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It’s Oscar Time Again!

February 27, 2011 by

It’s no secret that I’m an awards show junkie … and the Academy Awards are my favorite. The glitz, the glamour … I have no idea why I love it, but I do.

The red carpet at the intersection of Hollywoo...

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One of my favorite recipe sites, Epicurious, has put together a list of “Oscar Movie Menus,” based on 2011′s Best Picture nominees, for tonight’s fete:

“Once again, the magic of the movies inspires our annual collection of Oscars menus, ten meals based on the Best Picture nominees. This year’s contenders encompass action, drama, Western, animated, and science fiction films, making for an enticing mix of recipes and drinks.”

In looking over the list of recipes, there are a number that catch my eye so I’ve compiled my favorites here to create the ultimate 2011 Academy Award menu:

Appetizers: Hummus and Crudités and Quiche in Prosciutto Cups

Soup: Black and White Soup

Salad: Lacinato Kale and Ricotta Salata Salad

Entree: Barbecued Cowboy Steaks and Spinach Potato Cakes with Roasted Tomato Sauce

Desserts: Wild Blueberry Pie with Almond Crumble and Tarte Tatin

Drinks: Apple Martinis and Chocolate Guinness Goodness

Sounds pretty good, huh?

So, will you be watching The Oscars tonight? Or, more importantly, what you are making?

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Five Onion Soup with Guanciale Croutons

February 25, 2011 by

“Onion soup sustains. The process of making it is somewhat like the process of learning to love. It requires commitment, extraordinary effort, time, and it will make you cry.” ~ Ronni Lundy

Soup. I love soup. There’s nothing like a hot bowl of good soup to warm you on a cold day. What’s my favorite soup, you ask? That’s a tough one, but I’d have to say split pea. Or maybe French onion. Hmm, yeah, it’s probably one of those two!

I recently had a craving for French onion soup, but since we’d already decided to make “BLTs” for dinner (and by “BLT,” I mean honey-roasted pork belly, arugula, and mayo on toasted sourdough), I felt the ooey, gooey cheese and hunk of toasted bread that make French onion soup so good may be a bit much … but I still wanted onion soup. My dilemma was solved when my husband, The Chef, whipped up this recipe for five onion soup.

A combination of red, white, and yellow onion, leek, and garlic (yes, garlic is a member of the onion family), this variation of the French classic is creamy, but light, and definitely filled my desire for onion soup. To add some texture, The Chef also made a topping of “guanciale croutons,” which added just the right amount of crunch and salt … and tied our onion soup and “BLTs” together perfectly.

Bon Appétit!

Five Onion Soup

Ingredients:

  • 1 large red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
  • 1 large yellow or sweet onion, peeled and thinly sliced
  • 1 large white onion, peeled and thinly sliced
  • 1 large leek (white and light green parts), thinly sliced and rinsed well
  • 6 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 beef bouillon cubes
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 32 ounces chicken stock
  • 1 tablespoon butter, melted
  • 1 tablespoon flour

Directions:

1. Prepare guanciale croutons per recipe below.

2. In medium stockpot over medium heat, sweat the red, yellow, and white onions in reserved guanciale fat for five minutes. Add leeks and garlic; continue cooking for 15 minutes total.

3. Add Worcestershire sauce, bouillon cubes, bay leaves, and chicken stock to onions. Reduce heat to low, cover stockpot, and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

4. Stir melted butter and flour together in small bowl; pour over soup, bring to a boil, and stir until thickened.

5. Remove bay leaves. Serve soup in bowls topped with croutons and guanciale.

Notes: We also topped our soup with a sprinkle of fresh parmesan cheese, which added another layer of flavor.

Notes: Leeks carry some dirt in between the layers of overlapping leaves. To clean leeks, remove discolored leaves and trim off green tops and root tips. Cut the leek lengthwise. Spread the leaves and rinse thoroughly. Placing the fanned out leaves in a bowl of water and gently moving the leaves will loosen any remaining dirt.

Guanciale Croutons

Ingredients:

  • 4 ounces guanciale or bacon, diced
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 4 slices sourdough bread, cubed

Directions:

1. Render guanciale or bacon in olive oil until crispy and browned. Remove meaty bits with slotted spoon and place in paper-towel lined bowl; set aside. Reserve 1 tablespoon guanciale fat for use in soup.

2. Pour remaining guanciale fat over bread cubes and toss. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper; sprinkle with salt and ground pepper.

3. Toast bread cubes in a 350 degree F oven for 12 to 15 minutes until browned.

Notes: While we always have olive oil on hand, we always have a jar of bacon fat in the fridge at all times too. We rendered our guanciale in bacon grease, but since many people don’t have it easily at hand, I listed olive oil in the recipe.

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Happy Birthday, Mr. President!

February 21, 2011 by

Today is Washington’s Birthday, a holiday also known as Presidents’ Day, which recognizes the legacy of all American presidents.

The history of Presidents’ Day can be traced back to the late 1700s. People began celebrating George Washington’s birthday while he was still president, and about a hundred years later, his birthday became a federal holiday. Meanwhile, many people celebrated Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, February 12th, in the year of his assassination (1865) and afterward, though Lincoln’s birthday never became a federal holiday.

Since the passage of the Monday Holidays Act, Washington’s birthday has been celebrated on the third Monday in February. President Nixon called the holiday “Presidents’ Day” to honor all past presidents. Many states and people have followed his example, though “Washington’s Birthday” is still the holiday’s legal name for the federal government. But under any name, it’s a great day to celebrate everything that our past presidents, including Washington and Lincoln, have done for our nation.

Since this is a food blog, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the our first President’s culinary habits. Was President Washington a “foodie?” According to this short essay, by Anne Petri, wife of Wisconsin Congressman Tom Petri, I think he was … and a “slow foodie” at that.

GEORGE WASHINGTON AND FOOD
By Anne Petri

George Washington and food. These two categories—the historical and culinary—rarely go together. But an examination of life at Mount Vernon, George Washington’s estate, sheds fascinating light on the norms of eating, entertaining, and hospitality in the 18th century.

Black and white photograph of Mount Vernon, ho...

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George Washington once referred to his home as a “well-resorted tavern” and existing records confirm this description. According to household documents, Mr. and Mrs. Washington dined alone only twice in the last 20 years of their marriage. Friends as well as curious citizens flocked to see the President, and, with customary grace, he welcomed them to his home, not only for meals but to spend the night.

One guest described Washington’s hospitality as “entertainments … conducted with the most regularity and in the genteelest manner.” In 1777, visitor Nicholas Cresswell was equally laudatory: “[George Washington] keeps an excellent table and a stranger, let him be of what Country or nation, he will always meet with a hospitable reception at it.”

While the cost of entertaining was considerable, cash was not generally required. George Washington’s own farms (covering nearly 8000 acres) were self-sufficient and could provide most of the produce and meat that was necessary.

Life of George Washington--The farmer / painte...

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Once the dinner bell rang, Washington subscribed to the five-minute rule: guests must be seated within five minutes of the bell. Once seated, the dishes were placed in the center of the table and in a decorative fashion around the eating area.

And what did guests eat? One visitor from New York recounts the following:

At dinner wine, porter and beer. After it we drank about three glasses… At dinner we had two pint globular decanters on table, after dinner large wine glasses. Port was brought in claret bottles … Menu … Leg boil[ed] pork, top; goose, bot; roast beef, round cold boil[ed] beef, mutton chops, hommony, cabbage, potatoes, pickles, fried tripe, onions ets. Table cloth wiped, mince pies, tarts, cheese; cloth of[f], port, madeira, two kinds nuts, apples, raisins. Three servants.

According to a newly-released book entitled George Washington’s Mount Vernon (ed. Wendell Garrett), “the Washingtons were among the first colonial Americans to acquire Josiah Wedgwood’s fashionable cream-colored ‘Queen’s Ware’ and among the first post-Revolution Americans to purchase porcelains brought back from Canton on the Empress of China, the ship that opened American trade with China.”

As cognizant of precedents on the dining table as he was in matters of government, Washington also acquired the nation’s first service of French porcelain to grace state dinners, a practice that continued until 1900.

Washington was equally concerned with manners. At age 15, he copied a series of injunctions regarding manners “in company and conversation” which survives to this day. Among those rules are some special admonitions governing behavior at the dining table: “Make no shew of taking great Delight in your Victuals, Feed not with Greediness; cut your Bread with a Knife, lean not on the Table, neither find fault with what you Eat.” This superb advice as well as many other helpful tidbits are available in a lovely booklet entitled George Washington’s Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation.

Portrait drawing of the head of George Washington

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When he wasn’t entertaining, Mr. Washington generally had breakfast at 7:00 (7:30 in the winter) and dined on his favorite, hoe cakes—corn cakes topped with butter and honey. He had dinner at 3:00. Tea was served from 6:00 to 7:00 and he retired generally at 9:00 pm.

While there is no archival evidence of particular recipes George Washington enjoyed, there are a number of excellent books which highlight colonial favorites or recipes made with ingredients available in colonial times. Mount Vernon has itself published a superb cookbook entitled The Mount Vernon Cookbook. Reprinted below is one recipe from the book featuring a Wisconsin favorite—the cranberry.

Cranberry Pudding

Ingredients:

  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • Pinch salt
  • 1/2 cup molasses
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/3 cup boiling water
  • 1 1/2 cups sifted flour
  • 1 1/2 cups cranberries, cut in half

Directions:

Combine eggs, sugar, salt and molasses. In a separate container, put 2 teaspoons of soda in 1/3 cup boiling water. Add to egg mixture. Stir in flour and cranberries. Steam in a buttered rice steamer for 1 1/2 hours. Serve warm with the following sauce.

Sauce

Ingredients:

  • 2 sticks butter
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 cup half and half

Directions:

Melt butter. Add sugar and half and half and stir until sugar is dissolved.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President!

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The Daring Cooks February 2011 Challenge: Tempura and Hiyashi Soba

February 16, 2011 by

It’s February, the second month of 2011 … which means it’s my second month of participation in The Daring Kitchen’s Daring Cooks’ Challenge!

The February 2011 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Blueberry Girl. She challenged the Daring Cooks to make Hiyashi Soba and Tempura. She used various sources for her challenge, including japanesefood.about.com, pinkbites.com, and itsybitsyfoodies.com.

I was very excited that this challenge included tempura because it’s one of my favorite things to eat. We typically don’t make it at home though, and not because it sounds daunting, but because we just don’t fry a lot. However, I was more than willing to buck the no-fry status quo in hopes that we could produce some wonderful tempura … and I’m happy to report that we did!

The tempura batter was light, crunchy, and had just the right amount of salt, and it worked really well with all our chosen tempura ingredients: shrimp, broccoli, green beans, and sweet potatoes. Delicious! It was also a simple, quick, and easy process … so much so that we’ll be making tempura again soon!

The other part of the challenge was to make traditional Hiyashi Soba. We actually make soba noodle dishes in our house quite often; I think they’re delicious and a healthy part of almost any diet.

The directions we were given for making the soba noodles were a bit cumbersome in my opinion so we skipped a few steps. Our noodles still turned out to be delicious so I’m pretty sure the soba noodle gods will forgive me. We were also provided with two recipes for dipping sauces for the Hiyashi Soba and could choose either to prepare for their soba noodle dish. The Chef and I chose to make the recipe for “Mentsuyu,” a traditional soba dipping sauce. However, instead of dipping the noodles in the sauce, we used it as a broth so our resulting dish was more along the lines of a soba noodle soup.

We also made the other dipping sauce recipe we were provided and chose to use it as a dipping sauce for the tempura; it was fairly heavy on green onion so the resulting sauce was a bit too “oniony” for me, but this could be easily fixed by lessening the amount of onion next time.

As for serving the Hiyashi Soba, according to Lisa, “Traditionally soba is served on a bamboo basket tray, but if you don’t have these, you can simply serve them on a plate or in a bowl. Divide up the noodles, laying them on your serving dishes. Sprinkle each one with nori. In small side bowl or cup, place 1/2 cup of dipping sauce into each. In separate small side dishes, serve each person a small amount of wasabi, grated daikon, and green onions. The noodles are eaten by sprinkling the desired garnishes into the dipping sauce and eating the noodles by first dipping them into the sauce.”

While that sounds lovely, as I mentioned above, The Chef and I went the easy route. We divided the cold noodles evenly into two bowls, poured the warm “Mentsuyu” dipping sauce over the noodles, and topped them with a healthy shake of organic kelp granules, some green onions, and a squirt of sriracha. It was a warm, spicy bowl of goodness.

All in all, I was quite pleased with both of these quick and easy recipes, which are perfect for the beginning or advanced cook who just wants to make a lovely Japanese dinner at home.

I’ve included the recipes for the tempura, the Hiyashi Soba, and both dipping sauces below, along with some notes about how our preparation veered from that called for in the recipe. If you decide to make either of these recipes, leave me a comment and let me know how they turn out for you!

Tempura

Ingredients:

  • 1 egg yolk from a large egg
  • 1 cup iced water
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, plus extra for dredging
  • 1/2 cup cornstarch
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • Oil, for deep frying (preferably vegetable)
  • Cold vegetables (and/or seafood) of your choice, such as:
  • Sweet potato, peeled, thinly sliced, blanched
  • Carrot, peeled, thinly sliced
  • Broccoli florets
  • Green beans, trimmed
  • Bell pepper, seeds removed, cut into 3/4 inch-wide strips
  • Fresh mushrooms
  • Onions, sliced

Directions:

1. Place the iced water into a mixing bowl. Lightly beat the egg yolk and gradually pour into the iced water, stirring (preferably with chopsticks) and blending well. Add flours and baking powder all at once, stroke a few times with chopsticks until the ingredients are loosely combined. The batter should be runny and lumpy. Place the bowl of batter in an ice water bath to keep it cold while you are frying the tempura. The batter as well as the vegetables and seafood have to be very cold. The temperature shock between the hot oil and the cold veggies help create a crispy tempura.

2. Heat the oil in a large pan or a wok. For vegetables, the oil should be 320°F; for seafood, it should be 340°F. It is more difficult to maintain a steady temperature and produce consistent tempura if you don’t have a thermometer, but it can be done. You can test the oil by dropping a piece of batter into the hot oil. If it sinks a little bit and then immediately rises to the top, the oil is ready.

3. Start with the vegetables, such as sweet potatoes, that won’t leave a strong odor in the oil. Dip them in a shallow bowl of flour to lightly coat them and then dip them into the batter. Slide them into the hot oil, deep frying only a couple of pieces at a time so that the temperature of the oil does not drop.

4. Place finished tempura pieces on a wire rack so that excess oil can drip off. Continue frying the other items, frequently scooping out any bits of batter to keep the oil clean and prevent the oil (and the remaining tempura) from getting a burned flavor. Serve immediately for the best flavor, but they can also be eaten cold.

Spicy Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup spring onions/green onions/scallions, finely chopped
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon English mustard powder
  • 1 tablespoon grapeseed oil or vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Shake all the ingredients together in a covered container. Once the salt has dissolved, add and shake in 2 tablespoons of water and season again if needed.

NOTES: The sauce was a bit too “oniony” for me, but this could be easily fixed by lessening the amount of onion. Also, to up the spiciness factor, you could easily add some sriracha, sambal oelek, or even crushed red pepper to taste.

Hiyashi Soba

Ingredients:

  • 2 quarts water + 1 cup cold water, separated
  • 12 ounces dried soba (buckwheat) noodles (or any Asian thin noodle)

Directions:

1. Heat 2 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot over high heat. Add the noodles a small bundle at a time, stirring gently to separate. When the water returns to a full boil, add 1 cup of cold water. Repeat this twice. When the water returns to a full boil, check the noodles for doneness. You want to cook them until they are firm-tender. Do not overcook them.

2. Drain the noodles in a colander and rinse well under cold running water until the noodles are cool. This not only stops the cooking process, but also removes the starch from the noodles. This is an essential part of soba noodle making. Once the noodles are cool, drain them and cover them with a damp kitchen towel and set them aside allowing them to cool completely.

Notes: We skipped the cold water part completely and cooked the soba noodles according to the package directions and they tuned out just fine. Would they have been better had we followed the directions above completely? Perhaps, but I don’t have the patience to find out.

Mentsuyu (Traditional Soba Dipping Sauce)

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups Kombu and Katsuobushi dashi (or basic vegetable stock)
  • 1/3 cup soy sauce, regular or low sodium
  • 1/3 cup mirin (sweet rice wine)

Directions:

1. Put mirin in a sauce pan and heat gently. Add soy sauce and dashi or vegetable stock in the pan and bring to a boil. Take off the heat and cool. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Notes: We used plain vegetable stock and loved this broth. I would like to try making my own dashi sometime and will attempt to do so with this simple recipe here.

For more tempura and soba noodle adventures, check out the other Daring Kitchen cooks!

[These recipes are linked to Hearth and Soul Hop Volume 36, Made From Scratch Tuesday, and Somewhat Simple.]

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Happy Valentine’s Day from Rhubarb and Her Honey

February 14, 2011 by

Some things just naturally go together. Milk and cookies, chicken and dumplings, and well, as you can see below, peanut butter and jelly.

Yep, that’s me and my honey, hamming it up for your Valentine’s Day viewing pleasure (though, and no disrespect to the peanut butter and strawberry jelly lovers of the world here, I would have much preferred to be a jar of grape jelly since that’s the only one I like with my peanut butter).

If you’re looking for something to make for your special jar of peanut butter or jelly, check out my recipe for Red Velvet Babycakes … they would make a perfect Valentine’s Day treat.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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