Food Stuffs
Mar. 6th, 2008 09:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
viciouswishesBeen doing some more cooking.
I made the Savory Indian Sweet Potatoes again. I realized that last time I used yams instead of sweet potatoes. *facepalm* Sweet potatoes make it sweeter and a little moisture. Still spicey and yummy.
Blue Cheese Gougers (recipe from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
stoney321)
Sound good, but meh. I had really good blue cheese from snotty grocery store, so they tasted blue cheese-y. They kept trying to be pancakes and didn't quite work. Any cooking tips, Stoney? Bueller? Perhaps also a little salty, but that could've been the high quality blue cheese.
1 cup milk
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup flour
1/4 pound blue cheese, creamy
4 large eggs, room temperature
Preheat oven to 400 F. Line baking sheet with parchment.
In saucepan, combine milk, butter and salt over medium high heat. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat.
Add flour, stirring constantly with wooden spoon to incorporate, one minute. Return to medium high heat and cook, stirring constantly for one minute.
Slowly add blue cheese, allowing it to melt.
Remove from heat and and add eggs, one at a time, beating well until a soft dough forms.
Drop dough by the spoonful onto the baking sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes, reduce temp to 350, and bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
Makes 24 pieces.
Ginger Pear Muffins from Wake Up & Smell the Coffee
This is the only time I've cooked anything but my grandma's famous pancakes from this cookbook, but breakfast is good for me and for you. The muffins turned out pretty well, a little soft, but I think I had more pears than the recipe called for.
I've also noticed that my muffins from scratch have a bad habit of not rising as much as I think they should. I mean, they rise, but it's like they have two really tall parents and only come out at average height.
Also, yes, leaving the skin on the pears helps in the cooking. And I'd cook them for 15 minutes and then monitored from there.
2 cups flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp cloves (Didn't use due to it not being magically in my kitchen)
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 tbsp molasses
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cups fresh, unpeeled pears, diced
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup nuts, chopped (I used almonds and didn't have quite as much as called for)
Mix flour, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, mix yogurt, oil, molasses, and egg.
Fold liquid ingrediants into dry, mixing just until dry ingredients are moistened.
Stir in pear, raisins, and nuts.
Spoon batter into greased or lined muffin tins two-thirds full.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
Wild Mushroom Soup from Vegetarian: The Greatest Vegetarian Cookbook (Okay, that is a lie, book.)
Actually, this soup is pretty good. Pretty damn good. I just doubt the book as I've made other stuff from it and only the soups have ever turned out. I think I blended too much of and would've liked more mushrooms floating around in it. I liked this soup a lot better than any mushroom soup I've had in the past which was out of a box/can; largely because it was tasty and not overly sodium-y.
25 grams/1 oz/1/2 cup dried porcini mushrooms
30 ml/2 tbsp olive oil
15 grams/1/2 oz/1 tbsp butter
2 leeks, thinly sliced
2 shallots, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped (omitted due to allergies)
225 grams/8 oz/generous 3 cups fresh wild mushrooms (I couldn't find wild mushrooms so I used crimini. Recipe says you can use mushrooms from the cep family or random wild mushrooms like chanterelles.)
1.2 liters/2 pints/5 cups vegetable stock
2.5 ml/1/2 tsp dried thyme
150 ml/1/4 pint/2/3 double cream
salt and freshly ground black pepper
sprigs of fresh thyme, to garnish (omitted due to laziness)
Put the dried procini in a bowl, add 250 ml/8fl oz/1 cup warm water and leave to saok for 20-30 minutes. Lift out of the liquid and squeeze over the bowl to remove as much of the soaking liquid as possible. Strain all the liquid and reserve to use later. Finely chop the porcini.
Heat the oil and butter in a large saucepan until foaming. Add the sliced leeks, chopped shallots, and garlic and cook gently for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently until softened but not colored.
Finely chop or slice fresh mushrooms and add to the pan. Stir over a medium heat for a few minutes until they begin to soften. Pour in the stock and bring to the boil. Add the porcini, soaking liquid, and dried thyme. Bring to boil again. Lower the heat, half over the pan and leave the soup to simmer gently for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Pour about three-quarters of the soup into a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Return the processed soup to the soup remaining in the pan, stir in the cream, and heat through. Check the consistency and add more stock if necessary. Season with salt and pepper. Serve hot, garnished with thyme sprigs.
Asparagus Soup from Vegetarian: The Greatest Vegetarian Cookbook
This is the better of the two soups. It was creamier and kind of sweet. Of course, I love asparagus. I know it seems like a ton of shallots, but it works. Just hope that your kitchen fan works better than mine. The notes on the recipe suggest using young asparagus as it's easier to blend.
450 grams/1 lb young asparagus
40 grams/1 1/2 oz/3 tbsp butter
6 shallots, sliced
15 grams/1/2 oz/2 tbsp flour
600 ml/1 pint/2 1/2 cups vegetable stock or water (I used stock.)
15 ml/1 tbsp lemon juice
250 ml/8 fl oz/1 cup milk
120 ml/4 fl oz/1/2 cup single cream
10 ml/2 tsp chopped fresh chervil (I used dried.)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cut 4 cm/1 1/2 inches off the tops of half the asparagus and set aside for a garnish. Cut the remaining asparagus into slices.
Melt 25 grams/1 oz/2 tbsp of the butter in a large saucepan and gently fry the sliced shallots for 2-3 minutes until soft, but not browned.
Add the asparagus and fry over a low heat for about 1 minute.
Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the stock (or water) and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, half cover the pan, then simmer for 15-20 minutes until asparagus is very tender.
Cool slightly and then process the soup in a food processor or blender until smooth. Pour the soup slowly through a sieve into a clean saucepan. (Yay for Jason who cleaned the pan I was already using.) Add the milk by pouring and stirring it through the sieve with the asparagus so as to extract the maximum amount of asparagus puree. Work the puree through with a wooden spoon.
Melt the remaining butter and fry the reserved asparagus tips gently for 3-4 minutes to soften.
Heat the soup gently for 3-4 minutes. Stir in the cream and asparagus tips. Continue to heat gently and serve sprinkled with chopped fresh chervil.
Mom's Carrot Cake
This is a family recipe and I can say proudly that I've never had a bad carrot cake in my life from this recipe. It's always moist and yummy. Plus, I find that it doesn't overwhelm me with sugar, either in the cake or frosting. (Sugar is a problem for me.) My mom omits the raisins and nuts, but Jason and I put both in and used walnuts. Jason told me I was the best girlfriend ever for making it.
Cake:
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup oil
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/2 cup raisins
Mix together sugar and eggs; add the oil and beat well. Add the dry ingredients to the above mixture and beat again. Add the vanilla, carrots, nuts, and raisins to the mixture and mix well. Pour mixture into 9 x 13 cake pan and bake 30 minutes at 350 or until done. Let cool and frost.
Frosting:
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
Milk or lemon juice as needed
(add 3 tsp grated lemon peel if you use lemon juice)
1 cup chopped nuts
Mix together cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar. If too stiff, add lemon juice or milk until spreading consistency is obtained. Add nuts to the mixture and frost cake.
I also tried out my new-to-me bread machine with Krusty's pre-mixes for bread machines. The sourdough was pretty good, but I'm interested in trying homemade recipes. Anyone?
I made the Savory Indian Sweet Potatoes again. I realized that last time I used yams instead of sweet potatoes. *facepalm* Sweet potatoes make it sweeter and a little moisture. Still spicey and yummy.
Blue Cheese Gougers (recipe from
stoney321)Sound good, but meh. I had really good blue cheese from snotty grocery store, so they tasted blue cheese-y. They kept trying to be pancakes and didn't quite work. Any cooking tips, Stoney? Bueller? Perhaps also a little salty, but that could've been the high quality blue cheese.
1 cup milk
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup flour
1/4 pound blue cheese, creamy
4 large eggs, room temperature
Preheat oven to 400 F. Line baking sheet with parchment.
In saucepan, combine milk, butter and salt over medium high heat. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat.
Add flour, stirring constantly with wooden spoon to incorporate, one minute. Return to medium high heat and cook, stirring constantly for one minute.
Slowly add blue cheese, allowing it to melt.
Remove from heat and and add eggs, one at a time, beating well until a soft dough forms.
Drop dough by the spoonful onto the baking sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes, reduce temp to 350, and bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
Makes 24 pieces.
Ginger Pear Muffins from Wake Up & Smell the Coffee
This is the only time I've cooked anything but my grandma's famous pancakes from this cookbook, but breakfast is good for me and for you. The muffins turned out pretty well, a little soft, but I think I had more pears than the recipe called for.
I've also noticed that my muffins from scratch have a bad habit of not rising as much as I think they should. I mean, they rise, but it's like they have two really tall parents and only come out at average height.
Also, yes, leaving the skin on the pears helps in the cooking. And I'd cook them for 15 minutes and then monitored from there.
2 cups flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp cloves (Didn't use due to it not being magically in my kitchen)
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 tbsp molasses
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cups fresh, unpeeled pears, diced
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup nuts, chopped (I used almonds and didn't have quite as much as called for)
Mix flour, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, mix yogurt, oil, molasses, and egg.
Fold liquid ingrediants into dry, mixing just until dry ingredients are moistened.
Stir in pear, raisins, and nuts.
Spoon batter into greased or lined muffin tins two-thirds full.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
Wild Mushroom Soup from Vegetarian: The Greatest Vegetarian Cookbook (Okay, that is a lie, book.)
Actually, this soup is pretty good. Pretty damn good. I just doubt the book as I've made other stuff from it and only the soups have ever turned out. I think I blended too much of and would've liked more mushrooms floating around in it. I liked this soup a lot better than any mushroom soup I've had in the past which was out of a box/can; largely because it was tasty and not overly sodium-y.
25 grams/1 oz/1/2 cup dried porcini mushrooms
30 ml/2 tbsp olive oil
15 grams/1/2 oz/1 tbsp butter
2 leeks, thinly sliced
2 shallots, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped (omitted due to allergies)
225 grams/8 oz/generous 3 cups fresh wild mushrooms (I couldn't find wild mushrooms so I used crimini. Recipe says you can use mushrooms from the cep family or random wild mushrooms like chanterelles.)
1.2 liters/2 pints/5 cups vegetable stock
2.5 ml/1/2 tsp dried thyme
150 ml/1/4 pint/2/3 double cream
salt and freshly ground black pepper
sprigs of fresh thyme, to garnish (omitted due to laziness)
Put the dried procini in a bowl, add 250 ml/8fl oz/1 cup warm water and leave to saok for 20-30 minutes. Lift out of the liquid and squeeze over the bowl to remove as much of the soaking liquid as possible. Strain all the liquid and reserve to use later. Finely chop the porcini.
Heat the oil and butter in a large saucepan until foaming. Add the sliced leeks, chopped shallots, and garlic and cook gently for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently until softened but not colored.
Finely chop or slice fresh mushrooms and add to the pan. Stir over a medium heat for a few minutes until they begin to soften. Pour in the stock and bring to the boil. Add the porcini, soaking liquid, and dried thyme. Bring to boil again. Lower the heat, half over the pan and leave the soup to simmer gently for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Pour about three-quarters of the soup into a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Return the processed soup to the soup remaining in the pan, stir in the cream, and heat through. Check the consistency and add more stock if necessary. Season with salt and pepper. Serve hot, garnished with thyme sprigs.
Asparagus Soup from Vegetarian: The Greatest Vegetarian Cookbook
This is the better of the two soups. It was creamier and kind of sweet. Of course, I love asparagus. I know it seems like a ton of shallots, but it works. Just hope that your kitchen fan works better than mine. The notes on the recipe suggest using young asparagus as it's easier to blend.
450 grams/1 lb young asparagus
40 grams/1 1/2 oz/3 tbsp butter
6 shallots, sliced
15 grams/1/2 oz/2 tbsp flour
600 ml/1 pint/2 1/2 cups vegetable stock or water (I used stock.)
15 ml/1 tbsp lemon juice
250 ml/8 fl oz/1 cup milk
120 ml/4 fl oz/1/2 cup single cream
10 ml/2 tsp chopped fresh chervil (I used dried.)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cut 4 cm/1 1/2 inches off the tops of half the asparagus and set aside for a garnish. Cut the remaining asparagus into slices.
Melt 25 grams/1 oz/2 tbsp of the butter in a large saucepan and gently fry the sliced shallots for 2-3 minutes until soft, but not browned.
Add the asparagus and fry over a low heat for about 1 minute.
Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the stock (or water) and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, half cover the pan, then simmer for 15-20 minutes until asparagus is very tender.
Cool slightly and then process the soup in a food processor or blender until smooth. Pour the soup slowly through a sieve into a clean saucepan. (Yay for Jason who cleaned the pan I was already using.) Add the milk by pouring and stirring it through the sieve with the asparagus so as to extract the maximum amount of asparagus puree. Work the puree through with a wooden spoon.
Melt the remaining butter and fry the reserved asparagus tips gently for 3-4 minutes to soften.
Heat the soup gently for 3-4 minutes. Stir in the cream and asparagus tips. Continue to heat gently and serve sprinkled with chopped fresh chervil.
Mom's Carrot Cake
This is a family recipe and I can say proudly that I've never had a bad carrot cake in my life from this recipe. It's always moist and yummy. Plus, I find that it doesn't overwhelm me with sugar, either in the cake or frosting. (Sugar is a problem for me.) My mom omits the raisins and nuts, but Jason and I put both in and used walnuts. Jason told me I was the best girlfriend ever for making it.
Cake:
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup oil
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/2 cup raisins
Mix together sugar and eggs; add the oil and beat well. Add the dry ingredients to the above mixture and beat again. Add the vanilla, carrots, nuts, and raisins to the mixture and mix well. Pour mixture into 9 x 13 cake pan and bake 30 minutes at 350 or until done. Let cool and frost.
Frosting:
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
Milk or lemon juice as needed
(add 3 tsp grated lemon peel if you use lemon juice)
1 cup chopped nuts
Mix together cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar. If too stiff, add lemon juice or milk until spreading consistency is obtained. Add nuts to the mixture and frost cake.
I also tried out my new-to-me bread machine with Krusty's pre-mixes for bread machines. The sourdough was pretty good, but I'm interested in trying homemade recipes. Anyone?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2008-03-07 02:13 pm (UTC)That sweet potato recipes looks FANTASTIC. *bookmarks*
no subject
on 2008-03-09 02:45 am (UTC)It also could've been my butter. I was using some higher quality stuff when I made this.
It is certainly nummy. Though you'll definitely want rice or naan or something else to go with it.
no subject
on 2008-03-10 02:50 pm (UTC)I can totally tell a difference in my bread/baked goods if I'm using flour that's been hanging out in my pantry. But yeah, reall good butter melts well, so that could have been a factor.
Mmmm, naan. I could go for that right now.
no subject
on 2008-03-14 10:43 pm (UTC)Naan is indeed delicious.
no subject
on 2008-03-08 03:07 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-03-09 02:31 am (UTC)Ginger pear muffins are quite tasty. :)