BakedOff

OK, I give in … summer’s over. Now what do I do with all that basil?

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Allison

I woke up yesterday morning and temperatures were in the 40s. This morning it was drizzly and grey. The leaves are starting to change. I get it – summer’s over.

I’m facing the end of summer as best I can. I admit that the boogie boards and beach umbrella are still in my trunk, but that doesn’t mean I’m in total denial. For example, as I looked out onto my porch I realized that, if I didn’t want to lose all that parsley and basil that was growing out there, I better do something with it, and quick.

People swear by a lot of different ways of preserving leafy herbs over the winter. I’ve heard about blanching the leaves. I’ve heard about drying them. Those never really worked for me. I tried the “puree them and freeze them in ice cube trays” trick – but that didn’t work for me either. The cubes always suffered some freezer burn by the time I was ready to use them and my plastic ice cube trays were never really the same.

My solution? Freeze pureed herbs in sheets.

Cut, wash and thoroughly dry the leafy herbs.
Puree them with olive oil and whatever add-ins you want. Parsley paste works really well with this, but this year I ground up some plain basil and it worked beautifully.
Get yourself some gallon sized zipper-lock freezer bags and label them so that you don’t forget what’s in there come February. Spoon a cup or two of the herb puree into the bottom of the bag.
Lay the bag flat, seal it part way, then press the herb mixture up towards the opening so that it covers the inside of the bag in a thin layer.
Make sure there’s no air in there, and seal it all the way.
Lay the bag flat on a cookie sheet put it in your freezer.
Take out and break a piece off when you want to add some summer to a soup, stew, or sauce.

The result? A frozen layer of puree that is thin enough to allow you to break off pieces in whatever size you want, whenever you want. Added bonus? The puree is protected from freezer burn because there is no air between it and the bag. It’s also a snap to store because it barely takes up any room in the freezer.

Posted in First Place Recipes, In The Kitchen, Make Ahead-able, Recipes | 1 Comment

Florence’s Biscotti (V2.0) Goes To The Fair

Posted on September 30, 2012 by Allison

When we were young, in addition to tests or projects at school (which I think of as the childhood version of “work”), we had lots of opportunities to show our stuff. Kids did it all the time. There were art shows, sports, science fairs, music competitions … we put ourselves in situations where the world (or at least our world) rated us all the time. As life went on, I’ve been in situations where my performance was rated academically or professionally, but not so much outside of those arenas. I kind of fell out of practice.

Which is possibly why I felt a few butterflies when making my way to the main exhibit hall at the Long Island Fair last week. Yes folks, Fall is here, which means the Fair has come to town. The Long Island Fair is a tri-county event complete with competitions for the biggest pumpkin and the smallest tomato. In addition to the craft, agricultural and livestock competitions, there are baked goods competitions. I am proud to say I’ve won a couple of blue ribbons there in previous years, but this year I was feeling a little less confident. Entrants are allowed to enter only one category of baked goods and I couldn’t decide which one to go for. I finally decided to enter the cookie class with Florence’s Biscotti, but I felt the recipe needed some tweaking before it hit the midway. After some thought (and lots more taste testing), I came up with some adjustments that I think made a definite improvement.

And those butterflies? Apparently the judges liked the cookies as well – as evidenced by the blue ribbon I found hanging off them when the judging was finished.

Posted in Baking, Desserts | Comments Off

Savory Tomato Galette

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Allison

So … how was your summer? Mine was great, but, as always, it went by too quickly. We traveled to Michigan for the first time and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, Sleeping Bear dunes and an absolutely fantastic meal at Boathouse restaurant outside of Traverse City. We were lucky enough to spend a couple of weekends out east (that means on the eastern end of Long Island for you non-Islanders) in Montauk, and spent time at our local beach as well (and we won’t mention my attempts to learn how to use a skim board).

We also ate tomatoes. A lot of tomatoes. Actually, a lot of cherry tomatoes from our insane cherry tomato plants. By my count, we’ve picked about 1,766 and they’re not quite done yet. Not bad for three plants stuck on a suburban patio.

As you can guess, cherry tomatoes have graced our plates in many forms. We’ve dined on cherry tomato salad, tomatoes with mozzarella, tomato frittatas, pasta with sauteed cherry tomatoes and, possibly the biggest success, tomato galette.

What, you may ask, is a tomato galette? A galette is a kind of free form pie. This tomato galette is a savory version. I like to bake it in a cast iron skillet on the grill, but if you’re not inclined in that direction, check the note following the recipe for tips on baking it in an oven instead.

TOMATO GALETTE

Savory pastry dough (See recipe below)
3 tablespoons panko bread crumbs
2 – 2 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes, rinsed dried and cut in half
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
The grated zest of one lemon
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
Several basil leaves
One egg, beaten

Equipment: A 10 inch cast iron skillet

Get Ready

Heat up the grill so that it is about 425 degrees (F). I have 3 burners on my grill so I generally turn the middle one to its lowest setting (or keep it off) and adjust the temperature by changing the settings on the two outer burners.
Rub a little vegetable oil on the inside of the skillet.

Make The Filling

In a small bowl, combine the tomatoes, lemon zest, pine nuts, olive oil and vinegar.
Tear up the basil leaves into small pieces and add to the bowl.
Gently mix the ingredients to combine them.

Assemble the Galette

Roll out the pastry dough into a 12 inch circle.
Transfer the dough to the skillet, centering it so that it hangs evenly over the edges.
Spread the breadcrumbs over the dough in the skillet.
Cover the breadcrumbs with the filling.
Fold the edges of the dough over the filling. They won’t cover it all the way and some of the filling in the center will be exposed. Don’t worry if it’s not perfectly even – it’s supposed to look “rustic”.
Brush the crust with the beaten egg.

Baking

Bake the galette for about 30-40 minutes with the grill cover closed, until the tomatoes are bubbly. You may need to adjust your grill settings to keep the temperature constant – don’t worry if it fluctuates a bit. If the crust starts to brown too quickly, cover it with foil.

Serving

The galette can be served warm or at room temperature.

NOTE: You can also bake the galette in an oven using a pie tin. To do so, follow the recipe above, with the following alterations:

Set a rack in the center of your oven and preheat it to about 425 degrees (F).
Roll the dough out a bit thinner than you would for the grill-baked galette.
Line a pie tin with the pastry dough, making sure that the excess hangs evenly over the sides.
Proceed as in the recipe above, baking the pie for 50 – 60 minutes, until the bottom crust is solid and the tomatoes are bubbly. You may need to cover the galette with tin foil if it starts to brown too quickly.

SAVORY PASTRY DOUGH

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
A few grinds of black pepper
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon herbes de Provence
1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
7 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3 tablespoons ice water

In a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine the flour, salt, pepper, thyme, herbes de Provence and grated cheese.
Pulse a few times to combine the ingredients.
Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles cornmeal.
Move the mixture to a small bowl. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of ice water and knead a few times until the dough comes together. If necessary, add more water or, if it’s too sticky, a smidge more flour.
Form the dough into a disc, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least a few hours.

Posted in Baking, Baking, First Place Recipes, Grill, Make Ahead-able, Recipes, Vegetables | 2 Comments

1,000 cherry tomatoes on the vine, 1,000 cherry tomatoes…

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Allison

Each year we plant a few vegetables and herbs in containers on our small suburban patio. Some basil, thyme and rosemary. A few jalapeno peppers. Some green beans. And, of course, a few tomato plants. This year we planted three cherry tomato plants, figuring that would give us enough for some salads and pasta sauce for the summer.

2 1/2 months later and each of those three plants is over 8 feet tall. We’ve been harvesting tomatoes for about five weeks, and so far I’ve picked 1,041 tomatoes … and we’re only in the middle of August.

Needless to say, there have been lots of tomatoes bouncing around the kitchen, and some searching for new ways to serve them. One of my favorites, however, is still a standard – tomato salad, or in it’s trendier guise, tomato mozzarella salad. I know, I know, I can hear your groans through my monitor. You’ve eaten enough of these to choke a horse – but hold on a second. Sometimes there’s a reason that a standard becomes a standard.

Tomato salad is a summer treat worth waiting all year for. There’s the sweet acidity of the tomatoes balanced by the bite of fresh black pepper and a zing of sea salt and highlighted by the green tasting herbs. Tie it all together with some good olive oil and it is summer on a plate. Its cousin, tomato and mozzarella salad, takes it one step further by adding the sweet creaminess of fresh mozzarella. The combination of bright red and green against white is even delicious to the eye.

The trick to a successful tomato (and mozzarella) salad is using good ingredients and pulling all the flavor that you can out of them. Start the tomatoes ahead of time so that their juices mingle with the olive oil. Don’t even think about refrigerating it before serving. If adding mozzarella, give the cheese time to marinate in the juices and oil. With or without cheese, save some herbs to add right before serving. Try them and I promise they will earn place at your summertime table too.

TOMATO SALAD

2 1/2 cups ripe cherry tomatoes (or 2 cups ripe cherry tomatoes and one or two large ripe tomatoes). The “ripe” is important here, don’t use any of those greenish, pinkish, cottony things.
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup fresh mint
1/2 cup fresh basil
Sea salt and pepper to taste
If adding mozzarella – 1 medium ball of fresh mozzarella

Make The Tomato Salad

Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and, if using the large tomatoes, core them and cut them into pieces that are roughly the same size as the halved cherry tomatoes.
Transfer the tomatoes, and any juices from cutting them, to a non-reactive bowl.
Pour the olive oil over the tomatoes.
Season the tomatoes with salt and pepper.
Roughly chop or tear 1/4 cup of the mint and 1/4 cup of the basil and add to the tomatoes.
Toss the tomato mixture, cover the bowl and set it aside, at room temperature, for at least an hour or so before serving.
Roughly chop or tear the remaining herbs, add them to the tomatoes and toss right before serving.

If Making Tomato Mozzarella Salad, At Least Half An Hour Before Adding The Final Herbs …

Cube the mozzarella into pieces roughly the same size as the cherry tomato halves.
Add the cheese to the tomatoes, cover and let sit at room temperature for about at least half an hour before adding the remaining herbs and serving.

Posted in First Place Recipes, In The Kitchen, Make Ahead-able, Recipes, Vegetables | Tagged Cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, tomato salad | Comments Off

Bread Baking on the Grill

Posted on July 15, 2012 by Allison

I know I’ve mentioned both how much I love baking bread and how much I hate heating up the kitchen during the summer. These two sentiments pretty much put me between a rock and a hard place. After all, baking bread requires keeping the oven at a high heat for quite a bit. Then it hit me – our grill is basically an outdoor oven. Why not use it?

So I did. First I tried baking a hearth loaf on a grill-safe baking stone. I didn’t love the results. The bread was fine, but I didn’t get the crust or the rise that I got from baking in my oven. I took a good look around the kitchen and a cast iron skillet caught my eye. It didn’t have a lid, but I figured that since the internal space of the grill was smaller than that of my oven, the grill itself would probably trap the heat and moisture to help the crust along. I tried again, this time preheating the skillet in the grill, placing the shaped loaf in the hot skillet and closing the lid as quickly as I could after scoring the bread. Success!

GRILL BAKED BREAD

Make a boule – style bread dough through it’s first rise and shaping. The basic no-knead loaf in Jim Lahey’s My Bread is a great one to try. If you would like to try a sourdough version, take a look at Sourdough Bread On My Schedule.
About a half hour before the dough is through with it’s second rise, turn the grill on, setting it on high, and place a 10 inch cast iron skillet in it.
Close the lid of the grill and let it preheat. You want to get it up to about 475 degrees (F) and keep it there. On my gas grill, which has three main burners, I turn all three on high until the thermometer shows almost 500 degrees. Then I set the two outer burners on high and turn the middle one to low or off. I check every once in a while and fiddle with the dials to keep it around 475 degrees.
When the second rise is completed, place the dough in the skillet with it’s seamed, or flat, side down. Since I rise my dough in a basket (See Sourdough Bread On My Schedule) I invert the dough into the skillet.
Score the bread to help it rise. I score mine by using a kitchen shears and slicing three horizontal lines across the middle surface of the loaf.
Close the lid of the grill and let it cook for 30 minutes.
Check occasionally that the temperature is at about 475 degrees and adjust accordingly to keep it there.
After 30 minutes, take a peek. It needs to cook another 10-20 minutes more, depending on how well it’s baked so far. It should be fairly dark at this point. If it’s not, go closer to 20 minutes.
After that additional 10-20 minutes, take the loaf out of the skillet and let it cool completely before slicing.
Enjoy a slice while sitting in your nice, cool kitchen.

Posted in Baking, Grilled | Tagged Bread, Bread baking, Grill baking | 3 Comments

Grilled lettuce? Grilled lettuce!

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Allison

Have any of you experienced summer on Long Island? The phrase “hazy, hot and humid” was, in my opinion, created to describe summertime here. It’s great, I love it, but sometimes I just don’t want to cook in it. I’m sure many of you feel the same way about cooking in the summer even if you don’t live here.

The obvious solution is salad – quick, cool and easy. The only problem is that salad can get, to put it bluntly, boring.

Enter grilled lettuce. Crazy? I don’t think so. After all, grilled radicchio has been around for a dog’s age. Grilling lettuce gives you a variety of textures (wilted, crunchy) and flavors (cool, charred, sweet, tangy) all with minimum cooking and maximum impact.

A few notes:

You want to use lettuce that is compact so it doesn’t fall apart on the grill. I suggest heads of romaine, and I use the packaged ones you can get 3-heads-to-a-pack at most grocery stores.

Also, you need a strong dressing here to pull everything together. Don’t be afraid of the garlic, mustard or anchovy/tomato and feel free to add more of them.

GRILLED LETTUCE

3 small heads romaine lettuce
Canola oil, for oiling the grill
1 cup olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, crushed, peeled and minced
1/3 cup sherry vinegar
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
10 grounds of black pepper
Generous pinch of salt
1 anchovy, rinsed and minced or an oil packed sun dried tomato, minced. (optional)

Get Ready

Preheat the grill to high.
Let it get hot.

Prepare the Lettuce

Trim the core end of each head of lettuce.
Discard the first outer layer of leave if they look dingy.
Halve each head of lettuce, cutting through the core end first to make sure that it’s split evenly.
Halve each lettuce half, again cutting through the core end first to make sure that it’s spit evenly. You’ve now quartered each head of lettuce. TIP: Cutting through the core edge first helps make sure that the lettuce leaves are well connected to the core, which makes each quarter hold together better during grilling.
Rinse and dry each quarter.

Make the Dressing

Place the vinegars, garlic, mustard, and anchovy or tomato in a small bowl.
Add the oil in a slow stream while whisking.
Continue whisking until the mixture is emulsified.
Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Grill the Lettuce

Drizzle dressing on the lettuce quarters. Make sure that the dressing gets inside the leaves.
Oil the grill grates with a neutral oil like canola oil.
Place each lettuce quarter on the grill.
Grill the lettuce, turning after a few minutes so that each outside surface has direct contact with the heat.
For small quarters, total cooking time should be about 7 minutes. For larger quarters, total cooking time should be about 10 minutes.
Remove the lettuce from the grill, and drizzle with more dressing.

4-6 servings.

Posted in Grill, Grilled, In The Kitchen, Make Ahead-able, Vegetables | Tagged Grilled salad, Lettuce, Salad | Comments Off

Lavender Ice Cream and Lavender Sugar

Posted on June 27, 2012 by Allison

When I was a kid my folks went to England and brought me back a lavender sachet. Thus began my love affair with with scent of lavender, which was only reaffirmed during trips to Tuscany and Provence.

I’ve loved baking with lavender ever since reading Dorie Greenspan’s suggestion for making lavender madeleines in her Baking: From My Home To Yours. Lately I’ve also been making and using lavender sugar, which smells fantastic and is quite satisfying to see when you open up your pantry.

I was running low on cooking lavender and laid in a new supply, which would usually prompt a flurry of baking. The flurry was foiled when we got slammed with a heat wave and it was just too hot to bake. Which, actually, made it perfect weather for making ice cream – so I naturally jumped to “I wonder if I can make lavender ice cream?” To cut a long story short, I could, and I did, and I think you might want to give it a try too.

Lavender Ice Cream

2 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup heavy or whipping cream
3/4 cup lavender sugar (see recipe below)
1/4 cup vanilla sugar (TIP: If you don’t have vanilla sugar, you can substitute 1/4 cup white granulated sugar plus 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract … and then go make some vanilla sugar!)
2 teaspoons rose water NOTE: Rose water is becoming more common and I can get it now at my local Whole Foods. You can also try looking in markets that sell middle eastern foods.

Make The Ice Cream

Put the milk, cream and sugars into a small sauce pan over medium heat and cook, stirring, until the sugar is completely dissolved and it is almost, but not quite, simmering.
Remove it from the heat, pour it into a container and let it cool down a bit. Cover the container and refrigerate until it’s cold. I usually do this the day before I want to eat the ice cream and I let it sit overnight in the fridge.
Freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Of course, if you were to use this to make popsicles, no one, least of all me, would blame you one bit.

NOTE: I like the crunchiness of ice milk more than the creaminess of ice cream. If you like yours creamier, just try increasing the proportion of milk to cream – using, for example, half milk and half cream and going up from there.

Lavender Sugar

2 cups white granulated sugar
2 to 4 tablespoons culinary lavender
NOTE: Make sure that the lavender that you’re using hasn’t been sprayed with anything nasty and is edible. If you can’t find any near you (and you’re not growing your own), you can order lavender through Penzeys Spices.

Put the sugar and lavender in a food process fit with a steel blade and pulse it a few times to break up the lavender. You don’t want to completely pulverize it, just break it up and distribute it throughout the sugar. Put it in a jar.
Alternatively, if you don’t have a food processor, you can chop up the lavender or smash it with a mortar and pestle. Mix the lavender and the sugar together and put it in a jar.
Put a lid on the jar and close it tightly. Canning jars are great for this.
Let it sit for at least a few days so the sugar is scented with the lavender.

Posted in Desserts, Desserts, In The Kitchen, Recipes | Tagged Ice cream, Lavender, Lavender ice cream, Lavender sugar, Rose water | Comments Off

Toasted Almond-Sauteed Apple-Greek Yogurt Cake

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Allison

I’m thinking that I have to come up with a name for this cake, because Toasted Almond- Sauteed Apple-Greek Yogurt Cake is: a. a mouthful, and b. somehow too complicated to be appetizing. Which isn’t accurate, because this cake is mighty appetizing. For now, let’s call it Fred, which is no more appetizing, but is certainly less complicated.

Fred was a cake born of happenstance. I had been thinking about making a yogurt cake and had all the ingredients, but never got around to it. At the same time, “Heritage Day” arrived at my son’s school. Part of this celebration involved parents bringing in traditional family dishes. My son chose noodle kugel, a baked concoction of dairy products, sugar, cooked egg noodles and raisins. Since he doesn’t like raisins, I substituted sauteed apples. I had extra apples and was trying to figure out what to do with them. Sauteed apples … yogurt cake … As they say, the rest is history.

The first few times I tried making Fred I used an 8 1/2 x 4 x 2 1/2 inch loaf pan, and I kept getting a very disappointing sag down the middle length of the pan. I switched to a larger pan, decreased the temperature a bit during the last half of the cooking, baked it a smidge longer and, voila, no sagging.

Try Fred and, if you can think of a better name, let me know.

FRED, THE TOASTED ALMOND-SAUTEED APPLE-GREEK YOGURT CAKE

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup almond meal or finely ground almonds
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup Greek or strained yogurt
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup sauteed apples
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), melted and cooled slightly
1/4 cup amaretto or other almond flavored liqueur.

Getting Ready

Place a rack in the middle of your oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F).
Grease a 10 x 6 x 3 inch loaf pan. Take a long piece of parchment paper and lay it in the pan so that the short sides of the paper are parallel to the long sides of the pan. It will cover the two long sides and the bottom. There will be some overhang on the two long sides of the pan, which is as it should be. Grease the paper.

Make The Batter

Toast the almond meal by putting it in a skillet over medium heat. Stir constantly. Take it off the heat and put the meal in a bowl as soon as it’s toasted or as soon as you start to smell it, whichever comes first. Watch out – it burns easily.
Put the flour, almond meal, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside a tablespoon of the flour mixture.
In a larger bowl, mix the sugar, eggs, yogurt, vanilla extract and almond extract.
Add the flour mixture to the yogurt mixture and stir to combine.
Mix the apples with the tablespoon of flour mixture. TIP: Why? In my experience, coating additions like fruit or chocolate chips with a bit of the flour mixture helps keep them from sinking to the bottom during baking.
Add the apples and the melted butter and stir to combine. It will look a little curdled at first – that’s ok.

Bake It Off

Put the batter in the prepared pan.
Bake for 25 minutes.
Rotate the pan, lower the heat to 325 degrees (F) and, if it’s browning too fast, cover the top with tin foil.
Cook for another 30 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Finishing Up

While Fred is still warm, poke holes all over it with a cake tester or thin skewer.
Pour the amaretto evenly across the top. It will quickly be absorbed by the cake.
I like to wrap it up and refrigerate it overnight before cutting.

Yield: One loaf cake

Posted in Baking, Baking, Desserts, Desserts, First Place Recipes, Make Ahead-able, Recipes, Uncategorized | Tagged almond, amaretto, Loaf cake, sauteed apples, yogurt | Comments Off

Back To Basics – Vegetable Soup

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Allison

Sometimes, even as summer begins, it can feel a bit cold and dreary which, of course, turns my thoughts to soup. It is a crazy busy time in my house so I wanted something that would be quick to put together and not challenging to eat – comfortable cooking of comfort food. Vegetable soup satisfies those requirements and feels healthy to boot.

This recipe is vegetable soup at its most basic. Of course you can substitute or add any of your favorite veggies to it, just pay attention to their cooking times. Group vegetables with similar cooking times together to maintain their integrity, otherwise you wind up with crunchy soup or mush. For example, if you add a zucchini when you start the onions, it will dissolve by the time the soup is done. Conversely, add carrots during the last few minutes of cooking with cooked beans or peas and they’ll never be done in time.

Avoid using vegetables that have been hanging around too long in the fridge. Yes, this soup makes great use of vegetables that keep well in the fridge like onions, garlic, shallots and carrots. But if they’re on their last legs, wilted and slimy, your soup will be less than delicious. Make sure to add some fresh seasonal veggies like zucchini or peas, and tons of fresh herbs too.

Note: By “medium dice”, I mean pieces that are about 1/2 inch.

BASIC VEGETABLE SOUP

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, peeled and cut in a medium dice (about 1 cup)
2 small carrots, peeled and cut in a medium dice (about 2/3 cup)
2 shallots, peeled minced (about 1/2 cup)
4 cloves of garlic, smashed, peeled and minced
1 15 oz can of diced tomatoes, with their juices, or several diced, peeled tomatoes
One quart chicken or vegetable stock or water (TIPS: If using canned or boxed stock, use 3 cups stock and one cup water. Also, look for low sodium stock. If you’re only using water, add some dried thyme and dried oregano to punch up the flavor.)
2 zucchinis, scrubbed and cut in a medium dice
A handful of string beans (or Italian flat beans if you can find them), trimmed and cut in half inch pieces (1/2 cup)
One 15 oz can of white beans or chickpeas, rinsed and drained.
1/2 cup of fresh peas (optional)
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
1/4 cup basil, chopped
Grated cheese, for serving
Salt and black pepper to taste

Make The Base

Coat the bottom of a pot with the olive oil and heat over medium-high heat.
When the oil is warm enough, add the onion, shallot, carrots and garlic. Saute until the onions start to sweat (about 5 minutes).
Lower the heat to medium and add a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper.
Saute until the onions start to brown (another 5 minutes or so).

Build The Soup

Add the tomatoes, with their juices, and cook for a few minutes, stirring.
Add the stock (or water, or water and stock). Raise the heat up to medium-high again and bring the soup to a simmer.
Decrease the heat and add the zucchini and string beans. Cover and simmer until the zucchini is almost tender and just start to turn a bit transparent.
Add the beans and, if using the peas. Cook for a few minutes until the carrots and zucchini are tender.
Take off the heat and add the fresh herbs.
Serve with grated cheese, and garnish with additional herbs and/or a drizzle of olive oil.

NOTE: You can also add small pasta shapes. Add raw pasta during the last 8 minutes or so of cooking. Since it will soak up a lot of the broth, be ready to add more broth. If you won’t be eating this immediately, consider cooking the pasta separately and adding it right before serving. If you add the pasta too early and let it sit in the soup, the pasta will soak up too much of the broth and become mush.

Posted in First Place Recipes, In The Kitchen, Make Ahead-able, Soups, Uncategorized, Vegetables | Tagged Vegetable Soup | Comments Off

Sauteed Apples

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Allison

This is really more of a recipe-lette. I found myself looking for a substitute for raisins for a noodle pudding recipe and, after rummaging around in the fridge and pantry, my eye fell on a few Granny Smith apples. Sure, I could just cut up the apples and throw them in raw, but wouldn’t it be nicer to saute them in butter and sugar and spices? Of course it would!

You can use these as an ingredient in other baked goods (like muffins, quick breads. pancakes, crepes or pies) or as a topping for yogurt or ice cream. Obviously, if you were to decide to just dig in with a spoon, I wouldn’t say boo.

SAUTEED APPLES

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut in a medium dice. TIP: I like how the tartness of aGranny Smith balances the dish out and how it holds its shape after sauteing, but you can use other apples if you like.
2 tablespoon (packed) light brown sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar (vanilla sugar, if you have it, is perfect here)
A pinch of ground nutmeg
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons amaretto liqueur

Cook The Apples

Melt the butter in a saute pan over medium high heat.
When the butter is done foaming, add the apples. Stir to coat the apples in the butter.
Sprinkle the sugars and the spices over the apples and continue cooking.
Cook, stirring occassionally, for about 10 minutes or until the apples begin to brown.
Add the amaretto and continue cooking until it disappears.

YIELD: About 1 1/2 cups

Posted in Baking, Cookie Recipes, Desserts, Desserts, First Place Recipes, Make Ahead-able, Recipes | Tagged Apples, caramelized apples, sauteed apples | 1 Comment