week-long trip to Belize every March in which you go through the entire process of making chocolate, from picking cocoa beans to making your own bars (sometimes I really wish I was richer). If a quick jaunt to make chocolate in the jungle isn’t in the cards for you this year, either, I have two other things you might enjoy – one, a delicious chocolate mousse recipe, and two, a Taza chocolate giveaway.

Typically I just eat Taza chocolate straight – my favorite flavors are the salt & pepper and the cinnamon – but since we’re getting close to Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d step my game up and make a Mayan Chocolate Mousse, inspired in equal parts by Food & Wine’s Mayan Chocolate Pudding, and Bon Appetit’s recent article on the perfect chocolate mousse. I went all out with the cinnamon, using two packs of Taza cinnamon chocolate discs, replacing the espresso with my favorite cinnamon tea, and topping it off with a sweetened cinnamon whipped cream. It came out amazing, if I do say so myself. I really loved that the mousse still held the essence of Taza chocolate, it didn’t just taste generically chocolatey. I don’t know if I’ll even be able to wait until the 14th before making it again…

Giveaway Details: Interested in trying Taza chocolate? Enter to win the Chocolate Mexicano Classic Collection, and you can try six of their flavors (a cinnamon disc is included, leaving you just enough to make a portion of this mousse for two…). To enter, leave a comment below telling me how you would spend your ideal Valentine’s Day if money wasn’t an option. For a second entry, follow both me (@Kitchen_Door) and Taza (@TazaChocolate) on Twitter, and tweet to both of us about the giveaway, then come back and leave me a second comment letting me know you tweeted. The giveaway will close at midnight on Tuesday the 5th, at which point I’ll randomly choose a winner. Open to U.S. readers only. If the winner doesn’t respond to me within 48 hours of me notifying them they’ve won, I’ll have to pick an alternate winner

P.S. I LOVED reading all your comments about your most memorable Valentine’s Day on my last giveaway. It was so fun to hear all the stories!

Disclaimer: Taza is hosting this giveaway, but I discovered the product myself and truly love it, and have not been compensated in any way for writing this post.

Mayan Chocolate Mousse

Adapted from Bon Appetit and inspired by Food & Wine. Serves 4.

Note: Chocolate Mousse can be a little bit finicky – I accidentally scrambled my first batch of egg yolks! – so carefully follow the instructions provided and make sure your ingredients are at the correct temperatures. If you mess up, don’t fret – the end result will be worth trying again!

3/4 c. chilled heavy whipping cream, divided
pinch cream of tartar
2 egg whites, room temperature
4 TBS sugar, divided
4 egg yolks
1/4 c. strong cinnamon tea, at room temperature
1/8 tsp salt
2 packages of cinnamon Taza chocolate, or 5.4 oz. dark chocolate, finely chopped
1/8 tsp cayenne chili powder
1/8 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cinnamon if using regular chocolate + 1/4 tsp cinnamon for whipped cream

Measure out 1/2 c. of the heavy cream into a medium bowl. Whisk vigorously until foamy, sprinkle with the cream of tartar, then whisk until stiff peaks firm. Cover and chill.
Beat egg whites vigorously until soft peaks form. Sprinkle 1 TBS of the sugar over the top, and continue beating until stiff, shiny peaks form. Set aside.
Bring a large pot of water to a gentle simmer. In a medium metal bowl, or a smaller metal-bottomed pot, whisk together the egg yolks, 2 TBS of the remaining sugar, room temperature tea, and salt. Set the bowl over the simmering water and whisk vigorously until mixture is pale yellow in color and doubled in volume. This will only take about a minute – remove immediately when it’s ready (or a second before you think it’s ready, as this is where it’s easy to accidentally scramble your eggs). Add the finely chopped chocolate and stir until it’s melted. If chocolate is not melting, it’s OK to set back over the simmering water for intervals of 5-10 seconds while whisking the mixture, but finely chopping the chocolate should remove the need for this. Once chocolate is melted, add the cayenne, allspice and 1/4 tsp cinnamon (if not using cinnamon chocolate) and whisk to incorporate. Let cool to room temperature.
Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture in two additions, only folding until just incorporated. Fold in the whipped cream until just incorporated. Divide between four dishes and chill for at least 1 hour.
Just before serving, beat remaining 1/4 c. of heavy cream and 1/4 tsp cinnamon until soft peaks form. Sprinkle with remaining 1 TBS of sugar and whisk to incorporate. Dollop a bit of whipped cream on top of each portion, and serve.

3 January 28, 2013 Asian and Indian

Pad Thai: Taste Test

Tonight, I made three different Pad Thai recipes. If my roommates didn’t think I was crazy before, I’m pretty sure they do now. But I had an important goal! And that was to find the best Pad Thai recipe out there, because I love Pad Thai (the American take-out kind; I’ve never had the made-in-Thailand kind), and I would feel pretty impressive if I knew how to whip up a batch at home.

I made small changes to each of the three recipes I tried. In general, I don’t think it’s fair to review a recipe that you’ve changed, since you’re no longer reviewing the recipe as the author tested it. In this case, however, what I was really testing were the sauces, and for the most part, I didn’t change those. I also made each dish in a way that was practical to me – e.g. I don’t eat shrimp, so I’d never include it, and I’m unlikely to have “sweet preserved shredded radish” around, even if I were to cook Thai food regularly.

Some general tips for cooking any of these recipes – have all your ingredients prepped and ready to go before you turn on the stove, as things will move quickly once you begin cooking. Use fairly high heat so that your ingredients sizzle as you add each one. And last, don’t overcook any of the ingredients – you want your veggies to remain a little crisp and your egg to not completely dry out.

1) Bon Appetit Pad Thai

While I have a feeling that this recipe was the most authentic, it was actually my least favorite of the three. It was too sharp tasting and not balanced enough for my liking. Of course, as I mentioned above, I did make a few changes – in this case, scallions in place of garlic chives, chicken instead of shrimp, no tofu, and no preserved radish. Admittedly, these changes are fairly substantial, but the sauce just didn’t do it for me. Now, if you like a sour and slightly spicy Pad Thai, you might enjoy this dish, but it’s not going to get you that takeout flavor I suspect most of us are looking for.

2) Mark Bittman’s Pad Thai via Serious Eats

This recipe straddles the line between authentic and take-out quite nicely. It has all the complexity and flavor that I’m looking for, but the sauce was a little too thin, the sauce to noodle ratio was too high, and I found the vinegar flavor a little bit too strong. Further investigation led me to the fact that Mark’s original recipe has some substantial differences from the Serious Eats version, but I didn’t test that one out – I’ve added it to the list for the future. The changes I made to this recipe were as follows: vegetable oil instead of peanut oil, chopped endive instead of Napa cabbage (only because the only Napa cabbage at the store would have been far too large to fit in my fridge), and chicken instead of shrimp. After tasting the sauce, I also added two tablespoons of palm sugar to the sauce, as I found the sauce as written to be too sour. With the additional sweetener the flavor was pretty close to what I wanted. I think to get my perfect Pad Thai recipe, I’d have to somehow combine this recipe with number 3…

3) Easy Pad Thai from Brownies for Dinner

This recipe is decidedly the least authentic, but it was also super-duper easy, with fairly good results. I followed this one almost to the T – I just replaced the brown sugar with an equal amount of palm sugar, since I had already bought the palm sugar and I figured it would add a little more complexity. Flavor-wise, this recipe was the least challenging of the three – it would be easy for kids and picky eaters to palate. However, the trade-off was a loss of depth, and I did think the soy flavor was a little out of place. If you’re new to Thai cooking, though, I’d start with this recipe – for the amount of effort (and investment in special ingredients) you put into this recipe, I think you’ll be pleased with the end result.

The conclusion: I haven’t found my ideal Pad Thai recipe yet, but I feel a lot more knowledgeable about what works and what doesn’t. I’ve scribbled down some ideas about how I might combine recipes two and three to get what I’m looking for, and I’m going to keep testing recipes – I’ll let you know when I find a combination I love. In the meantime, if you have a favorite Pad Thai recipe, please share!

0 January 25, 2013 Breakfast

Monkey Bread, For Sharing

Over a year ago, I promised my coworkers that I would bring in some homemade monkey bread for them. Today, they finally got it. What happened in between? Mostly, a lot of excuses, like, “I can’t bake monkey bread this week, I’m trying to eat healthy!” and “Monkey bread is off this weekend guys, I have to make Peppermint Mocha Sundaes.” This week I decided to cut the excuses – I put “make monkey bread” in my calendar for Thursday night, I came home from work in the 5 degree weather, and I did it.

Monkey bread, for those of you who don’t know, is like a bundt pan full of a hundred tiny cinnamon buns that have been drenched in butter. As you might be able to guess from the description, it’s pretty much hard to go wrong with it. Most versions use canned biscuit dough as the base, but I decided to go fully homemade and make the sweet bread dough – thanks to my bread-baking mother and boyfriend, I don’t have a fear of making yeasted things. Actually, I think it’s pretty easy, and I think you will too. Plus, since you’re covering this particular bread in cinnamon-sugar-butter, no one is going to notice if you didn’t let the dough fully complete its rise.

My coworkers devoured these in a matter of minutes. So quickly, in fact, that I had to promise to make another batch next week for the people who didn’t get to try any. Also, Trevor just threw a mini-fit when he found out I made it and he didn’t even get a chance to sample some. Like I said, it’s hard to go wrong. Give this recipe a try – maybe this weekend, to ward off the cold – and people will love you.

P.S. You have until midnight tomorrow to enter my chocolate giveaway sponsored by Lake Champlain Chocolates!

P.P.S. WordPress just informed me that today is my 3rd blogging anniversary. Consider this monkey bread a celebration!

Monkey Bread

Adapted slightly from Cooks’ Illustrated, via Mel’s Kitchen Cafe. Serves 8-10.

Note: I got away with using a few tablespoons less butter than the original recipe called for (I melted the full 8 TBS, but ended up with a few leftover), so I’ve listed the amount I used below. If you run out of butter for dipping, just melt a little bit more. Also, I don’t have a stand mixer so I make everything by hand – if you’re lucky enough to have one, check out Mel’s Kitchen Cafe for instructions on making the dough with one.

10 TBS butter, divided
1 c. plus 2 TBS milk
1/3 c. water
1/4 c. sugar
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
3 1/4 c. flour
2 tsp salt
1 c. light brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 c. confectioner’s sugar

In a medium, microwave-safe bowl, mix 2 TBS of the butter, 1 c. of the milk, and 1/3 c. water. Microwave on medium for about 90 seconds, until liquid is warm to the touch (but not hot), and butter is mostly melted. Stir to incorporate the butter. If the liquid is too hot, let cool until it feels warm to the touch (liquid that is too hot will kill the yeast). Stir the 1/4 c. of sugar into the warm milk mixture, then sprinkle the yeast over the top of the mixture. Let sit for 10 minutes. Yeast should begin to bubble up as it sits.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour and the salt. Make a well in the middle, and pour in the milk-yeast mixture. Stir to incorporate, then knead with your hands until the dough is smooth and elastic. If you took the dough out of the bowl to knead it, return to the bowl, cover with a towel, and let rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours.
Remove the risen dough from the bowl and shape into an 8×8 inch square. Use a knife to cut 8 lines across the top of the dough, rotate 90 degrees, then cut 8 lines in the other direction to form a cross-hatch pattern. You don’t have to cut all the way through, just mark the squares. Pull the squares off one by one and roll into small balls. Set the balls aside – you should have 64 of them.
Melt the remaining 8 TBS of butter in the microwave. Use a pastry brush to brush some of the butter on the inside of a bundt pan. In another bowl, stir together the brown sugar and cinnamon. Dip each of the balls into the melted butter, then into the cinnamon-sugar mixture, then place into the bundt pan. Try to fill the bundt pan evenly with the balls. Cover the bundt pan with a towel, and let rise 1-2 hours in a warm place.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Remove the towel, and bake the monkey bread for 35 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool 5 minutes, then turn out onto a plate while it’s still warm. Don’t let it cool completely in the pan, or it won’t come out of the pan easily.
Mix together the remaining 2 TBS of milk and the confectioners sugar and drizzle over the warm bread as a glaze. Serve warm.

10 January 23, 2013 Breakfast

Greatist Collaboration: Quinoa Breakfast Bake

As I try to keep up with the healthy habits I was starting to establish during my cleanse (no thanks to the likes of these chocolate-hazelnut mousse cakes I made for Lake Champlain Chocolates!), I’ve come to realize that if I don’t get started on the right foot in the morning, my whole day is thrown off. Making sure that I have a healthy breakfast doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll stick to the plan through dinner, but starting the day off with something bad usually means I can’t recover and end up indulging all day. This is good knowledge to be armed with, but it’s still something I struggle to execute on. I like mornings, so that’s not the problem – it’s more that I’m the sort of person who’s perpetually five minutes late to everything because I try to cram too many things into one time slot. So when 8:05 rolls around and I’m still in bed writing emails and catching up on my reader, and I suddenly realize I have exactly 7 minutes to get dressed, make breakfast, clean up from breakfast, brush my teeth, make my lunch, do my hair, and leave, breakfast frequently falls by the wayside. And I’m still 10 minutes late to work.

Enter pre-made breakfasts: I’ve found that having something already made in the fridge makes it about 90% more likely that I’ll eat something nutritious before leaving for work. If it’s something I’m excited about eating, I’ll even go grab a plateful at 7:30 and then return to bed with it. Last week I did really well with a batch of whole wheat fruit and nut pancakes that I made on Sunday and ate throughout the week. This week, I whipped up this breakfast quinoa bake and have really been enjoying it. A quinoa bake was kind of a logical next step when breakfast quinoa is already a staple meal of mine, and overnight oats have inundated the internet. So I threw some ingredients together that I thought might work, and it turned out even better than I hoped – it’s sweet, mild, and fruity, with a consistency similar to rice pudding. Definitely worth getting out of bed for. You can find the recipe over at Greatist – if you try it, let me know what variations you make!