dinner date

Heather offered to make me a nice dinner for my birthday a few weeks ago, and we finally scheduled some time last weekend for our dinner date. We decided on steak a la Julia Child, with a red wine/butter/shallot sauce that was fantastic. I don't have the recipe at the moment, because I didn't do the cooking (awesome!), but I thought I needed to say something about how delicious it was.




SO DELICIOUS.
Also, I revisited the roasted brussels sprouts, which were a huge hit. I am pretty certain that Heather said the brussels sprouts changed her life. At any rate, it was the perfect meal to share with a friend over a bottle of cotes du rhone!

making use of thanksgiving/csa leftovers

Pie is something I can bake pretty well, at this point. It is easy enough for me to throw one together if I need to bring something to a dinner, and they give my apartment such a delightful aroma that I'll use any excuse to put one in the oven.
In this case, I used leftover turkey, and veggies from my CSA box (community supported agriculture) to bake a turkey pot pie. I've already talked about pie crust, and pie filling is more about what you like than anything else, but one key ingredient to a turkey or chicken pot pie made in my family is that it must have hard-boiled egg in it. I don't know how or where this started, but if you haven't tried it--you should. Hard boil two or three eggs, coarsely chop them, and add to your pie filling.


In addition, I had: celery, parsnip, turnip, potato, onion, carrot, and cauliflower. If I could go back in time and do it all over, I would love to put sweet potato in the pie, but I am extremely partial to sweet potatoes and pretty much all other root vegetables right now. Add a delicious turkey gravy, salt & pepper, and anything else you wish (celery salt? roasted garlic?), bake for about 40 minutes (until the crust is golden brown and your kitchen smells divine), and enjoy!

sweet potato pie

I've never had sweet potato pie before this year. I'm not sure why--but I suspect that it just simply isn't a northwestern tradition, because many of my friends said the same thing when I baked this pie. We usually eat pumpkin pie at our family thanksgiving get-togethers. Some are homemade, some are store-bought, but the pumpkin pie is always there. It is delicious, comforting, and always the same. Part of holiday traditions is the traditional food, creating a link in your mind between Thanksgiving 2010 and many, many Thanksgivings in the past. I am the sort of person who thrives on that connection. This Thanksgiving, I had to work during the day, and my mother came over to my apartment to cook a feast for the two of us to enjoy when I got off work. I wanted to contribute to the meal, but had such limited time in the days preceding that I only managed to accomplish cranberry sauce and pie.
This pie, however, was worth it. I came across the recipe during my daily perusal of the New York Times--Mark Bittman's Minimalist column directed me to this recipe, which I took one look at and knew I had to make.
I should point out that I did not use any dried coconut in the crust. I can't stand the stuff, and it reminds me of fingernail clippings when I look at it, so I tend to eschew dried coconut entirely. Fresh coconut, coconut milk, coconut cream, and coconut water are all fair game, though!

Ingredients:

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs, made from one package graham crackers (which has 9 full cracker sheets according to the NYT recipe)
1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut (or not, if you are like me!)
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted
3 eggs
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Pinch ground cloves
Large pinch salt
1 cup coconut milk.

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Place sweet potatoes in a medium-sized saucepan, and fill with water to cover them. Cook for 15-20 minutes, or until they are very tender, then drain the water and mash the sweet potatoes.
While the sweet potatoes are cooking, put the graham crackers in a food processor and pulse a few times to crumble them. Add 2 tablespoons of the sugar and 1/4 teaspoon each of the ginger and cinnamon (and the coconut, if you choose to use it), and pulse once or twice; add the melted butter* and pulse just enough to combine.
Press the crust mixture into a 9-inch pie plate and bake for about 7 minutes, just long enough to lightly cook the crust before adding your wet pie filling to it.
In your food processor, combine the eggs with the leftover sugar, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt; pulse until well combined. Add the coconut milk and pulse to combine, then add the sweet potatoes and pulse until smooth. If you are a renegade baker who doesn't fear salmonella poisoning, this mixture tastes delicious.
Pour the sweet potato mixture gently into the pie crust, and bake it for 40-45 minutes, until the pie is set on top but still moist.

The recipe suggests serving the pie warm, which would surely be delicious, but if you are planning in advance, as I was, it is also quite tasty cold or room temperature, for dessert or breakfast (it was the morning after thanksgiving, so I get a free pass), for holiday party or seasonal dinner party. I have made two of these pies this year already, and have managed to capture a single photo, pre-baking.





*I used 6 tbsp of butter in my crust only. I tried using Anna's gingersnaps for my crust instead of graham cracker on my first try, and it didn't work out so well. There was SO much butter, and the crust just wasn't structurally sound. When I made the graham cracker crust as a second try, I was a little gun-shy, and cut back on the amount of butter. I definitely couldn't tell it was missing 2 tbsp of butter. Perhaps next time I will be daring and use all 8.

curried butternut squash red lentil soup

I can't seem to eat enough lentils these days. I've been making lentil soup of various types almost once a week! It's a good thing lentils are so healthy.
This time, I had an itch to make a soup that incorporated one of my favorite winter vegetables--squash! I tweaked a recipe from Gourmet magazine (February 2009) to suit me, with delicious results. Not only did this soup turn a beautiful shade of orange, but it was richly flavored, filling, and perfect for a crisp fall day. If I were better prepared, I might have garnished it with roasted spiced pumpkin seeds or served it with a nice grainy loaf of bread, but it stands on its own beautifully.
I should mention that the original version is not a blended soup, but I wanted a puree, so out came the immersion blender!


Ingredients:
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 lb butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp minced peeled ginger
1 tbsp curry paste (I used yellow)
1 cup red lentils, picked over and rinsed
2 qts water (I substituted vegetable stock)
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice, or to taste
1/4 tsp black pepper



Heat oil and butter together in a pot over medium heat until the butter is fully melted and the foam subsides. Add squash, onion, carrot, garlic, ginger, and 1 teaspoon salt, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened and beginning to brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Add curry paste and pepper, cook for a couple of minuted longer to allow the vegetables to absorb the curry flavor. Next, add vegetable stock (or water if you prefer), lentils, and simmer for 30-40 minutes, until lentils are tender. Blend soup until smooth, add lemon juice, and give it a good stir before serving. The original recipe also suggests drizzling the soup with cilantro oil before serving. If this is to your taste, you can make cilantro oil by pureeing 1/2 cup chopped cilantro and 1/2 cup vegetable oil with a pinch of salt in a blender.

brussels sprouts

I have successfully convinced at least two people this year that they do, in fact, like brussels sprouts. When I was a kid, I didn't like them either, but this winter... I eat them constantly. Right now, my favorite way to eat them is roasted--Ina Garten's recipe is ridiculously easy and SO good.

ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs brussels sprouts, cut in half lengthwise
3 tbsp good olive oil
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

Preheat your oven to 400F.
Toss brussels sprouts with the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread on a sheet pan and roast for 30-40 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally to ensure the brussels sprouts brown evenly. Sprinkle with more kosher salt if desired, and serve! I have eaten them hot out of the oven and also cold as leftovers and liked them immensely both ways. Even if you are a non-believer, I think you should give this a try... It is worlds different from the icky boiled brussels sprouts you may be familar with.

ginger cookies

I must confess to something. I'm going to use this space, as it seems the appropriate place to do so. I'm not the best cookie baker out there. I LIKE cookies, and I bake them, and they turn out well most of the time, but I always have strange issues to work through. I'm impatient, so I don't like to wait for my ingredients to be the right temperature--butter melted in the microwave through overzealous defrosting, I'm looking at you.

However, cookies are portable and delicious, they are good for potlucks and game night and bringing to work, and most of the time you can make the dough ahead of time by at least a day, which is great if you don't have a lot of time.

I stumbled across the following recipe for ginger cookies last week when I was yearning for a warm apartment filled with the delicious perfume of baking cookies. I adore ginger, and the prospect of a cookie with crystalized, fresh, AND ground ginger? Too delicious to ignore.

(Bon Appetit 2009)

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups flour

1/3 cup minced crystalized ginger

2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup (1 & 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

1/4 cup light/mild molasses

1 1/2 tsp grated peeled ginger

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves

Preheat your oven to 350F, and move the oven racks (if you are fancy and have more than one--my tiny oven does not) to the top third and bottom third of your oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and crystalized ginger.

Cream butter and brown sugar together in a large bowl using an electric mixer or elbow grease, if your mixer has gone a bit off it its old age like mine has. Add egg, molasses, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon. Beat this mixture together to blend, then add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients gradually--mix until blended.

Measure about 1/3 cup of white sugar into a bowl, then roll tablespoon-sized scoops of dough into balls and coat with sugar before placing them on the baking sheet. Place the cookies approximately 1 1/2 inches apart, and bake for about 15 minutes, or until the edges crack but the center remains slightly soft.
These cookies stayed fresh for the few days after baking that they survived--I will definitely make these again, and perhaps pack them with even more ginger next time! They were gingery and delicious for fall, but could be given a little added bite if that's your style.

Ps-I wasn't planning to make a pun via photo, but it just happened.

I love gin.

I really love this gin. It's from Oregon, and has a lovely cardamom flavor. www.ransomspirits.com/spirits.php

Just thought people should be aware.