The Blogging Makes You Fat Blog

Attack of the Jumbo Croutons

2010-10-30T21:54:00.000-04:00

Ok, so let’s take a step back and talk about a non-cooking disaster. Butternut Squash Soup! Seriously, butternut squash is the hippest, coolest vegetable out there. Anyone you would ask would say they LOVE butternut squash, not even just LIKE it. It’s the iPod of vegetables. Cool to eat, cool to cook. Just cool!

It’s getting chillier here – and thank god after our horrid hot summer from hell! The leaves are changing colors, we’re all sleeping with warmer blankets that our spouses continue to claim that we steal at night. It’s a cyclical thing. I wanted butternut squash soup as soon as I saw the gourd staring right me at the store. And the thing about butternut squash --- I wanted to make it myself. It’s probably the one vegetable that intimidates the least people, because anyway you do it, it will turn out delicious.

So taking a cue from the Barefoot Mountessa, I roasted the squash with some olive oil, salt and pepper in the oven. And then I added it to a pot with chicken stock and pureed it. It was a bit watery because I didn’t anticipate having so little squash after roasting it – shrinkage, you see – so I thickened the soup a bit with some cream and also a touch of flour added to some set aside soup and then plonked back into the pot.

I also wanted to make some croutons to go with. I sautéed some bread cubes in a lovely garlic and herb olive oil. I admit I may have cut big cubes – maybe to compensate for my little itty bitty squash cubes post-roasting – but it was still delicious, so who cares. Oh, and how could I forget, for added flavor I added ground nutmeg to the soup. Goes together like peas and carrots, you see.

Don't tell your Italian grandmother about this pizza.

2010-10-30T21:47:00.000-04:00

In one of the first few pages of Kitchen, Nigella had me at crustless pizza. Pizza anything and I will try it. The fact that it was a quick recipe, that it looked so amazing, that I didn’t have to make a dough that’s soft but not too sticky. And cheese. My second favorite food group. I was surprised that Nigella had cheddar cheese for this ‘pizza’ but she did describe it as a crustless grilled cheese sandwich. So it made complete sense to me to top it with fresh tomato, since tomato soup is a usual partner to the grilled cheese.

The ‘dough’ is more like a pancake batter – and even more interesting, you don’t pour it into a frying pan – you actually bake it.

When I looked at it just before I added the 2nd helping of cheddar cheese and the tomato, it reminded me kind of like a cheesy Yorkshire pudding. It bubbled up in places and looked so inviting.

And although the final result was very good, I was not too sure about its consistency. The batter never seemed cooked enough, but it could have been just that it was melted cheese in the dough, not uncooked batter. Plus, you can’t eat this like a Brooklyn pizza. You can’t slice it up, cup it in your hand and go to town. It’s more of a proper knife and fork type of thing, which is ok I guess, but I suppose I was just in the mood for an easy pizza, not a cheesy dough pancake. So not sure if it is a recipe I’ll try again… And this is when I really started questioning myself, and worse, questioning Nigella. I mean, I’ve been waiting for years for this book – she even told us about it in its infancy (and by the way, used a cool verb to describe what she was doing with it, but mommy brain/sieve can’t remember). A homebaked crustless cheese pizza to the person that can!

Everyday Disasters

2010-10-30T21:39:00.002-04:00

So the brownies kinda start a slippery slope it seems. It didn’t really START with them, but it was the first time I started noticing that maybe I was out of practice. I mean I had a big excuse, well two, to be exact. First, a few years ago I took a very demanding job that had me home late and too tired to cook. Still at that job, so it explains why the only time I have to draft this blog post is on a plane to Los Angeles. Then, I got pregnant, and my eating just wasn’t the same. If I wasn’t grossed out by things like grilled chicken, I was on my OBGYN’s crazy no-protein-left-behind diet, which sadly, omitted a lot of the carbs I so desperately need in my life. Now my little nugget of no-sleep happiness doesn’t give me much time to cook, except in the rare instance when I still have energy after putting him down for the night.

The buzz currently around my Nigellaphites is Nigella Lawson’s new book, Kitchen. In America it’s called Nigella Kitchen, which is pretty redundant, considering Nigella wrote it, but no one at Hyperion asked me, so…. whatevs. The book is massive, and I’m so excited to cook from it. I made the no-fuss fruit tart, which didn’t turn out well, as I blogged, because I got the base all messed up. That was entirely my fault, not Nigella’s or the book, so I persevered.

I went on to make the brownies, which spoke to me – no, seriously, chocolate really does talk to me – that they needed to be made. It is made with just cocoa, no dark chocolate, so it saves a lot of money and time not having to chop up lots of expensive chocolate. You do have the option of adding chopped up milk chocolate at the end of this recipe, but that is much easier, and since I love milk chocolate, I’ll forgive it for taking away precious moments from my life.

I made these the first time my baby turned 6 months. I had a mini-half birthday for him, and the brownies were definitely overcooked. I took them out about 20 minutes after they went into the oven, which is the minimum time in the book, but they were still overdone. Hey, chocolate is chocolate, so we still ate them (read, I still ate them) and they were good, but they missed the crispy top/fudgy bottom we all know and love. So I had to make them again – and they were a success! Rich and fudgy. Even after 15 minutes they were almost cooked through, so next time I will dare to do 12 minutes and let it continue baking outside the oven in its own heat. I also seriously do not recommend using foil. It just sticks to the bottom of the brownies. I just buttered the bottom of the brownie pan and added parchment paper to it so it stuck, and that was the perfect vehicle for these brown beauties.

The Love Bowl

2010-10-30T21:35:00.000-04:00

My mom taught me how to make her chicken soup a while back, and good thing I blogged about it (with pictures!), because my mind is such a sieve lately, there is no way I would have recreated it.

You get a nice leg quarter or thighs or drumsticks – whatever. Get organic, because since chicken is the leading actor in this play, you want it to be Oscar-caliber. You add water to the chicken till it covers it and put on a high flame so it starts boiling. Then you have to skim for a bit – that’s what the schmaltz is – and you are instantly Jewish, by the way, by saying schmaltz. Once you are done skimming, you add the veggies. Carrots, parsnips, an onion cut into quarters but not all the way through. Read the original blog entry to see a picture of what I mean. You add a tablespoon or to taste of vegetable bouillon powder or cubes or concentrate, whatever you got going, put it to simmer with a lid and let it cook for a good hour. Then you taste the darn thing. Add the dill or parsley or both at the end and let that cook another 15 minutes. And that’s it!! Jewish penicillin. When I made this last, I added dried chickpeas (which I soaked overnight, thank you very much) about halfway through. I was inspired by my m-i-l, that served us chicken soup with chickpeas on our last trip to Spain. Very good and good for you!

Pie Between Friends

2010-10-29T16:58:00.002-04:00

Shepherd’s Pie is an oldie but goodie back when I had an entire blog devoted for the most part to Tom Norrington-Davies’ Cupboard Love. The pie wasn’t in the book, but I had to get his other one, What Mother Used to Make, because I was truly a fan of his. His recipes were so good and smart, not to mention he is/was so nice too… My claim to fame is that we exchanged some emails back when I was writing the blog and his friend and my forum friend/Nigellaphite told him about him. He couldn’t be nicer about the project and was super encouraging… I sometimes think about finishing up that project. I made it to something like 100+ recipes, but I guess I just lost steam. Anyway, if you’re interesting to read how I cooked my way through – well mostly through – Cupboard Love, go to http://www.when-ilana-met-pantry.blogspot.com/.

I feel like life is a series of digressions, so here I am coming back from yet another one. Shepherd’s Pie. Pretty simple. Ground lamb cooked with carrots and other lovely things. It’s inauthentic to add tomato paste but Tom does. And he’s a Brit, so I am fine with doing it too. You kind of get a Bolognese type of sauce which goes in the bottom of the pie dish. Then, you top it with one of my favorite carbs, mashed potatoes! Gotta love the Brits for thinking this up. One of those rib-sticking meals on cold nights. Very comforting and very good, and Tom’s recipe really does hit the spot. Some people make the mash with parsnips or add cheese. I like the part of his recipe where he adds little hits of butter. I added it to the ridges that I made with a fork and it made the mash nice and crispy there. Fabulous recipe!

Tajine

2010-10-29T16:41:00.002-04:00

My Nigella friends will know that I am not a big fan of the Barefoot Contessa – more like Snot-tessa. It’s just the way she presents herself – ugh. Or her voice. She sounds so friggin’ uppity, I just can’t like her no matter how I try. One of her sayings that makes me just boil over is when she says, “how easy is that?” And now, to my horror, but not really shock, I saw she just published a book with said blood-curdling title. I guess it’s not as bad as Rachael Ray funking up the English language with Yum-O and EVOO. But in the rare moments I get to watch the Food Network on weekend mornings, I do tune into the BC’s show, because she does make some awesome dishes, and for the most part when I’ve made them, they’ve been pretty successful. And that is saying a lot. In the next blog posts, you’ll catch on to what I mean.

So back to Ina. She had a friend over for one of her shows, and they make a chicken tagine with olives. I just love anything stew-like – meat or vegetables cooking for hours on a low flame – and I just love olives too. I had to make this. I made some minor changes, for instance, for the life of me I couldn’t find a necessary ingredient to Moroccan cooking – preserved lemons. Ok, so I didn’t make the best effort, I admit, by going to the Russian monstrosity also known as Net Cost Market in Brooklyn. They have an entire aisle of preserves and jams. An entire aisle! I know that preserved lemons aren’t really meant to be put on bread, but I took a shot. One that failed! Anyhoo, I made it without the preserved lemons.

The dish was taaaasty! Chicken thighs work so well in this recipe. They really pick up so much flavor, and I did it the easy way by marinating out of the fridge for just a couple of hours. I also went boneless and skinless to make it easier to eat. I hate fiddly food.

Moroccan Chicken Tajine

Ingredients

6 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 tablespoon kosher or sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 large Spanish onion, grated (about 1 cup)
2 tablespoons canola, grapeseed or olive oil (not a heavy olive oil)
1 to 2 preserved lemons, depending on size
8 chicken thighs, with bone and skin
Stems from the parsley and cilantro, tied with twine
1/4 teaspoon powdered saffron or 1/4 teaspoon powdered turmeric and 4 strands saffron
1 cup pitted green Moroccan or Greek olives
1/2 bunch Italian parsley, about 1/4 cup chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro, about 1/4 cup chopped

Directions

In a large bowl, mix the garlic, cumin, ginger, paprika, salt and pepper, 1/2 cup grated onion, and the oil.
Rinse the preserved lemons, and remove the pulp. RESERVE the lemon peel for later use.
Add the lemon pulp to the mixing bowl. Add the chicken. Mix everything together and place in a large plastic bag to marinate overnight in the refrigerator. (Twenty-four hours really gives the chicken the best flavor.)
In a large Dutch oven or casserole, place the chicken and marinade; add the stems of the parsley and cilantro, the rest of the grated onion, the powdered saffron and 1 1/2 cups water. Bring to a boil over high heat, turn down to a simmer and cook, partially covered, for 30 minutes.
Remove the cover, stir the chicken and continue to simmer for another 15 minutes or until the chicken is tender.
Remove the chicken to a serving dish and cover with foil to keep warm. Keep sauce on stove and begin to reduce.
Slice the preserved lemon peel into thin slices and add to the sauce along with the olives, parsley and cilantro. Reduce until the sauce is just a little thick. This shouldn't take more than 5 minutes at most.
Uncover the chicken and remove the skin from the chicken. (It doesn't look pretty and who needs the extra fat.) Pour sauce over chicken and serve.

Little fuss, but no biggie!

2010-09-22T14:22:00.003-04:00

Nigella Lawson has come out with a new book!!! But I don't have it yet. Thank god for the Daily Mail -- will I go to hell for that comment?? -- that did a serialization of some sample recipes from Kitchen. This recipe looked easy enough, as its name would suggest, and I do love me some tarts, meant in the least pervy way.

I made this for Rosh Hashanah Eve's dinner, even though there is nothing traditional about it, apart from the honey graham biscuits in the base.

Trust me to mess up a no-fuss recipe. I totally read the instructions wrong in addition to completely ignoring the size of the tart pan. The funny thing is that I used too much butter for the tart pan I had, but even with not realizing I didn't use all the grahams I should have, the base still couldn't come together completely. I am buying bases from now on because I am just stoopid!!! when it comes to these things, apart from my cheesecakes, inexplicably. But I digress. The lemon curd was homemade, because my Russian supermarket (actually it's huge) has ten varieties of cherry preserves but not one friggin' jar of lemon curd. I also used Nigella's expertise for the curd, from the awesome How to Eat. Last time I made it, I think I stood about an hour, no joke, at the stove, waiting for the curd to thicken. This time, with a nagging husband and crying baby, not sure which is worse, I upped the heat and the curd was done in no time, no curdling to be found! The mixture of cream cheese and lemon curd is HEAVEN, and I will use it in the future to ice cakes.

Since the base was a joke and kept falling apart, I really only got to enjoy the cream and the strawberries. My sister made an off-hand comment about this being Wimbledon. Pah! Strawberries and cream got nothing on this.

So looking forward to getting the book in a fortnight or so, and hopefully the next recipe I won't mess up so spectacularly... or maybe I should!

How to boil water...and make banana bread!

2010-08-11T18:28:00.005-04:00

I'd love to say that fruit in my house make a constant appearance. They don't. I know full well that needs to change, especially as in the years to come I will have to be a good example to my offspring. But when life gives you mushy bananas, time for banana chocolate chip bread.

I got the recipe for the above from a book of mine called How to Boil Water. It was published by the Food Network, and has loads of recipes for first-time cooks and for seasoned (pardon the pun) chefs. I actually bought the book for my sister a few years ago, but never got around to giving it to her, and with the amount of food stains in it now, probably won't. Sorry, sis. :)

This cake is definitely the best chocolate chip banana bread I've ever tasted... It is seriously moist; just make sure your bananas are really really mushy. Plus, it was a great way to use up some of the chocolate chips I have at home. A 10 lb bag to be exact. Impulsive BJs purchase. Anyone want chocolate chip cookies??

Finally organized!

2010-08-09T20:13:00.003-04:00

Lately I have been a bit of an off-the-cuff type of cook, which means, I rarely cook at all, and if I do, it'll be the most random crap you could imagine. When I was a foodie -- I fully admit I am not so much one now, you can't be a foodie if you don't cook -- I would sometimes make arancini (mozzarella filled risotto balls) with leftover risotto. They would usually turn out ok, or better than ok, but they weren't exactly pretty, and the kitchen would be a complete mess because I wouldn't really think the whole thing through.

But, the other day, my sister was having a BBQ, and I had thought to make arancini for the event. So, for the first time, I actually made risotto for the sole purpose of making arancini.

I decided to make an intensely flavored risotto, so put in lots of mushrooms and some marsala wine. I added loads of parmesan at the end, to make the risotto more compact, for easier forming later on. You see, thinking ahead!!!

Once I had chilled the risotto for a couple of hours in the fridge, I added some shredded mozzarella to the batch, and then I formed mini 'cakes' using a round cookie cutter. I placed the cutter down on some parchment paper, and added the chilled risotto to the make-shift mold spoon by spoon, smushing it down to compact it even more. When I was happy with the amount, I moved on to the next one. Then, I put the cakes, still on the paper, in the freezer for about 20 minutes or so. I wanted to get them hard enough so that I could easily dunk them in egg and then breadcrumbs. The experiment worked! They were so easy to get ready for frying, I was so pleased I was so organized in my cooking for once!

After frying them on both sides in a generous amount of olive oil (the breadcrumbs, by the way, were a combination of italian seasoned crumbs and parmesan cheese -- and panko would be great too!), the risotto cakes were ready. And delicious they were too!

Who knew?!

2010-08-09T19:57:00.003-04:00

You know when you have one of those days when you just gotta have something? A few days ago, I REALLY wanted chocolate cake. Something stemming from having a birthday recently (don't ask, I'm too old!) and not having anyone bake a cake for me. I ended up having a delicious chocolate cake at my birthday dinner at a nice restaurant, but it was made by an anonymous chef, not someone who cares about me. So I wanted cake, and since no one was going to make me one, I made it myself.

I have a thing about chocolate cake. I love it, but I never ever had one that I thought was the ultimate delicious perfect chocolate cake. There is something inherently wonderful about chocolate -- it has a lot to live up to, so anything not perfect is almost like a waste of chocolate. Well, almost! I decided to give baking a chocolate cake a go knowing full well that my craving would not be completely satisfied. I am my worst critic. Boy, was I ever wrong?!

I used a recipe I had for a long time but never used -- Nigella's Ghoul Graveyard Cake from Feast. I guess I never bothered because it was never really presented fully as a chocolate cake. It is in the Halloween chapter and its schtick is that it is covered in black icing and ghoul jelly lolly pops. As far as I know, nobody had made it of my friends, so I had no idea how perfect it was. And when I say it was perfect, believe me! My favorite chocolate cake of all time has been discovered!

The Demon Baker of Fleet Street

2009-08-18T20:24:00.005-04:00

Whatever Rosa wants, Rosa gets.

I made my friend, Rosa, ‘mad’ a few months ago because I had mentioned off-handedly that I would make red velvet cake for her birthday… and I never followed through. There was something about the stories of needing three bottles of food coloring per cake. I am very Jekyll and Hyde when it comes to food. Sometimes I’m a purist that just needs to use organic sugar, and other times I’m trashy and all I want to eat is fried chicken and mashed potatoes.

But since Rosa went on vacation to Italy for two weeks, I thought I’d follow through on my promise by making red velvet cupcakes for her return.

I have to admit – I haven’t had this much fun baking in a long, long time. The amount of red food coloring WAS scary, truthfully – a tablespoon for the batter, and that is halving the recipe. But it turned the batter a shockingly blood-red color… It was truly mesmerizing.

Since I followed a cake recipe, I guessed at amounts and time for baking cupcakes. Half of the cake batter recipe comes to about 10 cupcakes, and 20 minutes is just enough time to bake all the way through but still be beautifully soft within.

The cream cheese icing didn’t go as planned, but I blame our heat wave on that. I used Nigella’s cream cheese recipe from her Guinness cake, which I have made countless times – the cake and the icing – but for some reason it would just not thicken. I finally gave up and decided to go for a hobo-chic look to the cupcakes. Trying hard to look like you’re not trying at all…

I think they turned out beautifully, and most importantly, the belated birthday girl was both surprised by them and thought them to be absolutely delicious. I tasted one; it was good… f***ing good! Definitely a recipe to make and make again.

Deep

2009-08-15T20:19:00.004-04:00

My coworker, Christy, mentioned she made deep dish pizza the other day, and that got me thinking, why don't I have a go at making it? As a kid I didn't really like deep dish or Chicago-style pizza, growing up on thin crust Brooklyn pizza. But tastes change, and if I could make a pizza with the ingredients that I know and like, why not?

The dough is homemade, and so is the sauce. The chicken is baked in my own oven with the 'pizza' spices I have come to use for everything (thanks, Maria!). It was as simple as putting the dough in a springform pan, adding sauce, then chicken and finally cheese, and then repeating it. Very much like lasagna. As I hoped, the dough rose beautifully in the oven, creating a golden crust to encase the toppings.

The spices made an appearance in the dough, the sauce, and the chicken. The ingredients in the spices are in Norwegian, so I couldn't tell you exactly what makes them so good, but I think there must be oregano in there and also red pepper flakes. I tried to make the sauce a bit chunky, to give more height to the pizza, so I added red pepper and onions to the crushed tomatoes.

Everything worked out well -- exactly how I wanted it. That is saying a lot, because a lot of dishes on paper come out different in reality for me. I'm glad this deep dish was everthing I expected and more!

How to be...

2009-08-10T17:40:00.003-04:00

Followers of this blog know this whole thing started -- the loving cooking and food thing -- when I came upon Nigella Lawson in the cyberworld just about 5 years ago. I have cooked countless Nigella recipes, seen countless episodes, 'talked' to countless fans. She was a huge part of my world for a long time.... and then I stopped cooking and keeping in touch with friends. I don't know what Nigella or her fans are up to now. But I hope they are still out there reading this blog sometimes, even though I am rare to post on it.

But I went blueberry picking the other day -- on such a hot and sunny day, you can't even imagine. The blueberries were ripe and beautiful. I am not a fruit eater. I admit it. I'd rather make jam or ice cream with fruit than actually eat. Which explains a lot, believe me. But this time, baking was on my mind. No one, and trust me when I say this, no one makes better muffins than Nigella. It was only natural I turned to her How To Be a Domestic Goddess for inspiration. Blueberry muffins it is. This recipe worked because it does a lot with limited ingredients, and with limited fridges, which I have had in the recent past. If you don't have much butter, you can get away with it since you use less than a stick. If you don't have buttermilk, natural yogurt and lowfat milk will do. If you don't have blueberries, just about anything else works. A lot of people have said that the recipe asks for too many blueberries, but I think 7 ounces is the perfect amount, and if you don't want a lot of blueberries, or any other berries, in your muffins, then why the heck are you eating it? The recipe gives orange zest as an option. I didn't have it, but had some expensive lemon oil I've only used once in a blueberry moon, so I used that. :)

The timing of the baking is spot on. The muffins came out puffy, soft, beautifully colored. Make these! Use frozen berries if you aren't in the season for picking your own. These muffins would make any house a home.

Wildberry

2009-07-12T09:48:00.004-04:00

We had a family gathering a few nights ago - for my birthday - and in the funny conversations that often ensue when talking to a four year-old, I discovered the existence of a wildberry. Liam was having me guess what flavor popsicle he had the other day. It was purple, it was sweet, it could be a candy too... Not grape, not blueberry, not blackberry. Wildberry! I am not sure if wildberry is an official berry, but it got me thinking ice cream and berries.

I had some strawberries and blueberries that needed to be used up. I 'jammed' them by mixing them up with about 1/2 cup of sugar on a low heat, and boiling them down until the blueberries starting bursting and the strawberries got nice and soft. I thought about pureeing the mixture, but I wanted to keep the consistency of the berries.

I let this mixture cool in the fridge all day, and then in the evening, mixed it up with a cup of half-n-half and a cup of whole milk. I added about a 1/4 cup of honey for added sweetness, knowing that once frozen, the ice cream would be less sweet than it was as a batter.

The cold batter went into the ice cream machine -- 20 minutes until soft serve consistency, and then in the freezer it went. I would have left it in the machine for another few minutes, but I was worried about it overflowing as I think I had way too much mixture in there. Next time, I would halve the berries and liquids.

Yesterday, the ice cream had ripened and was ready to eat! It was delicious with lovely hints of berries and honey. Just the right sweetness... Nothing like 'wildberry' homemade ice cream! And it was purple, and could be eaten instead of candy. :)

Cookbook Project

2009-06-25T15:19:00.003-04:00

My friend at work, Christy, is doing a special cookbook project – cooking her family recipes and putting it in a book to welcome a new addition to her clan.

She asked me if I would cook a few of the recipes and take pictures of them, knowing how much I love doing that. How could I say no?

Lemon Bars

These are classified in the things-Ilana-never-ate-before drawer. Even though I have spent most of my life in America, I am not, for all intents and purposes American, especially not in what I ate as a kid. My parents never made lemon bars; they never heard of them. But Christy is a true Midwestern girl, and I was psyched to try this old family recipe.

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp lemon rind
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup regular sugar
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
juice of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine slightly softened butter, 1 cup flour & 1/4 cup powdered sugar in a food processor or mixer. Bake the crust for 15 minutes in an 8x8 buttered baking pan.

Combine 2 tablespoons lemon juice, lemon rind, eggs, sugar, 2 tablespoons flour & baking powder. Pour over baked crust. Bake 25 minutes. Cool.

For the glaze, mix powdered sugar and lemon juice until slightly thick. Pour over the lemon bars and let cool.

These were fantastic! Very sweet, but fantastic. A coworker even said they were the best lemon bars he has ever eaten... Yippee!

Even his website's pink...

2009-05-26T21:21:00.004-04:00

"I like pink, and I specially like this outfit very much. The whole combination I find it really nice. We wear a lot of pink in Spain and I think it is a nice colour. If you look at my website it is also pink for this tournament”.

The boy is pretty in pink -- he can't help it.

He also can't help being the king of clay. Vamos, Rafa. Let's go for a fifth!!!

Welcome Back, Cotter!

2009-05-25T12:36:00.003-04:00

I know I have been gone for a while. But those that are my Facebook friends know that I'm still around in some sort of cyberspace. True, most of the time I am bitching much more than I'm cooking, but the roots, the desire, still exist inside me, though dormant at times. I'm cooking again. Not that often, and not always that good, but we need money, we need to stop eating out, so I need to cook more often now. I have to push aside my laziness in going to the grocery store after work, when all I want to do is collapse on the couch.

It's getting warmer now. Something is stirring inside me, a new fervor to cook and discover and rise and fall. To cook, perchance to scheme.

The last three days I've cooked a derivative out of a derivative. It all started with an idea. We had chicken in the freezer - a triumph - and we hadn't had 'spanish chicken' in a while. Chicken poached in white wine, garlic and pimenton... Cooked till the liquid is reduced down to a sauce and the chicken is unbelievably flavored. I did an OK job of it one night while Rafa was out. Since he wasn't around to eat with me, I had a couple of filets leftover. Of course, the flavor is enhanced the next day and the day after that. I took full advantage of that.

I made pizza dough, using my favorite recipe. I added Maria's fabulous 'pasta spice' from Norway in the dough itself. The sauce I used for the pizza wasn't homemade - but I've made homemade before, and it has rocked, so I didn't feel too guilty about cheating. I topped the pizza with mozzarella and the chicken sliced into bite size pieces. It was delicious!!!!

And the next day, having some cheese leftover and remembering the puff pastry in the freezer, I made miniature puff pastry pizza pockets, filled with more chicken, cheese and sauce. I glazed the top of the pastry with olive oil mixed with more of Maria's spice, for added color and flavor. Fabulous snack....

On this lazy Memorial Day, I had a glance at some of my favorite books.... Francesca sent me a smaller version of the 'blue book', which has some lovely couscous salads in there. I don't have a patio or a bbq party invitation in the near future, but that doesn't mean I'm not making these soon, I hope. So watch this space.

Forgot the eggs, sweetie?

2009-02-01T16:45:00.002-05:00

Yes, I did. Sorry.

Mom's Blinchiki -- revised

8-10 heaped tablespoons all-purpose flour (or 200g)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup water
1 egg!
sugar, to taste (1-2 tablespoons is my preference)
pinch of salt
1/4 cup olive oil, for frying

In a bowl or container for a hand blender, mix one tablespoon of olive oil, buttermilk, water, egg, sugar and salt. Add flour, tablespoon by tablespoon, and whisk by hand or using a hand blender or food processor/blender until the consistency is of thin pancake batter but thicker than cream - it would need to be able to swirl around in a non-stick pan, but not be so thin as to leave a very thin pancake.

Heat an 8"/20cm non-stick pan or rounded smooth griddle on medium heat. Using a pastry brush, brush a small amount of olive to give a thin layer. Pour the batter on one side of the pan and swirl the pan so that the batter reaches all sides of the pan. As the top of the blinchik gets dry, check underneath once the edges get golden. Turn over with your fingers, and cook about 30 seconds - 1 minute longer, depending on the thickness of the batter. Repeat until you are out of batter.

Makes about 12 blinchiki

Recipe By Phone

2009-01-27T12:28:00.006-05:00

It's funny when you wake up and you know exactly what you want to eat. It is something you've had before and the food is so memorable to you, you can taste in your mouth. That is how I felt this past Saturday morning.

I really wanted my mom's blinchiki. I guess you can figure out what those are, little blintzes/crepes. But hers are not like crepes or blintzes; there is something distinctively different - not better, not worse, just different. Even if I had searched my many cookbooks and recipes online, I could never find that something I was craving. So I called my mom...

In her usual adorable way she gave me a convoluted recipe. Going over several times how to make sure the batter was perfectly smooth but never actually stating how much flour to put in. She said the final mixture should resemble thin sour cream. So because I need structure I counted the amount of spoons of flour I added to the wet ingredients because I know next time I wouldn't be so lucky. I weighed this amount of tablespoons post-recipe, so I could make this recipe, which surprisingly turned out perfect, again and again. And now you can too.

Mom's Blinchiki

8-10 heaped tablespoons all-purpose flour (or 200g)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup water

sugar, to taste (1-2 tablespoons is my preference)

pinch of salt

1/4 cup olive oil, for frying

In a bowl or container for a hand blender, mix one tablespoon of olive oil, buttermilk, water, sugar and salt. Add flour, tablespoon by tablespoon, and whisk by hand or using a hand blender or food processor/blender until the consistency is of thin pancake batter but thicker than cream - it would need to be able to swirl around in a non-stick pan, but not be so thin as to leave a very thin pancake.

Heat an 8"/20cm non-stick pan or rounded smooth griddle on medium heat. Using a pastry brush, brush a small amount of olive to give a thin layer. Pour the batter on one side of the pan and swirl the pan so that the batter reaches all sides of the pan. As the top of the blinchik gets dry, check underneath once the edges get golden. Turn over with your fingers, and cook about 30 seconds - 1 minute longer, depending on the thickness of the batter. Repeat until you are out of batter.

Makes about 12 blinchiki

To serve: Eat straight away, with sour cream in the middle and rolled up like a burrito, or you could cool the blinchiki and fill with any topping you wish in the middle. Fold the short end and then the long end, fry for about a minute on each side in a pan with olive oil, and serve. A typical filling for this are either mashed potatoes with caramelized onions, either in the potatoes or as a garnish, or mushrooms served with sour cream on the side. Enjoy.

Return of the Eight Foot Rugelach

2008-12-21T15:00:00.005-05:00

So my rugelach are not really eight feet tall, but I think this was a neat picture I took of one pristine looking gorgeous delight. I make these every year on Hanukah; it has become a bit of a tradition in my kitchen. Unlike last year, this year's baking was without incident. I've made the full 36 cookie batch to divide among friends and co-workers. Happy Hanukah, all!

RUGELACH - Feast by Nigella Lawson

FOR THE DOUGH

425g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
50g caster sugar
1 packet (3 teaspoons) easy-blend yeast, optional
250g cold butter, diced
100g cream cheese, cut or spooned into pieces
1 egg
60ml sour cream

Briefly process the flour, salt and sugar, and yeast if you're using it, just to combine them, and then add the diced butter and cream cheese pieces, and process again until the mixture resembles damp sand.

Beat the egg and sour cream together, and with the engine running, pour down the funnel of the processor. Continue running the motor until it comes together in a silky dough; it will seem like it won't make a dough, but leave the motor running and be patient. (This can also be done with a beater.)

Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface, and divide into three, forming each one into a fat disc. Put the discs into freezer bags and leave in the fridge to rest for an hour - though you can leave them there for longer - just taking them out about 10-15 minutes before you want to get rolling.

FOR THE FILLING

250g dark chocolate
50g light brown sugar
50g butter

FOR THE EGG WASH

1 egg, beaten with a pinch of caster sugar

FOR THE SUGAR GLAZE

3 tablespoons caster sugar
3 tablespoons boiling water

Preheat the oven to 190C. Process the chocolate until it's battered into rubble, and then put these dark brown crumbs into a bowl with the sugar, using your fingers to mix them together. Melt the butter separately and let it cool slightly.

Roll out one of the discs of the dough on a lightly floured surface to a circle 25cm in diameter. With a knife, divide the circle into 12 triangles, like you would divide a pizza, only don't pull apart the triangles yet.

Brush the circle of triangles with the melted butter, and then spread or sprinkle a third of the chocolate filling to cover the circle. Then very carefully pull away one triangle at a time, rolling each one up from the thick end to the narrow end to form a bulging curly-whirly crescent; think of a croissant. Follow this procedure with all the dough disk and their filling.

Put the rugelach on to lined baking sheets (if you've used yeast, let stand on the tins as they are for 20 minutes) and brush each one with the egg wash, and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.When they come out of the oven, browned and puffy, mix the sugar and water together for the glaze, and brush the rugelach with this to make them shiny. Let them cool on a rack.

The Thanksgiving Scrooge (or freaking out in non-sequiters)

2008-11-26T09:19:00.005-05:00

It's not that I hate Thanksgiving. It's just that I hate people. Ok, maybe I don't hate people, I just hate, well, cooking for people. Cooking when I need to, not when I feel like it. Because the moments when I feel like it or I have time to are few and far between, so I don't want to make food, I don't want to have people over, I don't want to clean my apartment. I want to crawl under my covers and re-emerge on January 2nd.

And now to the cooking. This is what I have made so far, and maybe this is why I am feeling the way I do.

Girdlebuster Pie - There is a lot of base for my pie dish. It wasn't clumpy enough to be able to push it far up on the sides, but the worst part is that my ice cream doesn't freeze and neither does my base. That 'gorgeous' florentine that the pie gets when the ice cream pops out is all over my pie, not to mention my freezer is full of graham cracker crumbs. The pie is NOT beautiful, but I'm thinking graham crackers plus chocolate plus ice cream plus butterscotch sauce ain't exactly a bad thing, so I'll just shut up now, serve it, eat it, enjoy it. Enough.

Christy's Sweet Potatoes - So excited by this recipe, and the filling turned out really well, but the skins were too thin and ripped. Why why why didn't I let them cool completely?! So now I have a lot of filling and not sure yet what to do with it. Bought some lovely gourds (have had a lot of fun lately using that word inappropriately at work with my coworkers) in order to gut and stuff with said filling, but they are just too beautiful and I couldn't cut them, no I just could not. So they will be the centerpiece, I think (channeling Martha Stewart). My mom thinks Liam will want to play with them, which I'm fine with. I hope he doesn't throw it at my TV. The filling, well, maybe I'll bake it in my Le Creuset (bless my ceramic baking dish obsession), sprinkle some pecans (rhymes with fans) and sage on top. Mashed sweet pots cum sweet potato casserole. Oh, who fucking cares?!

Cranberry, Orange and Almond Pudding - I panicked about the girdlebuster-pie-that-refuses-to-freeze so I made this pudding in 2.2 seconds. It's the fastest I ever put anything together. I had leftover cranberries so this recipe made sense. I tweaked it a tiny bit, but it looks like something I'd just love after the huge meal we'll have tomorrow. Even snapped a pic. (Hate my pictures lately -- I am a slave to natural light.)

Redder than Red Cranberry Sauce - Easy easy easy. Beautiful. Can't wait to have it with turkey.

Brined Turkey? Not so much. - I wanted it to happen. I PLANNED for it to happen. It's not happening. Picked up my turkey. My mom and I marinaded it this evening in olive oil and garlic. It'll be delicious. It won't be MY turkey, but it'll be delicious. Brining? Maybe next year. I couldn't face buying a huge bucket and finding room in my constantly disappearing fridge.

Sunday Night Baking

2008-11-16T20:24:00.003-05:00

Weekends always pass by outrageously fast. I literally can't list five things that I actually do, but somehow, they just go away so fast. Today wasn't a very busy day at all; I woke up, got ready to go out, took Liam to the movies and we had lunch... and that's it. Before I knew it, it was 5PM, and it was dark. And the blues started setting in. Sunday night blues. I got the baking bug, all at once. I didn't want the weekend to go unnoticed. I was trawling through Nigella's At My Table column these last few days, and I remembered a fabulous sounding recipe, 'Chocolate and Pistachio and Whirligig Buns'. These are like Nigella's cinnamon buns from HTBADG and include an insane amount of yeast added in. Yeast to me is like the bell to Pavlov's dog. Just the thought of it sends me in a tizzy, gets my blood working overtime. I love the idea of proofing, dough coming to life. I wanted to make these buns; I didn't care that it was Sunday night.

The proofing of the dough was only about 30 minutes, which made baking it and eating it all the more possible in a short period of time.

The rest was really easy; it is the type of dough, similar to challah, that is quite easy to work with. The buns were done after only 15 minutes in such a high oven, so it is the type of recipe that needs to be watched carefully. I had a lukewarm bun while writing this post -- amazing. Th 'bread' is not too sweet and lends itself well to cold mornings on the couch with a cup of tea nestled in your hands. But since I'm off to work tomorrow morning, I guess I'll enjoy this while drinking my cup of tea with milk and two sugars in front of the computer. Blues made slightly sweeter this evening.

Chocolate and Pistachio Whirligig Buns

Published in the New York Times: March 5, 2003

Time: 1 hour, plus 35 minutes for dough to rise

For the dough:

5 to 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup superfine sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 packets rapid-rise, bread-machine or other instant yeast
7 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 2/3 cups milk
2 large eggs
Vegetable oil for bowl

For the filling and the glaze:

8 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon superfine sugar
3/8 cup shelled pistachios (I used dried cranberries)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 large egg, beaten.

1. To prepare the dough, heat oven to 450 degrees. In a large bowl, combine 5 cups flour, sugar, salt and yeast. In a small saucepan, combine 7 1/2 tablespoons butter and the milk, and place over low heat until lukewarm. In a medium bowl, beat eggs lightly, and then whisk in milk mixture. Stir liquid ingredients into dry ingredients.
2. Using a mixer with a dough hook, or by hand, knead dough until smooth and springy, adding more flour if necessary. Form into a ball, and place in an oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until double in size, about 30 minutes.
3. Punch down dough. Line a 13-by-10-inch baking pan with parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll out one-third of the dough, and place in pan. Roll out remaining dough to a rectangle about 20 by 10 inches.
4. To make filling, mix together the butter and sugar to make a paste. Spread paste evenly over large rectangle of dough. Chop pistachios until splintery, and sprinkle evenly over dough. Top with chocolate chips. Starting from longest side, carefully roll up dough so it looks like a long sausage. Cut dough into 20 slices, each 3/8 inch thick, and arrange with a cut side up on top of dough in pan.
5. Brush buns with beaten egg, and let them sit in a warm place until puffed up and snugly filling pan, about 15 minutes. Bake until buns are risen and golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from baking pan to cool on a rack. Serve warm.

The Gods Must Be Crazy...

2008-11-16T17:06:00.003-05:00

Or maybe it's just me. Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away, and I've agreed to host it again. Which leads me to discuss the few reasons why I've renamed my blog... I obviously don't cook that much risotto anymore, not that I ever aim to be exact in my meaning, quite the opposite actually. But, lately, life has seemed like a mad tea party. I live my life like Alice. Seeing the goal, not quite getting there. Being tall enough to reach the key hole but not tall enough to reach the key. Living in a dreamscape, walking the same road again and again, seeing the light at the end, but never quite getting there. Hosting Thanksgiving is me taking control of my tea party. Putting my foot down, damnit. Taking charge of my destiny. Here is the menu, to be eaten buffet-style, whether anybody likes it or not!

Thanksgiving Menu

Super juicy brined turkey -- Nigella Lawson
Redder Than Red Cranberry Sauce -- Nigella Lawson
Rosemary Israeli couscous
Twice Baked Sage & Pecan Sweet Potatoes
Butternut Orzotto -- Nigella Lawson
Roasted winter vegetables with mustard sauce
Garlicky spinach and tomato salad -- Nigella Lawson
Ensalada Ponte Vecchio
Girdlebuster Pie -- Nigella Lawson
Polenta and Orange Upside-Down Cake -- Nigella Lawson
Assorted fruit

Wish me luck!

Lorraine

2008-11-05T12:48:00.003-05:00

At a recent concert I went to of Coldplay's, Chris Martin dedicated a song to Jennifer Hudson and her family. An otherwise upbeat in tune song turned into a beautiful dedication, a testament of loss. It touched me and I feel is appropriate at this moment to show it -- video.

This afternoon an online friend of ours passed away. Writing it is not the same as thinking it. Our online friends are not people that weave in and out of our lives, there for a laugh and gone again. They are who we are, they are real people, and no matter how many miles separate us, one thing remains, they are part of our lives, and when they die, a part of us is gone forever. I will miss Lorraine. I know that she loved me, and I will love her always. Goodbye, my friend.

And the hardest apart
Was letting go not taking part
Was the hardest part
And the strangest thing
Was waiting for that bell to ring
It was the strangest start

I could feel it go down
Bittersweet I could taste in my mouth
Silver lining in the clouds
oh And I
I wish that I could work it out

And the hardest part
Was letting go not taking part
You really broke my heart
And I tried to sing
But I couldn't think of anything
And that was the hardest part

I could feel it go down
You left the sweetest taste in my mouth
You're a silver lining the clouds
Oh, and I
Oh, and I
I wonder what it's all about

Everything I know is wrong
Everything I do it just comes undone
And everything is torn apart
Oh and that's the hardest part
That's the hardest part
Yeah, that's the hardest part
That's the hardest part

Easy as pie?

2008-10-22T21:18:00.005-04:00

I think the above is one of the stupidest expressions ever. Pie is not easy. That is, making pie is not easy. Ok, maybe some pies are easy, but apple pie isn't. Because it won't taste good unless the crust is from scratch, and of course, you can't get away with pre-peeled, frozen apples. You got peel those apples. Core them. Then slice them. Not easy. At least not for a klutz like me.

But when my friend Rosa brought to work a bag full of Granny Smiths, I agreed to make apple pie with them, because it's fall, and it's apple pie time. As much as I love summer, I just love that first crisp air, the idea of leaves changing, of people leaving their urban environments, getting into nature, picking apples. Eating apple pie is just an extension of that, and if I didn't take part of the laborsome task of picking apples, the least I could do was do something with them. So apple pie for the office it was.

I turned to my bible of baking -- the good people at King Arthur Flour. They have two distinct apple pie recipes. One is called Best, the other, Favorite. You can't really go wrong, can you? I picked the 'Favorite' one, because I couldn't be bothered to get apple cider. The only additional ingredient I didn't have already was, quite surprisingly, the flour.

Making the pastry took ages, because I decided to use my hands, rather than the Kitchenaid. Peeling the apples took FOREVER. I once went to pick up Chinese food, and as I was waiting to get my order, the owner of the take out was peeling an apple in front of me. With just the use of his hands and a paring knife, he peeled the entire apple into one long curly strip. I'm so impressed with people who have that ability. I did much better than I usually do, with a vegetable peeler, but it still took FOREVER.

But the result was fabulous, and that's what really matters. The apples were perfectly baked in the sweet cream custard that was formed with the combination of vanilla and half n half. The crust was perfection. EVERYONE from work really loved it, even the people that admitted they are not really pie people. Some had their slices warm with vanilla ice cream I had bought and brought in.

Here is the recipe, because I really think, if you have the time, do make this. So worth it!

Sue’s Favorite Apple Pie -- King Arthur Flour Baking Company

This apple pie isn’t one that’ll make you sit up and take notice. Instead, it’ll invite you to snuggle into your favorite chair, heave a comfortable sigh, and enjoy bite after bite of this perfectly simple pie. The spices in the filling are understated, rather than overwhelming, and allow the flavor of vanilla to shine through. Meanwhile, the vanilla is pairing with the cream to give an impression of ice cream inside the pie, mirroring the scoop of vanilla you may have piled on top.

1 recipe King Arthur's Pie Crust

Filling

2 tablespoons (3/8 ounce) unbleached all-purpose flour

3/4 to 1 cup (5 1/2 to 7 1/4 ounces) sugar, to taste, depending on the tartness of the apples

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg OR ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 to 5 cups (about 1 1/2-2 pounds) cored, peeled and diced apples (Granny Smith and/or Cortland are our favorites)

1 tablespoon vanilla

2/3 cup (5 3/8 ounces) half-and-half, light cream, or heavy cream, your choice

Topping

2 teaspoons sugar mixed with 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

Crust: Roll one piece of the pie crust out to about 13 inches in diameter, and carefully transfer it to a 9-inch pie pan (a giant spatula works well here). Fold the edges under.

Filling: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, the sugar, spices and salt. Add the apples (cut in about 1/2-inch dice), and toss to combine thoroughly. Add the vanilla and cream, and stir well. Spoon the filling into the crust. Roll the second crust to a diameter of about 10 to 11 inches, lay it atop the filling, and crimp to seal.

Baking: Bake the pie in a preheated 450°F oven for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350°F, and bake for an additional 40 to 50 minutes, until the top is medium-brown and the juices are clear and bubbly. If the crust appears to be browning too quickly, cover it with a pie crust shield, or strips of aluminum foil.

Note: If you’re using a light or shiny pie pan rather than a dark one, be sure to bake the pie for at least 50 minutes, to ensure that the bottom crust is done. Yield: one 9-inch pie, 8 servings.

Christy's Super Tasty Snickerdoodles

2008-10-21T20:02:00.002-04:00

In a completely random conversation the other day, my coworker Christy and I started talking about snickerdoodles. The only ones I know and tasted are Nigella's from her Domestic Goddess tome. Christy had a different version that she said were like actually cookies -- my snickerdoodles were like little munchkin donut holes.

We decided to do a snickerdoodle challenge and bring the goodies to work... Of course, my brain is like a sieve, and the day I was supposed to go out and buy ingredients for the snickerdoodles, I completely forgot about it, and then I was just too lazy to go out again.

Christy, thankfully, is less scatterbrained than I am, and did bring her snickerdoodles to work. They were delicious, chewy, sweet, awesome, super. Super tasty snickerdoodles. As Christy promised, they were flatter like real cookies. The picture below, from the Betty Crocker website, pretty much shows what Christy's snickerdoodles looked like.

Her recipe is a classic from Better Homes and Gardens and follows below. Try it, man!

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions
1. In a medium mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the 1 cup sugar, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg and vanilla. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in any remaining flour. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
2. In a small mixing bowl combine the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll balls in the sugar-cinnamon mixture to coat. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
3. Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 10 to 11 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; cool. Makes about 36 cookies.

Back.. and with chocolate cake!

2008-10-21T20:00:00.003-04:00

Rosh Hashanah saw the debut of one of those undisputable, delicious, decadent, divine chocolate cakes... Nigella's chocolate honey cake from Feast. I was thinking of making the regular honey cake from the same book, but wanted something different this time around.

I'm sure you could tell from the picture above how rich this cake was! But what really surprised me was how the honey flavor really did come out. I brought the cake to work the next day, and boy, was it devoured!! People were saying it's probably the moistest chocolate cake they've ever had! Wahooooo! Finally , coworkers that appreciate my baking!

Harvest

2008-08-17T20:41:00.003-04:00

I never knew when it happened, but I became a die-hard bread baking fiend. Anything that involves flour, yeast, a soft rise, that bit of a sour note in the air -- bread baking, it makes me just so happy. I love trying new recipes - and when I saw an interesting one in the King Arthur Flour catalogue I got the other day -- I just had to give it a go. The bread requires a slow rise overnight -- and I love bread like this, because it means that I could start baking in the morning, and have a lovely piece of bread for lunch.

It is a fairly simple recipe. I get scared by 'no-knead' breads, because they tend to be too sticky to manage, but with a little more flour added than stated in the recipe, it was easier to handle. I didn't have golden raisins (sultanas) nor wanted walnuts, so I decided to just use the cranberries, which I love.

The slow rise overnight makes the dough a massive sight in the morning.

The recipe calls for the bread being baked in a ceramic long container -- the only real problem I have with the recipes in the catalogue is that they don't really give you an option of what to do if you weren't to buy their products. Are we really established bakers if we have a cabinet full of items we'll use maybe once, twice? I don't think so. Obviously, I see KA's point. If they're going to spend money producing a catalogue and spending time testing a recipe, they're going to want some customers out of it. But, I don't want to buy this ceramic crock thing, and I still want to make the recipe. Maybe a few years ago, I would have seen the pictures of the bread, said, 'oh, that's pretty', then seen what I needed to make the bread, and then moved on, never trying it, no matter how good it could have been. I'm not like that anymore. I made the bread, despite not having that ceramic thingamajig.

So after twenty minutes in the hot oven, I lowered the temp to 375F. I continued baking it for another 25 minutes. And that was it.

Turned out perfect. I made a lackluster chicken salad to go with it, but it really doesn't need anything more than deli-fresh turkey breast, some mayo, maybe a tomato or two. Really, really good bread!

Mademoiselle Mustard

2008-08-07T11:24:00.007-04:00

My lovely Brazilian friend, Clarice, is currently living in Paris - a lifetime dream of hers. Of course I get to enjoy her experience by osmosis, because she is my link to the beautiful food that France brings. Recently, Clarice sent me a jar of mustard. French mustard, but of course.

She had remembered how much I enjoyed Nigella's pork chops in mustard from Nigella Express, and since Nigella uses French strong mustard for this recipe, Clarice's gift would be the perfect ingredient for this already delicious dish.

The other night, I decided to make the dish but with slight variations... I served the chops with delicious and soft Israeli couscous. It turned out to be one of the most delicious dinners we have had in a long time.

French Pork Chops -- variation of a recipe by Nigella Lawson

Ingredients:

2 pork chops

2 teaspoons olive oil

two garlic cloves

1/3 cup white wine

2 teaspoons french mustard

1/4 cup half 'n' half or light cream

Heat the olive oil in a pan (preferably not non-stick), and while the oil is heating up, add two crushed garlic cloves with the skin still on. Then, cook the chops over a moderately-high heat until nicely charred/brown on both sides. Remove them to plate.

With the flame still on, pour the wine into the pan to deglaze the pan. Let it bubble away for a minute or so, and then add the mustard and stir in the cream. Cook for a further couple of minutes. Then, add the browned pork chops. Put the lid on and continue cooking over a low heat for five minutes.

Serve the pork chops with the sauce and with buttered noodles, couscous or steamed white rice.

Sugo Crudo Pizza

2008-08-04T17:35:00.006-04:00

Even though it's been quite a while now, I crave my lunchtime trips to the Sullivan Street Bakery, where I would get a huge slice of pizza bianca for only $1 or the pizza pomodoro. Thin crust, with a gorgeous topping of just tomatoes. Room temperature. Perfect.

Although I love pizzeria-style pizza, I can't seem to fall out of love with the Italian pizza I experienced a few years ago, very similar to the bakery's pizza. Thin and delicious.

At home, I try to recreate this pizza - one that exists in memory, perhaps not in reality. Like many things, don't we imagine things a lot sweeter than they actually were? In my mind, I still see the 20 year old sitting in Piazza Navona watching the beautiful people drinking the most beautiful cappucinos I have ever seen. I clearly remember ordering a pie with my friend in Rome. The pizza was not like anything I had tasted before or since, except for my all too brief rendezvous with Sullivan Street.

Being a bit of a perfectionist, I have tried and tried again with pizza. I refuse to give in and buy a pizza stone or do any of the 'tricks' to make pizzeria pizza. I know that it will never be the same. But it is not the pizza I am after anymore. I want the simple base, the simple topping. The tomato, gorgeous and naked, with the faintest sheen of olive oil.

So I went raw this past weekend. Raw tomatoes as my base. The base was already something I have been perfecting for a while now. It's the one from the NY Time's 'fried pizza experiment'. It's perfect, though it needs more water, so that the dough is almost meltingly smooth, a touch away from being sticky.

The base was about as simple as you get. A tomato, a clove of garlic, some olive oil, some salt, some chilli flakes, and a touch of the pasta seasoning my friend, Maria, from Norway gave to me -- but a mix of basil, oregano or parsley could work just as well. All whizzed together for a few seconds - the olive oil emulsifying the tomato sauce a bit to give it a glorious gazpacho-terracotta hue.

The base is stretched out into a circle with the hands -- eagerly, patiently. The tomato base goes on top. Then just a few gratings of pecorino romano and mozzarella finish this pizza off.

It doesn't need more than 15 minutes in a hot oven, as the base is so thin. It comes out crispy, delicious, heady with spice and garlic. Food of the gods, or at least, a Roman holiday.

I got my wish...

2008-07-14T16:20:00.006-04:00

Floored. Completely shocked. Elated. Terrified. Hungry.
The emotions running through me when at a little after 7PM on Friday night, I walked into my apartment to find a crowd of people yelling, 'Surprise!'
My sister and husband had thrown me a surprise birthday party. I hadn't at all expected it or even knew that anything was up... To see all those people coming together, for me, was really an overwhelming feeling.
I've written to the people who attended the party, but this blog post is really to thank all my lovely foodie friends, who have become so much more as well, for sending your lovely wishes and recipes - which my sister turned into a book. I will treasure it always.
Some pictures from the day, and also some additional ones from my birthday night last Monday.

With love,
Ilana xoxox

Oh, fuck! I'm 30!

2008-07-09T22:22:00.009-04:00

So obviously I'm not excited about turning 30. When did I become a thirty-something??!! How did that happen?

But I got to have/do things I have always wanted, for my birthday, and that's something...

I made my own birthday cake - and before you give me a sympathetic 'ah' - there is only one person I could trust to get right my idea of the best birthday cake in the world -- and that person's me.

So, it's chocolate coca-cola cake. Woohoo! I love cola. I don't understand people who don't love cola. It is the best thing ever. I often joke that sometimes I like to go out to eat just so I could have cola, because I don't ever buy it to have it at home... And I'm not really joking, it's the truth.

And even though Sue Lawrence says in the introduction to her cola cake that she detests cola (shame on you, woman!), I decided I'd use her recipe for cola cake anyway.

I even went as far as to use her recipe for the cola frosting, though now I regret that decision. A sign of old age -- regret! It came out way weird.. I think the fact that the melted butter started separating from the cocoa, and although the cake was completely cold, since I baked it the night before, the frosting wouldn't spread in the right away on top of the cake. I only iced the top and decided to call it a day, after blotting it with kitchen paper.

And then for lunch, we went to The River Cafe!!!

For those that don't know, this is an awesome restaurant just underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. It offers really stunning views of Manhattan from virtually any table... And the food, well, of course it was delicious!

I had a warm potato and goat cheese terrine as an appetizer and Rafa had oysters... For our main, I had slow smoked pork shoulder and a pork chop with maple whipped sweet potatoes, and Rafa had a lovely filet mignon with caramelized onions. And for dessert...

Mine -- apples in a cider reduction over a cinnamon cookie -- with green apple sorbet and vanilla bean ice cream. YUM!

Rafa's -- coconut bavarian with blackberry compote and sorbet... Mmmm. Amazing.

The views of course...

And us...

Later that evening, my family came over for cake and coffee... The chocolate cola cake was delicious!!!! Even with the upsetting frosting. (Mental note: For 31, make Nigella's cola cake - start to finish!)

Happy Birthday to me!

Breakfast. Lunch. Snack. Dinner?

2008-06-28T19:13:00.004-04:00

I've put my training wheels back on when it's come to cooking. I have been out of the game for a long time.. And it's not like riding a bike. You don't just get back into it, like that. It takes time. It takes effort. It takes motivation. Things I have felt, or led myself to feel, I don't have anymore.

But I do.

So for this Saturday, I have made breakfast, lunch, and a snack. Dinner? Well, nobody's perfect, right?

Breakfast

Nigella's never-fail pancakes from Nigella Express. I had the mix ready, so it took minutes to make. And I got to use my new pancake warmer. Yay!

Lunch

I wanted soup. It's about a million degrees out, but I wanted soup. Chicken stock, tom yum paste, corn, green beans, button mushrooms and a handful of basmati rice tossed in. Mmm hmm. Good!

Snack

I was desperate, I was hungry. Corn tortilla chips, salsa and mozzarella cheese. Baked in the oven for a few minutes till the cheese is gooey. OMG, this was awesome!!!!!

For dinner, I will do something simple (Ha! Not exactly a change from the rest of the day!) and I'll just do some BBQ wings in the oven with BBQ sauce. I'll also baked some oven fries from the packet... An honest to goodness can't-be-arsed-to-do-anything type of dinner. I hope we have BBQ sauce!

Baking Weekends

2008-06-21T12:34:00.004-04:00

Weekends are for baking. I strongly believe that. That quiet calm that allows you to go along with a recipe, have you see it through until the end. That peace that lets you sit and eat and enjoy your creations. This is why I love weekends. I finally get to take out baking recipes and have some fun.

Last weekend, I tested a friend's recipe for her book and website project. George is always cooking up something delicious. I honestly don't know how she has the energy or the motivation, LOL.

Back in March, she baked an awesome looking bread -- and though I can't keep up with her cooking-wise -- I thought I'd try this bread recipe. It's a French-style rustic bread, and it is not one that you can whip up that quickly, so save it for days when the kitchen acts as your home.

You can find the recipe for the Pain de Campagne here.

I didn't follow the recipe completely as I did find I would need more water at certain occasions, or less flour than the recipe called for. But, obviously, bread recipes are different for most people depending on the quality of the flour, the humidity of the air, etc. What I love about baking bread is that it is not an exact science, unlike baking muffins or cookies.

I would really recommend the recipe if you're looking for a very traditional tasting, homestyle bread. And it looks beautiful and impressive too!

My baking this weekend involved baking bagels -- something I have never done before. I wasn't really planning on baking bagels, but I got a catalogue in the mail earlier this week from the King Arthur Flour company, and there was a recipe right in the catalogue.

The recipe for making bagels is pretty straightforward -- again, it's not one of those recipes that you can really have ready first thing in the morning for weekend bagels, but if you don't mind eating brunch a little bit later (and more importantly, sleeping in!), you're good to go.

One thing I have never done is boiling yeasted dough - LOL. I was kind of amazed I didn't mess that up completely, which just goes to show you how user-friendly bagel baking really is.

And they look amazing!

I sprinkled a couple of the bagels with zaatar just before baking to see how it would turn out -- and you'll notice these are actually whole wheat bagels. After doing the initial starter, I only had about 1/4 cup of white flour left, so I made up the sum with the whole wheat flour.

For our light lunch, I made a simple tomato and mint salad, flavored with lime, olive oil and salt. Nice and simple.. and delicious!!!

Sherbet, sure bet!

2008-06-03T22:07:00.006-04:00

I'm a bit on an ice cream kick now. I had read in Forever Summer recently how with ice cream making, it is possible to create the most unusual flavors -- flavors that would be hard to find in even the poshest gelaterias.

Summer is here, unofficially, and I was really in the mood to use the sweetest of fruits for my own homemade sherbet. Mangoes fit the bill! The recipe in the Kitchenaid ice cream maker manual looked quite tasty - Minted Mango Sherbet. Yum. Mangoes! Mint! Mmmmm!

I don't often buy mangoes, and I really don't know why. They are amazing! I have to admit I am not that great at peeling and chopping them, but I guess I just need practice and a bit of an Internet read beforehand. By the time I was done chopping the mangoes, it looked like a bit of a mushy orange slaughterhouse on my countertop.

The mangoes were chopped and added to a food processor along with some lime juice to get a lovely mushy pulp. This was added to heated milk and sugar, and along with some chopped mint leaves, this was the 'batter' for the sherbet.

This is allowed to chill, and then is put in an ice cream maker in the usual way. A few hours later - sherbet!

I did rush it a bit, and actually put the ice cream maker in freezer the same time I put the batter in the fridge to chill, so I don't think the maker got the time it needed to get really frozen. So, my soft serve was softer than usual, and since the maker was melting in the process, I didn't think more churning time would help. But, the final result was the perfect consistency.... The sherbet was delicious. Sweet and lovely with hits of mint that were refreshing and quite welcomed. The sherbet could have been a tad bit less sweet to my taste, as my mangoes were super ripe and quite sweet to begin with. Next time, I would reduce the sugar by half, and that will give the lime juice its deserved place in this sherbet, which I think should always be a tad bit on the tart side.

For those interested, here is the recipe:

Minted Mango Sherbet

1 cup sugar
3 cups whole milk
1⁄4 cup light corn syrup {I used golden syrup}
3 ripe mangoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped (about 3 cups)
2 tablespoons fresh lime or lemon juice
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh mint, if desired

In medium saucepan, combine sugar, milk, and corn
syrup. Heat over medium heat, stirring often, until
very hot but not boiling. Remove from heat; set aside.
Place mangoes and lime juice in food processor
work bowl; use the multipurpose blade to process
until smooth. Add mango mixture and mint to milk
mixture. Cover and chill thoroughly, at least 8 hours.
Churn in an ice cream maker for 7 to 12 minutes or

until desired consistency. Immediately transfer

sherbet into serving dishes, or freeze in an
airtight container.

Yield: 14 servings (1⁄2 cup per serving).

For those interested in all Kitchenaid ice cream recipes, click here for the manual and suggested recipes.

Oh, yay!

2008-05-28T19:45:00.008-04:00

When I was a regular on Nigella.com, I was a bit of a shopping-crazy person. Purchases ranged from improptu buys of Nigella's coasters to a gorgeous, still worth-it, still beautiful Kitchenaid stand mixer.

But because the site is not really active anymore, my shopping has been curbed somewhat. I'm still a bit of a crazy person when it comes to shopping, but my purchases are now usually of the fashion kind.

On a whim, I decided to go to Nigella's site and read the News section to see if there is anything new.... I noticed the FAQ section and was intrigued, because I hadn't seen that site before. It was probably there the whole time, but my jerk reaction when going to Nigella.com before was to hit the Your Page button. Anyway, the section points shopping-crazy people like me to items seen on Nigella's shows or books. The item I have been looking for for the longest were the pots that Nigella used for her chicken pot pies in Nigella Express. Never being able to find it in the numerous stores I went to, I settled for some bowls from Ikea that Rafa has jokingly called latrines, since they look like pots, erm, you do a wee in. Thanks, Rafa. You're lovely. So, I've used these portable lavatories for many things. Chicken pot pies aren't one. I was still on the hunt, if not actively, for Nigella's gorgeous red bowls.

And I found them; well sort of... The site said that these are actually called lion's head soup bowls, most often used for french onion soup. Once I got the name 'lion's head', erm, in my head, I went on a frenzy on Google. I found the Emile Henry soup bowls that Nigella had, but the only ones I saw available were white. I saw them in other colors on a few sites, but they seemed to be too expensive. Fanatical, I am. Rich, I am not.

I found lion's head bowls made by Bia Cordon Bleu that look identical to Nigella's. The best part is that they come in a set of 4 in indigo blue. Yeeeeah! I am so so so looking forward to these. And since they came from Amazon and I wanted to get free shipping, I also ordered a pancake/tortilla warmer, almost like Nigella's in Nigella Express. Once you get the shopping bug, it's tough to get rid of it!

These are my bowls, but mine are going to be dark blue. Yipee!

The Best Ice Cream Ever?

2008-05-21T19:41:00.005-04:00

YES!

Last summer, being an owner of an ice cream maker I hardly used before, and being happily unemployed, meant I got to experiment with ice cream making a lot! As much as I would push the envelope and add and take away ingredients from an awesome ice cream recipe courtesy of Tessa Kiros, I couldn't bring myself to make ice cream the real way -- making a custard, cooking sweet eggs, ye gads!

A few days ago, I got a sudden shock of bravado into my system. I wanted to make ice cream - the real way! The inspiration was a pintful of fresh strawberries in the fridge and the dire desire to turn them into an ice cream paradise for one.

I quickly turned to Nigella's Forever Summer, where there is a whole chapter dedicated to ice cream. And then I saw - I needed to use 10 egg yolks! Wow! I know eggs aren't expensive, but I honestly couldn't bring myself to separate 10 eggs. What would I do with all those whites? I'm not one of those organized people that puts things into little baggies and decides to make meringues on a moment's notice. Plus, 10 egg whites = a lot of friggin' meringue!

But I still wanted, no, needed strawberry ice cream. New summer, old dog, old tricks. I again used Tessa's recipe as an idea, and added strawberry puree to it.

So instead of light cream, I used heavy cream. Instead of regular milk, I used whole milk, because I had some left over, and I don't drink it at all. To the maple syrup, I added a couple of tablespoons of golden syrup, just for fun. The strawberries were pureed the way Nigella described they should be in her ice cream recipe. Strawberries sprinkled with sugar, left to steep, and then pureed. After I added the cold 'batter' of cream, fatty milk, vanilla, and maple and golden syrups to my ice cream maker, I added the puree, and let my Kitchenaid ice cream maker churn away. Twenty minutes later I got a wonderfully-scented soft serve strawberry ice cream. A few hours later, the best damn ice cream I have ever tasted.

Me. Myself. I.

2008-05-15T11:09:00.002-04:00

I have been writing about myself, and ranting just a tad on my other blog, so feel free to stop on by there if you want to.....

Mother's Day Munch

2008-05-13T11:41:00.003-04:00

It's been ages since I entertained at all... Frankly, my life is not that entertaining. Work, home, work, home. But Mother's Day was coming up, and I really REALLY love the idea of brunch food... Something about me just wants to eat a bowl of cereal morning, noon and night. That Peter Pan complex I'm experiencing as I enter my 30th year in a couple of months!

But anyway, what better occasion to get some baking done??!

I invited my mom, sister (who is a mother of two now), my dad, brother-in-law, Liam and Mia. Rafa, unfortunately, had to work.

The night before Mother's Day, I griddled up the potato cakes, which took no time at all. Nigella's recipe for similar potato cakes in Feast said that if needed, these could be made in advance, and then reheated at a low temperature in an oven. That was my plan, because I only had about an hour in the morning to get everything else ready.

I also took Nigella's advice to make the dough for the kuchen in Nigella Bites the night before and gave it a cold rise.

So, in the morning, I wrestled the dough into a jelly-roll pan (having a cold rise meant that it was hard as a rock- but anyway, I think my fridge is too cold to begin with!), went out briefly to buy smoked salmon, which apparently is nowhere to be found in my crazy neighborhood apart from the Russian superstore, and then tried to put my head together to figure out what I had to do next! Truthfully, having 'brunch' at 10am is not exactly sane, but I channelled my inner domestic goddessticity, and powered on. So, the sour cream went on top of the potato cakes, the smoked salmon on top of the sour cream, and the dill feather on the tippy top. It looked beautiful; who cares what it tasted like?!

Potato Cakes with Smoked Salmon - Nigella Express

I also put together the fruit filling and the crumble topping for the kuchen. It too looked beautiful when it came out of the oven.

Blackberry and Apple Kuchen - Nigella Bites

I also griddled up some breakfast pancakes (using the ready-made mix from Nigella Express - sooo useful, by the way), and started setting the table while I fried up some potatoes and eggs on the stove, as my mom always used to serve us for family weekend breakfasts.

Everyone seemed to really enjoy the meal. I didn't love the potato cakes, because I felt them to be a bit dry and tasteless. I think more milk added to the batter and a bit more salt would have made them the perfect consistency. The breakfast pancakes were to-die-for, as usual. The toppings included various jams, maple syrup, and my new favorite, golden syrup! Mmmmm. Liam loved the smoked salmon, and ate that on top of the potato cakes. He of course called it, 'Red Fish'. I think I need to get him some Dr. Seuss stat!

My dad really appreciated my twist on my mom's potato and egg fry-up. I revealed my secrets to him after some of his prodding - use the newest potatoes you can find so you don't have to peel anything, and add some chicken bouillon seasoning to the potatoes as they fry up. Yum!

As per usual, we were really too full to enjoy the kuchen after the meal, but the little bites we did have were delicious. I do still prefer the blueberry kuchen from Nigella's New York Times articles. It was a much easier method, I found. And I am never going to give yeasted dough a cold rise anymore. The time it took me to stretch it out and de-fridge it, I could have easily made new dough from scratch and had the warm, soft as a baby's bum, dough rise the natural way. But just my opinion.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

No People with Pizza-Heads.

2008-04-27T10:48:00.004-04:00

Do you remember those vintage cartoons, where one of the characters, was it Bugs Bunny??, gets so hungry that he starts imagining his friend's head is a roasted turkey, with all the trimmings? That is the phenomenon, sort of, that I face every Passover. I want bread, I need bread, I would kill for bread, even though bread is not something I eat all that often for the other 357 days of the year. Suddenly, Pizza Hut commercials pop up everywhere.

But this year has been different. I think that instead of eating items that are supposed to substitute bread, I am eating stuff that has nothing to do with bread at all. Good food that stands alone. And it helps that I adopted the Sephardic view of Passover, eating lots of beans and rice to relieve those hunger pangs. Ok, so I'm not Sephardic, but I did marry someone from Spain. That counts, right? Even though his people were probably kicking my people out 500 years ago??

There is one exception when it comes to Passover cooking that I love love love. My mom's matzah latkes. Basically fat pancakes made of matza meal, water, egg and salt. Simple. But, I never attempted it on my own. This week, I fried up a couple of batches, and I'm happy to say they turned out DELICIOUS. I love the texture of latkes. The matza meal and egg provides a crunchy crust, but the inside is so dense and moist, yum!

I also made Nigella's Chocolate Macaroons, from Nigella Express, for Seder night last Saturday. They were a big hit as well, and I discovered my blender does an awesome of grinding flaked almonds - an even better job than my small food processor.

Even though Passover has been easier than normal this time around, I have to admit a large pie of pizza is extremely tempting at the finish line. On my mind to bake next are some lovely, buttery brioches that I will cut into two, smear with some nutella, and top with gorgeous and rich chocolate ice cream. YUM!

YOU keep me blogging! :)

2008-04-27T09:49:00.004-04:00

Georgina was very sweet to award me the You Keep Me Blogging award.... Thank you, sweetie. George is always cooking up something fabulous... Even though I don't have time to really maintain my own blogs, LOL, I always need to find time to have a look at hers. Always something delicious cooking up, including those amazing calzones she made lately. Way to go, George.

Not only do you keep me blogging, you keep reminding me that I should continue blogging, even though current situations don't allow me to cook as much anymore. With that being said, there is nothing to stop me from just chatting, which I guess I could do more often on my other blog. And therefore, I need to pass this award on to the next very deserving recipient, Lisa of The Chambermaid. Because, on my other blog, is where I have the literary freedom to rhyme or to philosophize or talk about shoes, and I take my inspiration from Lisa, because her talent for putting certain words together is marvelous - she makes everything beautiful. Please check out her blog if you haven't yet.

Thank you, George, for the honor. :)

So that's a biscuit!

2008-04-19T22:00:00.000-04:00

Back in the day, there was a little group on Your Page, which was a forum on Nigella.com. They were a curious group, from all over the world; they enjoyed knowing how others made their Sunday lunch, what a swede was called in other English-speaking countries, what their favorite Kitchenaid mixer color was and what they named their 'beauty'.

I was part of that group, and I can't deny how much I miss it.. But time has moved on. People have moved on... But they are still out there, still curious as can be. So if YOU are still out there, and you want to know what an American biscuit looks like.. here it is.

It is certainly not a cookie (what other countries call a biscuit), it is not a scone, it is not a crumpet. It is just about the most delicious, melt-in-your-mouth, clog-your-arteries, fantastic thing out there. It is to be eaten with fried chicken or with even an egg. With or without thick white gravy. It is what brings out the southern in me. It is fab! And it's totally not homemade. Are you kidding me?! I could never produce one of those. Unless I of course got a Bisquick mix and did it that way. The above, my folks, comes my way from our lovely neighbors of Kentucky Fried Chicken. They were lovely enough to provide us with dinner one night. And this remaining biscuit served as my breakfast the next day. Mmmm mmmm mmmm mmmm mmmm.

The Next Jamie?

2008-04-19T21:31:00.000-04:00

I've been very behind lately -- same excuses, same apologies -- but I've got a little bit of time now, so why not write my heart out.

April 4th marked 5 years of wedded bliss for me and Rafa. Ok, well maybe not bliss, but I haven't killed the guy yet, so I guess that means I love him a whole lot. :)

We went away for the weekend to the Pocono Mountains up in Pennsylvania. It was a surprise, and it was awesome to get away from everything, and to finally remember what relaxation is all about.

When we got back, my mom came over with cake and cookies to congratulate us on our anniversary. I asked her to stay for dinner, and she did! A rare thing. My parents don't usually hang around my apartment that much. Which is as much my fault as is theirs... but anyway. Rafa made dinner. Another rare thing!

When we lived in England, he used to make a chicken in white wine and garlic sauce. It was fabulous. Of course, it's something he adapted from his childhood in Spain.

I completely disagreed with his method, but forced myself to stay out of the kitchen and to stop being controlling for once in my life....

So I wasn't there to notice the method of madness, but here's a rough copy of the recipe...

Put a little bit of olive oil into a large stock pot and add any cuts of chicken you like. Add salt, whole garlic cloves, spanish paprika (it must be pimenton), and a whole bottle of white wine. Leave to get to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover and let cook for 30-45 minutes.

I was convinced that the skinless breast of chicken we had in there would dry out completely, but it didn't. After about 30 minutes, the breast was still floating in there, and the sauce had reduced a bit, though there was still a lot of it. We were all hungry, so I suggested we thicken the sauce by adding cornstarch that had been mixed into some water. After 5 minutes, that did the trick. And what we got was a delicious plate of aromatic, gorgeous flavored chicken.

You could really detect the paprika, which is not really flavorful unless you get a Hungarian or Spanish one, in my belief. And the garlic cloves had melted into the sauce, making it even thicker still. We ate this with oven fries, some buttery corn, and a few pieces of garlic bread. A few days later, my sister had told me how my mom raved about the dinner.... She said the meal was delicious, flavorful, and done under 30 minutes. I think she should be writing ads for the Food Network.... Well I obviously haven't given my galloping gourmet of a husband enough credit. You'd think I'd learn after 5 years....

Hotel Eggs

2008-03-30T12:54:00.005-04:00

In continuation of the Weekend Breakfast Series I seem to have been doing lately, I had a late, late breakfast today due to waking up quite late and then sitting chomatose-like in front of the TV watching a Food Network show, one after the other, including the ghastly Sandra Lee.

Eventually, hunger took over. Our fridge is currently very bare. We haven't had time to do a proper shopping trip, and since I worked yesterday all day, I didn't have time to take a weekend day to get shopping and cooking. My first on-site assignment was at the W New York - The Court, so instead, I had to get some food inspiration from the F & B (that's Food and Beverage to you laymen.) ;) For breakfast, we served a Chorizo and Potato Frittata with Fresh Herbs, and I loved how the grated potato melted into the soft frittata, so I wanted to recreate it as much as I could at home with my limited amount of ingredients.

Going in the same vein as last weekend's breakfast, I went with the small new potatoes we have at home. I sliced the potato very thin, and then stacked up the slices to slice lengthways to make little potato sticks. I sauteed the potato in a little bit of olive oil and some chopped rosemary. Once the potatoes went golden, which literally took a minute, I threw in a couple of eggs and started scrambling the whole thing together. And that's it. Since the potatoes are so thinly cut, they do get nice and soft so quickly. I like that so much more than boiling regular potatoes - takes ages compared to this. And this could be made with greater quantities so it could turn from a breakfast for one to a breakfast for many.

And you could tell I'm a real rookie when it comes to meeting planning and going on-site at the hotels because I really got a kick out of the tiny Tabasco and ketchup bottles. They are so friggin' cute! Of course I put some in my purse... Came in handy today for my hotel eggs. Bon appetit!

A new computer. Some more cooking?

2008-03-29T18:51:00.004-04:00

For my bio at work, I wrote that I love to cook, that I love to talk about food, to write about it.. All is true, but I fear that I haven't done any of those things that often lately... Part of it is being busy at work, not being organized when it comes to planning dinner, and there is, of course, my ailing computer... So, I did what most 21st century middle-class (and probably in horrible debt) people do.. I bought a new computer. The bad news is I'm about $700 poorer. The good news is that my new, sleek, glorious machine doesn't shut down after running for an hour or so, so maybe, just maybe, I'll write and post more. And because there is very limited material for me to write about myself, I'll actually cook more too.. Or at least I should, considering how much I spent in a mere five minutes of online shopping.

BTW, my new toy is to the right... Likeeee?

The Un-Spanish Omelette

2008-03-23T16:19:00.004-04:00

The other day when my sister and I were making the hamantaschen, she mentioned what a waste it was that we had to throw out the rest of the beaten egg that we used to glaze the cookies. There was only a scant egg there, so not much of a meal at all.

I made another batch of cookies this afternoon to take to work.. And again, faced the less-than-one beaten egg in the bowl. I didn't want to throw it away this time because I was actually a bit hungry, and greed took over.

I took a small new potato, unpeeled, and sliced it very thin. In a small non-stick pan, I fried the slices in a little bit of olive oil and butter and dried red pepper flakes. Since it was just a few slices, they all managed to fit in one layer. Once they were golden on both sides, I drained the excess oil, and then I added the beaten egg (to which I added some salt and pepper). It took mere seconds for the egg omelette to set. I turned it over, cooked it a bit on the other side, and then plated it.

This was delicious! Of course since the potatoes were so small and sliced so thinly, they were cooked through. The little amount of egg I had was just enough to cover the eggs and make a lovely thin coating... Made a lovely little lunch!

Purim -- All in the Family

2008-03-21T22:46:00.011-04:00

A couple of years ago, my mom and I had a sort of masterclass of Ozney Haman, or Hamantaschen-making.

She has made these triangular cookies filled with jam for as long as I could remember for Purim, the Jewish holiday where Queen Esther and a bunch of other Jews kicked some Haman ass. For a clearly more knowledgeable explanation of what Purim is, click here. Ozney Haman, in Hebrew, means 'Haman's ears'. As you could guess, Haman is the bad guy. The triangular cookies are traditionally filled with a sweet poppyseed filling, to symbolize Haman's dirty ears. Oddly enough, Hamantaschen is Yiddish for Haman's pockets... I'm not sure what that has to do with him being a meanie, but there it is.

So my mom's cookies are really distinct. They are known to be the Israeli version. Hamantaschen in the States are quite crumbly, much like the Italian cookies sold in bakeries. I loathe them; so it is no surprise that when my mom taught me to make these, I went with her recipe. Here are some pics from the tutorial from a couple of years ago.

Which brings us to now. I went searching everywhere for the recipe that my mom dictated to me; I couldn't find it anywhere! Finally, I just gave up and asked again for the recipe. This time I vow not to lose it, and I'll write it in this post 'just in case' I do.

My sister and Liam came over to make the hamantaschen. We planned to give it to my mom because it is customary to bake these as gifts for others.

So, first you start by mixing up flour and very, very soft butter in a large bowl. You end up getting very small pieces of butter, much like a fine crumble topping.

Then you mix up two yolks with sugar until the sugar is fully dissolved. Our guest chef, Liam, helped us out with that that, and also in breaking the eggs on the edge of the bowl. Good job, buddy!

To this smaller bowl, you add baking soda that has been mixed with lemon juice (don't ask me why, it's my mom's recipe!) and some plain yogurt.

You mix the wet into the dry, and work the dough slowly until it all comes together. You have to be careful not to work the dough too much, and since it is quite soft, I put it in the middle of some clingfilm and pulled the sides of the clingfilm up and on to the dough to bring the more crumbly parts together with the rest of the dough. You then chill it in the fridge for a couple of hours before rolling it out.

The next step involves rolling, cutting out circles, filling with thick jam, and then pinching the sides to get a triangle with only a little bit of jam peaking out. Then, you brush the sides of the dough with a beaten egg.

On our first try making these, we did get some cookies that opened up a bit and let the jam spill out. But most turned out pretty great!

I'm sure there are lots of recipes for these and many home traditions. But for my money, my mom's are best! And I'm proud to say, that ours come a close second! Thanks, mom!

Hamantaschen (Ozney Haman)

3 cups flour
200 grams soft butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 yolks
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 tbsp plain yogurt
1/4 cup of jam (possibly more)
1 egg, beaten (for glaze)

Mix flour and butter in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix the yolks with the sugar until it dissolves. In a small cup, mix the lemon juice with the baking soda; add this to the egg yolks and sugar and mix well. Finally, add the yogurt to the smaller bowl.

Mix in the wet ingredients into the flour and butter. Work carefully into a dough. Cover in clingfilm and chill in the refrigerator for two hours or more.

On a floured countertop or board, roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out circles (using a 2 inch circle cutter or larger) and place on a lined baking sheet. Put about a half a teaspoon of your jam of choice into the middle of each circle, and using both hands, pinch on both sides to form a triangle. Pinch from the inside in to seal the jam in the middle of the dough. Leave a little area on top for the jam to peak out.

Bake at 350F for about 20-30 minutes, depending on oven, until cookies are golden.

Update: I baked these delectable lovelies again for my co-workers. I also got a chance to use the cute cookie cutter my friend, Francesca, sent me. 'Hay' means 'life' or 'alive'. Thank you, Francesca!

That herb right there is rosemary...

2008-03-16T21:12:00.004-04:00

I watched about four hours of cooking TV straight on Sunday, and Spring is definitely in the air, at least in the Food Network's view. The cooks were definitely utilizing lots of herbiage this weekend. Thyme... mint.... rosemary...

I have always been a BIG fan of rosemary. There's something about it that I just love, love, love! For dinner, I decided to use it in two dishes.

First that came to my mind would be a mac 'n' cheese. This is kind of a cupboard-lovin' type of dish because I literally used everything but the kitchen sink for this mac 'n' cheese. But, surprisingly, I was able to make it all myself without the help of a recipe, so kudos to me!

I boiled the elbow pasta and set aside. Then, I made a roux with butter and the very limited flour I had left. I added a mixture of the heavy cream I had leftover in the fridge and water, to provide the role as the makeshift milk for the white sauce. I added the last of the cheddar I had on hand, and because the sauce was still not that thick, I added some cornstarch too. (Plus some Kraft mac 'n' cheese sauce mix my sister left behind one time when she only wanted to boil up the Shrek pasta for Liam's dinner.) The sauce got nice and thick soon after adding the cornstarch, and I mixed it with the elbow pasta.

I wanted to make the mac 'n' cheese special, so I took out the pita crumbs I had in the freezer from my pita-making experiment, and bashed them a bit more in their ziploc bag. Then, I fried them for a little bit in butter and olive oil, with some chopped rosemary added in. (Did I mention I also steeped a rosemary sprig in the white sauce too?)

I topped the rosemary-infused mac 'n' cheese with the breadcrumbs, and baked it for about 30 minutes... Turned out beautiful!

The mac 'n' cheese, as grand a production it was, was really the accompaniment to the main course, the mustard and rosemary chicken. A friend of mine from Melbourne gave me the recipe for this dish, and it looked wonderful on paper. And I was told, was wonderful to eat too!

Here is the original recipe:

Mustard, Lemon and Rosemary Roast Chicken

Ingredients (serves 10)

1/3 cup Maille Dijon Mustard
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup rosemary leaves, roughly chopped
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled, sliced
1 lemon, rind finely grated, juiced
2.2kg chicken pieces (drumsticks, thigh or breast on bone), skin on

Method

Combine mustard, oil, rosemary, parsley, garlic, lemon rind and 1/3 cup lemon juice in a small food processor. Process until well combined. Pour into a large ceramic dish . Season with salt and pepper. Add chicken pieces and turn to coat. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Preheat oven to 190°C. Place chicken pieces on a roasting rack. Spoon over remaining marinade. Roast for 50 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Place on a platter. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Obviously, from the picture above, you could tell I didn't follow the ingredient list exactly. I didn't have garlic, and I didn't have lemons, so I used lime juice instead and a lemon chicken seasoning my friend, George, sent me from The Spice Shop in London. I also used chicken breast as that is what I usually have at home.

I didn't have any of the chicken as I was pretty full from eating my way througout the day, but Rafa tells me it was very nice indeed. After searing the chicken on both sides in a pan, I transferred the two fillets to a moderate oven to finish cooking. Meanwhile, I made a sauce with the marinade that was left in the pan, and added chicken stock and cornstarch to thicken it.

It felt nice to cook just going on instincts and throwing in just what I feel like. I don't do it often, but it is a nice change.

A little bit country....

2008-03-14T21:20:00.004-04:00

Opportunities to cook weekday dinners don't come too often. It's not that I'm super busy, it's just that I haven't really gotten my act together to think ahead, shop in advance, meal plan. I'm a fraud. I'm not a foodie anymore. But on the rare occasion, I do come up with something... And sometimes, it's even fabulous.

My other admission is that I'm a complete hick. I like being a mall rat; I love eating in chain restaurants where the portion size is too big to be at all healthy, and where the drinks are refilled for free. I really like eating fancy food in fancy restaurants with fancy prices, but sometimes, just sometimes, I wish I could just sit in a restaurant booth, with a big pile of chicken fingers in front of me, with yummy mustard on the side for dipping.

So, because we really don't have money to go out all the time, I decided to recreate this somehow at home. I used a ready-made spicy mix to add to the chicken breast, because where would we be in the world without ready-made spice mixes!?? {I used the one on the left.}

So, then, because it was going to be spicy, I decided my dinner would then be a little bit country, so I wanted to make creamed corn. Knowing that creamed corn is about a million thousand calories, I searched the web for a healthy creamed corn recipe, and I found it!

The chicken breast was coated in the spice mix, then I dipped the pieces into egg, and then into plain breadcrumbs that had more spice mix added in. To stay on the healthy track, I baked the chicken with a only a few drizzles of olive oil on top.

The corn took mere minutes to make - and it is one of the most satisfying things I've made in a long time! It was really creamy, made by the lowfat milk and the cornstarch. Genius!

Dinner was delicious!! I keep saying to people that I'm not particularly sophisticated, and it is not anymore true than when it comes to food. So I'm a weekend foodie... So what's wrong with that? :)

The 'Mother' of All Cakes

2008-03-02T10:38:00.005-05:00

In every person's life, there is the 'It Girl' when it comes to desserts... Of course it changes. One day we are obsessed with making chocolate chip cookies... and then the next, coconut cake is our thing.

My 'It Girl' at the moment is Nigella's Chocolate Guinness Cake. You may remember that I made this cake recently when I had leftover Guinness from making a Guinness beef stew -- which, by the way, is my 'It Girl' of comforting suppers. My sister had come around for the cake and loved it. It has become my idea, as well, of the ultimate chocolate cake. My sister's friend had seen that blog post, and a couple of weeks later, asked that I bake a cake for the baby shower she was throwing for my sister.

There's no use faffing about with something new, especially when the cake was going to feed about 14, so I went to my ultimate chocolate cake, and one that I knew that at least two people would love. :)

But this time, since it was a party after all, I couldn't leave it unadorned. I am incapable of making decorations, so I knew I would have to buy those. I admit, I could have gone the kitsch route with getting some baby blocks in pink or something, but I wanted to keep it simple. I love flowers, and since this will be a Spring baby, I got some lovely daffodil sugar flowers. I also got peach colored sugar roses, not sure if I would use those instead. In the end, I decided to dot the middle of the cake with the rose with the daffodils forming the gorgeous crown around. The icing, of course, was the cream cheese icing in the same recipe for the cake.

All the girls loved it! I was really happy it turned out well and that it survived the almost two hour trip to Long Island. Which really is the reason it is the 'It Girl' of cakes. Delicious, can be made in advance, and portable. That's a triple threat, methinks.

And the Oscar goes to...

2008-02-24T16:26:00.005-05:00

This year, we have seen many exemplary performances in the Leading Cookie role. Our nominees have ranged from the exquisitely buttery, to the puck-puckery citrusy, to the sinfully chocolatey. Indeed, it has been a year of winners, with one standing alone in greatness. In the category of leading cookie, the Oscar goes to.... Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie, Nigella Lawson, producer.

Ah-hem.

So I made these cookies for my annual Oscar bash. Last year, I made curry, and cookies for dessert, so I thought I'd continue the tradition this year. Of course, it had to be Nigella's Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry, always a crowd favorite, and for dessert, her chocolate cookies from Nigella Express, with a cartonful of milk as the post-dinner tipple. These cookies are RICH. Don't count on falling asleep fast -- they're the sweet treat equivalent of Red Bull. But they are delicious and deserving of this year's honor of Best Cookie.

Click here for the original recipe from Big Fat Cookies, from where Nigella got the inspiration for these chocolate beauties.

Avocadolicious!

2008-02-23T16:44:00.005-05:00

I am rarely floored by salad. Most of the time, I could take it or leave it, and I have to REALLY be in the mood for some leafy greens. I had decided to give Nigella's Mexican Chicken Salad a try because the dressing sounded really interesting: avocado, sour cream, lime juice, garlic, salt and pepper. When I lived in Israel, I used to get an avocado spread that I used to have almost daily on some nice bread. When I returned to Israel, this past summer, I couldn't find that avocado spread anymore, and I will always be lonesome for it. This dressing sounded like something that could be very similar to it.

So, it is a mixture of the above ingredients, pureed together in a blender. Then, this avocadolicious blend is tossed with some shredded romaine lettuce, jicama (or a few of the other substitutions for jicama), and spring onions. I left out the chicken this time around, but it would have totally worked and made this an even more filling dish. I also topped the salad with the Tomato and Black Bean Salsa that accompanies it. Yum yum yum! The salad was just about the most wonderful thing I have eaten in a long time, and the dressing itself could be great as a dip for parties. Creamy yumminess! Mmmm.

One tablespoon of butter.

2008-02-16T19:19:00.004-05:00

I usually get the baking bug on the weekend. Something about being at home with the kitchen to myself and loads of time to potter around just makes me feel like taking out my baking books.... My ULTIMATE baking book is King Arthur. I love browsing through it. And almost the fact that it doesn't have any glossy pictures of gastroporn makes me feel like it's a more honest display of all the baked goods that are out there to try. It's the kind of book I want to give my children when they are old enough to cook and bake. But that being said, not all gastroporn books are meant to be browsed when we want to impress -- I think Nigella's books are an exception. Honest-to-goodness delicious and cooked and cooked again recipes, but still accompanied with amazing pictures.

But back to King Arthur, for a long time now, I have resisted buying blocks of unsalted butter, because I know that means that I will want to bake and bake and bake. So, really, all I have in the fridge is some horribly expensive tub of French unsalted butter that I indulge in occasionally with a huge smear of butter (the kind that your teeth marks show on it) on the delicious rye bread I have discovered recently. It's not enough butter to even make one cake, so I run into a dilemma when I have the baking bug because I simply don't have the ingredients at hand.

The big baking book has proven to me once again that I can find just about anything in there -- including my cake for the week, Hot Milk Cake. This cake, miraculously, has only one tablespoon of butter. Just one. I had to try it to see if it was possible you can make a gorgeous cake with one tablespoon of butter. And you can.

Somehow it tasted buttery and moist, and it is so versatile, you can work with the sponge to make it as fattening and not-good-for-you as you like.Indeed, King Arthur says you can eat this plain, and I think I would because I love plain cakes, but the cake could also be adorned or split into two and filled with cream. I divided the batter into two sandwich tins, and then I made a simple blueberry sauce to go in between the sponges. (Just frozen blueberries cooked on the stove with sugar and a little bit of cornstarch to thicken the sauce -- cooled this sauce is perfect for this kind of cake.)

THIS WAS DELICIOUS! I think this will be my base for birthday cakes to come.

Hot Milk Cake - One cake, 16 servings

3 large eggs
1 1/2 cup (10 1/2 oz.) sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup (6 oz.) milk
1 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 cups (6 1/4 oz.) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 325F.

In a large bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar until very thick; the batter should fall from the beaters in a thick ribbon. Beatin the vanilla.

While you're beating the eggs and sugar, heat the milk and butter in a small saucepan to just simmering. Add the hot milk to the egg mixture in a slow, steady stream as you continue beating.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold the dry ingredients in to the wet ingredients, stirring until they're just combined.

Pour the batter into a lightly greased 9 x 9-inch cake pan. Bake for 55 minutes to 1 hour, until the cake is a deep golden brown and starting to pull away from the sides of the pan. Remove the cake from the oven and cool it in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes. Run a knife around the sides of the pan, if necessary, and invert the cake onto a serving plate.

Rye Time, Rye Place

2008-02-06T17:03:00.000-05:00

I guess it's part of the stereotype that since I am Jewish, I have to love rye bread.. but I really didn't for a long time. I am used to the slices of bread that had caraway seeds (or something like that) sprinkled into them - god, they're gross. I'm actually heaving now just thinking about it. I know that one can't judge bread by rye alone, but it's just the feeling I get about that type of bread.

When I invited my family over for beef stew a little while ago, my mom brought fresh rye bread from the local Russian supermarket. (She only revealed later that she had bought it for her breakfast the next day, and not for our dinner, as I live quite close to this supermarket.) We had used it to dip into the lovely gravy that the stew made, and I definitely gave in to its slightly sour note - and it helped that it was super fresh and sans seeds.

A few days later, I bought that loaf of bread at the same supermarket, and made the most delicious grilled cheese sandwich ever with it! It is Nigella's easy express recipe for it in her new book. You spread both slices of bread with a mixture of mayo and Worcestershire sauce. Then you fill the sandwich with thin cheddar and tomato slices. And then you grill it. It is soooo good! I had made the slaw to go with it, although my version had honey instead of chutney since I didn't have any mango chutney around. A fabulous combination! Please make this recipe soon - so fab!

Unadorned Beauty

2008-02-02T21:38:00.001-05:00

It's been about a millenium since I've baked a cake -- and a chocolate one at that. But, last weekend, I made Nigella's beef and Guinness stew, and I had some stout leftover. Not in the mood to make another stew, this weekend I decided to make Nigella's Chocolate Guinness Cake. I didn't have any of the ingredients for the icing, so I decided to leave it unadorned, cause Nigella said it would still be delicious -- and the woman knows about cakes!

Even though I halved the recipe, and thus reduced the baking time, it turned out brilliantly dark and moist. I'm actually amazed how moist that cake is. I had baked it around noontime, and about 10 hours later, it was as moist as when I took it out of the oven. I tented some foil around it, and I'm hoping my sister comes around tomorrow for a sampling. She always says I bake really great things and tell her about it but never actually invite her around. She has a huge sweet tooth, so that is mental torture for her. I get it. I don't think I could survive without anything sweet either. So hopefully this dark beauty will be devoured by a very pregnant beauty soon.

Without forgetting the unhealthy end...

2008-01-14T18:43:00.000-05:00

The New Year's Eve party wasn't exactly super healthy, though. How could it be? 2007 had to end in a drunken, fried food, calorific bang, right?!

I wasn't really as prepared to host as I have been in previous year. I had lost my mojo in between being trampled by tourists and finding the best bargains at packed-to-the-gills retail stores. In the end, I couldn't bear to be undercatered so I made two types of canapes, another antipasti dish, and something I was especially excited about -- fried ravioli! I had seen Giada make it on the Food Network, and it is also one of my favorite things to eat as an appetizer at the Olive Garden. Giada dips the uncooked fresh mini cheese ravioli in buttermilk, and then she coats these in Italian-style breadcrumbs.

Then, the ravioli are fried in olive oil for a few minutes on each side. They are served with marinara sauce or any type of spaghetti sauce.

These were a BIG hit at the party! I had noticed they went cold fairly quickly, but actually tasted quite delicious even when cold or room temperature. They were perfect dipped into the sauce. This is one of those party foods I'll happily make again and again.. I unfortunately never got a shot of these beauties, but there are some odd pictures to share from that night. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

That's me with the antipasti platter -- I wonder when the day will come when my face won't be as round as a bowling ball. Hmmmn.

My mom and Paki with Rafa's everything-but-the-kitchen-sink Sangria.

The clan -- well most of them -- peaceful clash of cultures. Where the kielbasa meets the chorizo. :)

For a healthy start...

2008-01-14T18:35:00.000-05:00

I was feeling slightly ambitious for New Year's Eve, so in addition to making some very simple canapes, I also made muffins! With all my foccacia testing, I had nearly run out of all-purpose flour, so I had no choice really but to make healthy muffins! Most people think muffins are by default healthy, but it is amazing the amount of fat and sugar they usually have. Watching what I eat has taught me that subbing oil for butter, whole wheat for regular flour, honey or lightly sweetened yogurt for sugar, can really affect the nutritional value of the muffin, without really sacrificing taste.

So, as a blueprint, I went the way of the blueberry, or rather Nigella's Blueberry Muffins from How to be a Domestic Goddess. Instead of buttermilk, though, I used strawberry yogurt and reduced fat milk, and instead of blueberries, dried cranberries. The flour content was half regular/half whole wheat. I really love making muffins because it is just a matter of mixing dry with wet ingredients; it took mere minutes to put together and bake, and the kitchen smelled fantastic.

We had these during our New Year's Eve party, and also the next day for our New Year's Day brunch at home. It's definitely a recipe I will continue to play around with in the future. Really good muffins, and really good for you too!

Pouspous, but with no couscous...

2008-01-12T17:09:00.000-05:00

Rafa's sister had come to visit for the holidays, so it would only seem right to prepare a nice dinner for Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

I was out touring with them for most of the day, so had to plan for an easy dinner to put together for when Rafa came home that evening. (He worked all of Christmas and the days that followed.)

I am wholly inspired by Nigella when she is doing her Christmas cooking. I had mentioned her Christmas Kitchen show, which I think is one of her best. On one of the shows, she had made roast poussins to go with some festive couscous. She had called it her pouspous with couscous, LOL. Gotta love 'er.

I've never roasted poussins before, but Christmas seemed to be the perfect occasion for them. In her newest book, Nigella has an easy roast poussins with sweet potatoes recipe. I had combined that with the idea of basting the chicken the way Nigella bastes her turkey for Christmas - with a mixture of maple syrup and butter.

So, I brushed the poussins with that mixture, every few minutes, and the sweet potatoes were just as easy. They were sprinkled with some olive oil, cumin and cinnamon. Baked in a hot oven for an hour or so. The results were spectacular.

Everybody seemed to really enjoy dinner. As another side dish, I also blanched some broccoli and asparagus, and then I tossed them in the mustard sauce that is also featured in Nigella Express.

Here's my sis-in-law, enjoying Xmas eve dinner. As you could see the sweet potatoes were almost gone - they were a big hit, especially with Paki's boyfriend, Kike (short for Enrique). He asked me to make them again, and I did, for New Year's Eve dinner.

No dinner is complete without dessert -- another Express favorite, Jumbleberry Crumble. This was delicious too, and I even managed a few bites after eating an entire poussin!

At dinner, I had made a toast that it was great sharing the holidays and our home with family. Our often unused dining table was filled with food, drink, conversation, laughter. It was a wonderful evening...

The next night, for Christmas day dinner, I had made gambas al ajillo, and an antipasti dish of prosciutto, pecorino romano cheese, olives, etc. All was well received again. I was lucky my guests had such big appetites. :)

Cracking the foccacia code...

2008-01-12T09:27:00.000-05:00

For the two weeks surrounding the holidays, my sister-in-law, and her boyfriend, were visiting us from Spain.

Even though most of the time was spent outdoors, showing them around, I did have little pockets of time to do some experimental cooking... But those that know me know that for me, 'experimental' is using a new brand of milk... not exactly scientific experiments here. I have been obsessed, however, for a year or longer to get the perfect foccacia. It was my favorite thing to eat at the Sullivan Street Bakery in SoHo. Their pizza bianca was to-die-for.. soft, crusty, with faint hints of olive oil, sea salt and rosemary. Giada DeLaurentiis once made a pizza bianca on her show, and she used bought pizza dough... I never had a chance to use, though, the recipe for the dough she included in the pizza bianca recipe. And of course, forgetting about that recipe completely, I wanted to experiment to make my own foccacia this holiday season, so I used the dough recipe from the fried pizza experiment. I had remembered how lovely that dough was -- so soft and easy to work with -- I felt I was on my way to cracking the code.

So for the past few weeks, I've had some successes, some flops. I had gotten the perfect crumb - but hence, the dough was too salty. That was probably due to there being salt in the dough, and on top with grated romano cheese and far too salty (and slightly inauthentic) sea salt -- shame on me for using a brand other than Maldon! I've yet to get the perfect foccacia, but I know that day will come soon...

Here is my foccacia topped with romano cheese and arugula. Mmmmm.

A dog that knows what he wants.

2007-12-17T09:07:00.000-05:00

On Saturday afternoon, my mom and dad came by for lunch. I made an AWESOME dish of shrimp alfredo pasta. Pity I didn't take a picture, as it was delicious!

Max came along too... It didn't take long for his cocker spaniel nose to spot the cookie decorations. That dog is amazing. He could smell food a million miles away. So here he's thinking about strategy....

Making eye contact with the target, and...

He goes for it!

We shoved him away before he could take a good bite of it... But, in true Max fashion, I'm sure he is now lying on a couch, dreaming of his next opportunity.. hoping that we'll be distracted enough to not notice one missing decoration.

Like a good Jewish girl...

2007-12-16T21:04:00.001-05:00

Even though we got more lights for our Christmas tree, and my mom brought around some string for the baubles, I wanted to put my own touch on our first living Christmas tree. I saw Nigella recently make her Christmas Decorations on her show, Nigella's Christmas Kitchen. They looked so beautiful, and it was so nice to see her include her kids in the making and decorating of these cookies.

It's quite interesting that Nigella is SO into Christmas, and many people love her for her Christmas recipes, when Nigella is 100% Jewish. But you wouldn't really know that when seeing how she is always so keen to put out a holiday spread.

As a kid, my relationship with Christmas was a strange one. For years, my sister and I begged my parents to have a tree, just like everyone else. So we had a fake one for a few years.. but, like other Russians, we actually put it up for New Year's... That came in handy that one year we decided to get a real tree, because soon after the 25th of December was over, people would start throwing out their real trees by the side of the highway. My parents would drive up and snatch one of these hand-me-down trees, and that is how we got our first real tree. But, of course, none of this had to do with religion. It was because we were kids and we wanted what other kids had. Once we got older, we didn't have a tree around any longer.

Fastforward to now, and I once again have a tree in my home. But this time, it is because I am married to someone who actually celebrates Christmas. But, oddly, I don't think he had Christmas trees growing up either, in Spain. There, it is more about the religion, and they would always have a nativity scene.

So, for our tree, I wanted to make homemade decorations. Part of me is just really in the mood to bake, but knowing that I shouldn't eat all the cookies myself, it is better that they go on the tree.... Though a few cookies didn't turn out as I'd like.. and so, I had to sample them, for the greater good. Mmmm, they were yummy. {Nigella mentions to put black pepper in the batter, to stop the children from stealing them off the tree. But, I can't do that to perfectly good cookie batter. It's good that I didn't because I only ended up using half the batter for the decorations.}

The decs looked great with the other trinkets on the tree, making this the gaudiest Christmas tree in Brooklyn!

One of the All-Stars

2007-12-09T22:50:00.001-05:00

I never really grew up eating fried fish... Which is not to say my mom never made it. She actually made if often. I still remember the smell of the fried fish permeating the walls of our one-bedroom apartment. But I didn't eat it; actually I refused to.

Fish was one of those things that I would never ever touch. It wasn't until college and later that I started eating things like shrimp, salmon, sushi, etc.

I remember being about 9 or 10; it was wintertime. It was already quite dark outside, even though it was only 5 or 6pm. I have a clear memory of myself, sitting in front of a plate of fried fish, crying my eyes out. My mother, probably emotionally worn out after years of catering to a picky child such as myself, was yelling at me, begging me to at least try the fried fish. I couldn't. I wouldn't. I sat there, stubborn faced, until she told me I wouldn't be able to leave the table until I had eaten it. I had a little piece, probably spit it out. I started crying into my mashed potatoes. These are my memories of fried fish.

But now, I know, a fillet of fish is not really that different than a fillet of chicken. And it's fried, after all, so is it really that bad?

But, still, I won't make it for myself. Fried fish, or making fish on a regular basis, hasn't really entered my repertoire. But I bought sole the other day, hoping to do something with it. I remember seeing an awesome and droolerific picture of goujons of sole in Nigella Express.

The fillet, being so thin, took almost no time to defrost. Breading it was also incredibly simple. Thin and long slices of sole were dipped into cornstarch, then egg, and then panko crumbs. I'd talk more about my intense love for panko crumbs, but really that would be a post in itself. They are awesome! They make just about anything wonderfully crunchy.

So, I fried the goujons in sunflower oil; I didn't have rapeseed. They took mere minutes to get all golden and ready for serving.

I had made these for Rafa - since he is a big fan of fish 'n' chips. But, instead, I served this up with mushy peas - recipe in Feast; just basically boiled peas, processed with sour cream and parmesan. A little bit of salt is added and delish. Nigella's recipe for the sole gougons included a dill mayonnaise dip. It's basically shop-bought mayo with chopped dill and lime juice to taste.

The fish looked so crunchy that I asked Rafa for a bite. Mmmmmmm. They were really good. They were even better dipped into the yummy and pungent sauce. I'll definitely make these again; maybe a whole plateful just for myself. And maybe with mashed potatoes too. But this time, no tears.

God wants you to eat fried food.

2007-12-09T15:27:00.001-05:00

Eating fried food is definitely a big factor in why I love Hanukah. Apart from the fun songs and the chocolates shaped like coins, you basically stuff your gob for eight days with fried food. Anything fried is part of the divine trinity of things I just love. 1. Chocolate; 2. Fried Foods; 3. Pizza.

I don't like, however, to fry food, so I leave that up to others... For the last few Hanukahs, my very good friend, Elana, has hosted a party. I love going to her parties. She has a nice mix of intelligent and eclectic friends. Going to Elana's parties also means trying out new dishes I am dying to make; my rugelach made their debut there -- also Nigella's lemon gems, and her eggplant dip. The truth of the matter is is that Elana is my only friend in New York, as sad as that sounds, so it really is only at her parties that I get to debut anything -- good thing she is as social as she is. But, this year, she's taken her social ass to India for a vacation -- how dare she!? So, I would have to get my soufganiot (Hanukah delicacy - jelly doughnuts) fix somewhere else. Elana's soufganiot rock, though. I would come to her Hanukah party a couple of hours before anyone else, and help her prepare the doughnuts... She would fry, I would stab them with jelly. And then sprinkle them with powdered sugar.

My mother would also make soufganiot, but the dough was never made fresh -- so they never really tasted authentic. Soufganiot are a big thing in Israel; pretty much every corner would be filled with the smell of fried sweet dough. The smell was intoxicating. Something about it smells like home. I've spent two Hanukahs as an adult in Israel. My first one was when I was 20. I remember getting a huge soufganiya at the bus station in Beer Sheva. Topped with so much powdered sugar that I accidentally inhaled up my nose.

My mother this year asked if I had a yeasted dough recipe for the soufganiot. I did, interestingly... Nigella's. It's kind of funny that every recipe for anything I do is Nigella's, more or less, but is it my fault that that woman is a genius?!

So, I made the dough for Nigella's Mini Jelly Doughnuts recipe in her Hanukah chapter in Feast. It was really easy to make. I let it proof at home, and then brought it to my mom all wrapped up and ready to do. At my mom's, I rolled out the dough and cut circles for my mom to dot with jam.
It's a good thing she was doing that as I am not that dexterous; I really made a mess of the soufganiya I tried to assemble. And into the bath of hot oil they went. I don't get deep frying; I mean, I get that you need to know the temperature of the oil, otherwise the outside cooks faster than the inside, but does it really have to be that annoying. Even though I'm totally inept at deep-frying anything, I did manage to get some nicely golden puffy doughnuts.

Liam seemed to enjoy them... And then he started to lick the sugar off each one... LOL.

"Don't look at me -- it was the dog!"

My mom was really pleased with them too. :)

"My daughter is just about the cleverest, loveliest person I know. I'm so lucky to be her mom." (But said in Russian.)

Man, those are some good pancakes!

2007-12-08T13:19:00.002-05:00

The second time I'm making Nigella's new pancake recipe, I'm speechless. THESE are really good!

This time I used frozen strawberries I cooked up in a pan with some maple syrup. When the strawberries were soft, I took the pan off the heat and smushed the strawberries into the sauce. I jarred the rest of the sauce for some yummy jam moments later on.

Delish!

My Favorite Things

2007-12-08T09:34:00.000-05:00

In continuation of Lisa's song; the part that applies to us here and our cold winters:

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

Mara had the lovely idea of listing our favorite things... I had to join in, albeit late.

My favorite vase -- this comes from Seville. I love the Andalucian style of ceramics. The purple flower was given to me by Rafa on our first date.

My Kitchenaid -- I have to find a reason to use this at least once during the week. I get so much pleasure out of using it. Makes my house a home.

Favorite mug from Lotta, in Finland. Whenever I see it or use it, I get such a big smile on my face.

Spices in tins - something about them, I just love the idea of spices in tin boxes. The two in the front are from The Spice Shop in London... the silver tin in the back is from my friend, Maria, in Norway. It's an herb mixture to use on top of pizza or in a pasta sauce. Those nifty Norwegians.

The front of my fridge -- filled with magnets and postcards from friends, my favorite bread recipe, my favorite guy, Liam, in his own calendar that my sister makes every year. This is December, of course, where Sir Liam is featured sitting in a box eating a piece of bread. The caption underneath: This package is better than Hanukah gelt. My sister's humor, ladies and gents.

Nigella in my kitchen. My signed and framed copy of Nigella. I love this; sent to me by Maria.

And because a girl can't have too many calendars, this gorgeous calendar was given to me by Francesca in Israel. Great Israeli recipes adorn it each month, and the great thing is that it is based on the Jewish calendar, so I could keep using this until September 2008!

A Hanukah Miracle.... I think

2007-12-04T21:28:00.000-05:00

We definitely had quite a night here -- the 1st night of Hanukah.

I came home from work with a definite game plan. I already made the rugelach dough this past weekend, so all I would have to do is take the dough out of the fridge (it has been defrosting in there since the morning), roll it out, process the chocolate, melt some butter, do some whisking for the washes, and voila, thirty-six gorgeous rugelach (or rugelai??) would be baked in no time, and soon on their way to my office for a lovely Hanukah brunch.

All was going to plan. I put the dough closer to the radiator in the kitchen, so it would get easier to roll out. Processing the chocolate in the food processor turned out to be a challenge. So, to not kill the motor on my beautiful cobalt blue mini chopper (Kitchenaid, natch!), I turned to my very old and very uncool blender. But, the blender worked. So, go figure.

I put the rolled rugelach onto baking sheets that were lined with wax paper. I realized I ran out of parchment paper, so during lunchtime today, I made a quick run to Duane Reade, and was only able to find wax paper. I had some memory of wax paper not being the best thing to bake with, but time was running out and I wasn't about to become choosy.

Not all 36 cookies could fit on one baking sheet, so 30 of them went in the large baking sheet, and six of them in the smallest. The smallest went on the bottom rack in the oven and the large went on the top. All was going well. I was making good time.

And the oven started smoking... For some odd reason, there was smoke filling up inside the oven. I thought it was probably because of something that I baked before that never cleaned up, and since the cookies were only going to bake for about 20 minutes, I didn't think it was a big deal.

Then, Rafa came home. And then, the fire alarm started going off. Even having the kitchen window completely open didn't seem to help. We quickly got our rotating fan in there, and that did seem to help, but the bottom cookies were close to being burnt to a crisp. I took them out first, and being the optimistic person I am, I still gave them a sugar wash because I hoped beyond hope for a miracle of miracles that they were still salvageable in some way.

I was really worried about the other 30 cookies, so took them out soon after. With all cookies on the stovetop, rotating fan at full blast aimed towards them, and the fierce December wind blowing the other way, we finally got the fire alarm to stop going off. But the fate of the cookies did not look good. They were completely stuck to the spawn-of-the-devil wax paper. I hate wax paper! Do you hear me, wax paper?!!! I HATE YOU!

I couldn't believe this was possible. I wanted so much to share these cookies with my coworkers. I really wanted to show off these cookies. They are really THAT good!

After leaving the situation, and then lighting the Hanukah candles, I decided to have another look at the cookies, and managed to carefully save a few of them. I realize how ironic it is that a miracle happened when oil would burn for eight nights, and the horrible wax paper almost burned down my entire house... but it didn't, and I might even have some somewhat gorgeous (although slightly undercooked) cookies to bring into work tomorrow.

But let's not forget about the ones that didn't make it.

So a miracle happened here. And the fire alarm works. Good to know. :)

Comforting

2007-12-03T17:28:00.000-05:00

Growing up, and even into adulthood, I have been a picky eater. Just because I appreciate food doesn't mean I have always liked everything that was out there... I am still quite picky, but I have broadened what I eat, and what I enjoy cooking.

Beef stews fall into that category. Everything about them is comforting. Interestingly, most comforting things come from memory, but I don't really remember eating beef stew that much as a child. My mom makes stew quite often for our family dinners, and although it is lovely and extremely delicious, it never symbolized comfort for me, like her mamaliga and other nursery foods.

So, really, I'm buying into the whole comfort food thing. People say it is comforting. It looks comforting. Hence, it will be comforting, for me. It's a lot like Christmas actually. Lights are all a-glow, I find myself humming Christmas carols, seeing the Rockefeller tree gives my stomach flutters, and I can't wait to cook Christmas dinner. And the idea of having to go shopping to buy presents is just about the best feeling ever. I love buying gifts for others. So the marketing gods out there must be doing a great job because I've got that loving Christmassy feeling.

But back to beef stew. Nigella's new show has been on a holiday hiatus on the Food Network, and they actually showed a Nigella Feasts episode called 'Comfort Foods'. I love this episode! Nigella cooks up a warming beef and stout casserole. The recipe isn't actually in Feast, but there is a variation of it in How to Eat. I decided to make the casserole from the episode; it looked too good no to.

What I really love about this recipe is that you don't need expensive cuts or marbled pieces of beef. I fully understand the fat on a piece of meat makes it taste good, but being a picky eater, it's too much work for me to pick off the fat. This recipe, since it is cooked so long, can be made with extremely lean chuck steak. Works for me!

I couldn't find stout at the Russian supermarket, so I got some German black beer. Making the stew is just as comforting as eating it. Chopping vegetables roughly, letting them soften in the oil, and then browning the floured pieces of meat in batches... adding the stout and watching it pick up the juices from the meat. Perhaps what is comforting for me is that I know this type of recipe was probably made for years and years. History and tradition really mean a lot to me.

And the finished dish...

It was fabulous. The meat was so soft; you didn't even need a knife. Of course I paired it with mash, how could I not? It was perfect. This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Hanukah Challenge!

2007-12-03T10:56:00.000-05:00

Every year, around this time, I start posting or blogging about how awesome Nigella's Rugelach are from her Hanukah chapter in Feast. I've had a lot of bakery rugelach in my life; it was never my favorite thing, because it was usually dry and crumbly. Nigella's version was the answer to my rugelach needs. They are THE BEST cookies in the world! I always try to tell people to make them, but I think most people just think I'm crazy, for more reasons than one. But, this year, I'm not taking 'NO' for an answer. You must, MUST make this!

I've made my dough this weekend. I've divided it into three to make three batches of 12 cookies. It never fails to amaze me how quickly and beautifully the dough comes together. Each time, I'm like, 'Wow, that was way too easy.' That is why I'm recommending this recipe. It's so easy and so delicious. I'm making it for my work colleagues to bring in Hanukah this year.

RUGELACH - Feast by Nigella Lawson

FOR THE DOUGH

425g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
50g caster sugar
1 packet (3 teaspoons) easy-blend yeast, optional
250g cold butter, diced
100g cream cheese, cut or spooned into pieces
1 egg
60ml sour cream

Briefly process the flour, salt and sugar, and yeast if you're using it, just to combine them, and then add the diced butter and cream cheese pieces, and process again until the mixture resembles damp sand.

Beat the egg and sour cream together, and with the engine running, pour down the funnel of the processor. Continue running the motor until it comes together in a silky dough; it will seem like it won't make a dough, but leave the motor running and be patient. (This can also be done with a beater.)

Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface, and divide into three, forming each one into a fat disc. Put the discs into freezer bags and leave in the fridge to rest for an hour - though you can leave them there for longer - just taking them out about 10-15 minutes before you want to get rolling.

FOR THE FILLING

250g dark chocolate
50g light brown sugar
50g butter

FOR THE EGG WASH

1 egg, beaten with a pinch of caster sugar

FOR THE SUGAR GLAZE

3 tablespoons caster sugar
3 tablespoons boiling water

Preheat the oven to 190C. Process the chocolate until it's battered into rubble, and then put these dark brown crumbs into a bowl with the sugar, using your fingers to mix them together. Melt the butter separately and let it cool slightly.

Roll out one of the discs of the dough on a lightly floured surface to a circle 25cm in diameter. With a knife, divide the circle into 12 triangles, like you would divide a pizza, only don't pull apart the triangles yet.

Brush the circle of triangles with the melted butter, and then spread or sprinkle a third of the chocolate filling to cover the circle. Then very carefully pull away one triangle at a time, rolling each one up from the thick end to the narrow end to form a bulging curly-whirly crescent; think of a croissant. Follow this procedure with all the dough disk and their filling.

Put the rugelach on to lined baking sheets (if you've used yeast, let stand on the tins as they are for 20 minutes) and brush each one with the egg wash, and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

When they come out of the oven, browned and puffy, mix the sugar and water together for the glaze, and brush the rugelach with this to make them shiny. Let them cool on a rack. My daughter begs for these at any time of year, as well she might.

So your challenge this year is to make this lovely recipe; you have until the end of Hanukah, December 13th. Come on! Go for it!

Mamaliga!

2007-12-02T11:46:00.001-05:00

Oh the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we've no place to go
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
It doesn't show signs of stopping
And I've bought some corn for popping
The lights are turned way down low
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
When we finally kiss goodnight
How I'll hate going out in the storm!
But if you'll really hold me tight
All the way home I'll be warm.
The fire is slowly dying
And, my dear, we're still good-bying
But as long as you love me so
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

So it's the second day of December, and we got our first snowfall. Not a huge amount of snow, but it was nice to wake up on Sunday morning and see the white streets.

I wasn't sure what to have for breakfast. Somehow, cereal, didn't seem like the proper thing to eat on the first snow day. I opened the cupboard, and was happy to see some coarse corn meal hanging out there. I don't often use it, but there is one warming breakfast I could think of that I could make with it: Mamaliga! We grew up on mamaliga; Saturday mornings meant mamaliga with smetana (sour cream) or scrambled eggs.

Mamaliga is basically coarse (or fine) cornmeal, cooked in boiling water over the stove until nice and thick.

It needs salt, because cornmeal by itself is pretty bland. We ALWAYS have it with sour cream. It's a Russian's answer to making anything better; just serve it with smetana. :) Curiously, I believe the Swedes also use this word for sour cream, which makes sense, considering its relative proximity to Russia. I love my Scandinavian brethern!

The way my mom does it is cook this in a cast-iron pot, and once the mamaliga cools a bit, she turns it out onto a wooden chopping board, and then you could slice the mamaliga like a cake. I don't have a small cast-iron pot, so improvised a bit, piling on the lovely and warm mamaliga on a plate. I gave myself a generous dollop of sour cream. No matter how much mamaliga you serve yourself, you always take sour cream to the table, because I promise you, you will always run out of sour cream on the plate and go for more. Mamaliga just begs for that smooth coolness.

It was delicious! A great way to spend a snowy day indoors.

A Wonderful Friend. An Inspiring Book. A Delicious Cake.

2007-11-25T17:58:00.000-05:00

I got quite a surprise a couple of days ago. My friend, George, sent me the most beautiful book as a present for Hanukah. It was incredibly generous of her to think of me, and no words could really express how thankful I am for this wonderful surprise.

I knew the only way I could show her how much I appreciate her and the book was to cook something from it!! :) But it was hardly something I needed convincing to do.

The book, pic above and to the right, is so beautiful! The cover looks as if the artist drew on it with colored pencils. It is so warming. That is the only way I could describe it. A bit of background: 1080 Recipes or 1080 Recetas de Cocina is a bestselling book in Spain - and was actually published more than 30 years ago. It makes me happy to think that most households in Spain have this book on their shelves, whichever printing it was.

Apart from there being recipes for virtually anything you can think of, and lots of things you can't, there are beautiful illustrations in the book as well. It's like browsing through an art book. Plus, doesn't the cover look like a Chagall??

I love the artichoke and the artist's rendering of the tortilla española. I decided to get cooking to see what this book had to offer.

I wanted to start with the very simple chocolate sponge cake, the biscocho de chocolate. I guess it's odd to start off with something so non-Spanish, but really it was the feeling I got from the book. That this book has been around longer than I have been. To me, chocolate sponge cake is old-fashioned. I've said before how it reminds me of my grandfather; how he would come home Saturday morning from synagogue, with chocolate cake for me. It gives me a wonderful feeling to remember him, and making a chocolate sponge cake helps me do that.

The cake is really easy to make, and happily uses ingredients that you would probably have at home anyway. I also liked that the chocolate batter could be made in a pot. Then, beaten egg whites are folded into the batter. I was a bit worried about the batter before the addition of the egg whites because it looked too thick for a cake. However, after adding the egg whites and a bit of elbow grease, the batter became a lot more workable and more chocolate cake-like.

I used a loaf pan my very good friend, Maria, gave me. What came out was a really beautiful chocolate loaf cake.

I instantly felt comforted after smelling the cake baking in the oven. I think bakers are happier people. How could they not be?

I only waited mere minutes before I dug into this cake. The top was crispy and the crumb moist and delicious.

I'm hoping this cake becomes part of my repertoire. Let's see what the esposo says when I serve him this cake! I'm going to serve this cake this evening after dinner. We don't usually have dessert with dinner, so it feels like a treat. We'll be having Nigella's pork chops with mustard cider sauce. Not a typical dinner a Spanish housewife would serve, but I'm not Spanish, and not really a housewife either, but a domestic goddess-in-the-making with a Spanish accent. ;)

Humble Pie

2007-11-25T14:08:00.000-05:00

Pot pies rock my world. I know this site is about how I love risotto, but pot pies, oh pot pies, how you do tempt me.

What is it about them? Flaky, buttery pastry, gently tapped by a fork, falling into the creamy underworld below. Oh, dear! Pot pies bring out the animal in me. We are just ending a four-day weekend, and I am still craving the pot pies that I made on Friday!

My mom was very generous and gave me a heck of a lot of leftover turkey breast from Thanksgiving dinner. I knew instantly what I wanted to do with it. Actually, come to think of it, my mom didn't actually offer me the leftovers. I seriously made a beeline for them right after I was finishing stuffing my face with dessert. I wanted leftover meat. I must make those pot pies again!

And I did! And they were awesome! I knew Nigella had a recipe for turkey pot pies in Feast, but I didn't have or want to use heavy cream. The sauce, made of milk, would come out so creamy already. So, I used the recipe for the chicken pot pies, also in Feast, but in the kiddie chapter. I used corn instead of peas, because I was honestly all pea-ed out.

I made two little pies in my ramekins, and two bigger pies as well. I had one of the little pies, and I gave the bigger ones to Rafa and my sister and BIL. Liam had some of the other little pie. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it. Which means that I rock! :) They don't call it humble pie for nothin'!

It's (going to be) a girl!

2007-11-22T23:34:00.000-05:00

My sister got the results from her amniocentesis. Thankfully, and most importantly, the little munchkin is doing great health-wise. Not as important, but still friggin' awesome, is that she is having a girl! Yay! A girl!

I have to say though that it will be weird to have a little girl around, being so used to Liam, but I am so psyched about it! Cute dresses, and playing with Barbies, if that's what SHE wants... It's going to be so awesome. But what I am happiest about the most is having another little soul to love. It's amazing the extent to which your heart can grow. I'm looking forward to my life filling with even more happiness, if that's even possible. Yay, sis!

Thanksgiving Cheesecake

2007-11-22T22:17:00.001-05:00

Last year, I went all out for Thanksgiving, and I hosted it myself. This year, I was a bit more kind on myself, and we had dinner at mom's! The turkey was fabulous. I don't know what my mom did, but the turkey breast, which is the kind of meat that is usually bland, was deeeelicious. My mom brought in the huge turkey and we all went, 'ooooh!' We were joined by some lovely visitors from London, and of course there was my crazy Russian family. Most of the night we were shoo'ing our cockerspaniel, Max, from jumping on the table and eating the entire spread. He was persistent... and managed to get in a blini and half a tub of whipped cream. He looked longingly at the turkey, but was not successful in getting a piece. Poor Max!

I brought challah and Nigella's chocolate cheesecake from a book I haven't used in ages, How to be a Domestic Goddess. I actually made three loaves of challah (usual King Arthur Flour recipe) about a couple of weeks ago, but froze two of them, so brought one of the loaves I had frozen to dinner. It was, as usual, really well received. There is something about bringing homemade bread that makes people really impressed with you. I mean, every single time I bring challah, people are like, 'wow', but I want to say, 'enough already! I get it. You like it!'. LOL. Just kidding. I'm glad it was so well liked.

The cheesecake was devoured. It's a really great cheesecake recipe. :) Our guests also brought a pumpkin cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory, and also a sweet potato pie. I was psyched about having some diversity at dinner, as usually our dinners involve the main course (which may or may not be symbolic of whatever it is we are celebrating) and a thousand Russian salads and appetizers. This dinner it was the turkey surrounded by a thousand Russian salads and appetizers. I was 'thankful!' for the Thanksgiving touches brought by our friends.

A lovely night all in all. Happy Thanksgiving!!! :)

Mon Petit 'Toast'

2007-11-17T10:28:00.000-05:00

After my emotional post, I thought it would be a good idea to cook something calming. I turned to my signed copy of Nigella Express for some french toast. I love having this for breakfast. My mom used to make us french toast for breakfast when we were kids. We called it grenky, and the bread used was usually what we had lying around - russian bread or Jewish rye. The thin slices from already cut loaves. It wasn't till I started eating in diners as a teenager that I realized Americans eat french toast too, but made with challah bread. Challah was not something we ate that often, but it seemed strange to me to turn it into french toast.

But this morning it totally made sense to me. Challah literally stays fresh for about 15 minutes. Seriously. 15 minutes after it is baked it is better already eaten, or frozen, because it will never taste as good... I baked three loaves of challah last weekend, but I froze two of them. The one loaf that we did have, we only managed to get halfway through it during the week. I didn't want to throw it away, so I turned it into french toast.

Nigella Express has an awesome recipe for a vanilla-scented french toast, that is then dipped into sugar. Mmmmm. Nigella calls it 'doughnut french toast', which is exactly what it tastes like. Instead of using vanilla extract in the eggy batter, I used vanilla sugar. It really came through in the final result.

The toast took mere minutes to make. I think it is a great treat to give yourself after you have had a hard week. Give the recipe a try; you know you want to!

Behind that smile.

2007-11-16T20:04:00.000-05:00

I am feeling sad about meeting Nigella, but I'm wondering if I should be feeling that way.

Last night I was feeling all a-flutter knowing that I will get to see Nigella again. The last time I saw her was when I went to her Heals signing in London two years ago. Nigella's site said that the event at Wholefoods would be a Q&A and a signing. I don't really much care for Wholefoods. But, it was Nigella, so I decided to just chill out and go. The bad feeling - the sadness - began as soon as we (me and Rafa) got to the place people pointed out the signing would take place. There was a long line, and I don't even think Nigella was there yet, and we wouldn't be able to get on line or even get a book signed unless we bought a Nigella Express there and then. It's not the first time that stores have had this policy, but in my experience, they weren't so strict about it as to not let you even get a book signed. And there was no Q&A. We stood on what felt like an extremely long line, just to gt a book signed. Just to get a few mere seconds with our idol. Or maybe Nigella isn't an idol to other people. But she is to me.

When I first joined Nigella.com over three years ago, I honestly thought I'd be there for a few weeks or months, and then move on. But I didn't. Somehow, I stuck around, through everything.The food, the warmth, the beautiful fairy cakes with the pink rose; they got into my blood and turned it feel-good blue. Even though the site is closed down, for who knows how long, I'll still be a Nigella fan... something about the message she gives, the way SHE sees life, and presents it in a glorious meal, will always attract me to the whole Nigella-ness. It was her sweet potato curry that my sister said was the best thing she had ever eaten. Or the chicken cacciatora that Rafa ate it in its entirety. Or the unbelievably proud moment when I made the most delicious chicken pot pie in the whole world. I made it. Nigella gave me the recipe.

So why am I feeling sad? I don't know. I feel like I don't have a pulse on things anymore. I feel like a lot of people are mad at Nigella and her people for the decisions they made, like Nigella owes them anything. I'm feeling sad because it all feels like it's pulling away somehow. Maybe Nigella does these rule-driven book signings because she doesn't care about doing this for much longer. Maybe the book will be her last hurrah, so why bother give a Q&A? Maybe she's sick of us fans. Maybe she wants to return to a normal life. Or maybe... they just didn't have the right venue for a Q&A. That her people didn't prepare in enough time. That I'm taking this stuff all too personally. She doesn't owe me anything either. I just felt like the love was lost. So much so that I let my shyness take over and didn't say more to Nigella other than a quick hello. So that's why I'm sad, I think. I expected a really wonderful experience, like the previous two times I met her, but it wasn't like that all. She was like any other chef in any city in any country, doing a book signing. Yes, that's why I'm most sad.

Blog Note: The Reluctant Diva

2007-11-10T21:14:00.001-05:00

My NYC-inspired blog is up and running and in full swing. Enjoy it! I'm having a lot of fun showing another side of myself.

The Fried Pizza Experiment

2007-11-10T21:00:00.001-05:00

So the experiment went well. Result: a very nice tasting pizza, and dead easy to make. I have never been satisfied 100% with the pizzas I make at home. I mean, being a Brooklynite, my standards are pretty high when it comes to pizza. I don't say that with any kind of humility. Brooklyn pizza rocks the house, full stop. Word!

The dough never seems to taste about right.. and I know that the oven is a big factor. You don't really get that crispiness. Now, frying pizza, well that gives you a nice crispy crust. It was lovely. I didn't really see the point of cooking the toppings with the lid on. They didn't really melt that much. I had to finish off Rafa's pizza in the broiler because I was afraid the bottom would get too scorched. His had shredded mozzarella from the bag, so I guess the cheese was harder to begin with. I prefer whole milk fresh mozzarella (see above), like Mark Bittman's, so used that, and it melted well enough that no broiler was needed. I'm not sure why the prosciutto turned a weird purple-ish color. Its saltiness tasted awesome against the mellow mozzarella and tomatoes.

After posting initially about this recipe, I was thinking of what it reminded me of. I mean, I have never made fried pizza before, but it seemed strangely familiar. Then I remembered. Malawah! Malawah is a Yemenite, I think, puff-pastry type of round dough. It is sold frozen, and then you heat it in a non-stick pan like the pizza, and you could place toppings on it. Most people eat it with tomato sauce. Or with olive oil and zaatar. It is very close in texture to roti that more people are familiar with. I once ate a malawah pizza in Jerusalem that was out-of-this-world. This fried pizza came very close. I'd work at it more. Use different toppings. Adjust the heat or use the broiler to finish it off. Definitely a work-in-progress, but a delicious one at that.

Picture says it, doesn't it?!

2007-11-10T14:30:00.001-05:00

Oh, but the picture doesn't say the recipe, so here goes:

Homemade Instant Pancake Mix with Blueberry Syrup - Nigella Express

Ingredients

For the dry pancake mix
600g/1lb 5oz plain flour
3 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
40g/2½oz caster sugar
To make the pancakes (amounts per 150g/5¼oz dry mixture)
1 free-range egg, lightly beaten
250ml/9fl oz milk
1 tbsp melted butter
For the blueberry syrup
125ml/4½fl oz maple syrup
200g/7oz blueberries

Procedure

1. For the dry pancake mix, place all the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Transfer to an airtight container, seal and store until needed.
2. To make the pancakes, add the appropriate quantity of egg, milk and melted butter per 150g/5¼oz of the dry mixture (a filled American cup measure will give you the requisite amount per batch, so you may like to use one and dispense with any weighing). Mix well to form a smooth batter.
3. Heat a flat griddle or non-stick frying pan without adding oil.
4. Spoon drops of 1½-2 tablespoons of the batter onto the hot griddle and when bubbles appear on the surface of the little pancakes, flip them over and cook until golden-brown on both sides. It should take about a minute per side.
5. Meanwhile, for the blueberry syrup, place the maple syrup and blueberries into a pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes, until the blueberries have broken down slightly.
6. To serve, pour the blueberry syrup into a jug and take to the breakfast table with the pancakes. If you have any of the syrup left over, you will notice that it sets into a kind of glossy jam. This will keep for a few days decanted into a jar and put in the fridge, and is glorious dolloped into yoghurt or spread on bread.

I did tweak the blueberry syrup. I used a good quality blueberry conserve, and I heated it for a little bit with some maple syrup. Yum yum yummy!

OMG, fried pizza!!!!!

2007-11-09T14:06:00.000-05:00

{Picture courtesy of Evan Sung of the New York Times} <-- So I don't get arrested!

I didn't think this was possible!!! My two favorite things to eat are combined into one dish: fried food and pizza!! Yes, fried pizza!

When I saw this article in the New York Times, I was so excited!! I have been really busy at work so don't have the time to spend Wednesday happily reading the Dining section. A recipe or article has to be really good for it to stand out for me at this point. This recipe did!

I CAN'T WAIT TO TRY IT!!!!

I have some pizza dough already made in the freezer. I think this weekend will be the one! Mmmm, fried pizza dough, fresh mozzarella, proscuitto, tomatoes... OH MY!

Watch the video (that accompanies the article) of Mark Bittman making the recipes to get your creative pizza juices flowing.

I have a love/hate relationship with Bittman. I would really really love to hate him, but I don't. I find his demeanor annoying, and how he claims that THIS IS THE BEST recipe he has ever come across for XYZ. Like no one else has the best recipe; Mark Bittman has the best recipe. Gimme a break! But... his recipes are good. Need I remind you of the No-Knead Bread craze last November. I think this fried pizza thing will be talked about a lot. I'll venture a guess that fried food and pizza are not only my favorite food groups.

Pan-Fried Pizza:

Time: About 2 hours
2 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more as needed
3/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon coarse salt
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, more for cooking
About 2 cups any light, fresh tomato sauce, warmed
Sliced mozzarella to taste
Salt and black pepper
Prosciutto slices and basil leaves for topping (optional).

1. Combine flour, yeast and salt in a food processor. Turn machine on and add 1/2 cup water and 2 tablespoons oil through feed tube. Process for about 30 seconds, adding more water, a tablespoon or so at a time, until mixture forms a ball and is slightly sticky to the touch. (If mixture becomes too sticky, add flour a tablespoon at a time.)

2. Put one tablespoon olive oil in a bowl and turn dough ball in it. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise until dough doubles in size, 1 to 2 hours. When dough is ready, re-form into a ball and divide it into 4 pieces; roll each piece into a ball. Place each piece on a lightly floured surface, sprinkle with a little flour, and cover with plastic wrap or a towel. Let rest until each puffs slightly, about 20 minutes.

3. When ready to cook, press one ball into about a 10-inch round. Use a little flour, if needed, to prevent sticking and a rolling pin, if desired. Film a 10-inch skillet with olive oil and turn heat to medium. When oil shimmers, put dough in pan and adjust heat so it browns evenly without burning. (If dough puffs up unevenly in spots, push bubbles down.)

4. Turn dough, then top browned side with tomato sauce, cheese, a bit of salt and pepper, and, if you like, prosciutto and/or basil leaves. If top is now heavily laden, cover pan and continue cooking, or run it under broiler, just until toppings become hot. With only a couple of toppings, just cook until bottom browns. Repeat with remaining dough; serve hot, warm or at room temperature.

Yield: At least 4 servings.

My Diva-l Twin!

2007-11-06T14:47:00.000-05:00

So I've kinda started another blog! Actually, all I've done is design the blog header so far.... I actually haven't posted any posts yet... But I will.

This blog will NOT be a cooking-based one. It is about my adventures and thoughts living in NYC. Shopping, eating in restaurants (well I'm not COOKING the food), bitching. You know, typical NYC life.

Hope you visit occasionally and say hello. :)

Oh, so naughty!

2007-11-04T14:57:00.001-05:00

Being a Nigella fan means being a little realistic... Nigella food isn't everyday food, no matter how un-health conscious you are. There are lots of meals that could be great for every other day, for weekends, or for those special times when only pure, unadulterated, sinful eating will do.

Since I am trying to watch what I eat, most of Nigella's food is starting to fall into the weekend and the sinful eating. That's fine. Watching your weight is not about denying yourself things you love. It's about eating enough of what your body needs... and this allows times to give yourself a treat as well.

After seeing my friends make Nigella's Breakfast Bars from her new book, I had to make them too!

First you mix up some dessicated coconut (oh yum!!!), peanuts, rolled oats and dried cranberries. I hate having seeds getting stuck in my teeth, so I left those out.

Looking good so far. To this, you add some warmed condensed milk. Well, not some. Um, a whole can, but moving right along...

You mix it up and then turn it onto a baking pan, and spread down with a spatula.

And then you bake it. That's it! Definitely an express recipe.

The bars were not as hard as I would have liked. I think since I didn't add the seeds, it didn't have as strong a structure as it should have. But I was able to get a good number of bars out of the batch, and the pieces that fell off did not go to waste. These are scrummilicious! Really really yummy!

But, of course they are naughty. How could they not be with peanuts and coconut and condensed milk?! But into every life a little naughtiness must fall. I estimated the batch in its entirety is about 80 WW points! Yowza! So if you got 18 bars out of it, like I tried to get, it's about 4 points each... But I got less bars than that -- so I think each is about 5 to 6 points. Not horrible... If your bar is your meal. :) These have been put in the Naughty Tin.

But I'm sure the tin will be visited many times...

Easy Risi e Bisi

2007-10-28T14:00:00.000-04:00

I went out walking today, and the wind had a bite to it. It hasn't been this chilly yet this autumn. It was kind of unexpected - I guess I should watch the news more - so I came home craving comfort. I've fallen in love with soups again. I know that they are as low-fat or low-calorie as I need them to be, and I always have frozen vegetables or canned beans lying around that I could whip up into a tasty and hearty soup.

I decided to take some inspiration from Nigella Express, which has some great soup recipes in it. On the page where we find Minestrone in Minutes, Nigella describes an even easier version of the already super simple Risi e Bisi, the Venetian soupy pea risotto. I would say Nigella's Easy Risi e Bisi is a combo of her Rise e Bisi from Forever Summer and her mega-flavored Slime Soup from Feast.

For this doddle of a soup, you simmer some frozen peas, crumbled cheese (I used parmesan) and arborio rice in a liter of vegetable or chicken stock. After twenty minutes, you have a thick and gloriously creamy soup. I think the amounts Nigella uses for the peas and rice is too much, and makes a way too thick soup, so I lowered the quantities a bit. I would say go for about 70 grams of peas and 50-75 grams of rice. One ounce of parmesan is just the ticket. I loved this soup! Eating it was like putting on a warm blanket. I can't wait to make this again!

So how was it?

2007-10-28T00:36:00.000-04:00

Rafa is doing day shifts finally! Now we won't be ships passing in the night like we were for the past year or so. The great thing is that we will have chances to have proper, albeit late, dinners together on weekdays and weekends... The bad thing is in the rare chance I want to go out with my sister or my friends, I'm kind of giving up the little quality husband-wife time we do have. And of course, most importantly, if I do make something for Rafa to eat so he doesn't go into his (wait, taking out his small violin) sad overtures about how there is nothing to eat, I don't ever get to hear the critique, eh hem, review!

This afternoon I decided to be quite productive (how unlike me!) and make him some dinner that he would eat in my absence in the evening, as I was going to see a movie with my sister. I made him Nigella's Pollo alla Cacciatora, cause I was quite curious how it would taste, and I was pretty sure he would like all the flavor combinations. I didn't get to taste it myself, apart for testing for enough salt, and left it on the stove for him with reheating instructions.

I came home quite late knowing he'd be in bed already. But wanting to know what he thought of the dinner, I thought I'd check the kitchen to see how much he had eaten. Amount eaten equals love of recipe/measure of how hungry he is. I didn't see the pan on the stove anymore, and thinking he must have put the leftovers in the fridge, I checked there. No leftovers. Hmmmn. Checked the sink. Yep, the pan in the sink filled with water. Ikea white bowl next to pan in sink, also empty, also filled with water. Next place to look - the garbage can. Phew, no 'leftover' chicken cacciatora in there. Ok, so only conclusion is he ate the entire thing! An entire dish meant for 4 people! He better have liked it otherwise I'll kick his butt for eating an entire something-that-is-possibly-the-best-thing-ever! But I'll never know if it's good, until I make it again.

How could he eat that entire thing? The appetite of my husband is something I will never be able to fully comprehend.

Gnocchi Again!

2007-10-25T17:28:00.000-04:00

Eating gnocchi again is not really a coincidence. I had initally bought them to make Nigella's Mustard Pork recipe. I kept chickening out, or porkening out (ha!), from making it because I wasn't sure Rafa would go for a pork chop and cream combo. He comes from a tradition of eating pork chops a la plancha, off the grill, and not with a lot of flavor boosters. Just the standard S & P.

I finally decided to bite the bullet in an impromptu mid-week meal. We had been shopping at the supermarket and Rafa spotted some cider for me. Now, I have to admit, it was non-alcoholic cider, which is basically carbonated apple juice, but who cares... That was the closest I got to finding any of the hard cider Nigella mentions in her recipe. I guess not a lot of Brooklynites drink the stuff.

After that, I pretty much followed the recipe completely. It's a wonderful recipe, only a few ingredients, and literally done in no time. My pork chops were not the best quality, I admit, so it came out a bit tough in the end. If it was just me eating them, I'd cook them a lot less, but Rafa is always afraid I'm trying to poison him. Hmmmn, with his good looks and sparkling personality, I wonder why he would think that!!! Speaking of which, I didn't tell Rafa the dish was inspired by Nigella's experiences in France. He doesn't like the French. Don't ask me to explain it. It's stupid. Something about farmers in the south of France stealing strawberries from northern Spain. I don't know why he actually cares because he doesn't even like people in northern Spain either. But I digress!

The dish was fab! The sauce was really lovely. I used light cream, and it was lovely with the gnocchi and pork. Rafa really loved the sauce too. He said that he hardly tasted the sauce at first, and I told him I deliberately did not put a lot of sauce on his pork because I was worried it would be overpowering. He poured on a whole lot more, and we were all happy campers.

I've heard from other reviewers that the sauce is a bit overpowering because of the mustard. But I used a mild Grey Poupon, and I guess the sweet cider made it even more mellow. It was lovely and slightly sweet. Really lovely. A great meal for everyone, and dare I say, kiddies and fussy husbands everywhere. :)

Waste not. Want not.

2007-10-20T17:13:00.000-04:00

I had some cherry tomatoes in the fridge that were a bit worse for wear. I knew that if I didn't use them, they would be binned, and not really knowing what to have for lunch/dinner, I did a bit of experimenting.

Gnocchi with Thyme & Garlic Skillet Tomatoes

Heat a teaspoon of chili or regular olive oil in a small pan, with one minced garlic clove. When the garlic is fragrant, add about a cup of halved cherry tomatoes and the leaves of one thyme sprig. Season with sea salt and ground pepper. Leave to simmer on a low heat while you boil the gnocchi. When the gnocchi are nearly ready, add two teaspoons of cream to the tomatoes and stir to make a lovely pink sauce. Remove the gnocchi with a slotted spoon and add to the tomato sauce. Stir through and serve.

Result: Delicious!

Risotto's not something to mess with...

2007-10-14T18:54:00.000-04:00

I love risotto. I love Nigella. It would make sense then that I would be keen as a jelly bean to try out her new risotto recipe in Nigella Express; Cheddar Cheese Risotto. Not being a huge cheese fan and deathly afraid of smelly cheeses, cheddar happens to be one of a small number of cheeses I actually like. I love cheddar on crackers or with green apples. I wasn't sure what it would be like but the pictures in the book really tempted me to give it a go.

It's a basic risotto recipe with baby leeks (or spring onions) as the base. Mustard is added too, which I thought would be a lovely flavor booster. The cheddar cheese (125 grams of it) is added at the end, and it melted into the risotto beautifully. I finally reached that perfect creamy risotto consistency I have always been after. My suspicions were correct - to get that really perfect creamy risotto consistency you need a heck load of cheese.

I want to say I loved this dish... but I didn't. I hated it. Waaaaaaah! The cheese just completely overpowered it for me. I guess I could take cheddar, and I suppose other cheeses, in small amounts, but not this big amount. I even think parmesan at this amount could be overwhelming. I may freeze the leftovers and make arancini out of it at a later time. Sort of party nibbles. Overwhelmingly flavored cheddar risotto, but at least in small amounts, and with a cold drink. Sorry Nigella and fellow Nigella fans. :(

Soup for a Winter's Night

2007-10-14T14:01:00.000-04:00

I don't talk about my time in Liverpool that much. It was an interesting year of my life. I was in a weird state then. Emotions shifted between being melancholic that I didn't have any friends or family around me while being in this cold and lonely place to being sublimely happy that I was living with and sharing a life with the man of my dreams.

I used to stare out of our window a lot during those days. I remember it being so cold outside. No snow yet, I don't think, but the wind was howling, and I would see through the window the lights of our neighbors. Rafa was probably working nights then, and I remember feeling so cuddled, so snuggled in by the warmth coming through the radiator just below the window. The weather was so cold outside, but there I was inside, the loneliest girl in Liverpool, listening to Sarah McLachlan's 'Song for a Winter's Night' and feeling every emotion this amazing singer was trying to evoke through those beautiful words.

For some reason this song makes me think of soup, or is it vice versa? Butternut squash soup to be exact. I LOVE butternut squash soup. I eat it, and instantly I'm transported back to those wintry days.

I recently ate a lovely soup at Pret a Manger in the city. I was actually quite surprised how good it was because most butternut squash soups tend to be quite bland. I even had a small packet of salt at the ready before I ate Pret's soup. Let me tell you, it was fantastic. Just the right amount of spices and consistency. On the website, they advertise it as a butternut squash and apple soup. Not being able to find a soup recipe that had all the combinations of flavors I wanted, I decided to make my own.

Soup for a Winter's Night

500g (20 oz.) butternut squash chunks
2 granny smith apples (or sweeter apples if you wish), peeled, cored and chopped - about 125g/4 oz. each
1 large onion, chopped finely
1 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp chopped fresh sage
4 cups (1 liter) chicken stock
1/2 cup (125ml) apple cider/unsweetened apple juice
3 tbsp heavy (double) cream

Melt the butter in the oil in a large soup pot over a gentle heat. Raise the heat slightly and add the chopped onion. Sprinkle over some sea salt, the spices and sage. Lower the heat and with the lid on, sweat the onions for about ten minutes until they are soft and fragrant with the spices.

Add the chopped butternut squash and apples with the honey. Mix on a medium heat for five minutes. Add the hot stock and apple juice. Bring to a boil, and then cover and simmer for 40 minutes.

Taste the soup for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste. Transfer soup to a blender (if it has a 1 1/2 liter / 48 oz. capacity, it should all fit) and with the center nozzle taken off, put a paper towel on top followed by a tea towel (to protect the tea towel from getting dirty). Puree briefly. Add the heavy (double) cream and puree again to desired consistency.

Return the soup to the pan to warm through before serving. Add seasoning to taste.

The soup was really delicious! It could have been a tad bit sweeter and perhaps a bit thicker. Next time, I would use this blueprint but add a bit more butternut squash and use sweeter apples. I hoped that the honey and apple juice would offset the Granny Smith's tartness, as that was the only apple I had at home, but it was a bit too on the tart side for me soup-wise.

I have many more months of cool Fall and winter breezes, so this certainly won't be the last time I will be making this soup. Please give it a go if you're in the mood for some warmth as well. The great news is that it is only 4 WW points for a generous 12oz. (375ml) serving. And making this soup is a lot cheaper than buying it outside... Believe me!

Someone new to spoil!!!

2007-10-13T22:34:00.000-04:00

Liam is going to get a new brother or sister, god willing, on or near April 20th! Needless to say, I'M OVER THE MOON!

Yay, sis!

For research purposes only...

2007-10-13T10:42:00.001-04:00

I very well couldn't let all my friends blog about Nigella Express without actually giving the book a go myself.

I convinced myself that in order to give an honest opinion of the book, I would have to try a recipe, and one that is chocolatey, because isn't chocolate the best judgment of everything after all?

I very unwillingly made Nigella's Chocolate Mint Cookies, because that would have been the greatest sacrifice for my craft.

Nigella Express - Chocolate Mint Cookies

Ingredients

100g soft butter
150g light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
150g flour
35g cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
200g dark chocolate chips

For the Glaze:
75g icing sugar

1 x 15ml tablespoon cocoa sieved
2 x 15ml tablespoons boiling water
1/4 tsp peppermint extract (I used McCormick Peppermint Extract)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4.

2. Cream the butter with the brown sugar and then beat in the vanilla extract and the egg.

3. Mix the flour, cocoa and baking powder in a bowl and gradually beat into the creamed mixture. Fold in the chocolate chips.

4. Using a rounded 15ml tablespoon spoon out scoops of cookie dough and place on a lined baking sheet leaving a little space in between each one.

5. Bake in the oven for 12 minutes and let them sit on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes before moving them to a cooling rack with some newspaper beneath to catch any escaping glaze.

6. Put the glaze ingredients into a saucepan and heat until combined.

7. Using a teaspoon zig zag the glaze over each cooling cookie.

I didn't put cocoa in the glaze, because I wanted to make it look like peppermint glaze. I am not subtle in my approach to cooking! LOL. These cookies are awesome! They are like brownie cookies. Soft and chewy, but still crunchy in parts. The chocolate chips ooze out, and the glaze is a perfect accompaniment to these dark and very chocolatey cookies. This is the type of cookie when all you want is chocolate and nothing else in the entire world will do!

Whole

2007-10-07T12:42:00.001-04:00

All I could think about these past few days has been bread! It occurred to me that I don't really eat bread anymore. I never used to be a big bread eater, but when I worked in Crapco, I got almost addicted to The Sullivan Street Bakery's pizza bianca.

Now, at my new job, I sneak into the Grand Central Food Market on lunch breaks, browsing stalls I could never afford to shop in on a daily basis. The aromas from the bread shops are intoxicating. At certain moments, all I feel like doing is going into a dark room with some classical music playing and munching on an entire sourdough loaf. I want the crunch; the punchiness of it.

As I have posted before, I am trying to eat more healthy foods, and white bread is a no no. I purchased some whole wheat flour the other day, wanting to make some whole wheat banana bread muffins... But today I gave into my bread desires, and whipped up a whole wheat-esque Minimalist Loaf.

I made this recipe, but I used half whole wheat flour, and didn't bother with fiddling with towels or cling wrap. I let the dough sit in its tupperware bed for about 18 hours, and only formed it once before dropping it into its oven within an oven.

The bread turned out amazing. Rustic, gleaming and golden. Just what I was after. I know a lot of people are impressed by bread bakers. They treat them like they split the atom. Truthfully, not all bread baking is easy. But this bread is so simple to make, I almost feel like a fraud in saying I baked bread this afternoon.

After having some warm slices of bread, I collapsed into a carb coma on the couch. Sundays are made of this.

EXPRESS yourself!

2007-10-02T14:46:00.000-04:00

Yay, I'm the happy owner of Nigella Express, and my blog friends have been cooking up a storm from the book. There have been some varied reviews, but at first glance, I think the book is fabulous. I have to admit most are not figure-friendly... so I'm really going to have to pace myself, but I'm so happy to discover a new Nigella book. It's all very exciting! Three years since her last release!

Check out the blogs to the right to hear other reviews of Nigella's book from my blog friends... and if you're in the US, some great news. Nigella Express, the TV show, is coming to the Food Network, and soon!

Nigella Express, Sundays at 10:30am/9:30c

If you're a blogger that has Express and not on my list, just give us a shout in the Comments section, and point us to your blog, so we could see what Express meals you are dishing up!

F*** the points!

2007-09-30T16:11:00.000-04:00

I'm a bit obsessed with pasta at the present moment. I like all kinds, but mostly ones that are pasta shapes filled with cheese, or pasta shapes in a lot of sauce.. and a lot of cheese! I'm very greedy when it comes to cheese, erm, pasta. :) I can continue eating long after I'm technically full. F*** the technicalities, f*** the points!

Lisa made a lasagna roll-up dish recently that I just had to recreate in my own kitchen. It just looked too good to miss! Mmmm, turned out fabulously. (See recipe below and picture above.)

Obviously, this was going to be an indulgent dinner. But I knew that already. Life is too short to always be craving cheese. Sometimes you just need to succumb to temptations.

Definitely try this if you can! Thanks, Lisa, for the inspiration!!!

Lisa's Lasagna Roll-ups
POINTS® value 11
Servings 2

Ingredients

4 lasagne sheets
150 gm Part Skim Ricotta Cheese
25 gm grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup of pasta sauce
1 oz whole milk mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup Low-Moisture, Part-Skim Finely Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
1 tsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp dried parsley

Instructions

Cook the 4 lasagna sheets as specified on package. In a small bowl, mix ricotta, parmesan, oregano, parsley and salt and pepper to taste.

Cut each cooked lasagna sheet horizontally in half to give you 8 smaller sheets. Spread a teaspoon of ricotta mixture on each sheet and roll up. Place seam-side down in a pan with a thin coating of the pasta sauce.

Top the rolls liberally with the sauce and the shredded and fresh mozzarella.

Bake at 375F for 30-40 minutes until the cheese is melted and brown in parts.

Recipe Re-do

2007-09-29T17:12:00.000-04:00

I wasn't happy with the picture I posted for Nigella's Mirin Glazed Salmon from a few weeks ago... The recipe was delicious though. And lucky for me, I'm a perfectionist, so I was given an excuse to make this again.

But, this time, I thought it through a bit more... I wanted to make it more figure friendly. I FINALLY got my copy of Nigella's Nigella Express just today, and quickly realized how I would have to take my time cooking my way through the book, as most of the things I want to eat, but cannot possibly at the present moment. (Note to self: get peppermint extract for that chocolate mint cookies recipe, pronto!) LOL.

Ok, so back to being good, or at least trying to. I made a lower calorie, or else I hope, version of Nigella's recipe, and this time with cooked shrimp! It was delicious!!!

Mirin Glazed Shrimp

POINTS® Value: 6
Servings: 2

*Brown basmati rice used here.

Ingredients
1 medium scallion(s)
200 gm cooked shrimp
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 fl oz mirin
1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
20 gm unpacked light brown sugar
2 serving basmati rice
1/2 oz sesame seeds

Instructions
1 Mix the mirin, brown sugar and soy sauce in a shallow dish that will take all of the shrimp, and marinate the shrimp in it for an hour or so. Meanwhile heat a large non-stick frying pan on the hob.

2 Cook the shrimp in the pan until they get warm, add the marinade and sesame seeds and cook for another few minutes.

3 Remove the shrimp to whatever plate you’re serving it on, add the rice vinegar to the hot pan and warm through.

4 Pour the glaze over the shrimp and top with the spring onion strips. Serve with brown basmati rice at the table.

Figuring this out...

2007-09-29T16:57:00.001-04:00

I'm not a Weight Watchers spokesperson.... I don't have the PLAN all figured out. There are some days when I wish I could eat a chocolate sundae for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and then another one for dessert. I'm not in a plan at all, actually. I'm just doing this eating-better-thing until I think I could do it for a long time. I'm trying it on, before I'm committing. But I am trying, which I guess is the most important thing.

As I have said before, weekends could be totally disastrous for me. A whole kitchen all to myself. Rafa has gotten into the habit of buying bars of dark chocolate. Bastard! But I vowed to myself that starting this weekend, I would make every effort to eat better, because I know myself. Weekend indulgences become weekday indulgences. And I would make any excuse for my badness. My day was hard. My day was easy. I'm having a bad hair day. The new H&M around the corner opened up. And so on and so on!

This morning, breakfast started out well. Cereal with lowfat milk. 3 points. :)

I was famished by lunchtime... It's odd that on days that I don't do anything, how much more hungry I am.

I hadn't planned lunch at all... and was this close to just pick things from the fridge.

Then, I thought, 'wrap!' I made a wrap! And very delicious it was too. High-fiber wrap (2 points), salad leaves (0 points), 1 oz of feta cheese (2 points), oregano (0 points), and shredded carrot (0 points) and a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil (1 point). Yay, only 5 points! Woo hoo! A couple of my foodie friends have said how wonderful feta, olive oil and oregano is together. I so agree! Mmmmmm.

So lunch was successful. Stay tuned for my dinner tales! :)

Should I write about food? Should I write about life? Is it the same thing?

2007-09-27T23:07:00.001-04:00

Nothing especially interesting going on at the moment, but my addiction to blogging can't let me just disappear for very long.

I got a sweater dress at the new H&M that opened up right next to my job today. It is grey. It is short. I'm showing my knees again; how did that happen? It has pockets. My sweater dress is just about the most exciting thing going on right now. I love my little sweater dress. Can't wait to wear it when it gets colder... with a shirt underneath, and really high boots! :)

Brooklyn Granola

2007-09-25T22:07:00.000-04:00

I'm going to start off by saying I won't tell you how much this meal is worth WW-wise. Way too much. But it's delicious, so there.

You don't have to be a genius to know I nicked the idea of this granola recipe from Nigella. But she nicked it from some guy named Andy in Fairfield, Connecticut, so I don't feel as bad. :)

I love Nigella's granola recipe. I don't make it often enough but was suddenly inspired this past Sunday for some reason.

I used the items from my cupboard that I thought would taste fab in this granola, and I wasn't wrong. The only bad thing about this granola is that it is a lot more calorific than you would expect granola would be. But it's all natural ingredients, so that is one reason to eat it. Or at least that is the reason I'm using to justify my endless need to eat it all the time!

Brooklyn Granola

POINTS® Value: 5 per serving
Servings: ten 1/2 cup (125ml) servings

Ingredients
225 gm rolled oats
50 gm sesame seeds
4 oz canned sweetened applesauce
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup brown rice syrup
1 Tbsp honey
50 gm packed light brown sugar
50 gm walnut halves
1 Tbsp sunflower oil
50 gm dried cranberries
50 gm dried blueberries
50 gm dried apricot halves

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

2.Mix everything together.

3. Spread on baking sheet and bake for 40-60 minutes (till evenly golden, after one turning).

Very Veggie Risotto

2007-09-23T17:02:00.001-04:00

I'm trying to cook better on the weekends. I find that I eat better on the weekdays with the discipline of an 8 hour job with probably the most expensive food in all of New York. It forces me to bring food from home, and thus I have started bringing those healthy pre-made meals. I guess that is an oxymoron, but it beats getting a bagel with cream cheese, like I used to at my previous job.

The good thing about weekends, though, is that you have the time and inclination to make a lot more food than you would eat, and freezing the rest. I created a Weight Watchers-friendly risotto for lunch today, and happily froze three portions for those days that I don't want to eat a ready made meal at work.

Very Veggie Risotto
POINTS® value | 5
Servings | 4

Ingredients

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic
5 oz mushroom
1 medium scallion
2 Tbsp parsley
1 small sweet potato
200 gm arborio rice
2 cube vegetable bouillon dissolved in 1 liter boiling water (or 1 liter vegetable stock)
1/4 cup white wine or vermouth
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

Sweat the chopped vegetables and parsley in the oil in a little bit of sea salt until they are soft.

Add the rice and mix so that the grains are glossy. Add the wine, turn up the heat and let it bubble away until it evaporates.

Slowly add stock, a ladleful at a time, until the rice is al dente. Turn off the heat, add the parmesan. Let it stand for a few minutes and serve.

The servings should each be around 8 ounces in weight. I'm a bit attached to my scale at the moment. A healthy eater's best friend!

I realize what a 180 I have done from my previous posts of cakes and cookies and the like. I have not defected from the Nigella camp entirely! I am trying to find the balance of eating well and indulging myself too. When I go out to dinner, I don't tell myself to order salad and that's it. I know I go out very rarely, so I let myself have pizza or pasta or whatever else. Life is too short to never eat another piece of chocolate cake!

This lasagna is really good!

2007-09-17T13:49:00.000-04:00

I've given up. Fall is here. It's not going to be HOT HOT HOT anymore, like it was, and I just have to deal with it!

As soon as I start to feel the chill of Fall breezes, I instantly want to eat anything with butternut squash. It's like Pavlov's dog. Ding - Fall - Salivate - Butternut Squash.

I was pleased to see the cover recipe of Delicious Australia July 2007 -- pumpkin, sage & ricotta lasagna. Mmmmmm. A while ago I went out to dinner with friends and had a butternut squash ravioli dish which was way too sweet! I wanted to see if I could recreate a pasta dish at home that was not sickly sweet, but still had the elements of Fall in it. Butternut squash, sage, nutmeg.

The lasagna is a bit finicky to make -- but I guess it's good to do on a cool Fall day when it's just you and your kitchen. The butternut squashes around here are massive. So, it takes a long time to peel and chop them. Get out your best chopping knife!

The recipe also calls for fresh lasagna sheets, which I didn't have, so I had to boil up some dry lasagna sheets. And since I don't have a big food processor, I had to puree the fantastic roasted butternut squash a small batch at a time.

I made this for myself and my sister for Red Carpet watching during the Emmys. We both loved it! This is definitely one of the best lasagnas I have ever had - vegetarian or not. The best part is that I have leftovers that I have frozen for more cool Fall days. Mmmmmm.

Street Food At Home

2007-09-16T09:50:00.001-04:00

I am really enjoying my Israeli book. The recipes are quite inspiring in that I already know I will like the food as I grew up eating it. It doesn't hurt that everything is presented so beautifully too. For lunch yesterday I thought it would be fun to recreate some street food from Israel, so I made shawarma and pita.

Both were incredibly easy to make, and worked surprisingly well considering my minor adjustments. The shawarma called for boneless chicken thighs. That is difficult to get around my parts now, so I used boneless and skinless chicken breast tenderloins. I adjusted cooking time, of course, accordingly.

The dough for the pita needed about 80ml more water for it to come together.

I was surprised how authentic everything tasted. I served the shawarma in the pita with some Israeli salad from the other night. The whole thing could have used something more, like hummus or hot sauce or French fries, but it was a good result. And since I will be eating this again, as I have leftover shawarma, this can of course be remedied.

Shawarma after baking -- sliced with mezzaluna. That color is amazing.

Pita dough before being proofed. Aren't the pictures in the book amazing?

The baked pita.

The stuffed pita.

Homemade Shawarma

Traditionally, shawarma... is made from lamb. In practice, Israeli shawarma is usually made from turkey with lamb fat added. Sliced marinated meat is stacked on the skewer, which rotates slowly and roasts it on all sides. The meat is then shaved and stuffed into a pita together with... here the argument begins. The purists insist that all a good shawarma needs is hummus or tahini dip and parsley sprigs. Other like their shawarma with all the trimmings: fresh or fried onion rings, French fries, salad, pickles and tahini.

Ingredients (serves 8-10)
1 1/2 kg (3 lb 5 oz) deboned chicken thighs

The Marinade
3/4 cup of olive oil
3 tablespoons curry powder
2 tablespoons garam masala
1 tablespoon chicken soup mix

For Frying:
3 tablespoons oil
3 onions, sliced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Mix the marinade ingredients in a disposable baking dish (the most practical because the process is messy). Add the chicken and mix well. Marinate for a minimum of 5 hours (or overnight) in the refrigerator.
2. Preheat the oven to 200ºC (400ºF).
3. Bake for 45 minutes. The entire process up to this point may be completed a day or two ahead and the baked chicken stored in the refrigerator.
4. Before serving, finely slice the chunks of chicken.
5. Fry the onion in oil until golden and remove from the pan.
6. Add the chicken with some of the marinade to the pan. Season and stir-fry for a few minutes, until the edges are golden-brown. Spread the fried onions over the meat and serve.

Pita

Pita is not just an extremely popular pocket bread, it is the mainstay of the way Israelis eat. Anything can go into a pita -- from chocolate spread (a favorite school snack) to a whole lunch, such as schnitzel with salad and French fries. Apart from packing it with innumerable foodstuffs, pita has another important use: to mop up hummus, tahini, labane, eggplant and other dips, spreads and salads. Pita must be oven-fresh or it's no good.

Ingredients (for 10 pitas)
500g (1 lb, 3 1/2 cups) bread flour
25g (1 oz or 2 tablespoons) instant yeast
360ml (12 1/2 oz, 1 1/2 cups) water
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon salt
30ml (1 fl oz, 2 tablespoons) olive oil

1. Mix the yeast with the flour in a mixer fitted with a kneading hook. Add the water, sugar, salt and olive oil and knead for 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth, shiny and slightly sticky.
2. Transfer the dough to a large greased bowl. Sprinkle olive oil over it, cover it with cling wrap and allow to rise to twice its original size.
3. Preheat the oven to maximum (250ºC/500ºF).
4. Place the dough on a work surfaces sprinkled with flour and divide into 10 equal parts. Roll each part into a ball. Cover with a moist towel and leave for 10 minutes.
5. Roll out each ball into a disk 10-12 cm (4 inches) in diameter and 1/2 cm (1/4 inch) thick. Arrange on a tray lined with baking paper and bake for 5 minutes, just until the pitas swell up and begin to show golden spots. Avoid over-baking, which will cause them to dry up.
6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Cover the pitas with a kitchen towel for a few minutes to keep them soft.

The Recipes

2007-09-14T22:28:00.000-04:00

Some of you have expressed interest when I mentioned my new Israeli book. I think that the book is not being sold that widely, so not many are able to get their hands on it. But do try that link above and see if you can get it shipped to you! I am testing the recipes out though, and I'm going to post the ones I have tried out, so at least you'll all have a little taster of what this wonderful book is all about.

I hope you get to try these out and have a taste of Israeli sunshine in your kitchens! :)

Our Favorite Israeli Salad

Take a few cucumbers, some firm ripe tomatoes, an onion and a couple of sweet red peppers. The proper Israeli way is to dice everything fine and neat (dak-dak, very fine, or katan-katan, very small), but coarsely cut chunks will do just fine...

Make sure the vegetables are room temperature. If you keep your vegetables in the refrigerator, take them out half an hour before preparation.

Ingredients (serves 2-4)

1 juicy lemon, halved
4 firm ripe tomatoes, diced
4 unpeeled cucumbers (Israeli, if you can find it), diced
1 red onion , finely diced
1 sweet red pepper, seeded and diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 fresh hot green pepper, seeded and chopped (optional)
Dash cinnamon
1 teaspoon sumac (optional)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2-3 tablespoons parsley and/or coriander and/or mint leaves, chopped

1. Squeeze the juice of half the lemon. Remove the pips from the remaining half and peel the skin (including the white pulp). Chop finely.
2. Place the chopped lemon and the lemon juice in a bowl, add the remaining ingredients and toss. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve immediately.

Roast Eggplant with Feta

A common Arab adage goes something like this: "If your future bride can't prepare eggplant fifty different ways -- don't marry her!" Indeed, this sexy-looking member of the potato family may be savored hot or cold, grilled, barbecue, deep fried, sautéed, roasted, baked, stuffed, marinated, pickled, in pastry, casseroles, stews and even confitures and jams...

Add a crumbled chunk (about 200 grams, 7 oz) of cheese to the flesh of two roasted eggplants, along with 1/4 cup olive oil, some sumac or dried oregano leaves and 3 chopped spring onions.