Category — Cooking Recipes

My favorite dessert in the world are fruit tartes . When I eat pies or tartes I go straight for the crust! But instead of just using the tartes for dessert, I thought it would be a delicious alternative to eat tartes for lunch or dinner, made with the one and only Le Creuset Tarte Pan. The stainless steel spatula will be an important part of getting your polenta ready and this All-Clad Stainless Steel Flexible Spatula is perfect. The recipe and beautiful images are via Elizabeth from the Guilty Kitchen!

Zucchini Tarte Tatin with Polenta

Polenta method is adapted from Marcella Hazan

4 cups water or low sodium broth
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup whole grain cornmeal (medium to coarse grind)
2 small zucchini (approximately 6″ each)
1 tsp. veg oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 oz. Chèvre
1/2 cup asiago, grated
1 Tbsp each of fresh thyme, chives and basil, chopped
1 egg, beaten (room temperature)

1. Bring water and salt to a boil, whisk in cornmeal a little at a time to avoid clumps.
2. Cook over medium high heat for 2 minutes, whisking constantly.
3. Reduce heat to low and cover. Cook at a low simmer for 45 minutes. Stirring every 5-10 minutes for at least 1 minute.
4. Meanwhile, slice your zucchini into 1/4″ rounds.
5. Add oil to skillet and heat to medium high. Add zucchini and salt & pepper. Sauté for 6-8 minutes (or until slightly softened).
6. Grease an 8″ round baking dish . Arrange cooked zucchini in concentric circles around bottom of dish. When finished, crumble chèvre over zucchini. Preheat oven to 400°F.
7. After 45 minutes, remove polenta from heat & stir in cheese and herbs.
8. Let stand 15-20 minutes, add beaten egg and stir quickly to combine.
9. When polenta is ready, pour gently over zucchini. Spread evenly with spatula.
10. Bake for 40 minutes for a soft centre. Longer if you want it more set.
11. Take tarte out of oven and slide a knife or spatula around the edges to loosen. Place a large round plate on top of baking dish and flip everything over together to get the tarte out.

via The Guilty Kitchen

Thomas Keller recently opened his Beverly Hills restaurant Bouchon , but to get his food at home is a dream come true. This is the award-winning Keller’s Favorite Simple Roast Chicken Recipe, which I added one simple step of injecting Keller’s roast chicken with a marinade injector.

Thomas Keller’s Favorite Simple Roast Chicken with Marinade Injector

One 2- to 3-pound farm-raised chicken
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons minced thyme (optional)

Unsalted butter
Dijon mustard

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Rinse the chicken, then dry it very well with paper towels, inside and out. The less it steams, the drier the heat, the better.

Salt and pepper the cavity, then truss the bird. Trussing is not difficult, and if you roast chicken often, it’s a good technique to feel comfortable with. When you truss a bird, the wings and legs stay close to the body; the ends of the drumsticks cover the top of the breast and keep it from drying out. Trussing helps the chicken to cook evenly, and it also makes for a more beautiful roasted bird.

Now, salt the chicken—I like to rain the salt over the bird so that it has a nice uniform coating that will result in a crisp, salty, flavorful skin (about 1 tablespoon). When it’s cooked, you should still be able to make out the salt baked onto the crisp skin. Season to taste with pepper.

Place the chicken in a sauté pan (like this 3-qt. Mauviel Saute Pan with Lid ) or roasting pan (like this Le Creuset Roasting Pan ) and, when the oven is up to temperature, put the chicken in the oven. I leave it alone—I don’t baste it, I don’t add butter; you can if you wish, but I feel this creates steam, which I don’t want. Roast it until it’s done, 50 to 60 minutes. Remove it from the oven and add the thyme, if using, to the pan. Baste the chicken with the juices and thyme and let it rest for 15 minutes on a cutting board.

Remove the twine. Separate the middle wing joint and eat that immediately. Remove the legs and thighs. I like to take off the backbone and eat one of the oysters, the two succulent morsels of meat embedded here, and give the other to the person I’m cooking with. But I take the chicken butt for myself. I could never understand why my brothers always fought over that triangular tip—until one day I got the crispy, juicy fat myself. These are the cook’s rewards. Cut the breast down the middle and serve it on the bone, with one wing joint still attached to each. The preparation is not meant to be superelegant. Slather the meat with fresh butter. Serve with mustard on the side and, if you wish, a simple green salad. You’ll start using a knife and fork, but finish with your fingers, because it’s so good.

Image and Recipe via Lawyer Loves Lunch

I’ve added a recipe for a simple Green Bean and Potato Salad that I think would go great with Thomas Keller’s Chicken Roast!

image and recipe via Weekof Menus

Green Bean Potato Salad
Serves 6-8

8 oz green beans, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
3 lbs small red or white skinned potatoes (I did the small round dutch yellow that you can get at Trader Joe’s)

1/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 large shallot, finely chopped
2 tablespoons Italian parsley, finely chopped
1 tablespoon dijon mustard

Cook green beans in well-salted, boiling water.  Cook for 4 minutes.  Drain, rinse with cold water and pat dry.

Place cut potatoes in well salted water.  Bring to a boil.  Cook for 8-10 minutes until potatoes are just tender.  (Poke a fork to see as cooking time will ultimately vary based on size of potato.)  Drain and set aside.

Quickly mix together white vinegar, olive oil, shallot, parsley and mustard to make a dressing.  Pour over the still warm potatoes and toss well to coat. [Side note: with a salad with this many ingredients, these 8 piece glass prep bowls let me get cooking and eating quickly!]  Cool completely.  Once potatoes are cooled, add green beans.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve room temperature or cold.

This past weekend, I went on a road trip to San Francisco with my girlfriends. It was more a culinary adventure than anything else and every meal we ate was insanely good. One of the standout dishes was the Tea Leaf Salad from Burma Superstar located at 309 Clement Street, San Francisco.

I’ve never had anything like it. Blogger Tea & Cookies describes it perfectly:

“The tea leaves are fermented, apparently hand-carried back from Burma, and have a deep vegetal flavor unlike anything I’ve ever tasted before. It is mixed at the table with romaine lettuce, peanuts, fried garlic and split yellow peas, sesame and sunflower seeds, tomato, and dried shrimp… It is crunchy and crispy and the flavor is out of this world, a musky, fragrant taste I’ve found nowhere else.”

There are no exact recipes, but Kitchen Caravan has one that apparently comes close:

• 4 cups thinly sliced Napa cabbage (about 2/3 head)
• 2 T unsalted roasted peanuts
• 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
• 6 medium shrimp, shell on
• 2 garlic cloves + 2 T oil for frying
• 3 T sesame oil
• 2 T green tea leaves
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 1 juicy lime
• 2 T cilantro, finely chopped
• ½ tomato, seeded and diced (optional)

Shell and de-vein the shrimp.

Fill a medium sized saucepan with water and bring it to a simmer. Poach the shrimp until just cooked through, which only takes a matter of minutes.

Remove them from their poaching liquid as soon as they are done cooking, cool, and refrigerate.

Clean the shrimp shells under running water. Dry them well.

Heat up the sesame oil in a small pan, (like this Swiss Diamond 8″ frying pan) and add in the shrimp shells along with the tea leaves. Let them infuse in the oil on moderate heat for 5-10 minutes, then turn off the heat and continue to let them infuse while you prepare the rest of the salad.

Slice the poached shrimps in half lengthwise.

Heat up the 2 tablespoons (I like the Anolon 4-piece measuring spoon set ) of oil in a skillet, and fry the garlic until golden brown. Remove the garlic with a slotted spatula and set it on some paper towel to soak up some of the oil.

Combine the cabbage, peanuts, sesame seeds, shrimp, and tomato (if you are using) together in a bowl.

Drain the infusing oil of the shrimp shells and tea leaves, pressing hard on the solids, in order to extract all of the flavored oil.

Make the dressing by whisking together the infused oil, fish sauce, lime juice, some salt to taste, and the cilantro.

Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well.

Top the salad with the fried garlic.

I am one of those people that cannot face my day without a hearty breakfast and when waffles are on the menu, I am one of those people that cannot exercise any self restraint. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside with a pat of salty butter with sticky sweet maple syrup…it’s waffle heaven. Of course the beginning of any good waffle recipe is the batter, waffle maker , and waffle stand cooling rack . This recipe from Better Home and Garden via Apartment Therapy is an interesting one—these waffles are called “overnight yeasted waffles” and are less sweet and less dense than traditional waffles.

ingredients

2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 package active dry yeast

1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1-3/4 cups milk

2 eggs

1/3 cup cooking oil or butter, melted

directions

1. In a large bowl stir together flour, sugar, yeast, vanilla (if desired), and salt; add milk, eggs, and oil. Beat with an electric mixer until thoroughly combined. Cover batter loosely and chill overnight or up to 24 hours.

2. Stir batter. Pour about 3/4 cup batter onto grids of a preheated, lightly greased waffle maker (I like the Cuisinart Nonstick Waffle Iron). Close lid quickly; do not open until done. Bake according to manufacturer’s directions. When done, use a fork to lift waffle off grid. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve warm. Discard any remaining batter. Makes about 16 (4-inch) waffles.

I’m a huge fan of the cooking TV show Top Chef, DC . This season, one of the most common judge complaints stem from food that had been unevenly cut, thus cooking the food at different rates. An important kitchen tool called a mandoline can ensure even cooking time for cut fruits and vegetables. Get a stainless steel commercial mandoline —it’ll be easier to clean and much safer to use than any old cheapie mandolin. The quintessential recipe to test out your new stainless steel commercial grade mandolin would be Ratatouille ! I will admit, until Disney’s culinary rat Remy came into town, I had no idea what Ratatouille was and now, thanks to Smitten Kitchen , she’s taken this movie fantasy dish and turned it into a reality using her very own trusty mandolin.

Ratatouille’s Ratatouille As envisioned by Smitten Kitchen

1/2 onion, finely chopped, 2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced, 1 cup tomato puree (such as Pomi), 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 small eggplant (my store sells these “Italian Eggplant” that are less than half the size of regular ones; it worked perfectly),1 smallish zucchini, 1 smallish yellow squash, 1 longish red bell pepper, Few sprigs fresh thyme, Salt and pepper, Few tablespoons soft goat cheese, for serving.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Pour tomato puree into bottom of an oval baking dish , approximately 10 inches across the long way. Drop the sliced garlic cloves and chopped onion into the sauce, stir in one tablespoon of the olive oil and season the sauce generously with salt and pepper.

Trim the ends off the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash. As carefully as you can, trim the ends off the red pepper and remove the core, leaving the edges intact, like a tube.

On a mandoline , adjustable-blade slicer or with a very sharp knife, cut the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and red pepper into very thin slices, approximately 1/16-inch thick.

Atop the tomato sauce, arrange slices of prepared vegetables concentrically from the outer edge to the inside of the baking dish, overlapping so just a smidgen of each flat surface is visible, alternating vegetables. You may have a handful leftover that do not fit.

Drizzle the remaining tablespoon olive oil over the vegetables and season them generously with salt and pepper. Remove the leaves from the thyme sprigs with your fingertips, running them down the stem. Sprinkle the fresh thyme over the dish.

Cover dish with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit inside. (Tricky, I know, but the hardest thing about this.)

Bake for approximately 45 to 55 minutes, until vegetables have released their liquid and are clearly cooked, but with some structure left so they are not totally limp. They should not be brown at the edges, and you should see that the tomato sauce is bubbling up around them.

Serve with a dab of soft goat cheese on top, alone, or with some crusty French bread, atop polenta, couscous, or your choice of grain.

If you get bored of the regular steak and chicken that most people cook at home, I recommend trying lamb.  I’ve got a recipe for a very simple Dijon Rosemary Crusted Leg of Lamb that I think is a home run.  It needs to marinate overnight and the cooking time is considerable (over an hour), but the prep is quite simple.

Dijon Rosemary Crusted Leg Of Lamb

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons prepared Dijon-style mustard
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 4 cloves garlic
• 5 pounds whole leg of lamb
• 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
• 2 beef bullion cubes

In a blender or food processor (I like my Cuisinart Mini Prep Food Processor), combine the honey, mustard, rosemary, ground black pepper, lemon juice and garlic. Blend until it forms thick paste and apply to the lamb. Place in large ziplock bag and marinate in the refrigerator overnight. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Place lamb on a rack in a roasting pan and sprinkle with salt to taste. Add 2-3 cups of water and 2 beef bullion cubes to bottom of roasting pan . Bake at 450 degrees F for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 400 degrees F and roast for 60 to 70 more minutes for medium rare. The internal temperature should be at least 145 degrees F when taken with a meat thermometer. Let the roast rest for about 10 minutes before carving.

When I get back to my apartment after work, it is a bonafide sauna. The last thing I want to do is eat a heavy meal—I just want something substantial and simultaneously light.

Here are two recipes, one for a Zucchini Butter and the other is a Chilled Beet soup that are simple and light; the main tool for both recipes is a grater —no need for hot ovens and they’re so perfect for this heat wave!

This unique recipe for Zucchini Butter from a Los Angeles based caterer Jennie Cooks and was featured on TheKitchn . My favorite grater is a Cuisinart box grater because it gives you good control with the handle and the wider base.

Super Easy and Delicious Zucchini Butter (or Marmalade)
Makes about 2 cups. Recipe from Jennie Cook .

2 pounds zucchini, more or less*
1/4 cup olive oil or butter, if you prefer
2 minced shallots, garlic, or combination of both
Salt and pepper

Coarsely grate the zucchini. Let it drain in a colander for 3 to 4 minutes or until you are ready to begin cooking. To hasten cooking time, squeeze the water out of the zucchini by wringing it in a clean cloth towel.

In a deep skillet, heat the olive oil/butter. Sauté the shallots briefly. Add the zucchini and toss. Cook and stir over medium to medium-high heat until the zucchini reaches a spreadable consistency. If you scorch the bottom, turn the flame down! (And scrape those delicious bits into the marmalade for added flavor.) The zucchini will hold its bright green color and slowly caramelize into a nice vegetable jam.

Enjoy on toast, or as a side dish all summer long!

*Feel free to add extra zucchini. It may take a little longer to cook, but this recipe keeps well and can be stored in the refrigerator for about a month.

There is no better accompaniment to bread and butter than soup. This Chilled Beet Soup with Kefir and Chives from Crumpets and Cakes is a perfect compliment to the Zucchini Butter recipe and also a refreshing diversion from the usual chilled summer soups.

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch baby beets with stems and leaves, peeled and finely chopped
• 3 large radishes or about 6 small, grated
• kefir, I used LifeWay organic
• bunch of chives or about 6 green shallots, finely chopped
• fresh dill about 6-8 sprigs, chopped
• english cucumber, grated
• vegetable stock
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste, minced garlic(optional)

Directions:
place chopped beets with their stems and leafs in a large pot , add only enough stock to barley cover them and boil until tender, about 20 min, add salt to taste. Set aside and cool, reserve the stock.
In the mean time, in a large bowl mix all vegetables, finely chopped or grated with dill and chives(or green shallots), add cooled beets and stock. In a final step add kefir , more or less 12 oz, depending on what color and consistency you would like to achieve. There is no hard rules to follow in a preparation of this recipe. I often eyeball amounts and alternate ingredients, always successfully. Add salt and ground pepper to taste. Serve chilled

If you’re an American and were born in the last thirty or so years, you’ve probably never heard of egg cups and egg spoons .  This clever serving set has been around for hundreds of years, and although virtually obselete in the US, is still popular in Europe.

The Egg Spoon & Egg Cup set above is just $16.99 at ChefTools.com .  The way to use this is to make a hardboiled egg, then place it in the egg cup.  Crack just the top and then eat the egg with a spoon – kind of an old fashioned thing, huh?

Although this is the traditional use of an Egg Cup & Spoon, you can also use the bowl to hold miniature egg creations.  I sometimes like to make scrambled eggs and then put them in the cup, and serve as a side dish with waffles or pancakes.

Mini Scramble Recipe (serves 4):

-4 eggs
-2 pieces of honey maple bacon
-1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
-1 pat butter

Grate about 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese (or even easier, buy the pre-shedded cheese!) Heat up a small frying pan , place 1 pat butter in pan and let spread around surface of pan. Place the two strips of bacon into the pan and cook until crispy.  Once crisped, remove from pan and set aside.  Crack the 4 eggs directly into the pan.  While they are cooking, chop the bacon into small pieces. When the eggs start to get slightly firm, start scrambling.  When it looks like eggs are almost the texture you want, sprinkle the cheese and bacon in.  Once cheese has melted slightly, remove pan from heat.  Scoop eggs into the egg cups and voila – mini cheddar bacon egg scramble!

I had, hands down, the best guacamole this past weekend. It was the Fourth of July, and my friend was throwing a soiree on his deck in Manhattan Beach. There was really no better way to add pizazz to the ordinary fare of burgers and dogs.

We used a recipe from Alton Brown , who so famously uses science to perfect his dishes and this was a standout!

Ingredients

3 Haas avocados, halved, seeded and peeled
1 lime, juiced
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 clove garlic, minced

Directions

I like the authenticity of using a traditional Molcajete , which is shown in the image above, but we used a regular serving bowl and it still tasted great. We smeared the good stuff on our burgers and hot dogs and scooped up a good amount on our chips, too.

If you are looking for a pasta dish that is not made with traditional white flour, I think you’ll really like this Potato Gnocchi recipe.  I am gluten free, and I love that I am able to eat this pasta because the flour is Bob’s Red Mill Potato Flour , which is completely gluten free.

Ingredients

• 2-3 Large Yukon Gold or Red Skin Potatoes
• 3/4 cup Bob’s Red Mill potato flour
• 3/4 cup Arrowhead Mills white rice flour
• 1 teaspoon Bob’s Red Mill xantham gum
• 1 large egg
• 1 large pinch of salt

Preparation Wash and peel potatoes. Cook in boiling water until soft but not falling apart. Put through potato ricer or use KitchenAid stand mixer with dough hook to mash potatoes to a smooth consistency. Add egg, salt, xantham gum and half of both flours. Continue adding additional flour until dough forms and holds together. On lightly floured surface roll dough out into long half inch ropes. Cut ropes into halt to three quarter inch pieces. With back of fork gently roll gnocchi with tines of fork leaving slight impressions in gnocchi. Cook gnocchi in boiling salted water for 3-4 minutes or until gnocchi rise to surface of water. Top with your favorite sauce and enjoy.