Rice Cooker "Paella"

FIRST.   Paella purists and snobs... look away. Look away or be horrified.  If you choose to continue reading, do not mock or explain to me the many ways that this is not Paella.  I know.

I will admit, that even by rice cooker standards, there are many ways I screwed this dish up.  Mainly because I was too lazy to go to the store for certain ingredients I normally consider essential.   No Arborio rice.  I used Uncle Ben's.  No clam juice.  No parsley.  No seafood of any kind.  No fresh garlic.

But the essentials were there so I pressed on and the result (ask Elizabeth if you don't believe me) was fantastic.  Ok, no more apologizing, now for the recipe.  I will make notes where you could do a more full featured Paella and at the end I'll list some other ideas to try.

Oh, and why are we cooking Paella in a rice cooker anyway?  You won't believe how easy this dish is to cook and clean up or how a rice cooker produces unusually juicy and flavorful chicken.

Nothing says "holiday" like a cheese log

I know what you're thinking - perhaps "holiday" could be better said by decadent homemade eggnog or roast beast or some other more glamorous treat, but a homemade cheese spread will be like honey to flies at your next holiday party. You may also be secretly thinking, though, "You know what? I really love a good cheese log." Who doesn't, says I! Here's how to whip up a really good one (no crazy port wine required) and delight your guests (or the host).

Ingredients:
8 oz cream cheese
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated. Be sure to do the grating yourself. Pre-grated is just not the same. If you hate doing the job (like I do), it's the perfect task for an eager child or a sweet and willing boyfriend.
1/2 c crumbled blue cheese, I like to pick a really good blue for this since this is really the standout flavor of the spread
1/4 c chopped almonds toasted
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Let the cream cheese stand at room temperature so it's easy to mix. Combine all ingredients. To make a log, or if you like, a cheese ball, scoop the cheese mixture onto plastic wrap, and form into shape. You can make it look fancier by rolling it in more almonds. Chill (chill the cheese log, but you can also chill. All the cheese log heavy lifting is over! Time for a glass of wine!). Let stand at room temperature before serving so it's easy to spread.

I like to serve this with an assortment of crackers, salumi, and granny smith apple slices. Homemade cheese log might sound 1950s, but it's supremely delicious and a great addition to your holiday snack table.

crescentkatie

How to Chop an Onion as well as Kjersti

Many years ago, up at the cabin, we were doing the prep for The Dinner: green salad and chicken bratwurst. A sophisticated meal to be sure, but one that can be produced in bulk with ease. A key step in classing up the affair is sauteeing the onions. Kjersti grabbed an onion and a knife, and with a series of cuts so economical as to make a samurai weep, she diced the onions in about 15.6 seconds. She then spent the next ten minutes showing me the process.

I probably have since modified the actual process from Kjersti-orthodoxy. Hopefully I will not be excommunicated for my sins.

1) Slice the onion along the meridian, cutting both root and stem.



2) With two cuts remove the top and bottom



3) Remove outer layer. (don't be a hero scraping off the dried layer. If it gives you crap just peel off the entire outer layer and condemn it to Onion Hell.)

4) Starting slow, slice half the onion across more "longitudinal' cuts" Make about 5-6 cuts until you make a vertical cut.


5) After making a vertical cut, rotate the onion 180 degrees and start again from the other side.


6) . If you're leaving the onions a little more 'chopped' and larger, then you're done. If dicing, now turn 90 degrees and cut across.


That's it! You've sliced an onion! The poets and heralds will speak of this day for years to come.

Time travel blog entry

Somehow the blog I posted last night showed up as being posted on November 22nd 2011. Since I would really hate if anyone missed out on my wit and insight, here's the link so you can marvel at my use of arugula.

http://sharedoven.blogspot.com/2011/11/tasty-now-what-arugula-edition.html

Roast Chicken with Onions and Tomatoes

This chicken recipe is simple, tasty, and great for company or any cool winter evening.  Steve and I were really hungry after picking out our Christmas tree last night so we went to the store and threw this together. Prep time 15 min, cooking time 45 min

Here is what you need

One small free range chicken with giblets removed

2 cups broth

2 cups white wine ( I normally choose a cheap Chardonnay that is still palatable)

2-3 small tomatoes

1 medium onion

Salt

Pepper

Optional: sage or thyme

 

1.Place chicken in a roasting pan breast down, baste both sides with olive oil.
2.Coarsely chop the tomatoes and onions and place them around them in pan
3. Fill the pan with the broth and wine.
4. Grind salt and pepper over chicken. (Add thyme or sage if desired)
5. Cook at 400 degrees for 30 min until chicken is crisp and browned. Flip the chicken and baste with olive oil and salt. Cook for 15 more min, or until chicken is fully cooked. Be careful not to over cook the chicken or the white meat will become dried out.

That is it! So simple and so good! Steve normally makes rice to go with the chicken.

Steve's Rice:

Normally we use arborio rice, but we were almost out, so Uncle Ben's worked just fine.

Left over Movember Mustache and Christmas tree not required

 Add rice to rice cooker (and if you don't have one I recommend one!) Add broth instead of water and a table spoon of butter.
Normally we add garlic or garlic powder, a pinch of saffron and salt and pepper to the rice as well. Since we were out of saffron we substituted one package of Paellero, a Paella seasoning mix.

Can I have some?

 
 In the end you have a colorful and tasty dish. I suggest serving it with bread so you can dip the bread in the broth-wine mixture.

-Spot

Things to put in pie crusts: Pot Pie

11pm on a cool November night. Steve has just taken our new puppy, Lola, for a run and I am contemplating dinner. Cold weather and staying up all night call for comfort food, and Chicken Dinner Pie is just that. 

This is a dish adapted from the recipe my mother made us growing up. I used to ask for it ever year on my birthday, and now I don't have to wait for my birthday.

Crusts

One of my baking pet peeves is when a recipe calls for a pre-made pie crust. Homemade pie crust is simple, takes less time to make than most pie fillings, and is infinitely tastier than whatever you might buy in the store.    

There are 4 ingredients in my favorite pie crust recipe and one of those ingredients is water.

8- to 9-inch Two-Crust Pie (top and bottom crust)

2 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt 
2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoon room temperature butter 
4 to 5 tablespoons cold water

The home bakers NYT Consummate Chocolate chip cookie

The chocolate chip cookie is the one baked good that I presume everyone has in their arsenal of recipes, the internet has no more need for another slightly altered nestle toll house recipe claiming to finally have the secret to the mythical BEST cookie.



Then a few years ago the New York Times published the ultimate, consummate chocolate chip cookie recipe. David Leite set out researching and talking to esteemed bakers to find out what it took to really make the best, perfectest cookie. The greats explained to him various principles:
- large pieces of good chocolate,
- be large enough to have 3 textures to it: the crispy outside, the soft chewy middle, and that toffe-ish bit between the two,
- it needed salt
- it must rest for 36 hours before baking
- etc... the list goes on.
Leite then combined all of these musts into one, beautiful, "perfect" recipe, that he published in the New York Times.

Well, we all rushed home and tried out the recipe - and it was indeed delicious, and met all the requirements of a great cookie, as far as taste goes. It was definitely one of the best cookies I had ever tried.



However, there were some aspects of the recipe that I disapproved of.
For example - who wants to wait over 36 hours to eat a cookie? I was used to 20 minutes from flour to hot cookies. And the recipe called for about $30 of chocolate (not counting the other ingredients) - which holds me back from making these too often. And then there's my final problem - two kinds of flour? Neither of them the standard white flour?

So I found myself with two recipes, for different occasions. The every day chocolate cookie, and the special occasion, lets celebrate (hey, I just found valhrona feves in my local store!) and I have 3 days to kill recipe. Tonight I decided it was time for a third inbetween recipe. I present to you, the "home bakers Leite's consummate chocolate chip cookie recipe."



Its fancier than your nestle toll-house, but still uses regular ingredients in your kitchen, only takes overnight to make, and is great for when you just don't feel like measuring out 1 cup MINUS 2 tablespoons of an ingredient.

For your chocolate choice I recommend you aim somewhere between the standard chocolate chip and the valhrona feves. (Unless you have unlimited supply to feves, then just stick with that plan, and mail me some). The average chocoalte chip has ingredients in it to help hold its shape when baking, a simple good quality chocolate will melt nicer giving your cookies a different texture.


Note: if you're curious about the "why's" behind the recipe (like salt, longer resting, etc) check out the original article.

The homebakers consummate cookie
Leite’s Consummate Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from David Leite via The New York Times

Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.
or 3 dozen 4 inch cookies

2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter - at room temperature
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs (at room temperature)
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
3 1/3 cup flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate - decent quality, go above Hersheys. (I used Scharffenberger 72% bittersweet chocolate)
Sea salt


1. Using a hand mixer (assuming you are too lazy to take out your kitchen-aid)
with the flat sided beaters* cream your butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. And yes, you really do want to go for a full five minutes. If the batter is still sticking to the inside of your beaters, it is not creamed enough.

2. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in vanilla. Reduce speed to low, and add dry ingredients until just combined, less than 30 seconds. (I start with only 1 cup of flour and all the other dry ingredients, to insure even spreading).

3. Mix in your chocolate pieces, careful not to break them up too small.

4. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least overnight, ideally 24-36 hours, if you have the time.

5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees (celsius). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop large mounds of dough (a generous golf ball sized) onto prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft 8-10 minutes. - Note the baking time varies greatly on the size of cookies you make. Mine where 9 cookies per sheet, and baked in under 10 minutes.

6. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. **

* flat sided beaters should be used whenever you cream butter.
** When I make a full batch of these, I roll half of them into their prepared cookie size, then place in a ziplock back and freeze. Just bake them when you next want or need that cookie fix :).
-Rae

Tasty! Now what? Arugula Edition

There are two kinds of cooking: practical and show-off. My entries will focus entirely on the former because that is how a vast majority of the time in the kitchen is spent. Oh sure you can talk a good game, but somehow there never seems to be time to hit up the local organic farmer’s market on a Tuesday afternoon to pick up some hand-crushed saffron for the slow-cooked paella masterpiece you’ve been coveting. No. The significant other is coming home in 20 minutes, there’s a load of laundry to be done, and we haven’t even addressed the question of playing with kids and/or Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.

So this entry will be a series in what I’m calling “Tasty! Now what?” pairing two easy recipes that share one (or more) ingredients that have a limited shelf life. Nothing offends my sense of efficiency more than buying something for a tasty dish, using half, then watching the rest slowly die in my fridge.

Today’s entry is arugula. Super tasty and I swear it starts wilting the moment you even look at it. Two dishes will be presented, both produce large volumes and make fantastic leftovers. And both can finish off that 1/3 of a container of arugula you have laying around. Plus it helps decision making: spot the leftover arugula at 5:45 and the rest of the dinner practically cooks itself.

Lentil-chickpea salad

(adapted from Time for Dinner)
Ingredients:

1 cup dry lentils
½ small onion
Feta cheese (I like about 4-5 oz, Elisabeth prefers 7 oz)
Four fistfuls of arugula
One container of grape tomatoes
Olive oil & vinegar.
1 can chickpeas

Utensils

large bowl, medium-size pot (1/4 gal or so), medium sized bowl

Cooking Overview
Extremely simple with two paths: lentils cooking and simmering in the medium pot and basic chopping of veggies into the big bowl. 20 minutes with practice.

Path 1: Bring 2 cups water to boil. Add lentils and boil for 5 minutes. Reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 min until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Remove to bowl, pour in several tablespoons of balsamic and chill in fridge.

Path 2: During the boiling process prepare the following veggies and add them to the big bowl: halve one box of cherry tomatoes. Mince/liquefy half one small sweet onion. Add one can chickpeas. Mince one garlic clove. Crumble 5 (to 7) oz feta cheese. Tear the arugula up as you add it.

Once the lentils are mostly chilled, add to the big bowl and toss with some olive oil, balsamic and salt and pepper. It’s delicious fresh and almost more delicious a day later when all the flavors sink into each other.

AAA Pasta
(adapted from Rachel Ray)
Ingredients

12 oz spinach fettuccine
Butter
Olive oil
1 large shallot
½ cup white wine
1 lb fresh asparagus
1 cup broth
1 can artichoke hearts (I get them pre-quartered)
Three fistfuls of argula
Two lemons (to zest!)

Utensils

Largest frying pan you own. I said the BIG pan. No, bigger than that. Oh, and your favorite pasta pot. And a strainer.

Cooking Overview

Timed properly, everything that needs to be chopped can be chopped while the pasta is cooking. 30 minutes total.

Beginning: start boiling the pasta water at the same time that you throw 1 tbsp of butter along with 2 tbsp of olive oil in the huge pan.

While both are heating/metling, dice shallots and add right as butter finishes melting.

As the shallots are sautéing, rinse and chop asparagus into 1”, set aside.

Now add wine and reduce until the pasta water boiling (~2-3 minutes tops depending on how much better your stove is than mine)

Add pasta to water and throw asparagus into the pan. Cook for about 5 minutes (the pasta I have takes about 8 minutes to cook)

Chop the artichokes (I chop the already quartered artichokes in half to make them more bite-sized), then calmly zest lemon or two

2min to go until pasta done: asparagus should be nice and cooked so add broth & eighthed artichoke, reduce heat.

Drain pasta and transfer to huge pan, add lemon zest and 3-4 torn fistfuls of arugula

Shaved parmesean takes it to the sublime. Not that powdered shit, real shaved parm.

Pizza Pizza!

Looking for a fun and easy dinner party idea? Pizza-making is IT. No fancy kitchen equipment is needed – all you need are large baking sheets, an oven, and a rolling pin. Actually, we were missing that last item and ended up improvising with a round jar. We’re very resourceful!

Prep is easy – you just buy the raw ingredients and let your guests get creative with them. We highly recommend Trader Joe’s excellent assortment of pizza dough flavors (mmm….garlic & herb). Having two sauce bases (e.g. tomato, pesto) is also a good way to mix up the tastes. Shredded mozzarella cheese is the only other must-have ingredient and then it’s up to the creative gastronomy of you and your guests. Below are the toppings we used on a recent Saturday evening pizza-making party. The process basically consists of rolling out the pizza dough into round pies of ½ inch thickness, adding sauce and cheese, and then piling on your favorite toppings! Bake at 425° for 10-15 minutes until crust is golden brown.

Toppings:

Bacon, mushrooms, red peppers and goat cheese

Pepperoni, sausage, Canadian bacon, regular bacon

Ham, pineapple, and goat cheese

Heirloom tomatoes and smoked mozzarella

At the end of the night, we had some extra dough around, so what to do? Dessert pizza of course! After baking the crust normally and letting it cool, cover with a mixture of whipped cream, mascarpone cheese and powdered sugar. Then top with your favorite fruit.... plus loads of chocolate of course!

-Su