polenta with mushrooms

i don't know how i feel about polenta. i've had it a couple times in restaurants, but never attempted to make it - or anything with it - at home. so i took a baby step.



i love mushrooms. i love cream sauce. i love beef and chicken smothered in mushroom cream sauce. seems like polenta would be an easy replacement, right?

for me, not so much. the flavor clashes. too much. maybe because it's store bought. i think after tonight it's time to try to make it from scratch.

this dinner wasn't bad - jason really liked it - but it didn't quite do it for me.

polenta with mushrooms
inspired by everyday food's polenta wedges with asparagus and mushrooms

time start to finish: 45 minutes, 2 hearty servings

1 pound mushrooms, cremini or white button, your preference, sliced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons heavy cream
cooked polenta
vegetable oil

1. coat a large skillet with olive oil over medium-high heat. add the mushrooms and garlic.
2. cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes.
3. heat broiler, with rack 5 inches from heat. place a rimmed baking sheet in oven to heat, 5 minutes.
4. season with salt and pepper. uncover, add broth, and cook until reduced by half about 6 minutes.
5. stir in cream and cook 2 minutes. remove from heat.
6. cut polenta into 1/2 inch slices. pad dry with paper towel. brush both sides with oil. season with salt and pepper and place cut side down on the baking sheet.
7. broil until golden brown, 5 to 10 minutes.
8. serve mushroom sauce over hot polenta slices.

mushroom bisque

growing up, mom always made whatever we wanted for dinner on our birthday. every since i can remember, i wanted mushroom soup. not soup from a can, but homemade. and only once each year did my mom make it.

ever since my sophomore year of college, i've made this soup only once each year. and every year it gets better.

last year, i sliced all the mushrooms, about 1/4" thick. it's too much. too chunky. too awkward to eat with a spoon. so this time, i sliced them into 1/4" slices and then cut each slice into thirds. perfect.

and i finally got to use my dried bay leaves. this summer we planted a bay laurel tree. and i remembered before winter to pick a bunch and dry them for about a month. also perfect.

what worked

• this is my all time favorite soup ever. it's perfect. oh and cutting the mushrooms smaller this time was much better.
  

what didn't: some of the things i've tried and haven't been so good

• make sure to cut the mushrooms into small enough pieces to fit on a spoon. otherwise, it's awkward to eat
• always always always add the basil and thyme. they truly make it.
• and don't skip the worcestershire and hot pepper at the end. they also make it.
  

i don't know where the recipe came from. i have it in an old email my mom typed up in 2001.

mushroom bisque
time start to finish: 1.5 hours, 4 hearty servings

4.5 cups chicken stock or broth
1/3 cup butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
6 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled (do not use the powder stuff)
1/2 teaspoon dried basil, crumbled (do not substitute fresh)
1/2 cup dry Sherry
3 bay leaves
1 1/4 pounds mushrooms, sliced, chopped, whatever size you want them
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon hot sauce (i used tobasco)

1. bring stock to a boil in a heavy saucepan. cover and set aside.
2. melt butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. add onion and celery and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes.
3. add flour, thyme, and basil and stir for 4 minutes.
4. whisk in Sherry. whisk in hot stock and bay leaves and bring to a boil. continuously whisk until it boils - otherwise the flour may clump and burn.
5. reduce heat and simmer 3 minutes, whisking constantly.
6. add mushrooms, cover, and cook 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
7. add remaining ingredients and simmer until slightly thickened, 10 minutes.

bacon caramels

i eyed this recipe way back in july at Not Without Salt and knew i wanted to try them for a couple reasons. i've never made candy before and i love caramel so it sounds like a good place to start. caramel looks easy to make. and i absolutely love the sweet-salty combo from the caramel and the bacon. and really, how can bacon make something bad?

with my candy thermometer and various forms of sugar and fat in hand, i set out to make candy.

i started with the bacon. for the last year or so, i bake bacon rather than cook it in a skillet. it comes out crispy every time and i don't have to babysit it. i layed out 8 strips of thick cut bacon on top of a cooling rack (so the fat drips off the bacon as it cooks), put the rack on a cookie sheet, and baked it for 20 minutes at 350. perfect. i let it cool for 5-10 minutes, pulled it off the rack, and chopped it up with a knife.



while the bacon was in the oven, i got started on the caramel. it came together surprisingly easy. all in all, it took about 20 minutes to get the caramel to soft ball stage, and add the second half of the heavy cream.



once the second 1/2 cup of heavy cream was added and the bacon mixed it, i added it to the buttered 8x8 pyrex dish. then it was the worst waiting game. it was a tease to walk through the kitchen and see it sitting there, just waiting.



i ended up letting them cool overnight before cutting and wrapping them the next morning. i inverted the pan and most of the bottom didn't stick. i walked away for five minutes and when i came back, the whole thing was unstuck from the bottom. i used by benchscraper to measure out 1 1/2 inch rows, which i cut with a chef's knife heated with boiling water (i first tried cutting with my bench scraper. it worked, i got a nice straight line, but it took a lot of force to do. a knife was way easier to cut through the sticky mess), and then cut the rows into 1/2 pieces and wrapped them in wax paper. i got a total of 80 candies.



bacon caramels
adapted from not without salt

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup butter
1 cup heavy cream, divided into 2 1/2 cup portions
1/4 cup maple syrup
8 strips thick cut bacon

1. preheat your oven to 350F. separate bacon strips and lay them across a cooling rack. place the cooling rack on a cookie sheet. bake for 20-25 minutes, until crisp.
2. cut the bacon into course pieces when cool.
3. combine the sugars, butter, corn syrup, maple syrup and 1/2 cup heavy cream in a medium sauce pan. cook on medium high heat until it reaches 240F.
4. liberally butter an 8x8 (thick candy) or 13x9 (thin candy) pan.
5. remove from heat and stir in the remaining 1/2 cup cream.
6. put back on the stove and cook until it reaches 245F.
7. remove from heat and stir in the bacon.
8. pour into the buttered dish. cool for at least three hours.
9. when ready to cut, invert the pan over a cutting board. let sit until the candy separates from the pan. if it's really sticking, set the pan in an inch of boiling hot water for 30 seconds to melt the outer layer of candy and invert the pan again.
10. cut into whatever size pieces you'd like. wrap in wax paper.

carrot cake pancakes

it's no secret that i stink at pancakes. no matter how many times i've tried to make plain old ordinary pancakes, i can't. they're either too thick, too thin, burnt, or not cooked all the way through. but when i saw this recipe for carrot cake pancakes in cooking light, i knew i wanted to try them...but put it off until i had the confidence to try them.

so this morning was my time to conquer the pancake. and i did it!

and they were delicious. more filling than i originally expected, which makes sense since i used 4 carrots in the batter.

i'm always on the lookout for a zucchini recipe, and as i was making them i realized all the spices are the same used in zucchini muffins i made last summer when our plants were taking over. so i see zucchini pancakes in our future this summer.

what worked

1. since i've had trouble with burnt/not cooked pancakes before, i timed the cooking time on each side this time. sounds like an obvious thing to do, but i never have. timing worked perfectly - they took 2 minutes on the first side and 1 on the flip side.
2. i like the fine texture from grating the carrot with my microplane instead of a box grater. the carrot taste was still there, without the chunks.

what didn't

1. the original recipe says it makes 12 1/2 cup pancakes. there's no way i could have gotten that much out of the batter.
2. next time i'm going to add a bit more of the spices to the batter. it was spicy, but just enough to think "this could use a touch more."
   

carrot cake pancakes
adapted from cooking light, janurary/february 2010

total time: 30 minutes, makes 7 pancakes

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
dash of nutmeg, ground cloves, ground ginger
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups finely grated carrot (i used my microplane rather than a box grater)

1. whisk together the dry ingredients - flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger.
2. in a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients together - brown sugar, buttermilk, canola oil, vanilla, and eggs.
3. add the wet mixture to the flour mixture and mix just until moist and incorporated (there will be some lumps, that's ok). mix in the carrot.
4. heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. coat with nonstick spray or butter and spoon batter by 1/3 to 1/2 cup in the skillet. use the back of a spoon to spread out the pancakes a bit before they set.
5. cook about 2 minutes (until brown) and flip over and cook an additional minute.
6. serve with butter and maple syrup.
   

toasted orzo chicken soup

after eating four cupcakes in the last 24 hours, i decided it was time for some vegetables. and since it's been so cold up here (and to get jason reacclimated to february in new york) it was time for a quick chicken soup. so i got to chopping...



i don't really mind chopping, it's just that sometimes more than half the time to cook is chopping. but i can't bring myself to buy pre-chopped vegetables. and really, who wants to eat a pre-chopped onion anyway. sounds like nothing but sog to me.

(and yes, that is a zucchini. i had to break down and buy one. ironic, i know.)

all in all, the soup took me about 45 minutes to make. still not too bad. and it was good enough we ate all but one snack size bowl for dinner.



what worked

1. jason really liked the peas. i really liked the carrots.
2. shredding the chicken (instead of cutting it) is the way to go.

what didn't

1. next time, more vegetables. corn, maybe. yellow squash too.
2. i'm not sure what toasting the orzo did, if anything. the orzo was good but didn't have a crazy strong presence. swap it out for another small noodle, if you like.
3. i didn't have parsley or lemon zest to finish, but i'm betting it'd be good.

similar to the stir fry earlier this week, this is a simple base for a chicken & pasta soup. add whatever small pasta and vegetables you like. just make sure the vegetables can stand up to the boiling water and you avoid anything that would turn to mush.



toasted orzo chicken soup
from everyday with rachel ray, december/january 2010

32-oz (4 cups) chicken stock
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast pieces or tenders
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup orzo pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small zucchini, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1/2 small red bell pepper, finely chopped (i used green)
2 shallots or 1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

1. In a medium pot, bring the chicken stock and chicken to a simmer. Lower the heat and poach the chicken for 12 minutes.

2. Heat a dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat. Add the butter to melt. Add the orzo and cook, stirring, until deeply toasted, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

3. Add the olive oil, 2 turns of the pan, to the dutch oven. Add the zucchini, carrot, bell pepper, shallots and garlic; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are softened, 7 to 8 minutes. Return the orzo to the pot.

4. Remove the chicken from the stock. Skim and discard the fat from the stock; transfer the stock to the dutch oven. Chop, dice or shred the chicken and add to the soup with 2 cups water. Bring the soup to a boil and cook until the orzo is just tender, 5 minutes. Add the peas during the last minute of cooking. Turn off the heat; stir in the parsley and lemon peel. Serve immediately.

try-to-top cupcakes and chocolate frosting

this is the best cupcake - no, the best cake - i've ever had in my life. ever. no joke. this is serious. not messing around.

i've got to be honest, i've had some trouble with martha. i got her cupcake cookbook for christmas this year and have made a handful already. but they've been relatively dry. and really don't last longer than the day they're made. which is a big bummer since there's no way the two of us will go through 12 cupcakes in 1 day.



anyway...i was asked to bring something in for a coworkers birthday today. all i wanted was a simple yellow cupcake with chocolate frosting. so the search was on.

i went through at least six cookbooks looking for a basic cupcake recipe. and only came up with one, from "Martha Stewart's Cooking School." did i really want to give martha another try? i figured i didn't have much to lose and went with it.



i looked through those same cookbooks for chocolate frosting recipes. again, nothing...except Alton Brown's in "I'm Just Here for More Food." i thought the method was odd - melting chocolate, butter, and heavy cream together and then beating it in an ice bath until cool and it holds it's shape - but hey, i've seen alton's work. the man's good. so i had the recipe for the perfect cupcake. and man, it is.

the cake is so unbelievably moist and buttery, it's crazy. and the frosting! don't even get me started on the frosting. everyone at work raved - "i don't really like frosting, but this is the best chocolate frosting i've ever had in my whole life" - this is a no joke cupcake.

just be careful when you make them. it's impossible to only eat one.



the only thing that threw me slightly off was the frosting. butter, semisweet chocolate, and heavy cream are melted together in a saucepan on the stove. while still warm, the confectioner's sugar is added, the pan is set into an ice bath, and mixed with a hand blender until it thickens, holds it shape, and is lighter in color. (just make sure when it's done, you take the pan out of the ice bath. if you leave it there for a couple minutes while you do a few dishes, you'll come back to frozen buttercream. and then it's just a pain to mix it back in.)

martha's redemption cupcakes (yellow butter cake)
from Martha Stewart's Cooking School
makes 42 (i made a 1/2 batch and ended up with 24)

chocolate frosting
from Alton Brown's "Im Just Here for More Food"
makes 3.5 cups
UPDATE: find the recipe at this post

sizzling beef

since we both worked late tonight, i had somewhat of a dilemma. i needed something quick, but also something that seems too difficult for jason to make. (he's always afraid i'm going to ask him to cook on the night when something 'hard' is planned.) so an easy stir fry it was.

what worked

1. the recipe called for red bell pepper, but since they cost twice as much as green, i went with the green. easy replacement.
2. definitely easy. definitely quick. probably took me 40 minutes start to serving.

what didn't

1. i forgot to buy ginger at the store, so i skipped it. i'm not a huge ginger fan so i didn't miss it much.
2. my saute pan was too small. had i read the recipe all the way through before starting, i would have realized the rice was mixed with the meat and veg. oh well. lesson learned.
3. a little more soy sauce would do it for me. the 2T is a little dry...maybe one or two additional tablespoons added to the veg before mixing with the rice.

the meal is really really easy to make. no crazy chopping. no constant stirring or pot watching. the only thing to watch is the vegetables - the peppers and scallions should still have a slight crunch to them. no one likes soggy vegetables in their stir fry.

the recipe can really be used as a base for any kind of fried rice. pick your protein - beef, chicken, pork - slice it thin and add vegetables. i'm thinking carrots, maybe some water chestnuts. and garlic, a little minced garlic. hmmm...maybe i'll have to try this sometime with sliced chicken breast too (or maybe jason can take a stab at it.)

sizzling beef and scallions
from everyday with rachel ray, december/january 2010

8 oz london broil sliced into short thin strips
2T soy sauce
1/4c + 2T vegetable oil
10 scallions, greens and whites sliced, separately
2/3c chopped red pepper (i used half a green pepper)
1T finely chopped fresh ginger
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2t sugar
4c cooked white rice, cooled

1. toss the beef with 1T soy suace. in a large (remember, everything will end up in this pan at the end) nonstick skillet, heat 2T oil over medium-high heat. add the beef until cooked through. the original recipe says 2 min, it took me closer to 8. transfer the cooked beef to a bowl.
2. add 1T oil to the skillet and cook the scallion whites, pepper, and ginger for about 2 minutes, until slightly brown on the edges and starting to soften. stir in the peas.
3. push the vegetables to one side of the pan and add the eggs to the empty side.
4. stir the eggs until they set and mix in with the vegetables. stir the mixture until the eggs are thoroughly cooked. add the egg-vegetable mixture to the beef and stir in the sugar and 1T soy sauce.
5. heat 2T oil in the skillet over medium-high heat and cook the rice until heated through. break up the clumps as much as you can. stir in the beef mixture and the scallion greens.