Author: ds83473@gmail.com

Posted on

Greens & cheese pie

This pie is kind of a production, but worth it – even greens haters will eat greens tucked into a crust, with plenty of cheese! You can use purchased frozen puff pastry, or try making your own – here’s a suggested recipe from Epicurious. You’ll need about two pounds of greens altogether.

Serves 4-6
Prep time: 30-45 minutes, excluding making your own pastry
Baking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 large (or 2 medium) bunch spinach (1 to 1 1/2 pounds) rinsed and stemmed
1 bunch escarole (about 8 oz.), separated into leaves and rinsed
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced or put through a press
salt and pepper to taste
freshly grated nutmeg or about 1/2 a teaspoon ground
1 1/2 cups of ricotta, preferably whole milk
2 eggs, one to go into the filling, one for egg wash
1 cup grated cheese of your choice (Gruyere; cheddar – pepper jack is good if you like some spice; crumbled feta is traditonal)
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
one box – 17 oz. – frozen puff pastry, thawed

Heat the oven to 400° Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and submerge the spinach and escarole, just long enough to wilt them. Pour into a colander set in the sink, and run cold water over the greens to cool them. Let drain, then take handfuls and squeeze out most of the water, transferring the greens to a cutting board, where you’ll chop them.

Melt the butter and olive oil in a wide deep skillet over medium heat, and add the onion. Cook for a few minutes, till they’re starting to look translucent, and add the garlic. Stir and cook for a few minutes, then add the greens. Cook until any remaining liquid is evaporated, season with the salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and transfer to a bowl to cool. Stir in the ricotta, one egg, grated cheese, and pine nuts.

Line one or two large baking sheets with parchment. In a small bowl beat the egg with 1-2 tablespoons of water to make the egg wash. Unfold the puff pastry sheets on a floured surface, and roll each out to about a 12-inch square. Place a square on the baking sheet, and brush all over with egg wash. Place half the filling in neat ribbon about 4 inches wide in the middle of one of the sheets leaving about a 2-inch border at the top and bottom. Fold in the top and bottom, flop the left side over the filling, and roll the pastry over, pinching to seal, and placing the seam side down. Brush all over with egg wash and cut 2-3 slits in the top. Repeat with the second sheet of pastry, on the same baking sheet if it will fit, or on your second sheet.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until puffed and brown.

Posted on

Classic wilted spinach salad with bacon

spinach salad

From DebsLunch
Feeds 4 or more depending on what else is being served
Takes about 30 minutes

Approximately 2 pounds spinach, kale, argula, or other greens: lettuce, or cabbage; stemmed if necessary, washed, dried, and cut or torn into bite size pieces (cabbage can be shredded)
8 strips (half a pound) of bacon, sliced into 1-inch pieces
1/4 – 1/3 cup cider vinegar
2 – 4 TBLS brown sugar
1/2 of a red onion, sliced thinly
2 hard boiled eggs
1/2 pound of asparagus, roasted or steamed
lots of freshly ground black pepper
Croutons

Put the greens in a large heat proof (metal or glass) bowl. Cook the bacon until crisp and, using a slotted spoon, remove to paper towel to drain. Pour off all but 4 TBLS of the bacon fat from the pan. Add the vinegar and sugar, and cook until the sugar is dissolved. Boil until a bit syrup-y. Add the onion at the last minute if using. Take the dressing off the heat and pour over the greens. Add the bacon bits and toss. If the greens do not wilt as much as you would like, put the bowl over the warm burner and toss until the salad is more wilted (this works best with a metal bowl). Grind in the pepper and toss again. Top with the asparagus, boiled eggs, and croutons.

Posted on

Cheater’s many greens Caesar salad

Amara kale
Photo from Territorial Seed Company

Make enough for about 6 – 8 people
Takes 30 minutes
About 2 pounds of greens – roughly 1/2 the spinach, some of the Amara kale, and Argula from this week’s box
a hunk of old bread, about 2 – 3 slices
1 – 2 TBLS olive oil
2 – 3 whole cloves of garlic
2/3 cups mayonnaise
juice of 1/2 a lemon, or a little more to taste
another clove of garlic, minced or put through a press
a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce
1/2 – 1 cup grated Parmesan
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Wash and dry the greens, and tear them into bite size pieces. Place in a bowl with room for tossing. Tear the bread into rough cubes. Heat the olive oil in a skillet and fry the bread in it along with the garlic cloves until nicely toasty. Let cool slightly and then dump into the salad bowl. For the dressing, [This is the cheater’s part] whisk together the mayo, lemon juice, crushed garlic, and Worcestershire sauce. Add a handful of Parmesan, and taste – add more lemon, cheese, Worcestershire – what ever you think it needs (I sometimes sneak a pinch of sugar into the dressing). Toss the salad with a liberal amount of dressing, adding more Parmesan, and salt and pepper. Taste for seasoning and when you like it, serve.

Posted on

Potato chorizo tacos with radish slaw & pickled onions

Based on J. Kenji López-Alt – Serious Eats

Makes generous 4 servings
Takes about 40 minutes

1 pound potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 3 large potatoes)
Kosher salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
1 pound chorizo or turkey chorizo, or vegan chorizo
5-6 radishes cut into matchsticks
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
juice of half a lime
2 teaspoons sugar, divided
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons rice or cider vinegar
half a purple onion
1 bay leaf
5-6 pepper corns
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
6-8 warm soft corn tortillas
Optional: Homemade or store-bought salsa, avocado, and sour cream for serving

Heat the oven to 400°. Place the potatoes in a bowl, and toss with 1 tablespoon of the  vegetable oil, few good pinches of the kosher salt, and freshly ground pepper. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment, and roast in the oven until they’re nice and crispy, about 20 minutes.

Put the radishes and cilantro into a bowl with a pinch of salt. Mix 1 teaspoon of the sugar, mayonnaise, and lime juice, pour in, and toss, grind in some black pepper and taste for seasoning. Set aside till serving.

Put the sliced purple onion, bay leaf, and pepper corns into a small bowl. Combine the vinegar and the remaining teaspoon of sugar in a spouted glass measuring cup. Heat in the microwave for about 40 seconds to a minute to dissolve the sugar, and pour over the onion. Set aside to pickle until serving.

Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a medium non-stick or cast iron skillet, and add chorizo and cook, stirring, and breaking up the meat with a spoon. Continue cooking, stirring and tossing frequently, until all the liquid has evaporated, the chorizo starts sizzling, and eventually is quite dry and well-browned, about 15 minutes.

Transfer the potatoes to the pan with the cooked chorizo. Toss to combine and check seasoning. Serve chorizo and potato mixture immediately with tortillas, slaw, and pickled onions, and optional toppings.

Note: you can heat the tortillas in the microwave, wrapped in a dish towel, or heat them in the basket of vegetable steamer.

Posted on

Sprinkle cake

Adapted from Molly Yeh  – this recipe appears in her cookbook, Molly on the Range. Even when I was young I was never as cute as Molly, but I have overcome my initial envy, and come to love her!

For the cake:

  • 2 1/2 cups flour (I used unbleached, but I bet cake flour would produce a softer cake)
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder (upped a bit from Molly’s)
  • 1 cup – 2 sticks – unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 4 egg whites, also room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon clear vanilla
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  • 3/4 cup whole milk
  • 1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles, and as Molly says, artificially colored cylinders that you’ll find in the baking aisle at any grocery store; don’t use nonpareils, colored sugar, or anything naturally colored!

For the frosting:

I did not use Molly’s recipe here – it seemed to have way too much butter in proportion to powered sugar

  • 12 tablespoons, 1 1/2 sticks salted or unsalted butter, softened
  • 4 cups of confectioners sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • pinch of salt (omit if you use salted butter)
  • 1/4 cup milk, half & half, or cream

Makes a 3-layer 8-inch cake or 24 cupcakes.

Heat the oven to 350° Grease three 8-in. cake pans, and line the bottoms with wax paper or parchment rounds, OR line two 12-cup muffins tins with paper liners. If you only have one muffin tin, you can store the extra half of the batter in the fridge while the first half bakes.

Make the cake: Combine the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl –  a whisk works well for this. Cut the butter into chunks and drop it into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, and beat for a few minutes. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy, 2-3 minutes. (you can do this with a handheld mixer or by hand, but you’ll need a good mixer and strong arms!) Add the egg whites one at a time (or as close to one at a time as possible – I was pouring the whites in from a plastic container where they’d been saved, and had to guess, but it worked OK!) and beat well after each addition. Measure the milk in a spouted measuring cup, and add the extracts, then, with the mixer running, add the flour and milk to the egg mixture in 2-3 alternating  addition. Finally fold in the sprinkles, and divide the batter into your cake pans or muffin tins.

Bake for 25-30 mins, until a toothpick stabbed into the center comes out clean – start checking at 20 minutes.

Cool in the pans for about 10 minutes then invert onto wire racks to cool completely.

Make the frosting: Cut the butter into chunks and drop it into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, and beat for a few minutes. Add the sugar, vanilla, salt (if using) and the milk. Cover the mixer with a dish towel, hold on, and beat until the sugar is moistened – you’ll know because the sound will change. Remove the towel, scrape the sides of the bowl, and add more milk or water carefully – by teaspoons – until you have a good spreadable consistency. Beat on high speed for 2-3 minutes to get it really nice and fluffy. Frost the cake or cupcakes and decorate the tops with more sprinkles. Set in the fridge to set the icing, but tastes best if you let it come back to room temperature before eating.

Made for a part zoom, part in the flesh, baby shower for a mom-to-be of twins, Spring 2021

zoom portion of the shower
Posted on

Banana Streusel Muffins

We had instant summer here in Wisconsin this week, and that meant I bought the bananas too ripe to last. We really only had one day when it got up close to 80° and today it’s chilly and rainy, but still, on Thursday morning there were 7 getting-almost-too-ripe bananas in the  fruit bowl, so I made these muffins.

For the streusel:

  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup rolled oats
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 4 tablespoons butter (half a stick)

For the muffins:

  • 1 cup mashed bananas (about 3 small)
  • grated zest of 1/2 a lemon
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 1 egg
  • 1/3 cup melted butter
  • 1 1/2 cups flour (I used unbleached white but some whole wheat would probably be good)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine grain salt, or a nice pinch of kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup sugar

To make the streusel, combine the flour, brown sugar, oats, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Slice in the butter and use a pastry blender or your fingers to cut in the butter until you have large crumbs.

Heat the oven to 375° and grease or line a 12-well muffin tin with papers.

Mash the bananas, and transfer them to a 2-cup spouted measuring cup. Add the lemon zest, and the sour cream, egg, and melted butter, and mix.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Make a well in the center, and add the banana, sour cream, butter mixture. Mix just until all the flour is moistened – a few lumps are OK.

Divide the batter into the muffin tin (I got 9 large muffins, but YMMV), and top each muffin with about 2 tablespoons of the streusel.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes until firm and brown.

Based on a 1997 State Fair Baking Contest recipe in the NYT; Originally posted April 2021

Posted on

Yet another coleslaw

Coleslaw is the first recipe in the long messy list at Deb’s Lunch Classic, and I’ve recorded a few variants there, but thought this version, created on a cold Friday in February 2021, deserved its own page.

Spicy coleslaw

  • About 6 cups of cabbage, thinly sliced or grated
  • 2/3 to a scant cup of grated carrot
  • one medium shallot, grated
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 fat pinches of kosher salt
  • 1/3 cup lime juice or lemon & lime, mixed
  • 1/4 tsp. ground cumin
  • 1/3 cup mayonnaise
  • a few dashes of cholula
  • half a small bunch of cilantro, chopped (about 1/4 cup)
  • fresh ground pepper and more salt, if necessary

Combine the cabbage, carrots, shallot, sugar, and salt in the large bowl (preferably one that fits your colander). Toss everything together, massaging in the salt and sugar with your hands. Transfer the salted & sugared vegetables to a colander – you probably want to do this in the sink to avoid a mess on your counter. Place the colander over a bowl – same bowl, rinsed out, works well – and allow to wilt for at least 2 hours and up to 4. Drain the liquid and clean out the bowl. Put the vegetable mixture back into the bowl, and add the lime juice, cumin, mayonnaise, cilantro, and grind in a generous amount of black pepper. Stir with a fork, taste, and add more salt or anything else if necessary, and chill for as long as you have until you want to serve.

Originally posted February 2021

Posted on

Cowboy Cookies for pandemic (small batch)

  • 1 stick (8 ounces) butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • generous pinch salt
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup Heath bar chips
  • 2/3 cup coconut, sweetened or unsweetened is OK
  • 2/3 cup chopped nuts, pecans or walnuts or almonds (My favorite way to chop the nuts is to put them in a plastic bag and bash them with a rolling pin. The bags Costco baking nuts come in are perfect, so I now have a collection of heavy plastic bags that I wash & re-use for this purpose)
Directions:

Cream the butter and sugars together in a stand mixer if you have one, or by hand. Add the egg and mix well. Add the vanilla, spices, leavening, and salt and mix lightly, then add the flour and oats, and finally the chips, coconut, and nuts. Mix. I think the chocolate chips & nuts kind of hold the flour down while you mix up the dough, and keep it from flying out of the mixer.

Line a baking sheet with parchment and scoop the dough out with a 2-tablespoon scoop if you have one or other device if you do not. Cover the baking sheet and chill till you’re ready to bake. At this point the dough balls can be frozen for months. Freeze them on the sheet and then once frozen transfer to a plastic bag or other container. You can take them out and bake as many cookies as you want at any given time.

When you’re ready to bake, heat the oven to 375°. Divide the cookies up, about one dozen to a sheet with plenty of room, because they’ll spread. Bake for 8-10 minutes, when they’ll still be a bit squishy in the middle, and cool on the sheets to firm up. Makes 27 large cookies.

Here’s the original recipe, from the Washington Post
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon baking soda
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 sticks (12 ounces) butter, at room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
  • 2 cups sweetened flaked coconut
  • 2 cups chopped pecans
Directions

Position oven racks in the upper and lower thirds and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

Using a stand mixer on medium speed, beat butter until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Gradually add sugars and beat to combine, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each one, and the vanilla extract. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture gradually until just combined. Add the chocolate chips, oats, coconut and pecans, mixing until just combined.

For large cookies, drop a hefty 1/4 cup of dough onto the baking sheets for each cookie, spacing 3 inches apart. Bake for 8 to 9 minutes, then rotate sheets top to bottom and front to back. Bake for an additional 8 to 9 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then transfer to rack to cool completely. For smaller cookies, use 2 tablespoons dough per cookie and bake for 15 to 18 minutes total, rotating the baking sheets midway through. Store in airtight containers at room temperature for several days. May be frozen.

Posted on

Fancy Schmancy Cherry Muffins

In September of 2020, we took a pandemic-style trip to Door County – stayed in an AirBnb with a private entrance & no shared spaces, ate all our meals carryout, did nothing indoors – and we never had cherry pancakes for breakfast while we were there. So the first Sunday we were back, we had cherry pancakes at home. Which left me with about a cup of thawed-out pie cherries, and these muffins are the result. Not a replacement for my Better-Than-Stella’s-Cherry-Muffins, simply an alternative.

Makes about 13 muffins

2 1/2 cups unbleached flour (feel free to sub in other types, gluten free, etc.)
1/2 cup grated almond paste
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/3 cup sour cream
5 tablespoons coconut oil (again, feel free to sub in other types, melted butter, vegetable oil, etc.)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup King Arthur cherry jammy bits, or dried cherries
1 scant cup tart cherries, thawed and well-drained if frozen, well-drained if jarred

sliced almonds and granulated sugar for sprinkling on top

Heat the oven to 375°, and line the wells of a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners, or grease them. You may need a custard cup or other container to make muffin #13,

Place the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the grated almond paste, and toss, and then add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar, and toss again. Make a well in the center, and add the eggs, milk, sour cream, and extracts. Mix, but only until all the dry ingredients are moistened – the batter will still be quite lumpy – then fold in the bits or dried cherries, and tart cherries.

Portion the batter into the pan(s) – a muffin scoop is helpful here – and sprinkle the almonds and sugar on top. Bake for about 20-25 minutes until raised and firm.

orginally posted October 2020

Posted on

Sourdough focaccia

In the midst of the pandemic, while everyone is playing around with sourdough, I tried this focaccia. It’s based on I am a Food Blog, small batch sourdough focaccia, but I couldn’t figure out her grams measurements, so I used:

  • one cup fed starter (mine was fed 3 days)
  • 1/2 cup lukewarm water
  • big pinch of kosher salt (a little less if it’s Morton, the extra salty kosher salt!)
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • about 2 1/2 cups flour (unbleached white, whole wheat, etc. )
  • Another tablespoon or two of olive oil, flaky salt, chopped fresh rosemary

Combine everything except the flour in the bowl of a stand mixer, or any big bowl if you don’t have a stand mixer. Add 2 cups of the flour, and mix. Add enough additional flour to make a soft dough. Beat/knead at medium speed for 4 minutes, until the dough is nicely elastic. Or mix in those first 2 cups of flour till you have a shaggy dough ball, then turn it out onto a floured surface, and knead by hand for 6-8 minutes, working in up to about another 1/2 cup flour, until you have a smooth elastic dough.

You can follow Stephanie’s directions from here, or:

Transfer the dough to a bowl (or leave it in the mixer bowl), and fold it every 30 minutes, 4 times, for about 2 hours.  Line an 8- or 9-in cake pan with parchment, transfer the dough ball to the pan, cover and refrigerate overnight. Remove from the fridge about 3 hours before you want to bake, and leave at room temperature. About 30 minutes before the dough is risen, heat the oven to 450°. Drizzle the extra tablespoons of olive oil over the dough, and dimple it with your fingers – it’s important here to oil the dough first – it’s very sticky and will stick to you if you skip the oil. Sprinkle with the flaky salt, and rosemary, and put the pan in the oven. Reduce the heat to 425º, and bake for 15 minutes, then check to see how it’s doing, rotate the pan, and bake about 10-15 minutes. Remove from the pan as soon as possible so the bottom doesn’t get soggy.

Originally posted June 2020

 

Proudly powered by WordPress