Tried & Chewed: Cassoulet-Style Sausage ‘N’ Beans

OMD! Tonight for supper I made Rodney and I the Cassoulet-Style Sausage ‘N’ Beans recipe from the French in a Flash column on the Serious Eats website*. It was so freakin’ good that I wish I could spout more than “Je ne parle pas français” from my college French, for I would write a long dribbling love poem in French about it if I could!

Now normally I would not give the label “Tried & Chewed” to a recipe that I have only made once, but this meal was so fabulous that it is going directly to our “Tried & Chewed” folder. Actually, both Rodney and I loved it so much that we have started to contemplate ways to make it even better. So far the ideas we have come up with are: cooking the beans from scratch, canning our own tomatoes and starting a pot of thyme indoors so that we can use fresh thyme next time.

Obsessed? No, I do not think we are obsessed…why do you ask? 

Trust me if I could just send you a bit of the smell you would be won over instantly, and you would be plotting tomato beds too,  but all I can do is give you some pictures. Please do not hold them against this recipe! 

I know that the dish looks a bit muddy, but that is because I used 

red instead of white wine. (I just could not bring myself to buy a 

whole bottle of wine to use 1/3 of a cup when I had red on hand.)

Other than the swapping red for white wine I followed the recipe exactly (well I did use home canned tomatoes too) but I followed it closely enough that it is not an adaptation, so you should wander over to one of the links I have provided for the recipe.

I now want to make a real cassoulet. If this is just something in the “style” of one, the real thing will probably put me in a coma!

*You will also find this recipe on the French Revolution blog run by Kerry Saretsky. She is the author of the French in a Flash column on Serious Eats. 

A Twelfth Night Celebration

~or~ Happy Christmas Eve to Those of the Orthodox Persuasion

Over the holidays I have been reading a couple of books* about alternative ways of celebrating the seasons. I have been less and less happy with the Christmas/Yule season for a long time now. I feel that there is far too much emphasis put on buying the right thing and spending money. I prefer focusing on the turning of the seasons and on family. One of the ideas I came upon was to extend the holiday by celebrating the smaller days that happen during the season, thus allowing for smaller celebrations to bring your family together around. Now I am planning on adding all sorts of “celebrations” to our year.  

In that vein Rodney and I celebrated a combination of Twelfth Night and Orthodox Christmas Eve by making pistitiso and hot fudge sundaes. We did not really do much more than eat, but still it was fun. Next time I will invite some people for dinner, but I decided to do this a bit too late for that.

Of course there were a lot of dishes I could have picked to make, but I knew that Rodney really likes pistitiso so I wanted to find a recipe. A Google search later and I had a lot of recipes to choose from. In the end I chose the recipe on the Adventures of an Orthodox Mom blog.

I have only had a bite or two or pistitiso before tonight, so I really had no idea how it should turn out. It was really good though! The only change in ingredients that I made was to use Brilla Plus Penne Pasta. I would gladly have use the pasta she recommended, but I just could not find it. I also cut the recipe in half. (And I have to say, I do not know how I would ever have found a vessel big enough to cook a full recipe!)

I had a couple of things not work out quite the way I expected. First, I need to perfect the white sauce. I am not sure I let it get thick enough. Another issue was that I think I might have used too much pasta. The recipe calls for “two boxes”, but it does not say what size of boxes. I used one because I halved the recipe but should it have been 8oz or 15oz? I used 15oz. The last issue was I think it needed to be compacted more. Mine does not seem as “firm” as the ones I see online. I will be making this again, so I will have time to test out other methods!

*The books I read were: Hundred Dollar Holiday & To Dance with God

My layers are not very defined, but the top is such a lovely color!

Look a happy little salad. Okay, a Greek salad would have been more 

appropriate, but I was not thinking about that while out shopping. 

My reward for eating a salad. 

Celebrations: Super Bowl Sunday & Brit’s Birthday

I spent most of my life avoiding the Super Bowl at all costs. I did not care about the commercials and I cared even less for the game itself. Then I met my then-husband-to-be and that changed. His family has a Super Bowl party every year. I can’t say that my opinions have really changed, but I have watched the last five Super Bowls.  Still, for me it all about the food and this year was also about our niece Brit’s birthday.

The party this year actually took place at my BIL & SIL-to-be’s home. Everyone brought a little something. For the game we made pizzas. I made the crust using the crust recipe from Jim Lehey’s Pizza Patate. We use this crust often when making pizza. We have found, however, that if you are not making the potato pizza it is best to par-bake the crust for about 10 minutes before putting toppings on it and baking it again. It is much crispier that way. Rodney was in charge of actually making the pizzas. He made one half cheese/half pepperoni and he made the other one half pepperoni, sausage and mushroom (his favorite)/half sausage, onion and green olive (my favorite). I thought they turned out quite nice.

The pepperonis on top show what side is the pepperoni side. 

After several text messages and Facebook exchanges it was decided that for Brit’s birthday I would make a chocolate cake. The cake part itself was easy; I used the recipe for Dark Chocolate Cake from Food.Com. I made the recipe with no changes. I have never had problems with this recipe and it has a spot in our Tried & Chewed folder. My only suggestion is to use the best quality Dutch-processed cocoa you can find, because the better the quality, the better the cake. 

The frosting was a bit harder. I did not want to use cocoa powder in the frosting. Instead, I had some Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips on hand and I wanted to use those. After a lot of web-surfing I found a great recipe on the Williams-Sonoma site. The recipe called for unsweetened chocolate, but I used the milk chocolate mixed with a bit of Chocolove 77% chocolate. It came out really great. It was all Rodney and I could do to not just eat it out of the bowl! However, as you can see below, I was able to get the cake frosted. The cake and the frosting where a great combination! 

  

There was Neapolitan and Pistachio ice creams to go with the cake. 

The secret to to a tasty cake: 

homemade vanilla made with Calvert Whiskey.

Happy Birthday Brit!!

Today is her actual B-day. She is older than three!

Recipe Links:

Crust Recipe

Cake Recipe

Frosting Recipe

Tried & Chewed: Amish White Bread

I found this recipe for Amish White Bread a year or so ago. I really liked it but it is too sweet for us the way it is written. So I lowered the sugar to a quarter cup or less, sometimes I only use a tablespoon or so. I also use refined coconut oil instead of vegetable oil. (I use coconut oil for most of my oil needs.  If you do the same thing make sure you use refined because it is flavorless, unless you like coconut flavor, which I do, but the hubbles does not.) I have also started to add a cup or more of whole wheat flour. You know to make it a bit more wholesome. In this instance I used White Whole Wheat flour.  I am always looking for new bread recipes, but I always return to this recipe. 

This bread makes really good French Toast and Rodney likes it made into croutons. To make it into croutons I just cut it into cubes drizzle it with good dose of olive oil and sprinkle it with salt and garlic powder. I then put it in the oven at 350 until the cubes are golden brown and crispy, giving them a stir every once in awhile. Rodney actually likes to eat the resulting croutons alone as snack.

White Bread

2 cups warm water (110 degrees F)

1/4 cup white sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 cup refined coconut oil

5 cups bread flour

1 cup white whole wheat flour

1. In a stand mixer, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.

2. Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Let the mixer knead the dough for 5 minutes or so. Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

3. Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans.

4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.

A warm slice with my homemade Apple Jelly and a cup of Tulsi Tea. 

Tried & Chewed: Bulgogi Tacos with Cucumber Kimchi and Baby Bok Choy

I originally fell in love with bulgogi at a Japanese restaurant in St. Cloud, MN called Pok Sakura. Rodney fell in love with this dish at Kings Korean in Fridely, MN.  If you have never had it, bulgogi is a garlicky meat dish found mostly in Korean restaurants. It is one of those tastes that you crave between restaurant meals. So you can imagine that when we found this Bulgogi Taco recipe if quickly made its way into our Tried & Chewed folder. Of course it is in no way traditional, but it fills the right flavor profile when you are craving bulgogi.

Here is the bulgogi in the pan.

The recipe has a wonderful slaw that goes on top of the bulgogi seasoned ground beef. The taco is fantastic with that slaw, but something happened the last time we went to King’s Korean for bulgogi. One of the great things about King’s is that they bring little sides dishes, called panchan, out with the meal. The last time we were there one of the panchan was Cucumber Kim Chi. We LOVED it; so much so that we went in search of a recipe. I finally found this one. Of course we made some and it is great.

King's Bulgogi. 

King's Cucumber Kim Chi.

Not a great picture, but here is our Cucumber Kim Chi just before it went into the refrigerator.

When we were menu planning this last weekend Rodney had the idea to make the Bulgogi Tacos, but to use the Cucumber Kim Chi instead of the spicy slaw. I thought that was a brilliant idea! So while shopping we picked up the few ingredients we needed to bulgogi and I made it tonight for supper. It came out so good! 

Another not so good pic. Here is the bulgogi and kim chi together.

We also happened upon some baby bok choy while shopping. (We were at one of our new favorite grocery stores, Sun Foods; they have every Mexican and Asian ingredient you can imagine there!) So I made this recipe to go with our tacos. 

Bok Choy being stir fried.

Here is the complete meal. It was so good!

Tried & Chewed: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

I decided that I wanted to make Chocolate Chip Cookies today, but I did not have a lot of chocolate chips. So I went looking for a recipe. I found these cookies on Martha Stewart, but I still did not have enough chocolate chips. I also did not have enough peanuts. I fixed this problem by adding some pecans, dates and macadamia nuts until I had about 4 cups of add ins. Of course you could use most anything. I would have used coconut and raisins, but the hubbles hates both.

The recipe worked out really well. This recipe will make it into our Tried & Chewed folder. The one tip I would pass on is to let the cookies cool on the pans for at least a few minutes, otherwise they will squish as you try to take them off the pan. 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Mix 1:

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1/3 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

Mix 2:

1 cup packed light-brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

  

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Add ins:

1 cups salted whole peanuts

1 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup mixed nuts

1 cup dates

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Stir together ingredients for Mix 1; set aside.

Mix ingredients for Mix 2 in stand mixer and mix until fluffy.

Mix in eggs and vanilla.

Add Mix 1, and mix until just combined. Mix in add ins.

Drop balls of dough 2 inches apart on baking sheets.

Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until golden brown and just set, 13 to 15 minutes.

Let cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely. 

Tried & Chewed: Blondies

I grew up eating Blondies and I love them. This recipe has had a home in our Tried & Chewed folder for a couple of years. I found it when I needed something to bring to a potluck. For that occasion I actually quadrupled the recipe and it turned out great. Since then I have made them in various forms. This time I only made a 9 X 9 pan and used pistachios for the nuts. They were very, very tasty.

Blondies (Adapted from AllRecipes.Com.)

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped nuts

1/3 cup butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon homemade* vanilla extract

½ to 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Mix dry ingredients. Give a stir with a whisk. Set aside.

3. Melt 1/3 cup butter. Add 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar and mix well. Let it cool down a bit.

4. Add egg and vanilla. Blend well. Add flour mixture, a little at a time, mixing well.

5. Spread in 9 x 9 x 2 inch pan. Sprinkle 1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips on top. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

*Okay, you can use any vanilla you want, but homemade is so easy. 

Tried & Chewed: Cashew Chicken

Tonight we tried a new recipe. We thought it had promise as a candidate for our Tried & Chewed binder. I found the recipe on the The Kosher Foodies website. I thought it sounded extra tasty, so I made it for supper tonight. I served it over brown basmati rice.

We liked it, but I think we are going to have to tweak the recipe a bit before it makes into our Tried & Chewed binder. It just did not have enough zing. Maybe it was because I used brown rice vinegar? Maybe next time I will use Chinese Black Vinegar. I have a bottle hanging out in my cupboard. I use it for Hot & Sour Soup.

It appears that the original recipe came from Everyday Food. Most of the changes have really been minimal, but I do see one big difference. In that recipe they put the scallion greens in with the cashews. I think I will try that next time with the Chinese Black Vinegar.

Cashew Chicken my adaptation of the recipe from Kosher Foods

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1” cubes
1 tablespoon cornstarch
salt and pepper
2 tablespoon olive oil, divided
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 Anaheim peppers, cut into 1” pieces
5 scallions, cut into 1” pieces
2 tablespoon brown rice vinegar
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup toasted cashews (4 oz)

Directions:

1. Toss the chicken in the cornstarch in a medium bowl until coated. Season with salt and pepper.
2. In a wok, heat half the oil over medium-high heat. Cook half the chicken, tossing for about 3 minutes until browned. Transfer to a plate.
3. Add remaining oil and chicken to the skillet, along with the garlic, green pepper, and leeks. Cook, tossing for another 3 minutes until chicken browns.
4. Return first batch of chicken to the pan. Add vinegar; cook for about 30 seconds until evaporated. Add hoisin sauce water; cook another minute tossing until chicken is cooked through.
5. Stir in cashews and serve over rice.

Tried & Chewed: Wallumbilla Crustless Quiche

I collect recipes, lots and lots of recipes. I surf a lot of websites and search cookbooks for them. I save some to my computer and the ones I think have the most promise I print out. This leaves me with a lot of recipes floating around the house. To combat this I sort them into a couple different three ring binders. The first one is the untried folder. After we have tried them and liked them they go into the “Tried & Chewed” folder.

Tonight we had the Wallumbailla Crustless Quiche from the section called “Best of the Best”. We put recipes in that section that we use over and over again.

The hubby doesn’t like crust, so this crustless quiche is perfect for him. Also, being curstless, this quiche makes a great easy weeknight meal. Tonight we had it with leftover Christmas ham. I wish I had picked up some broccoli or mushrooms to add to it. In the past we have had it with different fillings. I especially like fennel, caramelized onions and gruyere. I highly recommend trying this recipe. It is not the most delicate quiche, but it is tasty and quick to put together.