Saturday, January 22, 2011

Something fishy...

Go Fish!


Definitely trying to eat more fish around here.  I don't know why 
I don't cook more fish dishes.  
We  love fish and all shellfish.  
There are so many more ways to prepare fish, it seems, than meats.  
Again, Curtis Stone of "Take Home Chef" cooked another delicious fish dish 
that really caught my attention and reminded me about this fishy resolution.  
He wrapped  filets of fish 
in  huge green leaves 
(that he actually bought at the grocery store...perhaps he said banana leaves?)  
Before that, however,  he made a delicious and fresh marinade for the filets before he wrapped each one in a leaf and tied them with string.  He then placed them in a bamboo steamer 
(which I purchased not too long ago because we are dumpling obsessed...)  
In my resolved determination to expand my fish repetoire, I picked up this cookbook from the Williams Sonoma store.  One of the recipes is a Sea Bass with a thai coconut milk/green curry sauce.  
Yum. Yum. Yum.  
We love anything Thai.  
However, the family vote today was to go to our favorite Thai restaurant.  
What did we all eat?  
That's right.  
We all had  wonderful, aromatic, and creamy Thai curries.  
Flipping along in my new fishy cookbook, I have come to another option.  
I think I will stick with this one.  
It is a shrimp dish with a fresh pesto.  I have never made a fresh pesto before.  I have been working on keeping my new basil plant 
alive 
and I 
finally 
don't have to buy those expensive little packets of herbs from the grocery store.  
In fact, I now have, oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, dill, chives, and marjoram in pots indoors.  
Remember, I am not green-thumbed so this is a silent plea for "a pat on the back".  
Next, 
I would really like to have some cilantro handy.  
I know, 
I'm pushing the whole green thumb thing. 
So this shrimp dish possibility covers several resolution objectives.  
It has seafood (shellfish).  
It has pesto (on the list of "lets try it").  It has fresh pasta (which we haven't had in awhile) AND 
the photo looked really pretty because you swirl the pasta in the middle.
So cool.
Off to the seafood market tomorrow! 
If its tasty and as pretty as the picture, I'll post the recipe here.

Impress. Your Guests.

Everyone here in Atlanta is still talking about our recent ice storm, but the truth is, most of our stories are similar.  Suffice it to say, I can only imagine how many closets, drawers and basements were cleaned out last week.  In my case, it was the pantry.  What the heck else are you supposed to do when you can't leave the house for days on end?

Imagine my surprise when I unearthed a big box of amaretti cookies from deep within the bowels of my pantry shelves.  Well, well, well.  I started casting around for recipes which incorporated them.  But wait, it didn't really matter because what I was really after were THE PAPERS THEY ARE WRAPPED IN.

No, I'm not kidding.  No, I am not suggesting that you eat these papers or use them to roll up with something illegal.  I am, however, going to share an amazing trick you can do with them; one that will make you the hit of any party and cause you to kick yourself everytime you think of all the times you have thrown these things in the trash before you knew "the secret."

Here's the back story:

The year was 1959 or so.  Henry (about 8 years old) was having dinner with his family and their friends, Larry and Hilda Peirez at Andre's, which was apparently a fancy restaurant in Great Neck, NY.  As dinner came to a close, the check arrived, along with amaretti wrapped in "those papers."  Larry Peirez ate his cookies, then rolled the wrapper up like a cigarette and stood it on end.  He pulled out his lighter and much to the horror of everyone seated around the table, calmly lit the paper then watched impassively as it started to burn fiercely in the middle of the table. 

Just as the tablecloth was about to catch fire (and panic about to set in), the burning cylinder gracefully ascended and floated high above the table, almost to the ceiling.  Then, totally burned out, the charred remains drifted ethereally back to the table and its wide-eyed occupants.  Henry was mesmerized.  One can only imagine what the waitstaff must have been thinking!

So, now you know.  My suggestion is to get out there and buy a package of Amaretti Lazzaroni ASAP.  The next time you have to attend a stilted dinner party, tuck a few in your pocket and light 'em up at the table.  Yours hosts may be horrified, but you will save everyone from boredom and you will be a rockstar for the evening!






Yes, we have lift off!

Up, up and away!

 If you can't find Amaretti Lazzaroni locally, here is a link:

http://parthenonfoods.com/amaretti-cookies-lazzaroni-71oz-200g-p-2853.html

Now that you have used all of the papers, what are you going to do with those poor, homeless cookies?  Here's my recommendation:


CHOCOLATE AMARETTI CAKE (adapted from Giada De Laurentis)

¾ cup bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup slivered almonds
2 oz. amaretti cookies (10 small cookies)
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
Zest of 1 orange
4 eggs (I used medium-large)

Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Spray a 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray and place in refrigerator to chill.

Melt chocolate in a small pan until smooth. Set aside to cool while you proceed with the other steps.

Combine almonds and cookies in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until finely ground, then transfer to a medium bowl. Place the butter, sugar and salt in the processor and blend until creamy and smooth. Add the orange peel and pulse briefly to combine. Add eggs, one at a time and blend until incorporated. Scrape sides down and blend again. Add the reserved nut mixture and melted chocolate. Pulse until blended, scrape downs sides again, and blend until combined.

Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake until the center puffs, about 30 – 35 minutes. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then remove sides of springform. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Yield: 8 servings











As usual, here are my "post-recipe" comments.

*  I was pretty wary about using a food processor for a cake.  Normally it doesn't work, but since this recipe has no flour, it's perfectly okay.  You don't want to  incorporate air in this mixture, anyway.

*  The cake will rise in the oven, then fall when you take it out to cool.  No worries.  It will also look somewhat lopsided.  No worries about that either.  It contributes to the rustic look and it has no effect whatsoever on the taste or texture.

*  Do yourself a huge favor and slip a cookie sheet or pan under the springform as it bakes.  I don't care how secure you think your pan might be, it will leak.  Spare yourself from having to clean the oven after you bake this.

*  If you want to gild the lily, you can serve this with softly whipped cream, or even ice cream.  I have to say though, I think it is pretty stunning in its simplicity, so I serve it "naked" and unadorned.

I wish you could have been here last night as I was trying to light these things and photograph them at the same time.  Challenging, at best.  At least I didn't burn the house down!  Haha, and if you try this and burn your house down, I absolve myself of all liability!

Steamed Herbal Chicken Parcels 纸包鸡


I love Chinese herbal chicken soup, like a simple Ginseng Chicken soup, or the more complicated ones that I rely on my mum for ;) This is a variation of herbal chicken soup-- the chicken thigh is marinated and then steamed with the sweet Chinese herbs, giving tender meat and juices infused with that wonderful herbal smell (that some people hate but I totally love). This recipe is adapted fromNoobcook's foil-wrapped herbal chicken.

Steamed Herbal Chicken Parcels 纸包鸡
serves 1 (makes 1 parcel)
Ingredients
1 chicken thigh+drum
1 ginseng
3 red dates, pitted and halved
3 slices dang gui (chinese angelica root)
1 piece dang shen (condonopsis root)
1 tsp wolfberry
1 clove garlic, minced,

Marinade
1" grated ginger
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp Chinese shaoxing rice wine (I used 花雕酒)
pinch of brown sugar (I used unrefined Rapadura)
pinch of white pepper

Method
1. Combine the chicken thigh with the marinade ingredients and leave overnight in the fridge, or at least 2h.
2. Place the chicken thigh on a sheet of parchment paper (I prefer this to aluminium foil, less.. toxic?) with the rest of the ingredients and pour the marinade over. Tie the parchment paper up so you get a cute little parcel.
3. Steam for about 35 min, then open the parcel and flip the chicken over for another 10 minutes. If you use chicken breast, just 20 min+10 min is enough!

I love unwrapping parcels, especially if my parcels contain food ;)

Ginseng Chicken Soup


In Chinese cooking and TCM, herbs are the superfoods. Chinese herbs are very different from Western herbs. Chinese herbs can be really rare, made from the weirdest of ingredients like for e.g. cordyceps are made from caterpillar fungus, and the flavour they impart is often pungent and medicinal. But they really are medicinal in nature, and when combined right, are very healing (yet easy on the palate, unlike horrible pink cough syrups).

My mum is always sending me herbs (they always come dried), often pre-packed in lovely ziplocked bags with all the herbs in the right quantities, so I only need to throw them in with some meat on bone into the slow cooker and I come home to find dinner ready (made with mummy's love haha). I'm trying to learn about herbs, but it's not easy, because there are so many. This is the most popular soup of all, and there's even a very similar Korean version of it called Samgyetang. Ginseng is very prized, it's considered a cure-all for most ailments, and even for the healthy, are rejuvenating.

Ginseng Chicken Soup
Ingredients
serves 2 (you can easily double the recipe with an entire chicken to make a herbal chicken bone broth)
2 chicken thighs and drums (bone-on!)
2 pieces of dried Korean ginseng, with their "beards"
5 red jujube dates, pitted
2 tbsp of wolfberries

In TCM, they usually measure ingredients by weight, but this soup isn't exactly a medicine, so pardon my lack of specific grams.

Method
1. Bring all ingredients to a boil and let simmer on a very low heat for 3h, or put into a slow-cooker on low, for 6h or more.



It's winter now (very yin) hence you should use Korean or Chinese ginseng, because they're much stronger and very warming (yang). In summer, substitute with American ginseng. So you can have this the whole year round(: This is a really simple and clean soup so it really showcases the ginseng flavour. There are many other more complicated Chinese herbal soups like Eight Treasures Soup 八珍 or 六味汤, but my mum packs them for me ;)

Sweet and Spicy Roast Chicken Drumsticks


There are always going to be nights when we are tired, or for some other reason we cannot be bothered cooking anything complex and we just want to put something simple in the oven for our dinner. We want comfort food, that simply lets us sit back and enjoy it, without putting a great deal of work in to the preparation. The temptation in these circumstances is to have a microwaveable dinner, or even a takeaway, but this is one incredibly simple recipe which shows that to be unnecessary. It shows that healthy, wholesome cooking is possible, even in such circumstances. Have a look at how incredibly simple this delicious roast chicken recipe actually is...


Ingredients for One Person

6 small chicken drumsticks
1 tbsp liquid honey
1 tsp hot chilli powder
Salt and black pepper
Fresh basil leaves or other herb for garnish (optional)


Method

Add the chilli powder and honey to a large bowl or basin and season with salt and pepper. Stir to form a smooth paste. Add the chicken drumsticks and carefully stir them around in the mix to ensure even coating. Cover and leave them to marinate while your oven preheats to 375F/190C/Gas Mark 5. Note that this can be done a couple of hours in advance, if time permits, and the legs refrigerated. This would allow the flavours of the marinade to infuse the meat to even greater effect.


When the oven is heated, spread the legs and marinade evenly on a deep baking tray. Place in to the oven for thirty minutes, turning the drumsticks with cooking tongs after fifteen minutes.


It should be remembered, as with any meat, that it is important to allow the chicken drumsticks to rest when they are removed from the oven. This is best achieved by simply sitting the tray on the hob and covering it carefully with foil, wearing oven gloves, for ten to fifteen minutes. The chicken drumsticks can then be plated and eaten immediately or left to cool and enjoyed cold.

The First Step To Recovery Is Admitting You Have A Problem

Dana Milbank and the Washington Post appear to have hit bottom.
Milbank wrote he was pledging to not write about or mention Palin for the entire month of February. He called on fellow media members to join him with the hope the boycott could be made permanent.
“But today is the first day of the rest of my life. And so, I hereby pledge that, beginning on Feb 1, 2011, I will not mention Sarah Palin – in print, online or on television – for one month. Furthermore, I call on others in the news media to join me in this pledge of a Palin-free February. With enough support, I believe we may even be able to extend the moratorium beyond one month, but we are up against a powerful compulsion, and we must take this struggle day by day.”
Of course, this could just be one of those monster hangovers that makes you swear off the stuff temporarily.

Hatred is pretty addictive stuff, it appears.

We don't hate Sarah. We're not big fans, but she's still OK with us.

For Sarah Palin news during this blackout, stay tuned to our Monk of Miscellaneous Musings' Sarah Sez posts.

Bakeware set shopping at CSN stores

First of all wishing my lovely readers a very Happy New Year! Hope you guys partied hard, coz I certainly did :-)...secondly I am soooo excited...finally I would be getting my first Springform pan, have been eying one for a really long time..., cheesecakes here I come!I think the benefits of such a pan are many, for sponge cakes, cheesecakes and angel cakes, they are so convenient, will be getting one from CSN stores, they have a great collection esp. their cute little tart and quiche pans.
And they also have a terrific range of Modern office furniture, which would be just lovely in my New office..so I am all set for some serious 2011 shopping!!
Till then take care

Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes


I'm an avid recipe reader and now have a huge collection of recipes I have been able to cut out plus the handwritten ones and put into scrapbooks. Every so often - not that often, if the truth be told - I have a purge and throw out the ones that turned out not to be as good as I had thought.  But you will understand why I cut this recipe out of the Saturday ‘Weekend’ magazine in The Guardian when I was in the UK last autumn and put it aside for a rainy day. In fact, I’ve had it on my desk ever since just biding its time because I knew that given the right moment I would make it.


 It was the ingredients that attracted me, the pumpkin, the ginger.  I skimmed through and saw walnuts too. What a delicious-sounding combination was my first thought, followed in quick succession by a further thought: what’s more, all easily available here in Istanbul right now. This is always the issue here: can we get the ingredients? There was an inviting picture as well. I always think pictures are essential for recipes, don’t you? They lure you in. These cupcakes looked just right for a January afternoon at home with friends.
one perfect uniced cupcake

In my haste to make them, I didn’t wait for Son to be here to eat them up so I am happy to report that they freeze very well.  I froze them uniced.  Defrosting them was quick and completing with the icing the morning my friends were coming round was easy. Half the amount given in the recipe for the icing was exactly right for the 8 I had defrosted. Son has yet to try them.



Ingredients for Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes
Makes 12-16
125g stem or glace ginger in syrup ( my ginger was not in syrup)
175g brown muscovado (or molasses) sugar
200g unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
250g pumpkin (or butternut squash flesh), grated
200g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp each ground ginger and allspice
¼ tsp each ground nutmeg and clove (I didn't have clove)
125g chopped walnuts (or pecans)
200g icing sugar
125g full-fat cream cheese
1 tsp extra ground ginger for icing.
before and after


Method
·         Pre-heat oven to 190C/170C fan-assisted/375F/gas mark 5.
·         Finely chop the ginger. Beat sugar and 125g butter until smooth, then beat in the eggs, one by one. Stir in the pumpkin and chopped ginger, sift in the flour, baking powder and spices, add the nuts, and stir until smooth.
·         Line the pockets of a deep muffin tray with muffin papers, then fill each one almost to the top.
·         Bake for 25 minutes, then set aside to cool.


For the icing:
·         Beat the icing sugar, cream cheese and remaining butter until smooth. Add 1 tsp ground ginger.
·         Swirl a dollop of icing on each cupcake and decorate with a single piece of chopped stem/glace ginger.
Tips
1.       It’s amazing how this amount of grated pumpkin is magically absorbed into the other ingredients. Also the grating itself is much easier than it sounds.
2.       I recommend filling each muffin paper, as the recipe calls them, full as the mixture doesn’t overflow and they look terrific when beautifully risen. So next time – and there will definitely be a next time -  I will go for  12 -14 cupcakes, I expect.
3.       The reason that syrup was mentioned in the list of ingredients is that the recipe states that a little may be necessary for the icing ‘to make it easily spreadable’. However I didn’t find this necessary: the icing spread beautifully and tasted exquisite.

just right for tea with friends
 Afiyet olsun! Hope you like them as much as we did!