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Monthly Archives: November 2008
Guess what, it is Tuesdays with Dorie time and the wonderful Isabelle of Les Gourmandises d’Isa picked one of our favorite desserts, one that goes back to both of our childhoods and our cultures – Lenny, Portuguese and I, Basque. We both remember our great-grandmothers, our grandmothers, and our mothers making rice pudding. It is a very comfortable ending to a meal. The only thing with these old family recipes is that they seem to come out a bit dry or startchy no matter how much extra milk I add. I feel bad even saying this, but, I have tried and tried …. now there is a new girl in town!
Dorie always seems to have the “perfect recipe”. Every time I make a TWD recipe, it is right on, from serving size, to baking times and ingredients. This recipe was the exception ….. it was even easier, in fact it was the easiest rice pudding I have ever made. Basically, you gently simmer rice with milk and sugar, then add flavorings, I did use a vanilla bean instead of extract, which gave it a really nice warm taste and essence. T add a bit of fall to the recipe, I soaked unsweetened cranberries in a French orange brandy for 10 hours and then lightly drizzled it over the top – very good! The end result, it was ultra creamy with a slight bite of crunch (that texture we so love) thanks to the Arborio rice.
I served this after we had the Merguez Lamb stew dinner- it was the perfect ending to a wonderful meal, the flavors all really came together. This was definitely the easiest and the best rice pudding recipe I have ever made and it will become the go to in our house and you should make it yours as well.
Thank you, Isabelle!
I grew up eating lamb very often, by the time I flew from the nest at the tender age of 18, I did not like lamb. Four years later I found myself in the Bay Area and submerged myself into becoming a foodie. I remember the first time I had lamb again, it was roasted with loads of garlic and rosemary, that taste still lingers in my mind. We are pretty much meat eaters around here and will eat just about anything; I more so then Lenny. WAIT! There’s more »
YEAH, our entry won the Chow Food Fight for Thanksgiving Sides! Thanks for all your votes and thank you to the Chow Editors for liking our recipe!
Want to add it to your Thankgiving Menu, here is the recipe.
In all honesty, I was not really sure what a sunchoke was before tonight. I was just interested in trying something new as I did the shopping last weekend. I actually thought it was related to our friend the artichoke, but after some research, I found out it is related to the sunflower and has nothing to do with Jerusalem. “A sunchoke is an underground vegetable like a cross between a rutabaga, potato, sunflower seed, and water chestnut. Also called a Jerusalem artichoke, it is not like an artichoke bloom, nor does it grow in Jerusalem. It’s one of the few native tubers of North America.” Want to learn more click here.
I made a soup out of the little bag of sunchokes. Just a plain simple soup. It was easy. It was very tasty: a bit earthy like a potato and nutty like a just roasted chestnut. I did add some left over Anaheim pepper, which gave it a mild spicy taste. Overall, it was really a nice little soup.
Next time, I may try to add some sunchokes to mashed potatoes instead of our new favorite add-in, Celery root or maybe I will add some to a salad as it has a nice crisp texture when eaten raw.
Recipe
Ilva of Lucullian Delights organizes the Paper Chef challenge, which is similar to the Iron Chef challenges. The rules are very similar, you are given 4 ingredients and you have to come up with a meal using all 4 items – it can be one dish or it can be a few, you just have to use the 4 ingredients. This month Magnus, of Amsterdam, who was the Paper Chef winner for the challenge 33, is hosting the challenge and has selected the following ingredients:
- Turkey
- Anaheim peppers
- Winter squash
- Lentils
When I saw the ingredients I knew I had to take on the challenge as I love all of these items and I knew they would make a simple dinner for one – my man is out of town all week!
First I roasted the acorn squash until fork tender, no seasonings, just plan oven roasted. Then I peeled them and cut into chunks.
I love roasted chicken breasts, so I used the same recipe that I normally use, but with a turkey breast – coated with grapeseed oil and seasoned with sea salt and cracked black pepper. Cooking with the grapeseed oil permits you to cook the chicken at a high heat without drying out the chicken. It comes out very flavorful and moist. While the chicken was roasting, I cooked some French green lentils with some chicken broth, until tender, but still slightly crunchy. While the lentils and chicken were cooking, I sauteed some shallots with diced Anaheim peppers until caramelized and then added the squash and cooked just until heated through.
Once the lentils were done, I drained them and tossed with the squash mixture and reheated. Thinly sliced the turkey breast and plated the meal. End result, quick and easy dinner in less than an hour, which was very flavorful with the nuttiness of the lentils, spicy peppers and very sweet acorn squash and a lightly roasted turkey breast.
 I have just entered our Pumpkin Pie into Apartment Therapy The Kitchn’s Best Pie Bakeoff. Our family pumpkin pie recipe truly is the best and I am not just saying that!
My step-mom, Kathie, has been making this pie for as long as I can remember and the key to her success is using fresh sugar pie pumpkin and cognac. Now, we switched it up a bit, this year, by adding cardamon instead of cinnamon and we used French Brandy instead of the cognac. It came out as creamy and rich as always; but, the cardamon and brandy gave it a really nice warm taste, very smooth on the taste buds. Using the fresh and slow roasted sugar pie pumpkins really is the key to this recipe as it gives the pie texture, really substantial texture, not smoosh like canned. I promise if you make this for the holidays your family will be forever grateful!
As mentioned earlier this week, we are in “clean-up” mode over at our pantry. When I go into these modes, I try to only use what I have in the house and to make the meal as delicious as possible! Tonight I took some carrots, celery and french green lentils and simmered them with some left over onion soup I had tucked away into the freezer for one of those solo dinner nights. Then I grilled (using my new favorite toy) some Lamb Meregez Sausage for the protein part of the meal. The lentils were cooked perfectly, slightly crunchy but moist and full of flavor thanks to the onion soup. The sausage added a really nice spicy surprise to the mellow lentils. It was a great hit you in the face spicy but then softened by the time you were ready to take the next bite!
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photo from Sixpoint Craft Ales & ON The House.
Chez US, hopes you voted regardless of your vote. YOU can make a difference and be part of change; regardless of your candidate, vote, make change and vote. Remember ….. Rock Obama!
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