• 14Feb

    Mexican-Style Quinoa Recipe

    I love Mexican food. What I don’t love are all the calories that usually come with it. So, when my heart tells me to go to a certain fast food burrito joint, my head tells me to make this recipe instead. Using the protein-rich quinoa as a substitute for rice keeps my stomach quiet through lab, and all the veggies make it guilt free. So cheap a college student can afford it, so easy and English major can make it, and so tasty it comes roommate approved! Enjoy!

     

    Mexican-Style Quinoa

     

    Ingredients

    1 ½ tsp. vegetable oil

    ½ Yellow onion (chopped)

    1 clove garlic (peeled and chopped finely, add more if you’re a garlic fan!)

    1 cup uncooked quinoa

    2 cups vegetable broth (or more as needed)

    ½ tsp. ground cumin

    ½ tsp. Mexican chili powder

    1 cup frozen corn kernels

    2 (15oz) cans of black beans

    ½ cup chopped, fresh cilantro

    Salt and Pepper to taste

     

    Directions

    1. Heat the vegetable oil in a medium to large saucepan. Stir in onions and garlic until both are slightly brown (about 5 minutes).

    2. Add uncooked quinoa to the pan and cover with vegetable broth. Mix in chili powder, cumin, salt, and pepper.

    3. Allow mixture to come to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and let cook for 15-17 minutes.

    4. Mix in corn and simmer for another 5 minutes until cooked. Stir in black beans and cilantro.

    -Guest Writter, Paige (EPC)

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  • 05Nov

    Purple Obsession

    I’ve always been a big fan of greens, and I practically live on the things then they’re in season.* But, I recently discovered a new favorite leafy ingredient: purples! Purple mustard greens, that is. These gorgeous babies range in color from bright green to bluish-red to right purple at times, and they taste like regular mustard greens except much more so. Actually, it’s kinda like eating Tellicherry pepper in leaf form. Bloody delicious!

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenwaller/2215577288/

    Photo by Flickr user JenWaller

    These are so lovely, cooking them is a cinch: just rinse and dice them, and place them (still a bit wet) in a medium-hot pan with a bit of oil (I prefer 1 part sesame and 3 parts olive). Sprinkle them with salt, turmeric, and just a tiny tiny bit of nutmeg. Toss to mix, cover, and let steam-saute (there must be a better term for this) till they’re just soft (about 5 minutes).

    As a bonus, if you deglaze with a light stock, you get a very pretty bright purple liquid as a bonus (hint: color your rice).

     *The lady at the farmers market might just roll her eyes and start bagging as soon as she sees me walking up.

    -MAW

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  • 29May

    A Falafel Mistake: My Recent Attempt to Beat Lebanese Taverna at Home

     

    Falafel Batter.

    If I might paraphrase (500) Days of Summer:  This is a story of boy meets chickpeas.  But you should know up front – this is not a dinner story.

    On a recent weekend, my beautiful wife and I were dining out and she mentioned that she had a craving for falafel.  I love good Mediterranean food – you all have seen my write-up of the Cava Mezze Grill in Tysons Corner Center, and Plaka Grill in Vienna is another favorite among my friends at church.  And any longtime resident of the area has to have tried out one of the many Lebanese Taverna locations in the DC region.  For the uninitiated, though, falafel is a fried entrée made of ground chickpeas and spices, usually served with hummus or tzatziki sauce on a pita. 

    Falafel Balls

    I first dug up a recipe.  A few looks around the Web found any number of falafel recipes, but as I always place a premium on simplicity, I started with Mark Bittman’s recipe.  But Bittman called for dried chickpeas, and the shelves at my local Giant were bare.  They had plenty of dried red, pinto, and black beans (perfect for the next time I’m in a chili cookoff!) but no chickpeas.  Unfortunately, I think that’s where I first went wrong.

    A Bad Frying Attempt.

    I bought a 29-oz can of Goya chickpeas, drained them, and minced them in my food processor in batches.  I also chopped the onion, garlic, spices, and parsley and tossed all of that into the chickpea mixture with the last couple of ingredients.  I stirred the mixture together into batter, and I thought I was on the right track.  I even tossed in a tablespoon of flour, a tip that I saw in a number of recipes to keep the batter together as it fries.

    I pulled out a disher and scooped out a batch of falafel balls.  Most recipes I saw suggest forming them into ping-pong ball-sized fritters, which I thought would work well.  I heated a saucepan with vegetable oil to 350 degrees, and once it hit temperature, I dropped two fritters in.

    Hot Oven Couldn't Help.

    And that is where my errors caught up with me.  The oil started bubbling furiously, as it usually will do when frying.  But when I dropped a spider into the oil to fish out the falafel, the batter had completely disintegrated.  And that was when I knew that we weren’t having falafel for dinner that night.

    I’m not sure if it was the canned chickpeas that did it, or the fact that my food processor is small enough that I had to chop everything in batches.  I may have over-minced the chickpeas, or it may have been that they were so wet that they wouldn’t stick together enough when faced with hot oil.  In any case, the oil was ruined and I scorched my saucepan.  I’ll have to try again sometime soon.

    All was not lost, however – I had one final thought before I gave up.  I dropped a few falafel balls onto a roasting pan and set them in a blazing hot oven for about 20 minutes, hoping that the dry heat might achieve something like the hot oil’s crisping effect.  Alas – while the outsides browned, the insides remained decidedly moist, and my experiment had truly failed.

    Let me know in the comments if you try out a falafel recipe more successfully than I did, or if you have any thoughts on what went wrong for me!

    Falafel

    Adapted from Mark Bittman’s “Recipe of the Day,” February 12, 2008

    1 29 oz can chickpeas

    2 cloves garlic

    1 small onion

    1 tsp coriander

    1 tbsp cumin

    ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

    1 cup parsley leaves

    1 tsp salt

    ½ tsp baking soda

    1 tbsp lemon juice

    Frying oil

    Drain chickpeas.  Mince all ingredients except frying oil in your food processor, working in batches if necessary.  Adjust seasoning and spices to taste once the batter comes together.  Add a tablespoon or two of flour if the batter is too wet to form.

    Heat the oil to 350 degrees.  Fry falafel balls for about five minutes.  Serve on a heated pita with hummus, tzatziki, and other toppings as desired. 

    -HML

    ——————

    Check out my friend Ami’s Costa Rica Tours and don’t forget to use the code “TOUCAN” to save money. He has some group tours that you can join, including an upcoming August tour, and I hear that airfare to Costa Rica is inexpensive right now for August.

     

    -JAY

     

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  • 13May

    Spring Vegetables: Treating Asparagus the Right Way

    Fresh Asparagus.

    It’s springtime!  Love is in the air, and the produce section at your local grocery store is probably overflowing with great fruits and vegetables.  We’re a bit spoiled these days in that we can get almost any type of produce year-round, but it’s this time of year that a wonderful bounty of fresh, high-quality stuff hits the produce department.  Those of you with CSA subscriptions will be enjoying your weekly deliveries soon enough, but if you’re looking for good vegetables, there’s plenty to be had, even at the local Giant, Harris Teeter, or Safeway.

    Despite its (deserved) reputation for giving some people a distinctive aroma during a certain bodily process after eating it, I’m a big fan of asparagus.  But not how it’s usually cooked – I’ve been the victim of boiled-to-death asparagus too many times to count.  That product is not enjoyable at the dinner table – so tender it slides off the fork, with a nasty off-green color and a strong odor that overpowers the palate.  Sure, it’s nutritious, but we shouldn’t be condemned to suffering through our vegetables!  In a way it’s similar to broccoli – too many people have terrible memories of being forced to eat their broccoli by their parents, so they avoid it later on when they actually control their home menu.

    Prepped and Snapped Asparagus.

    But we have better ways of cooking vegetables!  We don’t have to boil them into submission; we can apply better techniques and enjoy them quite a bit more.  And before I lose you here – you don’t have to spend hours doing it, either.  High-quality produce doesn’t need to be shepherded through difficult sauce-making or other rigorous techniques.  While asparagus goes very nicely with Hollandaise sauce in classical French cuisine, those tricky emulsions still have me scared.  And when I’m making dinner for my wife, I’d rather not worry about a sauce breaking – I want my dishes to be ready reliably.  (The same holds true for any of you guys attempting to woo a lady with your cooking, which is a tactic I highly recommend.  Date night recipes shouldn’t be too labor intensive, and should be fail-safe!)  In any case, you have two big points to remember when getting high-quality vegetables into your kitchen:

    Cooked and Seasoned Asparagus.

    #1:  Prep.  This is probably the most important point for vegetable cookery, as you simply can’t bring veggies home from the store and toss them in the pot (most of the time, anyway).  With asparagus, you’ll want to “snap” them – bend the stalks along the length until the woody base naturally snaps off.  You wouldn’t want to eat that section anyway!  You’ll be left with tender portions of the green stalks that won’t at all remind you of biting into a tree.

    #2:  Method.  My favorite way to cook asparagus without absolutely killing it is high-heat roasting.  Many restaurants recommend blanching veggies first, but they mostly do that in order to save time on the line.  In the home setting, it’s easy enough to roast your asparagus all the way through without having to boil a pot of water.  It’ll take a little longer, but since you’re not firing dishes out every five to ten minutes, you can afford to wait.

    The beauty of asparagus is that it’s got a relatively strong natural flavor, meaning it will stand up to seasonings and spices pretty well.  You can play around with the flavor elements in this recipe as you like – some sources I’ve seen recommend sprinkling the cooked asparagus with nutmeg or allspice as it comes out of the oven.  I’ve also seen suggestions for using lemon zest, but I prefer the stronger flavor of fresh lemon juice.  You don’t want to drown your poor veggies, but a solid squeeze over the plate after they come out of the oven, followed by seasoning and whatever spices you’d like to enjoy, will elevate the dish far beyond your dreaded memories of the family dinner table in your youth.

     

    Roasted Asparagus

    1 bunch asparagus stalks

    Olive oil

    1 lemon

    Salt and pepper

     

    Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

    Prep your asparagus stalks by snapping off the woody lower ends and washing thoroughly.  Toss with a tablespoon or two of olive oil until well coated and lay out in a single layer on a roasting pan or oven-safe plate (such as Pyrex).

    Roast for 5 minutes, then check the tray and turn any stalks that appear to be browning quickly.  Roast for another 5-7 minutes (depending on how thick your stalks are), then remove from the oven.

    Squeeze fresh lemon juice over the asparagus, then sprinkle generously with kosher salt and fresh black pepper.  Optional:  omit lemon juice and sprinkle with nutmeg or allspice.  Basil chiffonade is another nice option if you’ve got fresh herbs available.

    Enjoy!

    -HML

    —————————————-

    Check out my friend Ami’s Costa Rica Tours and don’t forget to use the code “TOUCAN” to save money. He has some group tours that you can join, including an upcoming August tour, and I hear that airfare to Costa Rica is inexpensve right now for August.

    -JAY

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  • 23Feb

    Product Review: Dreamfields Low-Carb Pasta

    Cooking for anyone on a low-carb diet is challenging – after all, American grocery stores have more carbohydrates available nowadays than at almost any other time in our history.  Sugar and wheat flour are the biggest culprits, but unless you check labels religiously, you’ll inadvertently serve carbs with every meal.  Going low-carb means eating lots of protein and fresh vegetables, avoiding many fruits (natural sugars aren’t good either), eliminating most breads, and never, under any circumstances, cooking up big, steaming bowls of pasta.

    But this is a challenge.  Seriously, any time you’re talking about a fundamental change to your diet, you’ll end up with cravings.  In some ways, it’s almost karmic:  if you tell yourself that you can’t have cookies, one of your coworkers will probably ask if you want to order Girl Scout cookies.  (What, is that just me?)

    I came across Dreamfields pasta on a suggestion from my sister-in-law.  She mentioned that she’d found a new brand of pasta that was actually okay to eat when trying to cut down on carbs.  And this, friends, is revolutionary.  A low-carb diet means, at least in the early phases, cutting down to 20 grams or less of carbohydrates in a day.  And that may not sound like much until you check the label and realize that one slice of bread has 20 grams of carbs on its own.  It forces a bit of an adjustment to one’s cooking!

    But as it turns out, you can fulfill that craving without completely destroying your Atkins-friendly diet.  Dreamfields claims that one serving of their pasta, which I found in three different shapes at my local Giant, has just 5 grams of net carbs.  I won’t pretend to know how exactly how they do it (they claim that their patented pasta blend “…creates a protective barrier to reduce starch digestion in the small intestine,” which isn’t exactly something I want to examine closely!) but I thought it’d be worth a look.

    As with so many other specialized diet foods, this stuff isn’t exactly cheap.  My local store has a 13.2 oz box of spaghetti for $2.89, while a 16 oz box of Barilla spaghetti costs just $1.25, and Ronzoni’s whole-wheat spaghetti goes for just $2.29.  That’s quite a premium, but if you’re eating low-carb, you’re spending more on your food anyway.  Just be aware of it.

    We tried out two applications for this pasta – a basic angel hair with marinara sauce and an old favorite recipe for comfort food, a variation on Mark Bittman’s baked macaroni and cheese (recipe below).  I think our impressions of the angel hair marinara were colored by it being the first pasta meal we’ve had at our house in months – it’s no exaggeration to say that we loved it – but when I made baked macaroni and cheese, I tested it on one of my wife’s friends to make sure that we weren’t just deprived and loving it.  All three of us cleaned our plates that evening.

    The beauty of this product (and I will admit that I’m neither Italian nor a pasta expert) is that it tasted like a near-perfect substitute.  I didn’t do anything special when I made it; I simply salted the water and boiled as long as the package indicated (5 minutes for the angel hair and 8 minutes for the macaroni).  No olive oil or family cooking secrets – this was about as simple as it could get, and it worked extraordinarily well.

    If you’re tired of avoiding your carbohydrate nemeses, Dreamfields is worth a shot.  You’ll pay a premium for it, but in our house, it was definitely worth it.

    Enjoy!

    -Michael (HML)

    Baked Macaroni and Cheese

    2 ½ cups milk

    2 bay leaves

    1 lb elbow macaroni (Bittman also suggests shells, ziti, or other cut pasta)

    4 tbsp butter, plus extra for greasing the pan

    3 tbsp all-purpose flour

    2 cups grated cheese – I prefer sharp Cheddar, but any flavorful cheese will do

    ½ cup grated Parmesan

    ½ cup bread crumbs – I used panko with dried Italian herbs)

    Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Boil salted water in a medium saucepan or stockpot.  Grease a 9×13 glass baking dish with extra butter.

    Heat milk over low heat with bay leaves for five minutes or so until hot.  Remove bay leaves and set milk aside. Boil the pasta until one minute shy of al dente – for the Dreamfields pasta, this meant boiling for 7 minutes – then strain and rinse in cold water to stop cooking.  Set aside in a medium work bowl.

    In a clean saucepan (and this can be done using just one pan for all of these tasks, though you’ll need to wash it out repeatedly), melt the butter over medium-low heat.  Add the flour and stir with a whisk until smooth.  (Technique note:  for any of you newbies out there, you’re making a roux, the base for many traditional French sauces).  Cook for about five minutes until the mixture is brown, whisking often.  Add the milk in ¼ cup increments, whisking until smooth with each addition, and don’t let the mixture sit over the heat until almost all of the milk is added.  Once smooth and fully incorporated, add both cheeses and stir until melted and smooth. 

    Add the sauce to the pasta and stir to combine.  Adjust seasoning to taste and add some freshly ground black pepper if you’re so inclined.  Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and top with bread crumbs, then bake for about 15 minutes.

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  • 15Feb

    How Not to Bake Like A Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkey: Macarons

    Chocolate Macarons

    When I first started writing for dcfüd, I mentioned that I’d be writing about my successes and my failures.  And much like the title screen for (500) Days of Summer did, I have to warn you up front:  this is not a success story.

    A while back, I tried making macarons, those small, French sandwich cookies made with almond flour, egg whites, and a lot of luck.  They didn’t work out for me – the batter ran out of my piping bag like water, the cookies ended up much bigger than I’ve ever seen commercially, and though they tasted okay, they just didn’t look very good.  I’ve been told that I’m a bit of a perfectionist professionally, and sometimes that bleeds over into my cooking.  But it’s for good reason – most professional chefs that I’ve read offer some variation on the cliché that we “eat with our eyes first” – so presentation really does matter.

    Go on: take a look at the photos of the “macarons” entry at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macarons).  I’ll wait.  Notice the beautiful pastel colors (though those are created by artificial food dyes), the symmetrical cookie halves, and the slight “foot” created during the bake?  Those are the hallmarks of a professionally made and well-executed macaron.  I wanted to try them out again this week.  (And I’m still competing with my coworkers over desserts, so this would be a coup if I could pull it off!)

    Step one:  sources and methods.  One of my go-to references for baking and desserts is the Baking Bites blog (http://bakingbites.com/), run by a Los Angeles-based author named Nicole Weston.  She posted her recipe for chocolate macarons with vanilla buttercream filling recently (http://bakingbites.com/2012/01/chocolate-macarons-with-vanilla-buttercream-filling/), and once I saw it, I put almond flour on my grocery list.  Fair warning:  one pound of that ran more than $10 at my local supermarket.  There’s not a whole lot of almond flour in one batch, so you can certainly try again, but don’t bother trying to chop your own almonds into flour in your food processor – you’ll end up with chunks rather than the fine powder you need.

    Step two:  prep.  I set up two roasting pans, but I only have one SilPat, so I lined the other one with parchment paper.  One equipment note here – every macaron recipe I’ve ever seen has specified measuring ingredients by weight rather than by volume.  This is a great tip for baking generally, and I’m told that most professional chefs use scales in their pastry work.  After weighing out the dry ingredients, I whisked them together in a mixing bowl and started separating my eggs.  Once the sugar syrup went onto the heat, the recipe started moving quickly, and it might be then that it got away from me.

    Step three:  failure.  Maybe macarons are my personal unicorn, but I just couldn’t get them right this time, either.  The almond dough came together fairly easily, but the Italian meringue that the Baking Bites recipe suggests either wasn’t whipped enough or not folded gently enough into the batter.  Not to blame the recipe, of course – those would be my fault!  After piping and baking (and my pastry bag skills leave something to be desired…), I found some flat macarons with cracked shells when I opened the oven.  Several of them stuck to the pans despite my best efforts with silicone and parchment paper, but I’m told that’s not unusual.  And worst of all, my frosting went wrong, looking grainy and brown rather than nicely whipped.  I tend to use a bit more vanilla in my desserts than recipes call for, and I think my vanilla extract might have done a bit more coloring than I wanted it to here.  Mea culpa!

    But all was not lost – I pulled a container of dark chocolate frosting out of the pantry and started sandwiching the cookies together with a dollop each.  They’re not the most visually appealing macarons I’ve ever seen by a long shot, but my beautiful wife (God bless her!) assured me that they’re quite good.  We’ll see what my co-workers say.

    This dessert is a real challenge, so I’d love to hear about your experience with it or with other macaron recipes.  Let me know in the comments if you’ve managed to conquer the French.  Enjoy!

    Chocolate Macarons with Vanilla Buttercream Filling

    Recipe courtesy Baking Bites

    180 g almond flour/almond meal

    200 g confectioner’s sugar

    30 g cocoa powder

    4 large room-temperature egg whites, divided

    180 g sugar (granulated)

    ¼ cup water

    For vanilla buttercream: 

    1/3 cup room-temperature butter

    1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

    1 tbsp milk

    2 cups confectioner’s sugar

    Prep two roasting pans with non-stick surfaces, either SilPats or parchment paper.

    Sift together almond meal, confectioner’s sugar, and cocoa powder in a mixing bowl.  Using the paddle attachment, mix with two of the egg whites until a thick dough comes together.  Be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl to ensure all of the dry ingredients are mixed.  Once the dough is together, set aside and wash out your mixing bowl.

    In a saucepan, heat granulated sugar and water to a rolling boil, whisking to ensure sugar dissolves.  Boil for at least 30 seconds.

    Back in the stand mixer, beat the other two egg whites until soft peaks form.  Then slowly add the syrup into the egg whites while continuing to beat on medium.  Be careful here, as the syrup is hot and the mixer will send it everywhere unless you’re cautious.  Once the syrup has been fully incorporated, beat until you have a thick, fluffy meringue, set aside and wash out the mixing bowl again (unless you’re lucky enough to own extras!)

    Stir about 1/3 of the meringue into the chocolate dough, then fold in the remaining meringue in a couple more additions.  Using a pastry bag or a zip-top plastic bag with a snipped corner, pipe the resulting batter out onto the pans in tablespoon-sized portions with about an inch between them.

    Let the piped batter sit for 20 minutes or so while preheating the oven to 350 degrees.  Bake for about 12 minutes, then cool on the sheet or a cooling rack before frosting and sandwiching.

    Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

    Beat the butter until soft, then add the vanilla extract, milk, and confectioner’s sugar.  Beat until light and creamy, then spoon or pipe between your cookie shells.  And if nothing else, keep a backup frosting in the pantry!

    -HML

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  • 14Jan

    Dark Chocolate Cream Pie Recipe

    If you’re anything like me, your bookshelves and web browser bookmarks are stuffed with recipes you want to try, but just haven’t gotten to yet.  Weeknights probably get away from you as much as they do from me, which means that most nights, you probably don’t have the energy to pull together a culinary classic like beef Wellington or risotto Milanese.  And believe me, I sympathize.  I don’t have time for complicated, multi-course meals during the week, so I try something new when I can and stick to quick and easy favorites when I can’t.  I try to cook a bit more elaborately on the weekends, but sometimes it’s not worth it – seriously, have you seen the price of USDA Prime beef lately?

    JAY asked me write about my home cooking – that is, chiefly, my ever-present stack of recipes, my attempts to recreate the experts’ work and all the successes, failures and happy accidents that occur along the way.  I’m always looking for accessible, budget-friendly ways to keep cooking at home, and I’m quite thankful for the chance to write about it regularly.

    For my first recipe, I turned to a suggestion from my sister for a winter dessert:  Dark Chocolate Cream Pie.  My sister first obtained a version of this recipe from Rick Rodgers’ Thanksgiving 101, and I decided to make something similar for my wife on our first date a few years ago.  (Pro tip:  test out your cooking before you invite her over!  My roommates at the time loved getting to try out the results of my practice run through that dinner date).

    The pie’s shell is the easiest place to play around with this recipe – you can certainly make your own pie dough, but I tend to buy pre-made crusts because (confession!) I honestly don’t like the crust very much.  I prefer the filling!  Don’t skimp on the good chocolate here, either.  Most neighborhood grocery stores have a selection of high-quality chocolate bars in the baking aisle and if you’re really feeling gourmet, you can certainly splurge on something from Whole Foods.  As a California native, I’m always partial to Ghirardelli chocolate.  Finish off with a dollop of whipped cream and some grated chocolate, and you’ll have a hit on your hands.  (Disclaimer:  No guarantees if you use it on a date!)

    Dark Chocolate Cream Pie

    Ingredients

    Pie shell of your choice, docked and baked (Note:  “Docking” is the process of maniacally stabbing the crust with a fork or pastry tool to prevent the dough from bubbling up while baking.  If you use an Oreo or other cookie crust, though, neither docking nor baking is necessary).

    3 cups half and half

    2/3 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar

    1/8 tsp salt

    3 tbsp cornstarch

    4 large egg yolks

    4 oz. high quality bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped (Note x2:  Don’t skimp on the chocolate here.  Don’t use chocolate chips, either – the emulsifiers in the chips may help them hold their shape, but they don’t help the custard.  High-quality bar chocolate is best.)

    2 tbsp unsalted butter

    1 tsp vanilla extract

    1 cup heavy cream, chilled (Note x3:  The heavy cream is only necessary if you want to whip your own.  Cool Whip or its generic equivalent will work in a pinch.)

    Cocoa powder or chocolate shavings for garnish

    Directions

    Heat 2 ½ cups of half & half, 2/3 cup sugar and the 1/8 teaspoon salt in a saucepan.  Stir over medium heat until fairly hot and bubbles appear around edges of saucepan, then set aside off heat.

    Whisk together cornstarch and remaining ½ cup of half & half vigorously until dissolved – seriously, you’re not going to hurt anything, so make sure every last bit of cornstarch is dissolved.  Whisk in egg yolks one at a time until the mixture is uniform in color and textures.  Gradually whisk in sweetened half & half mixture, rinse out the saucepan and return the mixture to the pan.  Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently and scraping the bottom of the pan until the custard comes to a boil and thickens.  Be especially careful about hot spatters of custard as it heats up!  Reduce heat to medium low and stir constantly for one minute, and then remove from heat.  Add chopped chocolate, butter and ½ tsp vanilla and stir the mixture until the butter and chocolate melt completely.

    Pour custard into pie shell and smooth top (jiggling once or twice to remove air bubbles would be good too).  Allow the pie to cool, then refrigerate until serving.

    If making whipped cream:  Combine heavy cream, 2 tbsp sugar and ½ tsp vanilla in a large, chilled mixing bowl.  Beat the mixture until soft peaks form.  Spread whipped cream over pie and garnish with cocoa powder or chocolate shavings.

    -Guest Writer Michael (HML)

     

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  • 14Dec

    Be a Winner with this Easy Holiday Recipe; then Win $1 Million with a Recipe of Your Own

    In my inbox.

    -JAY

    ————————————–

    Be a Winner with this Easy Holiday Recipe;
    then Win $1 Million with a Recipe of Your Own

    Short on time for laying out a party spread that’ll wow your holiday guests?

    “The secret to creating something memorable is often as simple as pairing unexpected flavors that really hit it off,” says Dave Hirschkop, owner of Dave’s Gourmet (www.davesgourmet.com), maker of award-winning sauces.

    “It doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated,” he says. “If you mate ingredients that have chemistry, you’ll blow your guests away.”

    If you’ve already created that blow-em-away recipe – the sauce that’s the hit at every gathering – it could win you up to $1million in royalties in Dave’s Gourmet Recipe Challenge.

    And if you haven’t, Hirschkop has a gift for you: His Easy Holiday Dip will make short work of party-pleasing.

    Easy Holiday Dip

    1 ½ cups roasted red peppers (from jar or canned)

    1 8-ounce package of cream cheese

    ¼ cup pumpkin seeds

    1 Tablespoon olive oil

    ½ teaspoon paprika (I like smoked but any will do)

    Salt and pepper to taste

    Put everything into a food processor and pulse until smooth, creamy and delicious.

    Serve with fresh-cut veggies (carrot sticks, celery, you know the drill folks) pretzels or pita chips.

    For you chile heads, add a couple drops of your favorite Dave’s Gourmet hot sauce and make that dip rip!

    Dave’s Gourmet Recipe Challenge

    And now about that recipe contest. Dave’s Gourmet is looking for a winner to add to its product line, and guess who’ll get the royalties for six years? That’s right – you. Up to $1 million. Hey, it’s only fair if your name’s on the label.

    Payday starts immediately with a $2,000 advance.

    Just submit for your original recipe for a sauce, salsa or dip by Dec. 31 at www.davesgourmet.com. Dave’s team will test the recipes and choose semifinalists, who’ll be taste-tested by a Dave’s Gourmet panel. Finalists will be notified Jan. 12-14. The winner (or winners) will be chosen by food professionals attending the Fancy Foods Show in San Francisco. They’ll be notified Jan. 18.

    Isn’t it about time your killer sauce paid off? Dave thinks it is.

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  • 11Aug

    New Years Swordfish Recipe

    Kelsey Bowden of Pros In The City shared this recipe from last year’s New Years Eve Gala. 

    -JAY

    —————————-

    Last year, we served an exotic grilled swordfish at our New Year’s Gala VIP dinner in DC, and I was able to convince the catering company  we use to reveal their secrets. I was given an exclusive “lesson” on how they prepare what they call their Broadbill with Chipotle Cilantro Butter (broadbill is another name for swordfish).

    I was surprised to learn that there are only seven simple ingredients in the New Years Eve in DC recipe:

    2 pounds of Swordfish cut into four 8 oz. steaks,

    8 ounces of butter,

    2 tablespoons of cleaned Chipotle peppers,

    2 tablespoons of fresh Cilantro (chopped),

    2 lemons,

    2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil,

    2 tablespoons of freshly ground coarse sea salt.

    The majority of the hands-on time in this recipe is actually spent preparing the ingredients. First, each of the steaks were rubbed with about ½ tablespoon of sea salt on one side then covered with plastic wrap and set aside. Swordfish is relatively tough, so the salt acts as a tenderizer. The chef told me that this was done to all of the steaks served on new years eve the morning of the event in order to be able to cook everything in time once the event actually started, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t let them sit that long.

    Meanwhile, while the fish was tenderizing, we pureed the chipotle peppers and whipped the butter in separate food processors. Next, we blended both ingredients and the fresh cilantro (the pulse setting worked really well for this). We then placed the mixture onto parchment paper, rolled in into a 1-inch cylinder, and put it into the refrigerator to harden. This step was performed the night before serving the dish.

    Of course, most foods are best when served right off the flame, so the steaks were cooked the night of the event. While we were waiting for the broiler to reach temperature (500 is ideal for cooking swordfish), we coated the steaks with olive oil and squeezed fresh lemon juice onto them. They broiled for about 5 minutes per side; a good way to tell when to flip them is when the first side starts to caramelize. Once they are done, they will have some spring too the touch, but not be too firm. We used a thermometer to be sure that they were cooked. An internal temperature of 155 makes them safe to eat. Be careful not to overcook them as it is very easy to do so.

    Each steak was served with several quarter inch slices of the butter and served them with steamed wild rice with fresh dill, asparagus, and carrots, just like at last year’s Gala. I must say, this is one dish I would not mind having several times a year.

    Permalink Filed under: Recipes Tags: , , No Comments
  • 24Jun

    Add Coriander to These 5 Dishes

    Coriander "seeds." Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

    I was formally introduced to coriander for the first time through Rachael Ray’s “30 Minute Meals” episode covering a version of chicken tagine.  I had never heard of a tagine, or coriander (although I was familiar with the same plant’s leaves, cilantro)… but it was Rachael Ray.  I went out and promptly bought some of the spice, pre-ground.  On opening the jar, my nose proclaimed the sweet, lemony scent a winner.  I started putting the powder on a wide variety of foods, some good ideas, most not so much.  Sprinkling ground coriander over sushi, for example, remains one of my more spectacular failures.  However, oatmeal, vanilla ice cream, and couscous ended up delicious.  Baked goods of all kinds also benefit from coriander: apple pie, blueberry muffins, sugar cookies, and zucchini bread, just to name a few.

    To save you the trouble of experimenting, try adding coriander to these dishes the next time you make them:

    1.  Your Favorite Stir-Fry with Garlic & Ginger — about 2 teaspoons should do the trick.  Toss it in right before the dish is finished; the garlic highlights the coriander particularly well.  Personally, I like shrimp stir-fry the best, but tofu works just as well.

    2.  Quick Yogurt Sauce with Honey & Lime — use a tablespoon for every 2 cups of yogurt.  Throw in a couple dashes of lime juice and mix with honey to taste.  The sauce tastes great spooned over berries, or stir some into a handful of your favorite granola for fast snack.

    3.  Turkey Burgers — trust me!  Try adding 1 ½ teaspoons of coriander, some freshly chopped parsley, and cracked black pepper to your ground turkey.  The burgers gain a bright, summery taste that will please the taste buds of the young and old alike.

    4.  Risotto — use a teaspoon of the spice, and stir it in with about 5 minutes of cooking time left.  I’ve found that a few stalks of sautéed asparagus, chopped and served over the risotto, make a tasty presentation for someone worth impressing.

    Before I give my final tip, allow me to share a story.  In one of my more brilliant moments, I obtained some coriander seeds and ground them myself.  Unfortunately, I didn’t consider how peppercorn-like they would be in dishes.  What I mean, is that the little chunks of seeds retained their texture in most of the recipes I made.  I discovered that by braising the cracked seeds, I got much more favorable results.  I experimented and came up with a variation on my mom’s Dried Apricot Chicken.

    5.  Dried Apricot Chicken — I find that using fresh apricots yields mushy and unattractive results.  The quartered dried apricots keep their shape and color through the cooking process and just look prettier on the plate.  As an added bonus, the dried apricots have far less sugar than a regular jar of preserves.  Try this recipe and amaze your friends:

    • 1 ½ – 2 pounds of Chicken, cubed
    • ½ tsp salt
    • ½ cup diced Onion
    • 2 tsp minced Garlic
    • ½ cup diced Red Bell Pepper
    • 1 ½ cups Chicken Broth
    • 1 cup chopped Dried Apricots
    • ¼ tsp ground Ginger
    • 2 tsp Spicy Mustard
    • 2 tsp cracked Coriander seeds
    • Salt & Pepper to taste

    In a large skillet over medium-high heat, arrange the chicken cubes in a single layer and sprinkle with salt.  Drizzle with olive oil and cook the chicken until well done.  Remove from pan, and add the onion, garlic and bell pepper.  Cook over medium heat until the garlic starts to turn golden.  Return the chicken to the pan, along with the chicken broth and remaining ingredients.  Bring the dish to a boil over high heat while stirring, and then reduce heat to low.  Simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until the dried apricots begin to plump.  Add salt and pepper to taste, serve over couscous or brown rice.

    -Guest Writer Tiffany Kajer Wright (TKW)

    Permalink Filed under: Ingredients, Recipes Tags: , No Comments
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