Cauliflower Gratinée Cupcakes, well, they're probably quiche

An exercise in food processing inspired by the pineapple soufflé recipe my mother gave me to make for Christmas dinner.

1 medium head cauliflower, cut into large chunks

1 medium clove garlic, peeled

½ stick softened butter, with a tad bit of bacon fat thrown in just because.

5 eggs

1 – 1 ½ cup assorted cheeses, grated. Make sure there is some Pecorino and some sharp cheddar in this assortment

2 pieces sliced bread, cut into small cubes

Generous squeeze of spicy mustard, about 1 ½ tsp

½ tsp smoked or regular paprika

½ tsp cumin

Salt & freshly-ground black pepper

Non-stick spray

If I had a little nutmeg, I’d have used that too.

Preheat your oven to 350°. If you store anything in your oven, don’t forget to remove it first! Gah!

Using the slicing or grating disk of your food processor, deconstruct the cauliflower and the garlic. Dump into a mixing bowl.

If the cheese is not already grated, run it through the food processor now. Let the cheese join the cauliflower in the mixing bowl.

Switch from the disk to the blade and combine the butter, eggs, and seasonings. Pour this over the cauliflower and the cheese. Add the bread pieces and toss to combine.

Be brave and taste for seasonings. Correct them as necessary.

Evenly coat a muffin tin with non-stick spray. The thought did occur to me that there is so much butter in this recipe that the spray may be unnecessary, but I figured better safe than sorry. Divide the mixture evenly amongst the 12 little cups.

Bake for about 30 minutes until g, b & d. Allow to cool in the tin. I may try to freeze a couple of these. Or, I may eat them all for dinner momentarily.

Indian Spiced Cauliflower Soup

I’ve been trying for a long time to learn to like Indian food.  I let this be known to coworkers a few years ago. Fortunately, there were some really good Indian home cooks at that job. One day, a coworker approached my desk with a Ziploc bag full of seeds in it. An illicit deal was about to happen.  Actually, he explained that the bag contained an Indian spice mixture called panch puran, a mixture of cumin, mustard, nigella, fennel, and fenugreek seeds. (Please correct me if I’m wrong about this combo of seeds.) I used it a couple of times, but without success.

Until now. I’m not saying I like any and all Indian food. I’m just saying that this is the first time I’ve used panch puran and have been happy with the results. Well, I’m more than happy. This soup is delicious! I do admire that Indian cuisines tend to use a lot of cauliflower, one of my favorite vegetables, so it’s not that surprising that this turned out so well. Once again, I found inspiration in a NYT recipe.

1 medium head cauliflower, cleaned, leaves removed, and cut into large chunks.

Scant ½ cup converted rice

5 – 7 parsley and/or cilantro stems

2 medium bay leaves

1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tsp fresh ginger, grated. That’s about 1 piece ¼ inch in diameter and length of fresh ginger, pre-grated.

3 tsp or so panch puran

2 tsp cumin

Salt and freshly-ground black pepper

Enough water to cover (about 2 pints)

Optional toppings:

Greek yogurt

Finely chopped parsley, cilantro, and/or green onion

Sweat onions and garlic over low heat until soft. Add grated ginger, panch puran, and cumin and cook for 20 or 30 seconds. Download the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Skim off any foam that floats to the top. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer until the cauliflower is tender and the rice is cooked. Taste for seasonings throughout the cooking process. You may want to add more of any of them at any time.

Allow to cool to not scalding. Remove stems and bay leaves. Whip out your trusty immersion blender and further deconstruct. Serve as is, or with optional toppings.

This soup is rather unattractive in color. A half carrot added with the cauliflower would probably add a pleasing hue and sweetness. And hey, look!! There's no fat to be found in this recipe!

Mexitalo Pastandcheech

Dedicated to my father, who will think this an unholy combination.

This is another dish that I’ve made many a time, but never considered blog-worthy until recently.

¼ - ½ lb cooked small pasta like elbows or ditalini
1 15-oz can ceci (chick peas)
½ stalk celery, chopped
¼ green bell pepper, chopped
½ - 1 medium yellow or white onion, chopped
½ small tomato, chopped, or a dollop of tomato sauce
2 large cloves garlic, chopped
¼ chipotle pepper, cut in half
½ tbsp dried oregano
¾ tbsp ground cumin
Small handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley or cilantro, chopped
S & P
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp or so olive oil and/or bacon fat
Grated locatelli for topping

Sauté celery, green pepper, garlic, and onion in enough fat to slightly more than coat them. When you get a good sizzle going for a minute or 2, add salt, black pepper, a little of the cumin and oregano, and the bay leaf.

When the vegetables become tender, add the beans (and their liquid, if you wish), the tomato, and more cumin and oregano. You’ll probably need to sprinkle in some more S & P too.

Simmer for several minutes. Continue tasting for seasoning until you are more or less pleased. Remember that you still have a powerful flavor to add: the chipotle. Add that about 5 – 7 minutes before you’re ready to eat. The longer the chipotle is in there, the spicier the dish. I like to keep the chipotle in 2 or 3 big pieces so I can easily pluck them out when the heat approaches my danger zone.

You can make this as soupy or tight as you like by adding more or less of the pasta cooking water, the beans’ canning liquid, or some broth to the bean mixture as it cooks. I like it more on the soupy side.

Once this mixture has comingled for 10 minutes or so, remove the chipotle if you haven’t already and want to. Remove the bay leaf. Add your cooked pasta and fresh herbs. Be sure to pile some grated Locatelli on top of your heaping bowl before you mangi/comes.

-Elena

Couscous Cubanelles

As you may have noticed, every season, I become obsessed with a different vegetable. This summer, it seems my attention is focused on sweet peppers. I got a good deal on a basket of beautiful orange, red and yellow cubanelle (Italian frying) peppers yesterday at the farmers’ market. This helped to feed my addiction.

My mother makes a delicious dish from these peppers, which she learned from my grandmother. She stuffs them with breadcrumbs tossed with parsley, Locatelli, capers, chopped garlic, salt and pepper, and olive oil. Why should I bother describing this tastiness any further? You can get all the details here.

I was inspired by this recipe and what I had in my fridge to create this dish. It seems appropriate, too, because the uncooked Israeli couscous resembles the peppers’ seeds. I don’t know if they surpass my chorizo stuffed peppers, but my dining companion and I both enjoyed them very much. In fact, my dining companion had the leftover half for breakfast.

2 large cubanelle peppers. Choose the straightest and roundest you can find. Halve them and remove the ribs, stem, and seeds.
¾ cup Israeli couscous
¼ cup diced yellow onion
1 large clove garlic, chopped
1 tsp olive oil/bacon fat
1 medium tomato, small dice
Large handful of fresh basil and or fresh flat-leafed parsley
2 pieces Canadian bacon, finely cubed
Dollop of cream cheese. You can probably also use ricotta, cottage cheese, or the like.
¼ cup grated Locatelli cheese
1 cup grated cheddar cheese. Mozzarella would have been better, but I didn’t have any.
Salt
Lots of freshly-ground black pepper
½ - 1 cup tomato sauce
1 ½ - 1 ¾ cup water
2 sprigs of basil

Sweat garlic and onion over medium heat for 2 or 3 minutes. Add couscous and sauté until it smells nutty and some of the pieces are lightly tanned. Add about 1 ¼ cup water. (Check the directions on the box for specifics.) Bring to boil and salt to taste. Once it’s boiling, reduce to a simmer and keep it there for 1 or 2 minutes less than directed on the box. It will probably simmer for 7 – 9 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°. Cook the cubanelle halves on a paper towel in the microwave for about 2 minutes per side. They should be rather flimsy but still have a little bite when they finish their microwave session.

When the couscous is has simmered for several minutes, stir in the tomato, parsley, basil, Canadian bacon, Locatelli, cream cheese, salt and a lot of black pepper. Stir this mixture on a warm burner until the cream cheese melts.

Spray a 9 x 9 casserole with nonstick spray. Spread a thin (or thick) layer of tomato sauce at the bottom of the dish; add a splash of water and the 2 sprigs of basil. Arrange the peppers in the tomato sauce and evenly distribute the couscous mixture among them.

Bake covered for 15 minutes, then uncovered for another 20. When you uncover it, check out the tomato sauce situation and add a little more water if it’s getting too dry for you. After 20 uncovered minutes top with Cheddar or whichever cheese you decide to use as a topping and put back in the oven until the cheese melts, maybe 3 – 5 minutes. You can put it under the broiler for a few minutes if you’d like the cheese to get a bit bubbly and brown.

Plate, spooning some tomato sauce over the top of each. You can eat now if you want to scald your mouth.

-Elena

Mother's Day Breakfast Bake

“Yeah this one right here goes out to all the baby's mamas, mamas. Mamas, mamas, baby mamas, “
-OutKast, Ms. Jackson, 2000

1 dozen large eggs
1 whole baguette, cut into bite-sized chunks
1 ½ cups frozen chopped spinach
1 cup cottage cheese
½ - 1 cup grated Locatelli cheese
1 tsp. mustard
1 green onion, finely sliced
¼ cup flat-leaf green parsley, chopped
1 ½ tsp. bacon fat
1 small tomato, sliced
Salt and pepper
Spray oil

Cook spinach in microwave for about 3 minutes. Let it cool, then squeeze out most of the water.
Ensure that this concoction won’t stick to a 9x 13 oven-safe pan by spraying the pan with spray oil. Next, apply 10 – 12 small dollops of bacon fat to the bottom of the pan.
Arrange the pieces of baguette in a single layer in the bottom of the pan, or as close as you can get it to a single layer.
Break the eggs one by one into a small bowl. After examining each for any signs of funkiness and removing any rogue pieces of shell, dump them into the large mixing bowl you’ll be using to whip up this mixture. Since there are so many eggs in this recipe, I think it’s a good idea to do this picky step.
Add the spinach, cheeses, green onion, parsley, mustard, salt, and pepper to the eggs and whisk to combine.
When it is all well-mixed, pour the egg mixture onto the pieces of baguette in the baking pan. Cover and let sit in the fridge overnight, or at least for maybe 4 hours.
Around 30 minutes before you want to bake this, take it out of the fridge and preheat the oven to 350°. Slice your tomato and arrange prettily on top of the casserole. Bake, covered with foil, for about 30 minutes. Then, remove the foil and bake for about 15 minutes more, until the egg is set and the exposed bread begins to get a little toasty.
Bring to your mother’s house and share the goodness with her!
-Elena

Google's New Recipe Search Features

Here's an interesting post by Amanda Hesser about Google's new recipe search features and how they may effect home cooking.

http://www.food52.com/blog/1838_googles_new_recipe_search

Smoked Salmon Carbonara

On Saturday night, we had smoked salmon soft tacos. Amazingly, we had some leftovers. While paging through my cookbooks, I came across, this recipe for carbonara, which the author claims is the “only recipe you need.” I'm sure she herself doesn't even believe this. If she did, she probably wouldn't need to have umpteen TV shows and a gazillion cookbooks. Anyhow, I put two and two together for a dinner that was quick, easy, and delish. Best of all, you get creamy richness without cream and its accompanying discomfort. This is another dish that rejects the “no cheese with fish” dictum. That also adds to its appeal.

1 lb orecchiette, but any chunky or long pasta would probably be great in this.

¼ lb smoked salmon, chopped

2 eggs

1 tsp. mustard

2 green onions, chopped

Handful chopped parsley

Handful grape tomatoes, quartered

1 tbsp. capers, rinsed and chopped

sprinkle of hot pepper flakes

¼ cup Locatelli cheese

Salt

Pepper

½ cup pasta cooking water

Cook pasta in salted water for about 1 minute or so less than package directions. Mid-way through the cooking time, scoop out about ½ cup of the cooking water.

While the pasta cooks, beat the 2 eggs, mustard, cheese, salt, pepper, capers, hot pepper flakes, and some of the parsley and chopped green onions together. Keep some of the parsley and onions aside with the tomatoes and salmon. These will be added right before serving for some freshness.

Temper the egg mixture by mixing in a bit of the hot pasta cooking water. Add a bit at a time until you have added about 2 tablespoons. Save any remaining water. You may need it later.

When the pasta is finished, drain it. Avoid the urge to combine the egg mixture and the pasta in one fell swoop. The eggs will scramble. This is not what we’re wanting here. We’re going for creamy goodness. A gentle touch is required, so add ¼ cup of the pasta to the egg mixture and combine. Repeat with another ¼ cup of pasta. Now, it’s probably safe to add the egg and pasta mixture back to the larger quantity of pasta in the cooking pot. Toss in the tomatoes, smoked salmon, and the parsley and green onion you’d set aside.

Put the pot over low heat and stir. If it seems dry, add more pasta cooking water everything is silky and yummy-looking. Heat through gently. It does seem a shame to ruin the luxurious texture of smoked salmon by subjecting it to even the lowest heat setting, but I think the overall tastiness of this dish makes up for that.

Top each bowl with a sprinkling of cheese, and freshly-ground black pepper. If you have a bit of parsley and green onion still, that’d be nice, too. Pretty darn good, especially when you consider that I was feeling migrainy about an hour before creating and cooking this.

I reheated leftovers (I know; leftovers of leftovers, but big whoop.) gently (microwave – 50% power for 2 minutes, stir, then 50% for another minute) for lunch today. The smell was exactly like Lean Cuisine Chicken Carbonara, which I used to love. I hope we can still be friends.

-Elena

Beef Stew with Spanish Flavors

I’m usually quite veggie-centric, but a recent visit with my friend Jen and her son reminded my of the comforting and flavorful potential of beef stew. On a rainy Sunday during Flower Show week, I really needed to avail myself of this comfort.

Inspired by Jen’s recipe and this one, I was hoping for beefy, oniony, olivey goodness, but it really didn’t turn out that way. I think it turned out better. Next time, though, I’ll increase the capers, olives and garlic.

1 ½ # beef stew meat cut into large cubes or chunks, all of similar size
4 – 5 red skinned potatoes cut into chunks of similar size
3 – 4 onions cut into chunks
2 carrots cut into chunks
6 – 7 cloves of garlic, cut in half
1 packet Herb-Ox unsalted beef bouillon
1 15-oz can tomato sauce
1 tbsp Wondra flour. (You could probably use AP flour here, but I’m guessing you’d need less of it.)
½ - 1/3 cup sherry
½ - 1/3 cup water
15 – 20 oil cured olives, pitted and roughly chopped
2 or 3 tbsp capers, rinsed and chopped
Generous squeeze of tomato paste
Slightly less generous squeeze of anchovy paste
2-inch strip of rind from a fresh, clean orange
1 ½ tbsp bacon fat, olive oil, or combo
3 bay leaves
5 or 6 parsley stems
Dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
1 or 2 finely sliced green onions, or ¼ cup chopped parsley

Blot excess moisture off meat with a paper towel. Season with salt and pepper. In 2 or 3 installments, sprinkle on Wondra, and toss to coat. Wondra is a very finely-ground flour, and will dissolve, disappearing into the meat. Don’t be tempted to keep adding more until you can see it. This will be too much flour.

Brown meat in the fat of your choice in a large pot over medium heat. You may want to do this in 2 batches to achieve better browning, but I didn’t bother. Add a few pieces of onion and a bit of the garlic for more flavor a few minutes into the browning. After a few more minutes, add anchovy and tomato pastes and stir. A tasty brown crust will be forming at the bottom of the pan. This is what you want. When meat is browned on all sides, remove it from the pan.

Deglaze the pan by pouring water and sherry into it and scraping the crust off the bottom. Add the tomato sauce (rinse the can half full of water) and bouillon and continue to scrape the pan until the majority of the tastiness is off the bottom and incorporated into the liquid.

Add parsley, orange rind, oregano and bay leaves. Taste for salt and pepper. Be careful with the salt. This liquid will reduce, becoming saltier. You also will be adding some salty ingredients in a little while.

Add the vegetables and put the meat back into the pot. Make sure there is just enough liquid to cover all of the ingredients. If not, add more water, and possibly more sherry. Bring this to a boil, and then turn the temperature down to low for a slow simmer.

Toss the capers and the olives into the mix. Simmer until meat is cooked through and veggies are tender. This could take an hour or more. If the water level falls below that of the ingredients, add just enough to cover. Taste the seasonings throughout cooking. The broth will become thick, velvety, and tasty. Remove parsley stems, orange rind, and bay leaves. If you should somehow end up eating the orange rind, I can’t say I’d blame you.

Serve in big bowls with nice bread, rice, or noodles. Top each bowl with sliced green onion or parsley. This makes a big batch, so you’ll be enjoying this for a few days. You’re welcome.

Black Bean and Quinoa Cakes

Yield: about 1 dozen patties

1/3 yellow onion, peeled and cut into chunks
3 or 4 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
½ bell pepper cut into chunks
¼ - ½ chipotle pepper in adobo, cut into chunks
½ cup flat leaf parsley and/or cilantro, roughly chopped
¼ cup quinoa, prepared according to package microwave directions. Don’t forget to rinse it first.
1/8 or so cup frozen corn. Throw it in with the quinoa when it has about 3 minutes remaining to cook.
1 15 oz can black beans
½ cup breadcrumb
1 egg - The egg may not be necessary. The protein and carbs in the beans and quinoa may be enough to make it hold together in a patty. The next time I make these, I’ll see what happens if I omit the egg
½ tbsp cumin
½ tbsp oregano
1 tsp lemon or lime juice
Salt and freshly-ground black pepper

Finely chop first 5 ingredients in a food processor. Empty into a mixing bowl.

Now, put about ¾ of the black beans and ¾ of the quinoa and corn mixture into the food processor and pulse until the mixture is a rough paste. Empty this paste into the mixing bowl.

The rest of the beans and quinoa go into the food processor to be roughly chopped. Then, into the mixing bowl with them.

Mix the contents of the mixing bowl, add the egg, and then add enough breadcrumbs so that the mixture holds its shape when formed into a patty. Stir in cumin, oregano, salt and pepper, and lemon juice to taste. If the lemon juice makes the mixture too wet again, add a bit more breadcrumbs so that the mixture is the correct consistency once again.

Form into patties about 1 ½ inch in diameter and ½ inch thick. This should make 11 or 12 patties. Bake for about 20 – 25 minutes in a 350° oven.

As with most of the “cake” or patty recipes I make, I froze these to eat later. I arranged them in a single layer on a wax-paper lined baking sheet, covered with plastic wrap as best as I could. When they are frozen, pop them into a food storage bag. On the busy work night when I want to eat them, I preheat my toaster oven to 350° or so and bake 3 or 4 of them (or 6, depending on if Jeff is eating too) until hot.

-Elena

A Frittata for Thursday the Thirteenth

Another pretty frittata. This time it featured:
Leftover roasted purple potatoes, red skinned potatoes, and carrots
A handful of grape tomatoes, halved
Leftover bacon
A bit of cheddar cut into small cubes
Frozen spinach
7 eggs beaten with lots of Locatelli cheese, salt, pepper, and a little water

It was topped with panko crumbs, shredded mozzarella and more Locatelli before going under the broil.

Of course, I put a splash of hot sauce on mine when it was done. It was delicious!

-Elena