Subservient Chef

Pear, Fontina, Gorgonzola, & Walnut Flatbread

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 18:53:10 -0400

I love my ovens, but when it is over 100 degrees outside they tend to heat up the kitchen. It isn’t really pleasant to cook outside either, but at least there is a nice cool house waiting for me.

I’ve been making flatbreads on the grill a lot, and the latest creation consisted of (in this order) shredded fontina cheese, sliced pears, chopped walnuts, and gorgonzola crumbles. NOM ! I think the only way to improve this almost masterpiece would be to LIGHTLY candy the walnuts.

Peach, Prosciutto and Goat Cheese Summer Pizza

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 19:00:47 -0400

Over on Facebook, Hubby posted a link to this recipe and suggested that I make it for him. So of course, I flew home from Tucson, went to the store to pick up a few ingredients, and rushed right home to start cooking :)

I always keep some dough mix in the pantry, so I mixed that together and while it was rising I cut the peaches and prosciutto. This pizza, which was actually more of a flatbread, took all of ten minutes to prepare. Here they are cooking on the pizza stone on the grill.

The combination of crispy prosciutto, sweet Texas peaches, and slightly tangy goat cheese was definitely a win.

Roasted Tomato Farfalle alla Vodka

Thu, 03 May 2012 19:41:17 -0400

The bruschetta didn’t use up all of the tomatoes, and I have a forest of basil, so I figured that I would make some pasta (though of course, this meant buying a few more tomatoes - too many, too few never-ending cycle). My first instinct was a cappellini pomodoro, but that was too obvious. I recalled a recipe from the Cooking Channel for roasted tomato penne alla vodka. I hadn’t made this before, and I was a little suspicious of marscapone cheese, but I had a few hours to kill so what the heck.

The most time consuming part of the recipe is roasting the tomatoes - over an hour of them sizzling away in the oven. The next part went pretty quick - sautee onions and garlic, add vodka and chicken stock, reduce, and then add the roasted tomatoes/marscapone, puree with immersion blender, and stir in some shredded basil.

Once it is all nice and saucy, add in cooked pasta (called for penne, but i had bow ties - farfalle), stir, dump in a casserole dish, and top with mozzarella and parmesan. THEN it goes back in the oven for another 45 minutes.

Crazy time consuming but oh so good. To quote my husband, “This is like restaurant good - and I don’t mean Olive Garden!”

The Zucchini Muffins

Wed, 02 May 2012 19:31:47 -0400

Continuing to eat our way through the bushel, my next feat was to use the zucchinis, which were looking a little sad after 9 days in the fridge.I thought of stuffed zucchinis, or veggie kabobs, but somehow wound up making this recipe for zucchini muffins.

Stirring it all together, I was a little worried. The grated zucchini looked WAY too … pronounced. Also, I didn’t have any raisins so I substituted dried cranberries - wasn’t sure how that was going to turn out either. Let’s just say that I have TOTALLY made up for the cranberry orange muffin fail.

Potato Leek Soup

Tue, 01 May 2012 19:46:20 -0400

Another item from the veggie bushel was leeks, which I can say I’ve honestly never bought nor cooked. The most obvious use seemed to be potato leek soup, so I decided on this recipe from Simply Recipes.

As I said, I’ve never cooked a leek before. Luckily the recipe included instructions for which part to use and how to cook.

To me it kind of tasted like a baked potato… not that there’s anything wrong with that, it was just a hint too thick to be soup. And I was surprised that it was so thick given there was no cream. Still good, just not what I was expecting.

What to do with Arugula...

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 19:31:29 -0400

Still trying to eat our way through the bushel of veggies, I am a bit stumped with the arugula. For lunch over the weekend I made bruschetta, with tomatoes from our sad backyard garden and a few leaves of arugula.

I sliced a french baguette, spritzed the slices with olive oil, and then grilled them on both sides. Then I topped each slice with a leaf of arugula, a tomato slice, fresh mozzarella, and then a sprinkle of italian seasoning. It was the perfect lunch, however, I have an entire bag of arugula left…

Veal Paillard with Spicy Parmesan Green Beans and Kale

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 10:01:11 -0400

We started getting vegetables delivered from a nearby farm. Technically, the farm is half way between here and Austin and delivers to both cities. Every other week, a bushel of whatever is in season is delivered to my doorstep. The first bushel contained:

lettuce (1 head)
zucchini
green cabbage
leeks
kale OR chard (not sure which we got…)
arugula
carrots
sweet potatoes

I am not certain that I’ve ever eaten Kale. I found this recipe for “spicy parmesan green beans and kale” that looked pretty good, and would also use up some other items I had in the fridge. This was a crowd pleaser ! It has a little bit of a kick to it, and I’ll reduce the salt the next time I make it, but overall YUM.

The veal paillard was pretty fantastic too - takes two minutes on the grill and tastes divine.

The Turkey Larb

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:08:18 -0400

I have been traveling a LOT lately. A few weeks ago, while waiting to reach the “you may now use approved electronic devices” announcement, I caught a Giada episode on the inflight tv. One of the recipes was turkey larb (larb, apparently, means meat salad). It looked pretty good, and also healthy, so i though I would give it a try.

This recipe was super quick to make

Chop onion, shallots, chile, and lemon grass
Saute items from step 1
Add the turkey and continue to cook until done
Stir in the whisked honey, fish sauce, lemon juice, and lime juice

It was a tad too fishy for me to positively love it, but hubby gobbled it up and finished the entire pan.

1st Fail - Cranberry Orange Muffins

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 10:00:05 -0500

They can’t all be good, I suppose.

After the banana walnut muffin success, I was anxious to try another fruity muffin. I debated between lemon poppyseed and cranberry orange, and finally settled on this recipe from the Food Network.

I should have been suspicious when the batter seemed way too dry. I’m (almost) certain that I used the correct measurements of everything, but ended up having to add more milk to avoid a lump of dough. Still not sure what went wrong, but they were dense and dry.

Note to self: find another Cranberry Orange Muffin recipe

Got mushy bananas? Make muffins !

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 09:51:00 -0500

Three bananas on the counter had reached that inevitable point: not rotten, but too soft to enjoyable eat. I know, #firstworldproblem.

A quick search resulted in an easy-looking recipe for banana nut muffins. Better yet, I had all of the ingredients so I could make them immediately. I felt a little weird baking muffins on my lunch break, but I work from home, so much of what I do is weird :)

40 minutes later the house smelled absolutely wonderful.

I omitted the espresso cause I didn’t have any and thought including coffee might taste weird. I’ll certainly be making these again, so perhaps I’ll try the espresso then.

What's for dinner? Spicy Beef Lettuce Cups

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:30:50 -0500

I was productive over the weekend and finally got through an eight-inch stack of magazines that had been pushed around the kitchen counter for the past, um, two places that I have lived.

There were several good finds, including an “America’s Test Kitchen 30-minute Suppers” from summer of 2010. I found the recipe for Spicy Beef Lettuce Cups particularly interesting - who doesn’t like a good lettuce wrap right?

I’m always suspicious of 30 minute meals, but this one was as advertised. Whisk together some oyster sauce, sherry, and water, saute some ground beef, saute the red pepper and ginger, and then stir it all together with some oyster sauce and Asian chili-garlic sauce. Our sad little Kroger didn’t have Bibb lettuce, so I had to use romaine. I also had to google how to substitute powdered ginger for fresh ginger. Damn Kroger.

Let’s just say the skillet was scraped clean. Next time I’ll make the extra effort and find Bibb lettuce, because the romaine hearts were not large/sturdy enough. The meal seemed delightfully low carb too, well, until I made some sticky rice. Next time I’ll try the sesame-scallion noodles.

Yum !

Need a side? Mouthwatering Roasted Cauliflower

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 19:52:05 -0500

Oh. My. Yum.

Giant heads of very fresh looking cauliflower was on sale last time I was at the store, and though Andy is usually lukewarm on this cruciferous vegetable, I thought I’d give it a try anyway.

I found a recipe for roasted cauliflower on one of my fave recipe websites (Simply Recipes). This could not have been easier.

Break up the cauliflower and spread in single layer in baking dish
Sprinkle with garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper
Bake for 25 minutes at 400, and then sprinkle with parmesan cheese

Absolutely perfect texture, seasoning, everything. Andy went back for seconds and then ate the rest directly from the baking dish.

Craving Chinese? Better Than Takeout Orange Chicken

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 19:00:06 -0500

This is another one of those recipes that I wasn’t too confident about…

I spotted it on Pinterest and mentally filed it away for when the take out Chinese food craving hit.

The recipe had step by step photos, which reassured me that it wasn’t too complicated.

Dredge chicken pieces in egg, cornstarch mixture, then egg again, then panko
Fry in batches in vegetable oil heated to 375 (I messed up here - first batch the oil was not nearly hot enough)
While the chicken is frying, make the sauce (which could not have been simpler)

I have to say, this WAS definitely better than takeout ! Though the four step chicken dredging process was time consuming, I’m pretty sure that is what makes the chicken tender and juicy on the inside and perfectly crispy on the outside even when mixed with the sauce. YUM.

Need a side? Roasted Smashed Potatoes

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:31:06 -0500

I kind of winged it for this most recent creation. I saw a photo of roasted smashed potatoes on the Americas Test Kitchen website, but I was too lazy to register for a free trial. I figured the general concept was:

Boil potatoes until they are soft enough to smash (took about 25 minutes)
Place potatoes on baking sheet (I sprayed the sheet with Pam anticipating some stickage)
Smash each potato using a potato masher
Brush with olive oil, and sprinkle with kosher salt, ground pepper, and herbs (I used Italian seasoning)
Bake (I baked at 450 for 20 minutes)

I think that the potatoes that I had were a little too big, and the smashing would work better with smaller (1-1/2 - 2 inch diameter) spuds. They tasted fantastic though !

Pressure Cooker Shredded BBQ Chicken Sliders

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:36:16 -0500

I came across a recipe for pressure cooker bbq chicken sliders via Pinterest. It looked yummy in the photo, and was quasi-healthy, but it seemed to have had disaster written all over it.

First of all, I’ve never used a pressure cooker. Years ago, I tried to make bbq chicken in the crock pot. We ordered pizza that night.

Second of all, this recipe recommended using a Kitchen Aid stand mixer with the paddle (beater blade) attachment to create perfectly shredded chicken. Are you high? Won’t it turn it to mush? On the other hand, I am horrible at shredding chicken using the two-fork method. It never quite gets the right consistency. So maybe the Kitchen Aid method would be the trick.

I plopped three boneless skinless chicken breasts in the pressure cooker, sprinkled on some leftover Paula Deen House Seasoning, locked the lid, and pressed the chicken button. About 30 minutes later, I released the lid to find evenly cooked, moist, chicken breasts. I am now an experienced pressure cooker.

Next, I threw the cooked chicken breasts into the Kitchen Aid fitted with the paddle attachment. I turned the power to #4 and watched as perfectly shredded chicken appeared before me. Huh. Who knew.

Then I took a gamble. I poured some of the bbq sauce into the mixer and blended some more. No use using another utensil, right? Well, it worked, and the shredded bbq chicken sliders were a complete hit.

Baked Spaghetti

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:14:18 -0500

Had a bit of a hankering for comfort food yesterday, so I wound up on the Food Network site and found this recipe for baked spaghetti from Paula Deen. Basically you make a meat sauce, and then layer it in a casserole with thin spaghetti and cheeses. YUM.

Chicken-Corn Chili

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:29:00 -0500

Who doesn’t love the Food Network. Seriously.

I spotted this recipe via my RSS feed, and given my recent obsession with rotisserie chickens, it seemed perfect. Too bad it was 78 degrees. Not really “comfort food” weather.

This was so freaking easy to make - recipe here. Saute some onions/garlic/cumin, add chicken broth (which I had leftover from my Ina Garten Chicken Soup), add chicken/beans, and simmer for 15 mins. The recipe said to use a potato masher to mash the chili until about half of the beans are broken up, but I used an immersion blender - way easier. Stir in some corn, top with cheese and sour cream. Voila.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:03:00 -0500

Sick. Not a good way to start the year. The menu for first week of 2012 included saltines, jello, applesauce, and wonton soup from the Asian restaurant at the corner.

Towards the end of the week I was feeling a little daring so I picked up a rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods. I have to say, as store bought rotisserie chickens go, Whole Foods knocks it out of the park. Or maybe I was just THAT tired of bland, bowel-friendly food.

I decided to make chicken soup with the leftover carcass and meat, and Food Network recipe from Ina Garten. I saved the recipe to Paprika, which has a super handy scale feature to reduce the number of servings. After all, I only had one chicken, not 3.

The recipe was super easy (though I had to modify slightly based on pantry supplies).

Simmer the onion, carrots, celery, parsnips, and herbs & spices (all unpeeled), the chicken carcass in a full pot of water for four hours. I added a chicken bouillon cube
Strain the contents of the pot through a collander and chill the broth for an hour
Remove the surface fat and return the broth to the pot to reheat, adding carrots, the shredded chicken meat, and egg noodles. Should take about 5 minutes.

I was concerned that it would be watery, but is was very flavorful and the right consistency. It took a long time to cook, but the actual amount of work was nothing and the house smelled gReAt. Not as adventurous as a consomme, but I’ll get there.

Bacon-laced Brussel Sprouts

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:44:07 -0500

I’ve never eaten a brussel sprout. Why? Not sure.

Hubby loves them, so I figured I’d make em and see what all the fuss was about.

Steam sprouts until they are bright green. Do not cook them all the way - very important
While the sprouts are steaming, cook a few slices of bacon (at least 2 for a small batch of sprouts, say 2-4 strips of bacon for 1 lb of brussel sprouts). Cook the bacon until crispy - remove the bacon from the pan but save the bacon grease
Place the semi-cooked sprouts in a cold water bath. When they are cool enough to handle cut them in half (I used the small sprouts, the kind that come on a stalk or in a “ready to microwave” bag)
Add the semi-cooked brussel sprouts to the bacon pan. If there wasn’t enough grease, add a little butter. Saute the brussel sprouts until they are slightly seared - do not overcook
Salt and pepper to taste

I thought they were quite tasty, and our dinner guests had seconds so I think this recipe is a keeper.

Baked Brie Bites

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:24:38 -0500

One of my go-to appetizers is Paula Deen’s brie en croute. The only problem with this dish is that no one wants to be the first one to destroy it and dig in. I’ve tried serving it with a piece cute out, but it still doesn’t get much traffic until at least 1/4 is eaten.

Enter baked brie bites. I found the recipe via the Houston Press Twitter feed and mentally filed it away for future use. I was at my mom’s this weekend, and decided to give them a try for our annual family party.

The most challenging aspect of this recipe is finding the phyllo cups. Seriously. In Houston you can get them at Central Market. In OC we found them at Gelson’s (struck out at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Ralphs, and Albertsons).

We did a test run of the recipe the day before the party and adapted as follows:

Cut the rind off the brie and absolutely do not skimp on the cheese.
After the brie, place a dollop of apricot jam, and then press the chopped walnuts into the jam
Bake at 400 for 10 minutes. Baking at the recommended 350 just didn’t cut it and the higher temp roasts the walnuts nicely</li>

These were an absolute hit - snarfled by even the pickiest of eaters.